Painting at Alliance Academy

Good morning, parents and friends!  Today our Ecuador group is painting dormitory rooms in the 3rd floor of one of the many buildings at Alliance Academy International in Quito.  We arrived late last night, exhausted from our travels, but were met by some wonderful hosts, Pancho and Pity (pronounced with two long "e" sounds).  Pancho's father recently passed away, unfortunately, but in God's timing, this opened up the father's apartment for all of the girls to stay in, and the boys stay up two levels in the same apartment building, also owned (previously) by Pancho's father.  To enter the apartment, you come through a large iron gate that is secured at night, and walk up several short flights of steps.  Everything is done in ceramic, but with tasteful colors and many plants and open-air spaces.  The apartment is beautiful, and is adorned with red brick archways set against white stucco walls, with a small flower garden right in the center.

After a restful night, we had group devotions.  We sang (learned) two Spanish songs, a song for "grace" before meals (Padre Nuestro, te damos gracias) and an old but rousing praise chorus called Allabare (I will praise).  Dr. Sanders (me) then passed out one pocket-sized Bible to all group members, so that each person might donate the Bible on the trip to some Ecuadorian whom God might place in our path. He then gave a devotional over Hebrews 4:12, The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.  Then it was time for our first true meal in Ecuador!  Pancho & Pity had arranged for a marvelous breakfast of eggs, fried potatoes, bread, and believe it or not, fresh blackberry juice (wonderful!).  We then took a private bus to Alliance Academy.

When we arrived at Alliance, we were met by Dr. Deb Anderson, a 20-year veteran of Quito, who is the school's Assistant Director.  We met in her office to store our things, and then took a 45-minute tour of the school with Dr. Anderson, at first, and then another teacher/administrator, Lois Wells, also the wife of Dr. David Wells, the school's Director.  She finished our tour with us, so that Dr. Anderson could attend to other duties.  Most of the students then went to paint the dormitory rooms, and one student, Valerie Ellsworth, went with Dr. Sandy Schmidt to work with some ESL (English as a Second Language) classes.  While they are busily engaged in those activities, I am in the school's conference room, utilizing the conference wireless service to write this blog to you all!  But I have to hurry.  In 14 minutes, a group will be using this conference room for a birthday party or celebration of some kind for a staff member.  The school is fairly humming with activity, and if you stand still too long, you will definitely be in someone's way!  Alliance is one of the best-equipped schools I have ever seen, in Ecuador or elsewhere.  They even still have a fully equipped kitchen for home economics classes, and a shop for wood working, another for auto mechanics, classrooms for science, language arts, history, and virtually every subject, a digital media room, band and choir room, several language rooms (some for teaching English, some for teaching Spanish, French, or German), and even a whole floor for Special Education, which includes education not only for students with special needs, but cognitive enhancement activities for all students in the school.

This afternoon, students will still be painting or doing ESL, but I will probably go to the other school, Amor & Esperanza (Love and Hope) to conduct some music classes.  However, I need to write some music first, or adapt some music I already have, so I better finish this blog and get busy!

Thanks for your prayers.  The Lord is good, and it is fun to see what His hand is doing in Quito through this wonderful school.  By the way, the school has about 450 students, who speak 27 different languages!  This truly is an international school.  More later ... Dr. Greg Sanders