A team of 55 volunteers traveled down from the United States & Canada to help the ER Ecuador staff put on 5 parties in 5 days - and they were some pretty EXTREME parties!

Day 1
The team gathered at 8:00 a.m. to begin the assembly lines for the children’s gift bags. Fifteen+ items in each bag for a total of 5,000 bags. There were toys EVERYWHERE! In the afternoon we packed up and walked over to ER partner Pan de Vida - a street peoples project. We were told to expect 100 - and the grand total was 300! Our team was a bit overwhelmed, but did great with the carnival games, photos and crafts.

Day 2
More gift bags to pack and adult gift bags - about 12 pounds each of staple food items - to offload from the trucks and reload onto the buses. Then we’re off to Cutuclagua, a small “barrio” at the very south of Quito. The people are mainly country farmers that moved to the city for a better life (which doesn’t really exist!). Over 850 showed up to our little street fair - we set up right in front of the small church on the dirt road - which quickly turned to mud. It started raining as soon as we turned onto the road off the main highway and it never stopped. It poured for four hours. Some of the team stayed dry taking photos and doing crafts - crammed into the tiny church. The rain didn’t deter the game-players at all - young and old played ring-toss, jumped on hippity-hops and threw bean bags at the target.

Day 3
In the morning we paid a visit to the Dump Daycare center and clinic. The daycare center has been expanded - a work team recently finished adding on another room. Now the 45+ children can spread out a bit and actually hear their teachers! We then packed up the buses and went to the Nuevos Amigos (New Friends) project. There we put on a party for 500 very well-behaved children from the area. We did face painting, nailpolishing, tattoos, photos with Santa Mike, a movie, and lots of carnival games. They loved their gifts and were to appreciative. We finished up the evening by packing 3,000 sack lunches for Saturday’s party.

Day 4
DUMP PARTY DAY Our team of 55 plus ER staff was joined by another 300 volunteers from Quito to put on the 11th annual Christmas Party in the Quito Dump (also known as Zambiza). It was a great day. We had planned for 2500 and had to shut the gate after the 3,300th person! Everyone left with lunch, a gift, a family photo and lots of candy and prizes. So many people thanked us for returning once again. They expressed a real gratitude not only for the party and our help throughout the year, but for our love. Lives are definitely being changed in Zambiza!

Day 5
Our final party day… This one should be easy! We loaded up the buses and made the hour drive to Argelia Alta where we slipped into a party already-in-process at the Remanso de Amor (Haven of Love) project. We set up our games and crafts and had fun party-ing with 3,000 more people. WOW! What a week! Thank you so much for making all this possible!

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