Six Months in Cuenca

Tomorrow marks six months in Cuenca, a reality that I find a little difficult to believe.  In some ways it seems like just yesterday that I arrived in the city, uncertain of which roads to take from my house to work at the church and confused by all the regional terms for everything from money to being broke to...well, whatever else they talk about with Kichwa slang thrown in.

"Modern Cuenca," where I work and live

At the same time, it is remarkable everything that has happened in those 180+ days. I've visited downtown Cuenca often enough to almost know the names of every street and the 20-some churches that seem to be on every corner.  I've spent hours hiking in Cajas National Park, a gorgeous high-altitude mountainous landscape dotted by thousands of lakes and lagoons.

Lagoon in Cajas National Park

I'm getting to know new people--my coworkers at the Verbo Church, my neighbors and their extended family that own the entire block around my apartment, friends that recently moved to Cuenca from New York, and others that form part of the large and growing gringo community in the city.  While Cuenca is definitely very distinct from Quito, there are always amazing, interesting people to meet.

Business training graduates with their mentor

In the realm of work, which was the motivation for my move to this city, things have multiplied and are bursting at the seams with more potential. Two weeks after I arrived in Cuenca, we held our first business training course with about 30 participants.  Two months later, we had to turn people away when we closed the course at 44 people and still had an additional 4 people attend. The local partnership, Cuenca Partners, signed an agreement with a local lending partner, and we have over 25 people receiving ongoing mentoring support from members of our team.  Additionally, Lauren from the Partners Worldwide office in the US came for two weeks to help collect stories, photographs and videos that we will use in the future for marketing and publicity, both here in Ecuador and in the United States.

A training graduate learns about Jardin Azuayo, our local lending partner

That's the short update, if I can call it short, and I hope to share more stories and details in the future. These past few months have been quite busy, not allowing much time for updates, so I hope to resume a more regular posting schedule from here on out.