iTortillas! Part 1

It was a perfect day.  Slightly cloudy but enough sun and blue skies to make the day ideal for me.

We were all set to experience "A Day in the Life of a Child" with Compassion International.  That means we were going to visit a home of a Compassion child and experience what they do on a normal day.

Those who know me, know how my heart soared when "making tortillas from scratch" was one of the chores we would learn at this particular home.  I wasted no time signing up for this home visit. 

We piled into the back of a little pickup and headed up a dirt road to our home.   A bumpy steep dirt road. 
 

We walked the rest of the way to their home, passed the outhouse.

Two of the daughters, both in their Compassion project, were pretty shy to begin with.

The family wasted no time in bringing a table out and creating space for all of us to participate, learn and experience a small part of their every day life.

Half of their kitchen was covered but the other half was destroyed by weather.  The front is completely open and the back, as you can see in the above picture, has a 3/4 wall and an opening covered by plastic to stop the wind from creating a wind tunnel.

Mama got everything started, adding to the corn flour that was ground by hand, an egg, salt, sugar, lard, butter and milk (from a bag).

After she washes her hands, little girl gets right to work mixing the maza.

Here is their water source.  They have a hose connected to the spicket and they keep their reservoir filled and dip water from it to wash their hands, food, clothes and of course, to prepare to drink.

I was perplexed by the rooster who was tied up... it's because they have a new hen and they don't want the rooster "chasing" her off.  So, the hens get to free range and the rooster looks on.

They have a papa, mama and baby sheep:

Some hens eating some grains while many more hens scratched around in the corn field/squash patch.

Since we were here for a couple of hours, I have too much to share with you in one post. In addition to pictures, think about their water source... doing laundry on a stone:

Washing your food with unclean water and then eating it:

and not being able to do anything about the sickness that goes with having unsafe water.

I think about that when I turn my faucet on and clean safe water pours from the spout - I don't have to boil it first. 

#compassionecuador2013