By Becky Sanchez, Houston American youth Leader

People would expect twelve ladies in one room to be a chaos. People would expect them to not get along. People would expect the ones that do get along to stay up all night talking and have pillow fights.

The twelve ladies that are enrolled in the program are all currently sharing one room in a hostel in Quito. Each lady has her own bed and own blankets. There is clothes all over the floors, since we change very quickly in the mornings. There’s cellphone chargers in every single outlet. There are people that are asleep at 10 pm, others do not until 1 am depending on if they shower at night , if they’re snacking, if they’re organizing, or even journaling. All the ladies get along and share.

Since we are to an end of our trip, many of the ladies have worn all their outfits multiple times. So we have begun swapping T-shirts and scarfs to change our outfits up for the end of the trip. Many of the ladies have also ran out of face wash, toothpaste, shampoo, and body wash. So we share those too. The ladies don’t just share hygienic supplies and clothing , but showers and restrooms.

One floor of the hostel shares 2 showers and 2 toilets. These are used by the three mentors and the 12 girls. So 15 people use these restrooms not including those from other floors to come to ours. So you can already imagine how it gets during the morning and at night.

The biggest problem all the ladies have, is not at all with the rooming situation. It’s how they are going to fit everything in their luggage. Most of the ladies purchased a duffel bag today to take on the plane as their “carry on” bag. That way they have more space to put their clothes and souvenirs in. All of this closeness makes a great way to spend our last days in Ecuador.