This past weekend we were able to venture outside of Quito to a smaller community called Otavalo which is a center for the local Quichua (Inca) Indian tribe. The Quichuas are a welcoming group of people who are very creative at designing and making woolen clothing and leather goods. If you have an alpaca wool sweater or blanket, there is a good chance that the product was produced by this people group. The town of Otavalo is home to about 90,000 Quichua who live in varying degrees of poverty. While impoverished, we did not observe any extreme poverty like what was observed in Guatemala in 2013. However, the need there is great. The town has a large population of youth. While there are a few churches in town, there are not any known youth programs to help guide and mentor the kids.
Though our trip there was brief, we were able to establish contact with one of the community leaders who owns a Hostel that we stayed in for two nights. Jose, the Hostel owner, appeared to be open to helping us out should we feel led to do something in this picturesque community that lies about 2 hours north of Quito.
Here are some photos of our trip. There is a neat video on Heather's blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment