Day 4
After another fine dinner at La Marquesa restaurant in Cotacachi, we stopped into a convenience store across the street to pick up phone cards so we could call loved ones back home.
Started a conversation with Monica, the girl who was working at the store and who also spoke very good English. Monica asked if we were from the United States. We told her that we were, and then she asked if we were from Virginia. Wow…
Like most Virginians, I never thought we actually had an accent, so I couldn’t figure out how in the world she guessed that. I suspected she had met some of our crew earlier and they had told her about our trip and where we were from. As it turns out, Monica had attended VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) and had actually lived in Richmond. She came back home to Ecuador last year to help her family out when her mom passed away. She hopes to return to Richmond again one day and go back to school.
We told her if she ever made it back to Richmond, she would have to visit our church. I just happened to have an Atlee invite card with me and gave it to Monica. I hadn’t referred to Mechanicsville, thinking she wouldn’t be that familiar with the suburbs of Richmond. Wrong again… she told us, “My boyfriend lives in Mechanicsville.” Turns out he only lives a couple miles from the church. Hope they both will come and visit.
It’s a small, small world…
