Sunrise...sunset!

"Sunrise, sunset, how quickly fade the years...."  say part of the lyrics to a song in Fiddler on the Roof.  I have always had a fixation about sunsets, and sunrises too.  There is something so wonderful about seeing the whole sky lit up and so gloriously colored, it captivates me and I stop everything to watch the sunset!  Here in Quito it is one of the things I miss.  The sun goes behind Pichincha, the volcano that we are sitting under, before it is really setting.  So at most I get to see the wonderful clouds catch color here and there.  It is beautiful in its own way, just different.  You are actually watching the effect or consequence of the sun setting, not the actual setting.  Hmm.  I wonder, about this.  Every single night it is different.  Sometimes it is so colorful, and brilliant and on other nights the evening steals softly over Quito with little "tadoo" and it is night.  Here we have  12 hours of day light year round.  So it has been interesting acclimating to Quito coming from North America in the Summer.  I realize that we always did this the other way around.  We went to California for Summer often, and had to adjust to the long, long days.  Now, it seems strange that it is dark "so early."    
  Austin is down at the coast with a team and doing great.  The Semester Abroad program called Living and Learning has a pilot program in Business going this summer.  Our four business students are up and running with Spanish class, internships in local businesses, and this week they are taking a global marketing class from a Biola Prof. who is on the ground for a little over a week.  We have another young lady who is interning with Living and Learning on the ground, she is finishing up an upper level Spanish class, and will head to her ministry site down in the jungle with "It's about Jungle Kids".  The first block of Quito Quest is almost done!  These are just a few of the things that we have on our plate this summer as we work in Quito.
 Summer is flying by.
 "Sunrise, sunset, how quickly fade the [hours, days, weeks] years."  Carpe Deum!