Wow, that was a disaster!

So my mom came to visit. She arrived late on Sunday, September 17 and we stayed at the Marriott for that night and the next night. She was in heaven. She said that it was just the vacation she needed. Then we went to visit a friend of mine at her site in Pacto. It was in the middle of a lush cloud forest. My friend even had her walls painted, tiles on her floor, and a nice refrigerator that made ice. The only real inconvenience was that the water stopped working from 8 pm to 6 am every day. My mom and I only stayed with her one night. The yard was a bit of a mess, but my mom was already feeling uncomfortable. Then my mom and I rode on three buses for a grand total of 7 hours. Here in Ecuador, a day of bus riding is not too bad if it is only 7 hours, you get to walk a bit in between, and you have someone to accompany you. But my mom was starting to get upset. I hoped against hope that she was just exaggerating how she felt. Then we got to my community and at my house, we found that my host family had not only installed the hot water heater that I bought, but decided to put tiles in as well. But by the time we got there, my whole house was covered in dust from the door being left open all day, and they had just finished removing the sink and the toilet from the bathroom and covered the bathroom with cement to glue on the tiles. So my mom and I put down our stuff and decided to go for a walk through my community. My community, Mercedes Cadena, is having a festival all week this week. The grand finale is on Sunday. So as we were walking through the MC, a lot of people were walking about and there were many who were watching the soccer tournament going on. All of them were saying hello to me and asking me who I was with. My mom was so upset by the poverty that she began to cry. I couldn't explain to them why she was crying either. So she decided that she needed to leave. So after spending a restless night in my bed, we went back to Quito and stayed the night at the Marriott again and this morning at 4 am I took her to the airport. She was supposed to stay until Wednesday morning. But I am glad she came to visit. Hopefully I will improve my entire house. And I am thinking about changing my site. I had asked for structure. I feel like when I am teaching I am talking to a brick wall. I will try to be a good volunteer in the next few months. But if it isn't working, I may try to get a more urban and structured site.