Mindo a.k.a. Paradise!

Last week, all the employees from the four different Habitat Ecuador offices gathered at a hotel in the cloudforests surrounding Quito for a 3-day conference. We stayed in the Carmelo de Mindo and it was truly paradise. Our conference room was actually an outdoor structure with amazing views of the valley and the surrounding cloudforest.

We couldn't help but get distracted by this:We started each day with breakfast at 7 AM and usually didn´t finish working until about 7 PM but it was worth it! We got a lot done in terms of refining the new structure of Habitat. Essentially, Habitat started in 1996 with the national office in Quito and 7 other affiliate offices scattered throughout the country. Over the years, it became clear that the organization would need to condense in order to make the most of its budget and resources. Also, the focus of the projects has shifted from helping families build houses on their own land to creating communities like the pilot project of Las Palmas in Tosagua. In order to achieve this, 3 of the different offices have been closed and the four main offices have been re-organized. The conference was a great way for all the new employees to get acquainted and get on board with the same plans.

Here is the majority of the almost 30 nationwide Habitat employees (Oscar Veintimilla, the executive director is on the left in the blue and white jacket):

The Guayaquil, Tosagua and Santo Dominigo employees working hard:
The Quito employees all smiles as usual:

My office mates Ximena and Daniel (my supervisor):Ximena and I, working hard...