So...

Right. An introduction to what this is all about...

I'm heading off to Ecuador in about 11 hours.

The plan is to spend some time in the capital city of Quito before heading out to a small community called Santa Ana on the edge of the Amazon to work as a volunteer for six weeks, mainly on their potable (drinkable) water system. Since they don't speak very much English out that way, I'm using the time in Quito to have 2 weeks or so's worth of Spanish classes, and also to do some travelling around the area.

I'll post more about the water project itself later (but I do have a very shiny portable water lab kit which is exciting, as long as it gets through customs, what with the bleepy stopwatch and the interesting-looking pots of white powder - microbiological broth, actually).

Hopefully it'll be better weather out there than it is here. Hooray.
(I'll start packing now)