On our first morning in Quito, I played guide as Eliana, Carole and Angie set out to find HCJB, to see if there were any traces left of Hugo and Katherine’s time in Quito. We left our apartment in the old city and walked north, following my downloaded google map. (What an amazing invention that is, I’ve downloaded the Google map and I use it offline and it can show my location without wifi or cell connection.) Not all of us were as convinced about the quality of my map and my map reading skills; Eliana approached several people at points along the way, asking if they knew where HCJB was located, and the common response was shaking heads and quizzical looks, suggesting the didn’t know the answer or they didn’t understand English, or, most likely, both. Quito is big and bustling but people seemed very kind and helpful and ready to smile, but even kindness and helpfulness are limited when you have no idea what you are being asked.
Eventually we turned down a side street and saw the letters HCJB on the side of a building. HCJB, the Voice of the Andes is in a walled compound and the entrance is through a guardhouse. We entered the guardhouse and spoke to a woman who controlled access. I explained to her what we were there for and she said she would call someone for us. She gave me the phone and I spoke briefly to a man who seemed unsure and even uninterested, and so I quickly passed him on to Carole so that she could explain who she was and why she was there. A brief conversation with Carole seemed to convince him that it was worth his while to meet with us, and a few minutes later a tall South Dakotan named Ralph Kurtenbach came to the guardhouse to meet us. A few more words with Carole, Angie and Eliana and Ralph was inviting us into the compound to show us around and introduce us to a few people who might know or know of Hugo Jantz. 
He took us across the grounds to a corridor with photographs and memorabilia, and we looked at pictures of HCJB leaders and staff members through the years, and suddenly we spied a section on the German language programming, coworkers and contemporaries of Hugo and Katherine. And then Angie noticed a young Hugo standing glowingly in a group shot of a choir of people.
A visit to the broadcast room followed, and then Ralph introduced us to Esther Neufeld, an HCJB missionary mentor and a former broadcaster with the now extinct German language service. Esther, who is Carole’s age, remembered listening to Hugo’s sermons — she said that HCJB was listened to in every home in the Paraguayan colony where she grew up. She also said that many of Hugo’s sermons were recorded, and that she had listened to or used Hugo’s recorded messages in her time as a radio missionary. All in all, it was clear that Hugo’s name was still known and highly regarded in the HCJB compound and we spent an hour or so basking in the glow of Hugo’s celebrity and then it was time to go. 
We left the HCJB compound and went across the street to the Vozandes Hospital which had been started as a mission hospital and was the hospital where Eliana, Carole and Angie were born. The place was busy, and we didn’t really know what we wanted there, but it made sense to stop in for a visit. Eliana went to the front desk to ask about the existence of a maternity ward. The people at the desk seemed a little hesitant to answer, I think they were unsure about her motives, but then she was able to explain to an English speaking administrator that she and her sisters were born there many years ago. He was surprised but happy to talk about that and gave some statistics and other information about births in the hospital and then there was nothing more to say. They smiled at us and we smiled at them and then they wished us well and we left.
We went outside, caught a cab to take us back to our apartment, had a great conversation with the cabbie about life in Quito and then we were home. Time for a rest and a happy hour and a chance to discuss our adventure.
And that’s when I noticed my phone was missing. We spent some time looking for it and then gave up and came back to the apartment and made a meal and had an early bedtime.