Final Ecuador Report

In the past few days I have jumped right back into the spring semester: beginning classes, finish my thesis and starting the job application process.  In the midst of all of it, I've had time to reflect on my time in Ecuador and I wanted to send you a final report of the trip as a whole.

I had wanted to lead this trip because of my desire to be involved in missions and my love for working with and ministering to college students.  The Lighthouse program is such an excellent piece of the Taylor experience and  I was so blessed to be an integral part of it this year.  One of my main interests in higher education is how students develop spiritually and how a ministry experience can affect that... in fact that is the subject of my thesis!  So being a part of helping students grow through ministry was a very rewarding and informational experience for me.

While many of the students may have been most affected by the culture, our living conditions, or the locals they ministered to, it was them (our students) who were my main focus and what affected me most.  Being a leader in an international service-learning trip seems to be just what I was made for!  I appreciated the freedom I had to make decisions and the trust I could build with the students.  I loved watching them be exposed to new things and stretching themselves physically and mentally so much that they often surprised me in what they were capable of.  They were such a flexible group and mature enough to step up when I needed help.

Of course one of the defining characteristics of this trip was the first week when my friend and co-leader Kristin was taken out of the equation by her unfortunate anti-malaria medicine.  It was certainly a challenge for me to shoulder the responsibility alone, but that challenge actually energized me and I think with God's support helped me step up to be an even better leader.  But it was evident that I couldn't do it alone and I was grateful when Kristin was able to return to us... I would not have been able to sustain myself at that rate for too long.

Overall, the cultural experience was a bit different for me.  It was an entirely new country, continent and people, but having traveled extensively before it wasn't shockingly outlandish as things can be the first few times you leave your homeland.  I loved the warmth, hospitality and excitement of the people we met in Ecuador and I loved their food!  I personally had to get around my own obstacle of being so clock oriented when they are not.  But mostly the Ecuadorian experience was sidelined to my experience as a leader of a great group of students.

I learned most to rely on God.  I've led in difficult situations enough to know the futility of trying to do something on your own, but this is was one more experience that gave me a full knowledge that God is sufficient for all needs.  His goodness guided us through so many things that could have gone awry and (as one of the humans responsible for any awry-ness) I was grateful for His persistence in protecting us.

Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support!  I know (and I mean really know) that your prayers helped me immensely.  So many of you have prayed for me in the past and I love that I can count on you for that.  My life would be so different without you!  And even though as a leader I did not need to raise money, thank you to those of you who donated!  It means so much to my team (who is still a bit short, by the way).  If you still feel led, you can be a blessing to my poor college students who may have to pay the deficit out of pocket unless you contribute by February 29!  You can donate online at the Taylor Lighthouse website here.

Photos!

My photo slideshow can be seen here.

Safely Returned

Our team spent yesterday traveling and arrived in Upland precisely 4 seconds before 11:30 PM (poor Chris had predicted we'd be back at that minute and was distraught that he was only four seconds off... so we all knew our exact time of arrival).

I can post a little bit of a wrap up on the trip later, but I wanted to let you know that I am writing this from my house in Upland, IN and all the travel went relatively smooth. Debriefing with the students began well the night before last and I think it will be a really good process in the days to come.

You can help in this process... if any of my readers are receiving students (or me) back into their homes!  Ask deeper questions that just "How was it?" and be ready for them to have a need to adjust to being back home.  I know I was really well prepared for my transition home from Sierra Leone two years ago and the intentional things my family and I did really helped me come back well.  So thank you for continuing to support my team in the way!

Evenings in Cuenca

My team was somewhat tired after our hectic schedule in Guabo so we were glad that evenings in Cuenca would be a little bit more chill.  But as it turns out, they just love each other and wanted to do stuff.  So much to the distress of people needing us to drive us somewhere, our students usually planned something on their own.  One night, some of us went to a restaurant up on the hillside; another night we all met at one of the host homes for games and tea.  And then, on Thursday night, I went out with the guys and a few adventurous girls and we had a traditional Ecuadorian dish: cuy.  Cuy is what they call guinea pig.

It was really good!  It was spiced wonderfully and had the consistency of chicken but tasted very different.  The skin was tough but very flavorful, but there was not much meat.  Chris and I shared the heart and the brain.  The heart tasted somewhat like liver and the brain has been accurately described by Mark as "smoked cream cheese".  Weird, I know... but it was a lot of fun!

Here we are at the restaurant: did I mention the excellent juice too?
The next picture is the actual guinea pig... just so you know if you think you might be squeamish.

Painting and Kids

This week, my team spent almost all of our time at La Esperanza, a children's home here in Cuenca.  Monday through Thursday we were there from 8-5.  We would have team meeting then paint from 9-1 when we would have lunch.  At 2, the kids would come home from school and we play with them for the rest of the afternoon.

We expected to be able to gather a group and sing songs with them and do our skits, but the kids were so randomly placed in doing homework, or napping, or playing different games with us that we soon realized we would never get a large group together.  Our programs also included time for mingling and playing with the kids which we had seen in the past to be the time of best connections, so we just left it at that.

We played four-square, soccer, frisbee, and spent hours spinning kids around or carrying them on our shoulders.  Most days my neck or back was pretty tired from all the kid lifting (the painting was less difficult). I got to know a few of the boys pretty well: the two who played with me the most were Santiago and Juan Carlos.  Mark and I taught Santi and another boy named Alex the rules to four-square using extremely rudimentary Spanglish.  We were pretty proud of ourselves.

Here are a couple of pictures of us playing "Simon Says" with the kids. 

El Cajas National Park

Today I visited the land that God made specifically to make my heart glad.  I love the mountains!   This post is mostly pictures because there's not much to tell other than we hiked, it rained and was slippery but it was awesome.

We also had an amazing lunch of fresh trout at a beautiful restaurant who's inside looked like this:

Leadership and Spanish

My co-leader, Kristin, officially rejoined the team today and it is such a relief for me.  I saw her this morning and I ran to her and gave her a hug.  It was so good to see my friend there again instead of the sleepless look she had when she was suffering from the side effects of her anti-malarial medicines.  She's doing much better now and I know the team was glad to see her again too, but for my part, I feel that I have some weight lifted off: she's carried some of my weaknesses already today and helps out by knowing Spanish more than I do,

Speaking of Spanish, it's tough.  When my mind goes to the foreign language switch, I think first of Krio.  It's the one I most recently used (and taught) and it was the one I was most proficient in because it was so easy.  Next is French.  It's been a while since I had a French class but I was steeped in it for a while and so it leaps to mind soon after Krio.  French does however, share more cognates with Spanish than does English, so that has actually helped in listening and understanding.  But in speaking, I hear i my mind the Krio phrase, which I translate into French and then goes into the broken Spanish I recall from my third and fourth grade Spanish classes.  In other words, my Spanglish is more convoluted that usual and I have to depend on a lot of people to be understood. But I am improving.  I've learned a lot of new words and I can understand probably 65% of what's said to me (provided it's not said too quickly).

So as far as prayer praises and requests go, those are both on my mind: I'm so grateful to have Kristin back and I need patience in communicating past the language barrier.