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.

Cuenca

Cuenca is so different from Guabo,  While Guabo was hot, humid, and less developed, it reminded me of the Dominican Republic.  But Cuenca is cool, mild, and a cosmopolitan city.  It reminds me of Geneva, Switzerland.

My host family is excellent: the have hosted many Taylor student before and so maybe you have heard of the Borja's before now.  Cesar and Elba speak some English but their children who are my age or a little bit older have been to Taylor and speak English very well.  They are a wonderful family to be with.  They have a beautiful home right on the river and I have plenty of space in my room to unpack my luggage.  But my favorite part of their home is their three-tiered back porch that goes down to the river.

Our team took a city tour today on a magnificent double decker bust that was all finished wood tables and chairs on the bottom section.  But we spent most of our time on the top checking out the sights of Cuenca.

Yeah check out my flannel shirt and jacket.  It did get too warm for the jacket eventually, but it is nice here. I love it.  Tomorrow we are going to Cajas National Park, so expect some more great pictures!

Banana Farms and Waterfalls

Our last couple of days in Guabo were more relaxed. On Wed afternoon, we had an event in the park with the church, but other than that, we were learning about the country and visiting some really cool sites. Below are my notes to Kristin about what we did.

So many things to tell you that have happened! Yesterday we went to the banana farm and saw the whole process... but that was not as cool as going out into the rows and rows of banana trees on the tiny cement sidewalks to see how they are harvested. We got to cut on bunch down (which really takes the whole tree down) and carry it to the wire system that carries 40 bunches of bananas at a time! Then we got to try to pull one of these 2800 pound trains and it was awesome. We brought it all the way back to the factory where the workers unloaded it.

In the afternoon, we did the church event in the park thing. It was pretty crazy, We walked through half of Guabo behind a fire truck with its sirens blaring, inviting people to come. Then the program consisted mainly of Joao shouting ridiculous things for kids to do and the Guabo youth group dancing to music while we did our skits and songs. It went pretty well... but in comparison to the music the Guabo kids danced to, our songs were pretty quiet. In the evening we played soccer with our friends in the church and it was a lot of good bonding and fun.

This nest day (Thursday) was my favorite so far! We went to the waterfalls (Los Cascadas De Manuel) and it was awesome! There were eight different waterfalls and we swam and at least three of them. It was some crazy hiking too, on narrow trails and through tiny caves. We were so sad that you weren't there with us. But we had some great chicken (or hen as they persisted in tell us it was) and watermelon.  This little day trip reminded me very much of my visit to Charlotte Falls in Sierra Leone.

Then that night, we had our farewell dinner with our hosts. Each night, I've had a student tell me that the night before had been the best, but this one was shaping up to be even better. This one was no exception. We had some heartfelt farewells with our host families after an excellent meal and then in classic Ecuadorian fashion, we danced our hearts out for hours.

Tomorrow (Friday) we leave for Cuenca and will be meeting our host families!

Painting, Nurseries, and Parties

These next few days were full of great times of ministry and fun events in the evening.  Since Kristin was in Cuenca, I typed up some descriptions to send to her so that she could stay  in the loop and I reproduce them here for you now.


While we were in Santa Rosa (an even smaller town nearer to the coast), we painted a mural of Jesus talking with some children. That day was a very hot day, but we got a lot of good work done. In thanks, Verbo Church in Santa Rosa gave us a farewell service in the evening. It was smaller and less loud that their Guabo counterpart, but still vibrant and full of energy.

The next day we spent much of our time playing with young children in local nurseries. Our time at the nurseries were a bit rushed because we had so many to go to. At each one we handed the basket of fruit to the head woman and I told her that we wanted the kids to eat it and that we were thankful for them letting us come. Each nursery offered some really cute kids and not enough time.

After dinner, the Verbo Guabo youth group came to our dining area and we watched a video of some ministry they've done recently and then Chris led us all in worship. We sang some songs (like God of this City) in Spanish and English at the same time and it was SO beautiful! I was tearing up a bit. Joao talked for a bit, but it turned out that we were not teaching on evangelism as we had been told... so we had a dance party! Really it started as a dance-off in which Joao told us that the Guabo kids would dance and then it was up to us to do better. They had a rehearsed thing with breakdancing that was super sweet... but then we answered with amazing energy! Chris had an idea to start us off and so he mimed with Glenn and then we all danced and randomly came up with things we could do together. It was astoundingly coordinated and after Juan (our translator) asked us how long we had been rehearsing it for! I was amazed! I guess we've just gotten really good at performing on the fly. I really hope one of our hosts got a video that I can send on.

Less One Leader

Things have been very difficult.  Kristin, my co-leader, has been having a lot of trouble getting sleep at night and she seems much more worried than normal about what we're doing.  We found out recently that some side effects of her anti-malarial medicine are insomnia and severe anxiety.  I along with our hosts and Lighthouse leadership back in the States have decided to take her off the medicine and send her to Cuenca where Taylor has more connections and she can rest.  But Lighthouse has seen this before and it can take a while to recover from.

In order to keep myself from being buried under all the stress I have delegated out some of Kristin's responsibilities to some of the older students whom I trust and I have asked our hosts to give us a little bit more break time (because I am in danger of burning myself out).  So I think things will be all right. In fact, I feel an incredible sense of peace about it that I know can only be from God.  I know you are all praying for me and I thank you so much... I need it now more than ever.

Arrival and First Days in Guabo

Our travel went very well. Despite starting in Upland at 2AM and having a 7 hour layover in Miami, everything went as smoothly as you can imagine and we arrived in Guayaquil (a larger coastal town) to be picked up by our hosts. After spending the night in a hotel and eating some wonderful fruit for breakfast, we made a three hour bus trip to the tiny town of El Guabo in the province of El Oro.












Here we met with church leaders and had a great reception service in the evening during which I introduced the team and we all danced and sang together. The pastors shot little confetti cannons and it was a very warm reception overall.




My host is a young man named Joao (pronounced Yo - ow) who is only two years older than I am and he is the worship leader at church, Man he gets into his singing and it gets him so sweaty! But it's a such a great part of a very vibrant church. His house is small with only two bedrooms attached to the kitchen/dining room which we share with his mother and his sister. It is a part of a small compound that contains two much larger houses and three similar sized apartments.

On the first day, our team spent time playing with the kids at Compassion and we did one skit and puppet show for them. The day after we were in Santa Rosa where we did some evangelism and were surprised by a crowd at a disabilities hospital who wanted us to perform for them. We used all the songs and skits we had prepared and they loved it.




But one of the more exciting cultural experiences was when we stopped at a farm belonging to a friend of the church. We swung in hammocks by his lake while some on our team canoed and we ate the most excellent fruits: mango, papaya, fresh coconut (which I had been craving since Sierra Leone), and cacao which is this intensely bitter and sweet slimy thing that you suck on but don't chew. It was a wonderful time.

To Busy To Blog!

You must know that keeping my supporters updated is pretty high priority list... in fact it's number 2, right behind finishing all  of my duties here in Ecuador.  So perhaps you have an understanding of how busy I've been since arriving in Ecuador on Jan 5.  This is due in part to the rigorous schedule our host church in Guabo set up for us, but also because only a day or two after arriving, my co-leader fell ill due to a bad reaction to her anti-malarial medicine and so leading the trip has been solely on my shoulders... until we were reunited with her today!

So, now we are in Cuenca and our schedules is less rigorous and I have have a co leader again!  I plan to take this time to recap arriving in Ecuador and tell you about our whole week in Guabo in the coastal region of Ecuador before we arrived in this beautiful city in the mountains.

I will change the dates to reflect when things happened and I'll even set this one as first so that it will appear on Jan 9 when I am really composing it on Jan 13.  I think it will make more sense in order and will be easier for you to digest in smaller posts that follow the right sequence.

Thank you for your patience and for all your prayers!  They have been answered in so many ways!


Also, check out the official Lighthouse blog that's being written by two of our students: http://tulighthouse.wordpress.com/ecuador/