Encouragement

Encouragement

6/25/12

            This past week has been so busy that yesterday was the first time I got online in a week! It has been my favorite weeks out of the three, and I already dislike so much how fast time has gone by. I’m sure you all back at home have been having some exciting things happening, too. I’ve seen plenty of official Facebook marriages and other cool trips! My good friend is having a wedding a few days after I get back, which I am super excited about, too! But anyway, it has been incredible here, aside from a bit of sickness that I had.

            My dog was put down on Friday, as I said in the last post, so please keep my family in prayers. My other dog, Joey, is very sad and always looks for him. I will also be sad when I come home and don’t get to see him.

            After my last post, I had a typical work day in the kitchen. Santiago and I ate the wonderful spaghetti that Angelica made, along with apple crisp, before leaving early to get ready for the church service. I got there before Santiago did because he wasn’t all ready in his formal outfit! Once the Geneva church got there, I was greeted by hugs, compliments on my hair and outfit, and people asking me to take pictures with them. They said to me that they wanted everyone to know they knew me if I got famous. =) I’m so excited to have so many wonderful friends now from that church.

            The night was wonderful. We sang a few Spanish worship songs before the Geneva church played a worship song, as well. Then the mime group came and did a few performances, which was pretty cool. After that, two of the kids from the Geneva church gave their testimonies (everything was translated), and Santiago gave a message. I video taped the whole thing; I was so proud of him. He was nervous, but you’d never be able to tell. He did a wonderful job encouraging the Geneva team in their efforts that past week.

            Afterwards, we all just hung out with the team. Some people would ask me to translate for Santiago because they wanted to thank him, which I was grateful to be able to do. Then I walked back with the team and got to talk to them for a little bit before getting to my house and waving goodbye to everyone.

            After Santiago left my house that night, I felt extremely sick. I heard my host dad come in around 3 in the morning and decided to let Angelica, my host mom, know that I wasn’t feeling well, since I knew they were awake. Angelica got up and made me her “magic tea”, which I think is water, oregano, and some kind of plant. My stomach still felt uncomfortable, but I no longer felt like I was going to be sick. It was the first time in a while that I was sick with something and didn’t actually throw up!

            In the morning I still felt sick, and so I slept until around 12:30 instead of going to work. I continued drinking the tea, which helped, and eventually was hungry. Santiago went all the way to the store and back to make me eggs. After I ate, we walked up to El Refugio, where I thought I felt better enough to work. When I got there, I felt weak and tired, so I went back to sleep on a couch instead. I slept for about two hours then got up and helped a bit with dinner. I sat with Santiago and some girls for dinner, and we just talked about random things. There were like four gallons of different ice cream flavors for dessert, so even though I was sick and didn’t eat dinner, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat ice cream! So I had chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup, and it was delicious!

            After that, we went to the bonfire with the Geneva group. I didn’t have a guitar, but Madeline told me to sing because people were requesting it! I never realized how much of an encouragement to my singing that this trip would be. I thought I wouldn’t be able to stay for the whole thing, but I felt well enough, so we stayed to listen to the message. I translated the message into Spanish for Santiago, but clearly, not word for word! I absolutely love translating from English to Spanish (not so much Spanish to English!).

            Then the group had their “Staff time”, which is basically when they call someone to the platform to encourage them. A girl called up Santiago to thank him for Friday, and he dragged me with him to translate. It was so much pressure trying to translate to him in front of everyone, but it was cool!

            We came back afterwards and finally finished watching “Due Date”, which was pretty funny! I felt a lot better by then. The “magic tea” did some wonders. I guess sometimes I always thought it was silly when people didn’t want to take medicine, especially when it helps so much! Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think anyone should depend on medication, but I think medications can help so much! Here Santiago is hesitant to take any medication, which I don’t blame him, but he always says “he doesn’t need it because he’s Ecuadorian, and he’s strong”. A lot of the time they make their own types of healing things, like with the tea. When my Cipro, Tums, and my nausea medications didn’t help much, that tea did, and I’m grateful for it!

            The next morning Santiago and I went to church. His brother, Esteban, gave the message about parents. I was glad to have taken 3 years of Bible classes because whenever I heard the beginning of a verse in Spanish, I could remember what the rest meant without needing to look it up in my Bible.

            Then Santiago brought me up to introduce me before I sang. He presented me very well. He said that I was Allie Pisarro, and I’m from America. He explained that I write my own music and that I had a CD coming out in August. Then I sang Open the Eyes of My Heart with the church in English and Spanish. After that I sang “Just the Same”, which is one of my favorite tracks off my album. I sang a few of the choruses in Spanish, which was super intimidating because I was an American singing in Spanish to people who spoke Spanish as their first language! It went well, though, and I was happy I was able to do it!

            After eating a bit of lunch with the church, Santiago and I went back to his house for a bit. I ate potato fries for lunch (they’re more like potatoes than fries but are so good), and I skyped my parents for a bit, which was nice. Then Santiago and I took the bus to Condado, which is where the big Super Maxi and mall are. We bought noodles, spaghetti sauce, milk, crackers, Doritos, bread, juice boxes, and my favorite Topsy ice cream! Then we went to McDonalds and bought some food there. We just talked on the bus ride then went back to his house to eat. I basically showed him some of my favorite Youtube comedians and pranks (which definitely include Ed Bassmaster, Mediocre Films, and Jack Vale!).

            Today Santiago has to study for exams, and the Geneva group is at the jungle, so I’m just kind of hanging out today. It’s nice because I haven’t had time to do really anything! I finally was able to do my laundry and this blog today, and later I get to Skype with my mentor, Norma!

            I miss everyone back at home, but I’m sure everyone is having a summer as wonderful as mine is. I’m really thankful to see so much encouragement while being here. There have been times where I’ve felt completely awful and times where life seems too good to be true, and I feel like jumping off a wall from excitement! I have had times of fear, times of confusion, (plenty of) times of frustration, times of discomfort, times of pure gratefulness, and times of joy. However, through all the mornings that I wake up to the roosters crowing and remember that I’m in Ecuador, I feel so happy to be here. I never thought that this time here would be so encouraging to me. My Spanish is only improving. In January I could only remember fragments of things I learned in high school. Over the last four months, Santiago had to talk extremely slowly for me to understand. My first few days here I couldn’t understand anyone BUT Santiago! Now I am starting to be able to understand more people and even translate.

            Santiago has reminded me a lot over the last few months that it’s “a process”. This “process” has been the most frustrating, yet encouraging thing I’ve ever had to do. I have to work hard at it, only to remember that I’m returning to America in 5 weeks to all English again!

            But other than that, I never thought I would be so encouraged in my music, too! I’m hopefully going to play a few of my own songs for the Geneva group before they leave on Friday, which is awesome. The fact that so many people in that group have said they liked my voice, when I wasn’t even trying to showcase it or anything, was just so cool to me.

God has given me so much encouragement here that has made all the frustrations and discomfort here definitely worth it.