Expect the Unexpected

“Expect the Unexpected”

6/7/12

Today in my Daily Bread, it said, “I know who holds the future, and I know who holds my hand; with God, things don’t just happen—everything by Him is planned”. The title was “Uncontrollable Unexpected” and gave the verses in James that talk about making plans without remembering that at any time they can change. I’m a pretty “go with the flow” type person, so it usually isn’t hard for me to not know every single thing that comes next. However, I’m still human, so it gets frustrating to not know the future. I wanted to have every single thing planned out before I got here, and unfortunately, that wasn’t able to happen. It can get frustrating wanting to do so much and having to wait to figure out what I will be doing, but at the same time, I remember that I’m flexible and am able to do whatever, whenever. I’m looking into several options on how to spend some of my time, but just spending time with my “family” and friends here has been awesome.

Yesterday the Internet in CalaCali was down, so I wasn’t able to post anything or go on the Internet. It was okay, though, because I got to hang out with Santiago’s family for a bit. I love being able to walk everywhere, but yesterday I had to take it easy walking because for some reason I was very light-headed. I remembered that not only is my body not accustomed to the sun being ten times hotter, but also that I’m at an altitude that is like a few thousand degrees higher than back at home.

After looking at several hilarious baby pictures and through countless family photo albums, I helped Santiago with his English homework, which was a lot of fun. It felt nice to finally feel like I understood something! He needed to listen to an English CD, but he couldn’t find it, so whenever we came to a section that said to listen, I would say, “okay, now we have to listen; shhh.” I still find myself giggling as I write this because there was no CD, and instead we would be silent and hear the sounds of American music (Adele and others) and Spanish rap music filling the air.

At several points, Wilmar or Efren (two of Santiago’s brothers) would come in to chat. Efren showed me an art book he made when he was little, and I kept asking him to tell me the names of animals and such in Spanish. I can remember how to conjugate verbs in the past, present, and future tense, but for the life of me, I cannot remember animals and colors in Spanish! Either way, it was adorable. Also when Wilmar and Santiago’s uncle came in, we played this weird hand game that I am not even going to attempt to spell, and I STILL don’t understand it. Santiago tried to explain it, and it reminded me of a game in English, but I can’t remember. It was like, “Where’s the bicho (bug)? In the chicken. Where’s the chicken? The pastor ate it. Where’s the pastor? In the church…” and it continues on. Oh, and while I was at Santiago’s, Angelica called me, and I answered, “¡hola, mama! ¿que tal?” It was funny because she was calling to check up and make sure I was okay! (Mom, rest assured, that I have someone taking care of me for you while I’m here, hahaha.)

Once Santiago finished his homework, we walked back to my house. It was 9:30, so we thought everyone was asleep, but Angelica was up helping the gemelos (twins, as they call them all the time!) with their homework. She heated up these potatoes that looked like biscuits, as well as hot dogs, for Santiago and I to eat for dinner. I felt very American eating them with salsa de tomate (KETCHUP!). =) While sitting down at dinner, I told Angelica that the boys’ smiles “me derriten”, which means ‘they make me melt”. I absolutely love their smiles! Angelica told me that she does, too.

Today I first opened my eyes at the same time I do every single day: 9am. I don’t know why my body consistently feels the need to wake me up at this time everyday, but I just continued to rest my body until around 11. I ate the rest of my potatoes from last night and had some crackers before going outside to do my devotionals. Talk about unexpected: Hogar came outside and asked me if I wanted to eat. I told him I ate a little bit already, but he brought me over to the table, where he gave me scrambled eggs, a biscuit, and the most amazing drink I have ever tasted. It was like café con leche y chocolate (coffee with milk and chocolate), and it was awesome. It was so unexpected, but I was so grateful that I wanted to cry. Is it weird that I wanted to cry over someone cooking me eggs? I just sat at the counter for a while, thinking about Angelica and Hogar, about the twins, and about my new house. I felt so blessed to be here, and I couldn’t thank God enough.

Now don’t worry, I have been thinking about people in America, as well! I also thought about my own family at home and the people that I miss, but now you all know that I am doing very well and am loving Ecuador. Please update me on YOUR lives! Write on my Facebook wall or send me an email or something! I don’t want to miss out on everyone else’s lives, though I have a lot going on here, as well. =)

¡Dios te bendiga!