I Think She Likes Me!

“Mom, I think she likes me!”

6/8/12

            So yesterday when Santiago came to pick me up, he told me there was STILL no internet in CalaCali. Only some places and houses have it. He told me that in Ecuador, “la systema no funciona”, which basically means the system doesn’t really function as it should here. I can definitely see that in place here on the streets! People are always passing each other when cars are coming on the other side, and so the cars just move over into the pull-over lane. Since “la systema no funciona”, Santiago and I went into his school to get internet access. I explained that I can’t even go to the school I went to for high school because you basically have to be invited! He was surprised at that, but I was surprised that you could just walk into his school. So I was able to get on the computer (hence my three other blogs that I posted)! I also posted pictures on Facebook, for anyone who is curious to see my adventures!

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.

Curiosity

“Curiosity”

6/6/12

            After writing my last post, I went inside for a little bit and sat down with one of the little boys to see his homework. This may sound crazy, but for some reason, I was so impressed and somewhat surprised. It’s not like I think America is the only country with good education, but I guess I never realize how awesome God is to have put in place so many countries and so many languages, yet have the same universal truths, like mathematics and science. As I looked through his writings, I read math word problems, and it reminded me of when I was in middle school. The little boy was learning about pi (which is pronounced like the letter ‘p’ here) and circumference. It was quite interesting.

My Home

“My Home”

     6/4/12

It has been such a blessing being here. All of these seemingly small things impact me in such a big way. As I said before, the fact that this family is allowing me to live in their house is first and foremost such an incredible thing. I have never understood such hospitality in my life this strongly. My mom always welcomed people into our home, especially if they really needed to be there, but somehow I never truly grasped fully that accommodation is a big deal.

Es Ecuador!

***6/3/12

OKAY! SO I'm officially in Ecuador, and today is my second day! Yesterday was a pretty decent day. I'm going to post what I wrote yesterday at the bottom of this post so that you can read about my flight info if you want to.

Straight paths.

So it's been quite a while since I last posted, and much has happened. First of all, I left the country for about a week and a half last month. I went to Ecuador, and it was incredible. [to read updates, click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/257699264289961/]. I enjoyed hanging out with llamas, eating awesome food, putting rock climbing walls together, planting trees, and singing with the Ecuadorian youth!