Well I officially live in Ecuador now! On Monday it will be a full week that I have been living in Ecuador. It kind of still feels like a dream that I am here. I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't always so sure I was actually going to make it here, some days it seemed like it would be impossible to raise all the money to get me here but I should have known that God would come through if I trusted him. If you are reading this and have supported me in any way then let me tell you how thankful I am for you. Even though I have only been here since Monday I can already tell you what an amazing experience these next 5 months will be. I will continue to try and keep you updated with everything we are learning and doing. Also if you want to hear about my bathroom mishap then you will have to get to the bottom of this post ;)
These are my roommates and teammates for the next 5 months of submerge! All these girls are so awesome and I'm excited to get to know them all more over the next 5 months.
The first couple of days here were a bit brutal for me only because one of my flights got delayed causing me to not arrive in Ecuador until Monday morning at 7am. I ended up traveling for a full 24 hours and then went straight into orientation Monday morning when I got back from the airport. I thought about writing a blog post ( actually I did write it) about my travels because it was quite the experience but after writing it realized it just sounded like a whole lot of complaining and no one wants to read that. Just know that it was a nightmare and one day I might find it funny....that day hasn't arrived quite yet.
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| Some of us really like red flannel... |
So after the first couple days of orientation we did what they call 'Go Weekend' on Thursday and Friday. Basically we did a bunch of random activities which were all surprises to learn about our core values in the submerge program. Which are: Love, Authenticity, Creativity, Pro activity, Excellence, Fun and Vision. We first got to tour a little bit of Quito and had our own personal tour guide showing us around.
The first photo and this above photo is the 'Virgen De El Panecillo' which is a huge statue in the middle of the city of the virgin Mary, you can basically see the statue from anywhere. It's one of those places you have to see if you ever visit Quito.
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| At the top of the Virgen De El Panecillo |
Then we went to the Basilica Del Volonacional which was built to look like Notre Dame. They are continuously building on to it because they believe that once it is completely finished that the World will end so they will never complete it. They have Gargoyles on the outside but instead of normal gargoyles they are animals that reside in the Galapagos islands.
After we finished touring the city a little bit we learned about our first core value which is LOVE. We were in a busy area and we split into teams and were each given $5 to go bless someone somehow. It happened to be a really hot day that day and over where we were there were these young boys who went around shining shoes for money. None of them go to school, they just go out there everyday and shine shoes to make money for their families. So we bought them all Popsicles and just sat and talked with them for about an hour, it was really fun, they wanted to learn English phrases like 'hello love' and 'you are beautiful' they were so funny.
I won't go into detail about what we did for each core value but each task we did was so awesome. Some of it was a little difficult because we had to break down some walls and talk about stuff in front of everyone that I wouldn't ever normally do but it was surprisingly enjoyable even if it was uncomfortable. One of our tasks was also mentally and physically difficult, we had to spell excellence with dominoes and they all had to fall from beginning to end without leaving one domino up.
Yesterday we learned about the core value 'FUN' and we did a scavenger hunt for different Ecuadorian fruits and vegetables at a farmer's market.
Then we went to the park and had a paddle boat competition. But before we started we had a bathroom break. Well I went into the bathroom and there were like 3 different locks on the door and I just picked the one that has the little bar that slides across and locked it. This also wasn't like a regular bathroom stall with the metal doors, it was a single toilet with a regular door. So then when I went to leave I couldn't get the door unlocked. Luckily some of the girls were still standing outside the door so I was able to yell for them and I had them pull from the outside and try to do it but It just wasn't budging. Then I looked up and saw a window that was just the right size for me to climb out of but it had the same type of lock on it and it wouldn't budge either! I was trying to stay calm but inside I was having a little bit of a panic attack. I do not like small spaces and a bathroom is the last place I want to get locked into. Finally we decided there was no way it was going to unlock so one of the guys had to kick the door down :/ We broke the whole door jam but I bet that place learned their lesson about putting locks like that on their bathroom doors.
We ended the day visiting Mitad Del Mundo which means the 'Middle of the World'
Ecuador sits right on the equator so I was able to stand on both sides of the equator at the same time.
At the end of the night we got to stand on a rooftop and see the city lights and talk about our last core value which was 'Vision'
I am so excited for what the next 5 months holds for me, please keep me in your prayers as I continue on this journey, I'm sure I will have some great stories to share with you as time goes on!
Chao! (goodbye in Spanish) I'm already pretty fluent in case you were wondering.
Not really though.
1 comment:
Wow, I learned sooooo much! Thanks for sharing the update; It blessed me so much. Yep! You're in the right place. Sounds like you're letting the trails and tribulation build your patience. Praise God!
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