The Journey Begins....Again: Random Thoughts from the Summer

Yes, I realize it’s been two months since I’ve updated my blog. One of the reasons behind that is that this may just be one of the busiest summers I’ve ever had. Summers at For His Children are always filled with teams from the States/Canada, new volunteers, and this summer we even had some adoptions taking place. Since part of my job is leading teams/volunteers there has been a constant flow of activity. God has put many different people in my path this summer and I am thankful for new friendships and being able to connect with people from all over the world, even if only for a short time. At the end of each day, I say to myself, I really need to be writing this stuff down. So many different things happen in the course of the day that it is easy to forget what I actually did. So here’s my post of some random things that have happened this summer.

I went on a search for 1 ½ hours to find guinea pig for a group to eat. Apparently guinea pigs are not commonly sold on Mondays and Tuesdays in Ecuador (this was a Tuesday). I was given many different directions from people who I asked out the window as I was driving the 15 passenger van. I was offered a live guinea pig. After explaining that I wouldn’t know how to prepare it, I was sent to another town. All the stores seemed to be closed down in this one. I finally ended up finding one about 15 minutes away from the orphanage for $20 – I got to pick which one I wanted! Expensive piece of meat – and there’s not really that much meat on it!

I got to go back to Henry Davis (the orphanage I was first working at) to see some of my students graduate high school in July. These were kids I taught English to two years ago. It’s always fun to reconnect with them. I also got to see my friend Amy who lives about an hour away. It was a nice day break from For His Children as it’s challenging to get away sometimes. We even got to swim in a community pool for about an hour near a house where she was house sitting. Very nice!

I am going to estimate that I’ve been to the airport about 30 times these past two months. There’s a countdown going on as to how many days it is until they open the new airport which will be located outside of the city. Sadly enough, I know this information, and I can tell you we have 66 days left. There’s a big screen outside the airport every time you drive in. ‘

The people at the Equator monument all know me now and I get in for free.

I have learned more than I ever thought I’d need to/want to know about construction, computers and IT work, and just fixing different machinery. My Spanish vocabulary now includes words like “tile nibblers” and “spray foam insulation” and “grout”. I have pretended I’ve know what I’m talking about as I help to direct groups with projects and go to stores to purchase materials that I don’t even know what they’d be called in English.

I went to visit a master weaver last week with a team that was visiting. Everything is done by hand and he walked us through the process of back strap weaving. Very interesting! We were out in the middle of nowhere in a little farmhouse watching something that has been done in this culture for hundreds of years.

I’ve learned my way around the cities of Salcedo and Latacunga where our other home is located. There are a lot of one way streets and I was with a team driving them the wrong way down these one way streets. At one point, I had to have a man get out of the van to stop traffic so I could back up the street.

Today I got to meet the Vice President of Ecuador. Check out the photo below! This was a huge deal for For His Children. He is handicapped so we were asking him to advocate for our special needs children.

I have not cooked a real meal for myself in probably about 2 months. I’ve been invited by my awesome teams for dinner or by families, friends – it’s been quite lovely. I’ll be back to reality very soon!

I’ve had four different roommates this summer.

I think that about finishes my random ramblings….