I have no idea what to tell you people except that the past five days have been…interesting. We begin our journey on Monday morning around 8:30, Jess and I woke up, showered, ate (for the last time) our Mom’s awesome breakfast, ran(literally) to the mall to buy jess some pants, took a cab back home, and then finished packing…all the while trying not to cry. In between all of this craziness our whole family paused and prayed over Jess and I. We sat on the couch, covered in a prayer shawl, each of our siblings and mom each took a turn to pray over us (we bawled the whole time) and then mom and Daniel anointed us with oil and prayed over our minds, hearts, mouths, and feet. During this time Luis played the shofar, so cool, and Andy continued praying over us. Then Andy gave each Jess and I a necklace to remember them by, as if we could ever forget.
Jess's is the Hebrew one, and mine is the heart! 
We are soooo good looking! 
They are going to come tell us goodbye one last time at Casablanca later (more crying to ensue). After our cryfest we put our packs on, and Daniel walked with us to meet Lins and Kayla at the corner by the church. PTL Anita, Gaby’s mom/the church secretary, told us that she would take us to our next stop, Casablanca, woooo no public bus with giant backpacks!!
So we make it to Casablanca, and we meet up with our squad (most of it, that is) and Kursti Bailey shared an epic reunion embrace (name drop). We all pile around various beds, couches, stairs, etc. and share stories from our past month and generally love on one another, eat lunch, talk some more, and more and more…I think you get the picture. As the time nears for us to get on the bus at 7 Jess and I are starting to get concerned, no family as of yet. We realize that Ecuadorian time is not the same as our time and are scared they won’t make it. Right before we get on the bus, Gustavo, our awesome Incalink contact wants to take squad pics, so we do…as we are finishing up who arrives but Gaby and our family for our last Ecuadorian goodbye!! Team Daniel rushed down and pretty much tackle hugged all three of them (Gaby, Andy, Daniel) and cried some more. Then we get on the bus…which has quite possibly because my most hated phrase in the English language…get on the bus, get back on the bus, get back on the bus, get back on the bus…
So we travel for a few hours, we were supposed to stop at nine for dinner, that didn’t actually happen 10:30, nbd at KFC, yea that’s right, KFC. This particular fine dining establishment is now closed and says they will feed all the white people but will only make us one thing, a chicken sandwich, okay awesome thanks. So we get 59ish chicken sandwiches, eat them and then…get back on the bus. We have more chat time, try to play some sort of bus-friendly game(dub squad needs some help with this) and try to sleep.
Get ready for parts 2 & (most likely) 3 soon to come!
I didn’t take any bus pictures, but I’ll have a sweet video at the end of this series so get ready for the awesomeness (I can't take credit it for the video, my awesome teammate Kayla Griffin gets those honors).
“So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” – 1 Corinthians 10:31
