I could easily think of 22 things for this place. Everywhere I go feels like home, from our house to our church to our favorite bakery. The weather is perfect, and apparently the same year round; warm but not too hot during the day, cold but not freezing at night, not too much wind, and never humid. And it RAINS here! I mean it rained one time…for not very long…but I haven’t seen rain in two and a half months so I’ll take it. I seriously never want to leave.
This month is so full of amazing people. It isn’t hard for me to love people, but here every day I either meet someone new who joins my coolest people I’ve ever met list, or I find more reasons why the same people are even more awesome than I thought. Everybody feels like family. I already want to cry right now just thinking about leaving all of them in two weeks.
I could go on forever, but in keeping with my ongoing theme, here are only 11 things I love about the closest thing to heaven on earth.
1. Fabi and Mabe, and Gustavo, my Ecuadorian parents and uncle. They are the sweetest people and they make our house feel like home. I could spend 12 hours just sitting in the kitchen talking to them. Seeing them when I come home is the happiest part of my day.
2. Fabi and Mabe’s cooking. This gets its own bullet point because I’d love them even if they couldn’t cook, and I’d love their food even if they were horrible people. But it does help that it’s made by people who love us so much.
3. Mabe’s homemade peanut butter. I’ve finally found something that’s better than Jif. I ate half my jar in two days.
4. Guapa and Guapita. We’ve gotten to live with an adorable dog in every country so far, and this month we get two of them.
5. Alex and Yanin. I love all my babies at the school, but I wish my mom would adopt these two so they’d be waiting for me when I get home. They both love to snuggle and so do I, so of course they’re my secret favorites.
6. All the green things. El Alto was a concrete jungle and Trujillo was in the desert, but Quito has colors everywhere.
7. MOUNTAINS! Yes there have been mountains in every country, but these are the most beautiful I’ve ever seen and they’re literally everywhere. You have to go inside to not see them, and even then they’re out every window. And every building has tons of big windows, which why wouldn’t you when you have stuff like this to look at?
8. My bed. Again, we’ve had beds every month and I’ve been super thankful for each(I think I’ve said “beds” in every one of my 11 Things posts), but these are the best. When I get out of this one, there isn’t a Linda-shaped crater in the mattress.
9. Laundry! Because not only do we have a washer, AND a dryer, but the room is the perfect place to have team time.
10. Efran and Monica and their daughters, and all the other absolutely wonderful people we get to serve with at Iglesia La Luz. They’re the most loving, welcoming, servant-hearted people I’ve ever met and it’s a crazy blessing to get to be part of their mission for this short little month.
11. The kabob place and all the bakeries. Cheap but delicious food makes this broke girl’s heart happy.
It’s hurting me not to continue because I have SO many more! I’ve been practically dancing in my chair as I typed each one. I know it’s only month 3 but I love this place too much right now to imagine anything beating it. I’ll just put extra things in my goodbye blog at the end of the month. Or you can email me and I’ll write you a book.
