Month two has begun. After a 31 hour bus ride, a border crossing, and plenty of unwanted vendors invading our buses we have made it to Ecuador. This month is All-Squad Month, meaning all 59 of us are staying in the same area, Quito, but we split up during the day to go to our own team ministries. My team and I are involved in a couple different locations: a preschool, a separate community, and a church. Our time at the preschool has been invested in a few different areas. Half of our team is working on a mural for the walls of the preschool, and the other half are working on building a wooden playhouse for the kids. This task may seem simple to the average one of you reading my blog however we only have a hammer, a chisel, and a handsaw. Our wood has come from their scrap pile at the preschool and logs that we have found around the area. It’s a slow process, but we are making it work. Videos and pictures are coming soon. The community, Carcelen Bajo, is a very impoverished one. After talking with one of the community members we found out that no one in this community is expected, by the government or by people in other parts of Quito, to do anything with their lives. The people of Carcelen Bajo now believe this lie about themselves and it becomes this reoccurring, self-fulfilling prophesy passed on to each generation. To help with this problem we have been teaching English to anyone that is willing to learn, praying over anyone who wants it, and spreading the love and joy of Jesus to a people with very little hope. Both of these ministry opportunities have come out of connections at the church we are partnering with. Every Sunday at the church we have cooking classes, education about nutrition and its importance, and we are rearranging their classroom and helping to form appropriate and beneficial curriculum for their teachers.
Yes, this is a lot. We were not expecting to be doing this much in our first week. I learned very quickly about the importance of taking your personal quiet time with the Lord, an entire day of Rest, and an adventure to experience the culture. Our most recent adventure day was spent in the small town of Mindo, Ecuador. A couple of us stayed over in a tree canopy covered hostel next to river and we surprised to find some delicious thin-crust pizza. The next day we met up with the rest of our group to continue with our adventure day. Once we had ridden in the back of a pickup- truck taxi for about 15 minutes, we arrived at our first location, ziplining. To be able to see the forest and mountains from that new perspective was stunning. After about 3 hours of ziplining we drove to Nambillo, a river that has rapids, a 40 foot waterfall, and a stone slide. We hiked and repelled down through the forest to reach this beautiful location where we concluded our day.
Ecuador has been an amazing country and we have only been here for a week. I cannot wait to see what God and this country have in store for me in the next couple weeks.
Our home for the month: Incalink
Guagua Preschool in the village of Pomasqui
Pre zipling
One of the views from zipling
Nambillo river and waterfall area
Local fruit and vegetable vendor
