So after living a month here in Ecuador more or less I figured it’s probably a good time to tell all my readers about what life here is like.
So for right now all the guys have been sleeping in tents and all the girls have been sleeping in the main house called Casa Blanca. Mabe and Fabi have been having their new house built in the back and when it’s complete all the guys will move out of the tents in the front yard and into their old house, which is apparently going to be soon, maybe even by the time I post this. When we first arrived here Thursday morning Fabi seemed to think their house would be done that weekend but somehow I knew that I could expect it to be done a little later. Sleeping in tents is alright, it gives you your own personal space and it’s honestly more confey than you’d think. I’m in a particularly good situation with this since I bought my tent last minute before training camp the only tent I could find was a three person tent which is one more person than the blogs recommended. Let me tell you something, the labels on the amount of people per tent don’t mean how many people can realistically use a tent, but instead how many people can literally physcially fit on the floor of the tent if you pack them in there as tight as possible, so when I say I have a three person tent what I really mean is I have the perfect size tent to live confortably. Some guys decided not to bring their tents so some of the girls who brought theirs have been kind enough to lend their tents to them. Because of their small size I’ve found that it’s really easy to get your tent messy really quickly, but it’s also easy to clean it just as fast. It’s really satisfying to have your own space and have it organized so I try to keep it clean as often as I can. I’ve taken to cleaning it in this short period of time I have in the morning’s but that’s not super viable anymore now that we have to do the dishes in the morning. It usually gets messy again at night after I get a shower and I throw my dirty clothes on the ground since it’s a hassle to put everything away in the cold and the dark. Sometimes it get’s dirty when I have to get something out from the bottom of my bag and I have to take everything out from on top of it. Although this is usually how it goes it’s not neccesarily a rule. Somethings I put the stuff away then and there and sometimes I don’t. The main problem with sleeping in my tent is the temperature. Although I’m pretty temperature resistant, sleeping in the cold is another beast all together. The weather varies here but I think it’s safe to say that in general it’s nice in the day and chilly at night. My sleeping bag keeps my body warm, but my head ends up cold especially if my hair is still wet from a shower. I usually don’t have a problem falling asleep but I’ll find my self waking up at 5:00 if the barking dogs and rooster crowing don’t wake me up first. In all honesty though I don’t usually wake up very often, I mean it’s not ideal but I’m not complaining.
On weekdays we have to be up and in the living room of Casa Blanca before 7:25 for devotions. It used to be 7:30 but people were kind of showing up late so we changed it to 7:25. I’m usually waking up every few minutes for a while before 7 but it’s hard to leave the warmth of my sleeping bag so I’ll stay in bed for a little while. Sometimes our team leader Elijah will come try to get me and Jacob up, but little does he know I’ve been watching the time myself for a while now. He also takes out phones. This morning I knew he was coming so I hit the door of my tent to scare him as he walked up. I head into the living room and find a seat on the floor and open my Bible to the chapter of The Book of Proverbs that matches the calendar date since there’s 31 of them, and after that move on to whatever book I think I might get something out of. So far since I’ve got here I’ve read all kinds of books like Genesis, Revelation, Hosea, Song of Songs, and all kinds of New Testament books like The Timothys, the Peters, the Johns, and probably others that I can’t name off the top of my head. This morning I’ve started Ruth however some of these books I read a little in my own time as well. Usually our Squad Leader, Kate, will give us a prompt but sometimes I choose to ignore that and just read what I see fit. I read from my Quest Study Bible which I know how to use way better than when I started using it when I was 10 and is NIV version.
After a half hour of this we start our breakfast line. It’s usually a different breakfast every time but what does seem to be consistent is a fruit, juice, warm drink, and main dish. I usually want seconds but there usually isn’t enough time or food for it. After breakfast I used to start getting ready by brushing my teeth, putting my hair up, putting on sunscreen, filling up my water bottle, and packing a fruit for lunch. After this is when I would organize my tent. Now that we have dishes I start on dishes after breakfast and keep doing them until someone gets ready and replaces me which is usually a long time. This definitely makes time short when trying to get ready.
We usually leave around 9:15 for the bus stop since there’s a lot of time before our last bus leaves. We usually have to take 4 buses to get to work, but this week we started using another route that just uses 3. This makes things much simpler even though it’s only one less bus. The last bus we have to wait for that takes us up the mountain is different from all the other buses and gives us ample time for others to visit the stores in the area, specifically known to us is a bakery named Jessica. The last bus arrived at 10:40 and we arrive at work around 11:15 after walking down a road.
We work and eat lunch from 1:00 to 1:30 and then work some more but we have to start cleaning all the tools of the wet cement and put them away about 3:30. You can read all about my work at Dunamis in my last blog. Then we walk back up that previously mentioned cobblestone road which is actually a pretty difficult uphill. Then we wait for the bus to come at 4:30. The reason we leave so early is because the first day we took the bus we got there around 4:10 but saw the bus in the distance going down the mountain already and had to walk down. We take this bus back to Jessica where most people buy a 70 cent empanada from a stand out front. Then we ride the buses back home and get there around 6:00.
We’re usually covered in dirt so we use the bathroom and take our turns in the shower, usually pretty cold, and then hang out until it’s time for dinner which at this point I’m literally starving. It’s usually a juice and a main dish, and Mabe knows I’m hungry at dinner time so I’m usually able to get seconds.
After this we hang out until team time. Team time is different every night of the week. It was different the first week but does have a pattern. Monday is worship which takes a lot of different forms, Tuesday is Journey Markers, Wednesday is when we write our blogs, Thurday is feedback, Friday and free for all, and Saturday is debrief. Every other Sunday we have squad church. This is the point we get our phones back but there isn’t much to do on them with out international service or Wifi
After this we have a few hours until bed time at 11:00 but that doesn’t stop people from going to bed sooner. I usually take all the time I have until bed time but since everybody is usually asleep before hand there isn’t much to do and I find myself going to bed sooner sometimes.
On weekends things go a little differently. We don’t have mandatory devotion, and we don’t have to give our phones back, and we don’t have ministry. I sleep in a little more than usual but it varies. I usually get out of my tent once it gets too hot since our tents become like ovens during the day. I usually read my Bible a little bit anyway even though it’s not mandatory and I know I’m not the only one. We have to make our own food on weekends with our $4 a day budget, which doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t a lot, but our money has a lot more power here because food is cheaper here. I never know where I’m going to get my meals on the weekends and I have a tendency to skip meals but I try to get some meat since I don’t get very much during the week. I try to find a group of people that are doing something fun, like going to the equator or a nature park and go with them. At some point during the weekend we have to find wifi in order to post our weekly blogs and most use this time to say hello to family and friends.
Here’s some extra details. Because of refugees from Venezuela we have to stay in groups of 4 when going anywhere during the day and groups of 10 after dark. We have to be back by 8:00 if we are with a group of 10 or whatever time dinner/team time is. There are stay dogs everywhere here. There is not many birds or bugs although there are some. We usually go to a mall at Condado shopping for Wifi. Mabe and Fabi have 3 dogs, technically 4 but we don’t usually see the forth one, and there are 2 dogs at Dunamis. It rained the first few nights we got here. There are mountains everywhere but how far away you can see depends on how clear of a day it is. There is graffiti everywhere here. There are lots of 10 foot high walls with either spikes, nails, or broken shards of glass embedded into the top. From Casa Blanca there is a beautiful view of mountains, sometimes Cayembe during the day, and the lights of the city at night. Obviously most people speak Spanish here although it isn’t super uncommon to find someone who speaks English or signs in English. They use United States currency here but our money is much more valuable than back in the States. I had a hard time breaking my 20s and my change is more useful than cash. they use dollar coins and half dollars all the time.
