The amount of times I’ve thought to myself “I love my life” the past week is incredible. I really am thriving where I’m at right now.
Let me just give you a detailed “day in the life”:
7:30 am- wake up. Get ready. Quiet time.
8:00- breakfast
8:30- start walking to the bus station with my team. Then ride a couple buses to ministry over the next hour.
9:30- arrive at Dunamis. Sunscreen, bathroom, water, Let’s gooooo.
9:45- manual labor. Recently, that’s looked like clearing land to start a garden that will provide food for the girls living here and also to sell. Also, we’ve scooped manure to use in the garden and we’ve picked up rocks to clear land for farming.
12:00-2:30- lunch break and rest. Probably messing with Diego if he’s in his office.
2:30- hop in the van and go to the community for afternoon kids ministry
3:00-5:00- activities with the people in the community. Monday is drama class, Tuesday English, Wednesday movies, Thursday sewing for the women, Friday English.
5:00- walk to the bus stop. Ride home for an hour.
6:00- if it’s Empanada Thursday, we stop at Mariano’s. If not, we walk home.
6:30- dinner. Sometimes a little later, but nevertheless Fabi always makes us something good.
7:30- probably doing Team Time. Monday is worship, Tuesday Bible study, Wednesday blogging, Thursday check ins/feedback, Friday fun free for all, Saturday debrief.
8:30 pm- hang with some people on the squad till I go to bed. Usually talking in the kitchen, playing cards, making a fire, or anything fun
Go to sleep. Wake up. Repeat Monday-Friday.
I took a look at the reasons why I love this life.. and I realized that anyone who isn’t living with me on the race might think otherwise.. While sitting on the public bus for an hour I made a note on my phone titled “why Feb 5th was SO GOOD” because it was one of the best ministry days my team has had together and everything in the world felt extra nice for some reason.
Here’s that list:
- Arroz con leche for breakfast
- The hour long public bus ride to ministry. Never crowded. We always get the first seats. The ride gives me time to think.
- A clear sky. Seeing the two snow capped mountains from Dunamis
- Talking to Mr. Renae the 80 yr old man. He didn’t speak English, but he sure did talk a lot. He told me I should have an Ecuadorian boyfriend because Latino men are hard working and joyful. Lol
- Getting to work TOGETHER with my team instead of getting split up like most times before
- Julia peed in the grass TWICE while working thennn later realizing she had toilet paper in her pocket that she didn’t even use but it’s okay because #abandonment
- Emily decided she wants to get married instead of staying single forever!! Big deal.
- Laughing A LOT
- I went poop then the toilet wouldn’t flush so I had to tell Boris and Diego and then they laughed at me and said to just LEAVE IT FOR MY TEAMMATES LOL I can’t believe them. they’re chill tho
- Scooping horse manure all morning then hauling it with the Polaris
- But then the Polaris barely made it up the hill with all of us and the bags of poop. We were holding on for dear life and having poop spill on us LOL
- The Polaris ALMOST flipped while trying to turn around on the side of a steep hill and Julia was frightened on top of the bags of poop. Still fun tho.
- Emily was dramatic and funny about dying on the Polaris
- Pick axing. Oddly satisfying.
- Seeing our progress on the garden!
- We had PERFECT bananas at lunch
- We sun tanned our stomachs outside the church for an hour while waiting for our kids to show up. This was the first time our stomachs saw the sun since the race began lol
- The movie/activities didn’t work so we had more free time to just talk with the community girls more
- The little girls from the community wrote/drew me really sweet notes in my journal saying “amigas por siempre” (friends forever)
- We got FREE Popcorn
- Getting a nice public bus home with CUSHIONED SEATS
- Team time only taking 10 minutes
- Playing cards with Carol. We love Solitaire.
- Arroz con leche leftovers for dessert with Carol
Well.. there ya go. A more detailed look into my daily life. The mundane, the extreme, and everything in between. I LOVE THIS LIFE.
