Dear Ecuador,
There’s some things I love about you and I want to share them with the people that haven’t met you.
Let’s starts with Quito, you grace us with four seasons in a day and I still can’t get over not wearing a sweater everyday here. You have a true definition of rest. When the sun is completely set and yes I mean completely set by 6:30pm you are only lit by every light in the city and it’s beautiful. Your sunrise that woke me up every morning is unlike any other and honestly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Waking up with you at 5:30 every morning was worth it, so worth it.Your mountains; literally in the middle of the city. They are beautiful, and every day they somehow managed to look a little different every time I looked up. Jesus is funny like that I think.
Now to the coast (La Chorrera and El Palmar) Pedernales; you are something completely different. You are nothing like Arkansas but you feel so much like a home. You are by far one of the stickiest places I’ve been and I live in the south haha! Your nights are full of ocean breezes and a smell that I don’t think I’ll ever find again. Your people, they love well. They are a definition of living in community at its finest.
To the village, I miss you more than words can say. Your dirt roads, smiling kiddos, and sweet Helado was a gift. The children that want nothing more than to spend hours around my broken Spanish, they are so full of joy. To the little boy who held my shirt when my hands were full, you have the biggest story and you’re only 5. You just want to be loved and I miss your sweet grasp of my hand when I wasn’t looking. To the bird that jumped on our tin roof and the rooster that woke us up, I do not miss you two however; I miss falling asleep in my bug net sweating. While this sounds uncomfortable I would lay in my bunk, sticky and tucked away in the net; listening to the sweet sound of ocean waters and the sweet whisper of Jesus in the wind, THIS is something that is beyond beautiful to listen to.
Ecuador you are sweet. You taught me so much and tugged on my heart in new ways. As my squad leader said “You have tasted and seen a new way of life and now you cannot go back.” That statement alone hit me hard. She’s right, tasted and seen a new way of life. I keep getting asked if I’m going back to Ecuador. I’ve thought about this question a lot and my response is. I loved Ecuador and it will always hold a special place in my heart but will I go back, I don’t know. I love Ecuador and if the opportunity came up and the Lord was calling then maybe but, I don’t have to go back to Ecuador. I just want to go back period. Wherever that may be I want to go. So, I don’t know where that is or what it looks like but until then the Lord knows he has my yes.
Much Love,
Becca
