For our first off day in Quito, a group of us came to Old Town Quito to look around, eat local food, and find the elusive Ecuadorian WiFi. Right now, I’m sitting at a little, open-air coffee shop with a Chai tea latte writing this blog while my new best friends (as of of 1 week ago) are blogging, talking to family and friends, and catching up on what has been going on in the United States. Because this is my first blog since I’ve started the World Race, I will try to cover training camp, our trip over here, and what we have done so far. Just in case this is the only paragraph that you read, I want to go ahead and mention a few prayer needs. Pray for the people of Ecuador, especially the poor and the Venezuelan refugees. Pray for our team’s health, unity, work ethic, and intimacy with God through these three months. Pray for our ministry partners and the ministry that they have here that will continue after we leave. For me personally, please pray that I would use this time to grow deeper in my relationship with God and be open to letting Him use me in any way that he calls me.
I’m not going to say too much about training camp because Ecuador is way more exciting than Gainesville, GA, but I do want to hit a few highlights. Most importantly, it was a great time of connecting with God and getting in the right heart posture before leaving for the field. God challenged me through the speakers, my squad, and the worship. My hope is that He will continue to challenge me throughout the next three months. The second most memorable part of training camp was the wash facilities. During training camp, all of the racers used porta potties and took bucket showers. When I walked into the porta potty the first day, I thought to myself, “This isn’t so bad. I don’t know why everyone is complaining.” Walking into the porta potty the last day of training camp was a different story. It actually smelled like death. The death smell permeated the area surrounding the porta potties, welcoming us in the mornings as we filed out of our giant sleepover on the training room floor. Luckily, we had frigid bucket showers waiting to wash away the porta potty stench. The bucket showers were not actually that bad. I would not sign up to take bucket showers for the rest of my life, but it did feel like a bit of an adventure. I’m glad that I experienced bucket showers. I can’t say the same about the 4-day old porta potty smell.
On Sunday night, we arrived at the Quito airport where our ministry host picked us up and drove us to La Quinta Casablanca, where we are living. The next morning, we were all trying to adjust to the altitude as Fabi, our ministry host, explained what we will be doing for the next month and a half. After that, we started serving right away. This week, we have done some work around Casablanca, packed rice into bags for Venezuelan refugees, and painted the wall around Pan de Vida. Pan de Vida is an organization that feeds hungry people in Quito, builds shelters, and helps people in need start micro businesses.
My squad is awesome, and I have loved getting to know everyone so far. It definitely feels like we have known each other for more than a week and a half. It is a unique group because, although we are all pretty close in age (17-22), we are in different stages of life. A lot of our squad just graduated high school, some are in college, and a couple of us have graduated from college. Living in a house with 20 other people is so much fun. It reminds me of college. I am trying to enjoy these three months because it may be the last time I live communally with this many people.
Now that we are all starting to settle in and adjust to the newness (and recover from altitude sickness), we are starting to plan adventures around Quito on our off days. I’m so excited to see what God has in store for the coming weeks in Ecuador as we serve with local ministries and explore the city.
