One thing I have learned so far being in Huaticocha is to be content with simplicity. No extravagance. No distractions. Just reality. And yeah, I know you are thinking… how can living in the jungle without running water every day be reality? How can a town of 500 hundred who recently received electricity and internet for the first time be reality? How can a woman spend all day scrubbing clothes while her husband watches the store be reality? This may seem farfetched for Americans. We are so blessed and have been given so much that we forget about what reality truly is.
Every day, someone on my team goes through a reality check. Where we stop. Think. And reflect. A couple from the past week have been: we are moving wheel barrow of rocks in the Amazon jungle, another is hiking up a mountain in boots and a skirt in order to preach at a remote church in Ecuador. Just taking time to look at the bigger picture as to where we are and what we are doing.
My reality check for today was during el culto (church service). So there were more gringos (white people) than Ecuadorians. And the natives that were there were the pastor, his wife and son and then a young lady who helps to come cook us lunch every day. And even though it was only them and us, we still held church. A whole planned service for mainly 1 person. How awesome is that. At home we are disappointed when church attendance is low, but here, church continues if even for one person to hear the Word of the Lord.
Being here is really helping me to appreciate the small things of life that I usually take for granted. To realize that there is more to life than Facebook and Netflix. There is a whole different world out there, millions of people that I am not aware of, tons of lifestyles so different than mine. We get so caught up in our life and our Americanized world that we miss the big picture and the ‘reality check’ of our life.
