Ya mismo

6-23-11

As I sit here drinking my hot coffee from a French press I was given for my birthday, I’m realizing that I’ve been living in Ecuador for the equivalent time I studied abroad in Costa Rica—5 weeks.  I’m thankful that I don’t have the mindset of this period of time and that I still have much to learn and people to serve.  That being said, I urge you all to keep praying for me, that my mind would be renewed to keep working hard and loving people, while still having the passion to speak Spanish and learn more about the people and culture here in Lumbisí. Being aware of the amount of time I’ve been here, it’s easy to lose track of why I came. It would be easy to become lazy, speak English, and just relax.  However, these were neither my goals, nor my intentions before I came.  When learning a new language, a person has to be intentional and really seek out opportunities to speak, mess up, and learn.  I will strive to do this as much as possible. 

I’ve gotten a little behind in my blog-writing and it is extremely difficult to recall exactly what happened each day that I’ve been away, and also a burden to write play-by-play activities, so I’ll leave you with a few things…:-) I arrived back in Lumbisí Monday night after a 7 hour bus ride, accompanied by a fever, as I’m pretty sure, it was because my body was adjusting to 2 totally different climates.  The fever and chills eventually went away and I was able to eat with my family that night, talking about our previous week and telling stories about the weekend.  The last few days, I’ve been doing the same thing I’ve been doing at Muñequitos and serving food at the comedor.  Ecuadorian kids are so cute and they have even been behaving themselves and not crying as much.  I don’t think any of the kids know my name yet, which is fine because it’s pretty difficult :-).  I think I’ve been called about 10 different names throughout my life, but a new one I heard today: “Jokie”.   Love it.   Even though I love the kids very much, the mornings can be a little boring because most of the kids just play by themselves/with each other, and I’m just the babysitter so that I can console those who cry or hit each other.  The days can become pretty routine if I am not careful to make them enjoyable.  Serving has become more enjoyable, as I am more confident carrying more hot bowls of soup at once on a tray.  The elderly are so thankful when we serve food, saying “Dios le pague”.  The English classes have been non-existent this week, partly the fault of me.  Obviously there were no classes on Monday, since both Zack and I weren’t in Lumbisí.  Tuesday, I tried opening the store overhead door, but it just wouldn’t budge, so I left and had another “vacation” day.  Yesterday was supposed to be our busy day of English classes, with the naughty kids at 3:00PM and older teens at 4; no such luck. Today I had an urge to buy real ice cream in Cumbayá (a Baskin Robbins!), where I ordered a double cone, one scoop Mint Choc. Chip; one scoop Dark Choc. with White Choc.  So, after lunch I met Zack in Cumbayá, but the busses took longer than expected and I was 10 min late to the 4:00 English class. I’m not sure if the girls were there exactly at 4, but I waited until 4:50 just in case they came back.  I’m kind of bummed that we didn’t have English classes this week, as I was unable to attend all of them last week, but hopefully people will come back next week! This weekend we are planning to hike up a mountain (Ilato) close to my house to overlook Lumbisí.  I am looking forward to it!