Stateside

After two amazing weeks in Quito, Ecuador, I am home again in one piece. It is very strange being back in the States, and I guess I'm almost having a hard time adjusting to it. I really liked being in Ecuador, even though it's a third world country. I adjusted to it very quickly, and now the hard part is adjusting to life back home. Anyway, for now - because I really should be sleeping - I'm just going to write about my trip overall, and then within the next couple days I will try to write more details and get some pictures up. It's hard when you've got schoolwork that you should be concentrating on.

Thinking of the trip as a whole, the best word that comes to mind to describe it was amazing. There were things about it that made me sad, things that made me laugh, and things that made me ashamed of the way Americans live, but yet it was all amazing.

One of the best parts for me was meeting and getting to know 4 kids who lived down the road from our work site at the church. The oldest two were twin boys, Jesus and Zed, then their sister Genesis, and the youngest boy was Jahid. Those 4 kids were one of the best parts of the trip for me. When I write more about the trip I will definately talk more about them, but I can't stay up too late now to talk about it. Meeting those 4 and getting to spend time with them and get to know them as much as I could through the little Spanish I know was just amazing. It was so hard to see these kids who show up to play soccer with us every afternoon in ripped up clothes that barely fit them and dirt all over their faces. But you know what? They just need somebody to love them and I can honestly say that's what we did. We showed them God's love. When the trip was winding down and we had to say goodbye to them, it was one of the hardest - if not the hardest - part of the trip.

On the Wednesday before we left to come home, we were talking about the things we had learned on the trip. While I was listening to everybody and soaking it all in, the song "Twenty-four" by Switchfoot came to me, and since then it has been the song I think of whenever I try to even begin to explain what the trip was like.

"I want to see miracles, see the world change. Wrestle the angel for more than a name. For more than a feeling, for more than a cause I'm singing Spirit, take me up in arms with you. You're raising the dead in me."

Later on, I'll write about each day individually and explain more of why that song means so much to me now, but I do want to say that we saw miracles and we saw the world change right before our eyes, and I will never be the same because of it.


Of course, living with 18 other people very closely for two straight weeks in a country where you don't speak much of the native language means you spend a lot of time with the people you are traveling with. That was the hardest part of the trip for me. You really get to know people for who they really are. In some cases, that was great and in other cases, it wasn't. You have no choice but to find out who spends too much time in the bathroom and who seems to disappear when there's work to do. You see who is the most selfless and who is the most selfish. You find out just what your own personality is really like when you're tired and stressed, and you find the people who can tolerate that and the people who can't. It's hard to come home without hard feelings toward at least a couple of people, even though I know I shouldn't. I know that God had all of us together even though I don't really understand why, or even though I think that some people have a lot more growing up to do before they can handle the situation we were in.

It's tough to be away from your loved ones and have to spend time with people who you normally don't spend time with. But, it is interesting when you get sick of the people you thought you'd spend your time with and you really grow to appreciate people you never spent much time around before. And of course, not everyone's behavior is a surprise.

But anyway, it's almost 11 and I have to go back to work tomorrow morning. I'll write about each day later on.

Well, Here We Go!

9:30 on Thursday night. In 48 hours, I will be in Ecuador. I honestly can't believe it's just about time to leave already. I mean, it was kind of intimidating to think about when I first signed on for this, but then I kind of came to terms with it. And then about a month ago I freaked out again. But sometime during last week, I relaxed a little and started thinking about how much fun this really could be.

This is going to be a life-changing experience. I can't say it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience because I'm still young and could very easily do more trips like this in my future if that's what God has for me. But since this is the very first time I've ever just stepped up and followed something blindly, yet knowing that I was supposed to go at the same time. It's really a lot to think about right now.

I'm not ready to leave by any means. I do not know how I am going to get through two weeks without Aharon. We have never spent more than three or four days apart and even then, we talked at least twice a day every day. This is going to be very hard on me, and I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it or pretend like I am okay with it because I really am not. I am not okay with being without him for two weeks. It is going to be incredibly hard on me and honestly, I think it will be the hardest part of the trip for me.

But I am still very excited about it. I'm going to get to do something that most people my age have never done before. I am going to experience a culture completely different than my own, which I think is something every American - especially my generation - needs to do. We are too soft here in our little wonderful county. Life's too easy, even for the people that have it really hard.

I'm getting off track. My point is that I'm leaving Saturday morning for a country that I know very little about and hardly can speak the language. I am leaving behind my parents, brothers, friends, and Aharon. I am taking two weeks off of work (which I can not afford to do), and I am missing two weeks of classes right in the middle of the semester. But yet, at the same time that all of that is going through my head, I am so excited to actually go. I know I will be very homesick and probably cry a lot, too, but I am ready. And looking forward.


P.S. And it's totally awesome that it snowed today!!!!