home, home, home

Yesterday, as I was helping my dad shovel the driveway, I thought to myself, “Well, Toto, I don’t think we’re in Ecuador anymore.”

There are a lot of things different but the same about being at home.  It’s colder, more open, and the traffic is a lot less crazy.  The church songs are a little bit less upbeat, the sun comes up later and goes down earlier, and the keyboards make sense to my fingers once again.

But I see that we are all people, all over the world, and we are really not that different.  We all share the same blood of humanity, we all suffer the sorrows and experience the joys of life, of friendship, of love, of loss.  We are all brothers and sisters, no matter where we were born.

I’m home now, but I also left home back in Ecuador.  It’s a strange feeling, a feeling that anyone who has lived in more than one place will understand…as if home is multiple places but also nowhere, all at the same time.

I am glad to be back, though…glad to go back to school, graduate from the university, and get started with the next part of the journey.  I am looking forward to the lessons and experiences that lie ahead of me…because those experiences will shape me into who I am, just like Ecuador has marked my life forever.

Enough of this dramatic post…Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!  Go play in the snow, if you’ve got any!  It’s beautiful.

Merry Christmas!!!!

I’m HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s cold here.

Merry Christmas to all and to your loved ones.

things that maybe don’t all relate…

Today at 10:30 am I turned in my last final exam. School’s out, kids! Woohoo!
I’ve been thinking a lot about my time in Ecuador and all that I’ve learned, all that I’ve experienced, all that I’ve grown. It’s too much to comprehend, to be honest…too much to put into words. Whatever I say on this little online journal doesn’t even come close to sharing what is in my heart, what fills my days, and what has changed me.
I will say, though, that my time here has been beautiful, inspiring, and challenging. Every day is something new to live, overcome, and discover.
Tonight two of my closest friends from home will be arriving on a jet from the US to visit me during my last two weeks here. Two worlds colliding as I prepare to begin an entirely new part of my life come Dec. 24th. I can’t wait to see them, but I am also a bit marked by a sadness that their arrival brings…the knowledge that this part of my life is ending.
Something I’ve been thinking about a lot is the dreams that we have, the steps that we take, and the places they lead us. I have many dreams…anyone who knows me would say that is obvious…and sometimes I have wondered why I dream so much and if those dreams will ever come true. But I was in Mass the other day and the priest said that God gives us dreams for a reason, and if we trust and give all that we are…there is no reason they cannot come true. That’s what I like to believe…that if we keep fighting and working and loving and hoping and sticking true to what we believe in, then our dreams don’t just have to be dreams. And we have dreams for a reason, I believe…they are a vision of the way that God really wants us to live if we are just willing to fight for it and be faithful to ourselves.
“The universe is wider than our views of it.” -Henry David Thoreau

la finca orgánica

This weekend I took a terribly comfortable overnight bus to the beach with a couple friends of mine.  We went to Bahía and Canoa, for anyone who knows something about beaches in Ecuador.  It was sweet, actually, because Bahía is an eco-city, meaning that they are all hardcore about protecting Mother Earth, recycling, and using bicycles instead of cars.  Beautiful.

The first day we frolicked around on the beach for hours, playing with baby jellyfish (we thought they were snails…silly girls from the Midwest) and picking up shells (which we are going to try to illegally smuggle into the US…if they aren’t all broken from being dropped 90 times).  We even drank milkshakes made with coconut, which were actually covered in little tiny ants…we drank them anyway.  I ate a worm in the jungle, remember?  What harm can an ant (or several ants) do?

The day after that was one of the absolute best days I have had in Ecuador, no joke.  We went to an organic farm and it was incredible.  It was kind of like Naz, but in Spanish.   At said farm, we made our own chocolate, made rings out of palm seeds, ate an amazing vegetarian lunch, learned that pineapples actually grow underground (dude, I always thought they grew on trees…talk about ignorance!), and got to explore the wonders of organic farming as it is put into practice in Ecuador.  I almost didn’t leave, it was so fantastic.

Then we proceeded to take another overnight bus back to Quito…and did not sleep at all because the driver was FLYING like a madman.  Suele pasar.

Two weeks left in this beautiful country and I’m back to the snow and lack of mountains.  That may sound unappealing when I just talked about my trip to the beach, but it sounds beautiful to me right now.  Mmm…snow and hot chocolate and fireplaces…

someone else’s words, take two

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose”
-Jim Elliot, who was martyred in Ecuador, where he served as a missionary

La pobreza no es invencible

Last night I went to a talk given by Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He is from Bangladesh, where he started up a program of microcredit that has helped hundreds of thousands of people. It’s really interesting and seems so logical–basically, he loaned small amounts of money to the poor in order for them to start their own businesses or shops. Through empowering them, he has helped them to get out of poverty.
Muhammad Yunus repeatedly says that poverty is not unbeatable; it is a condition of our society and not of the people who live in poverty. I like his attitude…basically, if we work to change it, we can. Poverty is a result of a faulty system that can be changed.
People like him give me hope that the world will change, and that we can each do something to change it. If one man was able to do such good in one country, can’t we all?

someone else’s words

Just wanted to share a quotation that I really like…

“Better to have taken some risks and lost than to have done nothing and succeeded at it.”
- Erwin W. Lutzer

desde que te conocí, desde que te vi…

Do you ever listen to a song a million times in a row?  I know I do…like right now I have listened to “Desde que te vi” by Natalino more times than I really want to know.  You should all listen to it, I really like it.

Something really scary happened today in Quito.  My host sister came back from school and told me that a boy from her high school was kidnapped this morning, and they are demanding 5 million dollars for his release.  His dad is the president of BMW or something like that…which is why he was kidnapped.  The poor boy is only about 12 or 13…I’m really scared for him.  Please pray for him and for his family…and that the kidnappers come to their senses.

I’ll be back in the US in less than one month now…it seems so unreal.  And then I graduate and become a big person.

El tiempo vuela, ¿no?

Mr. Pavo

Happy slightly belated Thanksgiving from Quito!

My parents were here this week, trapped in a wild whirlwind of sightseeing and activity, from indigenous markets to volcanoes.  They stayed with my host family here (talk about two worlds colliding!) and as a way to say thank you, my mom and I (well, I was more like an assistant) made an all-out Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

Cooking in other countries is always a little bit weird.

Their brown sugar had a different texture, their marshmallows were strangely sweeter, and their chedder cheese refused to melt without lumps.

We also had an oven issue…it accidentally got turned off halfway through–for about an hour.

My mom was a little stressed about how the food would be turn out, understandably.

Thankfully it all turned out beautiful and everyone went crazy for the food, especially the sweet potatoes and the pumpkin pie.

We all gave thanks, especially my mom and me.

Oh, and I wanted to publically say that I am thankful for all of you, all of my friends, all of my family, and all the joy that you bring to my life!  Love from Ecuador!

Orphans

Yesterday I read an article about AIDS orphans in Africa that really impacted me.  It is called, ¨What will become of Africa’s AIDS Orphans?¨ by Melissa Faye Greene.

Here’s the link if any of you are interested:

http://www.melissafaygreene.com/pages/afraidsorph.html

I challenge you all to read it…and to do something.