Sarah Scott and I are leaving the Manna House at 7:00am tomorrow. Why, you ask? We are hopping on a plane to go to Nicaragua. We are doing a site exchange for a week and celebrating MPI's five year anniversary.
We'll stay at the Manna house for the week and see how programs are run there. I'm very much looking forward to learning how to improve our organization as a whole and programs here in Ecuador based on attending MPI Nicaragua's programs and experiencing how Manna runs in a different country. An huge added bonus is that I'll be able to spend quality time with Leah and Hemby. ALSO, Tim Buttril and Kristen Walker will be in Nica for the week. It'll be great to spend time with some of my beloved Hokies. I'll update when I get back November 28th! Until then, I send my love and prayers. Happy Thanksgiving!
p.s. The following pictures are from my FIRST trip to Nicaragua in 2006. This was the trip that made me fall head over heels in love with Latin America and redefined my goals for the future. I can thank that trip to Nicaragua many years ago for leading me to where I am now. So in the spirit of the holiday, this a tribute to my thanks for that initial trip to Nicaragua and where God has so faithfully led me over the years.
New development in Ecuador: no power. Ever. Ecuador is in the midst of it's worst drought in over 30 years. We are supposed to be in rainy season (rain every afternoon), but we've had maybe 10 days of rain since arriving in July. Since most of Ecuador's power is hydroelectric, we are in the midst of an energy crisis. This means that every day we have a power outage. Our neighbors helped us out by showing us the website that posts the time of the scheduled outing the night before. Therefore, our outages are planned, but inconvenient nonetheless. Our house in Conocoto is on a different schedule than the library in Rumiloma, so we are usually without power for 8 hours a day. This makes holding classes/planning for classes/updating my blog very difficult. But again, learning flexibility is one of the joys of living in Ecuador. Hasta pronto.
This past week, there were 2 Ecuadorian holidays. On Monday, it was Día de los Difuntos (Day of the Dead) and Tuesday was Cuenca's Independence Day (Cuenca is an Ecuadorian city). Aside from eating the traditional snack of Colada Morada y Gua Guas de Pan, that meant that we had a 4-day weekend and some time to get out of the sierras and head to the beach. Saturday night we boarded our night bus, and that's where our adventure began.
Colada Morada y Gua Gua de Pan (Dia de los Difuntos Tradition)
This bus was about 4 sizes too small for my tall gringa legs. As soon as I scooted into the seat, my knees were permanently pushed into the back of the man in front of me. He didn't seem to mind, because he reclined his chair... all. the. way. Being a night bus, the seats reclined almost horizontally. So while my legs were permanently cramped in the space in front of me, this stranger's head was literally in my lap. Let me paint a picture of the rest of this 8-hour trip. Air conditioning: broken and stuck on freezing; fluorescent lights: randomly flipped on and off; techno music: blasting every 2 hours. Krysta and I snuggled up and tried to sleep as the time slowly creeped by. YAY night bus! Once we arrived in Bahía, we got on a water taxi that took us to San Vincente, only to get on another bus to take us to Canoa, our final destination. We made the trip and were in our hostal all before 7:30am.
View from one of the hammocks at our Hostal
Canoa is a quaint beach town with sand streets and little shacks on the beach. Each shack sells ceviche, cocktails, and fresh juices as well as blasts their favorite song, trying to overpower the noise coming from the other shacks a mere 15 feet away. It's a mixture of sun, sand, and reggaeton.
Canoa is nothing but a little fishing town
We had a nice relaxing weekend reading, napping in hammocks, kayak surfing, collecting shells, and doing a lot of nothing. It was a much needed rest, and we had a blast exploring a new part of Ecuador. We left late Tuesday night on another night bus (not half as bad as the first trip, minus the swollen ankles I had from not moving and increasing altitude), and were back in time to work on Wednesday.
Our budget trip had us eating tuna out of the can
for lunch. Mmmmm.
Halloween is not quite the same if you aren't in the streets of a neighborhood amongst hundreds of small Disney Princesses or Monsters pleading for candy. However, when you've got flour, Halloween candy sent from Momma Booe, and a cape (Krysta brought her Wonder Woman cape to Ecuador so she would be prepared for Halloween... maybe that explains her 50lb and 70lb bags?), it almost felt like home. Krysta and I spent the afternoon making Halloween cupcakes and listening to Thriller on repeat. That's about as good as you can get, if I do say so myself.
"May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and the exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice freedom, and peace. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and the exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejections, and starvation, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done."
