There's a Reason I've Been MIA

Last week I spent time in a "homestay". One of the women in our Women's Exercise program invited me into her home for the week, so I went to live with her and her family from Monday-Thursday, before we left for our third retreat.

Patricia (from exercise) lives in a two story house. On the first floor, Maritza (her oldest daughter, who also comes to exercise) and her husband live. On the second floor, Patricia lives with her husband, two younger daughters (11 and 2), and her mother. Her mother-in-law also lives on the property out back. This family is a tight-knit group. Every night, everyone gathers upstairs to play card games, play dominoes, do magic tricks, tell jokes, and just enjoy each other's company. They showed me family photos and spoke of life in Ecuador. I was really welcomed into the family... I was even invited on the family trip this summer!

There were many things I learned from my short stay with the family last week, but I'll highlight a couple of them. It was very interesting to see lifestyle and eating habits of women involved in our health programs; it's important to notice cutural norms but also see that habits may be slowly changing based on an education of how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Ecuadorians really stress the importance of family, and my week made that even more evident. People who join our programs and attend our classes really appreciate what it is that we do, and they see us as one of them. Although we only live amongst them for only a year, they don't see us as foreigners doing charity work. On the contrary, they see how much we can get from a year here and love that we are spending our time working alongside them to better their communities. Spanish is hard, but mine is slowly improving day by day. Even though I'm not fluent (my definition of fluency has certainly changed as well), I can still communicate all that I want to and develop strong bonds with people in Rumiloma and the surrounding areas. The experience was great, and I know that even though I'm not physically living with them anymore, I will be frequently visiting the family and know that I am welcome home anytime.