Day 4 (June 12): First Day of Teaching!

Today was, as the title suggests, our first day of teaching (yahoo!). Some of the different grades welcomed us in the kitchen (we could not be outside on the patio due to rain) with songs and blessings from the kids. Afterwards we jumped right into teaching. Since I was in the office helping Pancho with some work, I was not in the classrooms as much, so here are some words from the students themselves: 

Bailey: “Thankfully we are all over prepared. You never really know what to expect but thankfully this week started out in a really amazing way.”

Ellie: “I was surprised by the connection you can have with people without using words.”

Chase: “Teaching is hard.”

William: “Interactive activities are the bomb. Making kids do the work is the way to go.”

Grayson: “It was hug after hug from Annie’s and my little nuggets.”

Austin: “I had to do labor. And my back hurts because of it.” (in reference to the construction)

William: “I get knocked down. But I get up again.”

Anonymous: “Love transcends all languages.” 

Natalie: “The language barrier is not as big of an issue as you would think. As long as you’re active and engaging the kids will love whatever you’re doing.”

Maddie: “Today was actually really hard. I had to throw all of my plans out the window because they were not at the level of English I had planned for, but we managed to work it out, and I think the students enjoyed it.”

Katie: “Our class threw five paper airplanes off the roof.”

Temi: “We lost five airplanes in a class of seven people—but then we made more so it was okay.”

Jolie: “Third grade was difficult, that’s for sure. Apparently, they don’t like coloring much.”

Maggie: “Even though it was sometimes difficult to understand the kids with the language barrier, it was so rewarding to see the joy on their faces while we played the games we had planned for them.”

Annie: “I lifted a great amount of cinder blocks.”

Dani: “I proved the guys wrong by lifting the 50kg bag of cement.”

Jonathan: “How do they have the ball?!” (He couldn’t figure out the mind game on the bus for a good long while)

Evan: “You want a pop tart?”

Matthew: “Being with kids so grateful made me really humble about how much I have and how much I don’t deserve it.”

Lucy: “Never wear white shoes to a construction site.”

Matthew: “I’ve had enough people talk for one day.” 

Anna: “I thought it was really sweet to see how grateful the kids were for everything especially when I pulled out a pack of markers.”

Dre: “You gotta enjoy the little things.” 

Christian: “I know more Spanish than I thought and less Spanish than is necessary.” 

Stephen: “zzzzz” (Snugs was sleeping when I asked for quotes)

So while this is a mixed bag of quotes, the students are overall positive and willing to try again tomorrow and to work hard. Many of them prayed tonight that they would be able to reach the kids at the school with their spiritual messages (based on verses and themes they’ve chosen to teach each class) even if they cannot communicate easily with them. 

After lunch we went to the construction site where we will be building walls for the new school building all week in the afternoons. We mixed cement, carried cement blocks, and used both to build half of three separate walls. It rained while we were building, but luckily there was a roof to cover us, which was especially fortunate when it started hailing. Luckily Katie had a speaker, so we were able to sing and dance to some oldie music while we worked (think Jackson 5, Hall and Oates, Beegees, “Footloose,” “Beverly Hills,” etc). We did hard work and accomplished a lot, which is a huge help because the building is taking longer to complete than Pancho and Pity originally anticipated. The last group to come down and serve with Amor y Esperanza completed 12 walls! We shall see how many we can get done!

We played mind games (riddle games) in the bus and while waiting on dinner, so everyone’s minds are bent and sharpened. Jonathan and Dani are a little worn out however…it took them a long while to figure out the game.  

Pancho and Pity led another devotional this evening on how our heart can be like a GPS—sometimes we go the wrong way and have to “recalculate” and refocus on God to get back to the right path. We talked about how Jesus was calm, patient, and in control in the story of Jairus whose daughter was dying and the woman who had been bleeding for many years in Mark 5:21-43. Jesus was not in a hurry, asked Jairus to trust him, took the time to stop on his way to heal the dying daughter in order to heal and forgive the woman who was bleeding, and then raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead. They encouraged us to recalculate when we think that things are going wrong because everything has a purpose.

We prayed for each other and shared with each other prayer requests and our experiences from the weekend and day in smaller groups (our animal groups that help us keep track of everyone: Tortugas, Llamas, Squirrel Monkeys, and Jaguars). It was beautiful to see and hear the students’ hearts in the form of their prayers. We had more time this afternoon and evening to hang out with each other, to make music, play games, and laugh—much needed after a hard day’s work.  

Cheers, peace, and grace to you all, 

Alice

Day 3 (June 11): The Equator and Classroom Prep

Day 3 in Ecuador started bright and early for a brave few. Mr. McCune has started each morning  outside our rooms reading a chapter of the Gospel of Mark with whoever wants to join. About seven students got up this morning to read and discuss the story of Jesus and the paralytic (Mark 2) at 7am! Pancho declared a 7:30am soccer game before devotional and breakfast. Sadly, the predominantly Ecuadorian team beat the US team. But that’s nothing new here.

Our pre-breakfast devotional included prayer, worship, and Mr. McCune telling us about the story of Jesus and the paralytic which the sunrise group had studied.  He encouraged us to think about how God might want to look beyond what we think we need or what we think needs to change or be healed in us, as with the story of the paralytic. Jesus told the man his sins were forgiven before he told him to get up and walk. He looks deeper inside our hearts and souls at our true needs, at our real sins, and at what really needs healing. We prayed that God would reveal these things to us. We also went around the circle and shared the reasons why we decided to come on this trip. Students said they felt God called them to come, that the opportunity opened up and could not be a mistake, that they wanted to serve the children here, that they knew it was an incredible opportunity to take advantage of, that they wanted to experience a different culture. We know that God would not have sent us here if he did not have something special in mind for us. 

After breakfast we drove thirty minutes away to the two different Equator parks. The actual Equator is located about two hundred or so meters from where some French explorers thought it was in the early 1700’s. The actual equator was confirmed through a GPS system around 2000. The museum built around it has a tour and exhibits that tell visitors about the history of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador, some of the wildlife that live in the Amazon on the eastern edge of the country, and of course, the Equator. We found it difficult to balance on the line while walking with our eyes closed, only Anna and Jonathan became egg masters (balancing eggs on a nail), and learned about how water flows counter clockwise or clockwise in either hemisphere but flows straight down on the actual Equator. Lucy walked on her hands on the line and said it wasn’t any harder than normal! Little Hannah did a backbend over the hemispheres. Afterwards, Lucy, Dre, Annie, and Mr. McCune were swept into a traditional dance with other tourists and a native dancer!

The fake Equator is a huge monument and a little park next to a little tourist town of shops and restaurants, centered around a small white Catholic chapel. Team members played frisbee, shopped, and walked around the little park surrounding the monument. 

We had lunch at a restaurant called Crepes & Waffles in the mall, where we feasted on savory and sweet crepes. After this, we returned to the seminary where we gathered in one of the chapels to prepare and plan for the teaching and activities at the school this week. The students are very prepared and excited to teach the students at Amor y Esperanza about the solar system, geometry, the human body, algebra, sports, and the Bible throughout the week, which will culminate in a science fair on the last day. 

Before dinner, the students played another US versus the Ecuadorians soccer game (some of the kids from the school came over with Pancho and his family to play us). The score was 2-9, Ecuador. We’re still getting used to the altitude. 

The evening message from Pancho and Pity included songs (Annie and Chase played guitar with Mr. McCune which was wonderful!), a message from Pancho and Pity, and a long, powerful time of prayer in which we all prayed for ourselves and then for each other, confessing our sins and asking God to work among us this week. Pancho had the leaders kneel and be prayed for by some of the students (a humbling, beautiful blessing to receive), and then he had the students kneel and the leaders come around them to pray for them (a humbling, beautiful blessing to give). Pity talked to us about giving our burdens and anxieties to God, who tells us in Matthew 6:25-34 not to worry because he is with us. God wants us to focus on today, on this moment, and to trust in God’s provision because he is with us. In reference to the verse about how God provides for the sparrows, she asked us, “Have you ever seen a bird starving? They just wake up and sing. They find food everywhere.” She and Pancho also shared with us their testimony of the miraculous births of their three children (for example, her middle son, Mateo, was dead in her stomach, but they prayed over him and he was born), encouraging us to be open to God’s work and to have faith that he works miracles even today, “because God is real.”

The kids send all their love to you and wish they communicate more—but alas, limited wifi. 

Cheers, peace, and grace to you all,

Alice

Days 1 and 2 (June 9 and 10): Safe Arrival and Cultural Exploration

Greetings from Quito, Ecuador, very close to the center of the world (we go to the equator tomorrow) and very high above sea level!

There is only one staircase outside our rooms at the seminary in which we have access to wifi. 

We have only just discovered it, so we have only just now been able to post on the blog (our apologies for the delay and the radio silence). The staircase is also where everyone is congregating this evening as they await showers. 

Here is a play by play of the first two days of our trip: 

We arrived safely in Quito after a long flight with many other mission trip teams (they all had matching shirts). It was cool to see how many people are coming to serve in Ecuador this month! Pancho, Pity, and their children picked us up at the airport with huge smiles and long hugs and took us to our home this week: el seminario nazareno (a Nazarene seminary) that is host to several other groups and allows us to have a lot more space to sleep and play in as opposed to the apartment homes we’ve stayed at in the past. 

Saturday, today, was a day of exploration outside of Quito. We took our charter bus (classic) up into the mountains towards Otavalo where we shopped at the huge outdoor market. On the way we stopped at a café above a beautiful lake to take pictures, hear a local family playing traditional Andean music, and meet our first llamas! One was a kind llama that “purred” when you pet it (so a student told me), but the other one was a sour llama that spat at strangers! Dre, however, boldly offered him grass (he refused) and was able to pet him without receiving a gift of saliva in return. 

Everyone successfully bartered and spent at the market in Otavalo, coming away with jewelry, jackets, sweaters, nicknacks, and art. All reasonably priced. Since the pictures don’t do it justice, picture this: the market is a maze of bright colors and smells (mountain air, spices, leather…and garbage and dirt too—it’s not totally idyllic), endless aisles of booths full of traditional clothes, handmade jewelry and figurines, spices, fruits, toys, and more, with stray dogs and stray tourists milling in and out. 

From there we drove to the nearby town of Cotacachi, named for its active volcano (it didn’t erupt), where we lunched on leathery steak, tender chicken, potatoes, and Ellie and Dre braved the traditional cui (roast guinea pig). They enjoyed the guinea pig, which truly tastes like chicken. Afterwards we roamed the street to see the leather goods the town is famous for before we were lightly rained on and departed for the lake of Cuicocha. We hiked up the side of the lake to take pictures, and then at the bottom we paused to pray as a group and hear from Pancho about how God is at work on this trip and will bless us, as he already has before we ever came here. Everyone stood in a circle and said aloud one thing they were very thankful for in that moment (most of the students said their family/parents! so they do indeed appreciate y’all). We gave thanks for God’s beautiful creation that we were able to experience and sang “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord,” before going down to the water’s edge to take a boat ride.

After an hour of waiting (or something rather long) and playing games, we took a ride around the lake which is in a volcanic crater and the lake-bed emits volcanic gas (you can see the bubbles coming up and the water is crystal clear). Since the water has sulfur in it there are no fish, but we met a group of duck-type birds and also small seagull/heron-looking-white birds whose Spanish names escape me. They eat algae. 

Tuckered out from all of this adventure, most everyone slept on the bus ride back into the city. We ate dinner at Rusty’s, an Ecuadorian form of MacDonald’s that includes neon orange cheese on its burgers and hot dogs, but luckily has decent french fries and milkshakes. Pancho is enthralled with Rusty’s (I am not, but the students seemed to enjoy their meal).

Cheers, peace, and grace to you all. I am so impressed with the happy group dynamic and the genuine kindness of the students in this group. It’s going to be a good week. Have a lovely Sabbath day tomorrow!

Alice 

(p.s. the rest of these posts won’t be as long (I don’t think), but we owe you many words for having to wait so long on news)