New Friends and Family Fun

Well, it’s been a pretty standard week of classes (in which I continue to understand about 40% of what’s going on), but there were a couple things that happened that I wanted to blog so that I don’t forget about them!

There’s a cute little coffee shop directly under my apartment that I go to almost every day (all 3 baristas know me by name at this point), and when I was there one day last week, I was chatting with the waiter Rafael while he making my coffee and I noticed a very elderly man standing nearby, listening to us talk. As per usual when people hear my less-than-perfect Spanish accent, he asked me where I was from. I told him that I was from the United States and that I am here in Ecuador studying for the semester, and to my great surprise he replied by telling me that he had lived in New York for 5 years back in the 40s and fought with the U.S. in WWII. Um, WHAT?! Coolest chance encounter of my life! I would bet good money that my new friend Gonzalo may be the only native Ecuadorian WWII veteran still alive (and amazingly articulate and jolly as well!) I was on my way to class when we had this first brief exchange, but we discovered that we both live in the same building and both spend a significant amount of time at this particular cafetería, so I told him that I would definitely be back and that I would love for him to tell me more of his stories from the war and about his life. (I’m pretty sure he threw in at one point that he had been shot by the Germans, but I still need to double check on that one…)

And sure enough, as I was walking home from the gym a couple days ago, I saw Gonzalo sitting at a table with his friend through the window of the coffee shop. He saw me and clearly recognized me, and of course I had to go in and say hello. I didn’t want to interrupt their conversation but he insisted that I sit with him and his friend (whose name I can’t remember at the moment), so I ordered a café and ended up chatting with them for half an hour about Gonzalo’s life and his family, and of course, his time in the U.S. and in the war. He had been studying English at Columbia University for 2 years when the war began, and then he joined the Marines and fought for the next 2 ½ years. While telling me all of this he pulled out his wallet and proceeded to show me his WWII IDs that he still keeps with him. Incredibly cool. Needless to say, certainly an unlikely new friend to make – a 90-year-old WWII veteran from Ecuador – but what a wonderfully unexpected encounter and start to what I hope will be a special friendship while I am here! I will certainly share more of his stories with you all as I hear them in the weeks to come :)

The other funny thing that happened this week was that our power went out for the first time, and I forgot how it seems a bit creepy especially when you’re younger to be completely in the dark, so my host sister (Josefa, 14) and two host cousins (Mayté, 14, and Josue, 11) all piled onto my bed and I pulled out my flashlight and put on music and we made shadow-animals on my ceiling and laughed at my inability to make anything more complex than a butterfly. They also tried to scare me multiple times when I wasn’t paying attention, which may or may not have totally worked. Anyways, for one of the first times since being here I really felt like I had 3 actual younger siblings, and loved feeling like a part of the family.

We’re leaving tomorrow for a 4-day trip to San Clemente, where we will be living with host families from the indigenous Karanki community. This particular group excursion is part of our core course module “Mundos Simbólicos Andinos” (Andean Symbolic Worlds), focused on exploring and learning more about traditional indigenous Ecuadorian communities and cultures. I don’t know much about what we’re going to be doing specifically, but I do know that it will be a very immersive weekend of engaging with new people and new cultural practices, and I am excited to experience a different way of life. Check next week for a post about our visit to San Clemente!

Nostalgia

This is what JOY looks like!

 

Kenya...I miss you.

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. - Isaiah 58:8-9

Baños

This past weekend our group planned our own mini-field trip to the tiny town of Baños, about four hours outside of Quito. Baños is known (within Ecuador, at least) for its beautiful mountains, waterfalls, and hot springs. It’s a fairly touristy city (we saw lots of other ‘gringos’ while we were there) but also has a very authentic and quirky feel. The whole town is maybe only 10 blocks in diameter, and is absolutely crammed with hostels, a million little hole-in-the-wall restaurants (mostly Italian places, ironically), little shops and stores, and a few clubs/bars.

In the interest of saving time, here are just a few bulleted highlights from our 3 days there:

• The delicious, CHEAP food! We discovered an amazing breakfast place on the rooftop of one of the hostels where we could get a huge omelette, fresh-baked bread, yogurt & granola, fresh-squeezed juice, and coffee all for about $4. Amazing.

• While the hot springs were...well, a bit grimy, to say the least (I have no idea why I subconsciously expected it to be like Steamboat Springs, my mistake!), once I got past the questionable color of the water I must say I really enjoyed relaxing in the different "baños" (hence the name of the town) – one was ice-cold, one hot-tub temperature, and one SUPER hot (118°!).

• Phoebe and I went on a lovely hike which felt refreshingly reminiscent of one of my favorite activities from home :) Once we got to the other side of the mountain, it was just green-covered hills for as far as you could see, and hardly any civilization in sight. And because we are at such high elevation, we were literally IN the clouds! It was beauuutiful.

• We ate lots of yummy pizza at various Italian restaurants and also tried some authentic Ecuadorian food – including a dish called “Churrasco” which includes meat, fried eggs, avocado, and rice. Potentially a strange combination, but all foods I love! On an unrelated note, I kept mixing up the word for milkshake ("batido") with the word for baptism ("bautizo"), which resulted in numerous embarrassing exchanges at multiple restaurants.

• We went dancing one night which was a blast and you don’t have to pay to get in anywhere! Score. It was also fun getting to meet some of the locals who were from the area.

• On our last morning, we went to a massive waterfall surrounded by a ravine, and we zip-lined across the canyon and over the waterfall in an open basket-type thing! Epic and terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time.

Overall, it was a great weekend. Good food, outdoorsy adventures, and plenty of time to rest and relax. Now I'm back in the big city, settling back into my class/gym/dinner/homework routine. Wonder where we'll end up next!

Challenges and Changes

Yesterday I had a tough day. It wasn’t any one big event in particular – more just a string of things that put me on edge and made me even more acutely aware of the fact that this foreign country I’m living in continues to feel, well, foreign. After waiting approximately 30 minutes for the bus that’s supposed to run about every two, I arrived to class 15 minutes late and extremely irritated, because while everyone else seems to accept the fact that “punctuality” as a concept doesn’t really exist here, I’m still struggling to let go of my anal need to always be on time. I then found myself completely lost and consequently frustrated by the rapid Spanish being spoken during my 2-hour intercultural communication class (ironic that for a class on communication I find it so very difficult to actually communicate intelligently), wanting so badly to understand what the professor and my classmates were talking about but eventually just giving up altogether. Trying to salvage my quickly dissipating mood, I went to the gym for an endorphin-boost, but then proceeded to take the wrong bus home, which WOULD have been fine and I could have easily just hopped on another bus, except that I had only brought with me the exact change needed to take the ONE bus home, not two. Anyways, after about an hour of trying to make change at various places and getting semi-lost, I finally made it home, worn out and feeling a bit defeated.

I know, I know, I really shouldn’t be so hard on myself. Nothing went/is going catastrophically wrong, and most days I actually feel very proud of myself and the effort I’m putting forth towards speaking Spanish, being social with people despite the language barrier, and enjoying Quito and life here for what it is, foreign and unfamiliar and new. I guess I just feel like everything at this point should be getting so much easier…and it isn’t really. I know that my Spanish is definitely improving, and that I know my way around the city 10X better than I did when I first arrived, and that I am discovering new things each day that make this place feel a little bit more like home. But then there are days like yesterday where everything still feels annoyingly difficult and stressful and just plain exhausting, and I convince myself that maybe I can’t handle so many challenging changes and unknowns.

(On a side note, I find it all too ironic that I always joke that the C1s (Duke’s bus system) stress me out more than anything else at Duke…and wouldn’t you know, the buses here also seem to be my main cause of stress. Clearly God thinks I still have a ways to go with my patience with buses. Probably true.)

When I first arrived in Kenya back in June, it felt strangely like I had been there before, like it was a place I’d known my whole life. The transition was oddly smooth, surprisingly easy, with little-to-no culture shock, and I fell instantly in love with anything and everything Kenya-related – the country, the people, my team. I felt a natural and genuine joy there like none I had experienced before. And while part of me wishes that every life adventure and risk ends up being that effortless, of course I’m not so naïve to think that that’s reality. In fact, for most people and most of the time, a huge life-shift (like moving countries, for example..) feels overwhelming and downright terrifying. It’s normal to feel that way. And as cliché as it sounds, it IS all part of the experience. I can handle it, it doesn't have to feel effortlessly easy, and God will walk through it all with me, every step of the way.

I told my parents the other day over Skype that I don’t think I would be able to handle everything that’s different about this semester abroad had I not learned what I did this summer in Kenya. And as I keep thinking about that statement, I've realized just how true it is. In Kenya I became much more rooted both in my identity – who God says I am and who I KNOW I am – and my faith. And I have absolutely relied on those things to keep me grounded and confident that God is not only taking care of me but that I also have permission to take care of myself – to treat myself with kindness and not have to worry about gaining other peoples’ approval or being instantly good at everything I do or try. It’s been challenging, yes, but challenges yield rewards – mainly, in my case, growth and faith – which I realized is what I’ve been praying for all along.

Quito que Bonito

Whew – it’s been a FULL and exciting week of traveling, starting our Duke program classes, choosing and registering for our other classes, and exploring more of the BEAUTIFUL city of Quito! I'm just now taking today to catch up on life a bit, so I’ll do my best to fill you in on everything that’s happened since I haven’t had the chance to blog in a little while.

Last weekend our group took a field trip to the small towns of Mindo and Nanegalito, about 2 ½ hours outside of Quito. The nature and diversity that we saw was stunning. The first thing we did when we arrived in Mindo was visit a Butterfly Garden – the guide told us that if we put a special type of food on our fingers the butterflies would come land on our hands and arms. After we had taken about a million pictures and dodged thousands of dive-bombing butterflies (okay, sort of an exaggeration..) we walked down a little path and learned that we were going tubing down a river! I was super excited because I love exhilarating things of that sort, and even though it wasn’t class 5 rapids or anything like that, it was still pretty awesome. After tubing and then relaxing in the river for a while, we proceeded on to Nanegalito, and after a slight detour (a.k.a, getting lost for about an hour), we finally made it to the beautiful hotel (or more correctly, in my eyes, resort) that we were staying at for the night. We were fed 3-course meals every time we ate, and of course the food was fabulous – fresh juices, delicious soups, and every type of rice/potato/vegetable/meat combination you can imagine, plus dessert at the end of everything! I definitely felt very spoiled by how nice our accommodations were. The second day we went on a “nature hike” of sorts through a river! I somehow managed to not fall in (I was being very careful because I had my camera in my hand), and when we reached a little waterfall some of our group slid down it – overall an exciting trek. The only downside of the weekend was getting eaten alive by mosquitos, but the whole experience (and amazing food!) was definitely worth it.

Yesterday we didn’t have classes or orientation-related events, so Phoebe and I decided to venture to one of the more touristy areas of Quito in search of some of the famous historic churches we had heard about. After asking about a hundred different people which bus/trolley to take to get to El Centro, we managed to end up where we wanted to go! El Centro is busy and bustling, and we walked up and down the steep streets taking everything in and walking into different stores and buildings. We finally made it to La Basílica del Voto Nacional, which is apparently the largest neo-gothic basilica in the New World, and to us looked like an epically huge and more elaborate Duke Chapel! We walked up to the top floor of the Basílica where you can look more closely at the beautifully intricate stained-glass windows, and also see a panoramic view of the city on Panecillo hill and the famous Virgen de Quito statue. After that, Phoebe and I headed back to El Centro to get some lunch (and for dessert, some torta de chocolate and café) at a cute little restaurant. Later that night when we came back to our side (el Norte) of Quito we went to the movie theater and saw Loco, Estupido, Amor (Crazy, Stupid, Love). It was all-in-all a perfect day filled with good food, beautiful sight-seeing, and great conversation – couldn’t ask for anything more!

I’m so excited by all Quito has to offer. There is so much to do and so much to see – I guess I’m actually a little surprised by it all (in a good way!) I’m glad that I have plenty of time here not only to explore, but also to integrate and immerse myself in the culture, learn about and meet the people, and figure out how I fit into the rhythms of this big Latin American city. 

Constancy in the Chaos

I expected and knew that living in Ecuador was going to be completely different than my experience this past summer in Kenya, but I still went into this semester with many of the same goals and hopes and desires that I had for my Kenya trip. Specifically, I knew that I wanted to experience more deep personal growth. I hoped to discover more about my identity in the Lord and become more rooted in who I am and who I want to be. I want for God to continue opening my eyes to things I have never seen before and reveal more about Himself as I see more of the world and more of His creation.

And the beautiful thing is, I can experience growth and transformation whether on a mission trip in Africa or studying abroad in South America or living my “normal” life back in Boulder or at Duke. Why? Because God is at work EVERYWHERE. Yesterday I spent some time reflecting on and thinking about the fact that God never changes – He is constant, with us and in us all the time, wherever we go, always good and loving. And as simple as that statement may sound, it has profound effects for my life. I need never be afraid or consumed by anxiety, because whatever or wherever God calls me to, I can rest assured and trust that He is constantly by my side. I can go anywhere in the world, and God is there too. I can be alone, surrounded by people, in a place that is totally foreign with people I don’t know or can barely communicate with, and yet God remains the same in each of those places.

This truth has been especially comforting for me recently. As many of you probably already know about me, transitions and change can really freak me out. It’s not that I don’t LOVE new adventures or new places – I do – but whenever I get into a comfortable rhythm of life and then all of sudden have to change patterns and figure out a completely new rhythm, it’s often difficult for me to adjust quickly. Because I love traveling and will probably continue moving around for a good portion of my life, it’s of course not something I let hinder me from going to new places and experiencing new things. But I realized that the reason I am able to make it through and also learn from these times of transition is because I do have God as a constant in my life.

These past two weeks have felt chaotic – there’s been absolutely no definitive schedule or daily routine – we’ve been doing something different or visiting somewhere new each day. And naturally, I’ve been craving some normalcy – the ability to plan ahead and organize my own schedule and independently figure out what my itinerary is for each day. But as I so aptly learned this summer in Africa, often times you just have to go with the flow and be flexible and trust that it’s all going to be okay. God’s got things taken care of. And when life feels unstable or unfamiliar, as it often does, I can and I do turn to Jesus – He is and will always be there, constantly and continually waiting for us with open arms.

constancy / con·stan·cy / noun. the quality of being faithful and dependable, enduring and unchanging

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. – Hebrews 13:8

Mi Vida Ecuatoriana

Hola de Quito, ECUADOR!

I can’t believe I’m actually here and slowly starting to settle into "normal daily life" – it all still feels rather surreal! The last few days have been a complete whirlwind of orientation, meeting my host family, figuring out how to get around Quito, and frantically trying to adjust to speaking Spanish all the time. It’s been overwhelming, and at times frustrating (mainly with the language…really wish now that I’d actually practiced more during Spanish 105!), but I also feel such an excitement and giddy-ness about this whole semester. There are so many things about Quito and life here that I simply LOVE – the kindness of my host mother Mechita and sister Josefa (14 yrs old), the beautiful huge park (10K parameter) right across from our building, the gorgeous mountains surrounding the city, the cute little cafetería directly underneath our apartment (buenísimo café!), the friendliness and hospitality of the people here, and just the exhilaration of being in a new city and learning to live independently in a totally different culture.

We’ve now had five full days of orientation with the Duke in the Andes staff, and we’ve covered everything from safety and security to gender and intercultural relations to Ecuadorian government systems to registration for classes to our community service assignments/projects. Being that everything is in Spanish, obviously, I’m mentally exhausted! It’s a completely new experience for me to be thrown into a place where you are forced to speak a different language if you want to communicate or be at all understood, and it’s definitely been the most challenging part thus far. BUT it’s been less than a week, and I am already shocked at how much easier it’s gotten for me to understand what’s going on and have full conversations with my host family. And I know that it’ll only continue to get easier, so I have hope!

It’s been indescribably wonderful having Phoebe (mi mejor amiga de Duke!) here with me – it’s a huge transition for all of us, so it’s been helpful and encouraging to have someone I’m already such good friends with who is doing it all with me and supporting me in everything (and vice versa, claro). Yesterday Phoebe and I went and got sushi for lunch and coffee afterwards and caught up on everything – our summers, our feelings about Ecuador so far, and just our lives in general…and it was such a comfort in the midst of such a chaotic week. My host mom is also so wonderful and supportive – always checking in on me and how I’m doing and asking me if there’s anything I need. She is already becoming like a second mother to me, and she got so excited when I told her I wanted to go to church with her on Sundays! My host sister Josefa is adorable and sweet – AND her favorite TV show is Friends, so I know it must be fate that now we’re family :)

Two days ago our whole group went to go see the volcano Pululahua and visit “La Mitad del Mundo” (“the center of the earth”) which is basically a monument/tourist attraction built around the equator line. Seeing some of the countryside outside the city was awesome and the volcano and surrounding mountains were stunning, not to mention it was also pretty neat getting to stand in both hemispheres at the same time! And it was fun to hang out altogether as a group and take a break from orientation craziness. Tomorrow and Saturday we’re actually going on a short field trip (una “viajita”) to Nanegalito, which I believe is a small town surrounded by ecological parks, rivers, and jungle areas. I’m excited to see some of the natural diversity and beautiful scenery that Ecuador is so famous for! Next week we start our Duke program classes and the following week we start classes at la Universidad Salesiana. It all still feels a little unreal, like I said, but I’m gradually becoming more comfortable here and falling more in love each day with this vibrant city.

¡Muchos besos y hasta la prómixa vez!

Betania (my new name!...because they can’t pronounce “Bethany”)