Ecuador, Part 1...What We Did

I don't really know how to express my thoughts about a mission trip.  It's incredible, life-changing, humbling, amazing, and emotional.  I'm going to do my best here.  I've split my post up into different parts because it's just too much to put into one post.  This one will focus on what we actually did.  The next one will talk about what God taught me and what I took away from this trip.

We left on Sunday, June 19th, at 5 am.  Let me go ahead and say something right here...God truly had his hand in me being on this mission trip.  You know one of my biggest fears was getting stuck in Chicago and not being able to make it to Savannah on time.  Well, I didn't have ONE SINGLE issue with flying to or from Chicago, not even when we were cutting it close to arriving to the airport on time on Saturday morning, but every single flight we were on the entire trip was delayed or had a major issue, even our domestic flights (you like that run-on sentence right there??).  We flew out of Midway airport in Chicago and apparently that same day, O'Hare was having major issues and planes were being delayed right and left.  I totally could have been in some trouble, but I was able to make it to Savannah.  In addition, I had a total of ten hours of sleep in 84 hours (Friday morning to Monday night).  Not even joking.  It was miserable, but I was able to make it though Sunday and Monday and felt like I had a full night of sleep each day.

We were supposed to be in Ecuador by 9:30 pm on Sunday and at the house a little after midnight.  Because of some weather in Miami, we didn't leave until almost eleven and we didn't get to the house until nearly six am.  It was rough, but we showered and got ready and started our first day in Ecuador.  There were 20 people on the trip and we split into three groups: construction, medical, and the school.  The construction team helped build a house, the medical team did a health fair, and the school team worked in classrooms at a local school.  I worked with the school group.  I didn't realize how much time we would get to spend in the school, and I am so thankful for that time.  There was a huge language barrier, as I don't speak much Spanish and the people of San Jose, Ecuador don't speak English.  That didn't matter, though, because we jumped right in and loved on those kids and those people and they loved us right back.

I was in a classroom of four and five year olds for the first part of the week with another member of my team.  It was essentially a preschool classroom and it was really neat to see how similar, and how different, the classroom was compared to American classrooms.

Both of these pictures are from the preschool classroom.  Aren't they precious?

One thing that really stood out to me while in the school was the lack of resources.  The school itself was a concrete building with no tile floors, no carpets, no electricity (at least I don't think they had any), and no playground.  The kids were so happy, though.  So incredibly joyful.  The teachers didn't have a lot of resources to "entertain" their students with, but everyone was still learning.  We had a devotion time each night and I shared one night how all of this just really got to me.  I can get caught up in the day to day drama of work and with budget cuts and furlough days, my ballin' outta control paycheck (um, kidding!!) gets cut even more.  Let's just say sometimes I might have a negative attitude.  I have no idea how much these teachers get paid, but it can't be a lot.  At all.  I'm sure they have their challenges and their trials, but God sure did speak to me about my attitude about work sometimes.

The second half of the week, I worked more with an older group of kids, probably seven and eight year olds.  Y'all.  This class was precious, just like the preschoolers.  What I loved most, though, was the way God worked in that room with the teacher.  The very first day, I wasn't even in the classroom and two other team members were in the room.  They were only allowed to sit in the back of the room and observe.  Not exactly welcoming.  The second day, I left my preschoolers and went to do a craft with that room since the other two team members went to different classrooms.  The teacher sat at the desk and graded portfolios while I led the class in a craft.  The third day, we did a dental fair and showed the kids how to brush their teeth, so he kinda/sorta helped translate with our missionary.  Then, on the fourth and fifth day, my heart was so touched when I did more activities with the class and he helped and made one for himself!  It was truly a blessing to see him join in with us and participate!

This is the teacher who finally came around and seemed to enjoy having us in the school!!

Recess, or receso, was my favorite part of the day.  All of the kids came out and played in the courtyard. We played games with them, taught them games- they loved the Hokey Pokey!!, face painted, played soccer, and just loved on all of the children.  Love and laughter are definitely not lost in translation.

Getting a hand "tattoo" from some of the little girls.  Let's skip over how rough I look.

After recess, we would go back into the classroom for a little bit and then head to lunch.  Whenever I've gone on an international mission trip before, you never knew what you'd be eating or even if you'd be able to identify what your food was.  Sometimes it's acceptable to not eat certain things and sometimes...it's not.  Thank goodness this was a time when it was okay to skip over some of the food.  Still, the women who prepared our food were gracious, incredibly sweet, and so giving.  My favorite thing?  Fresh fruit every day and fried plantains.  One night I ate about eight fried plantains because so many of the other team members didn't like them.  

In the afternoon, we would play with the town children when school was out.  One afternoon, we got to swim in the ocean.  It happened to be the only day the sun was out and it was absolutely beautiful.  It was surreal to be on a beach, on the Pacific Ocean, with horses and donkeys next to the beach.  Another afternoon we played soccer with the kids and taught the boys how to play baseball.  I started out playing goalie in the soccer game, which was not really good for the team.  I'm not really an organized sport kind of girl and it showed- one of the local kids kicked me off of the job.

Teaching the kids baseball

Once dinner rolled around, our day was pretty relaxed.  Our nightly devotion time was around a bonfire on the beach, which, again, was just surreal.  I get sorta (A LOT) creeped out on the beach at night, so I was really thankful there were 20something other people with me and there was a bonfire.  I loved hearing what everyone else had to say about their day and where they saw God.

Not once did I get stressed out.  Okay, I take that back.  Once I did.  Some of the team members were going to wash the feet of the women who prepared the food for us.  Such a wonderful act, except I nearly had a panic attack and almost started crying when I thought I had to do it.  I don't do feet.  Nope, not at all.  My cousin Anna Kate knows that and she immediately looked at me, like, Uh oh, girl.  We need to start praying.  I know I could have done it, but God was watching out for me and it was only the medical team ladies who had to wash feet.

Not once did I compare myself to others in a negative sense.  If anything, I thought about how blessed I am to live where I live.  Not once did my insecurities take hold of me (btw, my insecurities are a whole-nother post that I've been working on for awhile).  Not once did I worry about how I looked...because let's be honest here, I was looking pretty rough.  That's what happens when showers are less than three minutes, hot showers are nonexistent, and you wash your hair outside in a hose...oh yeah, and showers were only available when there was water.  And you rip a hole in two of the four pairs of pants you brought.

The house the guys helped build

When we left the school on Friday, I cried.  Waterfall crying.  Bawling.  Straight up ugly cry.  I was a mess.  Just looking at those kids, knowing how much I already loved them, knowing how they had already touched my life, and knowing I had to leave- it broke my heart.  Then it started again when we said goodbye to the women who cooked for us each day.  And again when a local woman in the village made us each earrings and a bracelet.  I can't tell you the last time I cried that much.  And if you know me in real life, you know I cry at freaking Publix commercials, so, clearly, I cry a lot.

Love little Marlen

One of the girls on the team stayed for an extra week.  As much as I would want to do that as well, I'm not sure if I could handle it.  It was hard enough leaving those precious Ecuadorians after one week.  I do know that there's no way I can wait another six years until I go on another mission trip.  

This post is incredibly long, so if you've stuck around, thanks.  I'll be back later with the second part.