Training
It is difficult to know where to start or what to include in something like this. I guess I will just through some random observations and information together. Maybe it is most accurate that way, because I feel as though all that I have right now are bits and pieces of information.
I am now staying in a small town a few hours north of Quito. It gets pretty cold in the evening (mid 50s) and then during the day it will get up to 75-80... but only in the sun. The sun is so strong that you can get a sun burn first thing in the morning.
My family is composed of about 13 people. The kids are cute and super curious. The adults are crazy friendly and always like to chat. My Peace Corps friends are really cool... we share lots of interests and ideology... and we have lots of fun.
My purpose here gets less and less clear, although at the same time I am more sure why I am here. I am here to learn. I am here to share in people´s lives and to love them and to be loved in return. I am sure that somewhere in all of that I will find my official project. However, I think that my project will be less important than the relationships. Those will be what impact me... and how I impact anyone here.
Interesting spanish fact... the way to say Thank You in Ecuador is to say... God pays you. I like it.
Hotel Rwanda
I just finished watching Hotel Rwanda. I watched it for the first time over a year ago. I remember watching the buses of foreigners leaving the hotel to go to safety and promising myself that I would not be one of those people - I will not use my privilege to protect myself while others suffer. I don't know if I will have the courage to follow through on that promise, but I pray that God will strengthen me.
If I could trace the reason why I am leaving tomorrow morning, it would go back to a single line in that movie. This one line cut to my heart and made me sob with it's truth. A reporter after hearing of a man's confidence that the world would respond and help them after seeing people being massacred replied that the response people would have after seeing the atrocities would be this: "They will look at their televisions and say, 'Oh my God, that is terrible!' Then they will finish their dinner."
I must try my best to react. I must try my best not to turn away from suffering and console myself with excuses of how I can do nothing. Maybe all I can do is love... but I will do that as long as God grants me grace and strength to do it.
La Primera
I'm enjoying all of the time with family. It is good to be able to hang out with my Mom and Dad and little sister. I am trying to do everything that I can to prepare so that I am as ready as I can be, but I am also trying to not look past this time with people I love.
Don't worry about tomorrow, each day has enough worry of its own...
Matt, a friend from Costa Rica, and I are going to try and memorize the I John in the next week or so. The first chapter is awesome. I hope that I will see, hear, and touch God... now. Not when I get to Ecuador or when I've been there for a year or when I am 45. Now. Maybe I already am!?
