June 1st and 2nd
I was in the Amazon jungle for the 1st time! It took about 6 hours get there via bus. The drive was very curvy and made some of us have motion sickness. It is so beautiful there! There were dozens of waterfalls along the sides of the Andes Mountains to see as well as wild lemons and banana trees.
The 1st afternoon we visited Sardinas, a small little community where we did our 1st VBS. We also got to listen to a beautiful hymn from the Kichwans (an indigenous people of the Amazon jungle).
The first night I was there I roomed with 2 students since the adult's quarters were full. I woke at 4:30am to a strong rain storm. I was soon to discover that this happened every day! :)
I got up officially at 6:30am, dressed and went outside to have a Bible study and quiet time in the porch area of the Elohim Maderos Foundation. It was here I realized that I was struggling a bit with not being able to communicate with people around me since I do not know Spanish. For my whole life, I was mostly familiar with showing love through words...it was at this moment I realized that God was wanting me to learn a different love language in my life: a love of actions. I needed to show the Ecuadorian people around me that I care for them genuinely by my physical actions...something I have been very bad at in the past.
The rest of the day I got the chance to work on the finca, or farm, carrying long/fence posts and wheel-barrow-ed sand and rocks for 2.5 hours. It was tough work, but fun. It was calor/hot! At one point it rained and got cool outside. My shirt started out white and dry, and turned brown and yellow and wet! (yuck!)
After the farm we rode the jungle bus to the foundations, cleaned up a little and hopped back on the bus to a town called El Troncal. Here we did VBS with about 250 children! We sang songs, danced, ran, played--it was exhausting, but so wonderful. The kids thought we were so cool! There wanted pictures with us and wanted us to carry them around everywhere. I tried to make an effort to learn more Spanish this day.
I was in the Amazon jungle for the 1st time! It took about 6 hours get there via bus. The drive was very curvy and made some of us have motion sickness. It is so beautiful there! There were dozens of waterfalls along the sides of the Andes Mountains to see as well as wild lemons and banana trees.
The 1st afternoon we visited Sardinas, a small little community where we did our 1st VBS. We also got to listen to a beautiful hymn from the Kichwans (an indigenous people of the Amazon jungle).
The first night I was there I roomed with 2 students since the adult's quarters were full. I woke at 4:30am to a strong rain storm. I was soon to discover that this happened every day! :)
I got up officially at 6:30am, dressed and went outside to have a Bible study and quiet time in the porch area of the Elohim Maderos Foundation. It was here I realized that I was struggling a bit with not being able to communicate with people around me since I do not know Spanish. For my whole life, I was mostly familiar with showing love through words...it was at this moment I realized that God was wanting me to learn a different love language in my life: a love of actions. I needed to show the Ecuadorian people around me that I care for them genuinely by my physical actions...something I have been very bad at in the past.
The rest of the day I got the chance to work on the finca, or farm, carrying long/fence posts and wheel-barrow-ed sand and rocks for 2.5 hours. It was tough work, but fun. It was calor/hot! At one point it rained and got cool outside. My shirt started out white and dry, and turned brown and yellow and wet! (yuck!)
After the farm we rode the jungle bus to the foundations, cleaned up a little and hopped back on the bus to a town called El Troncal. Here we did VBS with about 250 children! We sang songs, danced, ran, played--it was exhausting, but so wonderful. The kids thought we were so cool! There wanted pictures with us and wanted us to carry them around everywhere. I tried to make an effort to learn more Spanish this day.
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