Today, training continued. The PLAN was: Part 1 (of 3) of Short-Term Host orientation, Carmen Bajo orientation with Pastor Fabian, Hostal Bosque visit, Debrief, Dinner, game night.
STM training was good, if intense. Julie, the CFO of Youth World, said she had a lot of blank stares at the end of her presentation. Not that we didn’t all take everything in, I think it just hit us all the incredible responsibility we will have for each team, even with a pareja. Even the interns who were here last year had questions, and we really needed the chocolate chip cookies by the end. I think we are going through a year’s worth of the long-termers’ North American chocolate stockpile.
Off to Carmen Bajo. The CB site hosts and Laura were already there, so we managed to pile into two cars, Cameron’s and Chet’s. Teddy and Sarah and some of the others had been to CB before, but for me it was a first. Much like Emaus and Argelia Alta, it is an ever-growing church in both the sense of the physical building and the ministries and programs there. Even as we were having (an incredibly delicious home-cooked) lunch upstairs, a (non-YW) mission team was getting back to work on some major construction outside. We got a tour of the place and met a lot of the kids, who were there for the Compassion program. Grace and Rosa gave their testimonies and told us the history of CB. It is always amazing to me how people will just open up about anything to us, no matter how painful a memory or personal a story might be, just because they know we are fellow Christians.
That’s especially true considering how hard it was for me to talk about my experience so far in Debrief when we got to Hostal Bosque (home sweet home for Teddy, Emily, a couple others and me). We played a game and then discussed how to go about Debrief with a team… and then we did it. What was really cool was doing both the “single word to describe your experience” thing and splitting into pairs with a two minutes to talk and 30 seconds for your partner to give your answer back to you, and then a switch for the other person to do the same thing. It gave us all a chance to get out whatever we wanted without interruption and without taking up the whole Debrief, but it was definitely hard for me to fill up two minutes with my experience. Even though it’s been incredible, I do a lot better writing (as you can tell) than verbally processing my experience, but my partner for the exercise, Nicole, was awesome in pointing me in the perfect direction to continue, even though we broke the rules (only one person talking). I think that’s going to be a theme of the summer, Interns breaking rules. We cheat in every game.
At any rate, my word for the day was “refueled.” Initially I was thinking something along the lines of “overwhelmed” or “intense,” but I realized in listening to everyone else and in really thinking about today especially that Carmen Bajo reminded me why I’m even here. To see all the construction, and to see what God is doing there through the children’s and medical ministries and the teams that are working was definitely what I needed today. Not that we’ve really put any of our STM training into action, but it’s refreshing to see accomplishment because of faith and hard work and knowing that that’s what gave me such a growing experience last year that I hope to continue. Not to mention that very faith being so evident in the trust of the children who crawled all over us and the women who told us their stories. Just going over that was a learning experience. I love Debrief, even though it stretches me a lot. Or maybe because it stretches me a lot. And this one was definitely a deboxer (for the CEC crew that knows what that is).
When we left Debrief, we walked to Pincho’s. First off, it was great to know where I was going. If there’s one place in Quito to which I can make it from a certain start point, it’s Pincho’s from Bosque. And Pincho’s is probably my favorite place to eat here. I say probably because I’m possibly biased, having been there twice as much as the next-most familiar Ecuadorian restaurant to me and because it’s really easy to order there (“Pincho de Pollo y agua sin gas por favor”). It was pretty cool to continue some of the topics from Debrief with Christy, Matt and Jerry and to talk and get to know each other more over delicious food. As we said last year, I feel like we just bounce from one meal to another with a little missionary work in between. I have no idea how I consume so much food at EACH meal and am still ready for the next. Good thing I’m working it off with all the hiking. I forgot how winded you can be just strolling down the street at 10,000 feet above sea level.
Originally we were going to have game night at Matt and Marlo’s. Christy even invited us over to watch the big game (one of the Ecuadorian teams is playing for the league title… or something like that. Nobody can really explain it to us except that it’s a huge deal). But we actually hit Adam and Sara’s (home for the guys) for dance lessons with Sarah. (It’s just slightly hard to keep my Sara/Sarah’s straight). Laura and her “hot, good-smelling” boyfriend Jorge even came for a while and were amazing and hilarious. Some of the rest of us were hilarious just because we’re terrible at Salsa and Meringue. And by some of the rest of us I mean me. And by Salsa and Meringue I mean dancing in general. I’m the epitome of a gringo.
Cameron figures I was growing because of my love of the zip line. I figured I grew just a little because I did at least attempt it. Jerry pretty much had to drag me out of our room though and pulled his dad’s “disappointed” line. I need to tell him that that is going to work really well when he has kids. Jerry Drew IV is definitely getting that one. Tomorrow is STM Part 2 and Casa Gabriel. I can’t wait.
PS- Thanks for the prayers, I think everyone is over their altitude sickness now.
PPS- Billy says he wonders what we are doing down here. I promise we’re not just playing around. We’ll be so ready for our teams when they arrive if our brains haven’t exploded first.
