Just for kicks, I’m going to do the day in reverse today.
We’re back at Adam and Sara’s now, and Teddy, Lane and I have been practicing music for tomorrow. The three of us and Jerry (on djembe) will be playing for the morning worship for the interns at the Parque de Carolina. Pretty cool. We’ve each got our own little musical niche and it’s awesome playing with them. We also got a verbal dissertation from Roberto this morning (as much of a dissertation as you get from Roberto) about using your gifts to worship God. My guitar-playing “gift” has got nothing on Roberto’s or Teddy’s, but it’s still a sweet way to express myself. Yay God.
Before that was Chifa. Chifa Lung Wah’s to be exact. I was hoping to put off eating Ecuadorian Chinese a little longer, but it was pretty good. And we learned how to order for our teams, which was really good. I also learned why we ate so much Chifa last year when considering the budget with team money. Just warning you guys, if you’re on my team: Chifa. Laura, Jorge, Dario, and Christy joined (most of) the interns and Maestros for that and it was pretty fun. Probably also due to us being a little slap-happy of exhaustion.
That would be due to the Basillica visit before dinner. Bryan and Dana dragged me into the ticket office and I actually requested the tickets (diez personas y tres guías por favor…. I think I can handle that one with a team). We also totally lucked out. The tour guide that was there today is friends with Cameron so he’s very familiar with Youth World, and since we will be guides the rest of the summer, he took us into the catacombs. For those who have been to the Basillica, you know those stairs that go down below the courtyard outside with the HUGE locked doors at the bottom. That’s where we went. There are only three people important enough to have been buried there, but it’s a pretty large space. Pretty cool, though kinda weird. I’ve never been big on going to places where dead people are stored.
We climbed the inside and the first tower, but skipped the second for lack of time. It was pretty fun, and not as nerve-wracking the second time around. I’ll be an expert by the time I’ve taken all my teams there. It was also funny to be back climbing up that chicken-wire-filled staircase and thinking about my first full day in Ecuador last year, how I’m different, how I’m the same, and how well that climb still sums up so much. (PS, Deborah, if you are reading this, you’re totally busted on the missing hair last year. I’ve seen the anklet.)
The afternoon was lunch from Yaro’s and staff meeting at the Mundo Juvenil office. We did conflict training that I hope doesn’t need to be put to use this summer. We also had worship and prayer time together. Our table (Teddy, me, Lane, Nicole and Jerry) was totally lost during one of the activities, so we just did a mumble prayer. It was awesome. Totally using that with my teams (thanks, Teddy). We also ate WAY to much food. Yaro’s is a cheese steak place that’s a little pricey, but very worth it. Not even Matt could finish two whole ones.
Morning activities were training on the final part of the life of a short term mission at Matt and Marlo’s. It’s a little scary (and by a little scary, I mean totally terrifying) that we theoretically know everything we are supposed to to host teams. We did a couple of case studies (though we’re saving most for tomorrow) on real-life teams and problems that can come up. One of our topics was even “How to save a VBS.” It made me realize how well-prepared the Christ Church team is in general, even when we thought we were crashing and burning last year. (“I don’t sing!” “I don’t speak Spanish!”)
And finally, the very first thing was breakfast and worship and Chet and Katie’s. Breakfast burritos and cinnamon buns. Even though I’m totally wiped out right now, it makes me want to do today over again just for those.
