An Occasional Ecuadorian
We’re a little over halfway through our time together here, and so we’ve reached our scheduled day of Sabbath time. Caroline and I took the team to one of our favorite places to eat for empanadas and ice cream. And we spent the morning at the equator and the afternoon doing solo time at El Refugio.
One of our projects while we have been at Emaús has been to paint signs for the neighborhood. The Sewanee team did this last year, and the church appreciated how it turned out so much they wanted to do even more. Part of the project was to put up signs with directions to Emaús. The church building is hidden away in the neighborhood a little bit, behind the construction yard. So the congregation wants people to be able to find them. But they also wanted to put up signs with scripture and inspirational quotes, to make people feel better and to beautify the neighborhood.
As a staff at Soapstone, we have been reading Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren. From the first chapter, it has sparked a lot of conversations both about how we are mindful of our faith in everyday activities, but also about having intentionality in all aspects of worship.
I have used many of her examples about Baptism in the last few weeks as I have taught Confirmation and UMYF, and led discussions on missions. The call to Remember our Baptism keeps bringing me back to living in Gaujaló and working at Emaús. At Emaús, the Baptismal font lives right next to the door so it’s easy to touch the water and be mindful of it upon entering for work or worship. When Lourdes was the priest in charge here, she would end every single service by sending water flying with a metal “flinger.” I’m sure there’s some ecclesiastical term* for it, but “flinger” really gives you a picture of what happened. Because Lourdes has an arm. I think she missed her calling as a softball pitcher. When that water was flung at the face, it hurt. You couldn’t help but remember your Baptism.
Lourdes used to use the same flinger, or sometimes a branch, to send water all over the place when she would bless a house for someone who had just moved in (including when her own family and I moved into the house above the tienda). The blessing of the household was a reminder that God is present with us not just in the church building, but all throughout his creation, even what we consider the mundane. My friend (and star youth ministry volunteer) Sylvia remarked recently that her biggest monthly expense is rent, so in being mindful of how she uses her resources, she tries to find ways to use her home as a place of fellowship to glorify God, and I’ve appreciated that reminder as well.
There have been two Baptisms of small children since I’ve been at Soapstone. The first was of an infant who looked over his mothers shoulder the whole time trying to see the font. He wiggled and squirmed quietly, not trying to escape, but trying to get in the water. He just wanted to dive right into the water if Baptism. The second was an elementary-aged girl who seemed very skeptical as Pastor Laura began drenching her, but began to smile as the words of blessing were spoken over her. You could see in the change of her expression the way she was beginning to give in to what God was already doing.
At different times in my own life, I would describe both of those reactions as “mood.”
There’s nothing special about the water in the font, or on the flinger, or on my face or the wall of a home. But there’s a reminder in seeing and touching and hearing it splash of the fellowship and the Grace that we get to live into every day. And writing this post four feet from the font and ten feet from my team members, I’m excited I get to live into that with a new group at one of my favorite places for another week.
*Turns out when I looked this up, even the Catholic supply stores refer to the “flinger” as a “Holy Water Sprinkler.”
On the bus ride from the airport to the hostel, Caroline and I had barely learned the team’s names, but I already called that this was going to be a good, fun, low-maintenance team. It may be that I’ve just hosted so many groups at this point that I can pick up on their vibe like a guinea pig1. Or maybe they’re just that chill a group that anyone would notice.
The days have seemed pretty long because they have been so full, and because I was so low on sleep by the time I arrived via Houston. It has truly only been a small number of hours we have all been together. But even this morning as we received our welcome from Reverenda Nancy at Emaús, it seemed more accurate than normal when she told the team that this is their home. I’ve been thankful already for Lauren, the team leader, who is super calm, easy-going, and consistently expressing love to all around her. That kind of thing rubs off on a team in a big way, and I will probably continue to remark how much a leader can make or break a team. The other fun thing about our first few days is that despite it still being rainy season, it has been unbelievably clear outside. In the US, we talk about the sun being out. Here we talk about the volcanoes being out. On a particularly clear day, from here in Quito you can see the snow-capped volcano Cotopaxi, even though it is a whole province away. We had a gorgeous view of Cotopaxi for most of the way to Guajaló this morning. And when we walked up to the roof of the building we were even able to see the Panecillo from here. It is really not all that far away in the city, but the clouds or the fog usually stop us from seeing it.
It has been years since I could see Cotopaxi while I was in the bus with a team, and I told them what a treat it was to have the view we have even from the roof. Being in this place is always fun and meaningful, and I can see God’s work even when it pours so hard we get rained out of going to the park. But it certainly makes it easier to be in a good mood when all of God’s creation is on display so blatantly in every direction.
I also think it’s a good omen when native Spanish speakers manage to correctly spell my name (both “N”s and no “I”).
1People here say that guinea pigs can “sense auras.” When a group walks past a guinea pig pen, the animals will squeal if a group is anxious, but they’ll be quiet and still if the people in the group are calm. I never tell my groups this in advance, but I’ll tell them when we leave the pen if the guinea pigs were quiet when we were around.
I have variously described day one of a team’s schedule as Tourist Day, Question Day, and Forest Gump Day (“So I went to the Basilica… again”). This time around it has been more like Reminiscing Day. Caroline and I started talking early this morning on our walk to the hostel about all the Sewanee teams we have hosted together. We ate breakfast at El Descanso and I remembered all the people who have run this place over the years. I stood in the balcony of the Basilica sanctuary and thought of all the groups whose photos I’ve taken in front of the strained glass window. A woman there with her family even saw me taking pictures and said out loud “that guy looks like he knows what he’s doing,” and asked me to photograph them (which brought me back 11 years to Sarah Miller telling me how we’d all end up professional photographers by the end of that summer). As we gazed out over the city from the walkway under the tower I remembered how I felt the first time up that ladder (and how much out of my depth I felt most of my first summer as a host).
As we walked down the Via de Siete Cruces, Roberto and I were talking about the streets that are now closed to vehicle traffic. That happened sometime last year, either before I was here in March or before I was here over the summer. And as I tried to sort those out in my mind, I remarked to him how strange it was that I was just here eight months ago.
There have been plenty of moments over the last twelve years when I have been sad about all the people who used to be here that have gone back to live in the US or elsewhere. Or when I miss how things used to be when you didn’t have to wear seatbelts and could cram 19 people in a Chevy Suburban and didn’t have to stop at red lights after dark. Or I think about a restaurant that used to be somewhere, or the good old days when the Strawberry Soda had real sugar in it and they still made the spicy Doritos in the black bag.
But then I walk into the youth world office and run into a group of people I mostly met and got to know within the last twelve months and they’re so excited to see me that we wind up with this:
really And thinking through the changes I’ve seen I have to remind myself that so much here really I s the same. And so much of the change has been for the better. But either way, I’ve gotten to experience it with so many people. I can’t possibly tell my teams about all the different times I’ve been to the Basilica and Plaza San Francisco anymore. There’s not enough time to give them every bit of history and experience that I’ve gotten at each of those places. But I get to think about parejas who I’ve learned from, and students I’ve brought to share my beloved country with, and teams who have asked me questions, and leaders who many times had no idea of how much their personality would make or break a team. I smile thinking about Sarah and Amalia and Deborah and Jóse Luís and Kelsey and Dana and Darío and Emma and Gavriella and Joe and Julie and Marina all being with me at each of these places. But now I get to introduce a people and a place and an experience and a philosophy of mission to another new group of friends, who will go in twelve different directions nine days from now, into whatever and wherever God calls them in the post-field. And hopefully by then all of us will be changed.
It’s been a long time since I’ve made an effort to give out my blog address. So since I might have a new audience for the first time in a long time, I’m going to start my 2019 Quito Quest blogging journey by answering all the questions I usually get from people who are trying to figure out what exactly I do in Ecuador.
What exactly do you do in Ecuador?
I will be hosting a short-term team. In general, teams come for between 1-2 weeks to work with ministry sites in (and sometimes out of) Quito. The team hosts are around basically to take care of the team. Food, housing, transportation, translation, cultural acquisition… all the things they need to be running smoothly so they can do their projects, interact with people in a healthy way, and stay safe… that’s my job.
How long have you been doing this?
I started going to Ecuador in 2007. I’ve been hosting teams since 2008. I’ve lived there for several springs and summers and a big stint between 2009-2010. These days I just go back for two weeks or so every March to host a team. Since the first time I went, the longest I’ve ever gone without being in Ecuador was 15 months (between March 2012 when I hosted a Canadian team in the jungle and July 2013 when I took my own high school students from Elizabeth City on a team).
Where do you stay?
My wonderful friends the Vivanco family let me crash with them. Cameron, Roberto, Graham (7), Liam (5), and Francis (3) will be part of the cast of characters in my daily recaps. So, probably, will Luciano (the cat), and Caroline (my partner, who is also flying in from the U.S. just to be a host).
Do you get paid to do this?
That’s cute.
We gathered for all-block debrief today, beginning with breakfast, worship, and book study at Dani´s house. Our interns are reading When Helping Hurts this summer and one of the questions Thomas asked as he taught the group this morning was “Would Jesus want to hang out with this group?” He didn’t make anyone answer out loud, but even as the conversation moved on, I think we all kept coming up with answers in our head to that question.
I want to be the kind of person Jesus would want to hang out with. But at the same time I want to be so much better than I am so he doesn’t have to waste his time with me. And what’s funny about that is that both of those goals are accomplished by being the kind of person who hangs out with Jesus.
Over twelve summers, I have had a lot of roles in our short-term program. I’ve been a team member, a team leader, a Quito Quest host, a site host and an additonal staff member on teams. I even once helped train a couple of hosts who would both the next summer become my maestros. But I have never actually done the Maestro roll until now.
Since 2008 I’ve been telling people that Quito Quest is the most work not the least sleep you’ll ever get, and I use that statement to make a point of just how much I love this program, because I keep coming back and doing it again and again. And while my perspective has slowly changed over time about how much sleep you actually need to do this job (I’m old… I need way more sleep now than when I was 22), my perspective has changed dramatically this summer on who it is that really has all the work to do.
When you’re a team host, you are responsible for all the people on a short-term team, for their food and housing and schedule and translation and cultural acquisition, and their medical needs. You’re there to take care of them from the moment they walk out of the secure section of the airport until you drop them off right back there eleven or so days later.
When you’re a maestro, you’re responsible for all that stuff, except for the interns, and for three months instead of a week and a half. And when seven of your eight hosts have never hosted before, you wind up being responsible for a lot of their job too, because it’s simply impossible to learn how to do this job perfectly in the two weeks between intern arrival and the start of Block 1 of teams.
An intern asked me after my Basilica orientation, “How much of that are we supposed to remember?” She had this seriously worried look on her face, and I just laughed, and tried to compassionately explain that I’ve been doing Basilica orientations for 11 years, and I’ve been there with all kinds of people, so I have learned a lot about the place. I dumped it all on those unsuspecting interns, hoping they’ll be able to regurgitate 40% of it or so this summer. I want give them all the information and experience and wisdom I have, but I certainly don’t expect them to know cold in one summer what I’ve been compiling since 2007.
Cameron has been laughing at me all summer as I ask deep questions to the interns and then press for answers. She remembers exhausted 2008 Danny who had to be forced to give more than one-word answers. I hadn’t figured out back then that it was okay to be an introvert and an internal processor. But I also hadn’t quite figured out back then how much the staff needed me to get out of that comfort zone and verbally let them know how they could take care of me. She also remembers 2008 Danny who would debrief teams until 11, get home at midnight, blog until 2am, and get up at 5 or 6 to do it all over again, because he thought you had to just run yourself into the ground to lead a team well. And now she’s watching me tell interns to hide out in the book bag room and take a nap or catch up on finances so they don’t have to stay awake so late at night.
It’s also a lot of work to put team hosts together as a pareja and to match those parejas up with teams. Figuring out how to compliment people’s gifts, and how to match them up with projects and team leaders and teams and ministry sites is a giant puzzle. And just as it’s impossible for the hosts to do their job in a perfect way, we (maestros and directors) will never quite get this part of our job perfect either. But I can tell you we talked about it and processed together way more than I ever thought would be necessary.
I love being here for summer, and I love getting to train and oversee all these hosts. But as I jump in and out of teams’ schedules and ministry sites, and do my best to care for our hosts who are caring for them, I have a lot more appreciation for Bryan, Dana, Darío, Christy, Manuel, and Kristin, who were all maestros for me at various times.
I haven’t stopped for a moment to write down all the things I wanted to about Quito Quest training this year. But here is a photographic glimpse of what has been happening for the past couple of weeks.
If you know me at all, it probably won’t surprise you to hear I’m getting on a plane to Ecuador. And it probably shouldn’t surprise you, because it will be the 13th time I’ve done this since 2007. Through Quito Quest, I’ve been a team member, a Team Host, a Site Host, and a team leader, but I am taking on a new role in a new department over the next couple of months as the Summer Maestro for Education=Hope.
This means I’ll be using my administrative skills to help organize all that our four E=H teams will be doing, and I’ll be training and supervising interns. In the midst of that, I get to hang out at some of my favorite places with some of my favorite people doing everything from ministry with teams to maintaining relationships between Youth World and our partner ministry sites to probably more than a little babysitting of Vivanco children.
Quito Quest has always been my favorite excuse to blog, and I expect working with teams this summer will be no different. So keep an eye on it for my adventures.
Bonus pic:I always love it when I make the Youth World Monday Memo.
