Flex and Flow

This morning I met with Sarah and YouthWorld at 10:00. We just wanted to go over some things before we met with Dana and Bryan at 12:00. I don’t think either of us truly expected to use the entire time, but when Brad walked into Christy’s office where we were meeting at 11:30 to get us to take two bags of bagels off his hands, we realized how much we’d actually been over.

In fact, between responsibilities, personalities, food/orientation/translation/funding details, love languages, meeting times during the week, accountability and prayers, we covered just about everything that the Maestros wanted to go over with us anyway. Best pareja ever.

Bryan called us as we were preparing to head out of YouthWorld and asked us to get lunch. Poor Maestros didn’t have a break between five pareja meetings to have lunch, so we brought them food. McDonald’s, no less. It’s not that we don’t want to eat cultural food on our days off, I think it’s just the sensation that we think we are spoiling ourselves for one meal. Reading the nutrition facts at the Plaza de las Americas McDonald’s made us realize it’s more like we’re giving ourselves cancer. Oh well, everything does.

So the first hitch of the morning had already been discussed at this point. I’ll just go ahead and throw it in here. It was that one of our team members could not find his passport. We were told originally they were just coming without him, which worried us in our morning meeting when we realized he is the only “real” adult male on the team, which would leave the guys entirely in my hands. Which wouldn’t be very different from out team last year, except that I at least knew Coleman and Bradham. Eventually we found out that he is coming, he’s just flying to Chicago first to get a new passport and will be a day late.

Second hitch of the morning, as we got to Dana’s. We knocked on the door, and tried to open it. Good thing it was locked, because when a voice on the other side answered, it was not Dana. It was not even her roommate Ashley. We were on the wrong floor. Can you imagine if we’d just been able to walk in? Crisis averted, we went up another floor.

Dana and Bryan were glad to see us, and Cameron, Angela and Matt were jealous of the food. We plopped ourselves on the couches and began our meeting. They discovered really fast that we had been very productive this morning, and a lot of what we talked about answered their prepared questions for us and even might have given them some ideas for suggestions for other teams (our planned meetings at the beginning and end of each day and how we are going to be a constant check system for the other). Not that we are by any means perfect. And Dana and Bryan still managed to both affirm and challenge us in our relationship with each other and with our team and with them and in everything we do this summer. It was just really great, and I feel like all four of us came away from it with something despite the point of it being prep for Sarah and me.

We went over the Team Schedule and had made several changes and additions to it by the time Sarah’s phone rang. It was Hannah with bad news. The group missed their connecting flight in Miami and can’t get in until tomorrow. The good news is that we found out before we went grocery shopping, which both gave us more time and made a couple of major changes to our budget. And Sarah now gets to spend some time with her mom as she returns from the States tonight (as a U.S. citizen). But that’s about as optimistic as I can be about it at this point.

And if I thought my schedule was marked through and changed at 1:30 this afternoon, you should see it now. All our orientations have been pushed back 12 hours or more and totally rearranged in time and in location. We have to do YW Orientation with Brad tomorrow as well as our Hostal and Ecuador Orientations, totally cutting out Old Quito. Our Basillica tour only gets to take place because we’ll be waiting an extra five hours before leaving for Tena on Satuday for the passportless team member to arrive at the airport. We’ll be running right from that to Partnership Orientation with Dana at YW before lunch at Fruiteria or Pinchos (depending, much like the rest of our schedule, entirely on time).

I’ll be very glad to get on the bus and chill for five hours on the way to Tena. I honestly think it will be the first opportunity we have to really get to know our team members on an individual basis.

We spent two hours rewriting our schedule, making phone calls to the Hostal, to Dario, to Juan Carlos, and finally doing our grocery list. That grocery list is a lot of math, and one of the things that I really backed off simply because Sarah has a very good grasp (having done this before) of what we need as opposed to what we need on paper. Snack foods, fruit, and even sack lunches I could handle, but I now understand why all the interns hate figuring out breakfast. Christ Episcopal, I want you to really appreciate your bagels, toast and drinkable yogurt when you open your refrigerator June 22. It’s a lot more complicated than it seems when its sitting in Hostel Bosque so pretty.

I finally headed out at about 3:45 and was very proud of myself finding my way from Dana’s (where I had never been before) back home (where I’ve only walked once before). I’ve known all the street names in the neighborhood and around this part of North Quito for a while now, but I’m finally figuring out which house or office or restaurant is on each one and which ones run into each other. Landmarks like the park or the Mobil building or the Gus restaurant help out, but I can actually understand non-girly directions now (in that “take the cross street to Grade C.” makes as much sense to me as “head downhill from the glass building”).

Teddy, Nicole, and Matt were here when I arrived, and most of the girls stopped by either with or to see their pareja over the course of the afternoon. Everyone but us and Jerry/Nicea went shopping today after their meeting with the Maestros and will also be picking up their teams at the airport tonight all at the same time. I’m actually glad that at least there will not be four buses at the airport when we get our team. The ones who are going tonight will have lots of fun figuring out who is getting on which bus as they all look the same. Bryan and Dana will be there to translate for the drivers for the parejas who lack a translator, but I still just can’t see that going smoothly.

I got to call my mom, my brother, Albemarle Music, and Barbara today. It was a series of really good conversations, and I realized how much hearing myself say some of my thoughts about the jungle and this upcoming week out loud can be a profound experience for me. I can tell already, just by the way I’m actively analyzing everything that’s going on and giving straight answers to tough questions (that people who have never been part of Missions don’t necessarily intend to be tough questions), that I’m learning and growing and being stretched just by experiencing this culture and God and the huge responsibility (mentally, emotionally and spiritually) of hosting teams.

Right now I’m really praying that I can focus on people this week and not just events. I’m counting on Sarah to check me and I won’t be surprised at all to find myself really worrying about our packed schedule and running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get 19 people from one orientation or activity to the next. I also need to remember that I am a host and that Amy is the team leader. It’s our responsibility to get them oriented to their surroundings and to give them the information and the questions and the pushes they need to be comfortable (and yet out of their comfort zones) in Ecuador and in ministry. But we can’t pull anyone’s walls down, and it is Amy’s responsibility to be their leadership, to make decisions about her people, and to go home and oversee the fruit that will come from this experience, to make it true form of growth for the team and the people they serve and come in contact with here and when they go forward home so that this is not just a mission trip (that is a four-letter word for missionaries. It’s almost as bad as vacation).

I’m excited to be working with Sarah, especially after having talked with her about the ways we’ll be checking each other throughout this team and after Dana and Bryan pointing out ways that we compliment each other and designating some specific areas in which to be active about it. I’m excited about getting to know my team, seeing where each of them are in their journey, what has brought them here, and what they will do both on the team and with what they take with them. I can’t wait to see Shandia, to have dinner with Fabian when we’re back from the jungle, to be leading debriefs and worship and to grow from every single person and experience this week.

Author: Danny

Occasional Ecuadorian View all posts by Danny