A tourist week!

Well, after a delayed departure from Moorhead, a terrific afternoon seeing friends and meeting with my student teaching supervisor in Morris, and a wonderful weekend hanging out with my family, going to my friend Molly’s birthday party, and seeing my church family, I left for Ecuador on Monday morning, taking off from Minneapolis-St. Paul International at 6:00 AM. I visited with a few people on the trip, including a Latina woman on her way to Megalin and a friendly man from Ecuador named Roberto, but mostly I crocheted, listened to music, and watched movies during my flight. Most airports now also have free wireless internet, so I used part of my long layover in Orlando to send some messages and look up flight information. I arrived in Ecuador at 10:30 or so, and after a quick trip through immigration, I met Mariana, my hostess who directs the preschool at Colegio Americano, the school where I will be teaching. It looked like the whole city was lined up to meet me, and I am wondering if the aeropuerto is always like that! Mariana and her husband, Kiko, spotted me right away, and we went out into the rain to load my suitcases into the car. I found out on the drive to the house that they had just gotten home from a family wedding in Lima, Peru, and that their daughter was visiting from Florida with a friend. When we got back to the house I met their daughter Mari Ani and her friend Beth, and then I had a cup of tea and went to bed, with a promised trip to the beach sweetening my sleep.



I found out the next morning that we were really taking a trip to the beach, and spending the night in a condo in Salinas. We went with relatives, and their cousin’s boyfriend offered us the use of his family’s condo, which was wonderful. It was a little crazy to go on a trip so quickly after I arrived, but that seems to be the norm for the Camchongs, my host family. I had guessed because of their name that they are Asian, and it is true, they have Chinese heritage, though both of them grew up in Ecuador. They are Catholic, and I think I will be going to mass with them this weekend. I need to start looking into churches here. Mariana and Kiko have four children, and all of them live in Florida. Mari Ani is a few years older than me, and works as a graphic designer in Orlando. Her parents’ house is full of her art, and I think it is very beautiful. Her friend Beth was also an art major, but she has been thinking about going back to school for something else. Right now she is celebrating her freedom by going to South America, as she is between jobs and waiting for her boyfriend to graduate from law school. They have both been very fun to spend time with, and have definitely eased my transition, since Mari Ani speaks flawless English and Beth does not even speak Spanish.



We spent a day on the beach in Salinas, and while we enjoyed ourselves, the water was very cold and the weather cloudy. All three of us from the States managed to get a bit sunburned in spite of the clouds, however. After being in the cold weather up north, I couldn’t force myself to get out of the sun, though I did wear sunscreen and thus barely got red. We went out on a big “banana” that was pulled by a speedboat for a few minutes, and we swam a bit, but we mainly just lay out on the beach. Since we were all so tired from traveling, many of us dozed off a few times. We were with Savia, her daughter Puiyen, Puiyen’s boyfriend Fernando, their cousin Gary, and his son Waikeng. We ate at a little café for lunch, went to a fancy buffet for supper, and then drove back to the condo. We also stopped at Hotel Punto Carnesas to have café and jugo and watch the sunset, though it was too cloudy to really see that. It is one of the family’s favorite spots up in that direction.
The next day we went to the beach in Ayangue, which I liked a lot better, partly because the weather was better, and partly because the beach wasn’t as crowded. The food at the beach restaurant was also excellent, and it was really fun to go there because the family is friends with the owner. I sunned myself for a little while, but since the water was so much nicer Beth and I were out in the ocean much more, and we swam out to a little beach full of seashells and dug around there for a while. I also enjoyed the unique features of salt water when I decided to see how easy it would be to just float, and I think I could have lain like that for hours. Unfortunately, since we had longer to drive than we had the day before, we couldn’t stay in Ayangue very long, so we left to start the drive home. Once we made it home I started unpacking, since I hadn’t really had a chance to settle in at all, and then we ate supper with the relatives before they left to go home, and on the way out Puiyen gave me a brochure all about Guayaquil, which I still need to look at more. I also learned how to get on their wireless internet, and spent way too much time on facebook, as usual.





Today we have been taking it easy, and this afternoon Mari Ani’s friend Alejandra drove us to el Parque Historico, a very cool park with lots of animals and historical information about Guayaquil. There is an ecological zone which is basically a zoo, a section with historical preserved or reproduced houses, and gardens, though we didn’t make it through the whole park, because we got a late start. I also got to meet Alejandra’s baby, Pablo, who was very relaxed at first, but then got cranky in the hot sun on the way home. He was fascinated by my tongue when I started flicking it in and out of my mouth, so I did that for all I was worth for about five minutes! We had supper pretty late, and now I’m just relaxing and playing with my pictures. I also started reading The First Days of School, a book about teaching by Harry Wong, which I got for Christmas after all of my professors told me how helpful it would be. Most of the things that I’ve read so far I’ve heard before, but it’s good to be reminded to be teachable and flexible, because both of those can be challenging for me! I really want to be a good teacher, and I pray that this time in Ecuador will prepare me.




Pray for my host family, that they would be blessed in every way and be drawn closer to God. Pray for Beth, Mariana’s friend, also, that God would give her peace and hope as she tries to make big decisions, and that she would trust Him. Pray for my cooperating teachers, Mr. Dwyer and Mr. Dixon, and for my future students. Pray that I would learn what I need to during the rest of my downtime this week so that I will be ready to start teaching on Monday. Most of all, pray that I would take every opportunity to serve others and to speak the name of Jesus. So many people are praying for me and supporting me, both financially and emotionally, which challenges me and reminds me that I’m not only here to fulfill requirements for graduation, but also to follow God’s call. It is so sweet to trust Him and follow Him! That sounds really cheesy, but it’s true. Truth is cheesy sometimes, I’ve found. I pray you are all doing well! Love, Christina