Part 2 (The Real Deal)----LONG sorry

Blog 2

This past week is the first real week here. I started my practicum and my Spanish and Ecuadorian culture classes. My Spanish is getting better and my boss is a little easier to understand. The first few days he had me scour the internet (sounds cooler than Google) to find electronic comment cards (like electronic surveys) and also technology that tracks the electronic flow of customers in a store. My company is a Consulting company, so other companies come to us and ask us to help them improve their customer service or find out more information about their customers and we give them options like these products. Then I made a presentation about the comment cards for presentation to the heads of the company. I work for Advance Consultora (http://advance.ec/) on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays and do whatever busy work my boss gives me. My boss gave me some information about some products and told me to read up on them and see how good they were. The problem was that all of the information sheets and pamphlets were in Portugese, which is very similar to Spanish, but not enough for me to read something and understand much. I felt like Josiah who’s also from Taylor came to Ecuador not knowing a word of Spanish.
Something different about Ecuador (and probably all of Latin America) is that just about every building has a security system. The first day I was at work they gave me my code to put in and my password (because after someone disarms the alarm a guy calls us and asks for a password). The next day at work I was the first to arrive (because everybody is late for everything here) and when I got in, I put my code in and waited for a phone call but the alarm was going crazy, I probably woke up the whole block. And then the phone call came, but since the alarm was so loud and I couldn’t understand the guy’s Spanish, so I felt a little helpless until one of my coworkers came five minutes later.
Random story; last weekend my family and I went out to eat and I ordered chicken. The soup that came with it had a strange vegetable in it and I cut it up and tried a bite. It turns out this vegetable was a chicken foot that is supposed to add flavor. So I spit out the bones and decided I was done with that soup for the day.
To get to my job, I have to walk down to the street about ten minutes to be able to catch the #3 bus and then walk a half block to catch the #16 and then walk about ten more minutes around the stadium to get to my job. Overall it takes about 45 minutes which I don’t mind too much. Since everyone goes home for lunch in Cuenca, my lunch is 2 hours long; 1-3pm. I usually get home about 1:30 and then eat, and now if I have to take the bus back I would have to leave at about 2:15, meaning my lunch break is 62.5% traveling. It would be different if I had a car (or a moped) but that is not going to happen.
My Tuesday and Thursdays have an Ecuadorian culture class in the morning and then Spanish class in the afternoon. My culture class consists of 4 people, Josiah, Jordan, and a sweet dude from Florida Atlantic University. My Spanish class is just Jordan and myself, taught by Jordan’s host mom.
I really enjoy my family down here. My “mom” and “dad” are really nice and hospitable. My little sister Carolina (11) are getting to know each other a little more, but we haven’t had much time together without her parents around so it’s a little hard to get to know her. We have meals together and after dinner we usually sit around the table talking about our days or just joking around.
The group I’m with just started having a small group time together on Thursdays. This Thursday it was a good time to just vent in English what’s going on and what we like/dislike about the experience. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that living in a big city (roughly 200+ Uplands) is fun. Walking around downtown and enjoying the culture and differences is sweet. Then we got to talking about the Bible and that we know that we are each here for a reason and then started talking about our favorite Psalms. One of my favorite Psalms is 103, which says,
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (verses 11 and 12). Notable mentions are 22 (all about Jesus), 73, 91, 119—“the beast” as I call it, and 121 to name a few. I definitely was running a little spiritually dry without fellowship for a couple of weeks or so.
One thing that I am trying to do is to live “fully here”. What I mean by that is to not let my feelings of missing home and Taylor take away from the amazing situation God has placed me in and to “make the most of every opportunity” (Colossians 4:5). Today is the first real Saturday I’ve had with basically nothing, so I am taking this time to catch up on this blog, reading, prayer, and sleep.
We get to go on a trip or two while we’re down here and I’m really hoping that a trip to the Galapagos Islands is one of them. I’ve heard it called “the modern day Garden of Eden” because of the amazing variety of animals and plant life. We don’t know for sure if that’s going to happen though.
Sorry this thing is really long but there’s a lot of stuff that I want to say.
Lastly, I am praying about possibly leading the Daytona Beach Spring Break Missions trip this year. I’ve gone the past two years and have learned so much from sharing my faith on those trips. Pros about the trip: cheap for a missions trip (less than $900 and the $ is raised anyway), we’re in Florida, the group is always really fun, and we get to share the love of Christ with fellow Americans (which really practical for everyday of life).
Thanks for your prayers,

Kevin