First Week Update

We have been in Ecuador for over a week, we are getting settled into our house. We had our first short term team, we have a few days before our next group comes Saturday. Josie and I are learning the language, I am using Rosetta Stone, one hour of lessons daily. Josie is saying a handful of words in Spanish, she says Caio, adios, hola, pollo, come, and agua, all the important things! There is a lot I could say from this first week but instead I’ll just share a few photos. 

This is our home for the time being. It’s has 3 bedrooms upstairs, kitchen and living room are one room, and then a bath in the bottom floor. Our laundry is in the kitchen as well. The house is probably 800sqft. It needs a few repairs, the upstairs deck is being destroyed by termites, and the upstairs of the house needs redone a bit, a lot of bugs make it in through the cracks. But that’s all stuff to come next summer. The picture below is also our house, from another angle. The bush in front is lemongrass. 

I mentioned bugs in the home, we found our first tarantula, it was living in our bedroom closet. Gideon says Hollywood made these spiders out to be terrible, but of all the spiders to find in your home, this is the one you want. They’re not poisonous here and they eat other insects that will hurt you. I still didn’t want it living in my home, so we relocated him. 

The landscape here is beautiful, so lush and green. It’s been so fun to identify all the plants growing here, I’ve recognized at least 10 that are considered house plants back home. 

Josie has been loving it here, thriving actually. She has grown obsessed with her boots, the locals laugh because she’s either wearing these boots or no shoes at all, she refuses to keep any other shoe on. She is very loved already by the people here at ninawachi, the students and staff watch after her like she’s their own. Everyone keeps commenting how adventurous she is, she has been eating the food, exploring all there is to explore, and keeping everyone on their toes. 

Speaking of food, this was lunch a day last week. Fresh caught tilapia from the ponds here on campus. They have two ponds here that they raise tilapia in, for the mission team they made this wrapped in banana leaves, cooked over the fire. It was very good. Rice is a staple, included in every dish, which Josie has been enjoying. One of my roles will be to work along side the cook, which I’m excited to learn from. She is a local woman who comes in 5 days a week, she often has her grandson with her, which I love. 

I will end with this photo, this is all of the students and some of the staff here at Ninawachi. Tuesday last week Gideon and I celebrated our third year wedding anniversary. I was a little emotional that day because I was missing home. Gideon had taken Josie to town with another staff member that morning & I was feeling left behind in a foreign country with strangers. I went to lunch that day & embarrassingly broke down crying, seeing how happy everyone was there made me miss home even more. One of the women came outside to comfort me, turns out she speaks English. She reminded me it’s okay to miss home, community, and to feel sad. She also said missionary life is hard, we sacrifice a lot, but God is with us and he wants to be our friend and father. So fast forward, turns out Gideon went to town that day to get a cake and decorations for a surprise dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Everyone was in on it, except me. Things shifted after that night, I think I needed to cry in front of everyone for them to see that this is hard, it’s hard for all of us. The students and staff have all left their families in one way or another to be here, we are all suffering to some degree, but I’m so thankful God doesn’t make us do it without him. This place is starting to feel like home the longer we are here, goodbye in a few weeks will be hard.