learning

The Latin American custom when you greet someone is to give them a kiss on the cheek—no matter who they are. The other day, I met this lady named Valeria. Instantly, it was difficult for me to fulfill this cultural obligation. Her face was horribly disfigured because she had been burned as a baby. I quickly gave her a kiss, but every time I looked over to her my stomach turned over like I was going to be sick. I had never seen anyone so maimed before.

For a while I kept struggling with the distraction. But little by little, throughout the course of the afternoon, I found myself forgetting what she looked like and concentrating on what she was saying, how she acted, her tone of voice, and word choice. Then, I was able to look at her face without inner turmoil and notice her beautiful brown eyes and the lovely tone of her skin. By the end of the day, we were talking and laughing and taking pictures of things—without even thought on my end of her disfigurement.

I was wondering today if this is kind of the why God looks at us. We are maimed and made ugly by our own sin. Even after we are saved, we still have that blemish of ugliness inside of us. We aren’t perfected yet. And yet, when the Bible says that when God looks his elect even now on this earth—all he sees is Jesus. And Jesus is continually interceding on our behalf. Our remaining sin certainly matters to God, but he knows that in time all things will be made new according to his plan. If we are in Christ, we are given his eyes—spiritual ones—to see the world and ourselves the way we really are. And even with the scales off and our true ugliness displayed; we can take comfort in the fact that he loved us first, and that God will continue to complete us and mold us into the image of his dear Son.

Por FIN :-)

Hello everyone! It’s been so long since I last posted….and I have so many things to tell you. The past month has been one of the most impacting months of this trip—and of my life. God has been so merciful to me lately. He has shown me some precious things about himself and shown me the beauty of forming relationships with brethren in Christ. I also have been learning a lot of Spanish which I delight in every day. It has been so busy that I barely had time to do things like write emails or blog. I thank you al for your support and prayers, and of course, for requesting that I take up blogging after this rather long siesta.

First I really must tell you a little bit the trip to the Amazon that my class took. We went to visit the same people group that Nate Saint and Jim Elliot visited: the Aucas. I could speak for weeks about this 3 days adventure we had in the Haorauni territory. We had to take a bus that left at 00:00 hours from our university. We arrived at a small town called, Tena, at about 6 in the morning and we had out last “normal” breakfast. From there we left in bus—straight into the jungle. It took us four hours of traveling in this bus to arrive to place which seemed like nowhere. It was amazing to pass the house in the bus just looking at dense foliage. Trees. Plants. Mud. And a lot of green. I never felt so far from civilization. There were no towns. No cell phone service. No bathrooms. And no cars. When the bus dropped us off it was pouring ran and we had to scramble to get all of stuff out of the bus and put our ponchos on. Some people had forgotten theirs!

From there we had to transport all of our luggage and ourselves in these 50 foot long canoes that were just wider than my hips. I thought for sure that they were going to capsize. The Haorauni men stood on the ends of these canoes and steered with long poles. Thankfully, they did have a motor too other wise it would have taken hours to arrive to there little settlement. The Haorauni live in groups or family of 8 to 10 people and we stayed with one of these groups. At first, I was very timid because I didn’t know if they spoke any Spanish or what. They kind of stayed over to there side of the hut and the United States people stayed on the other side. Their language was so different—melodious and abrupt. After about two hours of looking around the settlement (which was basically just cleared jungle) I went over to the log and sat with the Haorauni. They didn’t seem to mind, and soon on of my Ecuadoian friends, Mateo, came over too and began talking to one of the men. I found out that the men spoke Spanish, so after that I talked with them whenever I could.

I became friends with them by learning their names, and asking them questions about plants and flowers and stuff. Some of their names in Spanish are: Jose, Fernando, Lizette, Elizabet, and Carina. I also learned that the little girl, Lizette, had a name in Haorauni which was Yeco. There was also a baby boy named, Arau. He was sooo precious. She loved having us call her by this name. There were also three other women who didn’t speak Spanish at all. One of them was the “nene” or grandma in Haorauni. There were also two other men whose names are, Calla and Ingyg. I talked a lot with Fernando and Ingyg.
Ingyg used to be a drug lord in Ecuador and Colombia. He took cocaine to the USA, Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia. He also was in the massive war between Peru and Ecuador. He told me about this one battle where suddenly 300 Peruvians died. He actually ran away from the war and he was sent to jail and sentenced for 6 years in prison for being a traitor. But for some reason they let him out in 6 months, and now I guess he is hiding in the jungle with his family. He told me that when he was in the USA taking cocaine over there, the authorities caught him, but I Chinese lawyer got him out free. He also told me about several near death experiences he had walking around the border between Colombia and Ecuador. Apparently, the witch doctor or, shaman, is really bad too, because the local one tried to kill Ingyg by putting a nail in his side when he was under the influence of the drug they use for spirituality, Ingyg told me that because of that he no longer believes in the shaman’s power and he stays away from them.

The last night I was there was magical. All the Haorauni knew my name, Kiki, which apparently means a yellow bird in the language. They loved calling my name. And I played with the three little girls for hours on the table-like hut that was their only structure. The girls loved to tickle us and play peek-a-boo. It was kind of painful rolling around in laughter on this crude board table thing. But we had a blast. Heather I them some Spanish words, and they taught us some Haorauni.

Huaponi means good/well/thank you
Huaponi meneke means Good morning
Hemo miro imi means What is your name?
Hemo mopa means My name is

I actually got a proposal for marriage by one of the unmarried Haorauni guys. It was coincidental that I was learning how to say “I love you: at the moment—which by the way, I have forgotten by now. Oh well. 

It is really late now so I had better go to bed. I am really excited for church tomorrow. I have many more things that I would love to tell you ahout the Haorauni people. Those three days were so influential in my outlook and philosophy and current practice. IT has changed me forever in various ways.

Until the next post. Love you guys,

Kiki

Jesus loves the little children

I would like to share with you some little things I have noticed about the children here in Ecuador. Their faces are still on my mind, and writing about them makes them feel even closer to me now.

Today when I was on the bus, I was sitting but it was more crowded than usual. Every seat was filled, and there were lines of people holding on to the chairs and safety bars. I actually kind of ate some lady hair cuz she was in my face. The bus was hot and it stank. About 10 minutes before arriving at our stop, a lady came on with her toddler strapped to her back with two white sheets. He wore a little woolen cap, three shirts and a navy sweater. His sandals were loosely fastened with Velcro that was peeling up in a curl. His little toe nails were packed with grime, but his eyes were shiny and bright black like smooth stones. Adorable. He was a little fussy...not quite walking, but wanting to explore, so, she let him go. He sat on the floor of the bus and played with a square of greasy sandwich paper. People were standing all around him...almost on top of him. Several passengers starting leaving the bus, they squeezed past the lines of people, past the baby...almost stepping on him as the bus jolted and stopped and started.

I watched him until por fin his mom picked him up of the floor, and I got up and left.

Last week, I saw this crippled girl lying in the bus. She had a huge backpack and a school uniform on. I was like, who would leave her on this awful bus?! So after a few stops, I saw that the man who collects the money took up her huge backpack, and cradled her in his arms. And gently, he lifted her out of the bus and laid her on the metal bench outside. He did this so tenderly. i was very moved. Then, he just went about his business collecting the 25 cents from the passengers.

I also, saw this little baby-- a toddler running around in the dark on the side of this street. The baby had those footie pajamas on. It almost broke my heart. The little thing was just toddling around on the side of these horrible concrete buildings amid all the trash and dirt. It was completely dark cuz there were no street lights. The only way I saw the little on was by the headlights of the passing cars. The footie pajamas were very dirty and pilly. I almost cried. As I passed, the baby picked up some piece of trash.

Dear World,

Con poco de gracia…

Sometimes differences can make people get together more than similarities. A natural curiosity about el otro can create the most interesting exchanges, a gradual mind-expansion, and a kind of self-creation by diverse experiences.

Gringo meets Hispano.
English meets Spanish.
Punctuality meets la Hora Floja.
Handshakes meet kisses.
Lone rangers meet families.
Steak and taters meets rice and beans.
Norman Rockwell meets Guayasamín.
Slow dance meets Salsa.

The list could go on…..and it’s so cool!
This past week has been crazy; I have stayed in Quito…but I have seen more of Quito at extraordinarily late hours than ever before! We went to several Brazilian jazz concerts, and afterwards to several different night-life restaurants. There was a famous trumpet player in Quito, so I went to two of his concerts with people from school. Friday night was great because Heather and I made dinner for the missionary family the Childs, to show our appreciation for everything they have done for us. We made a huge dinner…with salad, two deserts, and everything by scratch—even the whipped cream! Yesterday, we stayed home studying for various exams, and today after church we were out all day with our growing group of friends and acquaintances. We are having a great time!

Also, I just want to mention that soon I am going to post about some things I am learning in the lastest sermon series from EFC. Today we focuses on Sabbath rest...and It was very good.

But for now, I must get some sleep!

Love,

Kiki

hello from a land far away

Hi everyone, I am going to try to write a post...

My life has kind of been revolutionized recently. On Monday, I moved out of the house that I was staying in because we were having issues. I didn't want to post about it before just in case they would see my posting. They didn't feed me basically and what they did feed me was often unable to be eaten. I have a picture to prove it. Also, they left me alone and didn't speak to me. hehehhehe it was very sad, but God miraculously provided another home--this time a Christian home for me to stay in. The owners are Salome and Giselle-a mother and daughter. They are very sweet Christians who love to pray God. They are very involved in home-missions and hosting pastors as well. They have opened up their lovely home for me and I am very happy there.

Last Saturday, I went to a soccer game with our friend Maria, the maid at the ex-host family's house. It was an awesome experience! We were the only gringas. We actually got lost trying to find the elementary school were the game was held, but we finally found it after asking about 4 guards. Maria plays football on a soccer league both in Bella Vista and in the South. She is really good! We are thinking of going to her game again this Saturday. The one thing I didn't like about the game was that the parents didn't watch over their kids exactly like moms and dads do in the USA. The children here are very strong and independent--but they also got hurt by flying balls. This one baby was laying on the sidewalk next to me drinking his bottle. He almost got horrible hurt by a flying ball that was pummeled two inches or less away from his head. He could have been killed. I sat really close to him after that and tried to protect his head, but then I actually got a ball in the rib cage. After the game, they had bought a bottle of apple soda and with one communal cup they drank it. A little girl ran around the field with the soda and the glass, until this man got it fromher. He offered it to every one- babies, the soccer players, and the spectators. He gave me a glass too, but I couldn't bring myself to drink out of a glass the fifty people had just been drinking from, so I poured it out bit by bit when no one was looking. I felt honored to be offered a glass of the precious apple soda.

The other day, I was riding the bus and for the first time I saw a man give up his seat for an old market woman. I also saw this guy give money to a beggar near our school. I ran up to him afterwards on the sidewalk and said that he was very kind. He turned around and smiled and said, "it wasn't kind, it was human." Also, the day I moved out of that house, I was pretty stressed out. I kept having in my mind this bible verse, "Dios es nuestro amparo y nuestra forteleza" "God is our refuge and our strength." Well, the next day (Tuesday) I read it--Psalm 46. When I went upstairs, over breakfast, Salome was encouraging me and she quoted the same verse to me! When I got on the bus after breakfast, I had my eyes closed most of the trip cuz I was like "whoooa" kind of stressed but more like in awe of what God was doing. My eyes were half open, and I was praying, and suddenly I was reading the words of Psalm 46 written on the bus wall. I was amazed. It said the very same verse that had been running through my head for the past two days. I wished I could have taken a picture. Later that day, when I told Heather about it, I said, "And the bus had Psalm 46 written on the wall..." She was shocked, because she had read that Psalm that morning too.

I couldn't help thinking about this song by S and G.

The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.

Psalm 46

1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

3Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

4There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

5God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

6The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

7The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

8Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

9He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

10Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

11The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Salmos 46
1DIOS es nuestro amparo y fortaleza, Nuestro pronto auxilio en las tribulaciones.

2Por tanto no temeremos aunque la tierra sea removida; Aunque se traspasen los montes al corazón de la mar.

3Bramarán, turbaránse sus aguas; Temblarán los montes á causa de su braveza. (Selah.)

4Del río sus conductos alegrarán la ciudad de Dios, El santuario de las tiendas del Altísimo.

5Dios está en medio de ella; no será conmovida: Dios la ayudará al clarear la mañana.

6Bramaron las gentes, titubearon los reinos; Dió él su voz, derritióse la tierra.

7Jehová de los ejércitos es con nosotros; Nuestro refugio es el Dios de Jacob. (Selah.)

8Venid, ved las obras de Jehová, Que ha puesto asolamientos en la tierra.

9Que hace cesar las guerras hasta los fines de la tierra: Que quiebra el arco, corta la lanza, Y quema los carros en el fuego.

10Estad quietos, y conoced que yo soy Dios: Ensalzado he de ser entre las gentes, ensalzado seré en la tierra.

11Jehová de los ejércitos es con nosotros; Nuestro refugio es el Dios de Jacob. (Selah.)

Hello everyone! It’s been a while…and so many things have happened! The past weekend was the most exciting, crazy, dangerous, exhilarating weekend of my life! I cried a couple of time too…which I will tell you about. The poles of emotion were defiantly in play. AND God was very faithful to me. You will see how as I begin. 

THURSDAY 

• Heather and I had been thinking for two weeks that we were going to go to Manta-we even set up a reservation for a hotel. But one of our friends from class, Diego, let me know that there had been multiple landslides due to the excessive rain…and the roads were completely gone! They built some kind of one-way bridge, but it was very dangerous and slow-moving. So, instantly, we had to make new plans…we bought midnight bus tickets to Cuenca which is South of Quito. We were HYPED at the thought of leaving. 

• Now, Heather and I had resolved that as soon as we arrived at the station, we wouldn’t speak a lick of English. Myrian had warned Heather to make sure to seem very Hispanic…so that we wouldn’t be targets. WELL… We arrived at the station at 9:30 after desperately trying to find a taxi (which by the way is a bad idea, and I don’t think I will do it again) And the first person we met was my friend Antonio who I have written about before. He was very buzzed…and bought a bunch of the national pride, Pilsner, (the worst beer in the world) and he offered everyone who passed a beer. We were surrounded by Americans, in front of everyone who was staring, and then Antonio gets a bright idea. 

• “Won’t you read a poem for me, Kiki?” So, I did in the most animated, theatrical, precise, elocutionary way that one could possible read TWO PAGES of small printed Frank O’Hara. After that, I definitely deserved one of those nasty Pilsners. 

• We left on the bus…that housed only two Gringos. And we were rather uncomfortable because the altitude was changing so rapidly, but our problems were about to get worse little by little. First of all, there were three men who were infatuated with Heather and tried to take pictures of her. Secondly, there was a landslide that made us stop dead in our tracks at 4am!! Needless to say, the trip lasted 14 hours. We didn’t get started again until about 9 the next day. AND OF COURSE, I forgot all of the provisions….so we had to eat unripe bananas. 

FRIDAY 

• When we got to Cuenca at about 1pm, we instantly went to this hotel that Patricio recommended. It was very nice. (keep in mind this is room #1) For some reason, we decided that we would switch hotels the next night and see how many rooms we could lodge in during one vacation. This was not the best idea, and to this moment, I don’t know why we did it! But anyway, we walked about the city…words couldn’t describe the beauty, nor the festivities of Carnaval. 

• A Spanish and Latin American tradition is throwing water on people….A LOT OF WATER. So, we got bombed from the 5th floor, out of store windows, people walking on the streets, and cars and buses passing. I actually fell trying to escape getting doused. I was getting more and more possessed with having revenge, so when this one little boy was all gleeful trying to hold this enormous bowl to get my wet, I dumped it on him instead!!! He actually got really mad, and told me that was mean! Hahahaha!

• After walking around the city on Friday, we went back to the room to take a nap. It was about 4pm. Then, we determined that we would “go out” and paint the town red after, getting out beauty rest. WELL. Didn’t set an alarm, and we didn’t wake up until Saturday at 6am!!!! 
• On Saturday, we basically tooled around, got lost multiple times, and found another hotel. We actually saw quite a few of our classmates, and our druggie teacher who never shows up to class! It was sooo funny and odd. He was like, “I don’t see you in class, but I see you in Cuenca!” HAHA. 

• We were walking around this river and this broken bridge and taking pictures. You have prolly seen them if you looked on fb. Well, there was this guy and this younger boy who were skulking around the river bank. They asked us if we would take a picture of them, so I asked them if they had a camera. They were obviously locals and didn’t look like the type to take pics. They guy told me yes and we walked a little farther along the river. I aksed them again, Where is your camera, and he said he didn’t have one. I immediately suspected that Heather was going to take the pic and then they were going to try to steal it. So, I decided that I wanted to be in the pic with the robbers too! Well, as soon as Heather took the pic, they ran up the bank faster than I expected, but I over took them before they made it to Heather. They kept asking, How is it? Can we see it? I wedged myself in between them and Heather and positioned myself uphill from the guy. Suddenly the guy grabbed it, and in that instant I put both my hands around his neck and pressed in harder and harder. That surprised him, but he tried to stuff the camera up his sleeve. I repeated in the deepest, sternest, but quiet voice I could muster, “NO!” Heather quickly grabbed the camera out of his hands, and said, “!No es justo!” “That’s not right!” And we ran!!!! They didn’t try to follow us. They seemed ashamed. 

• The hotel we stayed at was nice enough…cheaper…and HUGE! In its day, it prolly housed over a hundred people. I realized pretty quickly as it got dark that we had an excellent view of the street from the 8th floor….so what do you think I did??? That’s right! I got my little glass and started pouring water on people! It was amazing!!!!! 

• Well, after pouring water on people to my heart’s delight, we got ready to go out. We had bought one shirt a piece at a Chinese store, and so we decked ourselves with our new attire and headed out to dinner. We ended up eating at this Colombian restaurant by that broken bridge…which was very sketch. We got a taxi after dinner, and went to a famous Salsa club, called Café Eucalyptus. It was amazing! They started live music that was sooo cool and beautiful. There was also this older gentleman who danced every dance for 3 hours! It was cool to watch everyone dancing. We left about 1am, got a taxi, and went to our hotel…which was almost completely dark. 

• As soon as we got in there, Heather said, “No tengo la llave!” She didn’t have the key to our room. It had gotten lost in the taxi while we were rooting around for change! The guy told us that he didn’t have any replacement keys…so we went out into the street and tried to stop another taxi so that he could call all taxis on the intercom, but he wouldn’t do it! Even for money! Anyway, we stayed outside for almost an hour by the Cathedral that was right in front of our hotel, so that the guy would feel sorry for us and not charge us for another room! Well, he didn’t even walk to charge us for the room, cuz as we found out…THEY WERE NO ANOTHER PATRONS!!! This was the sketchiest place I had ever been in….It had narrow hallways with lights that were burned about and a creepy elevator whose capacity was four people. We tried for about an hour to jimmy the lock of our old bedroom with the curtain hook that Heather pried off. We finally had to go to our new room. The hallway was pitch black, and I was really spooked! By this point it was about 2am. Our room had four oddly positioned beds, and a huge window that looked at this alley way and a concrete wall. The only thing I could think of was the movie, Psycho! Heather got pretty scared too, when the guy cam upstairs to TURN OF THE LIGHTS that we had LEFT ON….ugh!!!  

SUNDAY 

• Well, we made it through the night although we didn’t get to bed until 3am and we had to get up at 6am to catch our bus. Supposedly, there was a lady coming at 7am with the keys…and our bus left at 7.10! We got up and rooted around the city for some breakfast..but everything was closed but the churches and cathedrals. We ended up buying a package of vanilla wafers from a street vendor. When we got back to the hotel, this lady arrived…but she was not the one with the keys!!! However, she suggested that the keys might be in the bathroom, WHICH THEY WERE. We quickly went up the creepy elevator and pack all of our stuff. When we went downstairs, suddenly, I realized that I had lost my camera and I had to go back up to our #2 room to search for it….thankfully, I found it right away, but I did shed a few tears at first! 

• Meanwhile, Heather was realizing that it was 7:10 and we didn’t have the right bills to pay the hotel! They didn’t have one single cent in their machine. We had to run to the nearest bank and take out 10 bucks….but when we finally got back to the hotel, they didn’t have change for $10 either!!!! So they called a taxi to get us change, and we bought like 4 bottles of water to make up the difference. We went to the bus station, late, but before even going inside I realized I didn’t have my ATM card. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! We got another taxi and went back to the bank…but it was gone! The machine had eaten it…it had never even given it back to me. 

• Very sad, we made it to the bus station again…and had to pay for two more tickets to Guayaquil. Our bus left at 8:30…and the trip lasted 4 hours. We had the best seats in the bus…We had two huge windows! We got to Guayaquil and went to a hotel that the guide book recommended, called DreamKapture. When we got their we had to haggle with the guy for a room, and he was very rude to us. The weather is Guayaquil was like Miami, but the city looked like the worst parts of Philadephia. We did not feel safe walking around at all! 

• Once again…we were walking along this river that was kind of like a commercialized board walk with lots of shops and a mall. We were taking pictures and this man started noticing us and talking to us. He kept his distance at first, but soon I realized he was following us. He would go up ahead, sit down and when we passed he would keep going behind us. At one point he was behind us to the right, and I suddenly saw him start to run. He planned to run diagonally- and pass me, and grab my purse that had my camera! Instantly, I turned to the left and walked straight into Heather and we turned around and watched as he passed us at that moment running. To be safe, we turned and went the other way, but it was kind of scary. 

• The highlight of our trip to Guayaquil was taking a double decker bus for two hours around the city…and we had this delicious yogurt that was Crema de Cacao. Pretty early we went back to our humid room though, and slept…soooo tired.

• The next day, we flew out on a little plane to Quito We couldn’t bear the thought of sitting for another 14 hours in a bus. We felt so happy to get back to Quito. Lol, on the way back from the airport we actually got lost! The bus we were on emptied of all the people except us, and stopped. I asked the lady, where the bus was headed next and she said to lunch! We had to catch another bus and it took us a good 1.5 hours to make a 10 minute trip!! Later that day, the Child’s invited us out to dinner and then we went back to their place. We had an amazing time…we told them about the adventures we had had…and had coffee etc. WOW! That was a long update, and you know, it doesn’t even mention it all! I am very glad to be back in Quito, although it isn’t quite home! 

Thank you all for reading my posts! 

<3>

Otavalo

On Saturday morning, Heather and I took three buses to Otavalo, Ecuador. We arrived after about about 4 or 5 hours of travel.... This is a picture of the market! This was an indigenous market...Kichua or Quechua

This is the hostel we stayed at...the bed was rock hard, but it was nice! $6 bucks!

I will post more stuff soon...It's late! When I got back from the bus about 5:30pm, I just crashed and slept until almost 9:30! I have about 123 pics from this weekend...it was an awesome adventure and Heather and I have spent aome time musing about the trip and the things we have learned. I laso have to add pics and commentary about Friday night, which was a huge college graduation party for Heather's host bro...All that will have to wait until a later date though.

Good night everyone!