Day 1 in Ecuador

If you read my last blog, you are probably surprised that I am posting one tonight. Turns out, Dale and I were not able to go to the rainforest tonight. I'll expound on that later.

We started off the day by waking up at 6:00 am to greet and meet more interns that were coming from the coast of Ecuador. These interns had started training on May 17th, but due to my busy schedule this summer, I decided not to attend most of the training.The rest of the morning I was able to talk to many of the new interns and start to build relationships. Many of them shared about the previous experiences they had in Colombia and Peru and hearing these experiences was exciting but also made me regret not doing the training. Nevertheless I am trying to constantly remember that God had this whole summer planned to his perfection, even if it may go against my wishes.

Later in the day, all of the interns made their way to the jungle around 1:30 pm but Dale and I stayed behind in order to practice with the Cumbre Alta soccer team that we will be with a lot this summer. This was initially another disappointment but also another opportunity to step back and trust that God's will is being done.

After the interns left, Dale and I had some free time to ourselves. Dale started to teach me how to play guitar and I actually started to get the hang of it and really enjoyed it. We also went for a walk around la Casablanca before heading off to our practice at 7:30 pm. We had quite the adventure trying to get to the practice, which was actually at Alliance Academy (where we stayed last year). Gustavo, a helper at la Casablanca, told us to take the bus with very vague directions. So we took the bus and ended up getting off at a big bus station where we thought we were completely lost. After asking for help from some natives, who informed us that we were very far away, we decided to


take the trolley in hopes that it would get us closer to the field. It turned out that the field was the very first stop for the trolley and was actually very close to the bus station. God provides time and time again.

Soccer practice with Cumbre Alta was a blast. We were able to introduce ourselves and start to meet some of the players. Finding out that some of the players spoke some English lifted my spirits as it will be easier to build relationships with them. However, it is still amazing to see how soccer can bring together people who speak all different languages. Keep praying that God would work through the language barrier and that I would continue to work hard at my Spanish.

The first day of many days to come is over. Thanks for checking in for another day and if you have any questions feel free to comment and ask them!

Dios Bendiga,
Nich