We just arrived in Shell Mera not more than an hour ago! I spent the past several days in Florida doing “orientation”, during which we learned about ITEC and got to meet the two other American interns. Although we did learn a good deal about ITEC, we did not learn too much about what we’ll be doing here. Jaime Saint (Nate Saint’s grandson) left the details intentionally ambiguous to help us to learn to be flexible. I had a great conversation with Tim Leavitt on the phone on Thursday night just outside of the house we were staying in, only to return inside to have my first run-in with the feared insects. As I turned the corner from the kitchen, a small scorpion greeted me; I think God was beginning to prepare me for the bugs here. After our time in Florida, ITEC employee Austin drove us to Miami airport where I had my first legitimate Spanish conversation with an Ecuadorian woman going to visit her mother.
We took off for Quito at 4 in the afternoon yesterday. After a four hour flight, we landed in Quito at 7:15 pm yesterday evening (Quito is an hour behind the east coast of the U.S.). We stayed in a guest house for missionaries in Quito; the other male intern Boice and I tried to do pushups at 9,000 ft., only to be out of breath very quickly. After a good night’s sleep, we began the five hour trip to Shell through the Andes mountains. Galo, the ITEC director in Ecuador, picked us up with his wife and baby early this morning to begin the drive. We wove through the Andes mountains, occasionally through a few towns and tunnels as we descended to Shell.
In the time we’ve been here, which has been rather short, I’ve been able to talk to several folks, including Galo and his wife, in Spanish, which is a very fun and interesting challenge. Galo mentioned a few other things we might be involved with, which all sound very exciting. He said that we’ll all be taking a few chiropractic classes and then assisting some elderly folks at a nursing home. When I mentioned my interest in medicine, Galo said that it’s possible that I could have the opportunity to volunteer at the hospital here!
Please be praying for Boice, Sandi, and I as we begin our stay in Ecuador and become acclimated to the culture and figure out our roles here at ITEC Ecuador. Check out the pictures below. ¡Ciao!
