developing routines and opportunities

i’m quite relieved to say that there has definitely been a let down with regards to last months life threatening activities. february has been a month of getting settled and accustomed to a routine here in Quito. my first month here was primarily focused on meeting my basic needs. this has been my first full month taking Spanish classes and i´m gradually becoming more comfortable speaking and communicating. there are many days that are frustrating because i would love to be able to learn Spanish fluently within a few weeks, but i know that isn´t how things work. however, the motivation to be able to communicate with those around me as fluently as i can in english is my motivation to study every day, so that i can learn as quickly as possible. therefore, for my second month here, i’ve been totally focusing on my spanish and emersing myself in it daily (it often leaves me drained since my brain is constantly working in overtime).

the last few weekends i’ve had the opportunity to travel to several parts of the country and hang out w/ some of Marco’s friends (mine too now)! these trips have been a lot of fun and a great way to take a vaca from school and see some of Ecuador. I’ve been able to visit the outskirts of the jungle and some old traditional town’s, allowing me to see some of the history of Ecuador and the indigenous people that still occupy a large part of the country (unlike the US). also this past sunday i made it to my first Ecuadorian futbol game. i’ve been super excited to see some futbol games since I am living in latin america now!

regarding ministerial type stuff, Marco and I have been really encouraged over the last few weeks by how some opportunities and events are starting to come together! the pastor of the house church that we attend is also the dean of a University in Quito and he also has many connections with other Universities around the city. he offered an open door to come on campus to share with the students about community service projects. we believe this will be an amazing way for us to begin to work on University campuses. hopefully this will also allow us to enter other campuses as well. the pastor also informed us that many of the universities are warming up to the idea of their students participating in community service projects because there is an organization that ranks the Universities across latin america, and one of the criterion they use is the Universities emphasis on community service. additionally, we’ve also had someone approach us about helping the senior students at an english school on their final project which involves creating a company and a business strategy. we believe this would not only allow us to establish great relationship with upcoming University students but also enable us to emphasize ethical business practices. finally for now, in the end of this month we have “twestival” which is a huge event that is promoted by Twitter that encourages awareness for community aid organizations. this will provide a great deal of publicity for IMAGINE and other organizations here in Quito, withe the hopes that community transformation will become part of the mind set here in Ecuador. these are just of few of the upcoming opportunities that we will be focusing on over the next several months.

well as you can see things are not slowing down, but these are exciting times and we’re witnessing things beginning to come together. i’ll try to attach a few pic over the next few days!

Advertisement