Dios es Amor

For those of you who don´t ¨habla espanol¨ Dios es Amor means that God is love. And that is what I have found here in Duran.

I arrived in Ecuador on August 4th and we made a wonderful trip in the airport, buying up all last minute goodies that we knew we would go without for a whole year, chocolates, skittles, and yes, our last American beer. We arrived at night, the hazy lights of the city aglow and alert as we paraded our way through the dusty roads to what would become our new home. The volunteers from the past year were still in their houses we when we arrived, and for this, we acted as retreatants for the week, staying in the retreat house. We got to tour around the city, meet the neighbors, and learn how to use bottled water to brush our teeth and wash our face and cook all our food. Not as easy as you think.

The poverty here has struck me a new level. Not necessarily deeper, but perphaps more real. To give you a picture of where I live, most of the people in our neighborhood live in cane houses, containing 1 room, a shared bed and no running water. We are the exception to the rule, which can be an uncomfortable desparity to live with most days. We have a concrete house, with 8 spacious bedrooms and a large chapel area and common space. We also exist in the reality of a guarded fence, an armed guard and 2 watch dogs. Typical Ecuadorians? No.

The children in our street are beautiful, they immediatley knew our names and call to us everytime that we pass them in the streets. Most days I feel famous.

After a 2 week process of discerning our vocational callings, I felt God´s hand lead me to a place I never though I would be; a hospital. I will be working as a caseworker in the Children´s Hospital in downtown Guayaquil, a city of approx 3 million people, in the infectious disease ward, primarily with children who have been diagnosed with HIV. I have a lot to learn. Today is only my second day and already I have my first client, and a slew of beautiful children with whom I practice poor spanish on and use every facial expression in the book. One young child is 4 years old and has restricted body movement and we play ¨hormigas¨, or ants. I make my hand into creeping ants and sneak up on him and he squeals in delight as I make the ants crawl over his belly. It brings my heart joy.

I have felt much peace here, which surpirses me. In some ways I feel that I moved next door, into a world that is different but not so far away from home. I believe that it will be hard to leave this place I am starting to sink into.

To continue, I work at the hospital in the morning and then in the afternoon Rostro de Cristo runs afterschool programs in the area, so I, along with 2 of my roomies, run an educational/ developmental program for youth ages 4 to 18. Some days we have 20 kids, others there can be as many as 75. It is a little crazy, like yesterday when I tried to teach them Simon says and my bad spanish confused everyone because I was giving out wrong commands and then trying to tell kids they had to sit down? I prayed for humility and God has most certainly delivered.

I think more than anything, I feel free here, opened up to the idea of community and family and love in all things, seeing people share and give all that they have has broken pieces inside of me I didn´t know were so rigid and closed. God has been walking with me so clearly, I realize that if I came here for nothing else, it is Oneness with Him.

Thank you for all your prayers, and I will try to update you as often as I can on my adventures.
Your prayers are lovely and so much needed. I have felt them already. Praise the Lord.

xo colie

¨So to live is true wisdom.¨ -Thomas Merton