How time flies!

Where has the time gone? How is it that I will need to say my final goodbyes in a mere 39 hours? How do I describe what it is like to go places, be with people and realize it may be your last time in that place or with those people? Just a few months ago I was just arriving, nervous about who I would be living with, who would be in my group, and if I would be able to find a good church family. Looking back I wonder why I ever bother worrying... God is pretty good at taking care of me. Yesterday at church the pastor had me come to the front of the church as everyone said a prayer of blessing over me. At my church here everyone prays out loud at the same time... how humbling it was to hear the voices of many praying for ME! I leave Wednesday early evening to head for Peru where I will reunite with Dano and Tara and do a bit of traveling before arriving in Dulles January 22. As much as I will miss my dear friends here in Ecuador, I equally find myself eagerly anticipating seeing my friends and family in the States as well, however for now I hope to fully enjoy the present!

Giving Thanks....

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

Oh how much I have to be thankful for this thanksgiving season! In many ways it doesn't feel like thanksgiving at all since thanksgiving is not an Ecuadorian holiday. I have classes tomorrow on Thanksgiving Day. I won't be partaking in sweet potatoes, turkey or pumpkin pie. I won't be spending time with my family. There are no pumpkins or capricorns, or that brisk fall air and the crunch of leaves under foot. But in some ways the absence of all things "thanksgivingy" have made this thanksgiving particularly meaningful for me. I have been reminded to give thanks in all seasons not just when we have a giant feast in front of us and are surrounded by loved ones. This Thanksgiving I have a second family to be incredibly thankful for, I have seen more than many will every see or experience in their lives, I have learned so much (most of which wasn't during classes!), I have been lifted up in prayer and supported by so many people, and my Lord has been faithful; pouring out his love, mercy, and truth on me. This Thanksgiving I enter his courts with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise! I am thankful and bless His name, for the Lord is GOOD! His mercy is everlasting and his truth endures for ever! Not every moment here in Ecuador has been fine and dandy... there have been hard times too, but he has been faithful through it all and has richly blessed me through the good times and the hard times!

Now for a look at some of those things I am thankful for:

I went to a boarding High School in Yachana (in the Jungle) 2 weeks ago with the director of my program and one other lady to lead theater workshops. This picture is looking from the main shelter where we lead the workshops to the girls dorm. I really enjoyed my time at Yachana despite having to get up early enough to eat breakfast at 5:30 am with all the students (coffee not included). Before leaving Quito I had just reached a point where I was feeling worn down from city life and was struggling with missing family and friends back home. Yachana offered me a place for rejuvenation physically, mentally, and spiritually. One highlight for me was one night when I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain pounding down on the tin roof above my head and thunder crashing and the lightning turning the pitch black night into day. I stepped onto the porch and rested in the power of my God.

One night some of the students went to the nearby tourist lodge and performed a traditional dance. Afterwards we went to the bar where we were all served fruit milkshakes (Batidos) : )

I really enjoyed working with the kids. It was fun to see them develop even in the few times we met with each group! We had 4 groups total, above is 2 of the groups combined the last day we were there.



I am also very thankful for my brother Oscar. Last Saturday he accompanied me up the TeleferiQo (cable car that takes you up the mountain on the west side of Quito) in the rain and hail. The elevation at the top of the TeleferiQo is about double that of Quito and it was cold! We tried to stay semi dry huddled under an umbrella as we jumped over puddles and seeing glimpses of Quito through the clouds :)



We also had to take some jumping pictures while we were there :)



Later that day I went to the mall with a bunch of my friends from church where we were greeted by lots of Christmas Decorations including a giant Christmas tree. I decided we had to stop and take a picture!



The following day I went with my group to a crater lake: Quilatoa. The views were spectacular and I had a wonderful time with my friends from the program. And here I am met with another blessing; friends in my program!



Some of us hiked down to the lake.



And here we are met with another blessing: my director Daniel. He is always a phone call away if we are every in trouble or have a question. He has provided us with high levels of entertainment through his story telling on long bus rides, and he has opened up his home for group discussions on issues we have faced during our time here. He is continually challenging us to reflect and learn from our experiences both good and bad here. In addition, he has taken the time to show us some of the not so pretty parts of Ecuador, the parts where tourists don't go and many of the upper class Ecuadorians avoid as well.



While in Quilatoa we were each given some money we had to spend in the community. One of my purchases was this wooden nativity.... Christmas decorating complete! But more importantly this symbolizes what I am most grateful for this thanksgiving season... the love of my Father who sent his son to be born in a manger, live among humanity, suffer, die, and ultimately rise again so that we might one day live with Him!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Silent Night

Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright... another day is coming to a close and I am left sitting in my room sipping a cup of tea and reflecting on my day, my life in Ecuador, and the time I have left before I leave Ecuador (1 month 6 days). I decided since I am not in the states I didn't have to wait until thanksgiving to listen to Christmas music so I am currently also enjoying Josh Groban's Christmas album Noel for those interested : ) The last two weeks have been quite busy! I welcomed in the month of November on the beaches of the Galapagos Islands. It was actually cloudy most of the time and quite chilly. I left Quito with my program on October 29 and returned November 3rd. Since recounting my whole trip would be quite time consuming here are a few highlights:

1. Cliff Jumping



2. Walking through lava tunnels.



3. Hanging out with really large turtles... I even got to see solitary George. (The turtle shown above is not solitary George)

4. Laughing with Friends

5. Aquatic Iguanas



6. Lobo Marinos (Sea Wolves) aka Sea Lions... I got to swim with these guys!



7. The Chiva... our mode of transportation while on Isla Isabela.



8. Volcanic craters and lava fields. One day we hiked to some craters and lava fields. It was like another world up there looking over and walking on the lava fields.

9. Visiting a hospital on the Galapagos. While strolling the beach in the shallow water I felt something soft and squishy and moving underfoot. I quickly jumped and on my way back down landed on something hard and sharp which left 5 nice cuts on the bottom of my foot. I visited the little hospital on Isabella which was right beside our hostal where they cleaned and wrapped my foot. Our conclusion is that I either stepped on a manta ray or on a puffer fish. Definitely a memory maker!



10. & 11. I got to see Blue Footed Boobies AND Penguins!




12. Spending time in the lanchas! We split into 4 boats to go out to our different snorkling locations and visit some of the smaller islands.



13. Los Túneles. I think this place was my favorite of all the places we visited in the Galapagos. The scenery was stunning! Arches and all sorts of other rock formations sticking out of the water, turtles and sea lions swimming below. We also got to go snorkeling here.



14. Drinking hot chocolate on a chilly evening on the beach.



15. Watching a stunning sunrise as we said goodbye to the galapagos in a lancha on our way to the airport.

Since returning I have been kept busy with the day to day work of classes, homework and teaching English. This weekend I will once again venture out of Quito. This time, however, I will not be heading west to the Galapagos but rather east to the jungle. I will be leaving early friday (tomorrow) morning and returning on Monday. I will be going with the director of my program and one other lady to lead theater workshops at a boarding high school in Yachana. I am really looking forward to interacting with the students while continuing to build my experience and knowledge of both teaching and theater!

However in the midst of my traveling and adventures I relish the chance to spend an evening relaxing in my room reflecting on my experiences and the grandness of my savior! As I have been listening to Christmas music recently I have been particularly thinking about how incredible it is that the God who created the galapagos and jungle, and turtles and Penguins valued me enough to come to earth in order to save me! Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright... my savior was born!

A Day in my Life

Well, I have another update half written but today decided that that update could wait a little longer. I decided to just share with you what I did today. Today was a fairly typical day for me, I hope this post helps give you an idea of the many little defeats and triumphs that make up a day for me. So without further delay I now present, "A Day in the Life of Risa Heatwole."

6:30am- alarm goes off and I think to myself, "Ugh I have to get up and do homework and write a lesson plan for later today!" After deciding that my homework wasn't that critical I decided to snooze my alarm for about 20 minutes. I woke up feeling much more refreshed after my 20 extra minutes of sleep. Normally I would head straight for the shower but this morning I decided to take a little time to read my Bible in bed. During my time here in Ecuador I have found myself keep coming back to Isaiah 33:2 "O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress." As I have struggled to learn the language I find myself in a large need for grace and knowing the amount of work I needed to get done in the next 2 days and how little time I had, this once again was my prayer.

8:45am-After showering, working on homework, and coming up with a lesson plan, I made my way to the breakfast table where I was greated by a bowl of bananas and papaya, a cup of instant coffee, two tortillas de trego, one tortilla de maiz, my mom, and my brother.

9:20- I am headed out the door wondering how even when I plan on leaving my house a little early I am running a little late. I catch my two buses to school and take the time along the way to marvel at the beauty of this place I am living! Today was a very clear day meaning there was a spectacular view of two snow capped volcanoes (Cotapaxi and Cayambe) on my way to school.

9:50 am- Yes! I arrived to campus 10 minutes before class so I will have just enough time to print off my paper for my class. The paper was actually due on Monday and I had emailed my prof my paper but she said she would like a hard copy and I could give it to her on Wed. Tuesday (yesterday) I took my original paper to my Spanish tutor and spent my whole time correcting my 4 pages of Spanish writing. Lets just say by the fourth page I was pretty sure whatever language I had been speaking surely couldn't be Spanish because of all the mistakes there were! So today I printed a copy of my original and of my corrected version and took it to my teacher. The original because that is what I had done on Monday and the corrected one because... well it was a lot better and a lot easier to read! After all that work I put into correcting my paper my teacher didn't even take the corrected version! Talk about a feeling of defeat as I handed that paper to my professor that I know was just full of mistakes.

11:00 am- 2:00 pm- Cooking class... cook and eat... a good class all in all although I did manage to get a small chastisement because I forgot to wear closed toed shoes this morning.

2:30 pm- Catch the bus to Lumbisi where I teach English. As I walk down the street to the school I am gradually joined by more and more of my students on their way to class.

3:00 pm- Class begins. The kids were really good today. They were paying attention and were both involved and excited about the activities I had planned. Towards the end of class I needed to take a phone call so I had another volunteer watch the class as I stepped outside. As I walked out the door I saw two small boys maybe about 5 years old each having a fist fight in the street. I yelled for them to stop as I ran towards them. As I was making sure the boy losing the fight was ok the other boy ran away. I walked the one boy to his house and talked briefly with his mom before returning to the school. We now enter "Recreo" this includes time for homework help, arts and crafts, sports, boardgames, puzzle, and general playing. Today for me it meant pushing kids on swings, getting chased and then tickled by a bunch of kids and then laying in the grass looking for animals in the clouds with the kids, as well as hanging up some string in the classroom where I can now hang up the kids' work with clothes pins.

5:00 pm- Walk some of the kids home, some of the kids walk me to the bus stop. The bus only leaves every 15 minutes and just as we were getting close the bus was pulling out so we (another volunteer and I) had to run for the bus... I am glad to say that we successfully caught the bus. On the way home as I went over all the many things I need to get done (including updating this!) in the next two days I looked out the window and saw the sun setting behind the Andean Mountains. My breath was taken away by the majesty of the view, what a mighty God I serve!

6:00 pm- Arrive home just as some of my cousins are arriving. As I get ready to start my mound of homework my little cousin asks if I can help her with her homework... I helped my cousin until dinner. During dinner I struggle to concentrate on the conversation and using decent Spanish grammar as I had a headache. After dinner, feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the homework I have yet to do, I holed myself up in my room and started working on minimizing my mountain of work to a hill.

Now here I am at 11:00 pm with my to do list somewhere between mountain and hill size and I find myself saying Lord, Thank you for being gracious to me today, Thank you for being my strength this morning, my salvation during times of distress today! Lord, Tomorrow be gracious to me: I long for you. Be my strength tomorrow morning, my salvation in times of distress!.

FAMILY VISIT! ....and the president is kidnapped

Well this blog is a long time in coming but here it is. The end of September and beginning of October were filled with action here in Ecuador. My brother and Sister in law, Dano and Tara, came to visit me for a week. They were planning on arriving on Tuesday however due to complications they weren't able to arrive until Wednesday afternoon. It is a good thing they arrived when they did because on Thursday September 30 transportation in the country became a bit crazy. Thursday morning we heard on the news that the police were holding a protest and none of them were going to work. A bill had just been passed that would prohibit the police from getting bonuses and make it harder to receive raises. We also heard the president give a rousing address to the police. Without much more thought we headed to the University. I was going to show Dano and Tara the University as well as take them with me when I went to teach English. Well my nice tidy plans for the day changed drastically! After being at the University for about an hour or so we heard that the protest had gotten a bit out of hand and the police had kidnapped the president! National students were told to go home while international students were not allowed to leave for another hour or two. Because there was no police presence there was some looting taking place, a couple banks were robbed, people were burning tires in the middle of the roads shutting down a lot of transportation and the airports had closed. After assessing the situation the international program director told us all to go straight home and stay there until further notice. (The buses we would need to get to our homes were still running fine.) Dano, Tara, and I returned to our house where we watched the news for a majority of the evening. My house is about a 20 or 30 minute bus ride from where the main action was taking place. In the evening the Military sent a team in to rescue the president from the Police. There was about a 20 minute gun battle (which my director could hear from his house!) which resulted in a successful rescue of President Correa. The following day there was no school but otherwise things were back to normal in Quito.

Now for a few photos of my time with Dano and Tara...



Dano and I singing hymns behind the doghouse on my roof overlooking quito :) It was so good to have someone to sing hymns with... my church here doesn't sing hymns.

Another friend Sean Fabling joined us for a couple days. While all three where here I took them to Mitad del mundo where we had a gorgeous view of Cayambe from the equator!



On our way we stopped in Quinche and visited a Cathedral that I had visited on a class trip. It was fun to show them places that I new at least a little bit about. In this Cathedral there is a sculpture of the virgin which is very well known here in Ecuador.



Before Sean arrived Dano, Tara and I took a paseo to Shell, Ecuador. On the way I got to introduce Dano and Tara to Ecuadorian Icecream. With flavors like avacado, Coconut, and rasberry it is hard to go wrong!




While in Shell we visited the Nate Saint Memorial School. In the library/ main gathering room there was a memorial to Nate Saint and the 4 other missionaries working in Shell who were killed in 1956. We also got to see the current planes MAF is flying and talk to one of the mechanics about what the organization is doing currently.



We also had the opportunity to meet and fellowship with current missionaries, the Umbles. Randy Umble in the nephew of Allen Umble who used to attend my church and who was serving in Albania as a missionary at the same time my Grandparents were working there. In the afternoon Randy and his family took us to the dike to cool off a bit! What Fun!

Classes

For the past 4 semesters I have been filling my schedule as full as I could with 19 or 20 credits a semester.... for what? I invite you to look below and find a few reasons my semesters at Bridgewater College have been a bit crazy up until this point!

Reason #1
Tejido (Weaving)


I am taking a basic weaving class. This is my uncompleted first weaving where I was learning the basic techniques.

Reason #2
Andinismo (Trecking/Hiking)


One of the requirements for my Andinismo class is that I go on three weekend "paseos" or hikes. I went on my first hike the other weekend to a dormant volcano named Cerra Puntas. The picture on the left is our campsite (bottom right corner) while the other picture is myself with Cerra Puntas (The pointy looking mountains) in the background. We left on Saturday morning and arrived at our campsite just as it was starting to pitch down the rain. Later that night we watched a lightning storm, saw some incredible stars, and drank cinnamon tea. The following morning we walked to the base of Cerra Puntas. To actually climb the points you have to have rock climbing equipment which we did not have.

Reason #3
Alta Cocina 3 (Spanish and South American Cooking)


First thing I had to do for this class was buy a uniform which includes a hat, jacket, apron, towel, and black and white checkered pants. Second thing I had to do was buy a large chefs knife. I have this class once a week for 3 hours. For the first 2 hours or so we split into groups, are given recipes, and cook. For the last hour we get to "probar" or taste everything. This past week the main focus was meets. We cooked a pig, cow tail, rabbit (my group made the rabbit and the recipe included chocolate so you know it was good!), lima bean salad with sausage slices, eggplant, zucchini, asparagus, stuffed peppers, and some flan to finish it off! I am the only non ecuadorian in the class so I have really enjoyed getting to know the other students. In addition they are all like legit cooking students so will give me pointers on the best way to cut things up or how to wield my large knife :)

Reason #4
My Internship (Teaching English)



I am working in the small town of Lumbisi which is a 20 cent and 15 minute bus ride from my University at an afterschool program 3 days a week. Life teaching English in Lumbisi is never dull! The first day we had about 10 -15 students. That number has steadily increased until now we have 30-40 students in a day and have had to say we will not take any more kids. For the first week and a half we had one room, not enough chairs, very few resources, and were told to create our own curriculum. Nothing like being thrown right into things! We also had a bathroom door that was broken so it wasn't uncommon for children to get stuck in the bathroom during class. Now we have gained access to another room, enough chairs, are gaining access to a few more resources, and are getting the bathroom door fixed! The ages of the kids range from 4-14. I have been teaching the younger group which is about 15-20 4-9 year olds. Many of the kids are eager to learn and it is so fun to watch their faces as they struggle to remember how to say something and come up with the right words. Although I technically am the teacher many times it feels like they are my teachers as they help me as I struggle to find the spanish words I need during class. The program is 2 hours long, the first is English class while the second hour we help students with homework as well as have games available. Not every day is good but on those days I remember something my friend once told me, "Courage does not always roar, sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I will try again tomorrow." On those days when things don't go well, if the others on the bus on my way home listened carefully they would hear me under my breath saying, "I will try again tomorrow." Some days the kids will walk with me to the bus station and as the bus pulls out they all wave and yell "Goodbye Teacher" I open my window and yell Goodbye back to them. I get quite the looks from the other passengers on the bus when this ritual occurs but I just smile and think of the smiles on the faces of my students.

My Address

I have had several people asking what my mailing address is here in Ecuador so I figured I would post it on here. You can send any snail mail to:

Risa Heatwole
c/o BCA Quito
Casilla 17-22-20164
Quito, Ecuador

I love mail! I just got my first mail yesterday. I wasn't feeling the best and was trying to rest a little bit before my internship when one of my friends told me I had mail in the international office. While it didn't completely make me feel back to 100% health wise it sure did improve the afternoon!