Wednesday, August 4, 2010

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

I´ve been in Ecuador for almost 6 days now and we still have another week and a half of orientation so I wouldn´t say we´re exactly settled yet, but things are starting to look familiar and the current volunteers are doing an excellent job showing us around. For now the 5 of us who will live in Monte Sinai are staying in the retreat house in AJS while the volunteers who will live in the Duran communities arrived a couple days ago and are all staying in the Arbolito retreat house, only a short drive away from us.

The first few days in Ecuador were extremely busy as the visas for Tracy, Carolyn, Amy and Danny were running out so they only had a few days to teach us all they had learned about Monte Sinai. There aren´t enough words to express how incredibly grateful we all are for the work they have done all so that we could live in a house that should have been theirs for the past year. They had a tough year but still welcomed us graciously and showed us around as they watched the finishing touches be put on our new house. While I only have a few minutes now there´s no way I can do that story justice so I will leave it like that for now.

In an attempt to not make this blog look like my study abroad blog I will end with this. These past few days have been exciting but hard. The heat the first few days was extreme, making us all the more tired as we tried to learn about our new neighborhood. Luckily it has cooled down a little and we are getting into more of a routine. Still, orientation is tough because it is an in between time. On the other hand, it´s totally necessary because we have so much to learn. Saying bye to the second years the other night was hard because now it is all up to us in Monte Sinai. For the past 2 or 3 months we have been saying lots of goodbyes...graduation, family, friends, our new friends at BC from JVI, the second years and now the rest of the volunteers. They are saying bye to the friends and family they have had over the past year, a place they have come to see as home. Beyond all these goodbyes, we say hello to a place we will undoubtedly call home at some point in the next year.

Hasta el proximo!

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