I sadly would like to inform everyone that I am no longer in Ecuador. It was not my choice to leave. I wanted to stay and my heart is still in Ecuador. I am so sad, depressed, hurt, confused and upset about all this, but there was nothing I could do to prevent my departure. The details of my situation are complicated and rather personal so I am not going to post them on the blog. For those of you who were on my email list about the blog you should have received an email from me explaining the situation. If you did not receive this email or you would like to know the rest of the story about this feel free to email me.
I am very grateful for the time I had in Ecuador – it was so life-giving and I loved the people and my experiences. Although the last month has been very hard, it has also included a lot of joyous moments and great experiences. I had a lot of great neighbor visits, mornings with Hansen Disease patients, fun times with the kids at Valdivia (we recently had a 10th year anniversary party with lots of fun games and prizes for the kids), two different Quinceañera parties (a 15th birthday party for girls that seems more like a wedding), interesting spirituality nights, fun community nights with my housemates, and lots of small joys on a daily basis. I also started my English classes which were going really well. I was teaching English to adults so all of my students wanted to be there and they were eager to learn. I had become friends with all of them too. All these great experiences are why it’s so hard for me to not be there right now. I had so many hopes for the year. I had been looking forward to doing a year of service for so long. It’s really hard to let go, and I still don’t understand why it had to happen like this, but I’m trusting God that it happened for a reason and it is apart of His plan for me.
For those of you who donated to Rostro de Cristo I want to thank you again for making donations. Although I am no longer in Ecuador, your money is still going towards a good cause and it is helping all the people I fell in love with during my two months in Ecuador. The need in Arbolito is significant and your donations are helping to lessen their suffering. If the news of my departure has caused you for some reason to no longer want to support RdC, please let me know so I can try to contact the US office to figure something out about your donation.
I will hopefully send out some other updates in the next couple of months to let you know how I am doing and to let you know when I figure out what my next endeavor will be. I want to thank you all for following my blog and for supporting me through the last several months. I appreciate it.
Also, I posted a lot more photos on my blog so check those out.
