My Leap of Faith: February 2012

So it's going to be a quickie but I have a few minutes and that is better than nothing, right??

So to fill everyone in a bit, back before Christmas I gained a new job with Rostro! I am now the Logistics Coordinator (LC) which basically means that I run the retreat group program in-country. I am in charge of putting together their schedules, supporting my fellow volunteers as they lead the groups, being the go-to point person and a whole bunch of other behind-the-scenes stuff. I was really able to dive in head-first as we had 4 amazing groups in the month of January. Talk about trial by fire! Through sick retreatants, last minute schedule changes, the rainy seasons (hello mud and power outages!) and having to stretch cars, it all went really well!! Huge shout-out to my fellow vols: without their awesome support and flexibility, it never would have happened. Thanks also to our groups! Assumption College, Boston College, Cabrini College and Manhattan College! I cannot believe is has already been a month (or more) since you were here! Since then, we have had two more groups (Woo! St. John´s HS and St. John´s Prep!) and Villanova heads down in just 5 days.

I am really loving my new job. I am finally able to use (and benefit from) my Type A personality rather than just get frustrated by how un-Type A Ecuador usually is :) I have joked with my housemates that it is like I am doing logic puzzles as I fit together schedules and plan things out. Yay brain workouts! Haha. I have also enjoyed the extra exposure I get with the groups (the people who come down are so cool!! and have sweet fresh perspectives) and all the extra time in Duran with the other RdC houses and meeting their neighbors.
So many perks, there has to be a downside, right? Well, there is...I now have two jobs, neither of which is in my community. So I am seriously missing out on neighborhood time. I am hoping that once I really get LC down to a science that will help, but it is still hard. I really miss my neighbors!!

The holidays were an AMAZING time here and I feel like they deserve their own blog or two. I am blessed to have been raised in a family where the materialistic part of Christmas was never the important part, so having an Ecua-Christmas with no gifts or much for spectacles didn´t really bother me much. The awesome thing was not how unfocused it was on gifts and show but rather how focused it was on the coming of Christ. I truly celebrated Advent for the first time (before my senior year of college - thank you Ann! - I had no idea Advent was a religious term...I only associated it with the calendars with chocolate!) and enjoyed keeping God´s Gift at the center of the holiday. We did Posadas, a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay in Bethlehem, for the 9 nights leading to Christmas and it was my favorite new tradition. I hope to bring it home in some form. We had 3 Christmas Eve Masses (6pm, 8pm and 10pm). It was a long night but so beautiful and fun to spend that time with friends and our Ecua-family, doing Nativity plays (I was a shepherd...how appropriate!) and revelling in how blessed we were.
New Year´s Eve was a lot of fun, salsa dancing at one neighbor´s house before running to another one for the burning of the año viejo (a ´doll´ made to represent the old year), looking up and down the streets and seeing huge fires every 20 feet or so (and praying for all the cane houses), eating 12 grapes in the 12 chimes striking midnight for good luck and watching the fireworks light up the sky before sitting down to a 1am meal where we toast each other and cry as we look around and realize we are with family.

Had a wonderful retreat led by an RdC Alum, Colie, a few weeks ago that was just what a lot of us needed. God really affirmed me in the path that I am on and encouraged me to now address some areas of my life that I have never seemed to give over to Him. It had been on my heart for a few weeks prior and Colie´s sessions and material really brought it all out in the open for my eyes to really see and ears to really hear. So I am looking forward to spending some quality time with God and myself, working through those things. <3

Health has still been a rollercoaster! I got tested at the end of January to find out I had Giardia and Amoebas (again) and Giant Roundworm! Wahoo...no wonder my stomach wasn´t happy! Finally got rid of those and was feeling the healthiest I have since August when I got a high fever last Saturday and was wiped out with a potent viral infection. Gah! Ecuador always wins. So I am just now on the up from that and am hoping I have finally turned the corner and can be relatively healthy from here on out :) As always, prayers for our bodies and health down here are always appreciated!

So there is a brief wrap-up. Please write if you want to hear more about specific things! I don´t have much time at the Cyber but sitting at home in the evenings provides space to write letters :)

Miss you all and thank you so much for your support, in reading this blog, sending me letters/packages and most importantly, in prayer!! Please let me know if I can be praying for you in any way.

Oh, and shameless plug: Rostro is accepting applications NOW for year-long volunteers. If anything you have read here appeals to you, check out their website, the application and ask whatever questions you have!!!! www.rostrodecristo.org