Cow feet, chilly weather, and a revelation or two

South America is breath-takingly beautiful. Let me describe my bus trip from Bogota, Colombia to Quito, Ecuador to give you a glimpse at what we encountered. Rolling green hills, lush open fields, staggeringly tall mountains and dramatic river gorges all were typical sights on our monstrous 30 hour bus ride. Truthfully the landscapes were incredible and made the uncomfortable reality of traveling by bus very worthwhile.

 

Ooops let me backtrack a little bit. When I last left off we were in Panama. After a interesting water drought and a relaxing stay with the Hubbards we made our plans to travel to Colombia. Before our flight we got to spend some time with a few local pastors which has left me excited about future possibilities in panama.

 

Now let me be honest, I was hesitant before we left on this trip about the prospect of traveling to Colombia. And while I was confident in the decision we made to go ahead and go there I still did not know what to expect. Well now that we've gone and left I can tell you this. Colombia made me a believer :) it is definitely in my top 3 countries thus far and possibly number one, but I'll reserve my opinions til the very end.

 

One day in Bogota we came across a man who was asking for money. This is not an uncommon experience, but for some reason it struck a chord in me. The hard truth I've realized on this trip is that the need everywhere is overwhelming. Poverty is not an issue one takes on lightly and for me it's been difficult to grasp how to deal with it. Then I realized I can't change the world. It's too big. What I can do is meet people where they are and truly care about them. The sad thing is how often do my own prejudices get in the way and keep me from connecting with people.

 

I think I'm too self conscious. It's too easy to shrug off people when I'm consumed by my own life. This one man, who I randomly ran into will never know the depth of insight he forced me to deal with. I, and I don't believe I'm too bold in saying we aren't built to live for ourselves. It doesn't work. I believe the more we strive to live as a community and less as an individual the more whole we will be.

 

The comforts of home are so alluring when I'm faced with the tough task of dealing with the flaws buried deep within. Running is too easy. Confronting is so not in my personality, but growth depends on it.

 

That's enough abstract-ness.

 

Cows feet are repulsive. No offense to those who enjoy it (elias) but truthfully I doubt I've ever been more repulsed by a plate of food put in front of me. Luckily colombia made up for it in the next few days.. Seriously it had hair on it. How I ask am I to eat this?

 

Hmmm me and jordan attracted quite a lot of curious looks with our dollar store sticky ball game in the airport. Great time. GREAT time.

 

Back to the present.

 

I bought some sour candy today. Yes please. Love it. And we climbed a mountain. Astonishing. Well we took a cable car a lot of the way, but we did hike quite a bit :) I love mountains ugh. !!!!!!!

 

Well dans exchange student friend has been extremely welcoming and his family is sooo nice. Ecuador is seriously scoring points with it's people, mountains haha, and climate. I'm looking forward to our time here and going out to banos, puyo and tena in the next few days to see and find people and places we can help.

 

Ecuador may trump the other countries, but we'll see (;

 

I miss free refills, english haha, and all of my friends and family.

 

Adios