Ecuador- Dreams, family meals, and concerts

6-11

I did not sleep well at all last night. I  couldn't stay comfortable for long. My sunburn forced me to lay on my belly and face. I kept waking up every few hours and my pinky and ring fingers would be asleep from the way I was folding my arms.  Once I finally got going today, I was happy. We met up in Nigeria with Pastor Caluca (sp?). He told us that he would be out of town tomorrow and asked if one of us would preach. We assured him that one of us would teach.  We then went on for house visits. Sheri and I went with the pastor and  Eric. We took alot of blood pressures. We saw two pregnant women and were concerned to find that their blood pressures were very high for anyone let alone a pregnant woman. We also stopped by and visited the woman with the Conjestive heart failure. Her entire face lit up when she saw us.  She had been improving which was so encouraging to see. The pastor also took time to pray with her and encourage her.
After a few more houses the pastor decided a break was in order. We all headed back to the Nigeria church and sat around as he asked us questions about our families, or dreams, our thoughts. I have been so confused and torn since being here that my answer was not a very good one. All I could tell him was that I want to do what Jesus did.
  Then he told us his dreams, and the story of how he met his wife. It was so cute. He is a very energetic and expressive guy and his wife is very quiet and meek. It was cute to hear him talk about how he tried to win her over.
If you ever get the chance, it is worth listening to a Latino man talk about how he met his wife. The passion that these men have is crazy. it is always one of those "I saw her, had to have her, pursued her tirelessly until I got her." kind of stories.

After our rest we headed to the house of the man who was our driver. He has such a sweet spirit and it was obvious that his heart was very wrapped up in working with us. Sometimes he would walk around Nigeria with us just because.
He had invited us to eat dinner with his family. So the large group of us all invaded his house, and naturally a bunch of his relatives showed up also to meet us.  We were served a huge plate of pollo, a huge helping of arroz, and an advacado which I passed on to someone else to eat.
I felt like I could pass out at the end of this meal.
We then did check ups on the family. The whole family, including the relatives who had stopped by. The whole family had such beautiful spirits. We then prayed with the family before leaving.
I was bordering on a food coma and fighting with everything in me just to stay awake.

There was a reggatone concert at the church tonight that one of our friends performances and he invited us. Not like it would be easy to miss considering we live there, but still he made it very clear that he wanted us there.  US girls sat in the blacony and watched the sanctuary fill up with students. Andres found us and I went downstairs with him to be with the excited youth.  He tried to get me to dance but I lack the confidence to completely let loose, not to mention I was still exhausted.

I did dance though, and talk with Andres. I was surprised to hear him tell me that he may not be able to translate for us the last week. I asked him why but he just said he would tell me later. He never did tell me that night.
I have a feeling my heart is going to break in more ways than one when I leave Ecuador.
Near the end of the concert I met a girl who was so excited to meet me. She said it has been her dream to meet an English speaking girl from the states. She was so excited and started introducing me to al of her friends. I cannot even begin to explain how excited she was,and her excitement made me very excited too! Why do I have to leave this place????

6-12

It is wonderful having our present home filled with people and noise on Sunday mornings. I went down for first service with the rest of the team. After worship I sat with Andres during the sermon while the other girls were doing some sort of preparing.  Right after service we headed out for Nigeria. Jen,Manaal and Andres led worship. They sand a few English songs that were translated to Spanish, then they asked the congregation to teach us some songs. Livre lead some songs and was so passionate about it. It was unbelievable, and way powerful. Jen then spoke. The topic was God using using our weakness to show His strength. Each member of the team also shared a story. I had a story planned, then  after hearing Jen speak I realized that my story needed to change, so I had to wing it. It went very well I think. Jen did a wonderful job and the team all had good things to say. After service we headed back to our Guayaquil home. We ate, took short naps and then returned to Nigeria for house to house visits.  We saw alot of high Blood Pressures. I feel so blessed to be here doing what I am doing.

After our Nigeria visit we prepared dinner and had some good heart to heart talks. In the middle of our talks the phone in the kitchen rings. It was a call telling us that Marlon was ready for us. Marlon was one of the guards who just so happened to have an infected bite on his knee that was full of pus. We, being caring motherlike medics, offered to drian it and dress it for him. We left our prepared food in the kitchen un-eaten and ran downstairs to the patient. Manaal was so sweet and gave Marlon a sucker to keep him calm during the procedure. haha! I'm surprised by how well my stomach did as I cut open the blister and cleaned the pus out. GAG!
When you are in those situations it is different. Like Manaal was explaining to a lady in Nigeria today about EMS work; when you see the injured person you almost don't look at them as a person but as more of a problem that needs to be solved. We drained, cleaned and dressed it nicely for him. We then ran back up the two flights of stairs to our waiting dinner.  Near the end of dinner our phone rings again. It was someone asking us to come down and play soccer.  We decided to go watch but concidering our full tummys none of us were eager to play. We met up with some of our friends at the soccer field next to the church. Checho, Sara, Andres, Marcel, and a handful of other familiar faces. We sat on the bench and watched the game. Manaal was asked to play with a girls team and being the brave girl she is, she played and well at that.  I sat on the bench enoying these wonderful people, thinking to myself that life could not get any better, but it did. A guitar was brought out and the whole group broke out in song. My heart was so happy that I couldn't even sing. My heart felt like it may explode. We sat there for a few hours until Manaal was done playing and people were getting tired.  

Once back in the church we checked on Marlon who had played a bit of soccer in spite of his infected knee. He was really feeling the pain. His knee was throbbing and his body had chills. We kicked back into medic mode and started telling him to ice and elivate his knee, then ran upstairs to get him ibuprofin and ice, then ran back up the stairs
again to get the guys some water.  Finally we got to go to bed and it was WONDEFUL!!!