First Weekend In Cuenca

Remember Kaitlyn is purple!
Even though we didn’t get into Cuenca until 2pm on the 5^th, and if you read our first post, we were obviously exhausted, we decided to go to the Chinese meeting that night. We were all feeling a little spiritually drained since we had been traveling on the night of our meetings, so we thought a meeting was the best way to feel better!

We live about 10-15 minutes driving away from the hall. It’s too far to walk which means we must take a bus or taxi. That night we went by taxi.(It was my first time ever in a taxi!) Our taxi driver was new, so he wasn’t exactly sure where to go. Thankfully, Steph knew how to get there. (We’ll have to have a post all about transportation down here and it’s quirks.) We got to the hall about five minutes til 8 and the doors were still locked. I’ve come to realize that’s pretty common for meetings here. Most of the group was waiting outside so we got to meet them. The group down here has 9-12 publishers depending on the meeting. The first night there was the 4 of us, 7 of the publishers, and 1 study. One of the publishers is also a study. Progress! ;-)

Being at a Chinese meeting and trying to concentrate was such a mixed bag of emotions for me. It was nice to hear a language that I can actually somewhat understand, yet at the same time my brain was so tired from trying to translate Spanish, it kind of shut down.
Too bad I can’t say I got something out of the meetings we have went to. I have yet to understand anything at the meetings. Just have to do a serious in depth study on your own to understand what they are talking about. Sitting there so far away from home, far away from my friends, and far away from my studies, I had a moment of panic. This is one of the two times I’ve almost cried being here. I am not a crier, so tears even coming to my eyes is a big deal. All I could think is ‘What have I just done!?!’ Thankfully that feeling passed, although it does come back almost every time I sit through the Spanish meeting. Ha!

The meeting was pretty hilarious in itself just because we had no idea what to expect. On Saturdays, the meeting is held in an apartment type room above the main hall. The other Spanish congregation has their meeting Saturday night so we can hear them singing and talking. Also, you can hear dogs on the street and every car that goes by. It was distracting at first, but now we’ve gotten used to it. (The picture to the right is from last time Steph was down here, but it should give you a general idea!)
There is also a huge hole in the ceiling and that’s all I could concentrate on while sitting through the Chinese meeting. So I tried to focus on studying my English Watchtower for the next morning. Have to keep myself occupied somehow, other than looking at a big hole.


It was really nice to be able to meet the friends and talk to the studies. It helped a lot! Just proving our theory that going to the meeting was encouraging. Okay, okay, maybe that’s a scripture, but still! It made us feel better about being so far away from home! After chatting for a while on the street, we caught a taxi and came back to the apartment.

The next morning, we woke up early to head to our Spanish meeting. It starts at 9! Thankfully after sleeping, my brain could understand a bit of what was going on, but it was still very overwhelming. The friends are so sweet and nice down here, It helped a lot to “talk” to them, even though are communication is difficult. I’m trying to learn some phrases I can ask to get to know everyone better. Right now, our congregation has over 100 people! Something surprising I’ve learned is that many Ecuadorians can speak English. I try to speak in Spanish, but it’s definitely awesome that they may be able to understand me if I don’t know what to say in Spanish. At the meeting, we all commented. I think it took a lot of courage and holy spirit for Kaitlyn and me to be able too.
To be able to get through these two weeks, I’ve had to pray so much. We probably are going to say this more than people want to hear, but its super overwhelming when you are living somewhere and you can’t communicate with the people. It’s sad, but sometimes I just nod and agree because no one is around to help and I have no idea what to say.

Later in the day, we went to SuperMaxi which is the major grocery chain here. It was so funny because most of the music playing as we shopped was American music! It was also really fun trying to decipher what various products were. I think I stood in the hair aisle for at least 15 minutes trying to find a leave in conditioner! The trip was sooooo long and tiring, but we got a lot necessities.
Yes, we got more probably than was needed! But I’m sure it will come in need. We had to take a taxi back to our apartment with all of our purchases. The workers at Supermaxi and our driver were commenting on how much stuff we had bought. Besides our looks, it was the most telling sign we were foreigners.

That night, we were invited to our first Ecuadorian party! Amanda, one of the awesome sisters from the Chinese group, and her brother, Aaron had just moved to an apartment and were having a “housewarming” party. (Their apartment is Allison’s old apartment. Allison now lives in the apartment above them. Their building has eight apartments, and witnesses live in five of them.) Because the apartment isn’t a big as their old house, we went to the house for the party. Their old house is on the southern outskirts of the city. Because of this, the taxi driver didn’t know where we were going, we didn’t know where we were going, and we got very lost. Thankfully we got to the party around 9:15. (Everything here is done late. I don’t know how the locals do it! They’re up and at it early the next morning. I don’t know when they sleep.) This party had about half locals and half gringos. It was nice to hear English, although I’ve found the more Spanish I’m around, the easier it gets.

All parties down here involve dancing, so I struggled my way through the night. :-) The one time I tried to sit down, I was pulled back to the dance floor. That’s when I learned one of the most important lessons…if there’s music, you DANCE! I’m pretty sure they don’t know what it means to take a break in between songs. No, they just continue to go and NEVER stop :) . After dancing for a while, Aaron and Marcello’s band performed some songs. Marcello is one of the brothers in Chinese. It was a lot of fun.

We left the party at 12:15. When we got home, Stephanie, Ashley, and I were so wired we ended up staying up all night long. I eventually crashed at 8, but the two of them went out in service! The rest of Monday, we spent recuperating from the previous five days. It was much needed to prepare ourselves for the next few days in our new routine. Although, in Ecuador I don’t know if there is a such thing as recuperating, because if you do in the next several days will take every piece of energy your body has. It’s insane trying to get use to the go, go, go. It’s so much fun though. We have all made awesome friends, and have has awesome experiences in the first few days of being here. We can’t wait for even more!