God bless you!

I really love mornings on summer project. Everyday I'm up between seven and eight after about seven to eight hours of sleep, and I feel incredibly refreshed and excited about the day. We meet in the lobby around nine, so I take my time getting ready. I can attribute much of the pleasant feelings in the morning to the three amazing women I'm rooming with--Megan, Helen, and Courtney. We get up around the same time, and somehow our schedules work out perfectly so we're never waiting to use the bathroom or running into each other. We also all love listening to music. I can't complain about preparing for the day to some Jesus music.

We eat the complementary breakfast on the first floor every morning, which is served by our good friend Jose the waiter. We get some kind of fresh fruit juice (pina, guayaba, mango, blackberry, etc), biscuits with butter and jam, and either hard-boiled eggs or scrambled eggs with vegetables. It's such a blessing to be served breakfast every morning for free. I don't think I would be as joyful and energetic during the day if I were hungry and lacking energy.

My other favorite part of the day is the bus ride to and from ESPOL. We walk to a bus stop about 15 minutes from our hotel and then ride for about 45 minutes. It only costs 25 cents and only goes to ESPOL, so we don't have to worry about talking to strangers. I'm pretty sure that during all of the rides, at least a few people from the ESPOL group have engaged students in conversation about everything from futbol to student life. I even spoke with a guy in French a bit! A very little bit. Neither of us knew much French beyond saying our names and what we're studying. The bus tends to be really loud, too, so it was really difficult to hear him. My FAVORITE bus experience so far, though, was yesterday's ride home from ESPOL.

I was already feeling really great, because it had been an awesome day on campus. I witnessed three girls pray to accept Christ and our group met a lot of people who were interested in hanging out more. Even though my spirits were through the roof I was tired on the ride home, so I wasn't planning on trying to talk much.

When all the sudden...the girl across the aisle started listening to Adele.

I LOVE ADELE, I thought. I quietly sang along while trying to decide how to tell her, because we were obviously destined to meet and become very good friends.

I turned to Jeremy and asked, "how do I say, 'I love Adele' in Spanish?"


"Me encanta Adele," he replied, to which I immediately became way too nervous that she would continue to try to talk to me in Spanish. I mean, my accent is obviously so good that she would have no idea I don't really speak Spanish. Right? 

Fortunately, no. After a minute of internal debate I blurted, "me encanta Adele!"

She ignored me.

Now I was committed to sharing our mutual love for Adele, so I pulled out my favorite (and most useful) Spanish word I know.

"Adele! Bueno!!"

She turned to me, giggled, and replied in English. Upon reflection, she probably heard the entire conversation I had about wanting to talk to her. Nevertheless, I was so thrilled to finally meet someone who speaks English that I proclaimed, "you speak English?! God bless you!!" We proceeded to have a great conversation for the remainder of the bus ride, and I'm hoping to meet up with her again.

God continues to baffle me in the ways He works. I've been praying for Him to work through me on campus, and only when I'm the most off my guard, He uses me! I feel encouraged and comforted going into the rest of this week. My prayers are for growth in relationships being established with Ecuadorian students and between people on the team...and more Adele-loving Ecuadorians!

Ashley