Life as a Sinchi Warmi

They are working on building one of the new cabañas.
This was after the said "Warmi! Límonada con hielo por favor!"
Sonya, Nelli, Abuelita, Betti, Ernesto and Jamie

Ahhhh, the country of Ecuador. So many wonderful things this place has to offer.  I really feel like I live in a country of rainbows and happiness. First off, the country's modo is 'Ecuador: ama la vida' in English: 'Ecuador: love life' and with that is a wonderfully, circular emblem of color. I get to live in the middle of the Amazon basin where I always know it is going to be pretty warm with rain almost every day, so basically Louisiana in the summer time. Which means, I am surrounded by green: trees, grass, flowers, fruits many of which are only found here in Ecuador. I can walk through the jungle and pull a piece of fruit off a tree and there it is, a delicious gift from The Lord. There are waterfalls, mountains in the distance, rushing rivers, and jungle all around. What a life.

Favio teaching us how to use
the leaves to make jewelry

the kids like to sleep in my hammock
Kati, Karlita, Latícia, and Rina

I would have to say though, the best part of being here is that I get to live in community with the people of Sinchi Warmi. My favorite charism FMC has, other than Catholic, is our great since of community. I LOVE COMMUNITY! It was already a blessing from The Lord that He gave us community with the guys only 20 minutes away in Ahuano, but He also gave us this community to live in as well. The best part of every day is when the kids come home. I say the kids like they are mine, but I really feel like they are sometimes. That is the life of community. But everyday at 2 o'clock, we all of a sudden hear a bunch of little Spanish voices yelling "Lorena! Raquel! Graciella" and suddenly our house is filled with 4-20 little nuggets. 

fishing for some tilapia

we turned our room into a movie theatre: Cinderella in Spanish
Rina, Andrebella, Shalla, Latícia, and Ronni

The family here has taken us in as their own. Like we say at FMC "We are a family of families." This is how the Kichwas of Sinchi Warmi live. They are all one big family of nine families. They are currently building three more cabanas for tourists to come stay. We are so blessed to be able to work alongside them as they are building up this community. They are a great help not only with learning Spanish, but they take time to teach us Kichwa as well. They like to teach us how they live. How they use the jungle around them for things they want or need. If I ever have free time, there is always someone to go talk to, someone very happy to spend time to teach me a little Kichwa, or guitar lessons with two of the youth here, Bryan and Miguel, and of course there is always some adorable children who just want to spend time with us. They are always so happy to see us, to walk with us to town, to help us do different tasks around the house or the property. Bryan, Miguel, and Jipson also like to come with us to do ministries in the other communities or for a day of fun at the river or waterfalls. Thank You Lord for this incredible blessing of communal life.

Rachel really loves washing laundry by hand