The Plague of Flies

July 8th

Patate, Ecuador

The Pharaoh in Egypt had his fair share of plagues according to the story in the Old Testament. At the camp, we had one of smaller proportions…fly sized portions. They were everywhere. In the kitchen, in the dorm, in our bathroom, outside, you just could get away from these flies. It’s Brother Steve’s opinion that they accompanied the manure the chicken farmer has on his farm, which is a reasonable theory I guess. I don’t have much of one and I’m not sure why we’re plagued by them. After all, we don’t have an Israelites hostage.

Despite spray cans of Raid! everywhere and the carnage of dead flies lying on the ground, we had a very good first full day of Kid’s Camp. Today was my first day to teach two groups the fundamentals and joys of basketball for two hours apiece. We covered a lot and played hard, but I still think they’d rather play futbol instead. Due to the heavy rains outside the night before, we moved our basketball camp into the coliseum. Without real basketball goals we used make-shift trashcans as goals and different markings on the floor for the boundary lines. There were some epic battles between the teams. Even some of the girls dominated the boys with their height advantage.

Probably the most enjoyable part of the day was teaching them the ‘Chicken Dance.’ Somehow, I ended up being the music DJ for our recreation time and I saw it important that the Ecuadorian children receive an education in fun dance party songs. Needless to say, they had a lot of fun learning our goofy songs (Cottoneye Joe, etc).

Each day seems to pass increasingly faster than the one before and I know that my time here in Ecuador is half over for this summer. What makes each new day interesting though is the unexpected; and unexpected there is here at the camp. Nothing is really the same from one day to another and that is what makes each day fun and unique. God continues to teach me lessons in His own ways and on His own timing and that’s okay with me. I’ve learned that sometimes taking things a bit slower yields more results in terms of learning and of understanding. When we slow down, we notice the things around us much more. When we slow down, we start to hear God’s voice a little more. Ecuador has certainly made me slow down (not in terms of functioning of course, but in terms of trying to pack as much into one day as possible). It’s made me reevaluate what I do, why I do it, and what worth those things that I do really have. It would be easy to draw the conclusion that the cultural differences cause one to slow down or speed up what they do during the day. Certainly, living in U.S. brings about demands that we have to face daily. Being somewhere ten minutes ahead of time, meetings all throughout the day, working long hours, and then trying to accomplish as much as we can during our free time. Don’t get me wrong, being a productive person isn’t a bad thing. I’d like to consider myself one. However, when we replace listening daily for God’s voice and direction in our lives with being productive, we’ve done ourselves harm.

And this is what I’ve concluded: Regardless of our location, it is ultimately up to us what our real priorities are. Living in a slower culture has made me realize this truth. In a month I’ll try to apply it as best I can in the chaos that is college life. For now though, I’m going to slow down.