Welcome "home"

Upon arriving in Shell, life has been moving at full speed ahead.  Vacation time is over and Ivan has gotten right back into the swing of things with YL.  We got to Shell on Saturday and spent the afternoon with his family, sharing photos and video of our wedding and celebrating.  Sunday we began the task of unpacking our suitcases and settling into our new home.  Ivan had already moved his things in and the things I had left here (in November) and to our dismay after sitting in our house for about a month with no one living there (since Ivan was in the States) ALL of our clothes and some of our belongings such as picture frames, books, dishes, etc. were taken over by mold!  The climate in Shell is very prone to high levels of humidity and we spent the first 3 days in Shell, washing all of our clothes and belongings to get rid of the moldy smell and some things had to be thrown away.  I'm grateful that my mother-in-law let us come by and do many loads of laundry, since we didn't have a washing machine yet.  Something very different from the States is that when you rent an apartment or house here, it usually does not come equipped with any appliances.  Little by little we are completing our house with the basic necessities.  I'm excited that the other day we purchased a microwave so I can at least do some "cooking". 

At the gate of our new house in Shell

Although I've lived in Shell before and was here not too long ago, there is still always a bit of culture shock.  I forgot how you can hear roosters all the time and how dogs roam the streets at all hours of the day and night.  I forgot how nice it is to walk around town and run into people you know and stop to chat for a minute.  On Sunday, Ivan and I were at his parent's house and I heard a chorus of girls shouting outside, "RACHEL, RACHEL, RACHEL!!!!"  I went down to see who was there and it was my friend Jane (I mentioned her in an earlier post), her sister, and another girl from YL club.  They embraced me in a hug and I thought, It's good to be back.  I missed these girls.  That's what this whole past week has been like for me, running into teens or other people I know and feeling embraced by them (often literally).  On Friday, I went to the YL Club in Shell, and there were many new faces of kids I've never met before, which was awesome.  One of the student leaders gave his first message at Club and did a fantastic job and it was such a blessing to see how God has been working in the lives of the teens over this last year.  I left Ecuador right after YL Camp, and although I heard updates, it is something else to see the lives that have been changed in action with my own eyes.  I see the growth and I also see the needs that we have and I know that we are here for this purpose.