so this is chau…for now?

i decided to switch my flight to thurs morn, (less than 24 horas!), so that i’ll have a bit more time to spend with the family before heading back to atx on 1/4. i feel as if things have been happening so quickly lately that i have had little time to digest this experience, so as for reflections, i have few.

academically speaking, i’ve learned a ton...politics, economics, anthropology…and i’ve made connections to come back and do research some more. and this experience has only made me more hungry to see other parts of the world. i can’t wait til the next opportunity finds its way to me and i can see india, russia, the middle east, africa...wherever life wants to take me.
but i think perhaps more importantly, i’ve learned a bit more about myself and about human nature. i’ve learned that i’m certainly not a “dueña de la verdad”, that there is more than one way to see the world, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be as rational. i’ve been saturated with beautiful scenery and generous people. i’ve learned a bit more about being patient when things don’t go as planned, about the importance of community, about being still, and about enjoying simple things...like the nights after dinner, when my ecua-mamá would make us sit with the grandson quietly and name all the sounds we could hear.

and in this season of advent, the time of hopeful waiting, of preparation, and also of action, its an appropriate time for a return to the u.s. although i’ve often had to sit back quietly while watching injustice here, which has been so frustrating, i can take all that i’ve learned here as a guide to be a more effective advocate in a place where i feel its more appropriate for me to act.

and now, as i sit in the university computer lab, traditional quito songs played by the university band stream through the windows accompanied by the mountain breeze. these songs and their joy, these mountains and their majesty i will carry close to me until i return here again.

hasta junio, el ecuador mío...