And so ends my time in Ecuador again...

I'm back home in Minnesota. It's odd being back. I've only been back for a little over 24 hours but it seems like so much longer already.

I miss so much about this trip already - the people, the places, the events. There's so much that no one understands except my friends from the trip. This is one of many reasons I'm very thankful for facebook and know that despite a slight addiction to facebook, at this point, I can't willingly give it up - that would mean forfeiting many conversations with dear friends from the trip (as I do not have phone numbers yet).

It was odd saying goodbye to everyone on this trip. It wasn't as hard as when I went to Peru. Back then I really had no idea if I'd stay in touch with my friends or if I'd ever see them again. I have stayed in touch with them and I've seen several of them in the past 5 years. I know that God will bring me back together with some of my friends from this trip to Ecuador. And there's facebook to keep us connected.

What was weird about the goodbyes was how scattered my team was when it came time to say goodbye.

On the way to Quito, we were in 4 or 5 different flight groups. This was because some people were only going to be there for 2 weeks, while a select few of us would be staying an extra week. So when it came time to say goodbye, we had 4 people leave on a Saturday afternoon and we said goodbye to them while we were at the Equator...only to see the group as we were getting back to the hotel. I said goodbye to the 2 that were leaving in the middle of the night and the 6 that were heading to the Galapagos and leaving early the next morning...but then I woke up early and saw the Galapagos group off.

I also said goodbye to the majority of my team on Saturday night because I thought my group was heading out early to go to Otavalo. But it turned out that we went to a local church service and then returned to the hotel before leaving for Otavalo. So I saw people that I had already said goodbye to on Sunday morning and ate lunch with them.

At the end of the 3rd week, our Otavalo group split into two as the first group left at noon this past Saturday and my half of the group left 12 hours later. We joined up with part of the Galapagos group for our flight back to Miami. And once in Miami, there were several people from the earlier flight that we got to see as well.

I guess everything was just so mixed up and jumbled that I wasn't really sure when I was going to see someone for the last time, until I saw my last students off on the plane yesterday and boarded the plane bound for Minnesota with 5 others from the trip that I didn't know too well. It wasn't until I saw my roommate drive up at baggage claim to pick me up that I realized that it was really over.

So much time and effort and thought went into this trip, and it truly was amazing and life changing. I made some amazing friendships and I had the greatest teams ever. I will never forget the opportunities God gave me and how He stretched me outside my comfort zone, a lot. I want to share those memories with you all. I didn't have much time while we were in Ecuador, but I'm going to go back through my pictures and journals and share memories and stories from each day over the next few weeks. So please, check back often, I'd love to share everything with you!