El Oso Perezoso

This has been a very wet, and bone-chilling weekend. It was a great weekend to just do very little and do it slowly. The Title above says The Lazy Bear and that has been me this weekend. I have taken a few long walks between the rain showers, but mostly I have stayed close to the apartment, napped a little, watched a little soccer from Spain and Chile--you know you can really get hooked on this game--cooked most of my meals in the apartment, and in general just allowed myself time to recover from my trip to Peru. Since it was raining preyty hard yesterday morning, I decided I wait and try to go to church at 6:00 PM at Cristo Librador. At 5:30 it was raining even harder, so my daily Moning Prayer and meditation was my church yesterday.
I waked up this morning feeling so refreshed and I am really looking forward to these last few weeks here.
Here is summary of my plans for the balance of my time here. This week I have Spanish classes every day Monday through Thursday. Then on Friday and Saturday this diocese has its annual diocesan convention and I will attend the convention and perhaps have some role as well. I am having supper this evening with the Bishop and one of the things we will talk about is the convention.
Next Sunday or Monday I plan to go back to Mindo and visit agqain with some friends I made there when I was ethere a few weeksw ago. I will return to Quito on Tueday or Wednesday and on Friday Chris Morck and his family and I will go to Puyo, a town in the Amazon where the diocese has a church. We will visit the church there, see a little of the Amazon region of Ecuador and return to Quito on Monday. Then I stqrt to pack up because the following Wednesday I leave Ecuador and return home. These last few weeks will fly by I am sure.
Christie and Kevin are coming home the weekend of March 14 -17, and it will be great to be able to share so much of what I have done with them. Mike is doing so much better and seems to have his mygraines well under control
I have never been homesick at any time during this trip. But I am starting to yearn for those people and things that are HOME for me. Of course I miss my family, and I am really looking forward to seeing them soon. I miss Scottie terribly and I still have some teary times now and then when I think of her, and I suspect I always will. I am looking forward to getting back to church and being with, and WORSHIPPING with my spiritual family. I have especially missed the feeling I get when I worship with the people of GSH. There is nothing comparable. There are a few other things that I am beginning to long for: one is FLAT LAND, not having to go up and own stairs all day long, another is SMOOTH SIDEWALKS, walking without having to watch constantly for things that you can trip on or fall into, then is KNOWING THAT A PUBLIC BATHROOM WILL HAVE A TOILET SEAT, most here do not, another is BRUSHING MY TEETH WITH TAP WATER, the joy of using bottled water all the time wears off after a while, still another and a huge one at that is DRIVING OR RIDING IN TRAFFIC WITHOUT MY HEART IN MY THROAT, I have said enough about this before .
Though I am not homesick, I am beginning to think of those things and people that make up my day to day life that I associate with HOME. I take that as a good sign that this has been a fabulous trip, I have healed and grown in many, many ways and soon it will be time to return to the life God has called me to, and that I love so much.
Love to you all,
Glenn+