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Home / Offices and Ministries / Youth MInistry / Encounter Ecuador / Past Experiences - Beth's Experience
Beth's Ecuador Experience
Sunday, June 22, 2008
After two wonderful yet taxing days of minga, I was excited to see what this day had in store for us.
After another amazing breakfast of fresh fruit and homemade juice from one of the 200 different fruits that can be found in Ecuador, we headed off for Sanjapampa.
Like the previous days we were greeted by the lush landscape and breathtaking mountains on the ride to our destination.
We arrived in Sanjapampa to a crowd of natives who were very excited to see us.
The community used our donation to purchase a new door, windows, paint, and cement to fill in the gaps between the roof and the walls of their community center.
I was happy that we were able to experience different types of work at each minga. After today my hands would not only be peeling from handling cement, blistering from hoeing the cemetery, but would also have a blueish tint from painting the community center.
After sanding the walls in preparation, everyone grabbed a roller and began to paint.
Despite the language barrier we were all able to work together side by side smiling, laughing, and working for a common goal.
Each minga celebration solidified our amazement of the sense of community these people possess.
Instead of solely thinking of oneself, these people work together and support each other in a way that is seldom practiced in the United States.
I felt most connected to the youth of this community. Through translation, asking about boyfriends and girlfriends, popular music, and educational goals helped us discover many similarities between the youth of Ecuador and the youth of America.
The youth of this community were very curious and were not as timid as the others from the two previous communities.
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