Thinking on the Future

Eric with our host dad, Pepe, at a community cleanup

Sometimes when work is tough and I am sad, I sit and day dream about what my life might be like in the US. What kind of car might I be driving? Would I own a house? ...Probably not. What job would I have? Would I live close to my family? Close to my friends?

I would be able to attend family events. I would walk to my friends' and have dinner dates like I did before we left. Who knows if the picket fence life I think about would be accurate, but who cares? This day dreaming helps me escape the challenging part from being away from home; the constant unknown.

Eric and I at a concert in the park

I am beginning to realize this daydreaming is quickly becoming a reality. In less than 7 months we will be on a plane back to mi tierra. Woah. When we get home Eric and I will have to make some decisions that will impact greatly our next adventure!

I think the daydreaming is actually helpful because I am able to plan and think about the future. If I didn't do this Eric and I might arrive to the US in March and say, "Now what?" At least now, we have an idea of our next steps. While even that isn't very sure, I've learned to deal with the unknown and plan for an uncertain future. This entails a great deal of patience and a good attitude. One has to be okay with knowing that you can't know what will happen!

Jan and Eric bird watching

Amelia and Jan's visit to Ecuador in Mindo. We are with Angel,
 the birding tour guide who calls the birds by name on his land. 

Feeling the nearness of our return trip we have begun to realize there's not much time left! There are still an impossible number of things we would like to do and goals we would like to meet. Knowing this, we have focused on a few goals we would like to accomplish. We LOVE our town and the people in it. One of our goals is to continue to get to know and spend time with the wonderful people of Pinas. Some of the people here have really become like family to us and so we want to spend as much time with them as we can before we leave.

Eric and I also have focused individually on a few things that we really want to do before we leave. Eric wants to participate in novel month. You may have seen a post on Facebook about his goal to do this. I think it's an ambitious and attainable goal for him. It will allow him to practice his art and really develop as a writer.

Eva after her spay surgery

My goal is to practice and become a better guitar player. I was taking guitar lessons but had to stop because my guitar teacher and my schedules were a little crazy for a while. We just spoke the other day and decided to start up again since both of us were forgetting what we learned from each other (I teach him English and he teaches me guitar).

Eric and I are again reminded of how incredibly lucky we are. We have great support from family and friends at home and now we are at a place in our service that we have developed some strong bonds to our community. We are happy with the service we have done here but we're not quite ready to come home. I think once the time comes, we'll be ready.

Enjoy some pictures from this year. Also, Eric and I attended an event in the park a couple days ago that I wanted to share with you. We made a movie of it because it's a little different than the US. Enjoy!

Here's a link if it doesn't work, http://youtu.be/utrNy8uveiA 

Playing at the old hospital