Beach debrief.

On Sunday morning we left for the Ecuadorian coast, specifically a town called Canoa. Canoa is a tiny, remote town much like any other on the Pacific coast of Ecuador. For once, we didn't have a ton of activities planned--just sun, surf, and good food! In the mornings we had some devotional time together before hitting the beach. Canoa is known for surfing, so several students tried their hand on the waves. I got plenty of sun and went in the water quite a bit, because it was so, so warm!

For lunches we went to a little place right on the beach, where the seafood is great. I had fish, rice, and fried plantains on the first day, and chicken on the second because I don't like shrimp. I spent the afternoons in a hammock on the roof of our hostal because I didn't want to chance getting burned on the beach (the sun is so, so strong on the equator. I wore waterproof 50 SPF and reapplied several times--still got a little burnt). The hammock was perfect for some great conversations, naps, devotional time, and more. 

After dinner we spent some time debriefing as a group. On our first night we recalled some of our highlights from the semester, as well as the challenges and what we thought God was teaching us. The second night was a little heavier on some reverse-culture culture shock and re-entry material. We learned about the 5 F's, which depict the stages of reverse culture shock. They are Fun, Flee, Fight, Fit-in, and Fruit--pretty self-explanatory. We also talked about some symptoms of reverse culture shock, just like when we talked about culture shock at orientation. It'll be interesting to see how I react to coming back to the U.S. Honestly, I've become so accustomed to Ecuador that I can't even fully remember what's different about the States. That's really weird!

Some other great memories of the beach were participating in dance therapy (bailoterapia) with the entire town on night outside our hostal. Once they played an American song we all just did our own thing and stopped paying attention to the man leading. It was so fun. That same night we went out for batidos (fruit juice blended with ice and mixed with condensed milk). I got coconut, just to be exotic. After we finished them the owners of the restaurant put on some music for us, which meant an impromptu salsa dancing party started. I'm still working on my salsa dancing, but I have the steps down so it's getting more natural. 


Well, that's about it for the beach! We got back to Quito around 5pm on Wednesday, and Thursday is a packing and cleaning day for most of us before we fly back to the States. We're having lunch at an amazing Italian restaurant as one last thing to do together before we go our separate ways. I definitely can't believe I'll be in the U.S. tomorrow.