Burning

Someone once asked me if I would rather die of freezing to death or burning alive.  The answer that first came to my mind was, "freeze of course." You would probably go numb and not feel anything.  Much more comfortable.  His reponse to me was, "This is true, but wouldn't it mean you gave up in a way?? If you keep moving, you live! It's when you stop that you die.  If you burn to death, it's out of your control.  You  can at least feel it.  Sure it's painful, but it's something."

Righteous at Macchu Pichu!

What does this have to do with anything?  There is a song I have been listening to over and over (both physically and in my brain) and I wasn't quite sure why or what the song meant until I was riding the bus home from Quito on Thursday.   I have been having trouble thinking/writing lately and I am not sure why, but I think my brain has finally quit farting and the writers are no longer blocking.  Here is the song: Weird video I know. But it was the best audio version of the song I could find.

I was toying with the lyrics on my last entry, but couldn't quite put into words what they meant or why they were occupying my brain.  The message is that burning is a good thing.  When the flame inside us dies, so do we.  We all have times when the spark is gone from our lives.  How do we ignite it? The answer is completely personal, but it's important to be able to answer that question.  I am constantly being filled with energy here (FIRE). But leaving home and seeing different parts of the world has also shown me how much I love my home in Columbus, and how lucky I am to have the people in my life there.  My fires: seeing the kids at the orphanage, working with the univeristy students (go Canada!!), brainstorming with Jana, Paul, Ramiro, Larry, Gus, going for a run, sitting on a bus (seriously! you learn a lot about yourself when you have enormous chunks of time with nothing to do but sit and think), being at the coffee shop, going for breakfast with my co-workers after a loooong night at the mount, or laughing until it hurts and there are tears running down my face.  It's all Fire.  The idea that the orphanage can and will be a reality is an incredible Fire that keeps me going, burning, living. 


"As long as I`m burning,
I´ll keep on yearning,
to save the world,
Not sure how, but I`m learning."

Speaking of the orphanage.  We have some incredible news.  We have secured the house in Paracachi, but we still need $5,000 by the end of June to actually buy it.  (This is the house that is going to be used for the orphanage, teaching classes, and just plain living) When we were in Lima, SIA (Solidarity in Action, Larry, keep up) raised $400 for the house.  Also, the students are supposed to be trying to raise money from home (Canada) and whatever they raise, SIA said they would match it.  Amazing! So we are on our way.  These next few weeks are being dedicated to raising money.  We are making a presentation, scheduling appointments with various people from our home towns to meet with while we are home, and talking to as many people as we can about what we are doing.  Jana's wonderful sister Cammie is also working on a webpage for us.  I will have that link for you soon. 

Zip Line!!

We are finally back in Pimampiro by the way.  After a slight detour in Montanita for a few days, we arrived here early Tuesday morning.  We found the best bus from Guayquil to here.  What is usually at least a 14 hour bus ride took us less than 12.  AND there was a bathroom on the bus that was functional.  Incredible.  It has been Pimampiro week here (I KNOW! I'm bummed I missed most of it too).  I believe they are celebrating the founding of their town.  Don't quote that though please.  Last night we went to the stadium and watched some live music which included two solo acts and a large band performace that lasted forever, only to have another full band after that.  We were told that the music would last until 3 or 4 am.  We were in bed by midnight.  Pima really knows how to party I will tell you that.  There was also a firework display.  This included two guys running around manually lighting a large amount of "standard-size" fireworks from the top of a half-finished building.  Most of them went up.  Some went sideways or straight out, or some just exploded right there on the roof with them.  I thought for sure we were going to have to treat some serious burns or amputations.  Luckily they were pretty quick and it didn't appear to get hurt.  Side story- we saw a Pimampirian zip line a few days ago.  We thought they were doing constuction on something before we saw the 7-year-old wearing a helmet scaling the rickity ladder.  This "podium" looked to be being held up by a buldozer.  "Why is this huge, unstable tower moving so much everytime the wind blows?!" "I don't know.  Just get the buldozer.  It will be fine." The child was then shot down the cable and barely caught by the guy standing at the bottom, who was paying attention only half the time.  Tonight is the last night of the festivities, which includes a dance in the open statium area.  Should be interesting.  I'll let you know how it goes or how many old women offer to find me a husband.  Cuidensen!


PS: Did you know that if you have a migraine due to bad spirits occupying your house you can first rub an egg on your head and all over your body (eggs absorb bad energy), then light candles to rid the house of the mal energy.  After you rub the egg on yourself for awhile, you crack it open into a cup of water and see what kind of strings the whites of the egg makes. That`s how you know you got rid of the bad things. Elena did this to Jana last night, and she felt better. So now you know.