If you have read our blog, you know that our family has had some fantastic adventures together. We have not really written about the fact that life in Guadalupe can sometimes be exceedingly boring and under-stimulating, especially when you are an American who is used to having all kinds of choices available at an instant. There are material challenges, like having to deal with bottled water all the time, the lack of variety of food, having tiny ants all over the kitchen (a losing battle), having no car or reliable cell / internet service, and having clothes that may not dry on the indoor line for days if it's rainy. Our life in the U.S. is so comfortable, and we so often take it for granted.
The flip side of all the choices and instant gratification in the States, is that it can make life feel harried and hollow. We constantly occupy ourselves with something, but not necessarily anything substantive. I am as guilty of that as anyone. Especially for us working moms, we somehow feel that we are being virtuous if we devote every minute to taking care of others -- and we feel guilty if we take some time to just put our feet up and do nothing. Or maybe we don't feel guilty, but we don't consciously build in time for "doing nothing" either -- and so it doesn't happen. As for me, I make time to eat right and exercise, because I believe that they will be good for my health, both in the short and long terms, and because I think they are virtues. Isn't the conscious slowing down and relaxing just as likely to contribute to my longevity and sanity? The slowness of our life in Ecuador has been both the hardest thing to deal with, and also the greatest blessing. I am getting better at it. I hope to bring back just a little bit of that slow pace of life, and to make some time just to "do nothing."
The slowness of life has also given us lots of uninterrupted family time. We were a close family before we spent this year in Ecuador, but now it is different. We are such a cohesive unit of four now, because of this shared experience, and also because we have had the luxury of so much time together without all the distractions of a "busy life." We have become more aware that the richness of life does not necessarily correlate to how many things you pack into it.
The most gratifying transformation, though, has been in our kids. I marvel at their resilience, and their self-confidence that they have rightfully earned. In the early months of their school year at Inti Pakari, our two normally very competent students were totally lost. They didn't speak or understand enough of the Spanish language to grasp what was going on, and there were a lot of very understandable tears and melt downs at home. I often reminded them that we were asking them to do one of the most difficult things they would ever do in their lives -- go to school in a foreign language. How many of us can boast that we have done it? I can't. But they can, and once their language skills clicked in around Christmas time, they really blossomed at school. They became little Ecuadorians, running around with their friends and being accepted as one of the gang. No one can take that accomplishment away from them. They have seen first hand that their friends in Guadalupe can be happy and have fun with very little material wealth. And now they know that the world is not such a huge and scary place -- that they can go out experience the challenge of travel, and good things can come of it.
My medical work in the clinic has been rewarding in its own way, though very different than my work in the States. I am trained as a family physician, and most of what I do is primary care -- having long term relationships with patients and being their health care champion. That is the fun part of primary care, and unfortunately there is a lot of administrative white noise that comes along with it, which is less fun. In Guadalupe it was the opposite equation -- I had much less of the time consuming administrative grunt work, but I also had vastly less continuity with my patients. The work was less stressful, but I also found that I really missed the richness of those relationships with my patients. I also had many fewer resources at my disposal in Guadalupe, and so I did what I could, but it wasn't nearly as much as I am usually able to do for a patient. I look forward to going back to work in Tacoma, as a clinician and a teacher. My experience in Ecuador has made me a better physician, and has given me a different perspective. I am thankful to all the patients at Clínica Guadalupe who have trusted me to help with their problems over the past year.
Before we left for Ecuador, as we were telling people what we were getting ready to do, a surprising number of people said to me, "How cool! We have always thought about doing something like that." At the time, in the middle of the incredible amount of work that it took to extricate ourselves from our life a year, I thought, "I totally understand why you don't do it!" I hoped it would be worth all the work and angst. And now, on the other side, I say it was totally worth it. This kind of experience is definitely not for everybody, but if you are thinking seriously about taking an extended time abroad with your family, I encourage you to make it happen. It has not been an easy year, but I have been grateful for the experience every single day.
The picture says it all.
