Variations on Home

Home Is Where the Heart Is

From May 31 to June 10, I co-led this year’s international FaithX trip to Ecuador alongside Marissa Witkovsky-Eldred. Well, more accurately, I assumed responsibilities starting on June 2 because on the 31st and 1st it was looking like I wouldn’t be able to make it. Here’s what happened...

U.S. citizens don’t need a visa to enter Ecuador and stay there for up to 90 days. Since I exceeded that amount in the fall, I successfully applied for a visa extension of an additional 90 days. I left before using 30 of them and so figured I would be good to reenter the country for the FaithX. However, the day before flying it occurred to me to actually look at my visa extension and it said, “valid until 02/24/2024.” Oh boy. I submitted an inquiry with an Ecuadorian immigration agency, not expecting to hear back in time. I proceeded to pack and hope for the best.

My flight out of Austin was delayed due to weather and as we neared Miami, it was getting down to the wire for making my connecting flight. I looked up the distance to the departure gate and it said it was a 19-minute walk. I ran it significantly faster than that (keeping up with a person I later learned is an Ecuadorian police officer) and made it gasping to my gate right at the time the flight was scheduled to leave. Sadly, the plane was nowhere to be seen.

So, other dejected (and increasingly disgruntled) passengers and I joined the serpentine line to get assistance from American Airlines. At this point I saw that Ecuadorian Immigration had gotten back to me and said I couldn’t return to the country until August 27, a year from when I first entered. I picked the brain of Bayron, the aforementioned Ecuadorian police officer, who used to work at the Quito airport. He said I wouldn’t be jailed for trying to enter with an expired visa (it’s not the US after all), but whether or not I got deported would really just depend on the officer I encountered. Gulp.

Three hours later, after calls with my mom and texts back and forth with Marissa, I was ready to head back to Austin. However, since my ticket was not round trip with American, they couldn’t book me a ticket back to Texas. They also couldn’t give me a voucher for food or lodging. What they could do was add me to a standby list for a flight to Quito 24 hours later that I wasn’t guaranteed to get on.

Thankfully, Brethren family friends Kayla, Ilexene, and Julie Alphonse saved my butt! They live near the airport and came to pick me up. They fed me and housed me in a community house next to the Miami Haitian COB. Thus began my bonus Miami vacation! In the morning, I used google translate to try to communicate with the Haitian Brethren who were generously sharing their space with me (pardon my nonexistent French and Haitian Creole, I thought!). Kayla and Julie and I went to iHop for breakfast and it was sweet to catch up.

In the evening, they dropped me back off at the airport, with snacks, prepared to pick me up if I didn’t make it on the flight. What a gift to be shown such generous hospitality! Fortunately, I did make it on the flight, and I was let into Ecuador! I was giddy from the relief but also exhausted. A hot shower and good night of sleep helped me transition to leadership mode. Everything else went much smoother from here on out.

A photo I took when I thought the aiport might be the only part of Ecuador I got to see

There were 13 trip participants total, most hailing from the East Coast, some of whom I had met last year and others I hadn’t, ranging in age from young to young-at-heart. It was a wonderful group. We were picked up by a private bus and taken to FBU, my former BVS placement—it was so beautifully strange to be back in the Andes! My former housemate Antonio gave us a farm tour and we watched my friend Vinicio do the milking. We met our cooks Margarita and Alexandra and her baby Martina and had the first of many delicious meals provided at FBU. In the evening, we took a tractor tour of the adjacent community of Picalqui.

Our work projects included clearing the entrance pathway, tearing down an old fence and erecting a new one, preparing the vegetable garden for replanting, and weeding the blackberries, greenhouses, and guarango saplings. I enjoyed getting visits from my friend Veronica and her family and neighbors as well as hanging out with other farm friends at evening bonfires. One afternoon, I ventured out to the town of Tabacundo with my friend Smith to get s’mores ingredients and I visited my favorite fruit vendor who gave me a big hug!

A highlight was a field trip to the Brethren School in northern Quito, which was founded by Brethren missionaries half a century ago that now educates some 2,000 students. They have a creative “interactive nature initiative,” and we took a tour to see their green spaces, gardens, outdoor classrooms, and protected forest on the property. We also got to do some Q&A with a class of students. It was a big interpretation day for me, which was gratifying but exhausting. As we were leaving, I heard a student say to their friend, “Esa es la que traducía!” (“She’s the one who translated!”) and that made me smile.

On June 7th we headed to Quito for a few days of sightseeing. We ate dinner at a fancy restaurant with a great view of the city. We mostly used Ubers to get around, which was convenient and helped fill my reggaeton tank back up to the level necessary for my maximal mental wellbeing. The 8th was my favorite day of the trip because my friend Mile from Quito joined the group! We toured the Quito Cathedral and then got ice cream at a store called the Republic of Cacao. After that, we explored the Basilica of the National Vote and made it to the Teleférico cable car just in time for the last ride to take in breathtaking views of the city.

The next day, we went to the equator. At the Intiñan Museum, tour guide Javier who I had met twice previously remembered me and I was flattered! Then we went to see the equator monument and I got to try guinea pig for the first time. It was more psychologically difficult and less tasty than I had imagined but still, I got to check it off the bucket list! Then I met up with Mile and her mom for coffee, which was sweet.

However, by this point in the trip I had developed a nasty head cold and was quite probably feverish. The next morning I caught an Uber to the airport at an ungodly hour. Normally I don’t prefer to chit chat at four in the morning, but my Venezuelan driver was very friendly and hyped up my Spanish. I was relieved when my travels went smoothly and I finally made it back to Austin.

Homebody

After being away, it felt good to get back into my routine and just hang around the house as I recovered from my cold. I read Invitation to Conversation: Becoming More Inclusive of LGBTQ+ People in the Brethren in Christ Church, which I recommend even though it’s no longer pride month, and The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. I’ve been harvesting tomatoes and peppers from my garden and am looking forward to making peach desserts with the peaches from the tree in the front yard. I made whoopie pies and dirt pudding for recent church events.

No Place like Home

It felt odd to go from one place that was kind of home but not really to another place that is only quasi-home. It made me a little homesick. I’m missing some dear friends’ weddings this summer and also some staple family activities. It was difficult not to be able to join the rest of my family at the COB Annual Conference last week, but my mom had the idea to video call me in for our customary family photo and I found the livestreamed worship services meaningful.

Homies

Time with friends and connecting with strangers has helped stave off homesickness.

My housemate Leo has started taking me to the grocery store, making it a much less sweaty undertaking.

My friend Rachel and I went to two separate Juneteenth events. The first was at the historic Rosewood Park in East Austin, the area Black Austinites were pushed to by discriminatory housing policy. The highlights there were a delicious pork BBQ sandwich and an enthusiastic gospel rapper. The other event was at the Neill-Cochran House Museum, site of the only intact and publicly accessible slave quarters in Austin and a new photography exhibition on Black rodeo. There was also a fantastic gospel choir performance.

My friend Nick and I went mini golfing (I won) and checked out the famous Austin honky-tonk the Broken Spoke, taking advantage of the step dancing lesson before the live music started.

One Friday, I went to an Ethiopian restaurant and when I entered and said, “table for one,” the elderly Ethiopian server said “One is enough. You are plenty. You are adorable!” Like the service, the food and coffee were incredible.

I attended a French themed celebration of the summer solstice because my friend Julie from work was performing. I am officially a groupie now :)

One Sunday, UT Austin put on a day of events to celebrate moving to another sports conference or something. The culmination of the day was a free performance by international superstar Pitbull. I decided to shoot my shot and see if I could get in. It was hard to find the entrance, and a UT student decided I looked lost enough to help me. When I demonstrated utter ignorance of campus landmarks as we walked along, he said “Are you a freshman or something?” to which I took umbrage. Later, though, he offered me a courtesy vape, which I turned down, but thought was a nice gesture. The venue was past capacity, and it was complete pandemonium, but I could still hear and see the screen pretty well standing on a bench. As the student commented, “Sometimes you just have to do it for the plot” (and the blog post).

Last Sunday I attended a choral workshop put on by the community choir Panoramic Voices, which some ladies from church are a part of. It was a blast and I plan to join the group come August!

Getting Out of the House

My old bike got a flat tire and some folks from church gave me a new one—this one has gears!

I’ve checked out a few more museums and gone to Central Market, which is a grocery store that has Trader Joes or Whole Foods vibes.

They added another evening of Zumba to the YMCA schedule and the new instructor really puts the bootcamp in baile (think “salsa, SQUAT, salsa, SQUAT!” and “this one has burpees!”).

Land of Free, Home of the Brave?

On the Fourth of July, I went downtown to see fireworks and hear the Austin Symphony Orchestra. As pyrotechnic pops and patriotic tunes mingled, I thought about the ways the United States has been complicit in destroying and denying people’s right to have a home—from supplying weapons used against Palestinian civilians to allowing so many Americans to live without a roof over their heads. May each of us work to expand our country’s definition of bravery and to expand the realities of freedom until all have a home.