traveling the world on my birthday

before you think it was some glamorous amazing journey, I’m here to tell you it wasn’t.

but it was one of the best birthdays ever.  

at 11 pm we had a bus pick us up from our host’s home in quito. it was one of saddest goodbyes I’ve ever had to make. luckily, I wasn’t alone. most of us, if not all of us, were pretty sad to be leaving the best hosts of all time (shoutout to you mabe and fabi!!)

I had fallen asleep quickly on the bus, but at 12 am I was woken up to something sticking me in the head. when I looked up I saw my awesome teammate mack holding up a headband covered in confetti and streamers. when I looked at her, she happily shouted “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” which was embarrassing and also showed me the most love. thanks mack <3

we rolled around on the HOT bus until 3 am when we finally got a little break while the bus driver refilled the gas. all of a sudden, my other amazing teammate ella came up to me, said “happy birthday!” and gave me NUTELLA. for those of you that don’t know, one of my favorite foods ever is nutella so I was SUPER happy. I felt like my birthday couldn’t get any better even though it had barely started. I fell back asleep happy and nostalgic, trying to mentally prepare myself for the rest of travel day.

finally around 7am we arrived at guayaquil and unloaded are massive packs and stood in a giant group until we could figure out where to go.

fun fact: I am one of the logistics leaders for my team, which means I have to herd a group of 43 people around on travel days. it would be really hard if not for my incredible squad leaders who have a ton of experience doing this. so because of this role, I had to go figure out with aly (? of my incredible squad leaders) where to put all the gringos in this mall-like terminal.

we walk in, find a place, and when we come back to tell the squad where we’re going, all of a sudden my team holds up a “feliz cumpleaños” sign and a bunch of party streamer things and the whole squad sings happy birthday to me.

it was simultaneously the most tender and most embarrassing moment ever. thanks v squad.

after that, we beebopped in the terminal for about 5 hours, while in that time my teammates bought me 2 black iced coffees. ice is super rare in ecuador (and pretty much everywhere but the U.S.) so I felt SUPER blessed.

I feel like I’ve only been talking about the material stuff here but I swear that’s not why my birthday was really great. I feel super loved and know when people remember the little things about me, and I love quality time, so being stuck in a terminal with my weirdo teammates was a huge blessing. I felt the most loved.

as we got ready to load the bus, I noticed my entire team (HOLLA ESTHER!! WHOOP) was ready to go at the place we all said to meet. not only that, but they were 5 minutes early. for travel day kori, this was truly the best gift I could’ve ever received.

the next 17ish hours were full of sleeping on another bus for a couple hours, leaving ecuador, existing in noman’s land, entering peru, being stopped at the border twice, and then watching the princess bride with my friends kyla and philip. kyla is an alumni team leader and philip is my logistics partner, so I know travel day isn’t the easiest or most relaxing for them, so the fact that they took an hour and 38 minutes to watch my favorite movie with me meant the most. love y’all.

after that we all slept and I woke up in trujillo, where I currently am at my new ministry! I can’t wait to tell you more about what this ministry looks like, but for now all I know is that it’s different everyday and lots of VBS and women’s ministry is involved.

thank y’all so much for all your kind birthday wishes and prayers. y’all are the freaking best. thanks Jesus for giving me 19 sweet years of living.

so so so much love,

kori