I suppose going to Ecuador is kind of like using a revolving door. There is a whole new world on the other side, which I can see from where I stand. Looking through, it looks fascinating.
Once I step inside the revolving door (otherwise known as getting on the airplane), I have a choice.
I can leave the relative safety of the revolving door (my comfort zone) and step out into the unknown. I can explore the world on the other side, then step back into the door when it's time and arrive back at the same place I left from, bringing my new friendships back with me.
Or I can stay in the revolving door, doing nothing that stretches my abilities, prejudices, or viewpoint. I can say that I was "in" Ecuador, like I can say that being on the inside of the revolving door means I was "in" a building, but I won't have really seen it or experienced it.
I'm going to go with the first, if at all possible. I fully intend to experience Ecuadorian life to the fullest, as much as I can without going against my conscience.
After all, Jesus did the first. It would have been so much easier for Him to just come for a week or so, redeem us, and go back to heaven, leaving us behind - redeemed, but without a relationship. He didn't do that. He stayed among us for thirty-three years, teaching us, loving us, building relationships. He became one of us, even though He was the epitome of a foreigner (think of something like being God and then being a human and God at once).
With that in mind, it won't be so hard to "be" an Ecuadorian.
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