And so we begin.

After so many months, so many medical forms, so many nights lying awake thinking about it, and so many sweet goodbyes with dear friends and family, May 31, 2026, finally arrived.

We started the morning by saying goodbye to our beloved dog, Herman, which left Jenny more than a little teary-eyed.

We started down our driveway and didn’t make it a tenth of a mile before we were stopped in our tracks by a group of dear friends gathered in the road to wish us a final farewell. At that point, it was my turn to turn to mush.

At O’Hare Airport, we met our first fellow volunteer at the gate for our flight to Miami. She recognized us from the Zoom calls we had attended and, apparently, from our general crunchy-granola vibe.

We arrived at our hotel in Miami for pre-departure staging and began meeting the rest of our cohort. Ours is the 134th class of volunteers to serve in Ecuador. We are the only couple in the group, but there are a few women in their 50s and one man who is 65. There are 21 volunteers serving the full two years and six Rapid Response volunteers who will serve for just one year. A few of them are headed to the Galápagos Islands to do environmental work.

On the evening before our departure for Ecuador, we were lucky enough to meet up with Eduardo and Julia, who happened to be in Miami while searching for a place for Julia to live during her upcoming graduate studies. What a fun surprise!

And by the following afternoon, we were in Ecuador. The months—really, years—of planning and preparation were behind us, and 27 months of a new life stretched out ahead.