Monday, August 29, 2011
Repost From Last Year - January 2011
January was very active and a great learning experience for me. We had a great time while on winter break, but all things end that comes by the hands of man and this was one of those things. After I returned from all my gallivanting about the country, I had two days to be back into teaching mode, complete with lesson plans, collared shirts and rested personalities primed and prepped for the classroom. The first week back, the time you would think the rebellions would be planned for, actually were pretty devoid of uprisings. The kids took coming back to school in stride and we had nice first week.
We also had a lady named Cindy, from the fine stare of Florida, who came for a week to get a feel for the place. She is thinking about coming to teach this upcoming year and wanted to get hands of feel for the ministry. I wasn’t able to be get to know her very well, on account that while she was here, I was in Montebello getting trained up and learning some of the tricks of the teacher trade. However, everyone I talked to on my return to the jungle told me that she was a fine lady.
Darin and I practically made a land speed record on our trip from here to Quito when we made it in just three hours and fifteen minutes, a trip that will normally takes just around hours in a private car and somewhere close to a bit more than five hours by bus. I stayed at the Roselands house, who have become a large part of my patchwork Ecuadorian family. I was there for a week and attended all five days of school, watching, absorbing and hopefully, retaining. It was a great to be able to take a break from teaching in the jungle and learn some new things along with getting a change of pace. There was not an hour of the day that I did not have someone who I was supposed to be watching, shuffling to a new class almost every period. I was able to brush up on power teaching, about controlling the energy of the class room and overall how to be a better teacher. Actually, it was really the first ever training that I had received for being a school teacher. However, we did run into some difficulty, while I was there, the Roseland’s land cruiser’s radiator decided to kick the bucket, and then Richard got sick. So that meant that Gustavo and I had to take the bus/walk to school, and when we did arrive at school, there was no sub to take over some of his classes. However, the Lord works in all things, and one of the classes that I had seen done several times was the math class. I ended up subbing for one of the other teachers, who went to teach Richards class. The class went pretty good overall, especially for being worked out what was happening fifteen minutes before that class started. Also that evening I was able to go out with some of the teachers from school for dinner and just spending time together, we ended up eating a Chinese food joint and had a great time. The night was full of fun, laughter and fellowship.
Sadly while I was in Quito I missed several of the kid’s birthdays. We have three of them all grouped together in the same part of the month of January.
Robbie has integrated nicely into the family we have seen great improvements as far as confidence and personality. When he showed up at the end of December, he was a shy sad looking child. However, there has been a night and day change from who he was. He has a killer smile, twinkling eyes and we look forward to seeing what God will be doing in his life in the future.
Repost From Last Year - Winter 2010/2011
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas from the jungle, sorry it has been so long since the last report, but things have been fast and busy over here. For Thanksgiving, I was able to go to Quito a couple of days early and stay with the Roseland’s (Richard, Ximena, Gustavo & Santi), who are pretty much my family now. Sara Dunlap also came early to visit/hangout and spend some time off from teaching English in Manta. All of Thanksgiving day, we were cooking and trying to get ready for when school was out. It is not a holiday down here and we wanted our teachers to celebrate with us. We (Roselands, Sara Dunlap and I), the Coyle's and a couple of Ecuadorians from Montebello had a great time and definately made some memories. We tried to fry a turkey, but due to the small burner, huge turkey and high altitude, we didn’t eat till after 10pm. While we waited, we played Monopoly, watched some weird tv show, talked and in general had a nice time fellowshipping.
The next day, Sara, Ximena and I just laid low and kept sure that the house was in prime shape again. Later that night, since there wasn’t much else going on, Sara and I drove to the mall and went to see a movie at the cine. It was strangely nice driving in traffic again, being able to drive to do something as simple as going to a movie.
On Saturday Alex Coyle, Sara, Gustavo and I went and up the cable car to one of the highest points of the area, walked and walk and walked some more. We went to the Basilica, and some other touristy places. Under the Basilica there was an old catacomb/cemetery that we looked around for a while. It was unique. A graveyard above ground is much more cheerful and less solemn then one that is under it. You could feel the air was somehow richer, denser and holy like the stuff you would find in a place that had been untouched by the things that grind the bones of the soul, minus death but there was a peace that overshadowed it.
I was suppose to go back to the jungle on Sunday. Before I left for Quito, I found out that there was a census that day and the government restricts pretty much everything. The only thing you can do until 6pm was is stay indoors, after 6pm life returns as normal. When our census people show up (two college students) they about died and lost their marbles when we told them that ourselves. The five of us (Richard, Ximena, Gustavo, Santi, Sara and I) made up three households, five different visas (resident, missionary, tourist, student and dual citizenship), three and a half nationalities; all have a total income of zero. Needles to say, it took some explaining for them to understand, even then, I still think they thought we were crazy.
I hadn’t been in the jungle more than a couple of days before the family had to make a break for the states. They had been invited to be the guest of Handel’s Messiah in Tennessee. While they were gone, we still had school as usual; however we had some very unusual things happen.
• We thought we burned up the water pump the first day.
• The next we did have any running water
• Then it was the water in the cabin was leaking, (we had a break from out water worries on Sunday)
• Monday the toilet practically exploded in between Math and English (took two hours to clean up).
• No water the next day since we washed so many loads of dirty clothes the day before.
• Then we had Wednesday. I had been sleeping in the house so that there would be an adult in the house with the kids. Jean and Joyce stayed in the cabin. That morning as I was getting out of bed, I hear this explosion go off and then hear Joyce screaming bloody murder. Turns out that the hot water pipe burst while Jean was taking a shower, which is a lot better than the kitchen being in flames like it first thought.
• Thursday the rest of the hot water here decided that it was going to go the way of the dodo (extinct), which marks the end of our “Water Woes” as Jean dubbed them.
• So we had lots of fun. Seriously. We made a bunch of things like pizza, burgers, cakes and other stuff too.
Jean and Joyce left for the USA the day of the 13th early. It was the kids and I till Tuesday. The family was suppose to be driving home that day but they were still stuck in the USA due to plane trouble. They came in the next day. The house resumed its normal activity and on Wednesday morning, school was in full swing. We continued to have school until the 21st, and the kids did a Christmas program for their parents.
We were given our newest member to the family, Robbie, he came to us on the 22nd. He is two years old and the cousin of two of our girls, Saida and Jadyra. He came from the village down river. He has two infections and has a lot of worms from drinking the water; we are giving him some medicine and have seen a lot of improvements. However, while he was pretty skinny when he came to us, he has gotten a huge stomach and when he eats now he looks bloated and/or eight months pregnant. He used to try to run off all the time, but he has gotten so that he doesn’t do that anymore, but he still likes being outside all the time, and sleeping on the floor.
For Christmas, we had family come down, Charmai’s brother and Roberto’s parents, brother and two nieces. They came in the 23rd. We did all of our cooking and had our big meal on Christmas Eve. The kids and everyone seemed to have a great time. Overall it was a good visit. The brothers stayed in Jean and Joyce’s room since they were still in the USA. Charmai’s brother brought the kids a Wii, so they have been enjoying that. The kids got me a couple of gifts, a necklace with a seed that has “J” on it, black socks, a Christmas tree, an orange and some hair clippers.
On the 27th we all went to Quito. Four kids and I took the bus since there wasn’t any room for us in the car. The trip was uneventful and passed quickly, both good things. When we got to Darin Coyle’s house (where the family was staying) I was able to hang out for about an hour or two. I went to the Roseland’s to stay until we went to Manta on the 29th. The next day, we made sure that everything was in order for when the Texas Roseland's (Richard's parents and sister - Dino, Melissa & Rebekah) showed up that night. Jonathan, Ximena’s brother, had left his Xbox at their house so Gus and I played on that off and on throughout the day. The family showed up at the house at almost 1:30AM the following morning, so we said our hellos, moved all the bags and hit the sack.
The next morning was Christmas, or just like it. The family had been bearing gifts from the States and were ready to give them out. I was also given some gifts and my Timbuk2 bag from my Papa and Nana. Then the dog, Richard, Dino, Gus and I jumped into the car so that we could start out six hour drive to the coast. The girls were going to be taking their forty-five minute flight there later in the afternoon. The ride was pretty plain, that is until it got dark. We had fog most of the trip while in the mountains, then we had rain, then it got dark. Most all the roads seemed to be the normal ones -filled with pothole and uneven roads. One point, we thought we had taken the wrong road, so we pulled off to the dirt shoulder, which had a nice steep six foot ditch next to it. Since it had been raining all day, soon as we hit the shoulder, we felt the car slip a little. The moment we felt that, Richard put it in four-low and Dino, Gus and I jumped out to try to push the side to keep the car from sliding down the embankment. Just as we were running out of shoulder, the tires gripped and pulled us back onto the road. Just one of those things that happens to let you know that God is still looking out you, and that He will pull you out when needed. We pulled into Manta later than we planned but we were all glad to be there.
The next morning we went to the fish market - they just dumped the fish on the sand, cut off the parts they don’t sell, and then people load them up in their pickups. We went to the beach for most of the day, played some tackle football (2v2) and soaked up the sun. When we got back to the house, we helped make the Ano Veijo and relaxed.
On the 31st we didn’t do much. Gus was bored of just sitting around the house, so we went to the mall to catch a movie in Spanish. I think in general I was able to figure out what was going on but I’m still sure I missed a lot. We tried to get back home but we forgot what the name of the area, we asked the cops, who of course didn’t live there. We took a taxi to the main road and Gustavo was able to tell the guy were to go from there. We went to a New Year’s Eve service at the church, went back to the house and ate. After that is when everything started to come to life. We marched down to Grandma’s house, found a nice spot in the middle of the road and we took our Ano Viejo into the middle of the street, gathered the neighbors (who added theirs veijos to the pile), smothered them in gas and lit them up. W e then threw "fish killers" (pretty much half sticks of TNT) in the mess and stepped back and watched our fellow rioters make a night of it. It was like nothing else, if you didn’t know what was going on, it would have looked like the city was being looted and burned. However, there was a method to the madness and they knew the method pretty well. We got back to the house at almost two, since Jonathan, Gus and I went and walked around for a little bit before calling it a night.
Everyone slept late the next morning, and ate breakfast close to eleven. We loaded up the car and drove to another beach about thirty minutes away, where we would spend the day and eat fried fish. The fish was just scaled and gutted, and then fried. When you’re done with it, all that should be left is the spine (marrow sucked out), the ribs and some of the head. The fins and tail kind of taste like French fries. We saw a sea turtle swimming in the surf at one point in the day, which was really cool.
We got an early start on the morning, hoping to get on the road early too, which worked out pretty well actually. We rolled back into Quito close to five, but we had hit alot of holiday traffic in some of the towns, stopped to get something to eat and had some heavy fog to slow us down, we still felt like we made fairly good time though.
I went to school with Richard in the morning, so that Darin could take Jean, Joyce, the two older girls and I to the bus stop back to the jungle. The ride was really fast and we were able to get to Tena, go to the store and hit a taxi home in, just over five hours, not too shabby actually. The kids were glad to be back, as were all of us. Another successful adventure conquered and watched over by the Lord
Repost From Last Year - September 4th - 19th 2010
9/4/10 - Today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I did get to talk to him and enjoyed that. Saturday was the second to the last day that Suzanna and Sol were living in the cabin. We cleaned house, went to the river and cooked a nice supper for the going away get-together for our two friends. We made everything from scratch, like we have to do if we want anything different. The two year old and I made homemade cinnamon rolls for desert. The only problem was that the yeast was old so they didn’t rise hardly at all, however, they still tasted great. For supper we had lasagna made from a special family recipe, salad with handmade dressing, cinnamon rolls and ice-cream. It was all very good and the evening went great. Roberto and the rest of the kids pulled in around 7pm and they had a great evening as well. We visited and talked, then retired for the night.
Sunday morning Suzanna’s son came to pick them up. We help load up the truck and said our farewells. The kids were sad that they were losing a play mate, but Sol made up for it by getting the kids a dog. It was nice having people in the cabin along with me, but at the same time it was nice when they left also. I could now change, reorganize and make the cabin my own. When Jean and Joyce come I’ll have to start all over, but it will be nice to have people to help fill the time in the evenings. Although I’m sure I’ll miss the freedom that the solo life has offered; like eating whatever I feel like eating, only cleaning as needed and the overall simplicity that I have because I know how to make it. There is a certain hidden reliance and peace that comes with living in semi-solitude. In a three room cabin you find out about what makes you tick and how even in the little things, you have somehow been prepared to do whatever it is you have to do.
After Suzanna and Sol left, everything was about getting ready for school. We had to make lesson plans, make sure we had all of the material - everything. While we had been doing this before, there was a new sense of urgency knowing that school was now only a week away. We had to get over 6,000 copies made for us in Misahualli.
On Monday night the new fridge arrived. The next day we cleaned out the old one and carried it to my cabin. It was nice to have, but I didn’t have anything to put in it for several days. That week we sold our cacao beans (we ended up having 100lbs of good beans), went to Tena and stocked up on food for the week and I met the two boys: Nico and Inti, who are also going to be participating in the older kids program for school. The boys will live with us on the weekdays and then on the two days we don’t have school, they will be with their family. On the food side of things, I found that I didn’t buy enough fruit, bell peppers and milk. The milk is really creamy tasting, it is whole milk but it tastes like it should be whole+++ milk. It’s really good and if I keep drinking it at the rate I did, I will need about 4 or 5 liters for the week, just for drinking. For the Genki English program that I’m teaching I had to do some mock classes to make sure I understand what it was about and how to do everything. The first one I did on Wednesday didn’t go as great as hoped, but Charmai did one on Thursday for me to watch, then on Friday I had to do one on my own. The Friday class went a lot better and we felt that I had a grasp on what I was to be doing.
9/12, HAPPY GRANDPARENT'S DAY! I called/left messages my grandparent & great grandmother today. It was nice to talk to them for a few minutes. Sunday we had a church service at the house, the kids’ lesson was on… something, it was hard for me to figure out since it was all in Spanish, but it had something to do with the Apostle Paul, or that’s what I gathered. For the Adults, we read 1 Samuel, chapter 1. Then after we had read it, we discussed it and tried to find out who it applies to daily life. This is how most every Sunday morning will be. That night/evening I worked on building a goal (for handball and soccer) for my PE classes. While I was doing that, my mom called and told me that Zack had harvested an elk on his muzzle loader hunt in Colorado. During the call, Zack was able to get cell service again and I was able to talk to him for about 10 minutes. He was very excited and he said that he was having a great time.
Monday morning came early, very early. We have breakfast at 7:00am, so I try to get up by 6-6:30am. The first day of school went pretty good, but it wasn’t 100% smooth just for the fact that that it was brand new for everyone. We started later then we were supposed to, but at the end of the day we were on time. So I’m not sure what class we cut short. PE was my first class that I taught alone; I was going to be teaching them Team Handball. Since we have a lot of trees, we don’t have a very large area for playing, this makes us only about half of the needed length and 2/3 of the width. This made things more difficult to show and to play since we’re limited on our running space. We put our best foot forward and hopefully we can get the kids to catch on soon. After PE, I have a twenty minute break before I go see the younger kids to do Genki English. We have six kids in this class and they speak absolutely no English. So it feels a lot like a Blue’s Clues episode, a lot of hand motions, a lot of energy and a ton of silliness on my part. It does seem however that it is working, so all the immaturity is going to pay off. After Genki English, we have Center Time. This is the last part the school day for the younger kids on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Center Time is really just play time, but concentrated. We have four areas: cars/buildings/castle, house, drama and library. We do two areas a day, dividing the time between the two. During this time I play with the kids and make sure that they stay in the area. I have picked up most of my Spanish from this time, however limited that is. The first Center Time class was work for the first half, but then I stopped trying so hard and just let the kids play and it went a lot better. After school was over we sat down for our regular late lunch and sitting felt so good.
Tuesday, was a lot simpler for me; all I am in charge of is Computer/Study, the boy’s grammar and the video at the end of the day. I still help with math in the mornings, and then I’ll fire up the computers and get ready to help the girls with homework and reading while the other two work on their typing. After thirty minutes of this, the girls switch places. When the boys are done with Spanish Class, they come to Computer and the girls do Spanish. After recess, everyone has Grammar class. Three of the boys go with me and work on their lesson pages. After that, everyone go to the living room to watch a Life movie, which is put on by the BBC. Tuesday was a lot slower pace than Monday, but I was still glad to sit down for lunch. That evening, I found some more soccer balls that could be aired up to help with PE the next day. After I had prepared for the next day, I went to the main house to make sure that I had everything ready for the next day. When I got back to my cabin, I gave myself a haircut, I hadn’t had one in about two months and I was tired of messing with it. I was pleased with how it turned out, but after I had finished I remembered that we didn’t have any running water. So I had to walk down to the river about 9:30pm to take a bath (remember, it is dark around 6ish). About half-way there my flashlight quit working, and had to finish the trek in the dark. Surprisingly, I didn’t run into too many trees or fall down. When I arrived down to the river and finished washing off, I found that the bulb in the flashlight had just fallen out of place, after a couple of minutes I was able to fix and walked home in artificial light.
The next morning was the first time anyone had seen my new haircut, and they saw it with mixed reviews. All the kids thought it was too short and I was told that I looked like I just left basic training. However, it’s nice to feel air passing though my hair again and its longer then I used to have it cut. I might keep it this way for a while or I might let it grow out, I’m not sure as of yet but I have time to think about it. That day of school went a lot smoother since we already had an idea of what we were going. However, it poured during PE so we had to do it inside. Since we could not play handball in the living room, we had to do other things, such as jump rope, sit ups, crab races and things of that nature. Genki went well, and Center Time was a lot of fun. The kids seemed to enjoy it, and we didn’t really have any problems with it. I was able to talk to my mom that night for about 2 hours, but we didn’t get off the phone till after 1AM, even though I was really tired for the next day, it was good talking with her.
Thursday morning came way too early, but duty called and I had to answer by getting out of bed, drinking some coffee and going to help make breakfast. Luckily for me, it was a Thursday and therefore, a bit easier. The day went off without a hitch and I was able to talk to Tess Clancy and my Mom again that afternoon as Tess was driving with Mom. We had a teacher meeting that day as well, all went good and I found out the we were going to be having another teacher who was going t be helping us for two weeks while she tried to learn better Spanish in Misahualli. We went to the river for a couple of hours and went home and watched a movie.
Friday ended out our school week, in History we had a mock archeological dig in our dirt pile and tried to see what we could tell about ourselves from what we had dug up. On Fridays instead of PE, we do a project around the grounds. We had commissioned a pull-up bar be made a couple days before, so we dug the holes, leveled the bar and then poured the concrete. The kids were excited to have it put up and couldn’t wait till it had cured. I was really glad that we were done with the song that we were doing in Genki English, because I was starting to run out of ideas for that particular song. We watched, "The Lion King" that night while the parents went on their date night. My Dad called me, telling me about their hunting trip and how everything went, sounded like they had a lot of fun. I hadn’t talked to him in a while so that was nice. I was able to get on the internet that night and found out that Skype worked, however ineffectively, it did work. It was nice to see the family. I wasn’t feeling very good that night and slept late into the next morning. I still felt sick when I woke up: felt like I had a fever, achy and with a sore throat. The kids wanted to go to the river so I went with them. The cool water made me feel better but by the time that I got back to the cabin I just wanted to sleep the day away. I was invited to eat dinner with everyone that night, the kids saw that I wasn’t feeling good so they brought me some ibuprofen and played cards with me till supper was ready. I found out that two other people were feeling bad as well. Roberto, barbequed and we had homemade rolls. We also had Oreo ice-cream and watched, "Bride and Prejudice ", an Indian modern spoof on the book. It was pretty good, but it started to rain heavily halfway through the movie so it was hard to hear what was going on. After the movie was over, I felt a lot better, as did everyone else who was sick. It seems that it was just a 24 hour bug. I slept heavily that night and woke up refreshed in the morning.
Sunday morning was low key around the cabin, I mainly just swept and mopped, washed dishes from the day before since I wasn’t up to it prior, fixed an over tightened sink pipe which was leaking and washed clothes. Bible study was on 1 Samuel, chapter 2. Had a great time visiting and learning with Roberto and Charmai. The day was warm even though it was cloudy and mostly dark. Made lesson plans for the upcoming week and spent the remainder of the day resting.
GOD is still doing amazing things here. I appreciate your prayers and updates that I get through email or facebook. I am still having to borrow "internet" from Roberto and hope to be able to get my own soon. It is hard to reply and usually have to write everything then copy/paste it quickly before service is gone. I even send things but never see it in my outbox as that it made it. Please pray for continued health and safety. Teaching is fun and very enjoyable but it is still different that what I am used to doing since it is all "planned out" prior and more scheduled. I was used to teaching then free time. Pray that I will make an impact on these kids lives, that not only will they learn "academically" but grow spiritually as well. That I will be a light to them and they will shine even more as they grow closer to GOD and that we will all make a difference in other's lives because of HIM.
Repost From Last Year - September 2010
We left Montebello Monday morning and started our six hour drive to the beach. The drive was nice and I was able to see a lot of the country, although I did sleep about two hours of the drive. After we made a gas stop, a few bathroom breaks, lots of hills and some slow trucks, we made it to Canoa close to 5:30 and signed into the cabins we were staying at. The four older kids and I went swimming for almost 30 minutes till the sun had gone down and it was too dark. We stayed at "The Baloo", like as in the bear from Jungle Book. Our cabin was named Shere Khan; it was two bedrooms, one bath and a kitchen in the middle of it. I ended up pulling out/ getting a mattress out of the girls room every night and sleeping on the floor in the kitchen. I would have slept in the boy’s room, but there wasn’t enough space for me to fit. Every night, we went out to eat a local dish that was made of fish soup, fried fish, grilled plantains, rice, beans and juice. It was really good, the portions were a bit small, but for $2.50 it wasn’t anything to complain about. We stayed in Canoa till Friday, the whole time it was cloudy and windy. The kids loved it because they didn’t have to put on sunscreen. The water was cold, but a lot warmer than the river is. We had a lot of fun. We swam, played in the sand, collected shells, walked on the beach and watched movies almost every day. The waves were very different then what I was used to, instead of having sand bars, the bottom was fairly flat, so the waves weren’t so much “waves” as they were walls of water. Another nice thing was that we found out that Baloo had free wifi on Wednesday, so that was nice. I was able to up load photos to facebook and talk to some people on there also.
On Friday we headed back to Quito. This drive seemed to take longer than the one there, not really sure why, it just did. I slept for about an hour this time, but there was more talking during this drive. When we were about a hour from Quito, one of the girls, Mireya became car sick and threw up, that was really the only excitement on the way back, minus when we lost the lid to a tote and two shoes blew out and that we had to go back to find them. We drove to Roberto’s sister’s house and the boys stayed there till just after 9pm then we drove to Montebello. The next day the boys went to pick up some stuff at the mall and get the car worked on after that we met up with the girls. The kids, Aunt Patty, her three kids and Grandma went to see a movie. We then spent the rest of the day at Patty’s house. Sunday we went to church at the school, then to see more family, there ended up being four generations there. We stayed there all afternoon, and then as it was getting dark as we left. We had to take Roberto’s brother, wife and kids to the airport and then his grandmother home. We went back to Patty’s house. Monday we packed up at Montebello, ran to the mall to pick up some supplies, nabbed the girls and pointed the truck towards home.
We drove in after dark Monday evening, and had a late supper. It was really nice to be home after being gone for over two weeks. Tuesday we had to harvest Cacao beans with machetes. We do that so that we could dry them and sell them. It wasn’t hard work, just took a while because you can only open the fruit so fast without cutting it in half or cutting your fingers. It took us all morning to fill three, 5 gallon buckets with the seeds. We did this off and on throughout the week and ended up with around 150 lbs. Dried beans sell for $1/lb USD. However, we had a lot of cloudy weather and the beans were rained on at one point so we have yet to know how much are sellable. Thursday through Sunday, we had an Ecuadorian team down to come and help out. They evangelized, painted a local school, set posts for our green house and showed Fireproof in Misauhi and Pununo. On Sunday the team, a few of the kids from Antioch and I tubed down the river to Miauahi. On Monday, we lost our running water for several days and our electricity for almost 18 hours. Also, on Monday through Wednesday from roughly 10- 2pm I helped build the rest of the green house so that we will be able to use it for the kids science projects. The green house is over 30 feet long, 15 feet wide and almost 15 feet tall. We are not done with it yet, we still need to put one of the side beams and one quarter of the roof on. We can’t do any more until we get the side beam/supplies. So for now, we’re done. Wednesday night we had a big thunder storm that lasted all night and a good bit of the afternoon as well. We lost power again (no big surprise there) but The Lord also blessed us with some very much needed rain. I sat out on the pouch for a while after we lost power and everything was settled again in the cabin. We have a metal roof so the rain was very soothing to listen to as I was laying in bed to sleep as well. The lightning was beautiful and I couldn’t help but be amazed by the splendor of God. The next day it was still raining and at lunch we had some teacher friends from Montebello come down who was interested in possibly teaching here. We have yet to hear a outcome of whether or not one of them will stay but she feels that God wants her here, but she will pray about it more before we hear one way or the other. On Friday morning Roberto, Marisol and Jadyra drove to Quito to pick up some things and for Marisol to get her braces checked. The rest of us went to Tena for the day and shopped for food and things that we needed. Hopefully, we will get a new and much needed larger fridge for the main house by the end of the week. The one we have now that is used the main house is one that is like an apartment size one (smaller than normal but not a dorm room size). If that happens, then the my cabin will get the old one and I will finally be able to keep cold stuff here and I will start cooking my evening meal in my cabin.
GOD has clearly been speaking to me while I am here and I know that this is where I am suppose to be. HE has showed me how HE was preparing me to be here. I have been able to spend more time with HIM as I do not have the distractions of life in the US.
Several different people have stated that I have the thinking/ways of an Ecuadorian and if I was darker and could speak the language, I could easily pass for one.
"I am excited about starting school on 9/13. I will be teaching all week. I will be teaching Bible (F), PE (60 min class M,W,F), the History activities (in the future chapters we will be mummifying a chicken, archeological digging, etc - which I did in my own home school education thanks to KONOS and Mom's adventursome spirit), GENKI, M,W,F, a 45 minute English speaking program that I will be teaching
the younger ones that know no English, through songs, hand motions, repetitiveness & games, Computer, a class called "centertime" with the younger ones that we will learn "how to" things while playing, it is a more focused time to learn a skill while playing at the same time. I will also be a math tutor and homework helper during their study time as well. I, of course will be available to help where ever is needed.
At this moment, it will split into 2 separate groups, a younger and older group and we will be switching off, teaching each group.
I am still waiting for my internet. Food is interesting. Not spicy at all and the tortillas fall apart and they even have directions on the package on how to use them. My parents are sending me my dad's tortilla recipe and several spices to use while I am here. Since we are so close to Brazil, we have more of that culture and not Mexico like I thought. They eat alot of rice (without butter) and fruit. We went to the mall last weekend and everyone dresses up to go. The kids kept telling me to change and I had to change several times until I was "acceptable" to go. I have been able to read more and it has brought back my passion for reading. Currently the best time for my Bible study and devotion time is after lunch where I have an hour, not sure how that is going to be when school starts. My goal is to read the Bible within a year. I have read it before during Awana but it took 4 years instead of one. I am keeping on track currently. I read at least 4 chapters a day. I have 2 different devotions that I use at different times. One is more of an encouragement/challenge that is alot about missions and the other is one that just gets you thinking. Since I have more free time, I am able to spend more time with GOD and I have enjoyed that tremendously.
I encourage everyone to look at the website. www.Itsaboutkids.org They just redid it and it is very well done. It is mainly about Montebello (which is very important to us) but has a slide show about the "jungle campus" is where I am at. I am not in it but you can see what it is like here. If you go to www.Itsaboutjunglekids.org, you will see a place on the right of a list of Partner's & Supporters. Mom is going to buy some jewelry, so you can see how it is made. We will be making some of the simpler pieces at some point (so Antioch can receive more donations).
Thank you to those have supported me with prayers and finances. I am still needing money to continue my year here but I am not concerned. I know GOD will provide those than can help me. I am positive that this is where I am suppose to be. I greatly appreciate those that have been continually praying for me, I can definitely feel them. I was bit by a conga ant, I have been told that 6 of these ant bites equal to a snake bite in the amount of poison that is in your bloodstream. I was just bit by one and yes it did hurt. The wasp are HUGE here and there many more varieties than in the USA. GOD has and is taking care of me. I truly do love it here.
Repost From Last Year - August 2010
Hola,
For those of you wondering, yes I did make it to Ecuador safely. I do feel that this is where I am supposed to be. On the plane ride from Houston to Quito I sat next to some missionaries from North Korea, which was very neat. They were friendly and talkative. Late Monday night/very early Tuesday morning I landed and made it through customs. I had some friends I know; pick me up from the airport. They have been living in Quito for several months already. I stayed the night with the Roseland’s (my friends) and woke up early for Richard to take me to “It’s About Kids”. I met up with a team from Ohio, who were going down to the jungle for five days. The bus ride to Antioch (the name of the location I will be working at in the jungle) took roughly six hours to drive. I slept off and on, the way there, as did most of the team. Even though I had never seen any of the team before, we quickly and smoothly got to know each other. When we arrived in Misauhaulli, the team stayed in the local hostel, which is like a hotel. I went with Roberto to Antioch and met the family and kids that live there. There are currently two boys: Junior and Anthony, along with six girls: Marisol, Saida, Jadyra, Lali, Anahi and Mireya. The last three girls are Roberto and Charmai Davalos children. I sleep in the boy’s room at the moment because the cabin for the teachers it being used. Antioch is a 10 acre plot that is very close to the river and is technically apart of the community of Pununo. We have a lot of fruit bearing trees including Coco, Orange, Plantains and a couple others I believe that I do not the names of yet. It gets dark very early here, after about 6:30 the sun is completely down. With the sun setting so early it makes you sleepy by 10pm. I was told that this will go on all year, sun gets up at 6, sun goes to sleep at 6, and that’s how it has always been. That is something that I did not realize till I arrived.
We have breakfast at 7:30 every morning, normally consisting of some kind of fruit, granola, yogurt and sometimes cereal. The kids clean up the kitchen and any mess from breakfast; they do this every day and after every meal in order to earn money. Since we have a team here this week, they show up close to 8:15 and everyone starts to work. The jobs we do, change with each team, for this one we painted the house and dug a trench/laid PVC piping in order to catch the rainwater off of the roof. The piping took about three days to finish and the painting took five. When I arrived all of the walls were white, when we were done painting every wall had a new color. The girl’s room is now pink, the boy’s room and the kitchen share the same olive green, the bathrooms, class rooms, living room and parent’s room is a sandy tan. All in all it looks great now that it is done. Every day the team would leave at lunch time to go back to the hostel and eat. After lunch we would do our chores and then it would be time to go to do VBS. These programs were put on by the team and were really the team’s gig. I would help if they needed it but mostly I watched and listened. We had VBS in Pununo for three days, then in Pusuno and the once by the school near Quito. We had roughly 70 kids in Pununo for the last two days and 45-50 the first day. We had Bible lesson, craft, games, final parting pray/sermon, then gave out snack as they went back home. I cannot say the number of people we had saved because after every sermon we always had every single child go down to pray for salvation. While I cannot say how many true conversions that we had, I do know that we have planted new seeds and watered others. When they come to fruition is in the Lord’s plan, we did everything that we could do and to the best of our abilities. The village of Pusuno is a 30 minute boat ride down river. The VBS there was a lot smaller then in Pununo only about 30 kids. After we finished there, we went down river a little ways and had lunch on the shore. After lunch Marisol, Anthony, one of the team members and I went swimming. The water was cold, but refreshing; it was strangely not a very large shock to my system since I don’t like cold water. After we returned to Misauhaulli, the team had a short break and then came to the house to finish up the painting. The final effect looks great. I hadn’t noticed how plain the walls were until they had all been redone.
Saturday we woke up early, ate breakfast and then waited for the team’s bus to arrive to pick us up. The “Ohioans” were all done in the jungle and it was now time to go to Quito. We made several stops along the way, we saw a waterfall, rode a homemade cable car that was ran with a bus engine and transmission, stopped at the town BanosMontebello close to 11pm.
The following morning we had another VBS that we held in a soccer field that was just up the hill. We had another large turnout, close to 40 kids. The team did great as always and afterwards we cleaned up and went to the mall for lunch. After we had filled our bellies, we drove back to Montebello and just chilled till we ate our late supper. I was able to talk on the phone to my parents for the first time since I had been here and also learned a new game yhat evening. After we had eaten, I went to stay at the home of Richard and Ximena Roseland and Gustavo, a friend of theirs that they met when they were in Mexico helping at another orphanage. I stayed with them for a couple days so I could have my Visa processed and to get an Ecuadorian ID. Another person from Texas came in the next day; she is going to be teaching in Manta, a coastal city about 5 hours from Quito. Since we were all roughly the same age, Ximena put together a bingo night for the older kids from the school. We played several games and it was a blast. After everyone left, we had some moths that we spent 10 minute trying to get rid of, needless to say, we won. The stay at the Roseland’s was relaxing, we sat and talked a lot, watched TV and visited tourist things. Sunday we went to church at the school and then I was reunited with the jungle clan. We went to take Charmai to the airport so she could go the United States to pick up their oldest daughter, who is visiting family. Roberto and I took the other kids to the Beach which has been an experience. It took 6 hours to arrive. The water is similar to Corpus but the waves are huge.
GOD is using me here and I appreciate your prayers while I am here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)