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.