Hi and thanks for all the birthday wishes!! What a treasure! I have sure been slacking on my writing... so I will try getting caught up...
Visitor in the Night--Chan!
One of the strangest thing about being gone so long and in unknown places, is never running into anyone you know. We are use to being surrounded by family and friends and running into them everywhere we go. So what a treat to have our niece come for a visit! Chan was to arrive sometime around 1 am so we sat by our window watching for her taxi. Around 2 am we saw a van driving slowly by, turn around and drive by again and we happen to see Chan inside...so I hung out the window waving my arms and Rog went down to chase them down. Chan had met some people at the airport who insisted on driving her to us. What fun to have her here!
Sunday Worship
The pastor at the church school where we have been working, invited us to church. Since it started at 10, we were ready at 9:15 knowing that Sonnia would have a big breakfast for us first. We waited...and waited. Around 9:45 we were called to breakfast and everyone leisurely ate while asking Chan lots of questions. Finally, I could not stop myself from looking at my watch...10:20. Sonnia noticed and asked if we were still interested in going to church...we said it was up to her. Much discussion followed...she said it would be a loooong service and the one she usually went to was just one hour...more talk about various services...time passing...again she asked us and we said it was her decision...about 11 she said, let's go. So we picked up the dishes, people put on Sunday clothes and we made it to the church about 11:30. We were ushered to the front row where they had saved seats for us. Dancers were performing The sermon was looooooooong but it must have been good as several times everyone clapped, said Amen and at one point, joined the pastor up front with tears running down their cheeks...pastor too. Then we were introduced and something was said about us...we assumed it was good as we got lots of cheers and applause. It ended about one and we were hugged all the way out the door. Sonnia introduced us to many...including a pastor from another church...and you guessed it...we will be doing lessons there too!! Tomorrow!
Fortin Church
Out in the sticks, we found the Fortin church. We had no idea how many kids or how long we'd have them but we have become experts at punting. We had about 34 kids...of all ages... for about 2 1/2 hrs...but luckily we had Chan & several local helpers also so we once we demonstrated the crafts and games, we let them take over...they enjoyed that as much as the kids! It was hot and humid and we were drenched but the kids were having a ball. Little Georgie had us in stitches asking us over and over...where's the sheep??? As we were cleaning up, we asked the helpers if they wanted to make sheep mask...you never saw such excited "big kids." They offered to bring us home...and here's that story....
Ride Home (think of Twas the Night Before Christmas)
Twas the time to go home...and we had just settled down for the long, sweaty wait, when out in the street we heard such a beep, we sprang from our chairs to see what came to get us...and what to our wondering eyes should appear but a miniature car for the 6 tired adults...with a hefty old driver so placid and plump...we knew in a moment, we'd not make it over the speed bumps. So out we all jumped and more slowly than turtles, he drove as we walked behind...and the children all shouted, "Hola, Hola" (You just can't pay for experiences like that!!) Fortin Church wanted us tomorrow too but Sonnia had other plans for us...
Prince of Peace Orphanage
We finally got to Prince of Peace which is where we thought we were going when we first planned to go Guayaquil but plans change and you just have to go with the flow. Sonnia is the president of the foundation that runs Prince of Peace. The current gov't shut down all the foundations in October as they want to set common rules ...put the kids in gov't run institutions...but It's election time in Ecuador and that means nothing is happening. You can imagine how sad that was for Sonnia. So today, we crawled in the back of their pickup with buckets & brooms for the 25 minute ride, passing some gorgeous new sub division, shopping centers, fields, cows and many poor areas. The orphanage has about 5 dorms (one named Michigan because many volunteers have come from Michigan), a school, volunteer house, kitchen & dining hall and a huge church. Sonnia showed us around and you could see the pain in her face as we dodged bats and saw how filthy things get when no one is there...the roofs have large open vents and things are not built tight. She had ordered a water truck to come and as soon as it pulled in, we got to work in the church...knocking down cobwebs, brushing off screens, and sweeping the floor. The water helped keep the dust to a minimum. It felt good to clean it up. Sonnia is going to offer to let the locals use it. She prays next April when the kids start school again...she can welcome the kids back to a cleaned up Prince of Peace. We will pray for that also and ask for your prayers too. We left thinking of how different our time here would have been...Prince of Peace is so rural & quiet with the same kids each day...and we are in the middle of a huge city with different kids every day!!!
Chan & Tatiana
Tatiana is loving having someone her age around. They are buddies already comparing their cell phones, music, life styles, likes & dislikes and just razzing each other. Tatiana usually spends lots of time with just her parents and her adopted sister, Alexandria...who is special needs in many ways...so I imagine it is a welcome change for her. She laughs lots more!
Compassion International
Compassion International runs a program during the kids summer break time (which started last Fri) giving needy kids a place to get tutoring, bible lesson and free lunch. Their homes are the shacks that seem to cling to the mountain sides that surrounds Guayaquil and we hear often collapse during heavy rains cascading down. Again we walked in not knowing much...we were told to arrive at 9...we got there by 9:30...kids started drifting in around 10...we were told rain delays everything...it rains almost daily sometime....we started a little after 10....our numbers kept swelling but we just worked them in...repeating important parts of the lesson...and soon we had about 25 till around noon when lunch was ready. We called on Chan whenever we needed a break and of course, we put her in charge of doing the games with the little ones who have the most energy and shortest attention span!! We walked home for another great lunch, a quick rest and then back for another round in the afternoon with another group of about 20. We are getting pretty punchy with our sheep lesson now and ad lib lots which keeps everyone laughing.
Me Justo vs. Me Justa
Both of us are becoming much better at Spanish....though one of us much faster than the other. ..only because he DID have four years of spanish just 50 yeas ago!! Most Spanish words seem to be at least 3 syllables and often I can only remember two so...like Chan...I just put O at the end of words. At lunch, I proudly pointed to a dish of potatoes, broccoli and who knows what else and said, Me Justo..one of the few words I had been saying quite regularly because I thought it meant-- I like. Tatiana cracked up. I asked why and found out it means--I like me. Me Justa means I like ... Hey, at least I try!!!
My Birthday
What a unique birthday... two sessions with fun kids...singing in Spanish...a phone call to all my kids...lots of emails and notes on facebook (first time I checked it since we left...and then off to LATTE for cheese cake with my whole Ecuadorian family and Chan. Bummer Jimmy--the jolly waiter who we had befriended--was not there but we met his sister and of course, l loved the snickers cheese cake!! Soon after we got home, Chan was off the the airport in hopes of getting home by morning...which she did. It was great having her with us!!
