We're Home!!

Well after a very very very long amount of flights.. before getting on the flight in New York we had spent more time in airports than on flights.. we are home in sweet.. not too chilly(ish) Canada.. We headed to the Airport in Quito at about 12 noon on Thursday, however we almost forgot the roses... yes, we bought 22 dozen roses.. pretty neat!! All of our flights were on time, and some even arrived early, so we had no problems with connections or anything of that type of thing, so thank you for praying for safe and efficient travel.. we are all very very very tired as we have been up for 36 hours straight now, but excited to see everyone here and share our experiences!
Love,
Team Ecuador

We've Been To Two Places At Once!!!

We left Shell yesterday a little after 7 am, and stopped in Salasaca to go to the market. Shopping and bartering was a lot of fun, but I (Sam) spent a bit too ,much money on souveniers. Why do I have so many cousins? Wilson, surprisingly, is all shopped out, and I'm sure the Ecudorians have received a great boost in their economy with his contributions.
We got to Quito a little after lunch, had an amazing almuerzo (the standard quick-to-arrive lunch in Ecuador), and went to the middle of the earth! There were two equators, hard to believe. One was the historical on that was calculated by 18th century scientists, and the 'real' one with GPS. STanding on the equator, we all got to be in two places at the same time.

Well, it's breakfast time, and I am really hungry...see you all in two days! Yeah! Love to you all, and thanks for praying.
Sam

Salasaca and Paillon de Diablo!

For the past few weeks we have been working on a puppet show with Kris Waskosky (who the girls are staying in the basement of), and yesterday we got to take it two hours away to Salasaca with a group of the school kids from the Nate Saint Memorial School. Tim McWeeny was one of the boys. It was awesome to be back in Salasaca.. we were there for a few days at the beginning of our trip, but it is definitely a very cultural and different experience from any we have had anywhere else.. the kids are somewhat chaotic but very very affectionate.. After the shows, Emily, Martin, and Wilson got to stay back and do some shopping at the market.. we got very good.. well sort of ... good at bartering in Spanish.. we are learning our numbers pretty well.. and we came home with many new exciting Salasacan things. For dinner a teacher at the school, Beth Patton took us to a restaurant in a town about ten minutes away (Puyo) called El Jardin... soo good.. and the boys even had steak!! We piled six Canadians into the back of an SUV then and took off to the Balsa Wood store across town... which was thoroughly enjoyable.. they have some of the neatest stuff there!! Today we were awoken by a very very loud thunder storm.. our beds being literally shaken... and of course the usual annoying cat that plagues us at night... Anyways, today was awesome .. we went to a waterfall called Paillon de Diablo... which involved a decent hike and crawling through some very very small caves, but was well worth it.. after lunch we got to go across the river valley on an open Gondola... and Chris and the kids decided to meet us on the other side by taking another Gondola as there is a small hike through the jungle(ish).. and the kids were a little tired.. well we got thoroughly lost and ended up walking into someones turkey fields.. and then to a river... so we finally turned around when the road ended completely... the path we were supposed to take was a very small...VERY MUDDY!!!.. trail but it eventually led to where we met up with Chris and the kids and got to go back. We were very tired after all our adventures, but had an awesome potluck with the HCJB group here at the hospital and school... very very good food. We'd like to ask you to pray for all of those associated with HCJB especially McWeeny's and Waskosky's as one of the head administrators passed away yesterday from a 4 year battle with cancer, and although it is an end to suffering it is still a very sad time. Thank you for continuing to pray for us we ask for continued prayer through our last week, especially for safe travel back to Canada.. we'll see you all on Friday!
Love,
Team Ecuador.

La Casa de Fe

Well.. first off we have a story that happened a while ago.. We have been working at Casa de Fe Orphanage (House of Faith translated), and we feed the babies.. get them changed and play with them... there are about 15 babies all the way from 4 weeks old to 5 years old.. the boys have been playing with the older kids who range from 6 to 12 years old... anywho, we start at 6 a.m.,which is a ridiculous hour to get up.. eesh... so our first morning we were quite tired and I (Emily) found a cockroach in the bathroom, which is not pleasant.. then when Kristianne got up she noticed something moving in the corner behind her door.. now she didnt have her glasses on, so she didnt see what it was.. upon closer investigation she realized it was a tarantula!! It was huge.. and so gross.. but she is a very calm and considerate person and informed Sam in the least alarming way possible, but Sam still bolted to the kitchen as fast as her legs could carry her.. Kristianne then transported the tarantula outside. Working at the orphanage has been awesome.. Kristi has fallen in love with a little boy named Fernando (I may fight her for him.. but I think she would win).. he is adorable.. they all are! There is one little baby named Patricio who is the youngest there. He was abandoned the day he was born in the streets of the nearby City, Puyo.. he is now 1 month old... Sam and I are absolutely sticken by him.. he is gorgeous and we cant get enough of feeding and holding him while we leave Kristianne as a human jungle gym for 15 other babies. During these last few afternoons we have had a decent amount of time to rest up from our early mornings. The army runs by at 4 oclock every day.. and they go to the river.. so we decided yesterday we would go and watch their antics, which is a very very long walk.. we have a new appreciation for the army men.. we watched them swim up the rapids for a while and then headed home. This evening we had Ceviche for dinner, which is a kind of cold shrimp soup we were told we had to try. Martin thoroughly enjoyed it, while Wilson, Sam, and I thought it was pretty good but not our favourite.. and Kristianne was not a fan! The power went out tonight when Kristianne and I thought wed make a phone call back to Canada... we were quite angry! Sam and Martin and Wilson spent the evening making cookies back at our place for the puppet show tomorrow in Salasaca.. it is about a 2 hour drive and we are in a van of 4 and 5th graders!! We cant believe well be flying home in a week!! We are all very tired but still having an awesome time and so thankful for every new experience here!
Emily and Kristi

Nate Saint House!!

So for all of you first years who watched end of the spear, today we got a tour of the Nate Saint House, which he built and lived in.. it was pretty neat.. we walked through their kitchen and bedroom and various other rooms.. although only the kitchen and radio room are intact... Yesterday we had an interesting experience at the market.. Kristen and Chris gave us a list of fruits (some we knew and some we had no idea what they were... apparently tuna is a cactus fruit here!!) and we were given kind of a challenge to find these various fruits and ask for them... which was cool.. however the boys did slightly better than the girls.. as we ended up with a few things that were not correct at all.. Kristen then showed us how to prepare them and we have been able to enjoy some neat juices today as well as a feast of fruits this morning.. grenadillas, mangos, strawberries, reina claudias!! mmmm... Anywho, we spent most of today at the school and then got to meet Patti Sue, who is in charge of the orphanage we will be working at for the next few days.. we go there at 6 in the morning to feed babies.. today on our mini-tour we saw a 3 week old baby that had been left on the street the day it was born... it was incredibly sad to see.. this evening we walked around looking for food for a while and finally found some strange hamburgers that had eggs and ham in them.. and then the boys got chicken burgers cause there was no beef left! Then, when I (Emily) was trying to order ice cream I accidentally ordered 4 sisters.. instead of 4 ice cream cones... I figure that is perhaps the reason that the lady looked at me like I was psychotic... We are off to bed now to get a good sleep for our very very early morning, but we are all really excited! God bless!
Emily and Kristianne

A Regular Sunday

Yesterday was another Sunday in Ecuador. Which is not so ordinary to any of us. We got up and went to lead Sunday School at the Moravia Church. Moravia is another community that is just up the road from Shell, I don't think that we would notice the difference if we didn't know that it was there. So we went out and led some games for the kids who come to the Sunday School, and they seem to come from all over, because we pass some walking down the road at least a kilometer away, but who knows how long they walk to get to the highway. We lead the pre-games as everyone is filtering in (one cultural change we are dealing with is the Ecuadorian lack of emphasis on being places at a certian time. If something is at 3, then it means "I'll leave at 3 and arrive sometime between 3 and 4") Once everyone was inside, we gave an introduction about ourselves and gave a sort of mini-testimony about our faith's. It seems to be pretty common in the evangelical church here to reveal your faith history whenever you visit. It is always difficult to listen to any kind of message in another language, so the actual Sunday School lesson didn't hold a lot of value for us, but we did enjoy making the craft, and we also got a sucker. Some things just travel across cultural boundaries, and getting candy at Sunday School is one of those things, I believe.
After Sunday School, we went to the nearest city, Puyo, and were sent on a small language test in the Sunday Market. The market is a teeming hive of vegetable and fruit sellers and buyers, and we were given a list of 8 fruits in Spanish, and the spanish phrases required to shop in the market. It was an adventure, and we ended up with a whole bunch of bags full of fruit that we thought was the right stuff, but there was no way to be sure. Then, after a short afternoon Ciesta, we had the "fruit opening" we went through all the fruits, confirmed if they were the right ones, and learned what they were and how they are used. A favorite of ours is the Grenadillo, possibly the strangest fruit ever. You crack it open like a egg, and the inside is composed similiar to a pomegranete, but more slimy. You eat the little "fish eggs" and crunch the seeds up, and enjoy the wonderful taste. We enjoyed a few different fresh fruit juices today, definitely something that is a nice change from Canada in January.
We then headed back to the Moravia church for the main service, which is at 7 PM. Why they only have a night service is a matter of some debate, but it seems like either the pastor wants to attend another service in the morning, or else people prefer the night service because they can go to the market in the morning. Either way it makes for a bit of a late night. We all got up and introduced ourselves again, and I was asked to bring a greeting from the Bible School. We did that and Martin shared a little more in-depth testimony (all through a translator, which is something that takes a little while to get used to, especially if you are long-winded like me.) There was some worship, and a sermon that I think seemed pretty good. His tone was good, but as for content, I can't really say.
That was essentially our Sunday. An interesting fact about yesterday was that it was officially the 1/2 way mark in our trip. 12 days done, and 12 days to go. A positive and a negative if there ever was one.
Hasta Luego,
Wilson

Hola Vida Is Beautiful!

Yesterday, we worked with Kris Waskosky with her puppet show. It is a puppet show of Noah's Ark we are going to be performing for the kids in Salasaca (they are native South Americans). We spent a good part of the morning cutting papers to make into pamphlets of the Noah story to hand out to the kids. Kris and Shedd (her husband) translated them into Quichua awhile ago. Two boys/men from Mission Aviation Fellowship were helping. They got to Ecuador three days ago, and they don't have enough work to do, so they are helping us. We ran through the puppet show, which is going to be a lot of fun, but confusing because it will be performed in Quichua for the Salasacan kids. For supper last night we went to Beth Patton's house (she's a teacher at the Nate Saint Memorial School) with a bunch of other missionaries from Shell. We stayed there until 10:30 (the latest we have ever been uip since coming to Ecuador) playing Dutch Blitz and Apples to Apples.
Today, now...
We got a day off, and sleeping in was amazing!! After a breakfast of Trix cereal (pure sugar, but so good) we were off to Hola Vida, a waterfall about 45 minutes away from Shell. All nine of us were squashed in Chris's 4-Runner...quite warm. At the waterfall, we had a 20 minute hike to the waterfall in the Ecuadorian version of hiking boots...gum boots. It was a granted measure, and the scenery around the river was amazingly beautiful. After changing out basically in the open, we all went swimming, but found as soon as you got near the falls, all sight was blocked, and I swallowed a lot of water. On the way back, everyone slept...Sophia (Chris and Krisitin's 6 year old) was on my lap...a thing I thought I would never experience (having a kid on my lap without a seatbelt travelling across the worst roads you could ever possibly imagine)!
Tomorrow should be good....another day of laying low.
Thanks for all your prayers, and we are almost hitting the halfway mark (Maybe??), for all you worrying parents. Love you all!!
Sam

There is Sun!!!

Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for good weather.. yesterday the sun came out for one of the first times in apparently 15 days!! And it was gloriously sunny today as well. Today the girls worked at the school doing various jobs at the library for Kristin, and the guys went to the hospital with Chris to finish up putting some interent cables throughout the hospital. Yesterday three of us, Wilson, Emily, and Kristianne got to shadow a anesthesiologist, doctor, and nurse respectively, which was awesome for us all.. and we loved the experience. Wilson even got to sit (or stand) in on a surgery. And Kristi got to help put an I.V. in a baby, while Emily sat in on various clinic visits and got to listen to what a lung with TB sounds like! Today we are helping out with an English speaking program at one of the local supermarkets, which will be good although we are absorbing some spanish!! Thank you once again for you prayers, hopefully it will stay sunny... it does look like there is a storm brewing over the jungle!!
Sam, Kristianne, Emily, Martin, and Wilson.

The Food Is Divine!!!! (So Say Martin and Wilson...)

So yesterday we got supper from a street vendor, which we did not know that that was taboo. Apparently the food may not be good enough or something or other. But Wilson had a great time eating the mysterious organs - heart, intestines, etc. We also found mangoes; very good - 3 for less than a dollar!
After supper, we were invited for dessert to one of the missionary doctor's house, and it was wonderful. (It must be something about the air down here. And by the way, I haven't noticed the water in the toilet bowl going down the opposite way. Which way does it go in Canada? I don't remember...) The director of the hospital has the sweetest accent - a mixture of Tennessee and Mississippi.
Today we were on a work group thing for the hospital. We were supposed to put up supports on some bunk beds, and paint a room in the hospital. None of that really happened. everything in Latin America seems to be "manana" (tomorrow). However, we were able to have some time to just talk with Chris McWeeny and had a relaxing afternoon. All in all, a good day. Especially supper...shrimp and rice from a new restaurant in town. The plates were so full, even Wilson couldn't finish it...
Thanks for reading this, and we'll see you soon, farmer's tans and peeling faces all! Please pray that the rain will stop for a couple days. My hair is growing mold, maybe....

We are Finally Here!!

We arrived safely in Ecuador on January 8th at almost midnight! Chris McWeeny was there to take us from the airport and we had an exciting dance in the rain as we walked across the parking lot to our van (driven by Vincente!). We stayed at the Avant missionary house that night and traveled to Salasaca in the morning. The drivers in Quito are quite daring, if we did any of most of what they did we would get our licenses taken away, but Vincente was very good and got us all the way to Salasaca safely. In Salasaca we met up with the Waskowskys and were fortunate enough to stay at their bible translation centre there. They work with the Quichua people up in Salasaca. We worked mainly with kids there who love the parachute that we brought and holding onto all of us "gringos" they especially enjoyed it when Martin and Wilson picked them up and flipped them over their shoulders. We got to Shell two days ago by riding in the back of Shedd Waskowskys truck. Spanish Keyboards have no apostrophes and it is driving Sam mad! The ride was very adventurous but the view from the box of the truck was phenomenal!! We all have ridiculous sunburns... except Kristianne.... who we are all jealous of... but Wilson tops us all off with giant blisters on both of his cheeks and pieces coming off his nose!! We did some work at a Sunday school yesterday and then went to church with the McWeenys the pastor there talked for about an hour, which was a little more than we were all used to. After church the McWeenys took us out to a place about 20 minutes from Shell near Puyo. We had an amazing dinner of grilled fish, chicken, and Martin and Kristin McWeeny had fish steamed inside a banana leaf! Which they found to be absolutely divine! The Restaurant also has a zoo and a pool which we got to visit and took many many pictures of all the animals including the Jaguar! We went for a short swim in the pool but it has been very rainy and overcast here in Shell for the past few days so swimming was a bit chilly. Today we spent the day at the Nate Saint Memorial school for MKs (if youve watched "the End of the Spear" youll know who Nate Saint is! We recommend the movie if you havent seen it.) We finished the day by teaching the kids gym class .. they thoroughly enjoyed "blob tag" and capture the flag. We are now off to do a little bit of shopping for some fresh fruit, yogurt, and fresh buns for supper. The main meal in Ecuador is lunch (which are huge!!! and only cost 1.75 for 1 person and 3 courses) so our supper is usually a lot smaller! We thank you so much for all of your prayers during our frustrations in Toronto and ask that you keep praying for us!
Emily, Sam, Martin, Wilson, and Kristianne

We are now Team COLOMBIA!!!

Well... not really... but we are in fact going to Bogota, Colombia for a short stay. Upon arriving at the airport and talking to the Ticket People, we learned that the flight we were hoping to catch in New York tomorrow morning was completely full and there was no way we could get to Quito via New York as that is the only flight that flies to Quito and it only goes once a day.... so we are flying tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. from Toronto to Colombia.. which is slightly exciting but we CANT wait to get out of Toronto!! Air Canada has been absolutely a God send and have us in a really nice hotel with a pool and everything and all of our meals paid for, so we are looking forward to a nice meal soon and some time in the hottub. Keep praying for us please!! We need and thank you for all your prayers! Hopefully next time we update this we will actually be out of Canada!!
Emily, Sam, and Kristianne

Are We Ever Going To Get There?

So, due to a plane malfunction or something or other, we have been delayed at Pearson Airport in Toronto. Air Canada was good enough to find us a hotel room, so we slept like the dead after a very long day and a wonderful supper, thanks to the resturant.
We had to go through customs twice (American adn then Canadian after our flight got cancelled), and now have to go through the rigamarol again...At least we know what to say and what to do at the checkstops! Martin didn't realize that he needed his Canadian border form, so he had to go searching through the garbage can for it. This time we won't throw anything out!
Our plane will be leaving from Toronto at about 9 tonight, and then our connecting flight to Quito will leave at 5 am. Please pray that we would be able to sleep in the airport, and also not sleep through our flight. We are excited to be leaving for Ecuador soon, and we'll write again!

Itching to Go!

Hello!
Sorry we haven't written in a very long time, Sam and I (Emily) have hacked into Wilson's account to update this blog before we leave.
We will be leaving tomorrow morning (January 6th) at 6:30 in the morning from the school. YIKES! We are flying from Calgary to Toronto, and then to New York where we have a five hour layover then strait to Quito!! Sam is excited for airplane food!! We are slightly worried about losing our luggage with all the various transfers but very excited to see so many different airports!
Once we get there we will be going to Salasaca within a day where we will be working with Kris Waskosky with the Quicha people. After a few days there we will be travelling to Shell where we will live with the McWeeny's and Waskosky's, and spending most of our time!
We are getting very antsy to leave and Martin has yet to pack tsk tsk tsk say Emily and Sam.... We ask that you pray for safe travel and good connecting flights and our health to be good (apparently altitude sickness is common?!?). Thank you for your prayers and thoughts! We will hopefully update this soon when we are in ECUADOR!!!!
Emily and Sam