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.