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