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

Our First Update!

Hello from Team Ecuador!

Welcome everybody who is interested in following how Team Ecuador is doing! We are at school right now, and things are busy enough to keep us all scrambling to find time to meet together.

As we approach the 2-months-until-we-leave mark, we are glad that we got our act together early! We all have our passports, and we have been in contact with our missionaries, Chris and Kristen McWeeny. Our lodgings have been arranged while we are there (thanks Chris and Kristen!) and we have learned about some of our potential jobs (thanks again!). Probably the most exciting new developement is that our logistics man has done his job, and our tickets are officially booked! As you can probably tell from my abundant use of exclamation marks, I am very excited about all these new developements.

I think that will be all for now, busy CLBI life is calling, but we will get some more updates on here as we learn more and the exciting time gets nearer.

Wilson Sihlis (team leader)