Memories of Ecuador

We returned home safely last night. However, we wanted to add one more post with photos of some of our memories of Ecuador. These are in no particular order, but hopefully will give our readers a more accurate feel for the country itself and the wonderful people we met there.

David Quinatoa, Ricardo Ortiz and Miguel Quinatoa from Ambato. David and Miguel preach for the church in Ambato. Ricardo's father was responsible for starting the work in Ambato years ago.

This is the room in Marcelo Lopez' house where the church meets. They set up chairs in this area for the worship services.

One of the guards at the Presidential palace in Quito.

Straddling the equator...one foot in the northern hemisphere, and the other foot in the southern hemisphere.

Interesting street food...fresh (?) snails anyone?

Some tourists will do anything for a photo!

View of part of Quito from one of the towers of La Basilica. Quito is a city of about a million and a half souls.

Ines made hot chocolate for us, but we participated in the whole process.

Ladies removed the husks from the cacao beans Ines had roasted.

Guillermo ground the beans into a powder.

Beautiful sunset on the coast of Ecuador, at Puerto Bolivar.

Sugar cane directly from the fields.

Cacao beans are inside a tough pod. These are removed, roasted, husked, ground, and added to sugar and milk to make the hot chocolate.

April with two of the girls she taught in Bible class at Machala.

The Campas family from Machala. What a wonderful group!

These are the chilren in the youngest Bible class in Machala. What fun they were!

The older children work diligently on their Bible lessons.

This is the view out of our hotel window on Sunday morning in Machala. Street vendors set up shop very early.

Normally, Ingrid Campas and Ruth Davila teach the youngest children in the Bible class at Machala. Here they are with the felt books we brought for those children to use in class.

One of our favorites...Lysette (sp?) is one of the seven people who worship at the congregation in Las Palmas.

This is the group that came to the special Bible study on Saturday afternoon in Las Palmas.

We traveled with our own "candy man". Bert took enough candy to put the entire congegation in diabetic shock...but the children loved it.

The babies are precious. April got to hold this fourteen-day-old doll while her mother was baptized into Christ. What a memory.

Preparing for the baptisms with Bible readings and songs.

One local woman was doing her family's wash in the river near the spot where the baptisms took place.

The group hiked to the baptismal spot.

Just one example of the precious faces we saw in Machala.

Jose Cueva and his wife, Yolanda, came to Machala for the weekend. He preaches for the church in Santa Domingo and other congregations in that area. They have five children.

One of the street vendors in Machala...fresh, warm goat's milk for sale.

Machala has electricity, but from time to time it goes off for a while. We think we know why.

So... who is ready to go to Ecuador to visit the Christians and encourage them? Knowledge of the Spanish language would be nice, but is not required. For more information about the work of the Lord in Ecuador, go to www.churchofchrist-ecuador.info. If you have questions about the work there, or if you would like some help in planning a visit, contact Olen at ecuador1830@gmail.com. There will definitely be other trips to the area in the future, and we would love to have you join us.

The beginning of the end

This was our last complete day in Ecuador, and we tried to make the most of it. We met Marcelo Lopez for lunch, where he talked to Bert and Olen about the work in Quito. They are having 45-55 people at their Lord’s Day services now, and Marcelo is concentrating on strengthening the faith of the members while teaching others the truth. He and his wife sold their car a couple of years ago so they could raise funds to renovate their house and make a suitable place for the church to worship.
After lunch, we caught a taxi to get us back to the historic area of the city. The taxi was not typical in appearance, which should have given us a clue to the situation, but we are slow learners. As usual, Bert sat in the front seat so he could translate our destination to the driver. The driver was not sure where our hotel was located, and since the hotel is only a couple of blocks from the President’s home, we just told him to take us to the palace. He gave Bert a strange look, and in Spanish he replied, “You know it is occupied, don’t you?”

Then, once the cost of the ride and the destination were settled and we drove off, Bert asked him why his taxi was not yellow. He told us he didn’t like yellow. Ok… Bert asked him if he was born in Ecuador, and he told us that he was Mexican. (Bert is VERY familiar with Mexicans!) Then the discussion included comments about “illegal”, and illegal taxi drivers in Quito, in particular. He told us that the illegal taxis had no number on the windshield. (We all looked, but there was no number on his windshield.) He said all legal taxis had a name and number on the outside of the front door. (At this point Bert hung his head out of the window, and of course there was nothing written on the taxi.) Then he “slipped” and used a sentence in English. He had been able to understand our conversation all the time! Bert asked where he learned English, and he told us he picked it up by using the internet. Fortunately, by the time we figured out what was going on, we were at the Presidential palace where we hopped out, paid him the agreed-upon price and continued on much smarter than we had been previously. As he drove off we also noticed that his car had no license tag on it! There were just soooo many things wrong with this picture. We MUST call Felix the next time we need a taxi!

For a couple of hours in the afternoon we walked around the old part of Quito and explored new areas. Tourists are allowed to walk on the front balcony of the Presidential palace, so of course we did that. We photographed the well-dressed guards standing on either side of the entrance to the courtyard. One view is looking down the front balcony out into one of the picturesque streets in Old Town.

Our friend, Felix (a legal taxi driver!) picked us up at 5:00 and took us to the place where the church met. He was on his way to a dental appointment, but promised to come to the Bible Study as soon as he could. The street photo of the building is not extremely impressive, but inside they have a very nice place to worship, with several classrooms and an auditorium area. Marcelo and his family live on the second floor of the building.

We took teaching aids to leave with this congregation also. In this photo Bert and April explain the Bible lessons for the children that they brought to share. We brought Spanish Bibles, Bible storybooks in Spanish, and several review games for the teachers to use with the children.

This is a photo of Marcelo and Anna Lopez. Anna is the picture of hospitality, and must be a great help to Marcelo in the work in Quito.

There were several preachers who had come to meet with Bert and Olen. Those in the photo are Olen, Marcelo Lopez (Quito), Bert, Miguel Quinatoa (Ambato), and David Quinatoa (Ambato).

At the Bible study there were several songs and then Marcelo presented a very good Bible study about the judgment and justice of God. He used powerpoint slides, making it easier for those of us who weren’t fluent in Spanish. But, the most important event of the evening was that our taxi-driver friend Felix, did indeed come for the Bible Study. We stood around after the class, and he visited with the people who were there and told them that he would be there on Sunday! We certainly pray that he will do that. Bert gave him April’s copy of the Bible in Spanish because Felix said he did not have a Bible. Hopefully, he will read it.

So, tomorrow morning Felix will pick us up one more time. Sadly, this will be for our ride to the airport Tomorrow will be a busy day. We fly from Quito to Miami, and from Miami to Birmingham where we will claim our truck and drive the rest of the way home. It will be a long day, so we do not plan to post tomorrow. However, we plan to enter a final post and photos we were not able to get in the daily reports. You might be interested in seeing these additional photos, so please check back.

Above all, pray for these people. Give them financial and emotional help when you have the opportunity. And…Ecuador is a great place to visit. We have given you a glimpse of the beauties of this land and the personalities of the people who live here. Your visits would encourage these Christians more than you could possibly know. The four of us leave with promises to return. Who would like to come with us next time?

A day with our friend, Felix

Olen arranged for our new friend, Felix, to pick us up at 8:15 this morning. We drove through rush hour traffic in Quito and headed to Otavalo, a town a couple of hours north of Quito. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the 19,000-foot high, snow-capped Mount Cayambe on the way. We got one brief look at the top of the mountain, but most of the mountain was in cloud cover, with the exception of the very top.

As we traveled, Bert discussed religious topics with Felix, all the time feeding Felix peanut butter crackers to keep his interest. The drive was through the Andes mountains, and was absolutely beautiful. We stopped once for photos of a dormant volcano, and met a young man named Francisco, and his llama, Juanita.

Some of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador are called Quechuas (or Kichwas…choose your own spelling). The town of Otavalo is dominated by Quechuas, and Otavalo is known for having the largest native market in the country. Felix waited while we walked around the area and shopped a bit. One lady was selling snails. The snails were dipped from a pan into a plastic bag. Salt was added, and the juice from a lime. The edible (?) part must be picked or pulled out of the shell before eating. Since Bert has tasted every street food available, he even tried the snails, and he is the only one in our group with the bragging rights to that honor.

On the return trip we stopped in the tiny village of Cotacachi, and at the “official” equator monument at Mitad del Mundo. April and Jane leaned from one hemisphere to the other, and took photos of the monument itself.

By the time we returned to the hotel, Bert had talked Felix into attending Bible study tomorrow night in Quito, and he had promised to bring his wife and child. We plan to contact them again tomorrow to make plans in hopes of actually seeing them there. We enjoyed our day with Felix, and it was a perfect way to become better informed about this special country of Ecuador.

We saw the President of Ecuador!

The small Santa Rosa airport has very limited flights to Quito, so we had to wake up before the sun was up to make today’s flight. Leaving the Christians in Machala was not an easy thing to do, but our time there was gone, and we had to leave…with promises to return.

It took less than an hour to fly to Quito. The city of Quito is incredibly old. Different civilizations have left their mark on Quito and some of the stone church buildings that were built during the Spanish colonialism are still standing today. The colonial center of Quito is an official UNESCO World Heritage site and modern buildings are forbidden. Our hotel is located in the area of “old town, making it in walking distance to many historic sites.

Once we arrived in Quito, we went to our hotel and left our luggage before heading out on foot to explore Quito. The temperature in Quito was a big change from Machala. In Machala it was warm (90+ degrees…hot!) and the humidity was high. When we got off the plane in Quito we pulled out our jackets because Quito is 9,000 feet in elevation, and the city is surrounded by mountains much higher than that. The weather was cool, overcast and drizzling from time to time.

At 9,000 feet, the air is a bit thin. This bothers some people, does not bother others. Bert is one of those affected by this problem. When we were walking uphill or climbing steps he was breathing heavier than the rest of us, but he kept up and we were all able to enjoy the day.

We witnessed a very exciting event today. We noticed a rather large group of Ecuadorians gathering in the park facing the Presidential Palace. We were curious, so we joined the group. Within minutes we saw an important-looking group of people on the balcony of the palace, soldiers in colorful dress marching out, and soldiers on horses circling the park. We never knew exactly what the celebration was, but Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was out on the balcony watching the procedure. Regardless of what your political views may be, it is extremely exciting to see the President of a country you are visiting! The celebration lasted over half an hour, and the President stood on the balcony viewing the celebration the entire time. President Correa is the man waving in the photo.

When politics are involved, there are always protestors, and Ecuador is not protected against this. One young couple who were big supporters of President Correa had brought their own flag and were very vocal about their views. Bert talked to them about the differences of the attitudes of the people in Ecuador. Apparently in Ecuador it is like attitudes in the US…some people like the President, some do not. Freedom of speech…

We went to the large and ornate Catholic church referred to as La Basilica. We climbed up in one of the two clock towers on the building and looked out toward another spire on the other side of the building. We decided to take a taxi to the Telefonica, which is a gondola cable lift which takes passengers to the top of Pichincha, a very tall mountain in Quito. Due to the distance, we hopped in a taxi. The taxi was brand new and the driver, named Felix, seemed to enjoy our laughing and teasing. He spoke only Spanish, but thanks to Bert we were able to communicate fairly well. We all liked Felix, and when he left us at the Telefonica he promised to return in two hours to pick us up.

City view from the top of Pichincha in Quito, Ecuador.

The four of us rode the gondola to the top of Pichincha. The elevation at the top is 13,000 feet, and the air was even thinner for poor Bert. He elected to sit in the snack bar while the rest of us hiked a little on top. However, it was very tiring with the thin air, so we did not hike as far as we thought we might. Also, it was foggy and very cool on top and the visibility was limited. It was not an ideal day for this activity, but this was the day we had to do it.

Felix did, indeed, return to pick us up at the appointed time. Apparently thin air tends to make normal people a little giddy, and most everything that happened in the taxi on the way back to the hotel was funny. Olen was sitting in the front seat next to Felix, and he told Felix to take us to the Hotel Catedral Internacional. Unfortunately, Olen does not pronounce Spanish very well, and was suffering from a slight head cold; and when you throw in a southern accent, he was never able to communicate our destination to Felix. Bert, our “official” translator, got so tickled at the lack of communication between Olen and Felix that he could not even talk. Olen and Felix had to look at maps and do a lot of hand gestures while the three of us in the backseat tried to breathe through the laughter.

We finally got to the hotel, and the desk clerk was showing us to our rooms when we passed a “no smoking” sign on the wall in the hall. In our already hilarious state, the sign caused us to get tickled all over again. Perhaps readers can see why we thought the sign was so humorous.

We walked through the “old town” part of Quito near our hotel to find something for dinner. It was sprinkling rain by this time in parts of Quito, but the sun was shining in other parts. As we walked down the street we saw a beautiful rainbow. A rainbow in Quito, Ecuador…a reminder to all of us that God keeps His promises…to those of us in Athens, Alabama…and to His children in Ecuador. What a lovely way to end our day!