Also as usual, when we arrived, we were greeted like rock stars. I cannot recall a time in my life when people have been so consistently happy to see me.
The rest of the crew was focusing on the church. First, they had to scrape and brush (cobwebs and other junk) off the church and then paint. As was the case with the camp, paint was not used at full strength. It had to be watered down by liters of water in order to make it stretch. Once again, Richard was busily using his arm as a human stir stick. This time, his "gloves" were more of an aqua blue color. The church was transformed rather quickly from a drab olive green to a sparking aqua blue color. Likewise, the foyer, which was originally a terra cotta/apricot color was now becoming a darker shade of cobalt blue. This was a project that Rachel could really get into. She likes to work, and she likes to see a project to completion. Later, she admitted that it was a project that also frustrated her. Things didn't always progress smoothly, the equipment was a little sketchy at times, and the watered-down paint was tough to work with, but she persisted by working her buns off.
Even though she was still feeling tough and queasy, Deb, too, was motivated with the painting project. Nick, Becca, Catherine, and Erika tackled the side of the church. Mike Buer was helping with the landscaping. Several of Team Ecuador's members decided to add a Braveheart twist to the project by painting their faces half-blue, thereby by resembling William Wallace and clan. Basically, everyone was working aside the Ecuadorians in order to get this project done and done well. Several of the church members, including Pastor Fernando who was on the clock as a police officer, popped in to check out the progress and offer refreshments (Coke, of course!)
Ashley, Harold, and I set our sights on getting the main gate painted white. Rather than working with latex paint, as they were with the church, we were working with oil. Of course, the paint needed to be stretched here as well, so they added gasoline to dilute. Oh my, was that some stinky paint to work with. Mike would have liked to have join our merry painting crew, but since the smell of gasoline gets him sick, I told him he should probably go spread cheer elsewhere.
Since everyone was doing the whole face-painting thing, Gina thought that Harold should join in as well. He was trying, rather unsuccessfully, to convey to her that the white paint wouldn't come off like the blue. So, Harold ended up with a couple of white stripes under his eyes, which were burning and causing his eyes to water. Poor guy.
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| Before |
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| After |
Inexplicably, we returned to camp for lunch, which included rice, ceviche, and plantain chips. This time, I was so hungry that I actually ate the ceviche. Of course, this time, the protein in the soup (?) was unidentifiable. They were white cubes. In my mind, I decided that they were cubes of chicken. After I had eaten it, Richard laughed at me and told me that it was fish, but Julio, the bus driver, and he (we sat at the table together) kept giving each other sidelong glances and smirks, causing me to wonder if they were pulling my leg. Still later, I think it was Harold who told me they were cubes of tofu. In short, I don't know what I ate, but it tasted good. End of story.
After lunch, we were on the bus back to Dios Es Amor for VBS. I hadn't changed my paint shirt because I assumed that I was going to just keep painting the gate. Of course, plans always change, so when we got to the church, I was told that I needed to help with crafts. Ok, no big deal. I just threw off my paint shirt (I had another one on underneath) and became craft chica with Lavonne, Taylor, and Morgan. Ashley finished the gate.
Needless to say, by the time we got to the end of the kids (first round, that is), the super glue supply was completely depleted. Then, just when we thought the picture frame gig was "game over," about twenty or so more kids came into the church. Word was getting around as to what was going on at Dios Es Amor, so kids started coming out of the wood work, wanting to get their pictures taken. It was a fabulous problem to have, so naturally, Sheila again started taking their pictures (Sidebar: I would have done the same thing), and we were supposed to finish the project by putting the pictures in frame as we had done with everyone else. Since we were out of glue, this, again, put all of us craft people on edge.
Somewhat seriously and somewhat facetiously, I verbally threw up a prayer in which I told God what we needed - that we needed some five loaves/two fish action with the super glue, and we knew that He could deliver in a big way, and I expected Him to deliver.
Somehow, we kept banging the super glue vials on the desk and a drop would somehow appear when we needed it. Would you believe that we managed to bang out enough glue to finish all those additional frames? Every kid with a frame had his/her picture glued to it by the time s/he left. Relieved, we threw the super glue tubes away and talked about how amazing it was that we had made it after all. And then. . .
Two more little kids came in with their pictures and frames, wanting them glued. We all kind of looked at each other like "Now what?" Beth began to try to explain to them that all the glue was gone and that we wouldn't be able to glue the pictures, but I told her to hold on. We were going to do this, so we fished the glue out of the garbage bags, banged like crazy, and God provided eight more precious drops so that we could finish the frames.
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| Gloria's store |
After supper, we headed to a city park in order to run off what little energy we had left. The men in the group immediately headed to the basketball courts (6 or 8 basket set-ups) to play a little pick-up basketball together and/or with the Ecuadorians. I was shocked to see that my own husband was playing a little pick-up ball!
The ladies walked the perimeter of the park, just to check out the joint and see what there was to see. There was a typical play set (swings, slides, etc), and they even had a mini zip-line for the squirts to use. Another unusual facet to the park was a park patrol. A couple of dudes in neon were patrolling the park and making sure it was being used properly. I recognized one of the patrol officers as having been at IPEE for camp. Anyway, Morgan got scolded and told to get off the playground equipment since it was intended for little kids. Oops.
In the meantime, I had positioned myself across from the girls so that I could take pictures. I was in the top row of the amphitheater, so naturally, the little kids became curious and started scooching closer to me. Noticing that they were fascinated by me, I began talking to them in my pathetic Espanol. I stuck to phrases and topics about which I could talk and understand - names, ages, school, snow, MN, food, you know, my usual conversational staples when it comes to Spanish. I discovered that even though it was like 11 pm at night, little squirts as young as four and five were running around the park. As I stumbled through, I was pretty oblivious to everything around me except the kids. Julian, one of the Dios Es Amor group, had been standing behind me, listening to me muddle through, and he told me my Spanish was pretty good, which was encouraging to me since I was getting frustrated with my lack of skill. When I realized he could navigate both Spanish and English fairly successfully, he helped to translate between the kids and me so that our conversation could go a little more in depth.
It was kind of exhausting after a while because it was like fifteen little Ecuadorian kids on one gringo for conversation. I was concentrating so hard because I didn't want to ignore a single question from of those little kids. Finally, Julian tapped me on the should and said ever-so-politely, "Excuse me, but everyone has left you." As I looked around me, I noticed that all of my gringo pals, including Lavonne, Becca, and Beth, were gone. Later, Beth told me that she had tried to get my attention several times, but I had been so engrossed in my conversation that I hadn't even heard her. She said she felt comfortable in leaving me there since Julian was there as well. (A gringo should not be unaccompanied whether night or day).
I'm not gonna lie; I had a momentary panic attack when I thought about the fact that I was by myself in the dark in the middle of an Ecuadorian park in Quito, but it passed just as fast since Julian and the kids were there too. I knew I should go, but I asked the kids, "Dice gringos?" (My intention was to ask them, "Do you want to talk to more gringos?" and they were all over it. They followed me and Julian to the basketball courts, and as I strolled across the courts with my entourage, my pals laughed at me because I looked like the Pied Piper. Even so, the kids who wanted to meet the gringos did so and had their pictures taken with gringos.
At 11 pm, the lights at the park went off, and it was time to go. We drove back to Dios Es Amor to say a long goodbye to Fernando, his wife, Rafael, Narcissa, Nixon, Gloria, Karla, Nixon Jr. Abbi, David, Abuela Consuela (Random Grandma), and others from the Dios Es Amor contingent. It was sad, and Brittney and Erika began to cry. Most people agreed with their sentiment, but stifled the waterfall. As a final farewell with prayers for blessings, Team Ecuador sang "Sanctuary" to the Dios Es Amor crew. Then, we headed back to camp, and Deb, Haylee, Beth, Lavonne, and I moved rooms in order to relieve congestion in our original room.
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