Ecuador - July 27, 2011

Fortunately and humanely, we were able to push back the breakfast time an hour today.  I still ended up sleeping until twenty minutes to breakfast time. . .so tired.


Breakfast today consisted of yogurt, granola (or cold cereal), fresh fruit (YUM-O), bread, and jam, and it was about the best breakfast that I had had in Ecuador.  Again, the fruit was just indescribable.  The flavor is unlike any of the best fruit I've had in MN.  The grapes themselves were the size of the original Gobstopper.


After breakfast, it was time for another group meeting.  Since there was some drama concerning the meeting format last time, this time, we were broken into three small groups to discuss two questions:  What are you observations thus far/How has God been challenging you on this trip? and What do you think God is leading you to for the remainder of the trip? (Something like that - I know Morgan wrote down the questions verbatim).  My group was Dan Sands, Oscar, Beth, Haylee, Rachel, Megan, Morgan, and Karen.  Originally, I was supposed to be in another group, but since both my kids were in that group, I thought it would be easier on them to discuss the questions more openly and honestly if I, their mom, was not there.


It took about thirty minutes to discuss the two questions, and our group seemed to be more sensitive than the others because. . .well, we all bawled (I suppose having Dan and Beth in our group gave us some encouragement to do so  - HA! Just kidding!).  Then, we each prayed, and we split off into various small groups in order to continue the painting we had started at camp two days previously.

During our group discussion, Dan shared about the obstacles associated with this particular trip and the relationships with the people.  Oscar talked about the fact that he was somewhat emotional concerning this trip because he felt it was necessary to have to tell some of his Ecuadorian friends that the next time he will probably see them will be in glory.  That was really sobering for me, so I can't possibly imagine how sobering it must have been for Oscar to have to say and face up to something like that.  You see what I mean?  Oscar is a gem.  He really brings a unique perspective to the table that I and others might have missed had he not been there.  On this particular day, Oscar was feeling kind of punk - much like the others who had become somewhat ill on this trip as well.  Even though he felt like total crap, he never complained, he didn't feel sorry for himself, and he always maintained a positive attitude no matter what.  Even though he never said as much, I am sure that he was bummed that he had to decline or bow out of certain activities because he didn't feel good.  I am, however, thankful that he was on this trip for all the reasons that I've stated previously.  Oscar was kind of like the team cheerleader, and his absence would have been sorely missed.

Beth talked about how she always says that this is going to be the last trip, but she is, in her heart, already thinking about the trip three years from now.  Haylee really couldn't talk because she was overwhelmed.  I think it was a good overwhelmed; I hope it was a good overwhelmed.  We never really got clarification on that one.

Rachel talked about being frustrated with the paint job at Dios Es Amor yesterday.  She was frustrated about the painting, the lack of supplies, and the lack of connection with the kids during the games.  She was able to play with the kids, but she was frustrated by the fact that she really didn't get to make a connection with the kids.  She was also frustrated by the fact that games had been somewhat chaotic since the leaders had been absent.  It wasn't a bad thing; I understood where she was coming from.  She just wants to do a good job.

Megs talked about being sad in having to say goodbye to all these kids to which she's become connected to while Karen talked about acceptance and the beauty of the country of Ecuador.  I can't remember all the details of what I talked about, but I do know that I addressed the fact that when I went on this trip, I needed to press the "Reset" button on my spiritual life.  I talked about the struggles (not in detail) I've had at FCC in the past three years and how refreshing the acceptance and love of the Ecuadorians has been refreshing and encouraging.


Rocky forced himself to get up and going for the day, but we, as a group, prayed for him anyway.  We also prayed over Oscar and Ashley as well since they were both feeling off.  Luke was up and around too - although, he was still a bit shaky.


Our morning task was to paint the green on the goal posts (now that the white had been painted) and fence posts as well as paint two more dorm room (butter-color).  Due to the previous day's drama, the 15 year olds were still non-functioning units, so I asked Dan to intervene with regard to my 15 year old. 


Harold, Mike, Lavonne, Haylee, Karen, and I worked on the goal and fence posts while the rest tackled the dorm rooms.


After lunch, which consisted of grilled pork chops, sausages, steak, potatoes, and fresh veggie slaw, we were headed to La Delicious in Del Carmen to do VBS again.

When we arrived, "rustic" is probably a word that can adequately describe our work environment.  With the exception of the church, the buildings had dirt floors and were constructed of bamboo poles and strips.  The windows were primitive and rudimentary.  The toilets existed, but there was no water to flush them.  I'll leave the rest to your imagination.  BUT, we made it work. 

 I don't want to paint a hopeless picture because it was all very beautiful and quaint in its own way.  To explain, the bamboo huts and windows were well-crafted and reminded me a little of the huts on "Gilligan's Island."  The toilets, however, were not beautiful.


As usual, we were greets like rock stars on tour.  The kids rushed the bus, and there were hugs and kisses in greeting as usual.  All the kissing weirded me out a bit in the beginning, but now that we were a week into it, I had grown accustomed to it and actually liked it.  Hay Hay and I talked about the issue earlier in the week.  She had observed all the affection extended our way, and I made the comment that I thought it was a great idea.  I said, "If you are fighting with someone or have had a disagreement with someone, that fight isn't going to last very long if you're constantly hugging and kissing each other in greeting and leaving.  There's no way you can stay mad at someone who hugs and kisses you."


After accepting and giving a few greetings, a tiny, beautiful little girl stood in my path.  She wouldn't make eye contact, but she wasn't moving either.  It was clear that she was swept up in all the action and didn't know where to go/what to do, so I did what we all do.  I picked her up and started talking to her.  Immediately, she threw her arms around my neck and clamped on as tightly as possible.  I couldn't even move my neck.  I wasn't sure what that was all about, but we just sat like that throughout music until VBS was ready to officially begin.  Then, I unwrapped her from my neck and led her over to games so that I could go help with crafts.  

We made picture frames at a furious face, and Sheila continued to take everyone's pictures.  However, she did not print them out.  She was going to print them out overnight and give them to Monica to distribute to the kids, and they would finish the frames on their own.  Instead, we made bracelets.  Now that we knew the key terminology and phrases, we were able to instruct the kids through the process fairly intelligently and quickly.

At the close of VBS, my little friend emerged from the crowd and again clamped onto my neck.  If you look at the picture, you may think we are hugging each other tightly for the purpose of the picture.  While that is a delightful idea, the fact is that this is the way she held on to me all the time I had her in my arms.  She would not let go, and any time anyone tried to talk to her, she would wind her fingers in my hair, bury her face in my neck, just like my own kids used to do when they were babies.  Of course, my mommy instincts were on overdrive.  I talked to her, rubbed her back, and soothed her any way that I could think of.  It had been so long since my mommy instincts had been used.  These days, my own two kids aren't very receptive to my "momminess," so it was nice to feel useful again.


As the kids began to leave, I expected her mom to step forward from the crowd to claim her just as the others were being claimed.  I will admit that I was a bit sad about that because there is just something so wonderful about the weight, smell, and general sweetness of a child.  As much as I may force my dog to be a substitute "baby" on occasion, it's just not the same as the real thing.  However, as time went by, no one was stepping up to claim her, and this perplexed me.  Within fifteen minutes, all of the kids had dispersed, but she was still wrapped around my neck.


Therefore, I began to ask around about her family, but no one seemed to know who she was or whom she belonged to.  When I asked Juan Carlos, Pastor of La Delicious church, who her mother was, he jokingly said, "You are now."  Monica didn't seem to know either, but she started asking around.  Finally, she pointed in the general direction of a tree across the courtyard; there were two women sitting under the tree.  One was nursing a baby, and one was an old woman.  Apparently, one of them had to be related to the little girl in my arms, so I wandered over to the tree. 


After some difficulty in communicating, the old woman finally claimed the girl, saying she was her grandma.  The woman told me the child's name was something like Audrey.  I wasn't in any hurry to let Audrey go, but I was told that I had to get in the hut because they were waiting for me to eat supper.  The grandma tried to pry the child off me three times before Audrey reluctantly let go.  To say it was heart-breaking is an understatement.  For my own sake, I won't even let my mind wander to the circumstances of that child - why she clamped on so hard, why she was with her grandma, why she didn't want to go with the grandma, etc.  It's just too hard on my to imagine it, and no matter what, I don't think I would like the reality of the situation.  All I can do at this point is pray and pray hard for Audrey. Even though we didn't share more than two words the whole afternoon, Audrey is a very special memory of Ecuador for me.

After what had happened in the courtyard, I really wasn't much in the mood for food, but supper was being served, so I was going to eat it.  Supper had been made and served by members of the church for which we had done VBS.  It was a very basic but delicious mal of rice, a hamburger patty, and their version of mashed potatoes, which was essentially a potato paste.  All of it was washed down by freshly-squeezed orange juice.  At first, I wasn't so sure if I should drink the juice, but what the heck, it was down the hatch.  So far, my Probiotic had kept me on two feet; I was confident that it would see me through.  After the meal, I noticed that many in the group hadn't eaten so well.  Part of it was illness; several were on the brink of queasiness.  I think part of it, though, was attributed to our dining environment.  After all, we were eating in a hut with a dirt floor; I think they were failing in the mind over matter debate, which is a shame because they missed a good meal.

From there, we went to Juan Carlos's church, La Delicious. The church compound consisted of the church, which was probably half the size of a machine shed.  The Sunday school rooms were under carports in the general proximity, and there was a bathroom with flushable toilets (Yay).  The deal with the toilets, however, was that you had to dip a bucketful of water out of a rain barrel to dump down the toilet in order to "flush" it.  No big deal.  But it is a reminder, yet again, of how good we have it with our running water.  The water at La Delicious runs, but you have to make it run. :)

La Delicious Worship Leader

After several minutes of rousing worship, Dan Johnson was the guest preacher for the evening.  He presented his sermon in English (with some Spanglish sprinkled in) while Richard translated in Spanish.  Dan basically preached the same sermon that Joel Delp had preached on Sunday night at Dios Es Amor -- Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.  He also referenced Morgan Cline and Jenna VanBuren, underscoring the fact that you need to be ready all the time.  The message was well-received by the Ecuadorians, but it was a little tough on Sheila and Deb.  I guess that they had been aware of what Dan was going to say, but that certainly doesn't make it any easier on them.


Our group also provided musical entertainment at the service as we sang both "Sanctuary" and "O How He Loves."  Even though Dan Johnson would like to claim "Love in Any Language" as our Team Ecuador theme song, it seems more appropriate to choose "Sanctuary" since we sang it whenever we had to provide musical entertainment and since most of the kids weren't even born when Sandy Patty sang the former (hence, they have no clue as to the words or melody).

L - Carmelita; R- Damaris

Catalina or Carmelita (not sure which), a young girl that I had met at IPEE was there and was as shy as she had been at camp.  She wasn't interested in talking to me, but she kept sneaking a peek at me during the service.  She and her friend/sister were far more interested in Harold, who had sat by them during the service and had slipped them some silly bands.  :)  


After the service, they made a snack of some sort of fry bread, we were headed back to camp to pack.  On the way home, several on the bus wanted to stop at a convenience store for snacks.  How they could be hungry, I did not know since we had been fed so much today!  Nevertheless, we stopped, and curiously enough, the convenience store seemed well-protected as there were something like four cops standing at the entrance.  Nevertheless, everybody purchased his/her necessary snacks, and we were headed to IPEE.


Just as we were to turn on the camp road, Julio did exactly what he always does; he pulled over to the right.  In Ecuador, when you're making a left turn, you pull over to the shoulder as far as you can go to allow all the traffic  behind you to pass before you make the turn.  As usual, all the traffic flew by, so Julio turned.  However, one vehicle behind the bus continued to barrel right into the left back quarter panel of the bus, exactly where Erika would have been sitting had she remained in the back of the bus (she had felt kind of queasy on the way home, so I asked Becca to tell Erika to move up to the front, which thankfully she did).  Honestly, I didn't even know that we had been hit, nor did anyone on the bus, really.  I knew it was a possibility because I could feel Julio accelerate as he was making the turn, but I thought that he had just driven into the ditch a bit to AVOID an accident.  Fortunately, everyone was ok, just wondering what would happen next.


It turned out that our bus had been hit by military police, so getting out of this predicament was going to be tricky.  To explain, the police system in Ecuador is very corrupt, which means graft and bribes are pretty much a way of life in order to function in such a society.  Fortunately, Karla was on the bus (she had spent the day with us and was going to stay overnight), so she called her dad, Fernando, the cop, so that he could help to negotiate a deal.  Daniel, our translator, began scribbling furiously as Karla talked to her dad, and just after the accident happened, Richard flew off the bus with Julio to begin negotiations.  What we learned is that when there is an accident, the driver goes to jail, no matter what.  Likewise, you don't go to court to resolve issues; you resolve it through street justice, so all we gringos could do was to sit back, watch, and let the Ecuadorians take care of it.


In the end, Julio (actually Team Ecuador) ended up paying the military po-po $150 to make the accident go away.  I heard that they started at $200, and I heard they started at $300, but they negotiated it out to $150, and Fernando said that was the best deal we were going to get.  

Most of the Ecuadorian and now, most of the gringos, believe the whole thing was a set-up.  If you will recall, we had stopped for snacks at a place that had been swarming with po-po.  They saw all the gringos get off the bus and pay for snacks with wads of cash.  In short, they saw opportunity to make a few easy bucks, so they took it.  Yeah, it was irritating and unjustified, and it shouldn't have happened, but in the end, we got off by basically paying $5 per head on the bus.  It's not the worst ransom to have to pay.  What are you going to do?  Julio felt bad, but we tried as best we could to reassure him that he was the best bus driver ever.