Monday, November 27, 2006

more Tena pictures

Here are a couple more pictures from my trip down to Tena in the jungle area. This first picture is of a typical home there. This was taken in a jungle Quichua community that I visited. The houses are raised so things can be stored underneath the houses, as the next picture illustrates.
I really liked the baskets that I saw there. They looked similar and were woven in the same style of baskets that we saw while on a trip to southeast Asia. I especially liked this shot, hope you all enjoy it as well. The next two pictures are ones that I liked and wanted to share. They are of the Napo River, which is a main tributary of the Amazon River.

Here is an interesting picture of a bridge that was out there. The sign on it says 'Lucio Cumple,' or Lucio completed or made this bridge. Lucio is a former president who came from this area of the country. Needless to say, he was pretty popular in this area but unfortunately for the locals, he was not popular enough in Quito and he was overthrown in April of 2005. A Ugandan proverb comes to mind when thinking of how a leader will help his family and home area when in power-'The biggest bug is for your own hen.' Speaking of presidents, Ecuador had their presidential election this last Sunday. Everything was calm and has been since then. To read about the election and results click on this news report about it from BBC- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6193496.stm Thanks for praying about this, please continue to pray for us and our work here.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving! and Tena pictures, part 1

Just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Just remember all the gifts that God has given us and let's be thankful for all of them. I know we have a lot to be thankful for. For now, I would like to share some verses from King David that express thanksgiving to God. These are found in 1 Chronicles 16:7-36, I recommend reading this whole passage but I will share some selected verses here. "Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgements he pronounced. Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."
Here are some pictures from my recent trip to the jungle in the Tena area. I took quite a few great pictures, so these will come in installments. Although I went to the jungle, these first two pictures are from the high mountains, these two are of Antisana, which I have put pictures of on here before.
I thought of several captions I could put by this picture and couldn't decide on one, so I decided to put all of them. By the way, this is a picture of a truck that had turned over on its side. As far as I know no one was hurt, I saw the driver talking on his cell phone, outside of the truck. I guess the lady here was just looking on. Now for the captions...1. Just another manic Monday, 2. I'd rather be a.) playing golf b.) fishing c.) anywhere but here 3. And you thought you were having a bad day! 4. Dang, we're in a tight spot! 5. I didn't know it was going to flip all the way over. 6. Where did you get your driver's license? I got mine out of a cereal box. 7. Somehow, the go-go gadget anti-truckflipper didn't work quite right. You can vote for your favorite caption or add your own in the comments section, this activity requires group participation and your help will be greatly appreciated.
Guess this is all for now. Have a great Thanksgiving holiday and take the opportunity to praise God for who he is and thank him for all that he's blessed you with.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Our store and tidbits

Just want to share some pictures of the store that is in front of our house, along w/ some great friends that we have here. This is a family that has become quite special to us and we have known them since moving here to Cumbaya. I spend quite a bit of time hanging out in the store and we have a Bible study/dinner every Sunday night with them. There are other supermarkets that we go to for most of our shopping but we can buy a few basics here at 'Viveres Vicky.' From left to right, German, Jessenia, Carmen, Angel and Evelin. German is Carmen's dad, Angel and Carmen are parents of the 2 girls. The next picture is a bit of a look inside the store.
Now, I just want to share a couple of random thoughts, etc. One is about a former Ecuadorian president. I had read about him some before but then saw an exhibit about this president's life. His name is Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra. He was president of Ecuador 5 different times, starting in the 30s and ending in the early 70s. The main thing I wanted to share was an interesting quote that he said, 'Give me a balcony and I'll be the president.' Gives you a bit of an idea about Latin American politics, especially old-style Latin American politics...this is just something to share in view of the election that is coming up here-that will be next Sunday, please be praying about that. The last thing I wanted to share is a translation of a funny bumper sticker we saw today, it said, 'Don't follow me because I'm lost.'

Thursday, November 16, 2006

guinea pig (cuy) feast & the electric shower

Sorry it's been a while since the last post, I was out of town and unable to post. I have some interesting pictures from the trip and hope to put those on sometime soon. Here are some from a recent cuy (guinea pig) lunch that we had with some friends. They raise their own guinea pigs and had us over for the lunch. We made a day out of it. They showed us how they prepared it and they also baked some bread. All of this was with Ramon and his family.
The first picture here is of Christine helping with the bread.
Here's the cuy! It was actually pretty tasty. They had a nice garlic flavoring on it and that helped quite a bit. It tasted like...you guessed it, chicken, at least quite a bit like it. This next picture is kind of unflattering but is a picture of us eating the tasty rodent treat.
Here's a picture of the lunch plate, complete with corn, potatoes, chicken and guinea pig.
Here's a picture of a 'ducha electrica', otherwise known to us as a widowmaker. This means electric shower. Electricity is used to heat up the water. As you can see, there are wires that are hooked up to a switch and the shower head. Surprisingly, I haven't really heard of any accidents due to these, that doesn't mean that none haven't happened. Don't worry, we don't have one but have seen them when we were looking for a house or at friend's houses or hotels.
Just want to share a quick update and prayer request now-This is related to Edwin and Jenny, who I have shared about before. We went to meet with them today and not only them but some of their relatives. This is an idea we had talked about before but really didn't have any specific plans to start meeting as a group, well they did something about it, put everything together and surprised us. This is quite an exciting development. Pray for the group there as they get started and continue.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Dia de los Muertos

Just wanted to share some photos from Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the dead. This is a holiday that was celebrated last Thursday, Nov. 2. It was quite interesting and is really a big deal. Basically, the people have this day to remember and celebrate the lives of ones that have passed on. There are certain traditions, especially going to the cemetery to fix up the graves and put flowers or cards on the graves. In some of the indigenous communities, we've heard that people will bring food to the graves and eat some and leave it for the buried relative. The first picture here was taken outside of the cemetery. There were quite a few people there and there were a lot of things going on. People were selling flowers, food and many other things. The next picture is of some people selling some flowers.
The next picture was taken at the tombs.
The last picture is of a traditional food and drink from this particular holiday. The bread is called guaguas de pan, or kids of bread. It is sweet and is filled with a type of jam. The other is a fruit drink, made up of several types of fruit. It is called 'colada morada.' Don't know too much else. I just wanted to share a bit about this holiday and a bit from Ecuadorian culture with you all.

Friday, November 03, 2006

More volcano pictures and Jorge

I just wanted to show a couple more volcano pictures. The first one here is of some trees that were bent over because of the ash. We saw several like this and others that had branches that had broken off.

The next one is of Marie, she is a little girl we saw in the community where we did the food delivery. I talked to her a bit and found that she was a little character, as the pictures illustrates.
The next one is of another special friend, Jorge. He's a little guy that we bought on the street. He's a pet that we won't have to worry about dying for a while. Recently, I put on some pictures of our fish and that hasn't gone well, for the most part, but seems to be getting better. So far, we are 2 for 7. I may have to post a picture later on of the fish and snail that we have now, if they make it.