The Food Saga

Upon arriving, my host grandmother was very hospitable and told me that I could go buy groceries and use the kitchen anytime I wanted. However, she did not know about my inability to cook. I don't want to throw myself completely under the bus, I can cook a decent amount in the United States. Yet without a Meijer or the usual kitchen utensils, I am next to worthless. I found this out on my second day here when I was feeling ambitious and decided to do little grocery shopping. I immediately knew I was in WAY over my head when I went down to the market and discovered that the chicken was not packaged, but instead sold with head, feathers, and feet. Sadly I only managed to purchased some fruit. The problem seemed to have one simple solution, EAT OUT! So for the past week I picked up breakfast at a local bakery, I ate lunch at the hospital cafeteria, and for dinner I would pray that I'd be invited over to someone's house and if I wasn't I'd get dinner from the street vendors. This was going along smoothly, until I heard through the grapevine that my host grandmother thought I was starving myself. The grapevine also told me that my grandmother was the best cook in Shell and that if I gave her some money she would make me dinner. Well this seemed like a splendid proposition and so yesterday I went to ask her for help. On the way home I formulated my question in Spanish so it would sound something like this. "Grandma, can you please help me. I am not a very good cook and I was wondering if you could help me make dinner. Don't worry I will pay for the food." Everything went as planed until my last sentence caused Grandma to keel over in a fit of laughter. For you Spanish lovers, I had accidentally switched the word pagar for pegar. Which of course means that instead of telling Grandma "Don't worry I am going to pay" I said "Don't worry I am going to punch you." Well when the dust settled everything worked out A-okay and tonight Grandma is making dinner! I'm sorry I don't have any pictures this time, but I do have some fun facts instead.

1. Ecuadorian car insurance policy - if you get in an accident all the parties involved go directly to jail until the situation is straightened out. No questions asked.
2. Ecuadorian jail policy - there is no food served in jail, if you don't want to starve to death a family member or friend must bring you meals.
3. Ecuadorian currency - It's the good ole' American dollar folks
4. Galapagos policy - Entrance for gringos = $100      Entrance for Ecuadorians = $5
5. Ecuadorian stolen goods policy - If the amount stolen is under $200 dollars the robber will not be prosecuted.


Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Grace and Peace,
Kyle

BANOS!

Everytime it rains there is a symphony. The water droplets bounce off the plastic overhangs, the scrap metal, the trash, and the leafs of the trees to create a wonderful noise. It is on these nights that I sleep the best. The symphony and the cold breeze of the rain come in through the windows at the head of my bed causing me to bury myself deeper into the covers. But most importantly, the noise blocks out the roosters' crowing, the dogs' barking, the children crying, and the motorcycles' revving. Last night it rained hard and I needed the sleep after a long, fun week.
This week was filled with a mix of work and play. Like I said in my last blog, I have been working with the maintenance crew at the hospital. The situation has been a good one, primarily because it has pushed me outside my spanish comfort zone. For the last three days I have been completely saturated by the language. Never in my life have I had to go three straight days without any English. It has been a test and straining at times, but my Spanish has increased exponentially. Because of my efforts I decided to reward myself by taking a trip to the city of Banos. Yesterday I woke up, grabbed a fresh croissant from my favorite panaderia (bakery), and caught the bus to Banos. The ride was entertaining thanks to a young man who stood at the front of the bus with a boombox and sang Christian rap the entire way. An hour later I arrived in the mountain town and waited for my buddy Jeff Vrenenburg to show up. Jeff and I were both on the Hope tennis team my freshman year. He is down here doing research in the city of Latacunga and Banos happens to be a cool town right in between our cities, so it was a good place to meet. 
The day was filled with adventure and started with a nice lunch at the restaurant Casa de Abuela. After that we climbed a little over 1000 feet to a beautiful resort that looks over the city. When we got to the top the clouds were blocking the city at first but they eventually moved and gave us a great view. Unfortunetly, because of the clouds we didn't get to see the active Tungurahua volcano. At 16,480 feet above sea level, the volcano's top is snow covered. This little fact is interesting because although the volcano has not had a major eruption since 1918, its activity has been releasing a lot of ash and enough lava to melt some of the snow. Interestingly enough, the reason Jeff was a little late to Banos was because his bus had to take a different route due to the run off from the melted snow destroying one of the main roads. Sorry I don't have any cool pictures of the volcano yet, but you can check it out on GOOGLE!
At the resort we explored the grounds and had delicious strawberry smoothies before heading back down. Back in Banos we rented a go-cart and took to the streets to explore all the waterfalls that surround the city. When we got back we decided to end the day bathing in the towns hot springs. After that I caught the 8:30 bus back to Shell. A fun fact about the trip is that the road down the mountain back to Shell goes along a river. As you travel down the road you pass the villages of Rio Blanco, Rio Verde, Rio Negro, Rio Sucio (white river, green river, black river, and dirty river). Rio Blanco is the farthest upstream and Rio Sucio is the farthest downstream. I haven't confirm this but I have a hunch that the names of the villages might have to do with the fact that every towns sewage goes right into the river. In my opinion you don't want to be living downstream. Finally when I got back to Shell I went over to hang out with my friend Nora. She was taking care of Yarinah, one of the jungle babies from the orphanage, and it was fun to just relax after the big day and play with the baby. As always here are some pics. Grace and peace from down under.

cool painting on the side of a school

 View of Banos from half-way up

 clouds covering the volcano

pools at the resort. the city is down through the clouds

 better view of the city

The laundry mat in Banos. Water comes from a waterfall that you can kind of see in the upper left of the photo

 water fall right outside Banos. If you look closely you can see the lady zip-lining over the valley towards the waterfalls in the upper left. Already got my ticket for my next visit!

 The river runs through it

 Dueling water falls called manto de la novia.

 All the electrical power in Ecuador comes from Hydroelectric dams like this one

 Our transportation

Baby Yarinah

The simple life

Hello dearest friends. A new week has begun and believe it or not I have started to work. I have spent the past two days with Papa, Patricio, Rodrigo (Rocky), Manuel, and Jonathan working on the hospital maintenance team. For the most part I have been working with Patricio debugging the hospitals doors infected with termites. I know it is only day two, but I love these guys. They are always full of energy and jokes, but what has really impressed me is their hospitality. Working with them has been such a blessing. Outside of work life has been really simple. In the morning, abuelita and I eat breakfast and then walk to the hospital together. I found out today that she spends the day going from room to room reading the Bible to patients. How COOL is that! Then at noon I grab almuerzo (lunch) at a local restaurant which consists of soup, salad, rice, potatoes, chicken, and a fresh squeezed fruit juice for a DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS! When work is done I stop by the market to pick up some fresh fruit and then go home to make fresh juice with my abuelita. After juice is a short nap, then dinner, then reading, then bed. Life is simple and I love it. Yesterday I walked around town and took some pics for your viewing pleasure. God Bless!

Market Day!

Gloria a Dios! Today started by attending the "La Luz" church service. The place was absolutely electric. It is so awesome to travel to the bottom half of the world and see the passion for Christ! This place truly loves and serves the Lord. It was also kind of fun since I was a first timer I had to stand up and introduce myself to the congregation. Talk about being put on the spot. Then after church my new buddies Duncan, Nora, Lizi, and I hopped on a bus and rode 6 miles to the near by town of Puyo. Puyo is a bigger city than Shell and is known for being the western gateway into the Amazon because the only thing east of the city is rainforest. The town is really fun on Sundays because a lot of the indigenous tribes come out of the forest to sell crops, animals, and artwork. My buddies and I had a fun time walking around trying different exotic foods and filling our bellies with delicious fruit juices. After a couple hours we caught the bus back to town just in time for a game of ultimate frisbee with the missionary clan. Finally, the night ended fantastically eating creaps at the Swedish doctor's house. It has been such a blessing to be around such incredible people. The food was great, but the conversation was even better. I swear I could sit and listen to these people's stories for hours. Whelp time is a flying, I guess I leave you with a couple pictures from the day.

Babies, Leopards, and Potluck

Life is so good. As I sat to write this blog tonight I was overwhelmed by all the amazing things I want to tell you. Unfortunately I think my words and even my pictures will fall short of describing the true beauty of this country. The day started off with a delicious breakfast of pancakes and eggs with my abuelita and then my friend Nora came and picked me up to go to the orphanage. O my goodness sakes the kids were precious. When we got there the first room I wandered into was the nursery and I never left. In a matter of seconds I was dual wielding two babies in my arms. I was in heaven. There was bunks after bunks of little Ecuadorian babies. We stayed and hung out for a little bit and then we grabbed three babies and checked them out for the day. A taxi man came and picked us up and with baby Tomlin on my lap we road to the zoo. With my new found friends from the mission and the three babies we explored the jungle and the pictures describe what we found. The afternoon was spent exploring the town and eating exotic fruits. Then at night there was a missionary potluck where I got to meet most of the staff and their families. Everybody has been really great and the transition has been so easy. After dinner my friend Lizzy from England invited Duncan, Nora, and I over for tea and crumpets. Finally the night finished off with my abuelita and I watching Ecuadorian reality TV and talking about our days. Whelp thats all I got for ya. Just want to sign off with my proudest picture of the day. Shell might be poor, but it is full of love.

WOW what an awesome day in Ecuador. Today I woke up in Quito and traveled out of the mountains down into the Amazon rainforest. The four hour trip was complete with four volcanoes and at least 12 waterfalls. I know its only been one day, but it is not too difficult around here to see God´s glory. On the way we made a pit stop in a city called Banos, and I had my first encounter with Ecuador´s finest cuisine. Yep pictured below is grilled guinea pig. The delicacy is an expensive four dollars, well considering a hearty dish of chicken, rice, vegetables, and beans costs TWO dollars it is kind of steep. It was a beautiful day until we finally reached Shell and it started to rain. Check that, it was freaking pouring. I guess thats why they call it the rainforest. Shell is a very small, poor town that happens to have a military base and airport. It is cool because the airport is the world´s leader in missionary planes. There is a lot of missionary pilots in town that fly out into the middle of the Amazon rainforest to provide health care and spread the good news of the gospel. Super cool. There is even a possibility that I might be able to catch a ride. Im so excited about being in Shell. The people here are great and my host grandmother is hilarious. There is so much to say, but I got to run. Peace and love from the bottom half of the world.

Arrival

Well its official I'm exactly 3012.31 miles south and a little bit east of my nest in cozy Holland, Michigan. Travel was easy as pie and I met my first friend Juan the taxista. Right now I'm staying at the Hospital's guest house for the night and then its a four hour drive through the mountains and into the rainforest tomorrow morning. Peace out!