Devoted readers, I apologize for the amount of time between blogs. Believe it or not, we've become somewhat busy and have some wonderful Ecuadorian friends now!!!
Some major things that we've done in the last few weeks...
We had a long weekend at the start of October and were able to take a trip to the beautiful Pacific coast of Ecuador. We stayed at a hostel that was run by a lovely Swiss gal. She offered us breakfast every morning and pointed us in the direction of some amazing, AMAZING seafood. I was able to get my fix of garlic shrimp, calamari, scallops and fish. We took many long walks on the beach and AnnMarie discovered the key to finding and uncovering live sand dollars. Needless to say after discovering how to find their trails she uncovered and tormented no less than 50. The sand dollar community has her on their permanent most wanted list! The road back from the coast was beautiful during the day and provided a plethora of nerve racking turns and crazy passing. The bus took approximately 8 hours to get us back to our apartments, but it was a wonderful way to spend a weekend.
The long weeks since then were spent in a chilly Quito. Most mornings the temperature scratches 50 degrees as I'm walking to school, around 6:15. But on my way home the air feels closer to 80, mostly because of the thin air and the fact that Quito is the closest major city on earth to the sun. The actual closest point to the sun lies less than 100 miles south of Quito. The volcano Cotopaxi is the closest place on earth to the sun at noon. In mid October the sun stood exactly straight up causing us to loose our shadows for a few minutes. Fortunately when the sun is directly overhead AnnMarie and I are both an hour from finishing our day and have slightly less heat to deal with on our grueling walks back up the hill of Granda Centeno to our apartments. By 6 in the evening the sun is already down and we are wrapping ourselves in our amazingly warm Alpaca blankets. They are very thin and very light blankets made out of woven and dyed Alpaca fur. They are, however, surprisingly warm!!! We plan to bring a few back with us so if this sounds like something that any of you would be interested in having from Ecuador, just let us know. They run about $20 dollars for most gringos here, but due to our experience and knowledge of the market we've managed to buy the ones we already have for between $12 and $13 dollars, which I must say, is a steal!!!
I've successfully taught my first two chapters of English and administered my first test. I am teaching 3 classes. From 7 to 11 I teach two Advanced 1 classes and from 11 to 13 (1 o'clock) I teach Advanced 2. The classes are a handful sometimes, but last week I began to realize how much I'm helping them and it is wonderful to see them learning. 'Pronoonseeation' is still sometimes a problem, but they're learning! :) I enjoy teaching the younger ages (18-19 years) and think that my future may someday lead into teaching children. I know this will make my grandmas proud. So far I think I'm a pretty good teacher or I just have some gifted students. There were only 4 test scores under 80% in over 40 exams!
The major reason for our lack of posting can be pinpointed to one major factor. We have FRIENDS!!! A month ago when we were at church we ran into our friend Ashley. She lives and works in Shell and was in Quito for the weekend visiting. She was visiting grandchildren of the lady she lives with in Shell, Roberto and Mika. We were introduced after the service and ended up spending the day with them. We realized shortly after meeting them that they live a stones throw away from where our apartments are. I know a stones throw away is a vague expression. It depends on who's throwing the stone, wind speeds and the size of the stone. Under any conditions I think that I could throw a stone past where they live. We've been spending a majority of our free evenings with Roberto and Mika. Mika and AnnMarie spend much of their time together cooking or just chatting, while Roberto and I have found a common interest in playing video games. Mika is Roberto's younger sister and they've been living in Quito for a while and have been very willing to help us with our Spanish as well as becoming our second neighbor with a washer and dryer.
Two weeks ago at church, AnnMarie and I were able to showcase our musical gifts. We joined the EFC Choir when we arrived and had our first performance during the church services. Most of the songs we sang were typical worship songs, aside from the song 'Down by the River', which left the congregation shouting, "Una vez mas" (one more time). Between services we were also able to make our inaugural visit to Pan De Vida (Bread of Life). It is a house located behind the church that has their own service for the homeless and underprivileged families of Quito. Following the service, the congregation is invited to stay for a FREE lunch. We were only able to stay long enough to set up plates and make some juice before having to head back to sing for the second service. We hope to participate in the kitchen of Pan De Vida again soon and more frequently. I wish you all could've seen us in our hair-nets. It was a first for Michael... and quite the sight.
Another thing that has filled our evenings is our weekly Bible Reading on Thursday nights. Every Thursday we have an amazing potluck dinner (usually the BEST meal of the week) and do a Bible Reading after. This is different than a typical Bible Study. We start by answering two questions about ourselves... very random questions with no rhyme or reason usually. For example, last week was your favorite movie and why and what is one thing people think about you when they first meet you and then realize is wrong after getting to know you. After answering the questions we choose a book in the Bible (or one is already chosen) and take turns each reading a chapter. You read with a pen and underline things as you follow along. We generally have 2-3 Spanish readers and 3-4 English readers. It really adds something unique to the group to have people reading the word of God in another language. We don't stop and discuss things as we are reading, just read straight through. At the end of the book we take a few minutes to figure out 2-3 things out of everything we've underlined to share with the group. This usually turns into a much longer time of sharing and discussion. Then at the end of all, we pray together. Needless to say, Thursdays are definitely our favorite night of the week.
Now that we have some great new friends, not only do we have more evening activities, but we also have things to do on the weekend! Three weeks ago we were able to take a day trip to fulfill one of AnnMarie's Quito wishes. We traveled to the historic center of Quito with our friends and climbed the Basilica. It resembles closely the ancient cathedrals in Europe. It is a gigantic gothic structure that dwarfs the rest of its rivaling buildings. It features 3 major peaks. The first we experienced turned out to be somewhat of a lookout tower almost. It wasn't as high as the two clock pillars, but the trip to the top was quite the adventure. My familiarity with cathedrals is limited, but I have seen some in my traveling through Europe and studying in Humanities class my freshman year of college. However, I never knew that there was a significant gap between the roof of the interior and the exterior roof. It seemed very similar to an ancient attic with no windows, lights or security to stop you from falling aside from an one-eight inch thick rope placed on either side of a eerie wooden walkway. The walkway was similar to what I imagine "Walking the plank" would be like. There were unnerving sounds under our feet and insecurity the for the entire 200 foot journey between roofs, leading us to the base of the 'lookout' tower. Little did we know, another 30 feet up a, I guess it looked similar to a ladder, suspended with makeshift welded joints twisting its way up to the top. We encountered a British couple who we had to help muster up the courage to continue to the summit, but, being the adventurous people we are, we scampered to the top like the monkeys we are. The view was amazing, and was captured by the dozens of clicking digital cameras surveying the landscape. I hope AnnMarie can upload some of them for you to admire. We also climbed one of the clock towers, but since they were more or less enclosed, they weren't quite as impressive as our view from the minor watch tower that was completely open aside from small railing and pillars holding the roof from blowing away. It was a beautiful day trip. If any of you visit us here, it's a must for any tourist in Quito.
Another voyage south into the jungles of Ecuador again was our weekend plan a week ago. We ventured to Secua - the home of Roberto and Mika's parents. It was a long five day weekend so we were allowed to relax for a few days. There were a few other friends that joined us on our journey, who we felt much closer with after what turned out to be nearly a 20 hour round trip on the bus. Sucua was beautiful and full of new and wonderful experiences. As a group, we stayed next door to Roberto and Mika's church, in their parents house! We doubled the size of the youth group on Saturday and had a wonderful time on Sunday attending a church service purely in Spanish. After the service we went to the motocross track for the afternoon. It was amazing to see the racers flying fearlessly through the air. What was even more amazing were the little kids and their ability to compete on the same track and the larger motorcycles. It was quite the experience. We also had a wonderful barbecue down by the river after a rainy night. The food was splendid, as was the rope-swing and log suspended 20 feet up in a tree above the river. Don't worry, we were very safe and didn't do anything we didn't see anyone else do a few times first.
Now for a more serious update... We've been in contact with a few of you about AnnMarie's work visa dilemma. She is currently here on a tourist visa and was expecting to obtain a work visa from her employer. Unfortunately, this did not pan out. AnnMarie has now come to the conclusion that a work visa is out of the question. Her two options are going home at Christmas as planned and not returning to Ecuador or coming back to teach for January and February. She would need to return at the end of February as this is when her tourist visa expires. We have both been praying for God’s clear direction, guidance, and wisdom in this decision making. This decision needs to be made this week as her boss (very kindly and with much understanding) expressed that she needs to begin looking for a replacement teacher if in fact she is not returning after Christmas. Please pray for guidance for the decision making and peace after the decision has been made. We will update this weekend (I know that’s hard to believe...) once we know for sure what we are doing.
Until then, thank you for your thoughts and prayers!
Love,
Michael and AnnMarie
