October Timeline

Thursday, October 1: Our friend Daisy came to visit us and help our with our Spanish. Lacey officially started the LAMP language learning method. It went really well as she met some new friends. I set up a dinner with a friend. We also watched as the city had a parade and marathon.

Friday, October 2: It was a rough morning for me. I went out for my daily walk to meet and talk to people and was rejected by a few people. However, I did have a great conversation with my friend Don Rouque in the mercado and tried one of his homemade smoothies. I got home and a guy that I met yesterday came and took us with him. We honestly had no idea where we were going. We ended up at a chicken farm. He offered us a live chicken to take home and cook. We politely declined. Then we went out to the country and picked some oranges. He dropped us off and I thought we were done. However, he came back to get me and I worked with him for the afternoon. After work, Lacey, Sophie, and I went out and talked to Lacey’s new friends that she met earlier. They were really nice and we felt comfortable talking with them. 

Saturday, October 3: The internet guys finally came and hooked it up. We went to dinner at our friend Jose Luis’s house with his family. We had a great time with them even though our Spanish is not well and they cannot speak English. We had pig skin with our meal and it settled hard in my stomach! We then walked through the community and saw some fireworks.

Sunday, October 4: We went to the Sunday market and got some things to make homemade salsa. Then we watched Highlands Church live with our new internet. We also went to the park with our neighbor and her son Mateo. We watched another Church message after dinner. While we were having our prayer time, we experienced a decent size earthquake.

Monday, October 5: We ate breakfast at Esperanza’s then I went for my daily walk. I had some great conversations and made dinner plans with Don Rouque next week. I also got my first Ecuadorian haircut. Then Sophie and I bought a soccer ball and invited Jose Luis and his family to come eat with us on Thursday. We have no idea what to cook so prayer is needed. We hope that we don’t offend them.  

Tuesday, October 6: I washed the clothes in the morning. It takes about 2 hours to wash and all day to dry. We finally got to go to the pool and had a great time swimming. Sophie needed the physical exercise. Aside from a lot of walking, there is not a lot physical things to do here. 

Wednesday, October 7: Balsas had fiestas and parades all day long. we had a great time and it was a great culture experience. We also ate at a new restaurant. They gave us a huge piece of chicken. They were very friendly and we had a great conversation with them. 

Thursday, October 8: Tough day to talk to people. The fiestas lasted until about 3am and most people did not want to talk. We also had our friend Daisy come and help us with our Spanish. We played frisbee on the basketball court and talked with some kids. One of them is our friend Joel. He meets us there every other day. Lacey spent the evening preparing dinner for our friends. We bought the chickens at our new friends place. Dinner went well and I actually got to share a 2 second version of my testimony. They are very nice people and we hope to continue to meet with them. 

Friday, October 9: We spent some time in prayer this morning and then went for our daily walks. I had a great conversation with Alex (owner of the chicken restaurant) and then had a great conversation with Don Roque (smoothie guy in the mercado). Home school is going well and we have been spending quality time with Sophie each day.

Our current prayer is that we find new ways to spend more time in the community. We currently go out about 2 or 3 times a day for about an hour or 2 at a time. However, we want to go and just sit somewhere and pray that God will place people in our path. 

Sunday, October 11: We went to the market to get some fresh fruit and then went to the playground. Then we watched Church online. Our friends from Loja came and visited us and we had a chance to catch up and share our experiences over some Chinese food. We had dinner at Jose Luis’s house. His wife cooked and Lacey helped and learned a few things and we watched a movie with his family. 

Monday, October 12: We had dinner plans with a new couple, but they had to cancel on us at the last minute. Sophie went with me for my morning ministry walk. We shared a smoothie at Don Rouques.

Thursday, October 15: We ate breakfast at Exparanza’s  and then waited to catch a bus to Catamayo. It only took about 2 hours of waiting before the bus came. Then it took another 3.5 hours to get to Catamayo. We spent the evening at our friends house cooking out on the grill and roasting s'mores on the camp fire. Then we spent the rest of the evening discussing our first few weeks in our new towns.

Friday, October 16: We got up early and  I had an opportunity to do some construction with our friends. We then caught a bus to Loja and then another bus to Saraguro. We spent the day in Sagaguro doing some sight seeing. It is the most peaceful place that we have been to in Ecuador. It is a lot colder than Balsas. We hiked up the mountain and went to a place that made pottery and raises guinea pigs. It takes about 5 months for a guinea to be ready to eat. We got to stay in Tom and Susan Stiles old home. They lived here for about 15 years. When they arrived here, there were no Christians in this area. There are now there are 2 Churches.

Saturday, October 17: We got up early and took a taxi to Carboncillo. It is about 45 minutes north of Saraguro and is a lot colder. Carboncillo is a camp where children from all of the local Christian Church’s come up for the weekend and we have a VBS. We played games, sang songs, did crafts, played a lot of soccer and had a great time. I got to talk about Jesus being the Cornerstone and share my testimony. 

Sunday, October 18: We played more games, crafts, and Soccer, ate a really good breakfast and headed out right after lunch. We caught a bus from camp to Saraguro and from Saguaro to Loja. However, the next bus to Balsas was not until 8 hours later. We decided to take a bus to Catamayo and spend the night at our friends.

Monday, October 19: Then we got up early and caught a bus to Balsas. We spent a total of about 15 hours in bus rides over the past few days. Bus rides wear me down. We are all under the weather due to the cold, wet weather from the weekend. We went to about 90 degrees in Catamayo to about 35 degrees in Carboncillo with rain. Our feet stayed wet the whole time we were there.