Friday 17 June 2011

And the Business Continues












Tuesday night we went to the Brown’s for pizza and to have a bit of meeting as we had not met up just us Ecuador interns since arriving back in Quito. We talked a bit of what the summer is going to look like, our special project for the summer (each intern needs to come up with a project that they are going to work on over the summer. It can be anything, in the past people have made calendars and Peruvian cookbooks to sell and raise funds for Inca Link. Basically it’s up to you to decide what you want to do; it just has to be something that will meet the need of a person, church/town, and ministry here. I still have to decide what I am doing for my special project as I just found out that I would need to be here for more than just the summer in order to do what I had originally wanted to do. There’s a need up in Huaticocha for someone to go and teach music lessons and I would have loved to do that, but I would have to go up there and live in the jungle for about three months and I leave in two. I was sad when I found out, so now I need to figure something else out), and wrote up our goals for the summer. Anyways, while we were there we found out that we (just the five of us and Liz as we decided later was going to come with us) would be heading to Portoviejo on Friday till Tuesday to work alongside Percy and the church. The days before we left were busy; we went to the women’s prison on Wednesday morning and Ganas house Thursday morning. We left for Portoviejo late Friday morning; it was an eight hour bus ride. This time was a little better than all the bus rides we took while we were on the race because we could bring iPods this time, but still, eight hours is long! We got to Portoviejo sometime around 7 p.m. We didn’t do much when we got there, Percy picked us up on his way to a visit (him and some leaders at the youth group make weekly visits to youth member who don’t go to youth often or who they are hoping will start coming to youth). Anyways, after the visit (we didn’t go in because we had to stay in the back of the truck and watch our stuff) we went out for supper and then went back to Percy’s apartment. Ben stayed on the third floor with Percy in his apartment and the five us girls stayed on the floor below in an apartment that was owned by someone in the church who let people come and stay there instead of at a hotel. I stayed in a room with Mandi and Julianne, and then Liz and Reese stayed in the other room. We thought we had the place to ourselves until a few days later when we actually ran into the lady who owns the apartment in the apartment. We just chilled our first night there; I tried to learn a few of the songs that I would be playing on Sunday at church. I learned three of the five songs. Thankfully I didn’t have to learn the lyrics like I had to do when I helped with worship in the prison, I just had to learn the chords which were really easy, everything was in basically in the same key so that was really nice. Saturday morning came quickly. We had to be up early because we had a busy day ahead of us: we started by going to the church for 7 o’clock for a pray meeting before the ministries for the day started. There were the six of us from Inca Link and then five members from the congregation (that includes Percy). We took about an hour to pray for the various ministries that were going on that day. When we got there Percy made it a rule that we could not pray with someone we knew, it didn’t matter if we knew Spanish or not we just weren’t allowed to pray with someone from our team. Every five or so minutes we would switch prayer partners so that by the time was up everyone had prayed with everyone. Though it’s still super frustrating not knowing any Spanish it was still cool to go to this prayer meeting. Half the time I didn’t know what the other guy was saying, but it didn’t matter because we were both praying to the same God who understands both of us. I just thought it was cool that we had this time together to just gather and pray.

Later in the morning we went back to the church to fill a water tank of water to take with us to the garbage dump. Every Saturday morning Percy and some people from his church deliver water to the community that lives in the garbage dump. The people of this community rely on Percy because they have no drinkable water, this is their only water for the week. Every home had a couple gallon pails that were filled, but when you look at how much water they are actually getting it’s not a lot. They have to ration it out carefully in order to have just enough to make it to the next week. I know for one of the challenges for the race we had to carry two two-gallon pails up the hill to the families, but this time we were actually able to stay longer and play with the kids and pray with them. Percy did a little Bible study for the kids and then handed out some notebooks and paper hats. It was crazy to see where these kids live because they live amongst all the garbage of Portoviejo, they run around bare foot in all this trash that litters their living space. Yet despite where they live and their circumstances these kids were happy. They were smiling when we got there and they lit up when they saw Percy. They loved the attention and I’m glad I got to go and spend some more time there. Afterwards we drove down the hill and into the area where all the trash is brought, sorted, and burned to hand out fruit to the workers (again similar to what we did during the race). Only this time it was a lot quicker because we didn’t go as far and didn’t really stay around long enough to talk with them. It was a busy day, we had to get back because we had to re-fill the water tank to take water to another community just outside of Portoviejo. At the second community we went to we were able to spend a little bit more time there. We stayed and had a Bible study for the women of this community and then we gave out water. Again it was just crazy to think that they have no drinkable water and they rely on this water week by week in order to survive. It’s just crazy!

We had a bit of down time after we left, but not a lot before we had to get back to the church for the youth event that night. The day before Percy told us he wanted us to lead something special for the event so we had a few hours the day of to plan something. We chose to do a cardboard testimony. During this no one spoke, we had one of the band member’s play his guitar, but that was it. One side of the paper (we couldn’t find cardboard) we wrote what we used to be like in one or two words and then on the flip side we wrote how God changed us. We each had to write two just to make it longer, and then we wrote one together that we all held up at the end. I can’t remember what I wrote because it was all in Spanish. Afterwards we just stayed and hung out with the youth. Before we left Percy told us that he didn’t want us sitting together or talking to each other. He said that many times before people would come on missions trips and then not talk or interact with the people of the church, and because of this North Americans are given a bad reputation. Our goal was to break that reputation. I was a bit scared at first because I didn’t know how on earth I was suppose to interact with them when I know all of two words in Spanish. However, a lot of people I found spoke English so that was lovely! I felt bad because I came down to their country without knowing the language and I am speaking to them in my language. Talk about ignorance. The people I met were pretty understanding so that helped. I had so much fun getting to know some of the leaders, I was among the last of us interns to leave because I was having such a great conversation. Thankfully I got to see all of them the following day in church.

Sunday morning Julianne and I had to get up earlier than everyone else because I was sharing a bit of my testimony at Percy’s Bible study and Julianne had to translate for me. That and we also weren’t allowed to travel by ourselves. The service was horribly long (I don’t know if I can actually say that about church, but if you want honesty here you go) and I didn’t understand a word of it which made it even worse. I didn’t play for the morning service, I played for the evening service, which was thankfully different and shorter than the one in the morning. I got there an hour before it started so I could learn the songs. They have a different way of practicing and playing music here; no one uses music. They all learn the songs by ear and then just play them. Someone wrote some of the chords out, but they also don’t write down the typical chords (ie: C, G, D, etc...) they instead write RE (C), SOL (G), and CO (D) which made it hard to understand. The guy that I stayed with during the amazing race, Carlos, was there and he was able to help me out by writing a few things down and then just shouting out chords to me while we were playing during the worship. I was so happy to see Carlos again, I got to talk to him that night before at youth and just catch up a bit. Out of everyone we met from there I miss him the most (he has a girlfriend for those of you who are thinking otherwise! I met her and she is an absolute sweetheart!), we connected really well because of our love for music and serving. He told me later when we were driving to the bus station to head back to Quito that that was the first time the church had let a girl play (not sing, but play) onstage. I was shocked, what an honour! I’m glad I didn’t know this beforehand because otherwise it would have added a lot of extra pressure that I didn’t need; I was already stressing because of the songs and not having the music in front of me. Then during the service I sat with Carlos and his girlfriend and he was kind enough to translate the entire service for me. I would have died of boredom otherwise because it is hard to sit there and pay attention when you haven’t a clue as to what is going on. Ben had to leave on Sunday night because he had to be back in Quito for Monday, so after church we dropped him off at the station and then just went back to the apartment and chilled.

Monday we spent the day at the beach in Manta, I posted some pictures of the day; I’m sure it’s pretty self-explanatory =P.

And then Tuesday, our final day in Portoviejo, we went to a town just outside Portoviejo called Calderone. We went to visit with the pastor and his family. I wish I could remember their names, but they were both very hospitable, and patient, and just very kind. We didn’t do a lot while we were there, mainly just visited but that was still pretty cool. We went on some house visits with the pastor and for the final one we had to drive a bit of ways to get there. I stayed back while the others went by bus because I was going with him on his motorcycle. However, when the others left we couldn’t leave because their son had the bike and was not back yet. This was terrifying at first because my only way of communicating with them had just left, I don’t know Spanish! It was very hard at first because I couldn’t understand a word they were saying and for some reason I was really nervous so that made it even more difficult. Eventually I was able to understand a bit of what his wife was saying/asking me and surprisingly enough a bit of what Chris taught me first semester this year came back so I could say a bit. Somehow his wife and I were able to have a conversation; I’m sure it was at a kindergarden level, but it was a conversation nonetheless. We talked about Canada in comparison to Ecuador, about Portoviejo, Quito, and Calderone, and then also a bit about Paraguay. It was just really cool. I don’t know how, but somehow God gave me enough Spanish knowledge to talk. It was just cool! I also go to see a massive iguana while we were outside talking, again, talk about cool. This creature was probably over four feet long, he was just huge! I wish I had my camera, but Jules had my bag because I didn’t want to take it on the bike with me. When their son arrived we finally headed out to this woman’s home. By the time we got there Percy was almost done, but we still got to pray for her. I don’t know her whole story, but she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and so we were praying for healing. I talked to Liz about it afterwards and she was saying that although this woman has cancer she has this amazing faith that believes that God is going to heal her. While this lady spoke to us she had this peace in her eyes, like she knows everything is going to be fine because whatever happens is God’s will. If you could pray for her as well that would be great, she also has a very young daughter (my guess is around the age of three) who needs her mom. From there we got on a bus and headed back to Portoviejo. We had only a few hours at Percy’s place before we had to head out again; this time to play soccer with some of the girls from the church. Talk about an unfair match! To make it worse it was us against them... again, not fair. Oh well, I had fun with it. I still can’t play soccer to save my life, but I still had fun. The game finished at 10 p.m. and our bus left at 11 p.m. So we had an hour to all shower and get to the bus station, talk about rushed. That was a bit stressful but in the end we made it to the station on time and everything was almost good. Again, it was hard saying goodbye. I would love to have stayed there longer. I don’t know if I’ll have the opportunity to go back there during the summer; I only have two more months here and there is so much I still want to do and I would love to be able to go back to some of the places that I’ve already visited and stay longer and just get to know people better. I hope I can go back, I really enjoyed my time there.

The bus ride back was brutal! I was stuck sitting by this lady that I didn’t know who ended up taking half of my seat when she fell asleep. Then add the guy behind me who kicked the back of my seat for six hours straight, yup I was not to happy when we got back at 5:30 in the morning. We arrived back at Casa Blanca around 6:30, went to bed and slept for three hours before Mabe came in to wake us up and tell me that my uncle was here to pick me up. The Wednesday we got back was Annalise’s grade 6 graduation at the Alliance Academy International school here in Quito. Grade 6 grad down here is huge! You should have seen some of the dresses! Anyways so I didn’t even have a whole lot of time to sleep. But speaking of sleep I should probably log off and go to bed... it’s after 1 a.m. here and it’s another early morning tomorrow.



More later!!

(the pictures posted are from just a few taken while in Portoviejo; some were taken there, in Manta, Calderone and then one from grad)
Day 8 & 9 of the Amazing Race (the final days and I’m going to try be brief because this is just going on way too long!)



We took a night bus from Mancora to Trujillo and arrived at Helping Hands in Trujillo first thing in the morning. We had just enough time to get ready for the day before our leaders got there. I was with Luke and Jessica for the day and we were off to a bit of a late start. Before we were allowed to leave Helping Hands we had to complete this quiz about various people within Inca Link, there was about 20+ people we had to answer questions on and before we could get our next clue we had to get it 100% correct. This took longer than expected and we really only finished it because of a process of elimination. When we finally finished we had to get on a bus to Victor Raul, which is on the opposite end of Trujillo from where we were. No team was allowed to be on the same bus and since we were the last to arrive at the parade, we were the last to get on a bus. We probably waited about 40 mins before we were actually on our way. When we got there we had to make our way to the children’s home for our next challenge, which consisted of making 20 mud bricks. Luck made all the bricks, Jess and I just mixed the mud with the sand to make sure they weren’t too runny or anything. Got the bricks made and off the next challenge, which was pretty funny. I didn’t hear the whole clue at first, all I heard was the word ‘guinea pig’. I panicked! The one thing I didn’t want to have to do during the race was kill and prepare cuy (roasted guinea pig). Thankfully that is not what the clue said; we had to get a guinea pig from the pail and get him through this 10ft long tube without causing him to have a heart attack (otherwise then we would have to eat him... yuck!) We were the last team to do this challenge and the quickest/most efficient. Every team started by putting their guinea pig in and slowly lifting one end of the tube trying to get him to go out the other end. Everyone felt bad about putting the tube almost straight up and down. Yeah, we were by far the least humane group. Luke happened to have a plastic bag in his backpack... we put the guinea pig in the bag, wrapped him up, lifted the tube, and sent him flying downward. He was out within a few seconds. Though we were the quickest, we were also the only team who had to chase our guinea pig afterwards, he got out of the bag and took off (not that I blame him). I’m just glad that he didn’t die; that’s the one thing I don’t want to have to eat while I’m here: cuy. From there we had to get into a mototaxi and travel to the orphanage (a mototaxi is a motorcycle with a little cart type thing behind it). We all got there at the same time, but we were the first team to get in one because we were the only team to not walk past them. Once we got to the orphanage we had to clean a pair of windows (both inside and outside) and take six one-gallon buckets of sand to the roof (two per person). We had some trouble here because our window was right above the sandpit, every time someone took more sand our ‘floor’ shrank down farther. Anyways we finally finished, had lunch and then headed out again. From here we headed back into Trujillo and we had to get to this busy intersection and dance in the middle of the street in order to get our next clue. When the light went red we had to take a banner out into the street and try get as much attention as we could. Thankfully for me both Jess and Luke were fine with dancing crazily, I just ran around. The first time we went out the dancing was good, but we had to let the people read the sign better instead of switch sides ever couple of seconds. We got it on our second try. Then we had to get on yet another bus and travel towards Huanchoca (a small beach town about 30 minutes (or less) from Trujillo). We didn’t quite make it into Huanchoca, we got off just outside the town in the little treed area. We had to run around and find three orange envelopes which contained our next clue, or the pieces to our next clue. The area itself wasn’t that big, so it shouldn’t have taken that long to find them, but it did. The envelopes were hidden high in the trees, nothing was on the ground. We finally found them (and helped a few of the other teams find theirs because like I said in earlier posts, none of us were very good at the ‘racing’ bit). Once we got our envelopes we had to put the puzzle together before we could move on. From there we were done, we just needed to head to our pit stop for the day, which was a restaurant. We ended third this day. After we ate we headed back to the children’s home, because that is where we stayed for the rest of our time while in Peru. I can’t really remember what happened that evening because it was so long ago and so much has happened since.



Okay finally onto day 9, our final day of the race.

Our first challenge of the day was to pick our own teams; our only criteria was that we couldn’t be on the same team with someone that we had previously been on a team with and everyone had not been with one of the team leaders (excluding the day where there was only three teams of five people, otherwise everyone would have been with every team leader). I was never on a team with either Annie or Amber, and I hadn’t had Ben as a leader yet. They had both been together and they had both been on a team with Ben, so that didn’t work. My team for the final day was Ben, Vicky and myself. I loved being on teams with Vicky, we always had so much fun! Once our teams were decided we had to get on a bus to Huanchoca for our next challenge. Again, no team could be on the same bus as another team; our team was the second team to get on the bus because we won the rock, paper, scissors match for who went next (we all arrived at the parade at the same time so we figured this was the fairest way). We made it to the pier and received our next clue, which gave us two options in which to choose from: “a) One team member must take a wave and surf standing on the board for a minimum of 5 seconds counted by the judge before you can receive your next clue. b) Your team must braid 10 braids of the member of your team with the longest hair to the satisfaction of the judge.” Because we had Ben on our team, who is into all and good at all extreme sports, we decided to do the surfing one. Ben had never surfed before, but within a matter of minutes he was up and we were onto our next challenge. Our next challenge was a lot of fun; Totora relay race. For those who don’t know what a totora is, it is a long woven straw canoe-type boat. The guy from the shop in which they boats were rented from steered the boat, we just had to sit in the back and relax (and try not to fall off when we hit the waves). We had to go from the beach to the pier and then back before our next team member could get on and go (we had to make it to the beach, we couldn’t jump off in the water, we had to be on land). Once we were all done that we had to grab our stuff, hold hands and run to the far side of the beach to the Inca Link umbrella. This was our final pit stop; once we ran ‘through’ the banner we were done! Because Ben did not have any problems with the surfing challenge we were the first team on the final day. There was only one team that did the braiding, the rest tried surfing. Many people tried and then switched with someone else. A few people had to get others to hold their board for the full 5 seconds so that they could finally finish the challenge (Mandi was out there the longest, about an hour and a half trying. She got up the most times out of everyone; she just couldn’t hold it for 5 seconds, always one short). Once we were done (by 11:20 in the morning) we just chilled on the beach until everyone else was done. We had the surf boards all day so we could have tried surfing before we had lunch. I didn’t try before lunch, I just wanted to relax. I tried after lunch though. Julianne and I really wanted to go out, but we weren’t sure if wanted too because the waves were getting pretty big and we didn’t know if we wanted to get wet again. We did go because we realized that this was probably going to be only chance to try surfing because we didn’t know if we would have the chance to go to the beach in Ecuador (as most beaches are at least eight hours away from Quito, if not farther). We got into the wetsuits and went out with Luke. The first time we went out I couldn’t get past the waves, both Luke and Julianne were passed them, but I was having so many problems. I got knocked down by one and from there it was a struggle. I was getting tumbled around under water as though I was laundry in the washing machine. I would get above the water with just enough time to catch my breath before I was pushed under again. Eventually the waves just carried me back to shore, I was so discouraged! I had wanted to try surfing for so many years and the first time I go out I get beaten by the waves. Jules and Luke came back and we took a quick break to decide if we wanted to go back out there. I didn’t at first because I had a massive headache because of the saltwater and lack of oxygen for who knows how long, but I also knew that I would regret it if I didn’t try again. This time around Marian came with us and she knows how to surf so she told me how to get over the waves. For those who do yoga, basically you do the snake pose, pushing the board under the wave while you stay above it. Besides the paddling (I was getting tired) I had no trouble getting far enough out that we could sit on our boards and just wait for a good wave to come. We probably sat out there for about 20 minutes talking before we decided to actually try catch a wave. At this point it was somewhere around 5 p.m. so the waves were getting pretty big and aggressive. Out only goal (Julianne and I) was to just catch a wave. I caught a few waves and the closest I got to actually surfing was getting up on all fours on the board. I thought this was pretty good for not taking lessons and with the size of the waves I was glad to be able to kind of get up. The final wave took me right into a pile of boulders; thankfully the board hit them before I did. After we got back to shore, Jess and Sara took the boards out for a bit to give it a try. We left shortly after that and headed back to the children’s home because Sara and the Brian’s were heading back to Quito that night. A few more hours before we had to say goodbye, not fun! I hate goodbyes, and that was only the beginning of them! We went for Chinese and then just walked around Trujillo for a bit before we called it a night.



Finally! I got the race up and finished. Us interns who are serving in Ecuador this summer didn’t leave right away, we stayed in Trujillo for another three or four days for training. Training wasn’t too exciting; it was just nice to have time to hang out as a big group before we split up.  Though I must say our final training exercise was pretty funny. It was a role play exercise, we each picked from a hat our role for the morning while we were picking corn from the field out back. There were three interns and the rest of us were a team from wherever. I got the role of encourager and had to find the good in everyone; I had more fun just watching everyone else get into their roles then playing mine. I would have done better as the quiet person who doesn’t talk (go figure). I could take the time and write about everyone and their roles, but that would take too long and this post is already a mile long. Lets just say it was really enjoyable, and also a good learning experience as we will probably have people on our teams that we’re leading this summer who will be like that (some of the roles consisted of complainer, hard worker (don’t care about anything else, just get the job done), quiet/shy people, cultural inappropriate, etc...). This was our last day of training, we finished in the morning and had the rest of the afternoon to pack (only us Ecuadorian interns) and chill. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone. We had just spent the past two weeks on this crazy adventure that took us all over Ecuador and Peru and then we had to say goodbye. The hardest part was knowing that this will probably be the last time some of us ever see each other. I know we’ll keep in contact via facebook, but it’s not the same.

Gustavo, Reese, Mandi, Julianne, Ben and I took the night bus from Trujillo to the Ecuador/Peru border and to the immigration office to get our passports stamped saying we are back in the country of Ecuador. We then took a bus to Santa Rosa to pick up the 15 passenger van that had broken down while we were on our way to Peru. The van was left with the church there to get fixed up so we could take it back to Quito when we were done the race. The bus ride from Trujillo to the border was eleven – twelve hours, and then about an hour from the border to Santa Rosa and then another ten or so hours to Quito. It was a long day! Gustavo drove and since there wasn’t that many of us we took turns napping on the beach seats in the back. To keep this short, lets just say that Gustavo is the scariest person I’ve ever driven with. In Ecuador no one wears a seatbelt, vehicles have them but no one wears them. We were (and still are) in the habit of not wearing them (it’ll be weird being back in Canada where the driving isn’t nearly as crazy but it is still required by law to wear them). Anyways, every time Gustavo would drive over a speed bump he would go slow for the front wheels and then speed up again before the back wheels had cleared it. We went flying every time! I haven’t gotten motion sickness in a very long time, but that drive back to Quito has now, once again, made me sensitive to driving. We finally got back to Casa Blanca just before midnight. It was nice to be home and have access to all our clothes, as we had been living out of a school backpack for two weeks.



We’ve done a lot since being back, I talked about a little of it in previous posts, but I’ll fill you in on it more later.



Until next time!

Thursday 9 June 2011

Beach Bums and Candy Canes


Day six of the race:

The day at the beach was much needed! We were all sleep-deprived at this point and just exhausted in every sense of the word. The beach was very rejuvenating! We had a simple breakfast at 10, though we were all awake by 9 and just chilling by the pool waiting for breakfast to be served. After breakfast we just went to the beach all day. The water was wonderful, the ocean was just gorgeous. Peru has a very hot and dry climate, so it was the perfect beach day. If you ask me the water felt like a warm bathtub, but ask anyone else from the team and they would say that it was freezing. When you grow up going to a glacier-fed lake, every other body of water is warm. We basically just spent the day swimming, and tanning, and chilling. I wish I had a picture, but I discovered the reason you never use spray-on sunscreen. I sprayed it on my arms and legs and thought I rubbed it in well enough... WRONG!! I didn’t realize I was burning until way later in the day and I burnt in a lovely candy cane pattern on my legs; I had two white strips down my legs and two bright red strips, in a sort of twisting pattern. It looked (an still looks) absolutely ridiculous!! I stood up and everyone laughed, I laughed to because of course this would happen to me. My tan line now is great; my legs go white, dark brown, white, dark brown, and the best part is that they’re peeling for a second time – I can now say it looks like I have a flesh-eating disease because it’s so gross looking. Anyways we eventually moved to the pool because the waves were getting pretty big and crashing up to where we were laying on the beach. The waves were also starting to get pretty rough; the first five or so feet into the ocean is all rocks and then when the waves come it feels like you are getting dragged over a cheese grater. You know how most people pull splinters out of their hands; I was digging pebbles out of mine. The rest of the day was just chilling by the poolside, walking down the beach after sunset, and then getting on an eleven hour night bus to Trujillo. Thankgoodness for gravel otherwise that trip would have been unbearable as the back of my legs were fried. I want to see if I can get as dark as the one section of my legs know that I know that I can actually get that dark. I’m finally almost caught up with blogging about the race; did three days today which I think is pretty good. More in a few days -  going to Portoviejo and I don’t think we’re bringing our laptops with us. My goal is to get completely caught up by the end of next week... here’s hoping!!!!

Day five of the race:

Since we all spent the night at different people’s places we all met at this restaurant for breakfast. Unfortunately we were not allowed to order for ourselves as the Brown’s had already ordered for us. I can’t remember the name of what we ate, but whatever it was it was weird. It looked like a pile of mush on our plates; it was ground beef, eggs, and mashed plantains. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t the best either. Also, it was very heavy and filling; I only ate a small amount of it because it was so filling. Besides, you don’t want to eat something that heavy before you have to begin a race. Today the teams were a bit different; instead of five teams of three, we had three teams of five. The teams were completely random, but somehow all of us Ecuadorian interns ended up on the same team (Julianne, Ben, Reese, Mandi, and myself). Our first challenge of the day was to find the outdoor market, find Señora Mercedes Ureta, who would give us some fruit to sell. We needed to sell $5 worth of fruit. We were given three boxes piled full of oranges, I think we were told that there were 40+ pieces of fruit per box. One box we sold for $2 and the other two boxes were sold for $1.50; what a good deal for so much fruit! We sold it all right away, but we ran into some guys at the bar and started to talk with them. They didn’t know any English, but Julianne and Ben translated for us. SĂ­mon and Fernando were there names, Simon owned the bar and Fernando was already drunk by 9 in the morning. Simon was excited and glad that we are here in his country serving. He told us to remember him and to come back and visit him if we were ever back in town (which we will be tomorrow night, so how knows, maybe we will be able to stop by and say hi). Fernando said some stuff to us, but Jules was having a hard time understanding him because he was slurring his words. Anyways we were able to pray for them before we left and Fernando turned around and prayed for us afterwards. It’s times like these when we forgot that we were in a race and took the time to get to know the people. We were probably there talking with them for about 20 or so minutes. After we prayed together we headed out back towards the market for our next clue. For our next clue we had to use this special paint (used by the Siccha Indians from Santo Domingo) to dye someone on our team’s hair. We dyed Ben’s hair because he didn’t care – the colour didn’t really show up anyways so it didn’t matter anyways. We then had to perform a song, along with a dance, that we had learned the previous night at Percy’s church. Thankfully someone on our team remembered the words because otherwise that would have been a problem. We had to dance in the middle of the market, so we had quite a crowd around us; crazy gringos =P. After that we had to get on yet another bus, this time to Guayaquil, once there we had to find the McDonald’s in the terminal (which was huge and looked like a mall) for our lunch and next clue. Part of getting our lunch consisted of running to the SuperMaxi (their version of Wal-Mart or something like that) and buying some pop and cups for the drive to the Peruvian border. We were the last team to leave the market and get to the bus station in Portoviejo, no team was allowed on the same bus as another so we assumed that we would just remain in last place. But somehow Julianne met this one guy who got us on the right bus that left Guayaquil earlier than the other buses. So we beat the other teams to Guayaquil by about 30 minutes. However, by the time we found the SuperMaxi and got our drinks the other teams had arrived. The line ups were huge so we paid someone at the front of the line to buy our stuff for us, that way we could remain in first. We got our lunch and then we had to find the TransForsur red vans to take us to the immigration office on the Ecuador side to get our passports stamped. We thought we figured out where to go, but turns out everyone we talked to lead us to where the buses left from, not to the parking lot where the vans were. By the time we figured out where to go the other teams had caught up and were all racing towards the vans. The drivers didn’t understand that it was a race and insisted that they wait until we ALL got there. Thankfully Rich was able to convince them otherwise – we ended up at the same gas station at the same time as everyone else so at that point we didn’t care about racing. We had to wait at that gas station for a bit because the white van that Inca Link owns broke down and we had to wait for the Brown’s and Gustavo to get to figure out what was happening. We eventually got to the office, got our passports stamped and then made it to this little bus station right on the border (we were still in Ecuador). We had to wait about an hour at this station for the leaders to get there, so we never really did finish the race for this day. Our leaders finally got there, we went out for supper and then got on a bus to take us across the border into Peru. From there I can’t quite remember what we did, all I know is that we got a private bus to take us to where we were spending the night. By the time we got there it was just after 11 pm (although it felt much, much later!). By this time it was already dark so we couldn’t really see where we staying, at first it didn’t look like anything special until we walked in. We stayed at this beautiful resort, with a pool in the center of the courtyard with the rooms wrapping around. It was so nice! We got our first clue for the next day when we got there, after we got organized into our rooms and figured out what was happening for breakfast. The resort we stayed at was in Mancora, Peru. We were so excited once we read our clue; it basically said that we were having a day of rest and we got to spend the day on the beach, it was lovely; so enjoyable and relaxing. I wish I had pictures of the resort and of the beach (I know Mandi has pictures up so I may have to steal some from her). Anyways, more later!

Day 4 of the race.

Like every other day thus far it started out pretty early. Once again the teams were switched up and I was with Sarah and Marion. Our first challenge was to walk to the bus terminal and take the bus to Portoviejo. It was funny because as we were all walking down the hill towards the terminal, a lady in a jeep honked at us and yelled out the window if we spoke English. She stopped and we walked over and it turns out she is from the States (somewhere in the South) and had heard that there were a bunch of gringos in town and wanted to say hi. We talked with her for a few minutes, telling her what we were doing and such. I just thought it was such a random encounter; but during the race, it was crazy to see how many people we met just on the side of the road who were interested in what we were doing and such. She gave us directions to the bus station and actually drove in that direction so we could follow her and not get lost. When we got there we discovered that we had to wait about an hour and a half for the next bus to Portoviejo. That was fine, we all just sat around there and hung out. There was a vendor right beside the the station who was selling yucca bread. I don't know how this came to be, but Annie went over and he showed her (and let her make) how to make yucca bread. Afterwards she bought some and shared it with the rest of us, and oh my goodness it was delicious! That is one thing I want to learn how to bake before I come home, yucca bread is absolutely amazing! Anyways, aside from the random facts... We eventually got on the 5 hour bus ride to Portoviejo. From there we had to find this restuarant where we were to get into a Inca Link vehicle and travel towards the garabage dump. Once there we had to fill two one-gallon buckets and carry them up the hill and give them to a family - this water was their drinking water for the week. We finally got the water up and then one of us had to share our testimony to the families, the only problem was that it had to be in Spanish. Thankfully Sarah is fluent in Spanish so she gave hers and then we had to sing a song, but again it had to be in Spanish. While we were driving to the dump Sarah quickly taught us “Open the Eyes of My Heart” in Spanish so we sang that; just like every other team. At least it didn’t matter that we all sang the same song, because otherwise we would have had a problem. I really need to learn Spanish; I now know a few worship songs in Spanish from helping my aunt lead worship at the women’s prison yesterday (Wednesday). And now I have to learn six more songs in Spanish for this weekend (I’m helping Percy, the pastor in Portoviejo, lead worship on Sunday).  I’m kind of learning Spanish from learning these worship songs, but I still cannot have a conversation with anyone. I think in a few weeks I want to try leading worship at the prison, and eventually I would like to lead a Bible study (an English Bible study – half the women in prison actually cannot speak Spanish, so every Wednesday there is a Spanish Bible study and an English Bible study. If my Spanish improves dramatically in the next two and half months I would like to try lead, or be a part of, the Spanish Bible study. However, I don’t think I’ll learn that much this summer, but in a few years I hope to be close to fluent. I know I’m getting off topic, but I need to try get caught up with what’s been happening this week, as well as finishing up my blog from the race. Anyways, I’m getting off topic from the race. Once our, well Sarah’s, testimony and song was approved by the judges we got our next clue. One team member had to ride one of the donkeys down the hill and over to where some of the locals were playing soccer; the only way to get our next glue was to score two goals. Oh dear! I can’t play soccer as y’all (thank you my Southern friends! =P) know, and both Sarah and Marion said they couldn’t play, so it was going to be a challenge. We played against two of the locals and then Casey and Renee’s boys, Luke and Jordan. Luke and Jordan were both playing forward, every time they had the ball and I tried to go after it I felt bad because I’m so much bigger than them and I didn’t want to hurt them. Luke is the oldest and in grade five I believe and I want to say the Jordan is in grade three. I didn’t really need to feel bad as they were both better than me anyways. We played for about 10 minutes and then Marion got both of our goals. Our next clue told us to walk around the dump and hand out drinks and oranges. The dump was pretty large, we walked for about 20 or so minutes before we reached the end of it. There were piles of garbage everywhere the people were sorting through looking for anything that could be recycled, the rest was burned. The burning garbage was a horrible smell. It’s crazy because you hear about people working in the dump, but to actually go there and see the condition people work and live in is quite shocking. It was gross walking around through the trash, but I didn’t want to make a big deal about it because we were there to serve those working there. How would they feel if we showed I showed my disgust? While we walked around handing out drinks we stopped and talked to people. Sarah was the only who could talk to them, so Marion and I just stood there and smiled and said what little we could. I would have been nice to do a bit more, because it felt like we weren’t really doing anything by giving them pop and fruit, but I feel like it’s the start of something. We’re (and by we, I mean Ben, Reese, Mandi, Julianne and myself – the only Ecuador interns this summer) heading to Portoviejo tomorrow to work and serve for a few days. Don’t really know what we’ll be doing, but it’d be cool if we could go back and serve more at the dump). We walked back and forth around the dump until everyone had something to drink and something to eat. Then we got our next clue saying that we had to drive to Templo Metropolitana Alianza for our next challenge; we had to paint the fence across the street. Each team was given a section in which we had to paint. The paint we used was a mixture of water and powder; thankfully since it was water-soluble we were able to wash it out of our clothing. I dipped the roller in and went to paint the top of the fence and got a paint bath. I was covered head to toe in white paint; the entire race I made a fool of myself with silly little things like this. Oh well, it was something to laugh about. Once our section was painted to the judges satisfaction we were done for the day. Afterwards we had a brief debrief about our time in the garbage dump and just talked about what we thought about it. Everyone had similar thoughts about the day, how we wish we could have done more than just hand out something to eat/drink. Though we didn’t do much, it was still the start of something. We then went to where we were staying for the night; everyone was split up among some of the congregation. I at first went to Percy’s fiancĂ©’s house to shower and wash up, but then I found out that I would not be staying there. I stayed at this guy, Carlos’s place. Carlos know a little bit of English so we could kind of talk to each other. But after supper and the soccer game, he just dropped me off at his place and his mother doesn’t know English so that was hard. It was just frustrating because I wanted to tell her how grateful I was for opening up her home to me, but I couldn’t say anything. All I could do was smile and say ‘mucho gracias’. It’s something, but I wish I could have said more. Supper was a funny event; we went to this burger joint near the soccer field. They had more options than just hamburgers so I ordered a chicken burger. Unfortunately it came with bacon that no one would let me get rid of. I gave it to someone else, but Matt was quite shocked (him, and Sarah, and Robin, and Julianne, and Reese, and Vicky, etc...) that I had never had bacon before. Needless to say I was forced against my will to have a small bite. I can now say from experience that bacon is absolutely disgusting!! Other than that supper was a lot of fun, just hanging out and playing random games with the people I was sitting near. I know that there’s more that I could possibly write about this day, but I’ve already written a lot. More later!!


Wednesday 8 June 2011

Toffee Town

Day three of the race was a sweet day... literally! We started the race at Casa Elizabeth (this is the teen pregnancy ministry; the house is on the hill just behind Casa Blanca) where we had to write a quiz on our intern manuals. The hardest part of the day was running up the steps to Casa Elizabeth (the sad thing, it's like a minutes walk away, but I am was still getting used to the altitude and arrived slightly out of breath - working out before coming here did absolutely nothing for me. The altitude messes everything up). This was the first day where we began switching the teams up; I was with Robin and Matt. It was really funny being on a team with Matt after being with Vicky and Jereme for the past two days. Matt is really competitive, and Vicky and Jereme are pretty laid back. He was getting frustrated with the quiz and was trying to convince the judges that our simplistic answers were sufficient. Anyways, we eventually got everything correct and were able to continue on. We had to walk up this large hill to get to the bus terminal, were we had to catch a bus to Alluriquin. Alluriquin is the town that my aunt, uncle and their girls call 'the toffee town' because almost every shop is selling homemade toffee. Our job once we got there was to find a shop keeper by the name of Esteban Andrade and get instructed on how to make toffee. I thought this meant that we would making the toffee from start to finish, but it really meant that we would be pulling the toffee and wrapping it up to sell. The ladies at the shop showed me how to properly close the ends of the wrappers by placing the tin foil in the flame and then bending it over. It took a few tries, but I finally got it. The ladies were laughing because apparently it should not have been as hard as I was making it out to be. We finally pulled and wrapped a dozen toffee sticks (we ended up with fourteen because my first two were not very good). Once we were done our next clue said that we had to get on the bus to Santo Domingo and sell all the toffee. We were not allowed to be on the same bus as any other team, and the bus that we got on was full of kids heading home from school. What kid would not want to buy toffee for 5 cents a piece? With Matt selling the toffee, it was all gone within minutes. About an hour or so later we arrived in Santo Domingo and were suppose to head to Simon Bolivar park to get our next clue. Well our bus driver had never heard of this park, no one on the bus had ever heard about this park before so that was a bit weird. Matt called Rich to find out what was going on, Rich ended up talking to the driver only to discover that we were actually on the wrong bus heading the opposite direction of where we needed to be. The bus driver pulled over to drop us off and to call a taxi for us to take us to this 'unknown' park. That took some unnecessary time, but things like this happens and you just have to make the best of it. When we finally got to where we needed to be our next clue read: "Count all the light blue rocks on the wall. If you make a guess, and are wrong, you will have to wait 5 minutes to give your answer again". The first day had a challenge similar to this (if you remember) that consisted of counting all the names on the wall of the Cathedral; that was only 205 names however. The wall that is mentioned in the clue is actually this long retaining wall on the side of the road the stretched for a few blocks. We thought that we had to be right on the dot with this, so we each counted the wall about three times. If any of our numbers were off from someone else's number we would ALL begin again. This is a bad challenge for an OCD person like myself who had to make sure that we all had the right number before moving on to the next section of the wall. We were the last team to arrive and the last team to leave. We were halfway done when Lisa Merritt starts calling to us to just make a guess, that we did not need to be right on because otherwise we would never get out of there. We still had about eleven or so panels of light blue rocks that we needed to count, so we estimated what each panel would be, multiplied it by eleven and got our number. Our first guess was somewhere in the 2,000's (I thought we should say something is the 3, 000's but Robin and Matt thought that that was too high so we went with something lower). We were wrong. We had to wait five minutes before we could guess again, so this time we decided to say 3,500 because we were told to go much higher. Sure enough the correct answer was 3,526. From there we had to get on another bus to El Carmen, once there we had to choose a "triciclo" (a bicycle pushing a cart from behind) and travel to the church. The three of us get there and pile into this triciclo and the driver starts pedalling. Because of all the extra weight in the front from our bags and ourselves the guy was having some trouble going fast. This wasn't good enough for Matt so he got out and started to run, pushing the triciclo. We decided to take turns helping this guy out, but when Robin and I tried to get out (while this cart was still moving) we tipped it forward. I scrapped my toe, but whatevs. We could see the other teams (or some of the other teams) in front of us and we arrived at the church at the same time as three of the other teams. Well, we didn't really arrive at 'the church' because the church has not been built yet, we arrived at the site where the future church, Terreno de la Iglesia, will be. We had to chose a 4x4 piece of land and completely clear it from all the brush that had overtaken the parcel of land. We were given a wheelbarrel, a machete, and a shovel. Our shovel broke within minutes of working because Robin is just that strong [ =) ]. The blade of the shovel was to awkward to hold so we used our hands and just ripped everything from the ground. We were the fourth team to leave (so we had moved up a spot) and we had to get into a vehicle and travel to the banana plantation. Once there we had to package up a box of bananas (weighing 50lbs) for exportation. These bananas that we were packing up were to be shipped out to New York City, and should arrive two weeks from this day. We were shown what to do, which wasn't difficult so it didn't take that long to complete, but the owner needed to go through and inspect each box and make sure that all the bananas were good and in the box the proper way. Again, we were the last team to leave. We were given a map and had to find the children's home which was our pit stop for the night. We saw two teams heading one way and Matt decided to follow them because that's where they were going so they had to know what they were doing. The judges called out and said to actually read the map and not just go by instinct and follow the crowd. The map told us to go the opposite direction from the others, I was presistant that this was the correct way so we went in the other direction. Just as we arrived on the main street that would take us to where we needed to go, I saw the white Inca Link van drive by so I knew we were going to right direction. We didn't see any other teams, but we just kept going where we were going. We ended up in third place for the day; I think that's pretty good considering we were last for a good majority of the day. We head to the hostel in which we were spending the night to wash up for dinner at the pastor's house. Dinner was at Elmer and Carmen's house (the pastor and his wife). We got to hear a little of their story over dinner, Carmen was a maid at Rich and Lisa's house in Peru and Elmer was a janitor at the church they went to trying to save for school. They met and got married and became missionaries in Ecuador. There's more to their story than that, but it's late and I can't remember details right now. One thing that was really touching was to hear that the church in El Carmen paid for our hostel that night; they're church has no money, but yet they still paid to put us up for the night. What a huge blessing! I almost cried when I heard this because this has never happened to me before. They were excited for what we are going to be doing this summer and wanted to help out. I shared a room with Vicky that night, and I was commenting about how the room wasn't the nicest I've stayed at, but I couldn't complain. Not after knowing that the church has nothing and yet they still paid for us to stay there. It was a simple room with two beds, a nice bathroom and a fan. What a blessing it was, I was so touched that someone would do this. This church has no money to build the church where we were digging earlier, yet they are trusting that God is going to provide. It's cool to hear stories about people's unwavering faith, and how nothing stresses them because they know that God is in control and that he will provide. I want to have a faith like that, in which I don't have to stress about the simple things of life (such as finances for school, etc), but I just know that God will take care of me no matter what. I can't wait to go back to El Carmen and work alongside of Elmer and Carmen this summer. I would love to get to know them better and hear more of their story about what God is and has been doing in their lives.
I apologize that it is taking me so long to get all my stories up about the Amazing Race, but it has been busy since getting back to Quito; went to Camp Hope on Tuesday morning (this is a school for special needs children; I'll go into more detail later), and the womens prison this morning (again, more detail later). Anyways, continuing on from the last post; our second day of the race took place in the Jungle. This was the day that Mark Shafer (another missionary working with Inca Link) planned and from what I heard from the other interns that were here the previous summer, his days are the most physically challenging. And sure enough, he didn't disappoint this year. All in all the day entailed a 10km hike through from Huaticocha to the jungle and then to a small, remote community high in the jungle. We began by hiking to a construction site where a future church and school is going to be and we had to cross a river in order to find our next clue. This is when we discovered that none of us were really good at the whole "racing business"; we worked together to figure out where we were and where we needed to go. It had rained pretty hard the night before so everything was extremely muddy; I tried at first to stay as clean as possible, but there comes a point when you realize the difficulty of this. We hiked through the trees, crossed the river numerous times because we could not figure out where we needed to go. Eventually we found our next clue and were able to move on. The next challenge was just a hike; this doesn't sound difficult, but it was a long hike down a gravel road. I think the walk was about 7 km, thankfully it was flat-ish for the most part. I have never seen anything so beautiful! Just to stop and look around at God's creation was breath-taking! I'm so glad my team was laid-back because there were several times when I made us stop just to take it all in. While we were hiking down the road and then later through the jungle this one worship song kept coming to mind;" The heavens declare Your greatness/The oceans cry out to You/ The mountains, they bow down before You/So I'll join with the earth and I'll give my praise to You" (Majestic by Lincoln Brewster). If nothing else, the beauty and wonder of creation is enough to say that there is God, a master artist, who took the time to put this world together.
Our clue told us to walk to a cable bridge and then take our first left into the jungle. The trek through the jungle was a physically challenging one because the trail was narrow and awfully muddy. It was discouraging at points as I felt like I was holding back my team because I was struggling. My team was so gracious and just very encouraging the entire time we hiked through the jungle. There were parts of the trail were the one side was a 50ft(ish) cliff and moss- and green-covered rocks on the other side; the only thing you could do was hug the one side and pray you don't slip in the mud. I prayed the entire time that I would not see any spiders/tarantulas; God answered that pray and I did not see a single spider the entire race... it was wonderful! I saw a lot of really odd insects while we were in the jungle, but I can handle those better than spiders. I was having a hard time 'hugging' the rock wall because you have no idea what is living in the cracks and in the moss/vines that cover them. Some of the members from the church in Huaticocha were out there helping us as we were walking. There was a deep gorge that was about 6-7ft across in one spot that broke up the trail; there were two 2x4's and were suppose to act as a bridge. One of the men helping was standing in the middle of these planks, giving us a hand across. By the time my team got here our shoes were completely caked with mud, this meant I had absolutely no traction on the bottom of my runners. My foot slipped while me and this man were in the middle of these boards and I almost took us both over. He helped me catch my balance and laughed as I screamed and just kept apologizing over and over and over again for what had just happened. The trail followed the river the we crossed before arriving at the trail (I don't know the name and am having a hard time finding it on google), and at the end of the trail was this beautiful waterfall (not as magnificent as Iguazu falls, but the fact that we got to stand in it and watch the water fall above our heads was pretty cool). Standing in the middle of this waterfall was another member of the congregation that had our next clue. We were the last team to get there so him and the other guy (who helped us across the gorge) walked back with us. Vicky and Jereme were in front of me and these two locals were behind me; and though I don't know Spanish I knew enough to know that there were making fun of me as I was having a very hard time walking back on this trail. One of them had a machete and cut me a walking stick because I was having that many problems; I kept falling and slipping and it was utterly ridiculous. Here's what our next clue read: "Go back down to the bridge and one team member must jump into the river at the designated spot...". Here was the problem; I was the only member on our team that knows how to swim, thus I was the only one who could jump. Problem number two; I'm scared of both water and heights. The bridge was about 15ft above the river, and though that does not sound that high, when you're looking down it is really high. I did eventually jump, but it took me at least 15 minutes before I worked up the courage to jump. I was so scared that I had a bit of a breakdown and started crying. Mark came over and told me that if I was that scared that I didn't need to jump; I knew if I didn't that I would regret it later. He also reminded me of the verse that says: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). It was cool that he said that because all day I was praying that God would give the strength to continue onward as I was struggling with the hike. Casey Brian (another missionary with Inca Link) was standing at the bottom on the rocks that I needed to swim towards; it was a short swim, but the jump was terrifying! I was a bit shaky after I jumped, but I was proud that I did it. From there we got our next clue which read: "Follow the trail straight up to Nueva Esperanza community, ask residents there where you can dig up a Yucca root. Also ask for three "gusanos especiales". Also, find an orange. You must take all of these items to the fire along side the school and prepare your lunch as per instructed of fried chicken, yucca, orange, and gusano. You must eat all of your lunch before time is stopped for the day. You can do it, we have done it too. This is your pit stop". First of all, when the clue said 'follow the trail straight up' it seriously meant straight up! It was a quarter mile hike from the bridge to this community on a trail that was basically straight up and down, and comprised of knee-deep mud. Though it was not a very long hike, this was the hardest part of the day. Second of all, lunch was a little bit interesting... For those who do not know, 'gusanos especiales' are 'special worms'. These a fat, little worms that have yellow bodies with a black head. Talk about disgusting (at least it wasn't cuy, however). By the time my team got up there we were probably about an hour or so behind everyone, and we had  to be leaving pretty soon in order to catch our bus back to Quito. The residents weren't ready for us, so all of the others teams were searching the jungle for yucca and worms. We did not have time to join them, so instead we helped clean the chicken. The chicken was already headless, dead, and gutted by the time we got there, but we were asked to cut it up and get it ready to be fried. When I thought of it as a disection I was okay, but the moment I started thinking of it as food I had a hard time stomaching it. Thankfully, by the time the other teams got back there was not even enough time to eat lunch; so I did not have to eat the chicken. However, we were not let of the hook with the worm. Only five worms were found, so we only had to eat a third of it. It wasn't alive when we ate it, it was cooked over the fire for a few minutes. Surprisingly it didn't taste that bad, it just tasted like overcooked corn that was a bit mushy. If I hadn't known it was a worm I would have thought it was corn and it wouldn't have mattered as much. Just the fact that I knew it was a worm was disgusting. I felt kind of bad, the residents had been looking forward to our coming for a while now and we hardly had a chance to visit with them. I was kind of able to talk with them, one of the guys there knew a bit of English. I understood them, and through charades we could have a bit of a conversation. Earlier, while we were waiting for the other teams to come back, I was talking with Casey and he said something that really stood out to me. We were commenting on how remote this community was and he asked, 'could you imagine giving birth here?'. The infant mortality rate is super high there (not just there, but all over Ecuador) because no one is trained and they don't have access to the proper medical care. I think it's cool how God uses moments like this to reinforce the whole idea of medical missions in my mind. One day I want to go back to Nueva Esperanza and either start a clinic or train people in basic medical care.
Anyways, after we ate the worm we headed back down the 'fun' trail, and back to the house we stayed at the night before to wash up before the bus came; there was no way any bus would let us on because of how muddy we all were. We got back to Quito around 8 at night and spent the night at Casa Blanca (where I am at now). It was nice to do some laundry and to grab some clean clothes and sleep in 'my bed'. I love it here at Casa Blanca, I'll have to post some pictures one of these days (but I need to get through the race first, and I'm still pretty far behind...).
That was day two

Let the Race Begin

These last two weeks have been absolutely crazy, exhausting, terrifying, and exciting! On the monday we all got up early, packed a backpack with a few essential items, got in the van and headed North towards this camp high in the mountains, just outside of the town Calacali. When we got there we met Cuenca and his wife; they work at this camp hosting interns like us and short-term teams that come through Ecuador. We spent the day doing a bunch of team-building activities; basically this was just a lot of games. We played a name game, tag, and a lot more. One of the ones that I liked most (and one that really kinda showed who are the leaders in the group and who are the ones willing to sit back and let someone else take lead) was a game called 'the burning building'. About six of us were blind-folded and the rest of us could see. The object of the game was to get outside of this burning building from the second floor (originally it was suppose to be the third floor, but we took so long trying to figure the game out that Cuenca switched it to the second floor so that we would finish the game in time for lunch). Cuenca and another guy, Danny, we each holding the ends of a jump rope, which was our fire. Everytime the rope was up only a certain amount of people could go through 'the fire'; however, everytime the rope was down it didn't matter how many people crossed. On the second floor going down, only 19 people could cross ("No more, or no less" as Cuenca would say). So we all had to run through together; if one person got touched by the rope, or didn't go through with the rest of us we had to start again. The first floor was probably the hardest. Only four people could go through at a time, and we all had to go quickly through it otherwise we would have to start again (no more or no less everytime that the rope is up, remember). With 18 people (someone had left at this point) we had to figure out the best way to get us all through four at a time. We tried and failed many times, trying various ideas from a few people in the group, but eventually we got it. The plan worked, took a couple tries to get us all through, but in the end we got it. I think this entire game took us over an hour to complete, but it was a great way to work as a team and to really see who would step up and take charge in a situation like that. After lunch we hiked a little ways up the mountain and all crammed in this little space of the opposite side of a hanging tire from the pathway. The tire was probably only two ft in diameter and suspended about six ft off the ground. What we had to do was get all of us through the tire, we were not allowed to touch the cables holding it up) and on the otherside. We had to pretend that there was a wall there and the only way in or out was through the tire. Before we had begun, Quanca had used the tire to illustrate salvation and what it means to be born again in Chirst. Going through the tire was a way to signify being transformed and beginning a new life. You had to put your complete trust in your teammates to pick you up, get you through the tire and then not drop you on the other end. It was also significant because during our time here we have to learn how to completely, 100% rely on God to get us through some of the more difficult situations. And not only the difficult situations, but in every aspect of this trip. After that we climbed a fair bit higher to the zipline. Annie (another one of the interns) and I didn't climb with the rest of the group because we had to use the washroom and while we were gone we were left behind. We walked up with our leaders to the end of the zipline. Then when a few people came down we walked down this little path, through the trees, and up the far, and steep, side to the beginning of the zipline. There were a few people left still to go, I was the second last (Matt, another intern, was behind me). What you had to do after you were attached to the cable was run down the steep path until you could no longer run, pick your legs up and fly. I was joking with Matt and Annie that I would probably be the one and only person to trip as I was running. Sure enough, I tripped. Thankfully I still had enough momentum and didn't get stuck in the middle (was also joking about that, as that is something that would happen to me). After everyone had gone down the zipline we walked back down to the camp and had some safety training. For the first bit of it a guy came from the U.S. embassy to go over some safety tips with us... don't walk around  by yourself, don't wear jewelry, don't walk around at night alone, etc... I'm sure everything he said was very useful and helpful, but at that point I was so tired I was having a hard time trying to stay awake. Thankfully I wasn't the only one who kept dozing off... The second half of the training was probably the funniest, although I'm sure it wasn't meant to be. Cuenca was going over basic first aid, the ABC's (A - airway, B - breathing, C - circulation). In Ecuador if you try to help a person who has been in an accident and you are the last person to touch them if they die, you automatically go to jail; regardless if you were trying to help or not. So we were told to never touch anyone who has been hurt, just in case. To check someone's airway we were told to ask them, "Do you have gum?" It sounds really funny, and we joked about it a lot, but he was being serious (I think this is what made it so funny). For breathing we just had to watch and see if they're chest was moving, if  not than you really couldn't do anything until the paramedics arrived. And to check for circulation you have to pat them all over to see if there is any blood. Then we had to practice what we had just learned. We probably should have been a lot more serious about this, just we all kinda just took it as a joke. After that was supper and debrief. And you'll be shocked to know that I actually ate a hamburger. It was all that was available for supper and I didn't want to be rude, so I ate it. That makes it my second hamburger ever!! Shocking, I know, but get over it. Anyways, so that was day one, before the race had even begun!

The first day of the race started pretty early. We had to be packed up and ready to go for breakfast at 7:30, then the race began at 8:00. We were divided into five teams of three; My team consisted of Jereme, Vicky, and myself (I'm sorry, I wish I had pictures to show you! I actually didn't take any on the race, we were going to fast. Thankfully other people took pictures and will hopefully post them on facebook). The three of us are the only interns that are not from the States (Vicky lives in the States now, but is not from there). Jereme is from Ontario and Vicky is from Venezuela. We called ourselves the Internationals. Once we got into teams the first challenge began. The first challenge was a large grid in the middle of a soccer field. We had to make it through this grid like a maze. However, we had to guess which way to go; we would call out coordinates and either get a 'yes' or a 'no'. If we got a yes than we could continue forward until we either made it out, or until we got a no. Once you got a no you had to get out of the grid and let another team try. We were the fourth team to make it out of the grid. Once we finished, we got our next clue: "Make your way to the Plaza monument in the center of the town of Calacali. Once there each member of the team will be asked to recite the Lord's Prayer individually". Unlike the other teams we decided that we were not going to run anywhere and that we were going to enjoy our time on this race. It didn't matter if we came in first or last, we wanted to enjoy every minute of it and just have fun. So while the other teams started out running, we just walked from the camp to the monument in the middle of Calacali. The sun was shining and it was nice and warm, good day to start the race. We got to the monument, rambled through the Lord's Prayer (Jereme had some problems with it, but he got it in the end =)  ). From there we got into one of the Inca Link vehicles and travelled back to Quito for our next challenge. The drive to Quito took about a half hour, which was nice considering the amount of walking we had to do once you got there. We were dropped off in the middle of a busy intersection and we had to walk to Ganas house. Ganas house is a children's home for kids who have no where else to go. I wish I could give you more details about it, and I will, but for now this is all I can say. We had to paint two Ecuadorian symbols on the faces of two children; they told us what they wanted and we painted. Then the judges (Fabian and Mabe - our hostes here at Casa Blanca) decided whether or not the pictures were good. It's too bad we had to paint their faces and then leave; I wanted to stay and play with them for a bit; that was one of the problems with the race, it would have been nice to stay at these places and visit for a bit before we had to leave again. Oh well, I'll definitely be back there at some point this summer! Here was our next clue: "Make your way on foot to la Basilica (a large and famous church in downtown Quito). Once there climb the clock tower to find your next clue. Descending the tower make sure you ring the bell". The walk itself was not that long, it only felt like forever because it was all uphill. The hills here in Quito are nothing like they are back home, they are steep and really long! I'll have to take some pictures and show you; they are ridiculous! Needless to say, I'll be in shape by the time I get back! We didn't know which way to go so we asked this man who was waiting at the intersection for directions and he actually led us to the Basilica. It was so nice of him to do so, otherwise we would have been so lost from the directions we got previously. Once there we made the even longer trek up many, many stairs (too numerous to count!). We made it to this one landing were the gift shop  was and there was one of two ways to get to the top of the clock tower... or so we thought. We first chose to walk across this tiny boardwalk in the roof of the church and then go up the ladder from there. However, once we got there there were so many people coming down the ladder we decided to turn around and go up the stairs in the gift shop. In doing so we were the only team to have read the clue correctly and make it to the top of the correct tower the first time around. But I also missed the chance to see my mom again for the last time until August. I ran into one of the other interns, Luke, at the top of the clock tower where my aunt was giving out the next clues and he gave me a big hug saying that it was from my mom. It took a lot not to start crying then and there (the tears came later). I waved to her from the tower and then we headed out again. From the Basilica we had to find the Estatua de la Libertad (Statue of Liberty) in la Plaza Grande. Once there we have to choose one of two challenges: "1) Find the plaque that states when the Plaza Grande was founded. With the sheet of paper and pencil make an imprint of said plaque; or 2) On the banners surrounding the Plaza, find the name of the route taht joins PUELLARO and SAN JOSE. Write it on the piece of paper provided". We chose number 1) and thankfully found the plaque pretty quickly. Then the fun part came where we had to count all the names of the first Spanish residents of Quito; these names were found on the wall of the Cathedral. The number had to be right on, otherwise we wound not get our clue... we got it on our second try (one name was scratched out, so it was hard to know whether or not it should be counted). From there we got on a bus to Quitumbre, which was our pit stop for the day. We didn't stay there, just met up with Gustavo and got our bus tickets to Huaticocha. Huaticocha is a village/town in the jungle; it was an eight hour bus ride, but thankfully it was in the late afternoon/night so we could sleep on the bus. We got there somewhere between eight and nine, met up with Mark Shafers who is one of the missionaries working with Inca Link to reach all the tribes and villages deep within the jungle. We stayed at the pastor's house there (whose name I cannot remember), had supper and then had a small church service in the basement of his house. Supper was difficult, a few people started talking about how they met my mom at the basilica earlier in the day and that was hard to hear because I never got to see her. I can't remember what the service was about after that; I was having a hard time not crying. The one thing I do remember though was that all the team went up and we introduced ourselves and then the members of the congregation introduced themselves. I wish I was in a better frame of mind (and knew Spanish) and then I could have talked with some of the people afterwards. Hopefully I'll have another chance to go back there and serve; I heard that they're looking for someone to come and teach them how to play and instrument, so I might get to do that which would be sweet! There's a reason that I'm still taking a music degree; it may not be a career, but it's an excellent way to serve and it's a ministry that I can do now. I don't know for sure if this will happen or not, but I already have a lot of oppertunities to play my guitar and help lead worship which has just been a blessing to apart of a worship team again after a few years of being away. I'm getting off topic here, but I'll leave it at that. More later about the race!!