May 2007

We saw this verse in action tonight. Tonight at our English as a Second Language group we met Dario. Dario is a native Ecuadorian but speaks English fluently and works as a teacher like Pete and me. Dario is around our age and we hit it off with him right away because of his easy smile and friendly demeanor. Then we found out that we are neighbors! Dario lives with an American missionary couple right down the street from us. We decided to take a bus home together afterwards and that is when we got to hear Dario's story...

Dario is a real life Compassion International kid from the jungle village of Shell, Ecuador. He was supported by a family from Long Beach, CA until his family no longer needed the help. It was amazing to hear how much love he had for his Compassion family. He told us how he treasured the letters and pictures they sent him, and how he loved to send them his drawings and letters in return. Dario said that it was through his Compassion family that he first learned that love is an action not a word. It struck with him that some family who he had never even met would love him enough to support him to go to school and have clothes and food for his family. Dario's dad left his family when Dario was eight. His dad left behind five children and a wife. Dario said that he always knew that someone loved him because he had a Compassion International dad who always said he loved him and was proud of him.

When Dario turned 18, his mom told him that he had to leave the house and find work. She couldn't support him and his other brothers and sisters. So she gave him all the spare money she had and sent him on his way. He went to the bus station with one backpack, boarded the first bus that came, not knowing where it was going, and ended up in a town called Banos, which is a tourist city in Ecuador. He spoke only a little English but knew a tourist agent from his home town and was able to convince him to give him a job. While Dario was working in Banos, he worked to improve his English by listening to the English Christian radio station in Ecuador called HCJB. At HCJB, as a non-native English listener, you can request written copies of the programs given so that you can follow along, so Dario was one of the thousands of Ecuadorians who got regular emails of the programs from HCJB. He kept in regular contact with the HCJB correspondent named Karen.

After working in Banos for a while, Dario's boss suddenly left town. He owed Dario 2 months pay. Dario didn't know what to do so he decided to try his luck in Quito. He had no where to go once he arrived in Quito so he decided to go to the HCJB headquarters. At HCJB, Dario found Karen's office. He introduced himself to Karen and said this: "I've got nowhere to go but I want to get a job here. I can't pay you rent now, but if you let me stay in your house for 2 weeks and after the 2 weeks I don't have a job you can kick me out." Surprisingly, after speaking to her husband, Karen agreed. What started out as 2 weeks turned into 6 years. Karen and her husband Sam basically adopted Dario as one of their own. He still doesn't have to pay rent and they even paid for him to go to college. Now Dario works for an international volunteer organization called Youth World. He also still goes back to his home town to preach the gospel to the Shawiri Indians.

So the point of this story is that God uses people all the time. Dario wishes so badly that he could contact his Compassion family and to thank them for letting him become more than anyone ever thought he could. Now Dario gives back all the love that was given to him through his ministry outreach program.

Seriously this sounds like something out of Compassion International brochure but this is real life. It goes to show that you never know what kind of a difference you can make in someone's life.
Dario would love to contact the family in California that supported him through Compassion International to let them know how much they meant to him in working his way to a good life, but the branch here in Ecuador won't let him send them a letter. If anyone knows someone at Compassion International in the US who could help Dario contact the family, we'd love for you to contact us so we can help Dario contact the family.

Dario's coming over to our house for dinner tomorrow night. We're excited to have a new friend that we can learn so much from.

(Also we asked his permission to tell his story and he gave it to us gladly).

-Tesha

Now that Tesha and I have adapted to the lack of oxygen, inconsistant water temperature, buses that write where they're going on a board in the windshield, milk that comes in a bag, llamas in the front yard, and kids drooling on us, we've started developing an active social life.
We've been meeting lots of Ecuadorians by helping out at an English as a Second Language group at the church we've been going to down here. About 100 Ecuadorians come each Wednesday evening, divide into beginner, intermediate and advance, and then we listen to a reading or story in English and then talk about topics related to the story in small groups. We normally end up talking about whatever gets everyone talking since the main focus is to get them speaking English. Some of the things we've talked about include: George Bush, the many different sub-cultures in the US, places to travel in Ecuador, differences between the US and Ecuador, why the same 20 oz Coke that costs 50 cents here costs $1.50 in The States, and stereotypes about Ecuador and the US. We talked about stereotypes that other countries have about our countries and how that affects us as individuals. I mentioned how it can be suprising, and even dangerous in some countries, when people assume that because I am American I love guns. The stereotype here that one of the Ecuadorians pointed out was that people from other countries wrongly assume that because his country's government is corrupt, he is corrupt too.
To stay active here, we joined a nice, modern gym called Phisique. We have been really impressed by the quality of the gym and the community that has adopted us so nicely. Our favorite part is that there are always a couple personal trainers there to help analyze your fitness and help you do a good workout routine - something that is not very common in the US because it is so much more expensive to pay trainers in The States. We met the owner of the club, who lived in the US for awhile, and he has helped us get involved with some of the things that the club does with its members. For example, Tesha has started training with a group from the club to run a 15K in Quito in 3 weeks. The club even has a trainer just for runners. Since Quito is 9,500 feet above sea level, we've had to work our lungs hard to adjust, but we'll have a great advantage when we go back to the US where we had been living at 13 feet above sea level.
We've also started riding mountain bikes around the city, which is a great way to get to know the city. Yesterday I rode to Metropolitan Park, which overlooks the city from the outskirts, to try out some of the park's excellent mountain bike trails. The park is huge. To give you an idea of how big it is, I rode my bike for half an our in one direction and then got to a sign that said there was an overlook in 5 more kilometers (3.1 miles); the park is round too, so it is that far in each direction. The park is very diverse with hundreds of trails, a lagoon, a water plant, basketball courts, obstacle courses, soccer fields (Ecuadorians turn any field into a soccer field), volleyball courts (volleyball is popular here because you can use a soccer ball and a string connected between two poles), snack and juice stores, tons of playgrounds scattered about, awkward modern art scattered about, streams, waterfalls, and so on.
At the very top of the park there is a stereotypical third world community of a couple hundred Ecuadorians living in door-less cinder block homes. The community seems self-sufficient; it's likely that they hardly even use money as a means of trade. Kids, with much darker skin than the people we'd see at the upper-class fitness club, play between the houses with anything that they can pretend to be a soccer ball. Stray dogs looking for trash, and chickens that appear stray roam the streets. There's one dirt rode that runs by the edge of the community and I stopped in the middle of it, knowing that no cars would be coming through, ate some peanuts, watched an organized soccer game between competitively serious 30-year-old men, and soaked up the feeling of being the only white person on the planet. Despite the unfamiliar setting, I felt suprisingly safe and I enjoyed how everyone who passed me greeted me as if they genuinely cared how I was doing.
On my way back to modern civilization I took a fun trail through woods in the middle of nowhere and at one point had to get off my bike when 6 horses, 2 cows and 2 llamas, which apparently roam free around the park, were hanging out in the middle of my path.
-Pete

Last Saturday Tesha and I got to go to a farm outside Quito with 8 of the orfans between 5 and 10 years of age. Four of the kids who went are special needs kids and the other four are... normal(?), non-special(?), not-needy(?), developmentally [i]a tempo (?)... [i]you can fill in whichever word you think is politically correct. The kids, and Tesha and I had a lot of fun. All of the kids got to ride horses, hold rabbits and guinea pigs, sit on llamas, pet and feed goats, and cluck at chickens, geese and cows. A few of the special needs kids are non-stop energetic, so Tesha and I felt like we were herding most of the day.
My favorite special needs girl is named Tatiana and I enjoy hanging out with her because she is constantly happy, no matter what. She's about 10 years old and she's normally in a different world than everybody else. She can't talk, but she lets you know when she's super excited by screaming and shaking her hands. She also claps for herself after taking a bite of food, or any other time she feels clapping is appropriate. Whenever she sees me, she comes up to me wanting to be picked up and held, if I don't respond, she grabs onto my shoulders and climbs me like someone climbing a coconut tree.
The farm was overwhelmingly exciting for Tatiana since there were so many interesting things; she would often see something new and immediately forget what she was doing. Any time we took our eyes off of her for more than a few seconds we'd end up having to search around the farm for her, normally finding her crashing a birthday party that was being held on the farm.
I think Tatiana doesn't feel much pain because when she falls or does something that should hurt her, she just laughs. I had to take her away from the geese and then the chickens because she kept sticking her finger inside the fence and letting the birds bite her.
She really made me laugh when she was playing with the goats: She started petting the first of three goats and then slapped him in the head. I told her that it wasn't OK to do that and since it seemed like she wouldn't be hitting any more goats, we moved on to pet the next goat. After a couple pets she let out a big laugh, slapped the second goat in the head, and took off running for the third goat. I caught her before she got to the third goat and then she saw a llama and forgot all about the goats.
You can find pictures of the day at the farm on our picture site: http://community.webshots.com/user/peteandtesha
-Pete

After spending the night in the subwoofer and then the next morning walking around Atacames, declining a myriad of "cheap priced" gadgets, we decided to head to the more peaceful town, Same (pronounced 'Sah-May'). Atatacems is a really nice beach, with a nice beach break for surfing (much like north Zuma Beach, if you know it, except the waves stay open longer), but we were ready for some relaxation.
Along the beach towns, guys drive bike taxis where there is a chariot cart for two riders attached to the front of beach cruiser bike. Some of the guys have gotten smart and replaced their bicycle with a motorcycle, using the money they save in buying water bottles to pay off the motorcycle. Since Same is only about 6 miles from Atacames we found a motorcycle-taxi-cart guy who was willing to take us there for five bucks. It lightly drizzled most of the ride and then most of the day, but we didn't really care because it's so humid any way that you can hardly feel a difference in the air.
After another hotel finding adventure in which we decided to spend a little extra on a nicer hotel and then changed our minds since everything in the nicer hotel was broken, we ended up landing at the first hotel that we had looked at an hour earlier. The owners of this small hotel, "Casa De Amigos" were so nice that we decided we would have a better time with them then we would with unfriendly people in a "luxury" hotel with good air conditioning and a big bathroom. Choosing Casa De Amigos would end up being the highlight of my trip.
Same is a very laid back beach town. Take away the ocean, sand, beach huts and old fashioned canoes, and the attitude that you sense from all of the locals will still relax you. We love the restaurant that is right next door to our hotel, so we went there for practically every meal. It's beach front - of course the town is so small that everything is on the beach. The same guy who sat us would take our order and then turn on everything in the kitchen before calling his wife or sister to do the cooking. The menus are really just to give you an idea of the type of food they serve; what really happens is that you ask the owner/waiter/co-chef what he recommends that day, because that is what they just brought in off the boat. One night the waiter recommended a delicious seafood assortment plate that would have gone for at least $25 in The States - we paid $7.20 and that included tax and tip. I drank the sauce it came in like it was soup when we were done. Seafood is so abundant in these coast towns that they serve shrimp and clams as side dishes with every meal.
So back to the hotel owned by the really nice people. It was a pretty quiet weekend and the owners are doing some painting, so we were the only short term guests. The owners, 3 Germans - Gabriela, Rudy, and Michael - invited us to eat dinner with them our first night. I was a little skeptical about how nice they were at first (maybe they were going to poisen us and steal our camera or something), but soon I realized that they just enjoy life and their new hotel project so much that it gave them pleasure to make sure that we had a great time. The next day Rudy offered us use of just about everything he could think of, mostly the boogey boards and goggles, but even his washing machine. If his motorcycles would have been ready to run, he would have let us take those for a spin too. The owners have been living all over the world operating ranches and fun adventures, so we're looking forward to later in the summer when they get everything up and running. They're even planning on buying a catamaran to do sailing trips to the Galapagos islands, so hopefully I can get in on that for a trip as some sort of workhand or something. If you're reading this and planning on going to the beach in Ecuador, let me know and I'll put you in contact with the Casa De Amigos owners.
It was cool to ride through all the different areas of Ecuador on the bus - the mountains, rainforest with waterfalls, jungle, river valley and coast. We saw the super 3rd world side of Ecuador: communities of families living in huts near the river with no electricity, running water or glass windows.
Even on the coast no one seems to have hot water, but you wouldn't want to take a hot shower anyway because, even with cool water, by the time you finish drying off, you feel wet again from the humidity.
-Pete

We’ve had our first weekend getaway since coming to Ecuador. Pete and I decided to have a nice, relaxing weekend by heading to the coast. We spent our first day/night in a town called Atacames located right on the beach. The beach was beautiful but getting there was another story. We left our house at 6:30am to catch a bus. Our friends here told us to expect about a 6-7 hour trip. What they didn’t tell us was that Ecuadorian buses don’t have (or don’t use) air conditioning. This was fine the first 2 hours while we were in Quito at 9,000 feet but it became another story when we spent 5 hours driving through the jungle/rain forests. I have never been so sweaty in my whole life. Sweat was pouring out from crevices I didn’t know existed! Another thing we weren’t forewarned about was that the buses do not go directly to their destination point. In fact, it pretty much stopped wherever it wanted, to let whoever get on or off. Therefore, we probably added 2 hours to our journey because Ecuador doesn’t believe in defining exact stopping points.

Wow, were we glad to arrive in Atacames! The next task we had to tackle however, was finding a hotel. Some of our missionary friends had recommended some hotels, but when we checked them out, they were a little more expensive than what we had hoped. So, after meeting a guy on the street who recommended a hotel down the street for half the price of the others, we decided to check it out. Unlike one of the others, it had air conditioning, which at this point had become a must since our clothes; hair, etc were literary soaking wet. Man, being from Vegas, Malibu and now Quito, I had forgotten what humidity was! At any rate, we decided that the hotel would suffice for the night.

The beaches at Atacames really are beautiful. They have great surf (for you surfers out there). Lining the beach boardwalk you have your choice of different drink cabanas, all looking exactly alike with their Swiss Family Robinson-type thatched roofs, and coconut drink specials. (For any of you who have seen Arrested Development, 3rd Season…think of the episode where GOB and Steve Holt open up a Banana Stand right across from Michael’s) (If you haven’t ever seen Arrested Development, I suggest you leave your house right now and rent Season 1 and work your way up to Season 3).

We had a great evening after jumping into the 80 degree ocean to cool down. We went out for a delicious dinner of freshly caught fish and afterwards we went to one of the cabanas for drinks. The particular cabana we choose had swings instead of chairs! Pete and I even acted like the young couple we are and went out salsa-ing afterwards. Atacames at night has a very Cancun-feel to it. There seem to be too many high-school-age people trying to be cool on their own without adult supervision (I sound so old). Pete and I felt proud of ourselves for staying to a reasonably late hour (11pm-yes we are old) and went to our rooms to go to bed. However sleep would not come for three more hours because although we got a great deal on the hotel room, the concierge failed to tell us that right next door to us was a discotec night club. This meant that we heard THUMP THUMP THUMP until 2 am. It was like we were trying to sleep in a subwoofer. Now our missionary friends had warned us that Atacames was loud, however, they failed to mention WHY it was loud. We thought we could handle normal loud - dogs barking, people laughing, footsteps, etc…but we did not count on a discotec practically in our room.

To be continued……