Oct 2007

There are very few moments in our lives that we get to see something come full circle. I know there are times when I wonder if I'm making any sort of impact with the orphans who we work with every day. There are some good deeds of which we never get to see the outcome, but recently I’ve experienced a full-circle-story firsthand.

This story begins in 1956 when five missionaries, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming and Roger Youderian, set out to the jungles of Ecuador to teach the gospel to a tribe called the Waorani, also known as the Aucas. Anthropologists describe the Waorani as the most violent tribe in all of history. Three out of four of the males died from being speared and almost none of them lived past their forties. This is due to their tendencies to not only kill other tribes in the region but within their own groups as well. The Waorani were also known to kill any foreigner who set foot in their territories.

Becoming some of the most famous martyrs of the 20th century, the missionaries were speared to death by the Waorani after making contact with them. Amazingly, however, a wife and a sister of the five men decided to continue the project and returned to the Waoranis. This effort was primarily carried out by Rachel Saint, the sister of Nate Saint, and Elizabeth Elliot, Jim’s wife, who went to live with the Waorani.

In 1969, a Polio epidemic broke out among two enemy Waorani groups who were visiting Rachel Saint and her Waorani group while she was still living among them on the Twaeno River. The situation became precarious because the two enemy groups had settled very near each other and Rachel’s group and could not move because of the sick. Rachel knew they needed medical attention, but was afraid to allow any outsider to come in to help due to the growing tensions between the three factions. However, after 12 people died of polio, a doctor named Wally Swanson (or Dr. Wally) decided to come in to help, against Rachel’s warnings. He was the first non-native male who was not speared as a result of meeting and working with the Waorani. Dr. Wally was even able to convince the Waorani to allow him to airlift the really sick natives to his mission’s Amazon hospital in the village of Shell, a feat thought to be impossible. The doctors and medical teams slowly gained the trust of the Waorani over time when the Waorani began to understand that the medical care they received was helping them to get better. What could have been a disastrous massacre between three warring groups ended up saving all of them through the care and determination of medical teams who came to help. From that point, after the polio outbreak was over, the Waorani killings drastically dropped. The generation of Waorani that survived the Polio epidemic became the first generation to live long enough to see their grandchildren, something no Waorani in history had been able to do.

This story relates back to Pete and me because during our time here we have become friends with Dr. Wally. We house-sat for him during our first three months here, and since his return we have occasionally shared meals together. Over dinner last Tuesday, we heard Dr. Wally recount this story. There was a touch of pride in his voice as he explained how he felt so privileged to have been the doctor during this time. Dr. Wally now is 80 years old and is still sharp and always looking to help people.

The story for us ends with For His Children, the orphanage where we work. After Rachel Saint left the Waorani in 1994, she lived the remainder of her days in Quito. Dr. Wally also moved to Quito after about 30 years in the jungle. They ended up living right next door to each other on a 4 acre shared property. Rachel Saint's nephew, Steve Saint, who worked with the Waorani as well, built both of the houses. When our orphanage directors were looking for a permanent residence, they met Rachel, who was then very old. Rachel was trying to sell her place and our directors were interested in it, but it was well out of their budget. They were just about to purchase another place, when Rachel called them and said she and Steve Saint had decided to sell the property to the orphanage directors for the low price that they could afford. She told them that it was her wish to keep the property with people who would continue to spread God’s love.

Now that we have moved out of Dr. Wally's house, we are staying about 200 feet away in the orphanage's Group House where Rachel once lived. It is incredible to think that we are connected to so much history. We also had an opportunity to go to the jungle recently, where we stayed only 10 miles from where those 5 men were killed. The area is now very peaceful, but it was somewhat unsettling to ponder on the events that had occurred 60 years ago in that jungle.

If you would like more information on these stories, there are several books written on it, including Elizabeth Elliot's "Through the Gates of Splendor," which describes her experiences. There was also a movie made by last year called, "The End of the Spear," which is not entirely factual but presents a good picture of the time. In the movie, they even mention Dr. Wally.

Tesha

Tesha and I have increased the danger color level for scorpions in our house from Yellow to Red-Orange. We've found 3 in the past 3 days. There are tons of different species of scorpions and they have a lifespan of 4 - 25 years. It makes me wonder how long they've been living under our refridgerator.
-Pete

I am sitting in a little internet cafe in a surfing town called Montanita. Pete and I had no plans to go on any trips but suddenly, I found out that my old college roommate, Danielle, was coming to Quito for a month. She came along with my other friends from college, Dannee and Matt. I went to Argentina with both Danielle and Dannee, so we have travel experience together. I wasn´t sure what to expect when I heard they were coming in town, but soon after their arrival they asked us to travel with them. Without even having to ask, our boss, Clark, offered to give us the week off for traveling. Thus, what started out as a regular week in Quito, quickly became a road trip adventure through Ecuador. This could not have come at a more opportune time. Pete and I were both experiencing what we like to call the "six month hump" and were feeling a little homesick, and this unexpected visit has seemed to revive us.

After renting a car for the week, we decided to go back to Tod Swanson´s place in the jungle, which we previously went to in July (see our blog). It was great fun, swimming in the Napo river, seeing all kinds of scary bugs, hiking in the rainforest (in pouring rain), tubing down the river, and once again going to the jungle reserve where we saw all kinds of animals. It was great to be in a warm climate again but the best times were had laughing with old friends. From the jungle we travelled south to the beach. Our orginal destination was Montanita, but as fate/luck would have it, they closed the roads due to provincial protests to Montanita and we were forced to stay in a gross, dirty town called Playas for the night. The next morning, determined to make it to Montanita, our Mecca if you will, we took little dirt back roads for 3 hours where we passed villages that may have never seen white people before. It was a grand adventure but when we got within 3 miles of Montanita we found that the roads were blocked again. But by this point there was no stopping us from achieving our destination we took some more back roads, including a very scary muddy downhill to finally get to Montanita. The town is everything we hoped it would be, a beautiful, quant surfing town. Our hostal costs $10 per person and we have ocean front with balconies with hammocks. The weather has been cloudy, but this has not stopped us from surfing until our heart´s content. Tomorrow we return back to Quito and back to work, but I feel revived and I miss our kids (all 45 of them).

There are more stories of this adventure, including meeting local celebrities, and riots but that must be saved for another blog.

In the six months that we’ve spent in Ecuador so far, every day we’ve noticed differences between the US and Ecuador. Since we don’t have time to write articles on every little difference, and since you probably won’t find these in a history book, we decided to write an article listing some of the tidbit facts about Ecuador.

We live about 5 miles south of the Equator, just into the Southern Hemisphere. On the Equator you can actually balance an egg. A few feet to the north of the Equator water flushes one way (clockwise). A few feet to the south of the Equator water from the same toilet flushes the other way (counterclockwise). Exactly on the Equator the water goes straight down. Seriously.

Because the altitude of Quito, the capital city where we live, is about 9,300 feet, there are not many insects here. I think they have trouble surviving in the thin air. Instead, as something needs to pollinate all the flowers, there are tons of hummingbirds and butterflies. The hummingbirds here are about 2 times larger than the ones in The States. One type of hummingbird that we see in our backyard has a tail that is about 8 inches long (4 times the size of its body).

Ecuador is a pretty small country in size (about the size of Ohio), but it varies as greatly as any country in its terrain. You can start on the Pacific coast of Ecuador, drive three hours inland (east) and be at a mountain that reaches 20,000 feet. Traveling another three hours east gets you to the Amazon jungle.

In Ecuador, Caucasians (gringos), not Hispanics or Blacks, are considered colored (colorado), because of the way our cheeks get colored red in the sun.

Forty-seven percent of the work force in Ecuador is “subempleado” - I think we call it “underemployment” in English. This means that almost half of the work force is in “under-the-table jobs,” such as selling ice-cream on the street, working unofficial labor jobs in maintenance and other fields, selling crafts or pirated DVDs on buses, etc... Whenever we take a bus ride, we have the option to buy something from a vendor who boards the bus, gives a quick sales pitch, checks to see if anyone wants to buy something, and then moves on to another bus. We’ve been offered roasted peanuts, cough drops, ice-cream, yogurt, pirated DVDs and CDs, gum, soda, Spider-Man masks, newspapers, toothbrushes, shoe insoles, candy and even soup. Since minimum wage is only about $250 per month, a lot of Ecuadorians are likely to make more money working unofficial jobs. The negative is that many workers and their families end up without the benefits that come with salary jobs, such as healthcare. Another result of the “underemployment” is a 12 percent sales tax.

Ecuador uses the US dollar. They gave up their “sucre” in 2000 to take up the US dollar to help with their economy and inflation. Politicians in the country are divided between those who are ready to bring back the “sucre” and show that their economy can run without the help of other countries, and those who want the stability and reliability of the US dollar.

It’s pretty common here to see way more people in a car than seatbelts. We’ve seen up to 13 people in the bed of a pickup truck. I think Britney Spears recently got in trouble in the US for driving with her kid on her lap. In the US, Britney could lose her children over something like that. Sadly, in Ecuador, it’s normal for a child to sit (sometimes stand) in the front seat on the lap of the driver or passenger. We’ve even seen babies on motorcycles.

Parking in Ecuador has its differences. Sidewalks make good parking spots. It’s not permitted by law, but you can park on most sidewalks that seem fitting to you. In the center of town, where parking laws are more enforced, they don’t use parking meters, but they do have some system: If you don’t already have a parking card in your car, you have to find a guy, who will be walking around on the sidewalk, somewhere, and buy a parking card from him. You put the parking card in your window and write in the time that you were there. Being a country that suffers greatly from corruption, you can imagine how honest people are when filling out their own parking cards. Tesha recently got back from Portland, Oregon for a friend’s wedding. In Portland, you use your credit card for the parking meters. I think Ecuador has awhile before they’ll be using those meters.

Ecuadorians greet with a kiss on the cheek. Sometimes they greet with a kiss the very first time they meet; other times they shake hands to meet and then kiss to greet once they know each other. It took a little while to get used to this, and to figure out when to shake hands and when to kiss. Still, early one morning, while I (Pete) was half asleep, I walked outside and ran into a female volunteer I know. At first I was really thrown off when she kept bringing her face closer and closer, but then I remembered that I was in Ecuador.
Another thing about greeting in Ecuador is that they individually greet every person in the room. In the US, when we show up at work, we give one general “Good morning” that goes out to everyone. Here a person will go around the room and greet up to 20 people individually. Even when we meet with Tesha’s running group on Saturday mornings, when people show up, they will go around to each of the 10 or so people who are stretching to give a kiss or shake hands and say “Buenos dias” to each person.”

It is common to see llamas in Ecuador, especially in the countryside. We have a llama on the orphanage property. It takes care of the lawn mowing. One of the children named it Luisa Daniela, a rather elegant name for a llama.
-Pete