God is soooo Good!

Brief updates: 

My camera could not begin to capture the beauty of Paltabamba and Guaranda. Nuff Said

God sustained my health throughout the week despite conditions my body was WAY not used to. Thanks for prayers SO MUCH. I would not have enjoyed being sick there in the least...I am enjoying being sick here, in my house, AFTER my return!

Okay, so I went to Guaranda, Ecuador, WAY smaller than Quito but bigger than Ringgold by a few times. It was way in the mountains and more beautiful than I could describe. We slept in a hotel in Guaranda, a huge blessing I was not expecting. I think it proved to strengthen our abilities during the day as well as grow our gratefulness. Zero or painful sleep would not have been good to run on, especially since I didn´t get any sleep the night before we left for Paltabamba. I was and am sooo grateful! 

Paltabamba is the name of the area directly to one side of Gauranda. It is across a small gorge with a large creek flowing through it that comes from a nearby snow capped volcano called Chimborazo. Each morning a truck from Palta came and picked us up and I enjoyed the view from the back like all the other Quichua. Its kind of like a Quichua taxi system. Everyone starts walking in the direction the need to go. The trucks have metal bars on the sides up to my armpits-ish and another bar along the middle as high as my shoulders so a ton of people can fit in and we all stand up and hold on to the bars, if ya want. When you want a ride you simply yell ¨Espera!¨ , Wait.  then you hop in. When everyone is in you yell ¨ya¨. When you want out you yell ¨Gracias¨. then you pay the driver 20 cents. One morning when it was only me and Cefora, age 9, granddaughter of Cecilia, an Ecuadorian missionary in charge of the VBS, I took some video. I would not take out my camera if I was with Ecuadorians other than missionaries b-c no one has camera and it shouts to my wealth even more than my pink face and what they call blonde hair. I took pictures all during the week at the church though. One of my jobs for the team that week was to be the photographer.

This week was a wonderful leadership opportunity for Cecilia. She is an amazing organizer and knows a lot about Quichua context. When we go do VBS´s in these communities it is more than just a VBS. When the MTW missionaries are involved it is for the purpose of teaching church leadership in young churches with little or no leaders or pastors. This was the first VBS for the church in Paltabamba. The Sunday school teachers were the main leaders. they are girls all younger than me. During this time the three or four men leaders, typically the father´s of these girls, were learning some basic doctrine from Segundo and Rick, other missionaries who know Quichua (Even though they use Spanish for almost everything). 

The first day we had about 80 kids. But we ended up with 125. I did the games. This was a unique opportunity for me and for the community b-c I was the only Gringa there. In Quito my nick name is ¨La Gringita Bonita¨ but while I was teaching in Paltabamba they called me Lacy and ¨Señorita Gringita¨.  We had a meeting after the first day with four older men from the church. The four girls who led the groups and us three from the MTW team. (Me and Cecilia and Ritha) Cecilia asked me if I would teach English lessons to the kids as one of their activities. Apparently they think it is really fun. So thats what I did for the rest of the week. It didn´t go exactly smoothly considering I had no materials so we improvised.  That night I brainstormed and tried to remember the games I learned when I was learning Spanish in middle school. The next morning I drew some hideous pictures of people, clothing, and animals. It was quite humorous b-c I had an audience of about ten kids. I drew the pictures and let them color them however they liked. Ha ha. a few times I started drawing one four-legged animal and then I asked them what it looked like so by the end it was a different four-legged animal than I had intended.  All the kids learned Head and shoulders, knees and toes. 

The miracle of my health.  Yes, I am sick now, but I was not sick at all last week. The reason it was a miracle is b-c my body could not have been prepared in any way for the conditions of what I ate last week. I ate normal food, potatoes, corn, chicken, but the church does not even own soap and we all shared dishes that they had been sharing for years and had never been washed. Food was served from the same containers where we put out dirty stuff. This is why it is a miracle of God I am not sick until now.    

After VBS one day I learned the game called Tira Libre. Free Throw. It was super intense. One day I only watched the game and took an inconspicuous video and explained it from an aerial view. I hope I end up playing it again somewhere.

Que Mas... Que Mas...

The women received gifts from the older women who prepared the food. Me, Cesi, Ritha, and Betty all received a big ole honkin thing of queso. That was a super nice gift for us. 

Interesting business story:

The man who drove us to and from Gauranda was Ritha´s niece´s husband. They own a fingernail place. Manicure´s for a 1.50 ladies. Any takers?  I have never gotten a manicure before but I am going with Ritha and her daughter Marina sometime soon. I like to be fixed up and pretty but I am way to cheap to spend money on a manicure in the states. Here, I am making an exception for the bonding experience with Ritha and Marina. plus, a dollar fifty is quite different than the states....actually, I don´t even know how much it costs? Katie, How much would you save by getting your nails done here, excluding the cost of transportation??  

I sat in the front of the manicure van with Rodrigo on the way to Palta. We got in a conversation about my internship so I asked him how he saved enough money to start the nail salon. First, he saved enough money to buy a cheap car, then he bought a nicer one, then he bought a nicer one, then he bought a nicer one, then he sold it to start the business. Isn´t that an interesting way to save?! (maybe not the safest, considering a car is stolen every 15 minutes in Quito, and there is probably no car insurance involved, and the car devalues pretty quick, but still fun if you like cars, and what else are ya gonna do if you don´t trust a bank?).

There are a LOT of cooperatives here, including a lot of Quichua cooperatives. One example is Mushuc Runa. That means New Man. It is either Christian by name or has christian influence. I am going to visit one with Segundo  sometime so that I can ask questions and stuff. He has friends who work in one near his house. That would be a shame if I came all the way here and never visited a cooperative. 

I don´t know when I will be able to put the pictures up. The wi-fi I had been picking up from one of the neighbors is down.