2, 4, 6, 8

For the next 4 months and 7 days, our kid's ages will be 2, 4, 6, and 8.




Shea's 8th birthday is today. We had a sleepover party last night/this morning with 3 of his friends (Jacob, Peter, and Robby). They played games, made gingerbread houses, ate spaghetti & birthday cake, watched "Everyone's Hero" (thanks Aunt B!), and stayed up way too late talking and giggling on the living room floor. Then they got up for pancakes this morning. It's pretty humbling to be Dad to such a great young man! Jod and I are honored to be his parents.
Some other highlights from our last couple of weeks.
- We've started Christmas Vacation! Friday was the last day of school until January 7. Jodie and the boys are excited to have a break, and Jadyn, Luke, and I are excited to have Mom, Shea, and Micah around all day. Nate Saint School had their Christmas musical, "Meet Me at the Manger", on Thursday night. Shea and Micah (and everyone else) did a great job. Shea had a small solo and Micah a brief speaking part.
- Visitors are coming soon! Jod's Mom and Dad arrive next weekend and my sisters come a few days after Christmas. Then our friends, the Derricos, are coming to visit in January, and my Mom and Dad in February. We're so excited to see everyone and show them all the sights and sounds of our new home and community;-).
- We've had fun learning some Spanish Christmas Carols. Currently, I can't get "Navidad, Navidad, Hoy es Navidad" (to the tune of "Jingle Bells") & "O Santisimo, Felicicimo" (sp?) out of my head.
- Friday night was our MAF/Alas de Socorro Christmas Dinner. We ate at a nice restaurant in Puyo and I coordinated some group games. Meanwhile, the kids were home with the babysitters- 2 middle school aged brothers. It seemed like everything went well, nothing was broken at least (that's often not the case when Dad's home alone with the kids).
-I've been playing basketball in a league in Puyo. We're in the championship tournament (a 4 team, 3 game round robin) now and are 2-0 after winning our second game last night. The league is the most competitive atmosphere I've played in since high school. We have uniforms (shorts too), specatators pay admission, and there's often a fan with an air horn(last week there was a base drum, too). I'm doing alright communicating with the other guys on the team (there's 2 other Americans on our team which helps- although one week I was the only gringo in the gym). Last night one of the guys was talking and I asked Steve what he was saying. Steve couldn't tell since he was talking fast and has a coastal accent. So Henry had to translate for Steve who then translated to me.

Feliz Navidad!

November Recap

We've been busy in the last month since I last posted- here's a quick recap of some of our November highlights.

* Hola Vida is the name of a great waterfall we went to a few Sundays ago. It took about 20 minutes on the main road, 20 minutes on a dirt road, and then a 30 minute hike through the jungle to get to the waterfall. We went with some other MAFers here as well as a group from California that was here as a work team for MAF. What a beautiful day exploring our Creator's handiwork and enjoying a VERY COLD dip in the water.



* The 1st and 2nd grade (Shea and Micah's) and 3rd and 4th grade (Jodie's kids) classes combined on a Thanksgiving program and feast last Wednesday. We heard the story of the Pilgrims and the 1st thanksgiving. The 3rd and 4th graders did the narration and the 1st and 2nd graders were the actors (Shea had the role of Governor Bradford). Afterward we had a potluck traditional US Thanksgiving feast with turkey, mashed potatoes, and all sorts of other good comfort food.



* The next day (Thanksgiving Day) the MAF and ADSE (Alas de Socorro de Ecuador- Ecuadorian missionaries serving with Alas de Socorro) families left for our annual Thanksgiving weekend family retreat. What a fun weekend! The retreat was held at a resort near a town called Salcedo in the Andes. Due the mountain elevation, it was much cooler. It was a nice treat to feel cold and wear a sweatshirt. The view from our back window was pretty amazing- as is usually the case, the picture below doesn't quite capture it. We had a team come in from the U.S. to lead us in worship, teaching, and also to provide childcare for all the kids. We all had a good time relaxing, swimming, playing touch football, and hiking. Here's also a picture of our MAF-Ecuador team.



* Yesterday, was the annual Shell Day parade. All of the local schools, as well as some other groups, participate with dancing and costumes. Nate Saint School went with the Western look and danced to "Cotton Eyed Joe". Shea was a great dancer, Micah had fun "playing" guitar on the truck, and Jod did a wonderful job tossing out candy. Jads, Luke, and I enjoyed watching all the groups in the parade.





* Miscellaneous notes
- George and Princess (our kittens) are continuing to grow. They're both very active climbing, wrestling with each other, and playing with the kids.
- We put our Christmas tree up last Sunday. It's a real one and the kids had a lot of fun decorating. Micah, especially, did a great job with getting the lights on.


- The "Jungle Grizzlies", my fantasy football team in the NFL Ecuador league, are 10-2 heading into this weekend- thanks Tony Romo & TJ Houshmanzadeh.

The quarter pole

Today is our three month (quarter of a year) anniversary here in Shell and the first quarter at Nate Saint school just ended on Friday. Time to get nostalgic... well maybe I'll just give an update on things here lately.
- the biggest news in our home the last few weeks are our two new family members- George and Princess. These 2 kittens were left in a box by the hangar trash can and we adopted them into our home almost 3 weeks ago. They're very cute and it's fun watching them grow. It's not so much fun trying to protect them at times from Luke's "ignorant enthusiasm".
- Jodie's class is taking a cross country trip across the U.S.A. Well, not literally. But they recently began a social studies simulated trip in Washington D.C. and have "traveled" to Pittsburgh and Lancaster, PA. They'll "visit" Philadephia this week before heading to New York City and then Plymouth, MA for Thanksgiving. (if anyone is interested in sending a post card to the class from your neck of the woods in the U.S., let us know and we'll give you the address)
-November brings a lot of visitors to MAF here in Shell. We have 3 guys from the Nampa, ID corporate offices coming down this month as well as a work team from California. Then we all go away Thanksgiving weekend for our MAF family retreat. We're going to a conference center between Ambato and Quito and a team is coming down from Arkansas to share with our families that weekend.
-The kids continue to make things lively around here. Shea has begun to make scrambled eggs independently (he'll be the omlette chef at the Willow Valley Palm Court brunch next summer). Micah wrote and illustrated three "books" in the last week. Jadyn enjoys singing- worship songs, bible songs she's learned at preschool and even songs she's made up herself . Luke has added "hasta luego" to his Spanish vocabulary. The other night at dinner the following "random, unrelated thoughts" were uttered in quick succession.
Micah: "Sometimes I throw up"
Shea: "I hate Ice Age 2"
Jadyn: "Grandma calls my white shirts 'blouses'"
-A November traditon for our family the last few years has been making a thankful chain. Throughout the month we all think of things we're thankful for, write them on a strip of paper, and make a chain (sort of like a Thanksgiving advent). When we stop to think and document all that God's provided us with: Wow we've a lot to be thankful for.

Zoo and Plane Trip Photos

Here are some pics from our trip to the "zoo" and my airplane trip to the jungle.




In the monkey "section"- these guys were climbing all around, including over our heads.



Micah training for his future career as a snake charmer.



This bird was just as colorful in person.



There was no fence between me and this alligator- a little unnerving



Micah and Jadyn petting an animal (I forget its name) that looked like a cross between a donkey, rhinocerous, and anteater.




You can see why I'll never be a pilot, and why I have so much respect for the people who can fly these machines.



A crowd of people poured out onto the runway after the plane landed.



The village (MRT) is only accesible by airplane or foot.



A view of Shell from the air.

Saturday Specials

A couple interesting trips the last two Saturdays- one with all 6 of us and one for just me (or just me out of our family).

- Our family went to the "zoo" with Andi and Olivia Irwin two Saturdays ago. Fatima is a pretty informal place a few miles outside of Puyo. We saw monkeys, snakes, turtles, birds, alligators, pigs, and some other things that I'm not real sure what they are. The alligators were not behind any type of fence or cage and Jads and I walked down fairly "close" to one to get a picture. This trip is better told with pictures- hopefully soon.

-Last Saturday I went on a flight to a jungle community to pick up a lady who had been bitten by a snake. I flew along with Chad Irwin to a village that I can't recall the name of right now. It's 3 letter "airport identifier" is MRT- I do remember that. The flight was pretty cool, my first flight in a small plane (all of the Alas de Socorro planes here in Shell are Cessna 206s). After we got east of Puyo, there was basically nothing (no roads, and only a few scattered dwellings) but jungle below us until we got to the village (a little less than 30 minute flight). I can't imagine how many hours it would take to walk that distance. As we approached for our landing there were people lining the runway and after we landed they all poured out to meet the plane. I just observed as Chad and a man from the community loaded the patient in. She was accompanied by two others on the flight back to Shell. An ambulance was waiting for her as we landed back in Shell to take her to Hospital Vozandes de Oriente here in Shell. What a neat experience to get to see first hand how Alas de Socorro meets the needs of the people in the jungle communities here in Ecuador.

Check back soon for a few pictures of both trips.

More Pictures

It's been awhile since I've posted pictures. Here's some more shots of our first couple of months (today is our 2 month anniversary here) in Shell.


The first day of school in Jodie's classroom at Nate Saint Memorial School


This produce truck delivers fresh fruits and vegetables right to our front door


Many of the streets on the west side of Shell are "under construction".


Luke helping Elsa out with the dishes. Elsa, who's also an employee at the hangar, comes 3 evenings a week to help us clean up after dinner. The kids, Jads and Luke especially, love her!


Gym class with the 3rd & 4th graders (Jodie's class)


The kids enjoying one of the many Shell rainshowers.

Election Day

Today (Sunday, September 30) is election day here in Ecuador. There are national and provincial assembly elections, no presidential election this year. I don't know much about the issues or the politics involved. But I do have some interesting campaign notes and stories.

- There are a ton of political parties here in Ecuador. And they all have a number associated with them- 3, 7, 11, 15, 29, 35, 60, etc. A lot of campaign signs don't even mention the name of a party or a candidate, just the number.

- We've observed several campaign "parades". Luke and I stood at the end of our driveway last weekend and watched as cars went past for probably close to 5 minutes with horns honking and political signs waving (I think that one was for party #s 35 and 15 supporters). It was cool and getting toward dusk and I was getting sentimental for the Solanco fair parade.

- At church last Sunday, the power went off during the service. So the pastor was speaking without a microphone. We were sitting in the back pew. The door to the back of the sanctuary is probably only about 10-15 feet from the main road in town. Another campaign "parade" went buy during the middle of the sermon. We couldn't hear anything but the "parade". The pastor even stopped talking for 30 seconds.

- One candidate's (for provincial assembly I think) name is Eduardo Escobar. I don't know anything about his politics or issues (other than he's with party # 29), but his name just sounds so "Ecuadorian".

Some other highlights of the past week:

Jadyn, Luke, and I took our first taxi ride since we were running late for preschool. It cost a dollar to get a taxi ride across town. Fortunately, most taxis in Shell are extended cab pickup trucks. So I just threw the stroller in the back and Luke and I walked back home.

Luke and Jadyn also had their first doctors appts this week. Having worked in the healthcare "administrative" field for so long, I was interested in some of the differences betweeen how things are done here vs. the U.S. That may be a topic for a different post. They're both doing well, but Jads is a little apprehensive about her upcoming shots.

We had a "guest" at our house this weekend. Sandy, our neighbors dog, stayed with us while they went to Quito. The kids seemed to enjoy having her around. We'll continue to gauge if we want to take her on as an extended houseguest when the Whiteheads go on furlough in January.

We had a tarantula crawling up the outside wall of our house yesterday. Jodie just grabbed it barehanded and gently put it back in the jungle. (the first sentence is true, the second is not- the real resolution involved a toy light sabre and a big rock.)

School continues to go pretty well for all of us. Jodie's working really hard and doing a great job. She's remembering how much she enjoys being in the classroom again, and also remembering how exhausted she feels on Friday nights. The boys are doing great too. They're reading lots, memorizing Bible verses, and getting to learn lots of fun, hands-on things for science.

Time for bed. Wake me up when September ends- or about 6 hours after September ends.

Espanol

Buenas Noches (good evening)!

One of the biggest cultural adjustments we've had to make while living in Shell is learning to speak, read, and understand the Spanish language. Here are a few notes & anecdotes about the learning process.

- I'm learning something new everday and starting to feel more comfortable with basic retail transactions. The vocabulary is coming along much quicker than the grammar and semantics. I probably sound like the Spanish speaking equivalent of the sterotypical Native American in old western movies.

-Micah repeatedly says his favorite class in school is Spanish. All of the students have Spanish class everyday. It's taught by a local teacher, Senora Salas, who has taught at Nate Saint for, I think, close to 20 years.

-Jadyn's attending a local pre-school two days a week. She sometimes expresses frustration because her teacher "always talks in Spanish". On her first day she saw one of the American physicians who works at the HCJB hospital. I asked Jadyn if Dr. Nelson spoke to her in English or Spanish. She said, "neither, she just talked to me regular."

-When talking to Jadyn's teacher's aide, she told me that she was a profesora of what I thought she said as 'bibia'. When I asked her what 'bibia' was, she looked at me like I had 3 heads. Then I realized that she was saying "Biblia".

-Speaking of the Bible, church can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming with the language barrier. Overhead/power point lyrics are helpful. There's a lot of repetition of vocabluary in worship lyrics and we're becoming more familiar with a lot of the words and songs. We're often able to pick out when the preacher gives a chapter and verse (I sometimes cheat by peeking over a shoulder in front of me) and are able to usually get the theme of the sermon from the Bible text even if we're not able to understand much of the interpretation/application. Power point sermon notes have been helpful too as reading is a bit easier than listening since you can do it a little slower.

- Luke's starting to say "hola" (hi) and "ciao"- pronounced "chow" (bye).

First day(s) of school, part 2

A few highlights of the week in Shell:

-We had more first days of school this week. Jadyn started pre-school this week. She's attending an English preschool (Shell Christian Preschool) 3 days a week and pre-school at a local Christian School (CELE- an acronym for Centro Educatavio Luz del Evangelio) 2 days a week. Jadyn already knew most of the kids in her "English" pre-school as well as the teacher, so she was pretty happy and excited to be there. She was a little hesitant when I left her yesterday at her first day of "Spanish" pre-school. But when I picked her up 4 hours later, she said that her first day was "great". She got a school physical from the HCJB pediatrician whose son is in Jodie's class.

-I've been teaching phys ed to Jodie's class. Since our house is so close to school, I run over to school and Jodie goes home. Then she comes back over a half hour later and I run back home. It's been pretty fun. We've played soccer, kickball, parachute, and some other fun games. I also know I couldn't be an elementary teacher. But teaching gym is a need for all the teachers, so we were able to get our house helper to stay a little longer so I can also teach phys ed to the 1st/2nd grade class & the middle school class. I'll probably start that new schedule next week. Does anyone have some polyester shorts or a whistle I could borrow?

-The hangar across the street has been very busy the last couple weeks. Alas (MAF) has been flying hundreds of school teachers to communities in the jungle region of eastern Ecuador. Some communities get one school teacher while others get a dozen (depending on their size). The pilots I've talked to this week are pretty worn out from flying and (especially) coordinating all of the flights.

-Coke Zero has arrived in Shell. The first shipment must have come in over the weekend because this week, all of the markets in Shell have been stocking Coke Zero. There's even a marketing push as I've seen a few Coke Zero posters around town. I've think I've only seen one bottle of Pepsi since I've been in Shell. So, for those of you, i.e. Dad & Beth, that think Coke is a 4 letter word, you'll need to pack some Pepsi or enjoy the water here.

A month of senses

Yesterday was our 1 month anniversary in Shell. Here's a brief glimpse of some of the sights, sounds, and smells here. (this may look a little familiar when you get your quarterly newsletter later this month).

Sights:
Mountains & Jungle-we see the Andes mountains to the west (we had a clear morning today with a great view of snow capped Sangay volcano from our driveway) of Shell and the jungle of the Oriente region of Ecuador lies to our east. A walk across the foot bridge in Shell also provides a good preview of the jungle.
A historic airplane- A replica of the piper aircraft that Nate Saint flew more than 50 years ago is the centerpiece of the recently rennovated town plaza.

Sounds:
Rain- although August was a relatively dry month by Shell standards, we still hear lots of rain falling outside our windows on the metal roof.
Airplanes- our house is just across the road from the runway where MAF, Ecuador military, and many other planes take off and land all day long.
Roosters- there is a large rooster community in Shell and we often hear “cock-a-doodle-doo” when walking through town (especially early in the morning).

Smells:
Bread- There’s nothing better than the smell of fresh baked bread from one of the many bakeries (panaderias) in Shell
Must- With all of the rain in Shell, it’s a constant battle with mold and must. Most of the closets in our house have lights to help keep things dry.

Back to School

Jodie, Shea, and Micah had their first day of school at Nate Saint Memorial School today (pictures to come). Jadyn, Luke, and I atteneded the opening chapel too. We sang a fun little (a little cheesy, but fun) song titled "The Shell Song" complete with motions and sound effects. It's sort of the school's "theme song". I'll try to get the complete lyrics posted here, but it starts out "The grass is always greener south of the equator . . . " After the students (around 30 students total- K-8) and teachers went back to their classrooms, the parents had a short meeting and prayer time.
Jodie and the boys all seemed to have a pretty good day. Jodie has 6 students in her class(2 4th graders & 4 3rd graders). There are 9 students (4 2nd graders & 5 1st graders) in the boys class. One of the fun things about the school schedule here is that everyone gets to go home for an hour and 15 minute lunch. So the three of us at home get to see the three of them halfway through the day.
Jadyn, Luke, and I had a good first day of our new routine with Daddy as "Mr. Mom". We made a couple trips into town and stopped at the post office where we had three packages and two letters waiting for us. I think we must be pretty popular because we were walking past the post office (I wasn't planning on stopping until the way back from the store) when the "mail woman" stopped me by name (I was impressed) and told me that we had some packages.

I'll try to get back to my average of 1.7 posts per week.

Lost and Found

These three stories aren't on par with the ones in Luke 15 (although one involves Luke Skywalker and another Luke Richardson), but we had a few neat "lost and found" incidents this week.

* Shea brought his Luke Skywalker action figure to church on Sunday and left it in a desk of the Sunday School room. When he realized this Sunday afternoon, it was mildly devastating (is that an oxymoron?). We weren't sure we'd ever see the young Jedi again. On Tuesday though, we stopped at the church on the way back from the playground to check if it had turned up or if it was still in the desk. The secretary was busy, so the pastor helped us out and opened up the room for us. No luck. Then he went back to his office and got on the phone. When he got off the phone, he asked us to wait a few minutes. Shea's frined was with us and helped with the translation and let us know that someone may be bringing it over. A short while later, a boy rides up on his bike and delivers the toy to us. Shea yelled out a very heartfelt "GRACIAS!!" as the boy rode away.

* Shortly after arriving home from the playground and the church, I realized that we were missing Luke's "sippy cup" that we had brought along. This was very mildly devastating to me. I was almost certain we'd never see the small plastic cylinder again. But later that afternoon, Kristen- a fellow MAFfer- drove up with Luke's sippy cup. She explained what had happened. Kristen and I chatted briefly at the playground as she was walking by. When she came back past the playground after we left, a young boy ran up to her with the cup and told her we had left it there.

I love those two examples of the benefits of generous, honest people and a small town! This last story is more an example of the frustration and laughter that comes with having a toddler in the house.

* Tuesday evening, Jodie couldn't find a notebook that contained a lot of her school plans. I'm not sure where this ranks on the "mildly devastating" scale. Probably somewhere between the first two. Jodie and I looked and looked but couldn't find it. On Wednesday morning, Jodie thought she may want to check in the garbage can. And lo, beneath the two folded up pizza boxes, there lay the green notebook. Delivered there courtesy of Luke Transport.

A couple other interesting stories/events of our week.

- Jodie and I are about to fall alseep Wednesday night when we hear a "thump", "creak" and "pitter patter". Jodie followed the pitter patter down the hall and finds Luke in the kitchen with the refrigerator open & looking for a drink.

- The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, visited Shell today. He flew into Shell, visited the hospital here in town, and then went to Puyo. This was President Correa's first visit since being elected earlier this year. We were able to see the motorcade as it drove through Shell

Beautiful Ecuador

I had a couple opportunities this week to notice how beautiful a country Ecuador is. On Thursday morning, I got a phone call wondering if I wanted to go "canyoning" since somebody was sick and they had an open spot. Sure, I volunteered. An hour later I was on my way to a spot about 40 minutes west (toward the Mountains) of Shell. What is canyoning? Well, on this morning it consisted of moving down a canyon river by various methods- walking and swimming in the water and repelling ziplining, and jumping down waterfalls. It was a pretty incredible experience. Unfortunately, since we were submerged in the river for much of the time, I wasn't able to bring the camera along for pictures. The two photos below show the general landscape of the area and our group right before we started our trek.








Then on Saturday, our family went with another family to Ambato to do some shopping. The approximate 2 hour trip on the Ambato-Puyo highway (I use the term "highway" loosely- it's 2 lane for much of the way, 1.5 lane for the rest. With all sorts of turns, descents, tunnels, potholes, and a section where there's about 1 foot of shoulder between the road and a VERY STEEP drop off the side of the mountain. But Kevin told me the road is markedly improved since he first came to Shell less than 5 years ago. Now nevermind this part when you read on.) was a beautiful ride. There's one section between Ambato and Banos near the Tungurahua volcano that is especially scenic. Once again we didn't have our camera along but feel free to google "Tungurahua" to see some pictures of the area. We're driving on the side of a mountain and you can look across the valley and see another mountain... I can't really explain it, but it was pretty cool.
I just read tonight that Ecuador is the most geographically and biologically diverse country in the world (not quite sure how that is measured). Our location in Shell is wonderful- the jungle to the east and the mountains to the west. You're welcome to come visit us anytime!

P.S. - I received no renumeration from the Ecuador Dept of Tourism for the comments in this blog.

Weekend Update

Our first weekend in Ecuador was holiday weekend. Friday was Diez de Agosto, an Ecuadorian independence day (Ecuador has multiple independence days, I learned). Here are a few of our highlights.
- Friday morning we drove to Puyo, a city about 5 miles east of Shell. It was my first driving experience in Ecuador... I was driving a 1983 Ford Econoline Van with incredibly loose steering... Jadyn was singing loudly in the back... and any type of accident with damage carries the possibility of jail time until both parties resolve the matter. Fortunately, I had a great guide (Rebecca, one of the other MAFers here) and we did a few errands and made it back safely.
- On Friday evening, the Borror family (an MAF family with two young children that live next door) knocked on our door with an exciting invitation. They had caught a rat that was pestering their home and were going to let it be dinner for the snake that is a pet over at the hangar. Would we like to come along? Five of us did (Jodie and Rhoda passed). The kids all seemed to enjoy the "show" and the snake seemed to enjoy the rat.
- Shea, Micah, Rhoda, and I went back to Puyo on Saturday- this time by bus. The bus picked us up right at the end of our driveway and we did some souvenier and gift shopping. Taking the bus felt a lot more peaceful than driving (and cheap too- only a quarter per person each way).
- We attended Iglesia Luz del Evangelio on Sunday morning. This church is located right down the road in Shell- walking distance most Sundays, but we got a ride since it was pouring rain all morning. The church used a projector for both the song lyrics and the sermon outline, so we were able to participate a little. The three older kids went to children's church and mostly had a good time.
- On Sunday afternoon, we hosted a "thank you" open house for our MAF "family" here. Everyone has done a lot to get our house ready for us to move in and also to make us feel very welcomed our first week in Shell.
- I played basketball at the school on Sunday evening. It was a small turnout (probably due to the holiday and the cold, wet day) but was about half MAFers and half local guys.

Today was a sad morning as we said goodbye to Mom/Grandma. She rode to Quito today and flies out early tomorrow. It was such a blessing to have her here with us as we got settled in to our new home!! She helped our family so much (both relationally and practically) while she was here. We're gonna miss her.

Our first few days in Shell (with pictures)

Somebody once said that a picture is worth a thousand words.


Here's our family in front of the town plaza in Shell. The airplane is a replica of Nate Saint's piper and the playground was just put up over the weekend and opened the day of this picture.


Jod's mom (Rhoda) with the kids in front of our new house. The crew here had our house in great shape for us, and with Jodie's mom's help and our limited belongings, we have been able to settle in fairly quickly. Almost a week after arrival our house here is starting to feel a little like home.


After settling in at the house, Jodie and Rhoda set off about a hundred yards to the school to begin setting up the classroom. The kids helped out some too. The first day of school for Jodie, Shea, and Micah is September 3.


We experienced our first Shell rainstorm while walking home from the plaza. We were about one umbrella short.


There are two footbridges in Shell that provide a shortcut across a small river canyon. Pictures don't do it justice. It's a pretty long way down to the jungle floor below!


This is one of the five planes at the Alas de Socorro (MAF"s name in Latin America) hangar in Shell.


The kids are enjoying an ice cream snack outside Karen's- the main grocery market in Shell.


A family photo in front of Nate Saint Memorial School.

Travel Day Timeline

Here's a brief look at Saturday, August 4th

3:45 am(mountain time): I turn the alarm off after snoozing a couple times and head for the shower. It was a short night and it will be a long day.

5:32 am: We pull out of the parking lot of our MAF apartment in Nampa, headed for the Boise airport. The lawn sprinklers were doing their thing as we loaded up Reg Epp's van & trailer. It will probably be a while before we see lawn sprinklers- I don't think there's a big demand for them in Shell ; -).

7:10 am: 6 people, 1 stroller, 6 bags, 1 car seat, and a few pillows, stuffed animals and purses are frantically running through the airport trying not to miss our flight to Portland. Fortunately, we arrive at the gate before they've begun boarding.

7:28 am(pacific time): We fly right next to Mt. Hood. Its snow-capped peak and our plane are the only inhabitants of the sky above the clouds.

10:25 am: Luke is falling asleep in my arms while I talk to a group of people at our gate wearing "Oregon Mission Ecuador" t-shirts. They'll be on both of our next two flights as they travel to Quito on a short term missions trip.

2:56 pm(central time): Jadyn & Luke are both sleeping soundly and Jodie's in the middle of them sleeping a little less soundly. Shea & Micah are sitting next to me watching "Star Wars 2" on the portable DVD player. Things are pretty peaceful at the moment and I"m feeling relaxed, nostalgic, and excited about our adventures in Ecuador.

6:07 pm: I'm hot, tired and a little frazzled and the plane hasn't even taken off yet. Getting all of us (and our warehouse-sized supply of carry-on cargo) around the airport and settled in our seats is EXHAUSTING (for some reason, the stress level seems to reach it's climax on the tarmac). Jod's mom made it safely to Houston (she's going down with us to help us get settled into our new home- yea!) and we're all in our seats wating to fly to Quito.

6:26 pm: We just got off the ground. I'm looking out the window at the lights of Houston- the last time I'll see the U.S. for the next 10 months. We've been so blessed by all of our friends and family in the States and wouldn't be able to take on this new challenge without all of their prayers and encouragement.

11:09 pm (eastern standard time*): The plane is descending into Quito. Our family is getting a first look at Ecuador- the country that will be our new home. Our prayer is that God will be glorified by our lives during the time we spend here.

11:30 pm (approx) - 1:00 am (approx): This is all a big blur. It's late, we're all tired, we have a ton of bags, and we don't speak Spanish. Fortunately the customs process is pretty straight-forward and we are able to find the Grants and Schmidts who will take us to the guest house (the Roger Youderian house) for the night. Seeing Ron, Margie, Fred, & Desi's smiling faces makes us feel very welcome.

1:45 am: Luke has his second-wind and is jumping up and down on the bed as I doze off ...

3:07 am: I awaken to a lound sound of beeping and static. I follow the noise down the hall to an empty guest room and turn off an alarm clock. Back to bed. Tomorrow (today) we go to Shell.


Will give a report on our first few days in Shell (hopefully with some pictures) soon!


*Ecuador is on Eastern Standard Time year round. This means it's the same as eastern in the winter and central in the summer. I had been telling people this was the same as Indiana. But Jason & Joselyn informed me that Indiana is now using daylight savings time and will always be in the eastern time zone (except for the Gary/South Bend area). Sorry, had to get that last bit of trivia in there.

A Waste of Time, Hopefully

We had security training Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday. Hopefully, those three days will prove to have been a waste of time & we'll never have to use any of the information we learned and skills we gained. But, we're pretty thankful that MAF does a thorough job of helping to prepare us for some of the possible worst case scenarios that are always a risk when traveling and living overseas. The training was very effective, we're just praying that nobody who took it this week will ever have to put into into practice.

Hard to believe that we have just over 24 hours left in the U.S. We've been trying to do some fun things the last couple days amongst the hectic packing and preparing to leave. We went to Chili's and the pool last night. The boys and I went bowling with some friends this morning.

Even though we feel incredibly scared and overwhelmed right now, there's also a real sense of peace in our hearts. The prayers and support from people in Lancaster, Nampa, Shell, and elsewhere have encouraged us more than we can express. During these 3 weeks in Nampa, we've made lots of new friends and have been encouraged by their stories, friendship, and encouragement. Meanwhile we've had family and friends doing so much to help us out in Lancaster. And friends who we haven't even met yet have been helping to prepare our home for our arrival in Shell. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!!!

Next post will be from Shell!

without complaining

The sermon at church this morning was taken from Phillipians 2: 14&15. "Do everything without complaining...". OUCH. I've certainly done my share of complaining this week. Presciption plan hassles, kids not listening, airline seat frustrations, 100 degree heat, ... . There's lots of things that I can choose to complain about. But when I think about how truly insignificant they are and how MUCH MORE there is to be thankful for, my attitude makes a turn in the right direction.

So let me focus on the positive. Here are some highlights of the past few days.

- The Call - on Thursday afternoon, our whole family participated in a travel simulation event complete with grumpy visa officials who didn't speak English, wild taxi rides, and weapons/drugs planted in bags when going through customs. It wasn't a particularly fun thing to do with our family, but it made me realize how much we need to stick together. Our kids did a great job.

- Our "class" time on Friday consisted mainly of all of us being able to share and debrief and then pray together. It's been amazing to have come to know the people in our orientation class the last few weeks. Whether short termers or career, families or singles, headed for Ecuador; Indonesia, Lesotho, Nampa, ID or elsewhere; there has been an incredible sense of community. It's truly been a God thing! The relationships we've made have definitlely been the highlight of our time in Idaho.

- Luke had a follow-up appointment with his allergist before we left Lancaster and had a blood test to check again on the status of his egg allergy. We found out this week that the test revealed that LUKE NO LONGER HAS ANY EGG ALLERGIES! We gave him some eggs to verify the result and he didn't have any rashes!! This is such good news as monitoring ingredients would be much more difficult in Shell.

- Paper airplanes have invaded our house. I guess it's only fitting since we're a part of Mission AVIATION Fellowship, but the kids, Micah especially, have been on a paper airplane kick this week. The pile right next to the monitor here probably has more than 20 paper airplanes of various shapes and sizes. The kids are having lots of fun here and are preparing for Ecuador and were able to correspond with one of the families in Shell this week.

Only 6 days left to go!

Tap & Roll

We had Spanish class today. One of the main points our tutor- Roy- gave, was that pronunciation is more important than speed. I know Jack D. and others have told us this also, as well. So we worked mostly on pronouncing the alphabet. It was very helpful to work on just pronouncing the sounds.
I also realized how incompetent I am with the R sounds. I had trouble as a kid w/ my englsish R sounds- they came out like w's. I used to pronounce my favorite baseball player's name (Rod Carew) as Wod Kuh Woo. But the spanish R sounds(there are 2- the tap and the roll) are different. And I can't seem to get either of them. So our homework before Thursday is to practice trying to tap and roll the R sounds. I wish we had more than 2 language "classes", but hopefully we can get a little tutoring in Shell.

Luke and the Potty - When Jodie came home at lunch today, Bonni (our sitter) said "You didn't tell me that Luke was potty trained." Seems that he was in the bathroom tugging at his shorts and pointing at the toilet. So she sat Luke on the seat and he went. He did it again later today with me helping him. (He actually went in the potty once last week, but not at his own prompting to attempt). I guess he's been watching and learning from his brothers and sister. We'll see how many months/years until our family's done w/ diapers. We've been using them now everyday for the last 7 years, 7 months and 7 days (I didn't realize the numbers until I was just now figuring out the dates since Shea was born).

Cooking Class

This afternoon at Orientation we had cooking class. Since I'll be cooking much more down in Shell than I did in Lancaster (actually my cooking repertoire was little more than waffles, soup and mac&cheese), this was good practice. We made chicken pie, oatmeal rolls, and fruit salad. We started out with a whole chicken that we cut up- actually I cut up while Jodie "supervised". Needless to say, I'm not yet a candidate for my own cooking show. The fruit salad was good- pineapple, mango, and a fruit called shu shu (I'm pretty sure I butchered that spelling) among others. It was fun to work with Jod and hang out with the other people in our class, but if it that's much work to make dinner every night, I've got a steep learning curve!

other random thoughts about Nampa, ID:
- it's dry and flat- it hasn't rained a drop since we got here on Sunday, and I haven't seen any elevation changes that would even be considered a hill. Not good prep for Shell where it rains over 20 feet a year. It probably rains on less than 20 days a year in Nampa.
- they have 4 way stops with multiple lanes. I'm used to just having to figure out which of the other 3 (at most) cars got there first. Here, there's a couple 4 way stops we drive through with 8-10 lanes.
- beer and wine sold at regular retail outlets. Having lived in Pennsylvania so long, it always seems odd to me when I see beer at a convenient store or Wal-Mart.

Welcome to Shell Shocked

This is the inaugural posting of Shell Shocked, a blog site chronicling our family's time in Shell, Ecuador. The web address is shell--shocked.blogspot.com. We'd love to hear any comments or tips from experienced bloggers out there!


ORIENTATION UPDATE

We had a good trip out on Sunday. The kids did great on the plane trips-they made good use of their toys, books, and gameboys. We were all pretty exhausted by Sunday evening. Orientation has been good. There's a big group for MAF's orientation. Some are short-termers leaving for their assignment directly from here, some are career (long-termers) who are just beginning their deputation/support raising intineration. And there are some people from MAF programs in other countries (Canada & Netherlands) who are "on loan" to work with MAF-US programs. We've had a lot of "macro" orientation so far- organizational and theological foundations.

The kids are doing well out here. There are lots of other MAF families in the apartments around ours and lots of boys and girls to play with. There's even been a family of boys that live behind the fence out back that have been playing over here with all of the MAF kids. Our childcare worker, Bonni, has been great. Jod and I are pretty thankful for that.

Thanks again to everyone who are supporting us with your prayers, gifts and time/help!! We appreciate you!!