3 down, 1 to go

Today was the last day of the 3rd quarter at school for Jodie, Shea, and Micah. Today is also our 8 month anniversary in Ecuador.

Here's are some highlights and pictures from recent weeks.


Celebrating our first Easter in Ecuador was a blend of old and new. In Ecuador (and probably all of South America), Easter and holy week do not have any of the Spring-themed "fluff" that we associate with the season in the U.S. There's no Easter bunny, plastic eggs, or those little Peeps marshmallows. So we imported some of that with us. Our family painted Easter rocks and eggs and on Easter morning the MAF missionary families had a brunch and egg hunt. Our church had just one service on Easter Sunday, and it was at 5 a.m. So, I was the only one to attend church on Easter Sunday. Here's some pictures of the kids decorating their rocks.





These are Jod's students at Prairie Days- a class project where the kids each researched and led an activity for the other school students about life on the 19th century U.S. prairie.



Edgar and his daughter Sharly are friends of ours that we met at Edgar's bakery. Unfortunately, the bakery closed down last month, but they live in Shell and we're still able to see them from time to time.


I've been helping out at "Spotlight" most weeks. This is a club to help people learn English. Beth, the boy's teacher, usually leads but wasn't able to be there a couple weeks in a row. I was the only native English speaker last week and we had 13 Spanish speakers- more than the normal turnout and more than half were young children. It actually went alright, but I was glad to have some "help" this past Thursday.

I'm really enjoying teaching Phys Ed at NSMS this year. It's a neat way to keep in touch with the school and gives me a little outlet away from home. The kids (3 classes of 1st thru 8th graders) are a lot of fun and I've enjoyed getting to know each of them and their personalities. I'm still getting used to being called Mr. Richardson, though.

Look for our April newsletter in your mailboxes (the ones on your front porch or by the street) this month.