Shell Shocked

Not so fast my friend ...

2008-09-11T07:02:00.000-07:00

In my previous blog (on July 31) I said I would post next from Ecuador. As ESPN's Lee Corso might say, not so fast my friend. It's a month and a half later and I'm sitting in our house in Lancaster. Here's how we explained our situation in our August newsletter.

"As many of you know, our family spent this summer preparing to return to Shell, Ecuador for the upcoming school year. We were excited about teaching, reuniting with friends, and not having any snow over the winter months. It was a refreshing summer and we were grateful for the opportunity to visit with many of you while we were home.

We also took time this summer to pursue an evaluation for one of our children for some concerns that arose during this past year. Shortly before we were to return to Ecuador, we received treatment recommendations of things not available in Shell. After much prayer and counsel, Jodie and I both felt that it would be the right decision for our family to remain in Lancaster and not return to Shell for the upcoming school year. We will have access here in Lancaster to needed resources for our family. MAF was understanding of this decision and showed great support for the well being of our family.

Jodie and I were able to return to Shell earlier this month to pack up our belongings, say goodbye to our missionary and Ecuadorian friends, and bring closure to our year. Our family will now settle in Lancaster and begin looking for jobs, starting school, and moving back into our home.

Although Jodie and I both feel that the decision we made is the right one, the last few weeks have been very emotional. Not only have we been dealing with the shock of our plans for the next year being uprooted, but also with deciding how to best care for our family’s needs. Despite these storms, God has proved faithful. We’ve been buoyed by the knowledge that God is directing our steps and pray that He will be honored both in our family’s lives and in the lives of those in Shell, Ecuador. Dozens of people have offered their prayers, encouragement and practical help during this time. Jodie and I don’t know what lies next for our family, but we know that God does.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support over the past year. It’s been such a privilege to partner with you in serving those in Shell. Please don’t forget to keep us in your prayers as we enter this next stage of life. Please keep praying, as well, for the people who live, work, and worship in Shell and the rest of eastern Ecuador."

Well, we're back in our house now and getting settled in. There's still some stuff unpacked on our living room floor. We've had some job interviews. The kids are enjoying school. We've enjoyed getting involved at church. Life is good. It's not what he had expected for right now, but it's good. We're so thankful for our time in Ecuador and are looking forward to what is in store for us in this next chapter in our life.

This will be the end of Shell Shocked. Please e-mail us or check out my Facebook page for updated news from the Richardson family. Blessings!

July Recap

2008-07-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

One week from now, the six of us will be en-route to Quito. Wow, the summer's flown by!! Here's a brief update on our July adventures.

- We visited my parents in Syracuse for a week. Some highlights of our time there are picnicing with extended family, golfing, fireworks, Rudy's, Olive Garden, Chuckie Cheese, road trip to Rochester, smores, recycling bottles and cans (really, that's a highlight- ask if you want to know more), and of course SWIMMING. We spent a lot of time in Mom and Dad's pool. All four kids loved it and were in the pool as much as possible. Shea and Jads stayed a few extra days and went to VBS at Mom and Dad's church.

-Jod and I took a Spanish class at the community college in Lancaster. It was a very informal non-credit class with lots of conversation. It was great to be able to learn and practice more. I learned a lot of things I'd been saying wrong for the last year, too;-).

-Alex, Di, Keeton, CeCe,and Ansley (Jodie's brother and family) moved back from Turkey on July 15. It's been great to spend a few weeks with them before we head back to Shell. One of our highlights together was the camping and boating trip for the 13 of us at Raystown Lake. Tubing, water skiing, swimming, campfires, bugs, went tents- all sorts of fun things.

-The kids have been busy. Shea and Micah went to soccer camp at a local church and Jadyn attended a 2 day butterfly themed camp at a different church. The last 2 weeks the 3 older kids have been taking swimming lessons at the county pool. Luke's been a good sport about tagging along everywhere. The kids have also been busy at home biking, swinging, reading, and playing PlayStation.

-We've had opportunities to share with a few churches and many individuals this month about what we're up to in Shell. One of the cool things about that is also being able to share what many of the other missionaries in Shell are involved in. From aviation to translation, discipleship to medicine- it's been a blessing to report on how God is meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the people in Ecuador.

The next week should be pretty stressful for our family with to-do lists and goodbyes. We're so thankful for the opportunity to spend this summer with our family and friends and are praying for a smooth transition back to our "home away from home" in Shell. Next post will be from south of the equator!

Coming to America

2008-07-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

In honor of the 20th anniversary of this comedy classic, I'll give you the lowdown on our last 3 weeks back in America.

the trip home: Things went pretty well, considering all 6 of us were traveling for several hours. Waiting in line at the counter in Quito, it looked like it could be a real long day(s?) when it showed the flight to Panama was delayed. But after some brief and heartfelt prayers, the board showed the flight was back on time. We still had to hurry through the airport in Panama (Panama now joins Taiwan as countries I've been in, but only in the airport) to catch our next flight to Washington. We arrived in Washington about on time at 1 a.m. and got throught immigration and customs without to much trouble. Our conversation at customs actually went like this.
Customs agent: "Do you have any food?"
Us: "No"
Customs agent: "O.K., have a nice night"
How excited we all were to see Jod's Mom and Dad waiting for us when we walked through the doors a couple moments later!!

culture shock about coming back to the US:
-Strangers talk English
-It's still light out past 6:30. One of the first nights Luke said "It's not bedtime, it's still light out"
-$1.50 for a a 20 oz. soda
-Restaurants have lots of items on the menu. We sort of miss almuerzos being the only option

our week in Massachusetts:
We had a great time hanging out with our friends and without our combined 13 kids. It's so cool to have such great friends. We had a fun week filled with hikes, rafting trip, mini-golf, tennis, Wii, cards, foosball, and lots of sleeping in. A highlight of the week was on Thursday night when we prayed together for each of all of our children.

back in Lancaster:
It's been pretty busy with appointments, meeting w/ friends, Spanish class, phone calls and other stuff. Worshipping again at our home church has been very refreshing! The kids are keeping busy and having fun (for the most part). They've been enjoying spending time with Grandpa and Grandma and seeing some of their friends. Tomorrow we leave for Syracuse to spend a week with my family.

Hope you're all enjoying your summer!

Last post from Ecuador . . . until August

2008-06-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

We've gone from counting down the weeks to the days and now to the hours until we arrive back home. We leave Shell in only about 39 hours and our plane leaves Quito in about 67. We arrive at Dulles at 1 AM Friday morning. I'm sure all 6 of us will be feeling our most happiest pleasant as we go through immigration and customs. Things have been very busy here the last couple of weeks. Here are some highlights since the last post.

-Jadyn graduated from Shell Christian Preschool on May 29. She's had a great year and has had a wonderful teacher- Miss Sharon (Sharon LaBouef). I was able to be a n assistant every couple weeks and enjoyed getting to spend time with her and her friends at school. At their graduation ceremony, Jadyn was singing very loudly with the songs. This was the first time we'd ever heard one of our children's voices in a preschool group choir, as Shea and Micah were always silent or barely whispering.

-Shea and I took the bus to Ambato last Sunday (June 1) to attend our first professional Ecuadorian football match. We watched city rivals Macara and Tecnico play in the "Classico de Ambato". It was a lot of fun. South American soccer is quite a spectacle- the colors, the chants, the songs, the policemen with masks and shields. Here's highlights of the match

-Tomorrow is the last day of school of the 07-08 year at Nate Saint. It's been a busy last few weeks with physical fitness tests, graduation service, school Olympics, and all of the end of the year grading, cleaning, and organizing. Jodie's also been trying to a little macro-planning for her K-1 class next year. It's been an honor and a lot of fun to be involved in the ministry of Nate Saint Memorial School this year to the students and families. We're excited about the opportunity to be back again next year. The school will look a lot different as enrollment will be only about 18 or 20 (down from 31 this year) and the oldest student will be in 5th grade.

We're so excited to be able to see most of you blog readers this summer!!! But we know there are a few of you we won't get to see while we're back in the U.S. So I'll still plan on updating a few times to let you know how our summers going. Next post will be from Pennsylvania.

Trip to the Big City

2008-05-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

The six of us took a trip to Quito from Wednesday to Sunday. Micah had some appointments scheduled there, so we tried to make an adventure of it. And an adventure it was. There's a reason why we've spent much of our lives in places like Groton, NY, Willow Street, PA, and Shell, Ecuador.
Here are some highlights and lowlights of our trip.

There's a family that lives outside Quito (the Camdens- from Australia and Illinois by way of Houston) that has 4 kids between 11 and 5. We'd only met Leith and their two oldest boys before in Shell. But he told us to let them know if we were ever in Quito. So we did and hung out with them at their house a couple times, including celebrating Leith's birthday on Saturday. It's always fun to meet new friends, and we had a great time getting to know Leith, Amy, Levi, Nathan, Andrew, and Jane. (HIGHLIGHT)

On the way back from the Camdens on Saturday, Luke got sick in the van and threw up over himself and Jodie. (LOWLIGHT)

We got to go to McDonalds for only the 2nd time since we left the U.S. (HIGHLIGHT). Before we left for lunch at Mickey D's Jodie reminded me that someone told us only to take our credit cards with us if we were going to use them. So I left them at the apartment. I also didn't have my drivers license or Ecuadorian ID card (censo) in my wallet (retrospective HIGHLIGHT, because...). While walking from McDonalds to the street to get a taxi, I was approached by some very aggressive 8 year old girls trying to sell me some candy. They also stole my wallet/blood tester. (LOWLIGHT)

It was cold and dreary in Quito (LOWLIGHT), but at least I didn't sweat on my pillow during the night (HIGHLIGHT).

We visited English Fellowship Church on Sunday morning. This was our first Sunday Morning Service in English since last July. (HIGHLIGHT) However, it was at the end of a long and tiring weekend for the kids and they weren't in the mood for sitting quietly to sing and listen to the sermon. (LOWLIGHT).

We got home earlier than expected Sunday afternoon thanks to good weather and traffic . (HIGHLIGHT) After unpacking and putting groceries away, we went to check e-mail and our computer wouldn't come on. We're still not sure what the problem is and I'm at a school computer now. (LOWLIGHT)

Some other Quito HIGHLIGHTS:

-The kids did great on the van rides up and back from Quito.
-We hired a driver to take us up and back. Vicente and his son Oswaldo (who drove us back on Sunday) were wonderful. Vicente even took us around Quito to various appointments, markets, stores, and houses on Saturday.
-The six of us went bowling on Friday. It was a lot of fun and the kids did great. Luke tried to kick the bowling ball like a soccer ball a few times and had to be told that he probably didn't want to do that. ;-)
-We also got to eat out at Pizza Hut and Crepes & Waffles.

Other News:

Two weeks from today is the last day of school. To give some perspective on how long ago the beginning of the year was- I shared a little bit with Jodie's class about New York State when they were studying the Northeast region in the fall. While talking about past U.S. presidents who were from New York, I mentioned that it was likely that the next U.S. president would be from New York. Hillary vs. Rudy seems like a long time ago.

Today's a big soccer day in Ecuador. The Ecuadorian national team lost a friendly match to France this afternoon in a warmup for World Cup qualifying next month. And LDU Quito (referred to simply as Liga in Ecuador) plays tonight in a Copa Libertadores Semifinal match. The Copa Lib is the top club tournament for teams in South America and Mexico.

The weather feels right

2008-05-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

When people ask what the weather is like here, I often say it's May the whole year. So this month feels right with my New York/Pennsylvania weather-calendar cycle. Some rain, some hot afternoons, cool evenings. I'm just waiting to see all the dandelions and maple tree "helicopters" and then it will seem perfect. We've been busy with stuff since the last post, here are a few highlights.

-Micah had a sleepover party on the Friday after his birthday. The two other first grade boys, Jonny and Josiah, stayed over after we had dinner with both of their families. Everyone fell asleep earlier than at Shea's party in December.

-There was no school on Friday, May 2 to celebrate Dia de Trabajo (Ecuador's Labor Day)*. We went to the "fair" in Puyo with our friend Elsa and her grandson Stevie. There were booths from different groups from Ecuador's Oriente/Amazonia region (the jungle area of Eastern Ecuador) and local merchants, as well as food, animals, and a bouncy ride for the kids. It made us a little nostalgic for the Solanco and Lampeter fairs in September that we're missing out on. After the fair, we went to a local pool to meet some other friends. We spent the afternoon swimming, talking, eating, and most of us getting sunburns.

-Last Saturday, I helped some local kids with their high school English class project. Leo, a kid I know from Spotlight on Thursday nights, asked if I would answer some questions for his group's project. So we did a little English Q&A on videotape. I may be the source of a few jokes now at Colegio Militar in Mera.

-The students and teachers at Nate Saint had a pizza party on Friday for reaching their April Read-a-Thon goal of 100,000 pages. They read over 120,000 pages combined during the month of April. Jacob, one of Jodie's 3rd graders, was the top individual reader with 11,000 plus pages!

-Friday night was the school's Cultural Fair. Each of the classes presented for the community some of the things they've been learning about in Social Studies this year. Shea & Micah's class did projects on different holiday celebrations from around the world. The two boys were partners and had a booth about Quebec's Winter Carnival. They worked hard and did a great job at their booth, and even had yummy pancakes and hot chocolate! Jodie's class did a "living map" of the U.S. complete with mountians, the Mississippi River, and Statue of Liberty. Each student (and Jodie) prepared some information about their "home" state. New York, Pennsylvania, Illionis, Minnesota, Texas, and California were represented.

-Last night we had a despedida (going-away party) for the 6 missionary families that are leaving Shell in the next few months. We've gotten to know some of them well over the past year, and it will sad to see them go, but in the Father's hands we know that a lifetime's not too long to live as friends.

-We celebrated Mother's Day today with a trip to the pool/water park in Puyo. We played in a wave pool, a water playground, and some amusement park height water slides. Then we went out for pizza and bought some fruit at the market before heading back home on the bus. Our kids were so excited to give Mom gifts and confirm that she officially is the Best Mother in the World! Jod's final Mother's Day gift just left- a group of 6 serenaded her with 2 songs and roses. Our friend Isaac's church youth group was selling those and I couldn't resist this one of a kind gift.

Our camera's broken at the moment, so pictures may be a little more sparse the next several weeks.

*Dia de Trabajo is actually on May 1, but when it falls on a Thursday the president often declares both Thursday and Friday a holiday. Since NSMS only could have 1 day off, we changed our day off from Thursday to Friday. Glad I could straighten that out for you.

Our Big Backyard (and other various thoughts and pictures)

2008-04-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

One of the best parts of living here in Shell is the close proximity of our house to God's creation- from the volcano visible from our driveway on clear days to the sights and sounds of the jungle. The kids love exploring outside. The latest craze in our outdoor experiences is the tadpole population living in the old hot tub here on the MAF base. All of the kids in the neighborhood are often found catching and examining these little creatures. Here are some pics from a couple Sundays ago of the boys playing out back.

Here's a picture of Jadyn lounging poolside a few weeks ago when our family went to a pool in Puyo for the afternoon.

Do you remember December 15, 1999? Ron Dayne had just won the Heisman Trophy, gas cost about $1.30 a gallon, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" was the most watched telvision show in the U.S., everyone was stocking up their pantries with hamburger helper for the end of the world that was just 17 days away, and nobody in our family had a diaper that needed changed. For the next 8 years and 4 months, that didn't happen again. Until last week. Luke is diaper free during the days now and even has had a couple of dry nights. He is still learning some proper etiquette boundaries, though. Like . . . peeing outside by a tree is often alright, but pooping on the sidewalk by the carport- not so much.

In the 11+ years I lived in Lancaster, I rode the bus a total of 0 times. (In fact, aside from trips to the dentist as a kid in Rochester, I don't think I've ever rode the city bus). But here in Shell, we ride the bus often. Not all the time, but more frequently lately. And it's so easy here- no need to look for a schedule of stops and times. We can just walk out to end of our driveway and within 5 minutes there's a bus that will stop and take us to Shell or Puyo.

The kids are taking SAT's this week at school. No, not those SAT's. Their Standard Achievement Tests for each grade level. The one positive of this is that Jodie has had to spend a lot less time on lesson plans. A big negative is that Micah has to take these tests on his birthday.

That's right, our Micah bear is 7 today!! We're so proud of our special guy and we love him so much. Happy Birthday Micah!!

A year ago today...

2008-04-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

When I woke up on April 13th, 2007, I probably couldn't have located Ecuador on a map. Also, my spanish vocabulary consisted of "no" and "piso mojado", I didn't know much about Nate Saint other than there was a movie about him, and I hadn't spent much time thinking about the possibilities of moving our family to another country to be involved in MK education. When I got home from work that day, Jodie asked "What would you think about being a missionary teacher with MAF?" and as they (I'm not really sure who "they" are, but I digress) say, "The rest is history." Wow, what a year it's been! I think our family has experienced just about every emotion possible over the past 12 months. We've been stretched in ways I couldn't have dreamed of last April 12. But it's been so humbling to see how God has guided us and comforted us and allowed us to be used to serve the missionary families and local -Shellers? Shellians? Shellites?-. The whole process has been such a God thing- amazingly so. I can only imagine what our lives might look like on April 13, 2009.

Taco A Mockingbird

2008-04-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

April is Read-A-Thon month at NSMS. The students and teachers are attempting to read 100,000 pages collectively. Jodie had her class over for a reading and taco eating party (the kids voted on the menu. Normally you don't think of curling up with a good book and a taco- but hey). Although nobody in her class is reading Harper Lee's classic about Atticus and Scout Finch, there were appearances made by Encyclopedia Brown, Frank & Joe Hardy, the very hungry caterpillar (in Spanish), and others. Here are some pictures.

Shea and Micah are also reading lots of books this month. Shea has been re-reading many Magic Tree House books along with C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle. Micah's interests have leaned more toward non-fiction including books about storms and Ben Franklin. Not to be outdone, Jadyn and Luke are also reading lots this month. The other four of us have all taken turns reading to them. Some of their favorites are The Bearenstein Bears and Lily the mouse (Jadyn) and books about airplanes (Luke).

3 down, 1 to go

2008-04-06T01:30:00.000-07:00

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.

I'll be home for ... flag day

2008-03-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

We'll be heading back to the U.S. in just 88 days. Last week the plane tickets were purchased. We come home for the summer on Thursday, June 12 and return here to Ecuador on Thursday, August 7. There's so many people we want to see when we're back home that 8 weeks just doesn't seem like enough time (the person Jodie's most excited to see is the clerk at Turkey Hill who gives her the first ice tea and ice cream she's had in 11 months. Next on her list is the waiter or waitress at Olive Garden).

Brief updates and anecdotes from life in Shell.

-it's been storming a lot more here lately. There's always a lot of rain, but it seems like there's been more thunder and lightning with the rain recently. That's not always real good news for our electric and internet connection. In addition, our Vonage phone only seems to work for about an hour a week- so if you get a frantic call from us some time, it's because we want to talk quick before Vonage stops working.

-Jodie's class is "traveling" in the Midwest now. This Thursday they have "Prarie Days": a classroom fair where the students will share and we'll all get to have some food. Look for pictures in an upcoming post.

-I played in a 5 game basketball league here in Shell over the past few weeks. Our team came in 3rd place (out of 6 teams) with a 3-2 record. In one game we played against a team with the pastor of our church on it. For those of you who know Pastor Clovis, you may cringe for me when you read this next part. We were both going for a loose ball. We collided. He didn't budge. I went horizontal and landed on the cement floor. Fortunately, I didn't land on my head.

-One of our fellow MAF families is leaving Shell tomorrow and moving to Oaxaca, Mexico. Sean and Rebecca Cannon and their daughters, Brooklyn and Madison, will be working with Alas de Socorro in Oaxaca where Sean will be a pilot. Thankfully, they are faithful bloggers so we'll be able to see and hear how they're doing. It's exciting to see how God is leading them and how they'll be able to shine for Him in their new home.

-Last night at about 3 a.m we awoke to a loud crying/moaning sound and rattling in our kitchen cupboards. We could tell it wasn't one of our kids, but it didn't sound like a cat's meow. It sounded like a baby crying. I opened the cupboard door and saw the front half of Georgia poking out from the 1/2 inch space between the back corner post of the cupboard and the wall. She was stuck.* And she wasn't to happy. And probably not able to breathe. Jod helped yank her out from the front, while I went down to our back porch, reached up into the floor boards and pipes above our hot water heater and tried to shove her legs up. After several minutes (almost a half-hour) of screeching, howling, and other very non cat-like sounds, we were able to get her unstuck.

- Luke has been taking a renewed interest in using the potty. He's been in underwear for most of his daytime hours the last few days. His technique for "liquid waste" is to stand up on the toilet seat and let it go into the waiting pool under his feet. I guess he's trying to practice for public bathrooms with the urinals that go down to the floor.

*Georgia had been easily climbing up through a large hole in the back of our cupboard by climbing up through the space above the hot water heater. But I taped that shut last night which led her to a more desperate and dangerous attempt at breaking into our house in the middle of the night.

Signs of the Times

2008-03-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

The big news in Shell is new road signs (yes it's a small town). There's a new sign welcoming drivers to Shell (or at least announcing that Shell's here) right by the entrance to the school.

This next picture is of the new sign at the end of the hangar heading toward Puyo. Note that it takes about 4 hours to go the 137 kilometers (approx 82 miles) to Macas. Needless to say, the road to Macas is unlike I-95.

The 1/2 & 3/4 classes celebrated Dr. Seuss's 104th birthday (although if the person's dead, is it just the anniversary of their birth?) on Friday. Many of the kids dressed up as characters from a Dr. Seuss book. Shea was Sam I Am and Micah was the Grinch.

"It's not Turkey Hill, but I won't complain."

100 days of school

2008-02-24T21:39:00.000-08:00

Friday the 15th was the 100th day of school at Nate Saint. The 1st and 2nd classes had a day long centenial celebration. As part of day, each student built or made an object with 100 items. There were buildings made out of 100 straws and 100 popsicle sticks, 100 lego vehicles, and 100 small paper hearts glued onto a big paper heart. Shea set up a tower of 100 paper cups at school (see picture) and Micah made a paper chain with 100 links. Micah's highlight of the first 100 days was the class reading 100 books together. Shea's highlight was the Christmas musical (Meet Me at the Manger) that the school did in December and the hike to Hola Vida waterfall this month.

Jodie's class was a little more low key in recognizing 100 days. It was hard for Jodie to pin down one highlight The 3rd and 4th graders have been busy in February as their "travels" across the U.S. have had them in the Southeast. They've read Mildred Taylor's Mississippi Bridge, listened to music from the region, studied and discussed slavery and racism, and had a special visit from kindergarten teacher Mrs. Blackburn to talk about her home state of Alabama*. This week the class heads up to the Midwest. They'll start writing some tall tales this week.

Jodie celebrated her birthday on the 13th. Some of the missionary ladies had a special party for her with lots of flowers, then she got a lot of love from her students and their parents at school with more flowers and cake at school. We celebrated at home with a cake. Then this past week the two of us went out on a date to El Jardin in Puyo while Beth Patton (Jod's fellow teacher) watched the kids. That was a special treat!!

My parents were here for a week and left on Tuesday the 12th. Dad got to speak at Chapel at Nate Saint and shared about being leaders. The kids even got to play follow the leader. The week went by too fast with them.

Jadyn, Luke, and I attended our first Ecuadorian birthday party last week, also. Our friend Jhonatan (son of Isaac & Aide) turned two. There were about a dozen kids and a few parents at the party and we had fun (well Luke didn't have so much fun) playing games and singing. Then we had some very yummy cake and jello punch and Luke really enjoyed that. It was a lot of fun to celebrate with Jhonatan and the rest of his family!

*Speaking of Southern states, our cat Georgia (as well as Princeton) will never give us kitty grand-babies. They had surgery at the vet's and are now recovering nicely. They've also moved out of the house to their new "home" on the back porch.

water fights and waterfall

2008-02-10T22:34:00.000-08:00

The kids at Nate Saint school are working hard! But between all the math problems, spelling lists, reading contracts, and science lessons there's still time for some fun. There were a couple special days in the last 2 weeks for Jodie's and Shea & Micah's classes. The first was a special carnival celebration. Carnival is the South American equivalent of Mardi Gras. And water balloons are to Shell what beads are to New Orleans and fasnachts are to Lancaster County. On Friday the 1st, the whole school had a half day and the last two hours were spent on water games. I "substituted" for Jodie and was one of the faculty team captains. Everyone had a lot of fun and got pretty wet. We also said goodbye that day to Miss Halcyon who taught phys ed classes for the month of January. She had to return to her college in South Dakota.

Shea enjoyed this opportunity to dump a pitcher of water over my head

Luke and his friend Katie also wanted to get in on the water action

after the games ended, we just had a great big water fight

This past Thursday the 1st/2nd grade and 3rd/4th grade classes went on a field trip to a bird zoo in Puyo and Hola Vida waterfall (see our earlier blog about our family's trip there). Unfortunately, Jodie was a little under the weather so I got to be her substitute again (fotunately for me, though). There were 13 kids and 7 adults* that hiked out to the waterfall and back. The weather was great and we all seemed to have a lot of fun (except for the one really muddy spot). Many of the kids even braved the really cold water for a quick swim.

Grandpa, Shea, & Micah check out the ostrich

did I mention that it was muddy?

the kids in front of the waterfall

*two of those adults were my mom and dad who are down here visiting for a week. We've had a lot of fun reading, wrestling, playing soccer/basketball/chess, and talking with Mom/Grandma & Dad/Grandpa. Unfortunately, we have to say goodbye on Tuesday morning.

a whole lotta pictures

2008-02-05T22:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures that I promised in the last blog. I've categorized them w/ the number from the previous post.

9.
Micah greeting Grandma & Grandpa at the airport in Quito

Eating pizza on the floor- Christmas Eve

7.
Praying with Dewey in Tiwaeno

I joined in on the traditional dancing line in Tiwaeno

6.
Setting the "old man" on fire on New Years Eve

5.
Jodie, Shea, Micah, & Jadyn at the Palon de Diablo waterfall

The tarabita ride high above the Pastaza River

4.
The 10 of us in either the Northern or Southern Hemisphere(and Luke in both)

Jodie and Jadyn high above Quito after riding up on the telefariqo

3.
Jadyn, Abby & Alex Derrico, walk across the footbridge into Shell

Luke gets a good view of the snake Micah's holding at Fatima "Zoo"

2.
Shea setting up his derby car on the track

Micah awaiting his derby car at the end of the track

a lot of catching up to do

2008-01-28T00:27:00.000-08:00

Well I'm back from my 6 week blogging hiatus (no, I wasn't serving a performance enhancing drug suspension or showing solidarity with the striking tv writers- I just haven't gotten "around to it" until now).

Here's a quick Top 10 list of highlights of the past 6 weeks in a roughly chronological order.

10. We took the cats to the veterinarian the first week of Christmas vacation. Based on the vet's examination, Princess and George have had their names changed to Princeton and Georgia*. They're both growing big (Princeton more so) and keeping our house lively. Just this weekend, Georgia displayed her new skill of scaling the screen in the dining room window.

9. Jodie, Shea, & Micah traveled to Quito to meet Jod's mom & dad at the airport and they all returned to our house on Christmas Eve. It was so great to have our family here for Christmas. It was rainy and cool on Christmas morning which made it feel a little bit more wintry- but just a little bit.

8.5 (I just remembered I didn't put this in). I got to go with an MAF radio tech (Rob) and pilot (Steve) to the village of Bufeo to help install a radio. It was a neat experience to work together with Rob, Steve, and the people of the village to help take down their old radio pole, install the new one, and get everything hooked up and working. MAF is providing and/or upgrading radios to dozens of villages in the Oriente region of Ecuador. These radios allow for efficient communication in the event of medical emergencies or other important contacts.

8. I traveled to Quito to meet my sisters at the airport and we all returned to Shell on December 29. We were so lucky to have 4 family members all here at the same time. My sisters showed off their basketball skills in our weekly pickup game and had Jadyn over for a "girls only makeup party sleepover".

7. On New Years Eve, the ten of us hopped into two MAF airplanes for a trip to the Waorani village of Tiwaeno. This village often hosts visitors and provided us with a look at some of the traditions and customs of this people. It was a fun visit complete with traditional dancing and having our faces painted (not counting the mud painting Luke got on his face when he fell). A highlight of the trip happened as soon as we got off the plane. An older man named Dewey (sp?) came over and prayed with us in Waorani. Dewey was one of the men who were part of the group that killed the 5 missionaries in 1956. What a beautiful image of reconciliation, redemption, and grace

6. The New Years Eve tradition in Ecuador is to burn an "old man". People stuff and dress up these mannequin/scarecrow type men and often will make them look like a politician or celebrity. Then they set them on fire at midnight. Our neighborhood had a New Years Eve party with games, devotions, and the burning of the old man. We did ours a little early so some of us could head into town at midnight to see the local festivities in Shell. That was a fun experience complete with fireworks.

5. Later that week we (the 10 of us plus Ron- our chauffeur/tour guide/travel agent extraordinaire) traveled to Banos and got to do a number of cool things. We hiked down to a waterfall, rode a cable car (tarabita) across (and high above) the river- well not everyone chose to do this one, went to the zoo, and saw the Tungurahua volcano. This volcano has gotten some international press for its increased activity recently but it's not considered imminently dangerous.

4. On Friday the 4th all 10 of us (and Ron) headed back up to Quito. This was our first extended stay in Quito and we did lots of fun things. We went to an Equator monument and got to see some cool experiments (like water draining straight down the sink without swirling), rode the telefarico high above Quito, shopped and ... (drum roll please) ... ate at McDonalds. Our first trip to the golden arches in over 5 months. Sadly though, we had to say goodbye as Dee, Beth, Mom, and Dad all had to return home.

3.5 (another something I forgot) School started again on the 7th. Jodie's class has a new 4th grade student-David. David and his family returned to Shell this month after being home in Minnesota for furlough. It's been fun for the kids to welcome David back to their class.

3. Our friends Jack and Anne Derrico, and Abby, Alex, and Rosie, came to visit us from January 14-21. We had a great time with them here. Not only did Jack help me with my Spanish a lot, but we got to do a lot of fun things and just hang out. Some of our highlights with the Derricos were going on a different tarabita ride across the river, visiting Fatima zoo again (see pics from October), and eating out a few times. The Derricos also went to Tiwaeno (without us) and Anne even saw a patient or two at the hospital.

2. Friday the 18th was the Pinewood Derby at school. It was a lot of fun to see the creativity and craftsmanship of the students (and parents). Among the contestant cars were a hot dog, ice cream sandwich, 2 Lightning McQueens and a Mader, block of Swiss Cheese, toothbrush, and lots of other really cool-looking cars. Shea and Micah worked on their cars with Grandpa and Grandma when they were down and had a lot of fun at the Derby. One of Jodie's students, Tim Edwards was the champion.

1. The school year's half over. This past Friday was the last day of the 2nd quarter. It was a sad day for Jodie's class as they said goodbye to Lydia who's returning to the U.S. with her family for furlough. She'll (and the rest of her family: Dan-MAF's program director- and Tracey Whitehead & brothers) be missed, but we're excited the Whiteheads will be back in Shell in August. And so will our family. We've decided to stay here in Shell for next school year. Despite the cultural and domestic adjustments we've had to make (and there have been some "fun" days), we've really enjoyed our first 5 months here and are excited about returning to Nate Saint School and Shell. We'll be coming home for about 2 months this summer from June through August and then heading back down here to Shell. Thanks so much to all of you who have prayed for us, written to us, called us, and financially supported us!!!!!!! It's been exciting to see what God's been doing to us and through us during our time here.

For those of you wondering "where are some pictures?" They're coming and it won't be six more weeks, I promise.

*For those of you wondering "have the Princeton Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs ever met on the football field?" The answer is no. But the mens' basketball teams had one meeting in December 1988 that Georgia won 58-54. Now you'll be able to sleep easier tonight knowing that. You're welcome.

2, 4, 6, 8

2007-12-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-05T18:32:00.000-08:00

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

2007-10-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-13T08:14:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-06T21:52:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-08-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-03T06:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

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!!