Background to my Trip

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In February 2010 I was presented with an opportunity to travel to northern Ecuador with a missionary group out of Weatherford Texas. A friend of mine, Dwayne, tole me about a trip his wife, Traci, had made in Janurary with her cousin Danny, a minister of a church out of Weatherford, Texas. The trip was for one week, August 3 to August 10, 2010.

The group had been traveling to the Chota Valley in northern Ecuador for several years with the intention of helping a community of Afro-Ecuadorians who lived in the region. The minister of the church, Danny, had been traveling to the community several times a year to help bring clean water, proper health services, and education to the community. This trip was to be a working trip where members of his church would go along and actually begin to tackle some of the issues Danny had observed on prior trips. My role was to tag along and offer ideas as to the political ramifications of such a mission. I was also going along to help with any work that the group needed to get done.

Prior to travel I had to go through a series of shots through Passport Health, an organization that councils travelers and provides vaccinations and consultations that are catered to the specific country one is traveling to. I received: Hepatitis A, Yellow Fever, Tetanus, and Typhoid as per their suggestions. Malaria was not needed due to the high elevation in which I would be operating in.

This blog is intended to provide information and anecdotes about northern Ecuador and the people of the Chota Valley.

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