Blogs from South, Ecuador, South America - page 9

When we left the park, we drove higher into the mountains to a small town which I did not get the name of. In the pictures you can see the clouds lowering. We thought we would get some rain, but it actually started warming up. We stopped at a very small home and in the front of the house sat a woman making a hat. She starts working about 6 am and ends about 8 pm. By that time she should have a hat made. Her husband was working bringing more straw to her. The straw has to be wet in order for her to weave it. There was another woman sitting on the curb outside the fence surrounding the front of the house also weaving a hat. Once the hats are completed she sells them ... read more

Well, this was a day the Lord truly blessed. Our Ecuadorian grand daughter, Mandy, was dedicated to the Lord at Calvary Chapel Cuenca today. She is the first child to be dedicated in the English service. We were very blessed to have Braulio's mother, Maria, and his brother, Boris, join us for the dedication. Afterwards we all went to Joy and Simon's home for a potluck luncheon. Not a lot to say, but a lot of pictures.... read more

Here is more information on our Feria Libre Ministry in the potato section. The majority of the vendors in this section come from an area outside Cuenca that does most of the potato growth in Ecuador. One of the women in the pictures is Susan Stiles. She and her husband have been in Ecuador for thirty years. The used to have a mission in the area (the name of which I don't remember) that most of the potato farmers come from. So when they moved to Cuenca and they saw many of the people they already knew at the Feria Libre, they started the children's ministry there in the potato section. Those of us from Calvary Chapel have only been involved for about six months. Others in the pictures are the Thompson family - Nancy is ... read more

After going to the monument we went to the local community of Victoria del Portete (Victory at Portete). It is a very small community that is about to start expanding. Most of the communities in Ecuador have small schools with a limited number of teachers, so a lot of the time the teacher has two or even three grades of students in the same room. The federal government has decided to build larger schools in one community and combine the schooling for a number of communities by busing the children to the new schools with all of the teachers from the various communities being at the one school. The schools will be grades one through 12. Victoria del Portete is one of the communities to get a new school. We were told that the federal government ... read more

Phase three of our tour today was a ride to our guide, Fernando's home. He and his family provided a wonderful organic lunch for us (popcorn, rice, cubed beef and gravy, salad, tea and dessert). He then gave us a tour of his garden, naming all of the different plants that they had. Then he took us through his new building that was used for production of dried fruits and vegetables, jerky and cheese. We had samples and a chance to purchase some of his products. The pork jerky was very good. The jellies and jams that we bought went well with croissants for breakfast the next day.... read more