Carnaval fun

Anytime after New Years and before Lent is the appropriate time to engage in Carnaval fun here in Ecuador. Bottles of Carioca (shaving cream), water bombs, buckets of water thrown around in a national event of fun. We abstained from eggs and flour, too messy to clean up!

This was a good opportunity to have some play time, something I've been thinking about a bit. How as adults can we incorporate more play into life, as a way to welcome joyful moments and healthy laughter. I find I get too serious for far too long. I need to seek the lighter moment, the opportunity for joy. It's good for me, and for the people around me!

Want a coffee??

One of the priveliges that I have as SIM Ecuador Director is having coffee with so many people.

This week alone I’ve had around 12 coffees with different people and each time I do this I get to hear what is going on and input into what they are doing and encourage them in the work they are doing. 

I love this opportunity to be with different people and I find it a privilege to be able to be involved in a small way the great ministries that our missionaries are involved in. 

Some of this weeks topics included but not limited to, website creation, camping trip evaluation, planning and vision for various ministries in Ecuador, preparing books for new ESI groups, cash flow brainstorming for bookshop and helping out with various organisational matters. 

Camping trip near Gualel

This weekend's camping trip started on the day when people all over Ecuador were drinking Colada Morada and eating bread in various shapes.
This trip was another two day trip with the goal of getting young people to have a good time together in God's creation. It started with a 6am meeting at the SIM building in the centre of Loja. I met them at that time to get bags packed and camping gear loaded up in the bus. After that I went back home to get the whole family, yes, the whole family, to go for a two day hike. We were hopeful that the kids would be fine and would actually enjoy being in the great outdoors. We weren't disappointed, in fact quite the opposite, they were amazing.
The walk started at an altitude of 2700m, already much higher than Loja and the sun was blarring.

The start of the walk was an intense, lots of sun, little breeze and we climbed 200m in elevation in the first kilometre, we were hoping that it wouldn't continue with this incline and thankfully it wasn't so steep although parts of the walk did compare with this first section.

The walk steadily climbed until we reached 3523m. We arrived a point which we thought was close to the end only to realise later that it was the 5 kilometre mark, we thought we were almost there. Little did we know that we were only a little over half way to the finish line. Let me tell you, those last five kilometres were painful and seemed to never end. It was during this same period that Annalise decided that she would start running along the track, a very impressive effort.

In great style of people who seem to have never been lost, there were people wondering around everywhere. People deciding along the way to take what they thought would be a short-cut to find themselves having to back-track to find their way again. There were groups flying along at a great pace, of course they were the ones who knew where they were going, and of course others, like us who were little slower were hoping we were going the right way.

As you can see from the pictures here below, we had wonderful views and saw amazing fluara along the way.

The plan was to arrive in two and a half hours and yet somehow five hours later we arrived at camp to be met by others who were dehydrated and suffering from exhaustion. It didn't help that people had no water left and that the food that was going to be prepared was going to take another 2 hours before being ready. We were glad that our leader, David, decided that everyone should take a packet of two minute noodles just in case there was a delay in food. We gave the kid's their's and another to some others who were suffering, which although was a welcome idea, was quickly refused as they were on the verge of throwing it all up.

Let me tell you again, we were proud that our kids made this trip. I think the extra water we carried and all the snacks we took with us, were a welcome treat along the way and gave us much needed energy.

After eating a hot chicken broth with a piece of chicken we had a talk, a fire and then with the high altitude paramo it was time to get in the tent. The high altitude paramo makes you soaking wet and you can feel your clothes absorbing the moisture as you sit around. I personally had a good night's sleep and was very hot in my sleeping bag with silk liner, but many had little sleep as the temperature dropped to near zero overnight. I took my arms out of my bag at one point and realised that keeping them in was a must.

We woke up to a cold wet morning and breakfast took a long time as all the firewood was all wet from the night before. Eventually we had our breakfast around 9am and started the walk downhill.

It took a while to get down and was a hot walk all the way down. Thankfully we had plenty of water and snacks to keep up the energy. We managed to dive in a river (although only about 50cm deep) and cool off from the hot walk down.

We were supposed to be met by lunch at some house in the small town where we started, however that wasn't ready and we took that opportunity to start the 3 hour drive home. We stopped in Catamayo for a favourite treat, seco de pollo, chicken stew, always plenty on hand in many towns in Ecuador, with a good portion of rice.

All in all, a challenging and exhilarating hike by all five of us. What an amazing country this is!