We were born for change

There is currently a public campaign in Ecuador for people to switch to induction stove tops. For a country that cooks with gas, this is a major change, a big deal, and probably one that mystifies many.

For this to work, each house needs to be installed with 220V for the stove, this a 110V country. Each household needs to buy a new stove, whether just the stove top or oven as well. Each person needs to figure out how to cook on an induction stove top after a life time of cooking with gas.

There are many reasons that I haven't really investigated why this is all happening but I am enjoying some of the aspects of this campaign.

The other week I happened to be walking past the Plaza Central and saw this cooking demonstration going on, how to cook your base sauce for your meals on the induction stove top, the step by step explanation of the process, live in action. It was great.

There was a whole range of stove tops and oven on display along with brochures, ready for the taking, plus payment plans over many months to make it affordable. There are all sorts of packages, incentives and investment that the government is making in order to make this work.

A few blocks away I passed the electricity company and the tag line caught my eye. 'Nacimos para vivir cambios'. We were born for change, or to live out changes. How to motivate a whole society to radically change their approach to cooking? Get to the heart of the matter....we were born for change, so embrace even this!

But it's true for us also, isn't it, if we are born again in Christ, then we are born to change. Little by little, every day, Jesus is changing us into his image, into his likeness. As children of the living God we can never deny this reality in our lives, we can't say no to change, we can't ever stop working out our salvation with fear and trembling, even as God works in us to will and to act according to his good purpose. May I never assume I have reached a point of no change or of hiding behind the excuse of this is my character, end of story. No, in humility and by God's grace, may change live on in me!

Recent food adventures

I took the kids out for KFC the other day, as a holiday treat. I love the way fast food gets tweaked worldwide to increase its appeal to the local market. Here we have the super combo #1.... plenty of rice and lentils = happy life for the average lojano, including these three!

Our local major supermarket has a healthy selection of most parts of the animal, here we have tripe, tongue, crackling, and pork feet amongst other delights. Just want to add that the other week I did eat a little bit of BBQ pork heart which was quite nice (although rather heavily salted). The presence of the pork heart was mainly due to it being part of the props for John's talk for a church leadership retreat....

Ricuras de Sal y Dulce...always a winner, plus it has a fancy sign saying its part of the cultural food heritage of Ecuador. A big tortilla of fried green plantain, with beef and eggs was Tijs' meal, the girls are having crumbled cheese, white corn, little potatoes (papa chaucha - very delicious) plus a fried ripe plantain on the side. The batidos (fruit with milk) are divine!

Here we have the famous local arveja con guineo (pea and green banana) soup, topped with avocado. Who knew avocado in soup was so good? And the pink drink is horchata, the local tea made with over 20 different herbs and flowers, can be served hot, warm or cold.

Cecina con yuca....a big slab of pork on the BBQ with yuca (or taro)....a wonderful way to fill the belly (this was for Ecuadorian fathers day, will we remember to celebrate the Australian date in September?).

An afternoon snack of yoghurt and yuca bread. Tasty and appropriate in any kind of weather with the cold drink and the hot bread.

And here is part of Saturday's breakfast, mandarin juice. I can never quite get over these beauties. Do we actually get mandarins like this in Australia?

In honour of all those in the construction industry

We passed this sight the other day, I couldn't resist taking a photo out of admiration for the bravery of these two guys!

So much that could be said, but all I'm going to say is that my heart was in my mouth just looking at them while taking this picture.

The wall was very nicely painted the next day when I passed by.

Highlights - the plank of wood they are sitting on, the rope pulley system they have going, the height...