God's heart for you

A wonderful friend gave me a card with the following words just before I left for Ecuador. They have been read over and over and have become so precious to me!

However, these words work for whatever situation you are in, and I just wanted to share :)

God's heart for you

Think of it... 

You belong to a God who has no limitations.

He is able to do things for you, be mighty in you and bring blessings to you.

All that He is able to do, He is willing to do.

His provisions are endless

His blessings are measureless

His generosity is boundless

All that is in HIS HEART flows out in WAVES OF LOVE.

They are sent to touch you, to fill you, and to cover you.

You cannot contain them, 

for they are more than your mind can imagine, 

more than your arms can embrace, 

and more than you heart can hold.

Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen

Jude 1:24-25

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig (or some fruit and vegetables)

So we went to the Quito market to buy fruits and vegetables. We can only do this when we have an Ecuadorian along because if we, as 'gringos', try to buy things here, they jack up the prices for us, and it no longer becomes worth it to buy here instead of at the supermarket. 

First view inside the market

A local delivery truck

Sweet corn is very rarely seen here. This is the corn you usually see on your plate here.

Herbs and spices

A flower stand. I'm still a little amazed that the quality of flowers is so poor here. Not that it's awful, but I expected to see better quality than what is imported into Canada, but I'm told they export the best quality flowers, so what you see here are usually seconds.

Typical meat stand. All that meat just hanging out in the air for the flies.

Cow hoof. When the kids here saw this picture they licked their lips and said 'yum'. I doubt that same reaction is going to happen in Canada haha.

Cow snout. This the kids thought was delicious ;)

Cow stomach. Not exactly sure how they prepare this. I'm hoping to never find it on my plate though.

This place kind of smelt bad.

Not exactly sure what kind of fish this is, but it's large! They just hack off a hunk for you.

All sorts of eggs and fowl. 

Hope you enjoyed this short tour. It was a great experience for me.

Celebrating the new year!

I'll be honest, for a few years now I've not really celebrated New Year's Eve. It started to seem a little silly trying to pass the time till midnight, so you could wish everyone a happy new year, and then wrap the party up so you can get some sleep. Actually if I'm being completely honest, I've not even attended a New Years party for the last 2 or 3 years. I've opted to get a movie or two, some finger food and just spend a quiet night at home. I had my reasons of course, but this past New Year's Eve may change how I spend any future December 31 evenings :)

I'm not even sure how to start telling you about all this fun. I'm not sure I can do justice to how great of an experience it was!

The party started about 7pm and about 30 members of the church came over, a lot of them showing up with masks or wigs. 

We played games, chatted and just enjoyed each other's company until around 10pm when we sat down for supper. Chicken legs, rice, potatoes and vegetables. 

And a multitude of cakes and desserts.

Then around 11:30 someone dresses up and reads a 'will' for everyone. It is written like a poem and has a sentence or two about each person or family at the party. 

Then they head out into the street to burn the 'old men'. These are paper mâché figures or clothes stuffed with sawdust or newspaper made to look like certain people. By burning these old men, they hope all the troubles of the past year will go away and they will be blessed in the new year. They also had sparklers and firecrackers and some people light Chinese lanterns, it's beautiful to watch them go up into the sky.

Out in the street you will also see people running around the block carrying empty suitcases. This means they hope to be able to travel in the new year. Another superstition is that if you wear yellow undergarments you will gain wealth in the coming year. 

It was such a different experience than New Years in Canada, but I thoroughly loved it!! I suppose having a warmer climate helps, I can't imagine being outside in the street for 45 minutes on New Year's Eve in Canada. 

Rio Pita (Pita River)

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go hiking at Rio Pita with a group of people from the church. It was a beautiful area, and I really enjoyed myself! Here are some pictures...

 

The group of us

Rocky mountain trails

We took a gondola across part of the valley

Rio pita

And swinging bridges

La gran cascada (the big waterfall)

You can cross the river and walk behind the falls. They told me it was cold, but I had no idea that it would be SO cold! I had to try it though, I had to take full advantage of the experiences I have in Ecuador :)

It was so hard to breathe in that water! This is the proof of my Ecuadorian polar dip :) 

That's all for now folks! There are New Years celebrations to experience! Hopefully they will be up on the blog before the week is out. 

Wishing you all a very blessed and happy 2014! May God be with you all!

Melissa

Quininde

December 16th

Today I traveled to Quininde with Dr. Jeny and Paty who came along to clean the computers, and add more protection for the children's sake. There was a lot of fog as we travelled through the mountains, but we made it to Quinine in about 4 hrs. It was nice to be in warm weather. Summer is my favourite time of year, and while Quito has a wonderful climate, Quininde is just like July in Canada :)

Dr. Jeny and her husband have a palm plantation, and I'm enjoying staying in the countryside here. It's so different but beautiful. I am used to streets lined with maple trees and pines, here I'm surrounded by palms and cocoa trees. 

December 17th

As I sit in the kitchen writing, there are donkeys braying outside the window :) the donkeys are used to pull the carts that pick up the palm nuts once they are felled from the trees.

Today was exciting. In the morning I worked with the ladies from the project, and we put together 227 bags of candy for the sponsor children for Christmas. The language barrier is still difficult for me, but I'm getting better at knowing when to laugh or nod my head, etc. (not sure that's a good thing lol) in the afternoon I helped serve meals for the kids, and then just observed while the teachers led them in bible study, and singing and played games. Boy, I have a lot of respect for these ladies now! Keeping 100 kids under control is not an easy task, and most of these children do not come from homes where there is regular if any proper discipline. What a task. 

I thought my Spanish was coming along ok, but when there is 100 kids shouting at once, it's impossible for me to understand anything! I definitely have some work to do yet.

On a side note, I used to wish for blonder hair, now I'm wishing it was black :)

December 18th

 You know they don't have bathrooms and are not used to using them, when a child walks into the room and just proceeds to pee while standing there. No one even seems to notice lol.

Today we celebrated Christmas with the kids at the malecon project. Dr. Jeny had a box wrapped in Christmas paper, and was explaining to the children, that this gift was from God for them. She the opened the box and inside there was a piece of paper on which she had written, 'Jesus'. She then went on to explain that Christmas is when we celebrate that God sent Jesus to earth as a baby for us. A good lesson I think. The people here are very visual and learn best by seeing and memorizing. It should be interesting to plan lessons to help them learn this way. 

December 19th

Paty and I took the bus back to Quito this morning. I believe the plan is for me to be here in Quito till January 12, at which point I return to Quininde and begin teaching. They have asked me to teach ESL to all the kids in the projects, and then for the teenage girls, I will hopefully be teaching them basic baking skills and how to make tropical flower arrangement. So until I return, I've got a lot of work ahead of me! I've never even looked at a lesson plan, let alone made one, so this should be interesting! 

Christmas is just around the corner, although in this warmer climate it's still a little hard for me to believe!

I want to wish you and your family a very wonderful, blessed and peaceful Christmas season! 

God bless!

Melissa

Viva Quito! (Photo blog post)

Hi again!

Last week Friday, December 6th we celebrated Quito's birthday. It's something like Canada day, but they are a lot more patriotic :)

At the church they organize a day of celebration. The following pictures tell the story.

They prepare a lot of food!

Washing potatoes before cooking

Pan full of bananas ready to be fried

And the special - fried onions and hamburgers of Tio Fred.

Also lots to drink! Fresh squeezed lemonade and....

A lot of pop :)

Then the games begin....

My team performing our cheer

Sack races

(Yes I'm competitive!)

3 legged races

Practicing

Bike relay

Pass the washer relay

Eat the apple

Jump the watch. Basically that rope keeps coming around and once you fail to jump it you are out. The altitude really makes this game a challenge haha.

Franklin got a little dizzy :)

Digging a hole...

Sanding and oiling a log.....

The point here is to try and climb the greased log and reach the piece of cardboard. If you can do it, you win a prize. It's not easy!

And finally, they end the day with a card game called cuarenta (means 40 in Spanish)

Just enjoying the sunshine with a new friend!

Thanks for checking in! I must admit I'm finding it a little hard to know what to blog about at times. If you have any questions about life here or things you are curious about, please email them or comment here and I'll try to answer them in another blog post :)

My plans for the near future are to go to Quininde on Monday the 16th for a week. I'll be trying out my Spanish, and it will give us a better idea of how well I can get by, or if I need more classes.

I'll post more once I return.

With love

Melissa