Day Number SIX

7-17

Woke up early and packed up camp. We had a kid´s service at 7:30 again. The kids are sooo precious. Then we just waited around for our planes to arrive. I was on the third flight. While we were waiting, my friend Graciani (a little boy about eight) came and sat beside me on the luggage. He had a small Gospel of John, but he couldn´t read it. So I opened it up and started reading it to him. Then about 3 or 4 other people gathered around. It was soo soo cool reading the Bible to them. I think that it was probably the first time that anyone has ever read from the Bible to Graciani. God spoke to my heart so much through all of these kids. It was so sad telling the people goodbye. Over the week, I made good friends with a lady named Carlita. She must have given me five hugs and kisses before I left. When I climbed into the airplane, she came up to the window and kissed the window. I was crying like a baby. There is just something special about these people. I think that God is breaking my heart for them. There´s just something about people who have never heard of Jesus before. We took off and of course I was crying and sniffling. It was Me, Whitney, Seth, and Caleb. Whit and I were in the back seats with luggage crammed in front of us. The flight back was WOOOWW. Seth is working on getting a pilot´s license, and the pilot let him fly. All of the sudden, the nose dipped down and we were heading straight for the river. I looked over and Whitney was throwing up into a bag. At the right second, he straightened it out and there we were, flying about five feet over the river. It was so cool. Everything was rushing by so fast. There was a wall of trees in front of us. It got closer, and closer, and closer, and then in the nick of time we shot straight up. It was so scary but exciting. The pilot had told him to do it the whole time. Lol.. Whitney liked it after she realized she wasn´t going to die. hahaha.. I was so glad to walk on solid ground again though. When we arrived in Shell, we took a taxi to Puyo and then from Puyo took a public bus home to Macas.The whole 2 1/2 hour bus ride I was thinking, "Oh Bekah.... don´t throw up, don´t throw up." It was so hot and stuffy. From Macas we went to Sucúa in a taxi. It was SOO good to be home. The first thing I did was to take a cold shower. I was so hot in the bus. Then we went to eat somewhere. I ordered a huge chicken salad. IT was WONDERFUL to eat fresh vegetables after having eaten only boiled or grilled meat and boiled yucca, platano, and papachina all week. Then I got to talk to my dad for a long time on the phone. It was great to get to talk to him. I´m looking forward to my mom visiting in a week.

Fotos: Me and Graciani, Me and some of my new friends.

L-R The kids who lived next door to where we stayed, The Runway in Paantim, and the shadow of our little airplane.

Day Number Five

7-16

Woke up at five thirty waiting for the sun to rise. Had a children´s service again at 7:30 like we have every other day. Then I went back to the Pharmacy, telling people how to take their prescriptions and how to use Ibuprofen. After lunch I ended up talking forever with Pastor Horacio and Pastor Jairo. Pastor Jairo misses his kids and wife a lot. But he is driven to tell people who have never heard the truth the Gospel of Jesus. IT was a great conversation. His son Jairo was in VBS with us, in the group a year older than my group. He was such a good kid. It was great conversation to get to know the both of them better. I have known them since the first week I was here but never really had the chance to sit down and talk. It is a very important thing in Shuar culture to just sit and listen. Then they wanted to know all about my family in the US. It was so cool. Too soon it was time to get back to work in the Pharmacy. Kathryn showed me how to give shots. I was too nervous to do it though. SO Whitney jumped in and wanted to do it. The kid who received the shot was only six years old. When he walked in he looked so scared. His name is Domingo. THen he bent over and they gave him the shot. And do you know who started crying? ME!! I couldn´t believe I was crying! Shots are not my thing. I can get shots but to GIVE them?? No way José. We finished up the clinic pretty early, about 4 or 4:30. We saw over 400 people in all. We had three doctors and a dentist, not to mention the ppl who worked in the pharmacy and did other stuff. After we finished up, they invited us to go to the river again. We went a different way but it was still a MUDDY hike. I had SO much fun though. Joil, Seth, Me, and Jonathan went on ahead with the rest of the Shuar kids and people who were going. Joil was so much fun. We played king of the rock. The river was swift moving but pretty shallow all of the way across. There is a huge rock right in the middle that we all swam to and piled on. It was a blast. All of the kids were screaming and laughing in Shuar and we of course couldn´t understand a thing but had a great time anyway. After a while, the guys went on a head and left, but I stayed and hung out with the kids. It was so much fun. One of them caught a tiny caracha and was throwing it at me. Above the river was a basket set on lines to cross the river. We swam across and then crossed over the river in the basket. It was amazing. Then I whipped out my soap again. Everyone of course used it. We hightailed it back to Paantim as fast as possible. There was a Despidida Service for us. (Goodbye Service) THe cheif and I think his sister did a dance for us in their traditional clothing. It was so neat. I videod it. Afterwards, everyone wanted their picture taken. It was so much fun.

L-R the pharmacy, Pastor Jairo. Up- Down Some of my friends from the river, the cheif and his family, and me and the cheif and his family.

Day Four

7-15

Today has been a good day even though I have been sick and sleeping the majority of it. I started out working in the Pharmacy but Kathryn (a nurse also working in the pharmacy) loaded me up with medicine and sent me to bed. I´ve spent a lot of time thinking and journaling. Sometimes we are so busy running around that I don´t have time to let what i´m doing at the moment soak in. Spent a lot of time thinking about my mom´s upcoming visit. Here is the list of things I want my mom to bring me: Starburst Jelly Beans, fig newtons, m&m´s, picof her and dad, candles, and granola. About one o´clock we all took the team of doctors back to Horacio´s Suegro´s hut for them to see it. They passed around Chicha again. I took a lot of pictures with them and their family. I can´t wait for my family to see all of the pictures. They would love it, especially Papaw Jackson.

PS It´s my dad´s birthday today. I wish I could call him.

The kid on the right is weaving a fish trap. It´s pretty cool. His name is Marcelo.

Day Three

7-14
Up at the crack of dawn once again thanks to the roosters and the speaker system installed about a half a yard from my head. But I didn´t really mind because I went to bed so early. The doctors and medical team started arriving in planes about nine. Met a really nice gentleman named Carl and several doctors and medical personel. The team is all very nice. Looks like we´re going to have a good week. We were served yucca, platano, papachina, and ARMADILLO for lunch. It actually was very good. I think it tastes like pork. We opened the clinic about 1:30 or so. We started with a short church service. It was very good. After the day was almost over, Pastor Horacio and his wife invited us to come to his father in law´s house. So the team from Sucúa went to his hut. Pastor Horacio and his family are very special to me. His father in law made me a special belt just like the Shuar ladies wear when they dance. I was so touched. It was SOO cool. They passed around chicha and we visited for a long time. IT was sooo sooo soo cool to be in a hut and meet people who still live the old traditional way. It was amazing. After we got back, it was of course dark, and Whitney and I took showers in the pump. Ricky had fixed up a shower head. It was sooo nice.

Day Number Two

7-13

Awakened at the crack of dawn by a rooster crowing about a yard from my head and music blaring. Did I mention it was only about 6:00?

Breakfast was Pineapple and tuna fish. Seth is posing cutting the pineapple. What a smile. :)

LOL... We had a children´s service abour nine and then Pastor Jairo preached a message. Spent the rest of the morning getting acclamated to Paantim and getting to know the kids. Just hanging out with them and each other as a group. We ate lunch of platanos and yucca and papachinos again. Then we were invited to go to the river to ride in a canoe. So we all started down, me sticking my soap and shampoo in my pocket just in case. lol. I luckily was wearing my rubber rainboots. It was a steep hike of about 20 minutes down, all downhill and almost all muddy. It was a hard hike but well worth it. About halfway down, the terrain changed to straight down. We were climbing with hands and feet to get there. It was so much fun. When we got htere, I immediatly changed and jumped in. The water was freezing but felt SOOO good. We had a blast at the river. It was so much fun. All of the kids were speaking in shuar and I couldn´t understand a word but we still had so much fun. I passed around the soap and shampoo. It was so funny because I passed it to about ten people. Then I helped a little girl wash her hair. They were used to just using soap. We had a good time. By the time we got back, Jonathan and the Shuar pastors had arrived. They had left Sucúa at 5 am and caught a bus for two and ahalf hours to Macuma, as far as the pavement would go. Then from there, they walked about 5 or 5 1/2 hours to Paantim. Now our team consisted of ME, Whitney, Brianna, Caleb, Seth, Ricky, Jonathan, Pastor Efren, and Pastor Jairo. Jonathan was so tired. We ate dinner of yucca, platano, papa china, and a sucker fish called Caracha. It was so good. Then we went to sleep about eight o´clock.

7-12 Day One

Arrived in Paantim, Ecuador. I flew for the first time in a 3 passenger avioneta as we call them here. It was so scary but SO exciting all at the same time. I held on to Caleb who was sitting beside me the whole time. We flew out at 9:00 and got there around 9:30 or 9:40. When we landed, all of these kids came swarming up to us lookin in the windows and staring at us. It was so cool. After we got out, we set up camp in the upstairs of a house. It only has the planks up and no walls so it seemed a lot like a treehouse. The guys had hammocks and we girls slept in mosquito tents on mats. After we had been there a while, the pastor came and took us to meet the elders of the village and the president of the village. There is a Community President and a Cheif. We walked in and there was about 20 people already seated, all speaking in Shuar. We sat down as everyone stared at us. They greeted us in Shuar and Pastor Horacio translated for us. Then he introduced us to the group. First Ricky and his son, then me, and then Seth and Whitney and Bri. When they introduced us, we walked around and shook everyone in the room´s hand. It´s customary to shake everyone´s hand. It was so cool. Then we went and ate what they had prepared for us. While we were setting up camp, they had went out and killed a pig. We ate yucca, potato, platano (plantains), and chancho (pork). It was cool because they had banana leaves spread out over the table like a table cloth. They all sat and watched us eat. It was exciting. Later on Ricky and I went to some people´s campfire and sat there, getting to knw the people. Actually, they mainly talked in Shuar and every now and then talked to us in spanish. While we were sitting around the campfire, a little girl came up. We had made friends earlier in the day and she came and sat in my lap. She started calling me Mamita, which means Mama. She told me that she wished I was her mom. It was so heart touching. Her name is Melida. Her picture is to the far right. We went to bed tired but having a great time.

Rodeo Roundup! Yeehaw!

WOW!!! So today was the first day of EBV (Escuela Biblica Vacacional) (aka... VBS!!!)
So far, it has been awesome! The entire theme is Avalanche Ranch, everythin is cowboy and western style. All of the leaders and team members have to wear cowboy hats. We took the drums and everything from the front of the church and decorated it to look like a scene from a western movie. Ricky and some guys built a fence to put at the front of the church. It´s really cool. I have been working hard all week getting all of the songs ready for EBV. I am the one leading the songs. We do all of it to a CD and there is really no singing involved. THe thing is the handmotions. One song is a line dance almost the whole song. Lezlie (Texas Girl!!!) helped us out with that. IT is a blast. I am a troop leader. I lead the eight year olds. I think we have about sixty eight year olds. Fifty or sixty. We rented a bus to pick up the kids from Huambi. When we came, we had about 35 kids, when we left, we carried about 50 kids back to Huambi. The reason is that we accidently missed picking up a group of kids and they had to come in taxi. It was a blast. All the leaders have whistles and cowboy hats and handkercheifs. It is so fun. But seriously though, my whole body is SO tired. Even the soles of my feet hurt. We were at the church all day yesterday getting everything ready. Yesterday I rode in the back of a pickup all over Sucúa helping invite kids to EBV. We had clowns and a speaker sysytem playing a commercial for it. It was fun, we also got to throw candy to the kids. We´re expecting to see over 600 kids by the end of the week. Each day we´re expecting more. It´s pretty exciting. Also this week I ran into an american girl at a restaurant. It was fun to meet her and her friend. We´re going to try and hang out sometime if there´s time. She is volunteering in a neighboring town.
I´ve been having a lot of fun with everyone here. Whitney keeps me laughing all of the time. It´s great to have somebody who is so crazy to lighten the attitude sometimes. :) I´m gonna miss her when she has to leave. We went shopping the other day and bought some shirts and stuff to wear to church. By the way. The team is gearing up to head into the interior next week. We originally were going to go by boat but plans have changed and now we´re going to a different place. So we´re going in little ittybity airplanes now. It is going to be SOOO cool. there can´t be over 50 pounds of weight per person and we have to bring in extra stuff too. So it´s going to be exciting. We´ll be there five or six days. I am verrry excited about it. I am SO exhausted right now. But it´s been a great day. Kids are so much fun to work with.

PRAY FOR:
Children´s Church in Huambi
The trip into the interior of the Jungle
EBV to go smoothly
That I would have some times this week to be alone and to pray

So today we said goodbye to yet another person. I didn´t realize how it would be to connect with so many people but continually be saying goodbye to them. It´s kind of a sad feeling. I guess I´m learning to cope with it though. I mean, it´s not goodbye forever for everyone. I am glad that I´m making relationships work out though. Everett left last Friday. It was so sad. We had such a good friendship relationship. He and his wife are both amazing people. It was good to get to know them and hard to say goodbye. It´s sad because we have such a strong sense of family here that whenever someone leaves it´s like they´re your brother or uncle. But the sense of family is very important to me. Don´t get me wrong, there is NO REPLACEMENT for your real family. But here I´m a part of another family too. It´s been a huge blessing to have my missionary family (and national family too!!) Friday a team comes in and we will have teams nonstop until August. So it should be an exciting time full of wonder and amazement. lol. It´s great to get to know so many people. It´s sad to say goodbye but worth it when you build friendships.