Wednesday, November 26, 2014

On Our Way Back

Home Feels Foreign

Well, we stayed in Ecuador for 2 weeks and we are still alive. Visiting a 3rd world country is very different from the normal life of a North American. Now having the experience I know what areas I need to work on before returning. The biggest problem for me is the language barrier. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but my goal is attainable. 

Right now we are in Quito waiting for our flight back at an outback. The original plan was to take a flight from Cuenca to Quito but that didn't quite work out. We waited too late to book the flight and the planes from Cuenca were completely booked up. So our next option was to take a four hour bus ride from Cuenca to Guayaquil and then fly from there to Quito, then from Quito to ATL. Like I said we are in Quito now waiting for our red eye flight back to the States. 

Since we've been here for 2 weeks and stayed in 3 different areas it already in a way feels homey to us. Going back almost feels like we are going to another different country. It's very hard to explain the feeling. But I miss my family, friends, and church so it is a good thing we are coming back for now. There are a few things we need to accomplish somewhat quickly and I believe we might have another longer trip out there in store for us in the relatively near future. But as the Lord wills we will follow.

Look forward to catching up with everyone. May God Bless!

Monday, November 24, 2014

First Day in Cuenca

The Third Place On Our Trek

After our great time in Ambato for close to a whole week, we hopped on a bus for Cuenca which was 7 horas (hours) away. That was a LONG bus ride but the scenery was spectacular. We traveled up, down, and through mountains. Many farmers live in secluded areas where they work the land literally on the side of massive hills. Many own lots of animals and looking at the hill from afar you see different shades of green and yellow squares where they plant different types of crops. Here are a couple of pictures:



You can see the hills in the background have what looks like sections. Those are the spots I am talking about.
I took the window seat of the bus which was good for watching but bad for sun coming in. I am pretty sure I have a tan on the right side of my body from that ride. The buses for longer distances are actually really nice and comfortable. The seats recline and have plenty of foot room. I had plenty of time so I was able to get in a good game of chess on my computer. I am horrible at chess but I was able to end the game in a draw against the computer. One of the great things about bus rides is that when they pull over to pick up more people, some of the locals hop quickly on the bus to sell snacks and refreshments. The people are super friendly and the price of bread, water, popcorn, fresh fruit, and other things are really cheap! Like a 25-50 cents cheap. It helps keep your hunger down when your missing breakfast and lunch. 

We arrived at the Cuenca Terminal around 4:45. We walked outside, hailed a taxi, and "I" (which was a win for me) told him the intersection we were trying to get to. We use AirBnB to book our places to stay, which has worked out great. But this time we hadn't heard back from the guy whose house were supposed to be staying at, so we chose a hosteria to try and book at least a night in. After getting to the intersection where the place was at, we knocked on the door and spoke to the owner but they were completely booked. She pointed us literally right across the street and right as we walked up to the door the guy that owns this one was walking up too. His family owns a really nice building with many rooms and much to our surprise he spoke pretty good English also. We found out he is a lawyer (although he looks like he is my age), and he was super cool. He showed us around and took us to a room that he had to know I would go for. King size bed, big bathroom with steaming hot water, great wi-fi connection, and did I mention a king size bed? He didn't even have to say a word. You know how you can pray about ridiculous things, like wanting a hot tub or a donut with coffee? I think God gave me a king size bed and hot water just to see the look on my face. It was a tremendous blessing, and believe me, I recognized it. Thank you Father! 

Oh, and I forgot to tell you they serve a full breakfast with eggs, fruit, toast, coffee, and juice at 8:30am. I woke up this morning at about 8:20. Quickly put on clothes even though I was nowhere near awake and was pressuring Vic to hurry up because I was NOT going to miss out on my breakfast that I had slept SO long to get to. She said I was being a grouch but I like to call it the effective use of time management. Much to my dismay she took a picture of me sitting at my breakfast seat with eyes half open and no thought but food passing through my brain, and then POSTED IT TO FACEBOOK! Why on earth people need to see a starving zombie, I do not know. But if you want to see a starving zombie white man in a foreign country you now know where to go.

It's about 4 o clock on Monday the 24th and we have already been out in the town, but I'm going to let Vic tell all about that. I miss my family and friends and we are looking forward to coming back. May God bless! 

Part 2 of 'A Whole New World' or, As Jasmine Says

Note: Remote places do not have great Wi-fi


**Note - several of these posts were written while we didn't have internet, so they're being posted after the fact. We will be posting about our time in Ambato while simultaneously posting about Cuenca, since that's where we are now. **

So. A LOT has happened in the past few days. John talked about our adventures to Mitad del Mundo and Otavalo already, so I won't say much about them except that I thought Otavalo was overrated. We went on Sunday, the day after the HUGE market, and they had some really awesome stuff there, but it's just kind of disappointing to see stall after stall of almost the exact same things. It reminded me of being in Myrtle Beach with all the tourist stores that sell the same stuff on a different block.

Anyway. We left Quito for Ambato on Monday afternoon. It's a two and a half hour bus ride, and we were scheduled to arrive sometime around 3 or 4. We faffed around too much earlier in the day and ended up rolling into Ambato around 5. By the time we found a taxi and made it to our guest house, it was almost 6.

I had booked a little house on AirBnB (if you haven't heard of this site, bookmark it for your next trip. You're welcome.) with owners by the name of Marco and Elena. I had been talking to them the day prior to coming down to Ambato and Elena had said that a 3 or 4 o' clock arrival time would be great, and just email or call when we got into town.

First of all, we roll into town late. Second of all, there's no free Wi-Fi anywhere at the bus terminal, so I can't email OR call. So we're late and we can't call. No worries, I think, we'll just follow the directions she gave us and show up at the house. We get there pretty easily (and cheaply!) and follow her directions to the letter - 3rd house on the right with black gates. I recognized the house from the pictures on AirBnB and was totally stoked to finally be there. The only problem is there's no doorbell to ring. No problem, I think, they're probably at the house next door and we'll just ring that doorbell. I'm not entirely sure where I got the impression that they lived next door, but suffice it to say, I was wrong.

So we buzzed the house next door and the conversation that followed was probably the most uncomfortable one in my life. An older woman came out and was clearly very suspicious of us gringos. I did my best to communicate to her some pretty complex ideas in my very simple Spanish, but she just kept looking at me as if I had grown a second head. I was getting really frustrated because she wasn't attempting to help me out at all and finally I just asked her if she had a phone we could use. She did but it wasn't available for our use, of course. Thankfully, she ended up being minimally helpful and pointed us around the corner to a mini mercado where there was a payphone we could use.

After a $0.47 phone call to Elena and a 10-minute wait, she and Marco and their youngest daughter Anita came to rescue us. They let us in the house (the one I recognized!) and showed us around and were generally very gracious. Also, we confirmed the fact that they actually live about 5 minutes away, so the old bat next door was at least staying true to form by not having any idea what I was talking about instead of just being plain old difficult.

Here are some pictures of our little casita.

From the front door

From the garden

From the sidewalk/garage area
Needless to say, we slept pretty hard that night. Woke up the next morning and began our adventure. We walked around and eventually found a place for breakfast, which was excellent! Desayuno (breakfast) here consists of what almost every meal consists of - rice, chicken, yucca, and bread. You can have soup (sopa) if you want, or you can have eggs (juevos). It also came with coffee and a large glass of juice. John and I left there absolutely stuffed for the outrageous price of $6.50.

We then decided to be even MORE adventurous and head down to Ambato's downtown area : El Centro. So we hopped on the next bus into town and about 10 minutes later, we ended up in a lovely park in front of Universidad Bolivar. I was really needing some Wi-Fi to send off some work (because, sadly, we don't have Wi-Fi here at the casita), so we hit up a couple of internet cafes to see if anyone knew where we could find some. After about 30 minutes and making a large circle around several blocks, we ended up back in the park where I realized there was free Wi-Fi from the Universidad. We plopped down to take care of business and 20 minutes later we were back to being tourists.

Ambato is known for having the biggest market day in all of Ecuador on Mondays. We missed it by a day, but we decided to check out a few of the mercado areas anyway. We ended up chatting with some older ladies selling fruit who managed to get us to buy their wares. After wandering through a few more stalls and buying a few more things for our supper, we headed back to the casita.

This is where things got kind of dicey.

That evening, after we ate and went to bed, John got sick. And when I say sick, I mean really REALLY sick. He was in and out of the bathroom probably 15 times that night. He had a slight fever and couldn't keep anything down or in. We had brought some peptobismol with us, but he couldn't keep it down long enough to help his stomach retain whatever food or water it had left. I knew it was probably something he ate or a 24 hour bug he picked up somewhere, but it still made me nervous, mainly because he was losing so much fluid.

After a long night, he was exhausted, and the next day (Wednesday) we just stayed in bed while he continued to work whatever it was out of his system.

Around noon, the doorbell to the house gate rang, and when I went out, Marco and Elena were there! Elena speaks very good English while Marco understands, and they both speak excellent (and relatively easy to understand) Spanish. I told them what was wrong with John and they immediately started helping. Marco ran to the farmacia (pharmacy) and la tienda (store) for actual medicine and some herbs for a homeopathic remedy while Elena stayed with us at the house and started heating some water and generally being motherly. Then, after bringing medicine and concocting some sort of home remedy, they both ran to their house and brought back some soup for John, since he wasn't able to keep anything else down. They left us to rest more while making plans for us to come over later if John was feeling better.

It was such a blessing. Here we are, far from home and John is really sick. I was worried and trying to figure out how I could get the people at the pharmacy to understand what was wrong and how to help me. I was also worried about John losing so much fluid, and I couldn't think of any place to get PediaLyte or Gatorade or anything other than water, which was just going right through him. The Lord clearly placed us in Marco and Elena's care and they stepped right up to the plate. Once they knew something was wrong, they only wanted to help us in any way they could. It was awesome, especially at a time when John and I were both thinking that maybe we ought to just go home.
John made an amazing recovery that afternoon/night. By the next morning, he was feeling much better, although his stomach was still a little off. We didn't make it to Marco and Elena's the day before, but they had renewed their invitation for breakfast and so around 8:30 Marco came to pick us up and off we went!

We had a wonderful breakfast of fruit and yogurt and granola with (of course) bread and John made his way through a good bit of it. Then, wonder of wonders, they told us they had Wi-Fi and if we needed it, we were welcome to stay and use it for a while! HALLELUJAH. I had missed a deadline the day before so I was kind of anxious to make a connection and reassure my client that all was well. I also wanted to talk to my mom and let her know how we were, because she tends to worry ;)

We caught up with our electronical lives while Elena ran some errands and Marco did some work in his yard, and then they wanted us to stay for lunch and go with them to the store to buy groceries. So we did. We went to the SuperMercado (Super Market) in the mall here in Ambato and it was GLORIOUS to see. I love seeing the little stands of fruit and veggies, but it was reassuring to see that almost all of the amenities that we're used to in the States are available in Ecuador. In slightly different versions, yes, but still there. We don't plan on using a lot of them, but it's nice to know I can go to one place for, say, feminine products and cereal and mayonnaise, if I want.

After a lovely typical Ecuadorian lunch (fruit and bread, followed by soup, followed by rice and chicken with plaintains and avocado) our hosts offered to take us to one of the nearby little towns for the afternoon. We chose to go to Quisapincha, which is apparently famous for its leather goods. It's right above Ambato, about 20 minutes up the mountainside. Ambato lies in the valley and Quisapincha is on top of one of the nearby mountains. So we drove up and checked out a few of the stores, all of which had pretty phenomenal leather jackets, shoes, belts, etc. They were very modern looking, but Elena told us that about 80% of it is locally made. The other 20% is brought in, but only from other places in Ecuador.

An unexpected parade came through as we were window-shopping, so we watched as several small bands with dancers went by, as well as most of the town. Apparently Ecuadorians love a good parade and it seemed like everyone was in it, as there were hardly any people on the sidelines watching it.

Elena said that at night they would add fireworks to this structure

One of the dance groups

Indigenous dance group
After that, we hopped back in the car and drove through the main area of town. We saw the church, which is apparently the oldest in the area. There was also some sort of gathering in the main plaza which looked interesting, but it was getting chilly and it was lightly sprinkling, so we decided to head down the mountain.

We took a few pictures on the way down.

Volcano Tungurahua in the distance

The city of Ambato beneath Tungurahua
On the way down, Marco and Elena decided to take us through a little town called Achota. Elena said that when she was younger, she thought of Achota as being very far away, but now that Ambato has grown, she says it's very close.

In Achota, we stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall place for what's called colada morada. It's a very interesting drink, but very good! It's made from a fruit called babacoa, black corn kernels, pineapple, blackberries and various spices. It's thicker than a regular drink, hence the name 'colada.' The black corn kernels and the blackberres turn the drink purple and it's served slightly warm. The spices in the drink remind me of Christmas. Marco and Elena told us that it's traditionally a drink for November 2nd, which I think is a national holiday where they remember their dead and visit the cemetaries.

Colada morada y pan dulce
After the colada morada and some wonderful bread, we drove through El Centro again, this time seeing a few things we had missed on Tuesday. We saw where the Ambato Cathedral was, as well as the main park. We hope to squeeze a visit in before we leave on Saturday.

So far, we really like Ambato. There's not a lot to do IN the city as far as tourists are concerned, but it's just got a really nice vibe. It's smaller than Quito, but still big enough to have a lot of the amenities of a larger city. It's also very centrally located - it's the capital of the region, Tungurahua, and many interesting areas are located within an hour or two drive. We are really enjoying Marco and Elena and their family, and they have been nothing but kind to us. They've even offered us suggestions on where to live when we come back!

V

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Part 1 of 'A Whole New World' or, As Aladdin Says

Places Just Outside of Quito

 

So as we continued to venture around we found there are some very impressive sights to see. On Saturday 11/15/14 we took a taxi and two buses to go to a place called Mitad Del Mundo. Which translates to "half of the world". This place is known for having the line of the equator and some fun experiments to try while there. So now I can say I have stood in both the northern and southern hemispheres at the same time. There is a really big monument that sits right on the line and you can take an elevator up to the top if you want. Some of the experiments were neat, like this little podium that has a egg in the center. "Supposedly" you can stand the egg straight upright on the equator line because gravity to either side is equal. Watching people try to do it was enjoyment enough. Two people successfully did it and oh how momentous an occasion for us and the egg.
While there, we saw a tour to go up to a volcano that at the bottom was a massive 4km long crater. In this crater was a rich and fertile land that 100 families lived in and worked. If you live in the crater, the only way in or out is a nine-mile trek by foot or caballo (horse). Clouds roll over the mountain tops and down into this crater providing humidity and condensation for crops and livestock. They have extremely pure water and the area around the crater is lush with green trees and grass. It was very windy and cold at the top of the crater. The clouds move so fast there that in a span of 15 minutes it went from perfectly clear where you could see everything to just whiteness all around. It was totally covered to the point that you couldn't see the trail that was 400 meters ahead. We took the van back down to Mitad del Mundo where we started our journey back to Quito. Here are some pictures we took of both places:










The fourth picture from the bottom is the little podium with the egg. It's the simple things I find most enjoyable. If you look at the bottom 3 pictures I posted them in order. You can tell the clouds are coming down on the left side. They rolled in like a stampede.

We have had the opportunity to do some cool stuff but not all of it is fun and trips. The language barrier is huge for me. I thought I knew enough Spanish to get by, but I was way wrong. The accent is thick here and I can't catch but like every 50th word. Vic can translate about 60% of what people are saying which has been essential to our getting around, eating, finances, etc. I am picking it up little by little but being fluent is a far cry away. One thing that has been on my heart and mind is bettering myself in public speaking so that I can be a better servant to the Lord. Identifying with people and listening so that I can interject truth at the needed time and in the right way so as not to be beating someone over the head with the "Hammer of God." I trust in scripture and I am trying not to be anxious because God will give me the words needed at the right time. My frustration is that I can't speak the language so how can I share the truth. The Lord did reveal that its not ALL about words and that my actions and outlook on our situation are crucial as well. Someone might not know that I am a Christian but my actions show something very different from the normal. It's my actions that I have put priority on until my lingo picks up enough to share with others the good news.

Today is Sunday and we weren't able to find a church to worship in. We found some churches, but being in a Roman Catholic Cathedral is REALLY distracting for me. On that note, I really miss my church family, so if you're reading this, we love you and miss you and look forward to having the opportunity to worship with you again soon.

Intermission....

And now a word from my favorite wife.... (and only wife) :)






Friday, November 14, 2014

First Day.... Culture Blast



 Arrived in Quito

Well I am glad to say we did arrive. Our flight left from ATL at 6:17pm practically on the dot. Huge thanks to Carl Stanley for hooking us up with a ride, I don't even want to know what it would cost to have left a car there for two weeks. I don't get nervous on flights but I do find it easier to sleep if I have an adult beverage before hand. I am not encouraging drinking but certain times call for certain responsible measures to ensure I don't let myself succumb to anxiety. Yes I slept well. Had a chance to watch parts of two movies on the plane: Lucy and Godzilla. Don't recommend paying to see either. Our plane ride was 5 hours and we landed in Quito at 11:30pm. That's when I had my very first experience with a lovely group called Customs.

Going through Customs actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The only bad part was the line to get to them. After standing in line for about an hour the Customs process only took like 10 minutes. Neither Vic nor I got the complimentary random search of all your stuff so we pretty much just walked through. Hahaha I had never been through Customs and I was pretty sure they searched everyone's bags, so I am walking through literally trying to hand my bag to every cop I passed. Thankfully, Vic was like," John come on, no one wants to see your bag." Which made me happy and sad at the same time.

We walked right through and immediately saw the man holding a sign with our names on it. I looked at him and smiled and pointed to myself. (Didn't know if he spoke English at all).  And he didn't, but his son did. They loaded us up in his van and we were off to their house which was about an hour out. Carlos and Carlos; Padre y hijo. They are super friendly and most helpful. His wife's name is Yolanda and they have like 8 rooms in this house. We got settled in and went to sleep, it was like 1:45am.

Woke up this morning to an awesome egg, bread, fruit, and coffee breakfast. We got ourselves ready and headed out. Early that morning was 45 degrees but it warmed up to 65 degrees by 9am. Its not ideal to drive a car here unless you know how to drive like the locals. Which is with one arm, blindfolded, full throttled, and an automatic horn for sane people trying walk across the road. Drivers here are RIDICULOUS. I'm worried even on the sidewalk. We walked around the old city area which was great. We found this huge beautiful building that we immediately realized was the basilica. Its massive and is exactly what you have in your mind as a Cathedral. One great aspect is that you can keep going higher and higher. If this place was in the US you would have to pay a ton and sign a waiver saying you wouldn't sue if you got hurt. Not here though. You could go as high up as you wanted. It got pretty dicey when the stairs your climbing are almost vertical and they're tiny to step on. But both Vic and I were able to get some pretty cool footage. Check it out:



 
 




The first day we planned to take time to get acclimated to the elevation level. We're up at close to 9000 ft above sea level and the air is a little more thin than we're used to. Some of these roads are inclined pretty steep. You might be able to tell by the ground in the picture. After the Cathedral we walked around for a while and found a place to eat.

The culture here is a good bit different from that of the States. At about noon the places shut their doors and take a break till around 4pm. Not all of them, but a good portion. Enough to notice a lot of closed places. Its called Siesta. Our work day is typical at 8-5:00 Mon-Fri. Theirs is 8-12:00 and then 4-9:00, which personally I think is fantastic. You get 4 hours to have lunch, see your family, read, etc. and then you go back work till evening. You get a chance to invest in people at the prime time of your day, instead of being completely worn out when you get home. Your spouse and kids get to see you full of life and that will have a positive impact on all parties.

We needed to get off our feet for a while so we came back to rest for bit and then we'll head back out. Thank you for taking time to keep up with us. To my family, friends, and church body we love the lot of ya! And know that God continues to sovereignly work out His plan, with us sojourners being able to enjoy the wonders of His grace. And enjoy Him forever we will.  









Monday, November 10, 2014

Taking a little look-see...

Just as an FYI, don't get less than five hours of sleep when you have to work a 10-hour day. I fantasized about taking a nap yesterday but totally whiffed on it and then ended up missing my 10:30 bedtime later on. Needless to say, I'm running on fumes right now and there isn't enough coffee in my office to keep me running much past 3pm...

ANYWAY. On to more interesting things than the back of my eyelids. You may have noticed in the last post where I mentioned we are taking a two week trip to Ecuador in order to kind of scope out the area. Well, that's happening in three more days. We leave Atlanta this Thursday at 6:30pm and we'll arrive in Quito (the capital of Ecuador) around 11:30pm.

In case you were curious, flights to Ecuador aren't as expensive as you might think. Depending on time of year and where you leave from, they can run from about $1000 to $1400 total round-trip for two tickets. Ours ended up being a little more pricey than normal because we had specific criteria. I have to work Thursday morning, so we had to have a flight leaving in the afternoon/early evening. John gets nervous about flight connections, ESPECIALLY international connections, so we wanted a direct flight. We wanted to be home early on Thanksgiving so that we could spend at least a little time with our families, so we needed a flight returning before 8am.

All of this added up to about $500 more than what we would have paid had we bought plane tickets like we normally do -"What's cheapest?"

The plan is to fly into Quito and acclimatize for a few days. Quito sits at over 9000 ft above sea level, making it the highest national capital city in the world. So, acclimatizing is a necessity, especially since Simpsonville, SC sits around 860 ft above sea level. Holy popping-ears Batman! Note to self: bring gum.

Quito has over 2.2 million people living in it and is, as I mentioned earlier, the capital of Ecuador. It's actually quite a modern city and has many of the first-world amenities that we're used to, so we're anticipating that it will be a great jumping-off point for us. One interesting little factoid about Quito is that it's one of the longest continually occupied cities in the Americas, and I think it's the longest continually occupied capital. Talk about history.

We plan to be in Quito for a few days getting to know the city as well as visiting the surrounding areas to the north. A few cities we hope to visit include Cotacachi, Otavalo and Ibarra. At roughly 90 miles away, Ibarra is the furthest of those cities from Quito. These cities are known for their local markets, where they specialize in leather and woolen goods as well as a variety of local produce.

After a few days in the north, we plan to take the main highway south towards a city called Cuenca. On the way we hope to check out Ambato and Banos. For the enquiring amongst you, we plan on using public transportation to get around. Buses and taxis are ubiquitous all over Ecuador and they are cheap, which is the song of my people.

Cuenca is considered the cultural capital of Ecuador, and it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With a lively arts scene and markets galore, 'El Centro' is kind of the heartbeat of the city. Think Downtown Greenville, but bigger. It has a population of about 330,000, which puts Greenville City to shame with its 60,000.

We plan on staying in what are called 'hostals.' It's not a hostel, although those are available. This is more like a smaller version of a bed and breakfast. Many Ecuadorians open their homes and rent out extra rooms to travelers, creating an extra source of income for themselves and allowing people like John and myself to see the country from a local POV. Currently, we've book two hostals - one in Quito for when we arrive, and one in Cuenca. Everything in between will be an adventure, which is sort of panic-inducing as well as exhilarating. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this aspect of it, so I'll let you know as we go along how well it works out (or doesn't).

So that's where we're at for now. We plan on updating the blog with LOTS of pictures while we're gone, and John might even get on here before we leave to tell you how excited he is to be taking pictures with a GoPro Hero3+ and the whole saga about getting one that actually, you know, WORKS.

If you have any other burning questions about WHY we're doing this, take a look at the first post. If you still have a plethora of questions after that, feel free to ask in the comments or hit me up on Facebook. We're more than happy to talk your ear off about all the thoughts that have gone through our little brains as we came to this decision about changing our life.

Have a Happy Monday!

V