Hola Santo Domingo!

Week 6


11th- 16th October 2011


We have made the big move to Santo Domingo this week! Traveling on the incredibly windy road (once known as the most dangerous road in Ecuador). Which is built into the sides of the Andean mountains with nothing between you and eternity! We arrived safely and the difference in the humidity was felt immediatly as we stepped off the bus. Although I think Robin was slightly disappointed as he had been gearing up to expect the constant sweating of a sweltering santo domingo but so far whilst it is warm it has in no way caused me to 'perspire' and much to Robin's shock he even had to wear a jumper in the evenings.

We enjoyed our last few days in Quito before we moved down to Santo Domingo on the 14th October visiting parque metropolitano again and generally relaxing. Unfortunatly we also had a bad experience as Lizzi, our fellow flat mate in Quito and strider, got her bag mugged on our street by two people who pulled up in their car and took everything from her, even her necklace! Thankfully Lizzi was alright and the incident was reported to the police. Nothing of great value was stolen either just her Ecuadorian mobile, $10, her notebook and unfortunatly the house keys. It was a reminder to us all who had grown assured of the relative safety of where we live in Quito that unfortunatly there are people out there who will rob you. When speaking to Miriam, our neighbour downstairs, she informed us that her sister had also got her bag taken from her just outside the house one morning which shows that it doesn't matter what time of day it is.The street we lived on had it´s own gaurd too who use to patrol up and down the street blowing his whistle and generally making his presence known. Lizzi has recovered well and thankfully this hasn't tainted her desire to help out in the hospital.

We are staying at the house of a man called Carlos who Robin stayed with last time here was here in Ecuador with his step team. Whilst we share his house for the lounge and kitchen we have a seperate annex with our own bedroom and bathroom (with hot running water.... I am delighted by this)! Carlos owns a rottweiler called peter who is his gaurd dog but unlike the other slightly insane gaurd dogs which go absoloutly mental as soon as you walk past the gate of their house peter is really quite friendly and enjoys nothing more than a good stroke and ´comida´(food). Whilst Carlos has assured us that he makes a good gaurd dog (once scaring away a robber) he seems very friendly to me. Our new home is 2 secdonds away from our new church 'Assemblies de Dios' and a maximum of 2 minutes walk to the school. It's also in the center of the city making it easy to access anywhere in the city.

On Saturday night we went to Nancy's birthday party (the wife of Pastor Anibel who Robin and his fellow step group helped build his church). It was great to meet all of Pastor Anibel's family and the evening was spent laughing at some of the things the step team got up to here in Santo. After singing 3 different versions of happy birthday and getting invited to Monica's wedding (one of the daughters of Pastor Anibel) we went home exhausted! On Sunday evening we went to ´Iglesia Rosa de Sharon´ where Carlos was preaching. Halfway through the service Pastor Anibel had Robin and I up the front explaining to the congregation about how a group of young people from England came to help build the church and adding on the end how Robin was going to preech at the tuesday evening service! Rather stunned at the prospect of having to preech for a full 20 minutes in Spanish, robin is currently on google translate trying to work out what to say. If it all goes wrong he can just stand their saying 'Dios es bueno, Dios es amor' which translates to 'God is good, God is love'.

Some highlights of this week:
-Managing to fall into a stall filled with plastic toy cows
-Going to the flower market in Santo Domingo where you can get 25 big beautiful roses for $3
- Robin managing to bring  the bus to a constant halt by accidentally leaning on the stop button

We visited the school we will be helping with today and start working their tomorow so please pray that this goes well and that we can build some good relationships with the children and teachers. Also please pray for both our safety and Lizi's in Quito. Finally please pray we settle into life in Santo Domingo as quickly and easily as we did in Quito.

With love from Ecuador xxx

Check out the pictures of what we have been up to by clicking on this LINK