Week 11
14th-20th November 2011
Well this week has certainly been one full of surprises some good and some not so good ! The one thing I will take away from our time in Ecuador is that you never know where a day can take you. From the pits of despair about having all our photos robbed from us to pure delight swimming in a Rio. This week Carlos’s family have really been a fantastic help to us from cooking us dinner and breakfast to taking us to the supermarket so we can buy some food of our own.
But let’s step back a second. Before my rather energetic last post just after being mugged we had actually done a few things. On Monday the 14th we were in school, our first lesson of the day is with 1st Basica this class is full of lively little characters one of which struggles to sit down for longer than two seconds. I was really proud of robin as he specifically focused his time on this little chap who instead of getting no work done and distracting the whole class, actually managed to copy the sentence from the board in joined up writing (no mean task when you are 5 years old). Sometimes it can be a little dis-heartening being a missionary you never feel like you are doing enough or doing something so massively life changing that you know that you have transformed someone’s life forever. But I find that it is in these little helpfull moments when you know that flying half way round the world and taking 6 months out of normal life is worth it. Seeing a child who struggled all morning to write the letter E finally get it, or who can’t understand what a subtraction symbol means compared to addition and finally the light bulb goes on or hearing a three year old master the English word for 1. In previous posts I have been somewhat frustrated at the school and the poverty of the children’s families which has meant they haven’t been pushed or achieved as much as a student in England might have. But it is clear that without this school pupils like Melanie (a little girl who lives in the barrio) would never have attended school and would still be trapped in the cycle of poverty with no basic education.
I for one am greatful for all the wonderful happy smiling faces of the children this week. If you ever need a cure for getting over the shock of being mugged these little chaps will do it. We went into school the day after being mugged (Wednesday 16th ) we where greeted by Junior who came bounding up to us to give us a hug and get picked up. That morning we had witnessed a 16 year old boy being taken off by the police, he had been carrying a big knife and was one of the robbers from our attack. It was sad to think that these little children could ever end up in the same situation.
On Saturday we had a great time at the compassion project helping give out food and hanging out with the older teenagers. The girls kindly took me under their wing and taught me some card games whilst robin played football with the boys. The children who attend the project all come from the surrounding barrio’s. The younger boys asked if Robin knew how to fight with a knife, or knew how to fire a gun and where surprised that he didn’t know how to. Violence and crime are so normal to these kids and it was clear to see by looking at the faces of some of the children that they could very easily follow in the footsteps of the robbers and get involved in crime. In that Saturday alone Robin had to break up 3 fights.
But all is not doom and gloom! We have also had lots of fun this week with an impromptu trip to the rio (river) for a swim with Carlos’s family. Little Enoah (Caesar and Pati’s 2 year old daughter) nearly drowned herself in her eagerness to get into the rio she flung herself in even though she can’t swim. We have also got taken later that day to Katherine and Jonathon’s college fiesta where there was bands playing, dance groups, fireworks and the selection of the school queen (which involved many scantily clad 15 year olds strutting their stuff). On Sunday we got a late night surprise visit by Monica, Ricardo and Priscilla who took us out for an ice cream and to the cinema to see the new twilight film.
Please pray this week for our safety and protection out here and for the children growing up in the barrio’s that they would be able to break out of the cycle of poverty and crime.
Love from Ecuador xxx
Other things that made us chuckle this week:
- - Robin going into a pharmacist and being told he has herpes (he doesn’t it was just a cut from a football smacking him in the mouth).
- - Eating in a restaurant called ‘willys’ ………. Childish I know!
- -Due to Monica and Ricardo’s impromptu visit I ended up going out wearing my pyjamas to an ice cream parlour and the cinema.
- -Ceasar, Carlos and Christian’s rigged a number game so that the men could get out of doing the washing up.
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