Life Notes from Ecuador – Living National Geographic

Here's a note I wrote when we visited Ecuador in April 2012:

Right now two monkeys are screaming outside my window. One has sandy fur and goes by the name of Sabastaio and the other has tussled blonde fur and goes by the name Luke Garrett Allison. They are competing to see who can be first to push the other off the sidewalk into the swampy carpet grass.

True jungle monkeys are rarely seen here. Long-time doctor, John Doerfer, tells us you must go quite a way into the jungle to see them or you can travel to the next town and visit the monkey farm. Can you imagine raising monkeys? I’m told many people keep them as pets here.

Yet, there is wild life at our door step.

Small red or blue birds out the kitchen window. Pampas grass taller than our house. An Achilles Blue Morpho butterfly on the back porch. It’s worth looking up on Google. Beautiful.

Leaf-cutter ants marched right across our path today. Locals tell us sometimes they are so busy their trail is a ribbon of wavering green.



Leaf chunks dropped by leaf cutter ants.

 

Miriam Gebb has journeyed by foot and plane deep into the forest for years as a nurse who provides health education to the tribes there. She shared her bug collection with us. Rhino beetles the size of your fist. A peanut bug as long as my finger. As you can imagine it looks like a peanut. Better google that, too.

Pineapple, strawberries and watermelons are grown here but it’s the new fruits we have enjoyed trying. Like granadia. It’s the size of an orange but the shell is hard. The inside looks like a cluster of large frog eggs.

Passion fruit grow here too. Did you know the name does not come from how good it tastes? Instead the blossom is the shape of a crown of thorns so it is a reference to Christ's death. The Ecuadorian name is maracuya. Blend with sugar and water and it makes a yummy drink.

God’s creation is amazing in Nebraska and in Shell. Experiencing it first-hand is an extraordinary blessing.

God’s people are amazing, too. Today the boys and I toured an orphanage with 57 children. Because of the efforts of it’s founder, an American woman, and the orphanage staff, the children recently moved from deplorable conditions into a colourful, clean new building.

A school is being built and as funds become available five houses will be built so the children can be grouped with foster parents to experience their first family/home environment. The work team we met at the airport was pouring cement for that school today. About 20 work teams from the States come throughout the year to help. Perhaps a team could come from O'Neill??? 

By the way, an orphan with cerebral palsy choked and aspirated some food at breakfast this morning. She quit breathing and was resuscitated at the hospital. She will be on a ventilator for a few days. Jay and the residents will be taking care of her.