Bugs - Big and Beautiful

Despite what you might think, we actually see fewer bugs in Ecuador than we did in Nebraska. Think of summer nights in Nebraska and how the bugs swarm any light bulb outside or even inside the house. Here in Shell, the street lamps might have a dozen bugs circling the glow but that's it. We eat outside without screens or bug spray. We see one mosquito a month. However, while we may not see a great number of bugs, the larger sizes of the ones we do see and their uniqueness makes up for it.  Here's a sample:

 

A hand-ful of rhino beetle.

  

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Neighbors caught this giant jungle cockroach. Eeuwuh!

Jayson's hand. Giant leaf bug.

3" Moth 

This leech was crossing the cement outside our backdoor. It was washed up by a hard rain.

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Life Snapshot from Shell, Eduador

Jayson enjoying what we call "dragon fruit."

It was a busy week in Shell. The internet is working so well today! Amazing! What a blessing to upload photos quickly... after I used a new tech trick to get the computer to start... a hair drier. Yes, it's so humid the connection between the hard drive and the PC has been having trouble. After 10 minutes under the hair drier, it's good to go.

Birthday party Friday night for one of the teens. Dane and friends keeping up with Dance Central on the Xbox.

Angelyn and Joshua keeping a beat.

It was crazy hair day at school. This is my class. Check out Miriam in the blue sweatshirt in the front row. She belongs in a Dr. Suess book. I added balloons and ribbons to my hair.

Pink princesses at Angelyn's sleepover for her birthday.

Katie taught everyone to make balloon animals. I woke up at 1:30 a.m. to squeaking plastic sounds as the girls got creative.   

Elizabeth, Bella, Angelyn and Miriam decorating the board in my classroom.

It's the rainy season so we don't get to see the volcanoes very often. Here's a rare glimpse of Sanguy.

Jay was helping to take care of this little guy who needed surgery.

Jay wrestling with Luke, Joshua and Jayson in ascending order : )

A visiting ministry team threw a ladies breakfast for the missionaries. It was a great time of sharing and.... eating! See those bagels? Mmmm. I hadn't had a bagel since last summer. What a treat!

The visiting college students introduce themselves at the ladies breakfast. Several of them have been shadowing Jay at the hospital.

What a week. Life in Shell is never boring. God keeps it full all the time.

Continuing our adventure with Him, Lynnelle for the Allisons 

Canaval - What a Way to Start Lent

Carnaval- As Halloween is at times infamous in the United States, so Canaval is in Equador. It is the Marti Gras of South America and here in Ecuador it has a wet twist. Let me explain. 

While the official government holiday for Canaval is the day before Ash Wednesday, that is not enough time to fit in all the wet shanagans many Ecuadorians revel in for the four days prior to the beginning of Lent. Water balloons, buckets of water, and squirt guns if you are lucky. The ornery side of "celebrating" includes silly string, cans that squirt a foamy cream, water balloons filled with a mixture of eggs, water and flour, and, the locals tell us, the worst includes paint and motor oil. Fortunately, among the missionary circles, the worst treatment I heard of was passengers throwing water balloons and squirting foam from passing public transit buses.
      
At Nate Saint Memorial School we had good, clean fun at our Carnaval celebration: water relays, water balloons, steal the flag (waterballoon style), a time to soak the teachers and finally,  an all out water fight. It all ended with a down pour that sent the kids home chilled and ready for a hot shower. 

Here are a few memories....
       

Angelyn leads her relay team.

Jayson guarding the balloons for his big brothers' team.

Parents staying dry.

Teachers getting soaked. I was so thankful I didn't start teaching until the next week.

 The aquanauts..... first through eight grade plus staff.

 

And the celebration ended with showers... if you weren't already wet, Mother Nature got you good on the way home.

How hard does it rain in Ecuador?... well, you get the picture.

Come to Comanbo - Tapir Served Here

This week (left to right) Compassion missionary Jonas and medical residents Alexandra and Andreas, and Jay flew to Comanbo, a unique village because Shwar and Kichua people share it. 

Clinic at the village school:

Great entertainment - watching the medicos.

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This lady is taking an eye exam. Notice her hand. She has been working with roots that dye her skin black.

Later, Jay and the medical residents gave steroid injections to an older lady (below) with bad knees and a deformed foot. She had a wheel chair to get around in her hut and small platform outside.

Villagers work together as a team to survive. All food is shared. Cooking is a shared task, too. This lady had the responsibility of mashing manioc root in a huge wooden bowl to make chicha.

Someone had recently shot a female monkey for supper and then found out it had a baby. So this lady was raising it. Jay said she treated it like human baby. 

She also takes care of an orphaned boy.

Jungle supper was baked frogs and tapir. The frog picture made me squeamish but here's the tapir on the chopping block. Notice how the villagers put down fresh leaves as a cutting board.

Tapirs have 5 toes. Weird looking foot if you come from cattle country. 

 Villagers gathered after the lady below was bitten by a Congo ant. If the medical team had not been in the village to giver her medicine, her leg would have swollen and hurt for days.

Jay really appreciated this quote on the school wall: 

Deme con quien andas, te dire quein eres. 
Show me who you walk with and I will tell you who you are.

We all walk with someone. 
We worry about who our children walk with. 
We talk about who others walk with. 

Question: 

Who are we walking with? 

What road are we taking?

We are doing our best to walk where the Lord leads, taking tentative steps as we hold His hand in the jungles of Ecuador.  
We hope you are walking with Him, too.

Join Jay for Morning Rounds

It’s been a busy week for Jay at the hospital. Here are some cases he rounded on this morning. Please pray for:

-An 18-month old baby with a fully collapsed lung who had surgery yesterday to drain the infection. The lung infection pocket had popped and air from the lung was filling the cavity.

-A mother 26 weeks into her pregnancy. Her husband beat her and her water broke. She is on bed rest. The only neonatal intensive care units are in Quito. So far the hospitals there have not accepted her.

-A regional soccer player came to the ER with a stab wound to the abdomen last night after being at a bar. The blade just missed vital areas. Jay said it was weird to put his finger in the little hole in the skin and be able to feel all the way back to the man’s liver. The blade hit some arteries and blood was pooling internally. Obviously, God isn’t finished with this young man yet. Pray for his heart and for the staff to be able to minister to him.

-A mother who lost a lot of blood during a delivery with placenta complications. She was transferred here from another hospital to address the bleeding. Members of the staff have given her three pints of blood.

-An 11-year-old boy who tripped and fell into a very large cooking pot of hot water. (Jungle villages cook as a community and use giant pots.) His mid-section has severe burns. Pray for his pain as the dressings are changed.