Back at It

 

 Here I am, once again, starting off with a whole new adventure. This one a little closer to home. Hopefully with the goal of being able to commute to bethel. It is amazing being up here. The holy spirit is flowing in torrents out of this place. My congregation has a lot of bethelites in it who have been there for decades and it is amazing to pick their minds and see what drives them in Jehovahs service. I've been up here for a month and a half so instead of trying to recap all the craziness that has gone on I'll just start from here and if I need to backtrack a little I will. Most of my time has been out in service and thats where I'll be for the rest of the week. Well, just a little one to get started. I'll be back at it soon.

Las Grietas

Sorry it took me so long to get another blog post up. My life since I've been back, like everyone else, has been crazy. But I don't mind reminiscing about my trip. I can't believe I got back two weeks ago.
This next place we went to was amazing. The name is Las Grietas. We walked there, no big surprise. To get there you have to pass this salt sea. Kinda like the Red Sea. It was really neat because the water evaporates out of the salt water and all thats left is editable salt. I tried it, its good. Everything there is volcanic rock. Its neat because its just different scenery on an island.
Finally we reached where we were swimming. I don't even know how to describe it so your just going to have to look at the pictures. This opening in the island got filled with salt water and the fish were huge there. We brought our snorkel and goggles and were able to check it out. It was so deep you couldn't see the bottom and kids would jump from the top of the crevice into the water. I didn't have anyone to force me to do it so I only jumped from halfway up. There were also these cool little tunnels that you could swim through that would pop you up in other pools of water that you had to climb over to. There is nothing like that here.

This is a sea Iguana. They remind me so much of Godzilla. They even swim the same.

The Salt Sea

Las Grietas

Do you see where they jump off from? Yeah... I didn't go that high up. I kind of wish I did now just to say I did it.

These cacti are one of the over 100 species of plants that only grow in the
Galapagos. I don't remember the name but the Tortoise's eat them so while they are young, the trunk if full of spires and as they age it gets as hard as an actual tree trunk.

Bienvenido a Galapagos

I'm finally getting to the pictures of my Galapagos trip. You cannot imagine how beautiful it was there. Its really different from anything you would ever expect. The island is naturally barren but because of non-indigenous plants it has gotten more lush. And there are so many plants and animals there that are found no where else in the world. Its really neat. The water is so clear and its turquoise on the beaches.
It was a two hr flight from guayaquil to Galapagos. And the airport is on its own island and there is nothing else there. The airport looks like a warehouse. Its so small. From the airport you have to get on a bus which takes you 20 min to a boat. You cross the canal, then you get in a taxi and drive another 30 min to the town, Puerto Ayora.
And you would think, its a touristy city, this is on the main island in the Galapagos, its going to be huge with big hotels, but no. Its a tiny quaint town with paving stone and brick streets. And everything closes at 10.
Our plane got in at 11 a.m. and as soon as we put our stuff down at the house we left again to go to the beach. We went to the malecon or harbor, and guess what was lying on the dock, sea lions or lobos, in spanish. It was so cool. Then we took a water taxi to another spot and then walked to the beach. It was just one stop on our way to Las Grietas. That place was awesome but it will have to be another series of photos. I took too many.

And the people I went with, and the friends that we stayed with spoke no english. The entire 5 days were all spanish. So I pretty much didn´t talk the whole time I was there.

The Airport

This was a first for me, I've never gotten off a plane like this before.

This is what we took from the bus to the taxi. All the luggage went on top.

This is the sisters house we stayed at. she lives there with her son, her daughter, her daughters husband, and their 3 little girls ages 1 and a half, 3 and 5. And then we added 4 more. So it was a full house.

The Malecon

The water taxi

Bethel and the park over run by iguanas...

We went to bethel last monday and got a tour. The sister that gave us the tour is from Patterson and she and her husband have been here for 3 years. Bethel is beautiful, like they always are. It has expanded 3 or 4 times. Because the growth here is so immense. They even have built a water treatment plant on the property so all the water there is safe to drink. This is the first year they started holding classes here. Before that all the classes for the elders or couples of circuit overseers were in Peru, all the brothers are so excited about this.
After, we went into the city and there was this huge park there that was full of iguanas they live in the trees there. Interesting fact, the only parks here are in front of churches. I dont know why. But they are huge churches.

Here is a neat experience for you. There is a sister here in the congregation who lives by herself and lives on 10 dollars a week. She regular pioneers and I think her house was kinda falling apart. Her grown son came to her and said, come live with us and we will give you a house and food. She didnt want to because she knew it would make it more difficult to get out in service and to the meetings because she would have to watch his kids and she wouldnt be able to pionner anymoe, so she told him no. He was furious at this and yelled, If you are turning on your family and sticking to your religion, have your God Jehovah build you a house. So two weeks after this happened, a brother and his family who are just bible students and now unbaptised publishers, went up to her and told her they wanted to buy her a house. So they spent 800 dollars out of their pockets and had a little one room house built for her. While this was happening her son called her again and told her he wanted to take her to lunch, she asked him which day and he said he didnt care and asked why. She told him it couldnt be on wednesday because Jehovah was building her a house and she was moving in that day. At this her son started to cry for the fact that he couldnt do anything for his mother but people in her congregation who arent even related to her can give her a house. Jehovah has surely blessed her for her many faithful years in his service. How heartwarming.

P.S. Sorry for my bad punctuation, this is a spanish computer and I dont know where anything is, like apostrophies and quotations, anyway, thats my excuse.

Bethel, Ecuador Branch

This is the water treatment plant and the school classrooms are to the left

Sister Janet, I forget her last name...

I thought this was such a pretty painting because it is native to Ecuador. A woman in her native garb

This tree had at least 30 iguanas in it

No matter how much I shook his tail, he didnt want to face the camera.

This is the stangest looking squirll Ive ever seen

The assembly and the Malecon 2000

Sorry it has taken me so long to put another one of these out. Ive not had any internet signal for a week because I was in the Galapagos Islands. But that's for another day. I'm going to keep my trip in order, so even if I have to do some posts when I get home I will so you can see all the pictures.
Last Saturday we went to the Francos old circuit assembly for the lunch break. It was a big reunion for them and it was neat for me to see the assembly hall. Its all open air and its on the bethel property. It was beautiful and there were so many studies in attendance it was so nice to see.
After that we went to the Malecon or harbor in Guyaquil. It was so pretty. It kind of reminded me of Baltimore. On the one end of the Malecon was Las Peñas. It is this neighborhood on a hill that is all stairs between the houses. Its really authentic and older looking and its so pretty at night with all the lights. There is a lot of history there. I think that's where the Ecuadorians earned their independance from Spain.  But you can climb all the way to the top (444 steps, they have them numbered, I dont know why) and see the whole city. And on the way down we saw brothers doing table top witnessing. It was their first day doinging it in the country. It was so neat, Jehovahs people are everywhere.

All the colorful houses on that hill are las Peñas

The Malecon

The Malecon

Las Peñas

Las Peñas

Preaching in Spanish and English

I went out with the spanish group again on Wednesday. It is so much fun. Basically,  you walk to the territory,  walk in the territory, and then walk home from the territory. And its hot and humid and not level. Its up and down the side of mountains.
Heres how my day went. Up at 7 leave the house at 7:30. Meet the group at 8:30. Then we walk walk walk until 1 when we go back to rtas house in the territory and eat lunch, and take a shower(because we have been sweating like crazy) and then take a nap. Then we go back out at 2:30 and do a study. We meet the group at 3:30 and walk walk walk til we finally finish at dusk at 6:30. (I did my first presentation in spanish and the lady was really nuce and took my magazines. I was so nervous. )I'm so excited at this point because I'm like yes, were done. Then rita says "we have a 30 min walk back" nooooo!
On the way back we stop by a panaderia or bakery. They have them all over here. We got some bread, it was so good. When we got bacm to the house , we ate the bread and coffee. Then we did two more bible studies, then headed home. We didnt get home til 10. Such a long day.
I hope I didnt confuse everyone too much, Rita and Jonathan have two houses, one in the city and one in there territory. 
Today I went out in the english and we are going to their meeting tonight. Their territory encompases the whole city and they do census.  But today we went out at the bus terminal. I talked to a really nice guy from ireland.
Heres some pics from service. 

Part of the afternoon service group

That car is not going anywhere. Its completely stuck

They were so interested in my english Bible Teach book. I love this picture. They didnt know I was taking it. They kept wanting me to read to them chapter titles and subheadings. Its like a foreign language to them or something.

Yo y Elisa.

Elisa, yo, y Betty

I was repeatedly telling them how bad an idea this was... Thankfully i didnt fall this time. A brother put this little peice of wood across the road so we could cross.

All their coffee is instant. Coffee beans dont exist here and no one brews their coffee.