Thursday, May 28, 2009

Intermission Ecuador

1. Dawn, Holly, and Sterling from my church also went on the mission trip. The journey started Sunday night, we stayed in the the Best Western and this is the day after traveling to Miami to catch our flight.




2. The plane ride over was only 4 hours. We sat in the very back of the plane and got to know the flight attendants who were really hilarious. One was from Quito where we were flying into and he was telling us all about it. I wish I had a picture to show of them.


3. The first night we stayed in the capital of Quito at Hostal Arupo, which was super nice and clean. Something I wasn't expecting.



3. The next day we boarded a bus and traveled to our first destination Cojimies on the coast. The trip was 7 hours long on narrow two way roads on the sides of mountains. Really pretty views. I learned that drivers honk not only to caution but also to say 'hi' to other drivers.






4. They call it, can you guess? The Devil's Face which we passed by on the road.


5. We stopped at a Adventist Academy to eat lunch which was really delicious! Some of the best caf food I've ever had, seriously. We need to bring these cooks to Southern! :)





6. We also stopped at a tribe of indigenous people. The men leave a section of hair longer on top of their heads where they dye it red and make it really smooth, at first I thought it was a leaf, but to my amazement it was real hair. They also had spears which they hunt with that they let us try.




7. We finally got to our destination (Cojimies) at 8 o'clock at night, where we had our first meal which consisted of soup, fruit juice, rice and cheese. I think we pretty much had cheese or an egg with every meal. We stayed here for 2 days, built the church and did outreach (vbs & medical care). Here are just some of the sights and first church ever that one day church has done.
This is just one of the huts where we stayed.

Liv catching up on her sweet dreams

The start of the church

We went on a boat ride to the island of love

Chicks that followed each other around

House right next to church







VBS! :)

Medical Outreach


8. We packed all our stuff onto this bus and headed to Pedernales where we stayed right on the beach practically. This is where we built the other 2 churches and stayed for the rest of the week. I stayed and helped in the kitchen on friday since not as many people were needed to build the church and helped the cook (dawn). I got to go around and see the markets and to cut up some really good fruit and veggies.

The view from the hotel


The bars which blasted music till the early hours of the morning :)


Can't remember the name but it looks really nasty. Surprisingly tastes good.

My first time trying lychee. I really like it.





9. Went to church in the city.


10. Then went to a nature reserve 45 minutes away where we saw howler monkeys in their natural habitat.
This is Lissette tryin some coconut milk. :)


Prickly trees

Spiders were everywhere


10. After the reserve we got to go to the beach and cool off after our big hike. One of my favorite memories. So Beautiful!



11. Our last church.




12. Outreach time
Medical Outreach

VBS!

Cute little boy who when I sat down next to him started to scoot away and cry.


13. Our last night in Pedernales, we drank our last pina colada which were amazing!


14. Anita the older lady helped out in the hotel cleaning rooms and making sure we had everything we needed. She was so sweet! She would try talking to me but I never knew exactly what she was saying. Makes me want to learn spanish.


15. On our way back to Quito.


16. We went back to the Adventist Academy to eat our lunch which was delicious again. We then stopped by a taffy place to see how they made it. The men pull the taffy into thin little pieces and then the women put them in plastic and seal them up to sell.


17. The next day we were tourist's, visiting the equator and went to the highest gothic cathedral in South America where we climbed all the way to the top which was about 151 m. up! We also went to the wrong equator line where they first thought it was, but then changed it.






Pictures just show a little bit of what the trip was like, but experiencing is what you really have to do to get the full mission story. This trip was so awesome and I hope to do another one! The team we had was really amazing as well and I really enjoyed getting to know everyone. We had a total of 15 people who I think God called to come on this trip. It was amazing hearing how this trip came together; like how they were going to call the trip off two weeks before it happened but they said that they would give it one more week and in that week almost all of us that went on the trip signed up. God is good, and I was blessed to have experienced it!

6 comments:

Christy Joy said...

Wow! That's awesome, Sarah! Thanks so much for putting up pictures and sharing a bit of your experience. It looks like so much fun and what an awesome purpose as well! Miss you!

Anonymous said...

Sarah! I loved looking at your pictures :) It sure looks like you guys had a blast down there. Miss you and praying for you mucho!

Stella said...

Love the pics!!!! You are having such an adventure I love it. Keep on sharing friend. I sure do miss you!

bekah said...

Nice picture blog! I enjoyed it very much!

Emily said...

Thanks for putting up pictures- sometimes they express more than we can ever try. It looks like you had an amazing time.

Thomson said...

your new name = Dr. Profundus.