Local Wildlife

During my various chores in the yard today, I saw this caterpillar walking across the yard. In the picture above it is crawling across my work glove. He could sure move fast. He must have had something important to do.

Here is our cat Cali with one of her three kittens. They were "missing" for the past 2-3 weeks and they mysteriously showed back up yesterday during a rain storm. They are all a little wild now and are a little scared of us humans. One of the three kittens is calm enought that I think we can get her used to humans. We want to keep it and take it with our new puppy to our own house whenever that may happen. By the way, Scout is NOT our puppy's name. I am still thinking of a name.

Nice rest

Phew...It is weekend! We are all so busy and working so hard. Once the weekend rolls around it is sure nice to relax a bit. I went to bed last night at 8:30. It seems like I always go to bed earlier on Friday nights than any other night of the week. Everything from the previous week must catch up with me and wipe me out a little earlier than normal. Next week is looking like it is going to be full already. But it is full just in the way we have been praying for.

Monday I should be able to fly and get in a little more practice and flight training. That will be nice, as "the general" is coming down from Quito on Tuesday to do my checkride. Assuming I pass, then I will all but have my Ecuadorian pilots license.

Wednesday we are all driving to Quito mid-morning for several reasons.

Thursday, I will be in a seminar all day at the Marriot Hotel. The FAA, the DAC (Ecuador's FAA), and Delta Airlines are putting it on. I am not even really sure what it is about, but I will be representing MAF there, as well as one of our Quito workers. It should be fun, and I will take notes so I can tell everyone in Shell what it is about.

Friday, I will be finishing up my pilot's license. I will go to the DAC and finish the paperwork and hopefully walk out with a shiny new license in hand. That should only take up the morning. After that, we are "free." Being that next weekend is our aniversary/Brooklyn's 3rd birthday, I think we will be doing some touring/getting lost/exploring in the Andes. We will be sure to let you all know how that goes.

Saturday and Sunday the touring/getting lost/exploring journey will continue. We will probably head home sometime Sunday. So, there it is. Today is barely starting and next week as well as next weekend are already planned. Phew, I am already tired. But it is so fun!

Also, once I get my license (hopefully next week), Chad our instructor pilot told me he wants me to be flying solo and operationally in the next month. We have another pilot getting ready to head to the states for his 6 month furlough, so it will be nice to fill that gap. In order to be flying solo and operationally, I have a lot of gaps to fill in learning how to do what we do. That said, in order to get me to that goal, I will be flying almost every day with Chad, or our other instructor pilot, Dale. These will almost all be operational flights, and Chad and Dale will be going with me to help in the little things that come up during a flight. Usually the flying is the easiest part. When you land and have to start dealing with the people and the various requests is when things can get complicated, and the Spanish is put to test.

Cold in the Jungle

• I know most people can't believe this, but it is cold today! It is cloudy and threatening to rain. We've had a couple of pretty warm days lately but today looks like it will be a lot cooler. Not that it is ever unbearably hot or cold here...really, if you can get used to all the rain, the temperature here is ideal - almost always in the upper-70's to mid-80's. I'm going to have to go put on some socks and sweatshirt today though! Looks like a big storm brewing...Sean was supposed to do a flight today, but it isn't looking very promising!
• Brooklyn can't leave that poor puppy alone. I've been trying to keep Brooklyn inside so that the poor little pup can have a break from her constant poking and prodding! This puppy seems to have a very calm, sweet demeanor...we wouldn't want Brooklyn ruining that by pestering it into insanity!
• I have named the dog "Scout" but Sean is still holding out until he has a better idea. And in a few months, we're supposed to name our own child?! We can't seem to agree on a good name for a dog, let alone for our second child. It is also a matter of sitting down and actually discussing it. While Sean feels we have all the time in the world, I am feeling this baby grow more each day and I worry that it will come before we have a name picked out! Yes, I know we can still decide after the baby is born but I worry that we'll end up with a weird name that neither of us like if we have to decide under pressure before we can leave the hospital! One thing is sure, I don't like leaving new members of our household "nameless" for any amount of time, be it a puppy or a person! So, "Scout" it is for the dog....
• We don't have big plans this weekend but are looking forward to going to Quito next week on Wednesday or so. Sean has a conference to attend as a representative of MAF and we also hope he will be able to finalize his Ecuadorian license while we are up there. It all depends on whether or not the examiner can come down early next week to test Sean's flying skills. Pray for that! Since it will also be our anniversary on Aug. 5 and Brooklyn's birthday on the 6th, we plan to turn it into a fun time for all of us...maybe do some exploring up in the Andes!

Brooklyn's new best friend and enemy

We bought a puppy a few days ago. It is a German Shepherd. She is a girl, and at this point we cannot think of any names for her. If anyone can think of a name let us know, we would love some suggestions!

The new puppy is the grandaughter of the other German Shepherd that already lives here (we are "dog-sitting" a German Shepherd and a Cocker Spaniel for other missionaries). Betje, the other German Shepherd, has really taken on a motherly role and grown quite fond of the new addition while the Cocker Spaniel acts a little put out that she isn't getting all the attention from Brooklyn any more.

Brooklyn is in puppy heaven. She carries that little puppy all over the place. I think the puppy might forget how to walk if we don't put a stop to it soon. Brooklyn has learned that dogs do have teeth. Like all puppies, ours has little sharp teeth waiting to bite into the nearest ankle or shoe but Brooklyn has gotten pretty quick at picking the puppy up before it starts biting at her toes! Over all, the new pup has been a lot of fun.
Here are the new friends on our back walkway. The other two dogs are in the background.

More bugs...

Today has been a fun day. Church was very good, and we both enjoyed the sermon. Our pastor preached on the great commandment and commision. It is always to good to go back to basics and remember what it is all about. After church it rained until mid afternoon, which left us relaxing at the house and taking naps. After nap time I worked on our "loaner" truck, changing the oil and things. And finally we took a Sunday drive to a little pueblo called "Madre Tierra," or "the Mother Land." It is only about 6 miles from our house, but because of the road it took us about 40 minutes each way. That was fine because we wanted to just take a stroll anyway. Each way in to Madre Tierra we hauled people in the back of our truck. We basically became a taxi which was a blessing to those we hauled. It was hitch hiking at the grass root level. It is amazing how different the life is so close to our home. Becca made the observation that the people out in the country are truely living on a day to day basis. They are growing their own food, and living off of the land in some instances. Very humbling to be reminded of our own state of life in comparison the others so close to us.
I saw this beetle crawling across the ramp when I was changing oil at the hangar. I just thought it was a neat color of green.
When we were leaving Madre Tierra we pulled over to look at some flowers. They smelled increadible! As I was smelling the flowers I saw this moth hanging around waiting for nightfall.

Pailón del Diablo

The Devil's Punchbowl is where we went today. It is only about a 40 minute drive from our house on the road towards Quito. It is a huge waterfall that is pretty spectacular to see. We had to hike about 1km each way to get there. Brooklyn did great, and didn't slow a bit, even when the uphill came. She was even pulling mommy by the hand saying, "mon (come on) mom, go, go." We had a great time. There are so many waterfalls to see along the Baños road that we could be busy for weekends to come on little hikes.
This is the view on the way down to the punchbowl from the parking area above. Both huts you see are restaurants/cafes. We ate lunch at the one on the right and it was very good, and only $8 for all of us. You cannot see the falls from this angle, but they are up above the cafe on the right.
This is taken from the cafe on the left. The waterfall is visible in the background, yet this picture does not do it justice. From the other side you can hike almost to the bottom of the fall, where the mist and noise are very powerful. You are left a little wet and definitely awe-struck. Also, the bridge isn't one of the best we have crossed. There are a lot of these "suspension" type bridges around these parts of Ecuador, but this one was a little too rickety and unstable for us to be loitering on for too long.

Conambo and Viejo Corrientes

Yesterday afternoon at about 3pm, I went as a passenger with one of our pilots to do a final flight for the day. The first flight was into a village called Conambo which is about 80 miles from Shell, or a 40 minute flight. We were hauling cargo into Conambo for some anthropologists that will be there for another 3 weeks or so.

This is final approach into Conambo. It is about 620 meters long. Presumably, when I get turned loose to fly solo I will be able to go into Conambo because it is over our 500m limit that we use for rookies like me. After I gain more experience flying into strips of this length, then I will slowly work my way into shorter ones like Viejo Corrientes.

These are some of the "locals" in Conambo. Yes, that is a monkey that the girl is holding. Monkeys make popular pets. Also, the "monkey girl" is wearing an "Ecuador para Cristo" shirt. This is basically Compassion International in Ecuadorian form. So yes, those very touching commercials about sending in your $25-30 a month to some poor kid really does go somewhere. We fly Compassion International extensively here in Ecuador. If it wasn't for MAF, they wouldn't be able to exist or operate here.

This is Viejo Corrientes. It is the shortest strip we have in Ecuador. It is just over 320 meters long and we use it for medical/emergency use only (notice the long grass and plane tracks). So imagine the picture above of Conambo and split it in half. We can only go in under weight and take off considerably underweight as well. We went there to pick up a medical patient. Nobody could say what was wrong with him, but he was sure in bad shape. By the time we got to him, his tounge had "frozen" so he couldn't speak. His bowels looked VERY bloated, he was vomiting, and generally he looked like he had seen better days. We hauled him back to Shell were he had some family members waiting for him to take him to the hospital. I suspected he may have had rabies, but it could have been stroke related as well. Maybe next week we will find out what was wrong with him when, or if, we haul him back home.

Weevils and Ice Cream

• Is it finally Friday? I can't tell you how much we are looking forward to a weekend this week. I feel like I've hardly seen Sean. We both keep busy on weeknights and it seems we meet at the dinner table for a quick meal and then one of us wakes the other one up when we get back home and come to bed. We've just never been busy like this in the evenings so it is an adjustment!
• Yesterday was a frustrating day for me. I've improved so much in the whole "fixing dinner from scratch" thing but after yesterday, I'm ready for a good, old-fashioned box of Hamburger Helper! I found weevils in our flour...or I should say flour in our weevils. That's just something that never happened back home...especially not in a brand new, supposedly sealed bag. Anyway, it meant a quick trip to the store for more flour but I shouldn't have bothered because somehow the pizza dough I was making still didn't turn out. Instead, we went out to dinner to one of our three options. At least there was somewhere to go eat or we might have just starved!
• While we were at the store I bought us some ice cream. Brooklyn really enjoyed that treat! Here's a picture of the other half of the ice cream that didn't quite make it into her mouth.

Army birds...

Some of you know that we share our airport here in Shell with one of the Ecuadorian Army bases. Therefore, we have a lot of traffic and military training. In fact, Shell's airport is the third busiest in the country behind Quito (1) and Guayaquil (2). Being that those are cities of over 3 million people each, that is saying something of our traffic with our population of about 4,000 people. Here are a few of the aircraft that we see on a daily basis. Not exactly the "modern" army that we as Americans are used to, but perhaps better than nothing.

I don't know what this is, but is is from China I suspect. There are two of these here and they arrived shortly after I did here in Ecuador. The reason I think they are from China is because when they arrived so did their instructors, who were only speaking Chinese on the tower radio frequency. Now, all the Chinese have left, and the Ecuadorians can fly these trainers themselves.

This airplane is made in Israel. I think it is called an Adava. We just call it the flying egg.Again, not sure of the name of this helicopter, but maybe a Westland Lynx.

This helicopter is called a Puma I think. Obviously I don't know my military type aircraft very well, but it is always fun to watch them fly.
The army also has a few of these. I think these are some kind of old Sikorsky. They sure make a lot of wind.

Look at what Brooklyn caught!

Brooklyn has been having some fun creatures waiting to show me just about everyday this week when I have gone home. They are all caterpillars. Rebecca nor I know where she is getting them, and luckily they haven't stung her, but she has caught about 3 so far this week and this one turned out to be the neatest so far. She gets pretty excited about her "pillars" as she calls them. She doesn't show any fear towards bugs, which is bittersweet. The one plus about it is she squashes spiders for mommy when they get to creapy.

Quito transfer...

I was able to make a flight to Quito this morning to haul a little girl and her family to the hospital. The little girl had fallen and broke her arm. So we took her on the quick 50 minute flight up the hill to Quito. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! At one point, I could count over 7 snow capped volcanoes at the same time. It was a flight to remember for sure.
This is Volcano Cotopaxi. I have written about it before, but this was a really pretty angle of it. Remember, it is the highest active volcano in the world.
This is Volcano Tungurahua. Just seconds before this picture there was no ash or smoke coming out of the top. Then all of a sudden it exploded. This picture was taken on the way back to Shell. I didn't take any pictures on the way up to Quito, but Tungurahua did the same thing as we were flying past it on the way to Quito. All told, we say two explosions from Tungurahua today, absolutely impressive!

Up and running

We wanted to let everyone know that our email is up and running again. MAF was able to sucuessfully move all the server stuff from California to Idaho this past weekend.

We also went to Ambato shopping yesterday. It was a fun day, and I wanted to show you a few pictures from the way up...

The local chicken transport. This old Ford is a very typical transport for chickens. Many times the back is full of eggs as well.

This is a picture of the town of Pelileo. Many of the towns around here are known for what they sell. In this case it is jeans. There are numerous vendors of jeans within a very small area. It doesn't fit the American marketing model to have all of one product within such a small space, but it seems to work here. There are also towns that are known for their ice cream, car parts, leather, ect.

Tungurahua Picture

I found a postcard that had a picture of Tungurahua during an eruption a few years back. I just scanned the postcard, so the resolution and clarity aren't that great. I can't say for sure, but I have a feeling it may look very similar to this picture right now. (Remember, Tungurahua is less than 40 miles away from our house!)

Volcano Tungurahua

We were going to go to Ambato this morning to do some monthly type shopping. It is a fairly big city about 1.5-2 hours drive to the East of us. As we were getting gas just before leaving, the gas station lady and a customer told us that the road is closed to Ambato because of Tungurahua erupting. I have never been able to get a good picture of Tungurahua because of clouds, but it is only about 40 miles away from us as the crow flies. Sangay and El Altar are the other two volcanoes close to Shell at about 30 miles away respectively. I noticed last night from our kitchen window a huge plume of smoke from Tungurahua and thought that it looked bigger than usuall. I guess there is a reason, and it was reported that from the other side of Tungurahua you could see a good fireworks show last night. Lava and smoke were pouring forth. Supposedly the road may open back up at 1pm this afternoon, but that is too late for us to leave. I don't like to drive at night regardless of what country I am in, and if we left after 1pm, we would surely be returning at night back to Shell. So I guess this means we might try again tommorow, or we will just have to wait until next weekend to go shopping.

So, in the meantime, we don't have a lot to do today. It is raining pretty good, which dampens any outdoor plans like swimming or hiking. So we will probably be piddling in the house today. You never know what a day may bring, or what volcano decides to start erupting.

Bugs...

There is a lot of speculation that the jungle has a lot of bugs. This is very true. I have seen some very weird and awesome bugs here. But, you don't just walk outside and start swatting at bugs and flys and things. Despite the huge number of insects here, they rarely bother you. Really, in order to see them you need to pay attention. I told my dad that I bet there are more mosquitos in Colorado during the summer than there are here in Shell, Ecuador. We have had our share of bug bites here, but it has never been a bother, nor have we ever felt like our skin was crawling because of all the bugs around.

Becca took this picture on our front porch. I don't know what kind of beetle it is, but it does have some big "chompers." It's actuall size is about the size of a big thumb.


This is called a Rhino Beetle. If you look closely you can see the "horn" on it's nose. This is a small one, and presumably a female because of its small horn. We have seen pictures of large males that are about the size of a complete hand and their horn is about 1.5-2 in. long. They look increadible. If I ever get a picture of one I will be sure to post it!

F.Y.I.

Some of you may know that MAF is moving it's HQ from California to Idaho. The move has already begun and is slated to be done by the end of the month. Starting this Friday through the beginning of next week the stateside staff are moving the network and email servers. What this means for us and you is that we (the Cannon's) will NOT have email this weekend. In case you have an urgent email to get to us, you can use my junk account at holy_man77@msn.com. We will let you know some time next week when our email is back up and running.

Training...

Phew, it feels like Friday! We have both been so busy this week. This is the first night I have had home this week. Monday night I had to go to a meeting with the DAC and yesterday night I had English class. Tonite Becca is gone at an MAF ladies coffee/desert, and tomorrow night she will be at bible study. We haven't had much time to think this week, although we sure like it that way. It wasn't that long ago that we were in Costa Rica bored out of our minds, and now we are on the other end of the spectrum being so busy we just cannot fit anymore into a day.

Today I had my third training flight. I feel like things are coming along well. I wouldn't admit to have it all down, or be ready to fly solo operationally, but it is coming. Chad our instructor thinks I am almost ready for my checkride with "the general" so that may happen next week or the following. I tried my hand at Air Traffic Control communications today in Spanish, and lets just say it leaves a lot to be desired. But at least all those involved including myself were laughing. It reminds me of those first flights 6 years ago as a private pilot canidate flying into the "big" towered airports, and being so nervous about the communication part. With practice it all came together, and along with it confidence as well. So, here I am again bumbling all over myself with ATC, but it will come with practice.

I was able to make an operational flight this morning with Chad. First we flew a lady and her new baby back to their village. I had brought them out with Kevin about a week ago. She was having a tough labor. Once she got to the hospital it was determined that the baby would have died if she had waited any longer, and the mom also had a bad blood infection. Basically when we loaded her into the airplane the baby was "coming out." The interesting thing is that she walked out to the airplane and got in and sat down. The Indians from the jungle have a reputation for having tremendous pain tolerances, and she was no exception.

The other flight was to a nearby village to pick up a shooting victim. We couldn't get all the details out of the man, but he had been shot in the leg the day before. From what we could gather he had some enemies in that village, and things may have escalated. It was an interesting dynamic when we picked him up. You just never know what or who you will be flying, and the circumstances therein.

Yesterday I made the "water run." I don't think that we have ever explained that we don't use the water out of our tap. Most of the locals of course use the water from the tap. Their bodies have grown accustomed to the extra "nutrients" that come from the tap, but it would probably just make us sick. We do use the water to wash dishes and take showers, but we don't consume it. So, we make a water run once a week to a natural spring and fill up water jugs. We fill up jugs for most of our expatriate staff, as well as a few community members from Shell. Usually our maintenance man does it, but he was so busy yesterday that he could not do it. So I had a free chunk of time yesterday and he asked me to do it for him. So I loaded the jugs up in the truck and swung by the house to pick up Brooklyn and Becca, and we went on an outing.

The spring is at a large Christian camp and they have an outdoor swimming pool. It is basically a creek that has a makeshift dam on it which then pools and walla, insta-pool. It is a pretty neat setup, and Brooklyn of course was wet from head to toe in just a few minutes. What started out as just putting her feet in, turned into a take all of her clothes off and let her get in. She was actually walking on the "boat ramp" and walked off the edge into deeper water and instantly she was drenched and in heaven. She didn't want to go home she was having so much fun. Finally we drug her into the truck just wearing her underwear and put her seatbelt on. She loves swimming.

Today, Becca, Brooklyn and a few other MAF families all went swimming again. This time in Puyo. They all had a blast.

Here we are filling jugs before Brooklyn went swimming. It was a fun little excursion, and Brooklyn will surely want to go on the water run again some time.

Picture Day

I have been wanting to get a simple family picture for a while, and we finally got around to doing it this morning. We all got dressed up and headed for the hangar to get a few shots. It didn't take too long as Brooklyn was pretty cooperative. As far as my "captains shirt" goes, I don't really wear that to work. We call them our "Quito shirts" because that is about the only place that we do wear them, and even then it is rare. For those instances when appearance is really important, or maybe we have an important meeting, then we as pilots will get all dressed up. But obviously our normal routine of loading cargo, fueling the airplane, sweating, getting in the mud, sweating, washing the airplanes, and sweating don't make a nice white shirt very practical.
Of course, we got a few fun pictures in between glamour shots. I think Brooklyn had just told me something like "Hey, you talkin to me punk? Cuz if you are, you are in for a world of hurt," as I took this picture.

Por Fin...(Finally)

Yeesss!!! I was able to get some flying in today. Our intructor pilot Chad and I were able to get about 2 hours in this morning of refresher flying with some takeoffs and landings as well. It was great to be back in the air. Although I still have a lot of work to do to prove my skill and polish it as well, we are finally able to begin the process to get me licensed and operational. Later this afternoon we also made another flight. This time it was out to the jungle to pick up three medical patients. While I wouldn't call them emergencies, the patients needed medical care that couldn't be given in the jungle. Another comercial operator at the airport was supposed to make the flight, but at this time we are the only ones with fuel for our airplanes on the whole airport. So we made this flight for the local operator called Tao. I was responsible for most of the flight. Once we got the the jungle village (where I greased my landing!) I had to load the passengers and their cargo, and off we went again. The village is called Villano, and it one of our closest airstrips, about a 25 minute flight.

Hopefully I will be able to get to the point next week where Chad will think I am ready to take the remaining test for my license. When he thinks I am ready, we call "the General." He is literally a general with the Ecuadorian Air Force, and he gives all flight tests in the country at all levels. I actually met him in Quito a few weeks ago, because he was getting his medical renewed while I was getting mine issued for the first time. From what I have heard, he is a joy to fly with, and really makes the test quick and easy. I though he was a nice guy when I met him in Quito, so I am not nervous about flying with him.

Whatever next week turns out to be like, it is just good to finally be in the air again. I love flying!!!

Maybe tommorow...

Right when I think things are getting busy, they just get busier. Yesterday I thought the day had finally arrived to begin my actuall flying here in Ecuador. Our instructor pilot Chad and I had done some ground school, and we were going to actually go do a medical emergency flight, and just begin to cover some of the re-training items enroute. Well, then we got delayed because our 1 medical emergency turned into 2. That was still fine, we would just pick up both patients at both locations. Right as I was getting ready to turn the key to start the engine, our flight coordinator came up to the plane and said, "wait, we have a medical transfer to Quito, a burn victim." So, once again I "spooled down" and prepared for a totally different flight. This one still being a medical flight, but for a much more critical patient. It was a 14 year old boy that was carrying two pieces of rebar and they both hit an overhead powerwire. This young man's arms, and everything from the waist down was covered in third degree burns. It was not a pretty sight, and it was not for those who have weak stomachs. The only thing he was wearing as we loaded him into the plane was gauze bandages and an IV and a catheter (sp?). Because of his obviously poor physical condition, a doctor come along to monitor the boy during the flight as well as his father. Because of the amount of passengers, and fuel needed to get to Quito, I couldn't go along. So off I went, back to studying my books.

Today, we were slammed busy. I wasn't able to fly today because there wasn't a free moment to spare. We were jam packed with operational flying. I was the flight coordinator today. What that means is I make sure all planned flights have their cargo, fuel, flight plans, weights and balances, etc. On top of that, I also tend to any people that come in to the hangar wanting flights into the jungle, and try to coordinate them into the days schedule, or the following. Needless to say, I was still thinking in Spanish for a while when I got home today. The flight coordinator job is not for wimps, and throwing the "rookie" in was definetly a sink or swim experience.

Tommorow looks promising that I will be able to begin my re-training. While nothing is ever for sure in this job, there is a little hope that tommorow will be the day.

Me and Brooklyn are home alone tonite. Becca went to a women's bible study. I am very glad for her to get out and do that. It is very easy for me to get my quota of people interaction at the hangar while Becca is left at home with a 3 year old. I know she was looking forward to some adult interaction, whereas Brooklyn and I have had some good daddy/daughter time.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July! Here, it was pretty much like any other day. I (Becca) did go to a get-together with all the other American missionaries that live here in Shell to eat hot dogs and watermelon. That was just about it! Sean missed the celebration because he went to teach English at our church in Puyo. He and a few of the other MAF pilots teach English classes every Tuesday night. Tonight was his first night actually teaching.

We were remembering that a year ago we were on our whirlwind (and very exhausting) trip to Panama City! In many ways that feels like an eternity ago but it is also amazing to look back at all that has happened since that trip. Isn't life weird that way? It sure gets crazy as you start moving from country to country, house to house, and life to life! On most holidays we like to look back and remember where we were for the previous year's holiday. Lately as we look back we are amazed at where we were just one year ago. It is hard for us to remember a holiday when we were just "home." Here are some stats on some of our holidays spent all over the world:

• New Year's Eve: 2005- Kansas, visiting Wyandotte Christian Church pastored by my cousin, Jared. 2006 - Costa Rica, celebrating with a missionary family that happened to invite us over when they saw us at a Chinese restuarant the day before!
• Easter: 2005 - California, in Redlands at MAF headquarters for orientation and training. 2006 - Costa Rica, we went to Denny's with friends to eat American cuisine!
• Sean's Birthday (April 22): 2005 - Mexico, a trip with other MAFers to get a real-world view of missions. 2006 - Costa Rica, just one week away from another big move!
• Independence Day: 2005 - Panama, we took a long weekend off from language school to take a drive to Panama city, horrible drive but unforgettable trip! 2006 - ECUADOR! Home at last?!

Did you know that Ecuador is the fourth country that Sean and I have lived in in our almost 6 years of marriage? First was Canada (Vancouver area as we went to a Christian University for a year), next was the U.S. (Colorado, our longest time in one place), then Costa Rica (Spanish language school), and finally here we are in Ecuador! Our life may sound exciting and adventurous and it really has been, we wouldn't trade our experiences for the world, but....we do like the thought of maybe settling into one place for a while. Of course, we both naturally have wanderlust so there will have to be some trips! Now that we have a family, we really like the idea of staying in one place....most of the time.

La Ciénega part 2

I tried to put some more pics on the blog last night, but for some reason I was unable. Again, here is the chapel in the background with Brooklyn and I in the courtyard. The doors on the chapel appeared to be originals. They were made of wood, almost a foot thick, and hung on round hinges about the size of car axles. Within the two doors there were 2 smaller doors, that would be close in size to an "average" door. Inside the chapel they also had a glass case with 4 old catholic style priests robes. It did now indicate the year on those, although I would guess they might be originals as well, almost 300 years old!

Here Brooklyn and I are in the stable yard. It was probably about the size of a football field and was used as a staging area back in the day for animals, coaches, implements, etc. This was just outside of the plaza/house. On the oppisite side of this stable yard were a few locally raised farm animals. One of them sure caught our atention. It was guinea pigs. For those of you that don't know, guinea pigs are very popular in Ecuador. But people don't buy them as pets, rather they eat them whole and roasted over an open fire. You can buy them just about anywhere for about $15. That is a steep price, as guinea pigs, or "cuy" as they are called here, are considered a delicacy. Although I cannot tell you what they taste like, I hope to be able to some day. Something tells me they taste a little like chicken.

La Ciénega

Becca and I had a good day getting back into the groove of things after being gone a few days in Quito. I wanted to tell you all a bit about our past week and what it involved.

First, as you know, we were in Quito so that I could begin my licensing process with the government. I had to get an aviation physical and also take some written exams. It was all time consuming compared to my experiences in the states, but all in all it went really well. Here are the tests I had to take just to get my medical...

• Hearing test
• Dental checkup
• Phycologist
• Urine/Blood samples
• Ecocardiogram
• Neurologist
• X-rays from the chest up
• General Exam
• Eye Test

Those 9 tests took me about 4 hours to complete on Wednesday morning. I was pretty worn out from going around to all those different doctors. On top of that I had not eaten since the night before in order to take my blood and urine tests. To get a medical in the USA, you meet with 1 doctor and it probably takes 20 minutes. But, I'm not in Kansas anymore right?

Thursday, I spent the morning back at the Federal Aviation building in Quito taking my written exams. I took 3 different tests, which all told probably took about 4 hours as well. On the drive home yesterday afternoon I was able to call the testing office and hear that I passed my written tests. Praise the Lord!!! Thank you all for praying with us in this whole licensing debacle. I know it has made the difference lately as we press through with what the Lord has in store for us. Hopefully this coming week I will actually begin to fly again. I still need to get up to speed in order to take the flying portion of my licensing tests in order to complete the requirements for my Ecuadrian pilots licenses. Hopefully in the next week or two I will be ready to complete the last steps to get my license.

Rebecca also mentioned in the blog yesterday about all of our detours and such with our drive home. Although most of the time our "detours" were not intentional, we did make an intentional stop for lunch off the beaten path. We were told about an old hacienda type place a few miles off the Pan-American highway that served good food as well as offering a touch of history. Well, we were sure glad we made the stop. The hacienda is called "La Ciénega." It was built in 1742 during the Spanish colonialization of the region. The main purpose of it's construction was initially to have a post to study the then erupting Cotopaxi Volcano. We did enjoy a nice lunch there, but we were struck more by the awesome Spanish architecture, and the overall feel of once again being somewhere other than Kansas.

This is a picture of the nearby Cotopaxi Volcano. If the clouds are not covering it, it is easily seen from the Pan-American highway for hours. It is the second highest volcano in Ecuador, about 18,000 ft., and is the highest active volcano in the world. It is possible to climb Cotopaxi, and I would sure love to do it. It has been done by a few other MAF folks, although I don't know any of the logistics of it at this point. Anybody want to climb it with me?

Here are Brooklyn and mommy in the plaza of the hacienda. In the background is the personal chapel. The layout of the hacienda is typical Spanish contruction. The whole house is built in a huge square, with a plaza or garden in the middle which is seen above. It really reminded us of watching Zorro, or some Hollywood movie with a similar theme.

The Big City

Hi! Sean and I just got back after a long stay in the capital city, Quito. We went up there so that Sean could get his medical exams and take his written tests for his Ecuadorian pilot's license. It was an enjoyable time. Quito is a heck of a lot more civilized than we are used to and it is certainly bigger than Shell! There are several American chain restaurants there (such as McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Applebees, and TGI Friday's) and we took our opportunity to gorge ourselves on good, old-fashioned American deep-fat-fried foods! Yummy!! Here are a few of our highlights from the week:

• Sean passed both the medical and the written exams!!! I'll let Sean go more into detail about what exactly he had to do in order to take and pass these exams. The fact that everything went so well is a huge praise!! Thank you for praying with us.
• While Sean was away taking tests, Brooklyn and I went shopping! There are several malls in Quito and we checked a few of them out. I was able to find some new clothes for Brooklyn and few smaller items that we can't find in Shell, but for the most part it was just window shopping and drooling over all the nice things they have in those malls!
• We took Brooklyn bowling one night. She wasn't much of a fan of the sport. She did enjoy watching Dad bowl a few strikes (with the bumpers up, of course) but she didn't like the pressure of trying to push that big, heavy ball down the lane all by herself. We only paid a few dollars for one game and it is probably a good thing since Brooklyn was definately not in the mood to play. Sean had fun, though!
• We drove up to Quito in the car that we are "babysitting." On the way up, our program manager was with us and he was able to get us to Quito without any problems. But on the way back home we were on our own. We were hopelessly lost on several occasions and quite honestly, we have no idea how we made it home. Fortunately, we both found it very funny at times and we were able to laugh about it even in the most stressful situations. Plus, we saw lots of really cool stuff off the beaten path! It should have been about a 4-hour trip. We did it in 8.5 hours!!
• Okay, yes, we did take several unplanned detours and missed every shortcut we might have taken but we did make a very worthwhile and extended pit stop at a really cool place (that probably accounts for two of the extra hours it took us to get home). We'll have to dedicate a special blog to tell you about that one! One of our favorite things is to get off the beaten path (on purpose) and explore - this one was one of our best finds!

It is nice to be back in Shell. We look forward to settling back into our normal routine and enjoying the peaceful, quiet life of a small town. While Quito is fun with nice malls, American restaurants, movie theaters, and bowling, we're still country bumpkins at heart and enjoy a much slower pace. Quito is a great place to visit and very nice as far as cities go in our book...but Shell is home to us!