Ferry Flight

Remember a few weeks ago when I described how we were taking one of our airplanes from here in Ecuador and flying it to the USA, where it will be worked on a little bit, and then flown to Lesotho, Africa? That flight went very well, but the plan was afterwards to fly another Cessna 206 from Kansas back to Ecuador using the same pilots right after. Well, life happened and my boss also had to go stateside due to a family emergency, thus making us even more strapped for pilots, which in turn led to the return of the two ferry pilots prematurely. My boss is still stateside, but he is planning on returning to Ecuador soon, but he is going to be flying the awaiting C-206 back to Ecuador. MAF rules state that for all ferry flights there needs to be a minimum of 2 pilots to make the flight together. After a lot of searching and eliminating of various other ferry pilots, I was chosen to accompany my boss on this ferry flight from Kansas to Shell, Ecuador.

So, what does this mean. I will be leaving tommorow morning on a bus headed to Quito, and then the following morning (Wednesday) I will be leaving for Witchita, Kansas. Our plan is to leave Kansas on Friday for the Houston area. After Houston it will be Oaxaca, Mexico, then San Jose, Costa Rica, then Quito, Ecuador. We are planning to take 4 days to fly this ferry flight if all goes well, i.e, weather and mechanical things.

To say I am excited to do this is an understatement. It was a dream of mine to do a ferry flight for MAF, and the fact that I am doing it this soon in my career is very special. I will be sure to try and update you all along the way, and if I cannot, surely when I get back home sometime next week I will fill you all in. I have a lot to do and think about tonite as a pack. It has still been over a year since I piloted a plane, so be in prayer for me and all those involved for clear thinking and safety and of course a great time.

Tidbits

• Our shipment is already mostly taken care of. Everything is either unpacked and being used or re-packed and in storage for some future date. It feels like we are living in luxury with so many things after a year of "camping out" in Costa Rica! Our year in Costa Rica did teach us how much we don't need to live. Then again, I really like my coffee maker!
• Have you heard about the flooding in Suriname? I guess it is really bad. There is a national-run MAF program in Suriname doing their best to help with relief efforts. They are desperate for experienced pilots and mechanics to help get their planes flying.
• The house we are currently living in belongs to another MAF family that is actually on their way to Suriname to help out for several months. They were going anyway but now it looks like their help will be even more valuable. By the looks of things we could be in this house for as long as a year before they return. It's a nice house, so we don't mind!
• We got our censos yesterday. That is basically our Ecuadorian ID. It was a very painless process - one of our Ecuadorian hangar workers did the whole thing for us. Now, if only the driver's license would be so simple. The last foreigner to get her license had to take 3 weeks of daily driving lessons, pass a test, and pay lots of money. Ugh.
• Our cat is getting a big belly - anybody want a kitten?
• We've been enjoying getting to know more of our MAF team mates. What a fun crew!
• The meeting with government officials last week went okay but they still aren't ready to give Sean a license. Some paperwork needs to be turned in and then they will hopefully give Sean the go ahead. Keep praying!

Shipment

What a crazy past few days. Tuesday we found out that our household shipment was due to arrive in a truck to Shell. So around 6:00 in the evening here came the truck all loaded down and full with our things. And nothing was broken, ruined, wet, or stolen! It has been almost a year and a half since we last saw these things, leaving many questions like "why did we pack that" or "didn't I put (fill in the blank) in our shipment." It has been a type of Christmas to see all these things, and very surreal because they all harken back to a lifestyle and culture we left a while ago. Many of the sights and smells as we opened various tubs reminded us of some fond memories while living in Colorado.

We will continue today sorting through our things and trying to decide what to do with the stuff we don't need yet. Since we are living in someone else's house, we don't need a lot of what we brought (ironic huh?) so we have to find a place to store it once again.

Highlights of what we unpacked seem to be my bike, Becca's dishes, Brooklyn's toys and our new appliances. We switched out the older appliances here in the house for our new ones just for the fun of it. We have never owned new appliances, and here at the end of the world we have new appliances to enjoy. It has been fun. Our oven is not hooked up yet, but I will work on that today as we need to get an adapter so we can hook up the propane to it.

I took this Tuesday morning from our hangar. This is Sangay Volcano as seen looking to the South. It reaches to just over 15,000 feet. It is very majestic and impressive. I am hoping for a clear day to get a panoramic view of the whole range in front of our hangar to display all the volcanoes. Sangay just happened to be the only clear part that morning, and even that was short lived.

Radio man

Today at the hangar I spent most of the day running the radio. What that really means is I was tracking all of our flights into their various sites as well as their ETA's, problems encountered, weather reports from various sites within the jungle, ect. It is really pretty easy, but it still makes me nervous trying to think all these thoughts and things in Spanish. It helped pass the time quickly though, because otherwise I wouldn't have had much to do, since we are still in the licensing process. I figure tommorow will much of the same, which is fine.

Our assistant manager has the meeting tommorow with the DAC. Continue joining with us in prayer that breakthroughs will take place tommorow, and the DAC will allow me to get licensed as a pilot here in Ecuador very soon.

We also got word that our shipment is really getting close to being released out of customs. It may arrive in Shell as soon as mañana, but we won't put any hope into that. It is best to not have any expectations with these kind of things, that way when it really happens, you aren't dissapointed.

Tonite we had an MAF couple from HQ in California over for dinner. They have been with MAF for over 30 years, most of that spent flying in Africa, and the remainder as an instructor at HQ. Larry is his name, and he and his wife are here for about another week. The purpose of their visit is to fly with our pilots to confirm that all that training and those MAF standards are being upheld and adheared to. I was a joy to hear their wisdom and experience being in MAF. This is their last "tour of duty," as Larry is retiring from MAF at the end of July.

Haircut time

We went to our last of 4 churches this morning. We hace been visiting all of them in Shell (there are only 4 total) trying to see where God would have us plant ourselves. I think we have it narrowed down to 2, so in the coming weeks we will probably attend those two another time or more.

This afternoon after a very nice Sunday nap, the mission was to get a hair cut. Now, there is nothing great to write about when it comes to a hair cut. But the great thing is, it cost me $1. I was feeling generous so I tipped the gal .50 cents. So, all told my hair cut was $1.50. That is a pretty good deal.

Speaking of good deals, we went out to eat again tonite. We ate at the Chinese place in town, and all together we stuffed ourselves on very good sweet and sour chicken for $7. Next time we eat there, I think we might share a plate due to the large portions, thus making the bill even cheaper, around $4 to feed a family of 3. Pretty nice!

Slimey

Yesterday I wrapped up (I hope) my secretarial duties at the hangar. Our secretary returns from a much needed vacation this coming week. I was able to learn a whole lot about what we do this week, and see a side of our ministry that perhaps I wouldn't have seen without my secretary position. I am grateful for that if it means I can minister more effectively and also understand the various cultures and peoples that we serve here in Ecuador.

Today I awoke with a mission...to kill slime. Because of the constant moisture and humidity here mold will grow on everything, in this case my sidewalks and general outdoor area of my house. I imagine various parts of the USA have this problem as well, but in the desert southwest where we grew up, mold is practically non-existant. So Brooklyn and I drove to the hangar this morning to get the pressure washer, and we brought it home where I proceeded for the next 4 hours to hose down all forms of dirt, mold, slime, you name it, it got hosed off. It was kinda gratifying to do some manual labor after a week of sittingin the office and feeling my gut begin to grow over my belt.

This afternoon we took the truck to the "big-town" called Puyo. Puyo is an Indian word which means "mist." It is about 8 miles from us with a population of about 40,000 people, compared to Shell's 3,000. We went there just for a little exploration and discovery. In other words, we were bored and went to see what the town had to offer. We ended up finding our way to most corners of the town, and afterwards we ate dinner there at a nice restaurant.

Tommorow we are visiting the last of 4 churches that exist in Shell. It is always a little wierd to visit a new church. I don't think any missionaries or "extranjeros" attend this church, which that said, will make us the only "outsiders" tommorow. This is something we are praying about, because we want to be involved in a church where the gringo community is small or non-existant.

Please continue to pray with us about my pilot licensing process. It looks like we (MAF) have a meeting next Tuesday or Wednesday in Quito to see what will happen with me with some members of the DAC (civil aviation authority). Pray that I will be able to recieve my license next week, or at least be authorized to test for it.

Normal?

• We are feeling more settled in every day. Our days are taking on a semblance of a routine and that seems to calm us all down!
• I caught Brooklyn spoon-feeding one of the dogs yesterday. That sweet dog patiently allowed Brooklyn to feed her one doggie kibble at a time on a little doll-sized spoon. It was pretty cute.
• We've been borrowing a kiddie pool. Brooklyn loves playing in the water! Praise the Lord for something fun for Brooklyn to do. Poor kid was bored out of her mind at first but I think she's getting used to our new lifestyle.
• We heard from Quito today and it sounds like our shipment is getting close to being released from customs. We could get it as soon as this weekend!
• The meeting with Ecuadorian civil aviation authorities is postponed until Tuesday next week. Keep praying that they will be willing to let Sean get his pilot's license without too much hassle. From what we've heard they are willing to work with us but can't give the "okay" for Sean's license without this special meeting.
• This week has been pretty busy for a week with nothing planned ahead of time for me! I've had to relearn how to be a stay-at-home Mom. Most of what happens in a day wasn't planned and anything could happen from an urgent trip to the store for more milk, to a friend coming over to talk, to an extended shopping trip looking for some ingredient that can't be found, to spur-of-the-moment "carpet time" with a two year old, to unexpected messes to clean up! I'm getting the hang of it, though, and I have to confess that I love that I have the opportunity to do this.

Secretary?

Today proved to be exciting again at work, but in some new ways. We have a "shortage" of staff this week due to 2 of our pilots being in the States ferrying an airplane,one of our pilots being sick, and several of our national staff are on vacation. That said, I was the secretary today. This involved answering the phone, talking on the radio to our pilots and other villages, handling the "jungle mail," taking money, reserving flights for future dates, and whatever else needed to be done. Needless to say, at first it was a bit intimidating, and of course it was all in Spanish. It turned out being pretty fun, and learning that side of what we do will surely come in handy. I will probably be secretary all week until some of our staff come back. Also, tommorow we will continue to be short staffed as the father of one of our pilots passed away this morning, so he and his family will be leaving for Iowa tommorow. You never know what a day holds!

Wanted...Good teachers!

We received this e-mail from Crissie Rask from MAF HQ a few days ago and I thought I would blog it and see if there are any takers or if someone knows someone that might want to do this kind of thing. Contact me if you have any questions.


"We urgently need:

• High School Science Teacher - Hillcrest International School - Papua, Indonesia
• Elementary Teacher for the Wamena School, a satellite of Hillcrest International School, Papua, Indonesia
• Lower Elementary Teacher for Central Asia

Please continue to pray that God will provide people with a heart for His Kingdom, and the skills and availability to move quickly into these positions. Any interested people can call me at: 1-800-FLYS-MAF, or email me at recruiting-teacher@maf.org, or crask@maf.org."

Baños

We went on our first weekend excursion today, it has been a long time. We drove "our" truck to the town of Baños, or literally translated as baths. If is called this because it sits at the base of the Tungurahua volcano that rises to over 16,000 feet. Because of the proximity of this volcano, there are many hot springs. Most people when they think of a country located on the equator wouldn't want to go to a hot springs, but the weather just 35 miles up the road from us in Baños is very different. There is bright sunshine and a very brisk springlike feel. In fact, a dip in the hot springs would probably feel very good. Although it is very close on the odometer, it takes a little over an hour to get there. The road is really in good condition, but because of curves, terrain, falling rocks, ect, it takes a while. There are 5 tunnels to drive through in just this short stretch, and the change in topography and vegetation is very impressive. For those of you that come and see us, we will surely make the trip to Baños, very neat little town.


Here is the town center of Baños. Most towns in Latin America are centered and built around a Catholic church and a plaza which sits in front of it. The town of Baños is very clean and even a little European. We will be sure to take some more weekend juants here.


Me and my baby girl in front of the Baños Cathedral. There was a wedding happening there when we walked by. It looked like a really fun time!


This is called Bridal Veils Falls. It drops a little over 300 feet and is easily seen from the road. We pulled over and snapped a few photos. If you look closely at the top of the waterfall and a little to the left, you will see a little red dot. That is the cable trolley that spans the mile wide gap and takes you to the other side of the Pastaza River flowing below. You can ride it for just a few dollars, and I am going to do it some time. It probably holds about 5-6 people safely.

My first over-nighter...

In order to describe how my first unplanned night in the jungle went, I need to describe the events preceeding that lead to it. Yesterday was a rainy day (have I said it rains here?) and it wasn't until about 2:30 in the afternoon that we could depart to make some flights. Even then we had to depart IFR (fly through the clouds) in order to get out to the jungle. We had 3 planned stops to make, with the farthest being about 60 miles from Shell. We had a great time taking our passengers and their cargo and picking up new ones along the way. The weather over the jungle was good and continually improving. At around 5:00pm we were ready to depart our last strip back to Shell, but the tower in Shell told us that the airport was closed due to low cloud ceilings and no visibility. To complicate things, the Shell airport closes at sunset (about 6:15pm) and our MAF rules also state that we cannot fly at night. So we had about an hour to get home, and our last stop was only about 55 miles from Shell, or about 27 minutes. That leaves plenty of time, but with marginal weather and the very likely chance that we would have to fly an instrument approach back into Shell (probably doubling our flight time to about 50-55 minutes) we opted to spend the night in the jungle before we did something stupid.

So from our "last" stop of the day called Molino we flew to a village called Makuma. Makuma is known as being the Holiday Inn of the jungle because of its "ammenities." Actually the history of Makuma is really awesome as there have been missioniaries living there for over 60 years, thus the living conditions are several notches above primitive. Our hosts have been living in Macuma for over 20 years working with the Ashuar tribe, and helping translate the Bible into another related language called Shuar. I failed to mention that another of our planes also ended up staying at Makuma since they couldn't return to Shell either. All told 3 pilots, and 7 passangers all stayed the night in Makuma. It is a very interesting place and the work happening there is FAR from over. The missionaries that live there are close to thier "expiration date" so any of you feeling the call to live in the jungle and work among the Indians should not ignore the call.

All told, it is VERY unlikely that this will be the last time I have to stay in the jungle over night far many reasons like weather, a planned trip, evangelism, something mechanical, ect. Staying out in what is still considered very wild still is very thrilling. The sounds at night, and the feeling of really being at the ends of the earth because of its isolation are very apparent and awesome. Being a little philosophical, I was able to feel my mortality and the fine line between life and death that we all hold so dear to, and we often forget exsists. Very unforgettable night. And yes, for those of you wondering, I did have a bed to sleep on, safe water to drink, and VERY good food due to the loving hospitality of our hosts.

We woke up this morning and flew the 25 minutes back to Shell to make it to the hangar for 8:00 prayer. I was reminded again of the power and importance of what we do, and those we help and serve. Just our 25 minute flight from Makuma to Shell takes 7 hours of driving and 8 hours of hiking through the jungle to reach it normally, or basically 2 days. How awesome it is that we can cross those barries with the speed and ease of an airplane!

Here is final approach to another airstrip in which I forgot the name. (They are really wierd names.) This one was short and slippery!

This is just a picture of an outbuilding close to where we park our airplanes in Makuma with the name Makuma on it. There are about 3-4 houses and other various out buildings on this particular part of the Makuma village where the missionaries live.

It begins

This is a big day! No, it isn't anybody's birthday or anniversary (at least not anyone I know). It isn't a holiday that I'm aware of. But it is a memorable day...and night. My life as an MAF pilot's wife is beginning. Sean is stuck overnight out in the jungle! He flew out with another pilot today and the weather here in Shell is bad enough that they won't be able to make it back in tonight. I found all this out when I went to the hangar at 5:00 to pick Sean up. It came as a bit of a shock considering that I didn't even know he got to go on a flight!

Poor guy - stuck out there in the jungle like that. Yeah right! He's got to be so excited to spend his first night in the jungle, even if he didn't take along his toothbrush. Looks like they'll probably spend the night in Macuma. When I was here 6 years ago, I got to spend a weekend in Macuma. It was unforgettable - the REAL jungle, just like you imagine it. I've been trying to tell him about that experience for so long and now he'll finally get to enjoy it himself. There are missionaries there that will feed him and give him a place to sleep. Someday soon, this won't be a big deal and may happen on a fairly regular basis - Sean will probably grow to be like all the other pilots and avoid overnighting whenever possible - but there is something about the first time and I know Sean will have fun. He may be worried about me feeling sad being home alone tonight but God has already granted me His grace for that and I'm really more excited for Sean as he gets to experience this new adventure! You can look forward to his story on this night in a future blog, I am sure!

Good Morning!

When Brooklyn opened the front door to say hi to the dogs this morning, she was greated by more than two happy canines. This millipede was just crawling around right out the front door. Creepy looking huh?

Did I say it rains here?

Today at the hangar I continued to study. Hopefully tommorow we may know something about my exam appointments in Quito. Keep praying with us about those.

We were grounded all day today because of rain and low cloud ceilings. We do fly in the rain, but we don't when we really don't have to. The short little strips that we land on tend to be the consistency of snot when it rains, so we try to be careful about pushing it when it comes to rain and wetness.

Two of our pilots are beginning their ferry flight to the USA tommorow. They are taking one of our planes to Kansas and trading it for one of our planes out of the now closed Venezuela program. It should prove to be an interesting trip I am sure. It is a dream of mine to ferry a plane any program I may serve in with MAF. What an unforgetable flight that would be.

This is one of the latest photos of the Quest Kodiak, the airplane that we hope will help MAF worldwide. We are slated to recive our first one as an organization in about a year. Testing is coming along fine. Here the airplane is pictured with the belly pod on. I heard that the floats were being constructed as well to begin that testing. Click on our link in the sidebar if you want more specifics on what the Kodiak can do (The future of MAF?). Like I said before, it will be a long time until I see one and fly one. They are slated to begin flying in our Papua, Indonesia program where we already have a semi-turbine fleet with our Cessna Caravans.

Here is the cockpit of the new Kodiak. Those three flat panel displays are basically all the avionics that this airplane has. In a nutshell, the technology that airliners have had for a while is finally trickling down to the smaller airplanes. It is really revolutionizing the way things are done in modern aircraft, large or small.

Settling In

It is hard to believe that we already spent our second Sunday in Shell yesterday. We were able to visit a church that is very close to our house. It is commonly known as "The Quechua Church." The Quechua, along with the Shuar, Achuar, and Waorani (former Aucas) are among the most commonly known Native South Americans (or Indians) in Ecuador, although there are others. This church is made up of a large population of Quechua, Shuar and Achuar plus a few Ecuadorians, Columbians, Argentenians, etc. What a mix! We enjoyed the simplicity of this church. Just two guitars and some hymnals and they managed to make some beautiful music for the Lord. Communion was from a shared cup (glad we were in the front) and rather than having one pastor/leader, the service was led by all the elders of the church. Brooklyn did great in Sunday School and had no trouble switching to her Spanish to play with the other kids. We sensed a great deal of love and fellowhsip among the people and they were very friendly and welcoming. We were one of two gringo families there. This was nice for us because it forced us to get to know people and use our Spanish! Sometimes a large group of gringos tends to cause us to return to our comfort zone and just talk to the English-speakers.

By the way, Spanish is a second language for many of these people too! They certainly aren't critcs of our Spanish, although we may tend to learn some bad habits from them! Something surprising - we've been very relieved that most people here can actually say "Sean" correctly because their original language has the shhh sound - Spanish does not, and Sean becomes Chawn or Chown or Jawn.

We're not done visiting churches before we make a final decision on where to plant ourselves. Pray with us that we can find the place God wants us to be and that we can quickly integrate ourselves into a church family here in Shell.

Finally...

I got to go flying!!!!!!!!!!!!! You may have read in the blog from yesterday that we do medivac flights. This actually seems to be a little under half of our current flying. The Department of Health gives us a contract to perform these flights and then they pay for them. They give MAF the contract because we are willing to work 7 days a week and do it reliably. Also our fleet, pilots, and overall quality or our program are better than any other option.

My boss was "on call" yesterday for the weekend and called me when he got his first flight. It was to pick up a patient that had fallen 40 feet from something and broken a lot of bones and was barely alive. About halfway enroute, the doctor canceled the flight because the electricity came back on. This enabled them to do what they needed for treatment. Previously the power was out and they couldn't help this person out at all, thus we were called into action.

So we returned to the hangar only to get 3 more flights that had been called in from the jungle via HF radio. We flew out about 30 minutes, dropped a girl off, flew from there about 25 minutes and picked up a boy with a broken arm, and them flew from there about 25 more minutes and picked up a girl who had hit her head diving into the river. From this strip we were only about 20 miles from the Peruvian border. We then returned to Shell and got these patients on their way to the hospital.

It blew my mind again that I will soon be flying these same flights myself. It is such a different world out in the jungle. It is everything you have seen on National Geographic, and then some. And then we fly our little time machine back to "civilization" here in Shell and do it all over again. The jungle is so vast and open, a very powerfull experience. I cannot wait to show it to some of you.

(This is final approach on one of the three strips we landed at yesterday. The weather was great! This is a very typical strip, just a little slice carved out of the jungle)

(Here we are at the strip where we loaded the girl that hurt her neck and spine jumping into a river. My boss Dan, in the blue shirt, is loading some live chickens and other various things into the belly pod.)

The Rest of the Story...

For a few blogs now I have been putting off describing our current situation as a mission organization here in Ecuador. The reason being is that it tends to be complex and changing all the time. So here goes...

We charge for all of our flights. Some people may not be aware of this, but it is true. Although we do charge it is very minimal and highly subsidized. In other words, usually a "customer" just pays a rate that covers fuel and maintenance so we can keep our planes flying. We do not charge to pay for our pilots, and all the other overhead that it takes to operate as MAF. That is what we have our supporters for. And still, there are other flights that are completely free for the "customer" because the government of Ecuador is paying for the flight, for example in the case of emergency flights. Long story short, because we receive payment for our services, that puts us in the commercial category of things here in Ecuador. It is very much the same in the USA. The current law says that every commercial aviation operator in Ecuador must use Ecuadorian nationals. Because we technically fall under the commercial status (i.e. airline) and we don't have any Ecuadorian pilots right now we have had trouble obtaining our operators permit and flying everybody and everything that we have in the past. Because of this, our rates have gone up, and our flying hours down. It is really tough for some of our "customers" that have used our service heavily in the past, but now they either cannot afford it, or they do not qualify for the type of cargo we can haul, that being only missionaries and medivacs. This was also spurned on by other local operators in Shell that always see our planes flying, people always hanging at our gates (customers), and a fleet of very nice and well maintained aircraft and they have used this to say that "the immigrants are taking work from us," when in fact we aren't flying anything that they would, it just appears that way. So these operators have filed complaints against us with the government to do anything to shut us down.

We do employ many Ecuadorians in our hangar for many things. In fact, they do just about everything except fly and manage the program. Even though all of us including myself are mechanics as well, we have 4 certified Ecuadorian mechanics. We also have a variety of office staff, radio personel, ect. So it is not that we do not have Ecuadorians on our staff. In fact, we have even trained Ecuadorians as pilots in the past as well, but the track record is not so good. One was killed in an acident, another left us for the airlines after serving a while, and most recently another just didn't have the skills and aptitude to cut it.

The government has given us an ultimatum that we need to integrate Ecuadorian pilots soon. Next week, in fact, we have a potential prospect coming down to us from Quito to be evaluated. Even if he shows us what we like the work has only just begun. Our MAF USA rules state that all pilots must speak English for obvious reasons. So that would mean that this pilot and subsequent others may have to go to language school like we just did, but in this case it would be English. The other factor, and this seems to be the biggie, is that they would need to build a support team like we have to help them while they are missionaries. This is tough because the mindsets of most churches worldwide do not have the giving and sending mentality that we as Americans have. This is sad, and it is mostly our fault as North American missionaries. We have done great evangelizing the world, but when we leave, it is as though we pulled the life support and usually what existed with American money ceases when the "valve is closed." This isn't because of a lack of national money in whatever country, it is a lack of training and teaching.

There are many examples of other MAF affiliates that started with Americans and are now solely run by nationals. This is great and a fine aspiration for any program, but it is not easy. Some examples of nationally run programs now include Guatemala, Suriname, Mexico, Brazil, and a handfull of others around the world.

Now where I come into play...One MAF family here in Ecuador lives in Quito, and the rest of us here in Shell. The reason someone lives in Quito at this point is mostly logistical. So, the guy that lives there is trying to help me get my appointments for my written flight exams and such. When he showed up the other day at the DAC (F.A.A. equivilant) to ask for my appointment, they acted just as predicted. The wondered why after all the madates they have given us recently for integrating Ecuadorians as pilots, MAF is now sending another North American for licensing. So, that said I do not have my appointments yet, although I do think I will get them, it just may take some time.

In the grand scheme of things, the program that MAF USA has here in Ecuador may look a lot different. It might be totally Ecuadorian controlled and staffed in several years. This is a good thing, although for those of us involved in the "hand over of power" how to go about doing that is often an undefined process.

On the other hand with presidential elections this October, everything could change and we could be allowed to operate as we did in the past and even more so. When you live in the third world, you never know what is going to happen and when. As Americans, we have every base covered, or at least we think we do. We buy insurance for every little thing trying to prevent catastrophy or at least pay for it when it happens. We assume because so and so did somthing a certain way yesterday or 50 years ago, it will still apply. This is called precedence, and it is what most of our laws are based on.

What most of the world operates on is Napoleanic Law, which basically says it doesn't matter what was done in the past, the law is made and created to serve a situation for either a certain person or situation right now. Tommorow it could all change.

So, all that said, pray not only for my licensing process, but also for MAF Ecuador in general, that we would know how to do what is expected of us from all those involved, and still keep the Main Thing the Main Thing -Jesus.

You call that a hearse?

This is a picture of the casket (and body) that I described yesterday that didn't make it to the jungle. Well, today was the day, and first thing this morning off she went. We carry some pretty wierd things sometimes. I was told that when we carry bodies, they are usually wrapped in plastic or a sheet. Not many people can afford a casket.

Today was pretty much the same for me at the hangar. Just kept plodding along trying to study. It is hard to do because of all the "stuff" in trying to even get me an appointment to take my tests. Our goal is next Thursday and Friday to be in Quito, but nothing is in stone yet. I have to get my appointment approved by the Civil Aviation Director, and that may take a while, exp. since I am not Ecuadorian. More on that in a latter blog.

We did feed one of the Boa's today. It was pretty impressive. We had caught a rat in the upstairs of our hangar and let him have it. It had been about a month and a half almost exactly since he ate last. That rat was killed and eaten in no time. The event seems to be kind of a tradition in the hangar as all of the staff gather around to watch nature at work.

When we woke up this morning the sky was pretty clear and we were able to see about 3 of the nearest active volcanoes. All are capped with snow, and they are frankly an awe-inspiring site. I took some pictures but I will wait to take some more since it was still pretty dark. It is a display of contrasts to me to be in the jungle and then see a lot of snow capped peak off in the distance. I guess there is winter on the equator, you just have to be in the right place.

A few more pics...

This is one of 5 bridges in Shell. This foot bridge is a shortcut on the way to work and leads through HCJB World Radio's "compound." It is very fun to walk across and over the middle of the river you are at leasts 100 feet over the water. You really feel like you are in the jungle when you walk over it because the foilage is so thick.
This is just a moth I found in the road on my walk home from the hangar. I put it on the poinseta tree in our front yard for a backdrop. It was pretty big. There will be more insect pictures for sure coming to this blog!

This is Brooklyn reading to her new best friends. How can you resist 6 puppy dog eyes telling you they want to stay inside and play.

Today was a busy time in the hangar. Did we mention that it rains in the jungle? The past two days we haven't been able to fly, so today everyone was really busy. In fact we were so busy a family had to call an ambulance to come and pick up thier dead person that was in a casket awaiting delivery to the jungle for burial. They don't imbalm their dead here, so usually the next day after a death the funeral happens or it is an ugly site, probably smelly too. I reckon the ambulance showed up to put the dead person on ice or something for the night until the flight can be made tommorow. I was busy studying all afternoon. I did also help unload one of the planes as it arrived for the night. It was carrying the pilot and his passenger, a local dentist, and all of his tools. There wasn't an extra inch in that airplane. There were 2 propane bottles, a makeshift aircompressor (dentist remember), several large storage containers, and a few other things. That little Cessna was packed.

Tommorow I will be back at the hangar to continue studying and getting the feel of how things happen in the hangar. It has sure been refreshing, although I am still ground sick and cannot wait to start flying again. That will happen after I get my Ecuadorian License hopefully next week. So it shouldn't be to long until I smell that rare air again. Ahhh!

By the way, Jarod Altic, when are you bringing a work team down from your church?

A day in the life...

When we were raising our support, people always asked me what I'd be doing while Sean was away flying. Well, I just experienced my first real missionary wife day and I can finally answer that question. One thing is for sure - I'm exhausted. I may have had a bit of culture shock today, although I told Sean I think it was more of reality shock! I hadn't had to worry about our meals since we got here (or shopping) because fellow MAFers have been having us over for dinner. I didn't have to do much cooking or extra work in Costa Rica for the entire past year. But today... (warning this is a long one)

The day started out at 5:30 a.m. We like to get up early, have a little quiet time and pray together before Brooklyn wakes up. By quarter to seven, I was fixing us some breakfast (I promised Sean I'd start doing that for him in Ecuador and here we finally are so...) We ate together as a family and then Brooklyn and I gave Sean a ride in to the hangar so he could pray with the guys and study for his upcoming licensing exams. Brooklyn and I came back home and I quickly cleaned up around the house and got us ready for the day.

At 9:30 I headed back out with Brooklyn in the truck to pick up another MAF gal so she could show me around Puyo which is about 7 or 8 miles away. Puyo is the "big city" compared to Shell. We stopped at the bank to get cash and then headed to a little grocery store that has good prices and more things available. HA! I must admit that the little rusty, handmade grocery cart had me worried before I even completely entered the store which had a whole 4 aisles. Brooklyn was also way out of hand. At one point she hit me with a toy airplane and now my knuckle is actually bruised. We're going through a bit of a re-adjustment on the boundaries...but that is another story.

I found a good majority of what I needed but we're not talking about much here - I still have more stops to make before I have my short list taken care of. Anyway, after shopping we hurried back home and put away the groceries before running back to the hangar to get Sean. We came back home and ate lunch together before I had to take Sean back in - need I say that I can't wait for our shipment to come in so that he can ride his bike to work?! Brooklyn was falling asleep on me by the time we got home. I laid her down for her nap and then found myself cleaning up more dishes and starting some bread dough in the bread machine (praise the Lord for a bread machine!). I spent some time catching up on paperwork and writing/making some thank you cards. I made that dough into some Focaccia bread and cleaned up again around the house before I grabbed Brooklyn out of her bed, threw her in the truck and headed over to the produce market (the truck came in today). I spent some time at the market and got just about everything I needed there. Things were very dirty but fresh and you can't beat the price. I caught Brooklyn eating some dirty strawberries...so far she's not sick! After handing over my $5 for carrots, sweet peppers, garlic, tomatoes, lettuce, pineapple, strawberries, apples, and maracuya (passion fruit that makes a great juice) I ran off to the hangar yet again to pick Sean up.

We gave another pilot a lift home and I headed straight to the kitchen when we got home to start dinner. Much to my dismay I discovered that the chicken breasts I had bought weren't quite what I'm used to. They basically chopped off the front halves of a couple of chickens and froze it. I had to skin and de-bone the chicken myself (not that hard but I wasn't in the mood). At the same time I was trying to toast some bread for dry bread crumbs and soak the lettuce in a special disinfectant, boil some water for noodles, and keep a very grumpy Brooklyn from eating all the margarine. But the Focaccia bread was already done and it served well as an appetizer while I tried to get myself oriented in somebody else's kitchen! Only a two hours, a few minor spills, several exclamations of "where is the..." or "I thought I saw...", one pulled thumb muscle, and about 500 dishes later... WAH-LAH! Dinner! Baked parmesan chicken, noodles, tomato sauce, salad and bread. Our first meal made by me in Shell, Ecuador. Whew!

The work didn't end there. Then it was time to finish cleaning and disinfecting all the other produce I bought, cut up the fruit for a fruit salad, clean the kitchen up, and give Brooklyn a shower and get her to bed. I still have a pile of dishes waiting for me but I wanted to sit down for a minute! It may sound like Sean didn't help me but he actually helped clean up the kitchen plus did about a million other little jobs that needed to get done this evening.

I can't believe how my day filled up so much with the making of one simple meal. Granted, I did pick a more labor intensive meal - although, I don't know what options I had, it seems to be you either make a meal from scratch, you eat out, or you starve! I did buy the wrong kind of chicken breast - the skinless, boneless kind is available here usually and that would have helped me get things done quicker. It was market day, so I had that added bit of work with the produce. I don't know the kitchen yet so I took lots of extra steps. And, basically, I'm a complete novice at this cooking from scratch thing. I know it will get better with practice - fortunately, I have the rest of our missionary career to figure it out. But now I udnerstand why the missionary friend I visited here in Ecuador years ago used to start dinner at 3:00 p.m.! Grandma, I know you always did this and more. I always knew you were a hard worker but now I have a new, profound respect for what you did all those years on the farm!

Tomorrow, the butcher!

Hangar Life

This is the front of our hangar as it opens to the runway. Currently our fleet consists of 5 Cessna 206 aircraft. By the end of this month we will have reduced our fleet in Ecuador down to 4 planes. We will actually have only 3 during part of the month, as one of our airplanes is being flown to Kansas, USA to be exchanged for a different one. The other airplane will soon be on its way to Lesotho, Africa to be part of the program there.

This is the side view of our Hangar. You can see a few of the various offices and the stairs that lead to some storage. Also our gas pump where we fuel all of our planes.

Ron Grant, our fix anything/do it all guy, with one of our two red tailed boa contrictors. We have these two snakes in the hangar in plane view in a large viewing container. We feed them every 6 weeks or so. The meal usually consists of a chicken or a rat. This one is the biggest of the two and at least 5 years old and probably around 5-6 feet long. Come and see us and we will be sure to let you hold it. :)

Today I went to the hangar to begin to see what takes place. I am not expected to be at "work" yet but we are basically settled into our house and I wanted something to do. We always begin work and our day with prayer in the hangar. That is always a special time to gather all of our staff and our national workers and unite briefly each day to reflect on what we are there for. We did recieve the "battle plan" from my boss as to when I need to be at work and the things I need to get before I can fly. It looks like next week we are going to Quito and I will take all my written flight exams for my re-licensing of my commercial and instrument pilot licenses. Yes, they will all be in Spanish. There are 9 total tests. Pray for me as I study this week and presumably this weekend as well. Begin to pray with us as well that when DAC (Ecuador's FAA) sees me that they are understanding as to why I am there asking for a license and not a national Ecuadorian. Some day in a latter blog I will go into a little more detail about our current situation with the government and our ability to fly in Ecuador. It continues to get very complicated. We also had our last "free" dinner tonite. Fellow MAF families have been having us over to their homes since we arrived here to eat dinner and get to know us. Tommorow we will have to take another step into the real world and make dinner for ourselves.

Our first Sunday

This is a picture of a mango tree at our hotel in Costa Rica. The mangos were really in season when we left, and they are so beautiful to see.

Close up of the mango fruit on the tree.

We got up this morning and finally cooked a meal for ourselves. We have been eating at peoples homes, or out a a box (i.e. Cereal) so it was nice to get going on the right foot under our own power. We did attend church this morning and had a good time. There are many churches to choose from so we will probably "church hop" for a few weeks and decicate it all to prayer to see where the Lord would have us attend. I played basketball this afternoon with some fellow MAF'ers and thier kids. It was a good time but I havn't sweat that much for a long time. Rather than eating out tonite at someone's home, our food was brought to us, although is was already prepared. Tommorow we have a big meeting in the afternoon with all our MAF staff. It is our annual meeting to evaluate what we do and how to go about doing it. It will be nice to learn such things ourselves, as we aren't aware of the things making our ministry here easy or hard. It was great to walk through town this afternoon and realize where we are. Shell is very rustic, yet we don't lack anything. It has the feel of being at the end of the Earth, but you know it really isn't. It is very surreal to see the 21rst Century still clashing with the past. It is actually really liberating to see how people can actually live without cell phones, fast food, 1 hour photo, and every other "convinience" that we strive for. I wouldn't lie and try to say the life in Shell is for everybody because it is not. But for the way the Lord has crafted Rebecca and I, we are finding ourselves very much at home, even after a few days.

A few new pics

This is the front of our house. It has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. It is a very nice house. On the roof thier is a bodega (shed/workshop) as well as a basketball hoop. I was able to see the stars last night very clearly for the first time since we left the clear dry air of southern Colorado. Awesome!

This is the front yard. The tree by Brooklyn is a poinseta. Yes, the same plant that you all buy around Christmas in little pots. Amazing what the rainforest environment and living 2 degrees south of the equator will do huh?

This is Brooklyn and her new best friends. These two dogs are named (from left to right) Sadie and Bedje (pronounced Becha). They are two of the neatest dogs I have EVER seen, and that they still like Brooklyn after all of her playing and pulling ect. is a testament to thier patience.

Thought you would all like to see a little bit of where we live. These pictures are just basic of around the house. I will be sure to be taking a lot of pictures so everyone can see what this part of the world is like, and the people that live here. The numerous ACTIVE volcanoes are awe-inspiring if you can get a picture of them. They are usually in the clouds since many of their tops are above 18,000 feet.

We're here????

We are safe and sound in Shell, Ecuador. "I don't believe it" doesn't even begin to describe how we feel right now. Our drive down from Quito was long...we were traveling with kids, you know! It took us 8 hours to get here, although the drive itself is just over 5 hours. We stopped in a town about two hours from Shell where there is a nice, new supermarket. It was important that we apply for our "Mega Maxi" shopping cards before we will be allowed to buy anything. We did do a little bit of shopping but didn't get much. I (Becca) will probably make a trip up there every month or every other month to get items that can't be found in Shell.

It was a beautiful drive. We've been down that road before on previous visits to Ecuador but we were amazed at how much the road has improved. Even compared to Costa Rica, we found this road very nice. There has been a lot of devolpment in Shell in recent years so it was hard to recognize the Ecuador that we had seen 6 years ago. But it did all seem vaguely familiar and I felt like I had finally arrived home after being away for a long time. Ecuador definately holds a very special place in our hearts, so returning to be real MAF missionaries here is something very special!

Our new "home" is very comfortable. We're house-sitting for another family and so we were welcomed into an already "homey" house complete with 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a car! Brooklyn is in heaven with the two dogs (Sadie and Betje) and the one cat that will let her touch it (Callie). She has been playing non-stop with the animals since we arrived. Sadie is a Cocker Spaniel and Betje is German Sheperd and they are both just as sweet as can be...i.e. extremely patient with Brooklyn pestering them even as they try to nap! Sean and I love the house and already we feel very at home here. We don't know how long we'll be here but it could be up to a whole year. The Rogers may have a very difficult time kicking us out of their house when they come back!!

It all comes down to this reality...we're here. And we're living here! It hasn't sunk in just yet and I don't think it will for a while. It is time for "real" life to begin again - time for Sean to go back to work on airplanes and flying while I stay home with Brooklyn and try to figure out how to be a "domestic engineer" all over again in a completely different culture, country, and lifestyle! After a very unique year in language school, the normal, every day tasks of work and life seem a bit daunting. We've been in a world of school and studying..... and not much else. But we are ready to begin this new life and to find some kind of stability for our family. We realize that will probably take some time, though - so continue to pray for us!

Ya hemos llegado (We have arrived)

Praise the Lord!!! I now write this from our MAF apartment in Quito, Ecuador. Everything went flawless with our travels and we had a great time. We were greated in Quito by rain (of course) and about 3 of our teammates here to get us setup for the night. We will be off to dinner soon at the homeof one of our fellow MAF'ers. It looks like it will be a big crew, as circumstances would have it there are a lot of our staff here this weekend in Quito. We will be sure to keep you all informed of what will be happening the next few days. It is sure to prove adventurous. We leave for our "permanent" home in the morning at around 9am. Continue to pray for us as well as the DiCrasto's that traveled with us from Costa Rica as we get settled into our new life. It was sure awesome to return and begin the see the awesome Andes Mountains and the little Ecuadorians. Our hearts our beyond excited and extremely content with where we are and what the Lord has us doing. Talk to you later...

Leaving on a Jet Plane...(Yeeee Haaaa!)

We just got finished eating what might be our last ever Costa Rican meal. It was what they call Gallo Pinto, basically rice and beans. Our ride from the hotel to the airport leaves in 45 minutes. We should be able to update everyone later today after we arrive in Quito, Ecuador, but we can't make any promises. For all we know it could be next week until we are able to update. Until then, join with us as we praise the Master for this exciting day, as well as praying for all this day holds and those that follow. We are scheduled to drive down to our new town of Shell, Ecuador tommorow. Lots of traveling and changes...again!

In Transition

We are sitting in our hotel room right now. This morning we finished some last minute packing and organizing before we had a quick breakfast with Isabel, our maid. She just returned yesterday from a trip to the United States to raise support for her missions in Mexico. Although it was sad to say good-bye, there was a great deal of joy and celebration because Isabel herself is soon to head off on a missionary journey in May. We enjoyed hearing her perspective on the US (it was her first trip) and it was such a joy to hear how God provided her support as well.

We got to the hotel at lunch time. After eating a quick lunch, we went swimming in the pool. We didn't spend much time there because it was TOO cold. Although it was very warm outside, the pool had not had time to get warm. Brooklyn played hard and was then ready to take a long nap (as were we). Really, the timing was perfect since it started raining very hard as soon as we came in. The electricity went off after a particularly fierce thunder boom....but we all slept peacefully anyway!

Tonight we are going out to dinner with our fellow MAFers. The Dicksons are here to stay in Costa Rica but the DiCrastos will be traveling with us tomorrow.

We leave the hotel tomorrow at around 7:30 in the morning. Our flight won't leave until 10:30 am. We'll arrive in Quito, Ecuador at 1:30 (CST). It seems so unreal that we're doing this but we sure are having fun! Thanks for your prayers. We will let you know as soon as we can that we have arrived safely in Ecuador.

P.S. I'm still deaf and pregnant! Somehow not being able to hear out of one ear makes me feel even more dumb and clumsy. Great. Just pray that somehow the change in altitude in the plane would pop that stupid wax plug out (without hurting me, of course) : ) I'm just nervous about arriving in Ecuador and struggling to understand their Spanish accents anyway, let alone if they speak into the wrong ear!

Packing...

• Well...It is done. I just got finished packing all of our stuff into 8 trunks ready for thier flight to Ecuador. We actually have a bit of room left so we are going to take some of our comrades some coffee, and also go buy some new umbrellas for us. I don't think I had owned 2 umbrellas in my whole life, and then we came here and we have had at least 6 just this year. We only have about 3/4 of one right now, in other words it has seen better days and is basically a piece of junk. The other 5 or so ran off in the back of taxi cabs. We are still in the dry season here in Costa Rica so it really hasn't rained since January. But there are only 2 seasons in Shell, Ecuador, wet and wetter. So we want to have a little protection with some new umbrellas when we get there.
• Yesterday at church was pretty awesome. The church knew it was the last Sunday for us as well as our fellow classmates. So they had a nice service and they had us all share a little bit, and then they all gathered around us and "commisioned" us, sending us to all the various parts of Latin America with prayer. It was pretty awesome, there was a sweet prescence of the Spirit there.
• After church we went to eat lunch with some friends which was a good time, although Becca just about got splatted as she crossed the street afterwards. We were going to hail a cab to get home, but the best spot was across the street, which meant we had to cross two lanes of traffic, some railroad tracks, and then two more lanes of traffic. We all made it across the first two lanes just fine. We all stood on the railroad tracks waiting for a time to cross the other 2 lanes and we all made it except for Becca and one of Brookln's stupid flip-flops which fell into the middle of the road (I had Brooklyn in my arms). I didn't even know that Brooklyn had lost her shoe, until our friends told me and just then I looked back onto the road to see it get run over twice. (That part was pretty funny really.) Also this whole time there is this really really loud horn sounding from somewhere. You must understand, loud horns and thier various rythms and chimes are very common so I didn't think anything of it. Also, every single railroad track that I have seen here has been out of use for many years. You now may know where I am heading with this. Becca is still out on her "island" made of the only working railroad in San Jose, that loud horn is the train coming, and she cannot cross into either the lanes behind her or in front of her because of vehicle traffic. Obviously she made it to the other side or else I wouldn't be writing this, but she did almost get hit by a bus trying to get Brooklyn's stupid flip-flop in the middle of the lane. Anyway, lesson to self, a horn that sounds like a train just might be. (That was the first train we had seen since we were in the States over a year ago. We had lost our fear of railroad tracks and trains thinking they didn't exsist here. DUH!)
• To continue this sad (or funny depending on your perspective) Becca story did you know she is going deaf? When we got our physicals for our visas about a month ago the doctor told Rebecca that she had a wax plug in her left ear. No big deal, just put this "potion X" in your ear and it will all disolve and drain out. Well, now her ear is more plugged than ever after putting in "the potion" and she ends up talking a little louder and tilting her head to hear you. It is kinda funny. She did tell me that is feels less plugged up and is clearing out today. Keep praying for my beautiful pregnant deaf wife. :)
• I also read somehthing neat on the internet the other day. I tested this in our Spanish classes last week and it worked there also. The toerhy syas taht we can bclliaasy udntsraed any wrod as lnog as the fsrit and lsat ltetres are in tiehr paelcs. Our minds automatically correct for what we see and they read it correctly. Isn't God's creation of the human body and mind amazing?! Of course if you are dislexic (sp?), this may be a problem.
• On a final point, Costa Rica had their "Super Bowl" of soccer this past Saturday between the two best national teams. I really wanted to go but I couldn't find anybody that wanted to go with me. Supposedly those type of games, they are called "Classicos," are very crazy. If you are able to go, watch, and return to your house without any infraction or seeing something crazy, then you consider it almost a miracle. There are fans that go just to fight. Whether their team wins or loses, they will fight before, during, and after the game. If the ref's make a bad call, it is common for people to throw bags of urine, bottles, toilet paper, whatever, on the rest of the crowd. All this crazyness exists and alcohol isn't even allowed in the stadiums, unlike almost every sporting event in the States. So needless to say I watched it from the comfort of my home, and it was still crazy, because all the surrounding community lit fireworks upon every goal, yelled in unison with refiree calls and goals, and generally they were just loud. It is pretty neat to see the PASSION for futbol (soccer) that the Latins have. I'm sure nothing will change in Ecuador. By the way dad, Sapprisa beat La Liga 2-1.

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sean!!!

Today is the big day. I am very thankful that Sean was born 26 years ago!! Seriously. I couldn't be more proud of my hubby. He's worked very hard to be where he is. He's so organized, so goal-oriented, so persevering. When I would have thrown in the towel and said "forget it" he kept plugging along. And here we are, 5 days away from beginning our ministry in Ecuador. He's had a difficult year - no flying and nothing but school - but he doesn't whine like I would (and do)! Instead he tackled this language learning stuff with his usual determination and is now a proficient Spanish speaker. Looking at where he started a year ago, I can tell you that of all the students that began in our trimester a year ago, Sean has improved the most drastically. It might have something to do with the fact that Sean is such a friendly, talkative guy. He never let a silly thing like language keep him from making friends and talking to people wherever he goes! Because he was willing to put himself out there to "practice" so much, he improved very quickly.

Not only is Sean a hard worker but he is, most importantly, a faitful servant of the King. He's always been my encourager in the faith. A wife really appreciates it when her husband wants to pray with her every morning. Sean takes his role as "priest" of this family very seriously and I appreciate that more than I can express with mere words. And knowing that he is seeking God, looking to Him for strength and answers to the issues of life makes me confident that the decision he makes are out of Godly wisdom. I know that not every woman is able to say that about her husband and I praise God that I can say it with complete confidence!

I'm proud of you, Sean. And I'm so blessed that God gave me such a wonderful man to live out the rest of my days with. Happy Birthday!

The Real Countdown Begins

So, we're down to just 5 more days in Costa Rica. This is one of those times in my life when I just have to keep telling myself that this is real. I feel like I'm just fooling myself or lying outright to anybody that I talk to about our departure from Costa Rica. Does Ecuador really exist anyway? Yeah, I know we get emails from there but it could all be a very cruel joke couldn't it?

We finished our last day of school yesterday. There are classes on Monday but we aren't required to go. In fact, our teachers sort of hinted that they don't want us to come to class that day! It's probably because they've been trying to figure out what to do with us for the past month anyway. Other classes are still finishing up the book but our class has been done with that for quite a while. Our poor teachers seem to feel kind of frustrated trying to keep us busy when there just isn't any more material to cover! Sure, we keep practicing speaking but these poor teachers have heard every boring detail of our lives more than once. They get a pretty glazed-over, far away look in their eyes every time we start to tell a story.

Our class had a party yesterday to say good-bye. We presented our two teachers with gift certificates to a nice department store here and a thank you card. They seemed very touched. It was weird to say good-bye, to realize that this stage of the game is really over. All that is left is the graduation on Tuesday.

We're trying to pack. We can't seem to get motivated just yet. It seems kind of early! Sean and I have never tackled anything big (such as packing) very early. When we moved here we were packing the night before we left. We seem to work best under pressure! Well, we do still need most of our things. I'm finishing up some laundry so we can start packing away some clothes. In a way, it still feels like a waste of time to pack...is isn't like we're really moving to Ecuador in 5 days anyway. Funny how you look forward to something for so long that when it really comes you can't believe it could possibly be real.

Keep praying for Brooklyn especially. She's a little out of sorts. Her life is not "normal" right now. We've told her several times about our new house in Ecuador and she's actually very excited about it. She tells us all the details about our new house when she gets talkative. But she doesn't really understand what a move like that means. She's going to miss going to kinder, playing with friends and teachers that shower her with love. All her toys are about to be packed away for a while, she's not going to like that. Mom and Dad are busy and don't like it when she grabs things that are put in a special pile. And when we get to Ecuador, she's going to have to stay home with boring old Mom all day! I may be looking forward to that, but I have a feeling Brooklyn will be a little disappointed with the way I organize her day in comparison to her teachers (who, by the way, are energetic and get paid to make her day fun)!

Countdown...

We only have 1 week left here in Costa Rica!!! We are beyond excited to make our next move to Ecuador. We have not been doing much of anything in school or afterwards, so we are really looking forward to having something to do (i.e. a job). Tommorow at the school we have a schoolwide garage sale in which we hope to sell most of everything we have adquired this year. It doesn't amount to much, and we won't walk off rich afterwards, but at least we will have that much less to pack. That is our plan this weekend, to pack our things. We do still have school Monday but we have already decided that we are not going. So that leaves tommorow as our last day of Spanish Language School! Today at school for Brooklyn they filled up a few of those portable swimming pools and let the kids at it. Supposedly Brooklyn was the first in and the last out. She loves to be in the water and "swim." Because of that we are all looking forward to staying our last night here in Costa Rica at a hotel which does have a pool, and having a time to "relax" before the big move.

Also, you may have noticed I put some links on the sidebar of our blog a few nights ago. Hopefully these will help if people have interest in what we do with MAF and the various ways to be part of it's ministry. Check them out!

Yo quiero Taco Bell...

• As we told you a few weeks ago, we took an exit exam. Today we recieved the results. I think we were both pleased with our results, although they still have to be taken with a grain of salt. The results we received are still someone's opinion, the test was not an objective one, it was very relative. That said, my "level" of Spanish is considered Advanced Low. Rebecca recieved an Advanced Medium. The only other levels higher than us are Advanced High, and then the Superior level, which practically nobody receives. What the Advanced level signifies is that you can converse about practically any subject in a manner that makes sense, as well as understand a complex speaker as well. While it is great to have reached the "Advanced" level, we both know we have tons of work to do, and there is always more to learn. In fact, when we arrive in Ecuador in about a week, we will be learning all over. How the Ecuadorians talk, what their accent sounds like, their sayings, ect. are all going to be part of our new learning process. That is fine, it is all part of the process.

• Tonite we also had a little party at the house of one of our classmates. Most of the people that started school with us a year ago were there, and it was neat to have one last shindig and pray for each other. Among our class, people will be serving in Mexico all the way down to Argentina. It was neat to see all the comraderie (sp?) and especially how the Lord uses all of us in our individual ways and ministries. But, the hard part of being a missionary has begun once again, and that is the good-bye part. But we all leave in the hope and promise that one day soon we will all be together gathered around the One who called us together in the first place.

Sacrilege or Sacrament?

Okay, so what did we do to celebrate Easter? We gave Brooklyn a small Easter basket complete with stuffed bunny and jelly beans sent from the United States. We went to church. We had an Easter Egg hunt. We ate at "Denny's".......

"Denny's" on Easter Sunday? I know, it sounds horrible but you have to understand. First of all, because it is kind of far away, we never go there. Second, it's as "American" as you can get - something we all crave being so far from home on this special holiday. Third, they give you free refills (completely unheard of in most restaurants in Costa Rica). Fourth, there is no way I'm cooking when we're in the process of sorting, pricing, and selling just about everything in our house. So, "Denny's" it was. It was a very good meal, by the way.

I'll admit that I would have rather been sitting around Mom's big dining room table eating ham, potato casserole, layered salad, deviled eggs and homemade rolls. Mom usually invited old family friends or neighbors over and we'd all spend hours talking around the table. It would be getting warmer outside, Dad would probably saddle up Camper and we'd take turns riding the horse around the lot. If we did an egg hung, Jake the dog would be right there with us nosing around the yard for one of those stinky hot pink eggs. We'd lay around on the nice, soft sofa. Maybe take a nap. Later we'd warm up the left-overs, make a small ham sandwich with a homemade roll and a small slice of ham.

Of course, Mom and Dad are actually in Kansas (I wouldn't mind being there visiting Grandma, either, by the way). Jake is now in doggy heaven. It's probably still too cold to ride a horse anyway. And I really never was a huge fan of ham either. And, Mom told me she got rid of that nice sofa I was thinking about taking a nap on.

I'm probably more sentimental about not being home for this day than I have been about any of the other holidays that we've spent away from "home." That is probably because this is our second Easter away from home (last year we were in California at MAF headquarters doing training - we ate at the "Macaroni Grill" last year)! Something about that makes it more real to me that we really have moved, that "home" is not Colorado anymore. We've been away from "home" for well over a year now - longer than we've lived outside of the San Luis Valley in our lives. "Home" is now wherever we are and it's our turn as parents to make family traditions that our children will someday remember. That is a fun aspect of where we are. To Brooklyn this is normal. She's going to remember some very extraordinary holidays in South America!

I don't want you to think that I'm sad or miserable! No, today was very fun and very special. We had a great time at church today. We worshipped in Spanish, we understood the pastor's message about the real importance of this day - the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and we have true victory! We can count on every promise in the Bible because He rose from the dead. We have hope! We're not slaves to sin, but we are free! We celebrated Resurrection Day in a language that is not our own but that is fast becoming a very dear part of who we are. We ate out with friends that we will have the joy of working with in Ecuador, people who truly have become our "family away from family." It is time for new traditions, new memories, new friends, and even a new language!

And it is almost time for yet another new home in a new country. We can't wait! Did you know we're down to 10 days before we leave for Ecuador? Our dream is very close to becoming a reality after more than 6 years of hard work. God is indeed very good!

4/15/2006

• We have sure been bored lately. With our time winding down (11days left in C.R.) we cannot go anywhere, cannot spend money, and are trying to use what we have in the kitchen so we don't buy food we won't use.
• We did go downtown today to buy some things. We realized it will probably be our last time to that part of San Jose and it didn't really break our hearts. As we ate our lunch (Quizno's, it was great!) and watched all the people, we were just assured again that cities are not our preference. The town of Shell where we are moving to in Ecuador is no more than 10,000 people, maybe less, and that suits us just fine.
• Brooklyn's vocab continues to expand, as does her ability to put together a complete sentance. With the abundance of dog log (puppy poo) eveywhere, sidewalks, parks, streets, ect, Brooklyn has added a new sentance. "Look Dada, puppy poopoo. Guacala"
• The word "Guacala" (think guacamole for pronunciation) for those of you wondering is Spanish. It basically translates as gross, yuck, and icky all in the same package. How is that for a deal?
• Tommorow we have an interesting Easter Lunch planned. Rather that spill all the news now, we will wait to see how it goes before we say to much. I will give you this hint..."Grand Slam."

When things go bump in the night...

To remind those of you who forgot, or those who don't know, this is "Semana Santa" here in Latin America, or Holy Week. Try to imagine Spring Break in Florida, except the whole country is on spring break, not just the crazy college kids. Therefore, this time of the year doesn't have a very "holy" reputation. We have heard from our friends that the roads aren't safe, there are always crazy people out, ect. Try to imagine Labor Day weekend in the States for about 10 straight days. That is probably a good comparison. OK now where am I going with all of this...? At about 2:30 this morning I was startled awake to the sound of a loud crash, and what sounded like our front gate clanging on its hinges. I quickly ran to the window to see what was happening and there was a car turning around in front of our house. Our gate seemed to be intact, and no one was breaking in, so I went back to bed, and fell asleep about 45 minutes later after the adrinaline wore off. When I woke up this morning sure enough that car had run into our gate and smashed it into a concrete supporting structure. Ultimately, it made more noise than damage, and after a little bending and pulling, our gate works and even looks fine. Later this morning I was telling our street guard Jose about the whole story, about how someone basically ran into our house, and he didn't even crack a smile. He said "oh yeah, the last time this happened was a lot worse. I had to got get a big metal bar to pry the gate back into place, and then I spent a while trying to straighten everything out." In other words, this is a common occurance, yet not frequent. You never know what a day will bring.

A Few Thoughts

• This has been bothering me. Where do we get seeds for seedless grapes? Or for any "seedless" fruit for that matter?
• I found all the ingredients to make a taco salad. This is a family thing, not really Mexican at all but such a mainstay during my childhood that I've really been missing it. I told my mom it was like the stars have aligned or something since I was able to find everything I needed. You have no idea how hard it is to find everything necessary at one time to make good, old-fashioned Clark Family Taco Salad. A big deal - I had been searching for something like two months for all the right stuff. It was was VERY good. Whew. I might survive this overseas living stuff!
• I think Sean and I might be losing our English skills. The other day Sean was about to tell someone that we were on the footstool of Ecuador. That would be doorstep. But together we make a very bad mix. Tonight's conversation... Sean, after I confessed that I might be kind of a dork:"Rebecca, I knew I married you on reason." Me, thinking I'm being smart but instead falling into the trap:"Thanks, Sean, I married you for your lingwish skills." You may not be laughing. That's okay, maybe you had to be here...
• We went to our househelper Isabel's house tonight. It was a special time. She cooked us a nice dinner. We had a great time using our Spanish for the first time this week! Two of her sons, a daughter-in-law, and a grandbaby were there also. Brooklyn loved their little dog! It was neat to see her home, which was very cozy though simple. She built that house from the ground up, all by herself, while working and caring for her 5 children. She has some pretty awesome stories of how God provided every room, and every piece of furniture little by little over the years. God is indeed very good. We probably won't see her again before we leave. She'll be in the States for the next two weeks, raising support for her mission work in Mexico. We're going to miss her.

• Brooklyn is getting bored being home with Mommy and Daddy all day. We caught her playing in some paints we had thrown into our "sell or give away" pile.
• We found out today that we won't be moving into the house we thought we were in Ecuador. Instead, we're going to "house-sit" for another MAF family for a while. It will work out well for us - we'll have a car to use right away and more time to buy our own stuff without the pressure. The drawback, of course, is that it is temporary. But we see it as God just doing something bigger than we can see. He's never failed us before! And after seeing how he provided even the simplest things for Isabel, we can't doubt that He knows our needs and wants to take good care of His children. So, we're looking at possibly up to another year in a "temporary" situation. Guess when you look at it from Eternity's side, all our years here on Earth are temporary anyway.

They have arrived...

Praise the Lord!!! The highlight of our day was going to the Ecuadorian Embassy and finally receiving our missionary visas. It has been a long and drawn out battle, about 2 months, but we have them now. Also we have our shipment list aproved which will enable us to get the shipment out of customs in Ecuador tax free. And now, I just got done buying our airplane tickets to Quito for the 27th of April, just over two weeks away. The funnest part about the tickets is they are First Class. I upgraded because we get to take 3 bags instead of the allowable 2 in Economy Class. We are going to have to take a few extra things, and upgrading to 1rst Class enables us to take the extra luggage and save $20. Hows that for a bargain?! As we look over the whole visa process, the ups and downs, we realized that the folks at the embassy were really on our side the whole time. Many of our personel in Latin America are new to their posts, and because of this we were given wrong information or documents that ultimatly delayed the process. Thankfully, the folks at the Embassy were patient with us and continued to tell us what we needed and how to go about getting it. In the end, it is only important that we have them before we have to leave for Ecuador, which 2 hours or 2 weeks, it is the same difference.

We have been enjoying a fairly busy and productive week "off" from school. We are starting the packing process and are also busy with dinners and meetings and things. This is good, as the alternative boredom is enough to kill a man.

I have also been logging some serious hours on the ol' Microsoft Flight Simulator lately. This has helped dust a few of the cobwebs off, although there "ain't nothing like the real thing baby..."

Its getting close...

Yeserday at school we had our "exit exams." They are similar to a final exam, except they are not counted as part of your final grade. They are used to determine your current speaking level in Spanish. We will let you know what ours turn out to be. Really, it is still very subjective. We could have had a bad or a good day, the teacher performing the oral test with us could have thought we did better or worse than we really did. So luckily it doesn't really matter, although we may be able to use our year of Spanish here to add to a degree as a minor with some schools, and that is where this official test comes to play.

We are now just under 3 weeks out from leaving for Ecuador. We are stinking EXCITED!!! Now that the visa process seems to be under control, we have really felt released to start thinking that all these years of work are really going to put us in Ecuador doing exactly what we have trained and prepared for. This coming week is vacation for us, so we are going to pack and get our things in order. Pray that Becca and I get along good as we pack. We joke with each other about packing, but for those of you who have packed anything (who hasn't?) then you know it can be stressfull.

On a lighter note...We locked ourselves out of our house today, well kind of. You see, we had our keys with us, but there was also the other set of keys in the other side of the lock, which prevented us from turning the deadbolt from the outside. The locks here are a bit different than in the states, and our front door is the ONLY way to get in and out of our house, so we couldn't just go "around to the back." What I ended up doing was removing 2 small panes of glass from our louvers, cutting the screen (never know when you'll need your Leatherman), and using a long piece of metal to kind of jingle the keys on the inside loose. Thanks to Jose our street gaurd for his help and the metal "thingy" he supplied. All in all, it took us about 5-10 minutes to get into our house and we can now chalk up another "don't do that again stupid."

Good News

The visa process is looking good! Sean just went to the embassy today to take yet another document in. It was the one apparently that they've been looking for all this time. They gave us and the other MAF family here going to Ecuador an appointment for 2:30 pm on Tuesday to go in and get our visas. Although we still don't have the visas in hand it is pretty certain that we will have them on Tuesday of next week. Thank You, Lord! But keep praying...we're a little nervous about any little snag coming up until we actually have the visas in our hands!

Tomorrow is our big oral exam. It doesn't affect our grades but will tell us where we are as far as our Spanish speaking abilities. We're not particularly nervous about it - but, of course, would love to come out with high scores. Ultimately how well we do isn't what is important. We were told when we first arrived by our Regional Director that we would leave here with the basic tools to use in really learning the language over the next 5 years. So we're at least on our way!

Also, tomorrow is a big celebration for Dia de Juan Santamaria. The actual holiday is on April 11 but since we won't be in class that day, they want to have a celebration at the school tomorrow. Juan Santamaria is one of the very few Costa Rican heroes. He was a 15 year old boy that burned down a house where a bunch of misguided Americans were holed up. The "misguided" Americans were "Filabusters" - mercenaries from the South of the United States looking for more slaves. (No, the US government did not send them here, they were acting on their own.) This all happened in the 1850's, I believe. Although poor Juan died in his effort and the Filabusters escaped, he is revered as a national hero. Eventually the Filabusters were either killed or chased off and the people of Costa Rica and Nicaragua were not enslaved. Costa Rica does not have much of a military background (they don't even have a military now) and they have very few wars in their past so this is a big deal to folks down here. So, tomorrow we celebrate! It should be fun - a big assembly and then a drama acted out by some of the students and teachers.

The Truth about Pregnancy

Sean's aunt forwarded this to us and it's just too good (and too true) not to share it with everyone! This one really hits home for me...and I suspect for my sister, as well, who is 7 months pregnant.

Pregnancy Q & A & more!

Q: Should I have a baby after 35?
A: No, 35 children is enough.

Q: I'm two months pregnant now. When will my baby move?
A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.

Q: What is the most reliable method to determine a baby's sex?
A: Childbirth.

Q: My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she's
borderline irrational.
A: So what's your question?

Q: My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor,
but pressure. Is she right?
A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.

Q: When is the best time to get an epidural?
A: Right after you find out you're pregnant.

Q: Is there any reason I have to be in the delivery room while my wife
is in labor?
A: Not unless the word "alimony" means anything to you.

Q: Is there anything I should avoid while recovering from childbirth?
A: Yes, pregnancy.

Q: Do I have to have a baby shower?
A: Not if you change the baby's diaper very quickly.

Q: Our baby was born last week. When will my wife begin to feel and
act normal again?
A: When the kids are in college.

Most Wanted List...

Have you seen these women? If so please contact your local authorities. They are a mother and daughter team. Please heed CAUTION if seen. They have been known to be armed and very dangerous.

The mothers name is Vicki. She has been known to say "dangit" and other very vulgar words.

The daughters name is Becca. She is the Brains of the pair, and is known for vomiting in public to take advantage of her victims.

They are both easily recognizable by a very distinct laugh, which tends to sound the same when they are together. They both have a tendancy to begin patting you on the shoulder or back to express thier love, when in fact it is part of thier scam. Please be carefull with these two. Although they don't look very intimidating, they use this to their advantage and have affected many people with their sincere looks. Thanks for your cooperation with this matter.

-Office of the Concerned Citizen Watchers-

Como ha sido todo? (How have things been?)

Whew, what a crazy past few days! Backing up a few days, Saturday after Becca returned from puking all over down town San Jose, I went to our pastor's house to have worship practice. The worship team realized that I sing and play guitar and they wanted me to help if I wanted. So I did go and it was a good eye opener once again of how little Spanish we know. Being out of the classroom setting, hearing a very comforable and relaxed type of vocab at our pastors house, I found myself concentrating real hard to mantain involvement. This isn't to say that I was lost, I wasn't, it was just the real world. I didn't have teachers speaking every word real clear and deliberately. But it was a good time.

Later that night I was slated to have a "guys night out" at the school to watch the Final Four basketball games, but CBS happened to be cut off that day. Go figure! (We ended up having our guys night out last night, Monday, and watched the championship game.)

So Sunday rolled along and I helped with worship at church, and then we actually left a bit early, so that we could make it to another pre-planned engagement. We have an Austrailian friend at school and I guess they are really into Formula 1 car racing in Australia. This race just happened to be in Melborne, Australia and having never sat and watched 5 minutes of a Formula 1 race, I found it really fun. They last only a little over an hour long (not like NASCAR) and there are lots of good crashes!!! It was a good time. It was interesting all the sub-cultures we had at that get together. We had the Aussie and his family, a British family, and us. How different could a bunch of English speakers be...it was interesting, but a blast.

These past two days have been turning out like the last few weeks. Go to school and be bored, come home and see what's new in the VISA process today, and then try to fix or get whatever is needed. It has really been wearing on us, but I think we are getting close. (I've been saying that for a while...) Continue to pray with us that we would not only get our VISA for Ecuador, but get them this week. You see, next week is holy week. In Latin America, everything shuts down for about 10 days. No one works, everyone plays, ect, ect, ect. So if our VISA's don't get done this week, we have to wait until two weeks from now, which will be about 1 week away from our departure date to Ecuador. That's kinda cutting it close, BUT..., God has called us to this work. He will provide what we need to do it, He ALWAYS has!

Tommoro we have our Conversation class finals. I am doing my theme on the first time I took Becca flying. For those of you who know the story, you know it is pretty funny, and a testament to the Lord's ongoing protection.

Today I had to run and pay the electricity bill, and buy a few groceries. I took Brooklyn along for the fun of it. It ended up being a good time. She likes going and having the little responsibilities that I give her. She got to push the grocery cart today (a minature one of course) and that just makes her day. She really feels like a big girl. When we were at the checkout counter, the man in front of us asked us if we were Canadian. Of course I said no. We are usually taken as Germans, for being so big and blonde I guess. One thing is for sure, We are not going to be learning German, or any other language soon. Spanish is hard enough!!!

Echaques

I had one of my famous "Becca experiences" today. I suppose I'd better share it. Maybe it will be like therapy. Maybe not.

I went shopping today with three other ladies from school. There is this great used American clothes store and I'm in the market for some maternity clothes now. So, we all happily went. After about an hour and a half of scouring two floors of randomly organized clothes, I had basically found all I was going to find. I managed to find two tops, both very nice. The other ladies were still busily looking through the clothes upstairs and I realized they weren't near done - their options weren't quite so limited as mine and they were making some great finds. Normally I would have been right in there with them but it was getting hot and I was starting to feel naseous...again. I nervously drank my soda and tried to eat some Mentos to calm my stomach but it didn't appear to be working.

Finally I went and paid for my two shirts. As I stood in line, I could feel sweat breaking out on my face and I knew I was going to have either get out of that store or find a bathroom soon. Finally I made it to the front of the line and paid. I ran upstairs to tell the other gals that I had to go. We agreed to meet at a restaurant just a few blocks away and I ran off doing my best to tell my stomach to CALM DOWN.

As I hurriedly walked the two blocks to the restaurant I was feeling worse and worse. Please, Lord, help me! If I could just make it to the restaurant's nice bathroom.... But it wasn't meant to be. Before I knew what was happening I was throwing up in the gutter. I was a mess and everyone was staring at the wild-haired gringa puking in the street. I had nothing with me to wipe my face with so I just kept walking, trying to be inconspicous (ha!) as I took about five more steps and threw up again, this time in front of a cute little bakery. Thankfully, a lady from the bakery hurried to my help and led me through the bakery (yum, sanitary -a puke covered gringa walking through their nice kitchen). Anyway, I was able to clean myself up. And I felt just fine after the fact. I went back out and explained to the kind lady that I was pregnant and still having morning sickness - it is called "echaques" here in Costa Rica. She didn't seem to want to get too close to me but she did understand. I may have still smelled.

I wasn't like this with Brooklyn. I'm 3 months along now and hoping that soon my stomach will calm down. I'm not a normally weak-stomached person and so I continue to be shocked just about every time I throw up, which is often. And I'm starting to get pretty mad at the situation! Especially after my lovely experience today. All I know is that this kid better be worth it! :) I know, as soon as I see that sweet, pinched little face I'll forget all of this...that is exactly why I am writing this down - so I don't start to think I want to do it again!