Today we headed up the mountain after breakfast with the ENTIRE TEAM! Everyone was feeling well enough to make the journey… Unfortunately the extra bumpy ride due to road wash out from yesterday’s torrential rains made several team members feel ill all over again and headed back to our hotel shortly after we arrived. Once on the mountain those who felt well got to work building tables, painting, cleaning the sanctuary and setting up for our Women’s Day part 2.
Mark and Sue were able to make a short stop at the school to present them with the jump ropes, soccer bls and sidewalk chalk we played with them earlier in the week. They had a nice visit with some of the teachers, and then joined the team at Lote Tres.
We were also presented with an opportunity to send any team members who wanted to attend a special ceremony at the home for at risk children for lunch today. Mark M and Pastor Adam both decided they wanted to attend and see the home since they had never seen it before. Mark K decided to attend as well since the new FACE leadership was going to be in attendance. He wanted to meet them and have a short meeting as we have worked closely with FACE in the past in our work at Lote Tres. FACE is the Ecuadorian Covenant social justice and community development organization. They all had a good time and reported back that they were impressed with the home and organization.
The women and girls on our team held Women’s Day part 2 this morning. We had invited the women from yesterday to join us today for more information. We talked today all about changes that happen during puberty, what menstruation is, how conception happens, some natural family planning tips and facts about menopause. The women seemed to really appreciate this information. We handed out Days for Girls kits to all of them at the end and joined the rest of the team for the remainder of the day.
The rest of the team spent time finishing projects. The paint ran out today just shy of finishing the second Sunday School room. The carpentry crew finished the tables they had supplies on hand for, and the kids had a great time playing with the children from Lote Tres, and Jo spent time teaching some of the women how to knit socks. Several of us also had some time to sit with some of the community members and ask them about their stories. These 2 people were both very willing to tell us all about their lives and how they became Christians. We learned some pretty amazing things about these pretty amazing people. I am sure that we will be sharing their stories when we return so I’m not going to spoil them here.
Our trucks picked us up at 3:00 today which gave us plenty of time to stop for ice cream before returning to our hotel. The 2 team members who went back sick had both slept for most of the day and both of them felt much better.
The evening was spent handing out together playing games and relaxing. Tomorrow we get to sleep in a little bit before heading to Lote Tres… Everyone is kind of excited about that!
