Indiana Youth Group!

Yesterday we had a seven oclock breakfast and left for Shell. The drive is 5 hours without any stops...so basically it was an all day trip. On the way there we stopped and climbed an eight story tree house, played with a monkey, and went on a cable car over a gorge and waterfall...freaking awesome! We finally got to our resort and it was reallly nice. We had dinner when we got there and then we swam around and had chicken fights in the pool. after tiring ourselves out we relaxed in the sauna and hot tub.

Today we ate breakfast at the hosteria and then left for Puyo. We stopped at the balsa wood store, everything was really cheap :). From there we went to a really cool waterfall. We climbed across a bridge over the rapids and then climbed under it. We all got totally soaked, we had to crawl through the side of the cliff the waterfall was on to get to the best spot..you could stick your hand in the waterfall. Basically, it was SAWEET. We all walked back to the bus and changed and then drove home. We stopped by the guest house to change and then went to Spaghetti, a really high end restaurant(we all had a craving for italian). We had a nice crying circle around jeff and chelsea and then packed and went to bed...we have to be on the bus at 5:30 tomorrow!!!


Absolute last blog from Ecuador..soo sad. :(

See you tomorrow!

Last Work related update from katherine :)

So my dad had some extra time today cuz he stayed home with the sickies, but i will inform those out there as to the work we were doing. A couple people went to the dump daycare and helped out finishing the painting and then went back before lunch to the church(they needed more people there). We had pizza for lunch and then finished up all the painting projects. After that we went to the Quito market and shopped around a little...not quite as cool as the Otavalo market though. We then went to Crepes and Waffles for dinner because everyone loved it the first time. After that we all went back to the guest house and just hung out, card games and such.

Tomorrow we have breakfast at seven so we can leave for Shell. The trip is five hours WITHOUT stops!

I cant promise we'll get a connection in Shell, so just know were having fun on the edge of the rain forest!

Scenes from Ecuador

Here are just a couple photos of our lives in Ecuador.

City Dump and Church Work

The students are hard at work at the daycare center at Quito's city dump, and at a local Covenant church in Quito. Only a couple of minor health issues -- which require a bathroom nearby -- but other than that the group is doing a fantastic job. They are hard workers with servants' hearts. Tomorrow we are off to Banos and Shell -- for some fun times.

Dance Parties on cable cars

Today we split up into two groups:

Group one went to the dump and helped out at the day care: Sean, Ryan, Stephen, Courtney, Tori, Victoria, Jackie
-they watched the kids, cleaned toys for the day care, and painted a few murals for the kids

Group two went to the church we attended last Sunday: Matt, Michael, Sam, Sami, Katherine, Teddy, Bradley, and Carl
-we painted desks and chairs and tables for the Sunday school classes and helped cut up their shelving units to create more efficient storage.

Both groups ate lunch at the sites and we all met back up at the guest house. From there we went to the cable cars. Riding up it wasnt cloudy, so we had great views of the mountains and Quito. We got off at the top and walked around on top of the mountain..the clouds were sooo cool...we were in them! We had fun times on those cars....the ride up/down was 15 minutes. Tim had everyone else in the car duck down and pretended to cry when another car went by. For another one everyone picked their noses...good stuff. (we fit roughly six to a car).

From there we went to a mall in Quito and ate at a food court..yummy stuff!

A lot of people are sick, so when we got back to the house we talked and then everyone basically went to bed.

:) Katherine

oh..and for those dying to see some pictures...here are some from carabuela!!

Eating clouds, spitting on the continental divide, and hot springs!

This morning we woke up and headed straight to the basillica. Initially we climed up the turrets, tori dropped her camera off the wooden bridge, and some people came close to peeing their pants while climbing to the top. It was quite the view. Then we all climbed the belfrey. No, they would not let us hang out in the open. Once we left the church we watched a parade outside the presidential house honoring the condor because it is becoming extinct. For lunch we went to McDonalds, quite good. We then left for the hot springs. We got to spit on the continental divide and eat clouds on the way up. The hot springs were awesome, some of the pools were really really hot, and there was one pool that was frigid. A couple of us jumped between the two a couple times....it burned! After changing we got back onto the bus and went to Carlos and Karens for a breakfast dinner. After games and checking emails we went back to the guest house to sleep.

Missing you all.

Waves of mercy..dadadada!

We all woke up really early today and went straight to the foundation. We only had two hours with the kids today but it was really awesome. A few of us got to go into Segundo's parents house to see how he makes ponchos. He wakes up at 3 in the morning for 15 days to make one poncho and makes 25 dollars every month.



As we were leaving some team members started crying and none of the kids wanted to let us leave...really cute.



We went back to the hostal for lunch, thanked Matilda and the staff, and then left for the Equator museum. All the experiments we cool, some of us got Egg Master certificates for balancing an egg on the head of a nail. And the guinea pigs there informed us as to whether or not we had bad energy.



After that we went to the Feijoos house for dinner and some games. They have a really nice house in Quito.



Tonight we are staying at the Alliance Guest house again.



Thanks for all of your support and we really enjoy reading the comments you leave...especially you Mommy O'D..woo!




katherine speaking for the team..again.

LIGA CAMPEON and cold weather!

Sorry this is coming so late! I tried getting wifi at the hostal and connecting to other servers, but alas, no internet. (yay for internet cafe´s)

Okay so now for the updates......

Sunday-

In the morning we went to a Swedish park in quito, and then went to church at Jipijopa, it was really fun, the pastors name was Paul. After church we ate at crepes and waffles..IT WAS AMAZING FOOD! Once we were finished eating, we got on the bus to go to Otavalo. On the way we stopped by an equator monument and it was rainy but fun. Got to the hostal and hung out with the kids and played soccer. Its really nice, but you cant put toilet paper in the toilet.

Monday-

So we woke up fairly early and had leche caliente with breakfast, it is sooooo good. We then went to the worksite for the first time. We are helping out the Santa Cruz family(sp?) by taking apart old desks to later fix, and other random work. Matilda brought us lunch and after lunch we worked more. We went back to the hostal for dinner and then went back to the worksite to help out with the showing of the Jesus movie(the witch doctors daughter even came!)

Tuesday-

Started off with another good breakfast, worked in the morning, had lunch, and then played with the kids all afternoon, the little kids think that the Soderstroms are hysterical for being so tall.

Wednesday-

Today was our tourist day! we woke up really early and went to the Otavalo market, we bought so much! After the market we went by bus to the leather town, shopped there, and then we went to the condor park, everyone got to hold a really cute bird there and got to watch them fly a hawk and an eagle. After that we got ready for the game!!!! VIVA LIGA! it was so much fun but so nerve racking. once they won, the city was soooo loud. the car horns and people screaming and some fireworks did NOT stop until after 5. party time!

Thursday-

This morning we painted the wood to go onto the desks and helped to clean up the park area a little. In the afternoon we did VBS with the kids again. Then we went into town, and had a surprise dance session with some quichua dancers, it was awesome!

Friday-

today we did the same work stuff, made trenches for tires as a fence and stuff like that. We did VBS again, they just love playing soccer! We are really excited because the family is coming to dinner at the hostal with us tonight!

Gotta run back up the hill for dinner...hope we dont pass out!

Agua sin gas y thin air!

Dr Carlos and Karen Feijoo and Stephanie picked us up at the airport in Quito around 7:20 pm. They took us by bus back to the Alliance Guest House, where we are staying for the night before we leave for Carabuela. Pastor Paul shmoozed at the airport to get the Soderstroms bulkhead seats, their legs don't fit in the normal row! All the supplies from church( 190 pounds of supplies collected at church and VBS!)...and our luggage made it down safely.



Believe it or not, we were actually fed dinner on the flight from Miami! Gas here is $1.90 a gallon here and a bottle of water at the Miami airport was $3.25(go figure!). Brian Soderstroms feet hang off the end of the bed here. We actually have the same bus driver as the last time, he's awesome. Josh and Joey Swenson also met us at the airport, they are now working down here as missionaries.

We're all excited for tomorrow and will sleep well in our nice accommodations.

~Katherine(speaking for everyone)

BTW: In showers here, the "C" on the knob does NOT stand for cold..it took me a while to figure that out. (it stands for caliente, or hot in spanish)

We are excited about leaving tomorrow morning. This picture is a view from the guest house we are staying at on Saturday night. We are then off to church in the morning and then lunch at the equator.

From there we will head to Otavalo. We will be staying a short distance (five minute walk) from our work project in Carabuela. This is a picture of some of the young people we will be working with.