#1 from Ecuador: 1st Ecuador Update

Here is the email from one of the leaders on the trip:

Well day one on the field is in the books. It was a great day. Alejandro and Katy greeted us in the airport last night and we had a trouble free trip to our new camp where we are staying. It is a great compound and very secure. All of the boys are staying 5 to a room and the rooms are clearly able to accommodate twice that. The girls rooms are four to a room and they seem very pleased with the rooms they are in. We were served a great breakfast this morning at the Elohim Church and there was lots of coffee, so that made me very happy.

We got over to Carmen Bajo around 9:30 am and we got to see some old friends that we worked with last year and the year before that: Rueben, Magdelena, Sylvia and Naomi who is getting huge by the way, is she really three already?

Anyhoo, we divided up into four groups by strength and gifts of thoroughness and we went our separate ways in the neighborhood. One group worked in the church, down the street. One group worked in Rosa´s house. One group hauled bricks and sand to the 4th floor of the new building. And one group went down the hill to help a member of the church build a retaining wall to top mudslides.

I was very impressed with the teams. They all showed a great work ethic and I didn´t hear a complaint all day. As one group would finish a project, they would go and help with another project and they worked with the locals magnificently. Karen worked with Alejandro and Katy today and kept Josh Edwards with her to watch him. Josh got sick on the plane from Atlanta to Quito yesterday. We have been trying to keep him hydrated with liquids and he seems to have turned the corner of not being sick. He had some potato soup and is feeling much better.

All in all, it was a great day. I am looking forward to tomorrow where we can work hard again. We will be doing a VBS tomorrow as well as working construction, and having dinner at Eloheim. The kids are all tired, so we will probably go to bed early. We will try to get them to an internet cafe tomorrow evening.