More of Ecuador

So........ after our Wed FS with Mark & Beth we did the tour of Cuenca.  It consists of 1 1/2 hr on bus tour in & around Cuenca. Got the history, how old Cuenca is, est 1536 by Spanish, etc. There was a light rain off & on, but the tour was very interesting, and helped  to see overall the geography of Cuenca.

Here are some pics.
So then thursday was travel day back to guayaquil for english convention. After a 3hr delay we made it to Guayaquil & our hotel, and just crashed there. Had to wash & iron clothes for mtg next day.
We were able to deliver a laptop to some friends at convention they asked us to bring from states. And they were happy to get the laptop.

  At the convention we caught a cab, didn't know the friends had arranged a charter bus to take group from city out to convention/branch. But made it there, and was stunned to see what a facility there was for convention! Flowers everywhere, landscaped beautifully, and the brothers & sisters were so friendly, and introduced themselves willing to us travelers. I have listed several pics from convention so will only post a few, to give you an idea of the overall setting.
  Obviously the convention program we had heard at St. Charles. But at that convention I took extensive notes, whereas here in Guayaquil I just listened and looked up scriptures. So enjoyed that. In addition the comments at this convention was so geared to the ones attending, needgreaters, pioneers, missionaries, FT servants, that it was hard not to be moved by what these bros & sisters are doing, they just don't give a talk about serving Jehovah where the need is great, they have done it! Carrys a ring of conviction with their talks. It was just the thing we needed to go from spying out the land to looking at our circumstances and saying, What is stopping us? So that is where we are at. Trying to arrange our situation to being able to go. We'll keep you posted on our efforts.

Our 1st taste of Ecuador

The 1st days- Arrival-

 Made it to Guayaquil with only some tiredness and anxiety, as we start the journey of "spying out the land! Tom, Elaine & Debbie, debbie was visiting us the week prior to leaving, and saw us off at airport

along with Jared.
Here is Elaine waiting patiently at Airport, the anticipation is evident, right? ( nothing fazes her!)

Very proud of her job packing, only 2 checkable bags.

Arrived in Guayaquil at 11:15PM, and got thru immigration, customs, etc in about an 1 1/2 hrs.

got to Hotel. slept about 5 hrs and up for flight to Cuenca. When we got to Cuenca tried to go to mtg sunday to see the James, however forgot that their mtg is on sat. So halfway to KH, after much efforts to tell taxi driver where to head, didn't realize when I told "Del reino salon testigos de Jehova" that there was many KH in Cuenca! As we are driving along road, I see 2 brothers out in service, and wave for taxi to stop, and roll down window and wave to the brothers on sidewalk. Well need less to say a comedy ensued with me and my spanish book out trying to convey what we were trying to do, finally resorting to pulling out WT pointing and taking my finger and underling the study paragraphs to indicate we wanted to go to mtg,. Thats when the young bro. told driver to tak eus back to hotel because there wasn't a mtg that day.

So when back at hotel called up beth James and expained we were in, and she very invitingly asked us over for supper. She gave us directions, and we took off in taxi to meet Mark at the "Superstock" store.

On the way we saw cows crossing street, several huge pigs being roasted on the street, in these huge BBQ spits. And the chickens for sale everywhere, they eat a lot of chickens & fish

We arrived at the James, with Mark leading the way, and met Mark, Beth, Amanda, Chad & Michelle Andrews. Had a fine meal and pumped all with all of the questions we had prepared.

Amanda, Mark, Beth & Michelle (Chad was playing soccer that night0

Chad & Michelle are serving in the Quichwa(sp??) cong and do quite a bit of walking to reach there territory. Mark & Beth are soon to be in the new Arenal cong, there's splitting and will have 1 elder(Mark) 4 ms, 78 pub, and not sure how many pioneers. We went in FS with them on wed AM.

Mark at door, with his invisible friend