ECUADOR

                                           Panama airport

I

 I got birthday flowers at airport

                                          Quito is huge

First days in Ecuador……. I want to update about all that is happening in Quito. First of all we are getting acclimated to the altitude here, the elevation is 9500ft and it has been tough on us, so I guess it is good that we are going to the south rather than north of Quito which was our first assignment.



We arrived at 10:30pm on Tuesday and it was a breathtaking view of Quito at night with all of the lights. We were welcomed by about 10 missionaries and it felt like we had arrived home. We got all of our luggage loaded in two vehicles and off we went to drop us all off. Rocky and I are staying in a HCJB guest apt. and it is so nice and I have a kitchen! YEA (I have really missed having access to a kitchen) Audra is also staying in a HCJB apt down the street from us. The two young men are staying in an apt. owned by IMB and they are a few blocks away.



On Wednesday morning we were picked up and taken for breakfast and then taken to the grocery store!!!! What a treat for all 5 of us to get to shop for things that we had not had to eat in 3 months. Audra and I got Kraft cheddar cheese (YUM) . Rocky and I got eggs, bacon ,jelly ,cereal ,and milk(in a box off the shelf) we were not served milk in Guatemala. Russ and Kyleen took us to lunch where we could see the city and it was fun.



On Thursday morning we were picked up and taken to the mission office for round one of orientation. We learned a lot. The electric is turned off every morning in our area from 9:00-11:00 and I forgot and as soon as I was going to curl my hair for the day it went off so it was ponytail day. There is electricity rationing because of the drought.



At noon Gail and Jessica took us to the equator and we had lunch. I felt bad that day so I really was ready to be at home napping, but that did not happen. Gail took us to Russ and Kyleen’s house for supper and the football game that was on between Texas and Alabama and it was 1:00am before we got to bed.



On Friday morning we were picked up for more orientation but was not bad because we had chocolate muffins and coffee. At noon we were taken to Ken and Kurstin’s home for lunch and we had great fellowship and food. We got home and took a nap and shopped at the little fruit stand near our house and we tried a new fruit called baboca it is like a star fruit but as big as a papaya and it is yellow. I cut it and we tasted it and it was not good tasting to us and we were going to throw it out but Rocky said let’s see if the neighbors want it. Our neighbor works at the HCJB office and he is Canadian and is wife is Ecuadoran and they have 2 little boys. They laughed and said you have to make juice with it and so they took it and made juice with some sugar added and brought it back to us to try and it is pretty good. Friday evening we eat at Gail’s and had a wonderful meal.



This morning we got to stay home till 12:30 and it was really needed. We got up at 8:00 had breakfast took a shower and went back to bed for a nap. We had a lovely lunch with Fletcher and Ruby. They are very special folks. They took us by the store for a couple of things we needed and we got home at 6:00 and we have just chilled.



Monday we are supposed to get our visas approved or something like that and then we will have to apply for a national Id and then we are supposed to start working on getting our Ecuador driver lic. And then we will head to Zomora. We are ready.