Thanksgiving Week in Quito

We had one more picture of our moms’ visit that we wanted to share. We sure miss our families this time of the year. With the holidays upon us we’re feeling the distance quite a bit more. When we begin to feel sorry for ourselves (as I did on Thanksgiving Day) we’re trying to remember what Jesus had to give up to come to earth. We’re only in Ecuador, a flight or skype call away. I can’t imagine the wonders and closeness that Jesus had to give up with his heavenly Father to come here.

We took a trip to one of our professors house to prepare an American meal for her with the rest of our class. After lunch she wanted us to take home as many avocados as we could carry. Jael loved making little piles with them, and Caleb wanted to be buried in them. Sorry we can’t share some with you at home

The Nazarene missionaries who live in Quito prepared a very USA Thanksgiving feast, complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and even pumpkin pie (which is hard to make since the filling has to be brought from the states). The turkey was wonderful; which it better have been since a turkey here cost $50. Dan tried to enjoy some American football but all he could find on the missionary’s TV was futbol (soccer). Some of the women worked on scrapbooking and the guys played a card game, with Caleb very intent on learning how to play.

Graduation for the seminary was last night and today they have set up small booths to advertise different aspects of the work they do here. Dan will be fielding questions in Spanish for our language program. Caleb was enjoying one of the display’s animals and wanted to take home a rabbit as a pet. Unfortunately this display presents the food-producing program they have on the seminary and these rabbits will be tomorrow’s lunch.

Still Chugging Along

Since we will be moving to Shell soon, we wanted to make sure everyone knows our new mailing address:

Dan Benedick
Hospital Vozandes del Oriente
Shell, Pastaza
Ecuador, South America

We love receiving mail : )

It’s amazing to us that our time in language school is winding down! We’ll have three more weeks of intense language study here in Quito, as well as one more quick scouting trip to Shell, prior to moving to the jungle for good on December 21st. Time really flew by during this past week, as we had our moms here visiting. We had a great time! We took them to see all the sights around Quito, and they babysat the kids for us while we were in class. They sniffed out a few good deals while shopping, and Caleb and Jael had tons of fun reconnecting with their grandmas. We had a mini Christmas celebration while they were here so the grandmas could watch them open their presents. Caleb is now ready to join Buzz Lightyear in the battle against the evil emperor Zurg. The only hard part about their visit was having to say good-bye. We feel very loved by all our family and friends!

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for Caleb. He seems to be adjusting better all the time! He’s been interacting more and more with Ecuadorians without bringing out his angry eyes.

Language school is going well. I’m super-impressed by how quickly Kristina has improved. Both of us are getting much better at comprehension as well, and we’re even able to understand most of the sermons that we hear in church (even while juggling a couple of antsy kids). We heard a great sermon last week about our call to go and make disciples. Please be praying that we’ll find people in Shell that we’ll be able to disciple, and others who will come alongside and mentor us.

Pray for Rain

This is supposed to be the rainy season in Ecuador, but unfortunately, the rain hasn't shown up yet.  The entire country of Ecuador receives its power from hydroelectric power from on reservoir.  Currently the reservoir has only nine centimeters of water left above the line allowing it to work.  If we don't get rain soon, we won't have power.  There have been "apagones" (blackouts) lately in random parts of the city in an attempt to try and conserve power.  Sometimes the news notifies us, but other times it's a surprise, and unfortunately the power company/government doesn't always let the police know where the power outages will be either, so there have been a lot of traffic problems when the stoplights don't work.  At least we have gas run water and a gas stove, so if we were to loose power for a awhile we could still make a hot meal for the kids.

Teaching Endoscopy to Future Missionaries

We wanted to elaborate a little bit regarding the endoscopic equipment that Olympus has agreed to donate to our hospital in Shell. With the gift that they’ve sent, we’ll be able to view each procedure on a screen (video endoscopy), instead of looking through a little eyepiece on the instrument. If you’ve never been in the driver’s seat during a colonoscopy or EGD, this may not seem like a huge deal; in reality it is enormous! As you may recall, one of the primary goals of our hospital in Shell is to teach and mentor residents who will carry on the work as medical missionaries in other parts of Ecuador and around the world (two of the doctors from Shell are currently on a missions trip to a hospital in the Congo). Trying to teach endoscopic procedures while looking through an old eyepiece, while not impossible, is far from ideal. It would be like trying to whale watch through a high powered telescope while standing on a boat that’s being rocked around by the waves. You may be able to focus on a whale in the distance for a moment, but by the time you hand off the telescope to your friend who wants to see it too, everything has moved. So you can see how nice it will be to be able to point things out on the screen. We are really excited about the teaching/mentoring aspect of our work in Shell. Thank you so much to Olympus for joining with us in this ministry! Thank you again to all our financial supporters—your gifts are being used in part to bring the equipment into the country. Thanks be to the Lord who continues to bless in so many ways!

This is an example of a video endoscopy unit.

You Know You're in Ecuador When...

The first time I went to the bathroom when we were on our trip to Shell I got very excited.  There was no little garbage can filled with used toilet paper next to the toilet.  I left the bathroom to find the lady in charge of the guest house where we were staying and questioned her about this, since every other toilet we've used here necesitates that used paper be thrown into a garbage can and not the toilet. She informed me that I was indeed able to throw my toilet paper actually into the toilet...AMAZING...and our toilet in Shell will have the capability to handle toilet paper.  You know you're in Ecuador when you get excited about throwing toilet paper into the toilet.

Since we're living in the big city of Quito now, it's not too difficult to get what we need (though this will likely change when we get to Shell).  There are, however, things that are very expensive to buy here or that we can't get.  Contact solution costs an arm and a leg as does sunscreen.  We have yet to encounter Mt Dew, Dan's pop of choice, and I miss peanut M&Ms.  Of course these things aren't necesities but they are a nice treat every now and then.  We're looking forward to our first visit from our moms next week (and I must admit, the treats the're planning to bring us, too :)