A place called Cusuime

The journey to Cusuime...

What an adventure! In order to save some money and be able to bring the heavy bags of cement we needed for our trip, we decided to drive/canoe instead of fly into Cusuime (1 hour flight OR 8 hour drive & 3 to 4.5 hour canoe ride). WOW what a time we had. We began in Shell and drove 2 hours to Macas which was all a paved road. For the next 6 hours after Macas we had a combination of road under construction and gravely rocky road. Unlike at home, there are no detours or alternate routes, and when a the road you are driving on is under construction the journey can be haulted for many reasons. On our journey in we only had minor delays as they graded portions of the road and pulled buses out of sticky situation.

The views during the drive were amazing...

After our 8 hour drive we arrived in Kashpime, which is only 10 minutes from the end of any driveable road. Folks in that community were then waiting with a canoe to take us upstream to Cusuime.  The canoes were quite large and  powered by motors.  We loaded up the canoe and continued on our way.  The canoe ride began well.  We were enjoying the sun and the beauty of the jungle. 

We had some concern initially because there has been a lack of rain and the river was low... little did we know what awaited!   About two hours into the ride the skys opened and there was certainly no lack of rain.  It poured down rain for the rest of our 2.5 hour journey!! We attempted to use the umbrellas for an hour or so, but then gave up.  Steph and Lizzie were bailing out the boat and the rest of us would get out and push when we got to lower spots in the river.   I can say it was one of the more unpleasant situations initially, but once we were drenched it wasn't too bad.  We arrived in Cusuime in water wars and completely drenched from head to toe!  :)

Our time in the community:

The work we did in Cusuime was a bit different from the rest of the work we have been doing.  The engineering portion of it was only to replace the damaged pump, paint the inside of the concrete tank that was deteriorating, and paint the water tower that was being invested by termites.   That being the case, we were able to work in the school with the kids running a sort of VBS program.  It was so wonderful!  The clase was about 38 students Grade 1 to 6.  We did songs, Bible stories, coloring, hygene teaching, and games.  When we were walking into clase on our last day we heard the kids singing... they were singing one of the songs we taught them and remembered it all.  The song is about having faith the size of a mustard seed and telling the mountain to move and the mountains move!! It was so powerful singing that with them because the message is so powerful and helps them learn the truth. 

 

 

For a parting gift the kids gave us papayas and sugar cane.  We had such a wonderful time with the kids and have continued to pray that Jesus be working in their lives and bringing others to show them His love.






















The guys that work working on the water project were really funny.  We had a great time being on site and helping out where we could and getting introduced to new jugle creatures.  Here are some fun photos:

 

The adventure going home...

So getting home turned out to be quite the adventure as well!  We didn't have rain during the canoe ride and it only took 2.5 hours heading downstream.  Initially the drive was going great!  We thought we were going to be able to make it home on Thursday night, making the journey in 1 day.  Once we were about an hour and a half outside of Macas, the road construciton got us!  We wound up having to wait 4 hours for them to install and culvert and then fill the hole back in.  The view where we were stopped was incredible though, and we stayed there so long that we got to see the stars come out and there were sooooooooo many!  It was gorgeous.

The road block:

The view:

Waiting patiently :)

We had a blessed time in Cusuime and thank the Lord for the opprotunity to be a part of what He is doing there! 

ViVa Cuenca!

So there is pretty much a celebration day for every larger City here in Ecuador that includes parades, food, dancing, and music. We were able to travel to Cuenca for the celebration on November 3rd. The journey was quite long... about an 11 hour travel day by bus. It was very worth it though. The City was amazing! Our first night we went to the movies!!  It was so exciting because it was our first time to the movies since I've been in Ecuador.  It actually felt normal :)  We saw "The Time Traveler's Wife", complete with popcorn, sprite, twix, and skittles.  What a wonderful night!

A group of 4 other girls from Shell were going at the same time we were so we were able to spend a lot of time with them. We toured the City, with so many beautiful churches, ate good food, followed bands that were marching down the streets, went to modern art musuems, watched a parade of military tanks? (a bit strange to say the least), and had a blast!  It's so wonderful to get out and experience the country of Ecuador.

                                      Afternoon Tea in the garden

 

Water has Arrived

We spent last week in a community called Cangaime.  It was about a 35 minute flight from Shell and then a 15 minute walk into the center of the community where we would be staying.  I got to fly in the front seat with the pilot for the flight in so that was very exciting!  The community already has an existing elevated water tank and distribution system.  The system was installed about 6 years ago by others with two different types of pumps which were either too costly to maintain or unable to pump up to the elevated tank.  Our goal for this trip was to install a solar pumping system with enough pressure to reach the elevated water tank.  Praise the Lord we did it!

We worked hard from Monday to Thursday preparing the site and installing the pump.  This included cleaning the existing tanks, installing the solar panels, assembling the pump and piping, and clearing a lot of trees.  It was amazing to see how the Shuar men went through and cleared massive amounts of trees with only machetes.  It got a little scary at times with trees falling towards the pump station site, but God's protected us all.  Every afternoon Steph, Lizzie and I would go and survey the existing distribution line.  We used a GPS, a tape measure and a notebook.  We had guys going ahead of us with machetes to clear the path.  It was quite challenging to hike through those areas with the heat and all the bugs.  We were able to get survey of the entire system and now can determine if we will be able to serve all the homes in the community with the existing system.  We have left the community with the responsibility of checking the existing systems for leaks and problem areas and digging up the entire system to make a deeper trench so that the pipe can have a sufficient amount of cover.  We will return in December or January to re-evaluate the existing system and to make any necessary repairs.  We praise the Lord for the opprotunity to serve this community and to show them the love of Christ.  We were able to start establishing friendships as we worked beside them for the week and are excited to return and be the hands and feet of Jesus. 

New Experiences in Cangaime:

*Eating fish every day, sometimes for all 3 meals, with boiled yuca and bananas
*Chicha, a traditional Shuar drink:  consists of pieces of washed, peeled yuca root that are thoroughly chewed in the mouth, and the resulting juice is spat into a bowl. The fibrous mass that remains in the mouth is used elsewhere. The bowl is set aside for a few hours to allow the juice to ferment.  (You can guess I didn't actually drink any due to my past stomach issues... it was offered many times though)
*More tarantulas hiding in the leaves
*Fun times with pit latrines:

• Very unstable boards around the pit -> Question: will I fall in the latrine?

• LARGE spiders outside and inside of the latrine pit -> WOW really big!

• Bats inside the latrines  ->  Question: Are they going to fly up and bite my bum?

*Ants, flies, ants, wasps, more ants, spiders, what just stung me?, so many ANTS
*Shuar women running and screaming because a very poisonous snake came by... a man of the community killed it after about 10 hits with a log
*Eating rice and sardine soup on a "picnic table" on site that was just made moments before lunch
*Not showering for a week
*Learning how to install a solar pump
*Being in God's beautiful creation
*Watching a people group interact whose lives and customs are so different then my own
*Eating dinner and watching a incredible display of lighting from afar
*Listening to my iPOD with Lizzie in the tent and not being able to hear it at full blast from the sound of the rain on the tin roof
*Enjoying lemongrass tea and a breakfast of rice and a fried egg
*Eating the most organic I have ever eaten in my life!

So many new experiences and adventures!  Who said living for the Jesus was boring... He rocks my world!  I leave for the jungle again on Saturday.  We are going to Cuisime... it will be a 10 hour car ride and then a 3 hour canoe trip.  More updates to come!  Thank you for your continued prayer.  Our God is so amazing!!