I ate too much rice...

...I will admit I have had a hard time convincing my main cook at school that I do not need that much rice with my meal.  The language barrier and me being the Director does not help the fact that I receive more.  Since I am not exactly exercising, my waistline will not handle this much rice too much longer...

It has been one day short of two months for Tanya and I living here in Ecuador.  In some ways time has flown by and in others it seems much longer than two months.  The cultural differences and structure of living in a different country definitely start to become much more real now that we are settling into life here.  I would definitely say that Tanya and I have gone through moments of frustration and joy in these two months.  Simple things like shopping for groceries, gas in the vehicle, and driving have become much more normal.  Our next step is to learn more language and conversation so that we can have better communication and more in-depth day to day living.

Tanya and I decided to not move in to Qutio to study Spanish.  We have decided to stay here on the property with the Hacienda and school and drive back and forth to another town called Otavalo to study Spanish throughout the week.  Our schedule will be determined by how much time is needed to study and practice Spanish along with the need at the school.

Speaking of school, we are definitely up and running!  We just finished the fourth week of classes and continue to progress though different procedures and organization.  We have had a good start to the school year and will continue to keep in contact so that the procedures established will become the norm at the Academy.  We have had many successes and compliments to the start of the year, but we know that there are many more things to do and it will take most of the year to establish and accomplish!
Friday was a holiday so our students and staff members (and us!) were able to enjoy a nice 3 day weekend.

On the lighter side of life, I have become better at building bigger and hotter fires.  The temperatures here at the top of the property (10,000 ft.) are generally between 38-45 degrees at night so having some heat when at home in the evening is advantageous.  It will warm up into the 60s mainly during the day, but can be warmer in the valley and Quito during the day.  I have not had to help any more calves out of our yard lately.  They have been very audible along with the hogs behind our house.  I believe though we have come to an agreement and once the sun sets, we all are able to sleep peacefully....

We appreciate everyone thinking and praying for us and the people here in Ecuador.   We appreciate the support and thoughts you have given us!  I will be working on sending out the first newsletter this weekend as well.  Of course, we have pictures below!  Enjoy and we will be in contact again soon!

We had some problems with our class schedules the past couple weeks.  A couple of our teachers were being double-booked. So we had to have people try to cover last. Two weeks ago, Tanya covered a P.E. class. The next day she covered another class and did a quick art class. Here are some of the 4th graders coloring.

Great minds must think alike. The assignment was for the student to draw his or her favorite thing that happened this week.  Here is Ms. Tanya's drawing. Below is one of a student.

Thursday we had a special assembly for the presentation of the flag of Ecuador. Our top 13th graders received the honor of bearing the flags while a few of our staff members read the significants of the colors and symbols.

The presentation of the Ecuadorian flag.

The Ecuadorian flag, the flag of Pedro Moncayo and the HOH Christian Academy flag held by Nicholas Vargas, Pamela Sandoval and Patricia Sandoval respectively.

Thanks for stopping by!

MIA

We have been Missing In Action lately.
We apologize. It has been pretty busy between school, shopping for a vehicle, me getting sick (upper respiratory infection) and then Jake getting sick. However we are still be and alive....and so is the  school!

So lets catch you up on what has been going on!

While we had a wonderful time in Peru, learning more about teaching and our English curriculm, I did not have such a great time on the return trip. I ended up getting my tri-yearly upper respiratory infection. It did help however to be able to sleep and rest most of the 48 hours  back. The only downside to all of it is because we were in such close proximity most of the time, I got several of the teachers sick plus Jake when we got back. We are still sniffling but for the most part are getting better. A good thing about being in Ecuador and being sick is you don't need a prescription for anitbiotics. We can just walk into any pharmacy and ask for what we need. A little scary but good at the same time.

We had parent night last Tuesday. It seemed to go well. We had about 100-125 parents show up. They were very interested in being involved and helping make the school a better place for their children.

We've had a lot of problems with the vans here on the property and it was getting very difficult to get things accomplished without a vehicle. So, after several weeks of search we finally found a car we like! In fact, we went into Quito yesterday and filled out all the paperwork and drove home with it. Now, to clear things up for everyone. This will be our personal car but it was purchased through funds from Twickenham. So it is technically the school's vehicle. We were very blessed to be able to purchase a nice Ford Explorer (cars here are super expensive, even used ones) that will drive well through the mountains, up the terrible potholed road to the school and it can carry lots of people. Plus it is pretty! 

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks:

The first couple days of school we had kids working on posters describing what it means to be: Ready, Responsible and Respectful.

 Juan David working on a poster.

 Erik made a cross.

 Pamela hangs the signs in Learning Center 5.

 A nice day to play outside on the playground.

The School of Tomorrow Lisoft in Lima, Peru.

 Conference in Lima.

Ms. Cathy, Ms. Jenny and Ms. Marcela happy about all the note taking at the conference.

 This picture was taken at Jockey Plaza in Peru....just for Jake.

Shopping at the market in Lima.

Driving along the beach in Northern Peru.

Enjoying some fruit smoothies (something VERY common here) on our travels back from Lima.

A statue of Jesus on the border of Ecuador and Peru.

These three sweet girls (Maria, Kaiden and Jenny) made some artwork during recess out of rocks and sticks.

 I just thought this was sweet... a couple kids holding hands during recess.

Mr. Hugo talking during Parent Night.

We had a few really nice days here so we had chapel outside. 

What a nice view to see and understand our wonderful Creator!

Adventures

We have had several different adventures recently.

First, we had the pleasure of hosting our first guest! Phil Pendergraft stayed with us for a couple short days. We got to catch him up on how we are doing do far, plus talk about some Ranger baseball and Fantasy Football. Jake was especially happy about those last two. 

Saturday afternoon on our way to drop Phil off at the airport, the van started to makes funny noises. Come to find out, it is overheating and the transmission was going out. The van wouldn't shift past about 3rd gear, so we slowly crawled our way to the airport so that Phil could get off in time. We then called a tow truck to tow us back. It normally is about a one and half hour drive to/from the airport. This ride in the tow truck was about two and a half hours... Sitting four people in the front seat of a 3 person truck. Good times.

On Monday, while y'all were relaxing and enjoying your day off, we had the adventure of the first day of school. It was a bit chaotic but overall, went very well. We currently have about 153 kids with the possibility of a few more registering within the next couple of days. 

I think we feel like there is a large learning curve for us. This past couple of days we have sat back a bit and watched what the "normal" routine is so we know how to approach making changes. 

I'll let Jake writ more later on the administrator perspective of the first week of school.

Right now,  am on my own adventure! There are 6 of us teachers from the English side if classes that are going to a curriculum conference. In Lima, Peru, I am currently typing while siting on a bus. It is going to be a LONG trip!

 We took a bus this afternoon from Cayambe to Quito. But it took us about 3 hours instead of the normal 1 &1/2 because we had to take a detour. There was a landslide yesterday that is blocking the Pan-American highway. It has caused a big stir in our area, especially for a few of our teachers who travel from Quito.  Anywho. Once we got to Quito, we took a taxi to the next bus station. There we ate dinner at KFC (yes, we have a KFC!) and boarded the next bus. We will be driving for 12 hours to the boarder of Ecuador and Peru. Good thing the seats lean back pretty far! Once we get to the border, we have to take a taxi across and then go through customs. In Peru, we will board another bus to Lima. The bus rise to Lima is 23 hours long! Luckily, the we got is a deluxe. It is basically sitting in first class on the airplane... Seats cline all the way back, personally TVs and WIFI! 

 So in total, we will be on the bus for about 48 hours.... For a conference that last less than 48 hours. And then we get to do it all over on the way back! I told you it was an adventure!

So, that is what is going on with us right now.

Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and also we'd like specific prayers for wisdom and patience as we continue to learn. 

It has been one month.

One month since we arrived in Ecuador. Time flies by so quickly! Only 59 more to go. Just kidding, we aren't counting.

We have been busy with teacher training the past two weeks. We believe that we have made some large strides in the right direction and are heading toward being a more productive and well structured school.

We have been through quite a few frustrations but have learned a lot. Jake has been trying to grasp the financial aspect of the school: how to pay everyone and how much income we have coming in. There are a lot of laws in regards to pay that we have also been learning about.

It has been a good time. I think we have finally stopped asking the question: what did we get ourselves into? For now at least. :)

So here is what we have been up to the past couple weeks:

I mentioned of Facebook that we saw a little girl pull down her pants and do her business... in our lawn. Well, a few days later here is what else we found in our lawn.

A stray calf munching on our grass.

My birthday was last week. Jauna Regeer was kind enough to bake me a cake. It didn't look so pretty but I promise you it was delicious! Many of you already know how wonderful Jauna is in the kitchen.

Jake bought me some flowers. 50 of them to be precise! So I want y'all to guess how much 50 roses cost in Ecuador... go ahead.
Nope. Sorry... too high.
Jake paid a whopping...
$4.
Crazy hu?

Yesterday the staff threw us (and the new teachers) a welcome party. They had prepared some delicious lunch and cake!

The cake was funny. Notice is says "Mike Welcome"? Well that was a little joked pulled on Mr. Hugo, our assistant principal. He is bad with names and has accidentally called Jake "Mike", so they decided to put it on the cake!

We have Phil Pendergraft, Elder at Woodland West, visiting us this weekend. We are excited about seeing a familiar face.

Well, some how after two busy weeks, this is all we have to report.
Enjoy this picture of Raquel (foster/adoptive daughter of Cathy Jones) playing in the grass.

What to do when you find yourself in a ditch...

Boy do I have a fun story to tell you guys!

So today was my first time driving in Ecuador. Now, if you've ever been here you understand what a scary/crazy ordeal it is to be driving.

I wasn't necessarily very nervous about the driving aspect. I have been known to have a bit of road rage back in Texas so I think I  can hold my own. I was just worried about finding my way to the grocery store in the neighboring city and parking the big 'ol van we are currently driving. Well, one of our volunteer teachers from the States, Jill, came with me so that made me feel better.

We got to the Grand Aki with no problems. My parking job was very questionable however. Anyway, Jill and I did our shopping and headed back to the van with about 20 bags of groceries. That is when the day started to go downhill.

I realized that I had locked the van doors and the side window. Normal, right? Well, I had forgotten that the keys don't unlock the van (this is an old van with a lot of other "charming" features). The only way to open the door is to reach in from the side window and push down the automatic button to unlock the doors. So, I had basically locked ourselves out. Two Amrican girls, standing in a parking lot with 20 grocery bags not knowing what to do. Wonderful.

Thankfully we were able to ask the security guard working the parking lot to watch our stuff while we went to the market next door and get a locksmith to jimmy the lock. Of course the guard laughed at us while we were trying to explain our predicament....not very nice of him. however, we did get the locksmith over and he worked at it for about 10 minutes and managed to get it open.

We joked about it being a good lesson on never locking the van window again. I thought that it ended in being a good first outing driving by myself. UNTIL...

I drove the van into a ditch.

After I dropped the groceries off, I headed back down the hill to pick up Cathy for a school meeting we were having at our place. Now this "hill" is about a mile long and is basically one big pot hole. It is tough to drive it. Add in two way traffic, it is every more difficult. Or at least for an American. Us Americans love our space, especially while we drive. If someone gets 4 feet from our cars we freak out. Hee in Ecuador, you have 4 inches.

So, while driving down the hill I see a taxi driving up. I, still being in the Amerian mindset, try to give him plenty of room to get by. However, I drove to close to the side of the stream running downhill. The grown was soft and gave way, therefore causing the van to fall straight in. Oh joy.

I was very fortunate that Hugo and Jenny Sandoval, our "Assistant Principal" and one of our teachers was on their way up and stopped to help. I also had to call Jake and Justin Reeger to come help too. Several other locals stopped to help. Ultimately this is how you get a large van out of a ditch...

With a tractor!

Oh what a day it was indeed. I learned several valuable lessons. Don't lock the van and stop being worried about hitting other cars. Interesting, hu?


Well, in other news here are some updates!

WE OFFICIALLY SOLD OUR HOUSE!
As of Friday, August 16th we are really truly is no longer home owners. Hooray!
Thank you for all the prayers and thought sent our way.

We are also officially in our house in Ecuador. This was Pat and Jerry Snyder's house for the past 10 years. As we've been transitioning for the past two and a half weeks we have been in a small apartment near the Hacienda's. It is nice to have more space (A LOT MORE)... I guess we no longer can make coffee or clean the dishes while being on the toilet. Bummer.
Pictures of the place will come soon!

Teachers come back to work Monday so we are about to hit some crazy busy times. However, we are excited about the work being done here and know that God will be able to use us and the staff at the School of Hope (Hacienda of Hope Christian Academy) to glorify Him.

 A beautiful sunset over our house.

Part of the view from the kitchen window.

And of course, the School of Hope.

Silence you cell phone please....

So many things to update y'all on and never enough time (or motivation)!

Our house...

We had another appraisal done because it was required, as the buyers are doing a different type of loan. Well, the appraiser said that prices have dropped in our neighborhood so he appraised it at $5,000 less than our first appraisal in April. That was disappointing to hear. However, we are still moving on with the contract. It makes more sense financially to keep going than to have to start over again. A bit of a set back but we are still grateful to have a contract on it!

Our Visas...

We got our Visas on Friday. No problems whatsoever. All it is is a sticker in our passports. This help us with a lot of legal paperwork. So YAY for something coming easy at this point!

Our trip to Guayaquil...

We had a wonderful time worshiping our Lord and celebrating with the churches in Guayaquil this past weekend. I do admit that I was excited to go just to warm up my bones for a couple days. Guayaquil is near the coast. Jake and I compare the weather there to being like Houston, ALL THE TIME. Hot and muggy. However, they had a relatively cool weekend while we were there. It was only in the 70's-80's. 

Saturday we went and visited with 3 different congregations. We had breakfast with Team 2 (Team 2 because they are the second group of missionaries that Woodland West supports) at the casa we were staying at. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of us.

Next we met with the Bastion Popular church, which meets out of a small building in a poorer area of town. They may not be as well off as other areas but they were so rich with love and kindness towards us. We had a feast of fried fish, rice, avocado salad and fried plantains. 

So that was our second meal of the day, all by 10am. To make our third meal, we met with the Team 1 missionaries and their families at a restaurant called CoColon. Interesting fact... Co Colon is the name of the rice at the bottom of a pan that is fried and slightly burnt. Kind of like hushpuppies. 

After our morning of feasting and fellowship we trekked out to Team 2's church because they were celebrating their 7th year anniversary. We got to greet and spend just a few minutes with all the families and church member there before heading back to Team 1.

Saturday night was topped off with the beginning of the 10 year anniversary celebration at Team 1. This was a 4 hour night with two speakers and several groups going up and singing. 

Sunday morning we attended church with Team 1. Josh Marcum gave a great sermon (from what I could tell) and we had a wonderful time being uplifted and praising our Lord. Jake, being the representative from Woodland West, gave a great speech and presented the team with a plaque. It really was a joyous occasion. And of course...we had to eat and have cake!

I leave you with this last pictures... this is up in the entry way at the church with Team 1. In spanish it rhymes, but in English it reads:

Today, God will call you. But he will not call your cell phone. Please, turn off your cellphone.