Birthday Party in Shushufindi

 I was completely surprised by my Shushufindi English class. Joanne, the Relief Society president, found out that it was my birthday coming up. They brought sandwiches and cookies and a little personal cake, just for me! I love my Shushufindi friends.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Big Move

Image
 President Román asked us to move to Coca, about 90 minutes south of Lago Agrio, for the last half of our mission. It is very similar in size, but everyone in Coca says it is much safer than Lago. I've seen some videos of crime in Lago, but never saw it up close, and feel that we have been protected in many ways. I was not prepared for how heavy everything is and I've not been lifting weights. I should have called the elders to help us. The weather was its regular oppressive heat, so we were just dripping sweat continually. We had a box truck to be loaded, but the driver was uninterested in helping us load. When I realized we couldn't carry the fridge and washing machine down the stairs, I walked down the road and asked some men to help us. They saved us. Our clothes were soaked through. The power went out at its regular 7-9am shift. The truck arrived at 10am and we arrived in Coca at 12:30pm. Opening the gate for the last time. The power went out from 1-3pm, so as soon as ...
Read more

Running a 5K with Friends (kinda)

Image
 Today is the day for the High 5's International 5K Run. John Hansen has been organizing this run for years. We joined in when he and Diane came to work in OGC in Hong Kong and showed us how fun it is. While Paul and I walk 5K everyday, running is different. So we've been working up to it. Unfortunately, Paul's back is still injured from the flat tire incident. He still ran about 3K of the race and walked the rest. We hit it at 7am because it gets hot so early here. The humidity is about 90% and right now a thunderstorm is blowing threw with a vengeance. I finished with a time of 36:01 which is better than Hong Kong. I am excited to get a Garmin watch so I can track my HR and splits better.  Last night we went to our favorite place and ordered parilladas. The amount of food always surprises me. This is $12 for beef, chicken, and sausages, patacones, shrimp, yucca fries, salad, rice and beans.  Earlier in the week, we fixed the sisters toilet in Coca. I don't know how lo...
Read more

Drive out of the Andes

Image
 We started early on Friday to drive the 7 hours east to Lago Agrio. It is a twisty, turning road out of 13,000' high elevation. There were many times I could not look over the edge of the road because it was so steep. The temperature went from 6 degrees C to 34 C when we arrived. We hugged the mountains and saw plenty of waterfalls. Trucks, bikes, cars, and cows. Plus, there were goats and chickens in the road. We had to move slowly due to water washing out bridge areas. Some were pretending to fix the road as you drove by and asked for money. We finally arrived in Lago Agrio and to this enormous bridge that crosses the Aguarico River. The apartment had been set up with the newly arrived furniture by our wonderful branch president, President Osorio, plus young elders who volunteered to help.
Read more