AAghhh! November already. My list of things to do before we leave for the UK is large, but we are making progress on some stuff.
we are having electricity rationing in Ecuador at the moment as the droughts have reduced the hydroelectric power so there isn't enough to go around. tomorrow we'll be without 10am -2pm and it looks like it might continue for two more months! pray for rain!
Praises:
Beginning of November is a double public holiday and as it fell Monday/Tuesday we had a nice long weekend. The whole of quito left for the beach, so we went to Quito! Alfredo’s brother Rodrigo had his civil wedding and then we went with most of the family north to Cotocachi etc. It was a nice break and good time with the family.
Alfredo went for his visa and didn’t have any problems with his paperwork and didn’t need have an interview. The paperwork is now sent to the embassy in new york so we won’t know if he has the visa for three weeks, please pray!
Alex went with Tracey and Tannia to do our first parasite study in the jungle. Tannia did the hygiene teaching in Amazonas, Tracey spent her time looking at the samples in the microscope and I tried to keep Benjamin from eating the mud (I quickly gave up trying to keep him out of the mud!). We found the 68% of the school children had parasites. We gave medicine and hope that the number will go down next time we do the study. This is a good measure for a community to see how clean water, sanitation and hygiene can improve their health.
We took a group of 7 ‘Safe Water in Ecuador’ members to Mutints to see the project they funded. It was an adventure, with a 3 hour walk each way and a rain storm that meant the river was too high for us to cross so we couldn’t leave the community for a few hours! The group enjoyed themselves!
Alfredo, Lizzie, Steph and Stefy have installed the pump system in Cangaime and are currently in Cusuime reinstalling the pump.
Prayers:
That Alfredo is given his visa for our trip to the UK.
That we can train the girls enough in these two months so they feel confident in continuing in the jungle while we are gone and that we can find enough work for them to do!
That we can find ‘cheap’ air tickets to return to the UK.
That we can finish Santa Rosa project and get all the paperwork sorted for Taisha
For our work in the Mera youth church youth group and for preparing a puppet sketch for the Christmas program.
For our time in the UK. We start classes at Redcliffe on 6th January. We won’t have much time after our studies to visit people so need to plan our weekends and half-terms well. Information on how you can get involved is in the newsletter I’ll send later in the week.
Thank you for being faithful prayer warriors for us. We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings,
Alex, Alfredo and Benjamin
