Tuesday 10 May 2011

May Praise and Prayers

  

We did quite a bit of travelling in April...

· All of us went to Quito for a week for water project and community development meetings, to get Camila’s British birth certificate and her Ecuadorian ‘cedula’ (ID card) and passport. We went for Easter week and enjoyed Alfredo’s great Aunt Lolita’s ‘Fanesca’, a thick soup made of 12 grains that is always eaten at Easter time.

· Alfredo returned to Cangaime to reinstall their ‘solar’ pump that had stopped working. We are getting frustrated that the pumps are having problems and the company/distributer cannot work out why they stop.

· Our friend and MAF pilot David Mead took Alf on a ‘discipleship’ trip to the Saparo community Masaramu. Alfredo found this fun as for once he was able to just go and ‘be’ rather than going to build or evaluate a project. They spent time in bible study, conversation and helping the community maintain their airstrip.

· Alfredo made his final trip to Taisha for a while. He got all the legal paperwork sorted for the projects we have done for the ‘municipio’ and now we have no need to return until a new ‘Alcalde’ (Mayor) is elected as this current one doesn’t want to work with HCJB Global.

· We went to Palora to visit a possible project that has road access! The community has a water system but it has never worked properly and now we are waiting for them to complete their paperwork.

Weekends revolve around the football matches. The team is getting better, but have yet to win a game and are bottom of the tables! Even ‘winning’ the last game by default (the other team didn’t have enough players so we automatically win) didn’t move us from the bottom! I have to keep reminding Alf that it is a ‘social team’ and that it is their first year.

I got up at 4am to watch the royal wedding and Diane arrived at 5 with cucumber sandwiches and wearing her best hat and pearls (I was still in pyjamas!)

Praises:

· We were able to get Camila’s paperwork without problems and thanks to a friend in the passport office we were done in 20 minutes!

· For good office meetings in Quito and fun time with family over Easter

· For the trip to Masaramu and Palora and for relationships with new communities

Prayers:

· For Justin (the boy who lost his hands and sight) as he continues with surgeries on his eyes

· For trips to two communities in Salasaca (in mountains) and to Washintza

· For wisdom as we prepare office budgets and project proposals for the end of the month.

· That my degree is recognised in Ecuador. I have applied but won’t know for at least a month... they have already shown confusion over my ‘masters’ degree in 4 years (as here a bachelors degree takes 6 years and masters 2 years more) .

· That the football team be a good Christian witness (and start winning games!)

Blessings,

Alex and Alfredo, Benjamin and Camila

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