5 Guys in a Van with Candy

We had another amazing day in Ecuador. We actually forgot to set an alarm to meet the pastor at 7am. Fortunately I woke up at 6:07 on my own (or God woke me up :)

We got up, met the pastor and ventured into the Amazon Jungle. After all the bumpy bus rides, a few hours in a van on rocky roads wasn't too bad and the scenery was magnificent. We saw waterfalls, white water rapids, wild pineapples and cocoa trees.

We set out to visit 3 villages and see what was going on. We came to a small village where the Baptist Church had already been completed. We talked to some people in the town and took some pictures. We climbed a giant hill where we could overlook the entire village.

This is where we met Mateo. He's a cute kid and we all took pictures with him and just had a good time overall. Before we left, we headed to the center of the village and began to give out candies to the few kids that were around. Before we knew it, we had around 100 kids out there. It was incredible. I think they were coming from surrounding villages.

The funniest part was that at the end of our time handing out candy, Mateo came back out and handed me a papaya. It was pretty cool. So I've been carrying around a papaya all day.

We headed to another village where they were replacing the roof on their temporary church. It's really important to the Christians in these indigenous villages to have an actual church building. They want a place that's entirely set apart for God.

The most amazing sight of the entire trip came between the second and third villages. We came upon a stream where kids ages 4-6 were out there washing their clothes in the river. They weren't just dipping their clothes but they were just going about their business banging their clothes on rocks and scrubbing their clothes with soap and a brush. There was no adult present. They were just doing it. In America we are pretty happy if our kindergarteners don't eat the glue. How are these people not the most advanced civilization on earth???

We visited the last village and saw their building in progress. These buildings are so simple. I'm pretty sure 3 guys could build a church a week for $1000 each.

We didn't get to do any electrical work in the villages, but there's a huge need for it. They have power out here but the houses aren't wired. Sometimes several huts share one light. There's just no knowledge of how to hook this stuff up.

We also visited the hotel that we would be staying in about an hour outside the Amazon. It's a nice place and it's $7 per night. Oh and FYI, diesel is $1 per gallon here and gas is $1.40.

I had another fun event happen today. After the first village wiped us out of candy, I went to a little store and pretty much bought them out of lollipops, gum, and small candies. (The lady gave me $9 in nickles, dimes, quarters, and 50 cent pieces). We gave this candy out at the last 2 villages. When we got on the bus for Quito, I still had a fair amount of candy left. I tried to get Elias to give it out, but he didn't want to, so I decided to do it. For some reason the locals got a pretty big kick out of the big gringo making two rounds through the crowded bus passing out all sorts of dulces.

Back to my title... I guess there's not a stigma in Ecuador about 5 guys in a blue van passing out candy to kids. We had a stream of them following us the whole way. You haven't seen a hardcore kid until you've seen a 4 year old sprinting barefoot down a rocky dirt road and jumping on the bumper of a moving vehicle just to get some candy.