Ecuador team report

We have been here in Shell four days, busy, interesting days. We are staying in a really nice "hostelria", owned by an Ecudoran woman who has worked in New York City. Even has a swimming pool, but none of us have used it yet. We are working at 3 sites - the orphanage, La Casa de Fe, a new building site for Casa de Fe on the edge of town, and in the hospital's workshop, building school desks for La Esperanza, a school run by a local church. For the desk project, the metal frames were welded together before we arrived, but we had to clean them, paint them and add tops, seats, seat backs, and a box under the desk top for books etc. Means a lot of sawing , sanding, coating with polyurethane, etc. The shop we are working in has all the equipment we need, in fact we wonder if the hospital has a woodshop or if the woodshop has a hospital! The first day at the building site we off loaded 1300 cement blocks, by hand, passing or tossing them from person to person to the stack (and 2/3 of them went to second floor). At the orphanage, we are doing basic child care, taking kids to to the playground, or tutoring. Lois said this afternoon she sorted clothes.

A major concern of all of us is that we are not doing things for the people here they could be doing for themselves, or hiring someone to do. Well, Patty Sue, who began the orphanage, is operating basically on faith, so there is no money to hire more child care workers. She has several "tias" as child care workers to whom she pays probably less than minimum wage. She has 60 kids! There apparently is little or no unemployment in the area. So I don't think we are taking a job away from anyone. But we need to keep asking the question.

It rains every day. They get 15 feet of rain per year here! But the sun shines each day as well, but so far its been more cloudy than sunny. We noted the temperature was 73 deg. F right after lunch. This evening, it was bit breezy, too cold to sit outside, believe it or not.

The team seems to be quite compatable. Some of us are renewing acquaintances from long ago, some we have met for the first time (the 3 from Omer and Mary Jane's church in Florida). For the record, those here are: Jim and Lois Bare, Omer and Mary Jane Troyer, Marvin Stolzfus, and Anna Hochstetler (class of '60), Jim Hochstetler (class of '59), Daniel Kieth and Shirley Yoder, (Class of '58), Dan and Marlene Miller, (class of '62), Jimmy and Marilyn Haar and Harry Hildebrand, (from North Port, Florida).

We'll add photos later, and write more. I knew some of you are probably checking the blog to see what is happening. Thanks to those of you who have contributed to the cause. It's not too late , you can still contribute. I think we would vote for all contributions to go to Casa de Fe, there is a real need there. I'd like to see a 100 % participation from the class of '60 in this project, even if it's a $5 contribution.

That's all for tonight, Hasta luego!