I meant to update this several days ago, but I did not have time before we left for our first real “missionary experience” down here. We traveled to a small Quichua community called Piculca, just a few minutes out of Otavalo. Our purpose for going was to help the community with a clean water project sponsored by HCJB’s Community Development section.
We spent our weekend after orientation preparing for a four day trip into the mountains. We planned our meals and planned games and songs for the kids. We left bright and early Tuesday morning for the two hour drive to Pigulca. We took a truck with all our bags and sleeping bags as well as a van with cooking items, food and other items for the week. I rode in the van with the two guys in my group, Ryan and Neal, and the project leader, Bruce. It was an enjoyable ride. I was planning on putting my music on and falling asleep, but we talked with Bruce for most of the trip about why we were each in Ecuador and how we became Christians.
We arrived in Pigulca and grabbed our shovels and picks and headed down into the valley on the edge of town. It was a steep walk down and we met up with many of the community members by the edge of a stream. The project for the week was to dig out three springs of fresh water and protect them. The water would be filtered, protected with cement and then piping would bring the clean water to a collecting tank. The spring water will be treated in the collecting tank then routed to a pump which will then pump the water up and out of the valley into the community where it will be pumped to each house in the community. Right now the community is living without clean water. There is a pump at the community building, but many of the community members suffer sickness and parasites due to the lack of clean water. Later on we learned that one of the communities that HCJB has brought clean water to previously only had access to clean and/or running water for two hours a day for only two weeks per month.
After working for several hours down in the valley, we made our lunch and then prepared for an afternoon of playing with kids. The kids were absolutely adorable! There were two little boys, ages 4 & 5 that I was playing with and giving them “vueltos” (flights), where I would throw them up in the air after they ran at me. I took lots of pictures and they loved having their pictures taken. We played several games with the kids including “pato, pato, ganso” (duck, duck, goose), “gato y ratón” (cat and mouse), and fútbol (soccer). We taught them three songs we learned in Spanish and had coloring sheets for them. Around 6/6:30, we had our dinner, and they would look in at us through the one window into our room. We had a Bible study for our group led by one of our three leaders and by that time we were all exhausted and were ready for bed. The girls shared the largest room and we were lucky to have 4 thin mattresses to share between the six of us. When we woke up in the morning, we made breakfast and then repeated it again.
We were in Pigulca from Tuesday until Friday. We were working in the muddy stream all morning and were very thankful for our “Wellies” as our leader Martin called our rubber boots (he’s from England). We worked alongside the people of the community. They are very hard working people and very committed to finishing the project. Most of our days were quite similar - working in the morning and playing with the kids in the afternoon.
On Thursday and Friday we had community meals with the community members. The community members are all so generous. They don’t have a lot, but they were willing to share with us and get to know us, despite the language barrier (Many of the older people only speak Quichua). On Friday, they prepared “cuy” (guinea pig) for us. Cuy is a delicacy in Ecuador and it is quite expensive, but it was their way of honoring us. We also had a mixture of potatoes, popcorn, beans, and a corn type snack. This mixture was put in a line on scarves/table cloths and eaten with ones fingers. It was quite the experience. When it was time to leave, all the kids gathered around and gave lots of hugs. I had three little kids that hugged me for about five minutes straight. I was sad to go, but it didn’t affect me nearly as much as it did some of the others in the group.
Looking at my pictures, I can see the joy in the kids’ faces as we played with them. On our last night in the community, we had a short presentation with pictures and then we were going to show a video of the benefits of good hygiene. Just before the video was supposed to start, all the power in the community went out. Instead of everyone going home, we had a time of sharing with the community. Many of the members spoke up and we attempted to understand their Spanish (their native language is Quichua). One of the women spoke up and thanked us for sharing God’s love with their children and telling their children about Jesus Christ. We found out later that there are five Christian families in the community and the lady that spoke was one of them. It was awesome to see how God had moved in the community even though I didn’t feel as though we did very much. God is so good!
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