Day 42 - Nothin' like a carb fest before bed

We met for service in Santa Rosa- just the four of us (Robin, Shawn, Erik & I). We tried some of my calls, but didn’t have a lot of success finding people at home. We didn’t find Alexandra (her daughter got hit by a car and left on the side of the road for ½ hour) home either bc her niece told me her daughter’s condition worsened and she had to go move her to the hospital an hour away in Loja. But not by ambulance, she has to move her herself on the bus – really great ,huh?

View from on the hill. See Shawn & Robin at the Green house?

We did a couple houses that you have to hike way up the steep hill (like 80 steps). One was not at home, the other one the woman wasn’t interested and we were like totally out of breath thinking "are u sure ur not interested?" Do you not realize we just hiked up this huge hill? – She didn’t seem to care, didn't take pity on us gasping gringos. So down we went, but the view was beautiful and we saw Shawn & Robin at the green house down below.

View from the hill of the town of Timbara. The green house
where Robin and Shawn are is in the middle under the
powerline.

On the way home we did some calls in Cumbaratza (so Erik could try again to find Yolanda). Still unsuccessful but her daughter said she’d be home by 2. We stopped by my study Merci in the Quebrada (near our house). She had gone to the doctor yesterday and wasn’t home for her study. Today she was feeling better and wanted to study with us even though she was studying for a Biology test she had later. She’s a really good study, very sincere. We studied about how Jehovah cares about us and has a personal name. Her Bible uses the name Yave and we explained that was the equivalent of Jehova in Hebrew. That seemed like a new thing for her that she found interesting.

For lunch, Veronica y Ryan made menestra de verde y arroz. Very yummy! The Vivancos had given us a huge bunch of plantains, some verde and some maduros that we need to eat. They ripen incredibly quick here. Fortunately, everyone likes them.

The switch on the fan broke so we spent a good part of the afternoon fixing it. But when Erik left at 2 for his haircut I was determined to figure it out seeing as I had properly diagnosed the problem with Aaron’s 4 wheel drive. I did figure it out but I had mixed up the wires so it had only 2 speeds instead of 3 and 2 off positions. But when Erik got home from his $2.50 haircut (it didn’t look like that –that’s really the price) he adjusted the wires and we were back in business.

Little Damaris Romero had a talk on the school. Her setting was talking to her Bible study on the phone and she did extremely well. Especially considering she had to juggle the phone and hold the microphone while trying to find scriptures. Afterward, everyone helped sweep and mop like usual, including Maite y Don Israel.

After meeting we were starving – of course! The choices were limited so Erik & I decided to make mac and cheese. They have something here called yucca starch (they make bread out of it that’s delicious by the way). I use it like corn starch. It works even better than flour. It thickens almost instantly and mixed with some mozzarella and gouda, a little garlic powder, nutmeg & milk it turned out pretty yummy. We even made some buttery, breadcrumbs with parm cheese for on top.  Ryan was worried it wouldn’t be enough so he cooked up some potatoes with garlic that he put on top of his mac and cheese. Oh well, can you really have too many carbs?

On a sad note, some of you may have heard about the bus crash in the northern part of Ecuador on Sunday.  From what we have heard there were 16 of our brothers and sisters from Ibarra on the bus headed to Lita to preach, 7 were killed and not sure how many injured. There are 29 so far that have died & 26 injured. Don't quote me on these numbers, they r from the internet, not the society.