Day 65 – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory… of Horrors!

"Please keep your arms and legs inside the deathtrap at all times"

First day of the Memorial Invitation Campaign: Awake by 7am, out the door by 8:05. Arrive in Namirez at 8:20. On bus to territory for 8:30 departure to Nambija Alto (Upper Nambija-pronounced Nom bee ha), which is a gold mining town. It takes about an hour or so to reach in a Ranchera (a combination bus, carnival ride).

Nice handrail

This is one of the rivers we crossed - no bridge

Getting there was pretty wild-at times a river about 15-20 ft across is flowing over the top of the road. But, there was really no danger.  It is at about 5,500 feet and I’m not sure if the sun ever shines there. Not to mention, really cold at the top which they forgot to tell us.

This is one of the "new" bridges they are building.
You can imagine what we crossed on.

It was rainy and overcast on the way. This is the path
ahead as we start climbing. No guardrails

We got there around 10am (the bus stops along the way)
This is our meeting for field service just outside town.
There were 16 of us.

Walking to town from the bus stop

First view (obstructed by clouds) of town.

Apparently, several decades ago it was a booming town. It is still very busy and there are a good number of people still living there.
We will try to give you an idea of the nature of it with pix and video, but you know how that goes.  Leah came up with the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory comparison…and I added the Horror part. If you could see and hear this place you would understand. It is very loud with the sounds of machinery and the rivers and waterfalls, which are all part of the gold processing, are so muddy, well, it looks like a scene from inside Charlie’s chocolate factory. It is like the whole town is part of one big out door factory.

Those flat looking "boards" are really conveyors with "carpet"
to catch/wash the gold and the muddy water flows over them.

Going up a handful of the 500 slippery steps.

The town is built on the side of the mountain and is a maze of ups and downs, weaving through houses and factories.  It had a ton of character but very little beauty, except, of course, the natural beauty around it. Leah went up about 500 steps and then steep inclines with her group of sisters to start at the top and work their way back down to our 2 groups. (I don’t think she was cold anymore).

This is a view from about halfway up - If you look closely you can see 2 little flecks in the middle of the pic.
It's Erik and Hermano Flores.

The workers transporting mud (potentially with gold) to be sifted.
They use the carts that they used in coal mines.



What goes up must come down-
not sure what's harder?

It's impossible to stay clean. Between the rain &
the river it feels like the town is dripping.

We spent the whole morning distributing invitations to the Memorial and Special Talk. We managed to get to every home and store in the town, we think.

Fortunately, there's a hotel for any of you who might be tempted to visit

How cute is this?

This bus was a little leaky. Hey, what do you want for a $1.50?

Back on the bus by 12:50. Everyone was a little hungry. Adrian managed to find chicken-we had just brought crackers and a piece of fruit. Diana told us not to eat anything here that wasn’t packaged because of the contamination – but that chicken smelled and looked delicious!

We got home at about 2:30, really muddy and really tired. We finished preparing for the meeting, had a snack and we were off to the KH.

Brother Ortiz from Loja Norte had the talk. It was very good: “Challenges and Rewards of Child-Rearing”. He had 3 children and you could just see his passion for having children. It made the talk that much better. The Watchtower Study was awesome, huh? What is the quality of our sacrifices to Jehovah? What is our attitude when making them? I will try to have a better attitude about getting up and getting out the door. It really is a privilege to serve Jehovah.

Who says rat hunting is not a contact sport?

We cleaned the KH and then headed home. Popcorn, ham sandwich, toast and a movie and then, off to bed. Almost as soon as the light went off (11:30pm) we heard Ryan’s concerned voice from the kitchen, “Shawn, wake up!..Shawn…Shawn…SHAWN!”  - Yep, another rat in the house. Shawn put on his hunting apparel and headed out to the kitchen. Then, a noise we are now all too familiar with-wooden brooms being swung like swords of medieval knights. Their valor was legendary, there aim-horrendous. Ryan smashed the stove and the rodent made its escape.

As we laid in bed, listening to them analyzing what had gone wrong we heard Ryan say “Shawn, it’s on your door!” And so the encore performance of thrashing and thumping began again. It was not the same rat. This one was big. As the mighty warriors stood there and reveled in the conquest over their furry foe, we could only sit and wonder…where’d the other one go?