Day 85 – “Good” Friday

We met for service with the CO in Cumbaratza. Erik and I had plans to work with the brother and his wife the 3^rd hour – from 11-12, mas o menos. My studies weren’t there but I had a nice opportunity to chat with Silvia. Erik took Hermano Luis on Marisol’s study which is always great. They were studying the chapter on family life and the importance of being faithful to your mate. She made the comment that although she views it as important, in conversations with her friends they’ve all resigned themselves to the fact that when they marry, their husbands will not be faithful. As if it’s just a normal part of life. How sad.

It was a hot one and the religious music was blaring from the church in the town center. They celebrate the “semana santa” (Holy Week) a little different in Latin America.

Afterward, we went to visit Maria to see how she was feeling. She seemed better but still very sore. She said she falls a lot – I think it’s because of the problems with her ears and her equilibrium is off.

We got back to the hall and everyone was gone – that meant a walk home. Which normally we don’t mind, but Erik wanted that extra half hour to work on the special talk and I felt like I had plenty to do too. But we got an ice cream and started the walk home. Almost immediately, a taxi pulled over and offered us a ride. We asked how much to the Quebrada and he didn’t really answer. Then he said “Muy buen discurso anoche, hermano” (You gave a good talk last night, brother). We asked, “were you in Cumbaratza or Zamora?” He said, “Zamora, I was standing at the door welcoming the friends.” (all in spanish of course) We felt really embarrassed that we hadn’t recognized him but he was very kind and brought us home (without charging us). Unfortunately, Shawn had gone back to look for us once he got home and realized we hadn’t gone with Ryan.

Still no water and we had another meeting tonight. The dirty clothes and dishes were mounting. I was starting to stress a bit because we are leaving Sunday morning after the meeting and I had hoped to wash (and have dry clothes). By 4pm Erik and I were getting anxious and Ryan took Erik to buy 2 more of those big blue bottles of water so we could all be clean for the meeting. By now, we’re becoming experts on bathing with 4 inches of water.

I had to get a pic of Raquel with her teal socks

We had a good meeting with Hermano Feijoo (pron'd fay-ho-o). He gave a good talk on staying faithfull serving Jehovah despite trials and difficulties and talked about the 2 types of persecution and how it can affect us. He read some experiences from the new yearbook  about Rwanda. Wow!

We got home and they had a ping pong tournament; even the girls played. I can’t believe we r leaving Ecuador in 2 days! (the exclamation is not happiness, simply how fast the time flew.