Project in Washintsa

A shorter visit this time with all the work completed in 7 days - we're getting more efficient - although also Washintsa is a bit bigger than the other communities so we could get more done.  The engineering element of the visit was fairly straighforward, this being the third in a line of similar projects.  This spring was a bit of an unknown quantity as the water was coming up from underground - but we dug and hoped, and eventually got down to the water-bearing layer and it started coming out from the side of the trench - meaning we could protect the spring as planned.

Excavating for the tank - I love the different details in this photo.  Protecting and covering the spring - it looks muddy but after we left it for a while it started running beautifully clear..

Relaxing whilst waiting for the concrete to set, short stature of ecuadorians is a disadvantage when building latrines, finshing the tank

More of a challenge this time was the mission element.  Usually after a day starting with a brief bible passage and prayer, followed by a day of gruelling work, and a half hour of health teaching I am ready to wash and sleep.  But night after night, the community requested a service.  So every evening, we collected candles and diesel torches and sang songs and talked over the bible.  It was an amazing privelege to be invited to do this every night - and the majority are not Christians - they just want to know more.  On Sunday too we walked over to Karamá to join them for their service, and walked back via another community, where again, I was invited to preach.  It has been amazing and unbelievable that this has been my life, but quite exhausting.


On Monday night the 2 communities got together for a despedida (farewell) where we had traditional dances (including some English ones!), songs, speechifying and gifts.  Sadly no photos due to the lighting / lack of.  As an anticlimax, on Tuesday it rained all day, so our plane never came.  It was tough waiting it out, but I got to know one of the families a lot better, learning how to make chicha (yes there was some chewing and spitting involved) and staying in their house for the extra night.

 Brindando chicha (you sieve it, and offer it to the men in turn, saying "umaru pée" - drink, brother), my room the final night - amazingly comfy, a beautiful misty dawn

It's also been a bit of a week for medical emergencies.  The night before I left Shell, we spent several hours driving round nearby Mera, looking for a friend's brother who had been walking in the road drunk, caused a crash, and run off injured.  We, the police, the ambulances, and various other relatives / passers-by we driving round Mera (which is small), searching, and converging at crossroads to update each other on what we'd found.  It was a little farcical.  Fortunately, he was found by the ambulance and taken to hospital in Shell, at which point we all sloped off by the back roads - letting the police keep searching - to the hospital.

In Washintsa, on Tuesday at about 5pm, a 5 year old was bitten by a snake.  The emergency procedure is to fly out to the hospital (paid for by the government) but the airstrip shuts at 6pm.  By the time we got in touch with Shell on the radio, there was no time to send a plane.  But after prayer and discussion with the control tower, we found there was a plane in the area who could take him to hospital.  I was very glad that I was there with the radio - without it he wouldn't have got out til the morning and may not have survived.

Then yesterday, as we were waiting for the plane, visiting doctors confronted me with a beaten 2-year-old, saying effectively "this child is dying, you're a missionary, do something".  The couple are recently married, but the child is by a different father - the mother doesn't want him, the husband beats him when he's drunk, and they both neglect him.  But they wouldn't send him to the orphanage in Shell, nor accompany him to the hospital.  Eventually we flew him out to the hospital in Puyo, accompanied by an uncle, and the doctors gave the stepfather a serious warning and will be back to check on the child in a couple of months.  The boy has no official date of birth and no name - please pray for his situation.  But also for the parents - I got to know them the past week (never knowing they had a son) and liked them.

I'm now enjoying some R&R in Shell - I got quite tired and even lost my voice at one point so the rest is welcome.  I shall be back in Santa Rosa for 2 days next week and then starting to travel up to Quito and home for the 22nd.