| Our missionary host, Don Wolfram in the bus. |
| Along the road. |
| Our first look at our workplace clinic in Centro Yuu. |
| A friend who came to meet us. |
| The bus is really stuck! |
| Walking to the public bus in the dark. |
| Happy team. We finally made it to the hotel. |
| Martin with the baby boa. |
| SUNDAY TRAVEL, ECUADOR, AND BUS EXCITEMENT Today was supposed to be fun, scenic, and productive. We were to travel from Quito to our hotel near Centro Yuu, a trip estimated to be about 6 hours. We left Quito at 8:30. We stopped for ice cream – the richest ice cream any of us could ever remember; some called it “butter and chocolate on a stick” – and to try some special Ecuadorian corn. We parked in Banos, about 5 hours into the trip, for lunch, and we listened to the restaurant owner tell us about the recommended procedures we should attempt if the volcano that overlooks the town should happen to erupt while we were there. We spent about half an hour looking around the interesting streets, but the cloud overcast hid the great volcano. We drove through a volcano ash field that covered the road as we continued on down toward the jungle. From Quito at about 9,000 feet, we were to drop down to about 2000 feet as we reached the edge of the Amazon jungle at Centro Yuu. We learned from our host missionary, Don Wolfram, that Ecuador was roughly the same size and same population as Florida, that the official minimum wage here is $170 per month, but that many of the poor make considerably less than that since their work is sporadic and off-the-books. We stopped in Shell and walked around the dilapidated house that once belonged to the 4 missionaries who were killed with spears in 1957, and whose wives then continued their work with the same Indians who killed the men. This is all the subject of some TV documentaries and of the movie “The End of the Spear”. We stopped along the road and Don jumped out and grabbed some “granadillas”, a fruit with some sweet goop and tasty seeds than many of us enjoyed. The road narrowed as we continued to descend from the mountains, and eventually the pavement stopped and a rough rocky road continued. Although this part of Ecuador realizes 21 feet of rain per year, it was now sunny, and we could see one of the huge snow-capped volcano peaks. The jungle along the roadside became thicker. We finally reached the narrow gravel drive to our “Community House” in Centro Yuu, where we were to start work Monday morning. We wanted to just check the building quickly and then head the last 15 minutes to our hotel. Our bus driver swung the big bus off the gravel and then out onto the muddy soccer field in front of the clinic building. Remembering that this area gets 21 feet of rain annually, we wondered how we were going to fare on a dirt / mud field with a big bus that is loaded with the 13 of us plus others plus our nearly 1-ton of supplies and luggage. That question was answered rather quickly, a few seconds after he stopped and we started exiting the bus to meet the leaders of Centro Yuu. The tires started sinking into the mud and clay, and the more he tried to rock the bus forward and backward, the deeper it sunk into the mud. Several of the local leaders and the pastor came to greet us, and their attitudes and demeanor made us feel very welcome. It was good to finally “be there”. Oh, what about the bus? Our driver Andres rocked it forward and then back, and again, and again. It sunk deeper into the soccer field mud. Several locals carried some small rocks from the edges of the field and placed them under the tires. The driver tried it again and all of the men pushed from behind the big bus. It sunk deeper. Darkness was falling, and we were still a few miles from our hotel. It was now down into some very sticky clay, and the spinning tires had an adherent layer coating them, making them essentially traction-less slicks. A few flashlights were found, and a shovel arrived to start trying to dig out around the tires. After about 25 minutes of digging, it was now dark. Some wood planks were added behind the tires, and we all gathered at the front of the bus for one final try. It didn’t move 2 inches. So, here we were, the 13 of us, our host Don, 5 helpers/interpreters we had picked up along the road, our driver Andres, and about 30 of this area’s residents who had come out to greet us and then to try to help us…..and we were dead in the water…er…mud. Don gathered us around him and informed us of the plan. We were to get from the bus just the minimum of what we had to have for the night and what we could carry, and we would walk back out the quarter-mile of gravel to the rock road and wait for the occasional public bus that passes this way. The local pastor thought one usually came by about an hour from now. We gathered up our back-packs and carry-on bags. It was pitch black and we were really tired. It was overcast but it was not raining, and we started tiptoeing over the gravel and boulders along the long drive toward the rocky road in the pitch darkness, the group using the 3 small flashlights to find footing that wouldn’t twist an ankle or drop into a hole. As the lead group of our pack approached the road, someone shouted, “I think that’s the bus!” Sure enough, it was bumping along the rock road, we flagged it down, and all of us crammed into the aisle, since the seats were all full. Where were all these people going at this time of the night? Don paid the driver, and we bumped and swerved along for about 15 minutes until Don asked the driver to stop. We all got out there, at the end of a rocky driveway, and started the trek toward the hotel. We could see nothing except where the 3 flashlights were. It was still not raining, and none of us tripped and fell. It took about 10-12 minutes to reach the swinging foot-bridge over the Pastaza River, and we could see the lights of the hotel beyond it. Staying away from the open sides of the foot-bridge, we trudged across and up the final rocky walkway to our destination. We could now make out the thatched roof of the big group room, and then the tin roof of the main part of the hotel. We were met by the hotel owner, Romolo, who had re-opened the hotel at Don’s request just for us this week, as it had been closed for the past couple months. The owner’s 10-year-old son, Max, proudly pulled a large lizard out from his left jacket pocket to show everyone. Nice! Then, he pulled a small Boa Constrictor from his right jacket pocket, and let some of us handle and play with the snake. We noted an incredible array of huge, colorful moths, and dodged a few large spiders. The hotel owner and his wife and a cook set about preparing a dinner for us (a piece of beef, some rice, and the ever-present yucca). While we waited on the food, Don told us about how he was called to be a missionary to this area, relating the story of his missionary pilot friend who was killed when his plane crashed in the jungle nearby, and about the 3 men whose plane was caught in a mountain downdraft while they circled the area looking for his friend’ s crash, and they crashed and all were killed. Don came to the funeral here in Ecuador, and returned home to Florida a changed man. Within a few years, he and his family of 5 moved here to begin a ministry to the people of the Rio Verde Valley. Our rooms included a mattress and wood bed frame, with open windows and no screens. We do have an electric light hanging from a loose wire in the center of the ceiling, and there is one flush toilet and one (cold-water-only) shower for each 4 rooms. We turned off the room lights and left the light on in the center entrance room so that some of the flying critters would hopefully be attracted to leave our dark rooms and fly to the light. It worked….sort of. So, there was the constant sound of the river, there was a heavy downpour this night, and we shared our rooms with whatever else wanted to stay for the night. And, we would sleep. Tomorrow, we will try to catch a road bus and travel back to our stuck bus in the Centro Yuu soccer field mud, and we’ll haul all of our supplies across the field and into the Centro Yuu Community House (a single 20 X 40 foot open room with a concrete floor and open air above the 8-foot wall planks) where we’ll try to organize everything and go to work. What will happen with the bus? We’ll see. God must have some plan for this…. |