More odds ' n ends

The garbage trucks can be heard for blocks and blocks before you see them.  Why?  They play LOUD music just like ice cream trucks in North America.  The trucks and their music start just after 6 a.m. and if you're not already awake, you will be then.  They play music because you can't put garbage out the night before due to the dogs.  So by playing music it brings people out with their garbage on the run.

Today while waiting for the bus we heard one coming and I grabbed my camera.

Off to Ibarra, a 45 minte bus ride, for grocery shopping today.  There are things we can't find in the small grocery store here in Cotacachi - like peperoni and salami!

We see all kinds of different fruits here but don't know what they are?  So we bought 1 of each for taste testing.  If we find something we like we'll buy more.

Service Highlights

Most of the territory maps are sourced from Google.  Many times when we get to the territory the actual streets just don't match the printouts.  As a result, a fair amount of time needs to be spent trying to figure things out (as per below).

Many of the roads are unpaved and dirt.  Every door we see we must knock on, business or residential.  There are LOTS of doors down every street.

Interesting when scaffolding is erected, nothing gets in the way, not even live powerlines.  Just build the scaffolding around it!

This is a common sight every morning in town after town.  Property owners or paid street cleaners always sweeping the streets.  Ecuadoreans are fastidiously clean minded about their sidewals and roads.

We hiked up very steep roads to the hills above Otavalo.  The roads were at a steep angle I'm not accustomed to in Canada because of winter snow and ice.

We were winded but we made it.  The view was extraordinary.  Unfortanately there were no English speaking people up here.

Our breaks in service are on the run, no sitting around.  Mostly ice cream, unless we are near a Panaderia (bakery) in town, then we'll buy a croissant or cookie.  We all bring a bottle of water with us since the humidity is low and air is dry.

There's always fresh fruit on the streets which is tempting for break, but we have to avoid it until it's taken home and soaked in a wash that kills amoebas and bacterias that would make us North Americans ill.  Once sick from this type of illness, you never forget and are extra cautious. 

Yesterday we preached in San Antonio

San Antonio is a suberb of Ibarra known as the wood carving capitol of Ecuador.  Chris and I worked together and found a man who could read and speak some English.  He wanted answers to many questions on the tract "Would You Like to Know the Truth?"  He asked us to return and study the Bible with him next Tuesday.  Later we travelled to a study I had started a few weeks ago.  The young man had been away to Peru but was happy to see us.  The study was resumed and scheduled for Friday of this week.

Here's our group in San Antonio yesterday.

Some pics of the wood shops in San Antonio (below).  They are literally every 3rd. or 4th. door down each street.  The carvers are proud of their work and invite us in while they're working.

This young man didn't speak English but got across to us that his friend did.  He was sure if he phoned him he could come to meet us in maybe 20 minutes.  We gave him an English tract with our phone number which he said he'd pass on.

Shop windows full of wood carving products.

This truck was going from shop to shop picking up the carver's creations.

Something you seldom see in Ecuador are people smoking.  While cigarettes are available, we can honestly say in 6 weeks we've seen maybe 2 people smoking anywhere.  The picture below illustrates their view of tobacco.  Someone impaled a cigarette box to a railing.  That's the first box I've seen down here and you'll never see butts on the ground either.  They just don't smoke.  If it's the choice of a vice, Cerveza (beer) wins.