Crash & Burn

I have two short stories to relate. The first is about a crash, and the second is about something burning.

The Crash
Many of you who keep up with us will know about Ariel. Something that you may or may not know is that he REALLY likes bicycles. In fact, he spends more of his free time and money on his bike than anything else. The bike that he has now is one that he bought from me, but over the last several weeks it has had various issues that needed repair. Most recently, while jumping his bike off a one foot high incline, the rear gear shift got completely demolished - somehow the chain got stuck between the gears and the wheel and bent the gear shift; almost tearing it off. So Ariel spent the next few days working and earning some money. During this time, he and our boys "found" some spare wood and built a ramp...this was no small ramp either! After finally getting his bike in smooth working order he wanted to try out the ramp...note here, that Nate thought the ramp made a nice slide. So before going to the young people's meeting Saturday night, Ariel set the ramp up and several neighborhood kids poked their heads out their windows to watch the amazing jump. Ariel hit the ramp and went flying several feet up in the air, but his front tire hit the ground first with Ariel's head hitting next! Thanks to Levi for running to get the helmet prior to the jump! After the bike and Ariel rolled on the ground, he gets up checking himself and repeating, "I'm fine. I'm fine" (yes, in English). He walks over a few meters to me and we look down at his left wrist and arm and I ask him if he can move his fingers. He shakes his head no, so we rush off to the hospital. After two and a half hours, the doctors have a temporary cast on (the full casting to be done on Monday morning), and we return home.

Yes, Ariel arrived at the hospital with this helmet and he left the hospital with this helmet. 

The Burn
Lord's Day morning we sat together as a family enjoying the morning services, and then an older Waorani lady comes to sit down next to me. I quickly smell the all familiar scent of "smoke" on her and her clothing, then a subtle smile creeps on my face. I lean over and whisper my findings to Alesha who also reveals a smile. The smoke smell is likely not what many would expect; it is the smell of campfire smoke. Having been to Makuma and learning some of the ways of the indigenous, we can appreciate her unique scent:

This lady likely rose up early and kindled or rekindled the fire from the night before and started to heat up breakfast for herself and her family. The breakfast consisted of some hot herbal tea to drink and yucca and potatoes and maybe some rice to eat. We should also make note, that this fire is not large enough to heat up multiple things at once, so she spent a significant amount of time juggling the various pots to keep them warm as the family came in to eat at varying times. Once all the food was gone and the dishes clean, she quickly made her way to the meeting, and since it was a cool morning she kept her jacket on which held the most potent smell of smoke. 

Therefore, we had to smile and enjoy a brief moment the campfire smoke smell and all the work and joy that came with it. I did end up talking with the lady after the meetings, but since she only spoke Wao, the conversation was enjoyable, emotional, and short-lived.

Enjoy!
TaylorH

We're back on line!

God is good! We are moved over to the new house and even on line, which means that as of this morning, Taylor is working from here. Also, the part for the refrigerator that went out two days before we started moving (a week ago) arrived and was put in today!!! Yeah!

I didn't unpack...or paint...ANYTHING today. Not that we are finished with either, but it was fun to do some "normal" life stuff, like laundry, cooking, toddler training...you know, actually living here. While I was at it, I took a bunch of pictures. Some of you are happy for us, but could care less what the house looks like. If this is you, just skim on down to the bottom of this post. :P For anybody else, here is the guided tour. :D

 One of the things we really like about this lot is that there is a wall around it, 

meaning that the smaller kids have a safe place to play outside. 

 The house is surrounded by this black gravel for now...
someday we want to put down something 

softer to play on, but for now, we are glad it isn't concrete.

 There is, however, several garden spaces, including this big covered front garden. (Yes, it seems wrong that you can put a greenhouse roof on a garden and it still get enough water...but apparently you can. )

 The front porch, and our little dog who is very happy to not be living on a chain.

 Taylor and Noah, trying not to trip on the dog getting out of the house. :)

 The living room, err, moving box stack...and a cute door opener who didn't want to smile. 

 Turning around in the living room, you see the dining room, (and the loft above you)

 ...a bathroom and the kitchen

 more kitchen space, and the stairs

 If you would have walked through the dining room, you would come to this point of decision...a big hall closet on the right, the Boys' room (still it too much disorder to be very photo worthy), Glory's room straight ahead, and the back door out to the laundry area on the left (also better left undocumented. ;).

 There is another bath room attached to the boys room.

 Glory in her room. With a Closet!!! (not necessarily a given in Ecuadorian houses)

 OK...back to the main part of the house. Up the stairs...to the loft (school room, library, what-have-you)

 "Floor-to-ceiling bookcase"??? :P

Looking the other way in the loft, out to the balcony...

 ....otherwise known as the Noah-free Lego zone. :)

Walking through the loft into our room. Taylor has to duck through the very little doorway, and watch for rafters, but he loves me and let me keep the cool room anyway. :)

 For now, Noah has a corner in our room. 

Also attached to our room is a small (think large travel trailer sized) bathroom, and Taylor's office.

 That desk is staying with the house. 

It is by God's mercy we didn't drop it on my husband's head trying to get it upstairs.

 One thing Taylor learned from my Daddy; if you're gonna build something, go ahead and build it sturdy. ;) 

We are looking forward to getting back into regular life a bit. Between moving, and many of our friends being gone to help put on a camp in the jungle, we've felt pretty disconnected with normal goings on. Now that we're back in the game, at least for the most part, pray with us that what we do, be for God's glory! 

a little bit of life...

I'll try to write more later, but to prove we haven't fallen off the end of the earth, here are some kid pics of our pre-Christmas, December happenings! 

A friend of mine invited us out to eat

 fresh-caught, farm-raised tilapia with her family.

Glory is holding the ready to grill packets of fish. 

Nate and his dinner.

...my always-serious husband.

 I was so wowed to see all 4 of our boys still at the same moment

 that I ran to get the camera...

 yup...it lasted for the length of time it took to snap ONE picture,

 before normalcy took over. ;)

 Glory has really been working hard to learn to play the guitar.

 It has become very pleasant to hear her practice.

 Sorry this one's blurry...but I still like it.

 (if you can't tell, he's walking the Nativity Scene people around on the roof.)

Life continues...

In honor of lots happening around here (and my computer getting worked on so that I can blog more easily)...here is an update of what life has been like in our corner of the world!

Dan Courage turned 5!  His gift from us was a little green parakeet, who has since been named Kiwi. After two or three weeks of practice, Dan can now get him to sit on his finger! (still inside the cage). Dan is our boy who delights in holding little animals...baby chickens, snails, and earthworms are particular favorites. :) He says that Kiwi is still "learning to be his friend" and wants to get him finger trained enough to be able to take him out of the cage.

Glory Lynn is now a nine year old!!!! Now, you have to understand, Taylor has been looking forward to Glory being nine ever since she was born. He loves his little-bitties dearly, but there is a level of maturity and logic that happens around when a kid turns nine...they join his world a little bit more. Her present from us, (apart from a new paint job on her old bike) is that she no longer has to go to bed with the boys. Within reason, she can stay up and read /craft, etc. with the big people. :)

Friends: Monika is still living in our downstairs apartment and working for us, so she is a friendly face we get to interact with on a daily basis. Ever since going to the jungle with her extended family, we have also gotten the opportunity to know her brother and his wife a little bit. Taylor and the boys went fishing with them a week or so back. Later we were invited to eat with them. I'm so glad my kids have gotten used to being handed a whole grilled fish to eat with their fingers...they don't even bat an eye. ;)


 Ariel is still a good friend and comes over either to visit or to work for Taylor often. He is missed if he doesn't come for a few days. :)






Sala Kairos:

Our downstairs study room is up and running! Or at least started finally! We're open downstairsTuesday and Thursday afternoons, though since we have Monika working for us down there, we do not have to be down there non-stop. Taylor set up a wireless doorbell so that we could know if we were needed without much hassle. It was really good to have our first few students to tutor this week...Taylor had lots of fun helping with math and physics, and two people came the other day to practice English.
(OK, one of them was Ariel, who perhaps doesn't count, but he was invaluable in not making the other student feel completely out of his comfort zone reading for the scary gringo lady. :) I have not taken any pictures while things are going on downstairs, so you'll have to use your imagination. :)

School: We are really enjoying homeschooling this year! Since we school year round (meaning that we school if we are here at home and don't if we aren't. ;), our school year doesn't switch over at the "proper" time of year. We do have a schedule, and we do level up to the next grade, it just doesn't happen in September, necesarily. That being the case, Glory is continuing 3rd grade; Levi is in 1st. Dan is learning how to read and write. Nate is learning how to play by himself until it's time for Mama to read him a book or Dan is ready to play outside with him. We hope Noah sleeps through most of it. ;)

call it woodshop??? He's helping Papa sand. :P

...big brave boy. blowing bubbles. biking backwards :)

Makuma Birthday Adventure

"Taaayylor, where are yoouuuu?" I could already hear my mom calling me and concerned that I was not answering the phone so that she could say, "Happy birthday!" So, she was warned ahead of time, but for the rest of you that called and got no answer, here are the highlights of our jungle-touring, mud-stompin', hut-building, no-electricity, river-bathing weekend:

Since moving to Puyo, we have waiting semi-patiently for a good opportunity to go into the jungle. Of course, we do live in the jungle city, but it is not the same as what the natives call the "jungle, jungle". A few weeks ago, we told Monika who lives downstairs, that we wanted to go to the jungle and since she has family in the jungle, we decided that it would be a good place to start. Makuma, is a little town with a big reputation since some missionaries setup a hydroelectric power station many years back...but I'm diverging from our notable moments already...

First off, this is more of a list of notable events that we remembered together while driving back to Puyo, so except for little Noah, each of us had something to contribute here and since that is how we remembered it together then that is how I will share it with you.

• EVERYONE remembers the hike into the jungle, and I suppose that it will be a long time before we forget it! It was like nothing that we had ever done before. We set out on foot from the little jungle community and walked for more than 45 minutes on a narrow, 1-2-foot wide trail. The trail had its ups and downs which we had met before in Honduras, but this had an aspect which we hadn't yet experienced: MUD! and there was lots of it. People wear calf-high rubber boots, and now we know why. We crossed three streams that were shallow and only 5-9 feet across, but typically they were also at the bottom of a steep, muddy hillside. We all had a grand time, both on the way and at the return, and the children each picked up their own special jungle-trekking nickname: 
• Glory the brave. She was the quickest to figure out how to slog through the muddy trail. Though sometimes she lost a boot and fell in the mud, she did so with smiles and laughter the whole way through. 
• Levi the 'loose-boot'. Levi claims that he lost his boots more than anyone and each time he thinks about the trips he will recall one of the numerous times that he lost his boot in the mud and then laugh hysterically. 
• Dan the swift-footed. On the hike out, while I was still trying to figure out how NOT to slip in the mud, Dan and I ended up together and it was all that I could do to keep up with him. He never really got far ahead of me, like Glory could, but neither did he slow me down one bit. I kept thinking that at my next step that I would step on him with my longer strides, but somehow he would scuttle on ahead...maybe his lighter frame didn't allow him to get as stuck in the mud as the rest of us.
• Nate and Noah the cargo. Is there anything more to say here???

• Upon arriving at our destination, which was the newly inherited property of Monika and her siblings. They wanted to clear a bit of land and build a small hut that they could stack wood under, sleep, and basically make the start of a camp. So I took my machete and learned how to cut a small, thigh-sized tree with it...not too different from using an axe, but I'm glad that I had seen in done many times before and that I had been using my machete. After enough clearing had been done, we took some of the felled trees, which were 20-30 feet tall, and cut them into 7-foot segments. With 12 posts, 4 think, 4 medium, and 4 thin, and using some "jungle rope" (think about what Tarzan swings on, but these were younger/thinner) we tied the posts together while Monika and her sister cut down some palm leaves for a roof covering. So in about 2 hours, with 5 people, we made a decent spot for Monika's brother and sister to begin working on the land.

• The friendly pavo (turkey). Our dear Nathanael is still a bit fearful of animals, but he is learning. While petting a dog, he saw a turkey. So he decided to try to pet him too, but that turkey would just keep walking away from him...never running, but never letting Nathanael get close enough. Since the turkey didn't have teeth (and is therefore not hostile according to Nate), then Nathanael decided that the turkey was friendly and going to be his new friend. 

• Glory, Daniel, and Nathanael, spent quite some time investigating a small pool of minows and tadpoles. They started catching them and saving them in their boot until Alesha told them that we will not be bringing them back to Puyo with us! (Note: not that Alesha is against having tadpoles, but it was more about the practicality of hauling them 5 hours in a boot in the overly stuffed truck.)

• On a separate trek (not the one into the jungle), we came upon a very steep and muddy embankment. Already being late in the afternoon and still tired from our morning outing to the jungle, we declined the slide downhill. As we were leaving, both Alesha and I had to marvel at an old Shuar woman carrying a basket on her head making her way, not quite swiftly, but certainly not slowly down the hill that we were not able to make. 

• Alesha enjoys the Butterflies. "I've seen more new butterflies these last two days in the jungle than I have since coming to Ecuador." says my wife on the return voyage to Puyo. That is quite a statement when you realize just how many new butterflies we have already seen just in Puyo! 

• "Maito". Twice during the weekend we were gifted with "maito" for supper. This is a small portion of either fish or chicken, folded in a leaf and grilled on the kitchen fire. The fish maito we had contained two, perch-sized fish, the leaf folded around them like a wallet and then tied closed with another piece of leaf. You pick the fish out with your fingers, leaving the bones. When you're finished, the whole leafy plate goes in the camp fire. A side dish of the ever-present yucca or verde, (both starchy vegetables), is served along side. Glory deemed it the best fish she has ever had. 

• Saturday evening, with still plenty of daylight left (remember that there is no electricity), we headed down to the nearby river with a bar of soap to bathe. (Clothes on...they were quite muddy too.) Bathed in a river: check! The saddest part was that when Alesha and Nathanael came, though we tried to warn them, they managed to find the slippery spot, and slipped partway down the slope to the river. :-( What I found interesting was watching the community etiquette. I arrived at the watering hole with the three oldest of our children first. We started bathing. Then came some little girls. Then some older girls. Then some of the older boys came, but they did not get in. Instead, they waited. We finished and got out. As we were leaving, I saw that most of the older girls got out too, and as soon as they did the boys jumped in. 

• Probably anyone who has been to a remote part of the world will associate with this: One thing we were really looking forward to was listening to the sounds of the jungle at night. Keep in mind that we are sleeping in a small community of houses. As we lay down to rest and hear the strange new sounds, what instead we hear is, "brrummmmm, mmmm, mmmmm". This was the nightly generator which ran until about 9pm. After the generator cut out, there were some very unique sounds, of course I was so wiped out that I only recall listening to them for a few minutes right after the generator cut off and before I passed out. 

• Dan also made some new friends: baby chickens. He has a long story associated with it which is too cute to be able to repeat here, but that is one of his memories: playing with the baby chickens while waiting for breakfast. 

• Sunday morning, we noticed that some of our clothes were still wet. Knowing that the "kitchen" would already be hot, Levi and I grabbed the wettest of the clothes and headed down to the fire to dry them off. The people cooking their breakfast were very accomodating while Levi and I wafted our family laundry over their food. They seemed to have this, "been there, done that before" sort of expression on their faces. 

• Glory also has a colorful tale of her adventure with a butterfly just before we left the jungle. Again, to get the full impact of the encounter, you will have to hear it from her, but I will give some mention of it here: as she was skipping across the field, she noticed a butterfly. So Glory stopped to watch it (as I mentioned previously, there were some very beautiful butterflies). In doing so, the butterfly approached her, so she held out her hand and the butterfly landed on it and even tried to taste Glory to see if she was sweet enough. 

Through all of this, I would have to say that one of the fondest memories that Alesha and I will take back with us is having watched our children adapt to the new and strange surroundings. Eating strange foods, bathing in a river, sleeping in odd places, slogging through the mud...ok, ok, so I do realize that many kids would think many of these things to be fun, but as a parent, you are never quite sure until you see it happen with your own children. We are so very satisfied from watching how they handled themselves and we are very appreciative to our God for giving us these opportunities and look forward to see what He will raise them up to become.

Enjoy!
TaylorH
P.S. - As usual, if you want some of the finer details, then you will just have to call and here it from us directly.
P.P.S. - You can find Makuma with these coordinates in a map search engine: -2.151784,-77.704953

A bit of birthday....

Happy birthday to Noah!!!!

The mixer died while we were making whipped cream...Papa to the rescue. :)

"happy birthday to Noah, happy birthday to you!"

Aww, shucks, strawberries are my favorite, too!

I think he approves of birthdays. :)