We Finally Made it Part Two!

We spent most of Thursday morning recovering but headed into Playas to get some supplies just before lunch. Dale showed me where to pay the water and electric bills and introduced me to a number of the business owners in town, particularly those that had been used for the various construction materials while building the camp. Kelly headed off to the market with Nikki where they bought some fruit and vegetables. Playas impressed me as having a busy little town centre, somewhat reminiscent of the busy downtowns that I was familiar with growing up in Scotland. I’m sure that we will find most of what we need there without having to return to Guayaquil. Towards the end of our visit we stopped by one of the cyber cafes where we found that we can spend an hour online for a dollar. We spent a few minutes catching up on some e-mails and then headed back to the camp.
In the afternoon we visited some of our neighbours like Macario and his sons and Santiago, the pastor of the local evangelical church. Later we toured the little church with Santiago’s wife and felt almost guilty to see that in contrast to our well maintained facility they have virtually no roof left as the metal has rusted away and there is more patch than roof and more holes than patch – if that makes sense! Maybe we will be able to help them somewhere along the way. The rest of the day was spent with Dale, Janet and Nikki just getting to know each other and talking long and hard about the camp and how this ministry should be structured. It is an amazing facility and there are so many things that it could be used for. I shared that it is my goal to spend the next couple of weeks listening and talking to a number of key people about the camp and the role that it could play here.
On Friday the Horsts and Nikki began preparing to leave and head back to their homes in Guayaquil. So it became time to be sure that we knew our way around the camp. Dale explained to me one more time how the unusual and slightly complicated water system works here and I think I finally understood it. Then it was time to go through the various keys to the facility – there are many – and discover what each one does. Before they left however, we headed over to a local hill that the Horst children call the “Lion King Mountain” for its similarity in appearance to the one in the movie. It is a few miles away from the camp, although you can see it clearly from our bedroom window. As we got closer to it we noticed that the area around the camp is almost a desert although the area immediately behind the beach itself is quite green.
The road to the mountain gradually deteriorated until it was little more than a track and must be a mess in the rainy season. However, the site itself is really quite beautiful in a rugged way. Part way up the hill is a shrine to Mary at which some candles were burning so it is obviously visited regularly. From the hill you get a marvelous view of the coast and also the small town of Morro. There is very little to see in Morro itself apart from the dilapidated Catholic church which dominates the centre of the town. It must have been a beautiful sight at one time, but now certainly is not that time. The shrine and the church reminded us that there are many people of faith in Ecuador but that for some, that faith is religiously placed in an object rather than in God, while for others, it is a faith in ruin and decay.
We returned to Playas and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. It was one of the best Chinese meals I have ever had and at $2 a plate you could not go wrong! When we returned to the camp the Horsts made their final preparations to leave and we drove them back into town to catch the bus to Guayaquil. From there Kelly and I drove around in circles for about 15 minutes as I could not seem to get my bearings. We finally made it to our destination – the cyber café, where we again caught up with some e-mails and found our way home afterwards without incident other than the sight of a dog being killed by a speeding truck. The road to the camp is a busy one as it passes on to the busy and expanding port of Posorja.
Our first night at home was uneventful but it also felt a little strange knowing that this is now our home. We were still a little reluctant to look around all the cupboards and nooks and crannies because it felt like we were snooping. However, we got settled into bed and had our best night’s sleep in a long, long time, with both of us being out for the count until the morning.
We spent Saturday settling in. We unpacked, moved some furniture around, and generally made the place our own. At around 11am we drove into town and once again hit the cyber café where we were able to spend two hours catching up with a number of people on MSN, write a few more e-mails and finally make a more thorough post to our blog. It looks like communication, although not as easy as in Canada, is not going to be a huge problem with the easy availability of internet access at cyber cafes and the excellent cell phone coverage. In addition to conversing on MSN Messenger we have been able to both text our family in Canada and received a very clear call from Holly on one of our cell phones.
We have been pleased with the way that our first few days have gone and will continue to update from time to time as we are able and have news.

Shopping in Playas

The view from the top of the hill

I guess I should have turned this one first but it is of course the shrine!

...and here is a contrast for you!

.... and a professional ad type pic of our new wheels - which wouldnt start on Sunday morning... more about that later!