Updates and vacations!

After a two month "blog sabbatical" I am back. I apologize for not writing more on this. The kids here have all left for summer vacation. (All but about 15). The kids are either with relatives or "foster families" for vacation. This serves a two-fold purpose: So the kids have an experience of a family and so the missionaries have a bit of a break. One of the missionaries told she she has not had a break in three years since she is always with the children.

I am proud of a few projects we have completed here. The biggest, in my mind, is that we bought water dispensers and arranged for them to have clean, drinkable water in each of their houses. For this, I thank all of our donors. Before the children would often drink from the tap which led to many problems with the bacteria here. Also, the children are often dehydrated, since it is not easy for them to drink water (especially the little ones). The water dispensers are very easy for the kids to use and they enjoy getting the water themselves.

I have also been able to take some of the young kids out to dinner. Above is a picture of some of my friends when we went to eat pizza. Even when they ate all the pizza they could, there was still room for some ice cream!

I had the chance to take a bit of a vacation myself. My friend Thomas Kosh and I spent a week in Banos, a beautiful town in the mountains. It also happens to be right next to the volcano Tungarahua. You may have heard on the new that it was erupting a few weeks ago. Luckily for us that was our first night there. We could hear and feel the eruptions in our hostel. The man at the hostel woke everyone up in the middle of the night telling us we may have to evacuate in a few minutes and to get ready to leave. Fortunately, we didn't have to leave and the volcano quieted down the next day. The good part is that all the tourists (and some of the villagers) left, so we had a tranquil time and we returned to the mission very well rested.

I hope you all are well.

Jim