Our arrival in Ecuador

Well, this trip was wonderful. Nothing like I expected, but everything like I expected. If that makes any sense.

Before I left, I had written that we didn't have a place to stay at in Cayambe. All day Sunday, I had a peaceful feeling. Then in the wee hours of the night, during my anticipation, God just told me to trust him. That all would be well. I slept for a couple of hours then woke up ready to go.

We had no trouble at the airport. We checked in all of our bags that were loaded with VBS supplies and clothes to take to the kids up there. We ate lunch to prepare ourselves for the long day ahead.

There were six of us going. We had all just met when we were having the meetings to prepare for this trip. The group consisted of 4 women and 2 men. Ages ranging from 18 on up. We started to get to know each other.

By the time we arrived in Quito, Ecuador, we knew each other pretty well. We were all excited to see what God had in store for us. By this time, we had all just let every thing go and said "God, you are in control. Use us however you need us to be used." We had just found out that morning that we did have a place to stay. Our flights were going smoothly, minus a little turbulence at the end, and we arrived on time.

We get to the airport and go through immigration then on to get our luggage. It is midnight by this time. We meet the missionary and the two translators. We load all our luggage in one car and walk over to the rental place to get the other vehicle. We finally get all ten of us situated in both vehicles and at 1am we start driving to our destination. Cayambe, Ecuador.

It was dark and cold and not very many cars on the road. When there were cars, they were driving fast and passing you when the solid double lines were showing in the middle of the road. We kept turning as if we were going through curves, we had no idea where we were going. I had to pull out my crackers and water during this time because I was not feeling the greatest.

I week later, I would understand why all the curves. We were driving through the mountains and you could see down a long ways as well as see mountains all over us. Not as scary driving through there during the day.

Cayambe is an hour drive from Quito. We arrive at our hotel and find that there is a lock on the gate to get in. We finally wake the lady up and she let's us in. We unload all of our luggage and go in our cabins. We were fortunate to get a cabin that had 4 beds. All 4 of us girls were able to sleep in the same cabin. It was fun.

We tried taking showers, but hot water is a little non-existent up there. And when it's 50 degrees outside, the last thing you want to do is take a cold shower. It was 3am before we finally lay down to sleep in order to get ready for the next day.