Monday, February 2, 2009

Ecuador

I was looking at Hillary's last post about the new pet snake and it made me think of the snake experiences I had in Ecuador in 2005. Jan and Alan's post about their upcoming mission trip also inspired me to look back at the pictures.
Many of you did not really know me then so you probably did not ever see my pictures. I was in Ecuador with 6 other pilots working with MAF. We flew in to Quito and then took a bus down the Andes to the jungle floor.

We were based in Shell Mera (this is the home base of Nate Saint and the other missionaries that were killed by the Auca Indians). We then flew back and forth to Tewaeno (near to the area of the spearings). In case anyone was wondering, yes, I was sporting war-paint, Auca style.This is the basket Nate Saint used to lower gifts to the Aucas as well as his head set. This baby monkey was so cute, but then I felt terrible because the natives ate his mother. We took a gondola across the one of the Andes valleys. The breaks went out and the car smashed in to a cement wall at the end. All were okay. I decided to brave the local delicacy, Guinea Pig. While in Tiwaeno, we were shown the local marriage customs, and I, being the only girl, got married to the next village leader.
Local flora was beautiful. These were growing everywhere.
Aren't these incredible size bean pods on this woman's back?! This was one of the many beautiful views in the Andes. Overall, the trip was very meaningful, touching and refreshing for my faith. I had admired Nate Saint growing up as I felt called at that time to Mission flying.

4 comments:

Jan said...

Those are beautiful photos. I had never seen those before. Was that the house that you stayed in? That aerial photo of the river reminds me of the movie about Nate Saint. Was that photo of the sand bar area where the killings took place? I would have posted earlier, but our computer was on campus yesterday getting updated, and then I was at the gym until nearly bedtime last night. Was that the house that you stayed in?

Alissa said...

No, we stayed in tiny cabins while in Shell Mera, and then the men stayed in the open air church built by the former Aucas while I stayed with a local village school teacher in a tent while we were in the jungle in Tiwaeno. The house pictured was built by Nate Saint, but is actually falling apart so people can't stay in it. I did go upstairs and look at his library and see inscriptions from him and Jim Elliot in some of the books.

Jen said...

Hey I never saw these pics before and you didn't tell me half of what you did there. Glad to see them up now. How was the guinea pig ?

Hillary said...

Nice to see a different segment of your life. THanks for sharing the memories. By the way, we had to give Theo's snake away. Our cats were trying to get it.