It has been almost one week since I returned from my mission trip to Ecuador, and now that my brain has switched completely back to English, I’m so excited to share some images and thoughts with all of you. Since I shot over 800 frames while we were there (and probably half of them were of the cute kids at the Compassion project asking “uno foto? uno foto?”) I’ve narrowed it down to about 75 or so that I’ll show you over the next week. During the trip, cognitively processing what I was seeing each day – especially the levels of poverty & the lack of community support – was much more difficult than I anticipated. In contrast, the work that I saw God doing through Compassion International was both humbling and thrilling. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
Day 1 : Arrival in Ecuador and Travel to Manta
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After spending all Saturday traveling – first driving to O’Hare, then flying to Miami, then flying to Guayaquil, Ecuador and spending the night at a hotel – we got up Sunday morning and started the 4-hour drive to Manta, a large port city on the coast of Ecuador. During the drive, we were constantly confronted with the contrast between wealth and poverty… on one side of the road was an immaculately groomed and lush golf course, while on the other side of the road were bamboo shacks with tin roofs. The homes in the picture above are actually very sturdy and nice compared to those near the Compassion project where we spent most of our time.
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This home is probably 2-3 times as large as the homes in our Compassion project community. I don’t remember the explanation for why many of these hillside homes were built on stilts (other than the fact that it allowed them to have a level floor!) but I’m guessing that it was also helpful during the rainy season (December – March). Our guides mentioned that the rain is overwhelming during the winter – roads often get washed out and everything turns to mud – so homes on stilts probably keep the water out too…
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It was interesting watching people outside the windows of our bus. Though there were plenty of cars on the road, people were walking everywhere too, and largely in family groups – as though if they needed to go pick up supplies for dinner, the entire family went on the errand. Another interesting sight reminded us of home… but at a different angle… CORN growing up the sides of STEEP hills!! Incredible, especially because it was likely all tilled and planted by hand.
I mentioned the cars on the road… and this is just a glimpse out of the front of our bus. I lost track counting the number of open trucks, overloaded with people, passing each other or being passed by semis or buses like ours (occasionally even while going around curves). It made me glad that I didn’t have a very good view out of the front… my heart would’ve been in my throat the whole time. It’s also interesting to be in a community where honking is an accepted (and expected) form of communication on the road…
We finally stopped for lunch at this restaurant in Manta, not far from our hotel. There we got our first lesson in healthy food habits for travelers in Ecuador – namely, don’t drink the water and don’t eat anything that has touched the water. We enjoyed a tasty lunch of sea bass or shrimp (I had the shrimp while Sky enjoyed the bass) with rice and patacones (fried plantain chips)… and bottled water of course.
Here’s an outside view of the restaurant, right next to a home and its clean laundry… just one example of the disorganization that results when communities grow without any zoning regulations. Everywhere we traveled, we noticed homes with exposed rebar sticking out of the top (like in the upper left of the picture) or partially finished walls… it seems that people will just build when they can, adding on to their homes as funds become available.
One thing that we noticed throughout our trip was the amount of trash and garbage scattered around… I know that here in the US you’ll see scattered litter in abandoned lots or roadway ditches, but this was beyond that. It was sad to see, and made me thankful for simple things like trash collection services…
We finally arrived at our small hotel in Manta and settled in, preparing and praying for a successful week ahead…
