Thanksgiving

Well this is what my thanksgiving weekend looked like, just a little different to others' I know, whose photos I've seen. Not a red maple leaf in sight where I was!

We had a family retreat at camp this weekend, for families from the block 6 church in Bastion and the church in Sauces, another area of Guayaquil. The block 6 gang packed, and I mean PACKED themselves onto the red and white bus on Thursday evening (I don't think you could have squeezed another single tiny item onto that bus) and headed off. They didn't arrive until 11:30 that night. I had had a wearing week, so had decided (rather wisely I thought when I saw the number of bodies on that bus!) to go on Friday morning, so I slept in my own bed that night and caught the Posorja bus, always an adventure, and made my own way out to camp.

It was a great weekend, very relaxed, little in the way of schedules, people just enjoying being away from life in Bastion and taking it easy at the beach. They hung out in hammocks, sat around chatting, played soccer on the beach, and volleyball, kids ran around doing what kids do, and had fun on the beach, in spite of the cold. And it was cold the first couple of days, really cold compared to what we're used to in Guayaquil, to which I must be adapted because I was freezing a lot of the time. But still they went in the ocean to be knocked about by the waves and then come out with goosebumps and blue lips. Then on Sunday the sun came out, and the whole world improved! I'm so used to sun and incredible heat at that camp, because I've always been there in February and March, I just can't get used to the different world that it is out there at this time of year.

The food was great, as always, all the favourite things, with plenty of rice of course! Different groups of women took turns in the kitchen for each meal, and then the cabin groups had to take turns doing the dishes. That meant that a couple of men who had literally never done a single dish in their lives had to learn how. I'll never forget the sight of Marie Eugenia taking one man's hands and forcing them into the water and showing him how to use a sponge and soap to wash the dishes!! It was worth the price of admission!

Shrimp ceviche was on the menu for Sunday lunch, and so on Saturday night, there were 30 pounds of fresh shrimp that had to be peeled. So a big gang of us all gathered round and spent a long time dealing with those shrimp. (By the way, the cost per pound for the shrimp...$1.50!!!) For me that was one of the best times of the weekend, a bunch of us working away together, laughing and having a ball! Good memories. I even learned how, and got up the courage, to behead the big shrimp, as well as peel them - yuk!

Another memory to treasure is of standing on the beach on Sunday just before lunch and seeing one lady from Bastion, who has a very difficult life, coming out of the water, laughing and being almost a kid again, and telling me how much fun that was! Oh, that was good to see, that weekend away was so good for her.

And there was a baptism on Sunday morning, and young girl from the Sauces church wanting to declare her faith an new life in Jesus.

So it was a successful weekend, and lots of good memories were made to be taken home and remembered for a long time to come.

And now I'm into a busy time for the next few weeks, as I prepare for Narcisa to go into hospital and have her surgery in the first week of November. Lots of arrangements, and lots of prayer. On Sunday I am planning to head for the jungle again, back to where I was in February, up the Onzole river to the little community of Santo Domingo. There are going to be 2 weeks of camp there, and I'll be going with a group from Bastion to help out. This is neat to see, a group of young ones who have been to camp themselves and grown up, and are now going off to help out in another camp in a community far away. We'll be there for most of a week. I'm bracing myself for the 10 hour bus ride, I'll be sure to have LOTS of Gravol with me this time. Oh boy!

So stand by for a report on that time. I am looking forward to it, other than the journey.