All in a Typical Day's Work
Mon. July 8 - 11:00 PM An explanation of what I've been up to in Shell is long overdue. There are three of us engineering interns as you'll recall--Mark, Kevin, and I. All of us are studying civil/environmental engineering. Our work has been centered around the community development office here in Shell. The primary goal of community development is to provide clean water projects for rural communities. This may include hygiene education and many other things. There are several missionaries working in community development from many different countries. Alex Griffen is from England and her husband Alfredo Leon is from Ecuador. Stephen and Ruth Pike are from England. Eric Fogg is American. Another Alex is from New Zealand, Martin is from Germany, Viim is from some other country in Europe I can't recall right now. It's great because only in community development will you see an Autocad drawing with English and Spanish labels on the same drawing! I've really enjoyed getting to know all these missionaries and getting to see their work. I look up to them in many different ways. Some are very wise, some are ingenious engineers, others understand the culture very well, and others are very committed to spreading the Gospel. I could tell so much more about them, but I would probably bore anyone reading. Perhaps I'll tell some more stories about them when I get the chance. During the time here in Shell there has been no lack of projects for us interns to work on. One big one has been surveying all the HCJB property to make an up-to-date map and establish how much land they own in case they want to sell a lot or two in the next couple years. (If you don't know what surveying is, it's just measuring stuff. It's essentially the same thing as using a ruler to measure the distance between points on a piece of paper, but because the things you're measuring are so big you have to be more creative in the way you go about it.) We've also gotten some hands-on experience doing some maintenance for the hospital. They're in the process of installing a new gas distribution system to replace the old gas tanks that were being used. We've gotten the chance to learn a lot about plumbing and not-plumbing. (The former being the way plumbing should be done and the latter the way it should not be done; it's hard to say which I've learned more about.) ......... If I don't end this post with a story instead of more facts I'm going to bore everyone who's still reading. This past Friday we got to see the dedication of a recently finished water project. The community is up in the mountains at about 12000 feet instead of in the jungle. The town's name is Yanacocha. This name should sound immediately familiar to at least my dad. It only took me a few questions the day we were leaving to recognize the name of the larger group of communities as "Colta." It's only a few minutes walk away from the seminary my dad has taught at multiple times and the house we used to go on vacation to for a few years. Kevin, Mark, Alfredo, Martin, and I set out Friday morning for Colta. It's about a 2 1/2 hour car ride, which translates to something like an average of 1 foot per second vertical ascent. When we arrived we drove to the pump house, shook hands with the people (dad--one of the pastors sends his greetings but unfortunately I forget his name. I think it might have been Manuel Chuqui, but I'm not sure), and got to see the spring and the pumps. We headed up the hill to see the water "tower," then headed back down to the church for the celebration. I feel much more at home in the cool climate of the "Sierra" then down in the jungle. It's not that I dislike the jungle, it's just that the mountains feel kind of like home to me and I'm slightly more familiar with Quichua culture than Shuar. The celebration was a great typical Quichua celebration. There was special music, booming loudspeakers, formal addresses from community leaders, thanks to all involved (and to gringos like me who really weren't involved.) There were also gifts. All of us (probably 20 including other HCJB missionaries and a team from the States) went and stood at the front. The girls got bags and the guys got scarves. But then they ran out of gifts at the very end. Mark and one other guy got bags. But I could see them scrounging in the bag for a gift for me and realized they didn't have anything. At this point I was more concerned for their sake than for mine. I didn't really care if I got a gift or not, but I knew that they couldn't very well give everyone else a gift but not me. At this point, one of the men stepped toward me and took off his red poncho. He proceeded to put it over my head. This was the kindest gift he could have given me. I didn't deserve it. I did nothing more than show up to the celebration. And yet this man was thankful enough to HCJB to give me his very own red striped poncho. I was honored by the kindness he showed. It was a simple gesture and even though I really did nothing to deserve it I don't know if I'll ever forget it. After the ceremony, lunch was served. There are very few times in my life that I have been served a meal I've been unable to finish. Actually, I can't think of a time off the top of my head. But my plate was so loaded down with food there was no way I could finish it all. There was soup, potatoes, habas (lima beans), choclo (corn), salad, fritada (fried pork), and the delicacy--cuy (guinea pig). Guinea pigs in Ecuador aren't pets. They're food. And mighty good food I might add. There are a lot of ribs on a guinea pig, but the meat around them is rich and fatty, something like pork. After the meal and some goodbyes, we headed back to Shell, happy to be able to share in the dedication of a water project that will hopefully serve the community well for many years to come. |