From Jungle Jane

Darlene wrote a letter to the "fam" early this a.m. Then I garnered the computer to post a blog about our trip to the Oriente, the selva (jungle) this last weekend. When I read her letter, I decided to cut and paste from that for this posting, with a couple of editorial comments along the way. Darlene has always written in a very interesting fashion, so I think you'll find it engaging. Since I'm new to the world of Mac, I may have to do this in stages. Here goes.

Our trip to the jungle with Dwight and Carolyn Rich (25 yr missionaries here was incredible. If you have seen my photos on facebook you can "see" it. The terrain and scenery was so similar to PNG! I just couldn't get around the fact, however, that we were on paved roads the whole way, sometimes cruisingalong at 60 mph!!! Dwight said this has not always been the case,
however. Prior, it was a teeth-rattling trip along wash-board roads at 20 mph. In fact, it was his first time to drive all the way on such good roads. "The Jungle" and "Paved roads" just didn't seem right. Ha. Well, anyway, we met a lot of wonderful people, dedicated little
pastors out in the boonies. That is always inspiring and humbling.

The District Assembly was held outdoors in an park like pavilion/picnic shelter type of thing. The setting was lovely, as it was in the jungle (tho just off the road) and outside a town of about 200 people. So many varieties of flowers. The special treat was to see these birds colored black and brilliant yellow (on their backs and part of their wings). Mike scouted out their "roost" on the hillside and found their very unusual nests. We have included pictures of these on Darlene's Facebook. In a nutshell, the nest looked as tho a bowling ball had been placed inside a panty hose or long tube sock (about 2-4 ft in length) and suspended from limbs. There were about 30 of these in a large eucalyptus tree. Mike said that if he had to spend an entire day at a district assembly, this was the type of setting he prefers. Actually, he was blessed by the devotion of the pastors and lay leaders that he met.

There was to be a youth service that night following the assembly at a small local church in a small community. On the way to the service, Dwight asked Mike if he would preach. Since Dwight had been driving a lot and had facilitated much of the assembly that day, Mike agreed to help him out. Mike gave some greetings in spanish and then Dwight interpreted for Mike. I think Mike could have preached much of the message (it was a simple, basic Gospel message) in Spanish had he had the time (Editor's note: Yes, as in all day to prepare!) to prepare. It was a fun experience for Mike, reminding him of his 2 summers in student missions in S. America back in college days, when he often preached through an interpreter. Having a college friend like Dwight interpreting was special for Mike as well.

On our trip down to the jungle it was overcast and cloudy, and we had two huge downpours during the night. But Sunday was clear and jungle-steamy hot. That made it so neat to be able to see further in the distance. There is acertain section of Ecuador referred to as "The Avenue of the Volcanoes" and that's where we are. There's actually an active volcano within view of our apartment. It's quiet now. There is a particular active volcano that we past right by on this particular trip that had a MAJOR (as in lava flow) in 2006, and it's started up again. So we stopped to get photos of this mountain, if for no other reason than that we could. It is cloud covered lots of times, even on clear days. So we pulled over on the side of the road for our photos and there before our eyes the mountain lets out a huge puff of back smoke and ash! We
were the first ones to see it and before long the whole road was lined with cars and others taking photos. It really was magnificent. It kept belching out more as we proceeded on, so as you can tell on my facebook, we took quite a few shots! Even experienced volcano watchers like Dwight and Carolyn were excited.

Another highlight for me was getting to eat some sugar cane again! They sell it along the roadside, some in little plastic bags, already peeled and cut up. Easy on the teeth. It was delish!!! What a treat. In this particular area where the sugar cane grows the people
have learned to make taffy out of it, so along the way you also see people in there little shops pulling fresh taffy. I personally prefer the sugar cane itself.

I can't get over how industrious these people are. Selling something along the roads ALL THE TIME. Standing out there all day long, on the dusty corners of the roads. I don't know how they make enough money to live on.

Well, this is a longer than usual posting. Thanks for sharing in the adventure.