What’s it like to stroll the streets of Quito? Every week day morning, I (Beth) take in the sights and sounds as Luke and I escort Levi to preschool. Come along with us for a snapshot of our neighborhood.
On wet mornings (which are rare even in rainy season, when it mostly rains in the afternoon) we catch a taxi, which costs one dollar. U.S. currency is used in Ecuador, alongside some Ecuadorian coins. Better have exact change, though, since many taxi drivers (and most small businesses) carry little change and hate to part with it! Purchases may even be turned down if you only have a ten or twenty dollar bill.
Most days, it’s sunny and we take the thirty minute walk up the hill. I push the stroller on a wild ride over uneven paths, curbs and grass. There’s no uniformity since homeowners are in charge of their own sidewalks. But city maintenance takes care of the boulevard down the middle of the street and we enjoy the year-round greenery and flowers. Many homes are bordered with big bushes of mint, bearing yellow and pink flowers.
If you’re hungry on the way, there are plenty of breakfast options. Quito has loads of bakeries with tasty bread. At the end of October, they 
traditionally carry “guaguas de pan” or “bread babies” to commemorate deceased family members and celebrate All Saints Day (Levi shows off one he made at preschool). Street vendors offering breakfast – anything from potato soup to eggs – are popular with commuters. Watch out for flying water, as bowls are rinsed out on the street between customers.
We say hello to lots of security guards as we stroll. Most apartment buildings and almost every business hire them, so we’ve gotten to know quite a few on our twice-a-day walk. They stand all day in front of concrete walls, topped by wrought iron, barbed wire or broken glass (as Dave & Luke point out). 
The building material of choice for homes here is also concrete, as it withstands rain and earthquakes well and keeps an even internal temperature. Houses don’t have heat or air conditioning, since it usually stays between 60-80 F.
Our walk can get pretty noisy, as we are passed by honking trucks, announcing they have gas (which powers appliances) to sell. We also hear vendors hawking their wares over loudspeakers, driving by in pickups heaped with bananas and pineapples, or toting chicken or goats. Luke is fascinated by the loud advertisements, as well as by the roaring airplanes that pass every few minutes to the airport, just a few miles away.
Thanks for coming along!
DAVE'S DAILY DUTIES
God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.
—Henry Ward Beecher
Dave would really appreciate prayer for encouragement in his teaching. He is encountering a lot of apathy – something all teachers deal with, but which is especially disheartening when the subject matter is our beloved Christ! It is wearing on him to stand before students day after day, passionately presenting what is most important in the world to us, and to be rewarded at times with bored or blank faces.
Thankfully there are bright spots and we pray for more of them! A student recently told Dave that even though the chapters he assigned from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “The Cost of Discipleship” were a challenging read, he was so moved by them that he is choosing to read the whole book as part of an English assignment. Another student is fasting from the internet as part of a unit Dave is teaching on spiritual disciplines and she commented to him about how valuable the re-evaluation of her time has been to her.
HCJB GLOBAL HIGHLIGHTS
We are honored to join you in supporting the multi-faceted outreaches of HCJB Global missions. Some mission highlights for 2007:
- In August an 8.0 earthquake rocked neighboring Peru. Our mission hospital sent a medical team that treated 1,300 people and was able to pray with a number of them for salvation.
- Training sessions and church conferences were offered to 6,000 pastors and leaders throughout Latin America by Apoyo (Dave's father's ministry) in cooperation with HCJB.
- Our mission's city and jungle hospitals and community clinics here in Ecuador provided more than 340,000 patients with physical and spiritual care.
- Resources were provided to radio partners in 47 countries, empowering local believers to reach their communities with the great news of Christ. This included distribution to remote areas of newly designed solar powered radios, pre-tuned to partner's local FM stations.
STAYING IN TOUCH
As always, it is a great delight to hear from friends. And now we are looking forward to seeing friends, too, as we plan a trip to the U.S. for summer of 2008. Please let us know if your church or small group would be interested in hearing from us while we are in Minnesota and Illinois.
(Above: Levi digs play time at Pirulitos, his preschool)
