It wasn't easy or fun, but we did make it to the United States for Christmas and then back to Ecuador. By that, I am not refering to our time in the US, but the actual traveling there and back. Our visit to the States was very nice and refreshing, but also very cold. This week we have readjusted to our life back here in Ecuador and have been slightly bored after having such a hectic trip in Missouri.
The priest in El Chaco wanted a couple things from the US and said he would take us to the airport and bring us back to Chaco. We got to Quito on Dec. 14 and spent the night at a monastery. The next morning we woke up early and went to the airport. After saying our good-byes, Maggie and I immediately went to check-in. Unfortunately, the first thing we heard was that we would have a 8-9 hour flight delay. Fortunately, they sent us to a very nice hotel in Quito where we got an amazing breakfast and room. We missed our connection in Atlanta, so we finally ended up getting to KC the morning of Dec. 16- in the middle of a snow storm!
As we got off the plane, we instantly realized how cold Missouri is in winter time. We were greeted by Maggie's parents, her sister Abby and my brother Geoff. That afternoon, eager to see my parents, I drove for the first time in a year and a half in six inches of snow to Fulton.
Our time in the States was packed visiting lots of family and friends and eating. I really enjoyed the washers, dryers, dishwashers, comfortable beds, and hot water heaters. There were some Ecuadorian habits that were hard to break while on the trip, like having a spoon as the only utensil, talking in Spanish, and throwing toilet paper in the trash can instead of the toilet.
It was difficult to leave, but on January 2nd, it was time and we were ready to get back. The priest said he would pick us up in Quito and we told him to wait at the church and we would call him when we landed in Quito, so that he would not be waiting a long time in the airport if there was a delay. Our five hour flight from Atlanta to Quito ended up turning into 11 hours on the plane. There was a crazy luggage problem which delayed us 2 hours in Atlanta. Then there was really thick fog in Quito and after circling a lot, we had to land in Guayaquil to get more gas.
In Guayaquil at 1 a.m., I called the priest to tell him what was happening. I asked where he was at and he said he was in the airport waiting. After filling up the plane, we waited for an hour for authorization to take off from Delta's headquarters in Atlanta. We then took off towards Quito. We attempted to land, but the pilot pulled up at the last minute because of thick fog. After circling for another hour, we finally landed at 4 a.m.
After an hour of waiting in the migration line and getting our bags, we headed towards the exit. We were surprised to see one of our friends from Chaco. I asked him what he was doing and he said a big group had come with the priest for a trip to Quito and the rest were waiting in the van for us. We arrived at the van to find 6 adults and 7 kids waiting for us! They had been at the airport for 7 hours!
Back in Chaco we did our rounds, visiting all of our friends and getting caught up on what is happening. We then went to visit our landlords who were taking care of the baby turkeys. It appears that they just couldn't live without me and had gone from 10 baby turkeys to 3. After bringing them back to the house we went to a meal with a group of friends and didn't get back until 10. When I went behind the house I saw our neighbours' black dog leaving with something black in it's mouth. I quickly went to the back yard and saw the gate open and didn't see one turkey. After examining the yard for about 30 minutes I found many feathers and eventually found the hen. She had lost about a third of her feathers, had a cut on her back, and wouldn't hardly move. Knowing the backyard was not safe she got to sleep in our shower that night. Early the next morning I heard a baby turkey chirping and found two of them walking around outside of the pen. That has been our excitement of the week.
Next week Maggie's mom, sister, brother-in-law, and cousin will be coming down to visit and do a conference for indigenous midwives that live about 3 hours from here. We are now preparing for that and trying to get used to the sometimes eternal rainshowers that we have here.
Other big news is that we have a computer and Internet in our house. If anyone would like to talk computer to computer through the program Skype just send us and email and let us know when you want to talk.
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