All in a day's work

One small thing that I have noticed here in the last few weeks of life in Ecuador is the immense amount of work required to accomplish something over the course of a day. Now, back in the US, you have the most powerful array of productivity tools known to man. You have fast computers, fast cars, fast news, fast food, fast machines, and fast loans. And believe me, there are some tiny parts in Ecuador that have at least some variety of similar things. But it is still much slower for us at this point, and I think it is still much slower for many of the people of our community as well.

It has been good for me to learn again about how difficult it is to accomplish tasks without some personal transportation. Certainly I can call a taxi if I need to go somewhere, right? Not so fast if you can’t be exact about the language. You will end up somewhere. What about the bus? It is a good option- cheap and relatively safe. The problem is the hike to get to the bus. Ever thought about trying to carry your groceries on the bus? Yeah- you probably have not thought about it. Never complain again in my hearing about how far your parking spot is from the door of Publix.

So about 2 weeks ago, Vickie and I went to the center of Quito to pick up a small refrigerator we purchased from a lady who works at the school where we will be serving during the school year. Step one, you get a “truck taxi” to meet you here in Conocoto, and then to take you to an address you have never described before. Yep, had to have a bi-lingual person to set that up… then, after we link up with the teacher, it is off to meet her husband at the place it is stored. Then, the trick is to get it into the truck bed and out of the area without hitting the low overhead spikes on the gate of the apartment building. Made it by tilting it back until we got through. Close call.

Oh- we are not through yet. Now let’s tie it (the fridge) off to make sure we don’t lose it along the side of a mountain on the way home. My wonderful missionary friend Bill Davis volunteers to ride for a kilometer or two just to make sure the ropes are tight (he is 79 years old). After it seems we are good to go, Bill gets back in cab of the truck for the rest of the ride. Then, we make a stop because the freezer door is flying open and a nice man in a taxi is pointing it out as we weave through the 5:00 pm Quito traffic. Oh, it gets better.

No more hitches until we hit the world’s roughest roads, which are located in Conocoto. Once we exit the main road, everything starts to shake. Then, while we are trying to determine if the ropes will hold, our taxi truck enters the one lane bridge over the “valley of the sewer” and it is kind of a stand off with the other traffic. We make it through, but then the hairpin turns begin. So at this point, yours truly officially enters mission service as Bill Davis and I get into the bed of the pickup truck, and hold the fridge with one hand and the truck rail with the other as we bounce our way at 40 miles per hour down the the last mile to the gate of the orphanage. I think I saw some Ecuadorian guys pointing and saying, “didn’t that guy used to be the Executive Pastor at Brook Hills?” as we whizzed by. Through the gate, up the mountain, unlock the next gate, open the second gate, open the house, move the fridge, lock everything back up, pay the cabbie $30 so he can leave, and walk down the mountain. Done. All in a days work.