Spreading Holiday Cheer

Sebastiao's school decorated the Christmas tree at the hospital for the holidays with ornaments they made themselves. The kids had a great time and the tree looked wonderful. The children also got into the spirit of the holidays by making up gift boxes for children in jungle communities who otherwise wouldn't have received anything for Christmas. Nate Saint Memorail school teamed up with Sele, a private school here in Shell to provide boxes for over 100 children. The boxes contained the usual small toys and clothes, but also some other items I wouldn't have thought of like bars of soap for washing clothes, matches and candles. These things are essentials in the jungle and helped out the families.

The Unkthinkable

I must apologize, I have done the unthinkable in Bloggingland, I have gone almost a month without an entry. Please forgive me, life has been crazy here with the holidays, family in town and power and internet outages. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are ready for the new year. I will try to get you all filled in on our holidays in the next few days.
I'll start by posting pictures from the kids school Thanksgiving party. They made really cute turkey cupcakes thanks to a work group who brought lots of candy corn from the states!

Just Like Ridiing A Bike....

Last night we went to dinner with some good friends here. We know they are good friends because they make fun of us -to our faces- more than anyone else here (the lady at the butcher who laughs at my Spanish runs a close second). Anyway, they let us drive, Joe to dinner and me home from dinner. It was so exciting after 5 months of not driving at all plus all of the time and money put into getting a license, actually getting to drive was amazing. So, "THANK YOU" to Chad and Andi, you made our day, and hopefully spurred my husband on to buy a car more quickly!


This is a picture of Tungurahua, an active volcano near the city of Ambato. We were able to get this picture last month on our way home from Quito.