Arriving Ecuador

After some stressful anxiety filled weeks we finally made it to Ecuador.  The land of bug bites and amazing bible studies.  If only we could speak the language...
 It was a long flight to Quito and then a 2hour drive to Ibarra, where apparently they have an imaginary third lane on the highway that people pass in, even when there is not a passing zone.  Imagine 2am on a dark mountain highway passing slow moving buses in the "imaginary" third lane, (which half of the "imaginary" third land for some reason occupies the lane of oncoming traffic) and one side of the highway is a rock wall and the other side...well you just close your eyes and don't look down!  At least this is what my brother in law believes to be the rules of the road.
Least to say we made it in one piece to Ibarra, only to haul six 50pound suitcases, three large carryons, and groceries up 5 flights of stairs at 7300 feet of altitude. Believe it or not we were still breathing when we reached the top, although it sounded like we had all just ran a marathon!
The first day in Ibarra, Sam and Clint gave us a little tour around and then the second day we hit the ground running. Ahhhh Field Service...aka "The Campo!"
The Campo is like a pioneer's Mecca!  It's basically a country territory 45minutes outside of the city, loaded with people who want to study the bible!  The first day in "The Campo" it almost feels as if you are living in some sort of dream world.  You are driving through these beautiful emerald mountains, with the brightest blue sky, the crops of beans, sugar cane and corn look like mazes cut out on the side of the mountains, and then you will see a waterfall here and there running into the river.  After driving threw this amazing scenery you reach a dirt road that leads to several towns up in the mountains.  This is where Zephaniah's dream begins!  Yes he gets to ride in the back of the pickup, no tie, baseball hat and a huge smile on his face!
The road can be washed out in areas which means lots of potholes and bumps, or it will have bulls, donkeys, horses you name it, they are generally in the middle of this road.  If the range of farm animals you come across don't move, you wait, then you honk and if that doesn't work you can attempt to pull them out of the road.
Once we reach the first town, we park next to some chickens and stray dogs and everyone gets out to go to their bible studies.  My sister's first study as you will see in the picture, has a very small door, but as we find out later many of the houses in "The Campo" have very short doors! Definitely not designed for tall people!
As we continue up this road, we stop in various towns and in each town everyone piles out of the truck to go on their bible studies.  In one town, which consist of a few houses and a little tienda, my sister and I stop at the tienda to grab some water.  While we are getting our water a lady from the nearby house comes out holding her Bible Teach Book, and says something in Spanish to my sister.  I'm wondering if the lady wants to give the book back and does not want to continue studying, but to my surprise the lady says that "she's ready!" Ready to study the bible!  The funny thing is that this lady does not even study with my sister, someone else used to study with her and she happened to see us at the store and decided to call us over before she missed her opportunity.  When I said this was the "Pioneer Mecca" I was not kidding.