Del Parsons gift to OSSO.

Del Parson, an LDS artist came to Ecuador 2 years to visited our orphanage. He personalized a painting for OSSO picturing our children and an Ecuadorian landscape. Rodrigo Rosero (the Cuenca Project Director we live with) is the man on the left and his children Sammy and Ishmael are in the red and purple on the right. The other children are from our orphanage, Brian is being held by the girl in green and Lucy is pictured on the bottom left in purple. The other three children have since been adopted. We love this painting so much and plan to purchase this painting to put in our home when we return to the States. Del Parson gives all the proceeds of the sale of this painting to OSSO. This is where it can be purchased: http://orphanagesupport.org/painting.html

More work from Del Parson that you might be more familiar with......

Another Beautiful Trip to el Chorro in Giron

David's High School Graduation Party.

Catalina (in the white shirt below) is an OSSO house employee. She prepares the lunches for the volunteers and maintains their quarters. I used to view her as a quiet, reserved woman. However, on Friday night we were able to see her in her own element.

She had personally invited us, as well as the Roseros, to a party in honor of her son, David, graduating from el colegio (equivalent to high school). The event was located in a cleared out dinning room/ living room lined with chairs and couches. We entered the a room of about 20 people. We smiled and quickly took and seat tried to blend in. However our entrance made us stand out terribly. It is custom to greet everyone with a kiss. Yes, even when you walk into a room with 20 people you do not know, number is not an issue in this culture. (I KNEW THAT! I am surrounded by it daily, but I still shy away from it in big groups. In fact I love being the first one to arrive at an activity because I don't have to make my rounds, I just accept the kiss from arriving people as they show up, haha).

Anyway, as more guest arrived they circled the perimeter of the room greeting every individual before taking a seat. I pondered this custom off and on through out the night as I was greeted by late comers. 'Why do they do this?' 'Is it really necessary?' 'Isn't it enough just to look friendly and welcoming?' Oh, the justifications I had!

Once I stopped justifying my behavior I began to see the beauty of their behavior. I found it beautiful how comfortable and welcomed their initiative made us feel. I found it beautiful that the room felt warm and the environment felt safe. The evening was delightful and it all stemmed from the simple gesture of saying hello.


The evening followed a unique agenda. An opening prayer, followed by thoughts from David's Bishop, thoughts from his mother and finally we heard from him. Their remarks touched me. Graduating high school is not as common event here and therefore everyone was overwhelmed with emotion of joy, especially Catalina.

After David spoke it was time to dance. With little hesitation, young and old joined on the dance floor. Here is Catalina dancing with her Uncle.

Lorena and Rodrigo Rosero (the couple we live with)

Rodrigo and his daughter Sammy

Yes that us! We too got our groove on! This picture cracks me up!
(Lee's head was by far the closest to the ceiling).
Around 10:30 pm we were served a plate of chicken, beef, sausage, rice and lettuce... with a spoon as the only available utensil. David's nephew preformed a special musical number while we ate.

(IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE VIDEO OF THIS MUSICAL NUMBER IT IS SAVED IN ON DANIKA'S FACEBOOK PAGE UNDER VIDEOS.)

We left the party around 11:30 pm. Leaving the party sounds easy, but to leave a party like this early can be offensive to the host. So as to not appear to bailing out early large group (six of us including the Roseros), we had to trickle out two by two. We had the host's blessing and left. The next morning we caught word that the party continued into the morning hours. Great fun.

Thursday Night Futbol

Our ward has weekly activities on Thursday. The ladies either do some sort of craft or dance Zumba while the men play soccer. The women are relatively punctual and start around 7:30, but the men, who have to wait for enough players to play, don't get started until 8:30 at the earliest (it's usually closer to 9:00 or 9:30).

Some of these kids kick hard...



While Lee loves playing late into the night (sometimes ending at 11:30), Danika and the other wives anxiously wait for the last goal to be scored so everyone can go home. Many times the wives are asleep with their children inside the chapel waiting.... bless their hearts.

Jambelí

Jambelí is a beach on a series of islands of the same name about a four-hour bus ride away from Cuenca.We packed on to a bus at 5:00 a.m. The bus headed southwest out of Cuenca through a beautiful canyon and through some dairy country. About 45 minutes after leaving we crossed the continental divide and there is a beautiful view of the city of Girón nestled on the western slope of the Andes. Girón is where we went and hiked to see some spectacular waterfalls (see our first post).



Shortly after passing through Girón the scenery changed from green semitropical growth to dryer and dryer vegetation until we were surrounded by the dry rock and sand of the Jabone Desert which can be seen across the Jabone River as it passes through a narrow boulder strewn canyon.



Before long we were again surrounded by tropical growth of banana trees and jungle vines. We then traveled across the hot, costal plains where we saw banana and cocao plantations. Alongside the road we saw people tending their cocao beans that they have spread along the road to dry in the sun. After passing through, Machala, one of Ecudaor´s larger coastal towns, we arrived in Puerto Bolívar

Puerto Bolívar is a rather rough port city filled with banana warehouses surrounding a port filled with boats being loaded with bananas to be shipped throughout the world. More bananas pass through this port than any other port in the world so it´s likely each of you, at some time or another, has had a banana that has passed through this port.

From, Puerto Boívar, we chartered a small boat with a small slow outboard motor to take us across Puerto Bolívar to a series of low-lying islands. We went through a small channel between two islands with mangrove swamps (as seen below) on either side. We then arrived at Jambelí Beach.


Random billboard...
We were told to no expect Waikiki beach with high-rise beach-front resorts.

Imagine instead a poor, native fishing village that has expanded to include a few run-down restaurants and a dozen collections of shacks called hotels. Below you can see Ishmael and Sammy, the Rosero´s children.

We, as a group, rented a room at the nicest hotel in town so we´d have a place to change into and out of our bathing suits and have a place to leave our thing. It rents for $10 day and makes Motel 6 look like the Hilton Hotel.



Don’t we didn't let the lack of fancy surroundings spoil our time. The sun was warm, it was high tide so there wasn't really too much sand to enjoy, and the water was a perfect temperature for a swim.

Cuenca

We go shopping at this market every Tuesday and Friday. Even though it is only 5 blocks from the house we have to taxi the large load back to the house. On average we house/feed 20-30 people per week.

Here we are walking home from church at around 11:15am. And how do we get to church? Either catch a ride with the Roseros ( if they are do not have early morning meetings) or walk. In order to walk we need to leave the house by 7:25am.

This photo is taken from the drive way at Los Pequenitos de OSSO. It is not uncommon to see people walking their cows.

This cathedral is located in the center of town, about 20 blocks from our home.

The view from the fifth floor of our home.

The people we serve with at church, at home and at work.

One of Lees' calling is to teach the Sunday school class for the 14-16 year olds and Danika serves in the Young W omen's presidency and has been busy this week with Youth Conference.

This is a photo of the youth following a dance instructor at Colonial Vacacional (Youth Conference). This Saturday we will be taking all of the girls from the Stake on a hike followed by a first aid clinic that Lee will teach.

The Roseros ( the Directors), Meagan ( Volunteer from Idaho Falls) and the Rogers at a farwell banquet.

Sammy, Rodrigo, Meagan, Ishmeal, Lorena, Danika and Lee

This is one of the four groups of volunteers we have served with thus far.

Kristin, Jessica, Esther, Haylee,Becca,Heather, Lane, and Lilly.

They left Cuenca on July 25th and we miss them each so much!