Eduador: Flooding in the Rainforest

It has been a little while, and I'm looking forward to sharing some thoughts I've had in the past couple of weeks. 

One of the most incredible things I've seen in a while has been a video the Davalos' found and shared in their latest e-mail from Ecuador. 

While in the Jungle myself, I was mesmerized by the incredible Rio Napa at the Port of Misuahualli, Ecuador.  One day we took canoe rides down the river to see some of the river towns.  The water was nice.  It was smooth sailing.  On our way in at the end of the day, a rain storm was brewing and the sky was getting dark.  This is no surprise in the Rainforest, of course. 

A steady rain started about the time we tethered the canoes, and we climbed up the stairs from the beach to the river walkway (about 15 feet of steps), and walked back to our hotel, which was about 3 blocks from the river walkway.  We had dinner that night, I laid in a hammock under the tin roof and watched the rain and the stars behind them.  Another guy on our team was strumming on a guitar and it was probably one of the most memorable times I've had in a foreign country. 

We woke up the next morning, and there had been a steady rain all night long.  A walk down to the river showed that there was no more beach.  The stairs we had climbed up the day before were submerged.  The river had risen about 15 feet overnight.

How would you have felt?  Another 12 hours of solid rain, and the whole port would have had to find higher ground. It was quite humbling and awesome at the same time. 

Here are some notable times in the video below:

At 1:50, you will see a line of street lights.  These lights lined the river walkway.  As you can tell, the river has risen higher than it did for us when we were there.

At 3:30, you will see a pan down a street.  I am not sure, but this might have been the street our hotel was on.  The hotel was right across from a large open soccer/recreation stadium, which I believe might be on the right hand side of the screen.

At 5:50, this is the type of steady rain we had all night long when I was there.  Imagine that on a hard tin roof with no insulation.  Talk about a noisy night!  Still, I slept the best that night than I had in a long time!

Enjoy! 

Fruit in Ecuador

I am so so so very excited to share with you some pictures and updates on Ecuador.  In 2008, I had the opportunity to go with a team from Florida to a jungle in Ecuador.  We did several different things, but one thing I want to share a little bit about today was the construction work we did in the middle of the rain forest!  While we were there, we got up in the morning and spent about 4-5 hours working on the site, before the daily downpours came.  Some days we just waited for the rain to end so we could finish the project before we went home.  We did 3 main things in the jungle construction project:  we set the foundation and roof for a storage building, we built some footpaths, and we worked on setting the electrical outlets up in a building that already had cinder-block foundation in place. 

The tough thing about working in the jungle is this:  you have to do almost everything by hand.  Therefore, all concrete was mixed, transported, and laid by hand.  Hard work! Especially if you're not in that industry, like me.  :)

Here's a picture of half of the sand/dirt/river rock we used to make our concrete.  You can see some of the team in ponchos as it was a bit messy even before the rain came each day.

 

I can't tell you how thankful I was to have hard-working men on the trip with us!  Now, the ladies worked hard, but there's just something about having a hard-working man around. Things always go more quickly! 

Mixing concrete in the street...

And just to give a quick glimpse of our route to the storage building site from the concrete mixing site at the street...

And the completed project (which was just 4 chalkstrings in the shape of a foundation when we started!!)......

It is always exciting to see the fruit of what you've started: to see that you participated in something so much bigger and longer-impacting than yourself.  This trip was a huge deal for me, but I didn't have to go to Ecuador to make a difference.  I do what I can where I'm at to make a difference.  I would challenge you to do so as well.

One last thing I'd like to share is a video from the missionaries we worked with, Roberto and Charmai Davalos.  Since our trip in 2008, they've completed the original school building and are building another facility that will assist in the enlarging of their jungle school.  It's neat to see the same bridges and roads I drove and walked along in real-time motion.  I thought you might enjoy to see the faces that this project is impacting.  If you'd like to learn more about the work they're doing in the jungle, I'll include their website below the video.  Enjoy!! 

Website for It's About Jungle Kids: http://www.junglekidsforchrist.org