Chill Out Weekend

This weekend we had a little chill out time - starting with taking the Willis Children Ten Pin Bowling. It was fun and hopefully Doug and Lisa will lend them to us again. I have just had an email from the Scarborough family saying they are on the move this week and will be in Cuenca by Wednesday so maybe we can have their kids too with us next time.

Then on Sunday - it was voting day in Ecuador and everything gets cancelled including the meetings and field service. So we were invited along to go for a picnic with Mark and Becky and the Rulla family. It was a beautiful day and we all thoroughly enjoyed being out of the city. After eating a scrumptious lunch (southern fried chicken is delicious) we walked along the river, over a swing bridge and then back again - all the while taking silly photos or as Doug would say - NZ type photos- hah, he was the one that found the tiolet seat and put his face through it! Of course I had not check my batteries on my camera and I missed out on some good shots but hopefully I can beg,steal or borrow some one elses. We got home at around 6.30ish and Mark and Becky and Nicole (a young sister staying here from Los Vagas, who incidently her parents are at the moment hosting John and Loraine Wills in LV - small world) stayed for dinner which was a nice end to the day.

Voting day is interesting for the Ecuodorian Brothers and Sisters as they are required by law to vote. If they don't they will not get a card which must be shown when ever they do transactions - if they don't have it they can't buy or sell anything or basically do anything- it's even needed to get their kids into school. Of course there are ways and means of getting round that. Alcohol is illegal to drink on voting day, in fact they don't sell it at all from Friday to Monday, voting weekend. If you break the law, yes even gringo's, you will be thrown into jail. We really thought we could do without that experience so we stuck with coca cola!

Mark has the talk this coming weekend - no he hasn't progressed that fast - it's at the English meeting and as it is his first talk in six months he will have to do some serious practice - not just wing it like he was able to do in NZ. He has a bit of a following coming to listen to him as it may be the only talk he gives in South America before we go back to NZ in Feburary. I'm sure he will do fine, only thing is he will have to speak very slowly because a lot of Spanish speaking brothers come as they are learning english.Will let you know how it goes.