The elections here in Ecuador are interesting. Everyone of legal age are required to go to the location where they are registered and vote. If they do not then they are fined. We have 12 missionaries from Ecuador serving in our mission. Since this Sunday was the elections here Lynn spent some time this week making sure that these missionaries did what they needed to do so they wouldn’t have problems when they finished their missionaries. Since Elder Damián, one of the office elders, is from Ecuador he helped to make sure everything was in order for the missionaries. One of the laws also require that if your name is picked then you need to serve as an election judge, similar to when we are called to jury duty in the US. If you do not fulfill your duty then you receive a hefty fine. Elder Damián was able to go online to make sure that none of our missionaries were on the list. We found out that another law requires that there is no consumption or selling of alcoholic beverages the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the elections. If anyone goes to vote and they are found drunk then they are put in jail and fined. Or if anyone is caught selling alcohol then they are also fined. This accounted for all the drinking that was going on Thursday night. Everyone wanted to get their fill before the ban was in place. There is also a midnight curfew for Friday and Saturday night. Because of the elections we also only had Sacrament meeting today for church. Something to do with limited groups meeting on election day.
Friday and Saturday our senior missionary group, minus the Greers and Nuttalls, went on a trip to Riobamba, which is located in the southern part of the Quito mission. As we were getting ready to go both Lynn and I grabbed a handful of Family Proclamation pamphlets that have an insert Lynn made with “The Living Christ” (the testimonies of apostles and prophets of Christ), the Articles of Faith and a short excerpt from the introduction to the Book of Mormon. We thought we might have an opportunity to share these on our trip. The Browns met us at the office and we took a taxi from there on Friday at about 1pm to go to the bus station to catch a four hour bus ride to Riobamba. Originally we had just planned to do it all in one day but decided to break it into two days, which was a lot better idea.
As we traveled on the bus we saw an interesting sight. About an hour away from Riobamba we saw the Tungurahua volcano erupt a short puff of smoke. We just happened to be watching it as a small puff of smoke started shooting up and grew and then started to disappear. I’ve never seen an active volcano so it was very interesting of me. It happened a second time as we were looking at it on the roof of our hotel. We could see at least three volcanos from there.
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| To the right you can see the top of the Altar Volcano |
Several times, as we were traveling on the bus, there would be people get on to try and sell different items. This is a common occurrence, even on the local bus system in Quito. As Lynn was watching them an idea came to him and he asked the passenger behind us if there was any restriction on people doing this kind of thing. She said “No.” So he decided to go with his idea of offering the pamphlets that we had. He said that they were free to anyone who promised to read them. He gave a brief explanation of what they contained and gave out everything we had, including a few that we had given to the Browns. We wished that we had brought more but we have to be sure to take more on our next trip.
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| Lynn sharing the pamphlets |
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| Tungurahua volcano erupting in the background |
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| Chimborazo Volcano, which is the highest in all of Ecuador |
The next day we visited a colorful artisan market located in the Plaza Roja and did some shopping. Lynn found himself a great hat for $8 and I found a beautiful tablecloth and bag. There were lots of sites to see in Riobamba which we didn’t have time to visit since our main purpose was to take the train ride to a small community of Colta where the oldest church in Ecuador is located.
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| This picture and the next show a man helping to put crates on the back of the woman. I find it interesting how the people, especially the women carry loads on their backs, sometimes children. |
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| Here's an example of a woman carrying a child on her back. He looks old enough to be able to walk. |
Lynn and I walked to a small park called Parque Sucre that has a Nepture fountain in the center. There were several young boys offering to polish our shoes as we set on the bench watching the people in the park, but we didn’t take them up on the offers.
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| Another example of a woman carrying a child on her back. |
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| A third example of child being carried on a woman's back. |
As we traveled along the way in the train we noticed that there were three or four men on motorcycles that would pass us up, go to the next intersection where a road crossed the tracks and stop the traffic to allow the train to pass by. They would kind of take turns, passing each other to the next intersection. They more or less stayed with us the whole trip, sometimes catching up with us further down the tracks when we going through areas more isolated. At a certain point, next to a factory, we had to stop for a time while the tracks were cleared from some rocks that had been dumped on them, evidently a maintenance job that was unfinished. As we watched the two men who were clearing the tracks work, Elder Kaneen pointed out that it was a typical picture. There were five men standing around watching them as the two men worked. Those two men were very tired when they finished.
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| Five watches and two workers. |
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| Thanks to a couple of very tired young men we were on our way again. |
When we finally made it to Colta, the location of the Balvanera Church, we were given a small complimentary lunch of corn and cheese. Not much but it was OK. Our guide then took us to the church which was very rustic looking and appeared to still be in use.
We then went to an artisan market , Pasaje Artesanal Balbanera, close by where there was a craftsman who was carving tagua into various trinkets and decorative articles. I took a video of him at work and he gave me the small vase that he made.
Here’s the link to the video of the craftsman making the small vase from Tagua
Working with Tagua to make small vase
There was a small lagoon near the train station that we also went to with a small playground area. Lynn took a little trip down the slide and we got a nice group picture.
Last of all we were taken on a tour of the “Universitas de Sabiduria Ancestral Y Nueva Conciencia” or “Jatun Yachay Wasi” which is where they teach the ancient medicinal and herbal healing arts of the native people. Our guide showed us where they cook some of their food in a pit similar to how the island people of Tonga and Samoa cook pigs in a pit with hot rocks and covered with dirt. He said that it is done this way in order for the food to draw the nutrients out of the soil. He also showed us a large room which is a type of sauna. It is also a sort of birthing room where pregnant mothers who are ready to give birth have their babies in a squatting position. I remember using that position as part of the natural childbirth I used with most of my babies. It really did help, using gravity to help the baby come down and out.
The last thing on the agenda was to watch native dancers dance for us. At the end several of the dancers got partners from the audience. Lynn, Elder Kaneen and Sister Platts were some of the ones chosen to join in the dance. It was a reminder of Lynn’s early years when he danced with a group of folk dancers when he was a teen and just after his mission, only most of those were a little more energetic.
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Here’s the link to the dance video, about half way through Lynn joins in with the dance. You can see the new hat he bought.
Link to the Dancers
As we returned to Riobamba we caught a bus to return to Quito and arrived back about 8pm. We then took taxis back to our apartments and were glad to be back home after an fun but exhausting day.
Today was our senior FHE. It was the Nuttalls turn but we had it in our apartment since theirs is a bit crowded. They asked us to share the challenges and blessings we have received by serving our missions. It was a bit emotional as we shared some of our heartfelt feelings. I, of course, shared the challenge of not knowing the language and of the blessing and great miraculous healing of our grandson, Matt. Others shared also the challenge of the language and of how much they have come to love the people of Ecuador as they have served.
A little background of Riobamba:
Riobamba is a pleasant, friendly city with nice colonial buildings and churches and magnificent views of five of the great volcanic peaks [we only saw three]. It was once the home of the Puruhá nation. Spanish colonial Riobamba was founded in 1534 near the current town of Cajabamba. In 1797, the city was destroyed by a major earthquake in which more than 10,000 people were killed. It was relocated to its current location in 1799. Riobamba has many attractive plazas and parks. There is a convent “The Convento de la Concepción”, which has been carefully restored and functions as a religious art museum. The museum’s greatest treasure was a priceless gold monstrance (where the Host, holy sacrament for communion, is kept) and one of the richest of its kind in South America. It was solid gold and ornately engraved and decorated with precious stones. It was stolen in 2007 and melted down in Colombia. A replica is now on display in the museum. We wish we would have had more time to see the other attractions.
Link to more pictures of trip to Riobamba
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