Adventures in the Village

Our adventures in the village from the last 2 months:

We successfully reclaimed our house! The jungle had taken over the paths and area around the house while we were on furlough, but this is the finished product after long hours of cutting everything back with matchetes. Plus, our neighbors helped us to oust the vampire bats that had decided to make our house their forever home. Pesky critters those vampire bats...

Almost every family in the Napo has at least one dugout canoe and peki-peki motor. River travel is awesome and fun! We're hoping to bring up our canoe to our new village early next year to help make visits a little easier!

We got to teach as volunteers in the high school! Catherine taught English & Religion courses, and Nemo was asked to teach Civics and History! We loved it! Nemo ended up being the "cool" teacher, of course. =D We were so thankful to finally have a direct way to serve the community as a whole! Plus we got to know lots of the students and their families. In our village, there's 350 students in the high school. 

The little guy in the photo below with the adorable smile is Rigner, our little godson. We appreciate your prayers as we take our roles in his life and his family's lives seriously. We are praying for more opportunities to share with this precious family, and that the Holy Spirit will be at work in their hearts!
Photo below on right - Our lovely comadre (co-mother) and Catherine chapiando (hand mixing) masato. Gisela is a sweetheart & such a patient teacher! Now that we are officially part of her family & with the progress Catherine is making in Kichwa, we were able to get to know her a lot more during this last visit.

Photo above - Here we are celebrating the Yakuchiway ceremony as we officially became little Rigner's Markayayas (godparents). We had never participated in this particular custom in the village, so we had lots to learn! But it was a blast! We also gained 2 amazing co-parents (Maximando & Gisela). We are super thankful to have family ties in our new village!
Photo below on right - This is what a classic visit looks like in the village: the ladies all sit together on one side, while the men sit on the other side. And every woman brings her bucket of masato! 
Photo below on the left - Masato making in the village is truly an art. The females in each household make masato about twice a week. Girls begin to help in the process when they are 8 years old, and generally are master masato makers by the time they turn 12 or 13.