Getting Started and Venturing Out...more photos

Yesterday Bryan finished his first week teaching Physics and Physical Science. All in all things went well. He was able to begin building relationships with not only his students, but others serving at the school as well. It was a rush getting ready to teach three classes while apartment hunting and transitioning to a new career but by week's end he felt like he was starting to get some footing.  On Friday, we were able to find a townhouse that will meet our needs and give us some room to host friends and family (hint hint). We will have to wait until early April to move into it. Until then, we will be in our 2 BR, temporary apartment...next to the hospital where Will stayed for a few nights (with Viral Pneumonia) and about 200 yards from the school. The location of this apartment is great, but it is a little small and quite noisy at night with ambulances coming in.

There are some unexpected surprises which we are very thankful for. Evidently, several of Will's food allergies have gone away. He can eat bread and yogurt. Corn products don't appear to bother him either. Heather can even eat some bread products down here. We hear that Ecuador has outlawed genetically modified food. So, the wheat and corn products are not genetically engineered like they are in the USA. I assume that the same restrictions apply to dairy products...though we haven't ventured beyond yogurt yet. We think that this is why Heather and Will can eat these things. Another pleasant surprise is how easy it is to get around without having a car. Thankfully, taxis are inexpensive to ride in and like the taxi drivers in the USA, they don't speak English either.

We are excited to begin the other part of our ministry, which is working with the poor in the ghettos and street kids. We wanted to get started on that last week, but Bryan needed to focus on getting his feet on the ground with teaching first.

Jonathan and Rebecca are transitioning very well to school life. They have already begun to make new friends and are enjoying school...though they are a bit more tired in the afternoon when they come home than at the end of the day back in Montana when they were home schooling.

Below is a mix of photos that we have taken over the past several days. We just got WiFi at the apartment last night, so hopefully the updates will come more frequently. Some of the photos were taken at/close to the school. Others were taken today on a trip to the historic district at the center of the city.