Este y Ese ~ This and That

Nicole has been asking for finished pictures of the house. Once it was determined the house had settled and the lift was successful, Howard decided to add a porch to finish the look of the house . We have really enjoyed a place to sit protected from the rain while Howard barbecues in the evenings.

We are now on the count down to Danielle arriving for the summer. She arrives the 12th of May and will be here through August 4th. She will be our official Quito Quest intern for the summer. Along with our work teams, during the summer we host Quito Quest groups from Youth World. Each group comes to El Refugio for a day to spend some solo time and then a hot dog roast in the evening with s'mores and of course a sample of cuye. Danielle will give the orientation for El Refugio and basically "host" each group for the day.

Since we arrived back last November, Howard, Jonathan and I have been busy completing Spanish classes. Sometimes though, it seems our Spanish actually has gotten worse. The reason for this is with our expanding vocabulary, the chance for error has risen. For example, while working with Angelica I was explaining how everyone who stays in the cabin complains about a bird that pecks on the window every morning at 7:00 am. However, instead of saying "pajaro" which is the word for bird I said "parrilla" which is the word for barbecue. I always know when I have said something crazy, because she looks at me and kinda tilts her head and narrows her eyes, like huh? Finally after some time, we figured out what I had said and what I meant to say, we laughed at the idea of a barbecue actually pecking on the window. Since we were talking about barbecues she says she noticed we barbecue a lot. Angelica asks me what is my favorite food to barbecue. And I say "pecado" and she says do you mean "pescado"? (which means fish). So this time I get out my handy dandy translator which Ralph and Helen gave us years ago and realize I had said my favorite food to barbecue was "sin". Oh yeah, serve me up a good portion of sin can't have enough of that :) Yet again confirming that God has a sense of humor because He called us of all people to be the "missionaries"!