Quevdo: Day 1 & 2

Thanks so much for all your comments on the last 2 blogs!  I´m so happy to be back on the blogging scene.  And to make up for my long lapse in posts I decided to try to post every day from Quevedo to give every one an idea of what a day in the life of serving where the need is greater is like.

So far, so WONDERFUL!  Fernanda and I arrived yesterday, after a long 8 hour ride by bus from Cuenca, around 3:30 in the afternoon.  We´re staying in an apartment right downtown where we can literally walk out the door and start preaching to the MANY Chinese speaking people here and when I say many...I really mean it.  They own a whole lot more than just Chifas (Chinese restaurants) and clothing stores here.  They are there every time you turn around and every single person (except for 1) we talked to today listened.  One experience really touched me.  We stopped into a Chifa where an older Chinese man was playing solitare.  He offered for us to sit down so we started a little conversation with him and only after a couple of minutes one of the most unique looking Chinese girls I´ve ever seen came out and asked (in Spanish) if we were Witnesses.  We answered yes and started to explain in Chinese but she said she didn´t speak any Mandarin at all...her Spanish was perfect.  Let me just tell you how funny it is listen to a Chinese girl speak perfect Spanish, even with a coastal accent.  Anyway, we were starting to get the picture that she was born and raised here.  Her Father was the Chinese man and her Mother is Ecuadorian and for that she was SO beautiful.  She told us that her sister in Guayquil is one of Jehovah´s Witnesses.  At this point she left to attend to work.  We continued talking to her father who showed a mild amount of interest.  In the mean time, she came out again and started talking to Fernanda in Spanish while another sister and I kept talking to her dad.  It turns out that the girl is very very interested in learning the truth.  She reads our literature and said that she would like to attend the meetings and study but since her Father is still very weary of the Witnesses she´s been unable to.  She´s under the impression if we just keep visiting him, make friends and show him the kind of people we are that his attitude might actually change.  We were so deeply moved by her sweet face and interesting story that we promised to do the best we could at winning over her dad and at the same time we are supposed to start a study with her next week...at 10:30 at night after her work is said and done for the day.  Now I know we´re not necessarily here to study with people in Spanish, but isn´t it interesting how our Chinese skills might come in handy in this case??

Quevedo is intensely hot, humid, and a little bit smelly.  I have lots of new bug bites and we didn´t have water in the apartment bathroom at all last night.  Right now I´m sitting in one of the seediest internet cafes ever...it´s behind a pad-locked iron gate and every time someone comes or leaves it is re-locked.  We can´t take out our cell phones on the street and who knows if I´ll ever get any photos because the same goes for cameras since it´s too risky...you might get robbed (sorry mom, but I´m trying to give the complete idea of what it´s like to be here).  All that being said, Estamos en Chino Paraiso!!