After four busy, productive days of clinical work and gospel sharing, by Friday morning everyone on our team was pretty wiped out.  Fortunately, we got to take a slow morning because we didn’t have any clinics that day, partly because of tiredness but mainly because we ran out of supplies.  Since our flight home was scheduled to leave at 6 am on Saturday morning (which meant we had to be at the airport at 4 am which meant we had to get up at 3 am) we decided that we would drive back to Quito on Friday. And that indeed is what we did.  We turned about a 2.5 hours bus ride back to Quito into a relaxed all afternoon adventure.

The first placed we stopped on the way back was another little suburb of Ibarra called Otavalo.  This little town had this crazy big open air market filled with vendors trying to sell all of their handmade or handcrafted goods to provide for their families.  This was quite a fun and interesting place.  We stepped out of vehicles and walked about a block to the main square of vendors but just before walking to the area, I brushed up on my Spanish bargaining skills to make sure a could get a reasonable but fair deal.  It was great fun!  Everyone wanted to show you the items they had to sell and everyone was trying to get you to look closer at their table of art, clothing, jewelry, or whatever.  This is what the market looked like.

I wanted to get a few things so I had to decide.  Laura likes home decor, and with much appreciated help from the ladies of the trip, I walked away with a beautiful hand sewn table runner as well as a nice handcrafted pair of silver and colored stone earrings (I was particular fond of my bargaining skills for those…big sighs are clutch to closing a cheaper deal!).  I also wanted a to get a little something for myself and since I’m kind of music nerd (a big music nerd) I was pretty much sold when I walked by a vendor who makes pan pipes.  So after a little bargaining, I walked away with an amazing set of colorful, handcrafted pan pipes.  Now I just have to learn to play them!

From there we went back to one of the towns where we held a clinic.  The town, Cotacachi, is known for their leather making and leather artistry.  It was pretty phenomenal.  Just rows and rows of shops up and down the street showcasing  beautiful hand made leather jackets, wallets, and briefcases.  I didn’t even know that you could get leather so soft on some of the coats.  But unfortunately, as nice and well crafted as those goods were, they were just beyond my budget.  I did almost cave on a really stylish and soft white leather jacket for Laura, but I don’t think it would’ve fit her anyway.

After our stop at Cotacachi, where some of my team members picked up some very nice leather coats, we piled back in our vehicles and continued to drive towards Quito.  Quito is a pretty big city and pretty modern as well.  It has about 3 million people living in it so I learned that there is a worse place for traffic than Atlanta.  You would not believe the amount of crazy traffic in that city.  And there’s nothing can really be done about because it is nestled in a valley.  But anyway, we drove to Quito then turned northeast to go to a little town on the Equator, the belt of the Earth.  That was pretty cool.  And in all honesty, all I could think of as we were driving there and I as I was standing on the Equator was, “Wow, I am experiencing the highest angular velocity I will ever experience during my time on this earth.”  That is cool. And nerdy.  But true. Here are some pics of Quito and our time at the Equator.

From here, we went back into Quito, checked into our hotel, then went back into the city to tryout a popular Ecuadorian steakhouse in the “downtown” area so to speak.  It was really good, and I wish I had some pictures of the food and atmosphere, but I left my camera in the room for this trip.  After our bellies were full, we went back to the hotel after battling outrageous traffic and tried to get some precious shut eye before our flight home.  Needless to say, 3 AM came to quickly.  Especially when I could hear some party that was blaring the Macarena song throughout the night.  But the alarm kept beeping and we all dragged out of bed, packed our bags and gear, and began to pack up our stuff in a truck and get into taxis…….in the pouring rain.  3 AM is bad enough.  3 AM in the pouring rain is probably even worse.  But there was no traffic!  We got to the airport, got our boarding passes, got through security, made it our plane, and soon took off for home.  The flight was uneventful.  Just pretty much slept all the way to Houston.  We touched down in Houston, went through customs, and eventually made it back home to the state that had been on our minds all morning, Georgia.

I think that the trip was excellent.  We worked hard and many people heard and saw the love of Christ.  1300 people received medical care and heard the gospel. We were tired but what is better than being poured out for the Lord for His glory?  So, a very sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of those who supported this trip in any capacity.  The kingdom of God was advanced through your help and our work this week.  Thank you.