Making a Memory

I told you guys about the Custer Travel Curse, right?

Today all 7 of us (hooray!) were traveling from Denver down to Colorado Springs to celebrate Christmas with Nana Custer. The highest point we have to travel over was Monument Hill (around 7,300 feet), and just as we were coasting up said hill, the car began to slow down. No matter how much Dad pumped the gas, we kept slowing and eventually ended up in the emergency lane halfway up Monument Hill.

The battery was in working order, the gas tank read 1/3 full, and all my other mechanical knowledge (zero) told me we shouldn't be stopped right now. But, what was there to do. We kids plus Dad got out into the 23-degree wind and began to push the mini van up the hill. Due to the altitude and weight of the vehicle, we did have to stop every now and then to catch our breath and warm up.

A very kind man in a suit pulled over and offered to tow us, but with no hitch on his own small Ford Escort, we didn't see that working out up the hill. Fortunately, God sent another Good Samaritan along in a pick-up truck with a fat chain and obvious expertise in towing. While we got to sit back in the warmth of the car and told Nana where to come rescue us, he pulled us 2 miles to the closest gas station. Turned out to be a fellow brother in the Lord, and he wouldn't take any money for his good deed.

Meanwhile, as we girls waited for Nana, my two brothers ran across to get some gas, just to see what would happen. Well, what happened was that the van guzzled down nearly 21 gallons of gas, and then started up again like a purring kitten. Can we say "broken gas gauge"?

Anyway, we made it to Colorado Springs without too much of a delay and had a wonderful Christmas despite the curse. Well, till Andi got sick.

Merry Christmas!

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:2, 6-7


Love you all! Merry, Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Airport

Airports always make me reflective. I think it's the internationalness of the place, even dinky little airports in the middle of nowhere. They still represent the launching pad into the wild blue yonder and endless possibilities of destinations. My friends all think I'm addicted and can't stay away for more than 3 months. They're probably right. They just make me smile.

Take paging systems, for example. This past Sunday, a lady's voice came on, cleared her throat, and then said, "Paging Gimpy, paging ... Gimpy. Please meet your party at the baggage claim." Couldn't you just hear his family giggling like crazy?

And then there are the frazzled parents traveling with little kids. I got to watch Dad sitting there with a coffee cup in one hand (indispensable for Generation Y), one hand on the carry-on least he leave it "unattended" for even a minute, and his I'm guessing 15-month old daughter who didn't crawl but scooted on her butt and kept getting farther and farther away. You could see his eyes get bigger with every inch she scuffled.

I love overhearing or even taking part in conversations of where people are headed and why. Some for business, some for family, some for vacations to the Bahamas, others for grandparents' funerals, some for the trip of a lifetime to the Grand Canyon, others to be with family on Christmas.

I love how all generations come together at airports. In my one seat, I can be surrounded by people born in every decade from 1930 to 2000.

I love it when kids of different nationalities, languages, and ethnicity can ignore all social boundaries and crawl under the seats to play cars with each other, to the slight consternation of their parents on either side of the aisle, not to mention the flight attendants.

I love airports, the great equalizers where people of all backgrounds come together to squish on an airplane for a common purpose, at least for a few hours. Not counting 1st class cabins, everyone else is the same. And I've generally met with helpfulness all around. It's in everyone's best interest to help each other, make room, pass bags, trade seats. It reminds me of the Church at its best: diverse, united in a common goal, purposeful, working together.

A First

The Custer family has this thing called "The Custer Travel Curse." Usually it means that when you travel with a Custer, your flights will be delayed, your connections tight, you'll end up next to the only baby on the flight, you'll get asked to switch to a middle seat so that poor Armenian Grandma can sit next to her family, they'll run out of the good drinks or food before they get to your seat, or you'll be in the one seat on the plan with the broken table tray or the one that doesn't recline or the windown shade that won't shut even if the sun's glaring at you, etc. You get the picture.

Yesterday, it struck in an entirely different way.

I got to the airport around 4:40 am (amazing how little time it took the airport when there was no traffic in Quito) and was the 3rd person in line for Continental. The monitor said they'd open at 5:00, so I was just standing and waiting patiently, checking the clock every few seconds and watching people line up behind me. Suddenly, I started feeling nauseated. My first thought was "Oh no. My curse this time is that I'm going to be in the lavatory all flight barfing!" Then I started getting unbearable hot, and the room started spinning. The next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes, lying on the floor, and people were hovering around me. I had fainted!!!!!!!!!!

There happened to be an American girl in line, and she started peppering me with questions, if I was okay, if I needed anything, how long had I been in Quito, that I'd been out for 20-30 seconds, that a medic had already been called, and to stay sitting on the floor. Everyone was really kind in helping me collect my stuff that had scattered all over (I think I pulled it down with me with I fell).

Someone parked a wheelchair next to the check-in counter and helped me into it. I was still pretty shaky at this point, but (laughably now), my biggest worry was my luggage. I tried to sit in the chair while pulling all three of my bags at the same time. Once in the chair, I kept wrestling the suitcase to get it closer and pull my laptop bag into my lap. The medic arrived and took my bloodpressure, pulse, and went through a list of medical conditions they wondered if I had. I don't have anything (that I know of yet), and no, it was my first time fainting. They had trouble believing it, but finally said just to make sure I ate something. Another guy showed up and was put in charge of getting me to the gate, which was by far the nicest side effect I've ever had of a Custer Curse. He checked my bags in for me, paid the airport fee for me, wheeled me to the front of the customs counter and took the right paperwork out of my hand for me, took me through a special security door where I just got the wand while he took care of my carry-on bags for me, and wheeled me right next to the door of the gate! Service.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly other than my growing headache. I ate some nuts in the airport, had a nice hot breakfast on the plane, and lunch in the Houston airport, and then finally felt stable again. No clue what the fainting spell was about. I can't remember at time I've ever felt so vulnerable afterwards, knowing I could black out just like that with so little warning. But God showed himself good, and his hand of protection was still on me.

Tomorrow!

cleaned up kitchen - check
cleaned up bathroom - check
washed sheets - check
collected all garbage - check
delivered all Christmas gifts - check
packed suitcase and carry on - half check
ordered taxi for the 4:30 am pick up - in 5 minutes
gave away leftover food - check
lit lights on my tiny tree one last time - check

I'm ready to go!

Boring meetings: the bane of my existence

I thought there was nothing worse than sitting through boring big-picture meetings ("Let's talk about our mission and vision statements for a few hours") with no chance for escape. I was wrong. There is something worse: sitting through boring big-picture meetings with no chance for escape in a foreign language I can't understand!!!!!!

Nearly 3 hours of people talking while I got up for tea twice, went to the bathroom once, stared at the cute guy in the sound booth, watched the guy in the sound booth change a light bulb, counted all 102 flags in the room, started in on the lights on the Christmas tree, and tried to keep my eyes from rolling into the back of my head. When the meeting was done, I'm sure everyone wondered what English emergency I bolted off to, but I was more afraid they'd find another agenda item we hadn't covered yet. Ugh. Boring meetings.

Quito Day and Dump Party

What a full weekend, in every connotation of the word. God was present!

Saturday, Dec 6th, was Quito Day, but HCJB celebrated on Friday by having festivities in the courtyard (departments put on plays and dances, even a mock bull fight) and then by taking employees on a Chiva ride. A chiva is a big open bus-like vehicle with a mariachi band on top. They also give you free flags to wave that say "Viva Quito," a cup on a string (so you don't lose it), and whistles to make noise as you drive through the streets of Quito. I felt like I was 5 again and had so much fun doing it!!!

That evening, I had a free ticket to a concert at the Teatro Nacional Sucre. It was an evangelical choir plus this AMAZING Cuban violinist. I could've listened to him the whole time. Right when I got to the concert hall, God also painted a gorgeous sky for me.

Saturday was the big Dump Party. It's called that because, as you probably guessed, it takes place in the Quito slums, which is by the local city trash dump. Special teams came from the states for this big Christmas party which has become an annual event. I was on the games team (there were over 30 games going on), and guess which game they gave my group? American Football Toss!!!! I was so happy!

We worked from 9 - 1, cycling through lines of kids and adults. Other events for them included crafts, face painting, singing Christmas songs, a free lunch, and the ever popular photo with Santa Claus. Seriously, that was the longest line!

Overall, the official number of people was 4,002. They all also left with a free bag of rice and some other Christmas presents and the message that God loves them. Pray it made an impact!

Middle of the World

In Spanish: Mitad del Mundo. It's the place where scientists in the 17th and 18th century set up camp to study the equatorial line and differences on either side. Apparently, even though Ecuador isn't the only country on the equator, it was the place where indigenous settlers as far back the birth of Christ realized exactly where the line ran.

I was taken there last week by my boss Mary and her family (husband Diego, daughter Andrea, and son Martin). Funnily enough, if you go to Mitad del Mundo, you'll find two lines. Here's us on the real one and then a shot of me straddling the "tourist" one. (It came about after they had built that huge square monument and someone thought it was on the line - never was. But they painted the line anyway, and tourists come to take pictures because it's a nicer setting than the real one.)


On the real line, however, we were able to do a bunch of experiments, such as read this clock, which has two faces: one for when the sun is in the southern hemisphere and one for when it's in the northern hemisphere. Since it's in the south right now, we used the southern face. Our guide also was able to balance an egg on its end right on the line. Sadly, the rest of us weren't skilled enough to mimic her though Diego tried for a full 5 minutes. We also watched water go straight down the drain without swirling. Cool.


Mitad del Mundo also has a bunch of other cultural things, one of which was blowing a dart out of a Huaorani dart-blowing thing (what are those called?). You had to wear the fancy traditional hat if you wanted to shoot.


As we were leaving the touristy equator (the fake line), some dancers came out and started performing in the square. Sadly, I was out of room for a video. They also danced this dance later while balancing items on their heads.

Christmas Survey

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I agree with Allison: both. I only discovered egg nog two years ago, but it's wonderful.

Colored lights on tree or white? White. And not just on the tree, everywhere in the house! Unfortunately, the first two packets I bought here in Ecuador tricked me and were colored, so this year, I have both.

When do you put your decorations up? The sooner the better, but usually a couple of hours after Thanksgiving.

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Again, I'm with Allison: mashed potatoes and gravy.

Favorite holiday memory as a child? It's extremely difficult to choose one

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Austrians don't really have Santa. It was the Christmas Child who brought the gifts, but I can't remember a time when I didn't know it was my parents, even if they did sign the present "From Santa."

Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it. Love it! Love it!!!!!! Miss it. :-(

Can you ice skate? Yes, I can, but it's my absolute least favorite activity in winter. It KILLS my feet after only 10 minutes, (and no, it's not just something that will go away with exposure. It's been going on for 27 years).

Do you remember your favorite gift? Oh my, not really. Well, maybe the money in 1998 that I was able to put toward my amazing Eurorail trip the next summer.

What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? I love it ALL! (And you who know me know I'm not exaggerating.) But I find it hard to not say the most important thing is celebrating my Savior who stepped over the biggest cross-cultural barriers by making himself tiny and becoming not just human but a helpless baby.

What is your favorite holiday dessert? Only one?!? Peanut butter balls, preferably with only some chocolate on it. (followed by pecan pie, sugar cookies with lots of icing, fudge, wassail, ...)

What is your favorite tradition? Again, just one?!? Going to the Christmas Eve service and following it up with our family fondue. I remember always dreading the fondue being over, and that's intensified more and more as we've gotten older.

What is your favorite Christmas Song? That honestly changes every 2 days in the Christmas season. Today it's "I'll be home for Christmas" (Josh Groban version) - guess why. :-)

Ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes. Is that bad? I don't mind getting other gifts people don't like if they truly think I'll like it.

Thanks, Allison, for starting this. I'm going to have to go hunt for some egg nog now ....

Tagged

I was tagged to post the 6th picture in my 6th folder.

The guy all the way on the right in the flowered shirt is my brother, Andi, and the guy in the car is a famous Austrian politician, Joerg Haider, who hates foreigners. So, we always liked this picture because his hand is resting on Andi's arm, and Andi's a foreigner. Heehee. Joergi (that's what we call him) also showed up at my senior ball, so my Dad and I danced over to him, bumped him gently, and then danced away again really quickly so he couldn't ask me to dance. Good memories. Sadly Joergi died in a terrible car accident about a month ago, probably in that same car, as a matter of fact. Anyway, moving on....

Who hasn't been tagged yet and wants to post a picture? Erin? Bonny?

Light

Everyone who knows me knows I ADORE Christmas. I start getting excited in October, though usually the Christmas music has already come out by then. By Thanksgiving I've mapped out the decorations in the house and stocked up on candles because by far, one of my favorite aspects is all the Christmas light.

As a kid, I used to love turning off all the lights in the house other than the ones on the tree, locating every candle in the house I could get my hands on, and then just lying under the tree and watching the lights sparkle on the ceiling. As I was reflecting on this, it hit me that God must have a fascination with light, too. It was the first thing he created. “Let there be light!” When he led his people through the desert for 40 years, he used a pillar of light when it got dark. And when it came time to send Jesus into the world to save us sinners, he compared him to light. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:2).

We tend to take light for granted nowadays. At least I do. We can flick a switch anytime we want, and light is at our beck and call. But have you ever been in a power outage? In my first one, I couldn't believe how helpless I felt, how stuck. There's something about light that offers stability and security. Hmm, kind of like Jesus....

But it gets even cooler. Not only was he our light, but by following him, he gives us the ability, the call in fact, to be light as well. “You are the light of the world” (Matt 5:14). He says that whenever we share that same gift that we received from Jesus with others, we are like shining stars, sparkling in a dark universe. Cool. No seriously: how cool! I get to be just like the one tiny flame that dances before my Lord and hopefully draws others to look upon him, too.

He's definitely given me something to think about this Christmas as I watch my lights sparkle and twinkle on the ceiling. What's he teaching you?

(The CCC women after decorating the tree)

Good sports

Look what I did to my 1st Level students yesterday: for the clothes unit, we played hot potato but the loser had to pull out an article of clothing, name it, and wear it. With a female teacher providing the clothes and mostly boys in class, we laughed a lot.

Roman in sunglasses, hat, and socks (can't see); David in my dress (half covered by his jacket) and gloves; Jaime in my skirt, pants and shirt; and Becky in my vest, jacket, sweatshirt, glasses, shoes, and scarf.

The tongue

In my women's bible study, we were challenged to start watching our speech more often, filtering out the unwholesome things and replacing them with encouraging, edifying talk. So, I started by just monitoring myself one day. And I was horrified! I don't curse; I don't cuss; I don't spit; and I try really hard not to lie. But boy do I mock and complain and point out flaws and exaggerate. A lot. By noon that day, I was already convinced that I should just not talk. Ever again.

Then reading James 3 on top of it just scared me. He speaks of the tongue being this tiny instrument, like a rudder on the ship, but having the entire control over the rest of the ship because it determines the direction. I didn't like that the tongue should have so much power, especially when what was coming out of my mouth was really not God-honoring. Fortunately, my study went on in the next few days to teach us to rely on the Spirit inside who IS God-honoring. And one of the best ways of letting him speak through me, I'm re-learning, is of course through Scripture. What better way to talk, especially to God, then in his own language. It's been my new motivation to memorizing verses again, and so far, I can really tell the Spirit's helping me.


Plus, taking that power of the tongue that is described in James 3 and actually applying it to good speech is extremely powerful! I never put that together before, but speaking blessings over someone's life, praying for them, using actual speech and words to encourage has the true ability to determine direction. It sure puts a heavier call on my life to exert good power in other people's lives (and my own, for that matter), not bad.

You have God as your travel agent

That's what one of my missionary aunts said about my life. It's true.

Remember that flight down the Avenue of the Volcanoes when I didn't have my camera handy? Well, my friend did. Here are a couple of Ecuador's finest mountain peaks:

(No clue why they're black and white on here when they were colored on my computer. Oh well.)

More Pictures

I think this was the last big adventure before Christmas, so I'll stop overwhelming you with pictures soon. But this was, I think, one of the highlights of my time here so far and may well be of the entire time, at least spiritually.

The CCC takes an annual retreat every November, and this year we went to Bible Camp Mangayacu, which is just on the edge of the Andes where the great Amazon jungle starts. The drive through the Andes was gorgeous, could almost rival the Alps (don't let the Austrians hear me say that).

There were 5 sessions which a speaker from Quito, and I was surprised by how much I was able to pick up. Usually, it was easier if he had powerpoint slides with text because then I could listen AND read AND look up words in the dictionary. In between, there was some free time, but also some organized games, plus of course a bonfire one night. Those were fun times. I think my favorite was when I and my lowest student in my 1st level class teamed up and whooped everybody else in ping pong. :-)

On Saturday, we actually drove IN to the jungle a little bit to the town of Puyo where we visited a nature reserve where they grow plants and have demonstrations of what life is like in jungle aboriginal villages. The first one highlighted was the Waorani tribe, the ones that Jim Elliott and Nate Saint and my other 3 heroes of the faith died trying to reach with the gospel. We sat in a Waorani hut while the guide showed us how they use their hammocks, their cooking pots, their fishing nets, and their spears. It was hard not to get emotional, somewhat.

The walk through the bush was amazing! So many interesting plants and flowers that I can't post them all. The ride back to camp was a little less amazing. We rode in the back of these "taxis" that are two hard benches with a plastic tarp over your head, and two metal rods that dig into your back. I ended up in the taxi with all the boys which was a hoot, but meant to had to take care since I was wearing a skirt and the road was rather bumpy.

Sadly, I just never got a really good picture of the jungle stretching out in front of us because either we were in sessions, or it was raining (rain forest and all) or it was dark. Anyway, the night of this sunset was when I really just sat in awe, and it hit me that this jungle ran all the way across the entire continent to the Atlantic, and it was full of God's creativity and wonders, not to mention people he loved who haven't been reached yet. Oh the places he takes me....

Cuenca, city of spires

Cuenca is the biggest town in the southern half of the country. We flew 30 minutes (barely) from Quito to Cuenca, a trip that takes 12 hours on the bus. The flight was AMAZING!!! All the major volcanoes passed by my window - talk about having a good seat. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera. Grr! For once, it was an evening free of clouds, and the sun was just setting to the west ... I'm telling you, it was God-inspiring!

The town of Cuenca itself is really colonial, and I'm not kidding when I say there were churches around every corner. Most had really ornate doors, and the most famous church had doors that dwarfed any human being. Being a weekend, we did get to hear bells and chimes more than once, particularly at 6:30 in the morning, which wasn't our favorite time of day.


This is called "broken bridge" because if you look closely, you can see it doesn't actually cross the river but kind of ends. More like a pier.

Being the weekend, we also got to visit more than one market, which was fun. Here's a typical fruit and veggie market in a small town outside of Cuenca. I love it because you can see how many of the women actually wear the traditional Ecuadorian dress and hat on any given day. I really wanted to also post the picture of the entire roasted pig we saw at this market, but sadly the picture didn't really turn out.

Below you see us eating an early breakfast while we wait for our bus to the Incan ruins. From left to right: Serene (Auzzie), Adeline (Brit), Michelle (1/2 German, 1/2 Canadian), and Anne (German).

My first lamas in Ecuador!!!
Going to Ingapirca was probably my favorite thing of the weekend. I thought they were Incan ruins, but it turns out there was both Incan and also pre-Incan (local Canari) ruins. Ingapirca wasn't a great city or anything. It was more of a holy spot, they assume, because the only things really there are a great raised platform (probably for sacrifice), some aqueducts, and a few ceremonial buildings. Oh, and these odd-shaped rocks with holes in them that we dubbed cupholders.

I think the Incans purely wanted to build big rocks in a place where there was a really cool view.

Oh, and this was my 2nd-favorite thing of the weekend. :-) It was yummy. I had "Breakfast Austrian," and gorged myself on salami while sitting under a portrait of Mozart.