Day Four - What blessings and plans God has for us!

Painting Benches

A few weeks ago while researching guinea pig (cuy) raising, Terry came across a website of an Ecuadorian foundation focusing on agriculture. She contacted them, and found out they did work with guinea pigs. Today, Jim called the phone number Terry had found, and got ahold of a man named Fred. A few minutes of discussion later, a guinea pig producer named Edwin was coming to pick us up at the hotel!

Edwin took Mandy, Richard, Terry, and Jim to the farm where Fred works for the foundation. This is an organic farm that helps train people of the area in farming practices. We were able to ask many questions about guinea pig raising to them, and learned a lot! Fred showed us their facilities, where they actually raise the guinea pigs together with rabbits.

Guinea pigs aka cui 

Next, we went on a trip to Edwin’s farm. This is another organic farm, doing everything from start to finish. Edwin raises plants in a garden and also in a green house. He makes his own fertilizer for the plants, and also raises guinea pigs. His facility for the guinea pigs was very modern but simple. We were very impressed with all the work he does. Edwin is also working on developing more markets for guinea pigs, including opening
a restaurant and looking into exporting them abroad. He also offers training courses on farming and guinea pig raising.

From both of them, we were able to get tons of information and pictures! It was amazing how simply things worked out for us! Glory to God for making the plans work so well.

The rest of the group went to Lote Tres. Matt gave a devotion to the group before they left. Arriving up on the mountain, they were happily surprised. A large payloader had arrived, digging out the dirt to construct the new road to the church! It worked all day, slowly filling trucks full of dark topsoil while creeping toward the church. The group worked hard again today. Piles of construction material and sand were moved, which was very tiring hauling heavy wheelbarrows up a steep slope.

The bathroom construction is moving along. Rocks were put down under the level of where the concrete will go. Lines for the future floor were leveled. PVC pipes were fitted and the process of piecing the pipe turns began.  Up in the church, several people worked on painting benches. First the benches were sanded, and then a coat of medium brown paint was applied to them. Many people also had the opportunity to play with the kids. An impromptu soccer game began. The younger children really enjoyed the paper airplanes Nicki made for them, throwing them off the second story porch of the church.

Late in the afternoon, Jim, Terry, and Richard gave a guinea pig presentation to a group of people from Lote Tres. This focused on the information gleaned from today’s tours, along with information researched and found beforehand. The people seemed very interested in the guinea pig information, and asked many questions about how to raise theirs better in the future. At night after eating dinner, several people enjoyed a small walk through the town of Cayambe.