Quick trip to Manabí

On the afternoon of Monday, January 9, I got sick.  Stomach sick.  Yucky sick.  I spent all day Tuesday in bed.  Tuesday afternoon, we received word that a nephew of Sra. María had passed away suddenly.  We were staying with don Moisés and Sra. María at the time, so we learned about the death as soon as they did.  Moisés, María and the two girls left right away to head to Manabí to be with the family there.  Rebekah and I asked them to let us know when the funeral would be, said that we would try and make it, and went back to bed.  They thought the funeral wouldn't be until Thursday morning, so we figured on having one more day to recover.  However, on Wednesday morning, don Moisés called to inform me that the funeral service would be that very afternoon at 2:00.  "We'll leave the house at 10:00," I told him.  I went and got Rebekah out of bed, and we began scurrying around to get ready to make the two-hour bus trip to Colimes, where Moisés had offered to come and pick us up to drive the rest of the way, another hour or so, to Las Mercedes, where the funeral would take place.  We made it in time.  Henry, Dean Vandenbergh, Ookyoung and I all had a part in the service.  I was glad that I got to go first since we all ended up speaking from the same verses!  We were very glad that we could go and stand by the family under these very difficult circumstances.  

Here are some pictures that I shot out the car window on the way back to Guayaquil that afternoon/evening.

Can you see the tractor out in the rice field?

The guayacanes were in full bloom just beyond Colimes.

Soccer in the street

Also volleyball

The best sunset views were out the other side, so Rebekah was in charge of shooting out that way.  Ruthi obliged by getting out of the way as much as she could.  Hopefully Rebekah will share her pictures with me soon!