Dan and Cindi Maloy

HCJB - Quito, Ecuador

Here everyone is in a hurry, but not concerned about getting anywhere, and honking your horn is just something to do while you sit in traffic.  It doesn't accomplish anything, but it makes you feel like you're making good use of your time! 

We have been here exactly two weeks today.  The weather is beautiful, staying at about 65 degrees every day (We hear that the temperature is hovering somewhere around 16 in Ohio right now), and we are enjoying getting to know our way around our new home.  Our apartment has a beautiful view of the city, especially at night when the lights are on.  From our living room we can see anywhere from one to three snow covered mountains, depending on the cloud cover that day.  The Quito International Airport is right in the middle of the city, and we can see all of the planes landing.  This is good, since our barrels are not here, it gives us some entertainment!

The kids started school at the Alliance Academy last week, and are loving it.  As most of you know, they were home-schooled all of their lives prior to moving here, and getting to go to "real school" has been an added bonus for them!  They have made many new friends, from all walks of life.  Alliance is comprised of students from about 20 different countries, about 15 different mission organizations, several "private sector" families, and military families, both Ecuadorian and American.  What a wonderful place to be a kid!

We (Dan and Cyndi) are now officially in language school.  We started last Thursday.  Before we left that morning we ran into several veteran missionaries who laughed maniacally and said "Have a good day!"  We understand the laugh now.  The adult brain is not wired for a new language.  Actually, your brain starts to resist learning a new language at about age 8.  Ours start to resist at about 8 in the morning.  We have a delightful teacher named Patricia who, fortunately, has a wonderful sense of humor about the whole thing.  She is only supposed to speak to us in Spanish ( makes sense) but every once in a while she gives up and lapses into English.  This is good, as it gives us a chance to figure out what in the world she has been saying for the last hour. 

Our school is in a wonderful little coffee shop that feeds us copious amounts of good schnackies on break.  They do this so we will come back.

We have mastered the art of going to the grocery store by ourselves.  We had to, as the children insist on eating.  The main grocery here is Quito is called Supermaxi, or you can go to Megamaxi.  Think Wal-mart vs. Super Wal-mart.  They are very nice, and we have found some pleasant surprises there!  The fruits and vegetables section is absolutely marvelous.  I bought a fresh pineapple the other day, and it cost me $.58!  That's 58 cents for those of you who think my decimal point is off.  We have fresh juice now all the time, and fresh vegetables with every meal.  Those of you who know my aversion to cooking will understand how amazing this is.

One of the things that has taken some getting used to is the "specialization" here in Ecuador.  For example, if you need a radiator, you go to the radiator store.  If you need a switch, go to the store that only sells switches.  Light bulbs, underwear, paper, you name it, it has it's own store.  My favorite is the bread store.  MMM!!!  Come down-we will definitely visit that one!

The people here are very warm.  Everybody always seems to be in a good mood.  It is taking some time to get used to seeing tiny children begging on the streets.  We want to take them all home, but it would get pretty crowded here.  Between 30 and 35% of the population exists on less than a dollar a day.  To put it in perspective, when we were in the States, I would always grab my Diet Pepsi on the way through the checkout line at Giant Eagle.  Cost?  About $1.00.  It was a wakeup call when I realized that the people here are trying to feed their babies on the cost of my Diet Pepsi.

We have not formally begun our ministry as we have been advised to get a grip on the language.  Get a grip is a good way to put it.  Dan has been able to spend a couple of days in the printshop getting the "lay of the land", and we have been asked to be a part of a neighborhood Bible Club for children starting in about a week.  They typically have between 45 and 60 children at these, and we can't wait to get there!  It is run by Javier and Sonia who both work at HCJB.  We have become good friends with them, and their two children, Jonathan and Johanna.  Johanna is the same age as Heather and she and Heather and Kristina are great friends. 

Well, This has gotten long.  We love you, we miss you, and we want you to come down here and see why we love this place!  This email is our new one.  Please write and tell us how you are!