I hate Carnival!!

Have we mentioned how much we hate the Carnival season? This is something that I commonly hear foreigners who are serving here complain about, so I thought I would take a stab at complaining about it too!


According to a travel website, the origins of the Carnival festivities is as follows:

"Carnival festivities are one of the many manifestations of syncretism involved in Ecuadorian traditions and celebrations. The word "carnival" comes from the Italian "carn-aval", which means absence of meat. According to the Catholic calendar, the festivities precede the period of Lent. The origin of the Carnival festivity is to compensate for the following forty days of abstention and penitence in preparation for the remembrance of Christ's crucifixion. This is a time of celebration without restraint all over the world, and Ecuador is not an exception. Many popular festivals are held throughout the country. It is a time of masks, jokes, water, music and dances."

For the past 3 years, we, as Witnesses walking the streets, are prime targets for the water balloons that people carry with them in their cars, looking for convenient targets on the street. In Tumbaco, we were hit a number of times while in service from passing cars, kids on bikes, people from balconies. And this year, Cuenca has been no exception. The Carnival season lasts for about 2-3 months, and thus far, we have been hit collectively 4 times, always in service, and up until today always from passing cars with water balloons.


Today, Hannah and I were enjoying a relaxed day of return visits. This required us to walk a number of miles from call to call. In one particular neighborhood we were walking past a construction site and were totally blind-sided from above. (Can you be blind -"sided" from above? Probably not...) Anyway, we were minding our business when all of a sudden water came pouring down from above, soaking my head and entire back. Definitely not a balloon. The construction workers from the 4th story had dumped a BUCKET of water down on us. It mostly missed Hannah, but I was soaked. Luckily, it was a pretty sunny day, so I dried off after a while. Being so far from home, there wasn't much I could do but sun dry anyway.


So yeah, hate Carnival. Can't wait for it to be over. On a brighter note, we did find a number of English-speakers in the territory today. I was talking to a man this morning who was holding his 2-year-old son and when I reached out to shake the little boy's hand, he proceeded to give me a hand slap-slash-fist bump, followed by a thumbs up. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen, and it totally made my day. I met an American girl, here for 3 months studying frogs in the national park close to Cuenca. She was nice and accepted an invitation to the meeting and a Truth tract. Hannah found a women who insists that she will be at the meeting tomorrow. Hope so. Oh wait, I am suppose to be putting experiences on the new Experience page. OK, well I have one more that I will add there to finish this post.


On another note, we are getting super excited for Kyle's visit next month, in just a couple weeks now. We will meet him up in Quito on the 10th. And then, just a few weeks later, hopefully we will be seeing you all in April or May during our next visit home. Joanne, you still have dibs on our first weeks there. I haven't forgot our promise! :)
Oh, btw we had a wonderful surprise visit from our good friend Danny from Tumbaco. That should be a familiar face to all the blog followers out there. He was here in Cuenca for just two days for a wedding and came by the house to visit and see our new place. He says hi to you mom especially, but to everyone back home as well. He was recently appointed a ministerial servant, began pioneering, and will have his first public talk soon. We are very proud of him! :)