It's 10pm, I'm sitting in the back of a dump truck like vehicle, packed in like sardines with 10 other people and if someone's leg, arm, or other various body part touches me one more time I think I might scream. To say this has been a long day would be an understatement.
After a week up in the jungle in a little villiage called Valle Del Sade (which is not even on the map, by the way), I was beyond exhausted. My team had made the 6 hr trip up to El Carmen on Monday where we picked up 
Jamos' team, and then continued our drive to the middle of nowhere on a crazy, bumpy dirt road, and an ancient, creaky barge, finally arriving at Valle Del Sade another 4 hrs later. The week proceeded as thus: wake around 6:30am, breakfast at 7am, work on the church (constructing the roof, painting the fence, pulling weeds) in the morning, late lunch, quick swim in the river or nap in the afternoon, walking the streets to invite people to service, and then a church service at 8pm till about 10:30pm-ish. Unfortunately, It rained 2 of the days we were there, and as a result, despite Ricardo's best efforts (that man worked 6am-6pm non-stop 
everyday) we were unable to finish the roof. {I say we, but honestly they didn't let us girls do much with the roof. We painted the beams with a kind of tar-like weatherproofing paint, but other than than we focused on the fence painting and the yard weeding. The men got to help some when beams were actually being moved into position on the roof, but it was mostly Ricardo welding metal pieces together.}
The Boys… Hard at Work
…Raising the Roof…
So after a bit more work this morning on the roof, we finally departed around 9am. Shortly outside of town (and by town, I mean a short stretch of rocky, dirt road dotted by a couple random buildings), we heard a loud pop 
and the car came to a halt. The problem… it seems we were out of gas. None of us found this particularly unexpected as during the week Percy would pile us all into the cab of the truck to drive 1 block down the road, and this one lane town certainly didn't have a gas station near by. So our driver began siphoning off gas from truck #2 for our truck, but during this process we found that our gas line had somehow become unattached. Oh yeah, and by the way, that pop? We had a flat tire too!! Well, someone reattached the gas line and the tire was changed (there was no jack, so all the men had to lift the truck), and we were on our way again. Once we had reached an actual gas station (about 2 more hours down the road), we pulled over and had our tire changed again. Apparently our spare (which was a full tire, not a donut) had a leak in it. On our way again… 2 hours later we finally reached El Carmen.
We had a quick lunch and dropped off Jamos' team before heading out for Portoviejo. Within an hour of being on the road, Percy got a call from the 2nd truck and we doubled back. They had broken down. The men fiddled with mechanical things for a while, as men do, and then decided the best solution was to pull the 2nd
truck by attaching it with rope to the first truck. We got about 2 feet before the rope snapped. So we jumped in truck #1 and headed for the nearest town… for help? for a mechanic? nope… for more rope! 2nd attempt…. despite Nathan's awesome sailor knots, the rope got caught under the tire and melted. At this point, Carlos called his father who headed from Portoviejo with a mechanic and arrived about 3 hours later. It is now 8pm and pitch black as all us gringos are shuffled into the bed of Carlos' dad's huge garbage truck. A 3 hr drive later, made freezing by the wind, and we finally arrived at our respective homes in Portoviejo only to find out… the city (yes, the entire CITY) is out of water! No shower for you!
It may sound like the worst day ever, but honestly, despite the many frustrations…. I don't think I have ever laughed as much as I did today. Call it exhaustion, getting "loopy," "punchy," or just plain crazy. I'm just going to call it: The World Race.
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Dinner: Some weird cornbread with squeaky cheese in it that the ladies from Valle Del Sade gave us for the car ride.
Excercise: Evan and Rikki were able to download the excercise program "Insanity" from Nick when we were in El Carmen. Evan and Nathan currently have jelly legs as a result.
Highlight: We saw some absolutely amazingly, beautiful scenery on the ride from El Carmen. It seriously looked like we had fallen into 'Jurastic Park,' only minus the scary dinosaurs that want to eat you.
Our Church in Portoviejo:
Tomorrow? More travel, of course. We're leaving for Calderon, 2 hrs east of our current location and we'll be there for the next 2 weeks. No internet I'm told, so might not be able to post again until Peru!
P.S. I just love the irony of this pic…. small, cement block house in the middle of the jungle. No glass on the windows, but they have Direct TV!!
