The Old and New In Quito

This is Amazonas, the main street running basicly North and South. It carries a tremendous amount of traffic in one direction only. In my last

blog, I showed the start of this untimely, messy, dusty situation. It has only gotten much worse.

In just a few days with tractors, pick-ax's and hand tools, they have managed to totally rip up the entire street, minus a few cross intersections, for car crossings.

There are "kiosks" which sell all kinds of articles. They are rented by the month. Some sell clothes, some sell food items but they all are places of business for small families or single persons. By the loss of Amazonas these kiosks and small businesses along this street are suffering a great loss of income.

This is Clarita, she is a new member of the Church and she attends out ward. This is her kiosk on the corner near our office building. We all try to buy some things from her each day so we can help her with her business.

This was the way her kiosk sat on the corner, now the corner is not there any longer. She cannot open the front of the kiosk because of the dust (polvo) that is all over everything!

She is so sweet, when we buy a bottle of water, she wipes it off the dust for us. The poor thing just sits on her stool all day.

The blocks on the other side of the street just could be the new sidewalk, or is it going to be the street itself? Who knows. This is all supposed to be finished in 40 days! We shall see. There is another kiosk in the right corner which in on the opposite corner of the street near the major bank. Most of the time now, it is closed.

There are many other streets in and around Quito that are being torn up and we suspect the telephone lines are going to be burried under the sidewalks. So it is VERY HARD to find a street to walk to or from the office, which in in stable condition for walking.

This is the new form of parking enforcement. Now they have a group of "police officers" who write nothing but tickets on the streets of Quito. They ride bicyles and during their shift handle two or three streets next to each other.

This is the lowest ranking part of the police department.

SO many things have changed in Quito in the YEAR we have been here. Can you believe it has been one year? We are having a hard time digesting that. Much has happened in this short time.

I am glad to report that Elder W.'s ankle is much better. We are walking again, he is doing some stretching exercises and it feel much better. We struggle with being tired, what's new? We are after-all a few years older this mission. Just ealier to bed at night!

Mother Nature has thrown us a curve.....more rain and cold weather. Summer lasted about 4 days. Even the cab drivers are laughing about it with us (as we do take taxi's in the rain.) We have met some wonderful drivers. Most of the time, they like to talk to us, and I love to talk to them.

The Scripture Eccles. 3:1 "To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven": and vs. 11-12: "He hath made every thing beautiful to his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life."

We are so blessed to be have had our "time and season" to be able to see the hand of God in this beautiful world and his children who need us, the members of the Church to do His work. It is fulfilling!

We will be home soon, until then, until I write again.

Hermana W.