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Woohoo!!

Very cool! Curtis and I met this morning for encouragement and prayer. We do that once a week. One of the things I shared with him was my discouragement about not being able to get anywhere with Bruce's laptop. Remember? The Window XP Home computer that won't start due to corrupted files, but won't stay running long enough to do anything with the install CD and the recovery console. He prayed about that as we finished up. Later in the morning, I decided to go back to the Toshiba tech support site one more time. In the list of ninety-some support bulletins, this time I saw one that fit the problem description. How did I miss it before? Anyway, the fix was to update the system BIOS. After a short download, I made a boot floppy with the update and had updated the BIOS. Guess what!? Problem gone! I could now get into the Recovery Console with the install CD. Problem was, a few of the startup files were corrupt, and we didn't have any decent backup files on the computer. So that meant a repair install of XP. After two tries that didn't work, I concluded I had to do a fresh install. I was trying to avoid that as I wasn't sure all of Bruce's data would survive. Well, it worked, and I just came home after backing up all his files--photos, e-mail, documents, and the like. I still have more work to do tomorrow, as I'd like to wipe everthing out on the drive and start from scratch. The way I had to finish up tonight with the final install was to put the fresh install of XP in a different folder than Windows, meaning I really have two installs of XP on the notebook. Linux and Macintosh guy that I am, I installed the new install of XP into a directory called 'Windoze'. Worked for me! I'm goint to fall asleep happy tonight.

Shut Door

This is one of those neat stories I like to hear. It comes from Rick LaBouef's monthly letter.

God protects His people and works all things together for their good! Recently three men from an Evangelical Indian organization came and asked for a flight to distribute belated Christmas gifts in the jungle. The spirit of it seemed right and I felt we should make the flight. I dropped them off and was then to go back and pick them up two days later. But, the very next day, due to a law change and a series of circumstances, we found ourselves "grounded" by the DAC (Ecuadorian FAA). Things were in turmoil! I know what it feels like to be "abandoned" in the jungle. These men were depending on me, the door was shut, and there was no way to open it, no matter how hard I pounded!

Those men visited us again today (with their heads shaved) and filled us in on all that had happened. A band of Achuar from a neighboring village had come on the first night they were out, and accused them of working for the oil company. They took them at gunpoint two hours downriver, where they beat them and threatened their lives. They warned, "If Ricardo comes here to pick you up we will shoot him and burn the plane too!" All that time, I was struggling in every possible way to get clearance to fly. God, not the DAC, had closed the door! Now, I'm so glad He did. How many times does Father protect us in ways like this? The way this one worked out, I'm beginning to see closed doors in a brand new light.

This And That

Ellyn was out for a walk yesterday and somehow met somone in Shell who has read this web log. Not a missionary, but an Ecuadorian. They told her it was a nice site, and mentioned that they had read about our licensing problems we've been having. While that's not a surprise to me, I was interested to hear that. I try to be careful with what I write, knowing that other missionaries, visitors to Shell, and a variety of other people read this. Trying to remain neutral in my comments, but still sharing some news takes a bit of thinking. Some days I'd like to tell you what I really think, but I can't do that. As much as I enjoy sharing life with readers on the web, I think there is a small amount of risk carried with exposing so much of our life on the web.

Saturday I worked on a game for the boys. It's a small foos ball game, and I got quite far on it, before I came to a grinding halt. I had some wooden dowels brought down for the game, but two of the pieces are too short. Another friend is coming down next week, and I've asked them to bring two more pieces. It's too bad you can't buy dowel in Ecuador. Anyway, I was really disappointed, as I was looking forward to playing the game this week. Now maybe I can focus on the go-kart engine while we wait.

Friday night Dustin had a sleepover with three other MAF boys from the base. They spent most of the time, except when they were sleeping, playing on Dustin's new Xbox. By noon on Saturday, Ellyn had to finally kick them all outside to get some fresh air.

As far as work is going, it's been a mixed bag. Small successes here and there, but still a couple nagging issues. The biggest of those is Bruce's Toshiba notebook, which has a corrupted Registry and won't boot. The real problem is that when trying to get into the Recovery Console using the XP Home CD the computer unexpectedly shuts off. Very frustrating. The other issue right now is trying to move the financial software off an old Windows 95 workstation and onto the Windows 2000 server. When we try to import the data, we run into quite a few errors. Not sure what we'll do yet, but we really need to make this move. I'm also a bit frustrated learning the SuSE flavor of Linux. I'm always interested in learning something new, but this is slow going. Fortunately the IT department at MAF in Redlands has been helpful in this area. The pieces are slowly coming together as I plan to move from Red Hat Linux to SuSE.

One of this blog's readers has donated quite a bit of computer hardware to the MAF Ecuador program. Some of those items have come down with visitors. Recently I had two of the donated computers sent from Redlands to Ecuador with a shipping service. I was expecting the computers last week, and then received some bad news. The service had a break-in at their Guyaquil office last week, and fortunately my computers were not stolen. The bad thing is that it will now be at least February 9 before I receive them, as they need to inventory things. I hate to wait that long, but I'm just glad they weren't taken.

Volcano Alley

The satellite image from this morning shows the volcanos with great detail. It's almost like they're in 3D. Very cool!

Super-size Staff

We just had a staff meeting this evening with our Regional Director. Wow! The staff has really grown. Our one family from the Sucua base was with us, and we had about 31 people there who are part of the MAF program in Ecuador. I think only one person was missing that I could think of. We have another seven staff members in Quito. Now, if we can just keep on renewing licenses so the guys can keep on flying. Otherwise, there won't be such a need for so many of us. But, for now we're pressing on, and trusting the Lord that the licensing issues will be resolved. The program director and regional director will have some meetings early next week with the DAC. Be in prayer. If they want us to bring on more Ecuadorian staff every few months, we won't be able to do that. But, despite the pressure from the DAC to nationalize, I believe MAF will be in Ecuador for quite a while longer. I'm looking forward to the rest of the story.

Photo Gallery

I'm really happy with my new web host, ipowerweb.com. I've been with them almost two months, and it was a good move. They have some neat features in the Control Panel, and I just started using one of them today. Check out the gallery of photos from our Cotopaxi climb.

Wings

The guys are starting to put HC-BXB back together again. Yesterday the left wing went on--with a lot of shoving, huffing, and puffing!

Flying Toad

Sometime before the New Year, Ben and Matt came over to the house with a couple of bottle rockets and a toad. They were going to launch the toad with the bottle rockets. That never happened, as the rocket blast burnt the string tying the toad to the rockets. They thought that Taylor and Dustin would really enjoy something like that. Go figure! I guess boys will be boys. Anyway, the rockets going off made an interesting photo. You can see Matt and Ben running out of the way.

Hangar Happenings

It's been a while since I have written about MAF operations, as I was gone so much while Bob was here. Since the beginning of January, we have two new families here. The Borrors and the Shaylors. The Shaylors have some school age kids, so Taylor has a new student in his class. Well, there's also a new doctor family in Shell with HCJB, and they have a couple kids who are in Taylor's class.

Also, they've finished painting HC-BXB. Since Kevin Borror and Dale Shaylor will need to spend a bit of time waiting for licenses and paperwork, it looks like they'll spend a bit of time putting the plane back together. Here are a couple photos from the end of December that I never posted. Here's a photo of Mateo doing some of the painting. To try and keep the overspray off things, and to keep the humidity down and heat up on cool days, they put a large plastic wall up at one end of the hangar to make a large room to paint in. Notice anything funny about the engine and prop on HC-BXB?

Contrary Computers

Gotta' love computers. Or else you'll hate 'em. Bruce called me about 7 PM tonight saying his computer wouldn't start. He brought it over to the hangar and I met him there to take a look at it. He didn't have a Windows XP CD, so there wasn't much I could do, as he had a corrupt file. Then, when he did finally get a hold of a Windows XP disc, the machine wouldn't start with it. Each time we tried to boot into the Recovery mode, it would shut down on it's own at various points along the way. Not sure what to do next, but I'll tackly that first thing in the morning. Then, a while later, Ben calls me. He had accidently deleted some photos using the photo editing/organizing program that came with his digital camera. He wanted help gettting them back. After talking with him for a few minutes, and asking a few questions, it looks like the files are gone for good. All the digital photos that his brother, Matt, has taken since he came to visit Ben a month ago. Yikes! I wouldn't want to be in his shoes! Even though I enjoy using computers, and tinkering with them, you've got to wonder how much time we'd save it we didn't use these things. Maybe it's just me asking that since I'm the one that usually gets to try and fix them. Friday I had the USB ports on a computer go out. That happened when someone tried to use an external USB hard drive. Still not sure how I'm going to fix that. I did manage to find a serial mouse that would work, as I can't use the USB mouse on that computer for now. And then there's John's computer at work that I need to work on tomorrow. I'm trying to install Norton Systemworks on it, and it won't run properly. Hopefully it won't take too long to figure out. Meanwhile, I need to be learning as much as I can about SuSE linux, as I'd like to make the move to that by the end of March, if not sooner. Of course, it takes time to learn something new, and now that time is being eaten up by unexpected computer problems. Well, they're always unexpected, aren't they?

Kicking Back

It's really nice to just be home today. I slept in as much as I could, and after that made the pancakes. I think I did a whole lot of nothing this morning. Felt good. I did encourage Taylor through his chores, and then picked some weeds in the back yard for fifteen minutes with the boys. I started a Readers Digest book of escape stories. And, did some searching on the web for a replacement motherboard that I need. As Taylor was doing his chores, he swept the back patio. I couldn't believe how much ash there was today. Lots. It comes from Tungurahua normally. This week some of it might also be coming from Sangay, as there was a large eruption earlier this week. I think I'm going to go out and wash the Dell's truck next. It needs to be vacuumed too. Maybe I'll even tinker on the go-kart engine. Oh, I did finish making the saw horses this afternoon for the ping pong table. The wood was all cut, and all I had to do was put them in the metal brackets. With the exception of the white lines that need to be painted, the table is done. I think it turned out rather well.

Cotopaxi Climb

Tuesday morning, January 6, we were going to sleep in. I think I still woke up somewhere around 5:30 AM. Even though the kitchen was quiet that morning, the bed just wasn't that comfortable. We had breakfast at 7 AM, and then we spent the next several hours sitting in the sun, laying around, and packing our backpacks. We left Chaupi about 11 AM on a local bus, which took us the seven kilometers to the Panamericana highway. From there, another bus took us over the 11,800' pass and down to the entrance to the Cotopaxi National Park. It was here that we met Hugo Perez, our guide for the next day.

It wasn't long before a red Toyota Land Cruiser drove up, and another guide and his two clients climbed out. They dragged out all their gear, and then Hugo, Bob, and I piled in. At the Park entrance, Hugo stopped to pay the entrance fee, and also to pick up our rental gear which had been dropped off there. It takes over an hour to drive from the highway to the climbers' refuge. The road isn't in great shape, but the scenery makes up for it. Along the way we drove through some snow on the road--not something you do every day in Ecuador. In fact, it was the first time I'd driven through snow in four years!

Once we arrived at the parking lot (15,091'), I added my rental gear to my pack, left some extra clothes in the car, and changed into the plastic climbing boots I would use on the mountain. At 2:30 PM we started the walk to the refuge. A slow but steady pace brought us to the refuge at 3:15 PM. We were at 15,750'. At this point it's normal to go with the guide to the glacier and practice using crampons and ice axe. Because the the late hour, and a light mist in the air, Hugo said we'd just hang out at the refuge. That suited me just fine. We went upstairs to spread our sleeping bags on a bunk and to get our packs ready for the climb. Dinner was at 5:30 PM, and at 7:15 PM I was in bed. Sleep didn't come easy. My mind was racing with what was to come. The thin air caused me to wake up gasping everytime I did manage to fall asleep. I had to go to the bathroom several times. And, so did everyone else it seems. Every twenty minutes it seemed that someone would turn on their headlamp, and stomp down the stairs in their boots to use the bathroom. Finally, at 11 PM I rolled over from the top bunk to find Bob was also awake. Realizing that neither of us were sleeping much, we decided to get up and start climbing. I went downstairs to wake Hugo, and he was up right away, getting hot water ready for tea and hot chocolate.

We left the refuge at 12:20 AM, and we were the first to start climbing that morning. We could see the lights of Quito to the north, and to the south we saw the gleaming white snow on the upper slopes of the volcano. The moon was full, and above us, there were no clouds in the sky. Perfect! Over the previous few days, the weather had not looked that good around Cotopaxi, and we had heard reports of high winds. However, that night it was perfect! Hugo set a slow but steady pace up to the glacier, and we didn't use our headlamps at all that night. At first snow we put on our crampons, and then a little while later, at 1:40 AM, we stopped to rope up.

At first, the climb passed quickly. Around 3 AM I began to notice the lights of other climbers far below. Even though I had been sick just a couple days ago, I seemed to be climbing well. Around 5 AM, that began to change, and the exertion and altitude began to take their toll on me. Near dawn, we were passed by a single climber and his guide. Earlier, I had wanted to be the first to the summit that day, but by now I just wanted to reach the top. First or last, it didn't matter. Near the top, the terrain steepened dramatically, and the going was slow. Again, when I looked down, I could see far below, a line of ascending climbers.

At 6:45 AM we were on the top. The first climber to the top had started the descent, and we had the summit to ourselves. What a view! We weren't able to see many of the surrounding volcanoes, but we could see Antisana and the Ilinizas. We peered down into the smoking crater. Cotopaxi is the highest active volcano in the world. Quito was hidden, but we could see Latacunga. I had hardly anything to eat or drink for the past six hours, so besides trying to enjoy the summit and take some photos, I was frantically trying to get some hot tea and some food into my system. I also pulled out my cell phone and gave Ellyn her wake-up call.

The descent took two hours. On the way up, I wondered how we were going to safely get down, as it had seemed so steep. We plunge-stepped those sections, and the going was relatively easy. I used my ice axe to descend, and Bob used ski poles. As we descended, we passed many other climbers still working hard to reach the summit. Soon after we started down, I got a great photo. It shows the three volcanoes that Bob climbed, including the 19,347' shadow of Cotopaxi. I had more chances to take photos and just plain enjoy the view on the descent. Very impressive. The width and depth of some of the crevasses were very scary. I was glad we had a guide who knew the mountain. At one point my glasses were fogging up. Tired as I was, when I went to take them off, I dropped them. Slowly at first, then faster, they slid down the glacier. A few minutes later, as we rounded a bend in the trail, I could see the glasses off in the distance. But, there was no way to get them, as the danger from crevasses was too great.

After arriving back at the refuge we had some hot chocolate and re-packed our bags. More walking downhill brought us to the truck, and we were soon on our way to BaÒos, where we dropped off our rental gear and said goodbye to Hugo. A bus ride took us back to Shell, and our adventure was over. We then had a day and a half to rest before we went rafting in Tena. That's another story for another day.

Backwards

You're going to need to go down to the first entry for January 14 and read up the page for this to make any sense.

Barely Climbing

Saturday, January 3, I woke sick. I was alarmed to discover I had developed a cough. I had trained diligently for three months, and this wasn't part of the plan. Our climb of Cotopaxi was still almost five days away, and I figured I could shake the cough by then. By 12:30 PM I was beginning to wonder if that would happen. Bob and I were high on the slopes of El CorazÛn, and I couldn't go on. I had climbed with a frustratingly slow pace all morning, and I finally realized I wasn't going to reach the top. I had no energy at all. I put on all my warm clothes, and hunkered down to wait for Bob while he went to the summit. After about an hour of waiting, some of the time under my poncho as it rained, the fog rolled in on the mountain. That was not good news, and I seriously wondered how Bob would find his way down. He was in unfamiliar territory, in a foreign country, and I began to panic that I wouldn't see him again. I gathered the strength to move higher up the mountain, where I began to whistle and yell, hoping Bob would hear me. After more than an hour, I met up with a group, but Bob wasn't with them. They said they hadn't seen anyone else up on the mountain, and that there was no one above them.

Desparately trying to formulate some sort of plan, and praying, I followed them down the mountain. I couldn't believe how foolish we had been to split up. After a few minutes their guide said he heard someone calling. I ran on ahead, yelling for Bob. Rounding a corner, we ran into each other. He had descended down the wrong gulley, too far to the north. By the time he realized where he was, and worked his way back over, he had climbed below the point he had originally left me. Climbing back to that spot, he hadn't found me, but realized that I would have gone up, not down, so that's the direction he went. I was so relieved that we had found each other. The clouds were so thick, and the visibility so low. Bob's photo of the summit marker shows just how cloudy it was. After a long, long walk, we were back in AloasÌ, where we caught a bus back to Quito.

Sunday, I was even sicker when I woke up. The cough was worse, and I had had some chills during the night. I was weak and discouraged. Earlier I had e-mailed Bob with a couple different options for Sunday and Monday, telling him we had an option #1 and an option #2. Now, here I was with option #3. In desparation I called Jeff Maudling, an HCJB doctor in Shell. He was on call, so not at home when I called. However, he returned my call by 11 AM and agreed that I should probably take some antibiotics. He also suggested cancelling Monday's climb. After hanging up, I managed to go down the elevator and around the block to the pharmacy where I bought a week's worth of Amoxicillan and Comtrex, some Kleenex and toilet paper. All for $11 and no prescription. Gotta' love it!

I slept and drank my way through the day, and by 4 PM we were heading down to the trolley, backpacks loaded. I figured we needed to move on to the next stop, just in case I was feeling better in the morning. It was dark by the time we arrived at the Hostal Llovizna in Chaupi. Even though I had made reservations, they barely had room for us. We were given a small room above the kitchen. Access was up a ladder through a hole in the floor. Not very private, but nobody bothered us and it turned out to be a decent place to stay. Well, except for the first morning when someone got up at 5 AM to start making breakfast for one of the larger climbing groups!

We got up Monday, January 5 at 6 AM, ate breakfast, and at 6:30 AM were on our way up to the parking lot on Loz Ilinizas. I wasn't feeling super, but I was good enough to climb. The day was beautiful, and as we hiked we could see El CorazÛn and Cotopaxi . After about four hours of climbing we were at the summit of Iliniza Norte. It hadn't taken me any longer than my previous ascents, and I felt quite good. The summit of Cotopaxi was looking like it might happen. We ate a quick lunch, then descended off the mountain. As we neared the parking lot, it began to rain. We huddled under my poncho in the parking lot as we waited for our ride. Fortunately we managed to stay dry until the truck picked us up. We spent Monday night at the Hostal Llovizna.

To The Mountains

Friday morning we left at 6 AM to begin our acclimatization in Quito. The bus ride was broken up with a couple stops. First we stopped in Rio Verde, where we hiked down the trail to the Pailon del Diablo. Back at the road again, we hopped on a bus for a short trip to the new terabita, or cable car. The ride takes you right over the Cascada Manta de la Novia (Bridal Veil Falls), and is quite spectacular.

After the terabita ride, we got on a bus with standing room only. We switched to another bus in BaÒos and rode direct to Quito. A taxi ride took us to the Plaza de la Independencia, and from there we walked through Old Quito to the Basilica. Climbing into the towers of the cathedral presented us with a spectacular view of Quito.

Bad news awaited us when we reached the MAF apartment. A phone call to a missionary who was to climb Rucu Pichincha with us on Saturday brought the news that he had made other plans. Without his car and access to the start of the climb, Rucu was out of the picture. After some brainstorming we decided to bus an hour south of Quito in the morning and climb El CorazÛn.

Rewind

Let me back up a bit and fill you in on the past couple weeks. Bob flew into Quito on Monday, January 29. We spent that night in Quito, which was welcome rest for him. He'd driven five hours to get to LAX and fly down here on a red-eye flight. Tuesday morning we went to the Equator monument, Mitad del Mundo. Too bad that Bob forgot his camera for that outing. It's not everyday you can stand in the Northern and Southern hemispheres at the same time. We got a later start on the bus than I wanted, but by 8 PM we were sitting at our table in Shell, eating some of Ellyn's delicious stir fry.

Wednesday we stuck around the house and hangar. I had planned to go out, but it rained all day. We bought some wood, and using some saw horse brackets that Bob brought, we made some saw horses for the new ping pong table I made. We also put some new parts in our go-kart engine, but we weren't able to get that going. Thursday morning found us on our way to Hola Vida. This is a must visit for anyone coming to Shell--a beautiful walk in the jungle to a waterfall. We climbed up a muddy trail, and some roots, to the top of the falls. Then, at the bottom again, we cleaned up by swimming under the falls. After returning to Shell for a late lunch, we headed to nearby Camp Mangayacu for an hour hike up the side of steep mountain to reach the site of MAF's north repeater. While Bob put on a harness and climbed the 50' antenna for a great view of the area, I opened the doors of the repeater shack and took some measurements for Bruce, the avionics technician, who is making plans to install new repeater equipment.

After dinner, it was time for me to make last minute preparations and pack my backpack for our volcano climbing trip.

Getting Over It

I'm back in Shell again. Finally. It's good to be home, and to get back to the daily grind. Problem is, I'm still sick, having some sort of sinus congestion, that I'm hoping isn't a sinus infection. I think it's left over from the cough/cold that I had the week I climbed Cotopaxi. I'm sure exerting myself so much with a less than healthy respiratory tract wasn't the best thing I could have done. But, you have to do what you have to do.

I went up to Quito with Bob and Dustin on Sunday afternoon, and we arrived about 6 PM. Dinner was at Tony Roma's, where I think I must have eaten something bad. Throughout the night I felt ill, and by Monday morning it was all I could do to drag myself out of bed. Problem was, I needed to take Bob to the Indian Market, meet a friend who was visiting from the States and staying in Quito for two weeks, pick up some developed film, go to the supermarket for Ellyn, drop Bob off at the airport, and get Dustin to the orthodontist at 1 PM. I made it--barely. I was sitting on the floor of the trolley as we started off, as I couldn't stand. Later, I gave in and we rode taxis instead of walking. I'm a cheapskate normally, but I just couldn't hack it that day. By 2 PM I was back at the apartment, and fell into bed. The plan originally had been to head to Shell that afternoon, but due to my intestinal problems, and the fact that Dustin needed a return appointment to the orthdontist on Tuesday, we stayed put. I slept the rest of the afternoon and evening. Dustin enjoyed some independence, going out for some dinner on his own, then an ice cream at McDonalds, and watching some cable TV.

Tuesday morning I felt much better. After cleaning the apartment and catching up a bit with e-mail (I had my iBook with me) we stopped at the Alliance Academy library. Dustin really loves visiting there, and he checked out a Redwall book before we headed off to the orthodontist. The appointment was two hours long, and finally at 2:30 PM we were on a bus heading of of the Terminal Terrestre, or bus station. The trip was uneventful, and the buses were not crowded. We hit the house about 7:15 PM, and it was great to be home again.

Dustin was fitted for an orthodontic appliance, and he wore that last night to bed. About 4:30 AM he came upstairs in tears. He'd hardly slept, and was in a lot of pain. We took it off, gave him an ibuprofin, and sent him back to bed. He then slept better. He made it through school, and worked on his make-up work this afternoon. He's wearing the appliance again tonight, and I hope it goes better for him as he gets used to it. I can't say I slept much better last night, as the pressure in my sinuses was terrible. Maybe we'll both sleep better tonight. I have some other aches and pains from the rafting trip last Saturday, but I won't go there! I will however, fill you in on two weeks' of activities, and I'll try to do it tonight, with some photos included.

Summit!

Bob and I summited on Cotopaxi at about 6:50 AM this morning. At 19,642', Cotopaxi is the highest active volcano in the world--that's the crater behind us.We were blessed with clear, calm weather. We left the climbers' refuge at 12:22 AM and climbed through the morning with the bright light from a full moon--no headlamps needed! More later.

To The Mountains

My friend Bob is here for two weeks. I went up to Quito on Monday to meet him at the airport. We came down to Shell on Tuesday to celebrate the new year with the family. Tomorrow we head back up to Quito. We're hoping to climb three peaks and then be home next Wednesday. I'll fill you in later.