Kent`s Journal Entry

      Yesterday we made the successful journey from Chicago to Miami to Guayaquil. We flew standby, and it couldn`t have gone any smoother. Steve "super host" Warkentin got us off to a great start in Chicago. Not only are we extremely grateful to him for the tickets, but he hosted us overnight, fed us breakfast early, took us to the airport (at 6:30 on a Saturday morning) and used his airline employee status to expedite our security check! There was plenty of room on the flight to Miami and we all got to sit together! In Miami we found a great food court, and then a bookstore/cafe with internet access. We had about 4 hours in Miami, but it went quite fast.
      The flight to Guayaquil was a bit tighter, space wise. In fact, coach must have been filled up because we had to fly business class! This was very exciting, especially to Luisa who said, "this is the best flight I`ve ever had!" Probably the only other flight she remembers was our flight to Portland this summer via Spirit Air, which is bare bones and the opposite of first class. Luisa and I sat together, and Teresa and Magdalena sat together. We were immediately greeted with orange juice in plastic stemware. After that, Luisa and I (especially Luisa) were exploring our luxury reclining seats, which were electric and moved in all kinds of directions. Luisa explored the space, quickly opened the plastic bag that contained a blanket and pillow and snuggled up in a reclined position. We were then offered warm moist washcloths served with tongs, followed by mixed nuts in a ceramic bowl and more beverage. Then the flight attendant asked us if we each wanted a tablet for our entertainment. Of course we said yes, and as we ate our delicious meals on real plates with real silverware, we each watched "Muppets Most Wanted" on our personal tablets, although we had many more movie choices. We are not accustomed to such luxury!
      Our procedure through the Guayaquil airport was also smooth. We arrived right before another flight from the U.S. As we were checking in with customs, Magdalena looked out into the crowd of people and said "there`s Myron Bontrager" (owner of the Electric Brew in Goshen)! I looked out and there he was waving to us. We actually knew that he and his wife were flying to Guayaquil on the same day on different airlines, but we didn`t actually think that we would see them. I wish we could have taken a picture, but they were kind of far away and we didn`t think it would be a good idea to take pictures with custom agents near by. We proceeded to the luggage area where we found all 4 of our suitcases quite easily!
      We then proceeded to the exit where we navigated through a rather large crowd of people waiting for people to arrive. We were greeted with a simple cardboard sign that read "Dutchersmith Family," held by a young woman named Jennifer who is our host while we are in Guayaquil. At around 9:00 p.m. we boarded two taxis and zoomed through Ecuador`s largest city (3.5 million our taxi driver said). Magdalena and I were in one taxi and Luisa and Teresa were in the other. Our taxi driver asked where we were from and responded with a playful chant of "U-S-A, U-S-A" just like fans do at the Olympics and World Cup. As we zoomed along trying to keep up with the taxi with Jennifer, Luisa and Teresa, we were taking in familiar sights, smells and sounds of Latin America, pondering where we were going and being very grateful for a smooth day of travel.
      My understanding was that we would be staying with a family and we were a bit surprised when we entered an apartment that Jennifer`s brother lives in and vacated especially for us! Wow. We have this whole 2 bedroom apartment to ourselves! Jennifer came over this morning at around 7:30 a.m. and began fixing us a breakfast: hard boiled eggs, bread (kind of like rolls), cheese, meat slices, cafe con leche, and some sort of thick milky orange drink. Jennifer said that she`ll be back around 1:00 to prepare lunch and after lunch we`ll go to a cyber store where we can do internet stuff. Around 9:00 we explored the neighborhood, practiced saying "buenos dias" a lot and practiced being looked at inquisitively. It seems as though we are on the edge of Guayaquil, with a variety of colorful houses, from the modest to a little on the more grand size. We found a little tienda that sold toilet paper (which the apartment didn`t have much of). We had stopped by there earlier to see if they had any, and the women and the girl of the family that runs it wanted to know what different fruits and vegetables are in English, so we had a little impromptu Spanish/English class. We talked to the husband, who guessed we were German, when we went back later. He said they are from the mountains, and he looks very indigenous. Very nice family.