June 2010

Hola Todas;
We just returned from Otavalo where we had been for three days of Inspecting Apartments, Zone Conference and then Shopping at San Antonio which is an Artisan community that carves wood, then to the Otavalo Market for a half a day of shopping.

As you can imagine this is tough work. We cooked 200 Scones for the Zone Conference, Inspected 4 current apartments and looked at 4 new apartments.

This was a very different week in Otavalo. This week the people were celebrating San Juan Day which is to thank the Sun God for the bountious crops. The pictures we took were in Cotocatchi which is a pueblo just northwest of Otavalo. The groups you see in the pictures are doing a shuffle around the town square and whisteling and shouting. In some of the pictures you can see the police with their shields. At various times the groups get into fights with each other and then the police have to launch tear gas. The one photo was of a man that had had too much what ever and was passed out on the door step of the missionaries apartment. When they opened, he fell over and woke up. One of the pictures shows the queens of the celebration.

This was once in a lifetime experience to see these people in this ritual.

Now back to Otavalo. This week was a great occasion for Otavalo. 8 Heads of 8 nations were in Otavalo for a high level meeting about relations with their countries with each other. There were more Military and Police than you could count. Helicopters were coming in from every direction. We didn't dare take too many pictures other than Helicopters, Security was very tight.

Now keep in mind we really are working while all of this is going on................maybe!!!!!

Enjoy,


Los Curtis'