Witnessing here in the English cong is quite different from how we did it in Aus. In some ways it’s more leisurely, in some ways it’s more sociable, in some ways more challenging, etc etc.
Organising the groups for witnessing is generally more complicated than we’re used to in Tas. Because we have such a large territory (the whole city), it’s hard to be familiar with the territory and to know where the streets etc are. There’s the usual confusion of working out how many cars there are, (generally not enough to fit everybody in), and therefore who’s going by car and who’s taking the bus, and if so, which bus will get you closest to the territory. And then if anyone gets lost on the way or goes to the wrong place, it just makes it more interesting. So things by necessity run to a more lengthy schedule.
A week ago, we had the circuit overseer’s visit, and Brendan and another brother were supposed to meet some others at a particular park in town (some going by bus, some going by car). Due to a mix-up, Brendan and the other brother ended up on one side of town, and the others on the other side of town. After texting back and forth and walking up and down quite a bit, and still not getting any closer, at 11 am they gave up ever trying to find each other, and did their own thing.
In Aus, when witnessing we try to be discreet, and not congregate on street corners (although we still do!), or hang about unnecessarily or clog up the street with large numbers of Witnesses. But in Ecuador, it’s par for the course! There are just so many more people wandering about anyway, or waiting for buses, or just chatting or making noise, that a few extra Witnesses here or there just isn’t going to make any difference. And if we have an extra person without a partner, they just tag along with another pair, and go in threes. Because the houses here are right on the street front, you actually stand on the footpath and either bang on their gate with something noisy like a coin, umbrella, drink bottle etc, or you ring the intercom which is also at the gate. (The gate is considered equal to the front door – even if the gate is open, you generally don’t enter.) And often you have to wait a while for a response. One sister told me that when she first came to Ecuador and was witnessing in a country area with a long driveway between the gate and the house, they banged on the gate and waited a while, and after a bit someone looked out from the house (turned out to be a servant) and then after about 10 minutes all up, the householder came out. So there is a certain amount of hanging about and chatting amongst ourselves goes on (although we generally don’t wait 10 minutes). And a lot of houses don’t have street numbers, and sometimes there are no street names, or else they are really hard to find. Just to add to the general confusion.
This is how we hang about in Cuenca
There are lots of little shops (rather like our milk bars, except a lot small smaller – some are more like kiosks) and other businesses dotted among the houses, so after you have asked them in your broken Spanish whether anyone there speaks English and they have said “no”, if you are hungry, you can purchase a little packet of sugared peanuts (yum!), or chocolate (the sister I was with on Saturday bought me chocolate as a cure-all, as I was feeling a bit low about how long it would take to acquire even a passing amount of Spanish and therefore feel even a little bit useful), or water, etc. So it’s not unusual to see brothers and sisters wandering along munching on their purchases while witnessing.
Back home, because most people have their own car, when we finish territory or calls, we tend to all go our own way home, but here, due to the lack of cars, we always car-pool or go by bus to the territory. So when we have finished (generally about 12-ish) there is usually a bunch of us all walking (you can’t help but get fit here, due to all the walking) in the one direction, and somebody may suggest a coffee or lunch spot on the way, or a quick bus ride to a favourite, spot, so off we all go. Food tends to be a lot cheaper here (if you manage it right you can get a $2.50 lunch, although that doesn’t happen all the time), but by the time you’ve done that a few times a week, it does add up!
I think because our congregation of possibly 40 publishers live spread all over the city (a bus ride from one end to the other would probably take about 45 minutes – but only cost 25 cents), we tend to take advantage of the times we are together anyway, as most of us don’t have cars to just jump in and go for a quick visit. So often, after the Sunday meeting (we meet at 11 am, which is a strange time, as by the time the meeting has finished and everyone has chatted, it’s probably about 1.30pm, which is a bit late to go home and start preparing a large Ecuadorean lunch – lunch is the main meal of the day), someone might suggest the chicken place down the road, or a nice hamburger place, and a bunch of us might all jump on a bus and go there. A couple of weeks ago, Brendan and I and another family had decided to have lunch at the chicken place down the road, and half the cong also decided to go there too. I think the man there was a bit stunned when about 20 of us turned up all at once!
Views of Cuenca
If you don’t have a car here, you’ve got to allow a lot longer to do anything. Example. Brendan and another brother had a Bible study to go on, on Saturday. They left the Kingdom Hall around 9.30 am, and after consulting the bus schedule and concluding there were no direct buses, they caught a bus part-way there and walked the rest of the way, getting there about 10 am. The man was not there, so they walked towards where the rest of us were witnessing – after Brendan had rung me to ask where we were (I had no idea, of course, but told him roughly where I thought we were – I was only about 3 or 4 blocks out!), and they had wandered around looking for us, walked back to our place, as it wasn’t too far from there (well, maybe another 15 minutes’ walk). He later figured out they had walked about 12 km’s that day.
Brendy thinks he’s a mountain goat!
Brendan went on a Bible study today with another brother, with an 81 year old Ecuadorean man who walks about 9 or 10 blocks to get to the meetings! For many people here, there probably never comes a time when you can say “I’m too old to run”, as we were on the bus one day and saw a little old indigenous woman jogging to meet the bus which was coming towards her, but then it over-shot the bus stop, so she had to turn around and jog back the other way. The bus drivers have no mercy, just because you may not be so sprightly.
A couple of weeks ago, we had gone into a shop and asked for English-speaking people and someone there had said that a lady who spoke English would be there on Monday afternoon. So, come Monday afternoon, we put on our walking shoes and walked down to the shop (about 15 minutes away) to see if the lady was there. She wasn’t. So then we walked home. We talked about the fact that if we were in Aus, there is no way we would have walked there, we would have jumped in the car and gone. But here, because there is no car, you just allow the time and walk. And we quite like walking. Sometimes we just go exploring to see what’s around us.
Look what we saw out witnessing today!
(Well actually, we were witnessing – not the alpaca! ;P)
We have started to look for a place of our own to rent. Our house-sit ends mid July, although if we haven’t found anything by then, there is another apartment we can house-sit for a month if we need to. We thought it would make sense to find something near the Kingdom Hall, rather than having to bus half-way across town, although many do (including us currently). That would then allow more time for sleeping! Often people put up signs in the windows of places that are up for rent, and you can wander around looking, and ring the phone number and check it out. We were wandering around near the Hall, and an older Ecuadorean man saw us looking at a sign in a window and indicated in his non-English that he had an apartment above his place, and we indicated in our non-Spanish that we would like to look at it. So, he took us upstairs, where his wife rang their grand-daughter who spoke English (the younger generations are more inclined to speak English, as they learn it at school) and told us what the rent was etc, etc. Then they took us upstairs to show us the apartment. They actually had two apartments – the first one we saw had 3 or 4 rooms with unfinished/unsealed wooden floors, no cupboards, a very basic kitchen (cupboards and a sink – you generally have to supply your own stove here) and an outdoor bathroom – it was out on the balcony (an afterthought, perhaps?), and contained an “electric shower” (an interesting combination of water and electricity) and a toilet. No basin, although the “laundry” was adjacent. It did have a couple of windows out to the street which was a good thing, as I will go on to explain.
After we had politely said “no, gracias” in our best Spanish, they said they would show us their other apartment (going by the apartment we had just seen, we didn’t hold out much hope of the other being any better, but we went along with them anyway – it’s hard when you can’t really communicate, and they were doing their best to be helpful).
The other “apartment” was on the ground floor – well, some of it was. Some apartments here in Cuenca (and possibly the rest of Ecuador) tend to be rooms added on here and there, with little regard for any of those pesky building regulations we have in Aus. So, there was a “kitchen” (again, just a few tile-topped cupboards and a sink), with the only natural light being a small window which opened onto the stairwell, and another nondescript room on the ground floor with a window opening onto a dark courtyard, then you went up a half-flight of stairs to another couple of rooms, this time with the added bonus of no natural light at all, but instead with a built-in damp smell! I didn’t stop to look at the “bathroom”. It was probably a good thing we didn’t have enough Spanish to exclaim, “are you kidding??!!”
So we declined politely, shook hands all round (the Ecuadoreans are heavily into hand-shaking), and left, somewhat shaken.
After this, we decided that although we wouldn’t call ourselves real-estate snobs, you have to draw the line somewhere!
There was a religious festival on with lots of sweets and cakes for sale. (This has been going on for over a week) There was table after table just like this.
If anyone wants to reply or email and let us know the latest goings-on in Aus (especially Tas – we already have a couple of spies on the mainland!!), we would really appreciate it. We want to know what’s happening with you too! (If you reply on the blog and want us to reply, you’ll need to leave your name and your email address, as otherwise the addresses don’t show up. Otherwise, just email us.)
