We’ve just come back from our District Convention at Guayaquil. We hired a little bus with some other Aussies from the congregation which took us straight to our hotel in the city. In the three and a half hours it took us to get there, we went from winter to summer, although winter in Cuenca is not as cold as it would be in Tasmania or Victoria.
This was on the way down – we were above the clouds at this point. The mountain in the distance is Chimborazo, an extinct volcano, around 104 km from where we were. It’s not very often you can see this mountain from the road, as it is usually covered in cloud.
View of the Andes from above the clouds
It was actually winter in Guayaquil – apparently 3 or 4 degrees cooler than in summer, and not so humid. And around 26 degrees at night, as opposed to the 30 degrees overnight that you’d have in summer. It was rather pleasant to be able to wear summer clothes for a change.
Our hotel seemed to be mostly full of Witnesses, and there was a bus organised to go from the hotel to the convention and back, which had some of the Witnesses from our hotel and some from nearby hotels. And in the evenings, a block or two away is McDonalds and a few other food shops, so after the convention, again there were Witnesses everywhere! It was rather fun.
The convention had attendance of around 900 on Friday to 1,155 by Sunday. It’s the smallest convention we’ve ever been to, and unique in various ways. There are not too many conventions you can go to where you can get distracted by the occasional iguana wandering along near the platform!
Click on pictures to enlarge
iguana directly above the pink flower, up on the concrete edge
(the brother with the pink flower in his hair is Dom’s Dad)
The convention is held at the permanent assembly hall on the Bethel grounds about 23 kms out of the city. Due to the heat, it’s an open-sided venue, with a high curved roof over the top. It probably holds around 2,000 to 3,000 people. It’s a beautiful and tranquil setting surrounded by lawns, gardens and trees. You can hear birds and see iguanas.
Assembly hall in foreground with Bethel home in the background up on the hill
I think since we’ve been in Ecuador I’ve probably met more Gilead graduates and missionaries and people serving where the need is great than in all the time I’ve been in the Truth. It’s probably fairly safe to assume that there are around 1,000 native-English-speaking Witnesses serving in Ecuador at the moment (the vast majority of these serve in Spanish-speaking congregations), going by the attendance at the convention, although there were some visiting from the States and at least one couple we met were currently in one of the other South American countries. I believe the convention in Ecuador may be the only English-language one in South America – not positive about that, though. It was a very friendly convention – when everyone is serving in a foreign land so far from home, I think it gives you a connectedness that you don’t normally have in your homeland.
A few of those in the photo on the right are from our congregation in Cuenca and are Aussies
The inside of the Assembly Hall
Panorama of the inside of the Assembly Hall
We got to know a few different ones – ones we met on the buses, or at meals or in the coffee queue at the convention. One brother and sister we met and had a meal with was mentioned in the July 15 Watchtower “They offered themselves willingly” page 4, picture 3 – Beau, from Canada. Some have been in Ecuador for 10, 15 or more years, and some for only a year or two. It was really enjoyable.
(To Clay – we met a brother you know, Ian Hamilton serving in Tabacundo – he said to say “hello”. He is engaged to an Ecuadorean sister, getting married soon.)
Here are Brendan and me in front of some bougainvillea growing at the assembly hall - it grows really well here. And reminded me of Aus.
There were tables outside under the trees you could eat your lunch at and at one stage a few people were evacuating as there was an iguana in the tree above. Which would be fine except for the fact that iguanas also eat lunch, and then it comes out the other end and you don’t want to be there when that happens!!
Look out below!
One night at the hotel we heard quite loud jaunty music outside (a combination of ice-cream truck, fair-ground music, etc) which went on for quite a while, so after a bit, my curiosity got the better of me and I went to the balcony to have a look – it was a garbage truck!! I didn’t know there were such things as musical garbage trucks, but if you have nothing better to do and Google “musical garbage trucks” or similar, you’ll find they have them all over the world!!
View from our hotel early in the morning before all the traffic begins
After the convention, we headed off Monday morning in our little bus again. We were all a bit quiet this time; probably worn out from the convention and from all the laughing and talking the rest of the time.
On the way out of Guayaquil before you get to the mountains there are some little villages along the main road – some have roadside markets with lots of tropical fruits, and there are also rice paddies with little houses on stilts in the middle of them. We assume people live in them – they seem to live in some quite small and rough places.
Going through a little town (not marked on the map) just after the town of Jesus Maria on the way home
Typical of Ecuador – somehow the rest didn’t get finished
Managed to catch a photo of a wild alpaca standing majestically on the rocks
(top right hand side)
