Aileen Friedman

16th January 2016
Puerto Lopez said goodbye to us with a beautiful sunset; we took communion while watching the sun close on another day and thanked our Lord for His sacrifice, grace, love and mercies.

The bus terminal at Puerto Lopez has a little café and once again I fell in love with the furniture, cut straight out of the tree trunk – beautiful.

After the 9.45 am bus decided to be a no-show we hoped onto the 10.40 am and faced another manic drive to Puerto Cayo and to Mary at Las Palmas where we are staying until the 25th January. We will be doing some house repairs for Mary at her house this time. Once more we got graciously gifted a welcome to Puerto Cayo sunset as exquisite as every other.

After going through Mary’s list of priorities required to mend her house, a shopping trip to Manta we began the tasks the next day. We started with the deck, the securing and mounting brackets, and the brackets to hang the hammocks got horribly rusted (that’s what happens when you live near the ocean). First we scraped off the rust and corrosion then painted on an anti-oxidant that will hopefully keep the rust at bay.

The tricky part was getting to the outer brackets, and the only way is to sit on the ledge (three floors up) and reach over and around the pole. But Ali and I make a plan, so while he held me, I did the scraping and painting, scary but do-able.

Next was the railings – they are ordinary PVC pipes that we painted with an oil base paint. One thing about this work is the view and great opportunity to get a tan!

Ali and I do not like to leave a job unfinished however the task of sealing the roof deck floor was one we had no choice but to leave. When we started to scrap off the old chipped paint, it was clearly evident that whatever we painted on would only lift off after the first rainfall. The deck has to sanded down and resealed with a special sealant before it can get painted. Mary is patiently still waiting for the Maestro (Foreman/Contractor) to pitch up to do the job.

Indoors we went and to the task of removing mildew from the kitchen cupboards – clean them with vinegar, the brush on Linseed oil (Mary did a fine job of this) and then finally many coats of this anti – fungal sealant. If this doesn’t keep the mildew away, nothing will, that’s for sure!

While the sealant dried in the cupboards, Ali, replaced the screws in the windows, grouted closed peeking holes around the house and re-sealed the sealant between the tiles and the Formica in the kitchen and he also painted the coffee table with the anti-rust oxidant.

Our biggest task was to move the excess bamboo poles (190 of them) from the vacant plot of land next door to a stockpile (which we had to make) in Mary’s yard. Ali is so clever; he worked out to perfection the size and height required to stockpile them all neatly and orderly. We dug the holes, planted the poles in exactly the right position, cemented them in and then carried the poles over slowly but surely and stacked them. I must also just say that we chose a beautiful cloudless, stinking hot day to do this – yes, very clever we know that! When we finished, we headed for the ocean for a well-deserved swim.

With all the major work done and dusted, we can now enjoy the company of our lovely Mary and hopefully share some exciting places on the Ecuadorian map with you.

Mary writes wonderful and interesting blogs where she shares her hopes, hurts and dreams all in the name of Jesus, to inspire and encourage others. Please follow her and be uplifted by her words.

https://isaiah3021.wordpress.com/about/
Please continue to pray for us that our attitudes and manners will be the example of Christ, and we may influence others in choosing Jesus as their Saviour.
I have added plenty more photos on our Facebook page – won’t you visit and have a look and thank you for reading my blogs.
https://www.facebook.com/AliandAileenMissions/
God bless.