"Welcome to Ecuador"

By JACQUES MILES

I don't remember the first time I heard the name Ecuador, but I do remember the first time I set foot on soil. It was April 2002 and it was hot! This was a new adventure for me. I did not know what to expect .On T.V. I always saw people sitting in the jungle rowing up and down the Amazon river, but that was not what I saw when I stepped off the plane.

My friend Robby and I were going to South America to help build an Assembly for Jehovah's Witnesses gatherings. People did not agree of two young men traveling to a third world country to do work with people we did not know or speak their language and work without pay. But for us it was an adventure. We were only going to be gone for three months (mind you that was eight years ago, and I’m still here). Friends gave us a going away party in which we received working boots, toilet paper and tooth paste. Everyone thought we were going to some jungle safari. Our Ecuadorian brothers and sisters donated mostly sound equipment. When we stepped of the plane in Guayaquil, Ecuador, there was no Amazon River and no trees, but there was a bustling city before us and a heat I had never felt before.

While we were going through customs, the officer went through everything we had. I never will forget the look on his face when he saw several twelve packs of toilet paper. I'm pretty sure he had never seen someone so well prepared for their vacation. But then he saw the donated items we were carrying and he started asking us many questions in Spanish. So I said, “Sorry no Espanola." Finally another young agent came up and said, "Why are you in Ecuador? Who is this stuff for?" So I explained using the bravest voice I could muster, "We are missionaries here to build a place of worship and these things are donated items for the project." He was not buying it. There were about four policemen behind him with M-16s and automatic weapons in hand. He said the words I will never forget, “You and all your things have been detained for investigation." Welcome to Ecuador....

After some going around they allowed only me to leave the airport. They sent me to talk to a high ranking officer to plead our case. On the outside of the airport, I came face to face with a major metropolitan city with thousands of cars zipping past me. And I thought to myself, you packed toilet paper? So here I was walking down the streets of some strange city lost, looking for the office of an Officer who does not speak English, in order to try to convince him I was not trying to smuggle goods into his country to sell for a profit. I was not happy.

After a lot of sweat and prayers, the representatives from my religion came by swooping in to save my neck. We got through with all of our stuff and the Ecuadorian Brothers got their items for the project. I did not have to buy any toilet paper for a very long time. This is Jacques Miles Living life in the Middle of the World.

JACQUES MILES

jacqandraq@att.net