Machala

Brendon´s Perspective

We stayed in an aparment in downtown Machala.  It was quite expensive but not really that great, the room was small and the bed a bit unconfortable.  They did have an old style elevator though which looked pretty neat.

We didn´t do much in Machala but we did spend most of Sunday with Jackson.  I had baptized Jackson when he was only 14 and he was the only one in his family to do so.  He is now 19 years old and just sent his papers in.  He is a great guy and can´t wait to hear how he does on his mission.  He took us through the whole ward and we meant with old friends and had a good time.  Christina was also able to see one of my poorer wards in safety, with out jacksons help it would have been a bit scarier to walk around.  We ended in Jackson´s humble home, a small house of Caña.  I was happy to find out that one of the families in the ward had helped Jackson out alot and become like his own family.

After all the walking we took Jackson out to eat at KFC and had some ice cream.  It was a great day!


Christina's Perspective

So when we got to Machala we didn't know where we were going to stay, andddd apparently it was the most dangerous place we were visiting in our whole trip. So I was a little frightened. But we got there around noon so I wasn't soo much, just a bit. We went to a cyber place to research which places or hostals were the best, but as we were walking we saw this hotel called The Grand Hotel Americano, and for some stupid reason we decided to stay there. Since it was a hotel, it was more expensive than a hostal, obviously, yet the quality was less than par. I would have preferred a hostal. Especially for the money.

We only stayed a day in Machala and we spent the majority of it with Brendon's old friend Jackson. He's a great guy and he pretty much acted as our guide, thank goodness. If he hadn't we probably would have been robbed. He showed us around and took us to different people's houses that brendon knows. We went to the church closeby and talked to some missionaries and different people. The neighborhoods we walked in though were pretty scary. First of all, we were probably the only white pèople in the city, and so needless to say, we were stared at by every single person we passed. We even passed by this group of kids and they literally turned their heads backwards to stare at us as we walked past.

After all the walking, oh and did I mention it's like 150% humidity? yeah. That part was terrible. But anyway, after the walking, we took Jackson out to KFC, which I was hoping would be like the one back home but wasn't really.
And I wanted to punch the worker girl in the face. She was pretty rude, and I could tell, and I don't even speak Spanish.

Overall, the day was great though. Despite the weather and the mean KFC lady.

To end the day, we were both still hungry (or maybe it was just me, I'm a fatty), and Brendon wanted to get Ecuadorian chinese food, which is simply fried rice with chicken or whatever meat. So we got chicken fried rice and ate it in the hotel while watching the only English show we could find = Dinner:Impossible. My gosh. If you have never seen it, it's grade A television. The best show, with it's extreme over the top corniness and other wonderful qualities.

The next day, we were off to Guayaquil!