We decided to not even head to Calderon until 10:30-11:00. We all needed some time to sleep in and this was the best day for it. Besides, Calderon is pretty close by. There are some local artisans in Calderon who make things out of bread dough. The bread dough is colored with food dye or painted and then baked in an oven to harden it. Calderon is the only area that makes figurines and items quite like this.
The shop we usually go to is owned by a Christian family. Jon and Karen have built a relationship with Raul and his wife over the years even getting a medical work camp to bring in anti-rejection medication for Raul after he had a kidney transplant and had trouble getting his medication in the right dose. Another reason to go there besides supporting a Christian family is that they give us the best price around. They treat us very fairly and no bargaining is required.
They've created quite a few new items since the last time I was there several years ago. Their 7 year old grandson (I think) has started painting scenes on glass, firing it in a kiln, and then slumping it into molds. They pieces are really cool. One of their daughters has started making really cool stylized animals that you can hang on the wall. They've also created some new nativity sets. The last time I was here, I bought one made out of eucalyptus nuts and bread dough. This time, they also had a set made out of walnuts and bread dough. They only had one left, but the animals are really awesome. I snapped that one up. Most of their nativity sets are made in the style of the various Indian tribes here in Ecuador. I purchased one of Otavalo Indians because they were wearing blue clothing.
I also picked up two very cool clay figurines for nearly half off. I'd been wanting to get one for quite some time, and he happened to have some nice ones in. I was pretty excited that he made me such a good deal. He was practically giving them away! By the time we finished up there, it was time for lunch.
As luck would have it, there's a new La Tablita nearby. Tablita is a restaurant that specializes in grilled chicken, steak, pork chops, and sausages. We got two lunches for two which had some of everything, fries, and salads. With that kind of carnivore's delight in front of you, who needs salad? I had thought I was really hungry, but we still had quite a bit of food left over. I dream of the day that this restaurant comes to Wilmore. I'd eat there all the time. Plus, they're pretty affordable.
We stopped by the house to drop off our purchases and change clothes for Seminary. Then it was time to head off to class.
When we got to the Seminary, we found out that one of the showers had quit working. To fix it, they needed Jon to pick up some supplies at this house. Since it was about time for class to start, he asked Karen to translate for me. We started off my class today by showing a video clip of a morning prayer during a Hajj. This allowed us to cover several things with it. It showed the class what the Ka'ba looks like, it gives a perspective of just how big the Hajj is, it allows us to hear a call to prayer, and it even had English subtitles. Granted, they then had to be translated into Spanish, but it gave them an idea of what is being said in the prayer. I had assumed that we wouldn't really be able to hear anything since the speakers on my laptop are quite small and not very powerful. We decided to give it a whirl anyway, and they ended up working quite well.
We then walked through some of the major beliefs in Islam and how and why the differ from our beliefs as Christians. I ended up quoting the Qur'an quite a bit, and that worried me as well. I didn't want them to think that I'm Muslim or that I support that religion, but I felt is was important for them to have an idea of some of what's in the Qur'an. Overall, I think it went pretty well. I also wanted to spend more time on Islam because it's not covered in the books we supplied them with. We did find some pamphlets that were about 10 pages each on Mormonism and Islam that we put up as posters so they could read it if they wanted, but it just wasn't a lot of material. I wish I could have provided them with a good book like the one I was using, but it's too expensive to buy for the whole class and I couldn't locate it in Spanish.
This is one of the major problems here. Books here are very expensive because there are very high taxes on them. Also, many of the books for sale here are merely translations of books written in the states. To make matters worse, there were quite a lot of books at the Christian bookstore by authors such as Benny Hinn. This is not exactly someone I want to endorse to the class. The library at the seminary is pretty nice, but it's pretty lean too because good books are so hard to find. Jon has been looking at Bible software for sale here, but it's not the greatest and it's a little pricey. I did discover that Logos makes some great software in Spanish, but it's not cheap either. The nicer packages are anywhere from $250 to $500 and the few add on packs they have are about $80 each. The plus side is that for $500, you can get 350+ books on the computer. This saves a lot of space in the library, and the price per book is pretty affordable. But, that's a really steep price to pay for books that cannot be checked out by students. It has to be used in the library here. I just wish that we were able to offer the students and pastors here resources like we have at Asbury.
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