Shell, Ecuador

Just after Easter a lady from Oregon came down to help teach English for 2 months, to finish out the year.  She's pretty active and adventurous, wanting to see as much as she can before she goes back.  One weekend we decided to go to Shell to see the Nate Saint house.  I always thought, from the first time I heard the name, years ago, that Shell was a really weird name for a town in Ecuador, because 1 it's not anywhere near the beach and 2 it's an English word in a Spanish speaking country!  As I read more about the town, though, I realized that it was named after the Shell Oil Company and you can see there logo in a number of spots around there.  A random (seemingly) bit of US culture in Ecuador, not sure if it's better or worse that seeing McDonalds and Pizza Hut in Quito, Cuenca and Guayaquil!  Anyway, Shell's only about 3 hours or so from Macas, depending on if you drive yourself or take a bus and if you take a bus how fast the driver goes and how often the bus stops to pick up and drop off people.  We wanted to go for the historical aspects of it, to see where Nate Saint and Jim Elliot and their group were based in the 50s for their mission to the Waorani.  The Saint house is still standing and used as part of the MAF (missionary aviation fellowship) offices.  It was really cool to see how much is still preserved!  Not all of the house is the same, since last fall it was renovated.  The guy who showed us around showed us some of the wooden beams that had to be replaced, they were completely hollow, having been eaten by termites.  Essentially they almost completely replaced all the beams and boards, only able to rescue some of it.  The kitchen was the same and some of the boards were able to be used, so the inner walls were an interesting mix of painted and stained boards, the painted ones being original from somewhere in the house.  One of the coolest things, for me, was seeing the original basked they used to send presents to the Waorani, from the airplane.  It was recovered when they found the plane.  In an interesting small world connection the wife of the missionary couple that I know in Guayaquil is the daughter of some of the original missionaries in the Macas/Macuma area and her dad led the rescue/recovery mission when Jim Elliot and Nate Saint went missing.  I love how small the world can really be! :)  They also had a little gift shop sort of thing, since different Shuar and Waorani often bring handcrafts to them, knowing that they get a lot of visitors, so that they can sell them.  The mission doesn't receive any money from them, it all goes to the people themselves.  One of the things that was there were some wooden crosses.  The guy showing us around told us that they were made from the original wood from the house, by the grandson of the guy who speared Nate Saint.  On the one that I bought it has the word Itota, which is the Waorani word for Jesus.  I love the  symbolism in that little cross!  So, some pictures. :)  And just for fun a picture of a day when I quite willingly washed the plates. ;)