So the last couple of weeks have been a little of everything. I had some really disturbing experiences, some really touching ones, and some downright awkward and strange ones.
I´ll start with the dirturbing ones. Another volunteer and I were walking over to our after-school program when we ran into one of the kids that usually goes to the program. He is one of the more violent kids and he is rarely well behaved. On this day he was sitting outside a house, holding a little baby who was crying hysterically. The boy was hitting the baby, screaming at it, and sticking his fingers in its mouth trying to get it to be quiet. We scolded him for treating a baby like that but he didn´t stop. He said it was his sister´s baby and she was at the cybercafe using the computer while he watched the baby. We didn´t feel comfortable taking a baby away from its "uncle" but we also didnt feel comfortable just letting him hit it and scream at it. I don´t know who in the right mind would leave their baby with any ten year old, and especially this kid. Luckily an older teenager who knew the family came over and took the baby and told the kid to go get his mom. It was just a really disturbing experience where I felt pretty powerless to do anything.
Another tough experience was seeing a little girl get beat by her mom with a cane because she didnt want to bring her notebook to the after-school program. That was especially tough because we are pretty close with this family and they are great people, I guess I´m just not used to seeing violence used as a way to discipline little kids.
With the exception of these two experiences, the last few weeks have been largely positive. We are beginning to get a lot closer with our neighbors. Last week I went to the gym with an 18 year old Ecuadorian that lives by us. The gym was the sketchiest place I´ve ever been, we walked into a dark garage, the guy told us it was closed, the kid I was with said we only want to work out for 45 mins, and he said fine go ahead. We walked up a few flights of pitch dark stairs to a full gym of old rusty equiptment. Despite the sketchiness, it was great to finally get some exercise and to get to know this kid a little better (and it only cost 50 cents for the hour!)
We were also invited to a traditional Ecuadorian Flag ceremony. They have this ceremony at every Ecuadorian high school throughout the country. We went with a family to see their son kiss the Ecuadoran flag in a special ceremony that all seniors in high school have before graduation. It was kind of strange becuase all the students line up in the courtyard almost like soldiers and march up to the Ecuadorian flag one by one, lean down, and kiss it. I guess it is kind of like a really intense pledging of allegiance to the country. Anyway, they were really happy that we went with them and they treated it like it was a pretty important ceremony.
We have started walking out to other parts of our neighborhood to pick up kids to bring them to our after-school program. We walk to an area called Sector 4, which is the least developed area of our neighborhood. Many of the parents there dont let their kids walk alone to our program because it is kind of far, so we go everyday and round up a group of kids and walk them to Semillas. The first day we brought only 2 kids, now we are walking a herd of 10-15 kids to the program every day. Its been a great way to meet new people. One day we showed up at a women´s house to pick up her kids and she handed us a covered bowl and said she killed a duck for us and made us dinner to bring home. Today we went to her house for her son´s birthday and she served us pig intestine stew, salad, and pork from a pig that her husband had killed the day before. It was really awkward at first as we all looked at each other and tried to eat the intestines without gagging, but after the meal she served us cake and we ended up staying for a few hours and having some really good conversations. I am still amazed at how much these people offer us even when they have so little. They live in a one room bamboo hut and yet they killed one of their ducks and pigs and made a meal for 5 of us and served us all cake and even gave us cake to bring home. The hospitality and genorosity is truly incredible here. How many of us would welcome foreigners that we just met into our homes and feed them big meals, and yet these people are so hospitable despite being so poor. It is really humbling to experience and it really sucks when all we can do is say "gracias" and we have nothing more to offer.
One other strange thing this week: I had to break up an intense cane fight between two 90 year old men at Damien House. I am still not sure what they were so mad about but they were savegely swinging their canes at each other. I felt like i was breaking up a fight at my after school program, it was actually really funny.
Thats enough for now, I hope everything is well back in the USA.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
A little more about life on the equator.
Hey There
Just another little update on what is going on in my life (which is a lot). So last week was a pretty tough week, but I completely expected to have tough weeks from time to time. One of the patients at Damien House was giving me a hard time because he thinks that he has prostate cancer but he really doesn´t. He therefore had been begging me for money so that he could pay for a surgery that he had convinced himself he needed, but doesn´t actually need. This man, named Julio, is much younger than the rest of the patients (around 40) and is obviously in need of a lot of attention. He was constantly telling me that he was going to die and that he really needed me to give him money to save his life. He would break down crying in front of me and would get upset when I would try to convince him that he doesn´t need surgery. This put me in an awkward situation because I just didn´t know how to react. I didn´t want to just ignore him because he was obviously struggling emotionally and one of my main jobs at the clinic is to be there to accompany the patients. Luckily, he realized that I could not give him any money and has stopped begging me. He began telling me about his past struggles and wants to teach me how to make hammocks next week.
I also felt really guilty last week because one of the cutest little kids at our program fell off a bike (which are not allowed) and got his foot stuck between the frame and the wheel. He had some bad cuts but nothing too serious. I just felt bad because it happened under my watch, but I can´t be looking everywhere at once I guess. I also had to send three kids home for fighting on the same day, making them go without their piece of bread and banana for the day. I know we have to do something to discipline kids and keep the rest of the kids safe, but nevertheless it is always hard to deny a kid a piece of bread and a banana when you aren´t sure if he will be able to eat anything else that day.
Last weekend we finally had an opportunity to just hang around in our neighborhood. We spent a while just hanging out with one of the teenagers that helps us at the afterschool program. He introduced us to his mom, and then we ran into another of the older helpers, who introduced us to his family, who then took us to the house of another neighbor who wanted to meet us, and so on. It was nice to get to know some of the people living around us and feel a little bit more like we belong in their community. On Sunday we went to the house of one of the Ecuadorian employees of our foundation (her name is Aide, she is our age and studies sociology in a local university, but she is from a very poor family in our neighborhood.) Her mom cooked us a huge lunch of chicken, plaintains, rice, and veggies and we spent some time just talking to the family and they even gave a some birthday cake after revealing it was Aide´s sisters´ birthday. Later that afternoon I was invited by some guys to play soccer in the street with them, but their game looked a little too intense for me so I politley declined their offer and told them I would play this upcoming weekend, giving me a little more time to practice against the little kids at our afterschool program (sadly, even the little kids are much better than me.)
Our first retreat group has been here for the past week. They are from Santa Clara University in California. They visited Damien House twice this past week and Semillas once, but they are staying in the other neighborhood so I haven´t gotten to know them too well. It was nice having them around for Semillas because it is so much easier to manage the kids when you have 10 extra helpers, and the kids just love to have a group of people to play with them and give them piggy back rides.
Last Tuesday we went to a soccer game at the biggest stadium in Guayaquil to see the local team play a team from Uruguay. It was pretty crazy (everybody brings their own fireworks to the game to set off when the team comes out of the tunnel) but the local team lost 2-0, which was a let down. I bought my first soccer jersey here (for $4) and the kids at our program were happy to see me supporting the local team.
This weekend we are helping out at a fundraiser for our local church. We volunteered to make banana bread for 150 people to sell and make money for the church. Brendan and Kipp are playing the trumpet and guitar with a local rock band for entertainment, and apparently they volunteered the rest of us to do a coreographed dance while they play. I have a feeling the Ecuadorian will be very entertained by a group of foreigners doing a silly dance in front of them, but then again they are very entertained just by how we look (we are taller and whiter than them, which they think is funny for some reason) and how we talk (whether it is that crazy english language that they dont understand or our funny spanish accents.) So I´ll let you know how that turns out.
On Sunday, we are going to a memorial mass for the father of one of the ecuadorian employees who died when we first got here. Tomorrow is the opening weekend of NFL season, which I will unfortunately miss. We are hoping to find somewhere to watch the games later this month but it is going to be tough not seeing my Eagles.
If anyone has any questions they want answered or want to hear more about a specific aspect of life down here, just shoot me an email and I´ll include in the next post. Thanks for reading, I hope all is well at home.
Just another little update on what is going on in my life (which is a lot). So last week was a pretty tough week, but I completely expected to have tough weeks from time to time. One of the patients at Damien House was giving me a hard time because he thinks that he has prostate cancer but he really doesn´t. He therefore had been begging me for money so that he could pay for a surgery that he had convinced himself he needed, but doesn´t actually need. This man, named Julio, is much younger than the rest of the patients (around 40) and is obviously in need of a lot of attention. He was constantly telling me that he was going to die and that he really needed me to give him money to save his life. He would break down crying in front of me and would get upset when I would try to convince him that he doesn´t need surgery. This put me in an awkward situation because I just didn´t know how to react. I didn´t want to just ignore him because he was obviously struggling emotionally and one of my main jobs at the clinic is to be there to accompany the patients. Luckily, he realized that I could not give him any money and has stopped begging me. He began telling me about his past struggles and wants to teach me how to make hammocks next week.
I also felt really guilty last week because one of the cutest little kids at our program fell off a bike (which are not allowed) and got his foot stuck between the frame and the wheel. He had some bad cuts but nothing too serious. I just felt bad because it happened under my watch, but I can´t be looking everywhere at once I guess. I also had to send three kids home for fighting on the same day, making them go without their piece of bread and banana for the day. I know we have to do something to discipline kids and keep the rest of the kids safe, but nevertheless it is always hard to deny a kid a piece of bread and a banana when you aren´t sure if he will be able to eat anything else that day.
Last weekend we finally had an opportunity to just hang around in our neighborhood. We spent a while just hanging out with one of the teenagers that helps us at the afterschool program. He introduced us to his mom, and then we ran into another of the older helpers, who introduced us to his family, who then took us to the house of another neighbor who wanted to meet us, and so on. It was nice to get to know some of the people living around us and feel a little bit more like we belong in their community. On Sunday we went to the house of one of the Ecuadorian employees of our foundation (her name is Aide, she is our age and studies sociology in a local university, but she is from a very poor family in our neighborhood.) Her mom cooked us a huge lunch of chicken, plaintains, rice, and veggies and we spent some time just talking to the family and they even gave a some birthday cake after revealing it was Aide´s sisters´ birthday. Later that afternoon I was invited by some guys to play soccer in the street with them, but their game looked a little too intense for me so I politley declined their offer and told them I would play this upcoming weekend, giving me a little more time to practice against the little kids at our afterschool program (sadly, even the little kids are much better than me.)
Our first retreat group has been here for the past week. They are from Santa Clara University in California. They visited Damien House twice this past week and Semillas once, but they are staying in the other neighborhood so I haven´t gotten to know them too well. It was nice having them around for Semillas because it is so much easier to manage the kids when you have 10 extra helpers, and the kids just love to have a group of people to play with them and give them piggy back rides.
Last Tuesday we went to a soccer game at the biggest stadium in Guayaquil to see the local team play a team from Uruguay. It was pretty crazy (everybody brings their own fireworks to the game to set off when the team comes out of the tunnel) but the local team lost 2-0, which was a let down. I bought my first soccer jersey here (for $4) and the kids at our program were happy to see me supporting the local team.
This weekend we are helping out at a fundraiser for our local church. We volunteered to make banana bread for 150 people to sell and make money for the church. Brendan and Kipp are playing the trumpet and guitar with a local rock band for entertainment, and apparently they volunteered the rest of us to do a coreographed dance while they play. I have a feeling the Ecuadorian will be very entertained by a group of foreigners doing a silly dance in front of them, but then again they are very entertained just by how we look (we are taller and whiter than them, which they think is funny for some reason) and how we talk (whether it is that crazy english language that they dont understand or our funny spanish accents.) So I´ll let you know how that turns out.
On Sunday, we are going to a memorial mass for the father of one of the ecuadorian employees who died when we first got here. Tomorrow is the opening weekend of NFL season, which I will unfortunately miss. We are hoping to find somewhere to watch the games later this month but it is going to be tough not seeing my Eagles.
If anyone has any questions they want answered or want to hear more about a specific aspect of life down here, just shoot me an email and I´ll include in the next post. Thanks for reading, I hope all is well at home.
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