I realize its been a full month since I last updated you on my life, so I´ll cut to the chase.
Halloween Party
We had a party for the kids at Semillas just before Halloween. They made masks and we taught them how to say trick-or-treat and gave them some candy. At first we handed out the candy in an orderly fashion, but then decided it would be much more fun just to throw it in the air and watch them scramble for it. Maybe that was a little mean but we made sure that everyone got a few peices and we got some entertainment out of it. The little kids were adorable running around with their masks.
Retreat
Halloween weekend we had our first retreat. All 16 Rostro volunteers piled into the vans and we drove out to the beach for the weekend. It was nice to relax on the beach and reflect a little bit on everything that had happened the previous 3 months (although it was actually cold and cloudy for the first time in 3 months, go figure). Ethan, a former Jesuit Volunteer came down to Ecuador from Seattle to lead some reflections. In all it was a nice relaxing weekend and we got to spend some quality time just hanging out together.
Trip to the countryside
The first few days of November are holidays in Ecuador, one of which is the Day of the Dead. On this day, many Ecuadorian families go to the cemetary to visit their fallen loved ones. They bring flowers like we do on memorial day, but they also bring much more. Families bring food and drink to the cemetary and have full picnics and parties at the graves of their relatives. They make traditional bread shaped like people and a special fruit drink which is served either hot or cold. On this day, Brendan and I accompanied Germania, the Ecuadorian director of Damien House to the countryside to deliver donations to Hansen patients. We visited some little villages where almost half of the households have at least one Hansen patient. We were greeted warmly at every house (we ended up eating 3 lunches that day) and learned a little bit about the challenges of providing quality medical care to poor people living so far out in the countryside. It costs these people more than a day´s wage ($5) to travel into Guayaquil for treatment, many doctors in the countryside do not recognize their sickness as Hansens, and many people are afraid to seek treatment due to the stigma surrounding leprosy. We visited one town where a woman had been treated for Hansen´s at Damien house and now works to connect other sufferers of Hansen´s in her town with medical services from Damien. It was nice to spend a day out of the city and learn a little bit about the conditions that the patients at Damien house come from.
A Visitor from the US
The highlight of this past month was definitely a visit from my girlfriend, Kristen. I brought her to work with me to meet the patients at Damien House and to spend time with the kids at Semillas. We then spent a few days traveling in Cuenca, a colonial city in the mountains about 4 hours southwest of Guayaquil. In Cuenca we enjoyed the colonial architecture, the cool (sometimes downright freezing) weather, the international restaurants, and the beautiful mountain scenery. It seemed a world away from Duran and even from the noise and smog of Guayaquil. We went hiking in Las Cajas National Park which contained dense forests, sparse alpine terrain and lots of lakes . We returned to Duran for a day of hanging out with some of my neighbors and a night hanging out on the malecon (boardwalk) in Guayaquil. We both had an amazing week but it was tough to say goodbye again at the end.
Retreat Group
Our first student retreat group arrived in Arbolito the day Kristen left. The group consists of only 5 students from Pope John Paul II high school on Cape Cod, Mass, and their chaparone Allan Lynch, a former in-country director of our program. The group spent the week in Duran and Mount Sinai getting to know the people and helping out at the after-school programs. It was fun to chat with them a little bit and hear Mr. Lynch´s stories of how our neighborhood used to be when he worked here.
Thanksgiving
We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday night at the Nuevo Mundo school in Guayaquil whose headmaster is American (three of our volunteers teach at this school as their job placements). We enjoyed a delicious homemade Thanksgiving dinner (the stuffing was nothing compared to yours Nana) with all the volunteers, some staff from the school, and Father Jim, the founder of our program who was visiting for the week. Spending Thanksgiving under palm trees reminded me of our Fricchione family vacations although no one at this dinner was quite as entertaining as my family usually is. I left our Thanksgiving dinner
feeling a little closer to home and much fuller than usual.
Census
So tomorrow is the national census of Ecuador, so everyone in the entire country is required to stay in their houses from 7 am until 5 pm while high school students walk around to collect information. All businesses and roads are closed and even mass is canceled, which is a very different way of doing the census for us, but I think we will enjoy the forced day of rest. These first 4 months have passed quickly and I can´t believe it is almost Christmas. I hope everyone is well and had a very pleasant Thanksgiving.
