The end of last month I had my first retreat group, a group of 5 high school boys and two teachers from St. John´s Prep in Massachusetts. I went with my housemates to pick them up at the airport on Saturday night and spent 16 hours a day with them until I dropped them off at the airport the following Saturday. It was an exhausting but fun experience. It was fun getting to know the guys and showing them around Duran and Guayaquil, introducing them to friends and neighbors, driving and translating for them, giving them a tour of Damien House, and taking them to meet the kids at Semillas. Both of the chaperones were first-year teachers who weren´t too much older than I, so it was fun hanging out with them and getting to know them. The group had a lot of questions and made many observations about our neighborhood and our program which spurred my own further reflection. By the end of the week, it was hard to say goodbye, but i hope they all had a meaningful experience and keep the people they met here in Ecuador in their hearts and prayers.
Carnaval starts today in Ecuador and in much of Latin America and Europe, and ends on Tuesday. Caranaval in Duran and Guayaquil means throwing water, mud, paint, and whatever other liquid you can find at friends and random passerbys alike. I have been hearing stories for the last few months about how wet and dirty I will be getting in the next few days, but I´m still not too sure what to expect. A lot of locals head to the beaches or the mountains during Carnaval, but I´ll be staying home to avoid the crowds and because I have to give tours at Damien House to retreat groups on Monday and Tuesday. Possibly I´ll be able to make a day trip out of the city to relax for a day. Since Carnaval just started this morning, I haven´t had much thrown at me yet, although on my way to the cyber to write this I did get a bucket of water thrown on my head from a friend on a second story balcony (it felt great in this heat!)
Speaking of the heat, its been extremely hot and sunny here the past three weeks, with tempatures rising to over 40 degrees C (104 F). The rain has stopped for now, the mud quickly dried up, and the dust has returned. In an attempt to cool off a little, I went with Brendan and some Ecuadorian friends Ricardo, Aide, and Daniel to a pool complex outside of Duran. It had a few crowded pools, two waterslides, and lots and lots of people doing whatever the hell they wanted! Unlike most American waterparks, this place had neither staff nor lifeguards and sold lots of beer. There were people diving into crowded pools, others chugging beers and jumping off the roof of storage sheds into the pools, and lots of soccer balls flying around hitting people in the head. The waterslide was awesome but I decided not to go on it anymore after the first three times that I smashed into little kids that were climbing up it the wrong way or had just stopped to rest in the middle of the slide. Despite the chaos, it was lots of fun and a great way to cool off.
The last month at Damien House I have been working to organize medical brigades from the U.S. who are coming to Guayaquil to perform surgeries on both Hansen´s patients and other needy patients in local hospitals. I´ve been helping the staff at Damien to gather the montains of documents needed to get approval from the Ecuadorian government for the doctors to perform surgeries and get their medical equiptment past customs. I am excited to serve as a translator for the groups and will hopefully get to watch them perform a few surgeries. We have groups coming in April, May, and June.
We will be busy with retreat groups the next month, as we will have 3 groups visiting us in Arbolito in March. I will let you all know how carnaval goes and what the doctor´s groups are like. I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you all but feel very much at home here and I can´t believe how fast the time is passing.
