Some good, some bad, some strange

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.

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.

Afternoon Job

My afternoon job is completely different than my morning one. The kids there can be absolutely adorable and absolutely crazy at the same time. In our first 2 weeks, we had between 45 and 63 kids each day, ranging from 5 to 15 years old. The kids begin the day by lining up, repeating the 3 rules of the program (no fighting, no insulting, and you must listen) and calling out the date and day of the week. Then they separate into 3 groups- homework help, big kids activity, and little kids activity. Usually Ricardo, our 23 year old Ecuadorian staff member, helps the kids with homework while the volunteers (3 or 4 of us depending on the day) rotate between the little kids and the big kids. So some days I am trying to get a group of adorable yet hyperactive 5 year olds to sit still while I read them a book, while the other days I am trying to make sure a group of 13 year old punks don´t start fighting or insulting each other´s mothers during our activity. After approximately 45 minutes of activity (which usually involves something physical and something educational), the kids get 45 minutes of free time, which almost always involves the boys playing soccer and the girls working with art supplies. After free time, bring the kids together again and give them a talk or perform a skit on the ¨weekly value¨ such as responsability, respect, citizenship, etc. Then we say a prayer together and give each kid a vitamin, a piece of bread, and a banana before sending them home.  There were a few frustrating moments when the kids just would not behave, but overall the first 2 weeks went surprisingly well.  A lot of credit must be given to Ricardo, who does a great job of disciplining the kids.  He has worked at the program for several years and is from the neighborhood so his is widely respected by all the kids in the neighborhood.

A few strange images from the week-

- Me leading around about 15 5-7 year olds pretending we are a train after reading Thomas the tank engine. We made train noises and I yelled out Izquierda! Derecha! (left or right) and they had to point the direction that the train would be turning next. We gave a sticker to each kid that behaved.

- Kipp (a fellow volunteer) playing the guitar while he and I tried to teach the little kids our Spanish translation of Old Mcdonald had a farm. The kids were hilarious singing eieioo and making animal noises.

- One day I was interrupted from one of my activities by a fellow volunteer saying ¨Jon, there is a goat loose over there and it is blocking the girls bathroom, what do you think we should do?¨ There are just some obstacles here that you would not have to face running a similar program at home.


In other news, Pancho, one of the patients at Damien House died last Monday at the age of 97. All of the other patients were so depressed, it really showed how much of a family the patients at Damien House have become. So it was a tough start to the week there but they regained their good spirits as the week progressed.

We also were graced with a short visit from Father Jim Ronan, the priest from Boston that founded our organization. He was in town on Wednesday and Thursday, and we had a mass and blessing of the new volunteer house that was recently opened in the neighborhood of Mt. Sinai. The service was beautiful, and he took us out for a steak dinner and banana splits afterward, which was perhaps even more beautiful as my body was really craving some protein haha. He is a great guy and we had a great time getting to know him better and hearing his interesting stories from his development work in Latin America.

That is all for now, I´ll check in again soon. I hope all is well at home.

First Week of work- a bit about my morning placement

Had a great first week of work. The mornings at Damien House have been fun and laid back. I spent much of my time getting to know the patients and staff there.  Some of the patients are the funniest old men. They love to talk about women, even though any of the are in their 70s, 80s, and even 90s. They are always shocked to thear that i am not married and don´t have children at age 22. I want to explain to them that things are different in the U.S., especially these days, but i feel they won´t understand. I´m still not sure how to react when patients tell me that they are in pain It is difficult to watch them suffer and to not be able to do anything about it. One of the old men told us that he wanted to die because he was in so much pain. Luckily he was in a much better mood the next day. I also had a lot of fun in the women´s section. They like having a young man around to help them out, and a few of them remind me of my grandmothers.  They insist that I eat with them (although one day I was served cow stomach soup for lunch, I couldn´t even go near it, and I consider myself an adventurous eater, but the smell just gave me nausea). In addition to talking to the patients and getting to know them, I did a wide range of jobs in the first week to help the foundation run. I helped the nurses to transfer some of the men from their wheelchairs to their beds, I helped Sister Annie organize the donation closet (still a long way to go), helped out in the kitchen, did some sweeping, and will begin working on the foundation´s newsletter and handling email correspondence next week.

I will blog about my afternoon job at a later date!!

Oh, I also had a great birthday get together with my fellow volunteers on Friday, who surprised Christina and I (another volunteer who´s birthday is the 23rd) with cake and cards. My housemates also made me some chocolate chip pancakes with banana on top for breakfast on the morning of my birthday. Thank you all for the birthday wishes from afar, I miss you!

Orientation Comes to a Close

So our two week Ecuador orientation is coming to a close and I´m getting ready to start the real thing. We spent the first week with last year´s volunteers getting to know our neighbors, learning the bus routes, and visiting possible work sites. We gave last year´s volunteers a sad sendoff at the end of the week and made a trip to the beach for some much needed rest and relaxation. We visited a few more worksites at the beginning of this week and also had an all day scavenger hunt all over the city of Guayaquil in order to get to know the city better and practice the bus routes. We were split into groups of four and had to travel to different parts of the city and outlaying areas and take a crazy picture at each of the locations. We definitely provided some entertainment to the Ecuadorians who laughed as a bunch of gringos created a human pyramid on the sidewalk. They were all very eager to help us find where we were going...even when we didn´t ask for help.
We spent yesterday and today deciding on where we would like to work this year. I decided on Damien House for my morning job and Semillas de Mostaza (mustard seeds) for my afternoon job. Damien House http://www.thedamienhouse.org/ is a non-profit clinic for people with Hanson´s disease (formerly known as leprosy) run by Sister Annie, a lively nun from Brooklyn, New York. The clinic serves both live-in patients and outpatients. My main tasks throughout the year will be helping Sister Annie run the foundation, translating for visiting medical staff, giving tours to visiting student groups, and keeping the patients company. Semillas is an after-school program run by our foundation which provides homework help, fun activities, educational talks, a banana, a piece of bread, and a vitamin to the kids in our neighborhood. I will be running it along with 2 other volunteers and an Ecuadorian staff member who is about our same age. Attendance can vary from 40 kids to 115 per day, so it will probably get pretty crazy.

A few other tidbits- I was awoken this morning when my bed was shaken by an earthquake. That was pretty crazy considering it was the first earthquake I´ve ever felt. The epicenter was far away and there was no damage anywhere near where we are, but it was enough to send everyone running out into the kitchen in bewilderment.  Also, I will finally be moving into my house this weekend after almost a month of living out of a suitcase. Up to this point we have all been living together in one of the retreat houses, where student groups stay when they are visiting. It will be nice to finally get settled, especially since I will be starting work on Monday. A few days ago we recieved a somber reminder of where we are living, as we were startled by the terrifying screams of a women in a domestic dispute and the loud cries of her children. (we found out later that no one was seriously hurt.)  So the first few weeks on the equator have been quite an adventure. I will update you all the next chance I get.

Last day in the USA

I'm all packed and ready to go. Our flight leaves for Guayaquil tomorrow morning at 11 am, with a stop in Miami first. I'll arrive in Ecuador around 10:30 at night. I will be one hour behind Eastern Time until daylights saving time in the Fall, then we will be in the same time zone. We will be spending our first week going around with last year's volunteers and getting to know the area, meeting the neighbors, and learning the ins and outs of life in Ecuador. I'm not sure when I'll get access to a computer again but when I do I will post again. Thanks again for all the support, I will miss you all and will certainly miss the USA.

Housing Assignment

Hey there. This may not mean much to you unless you are familiar to the Rostro program, but I've been assigned to live in the "Arbolito" neighborhood of Duran. I will be living in a house there with 5 other volunteers:

- Kipp Gallagher from Seattle University
-Caitlin Long from Boston College
- Tierney Monahan from McGill University (Montreal)
- Christina Mellace from Villanova
- Brendan Bradford from the University of Scranton

Arbolito is the neighborhood in which I stayed during my trip to Ecuador in January, so I am a little familiar with the area. Arbolito is in the middle of the other two neighborhoods in terms of development, less developed than "Antonio Jose de Sucre" but more developed than "Mt. Sinai," the other two neighborhoods where volunteers will be living. The main road is paved but the rest are dirt and rock. I will let you know more about my new neighborhood once I get there.

Orientation is going well so far, although it was weird at first to be back on BC's campus without all my friends being here.