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.
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