We are 4 weeks in to our summer program at Nuevo Mundo. I am teaching history and English every morning to 5 girls who have won scholarships to the morning school at Nuevo Mundo. It´s been a blast to work with these kids because they can really take the information and run with it. We are also running a book club of sorts with the rising decimos (9th graders) which is slightly less formal and can look a lot more like a bunch of people sitting around on the floor playing competitive games of Bananagrams than a serious reading group, but I think they are enjoying it. They are working on abridged versions of some classics. I am also finishing up Modulo 2 of the adult class at John Drury. The course feels more like an English opn house than an actual class, which I have varying patience for depending on the day (You can guess what kind of day today was). In the afternoons I have been going to Semillas every day and have loved the chance to hang out so much with all our kids. I will definitely miss them when I go back to school in April. So, that is the blitzkrieg version of what I have been up to work-wise.

A couple random weekend activites from the past couple days so you get a feel for what we do: Saturday I went to an artisan market and saw Saw 7 (yes, they made 7) in Guayaquil. Sunday I hung out at Sugey and Lisettes and Monday I after Semillas I went to Cynthia´s to celebrate her graduation from college. A little of everything, and all good except maybe Saw. There was a mysterious spot of blood on my shirt on Sunday and now Danielle and Ricardo, who work with us at program, are trying to convince me I´m the next victim.

Happy Wednesday!

While I have a break from summer school, I thought I would check in. Last night I swung by the house of two women I`ve befriended in my English class. I was expecting the usual, hang out at their house talking about Ecuadorian cartoons or why the English language makes no sense, but we jumped in the car and drove into Guayaquil. 20 minutes later I am sitting in this neat fish market with a plate of coconut-milk shrimp in front of me (I now eat seafood). This fish market is at the pier where the boats dock, and at night all these little counters open and prepare local concoctions with the catch of the day.

Another fun fact: we were pulled over on the way in (driving in the commuter bus lane.. whoops) by a transito offier. Ecuador has special officers for traffic control that are different from police officers (we don`t see many of them in Duran). Apparently you can sometimes bribe the transito officers so you don`t get a citation. He gets $10, you don`t pay a ticket... interesting system.

Back to summer school. Today`s topic: writing outlines and discussing Napoleon III.

12/26- 12/30

Beginning the day after Christmas we had a week off from our worksites so we planned a trip to the Loja area. So bright and early on the 26th we headed to the terminal and jumped on an 8 hour bus to Loja and then another to Zemora, the site of the east entry point of the National Park Podocarpus. Podocarpus is a neat park because its eastern side is in the rainforest and its western half is in a mountainous cloud forest. Zemora is a sleepy little town but seeing the park on that side is absolutely worth the trip. Our bizarre hotel gave each of the 7 of us our own hotel room for $12 a night and I squeezed as many hot showers into 2 days as possible. We spent the 27th hiking through the park; we were on a path in search of an illusive mirador (look out point) which we never reached but had a great time traipsing through the rainforrest along the way. A couple highlights were playing around in a waterfall and floating down the river with the current. On the 28th we arrived in Vilcabamba, an international little tourist town with good food and some bizarre ex-pats on the other side of the park. Vilcabamba is famous for its old timers; locals swear that the perfect climate and healthy lifestyles of the natives allow people to to live for 120 or 130 years. You will have to check in with Jessie or Tasha in about 90- they were sure to drink plenty of the water just in case there´s something to the legend :) That first afternoon Jon, Celso and I did a quick hike up to a lookoutpoint with a great view of the town nestled in the mountains (shameful tourist picture). We got to the top just in time for a thunderstorm so getting down was a little iffy for those of us who are less stable on our feet. The next morning we did the hike again but our attempt to see the sunrise was thwarted by clouds passing through the spot on which we were standing. We spent the whole day horsebackriding along the mountain ridges. Jessie and Christina obviously befriended our guide, Holger (ponder the name ¨Holger´s Horses¨) so what we lacked in talent we made up for in personality. We spent our last day in Loja, a neat city with more of a European feel and while we did not make it into the actual national park, we did the 8 km walk to the entrance and got to check out some of the views the west side of Podocarpus has to offer. We jumped on an overnight bus back to Guayaquil and were home by the morning of New Year´s Eve. All in all it was a great trip and an awesome opportunity for us to get out of Guayaquil and see a little of the country! Pictures to come.

Feliz Año!

So in addition to the usual ¨be politer to people¨ types of resolutions I usually adopt, I am adding ¨be better about blogging so your parents don´t kill you because they have no information¨ to that list. You´ll have to keep me honest. This way I won´t bore you to death with super lengthy and scattered accounts of a month´s worth of days in Ecuador (see below) and I can stick to things that strike me .
To start with Christmas: Christmas Eve is the more important day of the 2 here. We had dinner at Nancy and Edwardo´s (Edwardo is one of our guards) to celebrate their son Wellington´s birthday. They supplied the dinner and salsa music and we brought the cake; chocolate chip banana bread is one of about 5 phrases Edwardo knows in English. A definite Christmas Eve highlight was taking part in the Christmas Eve play at church. Tuerney, Kipp and Brendan were the 3 magi, Jon was Joseph, and Christina and I were, of course, shepherds. This was the culmination of a very funny month-long experience; we had practice nightly as to insure the mastery of our 2 lines. Don´t worry- we nailed them. A visual may be helpful here as we were dressed head to toe in permanent marker beards, and Christina was toting a stuffed sheep. I looked like a pirate or Miss Cleo and Christina looked like a Russian grandmother. Our 3rd dramatic undertaking together (let´s not forget the debut as the donkey and pregnant Mary) came Christmas Day. We went to Damien House in the afternoon and sang Christmas carols to the patients. Lots of potential to go wrong here- our voices are terrible and I know about 1.5 Christmas carols in Spanish but it seemed our presence was appreciated. We stayed for dinner at Sister Annie´s, the woman who began and runs Damien House, a hospital for people with Hansen´s Disease (leprosy) where Jon and Brendan work. I´ve never been so happy to see an antipasta or chicken parm in my life. So somewhere between our performance antics and our rendition of The 12 Days of Christmas, in which I had to milk Brendan (we were day 8) we did not find much time to be homesick.

On a more serious note, ending 2010 in Ecuador has confronted all of us with an opportunity to reflect on our first 5 months here. While I am thankfull on a daily basis for the work of all the members of the Rostro de Cristo Foundation and for the support of my fellow volunteers, there still linger conflicted feelings about mission and purpose. My first ¨junta¨ at Nuevo Mundo this fall was one example I can cite as a wake up call and as a reminder of the smallness of our work. At this meeting of teachers, supervisors, and our principal, I was confronted with some of the obstacles our students face at home before they can open their English books to study. I have since been reexamining what I consider my role to be as their teacher, how I can set expectations, and also how I can measure success. After hearing a bit about what some of these kids are up againt, or the responsibiliteis they have to younger siblings at home, I was inclined to consider it a success just that many of them come to school every day. Other encounters with domestic violence or contemplations on the fact that a few kids we know and love in our neighborhood cannot afford to go to school at all have both served to question my purpose here but also to reaffirm that my presence is necesary, if my goals are at times uncertain. It is this idea that we are working not towards a specific goal, but in the general direction of an idea. And so I consider myself lucky to begin 2011 here with my students at Nuevo Mundo, with the volunteers in Arbolito, AJS, and Mt. Sinai, and with all of our neighbors and kids we work with in our community. Happy New year to all!

A Smorgasbord

Merry almost Christmas! Here is a quick, random, stream of consciousness catch up of the last couple weeks (conversations with me may look similar...)

The first 2 pictures are from the Olimpiadas a couple weeks ago at Nuevo Mundo. Our scholarship students who we tutor in history are pic #2 (1,2,3 everyone say ¨I love trench warfare¨). Each of their classes came up with a dance and a cheer and the rest of us just got to watch and eat carnival food and play volleyball. It was a blast to hang out with those guys all day and all the money raised went to the Fundacion school where I work. That same Saturday we walked to the church for a bingo...and there was no power. So we had the bingo in our yard. It was a blast and felt really nice to be able to give a little something back to the church and the community. Here is a picture of all 200 people in our yard (can you find Brendan?) and one of Jon, Christina, Tierney and I with Yasu and Jose.

Last weekend we went to Bea´s (the daughter of our neighbor Francisca´s) baptism. They took me out to dinner with the family afterwards; we very rarely go out to eat so it was a treat to get a big plate of chicken and patacones out. Sunday I went into Guayaquil with Celso, Tasha, and Cynthia, who works with us at Mundo. We explored the Malecon (boardwalk) del Solado, rented a row boat and got some great seafood. I am determined to try everything here despite the tiny problem that I do not actually like seafood. The ceviches are delicious- a soup with lots of lime, onion, tomato and shrimp, though you can orer it with any kind of seafood (I tried it with conch). I am having ¨caldo de pata¨ for lunch Monday- foot stew, essentially- so openmindedness about food is a must.

My routine lately has been tutoring (aka hanging out and eating good food) in the mornings and teaching at Mundo or going to Semillas in the afternoons. I am on break from my adult classes at John Drury so have enjoyed having the mornings to ¨vagar¨ and hang out with people in the neighborhood.

We had a Christmas party a couple weeks back for our guards and their families. Each house was responsible for some kind of entertainment and, as singing and dancing are not our thing, Arbolito acted out the most popular (and over played) Chritsmas carol, Mi Burrito Sabanero, which sounds like the song that plays on the ride ¨It´s a Small World After All.¨ Brendan and Kipp, the musically talented, took care of the intrumentals while I dressed up as the donkey and carried Christina, pregnant Mary, around while Tierney fed me carrots. That night was the first night of rain so we took the dance party outside (all the Ecuadorians already think we are insane).

Our next Christmas performance (because the first was so good) is on Christmas Eve. I am a shepard and I think the people in charge think we could take our roles a little more seriously; we have nightly practice. I have 2 lines, though I do not think I have mastered them to anyone´s standards. For Christmas day we will visit with the patients of Damien House and then go to Sister Annie´s for dinner. We have a week off after Christmas so are putting together a trip to Vilcabamba (we put Banos on hold, too much volcanic activity) to do some hiking and explore the National Park.

Here is all of us at the baptism. That´s all on this end. I hope you all have a wonderful break and Merry Christmas!

Día de Acción de Gracias!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I actually forgot that it was Thanksgiving until around noon (not that I am not thankful...) My theory (regular theory, not a conspiracy theory) is that the consistency of the weather (75-85 degrees, sunny- tough life, I know) here warps our perception of the passage of time. Bring on the rainy season?

In a country where this holiday is obviously not celebrated, we have a couple festivities on our plate. Today at Nuevo Mundo our decimo class performed mini skits about the first Thanksgiving. They initially thought Squanto was a Pilgrim from Holland so we had some clarifying to do and they pulled through and did a great job (though I assured them only a couple people aside from the English teachers would understand them anyways). Tomorrow night my boss, Pat, has invited us all over for a big Thanksgiving dinner so we dont`t seem to be missing out on anything!

Last weekend I had my first Junta, a meeting in which the teachers talk about each student in each grade. It was immensely helpful to hear how my students were performing and behaving (or not) in other classes. Saturday afternoon I trekked out to an area called 28 de agosto with Cynthia. 28 is where Manos Abiertas, one of our 3 after school programs, is located and it is noticeably poorer and more rural than many parts of Duran. We met up with Tierney and Jessie and talked to Padre Liam (the number of Irish priests living in Ecuador..) about setting up a clothing fair of our donations.

Sunday morning we participated in what turned out to be a highly amusing Cristo Rey procession (I don`t think amusement was the intent, but isn`t it better that way?) We met up at the designated launch point at 8:30. At 9:15 our priest rolls up in a car and begins driving at the head of the procession, with a large framed picture of Jesus balanced precariously on his windshield. We followed our fearless leader to the church as he pulled over from time to time to have conversations with passers-by. A woman at the front started yelling loudly about the evils of abortion, at which point some little old lady carrying yet another portrait of Jesus became tired and handed it off to me. We made quite the entrance parading into church, me at the front holding Jesus. Holding my lauhter= Christmas miracle.

Sunday night we went to see Harry Potter (in English, and I won`t say more because you know I could talk about Harry Potter forever) and then to the airport to pick up our first retreat group! 5 high schoolers from Cape Cod; this group is chiquitito but it`t been great fun to see what has become, in a small sense, our world, through their fresh eyes. 1 almost down, 13 to go (including a group from BC in January)!

Father Jim is in town so we are having taco night at Arbolito after the school bus brings me home! Happy Thanksgiving!

100 days

Flew by. Two weekends ago we had our first retreat to Playas. The weather made our experience more reminiscent of New England beach trips than Ecuadorian ones so maybe for that reason it was an especially nice weekend and you just cant go wrong with built in time for naps and swimming in big waves. To keep with the theme of critters I seem to have begun here, I got my first jellyfish sting (little blue guy, no harm done) and my first parasite(s)! The round worm living in my stomach has hopefully bitten the dust after $1.20 worth of antibiotics.

Last weekend was spent almost entirely in the neighborhood (the best kind of weekend). I had my first bowl of ceviche, and Ecuadorian specialty. After I got over the fact that I was eating shrimp it tasted pretty ok. Sunday afternoon we played our first bingo; bingo is a huge deal here so it was about time. We sat in the street in front of the panaderia whose owners we have befriended (bread making lessons to follow!) and Brendan won tupperware! Chevere. It means something like awesome. Sunday night Celso, Mark and I went to Cynthias, (another Mundo teacher) house for seco de pollo, one of my favorite meals here. We played Monopoly in Spanish (which I think I won, but who knows). Great weekend.

Sidenote- Christina helped the little guys at Semillas make Flat Stanleys, well, Flacito Estanleys. For those who dont know, Flat Stanley is a cut out of a little man that children send to people who are far away or taking a trip and that person then takes a picture with Stanley and sends the picure back to the little type and ships Stanley back home or someplace else. We are going to send these to a few people we know scattered around the U.S. and the globe so, if you are taking a fun trip (or not!) and would like to be the recipient of a Flacito Estanley, let me know.