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!