Veintiocho

Continuing my theme of posting things well after they've happened, I wanted to share some pictures from Carnaval (yes, way back in early March), and some stories from Veintiocho de Agosto, another neighborhood in Durán where Rostro runs an after school progam.

Like most of Latin America, Carnaval (aka the weekend before Ash Wednesday... same idea as Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday minus the tittie beads and booze) is huge in Ecuador, and I think it's safe to say Carnaval is my favorite Ecua-holiday thusfar. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but for 4 days in Durán, the streets turn into a no-holds barred paint/water fight all day every day. It's one big hot sticky dirty wet mess.

The pictures below are from the Sunday of Carnaval weekend, when we went out to Veintiocho to play with some of the kids my roommate Jessie works with at Manos Abiertas.

click here to see my photo album from Veintiocho!

I think I mentioned Veintiocho way back in one of my first blogs, but I can't say enough how special this community is. It's only a couple miles from where I live, but in those couple miles, the paved roads turn to dirt and mud, the cinderblock houses to cane, and other than intermittent electricity, all signs of infrastructure disappear. I took some pictures on the drive out there, and it's still dramatic for me to see having lived here 9 months.

Because my job sites are elsewhere, I don't spend too much time in Veintiocho; but my roommate Jessie is out there working with these kids every day. Rather than retell her stories, I thought I'd just let you read her blog here: Impressions on the Heart. I also copied some more background about Veintiocho de Agosto below, from the Rostro de Cristo website, explaining the history of the community and the dramatic needs they face there. The realities of Veintiocho are easily some of the hardest I've seen this year.

Also, NPR came down to Guayaquil recently to do a couple stories on different "social entrepreneurs taking on world problems"--whatever that means. They focussed on a couple programs down here, one of which, Chicos de la Calle, is the shelter/trade school for street boys that Jessie teaches English at in the mornings. This article (I think you can listen to the actual radio show, too) follows Maribel, a single mom in Veintiocho, and her two sons, Hamilton and Christian, who are students at Chicos. Through her involvement in Veintiocho and at Chicos, Jessie knows the entire family very well and often spends her weekends visiting them in Veintiocho. If you have time to give it a read, it's pretty interesting to get the NPR perspective of life down here. Sadly, Maribel is just one of countless mothers here who struggle daily with the demands of raising a family of 7 alone amidst this poverty I see every day now, but could not begin to imagine 10 months ago.

NPR: Ecuadoran Family Finds Refuge With Salesians

Veintiocho de Agosto

Founded on August 28, 1997, this growing community is based around what used to be an active trash dump. Eleven full trucks each made two trips a day, seven days a week, providing a recycling industry for members of the community brave enough to search for plastics and glass products underneath and within heaps of household waste. Herds of cattle and pigs would feed on the trash and, unsurprisingly, various health problems accompany the ever-present insects. To keep their neighborhood from literally turning into a mountain of trash, the people burned all that is non-recyclable; there are horrendous consequences for general respiratory health. For these and other reasons, many childern living in Veintiocho de Agosto are, on average, three years behind developmentally in terms of normal height and weight for healthy Ecuadorian children.

The 28 community was able to build a two room elementary school ("Escuela Particular Alan Lynch") and medical dispensary in April of 2003 with funds raised by Rostro de Cristo and activists in Durán. What started as a small cane structure with less than 20 students has now grown into a school that can educate 150 children, grades kindergarden through sixth. Whereas three years ago most children in Veintiocho finished going to school after elementary school, the majority of graduates from Escuela Particular Alan Lynch continue on with middle school and high school education. The last year alone has seen numerous improvements structurally, as well as more involvement from parents and local citizens. Brick walls replaced the former tarp and metal clad boundaries of the school, and all classrooms now have cement floors in place of former rock and dirt floors. Many of these long-term projects have happened with the help of former volunteers as well as retreat group participants.

Because of the overwhelming health concerns, people working in Veintiocho have realized that many school children who attend Escuela Particular Alan Lynch are malnourished and not able to perform up to their full potential during the school day. In the summer of 2005, a lunch program began to provide nutritious meals for the children attending school. Everyday, a group of mothers volunteer their time to prepare and cook nutritious lunches for about 150 children. This has in turn created more parental involvement within the school and community.

The people of Veintiocho are in great need of medical and educational aid. Once a week a doctor voluntarily visits the school to check children as well as other members of the community. This service is focused on the Alan Lynch school but is open to all residents. Escuela Particular Alan Lynch also houses the after school program Manos Abiertas, where kids can work on their homework and projects in a safe and spacious environment under the supervision and guidance of Rostro de Cristo and Ecuadorian volunteers.

Part II: the longest tarde of my life...

Whoa! How about that cliffhanger yesterday?!?! Sorry I was running out of time at the cyber and couldn't finish everything. Don't worry I'm safe and everything is fine down here. Here's how the rest of the day went down...

12pm - HIGH NOON. Christina and I get back from the clinic and our house is officially CTU Headquarters. Kipp and Wellington (Rostro de Cristo Head of Security/superhero) are both on the phone, coordinating with our office in the States and our volunteers trapped in Guayaquil (I was going to use the word "stuck" but "trapped" just sounds so much more dramatic). To recap from yesterday's blog, the bridge from Durán to Guayaquil is closed, the police all across the country are on strike, buses aren't running, banks, schools, businesses and anything else that would benefit from a police presence (i.e. the entire country) are closed, and Christina's walking around with an IV bag because the parasite inside her won't let her hold any fluids down. Oh, and our in country director Megan is on a plane to Miami (by now the airport is also shut down, but her flight was literally the last plane they let leave the country), and Celso (aka the only fully bilingual volunteer now that Megan is out of the country) is no where to be found.

Jon and Brendan are at their worksite in Guayaquil, and the plan is for them to spend the night there if the bridge doesn't open. I exlained the worksites in more detail in a previous blog, but Jon and Brendan work at Damien House, a clinic for people suffering from Hanson's disease run by Sr. Annie, a bad ass nun from Brooklyn. Annie's been in Ecuador for 30 years, so even though we're all worried, we know they're in good hands. Tasha and Tierney are also at their Guayaquil worksite, Santiago Apostal, a school for working kids. Their plan is to hold tight there, but if possible rendezvous with Jon and Brendan at Damien house so they can all spend the night at Sr. Annie's.

Jessie and Beth are at their worksite, Chicos de la Calle, in Durán, so Wellington and Kipp take the truck to pick the girls up (buses aren't running).

12:30ishpm - Oh look who it is! Celso casually strolls in. He was just across the street at Jesus' house having lunch and watching the news. We also had the news on, and by now we're starting to hear a little more about this police vs. Correa drama. Aparently it's not just a strike, but an attempted coup. Every channel keeps playing this clip of Correa yelling "If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill me if you want to! Kill me if you are brave, instead of hiding in the crowd like cowards!"

2pmish - The main bridge is still closed, but we get word that the other bridge--an hour out of the way--is open. Kipp and Wellington are back by now with Jessie and Beth, so Celso and Wellington pick up Isidro (another guard, who brings a shotgun just in case) and the three of them set off for Guayaquil to rescue Jon, Brendan, Tasha, and Tierney from the mayhem in Guayaquil (I considered using the words "pick up" instead of rescue, but then it wouldn't really be a RESCUE OPERATION, would it???).

Before they left, they picked up Caitlin from the Arbolito house and dropped her off at the our place so all the volunteers would be in one place. So Caitlin, Jessie, Beth, Kipp, Christina, and I are all at the AJS house, holding tight until further notice. I'm not really into pooping my pants if I don't have to, so I went to grab some ice cream at the store with Jessie while everyone else watched the news and chewed their finger nails. By now our office in the States had emailed our parents a couple times to let them know about the situation and that we're all safe at the house. So a couple parents called to check on us, and we found out that Ecuador made the news back home... exciting!

5pm - The rescue team gets back safely with all the volunteers! Guayaquil sounded pretty crazy... streets closed, demonstrations all over the place, people burning tires, LOOTING! Never even a hint of a threat to our safety, though, so nothing to worry about. Haha one funny story from the rescue op... during the madness of rushing off to Guayaquil, no one thought to grab money for the bridge fair. So Celso, Wellington, and Isidro are in line at the toll and all they can scrounge up from their pockets is 20 cents. But wait! What's that? A first aid kit in the glove box?! That's gotta be worth something, right?! At pretty much every major stop light--or, in this case, bridge toll plaza--people come up to cars trying to sell fruit and other wares. Wellington flags down one such vendor and tells her he'll sell her the $5 first aid kit for the low low price of $2. She agrees and just like that they've got bridge toll taken care of!

The rest of our night was pretty uneventful. We made dinner, watched a movie, and tried to not think about whatever madness was going on. The police had the President trapped in a hospital for most of the day, but it wasn't a coup attempt so much as it was a police strike that got out of control. The army came and rescued Correa at around 10pm Thursday night, after a brief firefight with the police outside the hospital. Sadly, 4 police officers died and several others were injured. Once the president was freed, though, everything was relatively back to normal. The US and every other country in South America announced their support for Correa, and even Correa's largest political rival, the mayor of Guayaquil, publicly backed Correa's government. School and work were still cancelled again Friday, but for the most part, everything was back under control. Here's a good article from the Associated Press that summarizing all the events of the day:

Ecuador revolt: Attempted coup or uprising?

Bottom line, it was a hell of a day, but we're all safe and sound down here, looking forward to getting back to work Monday. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

so what are you actually DOING down there??

#1 question I got before leaving... oh cool, you're moving to Ecuador for a year... what are you going to DO?? Kind of a tough question to answer since one of the primary missions of the program I'm volunteering with, Rostro de Cristo, is to be with the Ecuadorian people and not to do things for them. When I was looking at different volunteer programs last year, this was one of the aspects of the Rostro de Cristo program that I was really attracted to. There are a lot of great programs out there that provide amazing services to developing countries, but when the focus is on doing something for a community, it can be more difficult to really know the people and understand their struggles. Instead of centering the program around the services we provide to the Ecuadorian people, Rostro focuses on being with the Ecuadorians--living and working side by side in their communities. We are guests in their country, and no matter how many answers we think we have, North American solutions to South American problems are not always the best ideas. So Rostro's mission is to live and work with the Ecuadorian people--living simply in their communities, really getting to know the people on a personal level and experiencing their struggles firsthand.

That being said, we can't just hang out and BE for an entire year. So Rostro gets us down here and sets us up with a place to live (we have 16 volunteers this year living in 3 distinct communities), then works with local non-profits to set volunteers up with work placements for the year. Most volunteers have two placements--a morning placement with a partner Ecuadorian non-profit, and an afternoon placement with one of the 3 after school programs that Rostro runs. We spent our first week and a half here visiting each of the placements and after school programs, then at the end of the 2nd week here, we spent a whole day hashing out who would be best fit at each placement. It was a really interesting process because we had to consider more than what felt best for us; we also had to think about what was best for all the volunteer community as a whole.

Most of our placements only need 2 volunteers, so there had to be some compromise in who gets what placement. For the most part, though, everyone this year got placements that they're excited about. I ended up getting my first choice, a school called Nuevo Mundo, so I'll tell you a little bit about that, then I'll talk a little bit about some of the other placements we have volunteers at.

Nuevo Mundo! I´m really excited about working here. There's a great description of the school on the Rostro website, so I encourage you to read that and check out the school's English website. Basically, Nuevo Mundo provides completely free K - 9 education to students from some of the poorest neighborhoods in Durán/Guayaquil. They're able to do this by running a private K - 12 school in the mornings for the wealthier children of Guayaquil, then using the same facilities to provide free education to the kids who can't afford it in the afternoon. Essentially, the tuition the morning school collects subsidizes the afternoon school. Not surpisingly, a free education at one of the best private schools in the country is very popular, so students must apply to the afternoon school, demonstrating both need and merit.

Just this year, Nuevo Mundo started offering scholarships to the top 10 students graduating from the 9th grade afternoon school program (high school here is only 3 years--10th - 12th grade) to finish up 10th - 12th grade with the morning school IB (International Baccalaureate) program. Getting into the morning IB program essentially guarantees that these kids will make it to college, often with scholarships to universities in the United States and Europe. Even though not all the 9th graders get into the IB program, most of them end up going on to other high schools and getting into college, thanks to the education they received at Nuevo Mundo. I've just been shadowing classes and working on lesson plans up until now (the academic year here is from April - January, and the students just got back from a 2 week break between the 1st and 2nd semesters), but I start teaching this Monday, so I'll let you know how it goes! I'm starting to get a little nervous since I've never taught before, but I'm more excited than anything because of how inspiring the school's mission is. More to come this year!

Each of the placements is inspiring in it's own way, and I honestly would have been happy at any of them. Here's a little more info about a couple of the other sites I looked at and the volunteers who will be working there this year. I've also provided links to the Rostro website which has great descriptions of all the program (if you haven't noticed, I like to add hyperlinks... often I'll reference wikipedia or another site with more info, but sometimes I just throw something random in there).

Chicos de la Calle - This is an amazing program run by the Salesians that offers Ecuadorian boys who live and/or work on the streets (chicos de la calle literaly translates to "boys of the street," or "street boys") shelter, food, education, and job training. Where Nuevo Mundo works with the poorest kids from Durán & Guayaquil who have the most potential academically, Chicos de la Calle works with kids on the comletely other end of the spectrum, many of whom have no families or grew up in abusive homes, have been involved in gangs, have little to no formal education, and would be falling through the cracks of society if they weren't in the Chicos program. Two of the girls I'll be living with in the Antonio Jose de Sucre (AJS) house, Beth (from Baltimore via Villanova) and Jessie (from New Jersey via DePaul) will be working here, formally as English teachers and social workers, and informally as friends and positive role models for these kids.

Damien House - Named after Father Damien, the Belgian priest who spent 16 years living with and caring for patients with Hansen's disease (formerly known as leprosy), Damien House has 4 simple goals that really sum up it's mission: 1) To provide complete medical care for patients of Hansen’s Disease, 2) To help patients live a life of dignity and love, no matter what their situation may be, 3) To help patients return to living full lives, and 4) To provide public education, to dispel the myths regarding leprosy, to allow earlier treatment and minimize complications. Damien house was founded by Sr. Annie, a complete firecracker from Brooklyn who has been living and working with Ecuadorians suffering with Hanson's disease since the late 1980's. Sr. Annie pours her heart and soul into Damien House every day, and talking to the patients (many have been there over 20 or 30 years and are in their 80's and 90's) about how much Damien House has done for them is really inspiring. Two volunteers living in the Arbolito house, Jon (Boston College) and Brendan (Scranton), both from the Scranton, Pennsylvania area, will be working at Damien House this year, spending time with patients and helping Sr. Annie with everything from the website and brochures to wound care in the hospital.

Here's a link to pictures of the rest of the volunteers. I live in the Antonio Jose de Sucre neighborhood (AJS) with Celso, Jessie, Beth, and Tasha. Six other volunteers, Caitlin, Jon, Brendan, Tierney, Christina, and Kipp live about a mile and a half away in the Arbolito community. As I mentioned above, Jessie and Beth are working at Chicos, and Jon and Brendan are working at Damien. Celso (originally from the Dominican Republic, via Boston College), Caitlin (from the Boston area and also went to Boston College), and I will be teaching English to 7th, 8th, and 9th graders at Nuevo Mundo. Tasha (Long Island via Villanova) and Tierney (New Jersey via McGill) are teaching English and tutoring at a school for working kids; and Christina (Boston area via Villanova) is working at a local parish teaching English to kids and helping out part time at the health clinic and soup kitchen. Kipp (Seattle via Seattle U) is in charge of coordinating the 25 retreat groups from the States we host throughout the year (our first retreat group is from Santa Clara and they just got in last night!). In the Monte Sinai community, Jeff (Jersey via St. John's) and Jenn (Fairfield) are doing similar work at other Chicos de la Calle sites, Aaron (Wisconsin via Notre Dame) and Becky (South Dakota via Creighton) are doing medical work at free health clinics, and Marita (Minnesota via St. Benedicts) is teaching primary education.

Daily dose of Ecuadorian reality... SUBURBS! My archnemesis from the good old US of A followed me down here... As I mentioned above, the Nuevo Mundo afternoon school functions by operating an expensive private school in the mornings. Because of that, the school is located in one of the nicest areas of Guayaquil, the Puntilla. If it wasn't for all the people speaking Spanish, you'd think this little penninsula between downtown Guayaquil (left of the river on the map) and Durán (right of the river) was in the middle of Orange County. There are gated communities, SUV's, malls, and of course, trendy coffee shops. 3rd world to 1st world in a 20 minute bus ride.