Thank you

Over the past month or so, thanks to all of your extremely generous donations, we were able to raise $5,170 for Rostro de Cristo and Nuevo Mundo!!! Small change to some, but I promise that every single dollar you gave will make a daily impact in Ecuador.

I've mentioned Rostro's retreat program in my blog where it all began; but the programs that really feel the impact of your donations are the three after school programs Rostro runs in Durán--Manos Abiertas, Semillas de Mostaza, and Valdivia. The retreat program pays for itself (through fees Rostro charges the schools), and the surplus from the retreat program goes toward covering most of the US overhead. So that means that 91 cents of every dollar you gave goes straight to Ecuador and running the day to day work of Manos, Semilla, and Valdivia.

Every day, all three after school programs provide pan, guineos, vitaminas y agua (bread, bananas, vitamins and clean water) to anywhere from 100 - 200 kids aged 5 - 15. The vitamins get donated, pan costs 5 - 10 cents/roll, agua is $1.50 per 5 gallon jug, and guineos are $3.50 per crate of 150 or so bananas. So if you donated $15, you paid for enough bread, clean water, and bananas for 30 - 50 kids at Valdivia for a week.

I've blogged about the ASP's a couple of times--I gave some background on all three when I first got down there, posted some pictures from my summer vacation working at Valdivia, and mentioned Manos Abiertas when I spent some time in Ventiocho de Agosto. Unlike Mundo, Chicos, Santiago, Damien, and the other partner organizations that volunteers work at, all of our ASP's were founded by and continue to be run completely by Rostro volunteers and Rostro's Ecuadorian staff.

First with Valdivia in 2000, then Semillas in 2001, and Manos in 2005, each of these programs was started by my predecessors who saw needs in their communities and took actions to make a change. Kids who live in a one bedroom house with their parents and five siblings--Valdivia gives them a peaceful place to do their homework. Kids whose education is rarely more than copying notes from a blackboard during class, then recopying them in their notebooks for homework--Semillas teaches them to think critically. Mothers who wake up before dawn to ready their oldest kids for school, then take care of the youngest kids all day--Manos gives those mothers a couple hours to themselves every afternoon.

A little bit of babysitting, a little bit of education, a little bit of needed nutrition, and a whole lot of FUN; all of the after school programs reach out to those essential needs of families in Durán and show them that we care. All the parents of these kids know that there are hundreds of North Americans--whom they probably will never meet--who give generously to ensure that their kids get that little extra help they need.

All these faces, all the children in these pictures--these are the people I think about every day now that I'm home. These are my friends whom you are now connected to through your generosity. These are the people I think of when I find myself on the verge of tears, alone on an airplane, trying to make sense of it all.

I wish I could say your donations were going to change the fate of these kids. I wish I could say that $5,170 can change the cycle of poverty and guarantee a better life for my friends in Durán. But these issues are systematic--deep seeded in history, politics, imperialism, oppression, unjust economics--they go so much deeper than three little after school programs can ever hope to solve. What I can tell you, though, is that these after school programs bring hope to their communities every day. A hope that comes with knowing that there are people in the United States, who may not have perfect lives themselves, but still care enough to help kids in Durán who they've never met. A hope that healthy, educated kids who learn to think critically can someday break that cycle themselves and create lasting change.

And for that hope, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

mi acción de gracias

Turned on the news today and people are literally getting killed at Black Friday sales... I'm not saying don't buy your family Christmas presents, but maybe we should think about where our priorities are?

Just yesterday the entire country celebrated Thanksgiving. Family and friends gathered, gave thanks for all we have, shared meals, and enjoyed each other's company. Then a few short hours later, everyone loses their shit and people are literally getting shot, stabbed, and pepper sprayed outside of shopping malls.

We have so much to be thankful for, it's ridiculous. Today I wanted to write a blog about some of the things most people don't have in Ecuador that I'm thankful we have in the States. You know, running water, clean water, paved roads, access to healthcare (it's not perfect, but we've got it better than most), education, job opportunities (you think unemployment is bad here...), etc. 

But instead, I think about all these things that make our lives easier; and when I hear about people losing their shit over Christmas shopping, I'd trade it all to be back in Ecuador. I'm not proud of that America.

Don't get me wrong. Ecuador is not without it's problems, and not everyone in the States is a deal-hungry pepper sprayer. But there are times when I think about just how much crap we have, how we can never have enough (as epitomized by this day), and I wonder what all this convenience has done to our priorities. 

Thanksgiving, Christmas, this whole "season" is supposed to be about reflecting on the gifts we already have, being with the people we care about, looking toward a new year, a new beginning, and maybe making a change for the better. 

So what am I thankful for this year? A roof over my head. Clean, running water. A/C when it's hot, and heat when it's cold. A job. Health Insurance. More than enough food. Not having parasites in my intestines. All those things that make life a little easier. But more importantly, I'm thankful for the people in my life--you, my family, my friends, my neighbors, former students, etc. All the convenience in the world can't replace a real, genuine relationship. 

So, as we celebrate the first day of Christmas shopping season, I ask you again to help support Rostro de Cristo and Nuevo Mundo. You don't have to wrestle any soccer moms to buy this gift, and I promise you it will make a difference in Ecuador. 

Below is the link to Rostro de Cristo's giving page, where you can donate with a credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Since Nuevo Mundo doesn't have a US 501(c)3 (it's an Ecuadorian Foundation with no US presence), Rostro has agreed to receive all donations, then pass on half to Nuevo Mundo. All donations are fully tax deductible.

http://www.rostrodecristo.org/give/index.html

On the "Review Your Donation Screen" (after you enter your card info or sign into PayPal), please enter "Mark Perlite" in the "Add special instructions to the seller" field so Rostro can tell me how much we raise at the end of the month.

Or, if you would prefer to make your donation via mail please send a check (with "Mark Perlite" written in the memo) made payable to:

Rostro de Cristo

P.O. Box 920433

Needham, MA 02492

As I mentioned in my appeal, my goal for this month is to raise $5,000: $2,500 for Rostro de Cristo and $2,500 for Nuevo Mundo. A lofty goal, but I email these blogs out to about 100 people, and at $50/person, I think that should get us there (someone check my math, I'm terrible with numbers). Obviously not everyone can give $50, but hopefully some people give more, some people give less, and we can get to that $5,000 goal. If you could at least give $10, it would mean a lot to me--not to mention all the Ecuadorians each of these incredible foundations serve.


Thanks again!

Mark

where it all began

As I mentioned in my appeal, I'm raising money for the two foundations I worked with last year in Ecuador-- la Fundación Rostro de Cristo y la Fundación Nuevo Mundo. So far, you've heard a lot about Nuevo Mundo--from my first few weeks teaching there over a year ago, to witnessing the 14 seniors I taught graduate last January, to Pat McTeague's talk with visiting retreat groups. Today I'd like to tell you a little more about Rostro de Cristo, specifically the retreat program we run with high schools, colleges, and parish groups from the States.


Rostro de Cristo was founded in 1988 by Fr. Jim Ronan, a parish priest from the Boston area. Fr. Jim joined the St. James Society, which meant volunteering to serve as a priest for 5 years in Peru, Bolivia, or Ecuador. Fr. Jim was assigned to a parish in the oldest part of Durán, which was beginning to see a huge influx (or invasion) of Ecuadorians moving from the countryside to Durán, where they could squat or buy cheap land and work in the big city--Guayaquil. Durán quickly balooned to a city of over 500,000 people, most living in cane houses built over the swamps of the Guayas River. With such sprawling poverty unlike anything in the States, Fr. Jim began inviting high schools, college, and parish groups down to Ecuador to see Durán for themselves and meet some of the people who live in this reality every day.

Fr. Jim with Pat McTeague and Sonya Rendón, founders of Nuevo Mundo
outside the newest Rostro de Cristo house in Mount Sinai, Guayaquil

Before Fr. Jim's 5 years were up, he began recruiting volunteers to live in Durán and help continue the program--to receive the retreat groups, show them around, keep them safe, translate, and introduce them to their friends and neighbors in Durán. Over the years, the program grew, working with partner organizations like Nuevo Mundo to build volunteer and retreat houses in the Antonio Jose de Sucre neighborhood in 1994; the Arbolito neighborhood in 2003; and the newest invasion community, Mt. Sinai in western Guayaquil, in 2010. From one volunteer living with Fr. Jim to now sixteen volunteers living in three different communities in Duran and Guayaquil.

visiting Damien House with Cabrini College

The retreat program now hosts 26 groups a year--mainly Catholic high schools and colleges who stay anywhere from 6 - 12 days. One volunteer is responsible for leading each retreat, so with sixteen volunteers, most volunteers lead about two groups per year. The primary function of the retreat program is education--to expose and educate North Americans on the realities of the developing world, to meet and get to know real people who live these realities, and to witness firsthand some of the work being done by Ecuadorian partner foundations to change these realities.


Before a group even gets to Ecuador, Rostro provides them with extensive background information on Ecuador and the developing world; so the first day in country, retreatants dive right into neighbor visits. Volunteers and retreatants live in houses in the hearts of these developing communities, so we often literally walk just next door to talk to neighbors. Most neighbors have known the Rostro community for years, and are more than happy to share their homes for an hour or two with retreat groups.

visiting friends with my Dad

These conversations can be anywhere from terribly uncomfortable (imagine a dozen gringos crammed in a one bedroom cane house when it's 100 degrees out trying to make conversation with Ecuadorians through a translator while the pet dogs, cats, ducks, chickens, rabbits, and geese are all making noise in the back of the house); to hilarious (some of the neighbors love to push the retreatants for all the juicy details on their boyfriends, girlfriends, or "amigos especiales"); to heartbreaking (when a neighbor opens up about deaths that didn't need to happen because healthcare is non-existent; or husbands, sons, sisters, brothers they haven't seen in years because they work three jobs and live illegally in the States or Europe).


Whether it's a lighthearted chat or a visit that leaves everyone in tears, what retreatants most often realize is how close we really are to people who on the surface would seem so very different. Through the language barriers, economic barriers, geographic barriers, we all laugh, we all cry, we all love.

sharing a birthday with neighbors

And as simple as that may sound, that is an integral part of the retreat program. Compared with other 3rd world "service trips," retreat groups don't actually do any work in Ecuador; they don't build houses, paint buildings, or give handouts. Rather, retreatants come to Ecuador to be with the Ecuadorian people, to listen to them, to learn from them, to share their time with them. Instead of leaving with a sense of accomplishment--"I built a house"--retreatants leave with relationships, memories of the people they took the time to be with. The hope being that that memory, that person you connected with will be a constant reminder of not only how much we have, but moreso how much we owe to those who don't.


And so, again, I ask for your help. Rostro has very little overhead in the States--from every dollar you give to Rostro, 91 cents goes straight to Ecuador, ensuring that the retreat program, the volunteer program, and our partner organizations in Ecuador can continue to do work where it is needed the most.


Below is a link to Rostro de Cristo's giving page, where you can donate with a credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Since Nuevo Mundo doesn't have a US 501(c)3 (it's an Ecuadorian Foundation with no US presence), Rostro has agreed to receive all donations, then pass on half to Nuevo Mundo. All donations are fully tax deductible.

http://www.rostrodecristo.org/give/index.html

On the "Review Your Donation Screen" (after you enter your card info or sign into PayPal), please enter "Mark Perlite" in the "Add special instructions to the seller" field so Rostro can tell me how much we raise at the end of the month.

Or, if you would prefer to make your donation via mail please send a check (with "Mark Perlite" written in the memo) made payable to:

Rostro de Cristo

P.O. Box 920433

Needham, MA 02492

As I mentioned before, my goal for this month is to raise $5,000: $2,500 for Rostro de Cristo and $2,500 for Nuevo Mundo. A lofty goal, but I email these blogs out to about 100 people, and at $50/person, I think that should get us there (someone check my math, I'm terrible with numbers). Obviously not everyone can give $50, but hopefully some people give more, some people give less, and we can get to that $5,000 goal. If you could at least give $10, it would mean a lot to me--not to mention all the Ecuadorians each of these incredible foundations serve.


Thanks again!

Mark




another birthday with neighbors... MY birthday!
(and Jessie and Henry, too)



What's Next?

Alright, I know I'm back in the States and Rostro no longer lists me as a current volunteer, but my ass is still unemployed, so I'm gonna keep writing. Deal with it. Through all this transition time, one thing I keep coming back to is this little thing we call the "What's Next?" talk. I'm sure I've mentioned this in previous posts, but in addition to our works sites, a big responsibility of being a Rostro de Cristo volunteer is hosting the 26 high school and college retreat groups who come down every year from the States. The retreats usually last anywhere from 7-10 days, and on the last day, we give this talk/guided reflection we call "What's Next?"

Now that I'm back, I've been doing a lot of the same kind of reflecting on my year in Ecuador, and what I'm going to do with that going forward. One thing I keep coming back to--one of the most powerful parts of the retreats, in my opinion--is taking the retreatants to Nuevo Mundo to meet Patricia McTeague. Pat first came to Ecuador as a nun in the late 60s, and she saw education as the tool to empower Ecuadorians to lift themselves out of poverty. In the early 80s, after a whole lot of "now's not the time" answers from the church/nunnery, Pat quit the sisterhood, partnered up with Sonya Rendón, and with $4,000 started the Fundación Nuevo Mundo in Sonya's parents' house. Today, the morning school offers the best education money can buy to Guayaquil's elite, all while subsidizing the education of hundreds (thousands over the past 30 years) of kids from the poorest areas of Guayaquil.

Seeing the impact this school has had on countless families, students, alumni, etc. is enough to inspire anyone, but talking to the founder herself can literally be a life changing experience. In not so many words, Pat is a bad ass bitch, and she does not pussyfoot around what she expects out of people. Her favorite statistic to throw at retreatants (most of whom come from expensive private Catholic high schools and universities) is that only 1% of the world's population gets a college education. Pat asks each student individually "What are you studying?" "What do you want to do when you graduate?" and "How are you going to change the world?" Heavy shit. Coming from someone who actually is changing the world, these questions carry weight.

Being in this 1% is a gift, a privilege--without a doubt--but for Pat, it's so much more than something to be thankful for. It's a goddamn obligation to use that gift, that privilege, that power to do what that other 99% can't do to make the world a better place. 99% of the world--maybe more--will never have the opportunities we have. That is the status quo--the nature of the unjust world we live in. Being in that 1%, though, we have the opportunity, the power to speak and act for those who can't. To work for a more just society, where maybe one day 2% or--God forbid--3% can get a college education.

And then Pat gets all serious and tells them something like "I'm old. I'll be long gone before you start doing something with your life. But I know I'm going to heaven. So when you get there, and you didn't do anything to make the world a better place, and you say 'I didn't know what I was supposed to do,' I'll be there, and I'll tell you. Yes you did. On this day in 2011, in Ecuador, the crazy bitch with the white hair told you what you had to do."

I've heard Pat bring down the wrath of God on at least 1/2 a dozen retreat groups, and every time I get a little lump in my throat when she gets to the "I'm telling you today what you have to do" part. You don't have to be Catholic or even believe in heaven and hell to get the point. We are that 1% who have the education, who have the power. Whether it feels like we can make a change or not, the fact is we can--if we choose to. Pat listened to her heart and did what she knew was right--not what the nuns or everyone else expected of her.

So, just as the retreatants reflect on their 7-10 days in Ecuador, here I am reflecting on my 365 days. Thinking about what Pat McTeague said--what am I gonna do to change the world? Thinking about working at Nuevo Mundo--the kids I taught who work way harder than I ever did, but don't have anywhere near the number of opportunities that I had. Thinking about the struggles of poverty--abusive husbands/fathers, teenage moms, non-existent healthcare, kids who can't go to school because they have to work, and kids who can go to school but are in a classroom with eighty other kids. But mostly I'm thinking about all the friends I made--the people who opened their homes, opened their lives to me this year. Shared their joys, struggles, laughter, and tears with me. Faces I will never forget. Thinking about going back to visit these friends, and what I'm going to have to say to them. What did I learn from this year I spent with them, and what am I going to do about it?

Don't worry, I don't have any answers yet. Not even close. Right now I'm just trying to get settled back in San Francisco (ask any of my former students, and they'll tell you where the best city in the world is). But these questions aren't going anywhere. And I'm never going to forget this year.

Baños de Agua Santa



Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador

The baths of the holy water! Where to begin... Baños is this this quaint little town in the Ecuadorian Andes that sits on the hillside of Ecuador's largest active volcano, Tungurahua (16,480 ft). The town is named for it's natural hot springs, and at 6,000 feet and an hour away from the Amazon, Baños is known as the adventure sports capital of Ecuador.


The mighty Tungurahua... there have already been 2 evacuations
this year, but lucky for us, she was sleeping when we visited.

Back in April, a couple volunteers and I took a 3 day weekend trip to Baños, and it lived up to all the hype. We went river rafting, hiked through the Amazon, visited a monkey reserve, ate some cuy (guinea pig), swang from jungle vines, learned about all kinds of bugs and plants that will help us survive if we ever get lost in the rainforest, and of course, relaxed in the hot baths! I took a ton of pics and a couple videos, so I'll let the pictures and videos do most of the talking. The best place to start, though, is probably the last thing I did before I left... jumping off a little bridge in town. Looks like bungee jumping, but you actually jump off one side of the bridge with the rope tied to the other side; so after the freefall, you swing back and forth like a pendulum. Here's the video...

Considering the $18 cash transaction and lack of any sort of "if you die it's not our fault" waivers, puenting probably wasn't the most prudent decision I've made this year... vale la pena though!

So we took an overnight busride from Guayaquil to Baños Thursday night and got in at around 5:30am Friday, April 8th (Standard timing disclosure: I went on this trip back in early April and I'm just getting around to uploading/blogging about it now... we can pretend it was last weekend though). We had absolutely zero plans for the weekend, and Don Diego knew it when he saw us get off the bus. He offered us a place to stay for $6/night, and considering it was dark out, nothing else looked open, and $6 is a great deal, we took it. Kipp, Tasha, and I all got our own full size beds in a room with cable TV and a bathroom with hot water (both luxuries I have not indulged in since the US of A... can't tell you how amazing that hot shower was). We got settled in, took a quick nappy, then hit the road at 9am to go river rafting on the Rio Pastaza (Don Diego hooked us up with some buddies of his who run adventure tours).

Click here to see my River Rafting pics

I'd only been river rafting once before, so I'm no pro by any means, but this stuff was way more intense than the PwC sponsored booze cruise I did on the American River back in '04 (oh the glory days of a public accounting internship...). Full body workout, helmets required, running head on into walls of water taller than the raft, etc. All at the foothills of the Andes as they meet the Amazon Rainforest. Mamazing.

After our half day rafting adventure, Kipp and I did some chompa (sweater) shopping at the local artisan market. In addition to the triumphant baby blue aguila (eagle) chompa I picked up, I also got a sweet-ass mood ring. It was an impulse buy, and after a solid weekend of blues, deep greens, indigos, and purple moods, it no longer changes colors =( Either that or I'm just incredibly boring. Friday night we hit up the famous hot springs beneath the beautiful Cascada de la Virgen (Waterfall of the Virgin--pictures in the album above). After the 8 hour bus ride the night before and river rafting all day, soaking in those hot baths was just what the doctor ordered. I wasn't sure if the European speedo culture had made it down here, but I brought my banana hammock just in case. I mean trunks are cool, but if life gives me a chance to wear my speedo in public, I'm gonna make lemonade. Lucky for me (and everyone else there, of course), I deemed the hot baths of Baños speedo appropriate (sorry ladies, no pictures). Simply liberating.

the triumphant aguila

Day 2 took us into the Amazon for a full day of visiting a monkey reserve, canoeing down the Rio Puyo (like the Rio Pastaza and pretty much every river east of the Andes, it's a tributary to the actual Amazon River), visiting an indiginous Ecuadorian community, and hiking through the selva (jungle) to an incredible waterfall and swimming hole (see pictures below). We even got to do some Tarzan swinging on real live jungle vines (video below... don't mind my all natural exfoliating jungle face mask):

Amazing day, and to cap everything off, Don Diego takes us to this vista point overlooking the whole Puyo River Valley... there were hammocks set up to take in the view, and the biggest rope swing I've ever seen to take it all in (video below).

Day 3 (Sunday) was a half day since we had to get back to Durán to work the next morning. We made the most of it, though, and ate some bbq'd rodent then jumped off the Puente San Francisco (first video above). Here's my album from Days 2-3, which has all the pictures from the Amazon (monkey reserve, indiginous community, waterfall, various flaura and fauna, etc.) and Baños (bridge jumping, guinea pig eating, etc.).

click here to see my pics from Days 2-3

in the Amazon & Baños

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.

La Última Graduación

I told you I'd be back on the blog soon! I want to tell you about one of the highlights of my year so far. If you can remember back to October--you know, when I was blogging somewhat regularly--I told you about the 14 seniors I taught English to in the Fall (see previous blog here). Well, not only did they all pass my class (come on, could you really see me failing a 2nd semester senior??), but they also all graduated this past January! Now I've been to a few graduations in my day, but nothing will ever compare to this one. I don't even know how to describe it other than that it was a really really special day for everyone there--even the gringo English teacher who had only been in country six months.

First of all, there's all the emotions of any high school graduation--from the high of accomplishing something you've strived toward for years, to the bittersweet goodbyes and realizing you won't be seeing your best friends every day anymore. Then you consider that this isn't just any high school, this is a K-12 full scholarship foundation whose students have to show a dramatic family need just to attend, and they have to maintain a B+ average every year in order to stay,--all while still living in that dramatic family need. Starting with 60 - 70 kids in Kindergarden, then seeing only 14 students graduate, you start to realize how significant of an accomplishment this really is. Most of these kids grew up in cane houses, were lucky to have one parent with a steady income, and shared that 1 bedroom cane house with 4 or 5 brothers and sisters. That's a big generalization and not necessarily true for all my students, but I'd say it's the par for the course--some had better situations, some worse.

On top of all that, Nuevo Mundo is phasing out the last 3 years of high school, so this was the last class high school graduation ever from the Foundation. Two years ago, the Fundación Nuevo Mundo decided to offer scholarships to the top 10 students from the 9th grade to finish 10th - 12th grade in the IB program of the Colegio Nuevo Mundo (the expensive private school that essentially subsidizes the entire foundation school). So while this is a very exciting transition for Nuevo Mundo--especially for those students who get the scholarships--it was also sad realizing that this would be the last group of students to ever graduate high school from the Foundation. So the entire Nuevo Mundo family--faculty, staff, students, alumni, family, and friends--was there to celebrate the impact Nuevo Mundo has had on these 14 graduates and the hundreds of other students over the past 25+ years.

Like I said before, I don't know how to describe it, but it was an emotional day. I'm not a crier, but I was fighting back the waterworks all afternoon. Pat McTeague and Sonia Rendón--the two women who founded Nuevo Mundo over 25 years ago, literally live at the school, and still run the day to day--both spoke, and I can't begin to tell you how inspiring they are. One of my former students, Saira, gave a beautiful Valedictorian speech, and the sincerity with which she thanked her parents and Nuevo Mundo for the opportunities she had been given is something I will never forget. Even the commencement speaker who I had never met before, an alumnus from the class of 2001 (coincidentally the same year I graduated high school), got me feeling all awkward and emotional inside. The impact Nuevo Mundo has on all its students--from the opportunities it offers to the incredible maturity the students develop over the years there--is unlike anything I've ever experienced.

OK, I'm starting to feel kinda like that A-hole friend who just saw a stand up comedian and is failing miserably at retelling the jokes... I don't know what else to say other than I guess you just had to be there. I did record a little video from the graduation, though, so maybe if you watch this you can kinda see what I'm talking about. At the very end of the graduation, all the alumni came to the front of the stage to join the 14 graduates in signing the official Nuevo Mundo theme song...

Yes, that was the sensual voice of Mama Cass singing her 1970 hit "New World Coming" (fun fact this song was also featured several times in Seasons 2 and 3 of the hit ABC drama "LOST"). I also posted a bunch of pictures from the graduation on my Picasa site (where you can also see all the other pictures I've posted from this year). Enjoy!

click here to see my pics of the Class of 2011!!

El Invierno! Spanish for The Invierno!

Allright I'm not gonna beat around the bush here. It's been a while. I feel awkward. You feel awkward. We used to be so close, and now look at us. Here I was, blogging regularly about what I'm doing down here, sharing my thoughts, emotions, struggles, triumphs, etc., and then 4 months passes and all you've heard from me is that I've got a mean side part goin on and the kids think I look like David Caruso.

Shit, for all I know, you've been reading someone else's blog the past 4 months. Who am I to assume you're even still intereted in me? I hope you still are, but I don't want to assume that I can pick right back up where we left off. How about we start with something light? Maybe the weather? See how things go, and then hopefully we can get back to the real stuff our relationship was built on... you know political upheaval, teaching English, and getting E.Coli (by the way just took my quarterly poo test and not only do I have giardia again, but I've also been blessed with both worms and fungi growing in my gut... not to worry though I'm getting treated and I feel fantastic).

So, yeah, a lot's happened in the past 4 months, but I'll keep it simple today and tell you about how much winter sucks down here. Not in the cold as F way it hits back in the states, but in the hot as F way it hits down here. I recently realized invierno (winter) is 2 letters away from inferno, which means hell, and I thought that would be a funny and witty thing to throw in my blog... then I realized that was kinda lame and not that funny... but here I am sharing that little titbit with you anyway. Sorry!

Anyway, as if it's not already hot as hell here, things just got exponentially nastier starting in Diciembre, coming to a hot sweaty climax in Febrero. Winter means higher temperatures and more rain, and more rain means more standing water, and more standing water means more mosquitos. So not only is it in the 90s and 100s every day (nights too... I don't think it even dropped below 80 on most nights), but now the mosquitos are out day and night, and even going inside doesn't really help cuz those bastards are everywhere. I think the entire month of Febrero my beautiful calves were tainted with bites, scratches, and scabs from scratching. Needless to say, it was uncomfortable.

On top of the sweaty weather and mosquitos, Guayaquil has this annual plague of grasshoppers that has got to be some of the weirdest biblical shit I've ever seen. Supposedly every winter once it starts raining, millions (maybe billions I really have no idea) of grasshoppers just appear out of no where and annoy the shit out of you for 3 weeks. They don't bite or sting, but there's literally so many of them that they just fly into you all the time and sneak into your house and eat your clothes. OK they didn't actually eat any of my clothes, but they're known to do that and they were in every corner of our house, so I moved all my clothes back into suitcases and kept that shit zipped up all the time. After a couple weeks of having dirty grasshopper sex and laying eggs for next winter, they all die off, and one day you realize "Oh, the grillos are gone." It's weird.

Don't get me wrong though, there was a lot of good stuff in the winter, too. And all that hot, sweaty, mosquito, grillo stuff really wasn't that bad, either. I just have to make it sound tough and exotic down here sometimes so you guys don't think I'm just sittin around sippin cervezas in my hammock (which does happen from time to time). I've been having an unbelievable time, and I can't believe it's already been 8 months.

One of the highlights of winter was playing in the rain with the kids in our neighborhood. Since it's so damn hot down here, it's not that weird to go outside in the middle of a tropical storm (I'm no weatherman and I don't see any news down here, but when it rains so hard that the streets flood six inches deep, I think it's safe to call it a tropical storm). There were a couple nights where it just dumped rain for multiple hours and we went outside to play with the kids in the middle of it all. Brought the waterproof camera to the last one, so I'll let you check out the pics. Needless to say it was a great time.

una tormenta tropical

That's all I've got for now, but I will be back in the cyber soon--I promise. Got some great pics from Carnaval, Nuevo Mundo, and Valdivia I've been meaning to show you. Hope all is well back home! Can you believe I'll be back in less than 5 months?? Wierd...

Horatioooo!

So for some reason nicknames are a big deal down here. Not sure why, but they just are. Most people get generic superficial nicknames like gordo (fatty) or chino (anyone who is and/or looks even the least bit Asian), negrito (black/dark skinned), fea (ugly)... you know, real nice endearing stuff like that. If you're lucky, you might get a more specific nickname, like Papi Pitufo (Spanish for Papa Smurf... one of our buddies who is no more than 5 ft tall gets that one all the time), or Ricky Martin (again, not exactly a compliment).

Not all the nicknames are demeaning, though... some people get cooler nicknames, like El Gato (my neighbor Daniel who has some awesome cat eyes), or El Matador (Jhonny, the badass security guard for Nuevo Mundo).  I've gotten Marco, Marcos, Marcooos, Markito, Perlite, flakito (from flaco, which means skinny... got that one after I lost about 20 pounds that first month). I've always been a fan of Markito, but anyone named Marco can get that, so it wasn't that big of a deal (the ito/ita suffix is pretty standard in Spanish--kinda like the 'ie' or 'y' in Markie, Johnny, Tommy, Paulie).
 

Lt. Horatio Caine on the scene

So anyway, we're on summer break from Mundo and I've been spending my afternooons helping out with our neighborhood after school program Valdivia. Shortly after my triumphant return to the futbol cancha (our cement soccer field... not to be confused with the potentially vulgur concha with an 'o'), a couple of the big kids, Charlie and Christian, started calling me Horatio--a reference to CSI Miami's Lt. Horatio Caine, played by David Caruso.



recent pic from Valdevia rockin the sidepart

CSI is one of those syndicated shows that is huge down here for some reason (other favorites include The Simpsons, anything on the Disney Channel, and Fear Factor). Anyway, I haven't cut my hair since I've been down here, so I've been rocking a pretty mean sidepart recently (see picture--->). Caruso's got carrot red ginger hair, but he's white and also has a legit sidepart, so I guess that's enough to say we're iguales.

I was familiar with CSI and David Caruso (of former NYPD Blue fame), but I decided to do some research to find out some more about this nickname I had earned. So I look up Caruso and Lt. Horacio "H" Caine, and I find out that David Caruso is a) kind of a creep, and b) the Nicolas Cage of the small screen (Yes, Nic Cage is a terrible actor. You know it, I know it, he knows it. And don't bring up The Rock, because everyone knows the City of San Francisco and Sean Connery carried that movie). But I digress... I guess H Caine's signature move is dropping a cheezy line whilst putting on his wire framed sunglasses. Check it out:

A small sampling of the plethora of anti-Caruso blogs out there:

http://davidcarusorevealed.blogspot.com/

http://carusothemanwhore.blogspot.com/

http://davidcarusoandme.blogspot.com/

http://uglycreatures.blogspot.com/



So part of me is a little butthurt that I got nicknamed after such a no talent ass clown, but the other part of me says F that noise. My nickname isn't Caruso, it's Horatio. And while there may be entire blogs devoted to Caruso bashing, Lt. Horatio Caine is a badass ginger detective who solves crimes on the regular and probably parties with hot Puerto Rican chicks in Miami all the time. Now I don't watch the show, but I also imagine he drives a sick sports car top down with a teal v-neck and a white blazer, Don Johnson style. And not only was Don Johnson a badass in Miami Vice, but he also made crime his bitch as Nash Bridges in the best city in the world, San Francisco. And who was Nash Bridges sidekick? Cheech Marin.



So yeah, I'm cool with the nickname Horatio.

matando parasitos, tirando machetes, y haciendo pecho

Killin' parasites, throwin' machetes, and doing chest...

E. Coli - not just from tainted beef anymore!

Well, they finally got me... los parasitos. It had been over 4 months down here, so last week I took a test for the hell of it to see what was crawlin around inside me. E. Coli, Giardia, and some other ameoba that had a less memorable name. No biggie though... the E. Coli was a distant cousin to the one that kills people, and I got them all treated with a series of pills over 3 days.

 

Giardia - smells like roses!

Funny thing, though, I didn't notice any symptoms. Giardia is known for extra stinky farts and poo, but I've been showing those symptoms for years. Anyway, went ahead and took the pills, was feelin fresh, and then last night after our Christmas Party, I woke up at 3am with the uncontrollable urge to vomit. So I donated my half digested rice and lentils to the septic tank, went back to sleep, and did it again a couple hours later. One 7-UP, two gatorades, and a few hours later, I'm back to zero bloggin about it. Not sure what it was, but I felt like $2 for the majority of this morning. All is well though. I'm feelin fresh again, and I'm gonna stop by the clinic for another test Monday to make sure everything's okay.

Don Maximo laying on the glue

In other news, I was throwin around a machete last week with our guard Maximo. Just carving up some cane to make our año viejo monigote. Down here, the tradition for New Year's Eve (they actually celebrate the Año Viejo, the old year, instead of the new year), is to make a monigote of something from the old year, stuff it with fireworks, and burn it down on the 31st. Some people just buy a premade generic one (there's a lot of Buzz Lightyears getting sold out there), but Don Maximo is known throughout Durán for his monigote crafting abilities. Last year he made a huge piojo (lice--one of the volunteers got bird lice around this time last year) and a life-sized replica of one of the volunteers. This year, we're working on a life-sized Chevy truck (modeled after the oldest member of the Rostro fleet, which has already suffered two crashes in the past 4 months--thanks Celso and Caitlin!), and a paloma (pigeon... I thought I left my pigeon woes back in SF, but there's at least a dozen that have taken up residency on our roof. www.nomorepigeons.org/whynot?).

And finally, haciendo pecho... brought my camera to the gym the other day because my 16 year old neighbor Kevin wanted to post a video of himself crushing out some bench press. The place is called Biceps Gym, it's on the 3rd floor of a concrete building, costs 50 cents/day, has an open wall facing the street, and some of the finest equipment from the early 90's.

Kevin doing biceps at Biceps... not sure what the bald eagle/American flag picture is doing in the middle of Durán, Ecuador, but it inspired me to crush out a couple more reps

I posted a bunch more pics of the monigote and un dia al gymnasio in my AJS photo album from my last blog. There may or may not be videos of Kevin and I dominating the bench press...

mi barrio

click here to check out all my pics from AJS!

Antonio Jose de Sucre is a small cooperative of about 3 square blocks in Duran, Ecuador. Rostro de Cristo has held a strong presence in this community since 1994. The property has two buildings; the first is the Rostro de Cristo retreat house that houses about 13 retreat groups a year. The second building serves two functions: the first floor is a day care center/preschool run by Nuevo Mundo, and the second floor is where I live with the other year long volunteers--Beth, Tasha, Celso, and Jessie.

Antonio Jose de Sucre is an older neighborhood than El Arbolito and therefore in many ways more progressed. This small barrio already houses a casa comunal (community house), a cancha (cement soccer field), a playground, a Nuevo Mundo medical dispensary, and continued improvement of paved roads. However, the poverty is still rampant: residents have no running water, there are frequent power outages, standing dirty water in the rainy season, as well as many families who still live in cane houses.

So that's the official AJS background from the Rostro website. Rostro has had a long history here (year long volunteers have been living in AJS for 16 years), and we were incredibly lucky to already have those relationships when we came here. From the first day, all the neighbors have been incredibly hospitable to all of us volunteers--inviting us over for meals, birthday parties, or just to talk or watch TV. I tried to caption most of the pictures, so rather than ramble on here, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy!

The New World!

Pocahontas had no chance

No, not the shitty Colin Farrell movie... I'm talking about the school I teach at, Fundación Nuevo Mundo! Thusfar I've blogged about a bingo and my secret love affair with mayo, an attempted coup, a weekend in paradise,  a 7 year old's birthday party, and more info than I'm sure anyone cares to read about Rostro orientation, potential work sites, and after school programs... how about a normal day in the life of a 27 year old accountant teaching English in Ecuador??

Most mornings start around 7am with a community prayer. We have a pretty liberal interpretation of prayer (gracias a Dios), so it can be anything from a traditional prayer to a song, poem, or excerpt from a book or speech (like for example when Celso enlightened us all with the Emancipation Proclamation one morning... nothing like a little Honest Abe to start the day!). After prayer I usually take Oso (our dog) for a walk, say hi to some neighbors, and finish up any lesson planning or grading before heading in to work.

At 12:15 every day I teach English to the 14 graduating seniors at Nuevo Mundo. The school year here is from March - December, so these guys are deep into 2nd semester senioritus. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a challenge trying to keep their interest, but I just keep reminding myself of how much fun I had senior year in high school (and how little I remember from the actual "school" part of it). They're all great though, and I admire the hell out of all 14 of them. Just to graduate high school is a huge accomplishment here, and all of these guys are going to college next year, and I know they're all gonna do great things with their lives. I gave them a writing assignment a few weeks back to talk about what they want to do after graduating (I billed it as practice speaking in the future tense, but it was more for my own curiosity than anything else), and they talked about wanting to be doctors, dentists, engineers, business people, and teachers. A couple of them are hoping to get scholarships to study in the States, and literally all 14 of them mentioned something about wanting to start a foundation or give back to the Ecuadorian people in some way.

It's a great testament to the type of education they get at Nuevo Mundo. A lot of schools in the States value community service and teaching social justice (probably the main reason I'm here now is what I learned in high school and college), but it just rings so much truer here because poverty and injustice are part of everyone's daily life. There are plenty of historical/societal factors to blame for the injustices here, but instead of focusing on the blame, Nuevo Mundo empowers these kids to make positive changes in their world. It not only provides them with the tools, the education they would not otherwise have, but the mission of Nuevo Mundo is also to inspire the heart to use these tools to create change.

Bieber fever is rampant here

So after the seniors, I teach 2 classes of 7th grade English. No matter where you are in the world, pretty much every teenage year is hilariously awkward, but 7th grade has to be up there as one of the funniest. You're definitely not a kid anymore, you kind of think you know everything, but you're still trying to figure out the whole social dynamic and how you fit in, and to top it all off, hormones are going crazy! Haha it's definitely a challenge to teach this age, and just as the seniors give me a hard time with senioritus, the 7th graders give me a hard time with whatever you want to call being 13 years old. They've been learning English since Kindergarden, but they are definitely beginners compared to the seniors. They constantly try to talk to me in Spanish, which is pretty hilarious because my Spanish is barely better than their English. They're all awesome though, and we usually have a great time in class.

The 7th grade classes are at different times every afternoon, so in between and after classes I usually work on lesson plans, grading, etc. (aka my least favorite part of teaching). Also, Celso, Caitlin, (the other 2 Rostro volunteers who teach at Mundo) and I each spend a couple afternoons a week tutoring the sophomores and juniors who have scholarships to attend the morning school. A couple years back, the afternoon school decided to phase out the high school (the seniors I teach are the last class left), and instead offer scholarships to the top 10 students from the 9th grade to finish 10th - 12th grade in the morning school's IB program. I talked a little bit about this in my earlier blog about the different work sites, but the morning school, known as Centro Educativo, instructs the wealthier students of Ecuador, while the afternoon school, Fundación, allows the poorer children to utilize the same facilities as the morning school. Half of the classes in the morning school's IB program are taught in English, so we help the becados (scholarship kids, from beca, which means scholarship... not to be confused with pecados, which means sins!) to make sure they're understanding everything in their classes (History is a big one because there's so much vocab they've never heard before).

The becados probably have the most interesting social dynamic because they all come from poor neighborhoods like Durán and now have scholarships to attend high school side by side with the wealthy elite of the Puntilla. Cliques and normal high school social dynamics are tough enough as it is, but this adds a whole different challenge to everything. They taught me a word the other day, pelucón, which is a common word for the Ecuadorian bourgeoisie. The literal translation is hairy, and refers to the old wigs French aristocrats used to wear in the 17th and 18th centuries (think George Washington, etc.). Ecuador's liberal president, Rafael Correa, has popularized the term often using it to refer to people with money who represent the old political practices/parties of the country.

The last class gets out at 6:10pm (remember, the pelucones use the school in the mornings, so the foundation school doesn't start until the afternoon), then I take the yellow school bus with the foundation kids back to Durán. I usually get home around 7pm, have a lovely dinner with my roommates, then wrap the night up with some more planning/grading, hanging out with the neighborhood kids, reading, and/or journalling. Oh and random Ecuador fact while I'm on the topic of daily routines... the sun sets and rises at the same time all year on the equator. Sunrise around 5:30 - 6am and sunset around 6 - 6:30pm... 12 hour days all year.