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.

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.

After School Programs

So in addition to the work sites I described in my last entry, Rostro volunteers run three after school programs (ASPs) Monday - Friday afternoons. These were started by Rostro volunteers a few years ago as a more organized way of working with the community. Almost 40% of the population is under the age of 18, and since school is only half the day, there are always kids everywhere. The after school programs provide a safe space for the neighborhood kids (with such a young population, gangs are very popular and dangerous here) to have fun, get homework help, and learn positive values such as respect and responsibility.

The basic structure of all three ASPs is the same--homework help from 2:30 - 3:10, roll call, an educational activity from 3:15 - 4pm (broken up by age groups), then recreo (free time) from 4 - 4:45pm. At 4:45 we call tiempo (time), and everyone sits down for a charla (chat) during which we talk about the theme of the week (i.e. respect, responsibility, justice, citizenship, etc.). After the charla, we end with a prayer, and each kid (as long as they behaved that day) gets a bread roll, a banana, and a vitamin.

Two of the ASPs are in the communities we live in--Valdevia in the AJS neighborhood and Semillas in the Arbolito neighborhood. Volunteers typically work at the after school programs in the communities they live in; so Beth and Tasha will be running the Valdevia program, and Christina, Jon, and Kipp, will be running Semillas. Caitlin and I will also help at Semillas and Valdevia, but since Nuevo Mundo is an afternoon school, we can only help during holidays and semester breaks.

The third program, Manos Abiertas, is located in a newer invasion community called Veintiocho de Agosto. I spent a couple of days in Veintiocho during those first two weeks of in country orientation, and it is by far the neediest community I've seen down here. In a hot, desolate area outside of Guayaquil, Veintiocho is a landfill that people started migrating to from rural Ecuador a few years ago to find work in Guayaquil. Now buses run out here and there is a school and some stores, but there are no paved roads, and the houses are all simple 1 - 2 bedroom buildings made from cane (the cheapest building material you can get here--it's essentially bamboo wood).

The only downside to working at Mundo is not getting to do an after school program every day. I would have loved to have gotten to work at Manos. My housemate Jessie works there with Tierney and Brendan, and almost every day she comes home with heartbreaking stories. Kids here are visibly malnurished, and many of them can't go to school, so they really NEED the Manos program. The Semillas and Valdevia kids aren't much better off, but most of them at least go to school and get fed every day.

It's tough to compare the different programs and the different neighborhoods, but Veintiocho tears at my heart moreso than anything else I've seen here. I don't know... after living in AJS the past month, I've almost gotten so used to the poverty here that it doesn't really faze me anymore. In comparison to Veintiocho, the people here have more, but it's not easy living by any means. It's just the way it is, and although it's a struggle every day, our friends and neighbors in AJS make the most of it and live very happy lives. As great as it feels to share in the simple happiness people enjoy here, the good times and the hospitality almost mask the injustices and constant struggles these people face. Again, it's tough to compare because I don't live in Veintiocho, but in the time I have spent out there, I don't think I could ever get used to that kind of poverty--no matter how happy and hospitable people are there.

Okay, I don't want to end on a downer, so here's some more Ecuadorian realness. To recap thusfar, dogs have balls, don't drink the water, and yes, third world countries do have strip malls, track homes, SUV's, coffee shops, and all the joys of the 'burbs. Along the same lines, American pro wrestling is HUGE here with the Ecuadorian boys. My 11 year old neighbor, Bryan, fooled me into going to the cyber (internet cafe) last weekend to play WWE Smackdown on the Playstation. Owning a Playstation would be way too expensive for anyone here, but most of the cybers have TV's set up with Playstations that you can play for 50 cents an hour. Bryan told me he needed help with a science project, so we went to the cyber, spent 5 minutes printing some article on volcanos, and then he convinced me to play Smackdown for an hour. It just so happens I went through a little WWF phase of my own back in the late 90's, so I didn't complain too much. Whatcha gonna do?!?