Lots of mixed emotions to say the least. Right now, here, in Ecuador, starting to say my goodbyes, I feel like shit. There's a lot of people I'm going to miss, and that's gonna be a tough pill to swallow these next two weeks. When I think about it, though, I am excited to come home and catch up with all the family and friends I've missed this past year.
I think back to saying goodbye to family and friends this time last year; and that, too, was sad, scary, and very emotional. Sure, things would change over the course of this year, but ultimately, I knew I would be back in San Francisco come August 2011. This time around, though, as I'm saying these goodbyes, I know I'm not coming back. Yes, I will visit--I hope to be back to Ecuador within the next year, and as frequently as possible after that; but I will never live here again--in this community, with these people, sharing every laugh, tear, conversation, good day, bad day, hotter than F, sweaty, normal day.
There's so much that I'm gonna miss about living here. I'm going to miss my friends--miss those experiences we've shared this year, as well as those experiences we won't get to share next year or the year after. I'm going to miss the students I taught this year--seeing them every day, talking to them, laughing with them, playing soccer with them in my slacks and dress shoes, joking with them about who they are and aren't dating, and sometimes just wanting to wanting to tell them to shut the fffront door. I'm going to miss my neighborhood--living on a street where the kids are always out playing and the madres are always inviting me in to eat. I'm going to miss playing soccer with the kids, the hugs and vueltas, high fives and fist bumps, calling each other locos, feos, vagos. I'm going to miss the conversations with neighbors, friends--deep shit about life, family, love, justice, politics, everyday struggles. I'm gonna miss shooting the shit with the guys--playing cards and dominos late into the night, talking shit, calling each other nicknames, telling dirty jokes, and learning every possible word that might in some way have a genital connotation.
I could go on for days (especially about the genitals). There's just so many people and experiences I'm gonna miss here. Deep down, though, I know it's time to go. Kinda like that "enlightened" freshman year of college, I can never go back and do it again--have it all be new. That's the way things go. So for these last few months, I've been trying to live it up as much as possible (hence the lack of blogologue). So many memories I wish I could share. I have a bunch of pictures I promise to put up soon, but for now, here's some highlights from the past couple months:
- Remember Horatio?? He had a good run, but the REAL nickname that has stuck all year is Menendez. Ask me a year ago what I think of when I hear Menendez, and I'll tell you those creeps Lyle and Erik who offed their parents back in the early 90's. Down here, though, Menendez is the blonde haired, blue eyed Argentinian superstar who plays for Guayaquil's pro soccer team, Emelec. My neighbors Don Walter and Don Sergio made Emelec fans out of me early on, so as soon as I got a jersey, everyone started calling me Menendez. Literally Everybody. Anytime I wear the jersey--and sometimes when I'm not wearing the jersey and I'm just being white, blonde, and ridiculously good looking--people will just yell at me: Menendez!!
 |
| MENENDEZ!! |
- All night Mother's Day parties... So aparently the Ecuadorian way of showing mothers the infinite gratitude they deserve is to wake them up with serenades on Mother's Day Eve... either with your own voice, with a paid gentleman singer, or with a rented sound system, some salsa CDs, and a microphone that the whole neighborhood can hear. Looooooooovely tradition. Minus the fact that I didn't get any sleep that night thanks to my good friend Edwin (20 something, no more than 5 feet tall, responds to Papi Pitufo, aka Papa Smurf) who apparently got hired to serenade all of South America from his soundsystem 3 blocks away.
 |
| Gina didn't even know that she was in the presence of an international soccer superstar... |
- So my little sister Gina just graduates magna cum laude from Georgetown (no big deal, I'm not overly proud of her or anything), the whole damn world is at her fingertips, and where does she decide to go less than one week after graduating? Fuckin Ecuador to visit big brother. What a gal. After almost 11 months of choppy internet phone calls from the cyber cafe, finally getting to spend some real human time face to face with my flesh and blood was pretty awesome. I took her around AJS, Arbolito, Veintiocho, out to Nuevo Mundo, down to Guayaquil's touristy Malecón 2000, and up to the historic Las Peñas district of Guayaquil for a night on the town. Despite my best efforts with this blog, it's been really tough to put into words all the experiences I'm having here. There's a lot of "you had to be there," or "you had to see it," or "you had to know him/her" kind of stuff, so getting to share even just a few days of this with Gina was really special.
- What do you get when you put 10 teenage boys from well-to-do Cincinnati suburbs in a barrio in Ecuador with no running water, no meat, no cell phones, TVs, video games, iPods, facebook, etc? Lots of soccer, bilingual card games, unflushed shits, penis-carved soap bars, and of course, life changing experiences. One of the ways Rostro de Cristo gets its funding is by hosting high school and college retreat groups from the states. Between the 2 houses in Arbolito and AJS, we've had 26 groups this year; I led 2: Cabrini College in December, and St. Xavier High School in June. My role was part spiritual director, part tour guide, and part babysitter... it was a long week to say the least, but the guys were great, and I think they all got something out of it.
 |
| me, the St. X boys, and Oso |
- Right after my retreat group, the Rostro de Cristo Board of Directors came down to visit and inaugurate our new retreat house in Mount Sinai. So what do you get when you put a bunch of middle aged white people in a barrio in Ecuador... juuust kidding. Nothing like the high school kids. All the Board members were super interesting people, all with incredible backgrounds in Latin America; so it was really cool show them what we do down here and talk to them about some of the higher level foundation decision making that goes on back home. Who knows where life's gonna take me, but I'd love to get involved in decisions like that someday.
- Did I mention I'm learning to tejer? That's right. Crocheting. Wellington has been teaching me how to make hammocks, and Pastora helped me make a little monedero last month. It's frustrating as all hell at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's really quite relaxing. And it's awesome when you finally have something to show for all your work.
- Saw Transformers with one of the kids from my neighborhood a couple weeks ago. 2 observations:
- While Optimus Prime is unstoppable no matter what tongue he speaks, the Spanish speaking Optimus Prime doesn't quite have the stage presence that his English speaking cousin does.
- Hanging out with a 12 year old boy with no filter is awesome no matter where you are. Hanging out with a 12 year old boy with no filter from Duran in a "1st world" movie complex/shopping mall is extra awesome. While we were waiting for the movie to start, we cruised the toystore, people watched, and judged the shit out of all the upper-middle class people walking around like their poo doesn't stink. Granted, I was very aware that I was inherently laughing at myself (this mall very easily could have been the San Francisco Shopping Centre, and these people could have easily been me and my friends), but it was still pretty ridiculous. Living in a neighborhood for a year where the average income is $2 a day really puts things in perspective when you walk around a toy store looking at $80 lego sets and $500 Playstations.
If you've made it this long, I thank you for your commitment. I reward you with one spanish translation: no te vayas = don't leave! ugh... hurts everytime I hear it.
