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

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...

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...

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!

Part I: just a little political unrest, no big deal...

So my plan was to spend my next blog updating everyone on my sweet new job as an English teacher, tell you all about the awesome kids I'm teaching, and maybe throw in a few pictures... then the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan yesterday, so I'm guessing you'd rather hear about that instead. Here's how it all went down...

7am: Took Oso for a walk (Oso is our kick ass guard dog) and bought some bread for the house. Thursdays are my prayer days, so I read a little pump up excerpt from Nelson Mandela's Inaguaral Speech. Pretty standard morning so far... I don't usually teach until the afternoon, so I've been working walks with Oso into my daily routine.

8am: Celso and I drive to the airport to meet our in country director, Megan. She's flying out to the States for a vacation, so we need to pick up her car and bring it back to our place. The handoff goes smoothly, Celso takes the van, and I drive the truck back to Durán. On my way back over the bridge (by now it's around 9am), I notice a ton of police officers going the other way (toward Guayaquil), and when I get to the Durán side of the bridge, there's cops setting up a road block and stopping all traffic leaving Durán. "Interesting," I thought, "there must be an important person in town or something." I forget what it was, but there was a great song on radio Disney (mostly trashy american pop/hip hop, but the only tunes I can get in English) at the time, so I was pretty busy rocking out to that to get too concerned with the road block.

9:30am: I get home and Kipp and Christina, two other volunteers from the Arbolito house are in our living room. Christina was just at the local health clinic (right around the corner from our house) getting an IV cuz she was up all night vomitting and couldn't hold any liquid down... yet another case of the parasites (we're all getting hit by them). So they're hanging out until Christina feels better, and I finish grading some homework, get dressed for school, and head out.

10:30am: On my way to the catch the bus to work,  I find out from our guard Wellington that the bridge is closed for a police demonstration. "Ohhhhhhhh yeah I think I saw that this morning." So we call Nuevo Mundo and find out classes are cancelled today. I'm pumped! I change out of my work clothes and start to think how I'm going to spend my first snow day in Ecuador! The eternal day off debate... do I get productive on something I've been meaning to do, or do I sit around and watch movies all day...

10:45am: The initial excitement wears off when we start to realize what's really going on. In addition to meaning I don't have to work, "police demonstration" also means that there are no police working in all of Guayaquil. Soon after we find out that means there are no police working in the entire country. That kinda stuff just doesn't happen in the US, so we're starting to get a little scared here. All we know at this point is President Correa tried to pass some law that would have cut police bonuses, so the police all across the country decided to strike. Pretty scary considering the normal dangers of a third world country compounded by the lack of a national police force.

11:30am: Remember poor little Christina who's laying on my couch with an IV? She had to go back to the clinic to get her test results, so I walked her over there (carrying the IV of course). When we get there, though, we find out that the clinic closed early for the day because of all the madness going on. By this time we also found out that all the banks closed across the country since there would be no police to protect them from bank robbers. Schools, medical clinics, banks, internet cafes, corner stores--everything is closed, buses aren't running, the main bridge into Guayaquil (only the largest city in the country at 3+ million people) is closed, and everyone is pretty much locked in their homes glued to the news. Oh and did I mention we have 4 volunteers stranded in Guayaquil and our in country director is on a flight to the US???

I'm already being overly dramatic, so just to be extra annoying I'm gonna put some scary pictures I found on the web and do this...

TO BE CONTINUED....