While you were out...

The following is a true story. Whether or not you choose to believe it will likely depend on whether or not you have ever visited a charming little country south of the equator called Ecuador. (Note: some names have been changed to protect the people who have been effected by the following events) Once upon a time there were three panas who were in cahoots with one another as the holidays were approaching...we`ll call them Isabel, Freddy, and Louis. It was a muy buena noche. The cats and dogs were friends. All of the divino niños had been blessed by the tacky red plastic rose drenched in holy water and held in the very hand of the man, the myth, the legend PADRE PAÙL. Jasòn had successfully gone abajo three times. Conor had actually posted a blog on time without even having an existing saving the planet email address. The volunteers had all enjoyed several masses, several more performances of the critically acclaimed, off-Broadway Scrooge production, and an Italian Christmas dinner at Sr. Annie`s home. The live nacimiento in Arbolito had gone smoothely with Jasòn as a superbly dressed wiseman, Marissa as an amazing female sacerdote (priest) and Conor leading the gang as Josè who is, by the way, not Jesùs` real father and therefore all of the lineage of Jesùs being traced back to David is bogus...for further details, ask Conor. We had an Arbolito community Christmas breakfast prepared by Kerry and Conor and then opened secret santa stockings filled with affirmations. Simply put, all was right with the world until one night, that all changed. Here is a brief Post-Navidad Recap:
December 26, 4:30am-Elena awakes due to rain...in her bedroom
4:45am-Marissa awakes due to Elena`s bedroom light and a deep thirst for coke
4:46am- Marissa and Elena realize that the entire living and dining area along with Elena`s room are completely flooded to ankle level with rain water.
4:47am - Se fue la luz....no power!
4:50am - We wake Darc, Clarita, and Jasòn the engineer, grab some flash lights and candles and most importantly, Marissa whips out her trusty rain boots and we go to work checking the rest of the house and tearing down everything on our walls and water proofing our rooms.
5:30am- Marissa quenches her deep thirst for coke.
6am -We go back to bed and the rest of the story goes something like this:
Our roof was poorly constructed and had numerous leaks.
Our house was flooded.
Conor invented a new form of slip and slide.
Elena was forced to move to the back of the house.
Crazy flying ant creatures infested Marissa`s room and she was also forced to move to the back of the house.
Elena began to clean.
Elena kept cleaning.
Matt is here...He LOVES Kerry.
Clare jumped on Elena`s cleaning kick.
The architect was lost.
The Zambranos saved the day (AGAIN)
We have rats.
Se fue la luz.
Se fue the phone.
Se fue the water.
Random men lie to us about our power outage and try to rip us off.
Kids canceled school because it had rained.
Se fue la luz again.
The grillo (grasshopper like insects) plague of Biblical proportions came at 9 en punto.
Se fue la luz otra vez.
Our architect is found but we soon lost him again.
Wheezy has a broken leg...
We flooded again!
We found our architect again.
Lots of men were on our roof.
The reindeer effect has now mixed with God`s grace.
The arbolito girls did not Not NOT take a trip to Quito as planned...the arbolito boys did not Not NOT win as planned.
We laughed, we cried, we danced salsa, we ate rice and life goes on...because you see, we build to that and right now we are in it.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Stop by Arbolito any time!
Happy Christmas and here`s to a new year!

Happenings in ARBOLITO

Hello Everyone!

Almost at the five month mark, I am still alive and healthy (knock on wood). A little too healthy, seeing as the ¨third world diet¨ has not been working in my favor due to the overwhelming presence of carbs in the food! I am still teaching my four classes of reading, regularly visiting the Hansen´s Disease hospital, as well as tutoring a couple of students in English. In the meantime, God has also led me to take on some new projects which have brought so much meaning and joy to my time here. There are three brothers (Johnny, David, and Michael), that a fellow volunteer, Ecuadorian friend, and I have taken under our wings. In discovering that they never had homework at our after-school program, due to their not being in school, Conor found a way for them to enter into school without paying. (The $2/mon. per child was too much for their single father, who is barely around, to pay). At the ages of 8, 9, and 11, these boys had basically spent all their time in the streets as they seldom had supervision or anything else to do. Now with them being in school, we have had to face the challenge of attempting to catch them up with the rest of the children. It has been very humbling to start from the basics of reading, writing, and math and try to explain them in a whole different language! Although there have been a lot of tears on their part and a lot of frustration on both ends, their open minds and hearts (as well as their cute little faces) keep me showing up each day in the hope that we will all learn a lot from each other in this year. I can truly attest that the fruits have already been so rich.

Also, another one of my projects has included helping start, with some fellow volunteers, a women´s group in the community. It is called ¨Mujeres en Accion y Progreso¨ (Women in Action and Progress- completely chosen by them). The group is made-up of very independent women that are dedicated to making positive changes in the community, while especially validating and empowering women in the process. We now officially have a board consisting of a pres, vp, and sec. They have been very excited to finally organize, as it has been a great desire and need for a long time within this machismo dominated culture. It is so exciting for me to witness so much of what I have learned in my Chicana/o Studies and Liberation THST classes in this group. These women truly inspire me and I feel so privileged to be walking and working with them.

The after-school program ¨Semillas de Mostaza¨ is going very well. We have had over a 100 kids every day for the past month or so, and with more of them coming in, we are constantly trying to improve the program. We are in the process of creating more structure (with more planned activities for them in expanding their ways of being educated, starting a reading program, etc.) as well as trying to add greater organization to our physical space. The consistency of the program and the kids is what truly makes it for me and brings me so much life each day.

My experience here has been very much a mutual sharing with others to whatever capacity I am able to give as it is a journeying with one another and not just a one way engagement. It has been a process of learning how to be more gentle and patient with myself (especially in light of my limitations and many moments of helplessness) and with others in constantly asking for God´s grace in being met and meeting people where I/they are at.

From being away from the family at Thanksgiving, and with Christmas quickly approaching I have very much realized how difficult it is to be away from family and friends at this time of year. I am, however, not missing the big holiday rush (as it is non- existent here) and I am excited to witness how everything is uniquely celebrated here.

Wishing you a blessed holiday season!!...hopefully much cooler than what we are experiencing here!!!!


En el Paz y Cariño de Cristo,
Elena

Tis the season!

Awesomely obnoxious blinking lights that line the streets and climbing tempretures only mean one thing here...tis the season in Duran, Ecuador! With Christmas programs, parties, and a flood of family and friend visitors, it is starting to feel a lot like Christmas. That is, besides the fact that we are singing Jingle Bells in scorching weather. I continue to be humbled and honored by the the numerous families that have offered to adopt us for the upcoming festivities, and those who do not have loved ones coming to visit are looking forward to experiencing Christmas Ecua-style, and most importantly, deepening our relationships with our neighbors in celebrating Jesus' birth.
As of Friday night, Arbolito and AJS have both been adorned with Christmas decorations in the form of those aforementioned blinking lights (how can we resist?), christmas trees (yeah for artificial, Charley Brown- looking-trees) and crafty homemade decorations (its amazing what Marissa can do with a lil construction paper!).
Other than the seasonal festivities, we all are starting to wonder what exactly we will do with ourselves once gym classes, Nuevo Mundo and all of our other classes end for summer vacation...maybe everyone could join the running club, which is still in tact, though its makeup has changed quite a bit. We are now joined by none other than Jorge, the ice cream scooping king of Penguino (the AJS ice cream store that feeds our habit for Sanduche) and another friend of his. Jefferson, a Nuevo Mundo garderner and AJS vecino, has also joined our lil group. Fun and sweaty times ahead as the morning runs become more and more hot and humid.
Also, please keep Diego and his abuelita in your prayers, as she is still in the hospital. Visiting her is quite a feat, since only family members are permited to see the patients...and seeing how us gringos don't exactly look Ecuadorian, things get a lil tricky at the Luis Vernaza gates. But it is quite amazing how a Nuevo Mundo teacher uniform when paired with a rosary around the neck can give the impression of a nun. And what hospital guard could possibly deny a sister of the Lord admission into a hospital...not that any of us have tried that or anything.
So while instead of "chestnuts roasting on an open fire," it is more like plastic bottles and other waste roasting in the piles of burning trash...it is all the same really! From our houses to yours, we hope you have a blessed Christmas season!

From Arbolito

Things continue down here at two degrees latitude. Some of the biggest news as of late in my community might be the fact that I will have actually gotten this blog up on time... however, there have been other events taking place these past few weeks.
Last weekend the Arbolito church band (Nueva Generacion) put on a concert, which also included a couple of other groups from the community. I think about 100 people showed up, and they raised a bunch of money for the church and for the group. I think it was one of the most successful events that I have seen put on by ecuadorians thus far. I was, as well the rest of us gringos and our community friends, very impressed.
As well as the concert, there was a play put on by the ARbolito church youth group on Sunday. The play was a reenactement of Scrooge, but definitely ecua-style. It was done at the Hansen´s hospital, and also went very well. Gifts were given to the hansen´s patients, and smiles and tears were seen all around.
Besides these events, and my miraculous blogging capabilities, things continue as normal here. WE are all busy each day, keeping our sites up and running, as well as trying to improve them. Things at Semillas de Mostaza, an after school program which I attend everyday, has recently been filled to capacity with about 110-130 kids for the past two weeks. It was been awesome, but tiring. CHristmas is right around the corner, and event planning is now in full swing. I am excited to see how it all goes, and do be a part of what comes.
be well all of you who read...
conor