Buenas!

Hope everyone who is reading this finds themselves doing well and keeping warm in the cold January weather. We have no trouble doing that here in the scorching heat that January has brought Ecuador, so no need to worry about us! Despite the sun and the invasion of the grillos, everything is rolling along just fine here in Duran. Yesterday I finished my Mundo class and was sad to say good-bye to my students, especially since some of them will not be returning to Nuevo Mundo next year. But the summer vacation will be a nice time to work on new projects and have a little bit of a change of pace. I will be going out every day to Manos Abiertas, our afterschool program in 28 de agosto, with Juanito, Bridget, and Marissa, and I am really excited to be able to be there with the kids every day. Since the kids are out of school, that means no homework, so we decided to change the format of the program for the summer. In place of the hour of homework time that we originally had, we have planned several subjects that we will be teaching the kids....geography, Spanish grammar, and English. Although we have only had three days of the ´new manos´ the kids seem really excited and are definitely into the new projects. I am excited to see their progress, especially in geography, and eager to see them learning that the world is a huge place with lots of different cultures, people, and opportunities. Because most of them do not have the resources to travel, it is easy for them to lose sight of the fact that the world is so huge. But hopefully, with Bridget´s hard work on the geography lessons, their eyes will be opened to new places and new possibilities.

During the summer, I will also be spending time at the Hansen´s hospital in the afternoons. Last weekend, a friend of Sr. Annie´s sponsored a huge party for the patients....complete with a huge lunch, drinks, ice cream, soccer and volleyball games, and of course, dancing! It was an awesome party and a great oppotunity for the patients to have fun outside of the hospital. They are still talking about how much fun they had, so I think it was a huge success.

Take care everyone. You, as always, will be in our prayers.

Chelsea

arbolito...alive and kicking

Well hello and welcome back to the blog. Things on the island (aka arbolito) have been going pretty well lately and a lot has happened since our last blog. I'll try to hit the high points for you.

In Semillas news, the kids have finished their school year and are now all coming to Semillas without homework. So now we are able to prepare our own lessons and teach the kids lots of fun things. However exciting that might sound, keep in mind that this is around 100 kids daily who just got off school for summer break. And if you can remember back to when you were little, learning the geography of Ecuador probably wasn't on your list of things to do once school was out. It's going pretty well so far though, and we and the Ecuadorian helpers have been working together to come up with more ideas on how and what to teach the kids.

Classes at Mundo have officially ended and we are now in the midst of juntas (meetings) and turning in grades and materials. It'll be nice to have a change of pace from Mundo, but I'll miss my English class too.

Back in Arbolito, plans are in the works to teach literacy classes to neighborhood kids that have trouble reading. Three of us will be doing so in the Semillas room in the morning with kids from Victor Murillo and Angel Padilla. Another three will be doing a similar activity in 'sector cuatro', an area of Arbolito that is even less developed than where our house and the tech school are. It will be a new adventure for us and we're very excited to see where it will go.

And lastly, Arbolito successfully hosted its first ever retreat group! Yours truly was the group leader and the group came to us from St. Bonaventure in New York. Eight bright eyed youngsters and two adult leaders spent nine days learning and experiencing what it is like to live in Durán. The experience was a complete success and the community here is waiting with anticipation the arrival of the next group in February.

So now you know. And remember kids, knowing is half the battle. Jasón out.

A Mid January Hello

I'm with everyone else. It is HARD to believe it is already January. Christmas feels like years ago, but what a good time it was. January, for me, feels like a transition period. Classes are wrapping up at Mundo...well, that is the rumor. Anyone who has been here before knows that we don't find out anything for sure until the week of. But I am sad my class will be ending; I enjoyed it immensely, especially when i finally got the hang of it. :) I am also looking forward to helping out with Valdivia. Emily has done a SUPERB job with it so far, but we are hoping for even more with more energy and hands.

I am trying to think of what I would like to do during vacation. Several of us have been talking about some kind of exercise or dance program at the foundation padre damien. I would also like to think of more activities or programs in the AJS neighborhood. It is amazing all the things that we could do...but I want to do something that will enhance a program we already have.

So we are midway through our first time of two simultaneous retreat groups. It seems to be going really well. I always enjoy the retreat groups. They remind me of what it was like to be here at first with all their questions. They are great questions that I am thankful to be thinking about again.

I can't believe that it has only been 5 months and I have already learned so much and grown as a person. Just as important, I have figured out how to articulate many more questions than I ever thought were possible. I look forward to the next couple of months as life starts to feel even more natural.

Thanks for reading,
Erin

After traveling a bit after Christmas I returned to Duran on New Years Eve and prepared myself for the night ahead. We burned a muñeca in the street outside the house and were invited over to Jesus and Walter for a second dinner and some dancing. We lit sparklers with Brian, Andres and Dennis and had a fun time watching Brian try to ride a adult sized bike. He made it alright until he hit the turns, which is when he would fall over. But true to his character he never shed a tear and hopped right back on it to ride and fall again. At 2am we traveled to Andres´house in Arbolito and danced the night away to raggaeton, salsa and merengue. By 6 we were all in bed exhausted. True to Ecuador the heat started on Sunday and in the last coulple of days, we in AJS have been baking in the oven, aka the house. But being somewhat accustomed to the heat now it´s not too unbearable. By tomorrow we will have two retreat groups here and although it will be crazy it will be good practice for the months to come, as double groups are planned. I think we´re all excited and nervous to have so many gringos at one time, but it should be a fun experience. Now that gym classes are over and I have a few days free I am able to spend more time in the neighborhood and had a nice chat with Gabriel and Theresa this morning. They are prepared for the groups and Gabriel is really excited because he´s starting making key chains to sell to the groups as well. THey are all doing well and continually make jokes about how for them it is one year less because of their age, but one year more for us because of ours. School break comes soon and a lot of us are lost as to what we will be doing but with Manos possibly moving to mornings we are looking forward to being able to put a lot of energy into being able to teach at them once the school year has ended. That´s all for now but as you all know poco a poco is how things go here...

2006

Greetings from AJS 2006!

Things seem to be winding down after the whirlwind Christmas season. Between visitors, trips and Ano Viejos things flew by!!

The Valdivia Christmas Party was rockin´...We had some dancing, food, and my personal favorite the nacimiento, it was awesome...The kids did such a great job and it was heartwarming to see them all come together, working hard the week leading up to it and have a fantastic final product.

As most of you know, I´m sure, Diego´s abuelita passed away a couple of weeks ago. After a month in the hospital, they finally took her home to be with her family for her last few days. Watching Diego agonize over this has been the most heartbreaking thing. He seems to be doing alright, but we all know how much he must miss her...Please continue to keep him in your prayers, as this 13 year old tried to make sense of life and death...

On a lighter note, New Years was super fun! After Mass we hit the streets to see all the ano viejos being lit up! It was really neat. Then it was off to Jesus and Walter´s for a delicious meal. We played with the kids for a while, and I was moved by their willingness to share their sparklers with us, it´s nice to feel like a little kid again!

I have a group that comes tomorrow from Fairfield University, and Jason has one in Arbolito, so that should be interesting to have two groups at once! I am really looking foward to the honor of leading these university students on this journey, it should be an education for all of us!!

Well, that´s all the news that´s fit to print!! I hope this finds you all well!!

Blessings for this new year!

La Paz,
Emily