Un año en Ecuador

Thank you

2011-12-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

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.

mi acción de gracias

2011-11-20T20:06:00.001-08:00

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

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

where it all began

2011-11-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my appeal, I'm raising money for the two foundations I worked with last year in Ecuador-- la Fundación Rostro de Cristo y la Fundación Nuevo Mundo. So far, you've heard a lot about Nuevo Mundo--from my first few weeks teaching there over a year ago, to witnessing the 14 seniors I taught graduate last January, to Pat McTeague's talk with visiting retreat groups. Today I'd like to tell you a little more about Rostro de Cristo, specifically the retreat program we run with high schools, colleges, and parish groups from the States.

Rostro de Cristo was founded in 1988 by Fr. Jim Ronan, a parish priest from the Boston area. Fr. Jim joined the St. James Society, which meant volunteering to serve as a priest for 5 years in Peru, Bolivia, or Ecuador. Fr. Jim was assigned to a parish in the oldest part of Durán, which was beginning to see a huge influx (or invasion) of Ecuadorians moving from the countryside to Durán, where they could squat or buy cheap land and work in the big city--Guayaquil. Durán quickly balooned to a city of over 500,000 people, most living in cane houses built over the swamps of the Guayas River. With such sprawling poverty unlike anything in the States, Fr. Jim began inviting high schools, college, and parish groups down to Ecuador to see Durán for themselves and meet some of the people who live in this reality every day.

Fr. Jim with Pat McTeague and Sonya Rendón, founders of Nuevo Mundo
outside the newest Rostro de Cristo house in Mount Sinai, Guayaquil

Before Fr. Jim's 5 years were up, he began recruiting volunteers to live in Durán and help continue the program--to receive the retreat groups, show them around, keep them safe, translate, and introduce them to their friends and neighbors in Durán. Over the years, the program grew, working with partner organizations like Nuevo Mundo to build volunteer and retreat houses in the Antonio Jose de Sucre neighborhood in 1994; the Arbolito neighborhood in 2003; and the newest invasion community, Mt. Sinai in western Guayaquil, in 2010. From one volunteer living with Fr. Jim to now sixteen volunteers living in three different communities in Duran and Guayaquil.

visiting Damien House with Cabrini College

The retreat program now hosts 26 groups a year--mainly Catholic high schools and colleges who stay anywhere from 6 - 12 days. One volunteer is responsible for leading each retreat, so with sixteen volunteers, most volunteers lead about two groups per year. The primary function of the retreat program is education--to expose and educate North Americans on the realities of the developing world, to meet and get to know real people who live these realities, and to witness firsthand some of the work being done by Ecuadorian partner foundations to change these realities.

Before a group even gets to Ecuador, Rostro provides them with extensive background information on Ecuador and the developing world; so the first day in country, retreatants dive right into neighbor visits. Volunteers and retreatants live in houses in the hearts of these developing communities, so we often literally walk just next door to talk to neighbors. Most neighbors have known the Rostro community for years, and are more than happy to share their homes for an hour or two with retreat groups.

visiting friends with my Dad

These conversations can be anywhere from terribly uncomfortable (imagine a dozen gringos crammed in a one bedroom cane house when it's 100 degrees out trying to make conversation with Ecuadorians through a translator while the pet dogs, cats, ducks, chickens, rabbits, and geese are all making noise in the back of the house); to hilarious (some of the neighbors love to push the retreatants for all the juicy details on their boyfriends, girlfriends, or "amigos especiales"); to heartbreaking (when a neighbor opens up about deaths that didn't need to happen because healthcare is non-existent; or husbands, sons, sisters, brothers they haven't seen in years because they work three jobs and live illegally in the States or Europe).

Whether it's a lighthearted chat or a visit that leaves everyone in tears, what retreatants most often realize is how close we really are to people who on the surface would seem so very different. Through the language barriers, economic barriers, geographic barriers, we all laugh, we all cry, we all love.

sharing a birthday with neighbors

And as simple as that may sound, that is an integral part of the retreat program. Compared with other 3rd world "service trips," retreat groups don't actually do any work in Ecuador; they don't build houses, paint buildings, or give handouts. Rather, retreatants come to Ecuador to be with the Ecuadorian people, to listen to them, to learn from them, to share their time with them. Instead of leaving with a sense of accomplishment--"I built a house"--retreatants leave with relationships, memories of the people they took the time to be with. The hope being that that memory, that person you connected with will be a constant reminder of not only how much we have, but moreso how much we owe to those who don't.

And so, again, I ask for your help. Rostro has very little overhead in the States--from every dollar you give to Rostro, 91 cents goes straight to Ecuador, ensuring that the retreat program, the volunteer program, and our partner organizations in Ecuador can continue to do work where it is needed the most.

Below is a 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

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 before, 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

another birthday with neighbors... MY birthday!
(and Jessie and Henry, too)

My Appeal

2011-11-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

Today I am asking my family and friends to help support the two foundations that will forever be a part of my life: Fundación Rostro de Cristo and Fundación Nuevo Mundo.

Before we left for Ecuador last year, each volunteer was asked to raise $2,500 to help Rostro de Cristo cover the costs of our programs--food and stipends for volunteers; salaries for our guards and program staff; and, most importantly, daily bread, bananas, and water for the kids at our three After School Programs. I didn't ask for money back then a) because I was already planning a fundraiser for St. Anthony's, and b) I hadn't yet been to Ecuador, so I couldn't really tell you from personal experience what I was raising money for. Sure I knew Rostro was a great foundation, but I felt weird asking people for money when it wasn't even real for me yet.

So, I paid the $2,500 out of my savings, and told myself that after this year, if this is something worth my family and friends' money, then I would ask them for help. And here we are. You've been with me all year. You've seen my pictures. You've read my blogs. I've caught up with a lot of you personally these last two months. I would not be writing you right now if this did not mean something very very special to me.

Rostro de Cristo and Nuevo Mundo are like any other non-profit these days--they badly need money to stay open every day. The seniors I taught last fall were the last seniors to graduate from Nuevo Mundo because the foundation could no longer financially support a full high school--now the school only runs through the 9th grade.

In the past I've held fundraisers--concerts, raffles, t-shirt sales--to support the causes close to my heart. From 2007 - 2010 I worked with dozens of different friends to hold events that raised over $15,000 for St. Anthony's and Doctors Without Borders (after the Haitian Earthquake). Today, though, instead of appealing to your love of raffle prizes, sweet t-shirts, live rock 'n roll, and cheap drinks, I want to appeal to your heart. Yeah, I know that sounds a little corny--and don't worry, I'm not done partying for a good cause--but this time, I just want to focus on the act of giving--nothing in return, just knowing that your small sacrifice will make a huge difference in the lives of my new friends, my new family, in Ecuador.

So I come to you, my friends, my family, and ask you to help support something very personal, very important to me. This month we celebrate Thanksgiving (believe it or not, they know about it in Ecuador too, and call it Acción de Gracias), and it's in this spirit of gratitude that I ask for your help. I will forever be thankful for the experiences these two foundations gave me this past year--I could never repay them for the impact they have had on my life, but I'd like to try.

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.

Below is a 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

Thanks!

Mark

What's Next?

2011-08-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

Alright, I know I'm back in the States and Rostro no longer lists me as a current volunteer, but my ass is still unemployed, so I'm gonna keep writing. Deal with it. Through all this transition time, one thing I keep coming back to is this little thing we call the "What's Next?" talk. I'm sure I've mentioned this in previous posts, but in addition to our works sites, a big responsibility of being a Rostro de Cristo volunteer is hosting the 26 high school and college retreat groups who come down every year from the States. The retreats usually last anywhere from 7-10 days, and on the last day, we give this talk/guided reflection we call "What's Next?"

Now that I'm back, I've been doing a lot of the same kind of reflecting on my year in Ecuador, and what I'm going to do with that going forward. One thing I keep coming back to--one of the most powerful parts of the retreats, in my opinion--is taking the retreatants to Nuevo Mundo to meet Patricia McTeague. Pat first came to Ecuador as a nun in the late 60s, and she saw education as the tool to empower Ecuadorians to lift themselves out of poverty. In the early 80s, after a whole lot of "now's not the time" answers from the church/nunnery, Pat quit the sisterhood, partnered up with Sonya Rendón, and with $4,000 started the Fundación Nuevo Mundo in Sonya's parents' house. Today, the morning school offers the best education money can buy to Guayaquil's elite, all while subsidizing the education of hundreds (thousands over the past 30 years) of kids from the poorest areas of Guayaquil.

Seeing the impact this school has had on countless families, students, alumni, etc. is enough to inspire anyone, but talking to the founder herself can literally be a life changing experience. In not so many words, Pat is a bad ass bitch, and she does not pussyfoot around what she expects out of people. Her favorite statistic to throw at retreatants (most of whom come from expensive private Catholic high schools and universities) is that only 1% of the world's population gets a college education. Pat asks each student individually "What are you studying?" "What do you want to do when you graduate?" and "How are you going to change the world?" Heavy shit. Coming from someone who actually is changing the world, these questions carry weight.

Being in this 1% is a gift, a privilege--without a doubt--but for Pat, it's so much more than something to be thankful for. It's a goddamn obligation to use that gift, that privilege, that power to do what that other 99% can't do to make the world a better place. 99% of the world--maybe more--will never have the opportunities we have. That is the status quo--the nature of the unjust world we live in. Being in that 1%, though, we have the opportunity, the power to speak and act for those who can't. To work for a more just society, where maybe one day 2% or--God forbid--3% can get a college education.

And then Pat gets all serious and tells them something like "I'm old. I'll be long gone before you start doing something with your life. But I know I'm going to heaven. So when you get there, and you didn't do anything to make the world a better place, and you say 'I didn't know what I was supposed to do,' I'll be there, and I'll tell you. Yes you did. On this day in 2011, in Ecuador, the crazy bitch with the white hair told you what you had to do."

I've heard Pat bring down the wrath of God on at least 1/2 a dozen retreat groups, and every time I get a little lump in my throat when she gets to the "I'm telling you today what you have to do" part. You don't have to be Catholic or even believe in heaven and hell to get the point. We are that 1% who have the education, who have the power. Whether it feels like we can make a change or not, the fact is we can--if we choose to. Pat listened to her heart and did what she knew was right--not what the nuns or everyone else expected of her.

So, just as the retreatants reflect on their 7-10 days in Ecuador, here I am reflecting on my 365 days. Thinking about what Pat McTeague said--what am I gonna do to change the world? Thinking about working at Nuevo Mundo--the kids I taught who work way harder than I ever did, but don't have anywhere near the number of opportunities that I had. Thinking about the struggles of poverty--abusive husbands/fathers, teenage moms, non-existent healthcare, kids who can't go to school because they have to work, and kids who can go to school but are in a classroom with eighty other kids. But mostly I'm thinking about all the friends I made--the people who opened their homes, opened their lives to me this year. Shared their joys, struggles, laughter, and tears with me. Faces I will never forget. Thinking about going back to visit these friends, and what I'm going to have to say to them. What did I learn from this year I spent with them, and what am I going to do about it?

Don't worry, I don't have any answers yet. Not even close. Right now I'm just trying to get settled back in San Francisco (ask any of my former students, and they'll tell you where the best city in the world is). But these questions aren't going anywhere. And I'm never going to forget this year.

The Picchu

2011-08-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

After a total of three hours sleep the two previous nights, three airport runs, and demasiado tearful goodbyes in Duran, I hopped a plane to Peru on Saturday morning, August 13th. Little layover in Lima, then got into Cusco around 5pm, thrilled as hell to see Chris Peterson's ugly ass waiting for me outside the airport. I think his first words were "Brother! You look like shit!" The lack of sleep, emotional drain of the goodbyes, and going from a sea level equatorial climate to the top of the damn Andes threw my body for a loop, to say the least. My body still isn't used to sub 80 degree temperatures, but those first two days in Cusco were the worst--no matter what I did, I literally could not get warm.

All good though... that's why they make mate de coca, right? We went out to dinner that first night and I got after a big plate of lomo saltado and washed it down with a nice warm cup of coca leaf tea. We went to bed early so I could catch up on some sleep, then we hit the hiking first thing Sunday morning (with more mate de coca for breakfast, claro). Chris had booked us on a four day trek to Machu Picchu starting Tuesday morning, so we wanted to get me acclimated to the altitude as soon as possible. He took me up to a few vista points above Cusco and we checked out a couple ruins and old Incan caves. Amazing stuff, but I felt like the fat kid in gym class huffin and puffin the whole way, asking Coach Peterson for water breaks every 20 minutes.

click here to see pics from the Cusco
ruins and stove building in Pachar

Sunday night we bussed to Urubamba, a little town in the Sacred Valley a couple hours from Cusco. We woke up early Monday and spent the morning building stoves in the community of Pachar, just outside of Urubamba, with ProPeru, the volunteer program Chris is working with. After my year in Ecuador, it was really cool to see another volunteer program and the different work they were doing in Peru. The community was incredibly grateful (both the families we built stoves for fed us delicious lunches), and you could tell that the stoves were really going to be a positive thing for the communities. Click here for more info about the Pro Peru Stoves Project.

We headed back to Cusco Monday afternoon, ran into a little parade (pics in the album above), then got to bed early for another early morning Tuesday. Our 4 day Machu Picchu trek started right away with a 6am pickup, breakfast, then van ride up to the Abra de Malaga Pass, at 4,350 meters above sea level. From there, we started a 3 and a half hour bike ride, during which we literally went from the snowline at the top of the Andes to tropical jungle at 1,430 meters above sea level. Needless to say, we had to stop halfway to strip some layers.

click here to see pics from days 3,4,5
on the road to Machu Picchu...
biking, rafting, hiking, zip-lining

After the bike ride, we lunched, had a little nap, then did some white water rafting on the Rio Urubamba. We stayed in Santa Maria Tuesday night, then Wednesday morning were up at 6am again to start the hike to Santa Teresa. Stopped by a coca plantation--they assured us that the leaves were for tea, not la cocaina--hiked up to some old Inca trails high in the mountains (see pics in the album to the left), then back down to the river, ending the day relaxing in the natural hot baths of Santa Teresa (yes, the speedo made an appearance, but sorry, no pictures). After the biking and rafting the day before, then hiking all day Wednesday, the hot baths were aaaaaamazing. Cold beer, hot baths, call it a day.

Thursday morning we went zip-lining (pics & video above), then continued the trek to Machu Picchu. We followed the Urubamba River from Santa Teresa to Aguas Calientes, where we spent our last night before the Picchu. We left the hostel at 4am Friday morning and hiked something like 1,850 steps up to the entrance of Machu Picchu. Sure we could have taken the bus, but where's the fun in that? We crushed the hour hike in just over 30 mins, and promptly changed our shirts when we got to the top (our guide warned us we would sweat our asses off).

The gates opened at 6am, and Chris and I were in the first group let in (we would have been THE first if it weren't for a group of over-motivated Germans who were just ahead of us on the hike). We had about half an hour to cruise around the ruins before sunrise, which was absolutely beautiful. I'll never forget standing above those ruins in that crisp mountain air with no one else around (after the first hour or so, the ruins just got packed with turistas). We also hiked up Wayna Picchu, the mountain you always see in the background of Machu Picchu, which had some amazing views looking back on the ruins of Machu Picchu. The pictures (link below) should speak for themselves, but looking at them now, it's impossible to capture that feeling of being at the top of these mountains, immersed in this incredible display of human history, and surrounded by just sheer natural beauty. One of the many humbling experiences this year.

pics from The Lost City

no te vaaaaaaaaaaayas, tu eres cheeeeevere

2011-07-31T07:34:00.000-07:00

The end is near my friends... just had our despedidas this weekend, new volunteers get in tonight, my last day at Mundo is Thursday, I leave for Peru Saturday, then on August 23rd, American Airlines flight 1455 takes me home to SFO. The past couple months have flown by... still can't believe I'll be in San Francisco in less than a month.

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!!

While we're on the topic of Emelec (which, by the way is an acronym for the Empresa Electrica del Ecuador, or Ecuadorian Electric Co.), way before Cristian Menendez was the famous white boy on the team, America's favorite ginger-defender, Alexi Lalas played for Emelec for about a month back in '97. Funny thing, though, apparently all anyone here remembers about him is that he was big into the cocaina...

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.

New volunteer orientation starts tomorrow morning, Peru with Chris F-ing Peterson the 13th-22nd, then back to the fog (oh how I miss thee) August 23rd. Unless we have another coup or something monumental like that, I can pretty much guarantee this will be my last blog from Ecuador. If you play your cards right, maybe I'll get it together to do one last blog when I get home; but for now, I'm signing off. Thanks for reading. It's been a hell of a year. Hope to see everyone when I get home.

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.

Baños de Agua Santa

2011-05-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador

The baths of the holy water! Where to begin... Baños is this this quaint little town in the Ecuadorian Andes that sits on the hillside of Ecuador's largest active volcano, Tungurahua (16,480 ft). The town is named for it's natural hot springs, and at 6,000 feet and an hour away from the Amazon, Baños is known as the adventure sports capital of Ecuador.

The mighty Tungurahua... there have already been 2 evacuations
this year, but lucky for us, she was sleeping when we visited.

Back in April, a couple volunteers and I took a 3 day weekend trip to Baños, and it lived up to all the hype. We went river rafting, hiked through the Amazon, visited a monkey reserve, ate some cuy (guinea pig), swang from jungle vines, learned about all kinds of bugs and plants that will help us survive if we ever get lost in the rainforest, and of course, relaxed in the hot baths! I took a ton of pics and a couple videos, so I'll let the pictures and videos do most of the talking. The best place to start, though, is probably the last thing I did before I left... jumping off a little bridge in town. Looks like bungee jumping, but you actually jump off one side of the bridge with the rope tied to the other side; so after the freefall, you swing back and forth like a pendulum. Here's the video...

Considering the $18 cash transaction and lack of any sort of "if you die it's not our fault" waivers, puenting probably wasn't the most prudent decision I've made this year... vale la pena though!

So we took an overnight busride from Guayaquil to Baños Thursday night and got in at around 5:30am Friday, April 8th (Standard timing disclosure: I went on this trip back in early April and I'm just getting around to uploading/blogging about it now... we can pretend it was last weekend though). We had absolutely zero plans for the weekend, and Don Diego knew it when he saw us get off the bus. He offered us a place to stay for $6/night, and considering it was dark out, nothing else looked open, and $6 is a great deal, we took it. Kipp, Tasha, and I all got our own full size beds in a room with cable TV and a bathroom with hot water (both luxuries I have not indulged in since the US of A... can't tell you how amazing that hot shower was). We got settled in, took a quick nappy, then hit the road at 9am to go river rafting on the Rio Pastaza (Don Diego hooked us up with some buddies of his who run adventure tours).

Click here to see my River Rafting pics

I'd only been river rafting once before, so I'm no pro by any means, but this stuff was way more intense than the PwC sponsored booze cruise I did on the American River back in '04 (oh the glory days of a public accounting internship...). Full body workout, helmets required, running head on into walls of water taller than the raft, etc. All at the foothills of the Andes as they meet the Amazon Rainforest. Mamazing.

After our half day rafting adventure, Kipp and I did some chompa (sweater) shopping at the local artisan market. In addition to the triumphant baby blue aguila (eagle) chompa I picked up, I also got a sweet-ass mood ring. It was an impulse buy, and after a solid weekend of blues, deep greens, indigos, and purple moods, it no longer changes colors =( Either that or I'm just incredibly boring. Friday night we hit up the famous hot springs beneath the beautiful Cascada de la Virgen (Waterfall of the Virgin--pictures in the album above). After the 8 hour bus ride the night before and river rafting all day, soaking in those hot baths was just what the doctor ordered. I wasn't sure if the European speedo culture had made it down here, but I brought my banana hammock just in case. I mean trunks are cool, but if life gives me a chance to wear my speedo in public, I'm gonna make lemonade. Lucky for me (and everyone else there, of course), I deemed the hot baths of Baños speedo appropriate (sorry ladies, no pictures). Simply liberating.

the triumphant aguila

Day 2 took us into the Amazon for a full day of visiting a monkey reserve, canoeing down the Rio Puyo (like the Rio Pastaza and pretty much every river east of the Andes, it's a tributary to the actual Amazon River), visiting an indiginous Ecuadorian community, and hiking through the selva (jungle) to an incredible waterfall and swimming hole (see pictures below). We even got to do some Tarzan swinging on real live jungle vines (video below... don't mind my all natural exfoliating jungle face mask):

Amazing day, and to cap everything off, Don Diego takes us to this vista point overlooking the whole Puyo River Valley... there were hammocks set up to take in the view, and the biggest rope swing I've ever seen to take it all in (video below).

Day 3 (Sunday) was a half day since we had to get back to Durán to work the next morning. We made the most of it, though, and ate some bbq'd rodent then jumped off the Puente San Francisco (first video above). Here's my album from Days 2-3, which has all the pictures from the Amazon (monkey reserve, indiginous community, waterfall, various flaura and fauna, etc.) and Baños (bridge jumping, guinea pig eating, etc.).

click here to see my pics from Days 2-3

in the Amazon & Baños

Veintiocho

2011-05-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

Continuing my theme of posting things well after they've happened, I wanted to share some pictures from Carnaval (yes, way back in early March), and some stories from Veintiocho de Agosto, another neighborhood in Durán where Rostro runs an after school progam.

Like most of Latin America, Carnaval (aka the weekend before Ash Wednesday... same idea as Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday minus the tittie beads and booze) is huge in Ecuador, and I think it's safe to say Carnaval is my favorite Ecua-holiday thusfar. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but for 4 days in Durán, the streets turn into a no-holds barred paint/water fight all day every day. It's one big hot sticky dirty wet mess.

The pictures below are from the Sunday of Carnaval weekend, when we went out to Veintiocho to play with some of the kids my roommate Jessie works with at Manos Abiertas.

click here to see my photo album from Veintiocho!

I think I mentioned Veintiocho way back in one of my first blogs, but I can't say enough how special this community is. It's only a couple miles from where I live, but in those couple miles, the paved roads turn to dirt and mud, the cinderblock houses to cane, and other than intermittent electricity, all signs of infrastructure disappear. I took some pictures on the drive out there, and it's still dramatic for me to see having lived here 9 months.

Because my job sites are elsewhere, I don't spend too much time in Veintiocho; but my roommate Jessie is out there working with these kids every day. Rather than retell her stories, I thought I'd just let you read her blog here: Impressions on the Heart. I also copied some more background about Veintiocho de Agosto below, from the Rostro de Cristo website, explaining the history of the community and the dramatic needs they face there. The realities of Veintiocho are easily some of the hardest I've seen this year.

Also, NPR came down to Guayaquil recently to do a couple stories on different "social entrepreneurs taking on world problems"--whatever that means. They focussed on a couple programs down here, one of which, Chicos de la Calle, is the shelter/trade school for street boys that Jessie teaches English at in the mornings. This article (I think you can listen to the actual radio show, too) follows Maribel, a single mom in Veintiocho, and her two sons, Hamilton and Christian, who are students at Chicos. Through her involvement in Veintiocho and at Chicos, Jessie knows the entire family very well and often spends her weekends visiting them in Veintiocho. If you have time to give it a read, it's pretty interesting to get the NPR perspective of life down here. Sadly, Maribel is just one of countless mothers here who struggle daily with the demands of raising a family of 7 alone amidst this poverty I see every day now, but could not begin to imagine 10 months ago.

NPR: Ecuadoran Family Finds Refuge With Salesians

Veintiocho de Agosto

Founded on August 28, 1997, this growing community is based around what used to be an active trash dump. Eleven full trucks each made two trips a day, seven days a week, providing a recycling industry for members of the community brave enough to search for plastics and glass products underneath and within heaps of household waste. Herds of cattle and pigs would feed on the trash and, unsurprisingly, various health problems accompany the ever-present insects. To keep their neighborhood from literally turning into a mountain of trash, the people burned all that is non-recyclable; there are horrendous consequences for general respiratory health. For these and other reasons, many childern living in Veintiocho de Agosto are, on average, three years behind developmentally in terms of normal height and weight for healthy Ecuadorian children.

The 28 community was able to build a two room elementary school ("Escuela Particular Alan Lynch") and medical dispensary in April of 2003 with funds raised by Rostro de Cristo and activists in Durán. What started as a small cane structure with less than 20 students has now grown into a school that can educate 150 children, grades kindergarden through sixth. Whereas three years ago most children in Veintiocho finished going to school after elementary school, the majority of graduates from Escuela Particular Alan Lynch continue on with middle school and high school education. The last year alone has seen numerous improvements structurally, as well as more involvement from parents and local citizens. Brick walls replaced the former tarp and metal clad boundaries of the school, and all classrooms now have cement floors in place of former rock and dirt floors. Many of these long-term projects have happened with the help of former volunteers as well as retreat group participants.

Because of the overwhelming health concerns, people working in Veintiocho have realized that many school children who attend Escuela Particular Alan Lynch are malnourished and not able to perform up to their full potential during the school day. In the summer of 2005, a lunch program began to provide nutritious meals for the children attending school. Everyday, a group of mothers volunteer their time to prepare and cook nutritious lunches for about 150 children. This has in turn created more parental involvement within the school and community.

The people of Veintiocho are in great need of medical and educational aid. Once a week a doctor voluntarily visits the school to check children as well as other members of the community. This service is focused on the Alan Lynch school but is open to all residents. Escuela Particular Alan Lynch also houses the after school program Manos Abiertas, where kids can work on their homework and projects in a safe and spacious environment under the supervision and guidance of Rostro de Cristo and Ecuadorian volunteers.

La Última Graduación

2011-04-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

I told you I'd be back on the blog soon! I want to tell you about one of the highlights of my year so far. If you can remember back to October--you know, when I was blogging somewhat regularly--I told you about the 14 seniors I taught English to in the Fall (see previous blog here). Well, not only did they all pass my class (come on, could you really see me failing a 2nd semester senior??), but they also all graduated this past January! Now I've been to a few graduations in my day, but nothing will ever compare to this one. I don't even know how to describe it other than that it was a really really special day for everyone there--even the gringo English teacher who had only been in country six months.

First of all, there's all the emotions of any high school graduation--from the high of accomplishing something you've strived toward for years, to the bittersweet goodbyes and realizing you won't be seeing your best friends every day anymore. Then you consider that this isn't just any high school, this is a K-12 full scholarship foundation whose students have to show a dramatic family need just to attend, and they have to maintain a B+ average every year in order to stay,--all while still living in that dramatic family need. Starting with 60 - 70 kids in Kindergarden, then seeing only 14 students graduate, you start to realize how significant of an accomplishment this really is. Most of these kids grew up in cane houses, were lucky to have one parent with a steady income, and shared that 1 bedroom cane house with 4 or 5 brothers and sisters. That's a big generalization and not necessarily true for all my students, but I'd say it's the par for the course--some had better situations, some worse.

On top of all that, Nuevo Mundo is phasing out the last 3 years of high school, so this was the last class high school graduation ever from the Foundation. Two years ago, the Fundación Nuevo Mundo decided to offer scholarships to the top 10 students from the 9th grade to finish 10th - 12th grade in the IB program of the Colegio Nuevo Mundo (the expensive private school that essentially subsidizes the entire foundation school). So while this is a very exciting transition for Nuevo Mundo--especially for those students who get the scholarships--it was also sad realizing that this would be the last group of students to ever graduate high school from the Foundation. So the entire Nuevo Mundo family--faculty, staff, students, alumni, family, and friends--was there to celebrate the impact Nuevo Mundo has had on these 14 graduates and the hundreds of other students over the past 25+ years.

Like I said before, I don't know how to describe it, but it was an emotional day. I'm not a crier, but I was fighting back the waterworks all afternoon. Pat McTeague and Sonia Rendón--the two women who founded Nuevo Mundo over 25 years ago, literally live at the school, and still run the day to day--both spoke, and I can't begin to tell you how inspiring they are. One of my former students, Saira, gave a beautiful Valedictorian speech, and the sincerity with which she thanked her parents and Nuevo Mundo for the opportunities she had been given is something I will never forget. Even the commencement speaker who I had never met before, an alumnus from the class of 2001 (coincidentally the same year I graduated high school), got me feeling all awkward and emotional inside. The impact Nuevo Mundo has on all its students--from the opportunities it offers to the incredible maturity the students develop over the years there--is unlike anything I've ever experienced.

OK, I'm starting to feel kinda like that A-hole friend who just saw a stand up comedian and is failing miserably at retelling the jokes... I don't know what else to say other than I guess you just had to be there. I did record a little video from the graduation, though, so maybe if you watch this you can kinda see what I'm talking about. At the very end of the graduation, all the alumni came to the front of the stage to join the 14 graduates in signing the official Nuevo Mundo theme song...

Yes, that was the sensual voice of Mama Cass singing her 1970 hit "New World Coming" (fun fact this song was also featured several times in Seasons 2 and 3 of the hit ABC drama "LOST"). I also posted a bunch of pictures from the graduation on my Picasa site (where you can also see all the other pictures I've posted from this year). Enjoy!

click here to see my pics of the Class of 2011!!

El Invierno! Spanish for The Invierno!

2011-03-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

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...

Horatioooo!

2011-02-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

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.

matando parasitos, tirando machetes, y haciendo pecho

2010-12-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

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...

mi barrio

2010-12-05T08:29:00.000-08:00

click here to check out all my pics from AJS!

Antonio Jose de Sucre is a small cooperative of about 3 square blocks in Duran, Ecuador. Rostro de Cristo has held a strong presence in this community since 1994. The property has two buildings; the first is the Rostro de Cristo retreat house that houses about 13 retreat groups a year. The second building serves two functions: the first floor is a day care center/preschool run by Nuevo Mundo, and the second floor is where I live with the other year long volunteers--Beth, Tasha, Celso, and Jessie.

Antonio Jose de Sucre is an older neighborhood than El Arbolito and therefore in many ways more progressed. This small barrio already houses a casa comunal (community house), a cancha (cement soccer field), a playground, a Nuevo Mundo medical dispensary, and continued improvement of paved roads. However, the poverty is still rampant: residents have no running water, there are frequent power outages, standing dirty water in the rainy season, as well as many families who still live in cane houses.

So that's the official AJS background from the Rostro website. Rostro has had a long history here (year long volunteers have been living in AJS for 16 years), and we were incredibly lucky to already have those relationships when we came here. From the first day, all the neighbors have been incredibly hospitable to all of us volunteers--inviting us over for meals, birthday parties, or just to talk or watch TV. I tried to caption most of the pictures, so rather than ramble on here, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy!

The New World!

2010-10-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

Pocahontas had no chance

No, not the shitty Colin Farrell movie... I'm talking about the school I teach at, Fundación Nuevo Mundo! Thusfar I've blogged about a bingo and my secret love affair with mayo, an attempted coup, a weekend in paradise, a 7 year old's birthday party, and more info than I'm sure anyone cares to read about Rostro orientation, potential work sites, and after school programs... how about a normal day in the life of a 27 year old accountant teaching English in Ecuador??

Most mornings start around 7am with a community prayer. We have a pretty liberal interpretation of prayer (gracias a Dios), so it can be anything from a traditional prayer to a song, poem, or excerpt from a book or speech (like for example when Celso enlightened us all with the Emancipation Proclamation one morning... nothing like a little Honest Abe to start the day!). After prayer I usually take Oso (our dog) for a walk, say hi to some neighbors, and finish up any lesson planning or grading before heading in to work.

At 12:15 every day I teach English to the 14 graduating seniors at Nuevo Mundo. The school year here is from March - December, so these guys are deep into 2nd semester senioritus. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a challenge trying to keep their interest, but I just keep reminding myself of how much fun I had senior year in high school (and how little I remember from the actual "school" part of it). They're all great though, and I admire the hell out of all 14 of them. Just to graduate high school is a huge accomplishment here, and all of these guys are going to college next year, and I know they're all gonna do great things with their lives. I gave them a writing assignment a few weeks back to talk about what they want to do after graduating (I billed it as practice speaking in the future tense, but it was more for my own curiosity than anything else), and they talked about wanting to be doctors, dentists, engineers, business people, and teachers. A couple of them are hoping to get scholarships to study in the States, and literally all 14 of them mentioned something about wanting to start a foundation or give back to the Ecuadorian people in some way.

It's a great testament to the type of education they get at Nuevo Mundo. A lot of schools in the States value community service and teaching social justice (probably the main reason I'm here now is what I learned in high school and college), but it just rings so much truer here because poverty and injustice are part of everyone's daily life. There are plenty of historical/societal factors to blame for the injustices here, but instead of focusing on the blame, Nuevo Mundo empowers these kids to make positive changes in their world. It not only provides them with the tools, the education they would not otherwise have, but the mission of Nuevo Mundo is also to inspire the heart to use these tools to create change.

Bieber fever is rampant here

So after the seniors, I teach 2 classes of 7th grade English. No matter where you are in the world, pretty much every teenage year is hilariously awkward, but 7th grade has to be up there as one of the funniest. You're definitely not a kid anymore, you kind of think you know everything, but you're still trying to figure out the whole social dynamic and how you fit in, and to top it all off, hormones are going crazy! Haha it's definitely a challenge to teach this age, and just as the seniors give me a hard time with senioritus, the 7th graders give me a hard time with whatever you want to call being 13 years old. They've been learning English since Kindergarden, but they are definitely beginners compared to the seniors. They constantly try to talk to me in Spanish, which is pretty hilarious because my Spanish is barely better than their English. They're all awesome though, and we usually have a great time in class.

The 7th grade classes are at different times every afternoon, so in between and after classes I usually work on lesson plans, grading, etc. (aka my least favorite part of teaching). Also, Celso, Caitlin, (the other 2 Rostro volunteers who teach at Mundo) and I each spend a couple afternoons a week tutoring the sophomores and juniors who have scholarships to attend the morning school. A couple years back, the afternoon school decided to phase out the high school (the seniors I teach are the last class left), and instead offer scholarships to the top 10 students from the 9th grade to finish 10th - 12th grade in the morning school's IB program. I talked a little bit about this in my earlier blog about the different work sites, but the morning school, known as Centro Educativo, instructs the wealthier students of Ecuador, while the afternoon school, Fundación, allows the poorer children to utilize the same facilities as the morning school. Half of the classes in the morning school's IB program are taught in English, so we help the becados (scholarship kids, from beca, which means scholarship... not to be confused with pecados, which means sins!) to make sure they're understanding everything in their classes (History is a big one because there's so much vocab they've never heard before).

The becados probably have the most interesting social dynamic because they all come from poor neighborhoods like Durán and now have scholarships to attend high school side by side with the wealthy elite of the Puntilla. Cliques and normal high school social dynamics are tough enough as it is, but this adds a whole different challenge to everything. They taught me a word the other day, pelucón, which is a common word for the Ecuadorian bourgeoisie. The literal translation is hairy, and refers to the old wigs French aristocrats used to wear in the 17th and 18th centuries (think George Washington, etc.). Ecuador's liberal president, Rafael Correa, has popularized the term often using it to refer to people with money who represent the old political practices/parties of the country.

The last class gets out at 6:10pm (remember, the pelucones use the school in the mornings, so the foundation school doesn't start until the afternoon), then I take the yellow school bus with the foundation kids back to Durán. I usually get home around 7pm, have a lovely dinner with my roommates, then wrap the night up with some more planning/grading, hanging out with the neighborhood kids, reading, and/or journalling. Oh and random Ecuador fact while I'm on the topic of daily routines... the sun sets and rises at the same time all year on the equator. Sunrise around 5:30 - 6am and sunset around 6 - 6:30pm... 12 hour days all year.

Puerto López and Isla de la Plata

2010-10-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

click here to see the pics from my trip!

After almost 3 months here, I finally got to see some sights! Last weekend I went with Tasha, Christina, Jon, Caitlin, and Tierney to the beach town of Puerto López, a little beach town about 3 hours northwest of Durán/Guayaquil. Our buddy Wacho runs a taxi service, and he picked us up at 5am Saturday to catch the 5:30 bus out of Guayaquil. Wacho convinced us to pay the extra $2 for the scenic route along Hwy 1, and it was tooootally worth it. Felt just like cruising Hwy 1 back home! Amazing views of the Pacific, and we got to drive through Montañita and some other beach towns along the way. Definitely going to have to make it back to see some of these other towns!

So we got to our hostel in Puerto López around 9am, and were quickly convinced to take a boat ride (leaving immediately!) out to Isla de la Plata (known here as the poor man's Galapagos). On a volunteer's stipend, the real Galapagos just isn't in the cards, so we came to Puerto López/Isla de la Plata hoping to at least see some of Ecuador's most famous attaction. Instead of the multiple day, multiple hundred dollar trek out to the Galapagos, we each paid $35 and got more than our money's worth in one day at Isla de la Plata (which by the way gets its name from its history as a secret pirate's lair for stashing loot--plata means silver, or money). That included our admission to the national park, breakfast, a 2 hour walking tour of the island, lunch, some snorkeling around the reefs, and the hour and a half boat ride each way. Isla Plata doesn't have anywhere near the biodiversity of the Galapagos (honestly it's pretty arid and not much lives there), but we got to see a ballena (whale), a delfin (dolphin), some tortugas (sea turtles), and bastante piqueros patas azules (a shit ton of blue footed boobies). I took a bunch of pictures and uploaded them to the album above.

Oh and on our way out of Puerto López, we passed the morning fish market (apparently Puerto López is the county's biggest fishing port), which consisted of dozens of fishing boats unloading human-sized sharks and fish onto the beach to be trucked into town. Kind of disturbing seeing all these huge dead animals just laying on the beach (I assume sharking is legal?), but impressive at the same time. We were all so thrown off by the whole thing that I didn't even think to get my camera out until we were almost done walking through it all (click the picture above to see the album... I got a couple pics of some sharks and then some pics of the market as we were in the boat on the way to Isla de la Plata).

We got back from Isla de la Plata around 6pm, cleaned up at the hostel, and went to a little restaurant called Carmita's across the street from the beach. I finally had my first Ecuadorian ceviche, and it was DE-licious! I'm pretty food ignorant, but this stuff was great--an assortment of raw shrimp, fish, and other sea-meats in an awesome lime sauce with some garlic patacones (mashed then fried plantains) to complement.

Sunday we hitched a ride in the back of a truck to another national park just north of Puerto López. There's some pics in the album above and here's a map of the beach... I don't remember the name, but we practically had the whole beach to ourselves. We went on a little 30 minute hike up to a vista point where we could see the whole cove and another equally amazing cove to the north. After the hike, we just relaxed and enjoyed the beach before heading back to Guayaquil that night. Other than a few sing alongs that came on the radio that literally everyone on the bus except us knew, the bus ride home was pretty uneventful. All in all a good weekend, and I'm looking forward to my next trip!

¡Gringo Bingo!

2010-10-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

Okay so after all that drama last week, how about a little light-hearted blogging??

So for some reason BINGO is huge here, and today I finally went to my first bingo night! $1 buy in for about 2 hours of pure entertainment. If they let me, I think I might have to become a regular. For $1 you get one sheet of paper with 6 games, and each game has at least 3 winners--linea (standard 5 in a row), cuatro esquinas (4 corners), and tabla (first person to get all the numbers on their sheet, but each sheet only has numbers on about 12 of the 25 squares). They also play cinco loco for a couple of the games (clearly it's too crazy to play EVERY game), which means the first person to get any 5 numbers wins.

On the second set of cards, I won cinco loco, and the crowd. went. wild. Mind you, by the crowd I mean the rest of the 50+ people crowded in the street outside the house of the woman with the microphone and boombox running the show. Being almost 6 ft. tall with blonde hair and blue eyes, I'm already kind of a celebrity, so when I victoriously jumped to my feet, threw my hands in the air, and yelled BINGOOOO! everyone went nuts. Shortly after I collected my prize (a sweet fake leather women's wallet), a group of young ladies asked me to pose for a picture on their camera phone. A couple games later, I was one square away from winning again, and I had a small cheering section around me. Alas, I didn't win again, but it was a great time nonetheless.

During intermission (what, did you expect people to play 2 hours of straight bingo without a break??), I bought some Delicious chicken and rekindled my love affair with mayonnaise. We used to be pretty serious back in grammar school (mayo & turkey sandwiches, mayo & kraft singles sandwiches, and my personal favorite, ketchup, mayo, & liverworst sandwiches), but at some point we had a bit of a falling out, and we haven't really been speaking in a while. I don't remember what happened, but I think things moved a little too fast a little too soon, and our relationship started to get unhealthy--for both of us. So we've been on a friendly break the past decade or so, but mayo is all the rage down here, so I've been giving her another chance as of late. And Dios mio, am I glad I did. Papi-pollo [fried chicken (pollo) + french fries (papas fritas, or papi)] costs $1.25 at most places and usually comes with a DELICIOUS mayo glaze. I don't know if it's the combination of chicken grease and mayo, or if the mayo down here is just better than back home, but I'm hooked. Give me some Big Cola to wash it down with, and I'm a happy man.

Vocab of the day - bulla (pronounced BOO YAH!) means noise, as in ¡mucho bulla! or ¡bastante bulla! or ¡bulla en la calle! I just love an excuse to say BOO YAH! so I was pretty pumped to find out it actually means something here.

thank you, Stuart Scott

Part II: the longest tarde of my life...

2010-10-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-10-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

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....

Mis Amigos de los Estados Unidos!

2010-09-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

Had my first visitors last weekend! My two good friends Pat and Ken stopped by Durán for a day and a half at the end of their two week adventure in Peru. After some sort of rebel blockade delayed their 8 hour bus ride by another 4 hours (luckily they were able to email me ahead of time so I wasn't waiting too long), I met them at the McDonalds in the Terminal Terrestre (Guayaquil's main bus station) a little after 9pm on Friday 8/27. Our Director let me use the Rostro van to pick them up, and when we got back to Durán (the bus station and airport are both a quick 20 minute drive from our house), my roommates had an awesome meal of rice, lentils, fried plantains, pineapples, water melon, and fried mashed potato balls with cheese in the middle (an Ecuadorian treat... I forget the name haha).

We took our time Saturday morning, walked around the neighborhood, bought some bread, eggs, and veggies for breakfast, hit the cyber (internet cafe) for a bit, and then around noon we stopped by my neighbor Gabriel's to say hi. I hadn't formally met Gabriel yet, but he's been friends with the Rostro volunteers all 16 years we've been in the AJS neighborhood, so I had been meaning to stop by. Gabriel immediately invited us all in and offered us coke and crackers. This happens at almost every house I visit, and I'm still not totally used to it, but no matter how little they have, everyone here always offers us at least a drink and/or snack (if not a whole meal). Most of them know our stomachs can't handle the same food and drink, which is why they'll often offer cola or something prepackaged. It's already awkward accepting a glass of coke knowing how much it costs and how little they have, but on top of that, the Ecuadorians rarely eat or drink any of the food they offer their guests. It is what it is, and they wouldn't have it any other way, but it's definitely an awkward and kind of guilty feeling sitting in these humble homes eating crackers and drinking coke when our hosts aren't having any for themselves.

Gabriel is a character though, and we were there for about an hour and a half just talking about life and taking in his pearls of wisdom--everything from mosquitos and the weather to the changes in Durán over the past 30 years to internet dating. He's just one of those awesome old guys who loves to drop knowledge on young whippersnappers. Especially gringos. Here's a picture of everyone in Gabriel's living room with his wife Teresa.

Gabriel, Pat, Teresa, me, Tasha, & Ken

Gabriel makes a living by doing leather work, so he also showed us around his workshop, where he makes belts, keychains, leather journals, etc (we often take retreat groups by his place to meet him and they like to buy souveniers to take home to the states). He let me try my hand at some engravings... I was terrible.

leather working with Gabriel... sleeves optional in the workshop

After Gabriel's, we stopped back home for a few minutes, then had to run out again to a birthday party at the Palma's. Javier and Nancy Palma have three daughters, Marta, Maria, and Rosita, and their family is another one that has been friends with Rostro volunteers for many years. I know Maria and Rosita from Valdevia, and Saturday was Rosita's 7th birthday. I had planned on stopping by the party for an hour or so then taking Pat and Ken to see Arbolito (the other neighborhood where Rostro volunteers live and work), but little miss Rosita had different plans. No more than 10 minutes after we got there, Rosita and her 7 year old girlfriends dragged all the gringos into the center of the room to dance. They let us take a couple breaks for food and cake, but we pretty much danced for 2 hours straight. There were several sing-along dance songs in Spanish that we learned, but by far their favorite song was Waka Waka by Shakira. We probably played it at least 6 times, and by the end of the party even I knew the choreograhed dance moves. Oh, and it was well into the 90s all afternoon, so I was DRIPPING with sweat the entrire time. It was great though, and I'm glad I got to share that experience with Pat and Ken. We also had some DELICIOUS chicken, rice, and potato salad that Nancy made, washed it down with some BIG COLA (aka the pride of Ecuador... it's officially my favorite drink here), and of course a birthday cake.

Here's a few pics Ken took at the party:

me and the birthday girl!

BAILAMOS!!

Rosita and the gringos!

We finally got out of there around 4:30, then we had to stop by Freddy's to play some checkers. Freddy is another neighbor, and he is the KING of Ecuadorian rules checkers. I like to think I'm good at games of skill, but Freddy basically pantsed me and stole my lunch money. I'm new to Ecuadorian rules though, so I think with some practice I can probably take him.

That was a long post, so I'll keep my daily dose of Ecuadorian reality short and sweet. My name is Mark Perlite, and I am addicted to Big Cola. I can't describe how good this stuff is. I've had it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack time, late night, and it's delicious any time of day with any meal. I've always been a coke man, but I think BC wins this contest hands down, pants off.

After School Programs

2010-09-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

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?!?

so what are you actually DOING down there??

2010-09-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

#1 question I got before leaving... oh cool, you're moving to Ecuador for a year... what are you going to DO?? Kind of a tough question to answer since one of the primary missions of the program I'm volunteering with, Rostro de Cristo, is to be with the Ecuadorian people and not to do things for them. When I was looking at different volunteer programs last year, this was one of the aspects of the Rostro de Cristo program that I was really attracted to. There are a lot of great programs out there that provide amazing services to developing countries, but when the focus is on doing something for a community, it can be more difficult to really know the people and understand their struggles. Instead of centering the program around the services we provide to the Ecuadorian people, Rostro focuses on being with the Ecuadorians--living and working side by side in their communities. We are guests in their country, and no matter how many answers we think we have, North American solutions to South American problems are not always the best ideas. So Rostro's mission is to live and work with the Ecuadorian people--living simply in their communities, really getting to know the people on a personal level and experiencing their struggles firsthand.

That being said, we can't just hang out and BE for an entire year. So Rostro gets us down here and sets us up with a place to live (we have 16 volunteers this year living in 3 distinct communities), then works with local non-profits to set volunteers up with work placements for the year. Most volunteers have two placements--a morning placement with a partner Ecuadorian non-profit, and an afternoon placement with one of the 3 after school programs that Rostro runs. We spent our first week and a half here visiting each of the placements and after school programs, then at the end of the 2nd week here, we spent a whole day hashing out who would be best fit at each placement. It was a really interesting process because we had to consider more than what felt best for us; we also had to think about what was best for all the volunteer community as a whole.

Most of our placements only need 2 volunteers, so there had to be some compromise in who gets what placement. For the most part, though, everyone this year got placements that they're excited about. I ended up getting my first choice, a school called Nuevo Mundo, so I'll tell you a little bit about that, then I'll talk a little bit about some of the other placements we have volunteers at.

Nuevo Mundo! I´m really excited about working here. There's a great description of the school on the Rostro website, so I encourage you to read that and check out the school's English website. Basically, Nuevo Mundo provides completely free K - 9 education to students from some of the poorest neighborhoods in Durán/Guayaquil. They're able to do this by running a private K - 12 school in the mornings for the wealthier children of Guayaquil, then using the same facilities to provide free education to the kids who can't afford it in the afternoon. Essentially, the tuition the morning school collects subsidizes the afternoon school. Not surpisingly, a free education at one of the best private schools in the country is very popular, so students must apply to the afternoon school, demonstrating both need and merit.

Just this year, Nuevo Mundo started offering scholarships to the top 10 students graduating from the 9th grade afternoon school program (high school here is only 3 years--10th - 12th grade) to finish up 10th - 12th grade with the morning school IB (International Baccalaureate) program. Getting into the morning IB program essentially guarantees that these kids will make it to college, often with scholarships to universities in the United States and Europe. Even though not all the 9th graders get into the IB program, most of them end up going on to other high schools and getting into college, thanks to the education they received at Nuevo Mundo. I've just been shadowing classes and working on lesson plans up until now (the academic year here is from April - January, and the students just got back from a 2 week break between the 1st and 2nd semesters), but I start teaching this Monday, so I'll let you know how it goes! I'm starting to get a little nervous since I've never taught before, but I'm more excited than anything because of how inspiring the school's mission is. More to come this year!

Each of the placements is inspiring in it's own way, and I honestly would have been happy at any of them. Here's a little more info about a couple of the other sites I looked at and the volunteers who will be working there this year. I've also provided links to the Rostro website which has great descriptions of all the program (if you haven't noticed, I like to add hyperlinks... often I'll reference wikipedia or another site with more info, but sometimes I just throw something random in there).

Chicos de la Calle - This is an amazing program run by the Salesians that offers Ecuadorian boys who live and/or work on the streets (chicos de la calle literaly translates to "boys of the street," or "street boys") shelter, food, education, and job training. Where Nuevo Mundo works with the poorest kids from Durán & Guayaquil who have the most potential academically, Chicos de la Calle works with kids on the comletely other end of the spectrum, many of whom have no families or grew up in abusive homes, have been involved in gangs, have little to no formal education, and would be falling through the cracks of society if they weren't in the Chicos program. Two of the girls I'll be living with in the Antonio Jose de Sucre (AJS) house, Beth (from Baltimore via Villanova) and Jessie (from New Jersey via DePaul) will be working here, formally as English teachers and social workers, and informally as friends and positive role models for these kids.

Damien House - Named after Father Damien, the Belgian priest who spent 16 years living with and caring for patients with Hansen's disease (formerly known as leprosy), Damien House has 4 simple goals that really sum up it's mission: 1) To provide complete medical care for patients of Hansen’s Disease, 2) To help patients live a life of dignity and love, no matter what their situation may be, 3) To help patients return to living full lives, and 4) To provide public education, to dispel the myths regarding leprosy, to allow earlier treatment and minimize complications. Damien house was founded by Sr. Annie, a complete firecracker from Brooklyn who has been living and working with Ecuadorians suffering with Hanson's disease since the late 1980's. Sr. Annie pours her heart and soul into Damien House every day, and talking to the patients (many have been there over 20 or 30 years and are in their 80's and 90's) about how much Damien House has done for them is really inspiring. Two volunteers living in the Arbolito house, Jon (Boston College) and Brendan (Scranton), both from the Scranton, Pennsylvania area, will be working at Damien House this year, spending time with patients and helping Sr. Annie with everything from the website and brochures to wound care in the hospital.

Here's a link to pictures of the rest of the volunteers. I live in the Antonio Jose de Sucre neighborhood (AJS) with Celso, Jessie, Beth, and Tasha. Six other volunteers, Caitlin, Jon, Brendan, Tierney, Christina, and Kipp live about a mile and a half away in the Arbolito community. As I mentioned above, Jessie and Beth are working at Chicos, and Jon and Brendan are working at Damien. Celso (originally from the Dominican Republic, via Boston College), Caitlin (from the Boston area and also went to Boston College), and I will be teaching English to 7th, 8th, and 9th graders at Nuevo Mundo. Tasha (Long Island via Villanova) and Tierney (New Jersey via McGill) are teaching English and tutoring at a school for working kids; and Christina (Boston area via Villanova) is working at a local parish teaching English to kids and helping out part time at the health clinic and soup kitchen. Kipp (Seattle via Seattle U) is in charge of coordinating the 25 retreat groups from the States we host throughout the year (our first retreat group is from Santa Clara and they just got in last night!). In the Monte Sinai community, Jeff (Jersey via St. John's) and Jenn (Fairfield) are doing similar work at other Chicos de la Calle sites, Aaron (Wisconsin via Notre Dame) and Becky (South Dakota via Creighton) are doing medical work at free health clinics, and Marita (Minnesota via St. Benedicts) is teaching primary education.

Daily dose of Ecuadorian reality... SUBURBS! My archnemesis from the good old US of A followed me down here... As I mentioned above, the Nuevo Mundo afternoon school functions by operating an expensive private school in the mornings. Because of that, the school is located in one of the nicest areas of Guayaquil, the Puntilla. If it wasn't for all the people speaking Spanish, you'd think this little penninsula between downtown Guayaquil (left of the river on the map) and Durán (right of the river) was in the middle of Orange County. There are gated communities, SUV's, malls, and of course, trendy coffee shops. 3rd world to 1st world in a 20 minute bus ride.

orientation, Orientation, and MORE ORIENTATION

2010-09-04T07:47:00.000-07:00

After a NyQuil induced red-eye from San Francisco, I arrived in Boston the morning of Monday, July 19th. The program I'm volunteering with, Rostro de Cristo, partners with JVC International every year for a two week domestic orientation at Boston College before volunteers leave the country. So in addition to the 15 other volunteers I'll be with in Ecuador this year, I got to meet 33 JVC volunteers who will be living and working for 2 years in Peru, Belize, Tanzania, Micronesia, Nicaragua, and Chile. Leaving home and saying goodbyes was pretty heavy emotionally, so it was really comforting to meet a bunch of other people all going through the same thing. It was also nice to still be in the US for a couple weeks before completely leaving the country for a year--I think it made the transition from home to Ecuador a lot easier. Orientation was packed full of useful information--everything from health and safety in developing countries to workshops on teaching (which most of us will do at least in some capacity), to living in commuity (both JVC and Rostro de Cristo emphasize the importance of living in a commuity of fellow volunteers and supporting each other throughout the year) to workshops on social justice and spirituality.

We left for Ecuador the morning of Sunday, August 1st. After a 4 hour flight from Boston to Miami, a 5 hour layover in Miami, a 3 hour flight from Miami to Guayaquil, and over an hour in customs, we didn't get to bed until almost 2am on our first night in Ecuador. With only 5 days of overlap with last year's volunteers (Rostro brings in a completely new group of volunteers to Durán each year), we were up at 8am the next day, Monday, August 2nd to start our in country orientation. The first couple weeks here FLEW by, and I'm still trying to prcess it all, but here are a few highlights and first impressions of life Ecuador:

surprise, surprise... it's HOT! Most days are in the high 80s this time of year, with nights in the 70s. Coming from San Francisco, this is at least 20 degrees warmer than what I'm used to. The funny thing is this is the coldest time of year in Ecuador, so all the Ecuadorians think it's freezing out. It will be in the low 70's at night and I'll be wearing shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt, and our Ecuadorian friends are wearing long pants and heavy jackets. Apparently the rainy season from late January - early May is the hottest time of year, when it's raining, humid, and temperatures average in the 100s every day. So I guess compared to THAT it's cold right now...

there are animals EVERYWHERE--dogs, cats, chickens, and roosters are common pets, and some people have guinea pigs and/or ducks. There are also stray dogs and cats all over the place, and as I mentioned in my first blog they are FERTILE. Geckos frequently make it in the house, but they help take care of the mosquitos so we let them be. We haven't found any mice in our house, but the volunteers in the Arbolito house have already caught 4 over there. The dogs, cats, and roosters make noise at all hours of the day/night (I thought roosters only crowed at dawn, but aparently they like to cock-a-doodle-do ALL NIGHT LONG). This was pretty annoying at first, but I guess I'm used to it now because I don't really use my ear plugs anymore. Oh and last week there was a bull walking down the middle of the main road by my house. Completely alone, casually strolling down the road. No aparent owner, and I was the only one who thought anything of it because everyone else--cars, buses, bikes, people--just drove/walked around it like it was no big deal.

They speak Spanish here! Weird, huh?? This is probably going to be the toughest part of my transition since I haven't taken a Spanish class in 10 years. The more I practice, though, the more it comes back to me. In addition to conversations with neighbors (which are pretty simple at this point--I can usually understand at least half of what they say), I'm trying to do at least 15 minutes a day of vocab or grammar practice on my own. Luckily there's a few volunteers with really good Spanish (including my housemate Celso who's a native speaker from the Dominican Republic!), and they've been great about helping when I don't understand things.

mmmmmmm!

Lots more differences--and similarities--with the US, but I don't want to write a book here. I'll end with one more quick dose of Ecuadorian reality: DON'T DRINK THE WATER! We don't have plumbing in Durán (aparently they put pipes in a few years ago, but they haven't started using them), so water trucks come around every few days to fill up our cistern. We use this water for showers, sinks, and toilets, NOT drinking. We get separate deliveries of drinking water (think Alhambra jugs), which we use for drinking, cooking, brushing our teeth, etc. I haven't gotten any yet, but apparently parasites are pretty common. It could come from eating food at a neighbor's place or a restaurant that cooks with the cistern water, or even just from the little bit of water that inevitably gets in your mouth when you shower. Nothing yet, but I'm keeping a close eye on my bowels, so I will keep you posted!

I´m not a blogger I just type a lot

2010-08-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

Hello world! This is my first time blogging, so let me preface this all by saying I don't really know what I'm doing or who is going to read this... two weeks ago I got off a plane in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where I'll be volunteering for the next year. This blog is my attempt to share as much of this experience as I can with YOU--family, friends, and I guess the whole internet. I think you can comment, so if at any point in my rants you feel like saying something, asking a question, whatever--feel free to chime in.

I guess the best place to start is to explain who I am and why I'm here. My name is Mark Perlite, I'm 27 years old, and I am a recovering Accountant. I graduated from Santa Clara University in 2005 with a degree in Accounting and a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers. I worked there for 3 years, learned more than I wanted to know about business, got my CPA license, met some awesome people and had a great time living in San Francisco. After 3 years with PwC, I needed a change and joined the Corporate Accounting team at PG&E. I worked at PG&E for the past two years, and again, I met some great people, learned a ton, and had a great time doing it.

pants optional

After 5 years in the accounting game, though, I decided to hang up my 10 key and try something new. I can't put my finger on exactly where it came from, but at some point in the past 10 years or so, someone or something planted a little seed of idealism in me that I couldn't ignore any longer. It could have been growing up around all those former hippies in San Francisco, or maybe those damn Jesuits and their social justice rhetoric, but something was itching at me to try to make the world a better place.

Ever since college--maybe even high school, I'm not exactly sure--I had wanted to spend time volunteering in the developing world. All through my education I read about developing countries, and it always tore at my heart. The day I was born, I was richer than billions of people all over the world. I hadn't accomplished anything, earned anything for myself, and just by being born in America I had more resources at my disposal than the majority of the world's population. I've studied economics, history, politics, etc., and logically I understand why things are the way they are, but it still doesn't make sense to me. As much as I read and try to be aware of all the injustices and inequalities in the world, it is always just words and images on paper, T.V. or the internet--distant concepts, both physically and emotionally. I didn't really KNOW what it meant to live on the margins of society. Poverty is an every day reality to billions of people, and for me it was maybe a 60 second clip before the sports and weather on the nightly news. Maybe living and working side by side with these people could help me understand things better. I've always seen the world from the eyes of a white middle/upper class American male. I can't change who I am, but maybe if I change my perspective a little, I can see things in a different light.

alas, no tacos in this cyber =(

So here I am, 27 years old, sweating my ass off in a "cyber"cafe in Durán, Ecuador. I've been here for 2 weeks and I don't know what the year ahead of me will hold. I want to make a difference, but the reality is Durán will still be here in a year. I hope to make some impact, but odds are I will be the one most changed by this year--not the people of Durán. There's a bit of selfishness in that reality, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

So there I went and rambled on for way too long about who I am and why I'm here. There's obviously way involved in my decision to come to Durán, but hopefully that will come out over the course of this year. Since I tend to ramble, I've decided to end each blog with some cheap Ecuadorian reality. So if the rest of my blog is crap, at least this might be interesting:

DOGS HAVE BALLS--I'm not sure what's more sad, the fact that there are stray dogs EVERYWHERE, or the fact that I'm so used to emasculated male dogs that dogs with balls look weird to me. Bob Barker, PLEASE COME TO ECUADOR!