Un Día en Mis Zapatillas

“These experiences inspire and reinforce the commitment of these participants to service, social justice, and solidarity with the people of Ecuador and the world.”

~ Rostro de Cristo Mission Statement ~

This week, while I was at work at Hogar de Cristo, I talked with another international volunteer who recently arrived from France. Hogar collaborates with many different foundations around the world, and as of now there are volunteers from France, Germany, Chile, Colombia, Spain, and the United States. We were talking about my experience, my schedule, and about Rostro de Cristo (RdC) in general. It was a combination of her interest, surprise, and my ability to answer her questions that led to a realization that I´m part of something pretty unique this year. Although I don´t understand everything about my year in Ecuador, as I´m only 5 months in, I am understanding more and more our mission and why I´m so fortunate as to have found this program. I told her about our monthly All-RdC Day of Reflections, our weekly community and spirituality nights, our weekend work with the parish and our daily community outreach/neighborhood time, and she told me how their foundations don´t have any of that. They have business meetings to talk about logistics and they work full time, and I suppose I never understood how foreign this might be to others.

After that conversation I thought a lot about what I do here, how I explain my year to people, and what it means to be a “Rostro Volunteer” in Mount Sinai. I’ve decided a little day in my shoes might serve the theme well…

8:00-8:30 – Wake up under a mosquito net to the daily combo of music, dogs, cats, and roosters.

8:35 – Actually get out of bed and take a cold bucket shower. Brush teeth and throw on one of two outfits: Maroon Rostro Polo or Green Hogar T-Shirt.

 8:45-9:00 – Fill Nalgene with purified water, grab my satchel (that contains a notebook, my keys, and of course, a Spanish-English Dictionary), greet the Day-Guard, greet Nala and Clubber, leave the Rostro gate. Walk down the dirt, pot-holed road past my neighbors, buy 2 bread rolls at the panaderia for breakfast, wait at the corner for the first 25cent crowded bus out of Mount Sinai.

9:15 – Yell at the bus driver to pare (stop), push my way to the front of the bus, hop off bus that may or may not still be moving.

*9:15-12:30 – Work at Proyecto Mision, the community organizing office at Hogar de Cristo. This is where I have done a month of tutoring in the sector with the Jesuits, accompanied my co-workers to women’s rights workshops, taught computer to the presidents of the computers, and am currently working on a map of Mount Sinai. Much of the time is spent out in the Mount Sinai neighborhood—my neighborhood, talking with the people, handing out invitations for workshops, etc.—but other times I am in the office with “office work” such as writing up informes or inputting information.

12:30 – Eat lunch at Hogar or at a neighbor’s house…depends on the day.

1:00 – Return back to Mount Sinai in another bus

*1:30-6:30 Begin Neighborhood Time/Community Outreach. Visit with neighbors. Literally walk to a neighbor’s, knock on the door or the gate and say “A ver?” to see if anyone’s home. Converse, hear stories, help kids with homework. Sometimes this is just sitting with a neighbor sipping on Cola. Other times it’s watching a movie or playing cards. The point is to build relationships. This part of my schedule looks very different day to day, but it is what has brought me life. I have traveled with a neighbor to the hospital to take his son to therapy, painted the back of a truck, received a pedicure, learned to cook Ecuadorian dishes, and most importantly developed trust with families in the neighborhood I live in.

7:00 – Home by dark and dinner with the community. I cook once a week.

8:30 – Various intentional community activities depending on the day (Community, Spirituality, or Accountability Night. “Fiesta de Limpieza” aka Chore Night)

10:00 – A few games of Chinese Poker, leisurely reading, community time and/or letter-writing.

11/12:00ish – Hit the hay          

*Some days I work at Hogar in the morning, some days in the afternoon. Therefore, neighborhood time changes from mornings to afternoons, which is nice because some children go to school in the morning, some in the afternoon. 

Add going to an afterschool program (where I dressed as Spiderman) once a week to accompany my community-mate Ana at her worksite, and weekends are more neighborhood/community time: 3 masses that I occasionally play guitar at, my catechism class, and youth group.

             

Fr. Jim, the founder of RdC celebrated a mass with us, in our living room, when he visited a few weeks ago. He talk to us about our country’s focus on doing. We so often measure success by what we’ve done, what we do, and what will we do. Even when people meet, the question undoubtedly arises, “So what do you do?” People respond, “I am a teacher” or “I’m a lawyer.” The truth is these are our professions. We make a living with these jobs, but it does not define who we are. Fr. Jim told us that this year will be hard in many ways, but perhaps the hardest is that “we live in a culture of doing, and then you accepted a year with a foundation whose focus is on being.” The challenge is to be here, with the people—talking, laughing, walking, crying—without analyzing how productive we’re being. To accept the fact that there is value in and of itself to just be with a person…and that is where our neighborhood time comes in. I’m not sure I can fully capture, in a blog, what it is I do most days, but I know that it is making friends and it is listening. It is giving support and allowing others to support me. It is learning how to be a guest and it is learning how to have your feet washed when you feel these people owe you nothing (I mentioned I received a pedicure, and it was uncomfortable. I find myself still working on how to accept graciously and how to be humbled). All of this is part of the Rostro mission, and although it is still difficult day by day—difficult to feel unproductive and undeserving yet constantly served in my “year of service”—I can only describe the life I get from being with the people, in my job at Hogar and my time with the families, as a sign that Rostro knows what it’s doing. My time and my attitude is what I have given most this year, and since I know it’s hard to see clearly while you’re in the thick of it, all I can do is keep giving those things.

The last few weeks have been as busy as ever and November came and went quicker than my interest in the hit single Gangnam Style. Before I leave here’s a few things that have passed:

First and foremost, Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone! We were blessed enough to be able to celebrate the day in conjunction with Ana’s 22^nd birthday…

…with a turkey and all. Greg and I tackled the task of 
preparing and carving it. The day was comical and Disney at best.

Tried stabbing holes. Knife got stuck. (Sword in the Stone)

Making sure it was clean and the right weight. (The Lion King)

 
I was honored two weeks ago to be asked to be a padrino (godfather) of Denys, a kid from youth group. Here they have godparents for more than just Baptism, and I was asked for his Confirmation. After talking to him about the expectations he has, considering I´ll be leaving next year, I graciously accepted the invitation. He’s an awesome, kind, and responsible kid and I was lucky to be a part of that with him.


 

At the beautiful Corpus Cristi parish
Confirmation morning

Attempting to make his tie straighter and skinnier. Only succeeded with the former.

The birthday parties continue…

Elias’ (our guard’s son) birthday party

Upgraded from the back of pickup trucks to children’s faces

The Barcelona (soccer team) logo was the popular choice

Coli’s community night last week was Christmas Decorating Night. We made Xmas cookies, listened to Glee Christmas, and I may or may not have stayed up till 5:30am making a foam chimney. 

At least now we can stay warm.

My Talleres de Computacion (Computer Workshops) came and went at work. Many of the Presidents of the committees didn´t show up, but I would like to believe the few that I did teach over 2 weeks learned a lot. Two of them went from not knowing how to hold a mouse to being able to design a Word document. Overall it was quite the experience to be able to apply the Spanish I´ve learned so far in a classroom setting, and I think it was a success. I am not sure what the next 8 months of work holds for me, but this Thursday I am collaborating with the communication office to film a recycling workshop at a school, so I get to do some video work! Also, we recently got a new boss in the office so I will be re-transitioning, but I hope for the better.

The cooking/learning continues. This, however, has been my best dish thus far. Arroz con Menestra de Lentejas.

(I may or may not have cooked it at a neighbor’s house and brought it over.)

Monte Sinai is getting ready for Christmas and has dived head-first into Advent. Every week my work is doing a singing procession with the Advent candles [See photo at top]. Last week I was asked to play the guitar to lead the group and ended up co-playing with the Director of Hogar de Cristo, Luis Távara: the boss of the bosses.

Considering I’m in the midst of learning these new-fangled Spanish Xmas songs, 
it was absolutely wonderful to have a compañero.

The last thing doesn’t have a picture, but since my last blog Emily, my girlfriend, booked her flight. She gets in this Saturday the 15th! She’ll be here for 5 days and we’ll be splitting our time between staying here in Mount Sinai and going to Baños. The last day she´s here, Nick, a great friend from college, will also be swinging by for a day after his 6 month volunteer/Spanish/medical program in Guatamala. Pictures and stories to come.

Fr. Jim gave us a quote that same night, “Vocation is the place where your deepest hunger and the world’s deepest need meet.” I’m not sure that I know what that is for my future, but I do know that this year is going to form that in some way. I have been given a year devoted to walking beside the people of Mount Sinai—people who are teaching me more than they know—and all the while I’m learning a lot more about myself and how I can just be.

Happy Holidays!!

Miguel