The Holidays: Waterfalls, Sickness, and Crutches

One New Year´s Resolution: Blog More Frequently. Great start.

I truly apologize for the large break in writing. Perhaps this means I should have blogged more, but the past month in a half has been busy and eventful to say the least. Nevertheless I owe everyone an extremely belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Fun Fact: There is only one sweater. Thanks, Mom, for your skills!

So, where have I been? ¿Como he estado? What´s good? ¿Que pasó? Well here´s my life in a nutshell since you last heard from me.

A week and a half before Christmas my girlfriend Emily (and Nick, for one day) visited! It was wonderful to have her here, to be able to show her my life down here, and I was so glad she found a way to come. We spent 3 days in Mount Sinai, visiting and introducing her to people and places, and were able to spend 2 days in Baños, a small valley town about 6 hours away. If she learned anything while she was here, it´s that crazy stuff happens and rarely we´re in control. Between being given the wrong bus ticket to Baños, having to find our way from a random town TO Baños (and did so by running into two South Africans who were headed the same way), hearing bomb-like noises only to find out the volcano (Volcán Tungurahua) had erupted the day we arrived (had to wear masks for the ash), cooking in the dark when the power went out our first night back in Mount Sinai, and Emily´s flight getting cancelled because of the same volcano eruption we had previously been miles away from—I´d say we had our fare share of surprises. And yet, although it may have seemed that so much went wrong, I wouldn´t have had it any other way. Saying goodbye, again, was difficult, but having loved ones there right before the holidays was, I think, a blessing and I´m so grateful for the visit.

The first day in Baños we biked La Ruta de Las Cascadas (Route of the Waterfalls). Masks were a necessity.

The highway through the valley, with an unrivaled view, 
spans over 38 miles and passes over 30 waterfalls.

Although we didn´t do the entire route, we passed some amazing sights

The second day we did Canyoning (rappelling down waterfalls).

The last one was something like 70 feet. The guide let us do it twice.

During the week I took her to the afterschool program I work at on Wednesdays. Happened to be the Christmas party!

The last day Emily was here, Nick visited after 
ending his six months in Guatamala! What a crazy feeling 
being reunited in another hemisphere.

The holidays came and went, along with some homesickness as I spent my first Christmas without the Rios fam. Here, like many Latin American countries, the 9 days before Christmas are celebrated by La Novena with las posadas, where we visit different houses with song and costumes, imitating Mary and Joseph´s search for an inn. It all leads up to the most important day of the holidays, Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) where we attended 3 masses (where they used real-life new-borns as Baby Jesus) and ate along the way as large dinners are tradition late that night.

The night, however, was not the only eventful part of Christmas Eve. The morning was a busy one. Somehow, I was asked to be Santa Clause for a neighborhood party. They called me the modern, flaquito (skinny) Papa Noél. I left from the party straight to sing Christmas carols to all our close neighbors. With guitar, very hot Santa hats, and our voices, we passed out our Christmas cards.

The neighbors were all about Santa on a moto.

Then we spent the 25^th with the whole Rostro de Cristo community: the volunteers from Duran and our boss Darcy. We slaved in the kitchen, cooking all day for a wonderful Xmas dinner.

Two days after Christmas started a 2 week-long struggle. I was extremely sick, turned out to be a stomach infection, and it lasted through New Years. That week, although not ideal, made me realize how extremely lucky I am for two things in particular: my volunteer community and sufficient access to healthcare. On a Saturday when no one was around, our guard took me in our van to drive to the hospital that is about an 45 minutes away by car. Not only do I always have someone here to watch out for me, but I always have a means of transportation. Our neighbors, if extremely sick, would need to take a 2 hour (or more) bus ride to the nearest public hospital, and could not afford the hospital I went to. It is a reality that I will never truly know. And as for my community, well, Ana spoon-fed me rice porridge that week. Enough said. I couldn´t be more grateful for the care, support, and concern my community was willing to give.

Nevertheless, although I missed the New Year´s Eve mass and dinner after, I made myself feel well enough to celebrate at midnight. Here in Ecuador, it is common to make paper maché statues/figures of various things (robots, cartoons, people, etc.) called Año Viejos, and then burn them at midnight. It represents all the bad things from the year before and usually involves blowing them up with gasoline and fireworks. I´m glad I pulled myself together for the tradition.

We celebrated with our Guard, Omar´s family, and Elias was excited, to say the least.

Omar´s Hulk and our Yogi Bear were the 2012-13 victims.

Our street lit up that night.

We bought ours, but many neighbors make them. 
This particular neighbor showed us what´s up.

Speaking of celebrating with Omar´s family, January brought little Amy´s first birthday! We celebrated at their house and the Duran volunteers came too.

This is me beating Cristobal (Creighton Alum) in Musical Chairs.

 

January also brought the other aspect of our volunteer year: Retreat Groups. Rostro de Cristo is a program that not only allows post-graduate volunteers to live and work with Ecuadorian communities for a year, but they also bring groups of students from various colleges and high schools around the country to Ecuador for week-long immersion trips. We, in turn, get to coordinate these trips, one at a time, and take them through their experience here in Ecuador. The groups are split between Mount Sinai and Duran, and each volunteer is responsible for coordinating one or two groups throughout the year, taking them to worksites, visiting neighbors, building relationships. Our first two groups, back-to-back, were Villanova University and Manhattan College (Ana and Greg´s groups). College of Idaho comes this Sunday and my first group (Fordham Prep, an all-boy high school) will come in April. 

Visiting Omar and Eli´s family with Villanova

Manhattan College was lucky enough to arrive the day of our 
Parish´s Anniversary Festival. Indigenous dancing and singing ensued.

They were asked to perform at the concert. They chose Lean on Me. Well done.

We chose Party In the USA. Absolute train wreck.

Reading to the English students at Nuevo Mundo, a 
school and worksite for the Duran volunteers

January ALSO brought a start to el invierno. Winter means rain here in Guayaquil, and in Mount Sinai that means no school for the children (“winter break”) and impassable roads. Although it has been mild so far, February will inevitably start to get ugly. Flooding has not begun, but the mud has become intense. Boots are recommended, but will soon be a necessity.

Lastly, this past weekend was our second All-RdC Retreat. It was at a retreat house in Playas, a beach town about 2 hours away, and it was a wonderful weekend to relax, reflect, play Settlers of Catan, take on 10-foot waves, and just gather where I´m at personally now that we´re 6 months in. Yeah, the retreat marked the halfway point! Wow.

If you look closely, I believe that is me on 
Jaime´s shoulders playing chicken with the waves

After the retreat I realized that I didn´t want to get into this “Oh my gosh there are only 6 months left I need to start being a super-volunteer” mode. Sure, looking back there are things I hope to change, to strengthen, and to be more intentional about. But no good is going to come by trying to get busier and constantly worry about my productivity. Right now, at my job, I am working to make one of the first functioning street maps of Mount Sinai, and I am really enjoying the project. Neighborhood time, when I´m healthy, has continued to be life-giving, and I feel like our house community is getting closer. If I start counting down in this second half of the year, I´m going to forget how to appreciate today, so I do not intend to think about August too often. So as for now, I will just continue to hobble day by day. Oh yeah, after the retreat I also got crutches (Broke my toe on retreat by accidently kicking a bag of watermelon). 

I call them Las Muletas del Invierno

Ciao for now and thank you for your support!
Miguel