Photos Up!

Expect an update soon, but for now, I finally found a way to post my first set of pictures! There´s two albums:

A general album of some of my first pictures of our house, the community, a trip to the ocean:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/101137469503369044340/albums/5781752233448302833

And our community trip to the Boardwalk downtown and up to the lighthouse in Guayaquil:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/101137469503369044340/albums/5781761267840424785

And for all of you who have heard about the volcano, it´s far away from us. No worries! All is well.

Enjoy!

Love
Miguel

Poco a Poco

"Little by little we human beings are confronted with situations that 
give us more and more clues that we are not perfect."

--Fred Rogers aka "Mr. Rogers"--

 

View of Monte Sinaí from the 

bell tower of Corpus Cristi

Today is a kind of strange day. Strange in the sense that I have officially been in Ecuador for a month. 2 weeks of orientation with the old vols, and 2 weeks on our own. Doesn´t feel like it one bit. But the 6 of us, we´re getting closer as a community, learning about each other´s live and realizing that we are each others support this year. We all come and go throughout the day, but at the end of it we´re together for community dinners and daily prayer, community night, or spirituality night. We talk about our days--the highlights, the struggles--the funny thing a kid said or did. It is in that sharing that we talked about our conversations with people; how it has been a time when we get one question more than anything.

¿Ustedes estan acostumbrado a algunos?
Are you accustomed to things?

And I ask myself if I know the answer to that question. Would I know what it feels like to be accustomed to something here? Maybe. People say there´s such thing as the honeymoon stage of culture shock. Maybe that feels something like "accustomization"? I don´t know.

So I think about what "things" they´re referring to. Perhaps the cold showers, the different food, the new faces? Or maybe the public transportation and rollercoaster dirt roads. Remembering to throw your toilet paper in the garbage and brush your teeth with water from your water bottle. Shaking out your shoes every morning knowing there´s a chance a scorpion or thumb-sized cricket could be snuggling comfortably inside. Making a meal for 6 for less than $3.00. Being part of a lively, youthful parish life; working my way into the music ministry, song by song. An Irish Spanish-speaking priest. Taking in a new job with energetic co-workers. Having time blocked off in my day to go visit and be with the people in my neighborhood. Remembering children´s names. Remembering children´s names I can´t yet pronounce. Driving stick shift. Having "personal health" in the back of my mind, all the while wanting to be grateful and accepting of food and drink from new friends. Pushing myself to become a vegetable lover. Pushing myself to become an onion lover. The amazingly fresh bread I get on the way to work every morning. Wearing pants on the ecuator. The cheese. Sleeping under a mosquito net. Letting guard whistles, roosters, and a blaring "Danza Kuduro" be my lullaby at night. Cooking one night a week, when I haven´t a clue what I´m doing in the states, let alone in Spanish. Jaw-dropping sunsets. Wearing a polo 7 days a week. Trying to get a hold on how to balance communication with friends and family while being present here. The cow heart I ate on Thursday. Having to plan out sentences before I say them. Thinking and paying attention at all times, with every word, in conversations. Being comfortable with saying "¿Mande?" more than once because I don´t understand. The fear that my personality can´t quite jump the language barrier. Being gentle with myself.

But in that moment, when they wait for a response, I answer in the shallow, minimal way I know how right now. "Mas o menos." More or less. I need to practice my spanish a lot. The food is much diffrent. But the people are very kind. Probably throwing an incorrect preterite verb in there somewhere with an attempt to use "have been." And more often than not, despite what I say, they see my struggle, my tenseness, my worry, and respond "Poco a poco."

Little by little. I wrote it on a paper and hung it on my wall. If only they knew how much I´ve reminded myself of that advice, how it has become my tagline, and how the more I think about it the more I realize the importance of doing just that.

During orientation in Boston we had a presentation on self-care: something I perfected in college (which of course, my friends, is a joke). One of the things she talked about--something I apprecited greatly--was the idea of a "Sustainable Pace." I had not heard it put in those words, but I found it to be beautiful. With new experiences like these, my pace is so important to how I´m going to feel 2, 5, 10 months down the road. She told us how easy it can be to hit the ground running, but you have to exert yourself in a way that is sustainable, a way that can healthily last the year.

For me, it is about not letting my feet get ahead of where my head and my heart are, while also respecting where my feet are at, not letting my heart drag them along. The former prevents me from running to a place I can´t keep up with. I am behind the language barrier right now, struggling with the lock and key, and it is an emotionally and physically exhausting thing. I may want to pack my days with these new things--things I should get "accustomed to"--but I also need time for myself. Time to breathe. And the latter helps with the restlessness of going slowly. My heart may connect with people, but somehow I have to respect the moment I am in--even if that moment I am having seemingly-shallow conversations, not being able to ask the things I really want to ask or enter into a deeper relationship. It is, again, about being gentle with myself and keeping that sustainable pace. If I had an ever-present to-do list, that would be on it. Always.

So I´m here, with more than enough new things. Some difficult, many amazing, and I´m counting my blessings as I go. I can´t change the moment, I can only affect what the next ones look like. So for now I´ll work hard, stay calm, and remind myself that things take time.

 

My community and Padre Jon--pastor of 3 parishes in 

Monte Sinaí--before he left to visit Ireland

Failing and Succeeding, Little by Little,
Miguel

More Than A House...

 "Cada pobre, cada vago, cada mendigo es Cristo en persona que carga su cruz."

- Padre San Alberto Hurtado, S.J.-

Hogar de Cristo Founder

I suppose, after the timing of my last post, it would only be fair to begin with what the heck I´ll be doing, work-wise, for the next year of my life.

Discernment--although it was 2 days (about 12 hours total) of sitting and discussing everyone´s posibilities--went well. To be honest, my top choice every since we visited it was Proyecto Misión, and that was hard because it was also Coli´s (Colleen´s name in Ecuador) top choice. But, after a few strings were pulled, Hogar de Cristo decided the Misión office could take two volunteers. So if the picture up top wasn´t a give away already, I will be a volunteer at Hogar de Cristo next year, in the office of Proyecto Misión, with Coli as well! Our first day was last Monday.

As mentioned before, Hogar de Cristo is a Jesuit foundation who´s missino is to serve the poor and marginlized of Chile and Ecuador - specifically Monte Sinaí. Hogar was founded in 1944 by Padre San Alberto Hurtado, S.J., a Spanish Jesuit in Chile. After seeing the situation of the poor, he founded a shelter and school for boys and soup kitchen for the poor. In 1971 Tío Paco started a Hogar de Cristo in Guayaquil, Ecuador, founding the Vivienda project. Similarly to Habitat for Humanity, the Vivienda program builds houses for those people who are in insufficient living situations, giving them a cane house (looks like bamboo) at $25/month for 3 years, but it is also possible to qualify for reduced a reduced price or donations. Since then Hogar has come a long way and--in my opinion--has become something like 10+ nonprofits in one. Projects and offices include health centers, education, microloans, pastoral ministry, psychology, a clay water filter project, sustainable agriculture, workshops for women, and (my new office) community organizing.

To understand the importance of my office, you need to know a little about where I live this year. Hogar de Cristo used to be in the center of Guayaquil, but in the last 5 years they have moved to Monte Sinaí because they believe it is where there is most need. If you were to have taken a trip down to Ecuador 6 years ago, my house, neighborhood, and entire "town" would be nothing but open, agricultural land. It was owned by a few wealthy men who decided to divide up the land and sell it to families. However, this land--which was supposed to be used for farming--was government land and legally not theirs to sell. They gave families little slips of paper saying they purchased the land, which, to the government, is about as official as monopoly money in the USA...maybe a little moreso. Some new land owners then began to also sell land that was not theirs, and so on and so forth. Land continued to be sold by "land triffickers" and there was an immense influx of people from various parts of Ecuador who wanted to live closer to the city, or people from the city who could no longer afford it. In January, 2011, the government took their rist real step of involvement in this "illegal community" and arrested the men originally responsible, but also kicked out families who had purchased land from people other than those original men. As you could guess, there is still much confusion as to who may be kicked off their land and who can stay.

So imagine you live in a house made of a couple cement walls, a couple wooden fences, and a tin roof. Any electricity you have is pirated from the state (as most of the community has it rigged to their houses) and goes out at least once a day. Any clean water you have is from a water filter jug you bought across the street. Your street is unpaved and you know if you ever need emergency medical care the fastest thing would be to take a bus 15 minutes for help. You cannot receive mail, fill out official documents (because you have no address) and you are unsure if the government will come to your door one day and demand you to leave. I suppose that is a difficult request--to imagine that--but this is the situation of most of my neighbors, and it is a reality Hogar and Proyecto Misión hope to help change.

Today over 6,000 families live here in the Monte Sinaí community. Proyecto Misión at Hogar de Cristo is a 3 year project (it ends next year) and aims to accompany those people of the community, educating them of their situation, and strengthening integral development within the community. This is done in hopes that when Hogar is no longer around, the community can stand on its own. The office has organized committees in various "neighborhoods," all of which have a leader and participate in weekly meetings, workshops, events, etc. The tangible goal before next year is to put the committees on the track to becoming legalized as a community organization. Once that happens, it will help them all in the much bigger goal of legally registering the land they live on, hopefully giving them addresses (which you can all probably recognize the immense importance of).

As for me personally, I will be helping out with this project in whatever way they need me, including accompanying them in the beginning as they visit the community members, get to know faces, deliver invitations, attend talleres (workshops), and really try to be a face of trust for neighbors who may or may not believe in the cause. In the future, when my Spanish improves and I have my feet firmly on the ground (if that could ever actually happen) there is definitely potential to work with specific skills and iterests of mine, including multimedia and video, perhaps even putting something together for the end of the 3 years. As a matter of fact, this morning they informed me that they want me to lead computer classes for the committee leaders. Ha...I chuckle imagining my current level of Spanish proficiency in front of 10 adults. There´s no doubt it would be fun, but that is an example of something that may come with time.

Right now it´s definitely been a bit overwhelming trying to get a hold on all of this--aspects of a new job, my neighborhood, the parish life--when I cannot fully communicate. But I often remember something Molly Davies, a friend and mentor from Creighton, told me when leaving a long conversation: "Be gentle with yourself." That was the first time I´d heard that phrase, and I´ve heard it often since. It is not always easy to keep in mind, but today I am just enjoying the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing project and am expecting to learn much from the people, both community members and co-workers. I never know what´s in store for the day, but as a strong Type B, I think I´ll do OK.

Miguel

HdC Vision:

We are contributing to the restitution 

of the rights of the people in major situations 

of poverty, vulnerability, or exclusion;

influencing structural transformations 

towards a more just, equal, and inclusive

 society in Ecuador.

Bienvenidos

Bienvenidos. Welcome. That is how I´ve felt this first week being in Ecuador. From the literal welcome by the 13 current RdC volunteers at the airport to the hospitality of the families in the Monte Sinai neighborhood that I have been introduced to; the joy and gratitude we´ve been presented with almost seems underserved. But I guess that´s a lesson in humility...accepting great hospitality just because you are being welcomed. Even the joke the Sinai volunteers played on us at dinner Friday--when the guard blew the whistle and they all jumped up telling us to ¨GET IN THE BATHROOM¨ because it meant someone jumped the wall--was done out of love and friendship. I think.

We are currently living in the retreat group house and we will be there until the "old vols" move out next Sunday. The tradition has been that we are not able to see the inside of teir house until its clean and empty, so the apprehension is mighty. Oh, and we have a guard dog. His name is Clubber. We selected house responsibilities and I´m on dog duty this year. Not bad.

This past week has definitely been intense, and we´re definitely using as much time in a day as we can. I´ve been introduced to so many aspects of the Mount Sinai community so far that I´m super stoked about, including parish life. First and foremost, you haven´t experienced a clash of words until you meet a Spanish-speaking priest with an Irish accent. Padre Jon is the pastor of the 3 parishes in Sinai--San Felipe, Santa Teresa, & Corpus Cristi--and he´s the man. The youth group and music ministry is extremely vibrant with 15-20 year olds pouring themselves into their involvement, and after we met a few of the musicians I got even more excited to get to know them and become part of that.

Alongside being introduced into the community and to the people who have been family for this past year´s volunteers, a gigantic part of this last week has been touring every work site, with all 13 of us from both houses. We visted each one, even one´s specifically for the other house, because we then discern as a large community, where each individual shares where they feel pulled and the others comment and share how they see that person´s gifts being used. To give you a quick sense of my options and where my head is at right now, these are Sinai´s sites:

Ave Maria - An afterschool program for children in Monte Sinai. It was led by Marisol this past year and gives children a safe space to do homework, play, and learn, but also has room to grow in what kinds of programs/things they want to do with the kids. One also gets the opportunity to meet the families at their houses in the morning before each afternoon session.

San Felipe - A small Catholic school down the road from our house. I could teach English, computers, and/or music to K-5th graders.

Salud - The health center of Hogar de Cristo (a huge Jesuit organization that does education, health, pastoral ministry, house-building, and community organizing) where I could be doing anything from giving classes on HIV and doing HIV tests once a week to walking through Sinai to accompany people in their homes who have medical needs without sufficient resources.

Proyecto Mision- The community organizing office at Hogar de Cristo and deals with a lot of the people of Mt. Sinai. As an invasion community--a community where most people come to live from other areas who cannot afford the city--most of Mount Sinai´s land is not legalized. A huge part of what these community leaders that we´d e reaching out to are doing i trying to legalize the land and make community members aware and active in brigning themselve together. The office environment is pretty awesome, and alongside visiting different community members, I think there is the potential for introducing some multimedia work, including interviewing community leaders about the problems in Mt. Sinai, etc, which would be awesome.

Bastion Popular- An afterschool program that is not in Mt.Sinai but works with boys and girls 5-12 or so who come from broken homes, whether that be abus, gang violence, or other factors of instability. It hopes to bring faith, school, recess, and family into these kids lives. There seems to be a place fo rme, especially in terms of bringing music and energy, but it is also an afternoon site which is when the Sinai parish youth group and music ministry typically does practice and gets together in general, which would be hard.

The ones italicized are the ones I´ve been really thinking about, and the bottom line is I´ve got some thinking, conversing, and praying to do. Today both houses will come together to talk about where we see eah other and hopefully tonight I´ll know how I´ll be spending the work part of my year. But I´m choosing between goods, and I feel so blessed and thankful to the old vols as they share daily prayer, help us make food, teach us where to walk to get ingredients and how to catch a bus. It´s crazy living in a neighborhood where the nicest houses are made of cane and all the electricity is "stolen" or rigged to homes' living rooms. And it´s strange to think every morning for the next year, after my cold shower, I´ll need to walk down a dirt road to commute to my worksite. But I am so grateful, and all of this change would be so much more difficult if it weren´t for the Welcome I have felt so far.

Here's to a great year.

Paz,
Miguel

2 Weeks End; 1 Year Begins

What has two thumbs and is less than 24 hours away from leaving for South America? This guy, along with 12 other great people. Can I believe the day I've been thinking about since April is tomorrow? Not  a chance. It doesn't quite feel "real" yet, but then again, I suppose it won't until I'm on the plane. Maybe not even then.

These two weeks have been a blessing. As I mentioned earlier, Wednesday and Thursday we left for a completely Silent Retreat at an amazingly nice retreat center. I was somewhat nervous, having never done a silent retreat, but it turned out to be great. I had been pretty stressed, nervous, distracted...and having no agenda those two days allowed me to finally let myself settle down. I was actually more productive than I think I ever have been in two days, with some accomplishments including: reading The Alchemist front to back, memorizing 126 spanish verbs, saving a turtle's life, writing a song, having a great discussion with a spiritual director, and doing some photography, especially of a little bug who was totally photogenic.

It was a time for me to just settle into the idea of this year. To not be so "in my head" about leaving, and to think about what I was nervous about, what I am excited about, and the reason for all of it. I've had an amazing support system thus far, and this week just expanded it even more. Of course I'm still nervous, and I know there will be ups and there will be downs. Maybe seemingly more of one than the other, but to quote The Alchemist, "The secret in life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times." I can't know everything that's going to happen, and I'm throwing myself into a world which I do not know, but I have to believe that that is how I'll grow and it feels right. These two weeks, if anything, have reassured me that I chose the right program. Everything seems to fit, and now I just have to do it. They've prepared us, we've made some great new friends who in such similar points in their lives, and they're trusting us to take what we've learned and take ourselves into these places to do work inspired by love.

We leave in the morning, we have a layover in Miami, and then we arrive in Guayacil at night where all of this last year's volunteers will be waiting to welcome us. It's a surreal thought, but I think I'm ready. And if I weren't...Oh well!

This will be my last blog for a little while until I get situated and move into my house, but as soon as I can I promise I'll give an update!

Amor y Paz.

P.S. Click here for pictures until I can get a link going on the side!

The sunset last night a BC. A pretty nice way to end these weeks.

Dorky, Awkward, and Stupid

Well, we are officially more than a week into orientation in Boston, Massachusetts and boy has it been a ride. However, before I speak to any of that, last Thursday Rostro de Cristo (RdC) was split up into houses!! It was very similar to the NBA Draft...except instead of well-paid athletes it was volunteers anxiously awaiting to be put into an intentional communities: either Mount Sinai or El Arbolito. And the drum roll....

Mount Sinai!! That is the town/neighborhood where I will be spending the next year of my life. I'm extremely excited, as I have heard a lot from Becky and Aaron, two Creighton alumni who were in Mount Sinai two years ago. There will be 6 of us in community, made up of [from top left to bottom right]: Greg, Jimmy, myself, Colleen, Ana, and Heidi. We're getting to know each other better as days go on and I'm getting pretty excited to start the year.

The whole RdC crew [top left to bottom right]:

 Greg, Chase, Jimmy, Mike

Ana, Andrea, Jazzmin, Chris

Colleen, Heidi, Kate, Danielle, Jim

As for the orientation, this last week has been wonderful. I've gotten to know so many wonderful people (see picture below) and we've had jam-packed days--typically 7:45am-11pm--of great sessions from amazing presenters, fantastic meals, a lot of euchre and socialization, and much time to journal and reflect on the information we've been given. We've talked about culture shock, relationships, simplicity, self-care, and even got to go to a presentation at BC given by Fr. James Martin, a well-known author, who talked about how humor, joy, and laughter are under-appreciated and underestimated qualities of spirituality and of the church. It turned out to be like stand-up comedy...but by a priest. Highlight of the day.

Two days ago we had one of my favorite presenters so far, Paul Fugelsang, who came to talk to us about listening, communication, and confrontation. At the end of the conversation he told us if we were to take away one thing, it is to "Pay attention and gravitate towards these mindstates: Dorky, Awkward, and Stupid." When you are being dorky, or when other people think you are, you are putting aside "being cool" and you worry about your own personality. When you are awkward, it means you have left a comfort zone of some kind, and that is the largest way in which we grow. And when you think you're stupid, you are admitting that you don't know everything. They are states of vulnerability that are priceless, and you need to hold on to them.

I think I'm going to have many of those times this next year, and it was a great piece of advice that I think applies to all of life, not just world experiences. It's crazy to think that a week from now I will be in week one of in-country orientation 3,000 miles away, but I'm getting more and more prepared, and more and more excited. These two programs spend a great amount of time, resources, and energy getting us prepared, and I feel like the week so far has reaffirmed me in my decision with this program. We've talked about logistics, retreat groups that we will be hosting, and other parts of the program and I'm reassured with how much support and care we have for us while we're down there. Tomorrow we leave for a retreat center where we will begin a two-day silent retreat, which I have never done but am actually looking forward to, and after that a couple days until take off.

Expect one more blog before I'm in-country! Hoo-rah.

JVC + Rostro de Cristo + Staff = Fantastic Crew of People

Boston Begins

“Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.”

~ Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O ~ 

A week ago you would have found me frantically adding and crossing off things from my to-do lists, perhaps simultaneously, packing, saying goodbye to friends, and staying up till the wee hours of the morning trying to finish Emily's latest gift to me: a "do it yourself" kit for a guitar song binder (I now successfully have 115 classics, not-so-classics, and hit singles in one place. Amazing!) After saying farewell to North Aurora, and after an 18 hour trip overnight through several states, my mom, brother, and I made it safely to Boston. We got settled in, toured the downtown area, saw Jon's future alma mater, and then got to Boston College on Sunday to begin orientation.

Orientation these next two weeks is with not only the 13 volunteers in Rostro de Cristo, but also 26 Jesuit Volunteer Corps members, making the grand total of 39 excited, questioning, anxious young adults here at BC. Yesterday's orientation day was mostly about the families. There were parents, siblings, girlfriends/boyfriends, and grandparents alike all joining for the lunch, info session, mass, and dinner. It was after dinner that I had to say goodbye to my mom, my brother, and Laura Bohler (who surprised my mom and showed up!) which was of course sad but I'm SO glad they got to come out and experience this with me. And with my brother being a future Bostonian, he knew all the cool places to show me!

So far orientation has been great. If the high temperature in the rooms at night is the biggest complaint, I'd say I'm in good shape. Not to mention I need to get used to that anyway. The people are wonderful, and I've gotten to meet some great volunteers and staff both. SPEAKING of meeting people, I have quickly found this world to be far too small. Not only do many individuals (former Jesuit Volunteers mainly) know of Creighton graduates and friends of mine that are doing service abroad, but someone doing the Rostro program with me graduated FROM MARMION ACADEMY. Mind. Blown. His name is Chase and he grew up in Batavia. And on top of that, I've had 3 people bring up the Call Me Maybe parody video that we made this past semester...on their own, just becuase I mentioned Creighton University. Surreal.

Over these two weeks we will be having community builders, hearing guest speakers, training sessions, and reflection time to prepare for our departure next Friday. It is kind of strange with the JVC/RdC combo in the sense that we are much more "in the dark" than them. JVC places volunteers in 6 different countries around the world, and, unlike us, they know the country their going to, who their living with, and what work they will be doing. We just know the country. But supposedly we will know which of the two houses - El Arbolito or Mt. Sinai - we will be in and therefore who we'll be living with. I can't wait.

Today our talks were about "call, mission, and identity". The quote at the top was one that the speaker ended with, and it resonated with me so much. In this time, when I have just said goodbye to loved ones, don't know exactly what I'll be doing down there, etc., it is very easy for me to question the decision. "Will my work even be effective?" "How much influence could I really have on the communities of Ecuador?" But I know that I have to trust. I am very much in an uncertain place, but the more I let go of that result-focused attitude, the more I can focus on the individual, and the virtue of the actions. It won't come easy, but I'll work at it. Thanks, Thomas Merton.

So here I am, day 2 of orientation, and I look forward to tomorrow. Another day to grow with these people around me--people in similar places in their lives--and another day to learn and to laugh.

Here's to "the reality of personal relationship"

Mike