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

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

Spiderman, Jesús, and Possum

October, one of my favorite months in the states and coincidentally Cardigan Season, has come and gone and I can’t believe I have been here for over 3 months. I see Instagram’d pictures on Facebook of snow and fireplaces and I realize my sense of time has altered in so many ways. Sure, I am getting used to Latin American time, meetings starting an hour late, but also it is as if I’m in an eternal summer. In the States the leaves have fallen, the cold approaches and I can’t believe it.

Nevertheless, no matter how far away I feel some days, the days here have been scooting along. And here’s what’s happened.

Last update I had played guitar for Rosa’s 91st. Well, this month has been a month of birthdays.

Greg (the one with frosting on his face) has family near Guayaquil and his cousins threw a party for his 22nd birthday.

Our guard, Omar, also completed another year and a couple weeks after we celebrated with his family, he was followed by his son’s 8th, Omar Elias.

We had Brittany´s, who just turned 1 years old. My ice breaker this year has been magic...with the only two card tricks I know by heart.

When I last wrote, Clubber was sad. He needed a friend, and Rostro pulled through. We are now the proud owners of a new 4 month old Rottweiler, and her name is Nala.

My job description just doubled.

There is a Mormon Church a couple blocks away, and the 2 local missionaries came over for dinner. One is from California and the other Colombia and I think they appreciate getting to know other non-natives in the neighborhood.

Weekend commitments at the parish are continuing to go really well. Still teaching confirmation catechism every Saturday and play guitar at the masses when the youth group needs me to. Two weeks ago two masses overlapped and the normal singers couldn’t get to the second mass. Damien, the 19 year old youth group leader and head music minister, convinced me to take the lead. If there are any attendees of that particular mass reading this right now, I apologize.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but with Día de los Defunctos (Day of the Dead) and All Saints Day, the day doesn’t hold much weight here. I was determined to keep it alive and since it fell on a Wednesday (my day to tutor at the afterschool program) all I needed was a costume meant for a 7 year old. I prayed for wind and cool air and the day turned out to be one of the hottest and brightest yet.

Since it took about 20 minutes to put on, I wore it on the bus there and back...I couldn´t sit down.

My job at Hogar de Cristo is going well. I work 25 hours a week and more and more of that is out in the neighborhood, talking to committee members, exploring new areas, and even attending weekend “block parties ” (see pics below) I had been searching for a place to hold the computer workshops they want me to start, and last week I secured an area. By myself. I went to a school with the intention of only setting up a meeting to then talk about it, and I walked out with a computer classroom. Normally I struggle with feeling productive at work, especially with my Spanish level, but I think that day was a confidence booster and something I needed. I start the first workshop session with the committee coordinators this Wednesday!

Played the Egg on the Spoon in your Mouth race at a committee aniversary party, and placed first.

Also played the Dance Bachata while Holding a Tomato between your Faces game. Did not win that one.

A neighbor, Bolivar, heard I enjoy drawing. That somehow got translated to “He could paint a design on your pickup truck.” So this past week I spent some time with masking tape, spray paint, and the name “Jesús.” Pictures to come.

Jimmy works at the health office at Hogar de Cristo and had his test to be able to give HIV tests this past week. “Cramming” for that kind of a test looks like this:

Got my blood drawn in our living room as well...it would have been rude not to let him practice on very-visible veins.

And this past weekend we had our first of 4 Rostro retreats. It was in Ayangue, a very small beach town set back in a cove, and it was absolutely gorgeous. The retreat was led by an old Rostro volunteer, Amy, and it was a weekend to rest, reflect and take advantage of the amazingly large photogenic cliffs and rocks.

The crabs were abundant but had a sixth sense. Couldn´t get close enough so settled for the shell.

The Mount Sinai Crew

The whole Rostro de Cristo Clan

Jaime and I, when on our hike, came across the Little Mermaid rock. Naturally--after finding a way to get out there and after many, many attempts--we got a picture.

Lastly, and this one fortunately doesn’t come with a picture, my list of new foods is getting longer. I’ve spoken of cow tongue, stomach, hoof and heart…and a few weeks ago I added fish eyes. Well, last week topped it all. The day before my graduation, the Creighton Center for Service and Justice held a missioning service for all post-graduate volunteers, and the guest speaker was an ex-Rostro volunteer. She told a story where she ate something at a neighbor’s, and afterwards discovered it was possum. After that service everyone was curious and worried and asking about my diet for the next year, and I just laughed. Well, last week I ate possum. Perhaps I will write about the experience in a future blog, but just know I tried it, I kind of liked it, and shortly after had possum liver. I will not forget that soon.

Like I said, 3 months has flown by, and I imagine the year will continue to do so. As Christmas approaches it seems like the sun does too, and everything is moving along. There are, of course, days I feel I may be moving backwards (not knowing what to do at my job, days when Spanish seems impossible) but those are becoming so much less frequent. Every day is a challenge in some way, but the community I have here—in my neighborhood, at work, with Rostro—has made all the difference.

Tomorrow’s another day, usually I have no idea what’s in store, but I think I’m beginning to like that.

Until next time.
Miguel