Ecuador

On the road again

 

 After three months of living, working & playing in Guayaquil, Naemi & I have said our (really hard) goodbyes and are on the way to discover Ecuador. I have been working really hard the past few days to update everything up untill this point. So finally after a ton of empty promises, go and check out all I´ve been upto (starting with the last part of New Zealand in October, via Fiji, Tahiti, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Panama and Curaçao up untill our great time with our kids in Ecuador)…..

Living, working & playing

We arrived in Ecuador on the 3rd of January. We moved into our new home next to the guardaria. The new neighbourhood took a little bit of getting used to. Everybody we met, told us we couldn´t go out of the house and if we had to we couldn´t go alone. Our first trip to buy some water kinda explained us why, a complete concert of whistling & remarks accompanied us all (2 blocks) the way. There aren´t many gringas moving about in these neighbourhoods.

But life in a house with a massive gate & six locks is something you get used to quickly enough. Uncle Johnny quickly showed us the ropes of living in this neighbourhood. So by the end of the first week, we got used to the choir accompanying us every hour of the day, everywhere we went, locking ourselves into the house at 19.30 p.m. at the latest and not taking anything more with us then 3 dollar and the keys. We got to know the people on the block, invited to bingo games, family dinners and despite all the warnings, felt quite at home in Calle M, 22. I would have loved to show you pictures of our neighbourhood, but walking around as a gringa here is dangerous enough without the camera

In the mean time workwise we had quite the change. Where we started with lovely little kids (2-5 years old), we (feeling our help would be more usefull in a different project) switched to a project with street kids (boys from 8-15). Even though these kids are just as lovely, they are also a lot tougher, more streetwise, more needy and not as easy to quiet down. Especially in the first view weeks we landed ourselves quite a few bruises, being punched on a regular basis, while the boys were trying to figure out just how far they could go with these gringas. On the other hand we got just as many hugs, laughs and other great responses. And so we got used to working with the streetkids, working in the patio in the morning.

Helping some learning how to read & write, while others needed to learn to concentrate on schoolwork again. Apart from schoolwork getting acustomed to a regular life with a daily structure is hard work after having had to tough it out on the streets for quite a while. Even though getting back in to a ¨normal¨ life is quite a struggle (and if that isn´t bad enough some of these kids also have to kick the habit of glue sniffing in the meantime), we were surprised how quickly these kids excepted us as part of their lifes, trusting us, letting us help them & enjoying the loving warmth of a hug. With this they, of course, managed to find their way straight into our hearts from the first week we started working in Patio Mi Pana. With the help of Alex, Martin & Madrina, we learned how to help our boys best, how deal with their and our emotions (which are inevitable if you really wanna give this type of work your very best).

In the afternoons we went to another location called Casa Don Bosco, where we took the kids to a vacational course. While our boys were in their classes, we were teaching English to different groups of kids. The vacational course is meant for kids from poor neighbourhoods, to give them an alternative to hang on the streets while their parents are working and therewith to prevent more kids from ending up on the streets. At times, teaching ´normal´ kids was quite a nice break from the more personal and therefore emotional work with our boys. But the both of us agreed quickly that working in the Patio, while harder, was also that much more rewarding.

Our co-workers were quite preoccupied with two gringas living in Calle M, 22 and they arranged a room in a safer neighboorhood for us. And although we didn´t really wanna leave our new friends and house, the fact that our new room would safe us 2,5 hours of traveling to and from work every day in the end did the trick. Beginning of February, we moved to our little room in Carzota, a 5 minute walk to the patio. Missing the 24-hour rumour of Suburbio, but we did enjoy feeling safer (or so we thought) and enjoyed being able to go out for a beer at night.

In the mean time our boys were getting ready for a weeks holiday in Playas, where we would spend Carnaval. We were looking forward to it just as much as the boys, but that might have been less if we would have know the dayschedule  The fundation for which we work is a Salesiono organisation, and therefore has strong catholic values. In the normal days work we easily adjusted to the Nuestre Padres and going to church. But in the camp life was slightly different. Getting up at 6.30 a.m. for the prayers, doing chores while listening to ¨Jesu Cristu, yo estoy aqui¨, standing in formation, praying again, getting breakfast, playing footbal, bathe, standing in formation, praying again, having lunch, participating in competitions, bathe, standing in formation, praying again, having dinner, participate in the evening games and then being locked out (no way women can stay in the same building as men) & sent to bed at 22.00 p.m.

Although the strict rules might have taken a little getting used to, being able to see the kids relax, play heaps of football and fool around on the beach was an amazing experience. So maybe it was not the dayschedule we would have chosen for ourselves, it really wasn´t hard to get by and just enjoy that we have been given the opportunity to help out while our boys enjoyed a well deserved holiday.

Back in Guayaquil, we quickly adapted to our normal routine again. Working with our boys in the Patio, going on ¨abordaje¨ (encountering kids that still live on the streets), teaching English in the afternoons. While I´m writing it down it sounds so simple. I am slightly dissappointed that I do not seem to be able to describe the impression working with these kids made on me. It´s is not working in an office where you turn off the computer at the end of the day and go back to your own life. You are talking about life, about opportunities, about kids needing love and care. That is something you can not switch off as you please.

Dreading the day, time was slowly coming for us to say goodbye. Wanting to give the boys something special and have a little fun ourselves as well, we invited them to a football game of the local team ¨Barcelona¨. Unfortunately somebody robbed the money we got out to take the boys, so we ended up paying two times for the little outing, but that could not supress the fun we had. I´m not that big of a football fan, but if I could take these boys with me, I would be at the stadium every game! Man is it fun to stand there with 12 boys all dressed up, faces painted, dancing, jumping & yelling! And of course WE won!

The downside was that this also meant that the moment of really saying goodbye arrived. Dreading the moment more and more, we kept finding excuses to postpone the moment, which in the end meant we actually went said goodbye at least 3 times. And I still wanna go back! Could somebody please buy me a massive house, so that I can take all of them with me?

With a sore heart, we left Guayaquil behind. I joint Naemi & her mother (who popped over for a visit) on a trip to Cuenca. After we returned to Guayaquil to bring Naemi´s mom to the airport, we went to say goodbye one last time in Mi Pana and are now back in Cuenca to continue from here, discovering a little more of Ecuador then just Guayaquil.

The past three months have been an amazing experience. Living a completely different life, adapting to a culture that is completely different, learning to dance sexo con ropa , trying to speak Spanish, developing an incredible friendship with Naemi, but most of all being able to be part of the lifes of these kids. If only for a little while!

I am very grateful that I have gotten this opportunity. And although I am not catholic and therefore at times might have seen the way things are run with a different opinion, the project and the people that run it are amazing people. With little means they manage to help not only streetkids, but also children with lesser chances, families and their churches support entire communities. You do not always have to see eye to eye to be completely impressed.

Different type of kids 

The kids (upto 5 years) in the guarderia are absolutely adorable. But with things pretty well organised (for Ecuadorian standards at least), we have spent a lot of time sitting, waiting and doing nothing useful. Being the uptide little Europeans that we are, that of course wasn´t good enough.So yesterday, we skipped school and went looking for other things to do. As we visited a local centre for children from poor families or in danger of slipping into a life on the streets, we learned they were part of a bigger organisation with 4 locations in town.By now, we have seen 3 locations, met some of the streetkids. Played at the centre, thaught my first English class (pretty short, but still it´s a start) and are buzzing with energy. We´ve already talked to the people from the guarderia and they fully understand that we want to go where our help is really needed. So we´re off……….. on to a new project and with a completely different type of kids (but just as sweet though!)