Bienvenidos Boston College

So a large part of the Rostro de Cristo program is hosting retreat groups from colleges, universities, and high schools throughout the year. Both Duran houses have houses for retreatants right next to the houses where the year long volunteers live, so when a group stays in one of those houses, a volunteer from the same community is the leader of the group. This person stays with the group at all times and has a lot of responsibility but also gets to just hang out with the group. From January 3-11, Boston College came to Arbolito and I got my first taste of being a retreat group leader. I was really excited for it (and definitely a bit nervous because I just didn´t know what to expect) because the retreat group program is something very unique to Rostro, and it was something that strongly drew me to the program, since a cultural immersion trip was basically what started the chain of events that lead me to volunteer for a year.

Boston College was AWESOME. They had so much energy, lots of great questions, and had such a fun group dynamic that I am STILL missing them two weeks later. Everyone took part in reflections and I really felt like I was part of the group, just hanging out and playing Jenga and giving people mohawks? (That did actually happen...by the end, Kenny, Calvin (the two guys in the picture with Aide and I) and Kipp were all sporting mohawks and Ricardo let Aide cut his hair shorter). I was truly and honestly very sad to see them leave.

Every retreat group does more or less the same things. We spent lots of time in the neighborhood, meeting neighbors and playing with the kids. In Arbolito we visited Patricia, Ellsya, Pastora, Jenny & Oscar, and Lupe. BC definitely came with a lot of questions, and even though they all had alternating levels of Spanish, each and every one of them introduced themselves in Spanish and made an effort to speak the language to the neighbors. It was also really fun to get to spend lots of time with Aide, since she works at Manos and is so busy all the time with classes and other responsibilites. Aide was with us all week for market trips to buy food, at neighbors´houses, helping to cook dinner, and she even borrowed a pair of my shorts so she could play in the soccer tournament on Saturday that Ricardo organized. Ricardo and Aide have both known the adult leader for BC (Chris) because he´s lead this trip for BC for the past five years. It was really fun to see how he still held such a strong relationship with the neighbors and with the two of them even though he can only return each year for a week. My group also went to Damien House, which is a hospital for lepers in Guayaquil, for two mornings, visited with the patients there and did some singing (really, I do more theatrical productions here than I ever have before...and my singing is way less than satisfactory). We headed to Nuevo Mundo as well to visit Caitlin´s English class, and again, sang to the entire assembly (Build Me Up Buttercup).

My favorite thing to do with the retreat groups is to visit all the afterschool programs. Because the group was staying in Arbolito and because I work at Semillas, we went there three times. We also got a chance to visit Valdivia and Manos Abiertas, which was really fun for me because the last time I went to these programs was my first week here when they were still run by last year´s volunteers. Having visitors come to our programs is awesome, because we have so many kids and the real thing that they need most is attention. With lots of extra people, more kids can get that one on one attention that they crave. We love the kids we work with, and to see the retreat groups give them that one thing they need so much, it´s just really wonderful.

The last day we went to the Malecon in Guayaquil, as a sort of transition day back to their reality of being US citizen. This is a chance for them to reflect on what they´ve seen and done and who´ve they´ve met over the past week. Honestly, I like for retreat groups to feel uncomfortable with their experience. I guess that sounds really weird, but what I mean is that I believe that being a college-educated US citizen puts an individual in a very privileged, and very small, population of people in the world, and coming to terms with that is awkward, because who honestly likes to think of themselves that way? I feel like there´s a social responsibility to realize that you are part of that privileged population, and to do something with the leverage that you´ve been given. Whether it´s helping out in your own neighborhood or halfway around the world, it doesn´t matter. I just believe that there are lots of people that have the capabilities to achieve amazing things, but just not the opportunities. In one way or another, I just hope that this program provokes retreatants to think about the opportunities they´ve had and taken advantage of, and how maybe they can transfer those to other people that weren´t so lucky. As much as I hope our program made the retreatants think a lot, it definitely made me think too.

I can´t say that I ever thought I´d be so happy to wear a Boston College shirt (go ´Nova!), but this group has converted me hahaha holler at BC :)

Due to lack of my camera capabilities, this picture doesn´t include everyone, but it was the best group shot I had!

Paz, Amor, y Ecuador