surprise! i just became an english teacher!

Bienvenidos a Ecuador! I have now been in Duran for about a week and a half. All of us are trying to find our niche, to get settled in and to become comfortable with feeling slightly uncomfortable in a foreign place. We´ve all been staying in the retreat house in Arbolito, and although continuing to live out of a suitcase may not be ideal, it´s fun for the two Duran communities to be living in the same place, and with the Monte Sinai volunteers living only a short drive away in the AJS retreat house. We´ve still been living all together because we´re actually still in orientation. Part of that orientation involved a day at the beach (three jellyfish stings split between sixteen of us) and a full 8-hour day of riding bus routes and doing a really elaborate scavenger hunt through all of Duran and Guayaquil. My feet were extremely dirty after that haha and our bus broke down, which was actually hilarious.

Until recently, last year´s volunteers were actually still here with us too, and we spent a lot of mornings travelling and learning the bus routes to various work sties. Rostro de Cristo volunteers work in a bunch of foundations in and around Guayaquil (look on the website under where we work to see the whole list!) Our morning placements range from a shelter for street kids to working with patients of Hansen´s Disease (formerly known as leprosy).

In the afternoons, the majority of us work for one of the afterschool programs (Semillas de Mostaza in Arbolito, Valdivia in AJS, or Manos Abiertas in Vientiocho de Agosto). The afterschool programs involve an "activity" each day, usually constructed somewhat like a lesson. Recreo is the last part, which is basically a free-for-all constituting of lots of soccer and a somewhat organized episode of chaos. The last part is the charla, in which case one of the volunteers will give a small talk revolving around the theme of the week (something like respect, citizenship, or kindness). As the kids leave, they get a vitamin, a banana, and a piece of bread. For some, these programs are their only source of schooling and food that they will receive all day.

So last night and this morning we went through this huge discernment process and...i will be the program director for Semillas but also I AM BECOMING A TEACHER! Never in a hundred million years would I have ever thought I would want to teach. I came into this program being locked in on the logistics position, because it involved lots of organization and work with the retreat groups that we host. However, my heart pulled me towards Santa Marianita (also known as Redima), where I would have the opportunity to work in the school there (as much or as little as I wanted), the soup kitchen (the family that runs it was so open and friendly!) and then possibly even do some administrative work in the clinic. It sounds like a great way for me to get a little taste of everything. And teaching? Well hands down it scares the crap out of me, but I knew that this year was about challenging myself, and here was a perfect opportunity for me to do something I think I could be really good at, but at a pace that I could handle. The school system in Ecuador involves the teacher writing something down and the students memorizing it. Students may be able to reproduce answers, but not have any idea as to the meaning behind it. I want to change that. I´ve had the privilege of having a lot of great teachers, and I feel like I could really bring something to the classroom. And I love to cook (and eat), so holler at Santa Marianita :)

I´m becoming more and more adjusted to life in Ecuador every day. Whereas I once was extremely paranoid about safety and security in the neighborhoods and on the busses, I know now that yes, it can be dangerous, but it can be dangerous anywhere. We have lots of rules to follow and I know that these are given to us to keep us safe. So I´ll sit only on the outside seat on the busses and not walk alone over "sketch" bridge.

It´s weird to think that it actually can be very easy to forget where I am. We went to the Puntilla to see Nuevo Mundo and we easily could have been driving past gated communities in Florida. The MegaMaxi supermarket is in a shopping mall that is as pristine as some of the nicest I´ve ever been in. The area known as Las Peñas is littered with restaurants and bars like in many European cities. But then you walk down the road in Arbolito and there´s lots of dirt and dust and trash, young kids running around with absolutely no supervision, and stray dogs everywhere. But as you walk down the street the next day, trying to get used to all the stares that a "gringa" here attracts, you get a smile and a hello from a little kid, and that makes you realize that when all´s said and done, we´re all human. I may have been lucky enough to have been born in a country where I was granted freedom and rights with birth, but people born into alternate circumstances are in now way any less human than the rest of us. It´s amazing what a kid´s smile can do, huh?

Sometimes I´ll wake up in the morning and for a split second forget where I am. And then I remember that I actually moved to Ecuador. And not only to Ecuador, but to one of its most impoverished neighborhoods. Volunteers must be crazy for signing themselves up for something like this. Aren´t we? I don´t really think so. We may be a bunch of crazy people, but we´re also just a group of 20-somethings who have come here because we feel we owe it to the world to do our part to help. We won´t change or save the world, but we sure as hell are going to try.

Paz, Amor, y Ecuador <3