vale la pena

we´re in the leaving period.  it sucks.  mostly because I work with children and it´s really hard for them to understand.  and when you put it bluntly, that we´re leaving forever, it´s really hard for me to hear.  por siempre is a long time.  keily invited me to christmas and new years at her house, in an attempt to get me not to go.  stay, we´ll light the muñeca on fire and it´ll be fun.  she almost cried.  everyone is getting really sad.  melissa signed elisabeth, omar´s wife, up for hotmail so we can msn and email her and stay in contact.  however, she´s not exactly the most computer literate so it´s a long process. 

I also know that I will probably be exceedingly unpleasant when I get back.  remember when I came home from wales?  that was the worst summer ever.  of course, it didn´t help that kayla moved to california (though this summer she´s moving to japan, punk).  so I apologize in advance for being mopey and no fun at all.  I am excited about coming home (I´d be more excited if I had a job).  I am excited to see people and meet babies and wear clean clothes and drink clean water.

nueva gente en la calle

we have a new neighbor downstairs. 

he´s a community college languages professor from NC.  He´s married, with four kids, but his wife and kids are at home (she teaches pre-GED writing).  he grew up in Africa because his parents were medical missionaries and speaks fluent french, so he started out teaching french.  His wife is from latin america so once he met her he started learning spanish so he could communicate with her family, so now he teaches spanish too.  he´s here for 6 weeks because he read about nuevo mundo in a book or something and emailed the school asking if they needed any short term volunteers and if there´s one thing you shouldn´t do as a foundation it´s turn down volunteers so here he is. 

their kids are tri-lingual.  He only speaks around them in french, and his wife speaks spanish.  he said that when his first daughter was growing up they were so confused because her first words were in english and they were only speaking in french and spanish so how did that happen?  but then they realised that they spoke to each other in english in front of her so of course she picked up on it.  so now they only speak in french and spanish in front of the kids.  which I think is so interesting!  he speaks to his wife in french, she answers in spanish.  his kids are most comfortable in english and spanish, so they respond to him in either one of those.  he said they´ve always been way ahead in english classes in school too, because they have such a foundation in languages.  whenever they travel to spanish or french speaking countries they buy used books to read to their kids.  so cool.  almost makes you want to have kids. 

he´s planning a doctorate on little-known ecuadorian literature and is looking stuff up while he´s here.  he and his wife do that travel and volunteer places thing that is oh so popular right now, and which sounds super fun.  we think he´s a supercool guy.  we took him out for avena polaca one night and this whole story came out and now we want to be just like him when we grow up.  he knows so much about international volunteering because he grew up in it and has done a lot of it.  so yay, new friends.

5k in Ecuador

The school where elyse works, santiago de apostol, was a part of a 5k for child workers today (since their mission is to serve child workers and those children at risk).  we went, not to run but to be supportive. 

it was totally weird.  it was on the puntilla, the rich area of town, at the Guayaquil tennis club.  which is REALLY nice.  they have a riverside pool and housing and it´s ridiculous.  But all these Santiago students went and ran alongside all these pelucon ecuadorians who obviously run regularly and had matching running outfits and could afford and want to pay the entrance fee and they ran down these paved tree-lined streets and it was so many things that do not exist in my life here.  but the kids really appreciated having us there cheering them on, and it was so cool to see them running.  then we got free breakfast (ham sandwich, cake, and a banana).  so good times. 

also, it´s been in the 70s here and we´re all freezing, wearing long pants and worrying about our upcoming trip to the beach and it being too cold to swim.

volunteer bucket list

so we have about two and a half months left.  which makes me really sad and really happy all at the same time.  sometimes when I look at my kids here and think about leaving them it feels like my heart is going to be ripped out of my chest. 

anyway, we made a list of things to do before leaving the country and have slowly been chipping away at it.  it includes things like visiting Nobol (scheduled 31/5) getting a salsa dance lesson (done) and climbing to the cristo rey statue (TBA). 

Sunday night, we rode the gusanito.  The gusanito is this little car train thing that drives around Durán at night, the driver´s in the front car and then there´s about ten cars behind him all linked, big enough for six adults each (or 12 ecuadorian children, whichever).  there´s neon lights and reggaeton and it´s kind of ridiculous.  he drives all swervy and goes in circles really fast and I´ve wanted to do it all year. 

so we got out of church sunday night and the gusanito was driving around and was packed!  all the kids from Valdivia were on it, or in the park watching it.  we decided it was the perfect night to hop a ride.  unfortunately, it cost .75 a person, which we didn´t have so tracy and lauren had to run back to the house for money.  Jeremy and Christian, two of our kids, were hanging out with us and telling us how much they wanted to ride it but they didn´t have money which is completely true.  Jeremy was so sad, it was awful.  but if we gave him a ride, we´d have to give everyone a ride, and we definitely couldn´t afford that.  who charges .50 for a tiny child to ride the gusanito? 

so we got on, as soon as there was space.  Christian hopped in a car further back even though he had no money.  it was super fun, driving around Durán in this ridiculous car.  When we got to the gusanito home base, the guy came around to collect the money and Christian got off and said that he was just going to stay there (over a mile from home).  Melissa wouldn´t let him and told him to sit under their feet.  so he stole a ride from the gusanito and we helped him.  of course, two other kids also stole a ride from the gusanito but he noticed them and a block after we started moving he stopped and chased them off.  he´s a big guy, but he could run soooo fast.  it was actually exceedingly scary.  probably because he was running off to beat the crap out of kids until they paid him (which we think they did) and because we deserved the same.  so not only did we get the adrenaline rush of the ride, but also the fear of discovery! 

when we got back, the Romero family was hailing the gusanito.  mom, dad, and four youngest kids (Anthony, Nicol, Adamaris, and Paucholo).  Their dad put them in the car, gave them each a kiss, bought them popcorn, and bargined with the driver for the best price.  it was cute, especially since we´ve never seen him have any involvement in their lives.  Jeremy was still bummed out on the side of the road, but being as Mom Romero is his aunt, she saw him sitting there and had him get in with all her kids.  so it was a perfect evening, everyone ended up happy and with a ride on the worm.

kids are punks in spanish too

so at Valdivia this week, I am working with the little kids.  3-8 year olds.  we´re doing a big paper mache project in that yesterday I had them rip up newspaper, today we´re making our shapes, tomorrow painting them maybe and then thursday taking them home (we´re going on a field trip to the pool on friday so there´s no program). 

Saimon is three and very cute.  he looks like he just walked out of a Guayasamin painting. 

He has many brothers and sisters.  Four of whom also come to Valdivia, Scarlet, Nixon, Leonela, and Michel.  Yesterday we were doing a cutting and pasting activity, which he has trouble with because he is so young but can do.  Except he didn´t want to.  He pretended that he doesn´t know how to color at all and just scribbled with a yellow crayon on everything (I know him, he knows how to color, at least to pick out other colors) but when I tell him to switch colors his siblings say “he doesn´t know how to do it!” when he actually does.  so then he finished his activity way before everyone else so I started him ripping up newspaper. 

he tore up one sheet and then he stuck his tongue out at me and wouldn´t do anything else the rest of the day.  stuck his tongue out?  who does that?  I think he just learned how to do it actually because I noticed him sticking it out at everyone that annoyed him yesterday.  he thinks he gets away with it because he´s little and cute and his siblings are all so well-behaved.