Day 32
Yesterday, it was back to the church to
keep working on the mural. Six volunteer youth kids showed up, all
very effective, helpful, and fun to work with. When-- oh, glorious moment-- we took off the masking tape that
had separated the different colors, the look was epic. This all took
a lot longer than I thought, so by the time we wrapped up and headed
off to dinner (courtesy of the church via Julio), it was past five
o'clock. Of course, this meant I'd entirely missed my English lesson,
with Matteo, but he's on vacation now and doesn't really give a flip
about anything. I remember those days.
Day 33
Today, I was super stressed trying to
finish the high stuff on the walls to send the andamios (scaffolding) back. I had the help of three brothers-- only the
oldest of which was of much practical help, though the others were
faithful runners when a change of color or new brush was needed-- but the work was slow, so around 5:00, we cleaned up
and parted ways-- them to hop on the two-hour bus ride to their house,
me to go to Matteo's, where I ate dinner, took a nap, recruited help
tomorrow from some youth who were arriving for a worship team
meeting, and then went home with the family. Tomorrow's going to have
to be an early day in order to prepare enough to make the helpers
useful, so I'm going to bed... now!
7/11/13
Day 35
Yesterday was another ten-hour work
day. This time I actually planned ahead and bought a little food--
bread, cheese, and milk-- for myself and the volunteers. We
worked to finish the one big wall and finished some more of the people silhouettes on the
other. Santi also decided that while we have the andamios and paint
and volunteers, we might as well finish the wall we were going to
leave blank, as well as the circular space inside of the skylight. It
was super-fun, but a little scary, up there on the tip-top of the
andamios, drawing the letters of 'Juventud Acabando Suenyos' (Youth
Achieving Dreams, the name of the group), around the circular
skylight. Photos to come, of course. We worked until seven and then went to bible study. Wednesday bible study's always at the
same place, a nice couple with a little baby boy who likes to kiss
Sophie (pastor's baby) on the mouth, much to both parent's dismay.
They also make each other cry a lot and do a lot of cute things, so
the study is very distracting, but not in an unpleasant way. Home, sleep, etc. All right, gotta go to church now. Peace.
~Ely
7/15/13
Days 35-38
Goodness, am I behind! Thursday was a
13-hour painting day; Santi was with me at the end of it, but had to
leave to go to a bible study-- I said I'd stay and keep working if
he'd bring me food after the study (painting days didn't really
involve a lot of eating...). When he went to pick up his wife to join
him, he found that she was sick, so he made her dinner, put her to
bed, and came back to the church. I'd expected him to be gone a lot
longer, so I hadn't really done that much, but we were both tired and
he wanted to be with Gaby, so he talked me into leaving the rest to
finish up tomorrow (I'd wanted to go to the orphanage the next day,
but there was still so much to do!). We went to eat dinner at his
house-- a variation on meat loaf-- and enjoyed philosophical
conversation about the nature and place of apologetics, religion vs
religiosity, etc. I like talking to Santi. I feel like he sees
through my weirdness and sort of understands me. Which is always
nice. Anyway, he took me home, where I went directly to bed in order
to be at church early the next morning. Andrea dropped me off on her
way to school, so I was working by 7:30.
Day 36
Around 11, Julio and I ate
sandwiches made out of bread, cheese, and chicken that I'd brought,
and he called Andres to come help me out. I put him to work erasing
pencil lines and doing some nit-picking, and when Santi arrived
shortly after, they started painting the last wall, a much simpler
design. He put on a movie for the kids who had arrived for kids' club
so that we could keep working. When I finished down below, I began
cleaning, a ridiculous process, especially in the transition between
kids' club and youth 'bible study'-- and though we expected that the
kids who showed up would be excited to help finishing up their youth
room, the few kids that did showed up were either sick or tired, so I
ended up scrambling to finish my part of the last wall entirely on my
own. It was really frustrating and I wanted to cry, expecially
because they were rushing me or telling me to finish up tomorrow,
since we had to go deliver food to the poor in the city. At that
point, the thought of putting on my stinky painting clothes and
coming back to work one more day made me want to vomit, so I stayed
focused and finished up around 10:30, making it a 15-hour work day.
We then went to deliver food, which I enjoyed, but was really tired
by the next day.
Day 37
On Saturday, Andrea, Angelica and I
went to take Grandma to the dentist, which proved to be a half-day
endeavour, but around 3pm, I took an acquaintence up on his offer to
join me on a trip to the teleferico, in which lil people-filled boxes
are strung on a wire and taken up a mountain. It reminded me
distinctly of an attraction at the San Diego Zoo that I always used
to enjoy with my grandmother, except that you got off at the top and
enjoyed walking around the mountains for a bit, taking pictures of
the spectacular view of the valley. It was awesome-- a little
awkward, since the guy from Josue's church who had invited me was
probably expecting a date and he got a party-- we were there with
Andrea, Petato, the young uncle and his girlfriend, and the little
sister and her boyfriend. It was really
pleasant, but since I was hungry and there was a festival going on in
Pomasqui, we headed over to that part of town to eat. By the time we
finished, though, it was after 9, and both of 'my guy-dates' had to go
back home. I was really, really wiped and almost had Petato drop me
off at the house, but decided to go to the festival with the others
in the end. I'm really glad I did, though-- it was beautiful. There
were so many people in the town square, some of them in strange
costumes, but most of them just people dancing and selling things. I
tried a little of a traditional festival type drink made from
fermented sugar cane juice and fruit, which was really delicious. If
I wasn't such a homebody about drinking, I would've had more. There
was also a fireworks show that beat Disneyland by a mile, especially
because we were so close to it that we had to mob-shove our way back
through the crowd to stay out of its way. Part of the festivities was
also a giant spinning tower thing that had lil fireworks type things
attached to the whirly parts, it was kind of fantastic.
Unfortunately, my camera's been in the habit of turning itself on in
my little purse and draining the battery, so I didn't get photos of
any of this, but, like Petato told me on the Teleferico, I took
pictures with my mind. Which doesn't stick as well, but not having
the camera actually helped me stay in the moment and enjoy the day
more. Hm. Though I didn't want to leave, I was so wiped by the time
we got in the car that I slept on the way to drop people off, pick up
Mom, and head home.
Day 38
Yesterday, we went on bus to meet the
Matutes for church in the South. We got there a lot later than the
pastor said and the service was still really long; the church is the
emphatic charismatic type that, while I enjoyed, was probably a
little much for the newcomers. I spent half the time trying to help
the kids adjust to the Sunday school, as they were even more shy than
one would expect. No one likes being the new kid, but Josue, at
least, said he really enjoyed the group by the end of the day.
Afterwards, the church gave us lunch, and Gloria shared that she'd
actually had some bad experiences with churches of this
denomination-- people 'helping' to feel better about themselves, and
to be in a more advantageous position to judge her family; family
members who sang God's praises all day long and then did nothing for
her. I was glad that she'd told me, and I hope that she gives this
church a chance to show her a better experience, and that they follow
through on it. I also worked with the youth pastor to track down a
young man who can help the kids with their homework when
school starts again in the Fall. I actually wanted to start earlier
to get the kids caught up, but Mom said she wanted them to have a
vacation, especially since Dad might be rolling into town to spend
part of it with them. Anyway, we arranged the
tutoring, then went back home on the bus, spontaneously stopping at a
historical and ecological museum site where remains of an Indigenous
village had been found. There is still a lot of investigating to do;
they don't even know which group it was yet. It was really cool to
see this piece of history, especially as it's in the midst of being
uncovered. We went back to Grandma's house, where Andrea and I took a
nap, and I talked quite a bit with her great-grandmother, who I find
to be absolutely wonderful. The family (and the grandmother) get a
little frustrated with the effects of her old age-- hearing loss,
repetition of stories, etc, so it's kind of cool to be able to enjoy
her company; I hope it helps give them a fresh look at this sweet,
weird, hilarious old lady. It's also fueling a poem, which I'm
excited about. Yesterday we also found out that Betsabe's family is
going on vacation until Thursday, so I can't go to Los Rios until
then. However, I'm planning to visit the other Betzy, Betzabeth
Lopez, en Guayaquil instead. I'll be leaving tomorrow, and have to
get packed and ready to go before then, including finding a place to
get Malaria shots as I drop altitude for the next two weeks. I'm
doing some laundry now, and if I can get ready in time, I hope to
head to the orphanage in a few hours to have some more time with the
little monsters before I leave town. This is a really exciting time.
Prayers!
7/16/13
Day 39
Yesterday was really chill-- I planned
on going to the orphanage, but I also had to get ready to leave
today-- including doing laundry, packing, etc, and as I had no
energy, this took so long that by the time I was done, it seemed kind
of pointless to go, so I mulled about the house until Naty came by
and picked me up to go to the grocery store with her and her brother. From
there, we went to the hospital and Grandma's briefly to drop off the
uncle and the groceries before picking up Andrea from the bus stop on
her way home from school and heading over to the house to meet Petato to help him study for an English exam. There was a
lot of traffic, so he didn't get there til 8, but we worked through a
few lessons and ate dinner between 8 and 11; the time flew by since
the three of us generally have a great time together. We also Skyped
Javi and worked out some of the details for our mountain climbing, as
well as finalized the plan for today. I'm
hopping on a bus and heading for Betzy Pineda's dorm in Guayaquil,
Ecuador's other big city (pretty much the modern cultural capital) to spend
a few days there, before going to Los Rios to be with Betsy Coello
and her family. Adventuretime!
~Ely
7/17/13
Day 40
Yesterday involved a lot of waiting--
We took Angelica to the hospital to relieve Jose from
grandma duty-- I love that in this culture, when someone's sick, they
don't just visit them, they're really there with them. It's awesome.
Then we dropped Andrea off and Naty took me to the bus station around
10, where we were informed that the chart that said a bus was coming
at 10:45 was in error, and that the next ticket I could buy for
Guayaquil was at 12:45. But the lobby was pretty comfortable, so I
didn't mind doing some reading while I waited, then I mosied down the
street, where I found a vegetarian restaurant to stop for lunch-- of interest to me, since I'm a stateside vegetarian hoping to continue cooking Ecuadorian food. I also picked up some oatmeal and
chocolate chip cookies for the road. When the bus finally left, I
found that it was almost empty, and I had plenty of room to get
comfortable for the long ride. Thought I closed my curtain due to the
sun, one time I peeked out and found that we were driving by gorgeous
mountain-and-river scenes, so I kept it open the rest of the time and
tried to take pictures, which failed to capture anything, really, but
will maybe help me remember. By the time it got dark, I had most of
my book read and half of a poem written. I finally arrived at the
station around 10:30, and Betzabeth arrived shortly after. We hopped
in a taxi to go to her very close-by apartment, where she lives with
three female friends, where we all sat around watching a novella for some 20
mins before heading to her bedroom, where we caught up on life before
going to sleep. This morning, we're going to go see the city, and
hopefully get my yellow fever vaccine and malaria meds from the place
I have information about here in Guayaquil. I'm really excited.
Adventuretime!
~Ely
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