So after the most hecticly fast, swaying and window head banging journey to Canoa, we arrived a full hour and a half early, despite leaving half an hour late. Surely it's unheard of to arrive that early to anything in Ecuador! We were greeted with a dark, dank and drizzly Canoa in what felt like the middle of the night as it was only 6am. Llovizna - my new word for the day which I've learnt very quickly - DRIZZLE - what? in Ecuador? I have never had more than one layer on since I arrived and on the journey and for the first few hours we were here whilst waiting for the Hostel to open I had a whole 3 layers on including my thick hoodie - AHHHH this is not good. It really was like a misty, foggy, grey and windy day when we arrived with the surfing waves lashing the beach!
However, although it's still grey and overcast (should've gone down to Mancora in Peru if we wanted guaranteed sunshine!), it's a bit warmer and I'm only wearing two layers now! We've also checked in finally and they've managed to get us all into one room with an ensuite so I'm feeling kinda privileged now as I've seen so many people turning up looking for rooms and being turned away to sleep where who knows? Our room for the next three days in Argentina and it's cute.
The party's already in full swing. Even at 6am in the morning there were people roaming the streets and now at barely lunchtime the music is pumping from all corners. Truck loads of people are coming for the fiesta and the streets are packed with people ambling, shopping, drinking, eating. I've already bought some souvenirs but better chill a bit on the spending front if I want to get through til Wednesday morning when we get our bus back to Guayaquil.
All is good therefore, minus the sun! We need a little bit of sol and it will all be perfect or even if just warmed up enough to lie on the beach and cloudbathe with my pale skin I'd be happy. Just a bit of sun that's all I ask and then three days of partying.....Whoopey whoop! xx
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Playa paradise
So it's the start of the National holidays and today, well, to be precise this evening, we will embark on our first real escape from Guayaquil. We're going up to Canoa in the North of the country - it's beach time baby baby! It's a little fishing village and everyone who talks about it says that it's lovely so I'm super excited (well at least I am in theory, but I'm so knackered that getting excited is a bit of a challenge at the mo!). As it's 8 hours away we're travelling over night which has been organised by Lily who was Karen's Spanish teacher and has taught many of the other Juconi and CMAP volunteers. Knowing how good I am - NOT! at sleeping on buses, I would've preferred to travel in the day, plus this would have meant getting to see some of the countryside but as Lily organised it all, so be it. Hopefully we'll travel back in the day on Wednesday which will mean seeing some of the journey and we have to be in work on Thursday morning, so an overnight trip is definitely not gonna be something I'll be keen on.
Right now I'm praying for sunshine. All of you get out there and start a sundance for me please!! Then again, as you guys have been dealing with some pretty cold wintery weather by the sounds of it, I'm sure you don't wanna think about us guys chilling on a beach! But my God, do I need it?! I've been suffering since Wednesday night with a dodgy tummy and all the associated fun and games that goes with that. Helen's had the same and Kelsey, an American volunteer, too. All I want to do is go and pass out on the beach so the fact that Canoa is meant to be super mellow sounds just perfect to me.
Last night was Karen's leaving do - she's off to travel Colombia for the next three weeks and then we'll be having a last supper when she's back in Guayaquil before going back to the UK. I was there in body but not in spirit. I felt exhausted, ill and just not really all there. I also felt super lonely. Kelsey went home early. Karen was obviously the belle of the ball and Helen was chatting to some of Karen's friends. I was sitting with some of the organisation staff but wasn't involved in the convos and my brain was so tired I couldn't keep up with the Spanish or make an effort to be involved. Ah well, suppose they'll always be days like that in a new country, new job, new culture, new language with nothing familiar in the slightest. Probably just felt more negative about it than I would have normally tho' due to feeling so rubbish. Nevermind. Today's a new day and adventure awaits....!
So, what else is new... well everything of course! Everything's new all the time! So yesterday at Isla - the most energetic, spirited, hyperactive and uncontrollable of all our groups we'd agreed that the Juconi workers would run the dinamíca - which is like the warm up game or icebreaker. I turned up in the yard of the school where we run the session, having been helping Kelsey set up as she was gonna take the diddly ones (i.e. the under 6's) who actually are not meant to even be there and in our team meeting last week, we'd discussed the little ones who often disrupt the session hugely as they obviously need a totally different type of intervention. Often it's that the older ones are looking after the younger ones which is why they all end up coming to Art Club. So, as I said, we'd discussed the fact that the little ones are not meant to come but immediately after that meeting last week, we'd had little ones in the Isla session. Plus we'd also decided that the limits on group size need to be enforced, i.e. 25 in all the groups, except Isla which is 30. Despite all these lovely agreements, the reality is that they´re not enforced by the workers, so it makes it meaningless! Yesterday in Isla for instance, we had 40!! It's a shame 'cuz it means it becomes a lot about group management and we do not have the time to be supporting those who need help. Really, it would be better to have much fewer numbers and be able to make a difference. Not to mention the whole arriving half an hour before the session starts in order to ensure we have set up and have briefing time - again, that went straight out of the window the day after it was agreed - as we arrived at a session half an hour after it was due to start, i.e. a whole hour late being that we'd agreed that workers would be there half an hour early. Ah well. It's challenging but I have to try and relax. It's about choosing your battles wisely isn't it? I mean, we are not in control of what time we arrive as we have to go in with the Educators, therefore, if they're late we're late!
Sylvia the English woman who founded Juconi, saw such a situation unfolding on Thursday morning - our Sergio Toral session. There was a whole team session with the Psychologist who comes in every 2 weeks (none of them have any individual supervision despite the intensity of the work that they're doing - this group session is the best they get), which started late, overran blahblahblah which meant the workers weren't out of the meeting until 10.45am, bearing in mind we are meant to start Art Club at 10am :O Add that to the fact that as Sergio is so far out, even with the driver driving us in the Camioneta, it would've taken us another 40 or so minutes to get there thus meaning we would've arrived at half 11 - half an hour before the session finishes. So the session was scrapped. WOW! It's so rubbish that we let these kids down and I've seen it happen, and apparently it's a regular occurrence, that workers just don't ever get to their appointments with the families. Terrible really - but it's just part of life here. It doesn't mean that they don't care but there is just no culture of starting things on time. Being on time. Keeping to plan etc etc. Like I said; choosing my battles wisely is my thing at the mo. I can't fix the whole culture of Ecuador single-handedly!
So, as Sylvia saw this happening first hand on Thursday, having already had a chat with me about the lateness issue on Wednesday when she knew we were hanging around waiting to leave for Balerio Estacio - where we finally materialised at 2.30pm! She's suggested that I drive one of the organisation's Camionetas (pick up truck thing) to enable us to get to Art Club on time. this would mean that we would be more in charge of the scheduling and people would have to meet us rather than us wait for them. However, there would obviously be numerous challenges: the style of driving, which is pretty insane; not becoming a general driver for the organisation and getting pulled in all different directions by everyone; actually negotiating my way to some of the sectors and knowing the way; learning to drive in the sectors were roads are sometimes no existent; and of course, the biggest challenge would be that if there was a Gringa driving, we would be even more susceptible to be robbed, attacked, carjacked etc... So, vamos a ver as they say - we'll see. Ultimately, I'd just like to know that we were more in control of actually getting to Art Club and actually having a full session, and if me driving the Camioneta is the way forward then I'll do it despite all the risks!
But as I was saying paragraphs and paragraphs ago (Tangent Woman to the rescue!), yesterday at Isla we'd agreed that the Educators would run the dinamíca. However, after helping Kelsey set up for the little ones, I arrived to find a huge group of kids in a circle and nobody knowing what game to do. They asked if any of the kids knew 'Boom Chicka Boom' - a fun, call and response song, where the leader says something and they have to repeat...
I said a boom
I said a boom
I said a boom chicka
I said a boom chicka rocka
I said a boom chicka rocka, chicka rocka, chicka boom
Ah ha
Oh si
One more time ... this time a little bit more (happy/noisy/sad/quiet etc)
I've always loved this game having done in at home and last week one of the workers, Y, (who is the only Educator who seems to have the group dancing to her tune) had them all doing another version of it. So when the Educators realised noone knew how to do it somehow I got volunteered to do my version. I have to say though, it was super fun plus it gave me a chance to be a bit theatrical and play a bit! Most of the kids, I say 'most'! of the full 40, were involved and it was really great for me to just have to do it! I mean I've been thinking how much I wanted to run this game for ages with many of the groups, but particularly Isla, but have been too shy and worried about my ability to express the instructions well enough in Spanish. So yesterday was good. I just got thrown in and had to do it without thinking and it went well. But we definitely need more games like this as in some sectors our games/those done by the Educators have not been working....Ah well, creative planning on the beach me thinks!
Anyway, enough about work... Off to pack I go and then with my dosh in my secret hiding place (the buses sometimes get robbed), I'll be ready! Viva Canoa! Viva la playa! xx
Right now I'm praying for sunshine. All of you get out there and start a sundance for me please!! Then again, as you guys have been dealing with some pretty cold wintery weather by the sounds of it, I'm sure you don't wanna think about us guys chilling on a beach! But my God, do I need it?! I've been suffering since Wednesday night with a dodgy tummy and all the associated fun and games that goes with that. Helen's had the same and Kelsey, an American volunteer, too. All I want to do is go and pass out on the beach so the fact that Canoa is meant to be super mellow sounds just perfect to me.
Last night was Karen's leaving do - she's off to travel Colombia for the next three weeks and then we'll be having a last supper when she's back in Guayaquil before going back to the UK. I was there in body but not in spirit. I felt exhausted, ill and just not really all there. I also felt super lonely. Kelsey went home early. Karen was obviously the belle of the ball and Helen was chatting to some of Karen's friends. I was sitting with some of the organisation staff but wasn't involved in the convos and my brain was so tired I couldn't keep up with the Spanish or make an effort to be involved. Ah well, suppose they'll always be days like that in a new country, new job, new culture, new language with nothing familiar in the slightest. Probably just felt more negative about it than I would have normally tho' due to feeling so rubbish. Nevermind. Today's a new day and adventure awaits....!
So, what else is new... well everything of course! Everything's new all the time! So yesterday at Isla - the most energetic, spirited, hyperactive and uncontrollable of all our groups we'd agreed that the Juconi workers would run the dinamíca - which is like the warm up game or icebreaker. I turned up in the yard of the school where we run the session, having been helping Kelsey set up as she was gonna take the diddly ones (i.e. the under 6's) who actually are not meant to even be there and in our team meeting last week, we'd discussed the little ones who often disrupt the session hugely as they obviously need a totally different type of intervention. Often it's that the older ones are looking after the younger ones which is why they all end up coming to Art Club. So, as I said, we'd discussed the fact that the little ones are not meant to come but immediately after that meeting last week, we'd had little ones in the Isla session. Plus we'd also decided that the limits on group size need to be enforced, i.e. 25 in all the groups, except Isla which is 30. Despite all these lovely agreements, the reality is that they´re not enforced by the workers, so it makes it meaningless! Yesterday in Isla for instance, we had 40!! It's a shame 'cuz it means it becomes a lot about group management and we do not have the time to be supporting those who need help. Really, it would be better to have much fewer numbers and be able to make a difference. Not to mention the whole arriving half an hour before the session starts in order to ensure we have set up and have briefing time - again, that went straight out of the window the day after it was agreed - as we arrived at a session half an hour after it was due to start, i.e. a whole hour late being that we'd agreed that workers would be there half an hour early. Ah well. It's challenging but I have to try and relax. It's about choosing your battles wisely isn't it? I mean, we are not in control of what time we arrive as we have to go in with the Educators, therefore, if they're late we're late!
Sylvia the English woman who founded Juconi, saw such a situation unfolding on Thursday morning - our Sergio Toral session. There was a whole team session with the Psychologist who comes in every 2 weeks (none of them have any individual supervision despite the intensity of the work that they're doing - this group session is the best they get), which started late, overran blahblahblah which meant the workers weren't out of the meeting until 10.45am, bearing in mind we are meant to start Art Club at 10am :O Add that to the fact that as Sergio is so far out, even with the driver driving us in the Camioneta, it would've taken us another 40 or so minutes to get there thus meaning we would've arrived at half 11 - half an hour before the session finishes. So the session was scrapped. WOW! It's so rubbish that we let these kids down and I've seen it happen, and apparently it's a regular occurrence, that workers just don't ever get to their appointments with the families. Terrible really - but it's just part of life here. It doesn't mean that they don't care but there is just no culture of starting things on time. Being on time. Keeping to plan etc etc. Like I said; choosing my battles wisely is my thing at the mo. I can't fix the whole culture of Ecuador single-handedly!
So, as Sylvia saw this happening first hand on Thursday, having already had a chat with me about the lateness issue on Wednesday when she knew we were hanging around waiting to leave for Balerio Estacio - where we finally materialised at 2.30pm! She's suggested that I drive one of the organisation's Camionetas (pick up truck thing) to enable us to get to Art Club on time. this would mean that we would be more in charge of the scheduling and people would have to meet us rather than us wait for them. However, there would obviously be numerous challenges: the style of driving, which is pretty insane; not becoming a general driver for the organisation and getting pulled in all different directions by everyone; actually negotiating my way to some of the sectors and knowing the way; learning to drive in the sectors were roads are sometimes no existent; and of course, the biggest challenge would be that if there was a Gringa driving, we would be even more susceptible to be robbed, attacked, carjacked etc... So, vamos a ver as they say - we'll see. Ultimately, I'd just like to know that we were more in control of actually getting to Art Club and actually having a full session, and if me driving the Camioneta is the way forward then I'll do it despite all the risks!
But as I was saying paragraphs and paragraphs ago (Tangent Woman to the rescue!), yesterday at Isla we'd agreed that the Educators would run the dinamíca. However, after helping Kelsey set up for the little ones, I arrived to find a huge group of kids in a circle and nobody knowing what game to do. They asked if any of the kids knew 'Boom Chicka Boom' - a fun, call and response song, where the leader says something and they have to repeat...
I said a boom
I said a boom
I said a boom chicka
I said a boom chicka rocka
I said a boom chicka rocka, chicka rocka, chicka boom
Ah ha
Oh si
One more time ... this time a little bit more (happy/noisy/sad/quiet etc)
I've always loved this game having done in at home and last week one of the workers, Y, (who is the only Educator who seems to have the group dancing to her tune) had them all doing another version of it. So when the Educators realised noone knew how to do it somehow I got volunteered to do my version. I have to say though, it was super fun plus it gave me a chance to be a bit theatrical and play a bit! Most of the kids, I say 'most'! of the full 40, were involved and it was really great for me to just have to do it! I mean I've been thinking how much I wanted to run this game for ages with many of the groups, but particularly Isla, but have been too shy and worried about my ability to express the instructions well enough in Spanish. So yesterday was good. I just got thrown in and had to do it without thinking and it went well. But we definitely need more games like this as in some sectors our games/those done by the Educators have not been working....Ah well, creative planning on the beach me thinks!
Anyway, enough about work... Off to pack I go and then with my dosh in my secret hiding place (the buses sometimes get robbed), I'll be ready! Viva Canoa! Viva la playa! xx
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Stuff
I don´t know why I´m up. I can´t sleep. I have developed a pattern of waking up at 11.30pm having only just got to sleep. I think it´s the middle of the night and then realise I´ve been asleep an hour or so! Absolutely ridiculous! So, tonight I tried to go to bed super early - I´ve been knackered all week and didn´t do enough catching up on the weekend and these last two days have been flipping between manic and moody in quick succession. So I decided I´d get an early bed. I´d been feeling decidedly dodgy all day but put it down to tiredness and therefore and over sensitive stomach. This evening, Karen came round to tell us she`s been offered a permanent job at Juconi - all very exciting news and obviously we wanted to hear all about it. We drank some cheap plonk and I went from feeling decidedly dodgy to feeling downright definitely dodgy. My stomach churning and my head banging and vice versa! I caught sight of myself in the mirror and I looked like a ghost! But yer, like I said, we wanted to hear the news and whilst the future of my host organisation here may look wobbly on the outside, where there are crises there often also opportunities for growth, evolution and massive progression from my point of view. And this seems to be what seems to be happening in this case. I can´t go into too much detail here as it´s an open blog, but put it this way, Sylvia and English woman who established Juconi 15 years back is over in Ecuador. She´s been here since Monday. My first impressions of her (are that she´s a powerhouse. When we spoke to Lynn (the Coordinator at CMAP in UK) the other day, she was shocked to here some of the organisational goings-ons here and said that when Sylvia got here she´d sort things out. I don´t doubt it. Sylvia is definitely a woman who can get things sorted. She seems to me to be a powerhouse of ideas, creativity and determination and this my assessment based on only 3 mini encounters with her for a couple of minutes each time. Maybe knowing about her and her very good reputation for getting things done is influencing my opinion, but whatever, it doesn´t really matter why I think she´ll get things done, as long as she does! So therefore, right now I´m excited about the future change that we might witness. I´m hugely excited for Karen who´s been given such an incredible opportunity although at present she´s still considering whether to go for it. But all credit to her- she´s been here six months as a volunteer and had no Spanish when she arrived. Wow, what an impact she has made on the team and some of the senior staff here to be offered such a great position. You go girl!
So.... what was I saying before my digression?! Me - digression/tangent - no, never! :P I don´t actually know but I feel pants. I feel sick but want to eat. I feel shattered but can´t sleep. I can´t believe it´s double day tomorrow - i.e. Art Club session in the morning and then another in the afternoon. Ahhhh! However, to update on Art Project as I´m sure it´s more interesting to you guys that hearing about my tummy woes, it´s all going good thank you! This week we´ve started Christmas cards - stupidly early I know! What it is, is that many of the kids in the sector have specific donantes, i.e. donors/sponsors, and we therefore have the kids make a Christmas card which can be sent to the donante. As many of them are overseas, predominantly in England as that´s where Sylvia has established so many links and created many funding opportunities, they obviously need to be sent quite early. However, as Sylvia´s over at the moment and leaves in a week and a half, she´s actually going to take them back over with here. So the long and the short, is that we´ve started doing Christmas cards with the kids using coloured photocopies of old Christmas cards, paint and potato stamper shapes (which went a bit dodgy but we tried in Fertisa on Monday arvo and then abandoned that - nice idea, shame it didn´t work out!!), showing them how to use basic geometric shapes to make Christmas pictures - 3 triangles is a Christmas tree, 2 triangles a star - you get the picture.
So, Fertisa was good on Monday although the potato stampers didn´t work out so the kids got frustrated, but that group´s our trial session for the week to see if our plan works out and then if nec, we regroup and change our minds on Tuesday when planning for the rest of the week - exactly what we did this week! However, today´s session in Balerio Estacio was INCREDIBLE! We had the normal antics about actually trying to get to the sector and on time and only arrived at half 2, 30 mins late (and one of the rules of Art Club is that the kids arrive on time - hummm!) - I am rapidly beginning to see that this is normal in Ecuador. 30 minutes late is on time! However, when we did finally get there we came bearing gifts. We had a whole extra table and some chairs - whoop whoop! Last week it was only 3 tables and no chairs trying to accommodate 27 kids so some still had to work on the floor and the rest were doing 'standing up table work'! But today was an incredible success. With the combo of us arriving late and the tables and chairs all laid out in the building, this amazing artistic working environment seem to have magically created itself. We were still running about setting stuff up, trying to find this and that, when I remember just suddenly noticing that loads of kids had now turned up and they were all sitting patiently on their random assortment of odd chairs waiting to begin. So, obviously we took massive advantage of this situation. As it was already half past we got moving.
One of the things we´ve been looking at is trying to encourage the children´s creativity. We´d been told before we´d started that many of the kids in the sector struggle to create their own stuff independently, often wanting to copy others or something we´ve done. Or alternatively, wanting us to draw something for them, or cut it or whatever. It´s always a bit of a delicate balancing act trying to facilitate them enough that they can get on with something without totally taking over and doing it for them, thus stultifying their creativity and not doing much to enhance their personal confidence.
Therefore, as I´ve done loads of graffiti walls with groups in the past and found them a fab way of eliciting thoughts, pictures, emotions and feedback/evaluation, I suggested to Helen that we try and do this at the beginning of the session in order to try and stimulate the kids´creativity a bit before we got to work on the Christmas cards themselves. We´d done it in Fertisa and despite some kids being stumped for a while, eventually when we started saying "If I say Navidad (Christmas), what pops into your head, what images do you have/what words etc" (many are scared to get it ´wrong´ so we have to keep explaining there´s no wrong and right and their artwork doesn´t have to be perfect) ... and eventually most of them got moving and we had an array of different coloured post-it notes with pictures, words and ideas with which to build our mini graffiti wall.
So, getting back on track, we started the session with the Balerio kids and some were totally stumped for a while but the majority did produce at least one post it note and I reckon that the more we keep doing activities like this, the more accustomed all of the groups will get to thinking creatively on the spot and the more confidence that will give them. Just like with some groups, where we have a bit of spare time, e.g. normally Fertisa, we´re trying to encourage a mini session of retroalimentación (feedback) from the groups at the end. What did they like about the session, what didn´t they like. Not only is it about encouraging creative thinking, but it´s about giving them a chance to formulate and express their own opinions in a safe space where we want to listen, thereby hopefully helping them to take ownership of Club de Arte more as well. At the moment, both the graffiti 'ideas' walls and the feedback bits of the session can be slightly slow to gain momentum but I reckon if we stick at it, in six (well five now) months we´ll have a bunch of kids that are confident to express their ideas and thoughts when asked. I believe that´ll be hugely important for them and their futures. I really do hope so.
And the main part of the session was of course, the Christmas cards themselves. What was so fabulous about Balerio´s session today was how involved the kids were with their work. There was much less generally faff and scrapping (except the two tables I was working more with - both tables of only girls - surprisingly NOT!!) and how smooth the session was overall. There were times when I actually found myself at almost a loose end! Compare this to normal group sessions when I feel like I really don´t have enough pairs of hands, ears, or enough mouths to talk or brains to think with and cannot begin to respond to the constant pleas of "señorita, señorita, ayudame..." (Miss, Miss, help me...)! At one point, I actually turned to Veronica, our Juconi Educator for the session and was like "hay silencio" (there´s silence) - and we both looked at each other in amazement! It was absolutely fantastic to see and despite some mini tantrums at the end when we had to deprive the kids of the paint in order to let the cards dry, they seemed happy enough knowing that when we next have Art Club, after a two week break, they can continue to work on their cards and make new ones.
Wow, if Thursday´s sessions go anything like that one I will be one happy bunny Art Club woman! Tomorrow morning is our 'under the tree group' - Sergio Toral, where we literally do do Art Club under a tree as there is no other space accessible to us anywhere and these kids are on the farthest farthest extremes of the Guayaquileño slums so they are probably about the most needy, most lacking in facilities etc and it takes us hours to get there which includes lots of walking up hills with all our Art Club materials - fun (will only get more fun in the rainy season me thinks :0!. It´s also the group that is struggling the most with the transition, i.e. with us - Helen and I, not being Andy and Lone - the couple who were running Art Club until August. Andy and Lone established Art Club in Sergio and now we having to manage some powerful pushing of boundaries and disruptive and complaining behaviour from a couple of the group members, outside who´s house the Art Club tree stands. So, despite it being our smallest group, what with the lack of a designated physical space or physical boundaries and with the challenging behaviour of some of the family, it is actually probably the most hardcore of all the groups to be honest. I know that they´ll get used to us and we´ll get used to them but at present they run to the Educator (who does visits whilst we´re running Art Club) as soon as he returns and go "they did this, they did that etc. etc. Andy and Lone never did this or that. We want Andy and Lone etc!" So whilst I recognise it´s just kids being kids, and especially the oldest boy in the family starting to act up as he´s on the verge of adolescence, has no male role model at all and his Mum is always working, it can be quite a dispiriting group sometimes. Ah well, we´ll see what tomorrow brings. Ultimately, we actually need to be more fixed and firm there than in all of the other groups as we have no physical walls or boundaries in which to manage the session. We´ll get there I have no doubt.
So, my final bit of news is that next week is FERRIADA! WHOOOPEY Whooop! Which means it´s a National holiday to celebrate... I can´t quite remember what. It is officially our 1 month anniversary today - our arranged marriage and the anniversary of our arrival. We´ve been here ONE WHOLE MONTH - kwwwazey! As Karen earlier, actually in one month we´ve achieved a hell of a lot - we´ve got a whole two weeks of Art Club under our belts and we´ve been well integrated into the staff team as a result of the fact that unlike previous volunteers we´ve been able to communicate straight off in Spanish. That feels good to hear. Thanks Karen- it´s good to have someone´s external´s perspective, especially as, as you guys will know, I can tend to be quite self critical, seeing what´s gone wrong rather than right and finding a bit of a stick to beat myself with. We´re doing fine, great, well and we´ve got some fab ideas that we´re keen to try out.
So, back to Ferriada time - we´re escaping Guayaquil part 2 - after the mud bathes and the $4 Aloe Vera massage on Saturday in San Vincente, our plan this holiday (- it´s 5 FULL days - we´re not back in work until next Thursday!), is to escape to the beach. Either up the coast to Canoa up North or down South and into PERU to Mancora which is famous for it´s all year round sunshine. I´m hoping on the Peru option myself as although it´ll be overrun by everyone as it´s a holiday period, they´ll be people and Helen and I can relax a bit, get some sunshine and chat to other people except each other. Canoa on the other hand will be quieter which could be nice, but the weather on the Ecuadorian coast is a bit dodgy at this time of year as it´s not guaranteed hot and sunny until December time. -right now, it´s more likely to be drizzly, grey and actually a bit cold from what I hear. A bit like today was in Guayaquil. I mean it was still like mid 20s but it definitely felt cold by Guayaquil standards (except in Balerio of course, where I still had sweat draining from my forehead into my eyes - fun!).
I say Mancora.... bring it on!! Party Party!
Got to sleep NOW
, however, after drinking some wine as K
So.... what was I saying before my digression?! Me - digression/tangent - no, never! :P I don´t actually know but I feel pants. I feel sick but want to eat. I feel shattered but can´t sleep. I can´t believe it´s double day tomorrow - i.e. Art Club session in the morning and then another in the afternoon. Ahhhh! However, to update on Art Project as I´m sure it´s more interesting to you guys that hearing about my tummy woes, it´s all going good thank you! This week we´ve started Christmas cards - stupidly early I know! What it is, is that many of the kids in the sector have specific donantes, i.e. donors/sponsors, and we therefore have the kids make a Christmas card which can be sent to the donante. As many of them are overseas, predominantly in England as that´s where Sylvia has established so many links and created many funding opportunities, they obviously need to be sent quite early. However, as Sylvia´s over at the moment and leaves in a week and a half, she´s actually going to take them back over with here. So the long and the short, is that we´ve started doing Christmas cards with the kids using coloured photocopies of old Christmas cards, paint and potato stamper shapes (which went a bit dodgy but we tried in Fertisa on Monday arvo and then abandoned that - nice idea, shame it didn´t work out!!), showing them how to use basic geometric shapes to make Christmas pictures - 3 triangles is a Christmas tree, 2 triangles a star - you get the picture.
So, Fertisa was good on Monday although the potato stampers didn´t work out so the kids got frustrated, but that group´s our trial session for the week to see if our plan works out and then if nec, we regroup and change our minds on Tuesday when planning for the rest of the week - exactly what we did this week! However, today´s session in Balerio Estacio was INCREDIBLE! We had the normal antics about actually trying to get to the sector and on time and only arrived at half 2, 30 mins late (and one of the rules of Art Club is that the kids arrive on time - hummm!) - I am rapidly beginning to see that this is normal in Ecuador. 30 minutes late is on time! However, when we did finally get there we came bearing gifts. We had a whole extra table and some chairs - whoop whoop! Last week it was only 3 tables and no chairs trying to accommodate 27 kids so some still had to work on the floor and the rest were doing 'standing up table work'! But today was an incredible success. With the combo of us arriving late and the tables and chairs all laid out in the building, this amazing artistic working environment seem to have magically created itself. We were still running about setting stuff up, trying to find this and that, when I remember just suddenly noticing that loads of kids had now turned up and they were all sitting patiently on their random assortment of odd chairs waiting to begin. So, obviously we took massive advantage of this situation. As it was already half past we got moving.
One of the things we´ve been looking at is trying to encourage the children´s creativity. We´d been told before we´d started that many of the kids in the sector struggle to create their own stuff independently, often wanting to copy others or something we´ve done. Or alternatively, wanting us to draw something for them, or cut it or whatever. It´s always a bit of a delicate balancing act trying to facilitate them enough that they can get on with something without totally taking over and doing it for them, thus stultifying their creativity and not doing much to enhance their personal confidence.
Therefore, as I´ve done loads of graffiti walls with groups in the past and found them a fab way of eliciting thoughts, pictures, emotions and feedback/evaluation, I suggested to Helen that we try and do this at the beginning of the session in order to try and stimulate the kids´creativity a bit before we got to work on the Christmas cards themselves. We´d done it in Fertisa and despite some kids being stumped for a while, eventually when we started saying "If I say Navidad (Christmas), what pops into your head, what images do you have/what words etc" (many are scared to get it ´wrong´ so we have to keep explaining there´s no wrong and right and their artwork doesn´t have to be perfect) ... and eventually most of them got moving and we had an array of different coloured post-it notes with pictures, words and ideas with which to build our mini graffiti wall.
So, getting back on track, we started the session with the Balerio kids and some were totally stumped for a while but the majority did produce at least one post it note and I reckon that the more we keep doing activities like this, the more accustomed all of the groups will get to thinking creatively on the spot and the more confidence that will give them. Just like with some groups, where we have a bit of spare time, e.g. normally Fertisa, we´re trying to encourage a mini session of retroalimentación (feedback) from the groups at the end. What did they like about the session, what didn´t they like. Not only is it about encouraging creative thinking, but it´s about giving them a chance to formulate and express their own opinions in a safe space where we want to listen, thereby hopefully helping them to take ownership of Club de Arte more as well. At the moment, both the graffiti 'ideas' walls and the feedback bits of the session can be slightly slow to gain momentum but I reckon if we stick at it, in six (well five now) months we´ll have a bunch of kids that are confident to express their ideas and thoughts when asked. I believe that´ll be hugely important for them and their futures. I really do hope so.
And the main part of the session was of course, the Christmas cards themselves. What was so fabulous about Balerio´s session today was how involved the kids were with their work. There was much less generally faff and scrapping (except the two tables I was working more with - both tables of only girls - surprisingly NOT!!) and how smooth the session was overall. There were times when I actually found myself at almost a loose end! Compare this to normal group sessions when I feel like I really don´t have enough pairs of hands, ears, or enough mouths to talk or brains to think with and cannot begin to respond to the constant pleas of "señorita, señorita, ayudame..." (Miss, Miss, help me...)! At one point, I actually turned to Veronica, our Juconi Educator for the session and was like "hay silencio" (there´s silence) - and we both looked at each other in amazement! It was absolutely fantastic to see and despite some mini tantrums at the end when we had to deprive the kids of the paint in order to let the cards dry, they seemed happy enough knowing that when we next have Art Club, after a two week break, they can continue to work on their cards and make new ones.
Wow, if Thursday´s sessions go anything like that one I will be one happy bunny Art Club woman! Tomorrow morning is our 'under the tree group' - Sergio Toral, where we literally do do Art Club under a tree as there is no other space accessible to us anywhere and these kids are on the farthest farthest extremes of the Guayaquileño slums so they are probably about the most needy, most lacking in facilities etc and it takes us hours to get there which includes lots of walking up hills with all our Art Club materials - fun (will only get more fun in the rainy season me thinks :0!. It´s also the group that is struggling the most with the transition, i.e. with us - Helen and I, not being Andy and Lone - the couple who were running Art Club until August. Andy and Lone established Art Club in Sergio and now we having to manage some powerful pushing of boundaries and disruptive and complaining behaviour from a couple of the group members, outside who´s house the Art Club tree stands. So, despite it being our smallest group, what with the lack of a designated physical space or physical boundaries and with the challenging behaviour of some of the family, it is actually probably the most hardcore of all the groups to be honest. I know that they´ll get used to us and we´ll get used to them but at present they run to the Educator (who does visits whilst we´re running Art Club) as soon as he returns and go "they did this, they did that etc. etc. Andy and Lone never did this or that. We want Andy and Lone etc!" So whilst I recognise it´s just kids being kids, and especially the oldest boy in the family starting to act up as he´s on the verge of adolescence, has no male role model at all and his Mum is always working, it can be quite a dispiriting group sometimes. Ah well, we´ll see what tomorrow brings. Ultimately, we actually need to be more fixed and firm there than in all of the other groups as we have no physical walls or boundaries in which to manage the session. We´ll get there I have no doubt.
So, my final bit of news is that next week is FERRIADA! WHOOOPEY Whooop! Which means it´s a National holiday to celebrate... I can´t quite remember what. It is officially our 1 month anniversary today - our arranged marriage and the anniversary of our arrival. We´ve been here ONE WHOLE MONTH - kwwwazey! As Karen earlier, actually in one month we´ve achieved a hell of a lot - we´ve got a whole two weeks of Art Club under our belts and we´ve been well integrated into the staff team as a result of the fact that unlike previous volunteers we´ve been able to communicate straight off in Spanish. That feels good to hear. Thanks Karen- it´s good to have someone´s external´s perspective, especially as, as you guys will know, I can tend to be quite self critical, seeing what´s gone wrong rather than right and finding a bit of a stick to beat myself with. We´re doing fine, great, well and we´ve got some fab ideas that we´re keen to try out.
So, back to Ferriada time - we´re escaping Guayaquil part 2 - after the mud bathes and the $4 Aloe Vera massage on Saturday in San Vincente, our plan this holiday (- it´s 5 FULL days - we´re not back in work until next Thursday!), is to escape to the beach. Either up the coast to Canoa up North or down South and into PERU to Mancora which is famous for it´s all year round sunshine. I´m hoping on the Peru option myself as although it´ll be overrun by everyone as it´s a holiday period, they´ll be people and Helen and I can relax a bit, get some sunshine and chat to other people except each other. Canoa on the other hand will be quieter which could be nice, but the weather on the Ecuadorian coast is a bit dodgy at this time of year as it´s not guaranteed hot and sunny until December time. -right now, it´s more likely to be drizzly, grey and actually a bit cold from what I hear. A bit like today was in Guayaquil. I mean it was still like mid 20s but it definitely felt cold by Guayaquil standards (except in Balerio of course, where I still had sweat draining from my forehead into my eyes - fun!).
I say Mancora.... bring it on!! Party Party!
Got to sleep NOW
, however, after drinking some wine as K
Friday, October 22, 2010
Operation: Escape Guayaquil
I'm so exhausted I can hardly speak and put a sentence together in English, let alone Spanish! But, we've done it. We've had a successful first two weeks running Art Club in the Sectors. I say 'running', but it really depends on which Educator we are with as to whether they run it, we run it, or, as seems to be the case in some sectors, it runs us!
Anyway, after losing half my body weight in sweat in some of the sectors; getting burnt from the searing sun despite factor 50; getting rather bored of saying "escuchame por favor" (listen please!); needing to pee for hours on end before managing to find a toilet; some, let's say 'interesting' team dynamics; agreements that are made in a meeting on Tuesday, only to be be broken on Wednesday; a mad and video game-esque style road trip with the only taxi driver who was prepared to take us, and his car, into the sectors (and even let us bung some tables in the back so we didn't have to have all the kids sitting on a mud floor again this week in Balerio Estacio); I am still here to tell the tale, just about! I feel like a shadow of my former self. I really should be in bed now but I've got a bit of a blog addiction going on today it seems. I'm doing the Club de Arte specific blog too, which has much more about the art stuff and will have lots of lovely pictures of the kids in action. So if you're interested to see exactly what I'm getting up to and why I'm actually here ;), then have a read by following this link: http://cmap.org.uk/blog
This blog will be more personal; more of a document of my life but it may mean entries are more sporadic as what with an 8.30-4.30 (longer on sector days) job with generally a non-existent lunch hou , preparing for Art Club outside of work and being shattered, I rarely feel like I have much time for myself right now, let alone a life! Haha! Sure it'll get better though once the Spanish doesn't batter my brain quite so much and once we get more settled into Art Club and have a more systematic way of organising sessions and planning so that our evenings and weekends aren't always totally monopolised and if we ever meet anyone outside our immediate team and each other (Helen and I).
Talking of weekends.....tomorrow is obviously Saturday, but believe it or not, I am still getting up at 6am just like a weekday - am I mad I hear you ask? Nope, there is method in this here madness.... I'm escaping Guayaquil -whoooop whooop! A day out of the city - finally! We're going to some mud bathes for some relaxation and i reckon a nice massage wouldn't be out of the question now would it?!
Bring on the mud I say!!!
Ciao lovely people xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Talking of
Anyway, after losing half my body weight in sweat in some of the sectors; getting burnt from the searing sun despite factor 50; getting rather bored of saying "escuchame por favor" (listen please!); needing to pee for hours on end before managing to find a toilet; some, let's say 'interesting' team dynamics; agreements that are made in a meeting on Tuesday, only to be be broken on Wednesday; a mad and video game-esque style road trip with the only taxi driver who was prepared to take us, and his car, into the sectors (and even let us bung some tables in the back so we didn't have to have all the kids sitting on a mud floor again this week in Balerio Estacio); I am still here to tell the tale, just about! I feel like a shadow of my former self. I really should be in bed now but I've got a bit of a blog addiction going on today it seems. I'm doing the Club de Arte specific blog too, which has much more about the art stuff and will have lots of lovely pictures of the kids in action. So if you're interested to see exactly what I'm getting up to and why I'm actually here ;), then have a read by following this link: http://cmap.org.uk/blog
This blog will be more personal; more of a document of my life but it may mean entries are more sporadic as what with an 8.30-4.30 (longer on sector days) job with generally a non-existent lunch hou , preparing for Art Club outside of work and being shattered, I rarely feel like I have much time for myself right now, let alone a life! Haha! Sure it'll get better though once the Spanish doesn't batter my brain quite so much and once we get more settled into Art Club and have a more systematic way of organising sessions and planning so that our evenings and weekends aren't always totally monopolised and if we ever meet anyone outside our immediate team and each other (Helen and I).
Talking of weekends.....tomorrow is obviously Saturday, but believe it or not, I am still getting up at 6am just like a weekday - am I mad I hear you ask? Nope, there is method in this here madness.... I'm escaping Guayaquil -whoooop whooop! A day out of the city - finally! We're going to some mud bathes for some relaxation and i reckon a nice massage wouldn't be out of the question now would it?!
Bring on the mud I say!!!
Ciao lovely people xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Talking of
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
23 eager chicas and chicos
In Balerio Estacio today we had 23 eager little ones to do the Club de Arte session. Apparantely, they've been asking for the last 2 months when it was starting again and today, in a building built in one of the family's back yard, with a dirt floor, tarpeulin on the ground and blue tac on the breeze blocks, we got started. All went well, a totally different experience from Fertisa on Monday but all good but wow, was it hot??! I feel like I spend at least half my week drenched with sweat looking like I'm entering a wet t-shirt competition with my heavy airtex stuck to my torso! I'm already shattered and we still have two more first sessions back to back tomorrow and another in probably the hardest sector on Friday... Wowzers!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Bailando bailar - yo soy un MALCO!
After a frustrating day at the office in which I lost the energy to jump through hoops and had too many diet cokes and my first coffee from Sweet n Coffee (sweet by name, sweet by nature!), causing me to fall unceremoniously of the caffeine rollercoaster at 3pm and lose the ability to understand or communicate in English, let alone Spanish, Helen and I decided to join some other chicas at a dance class. Wow, I have never sweated so much in all my life. My eyes were stinging from the rivers of sweat pouring into them and I wonder if I will ever get the coordination to follow dance moves. We had some Merengue, something else and Salsa. It's strange because I'm a DJ and can dance well if I just hear the music and let my body move, but as soon as I have to follow specific steps, well, I become the most malcoordinated person in the room - Malco, as my little bros (when they were lil') used to say. But I refuse to give up. I will not leave this continent until I can dance to it's music!
And of course the other big news of yesterday....
We have a gate - our road is now gated! There's a security guard on watch all day, every day. I forget how dangerous this city is until I realise that if we need a gate on our road to stop randoms coming in and out, it's pretty god damn hardcore!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Club de Arte has started in earnest!
So today was the big day – Club de Arte has started... whoop whoop!
We went down to Fertisa this afternoon and after a brief warm up with one of the Juconi workers, we got started. We decided that since Club de Arte hadn’t been running for a couple of months and the kids don’t know us that it’d be a good idea to re-establish the ground rules for the sessions. After a brief discussion about why rules were a good idea, we got them to think up what they thought would work and then Helen and I introduced our Compromiso to them – our commitment to arrive on time, bring materials, listen to opinions, respect everyone etc. We’d spent the morning designing our Commitment sheet in Blue Peter “here’s one I made earlier” style so that they knew what we were trying to encourage them to do. Then equipped with bags of colouring pens, scissors, glue, magazines and newspapers; they set to work writing each of the rules, or oraciones – sentences, on strips of paper to stick up, thus giving us a sheet of rules for the club. Once finished, the group started to draw round their hands and sign to show their agreement to the rules.
The session flew by but this was also due to the fact that because we don’t know that sector yet, Juconi wanted to ensure we got a lift out to Fertisa in the Camion and we could only get Alexis, the driver, to come for us at 3.30pm. Also late arrivals meant that the actual art part of the session was shortened and also severely tested my Spanish as I had to keep explaining what we were trying to do in the session to the newbies!
It was quite a small group – only 10 by the end but we know full well that word will get around soon that Art Club is back on and we’ll be back up to the full 25 quota! We also had Karen there but even with 4 workers and only 10 kids it definitely felt quite full on..... God, what will it be like when we’re up to full numbers and have less staff?!?! Humm!
Anyway, it was all good.... a few issues, like one girl who refuses to share anything and refuses to do anything with anyone else, one guy who’s a bit disruptive and a really tiny beautiful little boy who kept playing with the scissors...on his FACE! And not surprisingly, towards the end of the session he told me that “me duele mi nariz” – i.e. he’d hurt his nose. Once I discovered that he’d continued to play with the scissors and had cut himself we made a deal that he was not allowed to use the scissors near his face – and ah what a beautiful little face it is! We slapped palms and touched fists in acuerdo – in agreement, I mean this little kid must be 5 and he’s touching fists – hilarious, and gorgeously sweet! But I suppose the main challenge is confidence building with the whole group, an issue we’d been told about in advance; if they muck up a letter they want to start the entire sentence over again and many of them are not able to read or write independently and are scared of getting laughed at by the others in the group. So, there’s lots of work to do. But it’s definitely a fabulous challenge and I’m pleased to have finally (finally?!) got started!
I say finally, but it’s absolutely mind blowing to me that we’ve only been here two weeks. My house, my living arrangements, my city, the climate, the language, the culture, the people, the food and my work has changed in an instant! It’s hard to fathom that it’s only been two weeks in real time when for me, my whole world’s changed. And on that note I’m signing out ready for four more Club de Arte sessions during the rest of the week.
Muchos besos a todos – lots of kisses to all... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We went down to Fertisa this afternoon and after a brief warm up with one of the Juconi workers, we got started. We decided that since Club de Arte hadn’t been running for a couple of months and the kids don’t know us that it’d be a good idea to re-establish the ground rules for the sessions. After a brief discussion about why rules were a good idea, we got them to think up what they thought would work and then Helen and I introduced our Compromiso to them – our commitment to arrive on time, bring materials, listen to opinions, respect everyone etc. We’d spent the morning designing our Commitment sheet in Blue Peter “here’s one I made earlier” style so that they knew what we were trying to encourage them to do. Then equipped with bags of colouring pens, scissors, glue, magazines and newspapers; they set to work writing each of the rules, or oraciones – sentences, on strips of paper to stick up, thus giving us a sheet of rules for the club. Once finished, the group started to draw round their hands and sign to show their agreement to the rules.
The session flew by but this was also due to the fact that because we don’t know that sector yet, Juconi wanted to ensure we got a lift out to Fertisa in the Camion and we could only get Alexis, the driver, to come for us at 3.30pm. Also late arrivals meant that the actual art part of the session was shortened and also severely tested my Spanish as I had to keep explaining what we were trying to do in the session to the newbies!
It was quite a small group – only 10 by the end but we know full well that word will get around soon that Art Club is back on and we’ll be back up to the full 25 quota! We also had Karen there but even with 4 workers and only 10 kids it definitely felt quite full on..... God, what will it be like when we’re up to full numbers and have less staff?!?! Humm!
Anyway, it was all good.... a few issues, like one girl who refuses to share anything and refuses to do anything with anyone else, one guy who’s a bit disruptive and a really tiny beautiful little boy who kept playing with the scissors...on his FACE! And not surprisingly, towards the end of the session he told me that “me duele mi nariz” – i.e. he’d hurt his nose. Once I discovered that he’d continued to play with the scissors and had cut himself we made a deal that he was not allowed to use the scissors near his face – and ah what a beautiful little face it is! We slapped palms and touched fists in acuerdo – in agreement, I mean this little kid must be 5 and he’s touching fists – hilarious, and gorgeously sweet! But I suppose the main challenge is confidence building with the whole group, an issue we’d been told about in advance; if they muck up a letter they want to start the entire sentence over again and many of them are not able to read or write independently and are scared of getting laughed at by the others in the group. So, there’s lots of work to do. But it’s definitely a fabulous challenge and I’m pleased to have finally (finally?!) got started!
I say finally, but it’s absolutely mind blowing to me that we’ve only been here two weeks. My house, my living arrangements, my city, the climate, the language, the culture, the people, the food and my work has changed in an instant! It’s hard to fathom that it’s only been two weeks in real time when for me, my whole world’s changed. And on that note I’m signing out ready for four more Club de Arte sessions during the rest of the week.
Muchos besos a todos – lots of kisses to all... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Club de Arte - big day tomorrow! Good vibes needed in Fertisa
Well, there's still so much to catch up on and I'm now running a FULL 10 days behind with my commentary of what's happened - but there's been so much and I don't have much time to blog all the time. Plus I'm always shattered - think it's the heat. Plus having to try and speak, think and listen in Spanish a lot of the time doesn't half knacker the brain out!
Anyway, we have our first Club de Arte initiation tomorrow afternoon - aaaheeekke! We'll be in Fertisa - the only sector that neither of us has spent any time and neither of us knows anything about - useful! Sure it'll be fine, although we have been warned by a number of team members that the group is a bit mental, "inquieto" or troublesome and that most of the kids have problems concentrating. Also, Fertisa, like Isla T, is in the South of the City and one of the most dangerous of all the sectors. Plus, none of the kids even know that Art Club is starting back this week. Add this to the fact that the Family Worker who is meant to be supporting us with the sessions in this Sector, and helping keep a handle on the kids' behaviour as we don't have any existing relationship with them, got sacked on Friday - and we've got a recipe for an 'interesting' afternoon...ah fun fun!! (And we think UK employment laws and conditions are bad - Bienvenidos a Ecuador.)
Therefore, if you guys happen to be at a loose end between 8-10pm UK time please meditate or send some good vibes Fertisa's way to Helen and I - I think we may need them!
Love to all xxx
Anyway, we have our first Club de Arte initiation tomorrow afternoon - aaaheeekke! We'll be in Fertisa - the only sector that neither of us has spent any time and neither of us knows anything about - useful! Sure it'll be fine, although we have been warned by a number of team members that the group is a bit mental, "inquieto" or troublesome and that most of the kids have problems concentrating. Also, Fertisa, like Isla T, is in the South of the City and one of the most dangerous of all the sectors. Plus, none of the kids even know that Art Club is starting back this week. Add this to the fact that the Family Worker who is meant to be supporting us with the sessions in this Sector, and helping keep a handle on the kids' behaviour as we don't have any existing relationship with them, got sacked on Friday - and we've got a recipe for an 'interesting' afternoon...ah fun fun!! (And we think UK employment laws and conditions are bad - Bienvenidos a Ecuador.)
Therefore, if you guys happen to be at a loose end between 8-10pm UK time please meditate or send some good vibes Fertisa's way to Helen and I - I think we may need them!
Love to all xxx
First day in the Sectores - Wednesday 29th September (Day 3, Ecuador)
Today we ventured into Isla Trinitaria with some of the Juconi workers. My first impressions were of greyness as far as the eye could see; grey. Grey houses, grey river, grey sky! Once you get across the main river into this sector, you realise it’s totally flat and encompassed on all sides by the greyness of the River Guayas tributaries – the Guayas is the main river that runs through Guayaquil and where the city gets its name. I was a bit nervous, after all it was to be my first day in the Sectores in a culture I knew little about, I didn’t understand the conversation that the staff were having in the Camion (SUV type vehicle that Juconi uses to transport workers in at times/equipment) and was clueless as to the plan for the day. I was proper nervous – there’s no use denying it! My stomach was churning even more than normal with the horrible water and strange food.
There were 6 of us in the car – the overall manager of the Juconi workers, 3 of the Children’s Workers all of whom are in the team that covers the Isla Trinitaria sector plus Helen and I. We dropped Helen and one of the workers off at one place and I was left with the three others. Don’t ask me how any of this got decided, I couldn’t tell you and even if they had explained the methodology behind the decision making, I was so tired my brain wasn’t functioning in English, let alone in Spanish.
After driving down some potholed grey dirt tracks, we stopped outside a house and got out. I was still with the three workers and we were at a man’s house to distribute leaflets and get permission sheets signed off for the Dia del Integration – I didn’t know what on earth this was going to be except it was a day when they were taking all the adolescents, as they’re called here, to the countryside. This was instead of having a camp as Juconi didn’t have enough money to take them camping too, and my responsibility with Helen and Karen was going to be to film and photograph the event and the kids. So, we go to this guy’s house and the Juconi workers explained what we were doing there, although as I said, my Spanish had left me that morning so I was none the wiser. But anyway after a brief discussion the guy called across out down the street and one by one these teenage boys, four of them if I remember rightly, appeared from places across the street. It seemed we were there to invite these teenagers, who I thought were his sons, to tomorrow’s day out. I’d been able to tell as soon as we’d met this guy that he was a bit of a smoothie who probably looked much younger than his real ages but he also had a dangerous edge. He was quite flirty with the Juconi workers, all females, and even guessed that I was 24. I said i was a bit older than that but he said no mucho eh?! Wink, wink!
I could also tell by his swagger and arrogance that he was a bit of a gangster. It was only after leaving the sector and returning to the office for lunch that I found out his name is Pistolon and that the whole neighbourhood is scared of him because when he’s drunk or has taken drugs he starts shooting his gun randomly in the air. I also found out that the teenagers who’d come to his house when we were distributing letters for the next day, weren’t actually his kids but neighbourhood boys that he gets to rob for him and Karen later said she wouldn’t be surprised if he gets them to drug run. Karen found out that I’d been taken to meet Pistolon she was slightly shocked that the Juconi workers had taken me in there, especially as it was so early on – i.e. my first actual day in the sectors! Haha! Well, I’m here to tell the tale so it’s all good I suppose!
Once back in the car, we drove around a bit dropping off letters. Three of us stayed in the car whilst the most senior of the team went to speak to the families. Each time she left the car she locked us in and we were told to hold on to or hide our bags whilst we were waiting for her to come back. The streets were pretty quiet in this area and I felt a real sense of tension and fear in the area – this is one of the most dangerous areas I’ll be going to for Club de Arte.
After being dropped off by the camion, one of Children’s Workers and I went into another Sector on the other side of the main road – this area is known as Trini Puerto but shares many of the characteristics of Isla Trinitaria across the road. Again, the fear and tension was there but it was a bit more relaxed with a few more people in the streets. The worker I was with, a Psychologist by trade (most of J’s staff team are trained Psychologists), was fairly new to the team and told me that when they’d started going into the sectors it was even more dangerous than now. Now though, the main workers are known and so we are have the safety of being with established workers – however, we are still told that we must wear the Juconi t-shirts, bibs and caps so that we are identifiable. We visited one family here to drop off a letter and met another girl – she couldn’t have been more than 12 and was very heavily pregnant.
Through the gaps in the streets, I saw the houses built up on stilts above the water; Juconi workers told me it’s because the river doesn’t belong to anyone so they can build there without having to pay anyone for the land.
That afternoon we were still on the hunt for adolescents to invite to Integration Day. I was with Helen and the worker who I’d been with in the morning. This time we were heading North to the Sectores that ring the Northern edge of the city. We went to a school and met a couple of Juconi kids. After receiving her letter, one of the girls kissed us goodbye and literally jumped into the road and missed a bus by inches as she proceeded to run across the five lanes of traffic; simultaneously all three of us shivered seeing how close she’d been. Once she was safe in the middle section, she managed the same feat crossing traffic going in the other direction. There are no crossings anywhere – can you believe that she, and probably hundreds of other kids do this everyday?!
Little did I realise, 10 minutes later it was to be my turn to play cat and mouse with the traffic. We waited for 5 minutes for a mini break in the traffic in which to run across the road. Even when there was a break, it was tiny and I think both Helen and I nearly had nervous breakdowns as a result of such a mental road crossing initiation! However, once I was safely ensconced (let’s say safe in relative terms as safety is one thing that Guayaquileno buses are not famous for!), on my on third bus of the day I started to relax. I settled into the long, oh so long, ride up the front on my own whilst the other two went to the back. I was just enjoying the music pumping out from the speakers, watching the sights of this big, ugly, bustling grey city but feeling really at home, relaxed and comfortable with all these experiences.... just going with the flow...!
It was quite easy to tell when we’d arrived at the access to the Northern sectors. The normal(?ish)houses and flats gave way to slums quite quickly and we were in for our next motorway crossing experience on the motorway style road that signals the entrance to this huge expanse of slums that goes on as far as the eye can see, up and over hill after hill. From one of the main entrance roads (so many people live in the Sectores now, that there are proper Government built roads in a few, and I mean a very few, places), we hopped on a more local bus which took us up and over many of the hills that typify the Northern areas and make them contrast so much with those in the South. Whilst I knew it was still highly dangerous, i.e. we’ve been told never to have notes in our purses and too not have anything in our pockets except some moneda – change, for the buses, the vibe here felt so much more relaxed in my opinion; that palpable sense of fear that I’d felt in Isla Trinitaria in the morning just wasn’t there to me.
We met a couple of families and realised the conditions that they live in; many have dirt floors – the richer ones have some concrete and some of slabs of wood. The family we met that afternoon had 6 or so kids – all beautiful and very sweet and welcoming. The littlest one of the family when he realised that we’d got no games for him to play with (nobody had told us that this was a good idea when visiting families by this point!), proceeded to get out all his Playstation games and show all his favourites – including Grand Theft Auto which I always think is an interesting choice for a six year old – hummmm! Helen and I couldn’t help but notice the raw meat and rice just sitting on the table with flies everywhere or the little baby, who apparently belonged to someone else not the Mum we were visiting, sleeping on the sofa again with flies buzzing all around. And God, was it hot. I find it amazing that people can live in that heat and with such a huge families too. It’s not unusual to have more than 6 or 7 plus in a pretty small space and have three or four sharing a shabby old mattress. However, for me, the humidity, dust and constant heat was insane and I was sweating all day long, not helped by the wearing of a cap, a thick Airtex Juconi T-shirt and a bib too!!! I was sodden and absolutely filthy from walking the dirt streets and being bathed in old bus fumes all day. I had never craved a cold shower more than after that first day in the sectores and it was the only time I’ve ever been truly grateful that not one drop of warm water ever passes through my shower!
But, what a day – all those experiences squeezed into one very exhausting day and we’d got our first glimpse into what we were here for – the Sectores, the families, and the type of kids/issues that we are going to be seeing a lot more of over the next six months. Bring it on!
There were 6 of us in the car – the overall manager of the Juconi workers, 3 of the Children’s Workers all of whom are in the team that covers the Isla Trinitaria sector plus Helen and I. We dropped Helen and one of the workers off at one place and I was left with the three others. Don’t ask me how any of this got decided, I couldn’t tell you and even if they had explained the methodology behind the decision making, I was so tired my brain wasn’t functioning in English, let alone in Spanish.
After driving down some potholed grey dirt tracks, we stopped outside a house and got out. I was still with the three workers and we were at a man’s house to distribute leaflets and get permission sheets signed off for the Dia del Integration – I didn’t know what on earth this was going to be except it was a day when they were taking all the adolescents, as they’re called here, to the countryside. This was instead of having a camp as Juconi didn’t have enough money to take them camping too, and my responsibility with Helen and Karen was going to be to film and photograph the event and the kids. So, we go to this guy’s house and the Juconi workers explained what we were doing there, although as I said, my Spanish had left me that morning so I was none the wiser. But anyway after a brief discussion the guy called across out down the street and one by one these teenage boys, four of them if I remember rightly, appeared from places across the street. It seemed we were there to invite these teenagers, who I thought were his sons, to tomorrow’s day out. I’d been able to tell as soon as we’d met this guy that he was a bit of a smoothie who probably looked much younger than his real ages but he also had a dangerous edge. He was quite flirty with the Juconi workers, all females, and even guessed that I was 24. I said i was a bit older than that but he said no mucho eh?! Wink, wink!
I could also tell by his swagger and arrogance that he was a bit of a gangster. It was only after leaving the sector and returning to the office for lunch that I found out his name is Pistolon and that the whole neighbourhood is scared of him because when he’s drunk or has taken drugs he starts shooting his gun randomly in the air. I also found out that the teenagers who’d come to his house when we were distributing letters for the next day, weren’t actually his kids but neighbourhood boys that he gets to rob for him and Karen later said she wouldn’t be surprised if he gets them to drug run. Karen found out that I’d been taken to meet Pistolon she was slightly shocked that the Juconi workers had taken me in there, especially as it was so early on – i.e. my first actual day in the sectors! Haha! Well, I’m here to tell the tale so it’s all good I suppose!
Once back in the car, we drove around a bit dropping off letters. Three of us stayed in the car whilst the most senior of the team went to speak to the families. Each time she left the car she locked us in and we were told to hold on to or hide our bags whilst we were waiting for her to come back. The streets were pretty quiet in this area and I felt a real sense of tension and fear in the area – this is one of the most dangerous areas I’ll be going to for Club de Arte.
After being dropped off by the camion, one of Children’s Workers and I went into another Sector on the other side of the main road – this area is known as Trini Puerto but shares many of the characteristics of Isla Trinitaria across the road. Again, the fear and tension was there but it was a bit more relaxed with a few more people in the streets. The worker I was with, a Psychologist by trade (most of J’s staff team are trained Psychologists), was fairly new to the team and told me that when they’d started going into the sectors it was even more dangerous than now. Now though, the main workers are known and so we are have the safety of being with established workers – however, we are still told that we must wear the Juconi t-shirts, bibs and caps so that we are identifiable. We visited one family here to drop off a letter and met another girl – she couldn’t have been more than 12 and was very heavily pregnant.
Through the gaps in the streets, I saw the houses built up on stilts above the water; Juconi workers told me it’s because the river doesn’t belong to anyone so they can build there without having to pay anyone for the land.
That afternoon we were still on the hunt for adolescents to invite to Integration Day. I was with Helen and the worker who I’d been with in the morning. This time we were heading North to the Sectores that ring the Northern edge of the city. We went to a school and met a couple of Juconi kids. After receiving her letter, one of the girls kissed us goodbye and literally jumped into the road and missed a bus by inches as she proceeded to run across the five lanes of traffic; simultaneously all three of us shivered seeing how close she’d been. Once she was safe in the middle section, she managed the same feat crossing traffic going in the other direction. There are no crossings anywhere – can you believe that she, and probably hundreds of other kids do this everyday?!
Little did I realise, 10 minutes later it was to be my turn to play cat and mouse with the traffic. We waited for 5 minutes for a mini break in the traffic in which to run across the road. Even when there was a break, it was tiny and I think both Helen and I nearly had nervous breakdowns as a result of such a mental road crossing initiation! However, once I was safely ensconced (let’s say safe in relative terms as safety is one thing that Guayaquileno buses are not famous for!), on my on third bus of the day I started to relax. I settled into the long, oh so long, ride up the front on my own whilst the other two went to the back. I was just enjoying the music pumping out from the speakers, watching the sights of this big, ugly, bustling grey city but feeling really at home, relaxed and comfortable with all these experiences.... just going with the flow...!
It was quite easy to tell when we’d arrived at the access to the Northern sectors. The normal(?ish)houses and flats gave way to slums quite quickly and we were in for our next motorway crossing experience on the motorway style road that signals the entrance to this huge expanse of slums that goes on as far as the eye can see, up and over hill after hill. From one of the main entrance roads (so many people live in the Sectores now, that there are proper Government built roads in a few, and I mean a very few, places), we hopped on a more local bus which took us up and over many of the hills that typify the Northern areas and make them contrast so much with those in the South. Whilst I knew it was still highly dangerous, i.e. we’ve been told never to have notes in our purses and too not have anything in our pockets except some moneda – change, for the buses, the vibe here felt so much more relaxed in my opinion; that palpable sense of fear that I’d felt in Isla Trinitaria in the morning just wasn’t there to me.
We met a couple of families and realised the conditions that they live in; many have dirt floors – the richer ones have some concrete and some of slabs of wood. The family we met that afternoon had 6 or so kids – all beautiful and very sweet and welcoming. The littlest one of the family when he realised that we’d got no games for him to play with (nobody had told us that this was a good idea when visiting families by this point!), proceeded to get out all his Playstation games and show all his favourites – including Grand Theft Auto which I always think is an interesting choice for a six year old – hummmm! Helen and I couldn’t help but notice the raw meat and rice just sitting on the table with flies everywhere or the little baby, who apparently belonged to someone else not the Mum we were visiting, sleeping on the sofa again with flies buzzing all around. And God, was it hot. I find it amazing that people can live in that heat and with such a huge families too. It’s not unusual to have more than 6 or 7 plus in a pretty small space and have three or four sharing a shabby old mattress. However, for me, the humidity, dust and constant heat was insane and I was sweating all day long, not helped by the wearing of a cap, a thick Airtex Juconi T-shirt and a bib too!!! I was sodden and absolutely filthy from walking the dirt streets and being bathed in old bus fumes all day. I had never craved a cold shower more than after that first day in the sectores and it was the only time I’ve ever been truly grateful that not one drop of warm water ever passes through my shower!
But, what a day – all those experiences squeezed into one very exhausting day and we’d got our first glimpse into what we were here for – the Sectores, the families, and the type of kids/issues that we are going to be seeing a lot more of over the next six months. Bring it on!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The first eight days - Installment Uno
I cannot believe that we only arrived here 8 days ago, so much has happened it feels like we've been here for months which I take to be a good sign.....but here's a summary of the life and times of Liv, AKA Bolivia, AKA Popeye's wife Olive (as some of the kids in the Sectores have taken to calling me)... But here's a quick (haha quick, succinct – me, never!) summary both to fill you guys in and to ensure I don't forget!
Day 1
Monday 27th September
We arrived at silly o'clock in the morning, well I suppose not that silly as by the time we'd got through a mental and not very organised queue for customs in which eight lanes of heavily laden airport trolleys were reduced in a bottleneck to two in which everyone was pushing and arguing to ensure that their luggage got through the scanner machine (I must say that at this point my ingrained English politeness and extreme tiredness from 20 hours travel without any sleep did not help my ability to fight my way to the front to present my luggage in an assertive way to the airport senora who was bravely dealing with feisty Ecuadorians wanting to escape the airport bureaucracy after a long flight) and waiting in another long queue for the passport control, it was already 8am by the time we actually got out into the real world. Karen, an English volunteer for Juconi (www.Juconi.org.ec), who I've since claimed as my current Guru(!) was there to meet us and get us to our flat - the place that will be our home for the next 6 months, well that is unless Juconi folds.....more about that later. Helen, the other Charlotte Miller Art Project (www.cmap.org.uk) Club de Arte volunteer, and I drew straws on which bedroom to have in our new home. I got the smaller one with no curtains and no bed....oh dear! However, after some quick furniture reorganisation we moved an array of mattresses from what was soon to become my bedroom into the lounge, and reestablished the bedframe in my room. Then, after a quick raid of the supplies in her wardrobe, Helen found some pieces of fabric and hung them on some string and eh voila - I had curtains. Then i spent a while with my compass trying desperately to find a direction in which I could put my bed that would be good from a Feng Shui perspective...I failed! Realising it was already 10am and that we'd arranged with Karen that she'd come back at 1pm, despite feeling kind of manic and like I needed to unpack, organise etc, I decided it was time to try and rest. I conked out with no sheets in my clothes and only woke up at 12.55 because I'd remembered to set my alarm.
Karen took us to find some food and to start to give us a bit of an induction into the life of Guayaquil, Ecuador and Juconi as well as orientating us with where our nearest metrovilla stop is (like a fast bus that has it's own lane in the roads....so sort of a cross between a tube and a tram i suppose). We jumped on the metrovilla two stops North to the stop closest to her house and also closest to the supermarkets and malls where we got keys cut and had a look round the supermarket. I think our faces must have been a picture because neither of us could fathom having to go shopping in our respective states of disorientation and sleep deprivation so Karen safely escorted us out, telling us to ensure we took money out of the banks in the malls cuz there are security guards there but robberies are prevalent at ATMs in the city. We'd both been advised, and Karen reiterated, how dangerous Guayaquil is so it was good to have this sort of advice.
After a brief sojourn to Karen's lovely casa in a quieter and seemingly more relaxed neighbourhood than ours with some trees and more wildlife where we sat on the balcony chatting and getting the lowdown and took turns to let people know we were safe using her internet connection, Helen and I independently jumped on the metrovilla back to nuestra casa (our house) for an early night in preparation for the first day in the Juconi office starting a punto (on the dot) at 8.30am the next day.
Day 2
Tuesday 28th September 2010
We met Karen at our Metrovilla stop for the journey to the office. We were not, however, a punto (on the dot) as although Helen's an early bird who doesn't like being late, those of you who know me will know that me and early are rarely used in the same sentence, especially not in the morning! So after stressing Helen out a bit because I was running late and disorganised, we got to the Metrovilla stop un poco tarde (a bit late). Oh and just to fill you in.... even getting to the metrovilla from our house is a bit like running the gauntlet. We have to cross a main road at an intersection. We are trying to get to the middle of the road, where there's a raised section, sort of like a pavement but not, where we and lots of other people are walking in our respective directions generally in single file as there's not quite enough room to walk side by side. However, to get there we have to get across the traffic which is not stopping for anyone and where we cross there is also an intersection where cars are speeding off to join the flyover going the other way....Ah the fun and games of a non-pedestrian friendly society where the driving is pretty mental to be honest! Helen doesn't yet trust my road crossing ability and is much more likely to be seen taking a lead from the Ecuadorian people who are waiting to cross the road than the crazy chica Inglesa who's been schooled in the dodgy road crossing customs of London and Manchester! I wonder why she doesn't trust me...humm ;-)
So, the long and short is that Karen meets us and accompanies us the two stops to one of the Metrovilla stops closest to Juconi and then we get to the office. Karen introduced us to everyone and we start to discuss and organise with karen all the work admin that we need to sort out - budgets for us to live off as none of this got clarified before we left, what the arrangements will be for getting our money (let's just say short and sweet like getting a payment direct to your account every month it will not be in Ecuador!), the budget for Club de Arte, how to get hold of the equipment that belongs to CMAP/Club de Arte....etc etc. We know we're in for our first team meeting at 10am when we'll meet the rest of the team and start to see how things work in Juconi and how our work will fit in but when it starts early it's a bit of a shock as most things Latin American are normally tarde (late) a bit like the "soon come" of Jamaica, lots of stuff is manana manana! However, nothing really prepares me for the shock of having a 2 and a half hour team meeting in Spanish which was pretty god damn hardcore to be honest. Helen and i were put on the spot and asked to introduce ourselves a bit which we do but don't ask me what on earth I said and Yessenia (more to come later) asked Karen how come our Spanish was so much better than hers when she arrived! (Karen and the previous Club de Arte volunteers, Andy and Lone didn’t have so much Spanish on arrival but one of the reasons that H&I were offered this fully funded placement is because we had a reasonable level of Spanish already and would be able to start Club de Arte immediately as there’s already been a gap since the previous volunteers left.
The meeting only got more full on....the fact that they were discussing the future of Juconi and Yessenia who is pretty assertive and doesn't take any prisoners was apparently encouraging everyone to face up to the elephant in the room (although perhaps not using that metaphor!), i.e. the fact that if Juconi ceases to exist they need to start putting exit strategies into place now with the familiies that they work with in the sectores, meant it was all very tense. However, due to my tiredness, my headache and the whole meeting been in fast Ecuadorian Spanish in which many of the words are cut, I missed a lot of the discussion and had to be filled in after by Helen and Karen. Helen's comprehension is much better than mine as I was getting words but not getting the context and totally missing the point, something i did a lot of working at the Latin American Elderly Project when in London but the fact that apparently my speaking is OK means that people think that they can just chat really quickly at me....like I said, apparently my speaking's OK - I'm not so sure! Later there was a discussion about the camp that they'd had with the younger kids a week or so before and again due to missing most of the language I kept zoning out. In fact, at one point I was feeling my eyes closing and needed some matchsticks to keep them open. It's amazing how listening to a language that you don't understand much of can be so soothing, it sort of lulls you to sleep - eek!
So after the baptism of fire style team meeting we had our second Ecuadorian lunch! It was like fried eggs with a peanutey sauce and rice (arroz – rice, always rice with everything!) plus Verdes (literally Greens) which is the name for non-fried plaintains I think. It sounds foul and don't ask me what it was called but I liked it! And you know when in Guayaquil you've got to do as the Guayaquilenos do and all that (although I'm sure if you asked my tummy and my head they wouldn't agree as my stomach is still adjusting to the strange food, climate and weird tasting water and hasn’t been a happy bunny in the slightest!)!
And on that note I'm going to end the first installment of an update our first eight days - I haven't even got to the sectores or the attempted coup yet - i'm only up to last Tuesday but more of that to come! I'm off to bed in my womblike bedroom; womblike in that it's so dark with the almost blackout material across the windows but bloody noisy all night long... dogs barking, wind whistling (to listen now to the rooves (plural of roof?! I think I’m losing the ability to speak English!) and windows banging, rattling and house creaking, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were in England on a stormy winter's day, and it seems to be like this every evening. Come 7 or 8pm the wind just picks up and gets stronger and stronger and as we're on the top floor of a four floor house we get a serious battering!) So with the dogs barking and whining (I'd been moaning if I had no garden, never got walked, got no attention and had no outside space to play in!), TVs blaring, cars screetching, police sirens, music playing, people shouting and the constant whistling battering wind, suffice to say hay mucho ruido por aqui todos las noches - there's lots of noise around here in the nights! So I stuff my earplugs deeper into my ear canals until they become implanted in my brain and then wonder why I sleep through all (3!) of my alarms every morning. Gracias a dios - thank God, Helen checks with a loud shout (because apparently i never respond to a knock on the door!) that I'm up.... So I'm off to bed, ready for another manana and another day in the Sectores tomorrow!
Hasta pronto, Liv x
Day 1
Monday 27th September
We arrived at silly o'clock in the morning, well I suppose not that silly as by the time we'd got through a mental and not very organised queue for customs in which eight lanes of heavily laden airport trolleys were reduced in a bottleneck to two in which everyone was pushing and arguing to ensure that their luggage got through the scanner machine (I must say that at this point my ingrained English politeness and extreme tiredness from 20 hours travel without any sleep did not help my ability to fight my way to the front to present my luggage in an assertive way to the airport senora who was bravely dealing with feisty Ecuadorians wanting to escape the airport bureaucracy after a long flight) and waiting in another long queue for the passport control, it was already 8am by the time we actually got out into the real world. Karen, an English volunteer for Juconi (www.Juconi.org.ec), who I've since claimed as my current Guru(!) was there to meet us and get us to our flat - the place that will be our home for the next 6 months, well that is unless Juconi folds.....more about that later. Helen, the other Charlotte Miller Art Project (www.cmap.org.uk) Club de Arte volunteer, and I drew straws on which bedroom to have in our new home. I got the smaller one with no curtains and no bed....oh dear! However, after some quick furniture reorganisation we moved an array of mattresses from what was soon to become my bedroom into the lounge, and reestablished the bedframe in my room. Then, after a quick raid of the supplies in her wardrobe, Helen found some pieces of fabric and hung them on some string and eh voila - I had curtains. Then i spent a while with my compass trying desperately to find a direction in which I could put my bed that would be good from a Feng Shui perspective...I failed! Realising it was already 10am and that we'd arranged with Karen that she'd come back at 1pm, despite feeling kind of manic and like I needed to unpack, organise etc, I decided it was time to try and rest. I conked out with no sheets in my clothes and only woke up at 12.55 because I'd remembered to set my alarm.
Karen took us to find some food and to start to give us a bit of an induction into the life of Guayaquil, Ecuador and Juconi as well as orientating us with where our nearest metrovilla stop is (like a fast bus that has it's own lane in the roads....so sort of a cross between a tube and a tram i suppose). We jumped on the metrovilla two stops North to the stop closest to her house and also closest to the supermarkets and malls where we got keys cut and had a look round the supermarket. I think our faces must have been a picture because neither of us could fathom having to go shopping in our respective states of disorientation and sleep deprivation so Karen safely escorted us out, telling us to ensure we took money out of the banks in the malls cuz there are security guards there but robberies are prevalent at ATMs in the city. We'd both been advised, and Karen reiterated, how dangerous Guayaquil is so it was good to have this sort of advice.
After a brief sojourn to Karen's lovely casa in a quieter and seemingly more relaxed neighbourhood than ours with some trees and more wildlife where we sat on the balcony chatting and getting the lowdown and took turns to let people know we were safe using her internet connection, Helen and I independently jumped on the metrovilla back to nuestra casa (our house) for an early night in preparation for the first day in the Juconi office starting a punto (on the dot) at 8.30am the next day.
Day 2
Tuesday 28th September 2010
We met Karen at our Metrovilla stop for the journey to the office. We were not, however, a punto (on the dot) as although Helen's an early bird who doesn't like being late, those of you who know me will know that me and early are rarely used in the same sentence, especially not in the morning! So after stressing Helen out a bit because I was running late and disorganised, we got to the Metrovilla stop un poco tarde (a bit late). Oh and just to fill you in.... even getting to the metrovilla from our house is a bit like running the gauntlet. We have to cross a main road at an intersection. We are trying to get to the middle of the road, where there's a raised section, sort of like a pavement but not, where we and lots of other people are walking in our respective directions generally in single file as there's not quite enough room to walk side by side. However, to get there we have to get across the traffic which is not stopping for anyone and where we cross there is also an intersection where cars are speeding off to join the flyover going the other way....Ah the fun and games of a non-pedestrian friendly society where the driving is pretty mental to be honest! Helen doesn't yet trust my road crossing ability and is much more likely to be seen taking a lead from the Ecuadorian people who are waiting to cross the road than the crazy chica Inglesa who's been schooled in the dodgy road crossing customs of London and Manchester! I wonder why she doesn't trust me...humm ;-)
So, the long and short is that Karen meets us and accompanies us the two stops to one of the Metrovilla stops closest to Juconi and then we get to the office. Karen introduced us to everyone and we start to discuss and organise with karen all the work admin that we need to sort out - budgets for us to live off as none of this got clarified before we left, what the arrangements will be for getting our money (let's just say short and sweet like getting a payment direct to your account every month it will not be in Ecuador!), the budget for Club de Arte, how to get hold of the equipment that belongs to CMAP/Club de Arte....etc etc. We know we're in for our first team meeting at 10am when we'll meet the rest of the team and start to see how things work in Juconi and how our work will fit in but when it starts early it's a bit of a shock as most things Latin American are normally tarde (late) a bit like the "soon come" of Jamaica, lots of stuff is manana manana! However, nothing really prepares me for the shock of having a 2 and a half hour team meeting in Spanish which was pretty god damn hardcore to be honest. Helen and i were put on the spot and asked to introduce ourselves a bit which we do but don't ask me what on earth I said and Yessenia (more to come later) asked Karen how come our Spanish was so much better than hers when she arrived! (Karen and the previous Club de Arte volunteers, Andy and Lone didn’t have so much Spanish on arrival but one of the reasons that H&I were offered this fully funded placement is because we had a reasonable level of Spanish already and would be able to start Club de Arte immediately as there’s already been a gap since the previous volunteers left.
The meeting only got more full on....the fact that they were discussing the future of Juconi and Yessenia who is pretty assertive and doesn't take any prisoners was apparently encouraging everyone to face up to the elephant in the room (although perhaps not using that metaphor!), i.e. the fact that if Juconi ceases to exist they need to start putting exit strategies into place now with the familiies that they work with in the sectores, meant it was all very tense. However, due to my tiredness, my headache and the whole meeting been in fast Ecuadorian Spanish in which many of the words are cut, I missed a lot of the discussion and had to be filled in after by Helen and Karen. Helen's comprehension is much better than mine as I was getting words but not getting the context and totally missing the point, something i did a lot of working at the Latin American Elderly Project when in London but the fact that apparently my speaking is OK means that people think that they can just chat really quickly at me....like I said, apparently my speaking's OK - I'm not so sure! Later there was a discussion about the camp that they'd had with the younger kids a week or so before and again due to missing most of the language I kept zoning out. In fact, at one point I was feeling my eyes closing and needed some matchsticks to keep them open. It's amazing how listening to a language that you don't understand much of can be so soothing, it sort of lulls you to sleep - eek!
So after the baptism of fire style team meeting we had our second Ecuadorian lunch! It was like fried eggs with a peanutey sauce and rice (arroz – rice, always rice with everything!) plus Verdes (literally Greens) which is the name for non-fried plaintains I think. It sounds foul and don't ask me what it was called but I liked it! And you know when in Guayaquil you've got to do as the Guayaquilenos do and all that (although I'm sure if you asked my tummy and my head they wouldn't agree as my stomach is still adjusting to the strange food, climate and weird tasting water and hasn’t been a happy bunny in the slightest!)!
And on that note I'm going to end the first installment of an update our first eight days - I haven't even got to the sectores or the attempted coup yet - i'm only up to last Tuesday but more of that to come! I'm off to bed in my womblike bedroom; womblike in that it's so dark with the almost blackout material across the windows but bloody noisy all night long... dogs barking, wind whistling (to listen now to the rooves (plural of roof?! I think I’m losing the ability to speak English!) and windows banging, rattling and house creaking, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were in England on a stormy winter's day, and it seems to be like this every evening. Come 7 or 8pm the wind just picks up and gets stronger and stronger and as we're on the top floor of a four floor house we get a serious battering!) So with the dogs barking and whining (I'd been moaning if I had no garden, never got walked, got no attention and had no outside space to play in!), TVs blaring, cars screetching, police sirens, music playing, people shouting and the constant whistling battering wind, suffice to say hay mucho ruido por aqui todos las noches - there's lots of noise around here in the nights! So I stuff my earplugs deeper into my ear canals until they become implanted in my brain and then wonder why I sleep through all (3!) of my alarms every morning. Gracias a dios - thank God, Helen checks with a loud shout (because apparently i never respond to a knock on the door!) that I'm up.... So I'm off to bed, ready for another manana and another day in the Sectores tomorrow!
Hasta pronto, Liv x
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