Claro!

6-10-11

I got news saying I am to go to Tonsupa for a week this coming week.  It will be a nice change, and some variety of weather, teaching, etc.  I am bringing another volunteer with me who will be working in Tonsupa for 2 weeks.  I have been noticing some things about the culture here in Lumbisí:  The women are extremely hard-working.  I can’t remember if I’ve already said this before in my blogs, but all of the women are hard workers.  If it’s not tending to their children, livestock, gardening, cooking, or shopping, it’s something else.  They care about the other women around them and really stick up for each other.  Today I worked in the organic community garden again and I would just listen to the women talk to each other while working and they talked mostly about education for their children, and how it varies so much between schools here.  If you really want a good education, you better have more money to pay the higher prices for better schools/teachers.  I love digging my hands into the dirt, cleaning away all the “hierbas malas” and listening to the women chat.

I was thinking about all the volunteering I have done thus far, and am happy with the outcome.  I feel like I have blessed and have been blessed.  But, I’m constantly thinking about their life (the women who live here).  This isn’t just volunteering for them.  This is their life, their success, their meaning of living from day to day working their butts off.  They can’t just leave when they want like I can.  I’m eventually going to leave this country and go on with my life doing other things.  But them, no.  They will continue to be hard working, serving their families and friends around them.  I am sensitive to this fact and will continue to work my butt off along with them. :-)