Disculpe

7-13-11

Yesterday I worked in a variety of places.  At first I went down to the “curso vocacional” to help out the group from Illinois for a couple hours.  It was fine just to jump from group to group, but to also help out some of the women cooking the snack for the kids for their break.  Afterward,  I went to work with the older people do arts and crafts, activities for mind stimulation and just to hang out with them before serving them lunch at the comedor.  I really enjoyed this type of work because as I’ve stressed earlier, they are so appreciative for anything you do for them.  It was fun learning some of their names (which most of them were María) and getting to know some of them.   

Clarita and I at the comedor. 

They have lived some tough lives!  After bringing back Clarita (the 94 year old woman who we push in her wheelchair back and forth) back to her house and delivering 3 meals to people who are not able to come to the comedor, I arrived home to eat lunch quickly and left for Cumbayá.  I brought two of the other volunteers with me to Cumbayá to get a few things done and also to buy ice cream from Baskin Robbins :-).  By the time we got back to Lumbisí we were all exhausted, so I relaxed at home with a cup of fresh coffee.  Later, I watched a few movies with my host siblings in Spanish.  It was good to hang out with them!

This morning I was very productive as I cleaned my room early in the morning and stripped my bed (because I think the top blanket might have fleas!).  I headed down to the vocational course where I was informed that the other volunteers (besides the Illinois group) would be working with younger kids (ages 5-7).  They did this because these smaller kids weren’t getting enough attention.  The whole morning we colored, learned songs, and played games.   It was a good time!  This afternoon was another “minga” at the community garden.  A minga is a group gathering to work on community projects.  The usual women who work in the garden were there to instruct us and to get a ton of work done.  At first it was just Grace (my host sister), one of the women’s sons, and me.  We picked green beans in the greenhouse until the big group from Illinois came to help.  When picking the beans, the little boy was so interested in nature and how big his beans were!  It was so great to see and interact with a little boy so interested in taking care of the plants.  I think it’s great when little kids get involved in projects like this!  It’s a good idea to get them excited about where the food is coming from that he is eating.  There’s something so romantic about that—that we actually know where the food is coming from that is placed on the dinner table.  After picking all the beans and composting the plants, we picked all the cilantro.  I’ve never seen so much!  I think I will smell like cilantro for a while…

I love seeing all the animals just roaming around Lumbisí (not including the dogs).  Today I saw goats running down the street; sheep in the field eating the tall grass around them, cows hooked up to ropes in my front yard grazing, and chickens on the tops of the roofs.  I sit really close to the window in our house to steal wireless internet from our neighbors (my Ecua-aunt and uncle) where my view is their roof (a flat roof-more like a patio, where they have clothes lines hooked up to dry their clothes).  Not only is their clothing hung up, but also a chicken roaming around, eating corn.  I watched the chicken for a while and I see it chasing away any other small bird that sits on the roof!  Again, I love seeing the random animals throughout the day! 

The people I work with a the comedor (the cooks) and some of the physical therapists/occupational therapists who help the elderly before they eat lunch.