It´s the start of something new

It is the end of our first week of living here in Mt. Sinai, and things have been bustling with the excitement of new beginnings. We moved into our new house on Monday, which is absolutely beautiful. It is spacious and very accomodating for myself and four community mates. In the house we have a kitchen, living room and eight bedrooms. (three of which are serving as guest bedrooms and closet space :) Our ceilings are very high, so it makes everything feel very open and spacious. It also is a lot of fun because it echoes like crazy! The acoustics are great for singing-Jen and I feel like rock stars! The hallway where are bedrooms are is really long and their are doors on both sides. We decided it is perfect for running sprints, and we are working on devising either bowling alley or a slip and slide. :) hehe. The colors of our house are really cheery! The living room, kitchen, and hallway are yellow, the bedrooms are light green and our chapel is light blue. The chapel is my favorite place in the whole house. It is such a peaceful place to be. oh and we have a nice little deck area where they will be setting up two hammocks in the near future.

This week we have been figuring out how our community is going to be functioning together, with cleaning and cooking schedules, food stipends ect. Our first night together in the house was pretty wonderful. We ended up eating dinner fairly late-and we were all pretty tired and we ended up just being goofy and laughing about everything for about an hour. We couldn´t even get through dinner without Becky having to leave the table because she was laughing so hard :). Some other highlights from community living this week would include: nightly prayers, excercise night, movie night, and cooking together.

Let´s see, this week we started our jobs which has been crazy to say the least. As I mentioned before, I am working at a small Catholic school near where I live. The kids are so unbelievably adorable. This week I was able to teach Language (Spanish hahaha) and a little bit of Phy. Ed....which I don´t know if I can even call it phy ed. haha. Madre Luceli came up to me and asked if I could teach phy ed. on Friday! I had not written a lesson plan, and let´s just say the resources available were a bit....lacking. She gave me this little pink pillow, and was like "you can throw this around". So...I was going into this teaching experience with no gym, and no equipment (aside from the pink pillow, which I didn´t have high hopes for being useful) Thankfully enthusiasm and creativity went a long way, and I survived the experience. :) The plan for me is that I will be teaching Computer classes to all sections on Wednesdays, Phy. ed to all sections on Friday, and then I will be teaching 5-6 year olds all subjects on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday in my own classroom-wow that is going to be crazy. I hope that I am not getting into a situation that is too difficult, but I am going to have another week here of observations. The Ecuador school system is pretty different here. All of the subjects are taught almost directly out of books-so you can say goodbye to any cognitive discovery learning experiences. I am hoping that I can do some more hands on learning in my classroom. We´ll see :) I have like a million ideas. I´m pumped!

On Wednesday I went to some religous convention in Guayaquil with the nuns that I work with...haha exciting experience. They told me that it would be good for me because I am a missionary and the content would be applicable to me-which it was...but I was the only "non-nun" in the whole joint! I felt so left out haha. My community mates are convinced that the sisters are going to try to get me to become a nun by the end of the year, but I really don´t see that being in my life plans. haha we´ll see about that

This weekend I helped sing at two masses, which was great, I love the music here. I ended up cantoring and not knowing the songs incredibly well, which made for some laughs afterwards. After mass at Corpus Christi, we had a music ministry meeting and I met some amazing youth with great musical talent. We spent an hour or so learning and practicing music together. I got to sing in a microphone. I felt you know...a little bit legit...just saying.. haha just playing :)

I think the resounding theme of the week is being thrown into incredibly new and awkward situations. We are embracing our "awkwardness" as we adjust to our new jobs, culture and language. It is all together very humbling. You finally think that you are on top of your game, and then boom, life catches up to you. One of the more awkward moments was when i locked myself inside the gate to our house, as I tried to get out to get to a meeting at school. (awkwardly waving at the onlooking neighbors who were enjoying a little chuckle to my dismay) what else-misuse of Spanish vocabulary, and deviations from Ecua-social norms is a daily occurence. Although it can be slightly discomforting at times, it is also such a beautiful and blessed place to be in life. Everyday is a mini adventure and there is so much to think about and learn from everything and everyone I meet. I hope that I can maintain this spirit of excitement as we journey in the weeks to come...more updates on the life and times of Mt. Sinai to come

Friends and family at home-I miss you, I love you, I´m thinking about you lots! Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers!

Con amor,

Marita

Here is a shot of ´all the 08-10, 09-10 and 10-11 volunteers!

Once upon a time in a land far, far away

This is the first official blog entry from ECUADOR! Today marks the end of our second week here and it has been pretty incredible! We have been doing a little bit of everything, as we are still doing a couple weeks of in-country orientation! We have learned so much in such a short period of time, that it is hard to remember all of the details, though I will now impart to you the highlights and initial impressions of my first few weeks here.

Air Travel: We were blessed for our flights here to not have any delays or troubles. My community of Mt. Sinai flew together from Boston to Miami and then to Guayaquil. It actually was only like a 3 hour flight from Miami, which was shorter than I expected. It was pretty funny walking through the airports, because 3 out of our 5 members brought guitars, and everyone kept asking if we were a band. Our arrival in Guayaquil was additionally exciting because all of the former volunteers welcomed us!

Duran: In duran there are two houses where volunteers will be living AJS and Arbolito. The last house, where I will be living is in Mt. Sinai. Until the construction of our house is completed, we have spent the last two weeks in the AJS retreat house in Duran. We don´t spend a lot of time there, as we are learning the area during the day. It is an interesting experience trying to fall asleep at night, as there are a plethora of interesting noises in the area-music, whistles, partying, and the greatest perpertrator.....the ROOSTER! He makes noises just about all night-which is fairly comical :).

Mt. Sinai: This is the region where my community and I will be living for the year. It is about a 45 minute drive from where the other houses of volunteers are staying in Duran. It definitely has a different feel to the region. It is a bit more rural, and amongst some brushy hills-with the most beautiful twisted trees. The area is a fairly new residential sector, so the majority of the houses are cane houses made of bamboo. What most families do is that they start off making a house of bamboo, and then start replacing different walls with concrete blocks once they have enough money. It is common to see houses that are part cane and part concrete. Most of the roads are made of dirt in the area-which is an adventure on the bus! Mt. Sinai is much more beautiful than I thought it would be-and the people are even more beautiful. They are so incredibly kind and welcoming. Even though they were only meeting us for the first time, they would invite us into their homes and offer us what little they have. It is a very humbling experience to be in their presence, as they truly have an understanding of what is valuable in life. I know that their friendships are going to be a great source of life an joy during the year! Within Mt. Sinai there are three churches: Santa Teresa, San Felipe, Corpus Christi. The first two are smaller and Corpus Christi is the largest church in Mt. Sinai. It is breathtakingly beautiful. It is made of Bamboo, and is structured in a way that the sun shines through to illuminate the worship space. Also, this church has an amazing music ministy, which I am hoping to be able to sing with during the year! All three of the churches have an active chatechism program, which I am hoping to help with this year.

Escuela San Felipe Neri: This is the school that I will be working at this year. It is run by three Columbian nuns, who are so dear! Madre Lucelli is the oldest of the three and assumes the leader position. She is very energetic and tends to speak Spanish fairly fast! Then there is Sister Mayrah and Sister Nuri who are about my age.They are wonderful as well. The sisters have such big hearts and are very kind! The school itself is composed of two or three small buildings that are yellow with little story book murals on the walls. (Which the former Rostro volunteers painted) It is an adorable school, and the students are sooooooooooo adorable as well. The school only goes to 2nd grade so they are the little ones. They all have these little plaid uniforms that they wear and the sweetest little high pitched Spanish speaking voices...anyways as you can tell I am slightly enamoured with my job placement and can´t wait to start this Monday! More updates on the work situation to come!

Work Visits: In addition to visiting my work site, we were able to visit the sites where our community members are working. We learned a ton about Becky´s site Hogar de Cristo where she will be working in a clinic doing EKGs and other little tasks. Aaron is also working at a little clinic that serves a community in Nueva prosperina. Jenn and Jeff will be working with "Chicos de la calle"-a shelter and school for street kids. The Saint Don Bosco is basically their idol there, so we were able to hear several songs about him haha.

The work situation is a little different for our fellow community members in Duran. They are still discerning their work placements, so we got to go with them to several of the sites they can choose from. Wow, they were all fantastic. Rostro´s mission is really awesome in the respect that instead of going into Ecuador and starting new programs (that wouldn´t necesarily be helpful or sustainable for the people we serve), they find partner foundations developed and run by Ecuadorians that we work with. There are placements for working with street children, working at schools for children living in poverty, working at clinics and soup kitchens etc. Two of my favorite work sites I was able to visit were Nuevo Mundo and Damien house. Nuevo Mundo is functions like Robin Hood in the Ecuadorian school system. This school facilty (Which is the nicest in all of Guayaquil), is a private school for more affluent children who pay tuition to attend. In the afternoon, the school allows for students who live in extreme poverty come and use the same beautiful facilities for free. It is amazing, the program gives so much hope to these children and opens the door to higher education and a better life. Another favorite was visiting Damien House, which is a home for people who are living with Hanson´s Disease (aka Leprosy). They were mostly older people and they were so joyful and friendly. One of the patients living there gave a welcome speech to us and told us that the beauty of our group had turned their home into a "garden of flowers" My mouth hurt so much from smiling after visiting with them.....a little bit more friendly than our attempts to sing at the nursing home in St. Cloud during a football game...haha Webers :)

A day at the beach: Ok, this may have been the best day of my life. Ok probably an overstatement but it is up there. So last Saturday we were EXHAUSTED from in country orientation and we were told that we were going to take a day for "community bonding" at a pool in Guayaquil-though the next morning when we were ready to go, Megan surprised us and told us that we were going to the ocean, which was a two hour drive. I LOOOVVEE surprises AND the OCEAN so needless to say I was giddy all day long. It was so beautiful, the sunshine felt so nice, and the waves were huge and fun to play in. Becky, Caitlin, Brendan and I went for a jog along the beach which was fun! (Although I got stung by a little jellyfish on the way) Don´t worry it only stung a bit! It was such a relaxing and peaceful day to spend with the other 15 volunteers!

"Lost" in Ecuador: Ok so for part of orientation, we have a day where we are given a camera, and a list of places that we need to go-but we are only allowed to use public transportation to get around. Okay...so if you know me, this is the ultimate culmination of everything that Marita is bad at! Katie and Megan would know based on our European excursions...I am bad at being attentive to details, maps, and let´s face it...my sense of direction is deplorable. The only skill I offered my team is that I could at least ask for directions in Spanish.... oh and I have been working on my "flagging down the bus" hand motion....which is nearly perfected if I may say so myself. We started at 10 AM and bussed all around Duran, Guayaquil, and Mt. Sinai until we ended at the lighthouse in Guayaquil at around 7:30 PM. My team ended up tie-ing with another group, which was a pleasant ending.

Earthquake: So this morning, as we were laying in bed around 7 AM the floor and bed started shaking! It was a real life EARTHQUAKE! Jenn and I woke up and were soooo excited. We were giggling and talking about the whole affair and then we woke up Becky-so all three of us were laughing about being in an earthquake. Certainly not something that you experience in the midwest!! Don´t worry mom and dad there is no damage at all where we are!

So friends and family, I have been having a wonderful couple weeks here in Ecuador! It has been nice to spend time as a large community before splitting off into our homes this weekend! Honestly it is so fun-all the games, conversations, prayers, making dinners together and guitar playing.

The house in Mt. Sinai should be done by Sunday, and we will be moving in before work on Monday!
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I send my love to all of you!
Con amor,
Marita