Pregon de la Navidad - Chistmas Parade

I'm not going to sugar coat it, ever since I was about 12, I stopped being so impressed with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I mean it is just always the same! Every year the same! I realize that for some people that is what they love, the expected, the tradition, but it's just not for me anymore. I still do get a little nostalgic about my local, hometown Christmas parade, but let's be honest, I think I was 17 the last time I actually saw it. If I went back now, I probably wouldn't make it to see Santa at the end, cause I already would have hauled my mom into a coffee shop for a double 12 oz. soy latte (can you tell I really want one? cause I do!) or a gingerbread latte (cause I am missing them yet another year!) to warm up and chat, cause it is cold in Bend, OR in December!
Just like last year in Madagascar, it just doesn't quite feel like the holiday season here in Ecuador for me. Sure their are some trees in windows, lights on houses, and people buying gifts right and left, but it just doesn't quite have the same feel as it does at home. Additionally, there are no community wide Christmas traditions, no programmed lighting of the city Christmas tree downtown, no school concerts...hmmmf. But finally, I got wind at the Parroquia of the Pregon de la Navidad - The Christmas Parade! Yessssssssss! The spanish volunteers, Natalia, Maria and I told Pedro that the disability group would 100% be participating. He said he would get a truck arranged for our float. Float? Yes, all the pieces of the event were start falling into place - Pedro assigns each group who wants to participate in the Parroquia's Pregon a bible verse to interpret. of course he does...as the disability project, we were to interpret a visit of Jesus to a sick child and mother where he tells them "Levantate! Animo!" (Get up! Get ready yourself ready!), which are also the theming words to the RBC project in the Parroquia.
Well the day of the pregon rolls around, and what do you know, we don't have a truck for our float. of course we don't! Isidra calls around, and secures us a truck from a neighbor. Maria, Natalia and I get to getting on cutting out giant felt letters to decorate the truck. We also make about 100 little felt flowers to decorate our float. (the budget per group for the float is $0, and the felt is free at the church, so we aprovechar-ed!!!) Of course today is burning hot, clear blue skies, with not a cloud to offer barrier from the equatorial sun! At about 1pm we pack up our felt and huff it down to Isidra's house to get to work on our float.
The truck that has been secured for us, let me say, is an antique, but not necesarily a collectors' item. We immediately get to work covering it with yards of red felt before busting out the packaging tape. It soon becomes obvious that taping is not going to suffice, we are going to have to sew/pin everything together and on to the truck! So here we are are, 5 women - 2 spaniards, 2 ecuadorians, and 1 american sewing and sweating in the blazing hot mid-day equatatorial sun. After about 2 hours our truck was looking particularly mahvelous in our opinion. We stepped inside for a few minutes to cool off and hydrate, before getting ourselves lined up for the big parade to start. I'll spare you the pictures of us sweating and sewing, and just she the final product of our work before heading off to the parade. That is me, Natalia, Maria, and Gabriela our little "sick" child for our float.
Well, we all jump into the truck and speed way to the church in Fanca, as fast as our little old truck will go, to get in line. We were a little late getting there, and were so pleased to find a group of kids from the special education schools waiting for us to arrive for them to participate! Yeah!
So this is where the Christmas Parade is probably not quite what you might expect. There were no school bands (those are reserved for local holiday parades), but instead lots of biblical costuming. It was really a "birth of christ" parade more than Christmas as we American's celebrate it...all the the groups walked/rode the length of Leonidas Plaza arriving at the hospital park for a special mass celebrating the Virgin of Guadelupe and of course, Christmas.

Below are some pictures for your viewing pleasure of the day's events.

(R: our kiddos; L: the two professors, Isidra and Oscar in their roles; B: our group with float)

Some of the other participating groups floats/respresentations:


(R: the INFA group in their Nativity; L: Me and the jovenes! B: Some of the kiddos from the Comedor)

Valero Madness

I can still remember my first acquaintance with a “valero.” A new friend of mine, Adriana, had invited me over to her house for lunch one afternoon with her family. Adriana is the social worker for the Oficina de la Mujer (Office of the Woman) in the Municipio (City/Country Government). She had asked me to help facilitate the formation of an association of social workers in town and help them get some direction on project identification and formation. I was happy to be included and share my experience and knowledge.
Adriana is a great woman, she lives in her own house but has invited her parents to live with her, likewise, her 3 nephews live with her as well because her sister, she tells me has made mistakes and just doesn't know how to manage her life let alone her three boys'. These three boys were my first window into what would sweep Bahia as a phenomenon only to be known as “valero madness.” It was these three boys and the constant “klip klop, klip klop, miss, klip, miss, klop, klop” sounds that would soon become the soundtrack of the bus stop, the bus, the comedor, any activity with the jovenes, it would drown out the sweet sound of afternoon birds from my bedroom window and the rhythm of the waves at the beach. This first afternoon, my first encounter with the valero, I turned around mid-sentence to get a better look at these noise instruments of diversion, and Adriana commented: “when the toys are cheap, we buy them for everyone.” And so it was, at 50 cents a pop, everyone could afford a valero, and within a week, every person under the age of 23 had at least one.
The valero instantly became an obsessive albeit annoying past time. At any point that a child or young person is sitting idle, they are valero-ing. “Klip Klop, Klip Klop” Trying to get the cap on the stem as many times as possible without missing, and when one misses they get right back on track without missing a beat, like its all just part of the game and process. Watching a young person valero is like watching a zombie; there is absolutely no attention put into what one is doing, they just Klip Klop way for hours on end. I have seen a brand-new valero at noon on Tuesday and seen it a dented, used up mess by Friday. These kids are relentless! Valeros are naturally prohibited from school, Thank god. We try to keep the same rule for the refuerzo program with the kids for them to focus on their homework, but that is easier said than done...the valero is ever present.


(The Vera Sisters, Ana Lucia and Patricia are valero-pros! Here they are posing with their toys.)

I find the valeros mildly amusing. Yes, I tire of the ever present clanking they make at times. But I also find myself in awe at the tricks and speed these kids can valero. I am more apt to cheer a kid on than threaten to take it away, but I also, not so secretly, want to learn how to valero myself. Little by little I am improving. I refuse to purchase one; maybe before I leave for a souvenir of the phenomena I bore witness to, but I just can't bare to own one yet because I know I would be clanking away every waking hour! Not everyone has the patience that I have for the valero, Natalia for example. Natalia is now infamous in the parroquia for her overreaction to a valero incident. Now bear in mind this is a young woman who had come to Ecuador for 5 months to volunteer and open a special needs school. She is not religious in anyway, and really wanted nothing to do with church, catholicism, mission, anything religious. And here she was living in a church, woken up every Saturday and Sunday at 8 am by people preparing for 9am mass, and listed to mass every other day, minus Monday at 7pm. The house of the church is a public place, numerous meeting are held there, and numerous people pass through daily to meet, work, and socialize. We'll say it is a Thursday. Maria and Natalia have been up since 6:30, rode the bumpy Tosaguena bus 30 minutes to and from the community at the 20th Kilometro, they have taught 4 hours in their special needs school to a group of varying ages and differing abilities, they are tired. The two cozy into their beds ready to rest, as Natalia almost falls asleep she hears the klip klop begin. The valero is keeping her from falling asleep. She decided to read a bit, but soon finds that she can't concentrate on what she is reading because all this klip kloping is getting in the way. She storms down the hallway to find a group of jovenes upstairs in the church, Rene with valero in hand she states: “whoever is playing with that (insert bad word here) valero better put it away because the next time I hear it I am going to shove it up your (beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!!!!!!!!!!)!” In this moment, Rene has klipped, and as Natalia finishes, his valero klops. She screams and storms away. All of the jovenes quietly exit the church... Bear in mind that this event occurred after probably 3 months of daily valero-ing in the house.
Like any craze, I think that the valero phenomena will taper off with the promise of resurfacing again soon. I keep grabbing the valero when I get the opportunity and one day soon, I secretly hope to be a valero master like all of the kids and jovenes I work with in Bahia.

Guillermo, FANCA and Friendship

It took me about over a month to figure out exactly when my personal transformation as a Peace Corps volunteer took place here in Bahia. At the beginning of November I was still feeling like was was participating in things with the Parroquia and foundation, but showing up without any real personal purpose. About the second week of November things seemed to be falling into place, I had a fuller schedule, places to be, things to plan, and people who were counting on me. As I look back to that time, I have to thank another volunteer, Guillermo Rey. Guillermo arrived to Bahia, and everyone including me, thought he was another priest from Spain. Guillermo came as a volunteer with a vision of supporting families in the barrio of FANCA through a project of a community survey and a series of talleres para la familia (talks/workshops/whatever you want to call them for the family).
I was asked to participate in the project because I was working in the comedor with the kids everyday, and Guillermo was going to be spending his days at the comedor as well. Like any friendship, our relationship started out with some mildly awkward conversations mostly about Peace Corps, plans for the survey and presentations, the kids at the comedor and the community of FANCA. But everyday our friendship started to shape more and more, through shared experiences with the kids, analyzing and improving the survey, talking about the results and our observation, and mostly talking about the needs of the community and ways we could contribute to improving the situation of the barrio, the families, and the greater community that the Parroquia serves.
As far as the work that Guillermo did, we spent the afternoons of November going door to door, barrio by barrio, conducting our survey about the make up of the families and habits of the families in FANCA. Part of the survey was also inviting each of the families personally to attend a charla, or talk. The charla was a block-style type event, we bought the projector and music to each of the different sectors of FANCA, 8 in all, giving a personalized presentation in each sector of the barrio. Our response was variable, but a few people always showed up to listen to the talk about family values and the importance of communication within families.
For the entiretly of the month of Novemeber, I think I spent more time with Guillermo than any other person here. We worked together from noon-3:30 at the comedor, surveyed from 3:30-5, and then did 8 presentations together which from preparations at the church to set up, and then clean up was about 2 ½ to 3 hours. I was really the only person dedicated to helping him with his project and presentation, so I quickly became his trusty assistant, and I know that he thought of the work more of ours than his. I soon found myself at the church house most nights with he and the two other volunteers, Maria and Natalia, sharing good times, Pilsners, and our nightly communal-effort dinner or going out together. I found Guillermo to be someone who saw what I saw in much of the same way, and we spent many hours talking about possible projects in the community of FANCA, ways to support kids there, and how we could organize ourselves and the greater Bahia community to support FANCA.
One of my biggest personal challenges with the Parroquia, I feel, is finding someone with the time to listen to me bounce ideas off and give me feedback on my future plans as a volunteer; Guillermo was an invaluable resource to me in that sense. Always interested in what I had to say, and always patient enough to listen to my sometimes semi-coherent phrases until I got it all out. Just shortly before Guillermo returned to Spain, I found out from Maria and Natalia how highly he thought of me. The girls has mostly tired of hearing Guillermo's raves about how great, special and perfect I was. They told me all of this after coming to my apartment for dinner my first night in my apartment; Natalia had left her sweater and I was going to drop it off my balcony. The girls had said: I hope it doesn't get stuck on the other balcony, or on the mass of power lines outside the apartment; Guillermo responded: It's Whitney, she does everything perfect! Don't worry! And the girls had to finally tell me that Guillermo saw me with glowing halo of perfection. All of this makes me laugh, because I feel 100% less than perfection here, stumbling over my words, trying to stay on top of activities and events, and just trying to keep going at a steady pace with work here!
In all actuality, Guillermo is like a proud parent. He is about the age of my parents, he has raised his kids, and he was, I think, happy to be working alongside a young person. The day I knew he really did care about me, was a day that he was trying to make plans for the weekend to explore a bit more of the Northern Manabi area, and I made a comment that I would love to go with him somewhere, but I really needed to take advantage of the weekend to go to Portoviejo and do some shopping for my apartment where it was cheaper. I wasn't suggesting or expecting him to come with me, but without even thinking about it for a minute he was coming with me, and within an hour had arranged a ride for us to and from with Humberto who had a class that day. We went, he helped my with my price analysis and helped carry all those bags! In all honesty had it not been for him, I don't know how I could have done my shopping in one trip to Portoviejo!!!
Working with Guillermo on this project during the month of November was an invaluable experience, helping me get to know other key people that live and work in FANCA and simply becoming acquainted with the community of FANCA and finding my way around by walking through it daily. Especially, Caguita, who guided us through the sectors of FANCA, and in the process became a very good friend of mine and has introduced me to a countless number of important contacts. Also, he is just a really great guy, who has welcomed me into his family, calls just to check on how I am, and genuinely is interested in being my friend and working with me in the future for the benefit of his barrio. Honestly, from the time I arrived in Bahia, I have been facinated with FANCA, the supposed red zone of Bahia; a place you never go alone because the people are bad and rob everyone, supposedly. What we found through our surveys is that FANCA is a community of families, with numerous children. After a month of work there, I now know more people there than I do where I live in Bahia and the people are warm, fun, and interesting. They are not rich or educated, but they are good people that deserve the respect of the rest of the community.
In fact, part of our Peace Corps work in the first 4 months at site is a community diagnostic. I had struggled with how to implement this in an urban area that is big and diverse. Through the survey, I was able to become better acquainted with the community of FANCA and follow up with some focus group activities to put together a more complete idea of the barrio and its needs. I can't truly say that FANCA is my community the way that I can say with certainty that Guillermo has become a very good friend, but it is a place that I feel comfortable in now, that I care about, and that I would like to see and work toward improving in th time that I am here.
On a related note, Guillermo is returning to Bahia and the Parroquia in March and staying for two months this time. He just didn't get enough of the community here and all of the fun (I mean work) we have here. :D I am excited for the possibilities to plan and collaborate more with him in the coming months!

Not enough photos for you?!

For more pictures from World AIDS Day and our International Day of Disability paseo check out my facebook album with 69 photos for your viewing pleasure!!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047901&id=27500865&l=66c024ced6

International Day of Disability

Did you know that December 3^rd is the International Day of Disability? Well I didn't know either, but I spent the third of December with the kids from the two special needs schools that the foundation supports in FANCA and the community of Kilometro 20. Thanks to INFA, we had an extra truck to pick up about 25 kids and moms at their homes, from the campo to the city, and bring them into Bahia for a day of celebrating their special abilities and special selves.

Our first stop was a visit to the infamous Miguelito, the Galapagos turtle held in captivity at a local elementary school. This was my first visit to Miguelito too; naturally, I have had some reservations about visiting an animal kept in such a sad condition, but I went to support the kids. Needless to say the kids loved him. And really his is an impressive animal. So huge and beautiful, and old! Over 100 years old, Miguelito spends his days on a dry patch of schoolyard waiting for someone to bring wanter and feed it into his nostrils. (how he drinks!!!!!) Well, I made an emergency trip to the market to buy some bananas to feed to Miguelito, which he ate peel and all. After eating about a 2 kilos of bananas, drinking 4 liters of water, being petted down by all the kids, and posing for countless pictures, we left him to rest and recuperate.

Our next stop in the half day tour of Bahia was the Velisco, where INFA was hosting an event for the day. In true INFA fashion, everything was running about 2 hours late. The DJ hadn't arrived yet, nor had the snack that was promised for the kids. hmmf. But a few of the INFA staff had dressed up like clowns to sing songs and do kids games with the participants, Ivonne the director of the office read a few children's stories and some of the foundations jovenes showed up dressed in our “muneca” outfits to play with the kids, which they loved. :D After about an hour and a half there, we organized the kids, grabbed the small ones' hands and walked down the Malecon to the beach.

(Pedro with the "munecitos" and Judy dressed up like a clown! cute!)

Once we picked our spot on the beach, we stripped the kids down, rubbed their little faces up with sunscreen and all ran off together toward the ocean. The moms hung close by, but Maria, Natalia and I were really the ones in charge of keeping everyone's head above water! I was in charge of a little girl named Hagna, a sweet little ball of energy who wanted nothing more than to lay face down in the sand as the waves came up around her, oh heavens! The kids had such a good time playing and sitting in the waves and playing in the sand. Like any kid, they wanted to stay at the beach all day, and so, getting everyone changed and ready for lunch was an ordeal, to say the least!

(R: Josue suncreened-up and ready to play! L: The kiddos playing in the ocean, Below: Hagna face down in the water, just how she liked it best!)

Lunch was an extra special treat. Many of our kids from the campo, even some of the kids from the city, have never eaten in a restaurant before! One of the restaurants right on the bay, El Buen Sabor, is a friend of the foundation and agreed to host us for an extra special lunch at $1.50 per person, woooo hoooo!!!!! They served us all a generous bowl of bola de verde soup, a creamy, peanuty, oniony soup with carrots, cheese, and a big ball of mashed green plantain filled with cheese, (mmmmmmmm!!!!!!!) and a plate of fried fish, potato salad, a green salad, rice, and fried ripe plantain (no wonder I have gained weight here!!! everything is sooooo tasty and delicious, but so high calorie! what a dilemma!!!) After everyone was nice and full, we had yet another surprise for the kids' stomachs....ICE CREAM!!!!!!!! And at 25 cents a bar, how can you resist!?

(Everyone enjoying their sopa de bola. mmmmmmmmmm!!!)

Now you may be thinking, this seems like a lot of hoopla for just one day! Yes, yes it was. But it was a celebration of these kids - kids that generally people are afraid to talk to, to acknowledge; kids that don't have a chance at a “normal” life because Ecuadorian society is not prepared to include them and support them with their special abilities; and more than anything, it was their mothers hard work and dedication to bring them to school everyday for 4 months, to participate and raise money for them to be able to get out of the house, out of their rural community and see the world of Bahia that is just a short bus ride away, but whom very few have had the opportunity to see. So we saw it all and did it all in one day, in celebration of them, and with the promise to do it again shortly! For the moms that couldn't make the trip into Bahia with us, to pasear a few hours, we ordered the special lunch to go for them and delivered it to them to thank them for their hard work and collaboration for the benefit of these very special, very wonderful kids.

World AIDS Day - Dia Munidal de SIDA

If I was reminded of one thing on World AIDS Day this year, it is the importance of semantics and the power our words have. As a general observation, there seemed to be a discord here in Bahia about what to call the event that is celebrated worldwide December 1st. Dia de LUCHA de SIDA – yes we are struggling and fighting to stop the spread of AIDS, but not fighting AIDS directly per say on this day, especially not fighting people living with HIV or AIDS; Dia CONTRA de SIDA – but we are not against AIDS either, we all want the cure to be found, we want the spread to stop, we want people to live long happy, productive lives, we are very pro the people living with HIV/AIDS, in fact we are working hard to make sure their health needs are met so they can live to their optima while their rights are also observed; Dia de la RESPUESTA de SIDA – a better choice of words, a day to respond to the AIDS epedemic, but how are we responding, are we judging, are we marching, are we helping, recognizing, remembering ,respecting? With all of these loaded terms being thrown around and so many people making assumptions and statements about what we should be doing, what we are doing on World AIDS day, I found it easy to lose track of the real intention of the day.

Peace Corps global campaign for World AIDS day in 2009 was aprenda, sirva, respete (learn, serve, respect). In all of the flying words of World AIDS day in Bahia, LUCHA, CONTRA, RESPUESTA, I had to focus myself back on the purpose of the 1^st of every December. World AIDS day is exactly on point with the Peace Corps theme this year. LEARN. Learn about the epidemic, not just about the biology of HIV and AIDS, but about the world impact, the reality of the people living in your neighborhood, community, town, state, country, region, the world. Becoming informed, and for one day letting it all sink in and really reflecting of what the AIDS epidemic means to so many people, how it affects personal lives, families, the economic impact on communities, what the epidemic means to you. SERVE. Do something, participate, educate yourself, a neighbor, a parent, a friend. Make a commitment to do what you can, however big or small it is, contribute. RESPECT. Respect the millions of people with names, families, histories just like yours that are living with HIV/AIDS. Respect and remember those that have passed away from AIDS. Respect that no one deserves to die prematurely, that the majority of people who have passed and those living with HIV and AIDS contracted the disease unknowingly; that majority of people who have died are women and children, women who contracted HIV in their own beds from a husband they have always been faithful too, and children born HIV positive because their parents didn't know or have access to anti-retro viral treatment. Respect those, who believed they were living typical lives, having relations as people have had for years, who didn't have all of the information, and are now HIV positive or living with AIDS. World AIDS Day is about solidarity. Solidarity as a worldwide community, to take one day a year to remember those who have died, recognize and celebrate those who are living, and to make a commitment to the rest of world do everything humanly possible to work towards a future where HIV/AIDS is no longer the world epidemic.

Soapbox speech aside, what did my first World AIDS Day look like here in Bahia? Well because I work with a foundation that has its rhetoric and analysis in place, we got to work. In a mid-October meeting with various health professionals, community leaders, persons living with HIV and AIDS, and representatives from various groups, Father Pedro broke down the reality and gravity of the HIV epidemic here in Ecuador to the Comite para la Respuesta de VIH, SIDA y ITSs del Canton Sucre (the Sucre County Commission for the Response to HIV, AIDS and STIs). Ecuador is at a 3% confirmed infection rate (that doesn't account for those who have never been tested, surely there are many unconfirmed cases); as of October there were no more free tests to be administered, and the HIV treatment that is provided to all HIV+ people was in short supply. The government had still yet to make a statement about its plan to address the rising HIV rate in Ecuador, and how it would be meeting testing and treatment needs in the coming years. I sat in a silent room as Pedro put it bluntly to the group, Ecuador is a disgrace in its response to HIV and AIDS. Every African nation has a better plan and response to the situation of HIV and AIDS in their country than Ecuador. Ecuadorians need to stop believing that it can't happen here, not in my community, not to me – because the reality is that it is here, it is in nearly every community, and people need to educate themselves and take precautions to protect themselves. Ecuador's fate hangs in the balance in terms of HIV, and we have models to compare it to, South Africa and Brazil. When both of these countries were at the 3% danger zone, Brazil's government created a strong response moving the education, prevention, and treatment campaigns straight into the poorest, most effected communities, and today Brazil is a model country in terms of the response and management of HIV/AIDS. South Africa on the other had lacked a strong, concerted government response in the poorest, marginal, most effected communities and today South Africa has one of the highest rates of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world without the help and services that they should have to live long, productive lives with HIV.

So if there are no tests, lacking anti-retro viral drugs available, misunderstanding and misconceptions about HIV, what is a community group to do? The Fundacion Corazon Solidario started its World AIDS Day campaign a day early, November 30th, at 8am a group of 40 or so gathered to embark on a door-to-door campaign to educate our neighbors and community members about the reality of HIV/AIDS in Ecuador and Bahia. We were selective in our campaign. The demographic for the highest infection rate here in Ecuador effects people living in marginal neighborhoods, who live in humble conditions, and who have “trabajo eventual,” which is to say, they work when there is work available; families who live on

just a few dollars a day, with little financial stability. The sub-group most effected by HIV/AIDS here in Ecuador: amas de casa, housewives, women who contract HIV in their own beds from their husbands. So between 9am and noon, as we walked door to door, and who do you think we found in most every home? Dutiful housewives and mothers, washing clothes by hand, preparing lunch, taking care of children, attending to small neighborhood stores, and doing the necessary odds and ends around the house.

I was walking the dusty streets of Acuarela, one of the poorest barrios in Leonidas Plaza, with a good friend Raquel. In a land of few tests and fewer drugs, we talked to women about the reality of HIV in Bahia and in their own barrio. We talked about confidence, trust and communication between partners; we talked about fidelity. We also stressed us being two women walking the streets talking about HIV without fear and without shame. If nothing else, we were trying to get the topic of HIV out of the dark, because Ecuador won't see a change until people start taking about HIV and acting in a manner to prevent it. We handed out flyers, brochures, and pinned everyone with a red ribbon asking them to wear it in solidarity with those living with HIV and AIDS for the following day and as a commitment to take the necessary measures to ensure that they would live long, healthy, productive lives.

I arrived to the Worlds AIDS Day event at 7am the following day feeling like we had already made some kind of positive impact toward the true purpose of the 1^st of December. Within two hours, various organizations, government agencies, schools, and medical groups had set up a plethora of booths covering a variety of topics. From TB to supporting children born HIV+ it was all there. But I was particularly proud of the foundations contribution to the “open house” type of event, not only did we have a huge, puffy, red-felt lasso, we had a great topic: acknowledging the societal discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS and developing a model of inclusion and respect for people living with HIV and AIDS. So maybe I have embellished our topic a bit, but that is really what we covered in the 1001 mini-charlas that were given under our tent that day...talking about people living HIV and AIDS, their rights to participate in Ecuadorian society, and need for people to change their analysis of what it means to be HIV+, to stop being afraid, to stop judging and stop excluding these individuals.

As the event concluded a little after noon, there had been a lot of HIV/AIDS material distributed, some singing and dancing by drag queens, facts recited by elementary age kids, 1000s of red ribbons pinned, a parade, and I think something to be learned by all. In true form of the foundation, the event didn't end there. All were invited to meet up later in the evening in the community of Charapoto for a special misa (it's a catholic foundation, you should predict it by now!) to remember those who have passed away from AIDS and those who are living with HIV and AIDS. In a true Father Pedro form, it was less ritual and more reflection finding the space for a few community members to speak about those fallacidos (passed away), their spirit, their work, their commitment, and their struggle, and giving a place of support and comfort to those living with HIV to share and receive compassion from a group of people who care. All of this really did encompass the Peace Corps theme: learn, serve, respect, as well; taking the opportunity to listen and understand compassionately the reality of living with HIV, being present for the moment, and being their in solidarity, that is what the true nature of World AIDS Day is about, not about fighting against or responding, but taking a day to inform ourself, commit ourselves, and understand.

November photos

Here you are folks, 136 fotos from the month of November for your viewing pleasure!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047615&id=27500865&l=5656e9d8b8

events included:
-goodbye party for volunteer Ana with some more than embarrassing photos of me!
-my first fiesta season for Bahia.
-various events with the jovenes I work with
-The annual fiesta of the community storehouses complete with a beauty queen contest with evening dresses made from local agricultural products. (how can you resist!?) with a surprise guest judge, ahem, wink, wink.
-family game day
-block-style workshops about family values
-Anita's Quincenera
-BINGO! for disability
- a trip to the beach with the jovenes

BINGO!!!!!!

One of the first real friends that I made here in Bahia was Mario, a friend who taught me the importance of BINGO to your average Ecuadorian community. He threw the term, “bingera” out in conversation and in my usual response to ecua-vocabulary, wrinkled up my face not understanding the phrase, “la gente de Bahia son muy bingera” (the people of Bahia are very bingera). What could bingera possible mean!? That they LOVE BINGO! Of course they do!!! What could be more fun than filling BINGO cards with pieces of dried corn to win bottles of oil, bags of rice, glasses, produce, you name it, if its cheap then it is a viable prize!!!! I swear there is a BINGO event in the neighborhoods of Leonidas Plaza everyday of the week and ALL day Saturday and Sunday. You rent 2 tablas (cards) for $1 and play until all the prizes are gone. (how fun!!!!!!!) Most of the local BINGO events here are purely just something to do, but there are other events, BINGO Millionario and BINGO Solidario, are the two I have become familiar with, in order to raise funds. The BINGO Millionario involves more elaborate prizes, think blenders, toasters, dish sets, tables, etc, more complex BINGO moves (the L, T, X, blackouts, etc) and you buy your tabla per round; you pay more to win more, and the sponsor of the event makes more money in turn. The BINGO Solidario is played like the neighborhood games, but all the money goes to supporting a person in need, a group, a project, an event, etc. and the prizes are generally donated.
So how did I get to be such an expert in the world of Ecuadorian BINGO? Well I just can't get away from it! It's around every corner, I have numerous friends who “call” BINGO, a few more who rent out the game sets to groups, and well I helped plan and carry out a BINGO Solidario in November. The RBC project is broke, to put it simply. Of the four employees, two teachers and two madres comunitarias, the first are paid my a Spanish Foundation for disability, the later “paid” by INFA, and when I say “paid” by INFA I mean they are supposed to be paid, but INFA is about 4 months late in paying them...Transport to and from work is paid out of pocket, the foundation covers copies and office type supplies needed, four times a year there is an application to receive school/recreation supplies for the school and activities from INFA, but other than that, money is just not available. So in order to take the kids on small field trips and do fun things with them we needed to raise some funds. First we tried organizing some moms to sell snacks to the kids leaving their catechism classes, but the time they put in preparing and selling, was more than the money we recovered. We needed a way to get some real money! BINGO! And so we did...
Really, a BINGO is pretty easy to organize; you pick a date, rent (or in our case, borrow) the game set, print the tickets and sell them, buy/collect prizes, get a locale, and hold the event. It took all of a couple days to organize everything and we were set. Ours was a pretty small event, but also it was our first ever fundraiser and community-type event as RBC. Everyone and their mother (literally, the mothers sold the majority of the tickets...) sold about 125 tickets at a $1 a piece. Part of the trick of the BINGO Solidario is that you sell the tickets ahead of time as a fundraiser for the event, and people buy the tickets more to support the group than to come the event and play. For example, I sold a bunch of tickets here in Bahia to the “pelacones” (the term for the rich people of Ecuador) knowing that they would donate the dollar or two to the cause, but never make the trip out to the campo to actually play. We also organized all the moms of the kids to make treats to sell to the attendees and got a few other snacks and sodas donated. We had popsicles at 10 cents a piece, popcorn for 25 cents a bag, soda for 10 cents a cup, delitos (a strip of cheese or meat wrapped in dough and fried, delicious!) 3 for 25 cents, and empanadas 2 for 25 cents. During the event I was in charge of selling the snacks and I had too much fun with the microphone advertising the snacks, heckling the people to buy, sending out our youth volunteers to deliver the treats, and collecting the money! :D


(L:Natalia calling the BINGO round and Isidra, Special Needs Teacher, supervising; R: Raquel, RBC Madre Comunitaria, playing a round)

As far as the game actually went, each attendee received two tablas for each $1 ticket. The event went on for about 3 hours, until all of our prizes had been given away to winners, and I think that everyone left happy and content with the afternoon. I had a great time! All in all, we raised about $175 for the special needs school (which is a fortune for a school that has a budget of just about nothing!) As the afternoon wrapped up, we gave hugs and kisses to all of the moms for all of their hard work and dedication and invited them to join us for a “paseo” (field trip) with their kids. Thanks to their hard work, we raised enough money to cover the costs of kids and moms for our International Day of Disability field trip to Bahia, and per our calculations would still have some left over for future projects, paseos, etc.

25 Añitos!

I have had the wonderful oppertunity to experience yet another fantastic birthday outside of the States...this year celebrating a quarter of a century of ME! I thought that I could never have a birthday celebration as special as I did last year. Meeting up with other volunteers in Mahajunga to celbrate the anticipated election of President Barak Obama, wandering the streets of that beautiful city with new friends brought together by the incredible experience of living on that beautiful island, eating a 6000 Ariary Magnum ice cream (they only cost 1.25 here...), Marco´s Pizza and Wine, gelato! It was a wonderful wonderful birthday. But this year, I think my birthday was even more special because i had the chance to celebrate and share my day with new friends here in Ecuador that are becoming like my second family. But let me tell the whole story...because my plans of fun were almost foiled.
A few weeks before my birthday, I was chatting with Karla about my upcoming big 25th birthday and that I really wanted to do something to celebrate...it was also important to me that I be able to include my new friends and keep fostering the relationships that I was building. I wanted a fun, special, low cost event to celebrate with everyone and I also wanted to include a little PC goal two, sharing my culture with Ecuadorians. The idea struck me: a good old fashioned bonfire on the beach with hotdogs and marshmallows. Eureka! Karla made a stop my the office of the "Capitan" and he said to stop by the day of the bonfire to get the permit, free of charge. Holler!
So November the 5th rolled around, and Karla went to get our permit from the Capitan in the morning, and it was a no go. Due to the fiestas that had been going on in Bahia, all permits were suspended until further notice...there would be no bonfire on the beach. I got a little upset, I even cried a little (it was a stressful week! and this was the icing on the cake!!!) but I had already invited the guests - I wasnt goign to cancel my own party!!! I made the decision, we would move the party to the house! We borrowed the BBQ from Karla´s sister and set out to make our purchases: 80 hotdogs and buns, katchup, mayo, mustard, chips, soda, stuff to make salsa and guacamole, oh and some Pilsner, the national beer of Ecuador.
After some purchases and my daily work routine, I rushed back to the house to get everything ready in time for my party at 7. Time was tight, and after rushing around and stressing at 7:15 I was seated downstairs waiting for my guests to arive. No one. 7:30 no one. 8:00 still no one. I started to worried that I had planned a party for no one to enjoy...but at 8:20, right on Ecuatime, Humberto shows up with a pickup truck full of people, and yells "ya vengo" (I´ll be right back) as he drives away.
By 8:30 the whole downstairs patio is brimming with people. I turn up the music, Eik grab my camera (thank for being my photographer, girl!), Karla fires up the grill and the party begins! Within an hour, everyone has piled a hotdog or two or three to the brim with toppings, is chatting and everyone is eyeing the bags of puffed gelitan and sugar that remains on the table. Maria, one of the voluteers from Spain, says she has always wanted to roast marshmallowes like they do in the movies. I tear open the bags, hand out the skewers and the roasting fun begins! After everyone had their sugar highs in order, we played a few games, did a few dinamicas, and then as a big suprise, Father Pedro showed up to wish me a happy birthday! The party wrapped up at about 11:30, with everyone tired and content, at lease I hope so!


All in all, it was a super fun night. I loved every minute of it and know that I have to follow it up with another party next year. :D But really, the best part of the day was being with new friends, if I couldn´t have celebrated with friends and family back home, it was the next best thing!

Viva la Cumplañera!!!!