Hello from Arbolito!!! Sorry it has taken me a bit longer than I anticipated to get something up here on this blog. I hope no one has lost faith in my ability to stay connected Stateside from Ecuador . . .
I just wrapped up my last week of Orientation - after 2 weeks in Cleveland and another week or so here in Ecuador. I will start work on Monday . . . but there is so much to catch you all up on before I even get there.
First of all, I now reside in Arbolito - a smaller community in the city of Duran. It also happens to be the neighborhood where I stayed when I visited in March with Boston College. Everything is new for sure, but its nice that some of this feels a bit familiar. Some of the neighbors recognize me from my visit and their excitement to see me, well all of the new volunteers actually, and their hugs and open doors bring me peace through this transition. I live in community with 6 of the other volunteers: shout outs to Danny, Andrew, Colie, Tracy, Carolyn, and Gina. Our house is starting to feel like home little by little as we get more comfortable in this new space and new lifestyle.
As I mentioned before, Monday begins my first day of work - aka when Amy´s life changes drastically. I will start not one, but two new jobs in just a few days . . . what will I be doing you ask? Read on.
The way Rostro works is that as volunteers we have 2 work placements: one in the mornings from Monday to Thursday, and our afternoon placements from Monday to Friday. So, for my morning job will be as a social worker and English teacher with Chicos de la Calle (Boys from the Streets). I will be working at a shelter and day school in Duran with teenage boys. I will be working closely with the social worker there helping with cases, doing some home visits, and potentially meeting one-on-one with some boys who could use some extra attention. My other responsibility will be as an English teacher. I kind of lucked out in that it´s a beginner English class for high school boys but is optional, meaning hopefully all of my students will want to be in my class. Those of you who know me pretty well are probably scratching your heads at this job choice . . . I have never worked with teenage boys before - usually you will find me doing work with girls or women´s groups. I´m honestly scratching my head a bit too. I was not expecting to feel so strongly about this work, but I really do. I feel like it´s time to expand the population to which I serve, and this program is pretty sweet. Also, my house mate Danny will be working at Chicos with me - mostly focusing on wood / metal workshops and English classes.
In the afternoons, I will be the director of the Rostro sponsored afterschool program in my neighborhood - Semillas de Mostaza (Mustard seeds). Rostro has 3 afterschool programs in 3 different neighborhoods. We work with kids ages 3-12 - some come for homework help, we run different academic activities (like critical thinking kind of stuff), play with the little kids, and do some activities to help with their character formation. I cannot wait to start this work! Again, its kind of a big load to take on, so thankfully I will be working at Semillas with Carolyn and Colie --- truly an all-star team.
Okay, I feel like this is a good place to start for now. Once I start to get more settled and integrated into this neighborhood you will hear much more. Wish me luck with my first day of work . . . Im going to need a lot of prayers to get me through this week. Oh and SEND ME YOUR MAILING ADDRESSES!!!!! I am going to have a lot of opportunities for letter writing and frankly its far more accessible than internet so if you want to hear from me, let me know!!
I hope all is well. Thank you for all of the emails of love and support. They truly mean the world to me. I am thinking of you all.
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