Tonight, Maria and I were walking back from Mass (the kids had walked back with two other groups of kids and their chaperones) and we passed by a group of Ecuadorians - it's very obvious that we are Americans to them, but they all stopped what they were doing to say "buenas" to us and one man very excitedly, in English, said, "All You Need is Ecuador". My sentiments exactly!
Today was our minga day. One of the year long volunteers, Julia was our guide to get us to the CMT#1 on public transportation. The bus system here is very good, buses come to each stop with great frequency (every 5-10 minutes) so if you miss one, you never have to worry. We took the bus to CMT#1, which is about a 1 hour long ride. While we were waiting for the bus, I noticed that this Ecuadorian woman was looking at me, I turned and smiled to here, recognizing that I am a visitor in her country and therefore, need to be humble and friendly.
Once we got on the bus, I sat down and there was an open seat next to me. That same lady sat down with me! We talked (in Spanish) for almost the whole ride. I learned that her name is Zoila, she has 5 children, 4 boys and 1 girl, that she was on her way to Church (evangelical - which is very prelevant here) and that she likes the President, Rafael Correa because she feels as though he cares for everyone in the country (as opposed to favoring one region or people) and that he's working hard on development projects like electricity, better roads, security, telephones, internet, schools, etc.
Once we got to CMT#1, we met up with Joe (a former year long volunteer who's here visiting), Anton, the leader of a group of adults who are social workers or psychologists doing profesional development in Ecuador for a year, and Edison, our guide. (Julia went back to CMT#2).
We got back on a bus and went to a transfer station. We transferred to another bus, which was very crowded despite the fact that it was a "double" bus. We ended up standing the whole time, which was very exhausting - was coined the term "bus surfing" for this experience. Almost all the cars are manual transmission, so there's a lot of jerking on the rides. On this bus, I was standing next to Laurel and a man got on and stood next to her. He had a crate inside of a gunny sack tied at the top so that it can be carried. He asked us if we were from Canada or the United States, we told him and then he very warmly welcomed us.
After about 3 hours, we finally got to Carlos' house where we would be working for the day. When we first arrived, the little boys of the house showed off their baby kittens -the cat had a litter of 8 kittens that were just born (they barely had their eyes open). Maya and Ella held two of them. We immediately noticed a pile of garbage burning, which was giving off some noxious smoke, which made it difficult to breath. After a few minutes of figuring out what to do and gathering equipment, Edison and Anton gave us some instructions. At the site, there were two families living there. There was already a small house built with 2 bedrooms and a rudimentary bathroom (toilet and non-functioning sink). Then, they were building a larger house in front of that one, the walls had already been started, and were about 1/2 way up.
Because there were so many of us (Anton's group of about 25, and our 12), we formed an assmbly line to move some of a pile of dirt from outside to inside the new house, which we then mixed with cement which would go between the cinder blocks. Carlos and two other men were working on the walls, adding cinder blocks to raise the walls.
This is Carlos, working on one wall. the new part of the house is two storied, this is the down stairs area. There are three rooms, two bedrooms and a kitchen - all three rooms were of equal size.
Carrie and Mark working together!
Ryan dumping a bucket of dirt into a wheel barrow which would be mixed with water for the mortar (not sure that's the right word!) to use between the bricks.
This is the outside of the house - after we had completed our work - it's the one of the green doors. Like so many houses here, it has outside walls, a passage way, then the rooms are to the left side.
Maria and Claire on the bucket brigade!
Siena and Claire on the bucket brigade in the outside of the house, moving the dirt to inside the new part of the house.
Coby, Travis, Carrie, Siena and Claire.
The crew taking a break!
Carrie and Mark.
At 12:30 pm, we politely excused ourselves to go back to CMT #1 where w departed from Anton's group. The Edison took us back on the bus, rode with us back to CMT#2. We were so exhausted when we got back at 3:30 pm, but wanted to go to mass. So we all showered and changed our clothes and walked to Iglesia del Divino Niño which is a Franciscan church in the neighborhood, it took a good 30 mins to walk there. The St. Peter's Prep and Wisconsin groups bet us somehow!
When we returned, we decided to order pizza for dinner. A girl from the newly arrived Xavier Prep group from Phoenix, Amy, helped us to order dominos pizza & chicken wings which is what we had for dinner. It was pretty good!
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