Day 8 - Feast of Peter and Paul & House Visits

On the feast day of Peter and Paul, we were pilgrims on a journey to share our love with those we would encounter. We humbly embarked on our tour at 8:30 am this morning to go with Teresa (one of the employees of El Centro) to do home visits. (There was another women and two younger girls who accompanied us). This is one of my favorite parts of this trip, but it’s also one of the most emotional and inspiring parts. Those who participate in El Centro invite us to come visit their homes to see where they live.

We drove on the CMT bus quite a distance and visited the first house. When we arrived, we walked down a dark hallway to enter the house. The lady who lived there apologized for the lack of light. She explained that electricity costs $100 pre month and so she doesn’t use it for lights. There were candles illuminating the 3 small rooms. There was a kitchen, a small bedroom with a double bed, and another bedroom with two double beds. There were 5 people living there. She rents this space from the landlady who lived upstairs. The only bathroom was upstairs which is shared by all the inhabitants of the house.

The second home we visited was only one tiny room in the back of someone’s garage. Again, the woman who lived there rented the space from the landlords who lived upstairs. There was no bathroom. She lived there with her son who is 5 years old. There were no windows. She had two beds, a small stove, dresser and TV in the space. She kept apologizing for being poor. Our group commented that this was really sad. They recognized that her station is life was not her fault and that she had a lot of courage to allow us to visit her small space.

The third home we visited was very high up the side of a mountain on an unpaved road. When we walked up to the property there were several dogs who were guarding the area. We were greeted by an older gentleman who looked very weathered. Upon entry into the property, his daughter greeted us. She explained that she recently moved back to her parent’s house following the death of her husband. To the side of the property, there was a small shack – this was here dwelling place which she shares with her 8 children. This was one room divided by a partition and contained two double sized beds. All nine people share that space! She was very proud of the kitchen, which was another building. She said that she cooks food and sells it on the streets and buses to earn a living. Her parents’ house was two bedrooms, and a bathroom and her brother lives there as well. She also raises chickens and guinea pigs. They had an amazing view of Pinchincha volcano which the father explained had erupted four years ago and blanketed the area with ash. They also had paintings hanging outside of famous Ecuadorian freedom fighters including Tupac Amaro and Simon Bolivar.

The fourth house that we visited belonged to one of the ladies that had travelled with us. Upon entering through the gate, we walked down a very uneven path to the front of a structure. It had a very rudimentary roof with lots of holes. It was one room, divided into two smaller portions. No electricity and no running water. There were six people who lived there. She also rented this space from the landlord who lived in the house in front of this one. There was a bathroom attached to, but outside the main house.
When we arrived back to El Centro, we all heated up leftovers from the night before for lunch. Some rested, some hung out. At 2:00 pm, we met up with Judy (Madre Miguel’s sister) to help unpack and sort the donations that people had brought. We took those to the bodega, the laundry and the schools’ bodega. Tonight dinner.