Our last day in Calderón

Our last day in Calderón was an eventful one. Between hurrying to finish the extra last-minute final touches to the painting, near-constant cries of “empújame” (push me), and the performances by ourselves and the tías, it was quite the sendoff. Leaving the kids was bittersweet, but I know I’ll remember them, and hopefully at least one of the many, many air tosses will leave an imprint on them.

After our work day we headed into Quito to visit Maximiliano’s house. Seeing a native home was certainly eye-opening, and the bright smiles on the faces of the children and their mothers were inspirational.

Entry submitted by: Jake Straus

Seija and a newcomer

 

Blair and Alanis

Mitch and Éric playing some ball, which in Ecuador means playing soccer, of course

“¡Empújame, por favor!” - Push me, please!

Varinda helping with hand washing

 

Alanis, Eric, and Emily

Jeanne, Elvia, and Kate

Steve, a.k.a El Cuco Malo, and two little guys who couldn’t have been happier on his lap

Mitch receiving his thank you card

 

Jake at the final celebration

 

Eric’s words at the final celebration

Everybody dancing at the final celebration

Team #150 to Ecuador

Messages of the Day – Seija Webb: 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

"Live simply, so others may simply live." – Mahatma Gandhi

The daycare center after our hard work alongside the tías and parents:

What a difference!

A wonderful azure blue

We woke up quite early and after finding the DR lights, I read the New York Times and did work. Everybody gathered for breakfast and we filled in Maggie and Seija on our various Sunday activities, which included a tour of the equator and the old city, along with a successful shopping expedition at the artisanal market. During our meeting, Maggie agreed that we were far ahead of schedule, and we all further agreed that this would give us additional time to do some more painting and spend more time with the children at the center. On the way to the center Maggie and Mitch sharpened our Spanish skills.

As the day got steadily cooler and cloudier, we completed final touchups of the Center 2 building and painted the walls of the play area in the back. We also finished painting the buildings behind the center in a wonderful azure blue. Thanks to a brainstorm of Kenny's and an excellent execution by Colin, we took a long dormant painting accident on the back wall and transformed it into a spectacular multi-colored umbrella. During my lunchtime siesta at the center, I noticed and photographed snow still scattered at the top of a not-so-distant mountain and wondered at the idea of equatorial snow in late June.

The afternoon wound down pleasantly as we spent time with the children and thought through the few remaining tasks awaiting us on Tuesday. We gathered for one last dinner in the hotel (excellent tacos!) and then rehearsed our not-so-traditional singing and dancing routine for our Tuesday farewell session at Center 2. All went to sleep looking forward to a delightful final day there.

Entry submitted by: Stephen Blum

Middle of the World Monument

Quito 

Everybody hard at work 

Colin and his buddy playing ball

Eric bonding with some little guys 

Colin and Tía Katy painting

 Enjoying our taco dinner at Hotel Sol de Quito

Practicing “The Hokey Pokey” for our final celebration!
Varinda is awesome!

I spent most of the day playing with the babies, who seemed to cry a lot more than usual. After lunch I played a game with one kid where I would swing him upside down, and I found myself having to do it to every kid that walked by. One of the tías walked up to me and handed me a bucket of green paint and said “por favor”, then pointed at her two classroom tables. There were kids running everywhere, but they stayed away from the tables somehow. The paint on all the buildings looks great and I'm glad that we could help.

Entry submitted by: Emily Straus 

Baby Kelly and Emily 

Jeanne and Rony 

Tía Katy, Colin, Tía Marina, and Mitch

Seija feeding some hungry babies

Emily cleaning up the babies

Sammy and Tía Paty serving lunch

Emily and Rony being goofy together

Blair and two little girls who would not let him go

Message of the Day – Varinda Missett: “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” – Buddha

Message of the Day - Eric Straus: "One kernel is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell the ocean; a spark of fire helps to give light to the world. None are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service. Think of this and act."  - Hannah More

Family Day, and we were swept up in the fun!

On the way to the site we had an excellent Spanish lesson. When we arrived, there were dozens of adults there with their children to volunteer alongside us.

We were sent to the store to buy scrubbers to remove the paint from the grates. We had an adventure purchasing the scrubbing brushes for the grates. When we got to the store, the manager paid for the scrubbing pads since I didn't have any money. Then when we went back to the store later, Eric reimbursed him.

Eric also commented that the bathroom in the paint store is the finest in Ecuador!

The center had organized a fabulous family day emceed by the president of FUNDAC with a mariachi band and great dancing by the tías. Our group was swept up in the fun and dancing and had a memorable time.

Entry submitted by: Blair Caple

Kenny and mothers who came to help paint –

one who swears she had meant Kenny before!

During our Spanish lesson on the way to the site, I learned some very important phrases including how to say "I'm single" and "I don't know whether I want have children", both of which I've already forgotten.

When we arrived at the site, we were greeted by dozens of parents, all of whom were ready to work. They cleaned out the shed while Matt and I worked on the scaffolding, touching up the yellow beam. After getting sun burnt, we all proceeded to dance with the local families celebrating Center One's family day and showing off our numerous moves in the form of interpretive dance. After lunch, when most of the building seemed to be completed, the "grey heads" (the older generation of our volunteer team) went out and bought blue paint to give some color to the surrounding structures. If there were any doubts that the day was a success, they were delightfully dispelled by the sight of the president of FUNDAC running and laughing alongside our bus as we pulled away.

Entry submitted by: Colin Tofel

Mitch and his new little buddy

Family day celebration

Seija and Elvia cuttin’ the rug

Maddy dancing with a father from the daycare center

The kids couldn’t get enough of Matt and his games

Margarita and Mitch dancing it up

Jeanne and Elvia, president of FUNDAC

The tías’ dance performance of bomba – a traditional dance from Chota Valley

And then Kenny asked to be taught how to dance bomba and,

of course, two mothers were happy to show him

Colin and Margarita

Messages of the Day – Stephen Blum:

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." – Mark Twain

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." – Mark Twain 

“Some go out to fleece and come back sheared.” – Ecuadorian proverb

“Hands that give, also receive.” – Ecuadorian proverb

A day of painting

We painted today and were more organized. We found out where the paint store is -- that's huge. We got to the second story; Patricio was on the roof painting. Patricio is a really hard worker, as are so many of the others working alongside us. We were joined today by high school teenagers. They goofed on us with their name tags by putting ninja names in for their names. I was touched by the fact that a few of the teenagers from local high schools walked us to lunch, totally in the opposite direction from the way they were headed. 

Entry submitted by: Ken Hunt 

Patricio, Mitchell, and Ken working hard

There's a kind of a welcoming quality of the people here unlike anything in northeast America. We were greeted this morning with kisses and smiles. Almost everyone in our group ended up taking care of the children today. The tías work so hard. We finished up most of the building. We walked through the market to lunch. The restaurant was lovely. On the way back we took a tour of Center 1 and met the tías, who were having lunch while the children napped. The moms in our group are in awe of the fact that the tías can get all those kids to nap in one bed at the same time. While walking back from lunch, Center 2 looked so brilliant, it inspired us to want to do more! The whole day runs smoothly because Maggie stays a step ahead of us. We're a big group and she's doing an amazing job - including keeping Matt out of jail. Everybody was too exhausted to go out for dinner so Eric, Blair, Matt, and Maggie went to the store to buy us all dinner. While shopping Matt picked up some chopstick and opened it to use it and share it with Eric -- Maggie had an apoplectic fit because I guess you absolutely don't use something before you buy it here. I gather it was quite an adventure.

Entry submitted by: Kate Straus

Varinda and Sammy feeding hungry little kids at lunchtime

The view of Quito and the mountains from down the street from Center #2

Message of the Day – Maggie Bjorklund: "Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love." - Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Team #150 has arrived in Ecuador!

In the morning we did team orientation sessions and came up with the following team goals:

1)      To understand and appreciate a new culture without imposing our own
2)      To appreciate simplicity and reset priorities
3)      To use and improve our Spanish
4)      To spend quality time in a new setting with family and friends
5)      To make heartfelt connections with local people
6)      To serve the community
7)      To explore, learn, and have fun

We also came up with the following Characteristics of an Effective Team:

flexibility                     cooperation                 open mind

shared mission             patience                     allowing for differences

risk taking                   attentiveness               persistence

esprit de corps             delegation                   responsibility

kindness                      humor

In the afternoon we headed out to the daycare center to begin volunteering!

I started the day "brillo-ing", that is, cleaning the dirtiest part of the outside wall of the daycare center. The rest of the afternoon I played with the 3- to 4-year-olds, mostly the boys outside. I didn't know what they were asking me a lot of the time, but we figured it out.

Entry submitted by: Madison Missett 

 Daycare Center #2 when we arrived

Team #150 to Ecuador! 

I worked with the kids the entire afternoon. I did their hair and it was so strange - they're playing with building blocks and you do their hair. I learned the hard way not just to put things down in front of the kids: when I put down the hair spray on the table they started aiming it and spraying each other. When Jake came in, a kid went over and just sat on his lap. It was very sweet.

Entry submitted by: Samantha Missett