Quito-
The day isn’t quote over but I feel like we’ve done so much. This morning we had La Red orientation and learned about the youth ministry training that goes on here. Fifteen people will graduate from the leader program tomorrow, so we decorated the Youth World office for them.
We spent the rest of the morning buying shirts etc. from the Youth World store, crafts from a family (that I’m not sure how they are connected with Youth World) and eating lunch at a restaurant close by the office. (In Edla’s words, “We’ve been here five days and all we do is eat!”)
Then this afternoon we went back to the office for Dump orientation. Basically there is a city dump in Quito where people used to live and scavenge for money. This guy Pastor José started a day care there as part of his ministry to help the people there. About a year and a half ago the dump was closed for a year, but now it is open again as a receiving center for garbage and recyclables and the former inhabitants have government salaries as workers there. Day care still functions for their children.
Three kids and two adults from Emaus joined us there and we did a bilingual orientation. Cameron read some pretty startling statistics. The most eye-opening of them was about how 45% of the world lives on less than $2.00 per day. Most of it was about our responsibility- the goal was not to fee guilty (because guilt tends to be pretty useless) but aware. She asked us to calculate how much our clothes we were wearing are worth. I’m not even into clothes or shoes, but my total was well over $100.00 and it’s sobering to realize that 18% of Ecuadorians could live on that amount of money (for clothes, food, shelter, entertainment and savings) for nearly a quarter of a year. There were a few bits of the conversation that Roberto didn’t even translate (TIME WARP- we found out later that Mary, one of the women with us, was one of those people who lives on about $1.00 a day).
Before we got to the dump, we stopped at the Market. There were 20 of us total (12 team members, 3 Youth World Hosts, and 5 from Emaus) split into 6 groups with roughly one Spanish speaker to a group. Each group was given $10.00 to bargain for as much fruit as we could possibly get (which is a LOT at an Ecuadorian market). Bradham, Carrie, and I pretty much stood back and let Vanessa do the bargaining. Overall result: van FULL of fruit for the day-care at the dump.
We rode to the dump and met Pastor José and he told us a lot about the history of the dump and the people who work there. Then we went in to play with the children.
I almost immediately learned something. People who do short-term missions and such always say “We held orphans/children,” not “We played with them.” Granted we played with them. In fact we played with them a lot. But the second we walked in(Literally the moment they saw us) these tiny little kids who had never seen us before ran up to each of us with outstretched arms, wanting to be held and picked up and carried and touched and hugged and physically loved-on.
They trusted us instantly. They’d let us hold them and swing them around and up and down. They climbed on us and hugged us. They say in out laps and played. Then they had a meal/snack of bread and juice. The children sang a prayer and we held them while they ate. A four-year-old boy and a probably year-old little girl say in my lap on the floor. I asked them their names (which I couldn’t pronounce or spell if I tried) and how they were and if the bread was good. That was pretty much all the Spanish conversation I could manage. But it was all they needed. Attention and love.
We played outside for probably an hour but it felt like no time at all. Then we had to pack up to take off for the mall with just a minute to unload our fruit from the market to a very appreciative Pastor José.
Arriving at the mall, we split up with the five from Emaus. When we got our directions and $5.00 each for food allowance Roberto explained why: too much cultural/economical difference to let the Ecuadorians join us or even see money being handed out. (Already that responsibility speech kicking in and making us think). So even before our over-budget (thanks to Katie saying “Si, si!”) meal was rung up at the Spanish Deli, I already had a more realistic idea of how much money Deborah had placed in my hands.
I journaled the first half of this entry at the food court in our alone-time. Then we headed home for debrief.
We started with everyone’s highs and lows of the day, which were consistently the children/the Market and leaving the children/going to the mall respectively. Holly talked about how we act at home, ignoring poverty like the people in the mall, just five miles away from the dump. Coleman talked about justice and how it seemed unfair to be so blessed. And Katie got us all thinking about what’s important in life and where our priorities are.
Good thing we started debrief at 7:00(ish) because it was still around 9:00 when we finished, said goodnight to Cameron, Roberto, and Deborah, and started planning for VBS tomorrow.
I actually (sorta) finished writing my song for my part of that and Julie helped me translate the chorus. And by “helped” I mean she translated and I watched.
Overall, exhausting day and it all starts again at 6:30 AM.
