Our deepest fear isn't that we're inadequate.Our deepest fear is that we're powerful beyond measure

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

All Play Aldea Football Tournament

The office staff and I organized a football game at the Aldea and it was so much fun.

It wasn’t just for the kids, it was office staff, the tias, the moms and volunteers (i.e. me!) Since I wanted to play but was also in charge of pics, I let some of the girls who were too cute to run around, take pics for me.

As a result the majority of the pictures were the tops of their heads as the modeled for the camera and inadvertently cut each other out of the shot , but they did get some far away action shots.

I got a chance to play, but a lot of the time I was caring for the little ones who wanted to be on the field in the middle of the action but not really play. One little girl wanted to hold my hand the whole time and not run. That got complicated but we worked it out. Every time the “captain” of our team i.e. the maintenance man of the Aldea, saw me, he’d be like “are we babysitting or playin!?”. So sometimes I had to just leave my little girl and come back to hear after I was done playing defense.


Some of the moms scored goals which was so much fun to see and my legs were literally sore for at least 3 days. There was great team work too. The teen boys that usually take over and dominate the game where giving the younger kids a chance to kick the ball and score goals as well. It is so much fun to just let loose and have good times with the Aldea community. I look forward to planning another tournament like this one.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Putting on my Rose-Colored Newcomer Glasses

As I mentioned in the last post, I was losing focus on the Present and was only worried about working hard on the Future. Sure, it’s cool to plan, but when you’re stressed out about outcomes that haven’t even come to pass yet, then you’re missing out on the gift that we call the Present. So I’ve gotten my act together and I am enjoying life as it comes.

I mean I leave on the beach, I have love my job, I have wonderful friends and people that are like family surrounding me and there is SO much here that I have yet to experience.

So I vowed to myself to get back to that mental space of being a newcomer, when you everything is neat, awe inspiring and full of novelty. One thing I have realized about myself is the minute I get comfortable in a place, I feel entitled and let little things annoy me. That’s not easy to admit, but I am finding it to be true.

Like back in the Guayaquil days, when I took the crowded Metrovia to the post office. At first, I thought it was soooo cool and convenient to have a trolley car that zipped up and down the main streets I needed were people could load on and off  from little waiting stations. As soon as I got the knack I found that, that crowded Metro could ruin my mood as I stood there like a sardine in the blistering heat with elbows pressed in my back and armpits in my face. The first week, that was a fun “cultural” experience I could write home about, the next month it’s the bane of my existence. It’s the same with how I can muddle the paradise I live in with complaints of the loud fisherman outside my window, or the incessant music blaring into my house as early as 7:30 in the morning.

 Sure, you may read this and say, “no for real that sounds annoying”, and trust is can be. However, as a newbie, a person that applied to live in another country and experience new things, those are the kinds of things that make a place exotic, the stories you write home about. The things that you have either a good or bad opinion about but you feel truly grateful for both because you have the opportunity to experience it. I know the day is going to come when I am going to long to hear the drunk songs of the fisherman lulling me to sleep, or serving as my wake up call. In the United States our respect for personal space will have me longing for the no holds barred space efficiency model that is the cultural norm here in Ecuador.

You can take every incident and either look at it through a positive light or a negative one. Should I be “happy” about everything that happens to me and around me? No, not everything is agreeable, however, my reaction to everything around me can absolutely change. I have started giving thanks for the bar across the street and the rowdy voices outside my door that serve as my daily alarm clock. Whether I love it or not, it’s these little incidents that shape my experience. An experience I once only dreamed about and one that I am so grateful has come into fruition as an unforgettable chapter in the story of my life. 

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Brigada Verde Meeting Take 1...




As I mentioned before, I am passing on projects  to my youth group as a way to make the work I have done with the kids sustainable. One of the projects I am working on is forming an EcoClub of interested teenagers. What my hope is that those who have an interest in learning about the environment can learn all there is to know and then pass it on to the younger kids of the Aldea. When those younger kids get older they will also have a base of knowledge and they will be the new participants in the EcoClub and they will teach the younger kids and so on and so forth the cycle of education continues.

I have 5 months to execute and hope that the idea catches on. We had our first meeting and it didn’t go as well as I had hoped.

First of all, since I want this group to be youth run, I had two of the jovenes practice speaking at the first meeting. While we had fun practicing, would you know the day of those girls completely left me high and dry. They were waaaaaaaay to scared and when I let them off the hook (as if I had a choice they were NOT going to talk….) they started being bad and running around and not realizing they were supposed to be in the leadership position.

Then came the general population. A few things. First of all this meeting was to see who out of the kids 12 and older are genuinely interested in participating in what we are calling “Brigada Verde” or Green Brigade. The kids thinking its obligatory to participate, all answer “si!” when I ask is this something they would be interested in. Now I know, talking about recycling, not littering and making art of out trash is NOT something that interests the majority of the teens I work with, however they all wanted to stay (so they said), but when it came time to get down to business it was evident who was cared and who didn’t.

a punch getting landed...smh
We had fun, and got some things done. A few kids helped set up which I didn’t expect at all. We had each youth bring a piece of fruit and for a ice breaker we made a fruit salad which was fun. After that, people came in late and I feel that’s when our dynamic got out of wack. For that reason some people will NOT be invited back due to behavior and I see some strict rules are going to be set in place. We have 11 interested people so far. So we will just have to see. My main qualms are talking at once, hitting (my co facilitator tells me it’s a “cultural” thing but I don’t think it should be permitted), and weeding out those who are only there to play.
 
I will continue to work with the two teens I dubbed the leaders of the group (one being the youth that I took to the Brigada Verde seminar in Quito) and hope for the best for future meetings.

I know this is a natural cycle for new groups being formed and it will be so worth it when the kids have enough confidence to take over the group and run it themselves. The beginning stages are all ways the most challenging so with that in mind we will keep on keeping on.
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