First and foremost i want to say that i think i have received all of
my Christmas gifts and packages and i just wanted to say thank you so
much to everyone. Simple letters mean a lot (sometimes more) and I
really appreciate it and love reading them (and receiving gifts is
always fun!). Don’t ever hesitate to send a letter (or a gift ha)!
Time has been moving somewhere in-between fast and slow. I seem to
think its been moving slowly (my projects are creeping along) but then
I look at the date and half way through January already! That marks
around 7 months of me being here in Ecuador…over half a year. And
that’s crazy.
I make tons of plans while I’m here. I may be giving you whip lash
with my constantly changing and evolving projects (I sure feel it).
So now it looks like I’m going to be working prominently with a local
youth group here in town called Consejo Jovenil. It is a youth group
that has already existed for some time now and I am friends (or know)
many of the members already including the president and we have just
gotten to talking recently about how we have many similar ideas for
what we want to do with San Isidro and she has included me in her
plans to revamp the group as a group leader. I am really excited for
this new change and as I have been feeling a little uneasy lately
because my projects haven’t been going quite as I dreamed, imagined or
hoped they would go, entering into this group sounds perfect.
As far as my other projects and all the ideas I have for example my
neutering project, diabetes clubs (which I still am attending but I
don’t think I will be playing as active as a role as I imagined), the
foundation for kids with disabilities, and other subcentro events they
have hit a bit of a standstill. Even my women’s group has felt a bit
of a stag but I’m hoping that next week we will be back in action.
The thing about my projects is I cannot do them alone. I need
community counterparts that want to and are willing to work with me on
them. Within these projects I have community counterparts but whether
it is laziness, busy-ness, lack of motivation or lo que sea they
aren’t and/or don’t seem to want to work on these projects—at least
not right now. Luckily as I was accepting that this was happening and
feeling a little worried Susana (friend and presidenta of Consejo
Jovenil) approached me with her plan for the group and with my role
and is full of a new enthusiasm and eagerness to start working and get
going with this group. Genial.
What makes becoming involved with this group even better is everything
they’re doing are things I’ve been interested in doing and have wanted
to do forever. We work in 4 main projects: Tourism, The Environment,
Health and Technology. We’re all going to be helping with everything
but I will be especially involved in the environment and health
groups. We have started making signs (wood and paint) that say
“respect the environment,” “don’t throw trash,” “the earth is your
home, care for it.” Things like that and we have begun to put them up
around the town which is a great start. We are going to start
planning educational opportunities where we can explain why its
important to care for the environment and not throw or burn trash. In
health we now have a ‘youth center’ in the clinic which is a space
(room) where all of the local youth can go directly and receive
services. This is to promote the idea of a “safe space” so that they
wont be embarrassed to go and ask questions or receive condoms and
things like that. There is much more to come I believe with this
group (hopefully) and I’ll keep you updated.
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