New pictures....have a look....

Mucho Trabajo and Much more Impressions...

This Wednesday we had a meeting (a weekly meeting) with all educators of the different communities and because they are mostly women and more than 18, they were all talking in different groups and not listening to each other in the other meetings they had. I asked Margarita and Juan and explained them my concerns and observations and they felt very similar. I had the feeling that they both were not very sure on how to solve or handle this problem and so we sat down together and talked some possibilities through. Finally Wednesday morning in Ecuadorian manner an hour before the meeting Margarita and me planned a structured this meeting. I suggested to establish some kind of rules so that the people are not distracted by telephone calls, their kids running in and out, having conversations all the time etc. So we started this meeting a bit different and to my surprise most of them seemed to really like it and I had the feeling that already at that point some frustration of team members were released. After that we embarked on dynamic activities. I am quite glad that in my last weeks I learned from Streetwork how to use little dynamic games such as the Birthday game and the knot game etc. for team building and clarification purposes. They really liked it and had the chance to say a couple of things that go wrong at work related to the game. A bit hidden but still quite clear from everyone involved. Afterwards I lead a short evaluation of those games in my very broken Spanish. One can imagine it as one of those TV Quiz Shows where someone tries to describe something and the others have to guess what it is, very funny indeed as the English would say 
The meeting ended quite well and in an evaluation afterwards most people felt it was much better than before, they feel much more integrated and like a team. That made me quite glad also I know that there is still a lot of hard work to do, that this meeting was only a start.
Next week the holidays begin and in the Centre we have a holiday program. On two mornings a week I will finally teach the boys a bit of English and I already have some colorful ideas on how to do it. The problem is that some cannot read or write while some can.
Furthermore I am at the moment in the process of creating a leaflet on Mistreating Children/Abuse of Children for the Desarrollo Infantil Project. I talked to Margarita about it and explained to her that I would like to do some kind of training with the community educators before they take it out to the communities. I do not only want to create it and leave it I rather would like them to use it effectively and therefore we need to explore on how that is possible.
Besides I also got all educators to agree to collect a lot of different activities they do in their communities with the children to hand in during the next two weeks to make a big collection for everyone to share their skills and ideas. It is not only useful for varying the activities in the community, it is also an amazing team building task where everyone brings something valuable to it. It is simple but I hope it works out.
The whole last week I spent in the centre, which was very interesting for me, and through interviews with the social worker of the centre and some other people there I feel I got to know much more about it. Juan and Margarita would like me to make some kind of proposal for developing the work of the centre, especially the work they do with the families of the boys and girls at the centre. Therefore I try to gather a much info as possible but I already found some very exciting tasks Maria Eugenia, the social worker, and Lucy, the psychologist, and I want to work together on.

One thing I like to share with you are some impressions of this week:
The most recent one happened this morning. In one of the barrios (El Bosque) they have a fiesta today for “El dia de la familia” and Margarita and me only went very briefly to drop something off. We tried to find a different way out of the barrio and met a group of 5 little children I had already met before. They stood in front of a wooden hut which was partly covered in plastic bags and somehow like a little hut, kids build to play in. But this hut was honestly their home. It was tiny but it was the home of the whole family. Here in the Andes it is not hot, it is rather European Climate, with maximum 25 degrees during the day when it is very sunny and during the night it gets quite cold. And at the moment we have summer. How must it be during winter?


A boy in the centre for young offenders is 13 years old, comes from quite far out in the countryside and he is the only one of his brothers and sisters who is not allowed to go to school. Because he is the youngest he has to stay with his mum at home and get up early in the morning to work on the field, all day long. He speaks Quitschua as well as Spanish. On his head he has a very long scar from his childhood when he got hit in the family. In his community, they punish people by beating them up naked and putting them in ice cold water when they break the law. I desperately hope that he will get the chance to go to school because he is very bright and clever and seems very interested in learning new things.

A colleage told me this week that she has not seen her husband for 5 years, because he went to work in Germany to gain money for the family. She is very very sad and her daughter who is 12 does not talk very much, has no friends and spends most time in her room studying. Poverty is such a big problem that a lot of people go to Europe or the States to work and to send money back. She hopes that he comes back this year. They write emails now and than and phone each other once a month solely briefly because it is so expensive. He works in a northern German city as musician on the street.

Mano Amiga & Community Development

On the weekend Margarita took me to a couple of other barrios where Mano Amiga was involved in different activities. They are very much interested in bringing health and social education in very remote and mostly very poor areas that are also mostly dominated bz agricultural work. The informal educators of Mano Amiga distribute basic food rations sponsored by a local church and also medicine against parasites. They furthermore facilitate talks and workshops in the community in which everyone can participate. They are very well respected and their knowledge and advice is sought by the people of the communities they work in. Yesterday I went with Maria to a barrio which was far out of the city and higher up as well. Up there it is mostly agriculture that people live of and because in this barrio most men have gone to the city of Quito to work and sometimes only return once a months or once every two or three months, women and children are heavily involved in agricultural activities. Yesterday we held a workshop about child abuse, emotional, sexual and physical abuse. The women listened and were very interested but because of my presence ("gringita" although this means someone from the USA) they were very shy and did not talk. For me it was quite strange to see how dogs were running about inside, came very close to little children their food etc. The women did not really care. When I walked back with Maria, she told me that today it was still quite good. When they started working in Pantús it was worse.
Hygiene does not exist. Margarita told me, that when she had a workshop with some mothers about washing hands before eating to avoid parasites, the women answered that it is not necessary because Margarita will just give them some more tablets against parasites. Yes, a different way of thinking. Poco y poco, a bit and a bit, like Maria said.

Attention

Thank you all for being with me on this page. To be honest, now I need some support from you. I am looking for ideas of handicrafts made out of rubbish that we usually through away, handicrafts that do not cost very much. I also look for ideas and suggestions for handicrafts and educational activities that do not need very much material (are therefore not costly) and are suitable and effective in early education. It would be great if you just get in contact via email. Thank you so much.

Clearer view of the Project

Mano Amiga is a Foundation and has different projects. At the moment they have two projects in Chone, another part of Ecuador which is a little community of “artificial families” where a house mother or father lives in a house with a couple of children which are orphans, abandoned or come from very difficult backgrounds. The other house they have got is in the city and is a place for children that start going to a higher school in the city and come from the community or children without a home in the city.
In Riobamba they have 3 projects at the moment. The Proyecto Infractores, Desarrollo Infantil and the Human Rights Centre (which is interesting enough in “la casa de indigenas”), but the centre is still in the building process. The Human Rights Centre is another project of Mano Amiga which Margarita and Juan (los directores) would like me to work in for one day a week.

ARRIVED ...

After a very long flight I arrived in Quito and got picked up. The next day after running around one block desperate to find the German embassy, I had a culture shock after lots of strange people started trying to grab my bags and kept talking at me in Spanish which I just could not understand, while I tried to follow Monica to the bus that would take me to Riobamba. I bit scared and confused I arrived in Riobamba where Margarita picked me up on Monday Night. And everything was fine.
On Tuesday Margarita introduced me to the Proyecto Infractores, to staff, young people and the police. This is a project that is like a youth prison but not really like one in Scotland. It is very basic and there are no cells. It is a piece of land with some houses where the boys stay, learn at live. Police is always around and accompanies the boys around the area. The area is secured by a wall all around the centre. They also have Volleyball (yippee, finally), Football and a garden, yes and guinea pigs for eating. In the morning they have some activities, like in the afternoon. Educators who only get a bit of money and do it half voluntarily teach them handicrafts, sports and subjects you would get at school. At the moment there are 6 boys around the age of 15-16.
The secretary Anita is very nice and was very curious to get to know details about me my life, my family and of course (always the second question after “What is your name?”) about my martial status (“Esta soltera o casada?”) Perdon!!!!!! Yes, Ecuador is different, in the UK or in Germany such a question at an early stage would be incredible indiscreet.
In the afternoon I played Volleyball (bolleyball) with los muchachos and Marco another volunteer from Ecuador. Yesterday morning I played Volleyball again, the Ecuadorian way with just 3 people in a team. I think the guys respect me because my Volleyball is not that bad. In Scotland I could not do much because my football is horrible 
At the moment they are very short of money, which is different to a couple of years ago where the centre was able to run quiet well. The problem at the moment is that the government is also not very interested and gives about 75c for one boy per day for everything (food, clothes, education, accommodation, medical, social and spiritual needs etc.). This has not changed in the last five years. And also in Ecuador it is difficult to live of 75c, which is about 45 pence. In Scotland that is not even a single bus fare. One sweet in a corner shop maybe…The other problem is the economical situation in Ecuador which lead the government to prohibit Mano Amiga to produce things for sale, which helped in the past to raise funds. At the moment the centre only seems to produce little things to decorate rooms and little soft toys and bakery utensils. The workshops for shoes and furniture still seem to be there but they are not used as much. The garden is very dry and the only thing that I saw growing was sweet corn. Margarita said that it costs too much money to water the garden and produce more and different kinds of vegetable and fruit.

On Wednesday Margarita introduced me in a meeting to all members of the other part of Mano Amiga in Riobamba which is called Desarrollo Infantil. At first they seemed a bit not sure who I am and what I am going to do. So when I had to introduce myself I said that I am very much looking forward to working with them and learning from them. And as a response they said, they as well, which was a good sign for me.
Yesterday and today I went to two different Barrios together with this Project for early education which is heavily financed by the government. They work in 18 Barrios in the province of Chimborazo. In the last two days I visited 2, El Bosque and San Luis. El Bosque is on a sandy road off a main road and lies in a little valley which was a former forest. It is a very poor area and houses are more huts, which are build out of different materials and very basic. It seemed that a lot of indigenas live there but also descendents of Spaniards. The hut in which we had the fiesta del niño was very basic and the roof began about 8cm above my head. And I am not tall!
The children there are amazing. They had little things which turn really fast after they put a string around it and threw it on the floor in a very specific manner. I was and am still so impressed. My mouth was wide open and the young boys were so proud that their eyes were shining and full of joy, probably like mine because that was such an amazing and lovely present for me that I could be there and watch them. Their eyes were as big as mine when I told them how long I had to travel to get here and on top of that that I took a PLANE. This was a very warm and touching experience for me but although very weird and different. I will definitely go back to El Bosque and my new friends, but I have to be very careful of not creating expectations and dependencies.