My New Best Friend

After leaving the Refugio, we stopped off to see one of the local priests. This is a relationship we have been trying to nurture for some time, since many of the kids have wanted to go to religious instruction (we pay for their books - they cost $3 each) and we want him to support them in this. For a while, he seemed to think we protestants were trying to poach people from his turf. We're pretty certain he doesn't think this any longer, plus we want him to provide real spiritual support to our kids from the Refugio. It's a delicate dance that costs me a little money, but I think somehow Martin Luther would find the humor in a Lutheran pastor providing support for a Catholic ministry. We think it's great that these kids have learned by watching what we at St. Mark do for them and how important a component Jesus is to what we do for them.

As we started down the hill this evening, we stopped off at the home of three kids. Two are in college (people from St. Mark support them in this) and their younger brother, a late teenager, still goes up to the Refugio. All three share a mother who is a prostitue, but they figure all three have different fathers. These young ones are struggling mightily to make a better life for themselves. The ones who love them are the ladies from the Refugio and Suzette and Anne. They wanted prayers and we all could barely make it to the end. Each one grabbed on to me and pointed up and said in halting English, "Please, for me, each day."

Back to the Refugio

After our trip to Allyus, it was back to the Refugio. It was time to give out pants and shirts and socks and shoes. Suzette looked like a peddler, just opening her sack. Anne was beat sorting out pants and shirts and shoes for the kids to pick out one of each (yes, they got two shoes!). We decided she shouldn't work at the annual white sale. Five kids at a time came into a room and picked out their favorites. The girls all wanted white and pink sparkly tennis shoes and the decorated jeans. Everyone, from the youngest to the oldest was excited to get their new clothes. Many put them on immediately and wanted our approval of their choices. There was also a dentist up the hill today, so teeth were getting cleaned and poked. We also got out the American football I brought with me. We had blast playing. Clearly some have seen a bit of Monday Night Football, since they wanted me to snap center the ball to them while they went "hut, hut!" So far, I don't think Ben Rothlesberger has to worry about his job for a while! I only wish you could have experienced the joy the things you sent to these kids brought them this afternoon.

Allyus

The next place we were off to was Allyus. This is a mission aimed at helping indigenous (indian) people/children from the mountains. Poised on the side of a cliff, these families have put together a fabulous ministry. While falling under the same foundation as the other missions we support down here, Allyus is different in that while the people are VERY poor, the parents and present and involved in the lives of their children (ages infant to 5 yrs old). There is something like a PTA where the parents do all of the labor on the building. The value of parental involvement is truly a cross-cultural thing. These folks received $500 from St. Mark Preschool and have used it to transform their building.

The thought is that many of the children will return to the hills at some point, so much of the work here is to teach them how to survive. They learn of traditional cooking and housing methods. They learn to wash on something like an advanced wash board (I watched a 3 1/2 and a 4 year old pound every speck of dirt out of some clothes - trust me, it was clean) and their waiting for the guinea pigs to arrive (don't ask). They had special cakes and drinks they made for us and presented each of us with a hand-made wool poncho (Anne's fit perfectly, you can use your imagination about Rob and I) after a dance they did for us. We spent some time talking about rudimentary accounting and how to go about getting an estimate. They soaked up the information like a sponge. Extremely proud and extremely eager people. It was amazing to see what a little offering could accomplish!

Starting out for the Second Day

Today began with much brighter weather. The sun was out, the sky was blue and my head finally didn't hurt any (remember - altitude). We started the day by taking a trip to visit Jefferson, a young man from the Refugio who is struggling mightily with health ailments. On the way to see Jefferson, we passed some interesting sights (ask me about the burros when I get home). The air here is really pretty bad. Quito sits in a bowl surrounded by the Andes mountains (some snow-topped and one active volcano) so all those bus fumes just hang around. Too, the roads are quite an adventure.

The Importance of What we do in This Place

As we visited the centers today, I was frankly lulled into a sense that while these people are significantly poorer than we are, things weren't so bad for many of these kids. They seemed so happy. Then we had the opportunity to visit the homes of some of the kids from the Refugio. Squaller would be several steps up the ladder for these kids. You can see some of the pictures of the some of the places we saw. Whole living spaces (most of us wouldn't call them that) smaller than one of my children's bedrooms, occupied by 4 or 5 or 6 kids and 1 or 2 or 3 adults. The last time I saw anything close to this was not in Detroit or New York or Washington, but was in Cairo, Egypt. These were places where children as young as 10 were left alone at night to deal with infant siblings. One boy, 12 was heading out to try to wash cars for some money. He will ride the last bus home tonight, after I've gone to sleep, and will get up tomorrow to go to school. What you help provide in this place is a gift of God for children who truly have nothing but the clothes you sent to them. If you have every wondered if your life had made a difference no matter how small, I can speak to the fact that it has.

Visiting the Kids

Our first visits were to Tierra de Hombres, which is essentially a pre-school for 2-6 year olds. These are some really little kids (I felt like a vertiable giant most of the day, even among adults) who really like being tossed in the air. That's what Rob and I did for a lot of the time we were there. While the facilities are clean and well-loved, it is hard to describe how different they are from those of our pre-school. The building sits on a fault line and is literally falling into the ground. No one is certain how long it will stand.

We had a chance to enjoy a snack with these little tikes. Rob and I barely fit onto the chairs. After some crying about our departure it was off to the Refugio, because by this time most of the kids were done with school for the day. I'm hard pressed to describe how it feels to be among these children. I doubt the king or queen of England would receive a more enthusiastic welcome. from nearly the time you enter until the time you leave two or three or four or five kids are hanging off of you. They want to be hugged and hold onto your hand (Rob thinks one little pip was trying slip his wedding band off!), even the boys. Most of the boys are used to men who beat them - it's a unique thing for them to be among grown men who are not drunk, high and trying to beat them. Most sad.

Everyone is pretty clean. The washing machine is an improved version of the rock your great-great-grandmother used, but they have hot water out of a tap now. There are showers and kids make a good practice of washing hands and then brushing teeth after meals (for nearly all, it is the only meal they will eat today). There are opportunities to work on homework (everyone is going to school - thanks to your support) or crafts (this is when the nativities get painted or the bracelets get woven) after dinner. It really is a lively place.

There was a special party in our honor today. The panaeria baked special cakes (eh, it was the thought, really, that counted most) and sang and danced. The kids were excited to get the cake and Anne handed out certificates to kids who had been working in the bakery.

In all it was an amazing thing to see up close and in person. Looking back on this, I'm not certain I really knew what to expect. I'm certain I wasn't ready for the enthusiasm of the welcome (I'm the only first-timer in the group, Suzette, Rob and Anne have all been down before) and I was most impressed with how tidy and clean and orderly everything was. Obviously, the ladies who work tirelessly day in and day out with these kids give it their hearts and souls and in any way of looking at this situation, do a remarkable job. The joy of the kids in the place is palpable and real. It is a refuge in the truest sense of the word.

The Start of the First Day

Things really started for us today. We got all of the goods we needed to take to distribute today ready and packed up. Suzette spent the evening counting sorting and dividing. The list included 177 pairs of shoes, 140 pants, 83 shirts, 140 toothbrushes and toothpaste, 153 balls of all sorts, 20 hand puppets and a few other assorted gifts. All we were missing was a partridge in a pear tree. It's really a phenomenal collection of stuff everyone sent to help these children. To say thanks for all of your help barely begins to scratch the surface of the impact everyone has had on a group of people so few of us have actually met. If you had the opportunity to meet them, you would wish you had done more, but more about that later.

When we left for the day, a few things struck me as first impressions. First, we're really high up. About 9,400 feet at the hotel, above 10,000 feet at the children's refuge. That's nearly 2 miles. Even with altitude sickness medicine, you're head feels a little funky and your sinuses hurt. The second thing I noted was that Quito is the poor capital of a poor country. Even the nice parts of town look pretty rough around the edges in comparison to our standards. The third is that taxi cab drivers are the same the world over. Washington, our driver, is a great guy, but wow! it is an adventure riding with him. It doesn't help that the roads are worse than anything even in Michigan. It's sort of funny that as he parks, he backs the cab into the curb to keep it from rolling down the hill.

Our day began with meeting with people who run the foundation who oversee the several missions for the impoverished children in Quito. These are the people who work to provide for the buildings (even as we have helped provide funding) and get our money to the places it is supposed to go. A lot of money comes from agencies in Spain, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, with volunteers occasionally coming from some of those countries, but it was clear that no one has the connection to this foundation or the children that St. Mark has. We are the ones who provide ongoing love and support on a regular basis. We also learned of a new project starting in the Santo Domingo region of Ecuador to provide clean water to a group of people who are living on a dump. More on that later.

Arriving in Ecuador

Well, we made it to Ecuador. Our plane landed basically on time, we picked up all of our luggage (all 6 50+ lbs. suitcases plus our carry-ons) and sailed through customs. What we didn't know yet was that Suzette spent nearly 3 hours begging the customs agents to allow us to bring our bags into the country. The rules have changed since the first of October in that Ecuador doesn't want people bringing charitable donations into the country without getting shook-down first. Fortunately, Suzette was convincing (I wouldn't want to stand in her way, even if I was the president of Ecuador when it comes to the kids up the mountain in Quito) and an agent agreed to look the other way while our bags went through the x-ray machine. We came through the gate to find some very relieved people waiting to see us. We then got whisked off to our hotel and collapsed into our beds.

Waiting in Atlanta

Well, it's true, 28% of the world waits in Atlanta in order to go somewhere else! Who would have thought, Atlanta as the crossroads of the world (I always thought it was Pittsburgh). Listening to the people, everyone seems to wait forever in Atlanta as well. Maybe the reformers were wrong. Maybe there really is a purgatory, the Catholic church just had the wrong location.

Well, we got to Richmond, only to find out that most of our baggage was overweight. We thought we had a connection to sneak our bags onto the plane, but it didn't work out quite as we had hoped, so it was a game of musical baggage to shift things around (fortunately, I had under-packed). I don't know if you've ever tried to pack up 40 pairs of shoes and then shift them around, but it is quite a challenge, even if they are little shoes.

We got to Atlanta and Rob had to go fetch his bag which the stewardess insisted had to be stored under the plane (I blame myself for not getting it into the overhead fast enough) even though it was clearly smaller than most of the bags in the overhead. Anne's passport couldn't be read in the card reader, plus she sent a voice mail to the wrong Rob when we were trying to find Rob Goff (Anne's clearly not our technical genius on this expedition).

The real highlight of the trip so far is that Anne got carded when we were ordering lunch. Yes, that is correct, she got carded - she really had to produce her ID before the waiter would bring the beer. It made her day. We toyed around with taking the flight to Rome (the gate is next to our gate) but we figured, someone would look at the pictures and figure it out.

Well, we're all sitting here waiting for our plane to Quito. It's an interesting collection of people who travel to Quito. The next time we post to you, we'll be in a different continent!

Getting Ready to Go

It's the packing. I hate packing. Did you get everything? Do you really need that? It's only 5 days, will anyone notice that I wore the same shirt two days? (yes, they'll see the pictures!) The new twist with this trip is that Suzette Goff has packed more than half of the stuff for each of us. Our bags are filled up with shoes and clothes and 150 toothbrushes and toothpaste (now there's something I know that I can get ahold of if I forget), balls, an American football, air pumps, bandages and ointments and gifts for the local priests. This must be how Santa feels!

I have to say that I'm really excited about going. It's hard to go, there's a million things to get done here, the school year is a crazy time for our family, but I'm still excited about going. I want to see this thing, these people that we think about so much, that we pray for so much, that we have invested so much of the work of our parish into. It is not an exaggeration to say that I'm going as part of you, as an extension of all of you and our ministry at St. Mark. And, I won't lie, yes I'm excited about standing on the equator!

We leave Yorktown at 8:00 am for a flight out of Richmond to Atlanta at 10:55 am. There's a 5 hour layover in Atlanta and 6 hours to Quito, arriving at 10:15 pm (Quito is 1 hour behind our time). I don't know if I'll have time to post when we arrive, so I might put up something while we're waiting in Atlanta.

Thanks for your interest. I'll get some pictures up to you soon!