updates

Villanova University left on Saturday morning, the volunteers and I are leaving to go on retreat for the weekend friday, the following weekend I might be doing some traveling during the long weekend for Dia de Los Muertos.

We´ve been focusing on our community for the last week/week and a half, and I have felt consumed with that. As a result I have little meaningful recollection about what I´ve been doing outside of community since this has all began. I have been pulled out of living in the moment consistently for a couple of days now, and I feel that has been out of my control. Perhaps, since this is out of my control, it is really living in the moment since I have no influence over it. That is probably more abstract then it was intended to be but I guess this might give you a glimpse at how confusing emotions can be down here. Maybe I just get too hung up on labels like ¨living in the moment¨...

I did have meaningful time with Villanova when I sat in with them during their nightly reflections. There were uplifting moments of spiritual certitude and moments of deep questioning. Most reflections could only have been described as moments of supreme trust and openess. They´re all my favorites.

I wasn´t at my afterschool program for a while because I was with the retreat group, but I´ve been back for two days now and maybe I´ve just checked out and am just waiting for my retreat this weekend at the beach because the energy isn´t there right now. They deserve more. I´ll snap out of it. There is adult literacy class now three days a week at the same time as the afterschool program. We are having a hard time balancing giving the adults a quite space to learn the basic necessity they´ve gone their whole lives without and giving the kids a safe space to run around and have them feel like kids for two hours a day in their tumultuous lives.

President Correa declared a ¨state of vigilance¨ recently, and I don´t know exactly what that means but there sure are a lot of heavily armed military men and women in downtown Guayquil when I get the mail. Thursday there were so many helicopters flying over head in Arbolito I thought I could hear Colonel Robert Duvall calling out for his surf board. I sometimes get a hand on a newspaper but this spanish language thing is a little trickier than I anticipated.

I´m not complaining. I don´t know what to complain about. Things just are a little crazy over here right now. I feel fine though. A little numb to be honest. Hopefully the Pacific waves will knock me around enough this weekend.

I am also the new drummer for the christian rock group ¨Nuevo Generacion¨. We practice on friday nights and play at mass on Sunday mornings. I am the only gringo in the group of local teenagers and young adults. They speak amongst themselves in spanish and cue me with either ¨fast¨or ¨slow¨ before we start each song. I have no trouble keeping up with them, but most times I don´t know what they are singing about or which song is coming next. Just reacting to them. I can´t think of a more appropriate analogy for my experience here.

Take it easy.