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Published: September 2nd 2009
Two Saturdays ago (the 22nd of August), I left Gringolandia (finally) and moved into the volunteer housing at El Centro del Muchacho Trabajador (CMT). This place is absolutely spectacular. I have a giant bedroom with windows overlooking Quito (right now I’m sitting on my bed at 11:30 pm, typing, listening to music, and looking at the city lights crawling up the mountain sides ) Yes, this is life. Anyway, I don’t nearly have enough stuff to fill up this unnecessarily large room. Seriously, a group of 4 could do yoga in here comfortably… I also have a private bathroom and shower (complete with a never ending supply of hot water!). Also, for any of you who are keeping track… I am so glad that I brought my giant down comforter. It was totally ‘vale la pena’ and it makes my room so much more livable.
Ok, let’s see, I’m living here on the 3rd floor with 10 other new volunteers, 3 returning volunteers, and one older couple (this is their third year back). Downstairs, we have a fully stocked kitchen, tv and game room (with thousands of pirated DVDs), a library, a dining room, and some other giant area that I really haven’t found a use for yet. On the opposite side of the house is an entire wing designated to guests of the CMT. Which brings me to some sweet news… Guests are ALWAYS welcome here at the center (they must have enough room for at 60 plus people). Also, room and board is completely FREE for family and friends Which brings me to my next point… you are more than welcome to come and visit! Since I have a pretty crazy schedule (I’ll get to that in a minute) you can come help out in my classes, play with some fantastic kids, and get to know some of the most remarkable people there are.
Last Friday, we finally got our schedules for the year. Here we go, lunes, mericoles, and viernes, I’ll be up at the crack of dawn and on the bus to the downtown center to work in el Centro Infantil. Martes and jueves I’ll be here at this center teaching clases de salud. Then I have a nice break from 11-1:30 (which will either be used for commuting or sleeping ). Then I have English classes with either 1st grade girls or 2nd level colegio (equivalent of high school) girls. After that, I get to participate in el programa de chicas. I’m really excited about this!! I’ll be meeting with girls ages 6-13 to make crafts or cook so they can have something to sell to supplement their family’s income (or, you know, just buy candy or whatever…). We’ll work on business skills, the importance of saving money, and building self-esteem. Finally, from 5-7:30, I’ll be working with the adult education program here. The center would like for each of its adult members to have the equivalent of a 6th grade education. So I’ll be teaching basic reading, writing, and math skills to small groups of adults at this time. How crazy will it be to teach a parent to write their child’s name for the first time!??!? Or to be able to read and understand simple sentences?!?!? I can’t even begin to imagine WHOA. Quite the schedule, huh? Deep breaths, right?? BUT, I do have one other assignment (and I’m not going to lie… I’m kind of terrified…) once a week, I’ll be teaching English to one of the directors of the school here. He’s a middle-aged man named, get this, Marco Polo. BAHAHAH. But, he’s loud, scary, and speaks fluent German (ahhah, don’t ask 😉. Wish me luck.
Ok, maybe a little background info on the center itself?? The CMT was started in the early 60’s by Padre Halligan (who is still here and in better shape than I am). Madre Miguel (scary woman…) joined on not too shortly after. The two of them made the center the incredible place it is today. CMT offers the community free school, 3 free meals a day, and a safe place for families to learn and grow. However, to become part of this program, there must be at least one working boy (most often a shoe shine boy) in the family (don’t get me started on the sexist aspect of this… this is just the way things work in Latin American countries). However, the program doesn’t just work with the working boys; it works with the entire family. CMT is actually the ONLY program in all of Latin America to take this approach. The center’s family approach totally makes sense. For example, if you were to only work with the working boys themselves, teaching them the importance of hand washing, saving, and other basic skills, and then send them home to families who don’t even have a place for them to wash their hands, you can see how everything taught to them during the day would be completely undone at home. So instead, the center focuses on teaching the ENTIRE FAMILY.
WOW. So this is getting long and boring… ahah sorry
Yesterday, we went on a Minga. We took a pick-up truck (of course all 13 rode in the bed of the truck ) up the side of a mountain and did some good old back breaking labor. We ended up digging the foundation for one of the family’s houses. We dug 5 or so 8 foot deep holes and found all sorts of crazy things: glass, shirts, scarves, bones, shoes, frogs, tarantulas, scorpions, lizards, worms, and centipedes. Ick. I still get the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. But have no fear, each time we found something creepy, the tough as nails woman of the house just came over and violently chopped the thing in half with a pick axe ahahah and then she proceeded to fling the still twitching carcass over the side of the mountain. Ecuadorian women continue to amaze me.
The people here are wonderful. So warm, welcoming, caring, and personable. The kids here are amazing even though they literally have NOTHING. (We did house visits the other day and most families have 1-2 rooms that serve as a bedroom, eating area, storage, etc for 8 plus people). Despite a lack of the most basic necessities, daily physical abuse, alcoholic parents, and working in the street from a super young age, these kids continue to smile, love and laugh. This just further supports the concept that money does not equal happiness. Ahah sorry to all of you that have had to listen to me rant and rave about this topic, I just had to sneak that in somewhere
FINALLY, The food here is fantastic, thanks to Maria, the amazingly feisty and funny woman who comes in and cooks dinner for us each night. With her golden smile (literally) and backwards red baseball cap the kitchen is always a fun place to be. The kitchen is always full of exotic fruit, peanut butter, wheat bread, and drinkable yogurt. What more could you want?!?!?!
Well, more orientation tomorrow and classes officially start on Monday. I’ll post pictures soon… muahahah 😉
AH! My mailing address is:
Apartado postal: 17-01-3112
Quito - Ecuador, South America
Espero que todo este bien. Que te vayas muy chevere 😉
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Mike Lambert
non-member comment
Wow, that sounds awesome Kate; glad to hear everything is going splendidly : ) Remember when we were figuring out what we were going to be doing after graduation,...... Pretty cool stuff I think.