i watched a kid drink turtle blood

i've got to be honest, i'm so ridiculously happy that i'm down here. this week has been awesome. the week started with a retreat group of 12 high school boys from the bronx coming down. my job basically is to not be their leader for the week, but answer any questions they may have and just accompany them on their trip. wednesday we took them to cinco de junio, the largest invasion in ecuador, and 28 de agosto, the poorest neighborhood we work in. to see the transformation on their faces as we took them from the ajs neighborhood, which is relatively poor, but by no means awful, to these places, these little pockets of hell on earth, was incredible. they were shocked. and why shouldn't they be? how do describe seeing a place like 28 de agosto or cinco de junio? how do you describe the feelings you have seeing these places knowing that no human on earth should have to live in these conditions, that people do in fact live here, and what's worse is that this is a better option than what they've migrated from? how do you put that vast mental image and array of thoughts into words? as kevin and daniel took the guys into manos abiertas, the after-school program at 28, aracely and i just walked around the dirt paths until we met a couple of women, no older than 30 years old, washing their clothes in front of their cane-shack homes. we began talking to these two women, amaria and maria, who told of us of their lives. how they married young, had babies, sustained abuse from their husbands and were just trying to make it in life. amaria showed us the scar across her face, given to her by her husband on one of his drunken tirades. she told us of the corrupt police who know what happened and then looked at her foolishly and asked why she would marry such a man. it's here in among the poorest of the poor that i'm learning the system of justice serves only the unjust. as amaria, maria & aracely talked i just started looking around at my surroundings. i was in ecuador, talking to women on a dirt path, surrounded by cane shacks, garbage everywhere. a naked little child was running up and down the street. i'm in ecuador. i'm doing this, getting to know how another part of the world works, while my friends are putting in 50 hour work weeks. this is such an incredible and unbelievable experience. this is going to be an awesome year. but if that wasn't a big enough epiphany, later that week as andrea and i were walking back to semillas de mostaza, the school program in my neighborhood, we watched as a man had strung up a giant snapping turtle, slit its throat and stuck a cup up to capture the blood. then a little boy took the cup, drank the blood and refilled the cup with coke. i was floored. other children followed. one little girl held her nose as she downed the blood. i was partially disgusted, but mostly intrigued. patrick was on the other side of the fence with children, shouting for me to give it a try. i almost did. if i build up enough courage, i think i just may drink some before the end of the year. i went up to ricardo, who works in the programs with us, asking what is wrong with his country? he told me that the blood is to clean out the organs in your stomach and is high in calcium and iron. he said he had done it once when he was a little kid, and joked about how floored i was over it. turtle blood and coke. what a country.