reality in small doses

this has been a weird week. it's been hard to get a grasp on exactly how i'm going to be living my life down here in durán for the next year, for several reasons. the first is we've been going around to the different work sites and foundations that we partner with to volunteer. on tuesday we went to padre damien, a hopsital and foundation set up by a woman named annie, who took the hansen's disease (leprosy) ward of a hosptial and turned it into this thriving place, where people who suffer from hansen's can feel like they have dignity in their lives. the disease has so much stigma, especially in this society, that many, if not all of the patients, have been abadoned by everyone they know and love. this is the only place they have. this was one of the most powerful and eye-opening places that i visited last time i was in ecuador, so it the work annie and her staff does is very meaningful. the next day we met with represenatives of hogar de cristo, a NGO started in south america that works solely with women, providing them with a wide-range of education. for our purposes, we will be working with them as they work with women in micro-financing projects. their system is set up so that they give a group of five women, all un-related, a loan to start a business. this way there is an accountability within the group to perform. working and learning from hogar de cristo was so intense and cool because of the places they work, and the presentation they gave us before going out. a man named luis gave this presentaiton on why, for a lack of better terms, africa and south america are screwed up. he went into lenghty details, but what struck me was how all the problems started. everyone knows the northern hemisphere rapes the south. but how this system of servitude started is really interesting. he claimed that the marshall plan, which was used in europe after wwII, was used in africa and south america to set up an industrial revolution. the problem was that, unlike europe pre-wwII, there was no system of industrialism and urban, metropolitan areas. thus the system and plan were flawed from the beginning. he also talked about the disparities betewen energy use and water consumption throughout the world. for example, 20 percent of the world's population drinks 47 percent of the water. how ridiculous is that? it was fascinating to hear, because being educated in an american school system, i would never had heard this. after his presentation, we went out into cinco de junio, the largest invastion (slum) in ecuador. the area, which is probably 2-3 square miles, is full of cane housing and shacks, where people live and work. we went into one house, which was up on stilts, and i was sure the weight of all of us in there would make in crumble to the ground. inside, a woman showed us her snail farm, where she breeds and raises snails, then sells to a middle man, as a way of making money. these snail farms are just some of the projects started by groups of women who are given loans through this program. it was one of those moments, where i was thinking, holy hell, i'm in ecuador. living here. walking through the largest invasion in the country. it was just really surreal. the reason it's been hard getting a grasp on what life is going to be like is because one day i'll be walking through an invasion, then the next i'll be eating lunch at an ecuadorian steak house with the founder of nuevo mundo, one of the most prestigious schools in the country (also one of our partners and volunteer work sites). it's just been a weird week overall. surreal at times, but i wouldn't trade the experience i'm having for anything in the world. monday is our first day at our job sites. the honeymoon is over. reality is about to set in.