the basics

so it occurred to me the other day that i haven't really given any of the basics of that i do or where i am. so here we go:

where am i? i live in durán, ecuador, which is in the guayas province. there are 22 provinces in ecuador, guayas being the most populated. durán is considered to be the third or fourth largest city in ecuador, though no one is quite sure. official estimates have about 200,000 people living in durán but the number is more likely between 500,000 and one million. durán, which is a city of poverty, sits on the río guayas across from guayaquil, the largest and wealthiest city in ecuador (roughly 3 million people). i live in the el arbolito neighborhood of durán. arbolito is essentially built on a swamp, with people first moving to this area around 10-15 years ago. there has been a boom in housing and inhabitants in the last seven years, but the progress is slow. in the united states, if a new neighborhood is built, everything is new right away. but here in ecuador, it takes time for things to progress. that being said, arbolito lacks many basic social services, such as trash pick up, running water, paved streets, street lights, etc. many of the homes in arbolito are made of cane and wood, but several are starting to be made out of cement. the weather in ecuador, or at least in the coastal region where i live is broken up into two seasons: winter and summerer. during the winter months (april to november) the temperatures in the day range from 80 to 90 degrees, dropping into the 70s and high 60s at night. during the summer months (december to march) it is very hot (upwards of 110), humid and rainy. arbolito is split up into four sectors. we're told it's very dangerous in arbolito (high drug, violence and alcoholism rates), but our sector is the safest. actually a person was murdered a few hundred yards from our house a few weeks after we arrived, around 9pm. that among many reasons is why we're not allowed out at night alone. any event, we have a gate around our concrete mansion (compared to the neighbors) an armed guard (abrahan, eduardo or elvis) and two dobermen rottweilers, klubber and condeza. it is hard to go a day without seeing trash burn or noticing the dire conditions most people live in. just imagine dirt, rock, bamboo cane houses and garbage everywhere. there is very little green vegetation in this area, but a lot of chickens picking through the rocks for food. anywhere i want to go outside of arbolito i have to use public transportation, via bus or at night a cab. it costs between 18 and 25 cents for a bus ride and for a 10-15 minute cab ride, four people can pay $4 total.

who am i here with? i am one of twelve volunteers with rostro de cristo, a u.s.-based volunteer program that was started about 20 years ago with the goal of being with the ecuadorian people to form relationships and help find sustainable solutions rather than just come down and teach english or build houses. rostro de cristo (rdc) has two houses: one in the el arbolito neighborhood where i live and one in the antonio jose de sucre neighborhood. there are five volunteers in ajs: daniel (from pennsylvania), vicki (kansas city), jessie (seattle), eric (gainsville, florida) and frank (southern california). in arbolito there are seven volunteers: myself, santiago (tampa), patrick (alabama), scott (st. louis), andrea (houston), chris (chicago area) and marie (virginia). the houses are about a mile or two from each other, and while we each do our own thing, we try to meet up at least once a week.

in my house, we clean on sundays, have a house meeting on monday nights, have a community night on tuesday nights and have a spirituality night on thursday nights. every morning we meet at 7am to pray before we start the day and usually try to be out of the house by 8am to make it to our morning work sites. in the morning we work from 8:30am to 12:30pm with different foundations around durán and guayaquil. some of us work at padre damian (clinic for hansen's disease or leprosy), others at neuvo mundo guadarías (a top ten school in guayaquil which has a foundation in the afternoon for the poor of durán and guayaquil which also has dispensarios, clincs, and guadarías, daycares), hogar de cristo (a south american sustainable development program that works with women to rebuild housing and offers loans via micro-financing), santiago apostal (a school for street children) and radema (an HIV/AIDS clinic). my morning site is a little different as i work as the logistics coordinator for rdc. this means when we have high school or college retreat groups come down for seven to ten days (24 groups total), i make their schedule, drive them around and make sure the volunteer leading the group doesn't need anything. when we don't have groups, i go to work with other volunteers at their sites. in the afternoon i work as a community outreach worker. one day a week i walk around with aracely trying to build community relations for rdc in durán, which means i basically go around and talk to neighbors. the other four days are split between the three after school programs rdc runs in arbolito (semillas de mostaza), ajs (validiva) and 28 de agosto (manos abiertas). my nights and weekends are usually free to hang out with my housemates, hang out in the neighborhood or travel.

prices! ecuador switched over from the sucre to the dollar as it's official currency in 2000, which has helped the wealthy but created more problems and inflation for the poor of the country. during the switch over there was a lot of confusion about the coins, so while ecuador uses u.s. coins, they also have their own version which are of the same monetary demonination, but with ecuadorian historical figures on the front. in the last post, my title was about the sacajewa coins. yeah they're all here. estimates state that between a third and half of ecuador's population lives on between a dollar and two dollars a day. translation: everything is dirt cheap. bread (more like crossiants) are a nickle a piece. strawberries are a dollar a pound. i bought 20 mandarins for a dollar last weekend. bananas are extremely cheap (seven for 20 cents). potatoes are 15 cents a pound, chicken is about $1 a pound and eggs are a dime a piece. beer is between 55 and 65 cents for a bottle, $1 for a bootleg movie, while the internet is 60 cents an hour. we each get $60 a month for our personal needs, including bus fare our house gets $70 a week for food. we eat a lot of vegetables, rice, beans, and fruit. tuna and chicken are the principle meats but we eat a lot of eggs, maybe eating meat in our house once or twice a week.

water. water is hard to come by here, and we are lucky because we have a huge cistern whereas our neighbors have barrels filled every four days or so, so we try and conserve. we also don't flush unless it really needs it, or if its brown ... but we keep the house smelling nice. we also take navy-style showers (turn on, get wet, turn off, soap up, turn on and rinse off).

i think that's it, but if there are any other questions or confusions, let me know.