The long promised volunteer blog (Sorry it took so long Grammy!):
I have been trying to write this since I visited the
volunteering sites the first week of being in Ecuador. Now I’ve been here for
over 100 days (woah) and I am just about to go into my last week of volunteering.
It’s hard to write about, because it has been a significant part of my time
here in Ecuador and I have found it to be overall very rewarding, but it is an
incredibly tough job.
First off, I wrote this part in January right after we
visited: “Yesterday we got to visit a couple options for our volunteer work
while we’re here (volunteering twice a week is part of Pitzer’s program). I
liked the idea of many options that we were told about, especially the ones
that worked with kids, but in the end I think there is only one place for me. I
fell in love the second I walked in the door to find the walls painted the
color of the schools in Peru that I had helped teach in with my NLC class the
summer after my sophomore year of high school. I continued to fall in love as I
read the values on the wall and saw kids playing games in a courtyard. I fell
even deeper when I heard about what the volunteers do (help the teachers teach
the kids!!!). However, it was when we walked by one door filled with, I’d guess
five-year-olds, and a couple girls ran out yelling “¡Hola!” and hugged me that
I was sold.”
A lot of that is still true for me. I love walking up the
stairs surrounded in the blue that only signifies good things to me and I love
the values that the center is striving for and I love when the kids come up and
hug me. But it is definitely different than I imagined.
First, let me explain a little about this very worthy place.
It is called “Centro de Muchacho Trabajador (CMT)” and it works with the whole
family of children that work on the streets. They ensure that the kids are
getting an education and know how to work safely (rather than steal or any
other host of things you can get into on the streets) as well working with the
whole family on how to save money, help others, etc. I love the values and more
than anything, that is what encouraged me to choose CMT. One tough thing,
however, is that the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has changed a bunch
of policies in Ecuador that look really good on paper, but do not always work
out as planned (as happens in politics) but one of these is that under this
government, if children are found working on the street, their parents will go
to jail. Say whatever you want about child labor, but I will tell you two
things that I have learned: 1. It’s easier for the kids to get away with
robbing people and selling drugs than doing honest work right now and 2. This
change happened during my time at CMT and the kids were significantly worse
behaved without their goals or their confidence that one can only get from
being fairly self-sufficient and by helping out their families.
Now, my experience.
I work at CMT twice a week for three hours each day and
afterwards I come home and often just want to crash onto my bed and never move
again. The kids need a lot of love and a lot of discipline and it is hard to
strike the right balance. One time I raised up my hands towards the sky in
front of one of the kids in the exacerbated “what???” gesture and he veered
back as though he thought I was going to hit him. That was a real eye-opener
for me and anytime I’m really mad or frustrated I think about that moment and
about how more than anything, they need someone who isn’t going to hit them –
who’s going to care about them and give them a hug instead.
It doesn’t always feel that simple, although I know it
should. I work with kids from the age of about 7 to about 12. It is hard to
gain their respect, not aided at all by the fact that they clearly respect my
male co-volunteer more than me. The boys – at the tender age of 8 or 9 – will
make sexual gestures at me when they think that I am not looking. They can be
incredibly rude, they constantly hit each other or just bother each other
incessantly, and one boy even hit me one day.
All in all, I think what I realized is that I should never
have expected it to be like my experience in Peru. They are, of course,
different kids living different lives and quite simply are in a completely
different situation. That doesn’t mean it’s worse or better, it’s just
different. I’m finding it difficult to reflect fully on the time that I have
spent there. It is a huge challenge and I have never doubted so sincerely whether
I am going about something the right way or if I am making any difference at
all, but I am still so happy that this is what I get to spend my Monday and
Wednesday afternoons doing. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt that the little
girls and boys still run up to hug me on occasion.
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