Category: Service Vacations

Well yesterday we were all good consumers, spending the remaining money we had at the market in Otavalo.  What an amazing place!  Like a swapmeet of the Andes, vendors were selling everything from food to jewelry to alpaca products for prices that made you gasp.  Beautiful hand made items that you felt guilty even bargaining for as the starting prices were so cheap.  After that, we visited a sacred lake created in the crater of a volcano when it exploded some 300 years ago.  We took a pontoon boat out and listened to the guide´s narration of the site´s geology and history.  Again, another amazing road trip, where we encountered some creative business strategies of the local children.  They would stand at either side of the roadway holding string across the road to force our car to slow down so they could come to the window and beg.  Even though giving money is not the best way to help them, it was hard to resist throwing our extra change out the window in appreciation of their entrepreneurship…

The beauty of this country is overwhelming.  It is hard to remember some times how poverty stricken it is when you meander through miles and miles of verdant green mountains interspersed with rushing rivers and cascading waterfalls.   Property like this would go for millions in the states; perhaps it serves as some consolation to those struggling to make a life here that they live in a virtual geographic paradise.  Overall, the people we encounter seem happy.  Griselda caught a snapshot of one very ancient woman pulling the string trick on the roadway.  Her face glowed with joy and glee when we handed her a few coins out the window.  She blessed us and giggled and Griselda caught this amazing look on her face that we all sat and stared at for miles afterward on her camera.  The picture of her beautiful face was much more of a gift to us then the few coins she gained from our wallets.

 

Ever since landing safe and sound in Quito on Saturday we have been busy.  We helped Barney (yes the real purple dinosaur) hand out Christmas gifts to 300 children in the north part of the city on Sunday – what an experience!  Children waited in line for over an hour for a mere bag of candy and (what we would consider a cheap) toy.  The thing that struck many of us in working with those children was the care and concern so many of them demonstrated for their smaller siblings (hermanas y hermanos).  Six and seven year olds were caring for infants and toddlers, holding their hands, ensuring that they participated and recieved attention.  The other very sad part was the number of children left out, banging on the doors, trying to get in.  The Foundation only had a specific number of gifts to distribute and had handed out certificates the previous week to most needy families for admittance; however, I am hard pressed to distinguish levels of need in this deprived country.  We have learned a lot about the corruption and graft that prevent so much good from reaching these people.  There are many both within the country and outside who struggle to get goods and services to these families, but are thwarted by the need to pay bribes and the endless stalling that customs puts them through.

Yesterday we travelled 3-4 hours through the Andes to reach another major city called Santo Domingo.  We would drive for miles along winding mountain roads only to happen upon a peice of plastic suspended from a stick that was sheltering a mother and her children.  Nothing around for miles and miles and it was desperately cold – what were they doing out there in the middle of nowhere with nothing?, we wondered as we sped past, safe and warm in our chaffeured van.   It feels as if you could never do enough and it´s so hard to see so many that you just don´t have the resources or time to help.

When I think about my life back in the states it seems so unreal compared to this – like a giant plastic bubble floating in pink clouds of cotton candy.  It has really hit home to me why people like Eveny give up so much and work so hard to come to the United States, and why they continue working so hard once they´ve gained residency.  It would seem as if you were granted this phenomenal chance that millions and millions of other people will never get to have, no matter how hard to they work or try.  No matter how hard things may seem to be for any of us living in California, remember always how much we have and that there is so much available for us to give and share.