We had spent the morning in Carmen Bajo helping out with Vacation Bible School along wih the Creekside team. It was a great morning of saying hello to kids, giving them hugs or picking them up and carrying them around, and of course, if they see you have an iPhone they want a picture and then they want to play Angry Birds !
Carmen Bajo staff did a fantastic job of the opening worship and the main teaching session (this week they are focusing on 5 Covenants God Made in the Old Testament). The Creekside team's role is to help with pre-VBS games, and then with crafts and activities after the open session.
Today there were over 150 kids onsite, so it was busy!
It was delightful to see our sponsor child Kamila once again, and to get to know Andrea, the friend she brought along to VBS. All the girls were happy to see each other, and of course I was soon in demand as a human jungle gym. Truly, Kamila had become my 'third daughter', often jumping up into my arms and asking for a candy with great abandon.
We all went in with the youngest kids to their classroom for the craft time. It was so cool to see my girls connecting with kids, and even helping some of the younger ones out a bit as well as they worked away with paper, crayons, scissors and glue (yes, 3-year olds manipulating grownup scissors!). Some of the kids get right down to it and do the craft in minutes. Others are still a wee bit young and need lots of help, and there were some kids who seemed really lethargic, making me expect that these are kids who are chronically undernourished. Still, we did all we could to encourage each child, praising their handiwork as they coloured, cut and pasted Noah's Ark and the animals onto construction paper.
After helping serve 220 kids lunch, we were treated by the kitchen staff and volunteers to a delicious lunch of locro de papas (potato soup), fried plantains, rice, Yapingachos (potato-patties), and the ever present Aji (a-hee) sauce. We are so moved by the hospitality that is extended to us every day by the people of Carmen Bajo, many who invest countless unpaid hours to help maintain the program for the kids. They are true heroes!
Everybody pitches in. They work until the work is done. The pace is, at times, every bit as frenetic as in any North American operation, but there is still a sense of joy and easy camaraderie. The kids are the ones who ultimately benefit from that spirit in the nourishment they receive daily. It is so sweet to see the children, especially the little ones, served lunch with tenderness and love.
The one thing we see so clearly about life in Quito is the easy community that pervades all of life. In Canada, life is crazy, and I am usually what I'll call 'clenched', let the word speak to you what it will. I am dogged, determined, frenetic, stressed, and often longing for more community while not really willing to make it a priority. To make community a priority feels like letting go of a lot of the 'control' I think I have in life, so I prefer to manage by clinging to a frantic self-sufficiency. I am seeing more clearly how isolating that becomes compared to the way life is done together here in Ecuador.
Our friends in Quito get stuff done, don't get me wrong, but in the midst of craziness they aren't uptight, and they always favour the togetherness over the task. We in North America seem to be trying so hard, perhaps too hard, to 'have more community', but we still
often see it as another 'healthy-eating obligation' on our to-do list. Togetherness just happens down here, and is the natural default to them
that 'cocooning' is to us. Life here is crazy, but not clenched.
It's got me thinking ...
Good insights. It's got me thinking too. There is a lot very special about the people-oriented Spanish culture. Being a program person, I have often been squeezed in the clench. It's not so bad now in retirement! Retirement's crazy.
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