Every night before I go to sleep I make sure to set my alarm for 6:00am. And every night I tell myself, “Mary, tomorrow is going to be different. Tomorrow you are going to wake up when your alarm rings, get out of bed, thank God for a new day, shower, eat a relaxed breakfast while reading the paper and then leave for work.” Doesn’t that sound so nice? I think so. I think it sounds great every time I say it to myself at night. But the reality is that I wake up at 6:50am after hitting the snooze button for an hour. The guard is usually pounding on the door to tell me Eleodora is here to walk to work and still half asleep I shout out the window “Esperame un ratito!” (Just a minute) I then throw on the same clothes I wear every day, khakis and my Rostro polo, grab my bag and head out the door without thanking God, without showering and of course without breakfast..

The majority of my days begin in this chaotic manner but then slow down as Eleodora and I walk the 15 minutes to work in Arbolito. I then can stop to buy a piece of bread and banana and head over to the volunteer house to eat a relaxed breakfast. Being greeted by Eduardo, the guard, is one of my favorite moments in the day. Without a doubt he will always have a smile and a warm embrace to give, always calling me his “pana” (Ecua speak for friend). I then eat breakfast with Jaime, Michele and sometimes Dan or Theresa. We joke and laugh for 20 minutes until we all go our separate ways to work.

The hours from 8-12pm I would like to block from my mind everyday, sometimes skip entirely. Those are my work hours at the guarderia (which I call the ward). Almost two months in and I still dread going to work there everyday. It’s just very difficult to work with children, but especially in another language. They don’t listen to me, don’t do what I say, and could care less that I’m there. I teach a short English lesson for 20 muinutes and the rest of the time I try and help the teacher with managing the classroom. I just don’t know why I hate it so much because I love kids and I love working with them, but these children are like nothing else. All they do is scream, kick and punch each other, complain, cry or act like they’ve gone deaf when I try to ask them something. I’ve been patient and I continue to pray for patience, but it is sloooow coming.
But traveling to Nuevo Mundo in the afternoons is such a relief. I can only describe Mundo as a paradise or an oasis. Located on the small wealthy Puntilla, the bus ride to Mundo is dotted with palm trees, malls, nice cars, well maintained landscaping and houses that look like they were shipped here from the Hollywood hills. Only 20 minutes away from Duran there is a small USA, it´s incredible. The Nuevo Mundo grounds are beautiful as well full of lush green trees and plants, open classrooms and sports grounds, the most green I have seen in Ecuador is at Nuevo Mundo. It’s truly another world there and it needs to be another world for the kids who come from all over Duran and the campo, they deserve beauty in their lives that are filled with ugliness.

I come home tired but excited to be with my community. To share our days with each other, to laugh and sometimes cry (mostly me). I love coming home to people who are excited to see me and who care about the kind of day I have had. I love knowing that I can tell them when I don’t want to talk and they understand and I love when they make me talk about whats wrong because its what I need to do. This whole intentional community component of Rostro is wonderful and I’m so glad I am in a program that stresses the importance of building a community among each other. Because without my community mates I would be an emotional mess every day.

On a lighter note:
1. I am the mother of the house which means I take care of my 4 children when they are sick, sad, in need of a hug. Some motherly duties I have attended to: picking lice out of Julia’s hair, holding Laura’s hair while she got sick and putting a wet washcloth on her forehead, rubbing John’s back when he couldn’t stop shitting his brains out, and nagging Steve to seek a doctor for his illness.
2. I am the house expert on rice cooking. Perhaps I do know how to cook something, Mom!

On a funny note. The language is of course an every day struggle, but I'm getting better day by day! The other night I came home and our guard Wellington was talking to his wife Zoiraha outside of the gate. When I came over I heard her ask me:
'Are you Italian'
'No, I'm Mexican.' I responded
'Good because I made a dish with meat and I wanted to make sure you would eat it''
'Wait..did you say Italian or vegetarian?'
'Vegetarian.'
'Oh, I'm not one of those either.'

Talk about lost in translation! The words Italian and Vegetarian sound similar in Spanish, especially when you are tired. It was funny at the moment thats for sure!