What I am grateful for.

As Thanksgiving came and passed yesterday without much notice, I had time to reflect on past couple weeks here and my life in general. About twice a week I have my class do a journal entry to practice their written English and strengthen the theme of the week's lessons. Yesterday's theme was, "What are you most thankful for?"

The past few weeks I have getting into a serious routine here in Ibarra. I teach my morning class, prepare for the next day's lessons, go home for lunch to spend time with my family, teach my evening class, get home to eat a piece of bread and some tea for dinner (yuck), do my nightly activity (see below), sometimes watch some CNN or read a book, and go to bed. Mondays we are going to start taking salsa lessons, tuesday I watch nip/tuck (guilty pleasure), wednesdays I play squash with my students, thursday we go out to dinner with some other volunteer friends and friday I exercise, relax, and sometimes travel. 3 times a week I have also been tutoring and mentoring a group of about 10 kids at an organization called Fundacion Cristo de La Calle. It's a big house in the middle of downtown that takes in kids that have been abandoned, abused, or neglected by their parents or whose parents are in jail. Street children is a national crisis here in Ecaudor in every major city. CDLC works with the families to get their lives back on track and takes care of the kids during the day so the families can work, offering them lunch daily, psychology services, physical, verbal and emotional therapy, help with school and homework (this is where I come in), intellectual and physical stimulation, and most importantly a safe place to hang out until late at night. The kids who don't have any family live in one of a few houses with volunteers who do all the parental duties. The kids range from 4 to about 16 years of age. The place is almost completely privately funded because the government here is too corrupt to have money left over for social welfare projects such as this. Each day I am amazed at how open, friendly, caring, and smart the kids are and how accepting they are of me as an outsider with an American accent and pretty frequent speaking mistakes. Most havent been broken by life yet. These kids are normal good kids that have a great chance for a good life even though the circumstances they've been dealt are less than what we would consider normal. These kids are resilient.

Anyway, my life couldn't get much more routine than the aforementioned schedule. But somewhere in the midst of all of these daily experiences I become more and more grateful for what I have in the states: a wonderful and supportive family, freedom to be who I am without much concern for social norms, a first rate education, hot and more importantly clean water, and something other than bread and the occasional slice of bologna for dinner (which is what people eat here).

This week we have been doing a unit on dating in my classes. On Wednesday after class one of my favorite students came up to me and asked in nearly flawless English, " Ally, I need to talk to you. Let's suppose I was gay. I am not saying that I am, but if I was, can you tell me what my life would be like in san francisco?" He had clearly rehearsed the question before. He wanted to know if he could be open about his sexuality, if he could get married, if he could get a job while being open about his sexuality. I told him that not only does no one really care (especially in san fran), but that the US has laws against discrimination. He absolutely could not believe it could be true. Here in Ecuador homosexuality is not only unheard of, but extremely dangerous to a man (or woman`s) physical safety. It allegedly doesnt exist outside of Quito and maybe Guayaquil and even in these places, people need to be extremely discreet. But Wednesday proved that it does occur, it's just that people either move to a big city or even better out of the country, or they never come out. On Monday we watched part of an episode of Friends that included Ross's ex-wife who happens to be a lesbian. My students looked around at each other nerviously at the suggestion of homosexuality and some even snickered. This student is one of my best, both academically and in the sense that he is extremely caring, moral, fun, hardworking, and an all around good person. The look of sheer hope he had when I told him that he and a partner could possibly even adopt a baby will never be erased from my brain. He told me that one of his greates wishes is to be a father.

These are the joys of being a teacher. I am finding that I am not just teaching my students the English language, but teaching them about what the world has to offer, about what life could be like even someday here in Ecuador. I teach them about a place where girls can play basketball on saturday mornings at the public court right along with the boys and a place where you can meet the parents on a second or third date without worrying about getting married. About a place that at least strives to accept people for their difference instead of passively yet powerfully trying to force everyone into their predetermined place in the community. This place I speak of is my home and, cheesy as it sounds, it is times like these that I am proud to be an American.

Last night we went out for dinner at parrillada restaurant (like a cheap brazilian steakhouse), but the real celebration will be on Saturday at the program director's house. I'll be spending my day off today making garlic mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. While every year I complain to my mom about eating turkey, this year I find myself incredibly nostalgic for the stuff. I can't wait.

This Thanksgiving I am grateful to be here in Ecaudor so that once I get home I will never be able to forget the numerous blessings I have been given. This, if nothing else, is a powerful reason to spend a year in a developing country (or read a weekly blog about it). Happy Holidays to all!