| UAlbany
Students Experience an Unforgettable Spring Break
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Eleven UAlbany
students journeyed to Duran, Ecuador |
Instead of the typical spring break trip to the
nearest sunny beach, eleven UAlbany students
journeyed to Duran just outside of Guayaquil -- Ecuador's largest city and shared a
life altering experience. Led by UAlbany alumnus
Jonathon Morales, '05, along with
Father
Robert
Longobucco, Catholic campus minister,
Diana Conroy
of the Albany Catholic Worker House and
Theresa
Gecewicz, '05, the group spent a week in one of
the world's poorest locales. "We might all have a
picture in mind when we hear the words:
third
world poverty," said Fr. Bob, "but we came away
not with statistics, but with faces; not with
facts, but with friends." The students faced
challenges of language and lack of conveniences
that they normally take for granted, but all
accepted what they found and came back with new,
deeper perspectives.
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Alyssa Simms |
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Alyssa
Simms, a senior English major and education
minor from Saratoga Springs, New York signed up as
soon as she heard about the opportunity. "I really
wanted to go, especially because of the work done
with children in the program and because I want to
be a teacher. I came back from the trip with more
motivation to become a teacher and a new desire to
work with underprivileged school programs."
Alyssa was so excited about going on this trip
that she decided to keep a daily journal. Read her
day by day account >>
2/18/06 Day One
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Retreat house in Ecuador |
Shortly after arriving at the retreat house here
in Duran, Ecuador we were given a tour of the
neighborhood by our leader -- a UAlbany
graduate - Jon Morales. All I can say so far is that
I am overwhelmed by the positive nature of the
people we have met. To us they seem so
unfortunate, as they have no clean water, little
food, no sewage systems, and no electronic
luxuries. Despite all of these things the
Ecuadorians are so hospitable to us, they never
stop smiling or telling their stories. They never
complain. They offer us everything they have no
matter how small it may be.
2/19/06 Day Two
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Claude Peart and Theresa Gecewicz
playing soccer with the kids. |
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Today was full of soccer, or "futbol." We played
with some neighborhood kids all morning in the
rain. It's so hot here you don't even stay wet.
These kids are amazing at soccer. It was a really
cool experience, because there were no language
barriers, we just played and laughed together. In
the afternoon we went to a men's league soccer
game down the road from our house. They played
with a tiny round ball and they were excellent.
The men were so polite to us and brought us chairs
to sit on to watch the games.
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La Tienda -- the market
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Afterwards we went
to the market for the first time, which was so
different than at home. "La Tienda" is a tiny room
with the entrance barred and all food must be
ordered through a tiny window in the bars. This is
a safety precaution of course. The low prices of
food are astounding.
2/20/06 Day Three
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Damien House Chapel
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An amazing day. We traveled to Damien House in
Guayquil, a hospital for Hansen's Patients
(patients with surviving leprosy). Despite their
pain and suffering these patients were so warm and
welcoming to our group. We sang
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Group singing to the patients.
Left to right,
Christine Pickney, Anita Beutof, Lauren Wainer,
Diana Conroy, Aleidy Diaz, Amanda
Piurek, Claude Peart, Theresa Gecewicz, Olivia
Fagan, Ryan Munks, Alyssa Simms, Kim Nuzzo, Father Bob Longobucco,
and Carolyn Ortizt. |
together and told
stories. We played dominoes and checkers. They
seemed so happy while we were there. The hospital
itself is such an admirable foundation, but is
tragically running out of funding. Sister Annie, a
nun who does remarkable work at the hospital, told
us that if they do not get more financial support
by April they will be forced to close, and all of
the lovely men and women we met there will be
turned away. Of course we will do everything we
can to help, but it would be such a tragedy for
that hospital to close. Its cause is so unique. I
was especially inspired by a former patient who is
now working to gain funding and support for the
hospital. His name is Jonathan and he went to the
hospital as a patient when he was only 15 years
old. He is now 22 and shows no visible affects of
the disease. He was such a gentle and motivating
soul! I have never met someone who appreciated
their life so greatly.
2/21/06 Day Four
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Kim Nuzzo and Olivia Fagan
teaching some girls how to say different colors in
English. |
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Today we traveled from our own neighborhood in
Duran to an even lesser developed area where all
of the houses are on stilts and the streets are
flooded and full of garbage. Disease is spread so
rapidly there. We all felt so helpless just
walking through this area and being able to offer
these brave people no assistance. Much of the
water is green and stagnant and people must walk
through it to get in and out of their homes.
Seeing this sight just made us that much more
thankful for all we have at home. We worked in a
school program in that town where John our group
leader from UAlbany works. The children are
thrilled we are there to help them with their
English lessons and their Spanish conjugations.
They are thrilled we are there at all just to
smile at them and hold their hands. They seem so
blissful and I wonder
if they are at all aware of the conditions they
endure every day. We played soccer with them on a
muddy field in the hot sun - it was completely
exhilarating and totally fun! The kids all love Uno here, too!
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Anita Beutof getting her hair
done.
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After lunch John piled us all in the van and took
us to the community center in a nearby town where
students take part in hands on courses that will
help them learn a trade! Here the students range
in teenage years. There are different sections,
like cosmetology, auto mechanics, welding, etc.
This gives them an opportunity to make money and
surpass their current economic standards.
These students seem so thrilled to learn, and so
happy to meet us. At the cosmetology section all
of us girls got our hair and nails done!
2/22/06 Day Five
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Carolyn Ortiz, Alyssa Simms,
Claude Peart, Aleidy Diaz and an amazing man named
Freddy, who we spoke to daily and played checkers. |
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We went to Nuevo Mundo (new world) school in
Guayaquil, where our house organizer Franklin went
to high school. This school provides a split
school system, the mornings for students of
Guayaquil and the afternoons for students from
Duran to have a chance to travel outside of their
small town and be educated. This school provides
such an enormous opportunity for students from
Duran. Education is their tool for progress. Only
the most dedicated students with the best grades
stay in the school. They even fed us a hot
lunch!!!! After that we went back to the
neighborhood to spend time with the friends we've
made their just walking around and playing soccer.
They have little to offer us but always offer the
materials they do have (all Ecuadorians offer us
soda but never drink it) and also offer us a lot
of wisdom and knowledge. I have developed great
respect for these adults as their lives have
contained immense suffering and experience. They
love to tell their stories and hear ours and
compare our two cultures.
2/23/06 Day Six
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Aleidy Diaz playing Uno with some boys. |
We got up very early to experience an Ecuadorian
mass. It was very peaceful and quiet, and the
church was beautiful.
We went had to say goodbye to all of the
neighborhood children today who we saw daily and
with whom we formed close bonds. We also had to
say goodbye to the little children in the day care
run by our retreat program. All of this was very
sad, but they really just kept thanking us for
coming. They made us pictures and gave us tons of
hugs and kisses.
2/24/06 Day Seven
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Lauren Wainer with a
local woman and her handmade birds. |
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The last day! We had such a happy day today. All
of our neighbors came over with their crafts for
us to buy as souvenirs and memories of our time
with them. They made bags, jewelry, recipe books,
belts, and shirts. We each got something extremely
special to take with us. After that we went back
to Damien House to say goodbye and we were also
fortunate in being able to buy some of the crafts
made by patients there. As Hansen's disease
weakens the muscles, the crafts help the patients
gain their strength back. Their artwork is
amazing!
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Lighthouse in Guayaquil |
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After we said goodbyes at the hospital we were
taken on our first and only tourist portion of the
trip. We got to go to Guayaquil and climb 444
steps up to a lighthouse that overviews all of
Duran. It was a hot walk but very interesting as
throughout the stairwell were houses and business,
of course these people were the wealthiest we had
met. At the top of the stairs were a beautiful
lighthouse and a chapel. The view and the beauty
of it all was really a perfect ending to our last
day. |
