The young and the old.

Oct 26

This is the look of a man who is amusedly overwhelmed.

**But more on that later…**

By the title of this post and that first photo, you may be thinking that I am the old and that those kids are the young, and you wouldn’t be wrong, I am old. But in my mind I’m not all that old. The “old” I’m referring to are the senior citizens or “adultos mayores” that Jenny and I are working with in Ecuador. Buckle in, this is a long post (and I think best viewed on a laptop). First…

Jenny

As Jenny was traveling with her counterparts doing wellness checks on seniors in the countryside, she kept hearing from them that they missed the weekly gatherings they used to enjoy, so she reinitiated the program, inviting seniors to gather in town every Monday morning to talk, dance, do a craft, learn a bit and have lunch. It’s only been a few weeks, but so far it’s been super successful.

One Monday morning Jenny did a session on making brownies. We didn’t have an oven, so after mixing up a batch and pouring it into a pan, we did that old “through the magic of television” trick and pulled out some that we had baked the night before. After that we listened to Queen’s “We Will Rock You”, danced, and did some stretching exercises.

It’s hard to believe, but I don’t think a single senior here knew that song. Apparently, Queen didn’t make much of an impression on this particular group of Ecuadorian seniors.

As far as I can tell, hat making here is mostly women’s work. You’ll see women walking down the street while weaving hats, waiting for a ride, sitting outside a store, perched on a stool between customers at the market, or standing in line at the bank, all the while weaving.
I recently discovered, by watching the woman pictured here, that the fabric they roll up and wrap around their waists, which I’d thought was just a fashion statement, often holds a hat in progress, tucked away until the next session. She was just starting this one and she told me it would take three days to finish.
Ecuadorians work hard to make a living, even well into old age.

Sometimes a problem just needs a new set of eyes. On Jenny’s wellness visits she noticed that many of the seniors were living in homes that needed some repairs. She mentioned to Geovanni, the director of the governmental organization she is attached to (and pictured here along with Domenica, her other co-worker,) that perhaps some simple home repair could be part of a wellness check. The very next week he had tools and materials ready to do just that. This particular senior was living in a house with a large hole in her front door. They cut a piece of wood and drilled it in place.

On another day Jenny joined in with some ladies to plant a small community garden. Yes, Jenny is wearing the same shirt, but it’s a different day. We came here with two suitcases for two years, so not a lot of options.

Andy

I'm continuing at the senior lunch program. It's pretty straightforward. I show up, play cards, struggle through conversations in Spanish and help serve lunch. It’s not much, but it feels so nice when I’m walking through town and I run into people I know. It makes me feel like part of the community. After just two months I’ll see more people I know out in the streets of Gualaceo than I ever do at home in our car-centered culture. I’m just scratching the surface here, but it seems like a place where daily life happens in public and social interaction isn’t something you schedule. It just occurs.

I bring my little Bluetooth speaker to the lunch room and play old Ecuadorian music. My big innovation.

And it’s just amazing how a simple balloon can light up a table.

This is Angel and he is a regular at the lunch program. He always comes late and leaves early, and his hands are filthy. I didn’t want to shake them. Then I realized that he works as a shoe shiner on the plaza and that his hands are not dirty, they are stained from his work. And he comes late and leaves early because he’s trying to make a living. Sometimes it takes a beat to understand someone. Angel knows one word of English, “Okay!” He says it to me every day as a greeting.

I’m placed at a municipal social service agency called the Unidad Social. The agency’s focus is on seniors, youth, and persons with disabilities. I work with the seniors in the morning, but my main project is an after-school program whose students, about 35 children ages 6–12, are from low-income families and are in need of academic support and afternoon care. Schools here don’t have extracurricular education, so their day is short. The kids arrive to the program, which is housed in a rented house that is much too small, and eat a lunch prepared by onsite staff. They then do homework before some time for recreation. Finally they get a snack before going home around 4:30.

I’m still getting to know my way around, but I’m hoping I can help with providing more structure to their recreation, help improve the infrastructure, and create workshops designed to help them in their personal development. I didn’t realize how much joy I would get from these kids.

And now Jenny and Andy

We have a joint program that is a combined guitar and English class. It’s actually two classes that run concurrently for two hours each on Saturday mornings for kids ages 6-12. It’s been fun, and while nobody is learning to play guitar or speak English, everyone seems to be having fun. We have 10 guitars, but the kids are so small and the guitars so big that it’s not really feasible to teach chords, so it has just morphed into an elementary school music class, or at least my best effort at remembering what one was like. Rhythm, making noise, singing, etc.

The English segment is super basic and focused on numbers, colors and simple greetings. One of the greetings we are teaching is, “How are you today?” Last weekend I greeted one of the students by asking, “How are you?” and in the most earnest way possible her response was, “Today.”

And finally, let’s get back to that opening photo. Jenny’s agency hosted a community health fair and we volunteered to do face painting. Neither of us had ever done face painting, ever, but we have now! I don’t know how many kids got painted, but it seemed like 100! We were at it for four hours! So many little kids!

We're working with people at opposite ends of their lives, but it’s easy to see how much they have in common. They want to be noticed, to have something to look forward to, and to feel like they belong. I know I want those things. I suppose we all do.