At home I am constantly staying “it’s the little things in life.” Senior year of college I could have referred to a great cup of coffee from Shrewsberry Street or company in the library to chat and eat peanut butter m&ms with while embarking on an all-nighter to complete that paper that was put off. This year, again, I feel like I am constantly saying “oh the little things,” but in reference to the most simple aspects of life and my day. I have always believed that life, lessons, and God are all found in the most simple moments and mundane tasks of our day. This has proved very true in Ecuador.
I saw the quotation by Mother Theresa, “Do ordinary things with extraordinary love,” and wrote it on the top of my agenda page for that week. In constantly rereading it I realized that this is one of those intangible gifts my neighbors have taught me by example – how to do even the most mundane tasks with extraordinary love. It was evident in everything this past week.
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| Celebrating with banana bread |
A few weekends ago we celebrated Rosa´s 91st birthday. To show our love and share in the celebration we baked yet another banana bread, or “pan de gringo” as many Ecuadorians now refer to it. Mike brought along his guitar and we stumbled through the Spanish version of Feliz Cumpleaños before singing it in English. It was a simple afternoon spent singing and eating banana bread outside of Rosa´s little tienda. I was greatly humbled when upon leaving Rosa expressed her deep gratitude and told her grandchildren that while we come from a great distance away, she considers us family. She really hit home the point for me that small gestures, like our Happy Birthday song in broken Spanish or a mere willingness to sit and be present, really does mean something.
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| With the Youth Group after the Base Communities event |
Last week was an active week at Hogar de Cristo. First, Ana´s women´s group along with all the base communities that the pastoral office at Hogar de Cristo collaborates with united at Hogar for an event. As the party occurred right outside of my office, and I couldn´t work when our church´s youth group played wonderful music for the event, I joined in. There was a tangible energy among this group of faith-inspired women praying, singing, and dancing together.
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| Community group anniversary party for Hogar de Cristo |
This past Saturday my office at Hogar de Cristo celebrated the two year anniversary of one of our community groups in Mount Sinai. It was an all day event! The morning and afternoon was spent playing games, which all the women enthusiastically invited Mike and me to participate in, like a sack race, an egg race, soccer games, and a judge for the miss sports “pageant”. At night we returned with all of the Rostro volunteers for the dance. An Ecuadorian neighbor I met earlier in the day tried teaching me all the dances – cumbia, salsa, reggaeton – and we definitely provided many laughs in our stumbling attempt to dance latina. Again…poco a poco!
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| A little bit before ripping my pants and knee open! |
My favorite part of the day was soccer! When I got to the party in the morning all the men had a tournament going. I knew all the women from the community group and also some who participate in the group of microcredit that I am accompanying. I asked if we could get a game of women going, and with the help of another woman we organized it. Boy, did I not know what I was getting myself into! Just like most everything else here in Ecuador, I was doing something very familiar in an unfamiliar way. We played 5 vs. 5 in the dirt street scattered with rocks. I was playing in my nice khaki capris (not knowing that I would be playing soccer that afternoon) and 5 year old sneakers. Well, as will probably not come as a surprise to any of you, I got into the game, was a little competitive, and fell going for the ball – ripping my capris open and tearing open my knee pretty badly. At first, I was embarrassed. But the energy of the women and the crowd lifted me, and of course I continued playing. The president of the community group ran out onto the field during play to trade shoes with me and everybody watching began chanting “Coli, Coli” every time we were close to scoring. So while we scored no goals, I ended up playing with shoes 2 sizes too big for me, and I was left bloody and bruised, community was still built. These things didn´t matter to the women, just my willingness to play alongside of them. While the physical aspects of the game in no way resembled the game of soccer I grew up playing, the energy, passion, and community built from sharing in the game was clearly still present. I´ve ran into almost all of these women around Mt Sinai since and every one, like any good mother, asks about my knee and reminds me of all the precautions I need to take to treat it.
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| My office takes pictures of everything...small meeting on Microcredit |
It has always been the little parts of my day – a meal shared with a neighbor, ripping my pants open playing soccer, or singing a unique rendition of Happy Birthday – that is my “high” of the day. Finding a way to do and to accept the ordinary things with love is a gift.
Love and miss you all,
Colleen
