There are three volunteers there, although one of them, Ryan, will be leaving us at the end of the month. This weekend a bunch of us headed to Cahuasqui to join Ryan for the inauguration of a park he has been working on throughout the last year. What was once nothing but dirt and rocks is now a grass soccer field, two volleyball courts and a playground. The inauguration began with what seemed like a two hour long mass. Much like with the wedding I attended, I found myself dozing off. I perked up when the priest started talking about how there are only 144,000 spots in heaven. But he lost me again when he started explaining why the number was 144,000. I´ve never been very good at math. There was also a soccer tournament that day. For entertainment, Ryan planned for us gringos to play a team of 14 year old boys. But knowing how serious Ecuadorians are about their soccer from a very early age, I was intimidated. Although really, it seemed like a lose lose situation for us. If we win, we are the mean gringos who beat a bunch of kids. If we lose, we are the loser gringos who can´t even beat a bunch of 14 year olds. So we tried to go at it light heartedly. The game started off pretty rough for us. By half time we were down 0-2, and I had a variety of grass stains all over my body from being tackled by the little beasts. But you see, when gringos work in teams, there is always a comeback. With ten minutes left in the game we were tied 2-2. The kids were starting to look stressed…and we were unstoppable. I was playing forward…which really just meant I was cherry picking. But it all paid off. I was perfectly placed in front of the goal, Ryan had a throw in, and without moving a muscle the ball bounced off of my head and into the goal. Even with several years of soccer under my belt, I´m pretty sure that´s the only header I have ever scored. Anyway, we were victorious. And we found our victory ever so satisfying.
The rest of our day was spent relaxing…and watching the many men of Cahuasqui (who had begun drinking during mass) stumble around incoherently. One man took a nasty fall…some say they even saw his tooth fly out as he hit the ground. He was laying there on the sidewalk for a good 5 minutes, clearly unconscious. Now in the states, he would be loaded onto a gurney and taken to the hospital where he would have his head examined and his stomach pumped. But in Ecuador a few people just propped him up into the sitting position and continued on their way. Sure enough he came to minutes later, made several attempts to stand, and once he was successful he staggered off down the road…maybe to his house…or maybe to get some bbq chicken. Still, the fact that no one is appalled by the behavior of these men just shows why it can be so hard to educate people about the dangers of alcoholism. There is a cultural experience around every corner.
I have been dealing with a similar struggle at work. Last week I started swimming lessons with the girls. The Psychologist, a new Ecuadorian volunteer and I took them to a pool. We hadn´t been there for 30 seconds when two of the oldest girls started begging me for beer. Now I spend a lot of my time just talking to these girls, the older ones specifically. I try to be their friend, to help them feel better about themselves given all of their issues at home, and reminded them of all they can do with their lives if they stay on the right path. So remembering how many hours I have spent explaining why drinking at the age of 13 is not the best use of their time, I pressed my lips together and gave them my irritated look. By now they know what that means…but of course it doesn’t faze them. They came back five minutes later and tried again. An hour later in the pool I had finally mastered the art of floating with most of the girls…but I noticed a few of them had run off. Then Carmen, a 6 year old, told me they had bought beer. Now thankfully, the other volunteer had caught them and taken it away before they had a chance to drink it. But what amazed me was that someone sold it to them. It´s very obvious they are 12 and 13 years old and immature. But apparently that doesn’t matter as long as you´re making a buck. Even though I have been here for over a year, and fewer things surprise me, every once and a while I find myself shocked and defeated. There is only so much you can do to educate kids when the temptation is always there and available, and many of the adults in their life are a bad example. So after that day I decided no more Ms. Nice Lesley. I looked up some drinking facts to tell teens like, 1. Makes you gain weight - 2. Makes you have bad breath - 3. Makes your skin break out! If that doesnt scare teenage girls, maybe I´ll start bringing pictures of mangled bodies or accidents that have occured as a result of drugs and alcohol. Maybe a picture of a damaged liver. I mean scare tactics tends to work...right? I welcome suggestions.
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