The Farewell

Hey all!
After these last few weeks of goodbyes and trying to take in all of Ecuador, it´s about that time to head off to my buddies wedding in California and then head home to MN for a few months.

We have made the most of our last few weeks with farewell parties, our boss getting married and enjoying last conversations.

I want to thank all you guys who have been praying for my journey here in Ecuador through the ups and downs as I sent out updates whether or not you wanted them or not, I kept sending, cause the more the merrier for prayer.

A special thanks to all of you who gave financially to my time here because it would not have been possible without that blessing. I have seen God work in many ways and that was also one of those experiences to see that God provides and works through us.

Especially during my painting time with my dad for those of you who live in Waseca, MN, atleast for a few minutes or more, I´d love to catch up and just see how you´re doing. So stop by if you see me painting in the following months.

Take care and Godbless and thank you again for all the prayers and support on my year long journey here in Ecuador.

Blessings.
SAM

Well...its July.

Hello all from Duran, Ecuador!
Happy late fourth of July to all you U.S. citizens and happy saturday for everybody. let me tell you that the fourth was celebrated here with hot dogs and watching the Ecuador vs. Brazil soccer game at our neighbor´s house...hot dogs do not leave a good feeling in your stomach.

It´s been about a month and a half since i last updated everyone so i hope the summer months are enjoyable but are going slowly as well, i always like when that happens.
its really hard to believe that there´s a little more than 3 weeks until us volunteers all head back to the states and welcome the new volunteers here, people are already talking about us leaving which really puts some urgency to us taking everything in.

its been a unique last month and a half with about 3 weeks in there devoted to being a leader for two retreat groups that came down...one college group from John Carroll in cleveland, ohio and an all dudes high school group from cincinatti, ohio.
both very unique with the people, questions, ways of goin about the experience but i liked the college group more with more questions of what to do with this experience and understanding that this is how most people live in the world, this is life here! was great to go back in time for me cause we visit all the different associations with rostro de cristo and visit more neighbors in teh community with them...great groups of people, although at times i did find myself being annoyed a few times in general with the northamerican way, which will be interesting to see how i react going back.
was also very good to take some time away from my normal work sites to be with the group, and at the same time very energy draining.

i really am able to see the purpose for all that we do after leading a retreat group, a new side of why we are down here comes out in order to educate and understand the reality of poverty and how everyday people live through and persevere everyday with the hope of giving their kids a chance to break through poverty. i´m even more amazed about people´s faith in a better tomorrow and the trust in God people have that things happen for a reason and tomorrow will be a better day.

a big revolution that came to me durin our final retreat was how this year, with my faith, has been a year of seeing and understanding the humanness of Jesus durin his time on earth. he lived fairly similarily, closer than the life in the states atleast, as the people down here. to just get a glimpse of that durin my time here has made me really contemplate my actions as a Christian and further trying to understand the compassion Jesus had for people.

on a lighter note, the consul general for the american consulate here in ecuador came to our house to share a dinner with us which was cool that he is trying to take interest in institutions such as rostro de cristo in ecuador and just to hear some cool stories from a member of the state department.

the weather is much cooler now than ever, i dare even say chilly in the morning times which is better for having time to spend in teh community. the girls at santiago are still crazy and then the next minute fun and loving and then the next minute talking back to me if i tell them to sit down. pretty standard for that to happen. my name is still ´Hello´. our after school program is good, kids listen most of the time and are eager to be involved.
we are starting to plan for when the next volunteers come on july 31...we´l have a 3 day orientation for them before we all go...its simply strange to even think about it right now, but for the most part we´re staying grounded in what we´re doin here.

we´ve had many former volunteers come and visit here in the last few weeks which is different especially when we don´t know they´re coming and we see another random white person in the streets who we don´t know, its quite surprising.
our boss here in ecuador, kevin, just took off for the states for a little time off and then to be with the new volunteers at their orientation in washington d.c., the same one i went to last july, and he will be getting married to an ecuadorian at the end of this month! don´t worry mom, it´s not me i´m talking about.

all the best from Ecuador to my friends and family in all parts of the world. i will be sending out a final update at the end of this month before i head back to the states on aug 2.

Prayer Requests

1. For one of our neighbors who lost a son recently in Quito and that they will be able to fight through poverty and maintain hope for their kids, also for community of Arbolito as they continue to fight the fight.

2. Kevin in the states that the time will be fruitful for him and the new rostro de cristo volunteers and rostro as an organization.

3. Us Volunteers as we try and stay grounded here in Ecuador that God will challenge us in different ways and also for volunteers Johanna and Katie back home that they will find a renewed purpose with their adventures.

4. Safe trip in Florida for my sisters katie and steph, broinlaw brad, niece emma and newphew zach. my bro jake and his new consulting company.

thanks for your prayers and i hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

sam conway

thanks for your prayers

Summer is here???

Saludos a todos!
It is now the month of May and Ecaudor has taken on more of a different feel after the hot and humid winter months slightly cooler night time breezes, not to mention that all of us volunteers are now rolling through our time now with retreat groups coming down and having a little bit more of an awareness of the culture and spanish language which helps a lot, notice that i didn´t say i understood the way of life or thought processes here, but more of an awareness.Also hard to believe that one year ago I graduated college in San Diego, time is a funny thing sometimes.

We have been blessed with the prescense of the Founder and Executive Director of Rostro de Cristo make their way down to Ecuador in the past month, both at different times.Executive Director Patrick came down for our more or less silent retreat at the beginning of this month to talk and share along with a very experienced Jesuit Priest/friend to lead the retreat in reflection and story telling. Great to have them here for the too short of a weekend which was very fruitful!Then our Founder Ftr. Ronan came down to check out the latest with the foundation and where we will be heading next, great to chat and have some great dinners with him.

We are very busy with retreat groups here from the states, Loyola Marymount (CA) just left and there´s another at the other house from Boston then my first group comes in three days from John Carrol U. from Ohio so i´m pretty excited about that!

Our In Country Director Kevin and three of us volunteers met up with the U.S. Consul General for Ecuador just to talk about our foundation and to see how they can support us and what not as a foundation so that was interesting hear about the Consul´s experiences and how they wanted to get involved somehow, obligation or not with foundations but nonetheless i was impressed...I then got a nice birthday lunch from Kevin afterwards so that made it better.
You know that its a different life here in Ecuador when my roommates asked me what I wanted for my birthday dinner last week and i said SOUP!!!

My tutoring work at the school Santiago has been goin better where the kids are much more disciplined and teachers are ready for class...most of the girls react well to it and are working hard while there´s still some very difficult girls to deal with, they still call me ¨Hello¨. So when they call upon me they say, ´Hello, venga por favor´ which is just ´Come here please´ put its done in the classic Ecuadorian whiny voice that can be annoying.
Our after school program is goin good, more activities and we have our retreat groups run it sometimes which is fun for us.

Fellow volunteer Jenny´s family is here right now hangin out and traveling and also took us out for a great meal! They are a super nice Midwestern family from Iowa so I had a fun time talking to them while laying off the Iowa jokes that us Minnesota folk have a tendency to do.
I´m goin to try and get a few pics on here soon, its very difficult to do it at cyber cafes so we´ll see.

Prayer Requests:

1. Retreat groups that are here and coming and us as leaders that Christ will guide and make them think and be challenged.
2. For Alison, volunteer, as she tries to understand and recover during her time in the states that she will come back to Ecuador soon.
3. Our neighbors in Arbolito that they will continue to unite in order to improve their situation.
4. For my cousin Chris that his pain will lessen and he will be on the road to recovery with his back.

Thanks for the prayers and thoughts as time goes on, for those of in education enjoy the summer off and for the rest of you, enjoy your next weekend!
Blessings!
Sam Conway

It´s definitely April

Hello one and all on this nice April day!
It´s definitely April, well its not that obvious...it hasn´t been the crazy month that March was even excluding the NCAA basketball tournaments. Been fairly tranquil as the winter rainy season is coming to an end and the weather is supposed to be cooling down, no sign quite yet.

Our prayers have gone out to the victims of the school shooting at Virg. Tech after we heard about it through internet news, its a shock that many people here are confused here about why it has happened so much in the schools in teh U.S. I didn´t quite know how to answer that question to say the least.

April began wit hte Easter festivities around here, Latin Americans are super traditional in the Catholic faith so its almost more of a custom to celebrate the holy week instead of taking on the true significance of why Jesus died on the cross and the meaning behind him rising, I guess there´s that concern with many Christian faiths as well but it was something I noticed. The washing of the feet was my favorite part of the week where it was very inspirational and humbling experience...the stations of the cross was simply just interesting at night riding throughout the barrio with candles and people trying to understand what´s goin on. Easter Sunday was fantastic with all of us Rostro gang gathering for a great, big feast and making some games with an egg hunt and sac race with our neighbors (I´ll put a few pics on soon). Good times and great food thanks to the donation by the parents which was used for Easter.

Things have been goin pretty well, been a subtle couple weeks after Easter with the school I´m working at doin very well right now with the girls screamin less, thank you God! Much more organized classes and teachers, kids with uniforms and backpacks, and a new bus that the school bought!
The time with Aracely, community relations for Rostro, has been goin very well with spending more time in teh community and watching her in action durin her job. There has been more interest for another project from some of our neighbors so next month we may be assisting and helping out in teh effort...its fantastic to see the people here take some action!!
Our after school program is in transition as kids go back to school, a few kids have moved away that have been with the program for a long time which gives us a taste of what will happen in a few months. Overall, we have less kids so therefore we can focus a little more on actual activities for the kids, its goin well overall with our retreat groups enjoying the programs and helping out during their time here, , ...from now till the end of our time in August, we have high school and college retreat groups here almost nonstop; makes things more interesting and a little out of wack for sure. My first group is May 23.

It´s been a solid April, ending with a silent retreat next weekend, I´m actually looking forward to it because this part of the country, coastal area, can be sooooooo loud!

Hope all is well as the school year, up there atleast, comes to an end (I can´t believe my younger sister steph is almost done with first year of college).

Praises
1. My sister Katie and Mom with their birthdays this week, my brother Jake and his wife´s 1st anniverasary last week and my Mom and Dad´s next week, also volunteers Mike and Mara´s bdays 2 days ago.
2. Great visits from families of volunteers and one more to come.
3. Overall health of volunteers and community in this very moment.

Prayers
1. People of Arbolito still looking for work and struggling with day to day living.
2. Community of Arbolito will come together and collaborate the needs.
3. For an worthwhile, energizing and fruitful retreat next week.

Thank you for your prayers and I pray that the rest of the month will provide those moments in your life to try and understand the meaning of it all.

Blessings.
Sam

March Madness

Its March Madness time of year, if you´re in the states right now that is, but i´m still excited about my favorite sports event through internet updates and bracketology even after not knowing anything about the best or the worst teams of the tournament, I still set up a pool amongst us volunteers and people of Rostro de Cristo, and an ecuadorian is winning!!!

Many thanks to those who have sent updates on what´s goin on with your lives because it is always interesting to hear about life outside of my life as a coastal ecuadorian. Most of us volunteers are in good health and situations during the past month of a parents visiting (adam´s parents and most of meredith´s family which was cool to have the brothers here) retreat groups
coming in from new york area this time, and a few friends of volunteers. stirs things up where we´re all doin different things and a few are off with the family...especially great to have those family dinners!!

I´ve been enjoying coaching basketball once a week to kids who have practically never played or watched basketball before, its a one sport country and that sport being soccer which i´m not the most fond of here. so we´re doin our best to get them excited and teaching all the drills and games that i learned during all my camps growing up, and they have improved!!! never thought my life would come to teaching kids basketball in ecuador.

I started a different job schedule with working more in the area where i live 2 days a week with an ecuaodorian who Rostro just hired as community relations, great to be around the people more instead of goin to the city of guayaquil everyday in teh mornin. the other three days of the week i´m still at the school working with the girls who don´t scream quite as much anymore and the school is actually looking more like a school little by little...that´s the way ecuadorians build things up here though, there´s an idea and they start it without much preparation and as time goes on they add one thing then another from what has happpened.

Probabally my favorite times in arbolito happened during the past month of being out in teh community to see what is goin on and get to know people better. people kept expressing that they wanted to do something about the huge holes in the street which turn into giant puddles becasue of the rainfall here which then brings more bugs because of the standing water and the weeds which house many bugs and all the trash (which is very common cause you throw trash on teh street and burn it here).
about 10 people came together to head to the mayors office, (who is a crazy woman who danced and sang durin the ceremony on a monday morning, its the ecuadorian way) to plea for help and she sent help that mornin which a giant tractor is dig canals, then the following week there was a local project/clean up on our street to chop the weeds (with machetes i´ll let you know, was kinda fun!), pick up trash and clear water channels.
so much fun to see the people come together and get excited about cleaning up their street and improve their living area!
most exciting about that was the fact of how little we did and see them want to come together was great! the struggles are so big here that its overwhelming to start on one project when there´s 100 more that need to be done as well. i absolutely loved being around it!

Yesterday was our first annual summer olympics (summer vacation right now) event between the after school programs of Rostro de Cristo which are Semillas de Mostaza (the one i´m at) Valdivia, and Manos Abiertas with events that ranged from egg on a spoon, 3 legged race, math and geography for example. Semillas de Mostaza won it all while i found myself very competitive and cheering like a little kid!
I felt like one of the coaches who was proud of his kids, was a great time, especially coming out on top!


i´m going to start looking for job opportunities soon to prepare for coming back in about 4 months, so if any of you have any contacts or know any opportunities i would love to hear about it!

Prayer Requests

1. For our neighbors and those of arbolito that they will come together more to discuss ideas and creative solutions as well as make things happen without much of our input.

2. Our director Kevin who is taking some time to visit friends, that it will be a time of rest and revitalizing.

3. Us volunteers that we will continually look to Christ for our inspiration and focus each morning to carry us through each day.

Praises
1. Success and good experiences with retreat groups and visitors.

2. A great olympics event with our afterschool program.

3. Finally, mostly good overall health with Rostro people.

Thank you for the thoughts and prayers which have carried us through as God challenges and excites us.

Sam

Start of the 2nd half

Hello all far, deep and wide! I hope this post finds you well as we are just past the Halftime mark and into hot/humid weather in Duran, Ecuador. Then I get an update from my parents in Minnesota in the states that snow is still descending and temperatures are below freezing, its a crazy world sometimes.

Last time I wrote I was gearing up for Christmas and New Years time around here which was also different because we did not get bombarded with advertisements, commercials and holiday shopping crazes because we aren´t living an an area that gets a lot of attention probablyl only through the television and radio that all that stuff is delivered...it was very nice to really prepare for Christmas in much more of a low key manner as we listened to songs whenever we could. Had a great New Years Eve with our boss Kevin´s family making us dinner then going to mass after that. Next day us guys in the house made a huge brunch, then we sang carols for neighbors (who probably thought we were nuts because that was the first time they´ve had that they said), then had an amazing spaghetti dinner at Sister Annie´s house who is the Sister who run´s the leprosy hospital that we work with here...great food and company before most of us left for Quito and some stayed around here with fam or friends visiting.

Quito was an amazing city filled with mountains, cool weather (city being 10,000 feet), different accents and way of life for the people. More of an organized city for sure with more money put into it being the capital of Ecuador...we saw some great sites from the tram they have there (almost 14,000 feet!), beautiful churches and plazas which were very European with S. American twist, and fun to hang out with all our RdC folk up there outside of normal activities. Riding horses in the Andes was a blast with of course no rules so we took them for a ride up and down those hills, mine was name Legro. New Year´s Eve was filled with burning dolls in the streets and a concert with songs and dances from Latin America. Great to hang out with everyone and meet some of Raul´s family who lives there in Quito who provided housing for us which was a treat. Great, hospitable people.

Coming back to Duran was alright and I was ready to head back to the school of girls and the foreign relations work that I´m doing with Fundacion Accion Solidaria. I enjoy the tutoring stuff more at the school and the girls are behaved much better, if they listen and are motivated to learn, I very much enjoy teaching but if they are bored or don´t want to be there I just get sick of disciplining. But great improvements have been made at the school and its fun to be a part of it. I´m also on a bus search for the kids at teh school...they currently use an armored car which should not be used to transport kids and will break soon. The website is http://www.fundacionaccionsolidaria.org/ if you want to check it out, which will soon be in English. Our after school program Semillas de Mostaza (mustard seeds) was going much better each day with our boss Kevin having more time to commit to planning activities for the kids who do not have homework to work on...but since the kids have vacation and no homework to do we´ve been struggling with over 100 kids sometimes. Soon having more things for the kids who can´t read or write or don´t even go to school which is a real problem here. I

have had some good quiet times during the first weekends of januray where I go to my spot by the river where I have reflection, bible reading and prayer for a little bit. Having great spiritual conversations with other Rostros Raul, Mara and our spiritaul guide Sergio (who is from Peru and was a lay brother for the church) was really good and challenging. We had meetings twice a week, but he is no longer with his organization and he will be missed.

Definitely the highlight of January was my parents visit...was very much a unique, surreal, funny and overall amazing time that we had.it was great to meet them in the airport after they had traveled the whole night...i then put them on a 4 hour bus ride to teh mountains, whoops, but we made it to cuenca.we enjoyed the mountains and it was fun to show them around suhc a beautiful city where the culture is very thick, i also enjoyed the fact that my mom couldn´t take charge on this trip cuase of the language but that it was my turn to plan everything so that was entertaining.we returned back to duran/guayaquil and hot weather a few days later.i wanted to show them the grand difference between the mountain areas and the coast and just the difference in poverty, way of life nad overall culture...it is two different worlds.we enjoyed some lunches and neighbors, showing them our over 100 after school kids for our program, out to dinner with kevin our in-country boss and then my mom making an amazing home made lasagna dinner for all of us!!!i very much enjoyed their presence and to show my life here, i think they were a bit overwhelmed with everything cuase it was a lot to take in in a short time period.

they left almost on the half way point for our time here which happened on feb. 1. our director in the u.s., patrick, came down this past weekend for a retreat with rostro de cristo folk where we were able to pray, plan, have fun, and talk about the realities of life here and growing closer as a community...great growing time and then enjoyed an ecuador super bowl party, at a hotel, with most of the guys, girls weren´t up for it so we got into our football mode all the way.

the month of january went well and i hope each one will be better, i find myself imagining myself back home and wanting to be away from my life here, but i hope the things such as having lunches with neighbors, playing guitar with a buddy, expeiencing ecudorian events, and having conversations about having faith in God through whatever situation in life and the fact that many people here keep the faith alive in extremely difficult times...

such as one of our neighbors not being able to find a job since november and he has 7 kids that he can´t always feed so his 3 oldest had to leave to find work in a different city.kids having infections, lice, not bathing, living off one meal a day, and not to mention not having a chance to receive an education because their parents can´t afford it.those types of realities are very real here and it´s tough to swallow and not have a chance to do anything, but within our house we´re working on coming up with some community projects to gather people together, potentially work together to improve the commuity and improve relations in the process.

durin the past weekend saw my first ecuadorian soccer game live(which was out of control) with a fellow university of san diego graduate (javier) who lives here and met hime for the first time and had the chance to see some davis cup tennis...amazing sports day!! there will be another retreat group from the u.s. coming down soon and more parents coming so we´re in for a some busy months almost till august!

Prayer Requests:
1. For the people of Duran who live day by day that they will find a way to maintain and provide and have faith.
2. Family of Francisco, that he finds work and can provide for this kids.
3. Rostro de Cristo community here that we will grow as we encounter Jesus and look to him everyday in prayer and in our journeys.

Praises 1
. Sacred Heart School, epecially Mrs. Jennifer Kugath´s class, and their Penny War fund raising of over $1,000!!
2. My sister Jess is o.k. after a bad car accident a few weeks ago.

I will be better about writing each month this time...I hope all is well wherever you may be in your journey and that you may know that God is there when you call upon His name.

Blessings.
Sam

It´s almost Christmas?

A few pics, one of thanksgiving of all of us and father ronan the founer of our program.
The next of a birthday bash earlier this year.

Hola from sunny, warm Ecuador during this holiday season!
It has been strange living in a place where it gets hotter as christmas draws near, its amazing how much a climate changes things, people still have the christmas lights here and there, but obviously we´re not bombarded by commercialism as much at this time...there´s actually more talk about new year´s eve here than actual christmas day.
the ecuadorians enjoy a nice dinner of course on christmas, but its more for hte kids is what everyone tells me...new year´s is the crazy time when they actually burn life size paper machea like characters in the streets and light off fireworks all over the place, that´ll be interesting.

thanksgiving was a nice treat going to the house of pat and sonya, principals at a school our organization is associated with, and being with father jim ronan (the founder of rostro de cristo) just enjoying the company and a pretty close traditional thanksgiving dinner (with chicken that i thought was turkey).

the last month has been filled with ups and downs as usual, there´s nothing normal about my experience and neither are my moods, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and body functions....a little sick right now from who knows what i ate, you just have to go with it.

there may be some slight changes for next january, perhaps a little less foreign relations work and more time in the school with the screamin girls who have actually made drastic improvements and its good when they actually want to be helped, they are really doing some amazing things at the school and giving the kids an opportunity to be educated and learn about Christ as well.

i have had some good quiet times, mostly loud times because its ecuador and naturally loud here by nature, of trying to understand myself better and what type of role i have in our community here at rostro de cristo.
i have learned that i cannot fully understand who i truly am and live how i should live unless i spend time with Jesus in prayer, bible reflection and psuedo quiet time which takes me away from worldly thoughts and focuses on the true meaning of my time here, to understand what it means to live as a Christian amongst the people, to see seek the face of Christ, to know that we are brothers and sisters of God with ecuadorians,
believe me, we have had of time of sharing our struggles of living amongst the poor, not getting excited about much of anything but time off, struggling to see the beauty and love around us, not feeling engaged and feeling helpless with what we are doin...it has really helped me to look at the grand scene of my time here and the great opportunity it is to live, work, experience God in a new way and be in a differnt culture for a year of my life.

had a chance to visit the beach last weekend again with my canadian buddy greg (who just left, we worked together, good times) and his host parents, salinas and the ruta de sol, very pretty and nice to see the ocean and take a swim, had a retreat group here recently from de paul university, great group which is fun to show around.

for hte christmas season, planning on a nice dinner with all of us and sister annie who is the boss at the hansen´s disease hospital where some of us work, then heading to quito after christmas to experience more of the sierra and life in the capital of ecuador, perhaps go to the center of the earth as they call it! temperatures there ar ethe same as san diego cause its 9,000 feet in the air and its on the equator!

my parents come in about 5 weeks, jan. 26th! so im already excited for that, i´m looking forward to seeing if they have learned any spanish when they arrive after listening to those spanish help tapes, we´ll see mom and dad.

side notes
my college buddy casey, who´s a youth pastor in san diego, just got engaged, congrats casey and erin!
special thanks to mrs. kugath´s fourth grade class, and my fourth grade teacher, for the encouraging christmas cards, fantastic!

prayer requests
1. People will understand and celebrate christmas for the true reason of remembering Jesus and his birth in the U.S., Ecuador and all over.
2. That families here in Duran who cannot afford to give any gifts to their children will be unified and celebrate the gift of love and family.
3. That the christmas break will be a refreshing time before the new year and as we celebrate here away from family back home that we can still be united.

Thanks to everyone for the prayers and thoughts, I hope for a great Christmas with the fam and friends as we push through the week.

Blessings.
sam