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