Yesterday was my final day of volunteering and doing spanish lessons. It was sad in many respects, and I am aware of my privilege.

Wednesday night I took my host family, all 8 of them out for dinner, it was lovely. I am surprised it wasnt 10 to 12 of them. We went to the father of almedia restaurant which is a local legend about a priest who used to sneak out of the monastery at night for dalliances… until he ran into his own funeral… on that day he stopped. There is more to it but that’s the gist.

In the shelter, I helped them setup for Xmas on my last day. I also bought $150 worth of candy as a gift and thank you to the shelter for the homeless and office staff. I am not mentioning the money because “look at me” I am mentioning this for context. In Ecuador this is enough for a 50 large bags of candy which will be given out at Christmas to the addicts. Think about what you’ve spent $150 on…. we have a lot of privilege. It was bitter sweet because several faces had changed. People have 3 weeks in the rehabilitation program and then they try to place them with their families. The reality is that only 3 out of 10 will be able to move back to their families.

What about other support structures you ask. Those don’t really exist. You either have a family or you are on own? There isn’t a state pension etc. Isn’t that a change of perspective? I had a discussion with the host family’s son and he told me that this year was odd for him because at new year he would be with his friends rather than his family. Normally you are with your family at New Year. Family is every holiday.

Karina (my spanish teacher) has been awesome so for the last hour of our spanish class I took her out to the republic of Ecuador where we had hot chocolate and cake. I cannot understate how good hot chocolate is in Ecuador.