"It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others."
Sidney J. Harris
(Contributions from Jim Stark)
Still in Limon. The reception by the people here has been fabulous. They have taken us in and made us feel like one of their family. I believe having the Morningstar stay with various families in their homes was a very good move – the group has really come to know and understand a little of the culture of Ecuador in this way.
We were up not too early and dressed in grubbies. The objective of the day was to paint a local school – local meaning somewhere in the general area. It turned out the school was in a village named Yungantza around 30 minutes away, and out in the more rural part of the area. Very small school, only three classrooms in one building and a much smaller separate building that functioned as their library. The library had one wall with shelves on it, and with only maybe half of the shelves filled with books of various sorts. The school functioned to serve around 120 kids from the local area, from kindergarten thru high school. Last year there were 2 teachers, making $300 each from the Ecuadorian government to teach, but they were not paid so they resigned. What was left was the school superintendent (principle) and one other helper (I can’t remember his actual function). So these guys were the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker all in one.
Once the paint and supplies were ready, the kids attacked the school with gusto. They did a very good job of knocking out the painting, finishing the whole thing in around 4 hours. The school wanted a mural on one wall, so Shane and Kieri came up with the idea of a sun surrounded by hand prints representing the sun’s rays. Most of the kids signed their names as well, so they left a handprint and signature as a piece of themselves in a remote part of Ecuador. Way cool!!
Lunch was served to the group – a traditional Shuar (local indigenous tribe name) lunch. It consisted of meal made out of palm tree trunk in the form of a potato, plus some fish and chicken. The palm trunk potato, fish and chicken were rolled up in palm leaves and slow roasted over some charcoal grills. They cooked the meal for the entire time we were painting, so by the time we were done with painting the school the texture and flavor were absolutely delicious and literally fell off the bones. Painting continued to about 3 pm. The group worked hard. Because the paint we used was oil based, we had to use some turpentine to try to clean up. Afterwards, Morningstar played games with all the students. It was incredible to see the way the young Ecuadorian kids were taking to ours. All of Morningstar came out of their shells and befriended these kids who have so little and seem so happy. It was a great learning experience for all of them
Then it was back to the bus and back to Limon. So the kids wanted to get cleaned up really good. We allowed them some time to do this, and then it was dinner time. We went to a pizza place – probably the only pizza place in a 100 mile or more radius from Limon. The pizza was actually quite good, and most of the kids consumed it hardily.
As a farewell to us for coming to their town, they had prepared a small production of their own. It was put on by some of the kids from Yungantza, so it was traditional Shuar dancing. The mayor of the town did some preliminaries, thanking us for coming, and then there were 3 gifts given: 1 to Elizabeth VanLueven for befriending the women of the Yungantza and promising to send Mormon missionaries to the community and books for the library. Then they performed 3 dances. Keep in mind that a slight rain was coming down, and this ending ceremony was held in Limon’s central plaza. But no one seemed to care, and a pretty good crown gathered to watch. The kids (and adult leaders) performed the first dance, and then they pulled in our kids and repeated the dance, teaching it to them. It was a blast to watch, and most of our kids picked up on the rhythm and steps pretty quickly. The same was repeated for the second dance, and then the third dance they did on their own. They thanked us again from coming to Limon. They said over ad over that we were the first group to come to their town to perform and provide service. They had others say they would come, but we were the first to live up to our word. We thanked them for being great hosts and mingled with the dignitaries and gathered crowd until Morningstar needed to get ready for the next phase of the evening - the Limon Prom.
The night was far from over. Our kids put on their Church clothes - all of them - and headed back to the Limon Colliseum/Gymnasium to dance the night away with the Limon youth. When they poked their head inside, it became apparent very fast that this was not a typical U.S. based prom. Entire families were present, dressed to the nines. A few older men approached our girls and asked them to dance. They turned them down most of the time. We watched every MStar person the entire night. They had instructions to leave at 11:30, but I think they lingered until 12 midnight. They had great stories to tell the next morning.
All in all, a satisfactory ending to a wonderful day. Tomorrow, we head to the extreme sports center of Ecuador - Los Banos, another 5 hours bus ride.
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