We arrived at the foundation bright and early ready to begin. I will be helping out Uri and Julia and Geo, two other volunteers will be with Jazmin. We were assigned two locations in the North, the others will go to two zones in the south. Our first location was under a bridge outside the Parque California, also known as Peca, here you will find all types of street vendors, including the children we are in search of.
When we arrived Uri pointed out the municipal police and said that our chances of finding kids may be reduced because they tend to scatter when the police are there for fear of harassment. So, we crossed the road and began looking when we spotted a sweet little boy, definitely new to selling, lacking the confidence of an experienced worker, he only looked about 8 years old. We bough water from him and asked if he goes to school, he shyly answered yes. We noted his appearance and the time and place we saw him and when he left we discussed our disbelief that he goes to school.
Today and tomorrow our aim is simply to observe and note what children are around, when and with whom. Throughout the day we spotted four or five BonIce boys (BonIce is a brand of ice cream, they can be found at all the main intersections) as young as twelve and some older boys selling water. We also saw a few kids working as the bus assistants but they were two hard to note as they come and go.
Next we headed to a large intersection where we grabbed an almuerzo (Lunch generally around $1.50 and include soup, a main and a juice). In previous years this had been a well known hang out for street kids but today we didn’t encounter any. Instead we headed to Alberada, to another main intersection. Here we found two jugglers, around 12 years old and three windscreen cleaners. The first girl we saw all day was one of the windscreen cleaners. The other kids were all friends but she was working alone. As we sat and observed from the side of the road we discovered that the women sitting next to us, a women around 25 years old was her mother. After the young girl made money she would take it over to her mother who sat watching, adding soap to the water bottles that she used for cleaning. Uri told me she is very aware that this happens and that sometimes parents hide around corners and collect the money but said she had never seen someone act with so little discretion.
Tonight I cancelled my flight to Caracas, I lost quite a bit of money but decided that I really wanted to take part in Operation Amistad and so whilst everyone else is in Argentina, Galapagos, Columbia or the Jungle, I’ll be in good old Guayaquil. But I know I won’t regret my decision.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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