Kids

Although Ecuador's total fertility rate (average number of kids per woman in her lifetime) has been dropping steadily over the years, that trend has seemed to skip over the province that we're in, Morona Santiago (equivalent of a state).  Macas is filled with children.  In any given day I see more pregnant than non-pregnant women, holding the hands of little children.  Children are running in the streets, playing in sports fields, and asking for rides home on the side of the freeway.  There is an official day in Ecuador dedicated to the child (el día del niño) which is something like mother's day but for children.  Apparently in the US every day is children's day, but in Ecuador there is a special day every year.  The little village we're working in, Sinai, had their children's celebration last weekend and we went to join in the festivities.

For a town of 600 people, we were surprised at the variety of activities planned for the day.  First was a soccer game that spanned several ages and girls and boys.  Afterwards there was a theater performance from the government sponsored theater troop for kids based in the nearby city as well as dance by some older kids that are enrolled in the dance program.  When the rain started everyone dissipated, but more activities were scheduled for the afternoon.  Pictures show us watching the soccer game.  The people from right to left are: Megan (works on the project), the president of the community, Tom (director of the project), me, Dolores (local woman working on the project) and 2 strangers. Also there's a shot of the performance, which first had some interactive songs and games with the kids before the theater and dance.  Picture shows the first dance performance, which is some sort of Andean traditional dance.

As I mentioned before, many children travel significant distances to go to school and have to wait for school buses or hitch a ride with a passer-by.  Lately our work has been ending around the same time as the school day, making us an ideal candidate to take kids to the city in the back of the truck.  One day 2 women with 2 year old kids were hitching a ride, and we convinced them to put the kids in the cab with us while they sat in the back.  In the US about 10 things about this situation would never occur, but here it's no problem. The kids sat with us and slept despite the fact that we're strangers, while their moms chatted in the back of the truck. I thought it was so cute I had to take a picture.  On many other days, little groups of kids flock to the truck and hop in the back together.  We yell to them to hold on tight! as we barrel down the road.  These kids are pretty resilient. On a really rainy day they huddled together under an umbrella which was also a sweet sight.