Just before midnight on February 1st the mercury dipped to -39 degrees but a group of Manitoba to Ecuador volunteers and supporters didn’t notice the cold. They were waiting at the James Richardson International Airport in Winnipeg with eyes glued to the descending stairway waiting for three very important guests to arrive. The plane landed, passengers began appearing at the top of the stairs, a few other tired greeters waved or even called greetings up the stairs when their friends arrived. It seemed to take another forever, but at just after1:00 a.m. Adrian Briones, Alex Gonzalez and Junior Parraga took their first step toward a five month adventure in Manitoba.
“Stop talking about dreams; dreams are so far away and don’t always happen. Simply decide this is going to happen and then become a problem solver until it works out,” were Miriam Stobbe Reimer’s words about a year-and-a-half earlier in a restaurant just outside Puerto Lopez, Ecuador. That was the paradigm shift, that was when the Manitoba to Ecuador teams was radically refocused to provide a cross-cultural educational and English immersion experience for the young players connected to Los Canarios. Hanover School Division gave permission to two boys to come for a semester of study at the SRSS in December of 2012. After one year of working toward fund-raising, determining who would be the first to come and wondering about how this would all work out, Adrian, Alex and Junior stepped into the coldest night air they had ever encountered.
Junior explains (in near fluent English) that after five months of studying at the SRSS he will be able to choose his job upon high school graduation. Puerto Lopez has been identified by the Ecuadorian government as the next tourist target destination for development. By speaking and reading English, Junior can work in any part of the tourist world if he chooses to, or enter into businesses with an offer to help them make connections to a broader working world, or pursue any other idea that may present itself over the next few years.
Very much work has gone into the gap between “the impossible dream” of 2011 and the now real future opportunities available for the players from Los Canarios. Almost 5000 scarves from Otavalo have been sold between Steinbach, Winnipeg, Ashern and as far away as Beaverlodge, Alberta. Each scarf sold helps provide financial support to about 75 people, from the workers in the factory in Otavalo where they are made to the Villacresses Toala family who purchase and ship them to Canada to the 30 boys and young men who play soccer in the white, black and red shirts of Los Canarios. Talented singers and dancers have performed many times at Artists for Ecuador events, donating their time and talent so that the profits of the night could go into the account to cover student scholarships. The generosity of many people in and near to Steinbach who have attended information and fund-raising dinners took care of the financial requirements to pay for passports, Canadian visas, airfare and insurance for the travelers.
Once the where-with-all to come was taken care of, it was time for the actual Canadian experience to begin. The first day of school began four hours before school did. CBC asked the Ecuadorians to appear on their Information Morning Show to explain what they were doing here (making new friends, learning English), and why they had chosen to come (the chance to improve their futures).
And then came school. The hallways of the SRSS don’t only look full at 8:30 a.m. of the first day of the semester, they are full. Never before had Alex and Junior seen so many students, so many teachers and EAs, so many computers, so many vocational labs, so many … in one building, and all working together. Kristy Zabowski, who the boys knew from her previous two visits to Puerto Lopez, welcomed them into her English as Another Language class and started working on simple communication requirements. Many of the athletic activities in physical education didn’t need words to explain how the game worked. Kim Friesen taught the boys to improve their comprehension and communication skills in her English Language Arts class along with some help from Rambert Kehler, a student who is fluent in Spanish as well as in English and who had offered to be a tutor/guide/friend for the boys when they arrived. And Pat Janke’s Spanish classes learned pronunciation and vocal rhythms from native speakers while the boys learned English form them in exchange.
Learning English wasn’t all that happened in the classes and hallways of the SRSS over the past five months. The Ecuadorians were amazed and impressed first by the friendliness of their reception, and then the compassion shown to them, and by extension to Los Canarios back in Puerto Lopez. Ronny Moina, a teammate of the boys, faced certain destitution and despair when his father was killed in an automobile accident on April 9th. He was going to have to quit school, find a job, and at age 14 take over the task of supporting his family (mother and five sisters) because he was the only male left in the family. If his work wasn’t sufficient to keep them together, the family would have been dispersed into the homes of relatives, neighbours or others kind-hearted enough to take someone in so they could survive. When the students and staff of the SRSS heard Junior make an announcement about the plight of his friend, and asked them to consider finding a way to help, they responded in incredible ways. The C U Change committee had set a goal of raising $1200 – $600 for six months of groceries so the family knew they would be able to eat and another $600 to pay for school uniforms and supplies so that the five school age children could in fact return to school a month later. One day later that goal of $1200 was surpassed by over $4000, meaning the money to help the family to establish a micro-business for a long-term sustainable life was also possible. Junior said, “I feel so helpless when I think of Ronny. No one in Puerto Lopez can help him or his family. But here, people are kind, and they are generous. Maybe they can find a way to help him.” And help him they did! Ronny’s whole family expressed their immeasurable gratitude in a video-conference to a people they have never met, to people who have allowed them to continue to live together as a family. The presence of the Ecuadorian boys has helped the students and staff of the SRSS craft a whole new component to the identity of the school as a group that successfully works together to make the world a better place.
The generosity of spirit, and pocketbook, didn’t end with the students of the SRSS as a whole community of friends surrounded the Ecuadorian fellows for their time in Steinbach. Marie Dueck handed me a large casserole dish with the instructions, “your job is to eat what is in this pan, and then bring it back to me. My job will be to fill the pan with more food and deliver it to you,” which she did multiple times. Cy Wiebe, on behalf of the Kleefeld EMC stopped by with an armload of casseroles (My favourite food in the world is casserole now! says Adrian) just an hour after Larry and Marigold Peters from the Old Church Bakery delivered a dozen loaves of bread. Anne Kornelson delivered many loaves of bread, still warm from her oven, while gifts of cookies, other baked good, eggs and pasta helped keep my cupboards and refrigerator stocked.
Eight year-old David Rodriguez and his eleven year-old brother Stiven were the perfect language bridge and support for the boys when they arrived. David and Stiven are fluent in both Spanish and English and were immediately able to model that languages can be learned, and were able to translate when and where it was necessary to help facilitate communication through the early days after arrival. Irai Rodriguez connected the boys to the South Eastman Immigration Monday night futsol with an international collection of players (many of whom spoke Spanish) and followed that up by providing an opportunity for the boys to tell their story at the local Spanish church. Ashleigh Priest invited the boys to continue their futsol on Wednesday nights with the Hanover Kickers and Steve Rebizant included them in the Thursday night games at the SRSS. Invitations into homes for meals of more new (and delicious) foods, excursions to snake pits in Narcisse, visits to museums locally as well as in Winnipeg, Piston’s hockey games, going to a cinema to see a movie, swimming in an aquatic centre rather than in an ocean, snow storms followed by cold storms, followed by more snow and cold, sledding in Marchand, making a snowman, having snowball fights and being required to wear helmets while biking and seat-belts while in a car were among some of the firsts that kept on happening every month.
“Wow! The friendliness of the people. The people here are so good,” according to Adrian when asked about a highlight of his time here. Adrian is accustomed to helping others, having been an assistant coach for Los Canarios for the past five years, a big-brother to many of the young boys associated with the club and by supporting his parents and siblings along the way. Here Adrian has experienced other people caring for him as he has diligently offered tutoring and language support to the Spanish students at the SRSS as well as to Ken Klassen with lessons. Alex has soaked in the chance to focus on being just a student rather than a student and a worker whose income is required to help support the rest of his family. Junior, like Adrian, is already envisioning all the ways in which his newly developed language will assist and redirect his future options when it comes to studying as well as to working.
The lives of Adrian, Alex and Junior have been “changed” to quote Junior. But it is not only their lives that have been impacted. Students and staff at the SRSS have had their education extended beyond the classroom in multiple ways by crossing paths with these young men. All the people who have interacted with them have learned about their courage in coming to Canada without ever having so much as a sleepover previously, the gentleness and kindness in their responses to those around them, the interest they have shown in others, and their constant gratitude for “all that God has given them through the hands and feet of all the Jesuses in the here and now” (Adrian referencing Oscar Romero). And, thanks to the Hanover School Division, many more lives will be changed in future semesters. The board has just updated their arrangement with Manitoba to Ecuador and has given permission for up to three players from Los Canarios per semester to come to Hanover to immerse themselves in English, to learn about other cultures and to experience the friendliness of the people in and around Steinbach.
Sometimes saying thank you seems a small thing to say, but sometimes it is all that can be said to the many people who have made the past five months a “WOW” experience for three young men returning to Ecuador on July 3rd. Hearing these stories makes Jonathan, Ronoldo and Stalin anxious for August 20th to arrive, so that they can board a plane for the first time and come to Steinbach to experience the next chapter of this fantastic story.
manitobatoecuador 