Our journeys within work

Continuing on from the last post about my journey into work, here's a look at the journeys Emily, myself and our JUCONI colleagues make in a typical week at work as cmap volunteers.

On workshop days Emily and I load the up the Art Club materials box, pack the back of the JUCONI truck with chairs and tables if necessary and then head into the north of Guayaquil with JUCONI colleague Ronald driving in his Guayaco Grand Theft Auto style and braving chaotic traffic.  This fisherman's roundabout is often a spot where we see jugglers busking at the traffic lights.

Here we pass through the vortex tunnel that brings us out really near our house even though we've already driven for ages…

Coming out the other side we head further north, passing the Barcelona stadium, jetting along the busy flyover Perimetral and at "la entrada del 8" (a spot under another flyerover where a lot of street vendors sell water and fruits and where many JUCONI children have first been spotted) take one of three routes:

1. On Mondays into Socio Vivienda 2, meaning "Social Housing", these are breeze block buildings laid out in blocks named by animals, with cemented streets, where families have been rehoused because of unsafe conditions along the edge of the estuary where they previously lived in the south of Guayaquil.  Having regrouped families who previously lived in different neighbourhoods in the south, there are serious issues in Socio Vivienda with gangs, robbery and drug use.  One of the issues that we are directly affected by in Art Club is that there is very little for the children to do outside of school hours, and how common it is for small children to be left unsupervised.  This means that there are always troops of tiny children wandering the streets with no adults in sight, who are obvioulsly attracted to our art activity when we run Art Club in the open air of the football pitch, meaning that it has been impossible to stick to the 20 children limit in the workshops. 







Although the houses are all identical in struture and layout in Socio Vivienda families personalise the fronts (in SV1 the rooves are green and in SV2 they are red).  The grey breezeblock is painted in multiple colours and plant beds are set up.  In some cases extensions are added on, and in an are where there is high unemployment, many small businesses are run from the home, like the delicios homemade coconut ice-cream we buy for $0.25 that come on small sticks. 

Socio Vivienda to Sergio Toral:

2. On Wednesdays we head into Sergio Toral, which of the three sectors we work in feels like it has the most strong sense of community, at least amongst our children, who all know where one another's houses are.  This is a neighbourhood of 'invasiones', meaning that the houses have been built without permission by families migrating into Guayaquil from the countryside or coastal towns.  Here the streets are earth, so there are huge ruts that have us boucing up and down in the truck (you have to be careful not to bang your head, and when my coccxy first fractured these were some of the most uncomfortable moments of our working week) and now that it is rainy season there is a huge amount of mud, restricting access to some streets.   Here the houses are built of either cane or cement, often have tin roofing and cane fences.  Many of the houses are painted and there is a profusion of beautiful plants and flowers that make the streets beautiful.  

 3. Our fourth workshop is in Nueva Prosperina on Thursdays.  Another sector of 'invasiones', it is made up of a mixture of cane and cement houses like in Sergio Toral, where the roads are also made of earth that gets really muddy with all the rain at this time of year.  Here we work in the local school La Sagrada Familia, which is just along from a spot where buses gather at the end of their routes.  Again houses are painted in various colours and often decorated with plants and flowers.

With the workshops done we retrace our journey back into the centre to the JUCONI office and after unloading the truck it's time to head home.  

Take a look at the next post for what a typical journey home looks like.