An insight into changing aspirations ...

One of the sponsored children came to give me her school report this week. She was about to accompany her mother, who is already in her sixties, to Colombia for medical treatment. We had an interesting conversation, which illustrates some of the ways people think around here.

Franci is seventeen, and about to start her final year of secondary school.

Me: How many brothers and sisters do you have?
Franci: I have 6 sisters and three brothers. The oldest is forty years old. My mother was 46 when she had me. I am the youngest.
Me: And how many nieces and nephews do you have?
Franci: Too many to count! There must be more than 20 of them. One of my sister´s just had a new baby boy. He is very cute with big wide eyes and beautiful curly hair. I¨m also a great-aunt.
Me: What do you hope to do when you finish school?
Franci: I hope to study nursing at University. I will need to work during the day and study in the evenings to be able to do that. My family tells me it is impossible. None of them have gone to University, but I would really love to be a professional.
Me: What age do you think you would like to be married?
Franci: Oh, maybe about 30. I want to complete my studies first, otherwise I won´t be able to. My sisters have all had children very young, and they are all trapped. It´s OK if your husband turns out to be kind, but most men are very controlling. They don´t let them out of the house. If they are mistreated they cannot run away because they have no means of making a living and providing for their children. I want to be able to have my own career and income.
I haven´t had a boyfriend yet. My sisters tell me not to until I have finished studying, because once you have a boyfriend babies come along! But some girls at school ask me if I am gay because I haven´t had a boyfriend yet. (Franci laughs). I just want to wait.
I do want to have a husband. I hope he will be very romantic and understanding. And I do want to have children, but just two or three. I want to be able to provide for them well and give them a good education.
I was talking to a woman the other day who has four children and wants to have a fifth. But I asked her why she was going to have another when she cannot even feed the ones she has. She doesn´t see the importance of educating her children. 
Me: What are you doing during your school holidays?
Franci: I have been doing a course at the evangelical church because I want to be baptised. Now I´m going to accompany my mother to Colombia because my sister lives there and can help her get free health care.
Me: I look forward to seeing you again when classes are about to begin again.

Recycling

Ecuador does not have cheap clothes and toys such as are available in shops like Primark and Tesco in Britain. Clothes are relatively expensive and making your own is still cheaper than anything you can buy ready made. Cheap toys are terrible quality - they would not pass safety standard test in the UK and often break in the first day or two. Toys of any quality cost money. Therefore I should not have been surprised that when I threw out my underwear as now too worn out for me to wear, I later saw it hanging on my neighbour´s washing line. Here people really do use things, mend things, and use them again, until they are completely destroyed.

Recycling is a way of making money. I walk past a large school on my way to check the PO box at the post office each week. Outside, they leave large sacks full of rubbish. Often, there is a little old woman sifting through the bags, hunting for anything that could be recycled that she can put in her cart. She takes these items to the recycling yard, they buy the items from her, and this is how she earns her living. 

Woman with recycling she has collected on her back at the recycling yard 

When I visit homes in Ecuador they are not full of clutter. People simply do not have many things. It certainly makes me stop and think before I purchase more and more. It makes me mend and reuse and recycle. It causes me to give things I no longer need to others who can use them, instead of throwing them in the bin. 
It makes me so thankful that I do not have to rummage through rubbish to make ends meet. It challenges me to hold on to less and be more generous with what I have.After all, "The earth is the Lord´s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it." Psalm 24 v 1. I should be sharing all that God has gracious given me with others.