Ecuador: Living off one dollar a day

the trip would have to be Florence, Venice and Sienna.

Florence is a gorgeous city so filled with history and culture that one cannot help but smile and want to spend as much time in the magnificent place as possible.

Venice is a city that must have been dreamt into life. Riding the gondolas along the Grand Canal is an activity we must all take part in during our time on earth.

Sienna is a classic Italian town featuring one of Italy’s most extravagant plazas. The group was able to climb the town’s clock tower and view not only Sienna but Italy’s countryside for miles in every direction.

Every city we visited gave the group a better understanding of life in Italy not only in today’s world but in addition to the perspective of Italian culture during the 15th and 16th centuries when the Italian Renaissance took place.

I will remember the cities we visited down the line but what will really stick with me were the relationships I was able to build.

My mind will never let me forget the people I met on the trip.

Never will I forget Shane and Tim. The hours we spent on the back of the bus reminiscing our days in Italy and our pasts at Cabrini.

Never will I forget our two hour classic Italian group dinners eating the most amazing food while participating in hilarious conversations.

Never will I forget Lorenzo our bus driver, whom had a strikingly close resemblance to Fabio, the infamous Italian male model.

As we boarded the plane in Rome ready to return to Philadelphia my mind was filled with amazing memories. I could not help but smile.

I sat down in my seat and looked over at Shane. Before he was only someone I could leave my imagination to speculate about. Now he was my friend.

I glanced in his direction and this time he looked back.

“Good trip,” I said. “Great trip,” Shane replied.

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SPORTS EDITOR

JH729@CABRINI EDU

For my spring break I didn’t take the typical trip to Cancun, Florida or any other vacation spot. Instead I spent my 10 days off from school living in poverty in Duran, Ecuador.

Why, you may ask, would I ever want to spend spring break living off of $1 per day? But, the experience I had with Rostro de Cristo was much more valuable than anything I had ever learned before.

Nine others and I interviewed and began planning for the trip since about October 2007. Even then I really didn’t know what to expect and what I would encounter during my travels.

We flew into Guayaquil, a major city in Ecuador and drove to the neighborhood we were staying at. I was amazed as we crossed the first bridge to get where we were going. The houses were huge, like the mansions you would see in Florida or California. Our leader explained that this was a very wealthy section of Ecuador and it was obvious.

Soon enough we were crossing another bridge. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing; the houses were made of wood and looked like broken down shacks for the most part. The area we were entering into after the rich wealthy area was Duran.

We stayed in a neighborhood called Antonio Jose de Sucre; it is the most developed of the neighborhoods in Duran. They didn’t have running water and most didn’t have septic systems. The majority of the roads had just been paved about two months prior to our visit. The houses were one floor with typically 2 rooms, a living room and bedroom, definitely not with enough sleeping room.

We also visited a neighborhood called Arbolito, which was the second most developed in Duran. Arbolito had about one paved road, the rest were dirt and because of the rainy season had been under about two feet of water. The houses were very similar to those of AJdS still with no running water or septic systems. Electricity was mostly pirated from other houses.

The least developed neighborhood we visited was 5 de Junio, which was basically a swamp. The houses were in the worst condition I had ever seemed and could have ever imagined. All of the houses were standing on stilts that didn’t look very stable and had neither running water, septic systems, paved roads or any sort of trash pick-up.

The Director of the Rostro de Cristo asked up the question, “Why do you think people would want to live here?” We were all puzzled. “Because wherever they came from was better than this,” he said. I couldn’t even imagine what could possibly be worse than living in 5 de Junio. and movies after they end. Astrology.com- I go to this site to check my horoscope. It offers a variety of options from daily to yearly “predictions” in life, love and everything in between. Want to see what’s in the stars for you? Check it out!

Two thirds of Ecuadorian people live between $1 and $2 per day. As American’s we are born into a culture with opportunity and freedom. Many of the Ecuadorian people struggle each day just to feed their family. These people are not poor because of a natural or man-made disaster; it was what they were born into.

The transition going into the trip was easy. Simple living was not the problem but coming back to the U.S. to continue my normal life was and still is a challenge.

The RdC program has done a lot to help them out but they can’t do it alone. Because we are born into such a great country it is our responsibility to help the Ecuadorians and the other one billion people around the world that also live off of $1 per day.

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FEATURES EDITOR

BLL722@CABRINI EDU

As a junior in college it’s easy to believe that I spend most of my time on the computer using the internet. Sometimes it’s for work but most of the time it’s for play. These are some of the sites I go on when I’m bored or just flat out procrastinating: Fanfiction.net- Ever seen a movie and wish you could change the ending?

Or want your two favorite soap opera characters to get together? This site allows you to read and write stories about your favorite movie, TV show, book etc. Not all the stories are first class but there are some great ones and I love being able to be a part of my favorite shows

Spoilerfix.com- If you’re a TV junkie like me then you have a lot of shows to keep up with. Most of the time I like to kick back and let the plot surprise me but there are times when I NEED to know what will happen. This is a great site that has spoilers for a ton of current TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Lost. Imdb.com- I go to the Internet Movie Database so I can be up-to-date on what movies are coming out. It also has biographies for almost every actor, director and writer I can think of as well as pictures and quotes. Wikipedia.org- This site is a great source of help to me when I’m doing my homework because they have a page for almost any subject! It’s updated frequently and users are able to add information to it.