Upon getting to school this morning, we were all milling around our classroom waiting for Faba and Lenore to arrive when one of the girls, Sara from New York (aka. "Manhattan") burst inside and announced that she just got a call from Faba telling her that two of our classmates were involved in a car accident last night and that he would be late, but for all of us to remain calm and that he would fill us in when he got there. So, tense and uneasy, we looked around us, taking stock of who was there and who wasn´t and we quickly realized that the only two people missing were Brooke and Sara from Washington state (aka. "Walla Walla").
We waited nervously for about fifteen minutes or so until Faba finally arrived. He entered the classroom wordlessly and immediately, everyone sat down and grew quiet, waiting for him to tell us what had happened. Apparently, after a nice, long day playing soccer in the park yesterday, Sara and Brooke went one of their host brothers to get some icecream at about 8:00PM. As far as what actually occurred, all Faba said is that the police have one story and the driver of the other car has another version but, basically, it looks like the driver of the other car made a left turn where he should not have, hit Brooke and Sara´s car, and somehow launched it into a few spins in the air.
Sometime immediately following the accident, someone (some absolutely amoral creep) ran up and stole Sara´s bag with her phone out of the car (which is known to happen here with traffic accidents). However, Sara was okay enough to call Faba from Brooke´s phone to tell him (as he related to us today in class), "Hey Faba, so guess what happened?" It turned out that Sara had a broken arm and had to have reconstructive surgery last night on her elbow due to injuries from broken glass and stuff, but she should be able to return to class in a couple days. Brooke´s semester here, unfortunately, is over--she broke her hip and essentially has to remain horizontal for about a month. She is going to be medevacuated back to the States in about a week or so. The host brother is in critical condition with head injuries.
Lenore and Faba spent all night at the hospital with Sara and Brooke and Lenore remained at the hospital with Brooke all day today while Faba came to lead our class. Faba assured us that they would both be fine and that they were both very lucky, but when he then tried to move on and begin our activities for today, it was definitely very hard to concentrate on anything else for quite some time.
Unfortunately, on top of what happened to Sara and Brooke, we had two speakers scheduled for today with some very heavy, serious, depressing subject matter: one woman who came to speak in favor of abortion rights in Ecuador (which do not exist here basically--not even in cases of children who become pregnant as a result of sexual abuse, not in cases of rape--never, basically) and a young Polish woman not that much older than us to talk about her experience in Ecuadorean prison (she was essentially manipulated into being a drug mule at age 19, got caught and thrown into the incredibly corrupt Ecuadorean judicial system, and now, 6 years later, is still unable to return to her country because she is currently still on parole). Two incredibly interesting talks, but once they were both over, everyone was obviously completely shell-shocked. Definitely a very heavy, tough, depressing day.
I hope that I have something a bit happier to relate the next time I write. Until then, I will be thinking of Brooke and Sara and wishing them well (hopefully will be able to visit them in a couple days in the hospital).
Ciao,
Alex
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