“We are all in the same storm, but not in the same boat”

Dear sisters, I was asked to write my experience while living in Ecuador and that is what I am going to do.

On March 11th, 2020, I arrived to Quito, Ecuador’s capital, from Chile, following my missionary dream that was born when I was a novice in Lima in the years 1990 and 1991.

In this missionary experience, my assigned community is Quininde, located in Esmeralda province, Ecuador. However, by the pandemic, I am still living in Quito waiting for “better times.”

Waiting is a difficult attitude for me, especially now that I wish so much to arrive to “the promised land.” To stay here waiting has become a conversion, patience and disposition process. It is an even bigger process when I am without being able to move because of this virus, which I do not know where it comes from and that it attacks poor people cruelly. This is why I named this experience “we are in the same storm, but not in the same boat.” I think it is very suggestive.

That’s it. We, the humanity, are living the same storm, but the boats in which we are on are quite different. It is not the same to cross this storm in an ocean liner, in a cruise ship, a boat, or a canoe. I think most of our poor peoples are on a canoe, rowing outdoors, without health resources that can protect them. They scarcely have what they need to eat and the necessary space for keeping the social distance suggested for avoiding contagion. In some places there is not even access to water to wash your hands, which is the first protection step we need to take.

What is this virus that it expanded so fast? I had the H1N1 experience in Chile. I felt scared and uncertain. I even had a relative who got it and who was very close to die. It seems that Covid-19 is more deadly.

And why WHO and the superheroes who drive our technology, economy, politics and so many other aspects could not warn us about what was about to occur? I think the most probable reason is “Convenience.” How tourism, commercial Exchange, flights, etc. was going to be suspended during holidays in the south hemisphere? Economy is what comes first for the “masters of this world” and for that, they keep on sacrificing other humans.

Here in Quito, in our beautiful community-house surrounded by the beautiful landscape of the mountains which is sometimes washed by non-stop rain and warmed by a radiant sun, I heard and watch news and by WhatsApp to keep myself in communication with external reality. I know about many people who are infected, other people who after forty-five days have come back to the streets to sell their products to get some money to get some food for their homes. I know about health workers around the world who keep themselves on the front to fight this pandemic. I know about some sisters’ relatives who have been infected and I worried about my sister Erika, the most vulnerable of the sisters, whom I trust to God every day. I keep on waiting for “better times,” doing everything at home and focusing on strengthen my faith against all hopelessness, searching for what God wants from me in this context.

Here in Quito, in our beautiful community-house surrounded by the beautiful landscape of the mountains which is sometimes washed by non-stop rain and warmed by a radiant sun, I heard and watch news and by WhatsApp to keep myself in communication with external reality. I know about many people who are infected, other people who after forty-five days have come back to the streets to sell their products to get some money to get some food for their homes. I know about health workers around the world who keep themselves on the front to fight this pandemic. I know about some sisters’ relatives who have been infected and I worried about my sister Erika, the most vulnerable of the sisters, whom I trust to God every day. I keep on waiting for “better times,” doing everything at home and focusing on strengthen my faith against all hopelessness, searching for what God wants from me in this context.

I am encouraged by the gestures that people from the faith community, where the sisters in Quito participate. They make phone calls, deliver fruits and vegetables to those in need and they even deliver roses. Poor people are our friends and along with them we keep on building our ways. There’s still some hope, I will resist, and by God’s grace I will be able to reach my “promised land: Quininde.”

Here in Quito, in our beautiful community-house surrounded by the beautiful landscape of the mountains which is sometimes washed by non-stop rain and warmed by a radiant sun, I heard and watch news and by WhatsApp to keep myself in communication with external reality. I know about many people who are infected, other people who after forty-five days have come back to the streets to sell their products to get some money to get some food for their homes. I know about health workers around the world who keep themselves on the front to fight this pandemic. I know about some sisters’ relatives who have been infected and I worried about my sister Erika, the most vulnerable of the sisters, whom I trust to God every day. I keep on waiting for “better times,” doing everything at home and focusing on strengthen my faith against all hopelessness, searching for what God wants from me in this context.

I am encouraged by the gestures that people from the faith community, where the sisters in Quito participate. They make phone calls, deliver fruits and vegetables to those in need and they even deliver roses. Poor people are our friends and along with them we keep on building our ways. There’s still some hope, I will resist, and by God’s grace I will be able to reach my “promised land: Quininde.”

May 14th, 2020, Quito.

Edith Ponce Castro.

Dominican Missionary Sister of the Rosary.