Here Maria, Tosagua Habitat Director, prepares me with the sequence of events that was to take place during the ceremony.Ecuadorians enjoy both giving and receiving speeches, particularly having to do with the work in which organizations such as Habitat engage. Thus, I have had many opportunities to interpret welcome and farewell speeches during my time here!
On this occasion, the schedule included: words of welcome from the local Habitat office, words from the National Director, words from a local collaborator, words and a blessing from the Global Village Coordinator, words from a city government representative, words from the team leader and members, words from the SEVEN families and a blessing from a Catholic priest.
Until I saw the following pictures.... I did not realize how outwardly my thoughts were expressed during these ceremonies!
In the above picture, the priest was blessing the habitat families, and volunteers. I do not think this particular man had experience working with interpreters: he did not stop his flow of speech until he finished his blessing, and would not pause for me to interrupt with the translation.
Next, I am concentrating extremely hard to remember everything that the priest said. When he finally paused, I tried to recover his complete oration. With so much material, I was able to extract main ideas rather than a well phrased translation!
Although difficult, it was quite exciting to know that I was providing the link between the volunteers and the representatives of the town of Tosagua that had assembled that evening.
Below, I am providing a simpler service: helping the police chief pronounce the name of a volunteer to whom he is presenting a certificate of thanks.
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