Well, my time here in Ecuador is coming to a close. I've had my big goodbye party with all of my friends, taught my final English classes (in front of all the students' parents!), given goodbye presents to my host family, reflected and evaluated my experience at my organization's final camp, and spent an awesome vacation with my friend Ellen at the beach. I can't believe time has flown by so fast--how can 6 months be gone already? I've learned so much during this trip and changed a lot, too. I've learned about life and who I am and what I want. I'm growing into the person I really want to be. In fact, I AM the person I want to be, with crazy and wonderful dreams and a future full of life. I'm so excited for what's to come yet sad at the same time to see this part come to an end. Ecuador has been awesome, an unforgettable memory, but there are a few things I will be GLAD to leave behind:
- the constant cat calls!
- the "choclo" (corn on the cob). It is completely tasteless. Can't wait to eat good old Indiana sweetcorn!
- having to buy water. Water will be free again!!
- washing my clothes three times and having them still not be clean
- having the responsibilities of a "real adult"--teaching full-time and being expected to do things maybe beyond my ability. I get to be a college student with only herself to think about!
- having my host mom as my boss. There were just major personality clashes.
- paying for internet
and...
- milk in a bag. Who invented that? Because it's dumb. The milk goes everywhere every time you try to pour it. Hello milk cartons!
However, there are also things I will really, really miss:
- the mountains. Living in such a beautiful place really makes me wonder why I've been living in ugly Indiana for my whole life. Every single time I look outside and see the mountains, I am instantly happier.
- the fresh bread (almost) every day for breakfast. Yum!
- the easy-to-eat-on-the-go yogurt. You don't need a spoon!
- how cheap everything is. I get angry when an Ecuadorian lunch costs $3.
- the weather! Eternal spring! Although, when I return home, I believe it will actually be hotter in Indiana than here which will be kinda nice.
- public transportation. I will hate seeing my money disappear once again into the car gas tank.
- the faith aspect. I love seeing how deeply spiritual these people are and how their religion doesn't only show up in church but is the backbone for how they live their lives, and in a good way. It seems in the US we have a lot of fake religious people and seeing real religion here is refreshing
- the Spanish. Sometimes I'll start watching a movie and be completely surprised that the language I hear coming out of their mouths is English!
- the infinite amounts of fruit! Pineapple, banana, mango, papaya, chillimoya, watermelon!
- my awesome friends here. They've definitely been the best part of this trip, and I'm going to miss them so much. NYC 2011!!
- the exotic-ness and excitement of living in a foreign country. It's so easy to slip right back into a boring routine in a boring place because it's easy and well, you're happy enough. But even though it's scarier, harder, and a lot riskier, living your life as an adventure and fulfilling your crazy dreams, I've realized, is so much better. A book I just read (called The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein) quotes, "That which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny." So why not? Do what you love, love what you do. And live your dreams, no matter what.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Wow.
One and a half weeks left at my school. Four weeks until I leave Ecuador. Two and a half months until I go to college. Ahh! It's so surreal. Even after 5 months I continue to think, "I'm in ECUADOR! I can't believe it!!" And now, I find myself thinking, "Oh wow, I'm in Ecuador, and I'm only here for one month more! I still can't believe it!!" So I'm trying to make the most of my time left here--finishing up all the traveling I want to do, getting the kids ready for their exams, and even starting to think about how I'm going to pack all of my stuff back into those very small suitcases to come back home. I'm ready for home but at the same time I can't bear to think about leaving. It's just gone by too fast! But I'm excited about what's to come (summer at home, college, work, hopefully more travel) and Ecuador has just provided the spring board to jump into all of it.
I crossed two more places off my list of "Places to See," marking an end to my travels until my two weeks of vacation at the end. Cuenca, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its colonial-style streets and myriad of grand churches, was beautiful, and we managed to catch it on a gorgeously sunny weekend. Mostly we marveled at the churches, enjoyed feeling the wind in our hair as we walked along the river, browsed through an oddly assorted museum (which included a whole exhibit of shrunken heads), and were wowed by the biggest Incan ruins in Ecuador.
The other place: Mindo. I went last week with my school on a fieldtrip. There was lots of goofy singing on the bus which gave it a summer camp-like atmosphere, and my little devils turned into angels when they all fell asleep on the way back. We saw butterflies and hummingbirds and even took a dip in the river. That was definitely the best part: an entire school of kids stripped down to just their underpants splashing around in the river and screaming happily under the uncomfortable looks of their parents. (Did I really send my kid to this school??)
I also went this past weekend to two of Quito's best museums, Museo Nacional del Banco Central and Museo de Guayasamin. The former offered a large assortment of pots, jewelry, tools, and art from the first peoples of Ecuador and followed their evolution from native hunter-gatherers to being conquered by the Incan to then being conquered by the Spanish. The latter featured the works of the most famous painter in Ecuador, Oswaldo Guayasamin, who is a contemporary painter (dying only about 10 years ago in 1999) known for his attention given to the oppressed people in Latin America. The museum itself was quite grim, displaying only Guayasmin's most macabre pieces--paintings of crying women, dead children, skeletons, and death--but his style, despite being depressing, is amazing. I even bought two of his prints to hang in my dorm room next year =)
Other than those small trips, it's mostly just been a lot of last minute shopping, filling out forms and evaluations to wrap up my work and experience here, and getting ready for my upcoming two weeks of vacation! My awesome friend Ellen is coming to visit during those two weeks so I'm playing a fantastic trip to the beach for us and then a trip to the Amazon for myself. I'm so ready to be done with work--I can't wait for vacation!
I crossed two more places off my list of "Places to See," marking an end to my travels until my two weeks of vacation at the end. Cuenca, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its colonial-style streets and myriad of grand churches, was beautiful, and we managed to catch it on a gorgeously sunny weekend. Mostly we marveled at the churches, enjoyed feeling the wind in our hair as we walked along the river, browsed through an oddly assorted museum (which included a whole exhibit of shrunken heads), and were wowed by the biggest Incan ruins in Ecuador.
The other place: Mindo. I went last week with my school on a fieldtrip. There was lots of goofy singing on the bus which gave it a summer camp-like atmosphere, and my little devils turned into angels when they all fell asleep on the way back. We saw butterflies and hummingbirds and even took a dip in the river. That was definitely the best part: an entire school of kids stripped down to just their underpants splashing around in the river and screaming happily under the uncomfortable looks of their parents. (Did I really send my kid to this school??)
I also went this past weekend to two of Quito's best museums, Museo Nacional del Banco Central and Museo de Guayasamin. The former offered a large assortment of pots, jewelry, tools, and art from the first peoples of Ecuador and followed their evolution from native hunter-gatherers to being conquered by the Incan to then being conquered by the Spanish. The latter featured the works of the most famous painter in Ecuador, Oswaldo Guayasamin, who is a contemporary painter (dying only about 10 years ago in 1999) known for his attention given to the oppressed people in Latin America. The museum itself was quite grim, displaying only Guayasmin's most macabre pieces--paintings of crying women, dead children, skeletons, and death--but his style, despite being depressing, is amazing. I even bought two of his prints to hang in my dorm room next year =)
Other than those small trips, it's mostly just been a lot of last minute shopping, filling out forms and evaluations to wrap up my work and experience here, and getting ready for my upcoming two weeks of vacation! My awesome friend Ellen is coming to visit during those two weeks so I'm playing a fantastic trip to the beach for us and then a trip to the Amazon for myself. I'm so ready to be done with work--I can't wait for vacation!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Time is flying by...
Time flies by so fast here that I don´t realize how long it´s been since I wrote a blog! Sorry! I haven't been doing much traveling lately, since things have been getting busy with the school as the end of the year draws near, but that doesn't mean nothing's been happening. First off, we've celebrated several special occasions. A volunteer from Germany named Lara, who's been here since last August, had her birthday a few weeks ago and to celebrate we all danced the night away at a salsa bar with a rocking live band. Our salsa lessons have been paying off! Great fun. Then, we had one volunteer, Natalie, leave for her hometown in Sweden, her 3 month stay here having flown by. We threw her a party and said our goodbyes =[ We miss you, Natalie! Mio, a volunteer from Switzerland, also left. We miss you as well! I also attended a family lunch to celebrate the graduation of cousin Alex from "doctor school." Mountains of food were consumed, resulting in a house full of very sleepy and full people. For Mother's Day, we took our mom shopping (my host siblings and I) and spent the day in Quito together. Afterwards, we returned home and spent the rest of the evening cleaning. We were doing such intense cleaning (I mean, on our hands and knees scrubbing the floor to death type of thing) that my brother kept joking, Hey look at Leslie. She's like Cinderella! And other such nonsense. But the reason for all of the cleaning was that...we had another minga, or building party! My wonderful mom in the States helped me get the word out that my school needed funds for several projects, including building a new classroom, buying computers, and buying a concrete top to cover the dangerous well in our yard. And guess what! You all raised more than $1300!! We're hoping to finish the classroom this week, we bought the lid for the well so that our kids won't risk falling in, we repainted all of the classrooms, and we hope to have enough to buy one computer! THANK YOU EVERYONE!!
As for life in general, every day we are entertained by our baby bunny, Pascualita, who is turning out to be the strangest bunny ever, one who gobbles up bits of orange and bread and refuses to touch a single carrot. My host mom treats her like a new baby, giving Pascuala her first bath (she looked like a wet rat. Poor thing), feeding her anything to her heart's desire, talking a mountain of baby-talk to her, and fiercely defending her from my host sister, Chavela, who wants to eat her when she's big enough. But now that we have a pet bunny, my host mom swears that she will never eat a rabbit ever again.
At work, I've started giving private lessons to our two special needs girls, Talia and Xiomara. This has been a nice addition to break up the endless parade of English classes that I teach the rest of the week. It's very difficult, though, because I'm not quite sure how to get things through to the youngest, Xiomara. I hold up a red crayon, ask what color, and she says "Yellow!" (In Spanish. We haven't even started with English in the private lessons, though, in regular class, I've heard her say, in English, "My name is Xiomara!" which just makes me swell with pride. Hopefully, it will stick in her head.) So that's been interesting but great fun. Mostly we just play with dolls or read stories to help the girls gain confidence and independence.
This is the beginning of my fourth month here at the school, and I'm realizing some things. I understand now that this school is for special kids, not special in the same sense as Talia and Xiomara, but for kids of all different kinds. It's a truly "integrated" school as they call it. We have kids with major behavior problems, physical disabilities, issues at home, medical conditions, you name it. Some examples: I have a student who comes to school looking sad sometimes and when asked she tearfully says, "My grandfather doesn't love my mommy." Apparently, there were issues with her parents' marriage which resulted in major family drama. Our special needs girls also have been struggling with family issues, having recently discovered that their mom has cancer and their dad having recently returned after abandoning them. We have several kids who suffer from fits of anger that arise spontaneously and cause them to be escorted from class to calm down almost every day. And we have a girl who has a physical disability that causes her to walk funny which probably, untreated, is doing damage that will worsen her legs in the future. And also, there are two brothers whose parents have a horrible relationship; before their parents' divorce, the boys were forced to witness violent fights, once even involving a knife. Now, the eldest especially is prone to acting violent and only likes activities that involve hurting people or guns. All of this makes it really difficult for our kids to learn and behave appropriately. I compare my school to the schools of other volunteers and realize that my school is different. Not different in a bad way; it just makes teaching more of a challenge. But I'm getting used to that challenge, and finally I feel totally settled at the school.
And of course, I also had my 19th birthday last week! I had an absolutely wonderful day, despite it being the first birthday I've ever celebrated without my family. The kids at school made me birthday cards with help from the art teacher, and we made a pizza party with them all. Then it was off to a great salsa class, and when I returned home, I celebrated with my host family. We ate tons of junk food and they gave really sweet speeches and I blew out a candle they had stuck in a pizza. It was really chill and just fun.
To celebrate with my friends, we all went to Baños this weekend! It's a cute town tucked into the Andes mountains with lots of cool stuff to do like hiking, horseback riding, rafting, taking a dip in the thermal baths for which the town is named, and tons more. We ended up taking a nice hike in the afternoon and then celebrated in the evening with ice cream cake and candles. The next day we went rafting! So much fun! We floated for an hour and a half down the river, paddling away and trying not to get thrown out of the raft! (I failed, often.) Our guide let us jump in the water sometimes and made it all really fun. Overall, it was a really great birthday, and I'm so glad I got to spend it here in Ecuador! (And here's a shout out to my dear sister, Elise, who shares my birthday. Hope you had an awesome day as well, love!)
Besos a todos y que les vayan bien!
As for life in general, every day we are entertained by our baby bunny, Pascualita, who is turning out to be the strangest bunny ever, one who gobbles up bits of orange and bread and refuses to touch a single carrot. My host mom treats her like a new baby, giving Pascuala her first bath (she looked like a wet rat. Poor thing), feeding her anything to her heart's desire, talking a mountain of baby-talk to her, and fiercely defending her from my host sister, Chavela, who wants to eat her when she's big enough. But now that we have a pet bunny, my host mom swears that she will never eat a rabbit ever again.
At work, I've started giving private lessons to our two special needs girls, Talia and Xiomara. This has been a nice addition to break up the endless parade of English classes that I teach the rest of the week. It's very difficult, though, because I'm not quite sure how to get things through to the youngest, Xiomara. I hold up a red crayon, ask what color, and she says "Yellow!" (In Spanish. We haven't even started with English in the private lessons, though, in regular class, I've heard her say, in English, "My name is Xiomara!" which just makes me swell with pride. Hopefully, it will stick in her head.) So that's been interesting but great fun. Mostly we just play with dolls or read stories to help the girls gain confidence and independence.
This is the beginning of my fourth month here at the school, and I'm realizing some things. I understand now that this school is for special kids, not special in the same sense as Talia and Xiomara, but for kids of all different kinds. It's a truly "integrated" school as they call it. We have kids with major behavior problems, physical disabilities, issues at home, medical conditions, you name it. Some examples: I have a student who comes to school looking sad sometimes and when asked she tearfully says, "My grandfather doesn't love my mommy." Apparently, there were issues with her parents' marriage which resulted in major family drama. Our special needs girls also have been struggling with family issues, having recently discovered that their mom has cancer and their dad having recently returned after abandoning them. We have several kids who suffer from fits of anger that arise spontaneously and cause them to be escorted from class to calm down almost every day. And we have a girl who has a physical disability that causes her to walk funny which probably, untreated, is doing damage that will worsen her legs in the future. And also, there are two brothers whose parents have a horrible relationship; before their parents' divorce, the boys were forced to witness violent fights, once even involving a knife. Now, the eldest especially is prone to acting violent and only likes activities that involve hurting people or guns. All of this makes it really difficult for our kids to learn and behave appropriately. I compare my school to the schools of other volunteers and realize that my school is different. Not different in a bad way; it just makes teaching more of a challenge. But I'm getting used to that challenge, and finally I feel totally settled at the school.
And of course, I also had my 19th birthday last week! I had an absolutely wonderful day, despite it being the first birthday I've ever celebrated without my family. The kids at school made me birthday cards with help from the art teacher, and we made a pizza party with them all. Then it was off to a great salsa class, and when I returned home, I celebrated with my host family. We ate tons of junk food and they gave really sweet speeches and I blew out a candle they had stuck in a pizza. It was really chill and just fun.
To celebrate with my friends, we all went to Baños this weekend! It's a cute town tucked into the Andes mountains with lots of cool stuff to do like hiking, horseback riding, rafting, taking a dip in the thermal baths for which the town is named, and tons more. We ended up taking a nice hike in the afternoon and then celebrated in the evening with ice cream cake and candles. The next day we went rafting! So much fun! We floated for an hour and a half down the river, paddling away and trying not to get thrown out of the raft! (I failed, often.) Our guide let us jump in the water sometimes and made it all really fun. Overall, it was a really great birthday, and I'm so glad I got to spend it here in Ecuador! (And here's a shout out to my dear sister, Elise, who shares my birthday. Hope you had an awesome day as well, love!)
Besos a todos y que les vayan bien!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Rainy season
April brings us the rainy season and our 3 month mark. While the rain pours down (always oh-so-conveniently beginning right after we've hung our laundry on the line to dry…), we volunteers rush to visit everywhere we possibly can as the realization that we're halfway done begins to terrify us. These days we watch beautifully sunny days turn into horrible downpours in just minutes and try to plan out the remainder of our trip here in Ecuador. In just a few days now, we'll have to say goodbye to one of our volunteers as she returns to Sweden… ahhh!
One day a few weeks ago, I had quite an adventure with the teachers from our sector. We didn't have school on Friday, because instead, we teachers went to a gorgeous hostel in a town called Puembo about 15 minutes away to spend the day relaxing, playing, and eating. The event was set up, I'm guessing, by the people in charge of the teachers as a way to show their appreciation. I was a bit skeptical about spending an entire day with a bunch of Spanish teachers much much older than myself but, I have to say, I couldn't have enjoyed myself more! The fun began when my host mom/boss shoved me into a game of futbol with the other teachers. It's been far too long since I've played soccer (3 years almost?), and it was the best fun running around with a bunch of like 40 to 60 year-year-olds kicking away at a soccer ball. Then there was the pool and sauna to enjoy followed by a fabulous three-course meal, complete with ice cream crepes at the end! Yum. It was great getting to know the other teachers--a bunch of us females would end up squished together in the hot tub chatting away and making fun of the atrocious karaoke just like old girlfriends. And of course, there was much picture-taking with screams of "Whiskey!" (instead of saying "Cheese!" they say "Whiskey!") with me shoved in between strangers only united by our common profession (my sorta profession). Great great fun.
The next day my school had a minga. This is like a construction party, complete with roofing, painting, beer-drinking, and a pitch-in lunch. Parents of the students and some of my volunteer friends all chipped in to build our new classroom and paint everything in sight. The classroom actually already has a room with walls and a crappy roof, so all we did, and all we had money for, was replace the roof. Meanwhile, the rest of us painted. It was great seeing everyone come together to lend a hand to build something that we really need. The school is expanding and to accommodate the growing number of kids, we need this classroom. Thanks to my awesome mom, there's a fundraiser going on to raise money for building more of the classroom. I can't wait to see it finished which I hope to see before I leave! Thanks to everyone who contributes!! It means so much!!
After the minga, a few of us decided to travel the 3-ish hours to visit "the farm." The farm is another VASE project. Currently five VASE volunteers live and work on this farm growing vegetables and raising a few animals. The trip there was interesting since our friend on the farm had gotten his phone recently stolen, unbeknownst to us. We were calling him frantically, trying to get directions to the farm, and ended up probably 5km away from where we were supposed to be. At night. In the rain. But the three of us hitched up our backpacks and started walking anyway, bouncing and laughing along singing Girl Scout camp songs which I taught them. Despite the circumstances, it was great fun. We finally arrived at the farm and drank hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire and watched movies all night long. The next day we got the tour, with our friend showing us the "dreaded" vegetable patch (he hates weeding) and happily pointing out all the animals they were going to eat next. It's a small farm but they grow tons of veggies and a few fruits, as well as raise cows, sheep, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, and guinea pigs (which they call "cuy" here). Overall, it was actually pretty cool.
April 15 was my host mom's birthday! The kids at the school made cards and brought food so we had a big party at the end of the day. Then, Chavela, Ernesto, and I made a "tres leches postre" (three milk cake) which was almost destroyed by the oven about as old as my 16-year-old host brother, but then was salvaged after we'd scraped off the burnt bottom and drenched it with the special milk sauce. An old friend of my host mom and her ex-husband (awkward!) had been invited so all six of us sat around the cozy kitchen table to celebrate. Speeches were made by all (even me, with my god-awful Spanish), multiple rounds of toasts were made (and I mean MULTIPLE), and plates upon plates of junk food were consumed. By the end, it had dissolved into the six of us slumped in our chairs making sleepy and somewhat drunken toasts glorifying in every way possible my host mom. And in only a few weeks after comes Ernesto's birthday! Oh gosh, and then mine!
One weekend we went to Rucu Pichincha, the active volcano looming over Quito. We took the TeleferiQo (a cable car) partway up the slope, and then Oskar and I climbed the remainder 2 hours to the summit while our other friends opted for horseback-riding up the steep path. The entire mountain was covered in a cloud blanket so we didn't get a spectacularly clear view, but it was so calm and peaceful with no sound reaching your ears but your own hard breathing and pounding heart. It was super great exercise, as you can imagine, and got especially difficult right towards the top where the ground was practically vertical and where it got a bit hard to breathe due to the altitude. I practically screamed for joy once we reached the top because my god, what a great feeling. Some other tourists shared their lunch with us, which was very nice of them, and then with tuna sandwiches and juice filling our stomachs, we tromped back downhill, this time with enough breath for singing camp songs and skipping merrily.
We also went to the Basilica del Voto Nacional (Basilica of the National Vow), this time when it was open. (We'd tried to go once before and managed to sneak into the main part, despite it being closed, where we stood in awe of the total silence and grandeur of the place. But then a priest came and told us to get out RIGHT NOW. Whoops.) This time we got to climb up the rickety ladders into the towers and saw some amazing views of Quito. The church is actually quite new, its construction starting in 1890, and despite looking like a traditional, super old cathedral, it incorporates some more modern elements. Mainly, gargoyles in the shapes of Ecuadorian animals--iguanas, ant eaters, owls, jaguars, turtles. No other cathedral in the world has turtle gargoyles, I bet! Super cool!
This month I've also decided that if I'm going to continue eating this awesome Ecuadorian food all the time, well I'm going to have to start working some of it off, too. So I've started going to this super great aerobics class that only costs $1 for the hour and is open to anyone who wants to come. The instructor is actually a dancer so mixed in with the normal aerobics are dance moves so at the same time I'm sorta learning some dance! And then, on top of that, once a week, I go to a group salsa class in the city. Sooooo much fun! I can't believe I've never tried it before! Great exercise and a total blast. We went dancing that weekend to try out our new moves and oh man, I love it!
And then…we celebrated my host brother's birthday on April 24! Some of their closest cousins came over, and we all hung out, ate pizza, made toasts, etc. Feliz cumple, Neto! Big 17!
We also have a new addition to the family! A baby!! Er… a baby rabbit! Her name's Pascuala (Pascua means Easter so it sorta means Easter bunny), and she showed up one day with one of the students as a belated birthday present for my host mom. She's the cutest little thing--we've been having great fun cuddling with her on the couch watching movies, feeding her bread (yes, she likes bread), and watching her hop around the garden. Sooo cute.
And to wrap up this entry, this past week we had our mid-term camp with our organization, VASE. All of us 6 month-ers (or less--one volunteer is leaving next week and another in a month and a half) traveled to a retreat center that looked a tad bit like a mental institution where we evaluated our past 3 months and made plans for the future. It was so great to reflect over how everything's been going and really organize our plans to improve everything for the future. It was especially helpful for me since I've been having some major problems in my project. In March, we were doing interviews and such for new teachers for the Pre-Kinder class, but now the school doesn't have enough money to actually hire one. Currently they only have enough money to pay for one extra teacher so instead, they hired my assistant English teacher, Lucy. Lucy is a really cool person and I love to complain and gossip with her but… she doesn't do anything really in the English classes. I'm still doing all of the lesson plans and controlling the class (or trying to) alone. And now, on top of that, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I don't have English, I'm basically in charge of Pre-Kinder as well since there's no teacher. It's too much work for a volunteer and my host mom/boss is having trouble realizing this. It's also still against VASE's rules--I can't take any position that an Ecuadorian could fill so I'm really not supposed to be teaching my own English classes either, let alone be with Pre-Kinder as their main teacher for 2 days a week. So we did an activity in the mid-term camp where we wrote a letter to our project boss letting him/her know our feelings and our future goals for our projects. So I'm hoping we can work something out after my host mom has really understood how things are going in my view. So we'll see.
It's so crazy, though. Only 2.5 months left. Where did April go???
One day a few weeks ago, I had quite an adventure with the teachers from our sector. We didn't have school on Friday, because instead, we teachers went to a gorgeous hostel in a town called Puembo about 15 minutes away to spend the day relaxing, playing, and eating. The event was set up, I'm guessing, by the people in charge of the teachers as a way to show their appreciation. I was a bit skeptical about spending an entire day with a bunch of Spanish teachers much much older than myself but, I have to say, I couldn't have enjoyed myself more! The fun began when my host mom/boss shoved me into a game of futbol with the other teachers. It's been far too long since I've played soccer (3 years almost?), and it was the best fun running around with a bunch of like 40 to 60 year-year-olds kicking away at a soccer ball. Then there was the pool and sauna to enjoy followed by a fabulous three-course meal, complete with ice cream crepes at the end! Yum. It was great getting to know the other teachers--a bunch of us females would end up squished together in the hot tub chatting away and making fun of the atrocious karaoke just like old girlfriends. And of course, there was much picture-taking with screams of "Whiskey!" (instead of saying "Cheese!" they say "Whiskey!") with me shoved in between strangers only united by our common profession (my sorta profession). Great great fun.
The next day my school had a minga. This is like a construction party, complete with roofing, painting, beer-drinking, and a pitch-in lunch. Parents of the students and some of my volunteer friends all chipped in to build our new classroom and paint everything in sight. The classroom actually already has a room with walls and a crappy roof, so all we did, and all we had money for, was replace the roof. Meanwhile, the rest of us painted. It was great seeing everyone come together to lend a hand to build something that we really need. The school is expanding and to accommodate the growing number of kids, we need this classroom. Thanks to my awesome mom, there's a fundraiser going on to raise money for building more of the classroom. I can't wait to see it finished which I hope to see before I leave! Thanks to everyone who contributes!! It means so much!!
After the minga, a few of us decided to travel the 3-ish hours to visit "the farm." The farm is another VASE project. Currently five VASE volunteers live and work on this farm growing vegetables and raising a few animals. The trip there was interesting since our friend on the farm had gotten his phone recently stolen, unbeknownst to us. We were calling him frantically, trying to get directions to the farm, and ended up probably 5km away from where we were supposed to be. At night. In the rain. But the three of us hitched up our backpacks and started walking anyway, bouncing and laughing along singing Girl Scout camp songs which I taught them. Despite the circumstances, it was great fun. We finally arrived at the farm and drank hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire and watched movies all night long. The next day we got the tour, with our friend showing us the "dreaded" vegetable patch (he hates weeding) and happily pointing out all the animals they were going to eat next. It's a small farm but they grow tons of veggies and a few fruits, as well as raise cows, sheep, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, and guinea pigs (which they call "cuy" here). Overall, it was actually pretty cool.
April 15 was my host mom's birthday! The kids at the school made cards and brought food so we had a big party at the end of the day. Then, Chavela, Ernesto, and I made a "tres leches postre" (three milk cake) which was almost destroyed by the oven about as old as my 16-year-old host brother, but then was salvaged after we'd scraped off the burnt bottom and drenched it with the special milk sauce. An old friend of my host mom and her ex-husband (awkward!) had been invited so all six of us sat around the cozy kitchen table to celebrate. Speeches were made by all (even me, with my god-awful Spanish), multiple rounds of toasts were made (and I mean MULTIPLE), and plates upon plates of junk food were consumed. By the end, it had dissolved into the six of us slumped in our chairs making sleepy and somewhat drunken toasts glorifying in every way possible my host mom. And in only a few weeks after comes Ernesto's birthday! Oh gosh, and then mine!
One weekend we went to Rucu Pichincha, the active volcano looming over Quito. We took the TeleferiQo (a cable car) partway up the slope, and then Oskar and I climbed the remainder 2 hours to the summit while our other friends opted for horseback-riding up the steep path. The entire mountain was covered in a cloud blanket so we didn't get a spectacularly clear view, but it was so calm and peaceful with no sound reaching your ears but your own hard breathing and pounding heart. It was super great exercise, as you can imagine, and got especially difficult right towards the top where the ground was practically vertical and where it got a bit hard to breathe due to the altitude. I practically screamed for joy once we reached the top because my god, what a great feeling. Some other tourists shared their lunch with us, which was very nice of them, and then with tuna sandwiches and juice filling our stomachs, we tromped back downhill, this time with enough breath for singing camp songs and skipping merrily.
We also went to the Basilica del Voto Nacional (Basilica of the National Vow), this time when it was open. (We'd tried to go once before and managed to sneak into the main part, despite it being closed, where we stood in awe of the total silence and grandeur of the place. But then a priest came and told us to get out RIGHT NOW. Whoops.) This time we got to climb up the rickety ladders into the towers and saw some amazing views of Quito. The church is actually quite new, its construction starting in 1890, and despite looking like a traditional, super old cathedral, it incorporates some more modern elements. Mainly, gargoyles in the shapes of Ecuadorian animals--iguanas, ant eaters, owls, jaguars, turtles. No other cathedral in the world has turtle gargoyles, I bet! Super cool!
This month I've also decided that if I'm going to continue eating this awesome Ecuadorian food all the time, well I'm going to have to start working some of it off, too. So I've started going to this super great aerobics class that only costs $1 for the hour and is open to anyone who wants to come. The instructor is actually a dancer so mixed in with the normal aerobics are dance moves so at the same time I'm sorta learning some dance! And then, on top of that, once a week, I go to a group salsa class in the city. Sooooo much fun! I can't believe I've never tried it before! Great exercise and a total blast. We went dancing that weekend to try out our new moves and oh man, I love it!
And then…we celebrated my host brother's birthday on April 24! Some of their closest cousins came over, and we all hung out, ate pizza, made toasts, etc. Feliz cumple, Neto! Big 17!
We also have a new addition to the family! A baby!! Er… a baby rabbit! Her name's Pascuala (Pascua means Easter so it sorta means Easter bunny), and she showed up one day with one of the students as a belated birthday present for my host mom. She's the cutest little thing--we've been having great fun cuddling with her on the couch watching movies, feeding her bread (yes, she likes bread), and watching her hop around the garden. Sooo cute.
And to wrap up this entry, this past week we had our mid-term camp with our organization, VASE. All of us 6 month-ers (or less--one volunteer is leaving next week and another in a month and a half) traveled to a retreat center that looked a tad bit like a mental institution where we evaluated our past 3 months and made plans for the future. It was so great to reflect over how everything's been going and really organize our plans to improve everything for the future. It was especially helpful for me since I've been having some major problems in my project. In March, we were doing interviews and such for new teachers for the Pre-Kinder class, but now the school doesn't have enough money to actually hire one. Currently they only have enough money to pay for one extra teacher so instead, they hired my assistant English teacher, Lucy. Lucy is a really cool person and I love to complain and gossip with her but… she doesn't do anything really in the English classes. I'm still doing all of the lesson plans and controlling the class (or trying to) alone. And now, on top of that, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I don't have English, I'm basically in charge of Pre-Kinder as well since there's no teacher. It's too much work for a volunteer and my host mom/boss is having trouble realizing this. It's also still against VASE's rules--I can't take any position that an Ecuadorian could fill so I'm really not supposed to be teaching my own English classes either, let alone be with Pre-Kinder as their main teacher for 2 days a week. So we did an activity in the mid-term camp where we wrote a letter to our project boss letting him/her know our feelings and our future goals for our projects. So I'm hoping we can work something out after my host mom has really understood how things are going in my view. So we'll see.
It's so crazy, though. Only 2.5 months left. Where did April go???
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Adventures on the beach
Today I returned from a week on the beach! It was adventurous, as all of our trips usually end up being since we seem to find ourselves in some pretty sticky situations sometimes, but it was so great to relax by the sea for an entire week.
We started out in a quiet beach town called Puerto Lopez, a long 10 hours from Quito. Our ears were pounded the entire 10 hours by throbbing reggaetone music, but we managed to keep ourselves busy by either sleeping, talking to our neighbors, or teaching Ecuadorians how to do Sudoku. We arrived in Puerto Lopez at around 9pm and were actually met at the bus station by a guy from our hostel. Much to our surprise, rather than hopping into the normal, yellow taxi, we piled into this cart type thing pulled by a motorcycle--Puerto Lopez's very unique taxi service. For every curve in the road, we would hold tight to each other and grab our huge packs for fear somebody or something would go tumbling right off! Our motorcycle-taxi took us to a gorgeous hostel right on the beach, with grass-roofed, bamboo buildings, hammocks slung between trees, a beautiful, tropical courtyard, and a fabulous breakfast place included.
Puerto Lopez is a quiet coast town with two main roads, one following the beach and the other branching off to the center of town. The road along the beach is littered with bamboo stands selling cocktails and yummy milkshakes that are never big enough, and there are tents selling jewelry and dresses and seafood restaurants open to the humid air. Not many people travel to Puerto Lopez, who knows why because it's gorgeous, so we didn't have to beat the crowds or even share the beach with anyone really. Also, the coast is HOT. Humid, sticky, inescapable heat. Taking a cold shower at the end of a sweltering day on the beach, let me tell you, is the most refreshing thing in the entire world. We sometimes took two showers a day. Or three. And we noticed that on this trip to the coast (compared to our last trip to Manta), the sun was way stronger and the mosquitos were way more common. Even after loads of sunscreen, buckets of bug spray, and huge, draping mosquito nets at night, our skin still ended up looking way too similar to rough, red coral. Not good.
Our last day in Puerto Lopez, we went on a boat trip to what we thought was Isla de la Plata. They call this island "poor man's Galapagos" because it hosts many of the same varieties of wildlife but doesn't cost nearly as much. Turns out, the boat wasn't taking us to the isla at all, just around the islands close to the port in Puerto Lopez. It was a wonderful little journey, though. We took turns diving off the boat and going snorkeling or just swimming around. (Sadly, I still can't say I've been snorkeling, though, because my lack of contact lenses prevented me from seeing anything under the water. Someday, though.) We saw blue-footed boobies and tons of gawking pelicans, a taste of the wildlife on the isla. We even went fishing for our lunch! My friend Eva and I were horrible fisherwomen though.... the only thing we managed to catch was the ground. How sad. Then our awesome tour guide made fish ceviche for lunch. Ceviche is like a cold soap with lots of onions and peppers and sometimes tomatoes. We have it with shrimp all the time at home but this time it was with raw fish that we had caught and skinned (or watched our guide skin them anyway =) ) and then poured tons of lemon juice over them to "cook" the fish. Sooo delicious.
We decided to leave in the middle of the week for Montañita. The lack of people in Puerto Lopez was starting to get to some of our group members so we took the bus for an hour and a half south to the touristy town of Montañita. My awesome Ecuadorian guidebook (thanks Nana and Grandad!!) describes the town perfectly: "Crammed into the centre are straw-roofed, bamboo-walled hostels and pizzerias advertised by bright wooden signs, while tanned, chilled-out gringos lounge around in shorts and bikinis, and surfers stride up the streets with boards under arm." It has a very hippy-like feel to it, with lots of hemp bracelets, tattoos, little clothing, and dope. And chockfull of gringos. But overall, kinda a neat feel. We hopped off our bus and not even 5 minutes into our walk to our $9/night hostel, we were flagged down by another hostel with rooms for only $5/night. What luck! But, excuse my language, it was a pretty shit hostel, with lumpy mattresses, greasy sheets, a bathroom with a perpetually sandy floor, no toilet paper, and a ceiling open to the sky. (Neat feeling showering under the stars though!) However, it also had tons of very comfy hammocks and a cute kitten. And Nina the dog. It was the animals that made us stay, I think.
Then we hit the beach, and man oh man, the beach hit back. There is a very strong ripe tide that will suck you under in a second and waves that tumble you around and around like a washing machine. We had a few scary moments, and once, one of the surfer guys had to come rescue us! After that, we mostly stuck to the very shallow parts and let the surfers take the deeper waters. The rest of the week saw us sleeping for hours on the beach, eating extremely delicious (and expensive) food from our favorite cafe Hola Ola ("Hello Wave"--how clever), dancing around on the beach at night, and meeting all sorts of people from all over--Colombians, Peruvians, Kiwis, Irish, Israeli.... Pick a country and I bet you can find someone in Montan*ita from there.
That weekend, people began pouring into the town as fast as money was pouring out of our poor wallets, which is to say, extremely fast. The weekends there always fill up since there are music concerts, I believe, almost every weekend. But we found ourselves, by the weekend, with only around $15 each or so. Bad news. And unfortunately, it just got worse from there. We decided it would be good to book a bus ticket home before the hordes of people started doing the same thing, but alas, we were too late and all of the buses were full. So. Long story short, we took a bus at 5:30am Sunday morning to Santa Elena, a town further south on the coast with more buses, and from there took a 3 hour, wonderfully air-conditioned bus (air-conditioning in Ecuador??) to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador. We bought tickets for a bus to Quito, missed that very bus when we got lost in the massive bus terminal (who knew there were buses on the third floor?!), and ended up stuck penniless in Guayaquil. See, we had had only enough money for the one ticket for each of us, so then we tried to just wait around for the next bus to Quito. After hopping on that bus, we were promptly kicked off because we had taken other people's seats. Whoops. Then we tried exchanging the tickets. Wouldn't happen. So. Picture if you can three very tired young people flopped on the floor of a bus station, one sprawled fast asleep on the dirty ground, the other two with heads flopping from exhaustion (no sleep the night before!) and gnawing on a loaf of stale French bread with barely $3 between them. That's how bad it was. My friend Eva called the bread our "Aladdin bread" because we felt like poor Aladdin on the street or something. Looking back, it was all pretty humorous. But it wouldn't have been if we hadn't been rescued by our friend from Guayaquil. She lent us some money, fed us some sandwiches, let us sleep in her bed for a few hours, took us on a mini tour of Guayaquil, and then took us back to catch our bus to Quito. So in the end, we had been traveling or in the process of traveling from 5:30am on Sunday to 10:30am Monday. 29 hours if I did the math correctly. It's always an adventure here in Ecuador! And now it's back to work!
We started out in a quiet beach town called Puerto Lopez, a long 10 hours from Quito. Our ears were pounded the entire 10 hours by throbbing reggaetone music, but we managed to keep ourselves busy by either sleeping, talking to our neighbors, or teaching Ecuadorians how to do Sudoku. We arrived in Puerto Lopez at around 9pm and were actually met at the bus station by a guy from our hostel. Much to our surprise, rather than hopping into the normal, yellow taxi, we piled into this cart type thing pulled by a motorcycle--Puerto Lopez's very unique taxi service. For every curve in the road, we would hold tight to each other and grab our huge packs for fear somebody or something would go tumbling right off! Our motorcycle-taxi took us to a gorgeous hostel right on the beach, with grass-roofed, bamboo buildings, hammocks slung between trees, a beautiful, tropical courtyard, and a fabulous breakfast place included.
Puerto Lopez is a quiet coast town with two main roads, one following the beach and the other branching off to the center of town. The road along the beach is littered with bamboo stands selling cocktails and yummy milkshakes that are never big enough, and there are tents selling jewelry and dresses and seafood restaurants open to the humid air. Not many people travel to Puerto Lopez, who knows why because it's gorgeous, so we didn't have to beat the crowds or even share the beach with anyone really. Also, the coast is HOT. Humid, sticky, inescapable heat. Taking a cold shower at the end of a sweltering day on the beach, let me tell you, is the most refreshing thing in the entire world. We sometimes took two showers a day. Or three. And we noticed that on this trip to the coast (compared to our last trip to Manta), the sun was way stronger and the mosquitos were way more common. Even after loads of sunscreen, buckets of bug spray, and huge, draping mosquito nets at night, our skin still ended up looking way too similar to rough, red coral. Not good.
Our last day in Puerto Lopez, we went on a boat trip to what we thought was Isla de la Plata. They call this island "poor man's Galapagos" because it hosts many of the same varieties of wildlife but doesn't cost nearly as much. Turns out, the boat wasn't taking us to the isla at all, just around the islands close to the port in Puerto Lopez. It was a wonderful little journey, though. We took turns diving off the boat and going snorkeling or just swimming around. (Sadly, I still can't say I've been snorkeling, though, because my lack of contact lenses prevented me from seeing anything under the water. Someday, though.) We saw blue-footed boobies and tons of gawking pelicans, a taste of the wildlife on the isla. We even went fishing for our lunch! My friend Eva and I were horrible fisherwomen though.... the only thing we managed to catch was the ground. How sad. Then our awesome tour guide made fish ceviche for lunch. Ceviche is like a cold soap with lots of onions and peppers and sometimes tomatoes. We have it with shrimp all the time at home but this time it was with raw fish that we had caught and skinned (or watched our guide skin them anyway =) ) and then poured tons of lemon juice over them to "cook" the fish. Sooo delicious.
We decided to leave in the middle of the week for Montañita. The lack of people in Puerto Lopez was starting to get to some of our group members so we took the bus for an hour and a half south to the touristy town of Montañita. My awesome Ecuadorian guidebook (thanks Nana and Grandad!!) describes the town perfectly: "Crammed into the centre are straw-roofed, bamboo-walled hostels and pizzerias advertised by bright wooden signs, while tanned, chilled-out gringos lounge around in shorts and bikinis, and surfers stride up the streets with boards under arm." It has a very hippy-like feel to it, with lots of hemp bracelets, tattoos, little clothing, and dope. And chockfull of gringos. But overall, kinda a neat feel. We hopped off our bus and not even 5 minutes into our walk to our $9/night hostel, we were flagged down by another hostel with rooms for only $5/night. What luck! But, excuse my language, it was a pretty shit hostel, with lumpy mattresses, greasy sheets, a bathroom with a perpetually sandy floor, no toilet paper, and a ceiling open to the sky. (Neat feeling showering under the stars though!) However, it also had tons of very comfy hammocks and a cute kitten. And Nina the dog. It was the animals that made us stay, I think.
Then we hit the beach, and man oh man, the beach hit back. There is a very strong ripe tide that will suck you under in a second and waves that tumble you around and around like a washing machine. We had a few scary moments, and once, one of the surfer guys had to come rescue us! After that, we mostly stuck to the very shallow parts and let the surfers take the deeper waters. The rest of the week saw us sleeping for hours on the beach, eating extremely delicious (and expensive) food from our favorite cafe Hola Ola ("Hello Wave"--how clever), dancing around on the beach at night, and meeting all sorts of people from all over--Colombians, Peruvians, Kiwis, Irish, Israeli.... Pick a country and I bet you can find someone in Montan*ita from there.
That weekend, people began pouring into the town as fast as money was pouring out of our poor wallets, which is to say, extremely fast. The weekends there always fill up since there are music concerts, I believe, almost every weekend. But we found ourselves, by the weekend, with only around $15 each or so. Bad news. And unfortunately, it just got worse from there. We decided it would be good to book a bus ticket home before the hordes of people started doing the same thing, but alas, we were too late and all of the buses were full. So. Long story short, we took a bus at 5:30am Sunday morning to Santa Elena, a town further south on the coast with more buses, and from there took a 3 hour, wonderfully air-conditioned bus (air-conditioning in Ecuador??) to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador. We bought tickets for a bus to Quito, missed that very bus when we got lost in the massive bus terminal (who knew there were buses on the third floor?!), and ended up stuck penniless in Guayaquil. See, we had had only enough money for the one ticket for each of us, so then we tried to just wait around for the next bus to Quito. After hopping on that bus, we were promptly kicked off because we had taken other people's seats. Whoops. Then we tried exchanging the tickets. Wouldn't happen. So. Picture if you can three very tired young people flopped on the floor of a bus station, one sprawled fast asleep on the dirty ground, the other two with heads flopping from exhaustion (no sleep the night before!) and gnawing on a loaf of stale French bread with barely $3 between them. That's how bad it was. My friend Eva called the bread our "Aladdin bread" because we felt like poor Aladdin on the street or something. Looking back, it was all pretty humorous. But it wouldn't have been if we hadn't been rescued by our friend from Guayaquil. She lent us some money, fed us some sandwiches, let us sleep in her bed for a few hours, took us on a mini tour of Guayaquil, and then took us back to catch our bus to Quito. So in the end, we had been traveling or in the process of traveling from 5:30am on Sunday to 10:30am Monday. 29 hours if I did the math correctly. It's always an adventure here in Ecuador! And now it's back to work!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Looong post
It's been over 2 months now, and oh boy, time is flying. I'm almost halfway through! Ahhh!
We are now on our fourth teacher for Pre-Kinder in 2.5 weeks. People keep showing up, teach for a few days, decide it's not for them, and leave. Four teachers in 2.5 weeks. It's ridiculous. I don't blame them, though. I only have to have one class with them; I can't imagine teaching them an entire day. With almost every kid either having attention problems, behavioral problems, speech problems, or mental problems, Pre-Kinder is certainly a handful.
I have to start creating the kids' exams, which start next Monday. This is harder than it sounds because of the aforementioned problem: we have so many different types of kids--and they all learn differently--and hence we have to have different types of exams. So while I have only three classes, I'll think I'll end up having to make at least six different exams. The methods of teaching and testing here at my school are so different from what I experienced in the States, and I wonder sometimes which actually works better. I remember my elementary school experience being lots of sitting at a desk, copying the alphabet from the overhead, and becoming increasingly less and less interesting as we watched our field trips and game playing disappear--it was never this wild, play-based style here at the school in which the kids learn solely through songs, games, art, and some writing. I wonder who actually learns more, or who actually retains the information longer, or who learns faster. What exactly IS the best way to teach the children?
We celebrated a great St. Patrick's Day on Wednesday. We found the sole Irish bar in the whole of Quito and joined the hordes of green gringos ready to celebrate their Irish (or pretend-Irish) heritage. Trying to explain to our Ecuadorian host families why we were celebrating was a challenge--why DO we all wear green? Who's St. Patrick anyway?--great fun, though.
Funny story about St. Patty's Day. The minute we stepped into the area called "Gringolandia" (Land of the Gringos), the first people we saw were from somewhere in the Middle East, not the expected mass of Irish or at least Americans. These guys were wearing long robes and turbans and had really long beards and wore not a tad of green. We all sorta looked at each other and said, "Well, they're certainly not Irish!" These not-Irish-looking people then tried to sell us special brownies which just made us crack up even more. Soo funny.
Now for some more observations:
- In almost all Ecuadorian schools, a uniform is required. Sometimes it's the plaid, private school look that you see in the States occasionally, but more likely the school uniform is actually a sweatsuit. The first time I saw a group of kids walking around in these sweatsuits, I just assumed they were on a sports team. But no, what Americans wear to the gym, Ecuadorians wear to high school.
- There are no hard cheeses here in Ecuador. Only soft, white cheese with strange tastes and an inability to melt EVER. No cheddar to be found, sadly.
- Not only does milk come in bags, but yogurt does too.
- Ecuadorians have this annoying habit of not telling you what's going on. You have to ask about EVERYthing. For example, I never am told the school schedule for the day, let alone for the week. So sometimes I get a surprise when there's like a birthday party for one of the kids or something that I didn't know about. My host family is the same way. I never get told when somebody has a late class or has to go to the doctor's. They just disappear and leave me wondering where they are.
- Wedding anniversaries are a big deal here. There's a pretty serious, Catholic church ceremony for 25 year and 50 year anniversaries. I went to this ceremony with my family to celebrate 30 years of marriage between the aunt and uncle of my host mother. It was a 45 minute ceremony with lots of Bible readings and prayers and even communion. Then everyone came to our house for a big lunch and cake and champagne. I got bitten by a trillion mosquitos during the lunch which was a bummer, but overall, it was really great.
- I'm gonna get kinda Spanish-nerdy here for a minute so you Spanish students reading will understand and probably nobody else will. Sorry. I'm still trying to figure it out but they seem to use "usted" and "tu" interchangeable here. (Both are forms of "you" but "usted" is used to be more polite, generally used with teachers, children to adults, the elderly, etc. and "tu" is used casually for friends.) But at the school here, I've found that the teachers sometimes use "usted" commands for the kids, saying "Vaya a jugar" etc. And some of the kids use "tu" forms for the teachers. I would've thought the kids would use "usted" with the teachers to be polite and the teachers would just be casual with the kids. Not the case. I even sometimes hear things like "Te vaya" where they mix "tu" and "usted." I don't get it.
- They love to cook with bananas here. At first I thought it was gross when I found a hot, cooked banana lying limply there on my plate, but now I just love it. They fry 'em, cook 'em, make little chips out of themÉ. Delicious.
- Nobody walks barefoot here. Not even at home. I always wear shoes at my house because the house is set up so that you have to walk outside to get to the other rooms, but when I spent the night at a friend's house and walked around barefoot, they kept asking if I wanted to borrow some sandals.
- Books are expensive. And when I say expensive, I mean that the prices are pretty much the same as in the States. And the selection of English books is pretty scattered and strange. Lots of porn books, only the seventh book in a series, and lots of Isabel Allende. We've started a book sharing thing between ourselves so we're managing to get enough to read. However, it's not exactly a fair exchange since I keep giving people my English books (the language we all know) and can't get any in return because I can't read Icelandic and Swedish (the only books they brought from their countries).
- Don't trust the signs. Many a times we have been tricked by the "We're open 24 hours" signs because they are NEVER open 24 hours.
- Ecuadorians find ANY reason to celebrate. They just like to party here, I guess. We've celebrated Carnaval, International Women's Day, every kid's birthday here at the school as well as the teachers', wedding anniversariesÉ the list goes on. We get a whole week off for Easter and got two days off for Carnaval. They just love to break out the alcohol and clear away the chairs for some salsa dancing. At the wedding anniversary, all the old folks were jamming' away to the salsa in the living room and singing, maybe a bit drunkenly, all of the classic, Ecuadorian love ballads. So funny.
- After high school, kids here don't move out like they usually do in the States. My 20 year old sister still lives at home, which is the norm here. She says it's not realistic to try to find your own apartment; it's just so much easier to live at home for free.
- I've talked with my host sister a lot about going to university here and how it differs from my country. In Ecuador, you have to choose a major/job upon entering, and you graduate in 4 years with a job title, with a few extra years added onto the normal four depending on how qualified your job is (doctor, lawyer, etc.) Many students wear full suits or at least dress up to go to class which is a big difference compared to US university attire: hoodies and sweatpants.
- There are two cell phone providers here: Movistar and Porta. "People with Porta don't have friends," my host sister likes tells me because everyone in Quito, for the most part, has Movistar. It's also kinda nifty because they have 3x1 or 2x1 days where if you give the store person $5 it will either be doubled or tripled, depending on the deal, and you get more cell phone minutes.
- People pee in the street quite often. Just saying.
- They don't like cats here. I've only seen two in the whole of Ecuador while on the other hand, I've seen hundreds of dogs. And they howl at night, my bedtime music. Makes me miss my kitties!
- They honk their car horns just for the sake of honking. Hence, constant honking all hours of the day.
- There are no Asians and no gay people. My friend and I saw six Asians at once in the park one day and nearly died of surprise. We just sat there on the swings and stared with our mouths hanging open. What a day.
- I'm realizing that there aren't direct translations from English into Spanish and vice versa a lot of the time. When I first got here, I tried to translate everything from English directly and just couldn't do it. It means that none of us really have a verbal personality like we might in our home countries (for example, I say "legit" and other such phrases). And the same is for Spanish. They have little expressions that just can't be translated very well. Like "chute" which is something like "that sucks" but not quite. It's interesting.
Now for more news.
I had a great weekend this past weekend. To start off the fun, during school on Friday, we made Easter eggs! (Thanks, Mom!) The kids just loved it. When I was telling the story about the Easter bunny and how we dye eggs, one of my students just kept whispering "Wow!" with eyes as big as saucers. So cute.
Then that evening, I had two volunteer friends over to my house, and we baked brownies! My oven is horrible, though, and doesn't really like to bake anything in general, always producing cakes and brownies with burnt bottoms. It was still good though--we ate it right out of the pan and devoured it in minutes! We also made good 'lo American Kraft Mac 'n cheese (which cost us a whole $2.43 per box compared to the $.99 it costs in the States!). My volunteer friends had never had Kraft mac 'n cheese and they loved it. We also shared it with my host brother and his cousin, but I don't think they liked it.... haha. Then we had a bit of a salsa dance party in the living room and blasted the music while pretending to know how to salsa. (My host brother is pretty good at it, actually!) We're starting salsa classes in April so hopefully we'll be improving soon!
On Saturday, we went to Mitad del Mundo, or the middle of the world. It was a bit lame, though. We had to travel for hours to get there from Tumbaco, and when we arrived, there wasn't much besides the red line that supposedly is the equator. (We walked 10 minutes up the road and visited another place that said IT was the middle of the word--"according to GPS!"--since we'd heard that the actual big monument and red line weren't actually the real thing.) So we took the mandatory picture to say we'd been there then got ice cream and peaced out.
That evening we met Olivia's sister and sister's boyfriend who'd just arrived from the States for a visit. Her dad had visited a few weeks before so it was fun getting to know all of them! Now the rest of us are dying to see people from home--so hey, if anyone is interested in coming to Ecuador, now is the time! Now till July 2, you get a free tour guide!
We started exams today so Basica had their English exam. And all but one got really good grades!! It's such a relief to know they've actually learned stuff. Yay!
Ciao for now =)
We are now on our fourth teacher for Pre-Kinder in 2.5 weeks. People keep showing up, teach for a few days, decide it's not for them, and leave. Four teachers in 2.5 weeks. It's ridiculous. I don't blame them, though. I only have to have one class with them; I can't imagine teaching them an entire day. With almost every kid either having attention problems, behavioral problems, speech problems, or mental problems, Pre-Kinder is certainly a handful.
I have to start creating the kids' exams, which start next Monday. This is harder than it sounds because of the aforementioned problem: we have so many different types of kids--and they all learn differently--and hence we have to have different types of exams. So while I have only three classes, I'll think I'll end up having to make at least six different exams. The methods of teaching and testing here at my school are so different from what I experienced in the States, and I wonder sometimes which actually works better. I remember my elementary school experience being lots of sitting at a desk, copying the alphabet from the overhead, and becoming increasingly less and less interesting as we watched our field trips and game playing disappear--it was never this wild, play-based style here at the school in which the kids learn solely through songs, games, art, and some writing. I wonder who actually learns more, or who actually retains the information longer, or who learns faster. What exactly IS the best way to teach the children?
We celebrated a great St. Patrick's Day on Wednesday. We found the sole Irish bar in the whole of Quito and joined the hordes of green gringos ready to celebrate their Irish (or pretend-Irish) heritage. Trying to explain to our Ecuadorian host families why we were celebrating was a challenge--why DO we all wear green? Who's St. Patrick anyway?--great fun, though.
Funny story about St. Patty's Day. The minute we stepped into the area called "Gringolandia" (Land of the Gringos), the first people we saw were from somewhere in the Middle East, not the expected mass of Irish or at least Americans. These guys were wearing long robes and turbans and had really long beards and wore not a tad of green. We all sorta looked at each other and said, "Well, they're certainly not Irish!" These not-Irish-looking people then tried to sell us special brownies which just made us crack up even more. Soo funny.
Now for some more observations:
- In almost all Ecuadorian schools, a uniform is required. Sometimes it's the plaid, private school look that you see in the States occasionally, but more likely the school uniform is actually a sweatsuit. The first time I saw a group of kids walking around in these sweatsuits, I just assumed they were on a sports team. But no, what Americans wear to the gym, Ecuadorians wear to high school.
- There are no hard cheeses here in Ecuador. Only soft, white cheese with strange tastes and an inability to melt EVER. No cheddar to be found, sadly.
- Not only does milk come in bags, but yogurt does too.
- Ecuadorians have this annoying habit of not telling you what's going on. You have to ask about EVERYthing. For example, I never am told the school schedule for the day, let alone for the week. So sometimes I get a surprise when there's like a birthday party for one of the kids or something that I didn't know about. My host family is the same way. I never get told when somebody has a late class or has to go to the doctor's. They just disappear and leave me wondering where they are.
- Wedding anniversaries are a big deal here. There's a pretty serious, Catholic church ceremony for 25 year and 50 year anniversaries. I went to this ceremony with my family to celebrate 30 years of marriage between the aunt and uncle of my host mother. It was a 45 minute ceremony with lots of Bible readings and prayers and even communion. Then everyone came to our house for a big lunch and cake and champagne. I got bitten by a trillion mosquitos during the lunch which was a bummer, but overall, it was really great.
- I'm gonna get kinda Spanish-nerdy here for a minute so you Spanish students reading will understand and probably nobody else will. Sorry. I'm still trying to figure it out but they seem to use "usted" and "tu" interchangeable here. (Both are forms of "you" but "usted" is used to be more polite, generally used with teachers, children to adults, the elderly, etc. and "tu" is used casually for friends.) But at the school here, I've found that the teachers sometimes use "usted" commands for the kids, saying "Vaya a jugar" etc. And some of the kids use "tu" forms for the teachers. I would've thought the kids would use "usted" with the teachers to be polite and the teachers would just be casual with the kids. Not the case. I even sometimes hear things like "Te vaya" where they mix "tu" and "usted." I don't get it.
- They love to cook with bananas here. At first I thought it was gross when I found a hot, cooked banana lying limply there on my plate, but now I just love it. They fry 'em, cook 'em, make little chips out of themÉ. Delicious.
- Nobody walks barefoot here. Not even at home. I always wear shoes at my house because the house is set up so that you have to walk outside to get to the other rooms, but when I spent the night at a friend's house and walked around barefoot, they kept asking if I wanted to borrow some sandals.
- Books are expensive. And when I say expensive, I mean that the prices are pretty much the same as in the States. And the selection of English books is pretty scattered and strange. Lots of porn books, only the seventh book in a series, and lots of Isabel Allende. We've started a book sharing thing between ourselves so we're managing to get enough to read. However, it's not exactly a fair exchange since I keep giving people my English books (the language we all know) and can't get any in return because I can't read Icelandic and Swedish (the only books they brought from their countries).
- Don't trust the signs. Many a times we have been tricked by the "We're open 24 hours" signs because they are NEVER open 24 hours.
- Ecuadorians find ANY reason to celebrate. They just like to party here, I guess. We've celebrated Carnaval, International Women's Day, every kid's birthday here at the school as well as the teachers', wedding anniversariesÉ the list goes on. We get a whole week off for Easter and got two days off for Carnaval. They just love to break out the alcohol and clear away the chairs for some salsa dancing. At the wedding anniversary, all the old folks were jamming' away to the salsa in the living room and singing, maybe a bit drunkenly, all of the classic, Ecuadorian love ballads. So funny.
- After high school, kids here don't move out like they usually do in the States. My 20 year old sister still lives at home, which is the norm here. She says it's not realistic to try to find your own apartment; it's just so much easier to live at home for free.
- I've talked with my host sister a lot about going to university here and how it differs from my country. In Ecuador, you have to choose a major/job upon entering, and you graduate in 4 years with a job title, with a few extra years added onto the normal four depending on how qualified your job is (doctor, lawyer, etc.) Many students wear full suits or at least dress up to go to class which is a big difference compared to US university attire: hoodies and sweatpants.
- There are two cell phone providers here: Movistar and Porta. "People with Porta don't have friends," my host sister likes tells me because everyone in Quito, for the most part, has Movistar. It's also kinda nifty because they have 3x1 or 2x1 days where if you give the store person $5 it will either be doubled or tripled, depending on the deal, and you get more cell phone minutes.
- People pee in the street quite often. Just saying.
- They don't like cats here. I've only seen two in the whole of Ecuador while on the other hand, I've seen hundreds of dogs. And they howl at night, my bedtime music. Makes me miss my kitties!
- They honk their car horns just for the sake of honking. Hence, constant honking all hours of the day.
- There are no Asians and no gay people. My friend and I saw six Asians at once in the park one day and nearly died of surprise. We just sat there on the swings and stared with our mouths hanging open. What a day.
- I'm realizing that there aren't direct translations from English into Spanish and vice versa a lot of the time. When I first got here, I tried to translate everything from English directly and just couldn't do it. It means that none of us really have a verbal personality like we might in our home countries (for example, I say "legit" and other such phrases). And the same is for Spanish. They have little expressions that just can't be translated very well. Like "chute" which is something like "that sucks" but not quite. It's interesting.
Now for more news.
I had a great weekend this past weekend. To start off the fun, during school on Friday, we made Easter eggs! (Thanks, Mom!) The kids just loved it. When I was telling the story about the Easter bunny and how we dye eggs, one of my students just kept whispering "Wow!" with eyes as big as saucers. So cute.
Then that evening, I had two volunteer friends over to my house, and we baked brownies! My oven is horrible, though, and doesn't really like to bake anything in general, always producing cakes and brownies with burnt bottoms. It was still good though--we ate it right out of the pan and devoured it in minutes! We also made good 'lo American Kraft Mac 'n cheese (which cost us a whole $2.43 per box compared to the $.99 it costs in the States!). My volunteer friends had never had Kraft mac 'n cheese and they loved it. We also shared it with my host brother and his cousin, but I don't think they liked it.... haha. Then we had a bit of a salsa dance party in the living room and blasted the music while pretending to know how to salsa. (My host brother is pretty good at it, actually!) We're starting salsa classes in April so hopefully we'll be improving soon!
On Saturday, we went to Mitad del Mundo, or the middle of the world. It was a bit lame, though. We had to travel for hours to get there from Tumbaco, and when we arrived, there wasn't much besides the red line that supposedly is the equator. (We walked 10 minutes up the road and visited another place that said IT was the middle of the word--"according to GPS!"--since we'd heard that the actual big monument and red line weren't actually the real thing.) So we took the mandatory picture to say we'd been there then got ice cream and peaced out.
That evening we met Olivia's sister and sister's boyfriend who'd just arrived from the States for a visit. Her dad had visited a few weeks before so it was fun getting to know all of them! Now the rest of us are dying to see people from home--so hey, if anyone is interested in coming to Ecuador, now is the time! Now till July 2, you get a free tour guide!
We started exams today so Basica had their English exam. And all but one got really good grades!! It's such a relief to know they've actually learned stuff. Yay!
Ciao for now =)
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Update
Sorry I haven't been writing lately but there hasn't been much to report. These past few weeks I've been pretty sick so I've just been laying low--going to work, sleeping a lot, staying at home.
I was walking home tonight, though, and I randomly looked up. And the sky was just filled with millions of brilliant stars. I couldn't get over how gorgeous it was. And there, right above my head, watching me walk home, was the familiar Orion constellation. The night was so clear that you could even see the three, generally indiscernible stars of his knife thing hanging from his belt. It made me happy. I also probably looked like a total idiot because I was weaving drunkenly down the road with my head glued to the sky. But whatever.
And now for some stories, the things that happened in between me being sick and me being sick again =)
First off, we went to our first soccer game! La Liga, the best team in Ecuador, totally smashed the team from Guayaquil, 5-0. We went to the game with a guy who had actually played on La Liga before he had to quit to go to university so that was really cool. Everyone here in Ecuador gets SO into these games, chanting, screaming, jumping around--it was fantastic. The players actually even got into a fight on the field (hello red card), and there was even a line of police separating the fans of the rival teams. They get so competitive here, and this is only the university level. So much excitement! But my god, the heat was unbearable. Screaming straight down at us and turning us into a row of burnt lobsters in 10 minutes. So we all looked like little old ladies with shawls thrown over our heads in an attempt to block that crazy sun. I have to go to more soccer games here, though. They're so fantastic.
And then I had a little adventure on the bus on the way home from Quito one day. I got on my usual bus, La Morita, like I always do to get home, but right at the corner where the bus should turn left to get to my house, it turned right instead. And I'm thinking, "Well, ok. Maybe this is a normal thing for a Monday afternoon at 4:30pm. Right?" So I stayed on the bus and watched a little old woman with a heavy bundle of who knows what hobble off at a stop further down the wrong way of the road, looking calm-as-can-be like this was a normal bus route. After minutes of long, winding, dusty Tumbaco roads, the bus finally stopped, and I found myself at a legit, rural farm in some tiny corner of Tumbaco. I was starting to freak out a little bit at this point, but there was one other guy on the bus who looked to be in the same position as I was so I held tight. I didn't really have a choice, to be honest, since I had absolutely no clue where we were. Ten minutes later, another La Morita bus came to this same tiny Tumbaco farm, picked us up, and dropped me off at my house. But on the way back, we passed yet another La Morita bus on the way to that same farm, so now I'm just completely befuddled as to how the bus system works. Special one-day offer: Monday afternoons at 4:30pm--to the farm!
On the other hand, I had a great time the other day being a mall rat with a friend of mine at the Tumbaco centro commercial. I've discovered that in the food court at the end of the mall, one entire wall is completely made of windows and hosts an excellent view. I now go there to sketch sometimes (something I didn't think I'd be doing at all during my time here in Ecuador. But I couldn't help it: one day, I just HAD to go out and buy some pastels and sketch something. Never felt that urge before.) So after I finished sipping my mango juice and making some sketches of that gorgeous view, my friend and I discovered a music store in the mall. As in musical instruments, not CDs. He knows guitar, and I know some piano so we just started rocking out (not together--we're not that good haha). It was so nice to touch a piano again, though. I've missed that.
I also went to the birthday party of my host siblings' 80-something-year-old grandfather. I literally walked in the front door of my house after coming from Quito, and my host brother nearly pushed me back out the door saying, "It's my abuelito's birthday. Wanna come?" Of course, how could I say no? So I left with him with only 5 cents in my pocket, forgetting that I had to pay for the bus. We ended up on the bus, emptied our pockets, and between the two of us, only had 35 cents. It was so pitiful. I had to ask this nice lady to give me some money.
But the party was great fun. I met a whole horde of people in some way relating to one another and ate a great meal at the table with the old folks. (I was a special guest so I actually got a seat at the table! How exciting!) By the end of the evening, I was chatting with an 8-year-old cousin who amused herself for quite awhile by asking me the English word for every single thing she could possibly see in the room: How do you say "candle" in English? Beard? Glass? Wine? My favorite was, "How do you say gringo in English? Hilarious because not only is the word "gringo" a bit impolite generally, but of course, there is no real English translation. So funny.
As for "normal," everyday occurrences, the teaching has been going well. We're getting ready for exams in a couple weeks so I have to decide what I want the kids to know by then. I made a fruit salad with the oldest kids to reinforce the names of the fruits (which was fun and yummy) and now we're moving onto vegetables. And we're still trudging along with the names of the family and things in the neighborhood with the other kids. It's so exciting when I see that the kids are actually learning things. The oldest kids especially are really good at their fruits now, and it makes me smile every time when one of the kids can remember the English word for something I've taught them. We had a bit of difficulty in Primero de Basica, though, in learning the difference between "tree" and "street." We took a walk in the neighborhood around the school to point out the doors, windows, houses, etc, and when I asked them the words for "tree" and "street," I noticed that the kids pronounced them as exactly the same word. It sounded something like "estree." It was very interesting for me just to realize that the pronunciation is actually very difficult for the kids. I didn't even think about that before. So now we're working on those two words which I want them to differentiate before the exam.
And as always, there's some new lunchtime experience to report. For example, I shelled shrimp for the first time the other day. (They eat lots of shrimp here which I didn't like before I came here. Now, my favorite lunch is a dish sorta like fried rice with shrimp but with Ecuadorian spices. Sooo yummy.) And everyday at lunch now, my host mother makes me eat straight ginger to "cure me of my cough." It is nasty as all get out, straight ginger. I'm never going to be able to eat ginger again.
And then this last weekend, I had a nice, quiet weekend at home. My host brother and I made a cake and watched movies one night, and on Sunday, my whole family went to the pool! Getting there was so sketchy though; we took a bus to Cumbaya, a town in between Tumbaco and Quito, and then we all walked down this random alley and climbed into a small, 12-seater bus that we somehow knew would go to this pool. So strange. But very common--it's the only way to get to the pool! The pool was actually more like a spa of sorts, with multiple saunas and hots tubs as well as the pool. We ended up spending 5 hours there--so great just to relax all day with my host family!
Then, this Monday, March 8, we celebrated International Women's Day at the school, which actually is pretty big here. My host mom bought a huge pizza (!!!) and flowers for all of the teachers, and the kids all made cute cards for their moms. And then my host brother came home from school carrying a rose for each of us women in the family. Soo cute.
As for upcoming travel plans, everyone here gets a week off for Easter, La Semana Santa (Holy Week), so I think we're planning another trip to the beach! Can't wait!
I was walking home tonight, though, and I randomly looked up. And the sky was just filled with millions of brilliant stars. I couldn't get over how gorgeous it was. And there, right above my head, watching me walk home, was the familiar Orion constellation. The night was so clear that you could even see the three, generally indiscernible stars of his knife thing hanging from his belt. It made me happy. I also probably looked like a total idiot because I was weaving drunkenly down the road with my head glued to the sky. But whatever.
And now for some stories, the things that happened in between me being sick and me being sick again =)
First off, we went to our first soccer game! La Liga, the best team in Ecuador, totally smashed the team from Guayaquil, 5-0. We went to the game with a guy who had actually played on La Liga before he had to quit to go to university so that was really cool. Everyone here in Ecuador gets SO into these games, chanting, screaming, jumping around--it was fantastic. The players actually even got into a fight on the field (hello red card), and there was even a line of police separating the fans of the rival teams. They get so competitive here, and this is only the university level. So much excitement! But my god, the heat was unbearable. Screaming straight down at us and turning us into a row of burnt lobsters in 10 minutes. So we all looked like little old ladies with shawls thrown over our heads in an attempt to block that crazy sun. I have to go to more soccer games here, though. They're so fantastic.
And then I had a little adventure on the bus on the way home from Quito one day. I got on my usual bus, La Morita, like I always do to get home, but right at the corner where the bus should turn left to get to my house, it turned right instead. And I'm thinking, "Well, ok. Maybe this is a normal thing for a Monday afternoon at 4:30pm. Right?" So I stayed on the bus and watched a little old woman with a heavy bundle of who knows what hobble off at a stop further down the wrong way of the road, looking calm-as-can-be like this was a normal bus route. After minutes of long, winding, dusty Tumbaco roads, the bus finally stopped, and I found myself at a legit, rural farm in some tiny corner of Tumbaco. I was starting to freak out a little bit at this point, but there was one other guy on the bus who looked to be in the same position as I was so I held tight. I didn't really have a choice, to be honest, since I had absolutely no clue where we were. Ten minutes later, another La Morita bus came to this same tiny Tumbaco farm, picked us up, and dropped me off at my house. But on the way back, we passed yet another La Morita bus on the way to that same farm, so now I'm just completely befuddled as to how the bus system works. Special one-day offer: Monday afternoons at 4:30pm--to the farm!
On the other hand, I had a great time the other day being a mall rat with a friend of mine at the Tumbaco centro commercial. I've discovered that in the food court at the end of the mall, one entire wall is completely made of windows and hosts an excellent view. I now go there to sketch sometimes (something I didn't think I'd be doing at all during my time here in Ecuador. But I couldn't help it: one day, I just HAD to go out and buy some pastels and sketch something. Never felt that urge before.) So after I finished sipping my mango juice and making some sketches of that gorgeous view, my friend and I discovered a music store in the mall. As in musical instruments, not CDs. He knows guitar, and I know some piano so we just started rocking out (not together--we're not that good haha). It was so nice to touch a piano again, though. I've missed that.
I also went to the birthday party of my host siblings' 80-something-year-old grandfather. I literally walked in the front door of my house after coming from Quito, and my host brother nearly pushed me back out the door saying, "It's my abuelito's birthday. Wanna come?" Of course, how could I say no? So I left with him with only 5 cents in my pocket, forgetting that I had to pay for the bus. We ended up on the bus, emptied our pockets, and between the two of us, only had 35 cents. It was so pitiful. I had to ask this nice lady to give me some money.
But the party was great fun. I met a whole horde of people in some way relating to one another and ate a great meal at the table with the old folks. (I was a special guest so I actually got a seat at the table! How exciting!) By the end of the evening, I was chatting with an 8-year-old cousin who amused herself for quite awhile by asking me the English word for every single thing she could possibly see in the room: How do you say "candle" in English? Beard? Glass? Wine? My favorite was, "How do you say gringo in English? Hilarious because not only is the word "gringo" a bit impolite generally, but of course, there is no real English translation. So funny.
As for "normal," everyday occurrences, the teaching has been going well. We're getting ready for exams in a couple weeks so I have to decide what I want the kids to know by then. I made a fruit salad with the oldest kids to reinforce the names of the fruits (which was fun and yummy) and now we're moving onto vegetables. And we're still trudging along with the names of the family and things in the neighborhood with the other kids. It's so exciting when I see that the kids are actually learning things. The oldest kids especially are really good at their fruits now, and it makes me smile every time when one of the kids can remember the English word for something I've taught them. We had a bit of difficulty in Primero de Basica, though, in learning the difference between "tree" and "street." We took a walk in the neighborhood around the school to point out the doors, windows, houses, etc, and when I asked them the words for "tree" and "street," I noticed that the kids pronounced them as exactly the same word. It sounded something like "estree." It was very interesting for me just to realize that the pronunciation is actually very difficult for the kids. I didn't even think about that before. So now we're working on those two words which I want them to differentiate before the exam.
And as always, there's some new lunchtime experience to report. For example, I shelled shrimp for the first time the other day. (They eat lots of shrimp here which I didn't like before I came here. Now, my favorite lunch is a dish sorta like fried rice with shrimp but with Ecuadorian spices. Sooo yummy.) And everyday at lunch now, my host mother makes me eat straight ginger to "cure me of my cough." It is nasty as all get out, straight ginger. I'm never going to be able to eat ginger again.
And then this last weekend, I had a nice, quiet weekend at home. My host brother and I made a cake and watched movies one night, and on Sunday, my whole family went to the pool! Getting there was so sketchy though; we took a bus to Cumbaya, a town in between Tumbaco and Quito, and then we all walked down this random alley and climbed into a small, 12-seater bus that we somehow knew would go to this pool. So strange. But very common--it's the only way to get to the pool! The pool was actually more like a spa of sorts, with multiple saunas and hots tubs as well as the pool. We ended up spending 5 hours there--so great just to relax all day with my host family!
Then, this Monday, March 8, we celebrated International Women's Day at the school, which actually is pretty big here. My host mom bought a huge pizza (!!!) and flowers for all of the teachers, and the kids all made cute cards for their moms. And then my host brother came home from school carrying a rose for each of us women in the family. Soo cute.
As for upcoming travel plans, everyone here gets a week off for Easter, La Semana Santa (Holy Week), so I think we're planning another trip to the beach! Can't wait!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Carnaval!
Because Carnaval, a huge national holiday that is essentially the same as Mardi Gras ("let's go crazy before we have to sacrifice stuff for Lent"), was this Monday and Tuesday, my group of volunteers travelled to Manta, a small city on the coast! There were 10 of us--our group has changed a bit since we started in January. A few of our friends from our original group couldn't come but some new volunteers have arrived since. So now we have volunteers from 7 countries: Germany (Lasse, Iris, Johanna, and Flo), USA (Olivia, me), Iceland (Eva, Oskar), New Zealand (Brendan), Sweden (Ida, Natalie), Switzerland (Mio, who's not actually with VASE or any organization at all actually--she looked up her project on the internet and went!), and Estonia (Olga).
The process of getting there with 10 people, though, was quite intense. Four hours of internet searching, myriad long-distance phone calls, and tons of frustration later, we finally ended up finding a hostel and a bus ride for 10 of us. We booked the hostel through a website that looked legit, and the bus ride was actually organized through the host family of Oskar, one of the volunteers in our group. The evening before we left (Thursday), I get a phone call from Oskar saying that the bus actually doesn't go through Manta at all; in fact, it goes the exact opposite direction. How that happened, I haven't a clue, but Oskar and his host family frantically looked for other options for the whole night and we ended up booking a private bus (a whole $25 per person--very very expensive for a bus ride).
Friday evening saw us all squashed around Oskar's host family's dinner table eating a full out meal that his family had made for us. It was quite a squeeze since Oskar's house is so tiny--he lives in Collaqui, a smaller more rural town than Tumbaco that is an hour from Quito, in a house not meant to have a 6 foot something guy living in it. The ceilings are extremely low so Oskar's going to have a permanently bent-over back by the end of his 6 months, I think.
Then we piled into our tiny, private bus and traveled 9 hours overnight to Manta. We stopped right outside of Collaqui to pick up the bus driver's family (they were going to vacation in Manta as well) so we ended up with 16 people and our piles of luggage crushed into this bus. Needless to say, no one slept much, what with the heat that just kept getting hotter as we traveled down from the mountains and the obnoxious Spanish music the bus driver was playing. At like 3am or so, we had to suffer through this playlist of the saddest and most ballad-like music ever: "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion from "Titanic," "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (oh MUUSA), etc. etc. It was awful.
We finally arrived in Manta at around 7:30/8am-ish but had the most impossible time finding our hostel. Not joking, every 20 feet or so, our driver, Roberto, would stop and ask where the street was, and every single person would reply, "Muy largos" which basically means "Very far." We were far out of Manta by this time and feeling a bit desperate. We had no idea where we were, where our hostel was, and it was pouring rain. Not ideal weather for the beach. It was looking grim.
Then, we saw this totally gorgeous beach out of our bus windows and our driver turned off the main road and headed toward this beach to a hostel right on the water. We were like, "Oh my god. This can't be our hostel," because it was stunning and RIGHT there on the sea. But actually, it wasn't our hostel. It was the hostel where we asked for directions. Sad sad.
But then! Not only did our initial bus ride turn out to be going the wrong direction, but then we found out the hostel we booked online didn't exist! It was a fake website that stole the $27 reservation fee we paid for our supposed hostel. Luckily, the splendid hostel at which we were currently had enough available rooms for us all--for $20 per person per night (again, very very expensive). We ate some breakfast there then spent the day at the beach, only a 2 minute walk from our front door. The rain had stopped, the sun was peaking shyly through the clouds, the waves were big, and the water warm. So great. And oh man, even when it's cloudy, the sun here in Ecuador is so strong. We put loads of sunscreen on and still managed a decent tan on the first day. And the coast is already loads hotter than in mountainous Quito. It was actually humid, something I haven't experienced here in Ecuador at all until now. So great, though. Until I lost my glasses in the Pacific. Whoops. I didn't realize I was wearing them and got knocked over by a huge wave and there went the glasses. So the entire weekend, I had to borrow my friend Olivia's glasses, but I still couldn't see well at all. Total bummer being blind the whole weekend but now I have my spare pair and all is well.
That night was surprisingly quiet. There was a decent amount of people hanging out on the beach during the day so we expected there to be a pretty big party on the beach that night, it being Carnaval weekend and all. But no, it totally emptied around 6pm or so. So we were all hanging out in one of our rooms at the hostel, sad that we were missing Carnaval fun, when we heard a knock at the door. It was our fantastic bus driver saying that he'd found us a way cheaper hostel in the actual city part of Manta! And for only $5 per person per night! He wanted us to actually leave right then so that we wouldn't have to pay for the night at this expensive hostel. We ended up staying at the nice hostel one night. (We felt bad--we couldn't just leave after the hostel people had helped us so much when we tried to figure out where we were staying that night.) Despite being so expensive, the hostel was really awesome--it had air conditioning, a pool, cheap foodÉ.
The next day, Sunday, was beautifully sunny and crazy hot. We spent the morning on the beach once again, then packed everything back into our bus to go to the new hostel. We were all paying our $20 per person to the hostel owner when some trouble arose. The hostel people were kinda angry with us since we had said we'd stay for all three nights and now were leaving after only one. So they wanted us to come with them to check our rooms to see if there was anything broken or whatnot. They walked straight into our bathroom and pulled the lock out of the doorknob and claimed that we broke it. We had obviously not, and the lock worked fine even though it could pop out of the doorknob. So they made us pay $40 extra for that, and even though we knew they were totally cheating us, we had to pay. After all that, we speedily drove away towards Manta.
The rest of that day was spent on yet another beach, another totally gorgeous one that some Ecuadorian friends we'd met at the expensive hostel brought us to. Having Ecuadorian friends, I'm realizing, is a really great thing because they know what's up. Like, where to find the best beaches, for example. We lazed around at the beach some more--swimming, tanning, playing cards, and messing around with this stuff that has a name sounding like "karaoke." Basically, it's this stuff that comes in a can that is a mix between silly string and foamy soap and you spray it at each other only during Carnaval weekend. The first time I'd used it was the day we left for Manta. My school had its own Carnaval celebration, complete with a junk food feast, "karaoke" fun, costumes (they don't have Halloween here--they dress up for Carnaval!), and even a parade down the street with banners saying "Long live Carnaval but without water!" (My host mom is trying to make the point that throwing water--which happens excessively during Carnaval--is a waste of water and hence, throw "karaoke" instead.) But basically, this "karaoke" stuff is awesome. We had great fun at the beach totally covering each other with the stuff then dunking each other in the water.
That evening, despite being Valentine's Day, almost all of us crashed and went to bed early. Being in the sun all day and not getting enough sleep drains the energy out of you, so I ended up getting 10 hours of sleep that night. The most sleep I've had in Ecuador so far!
On Monday, Carnaval started. We all slept in so the day began at around noon when we tried to walk down the street to get breakfast. The second we stepped out of the hostel's front door, we were bombarded by water balloons. (It was the bus driver's kids actually--they were staying at the same hostel as us.) We picked up speed, turned the corner, and were drenched with now bucketsful of water. Luckily, we'd been smart enough to wear our bathing suits but man, we got so wet. But that's Carnaval for you! People walk around in the streets carrying water guns, kids get a hold of hoses and spray passing cars, water balloons and buckets are constantly held, ready for any passersby. It's impossible to stay dry on Carnaval.
After breakfast, we had an even longer walk down to the beach. We chose to go to the one that we could see out our hostel window, one that we hadn't been to yet. Turned out, the beach was really dirty, and it was clear that gringos were rare sights there. We got some of the weirdest looks. Later we realized that our hostel was in the sorta sketchy part of town, and hence the beach was sorta sketchy as well. So we cleared out of the beach pretty quickly and went shopping for snack food at the Supermaxi (our best friend now) instead. Then, feeling hungry, we ate at the only open restaurant in the entire town, KFC.
The evening was pretty lame--we never found where the actual Carnaval party was--and we ended up, disappointed, on the roof/balcony of our hostel eating our recently purchased junk food. Not our preferred way to celebrate Carnaval but whatever. And then, after spending most of the night on the roof, we had a few hours sleep then it was back on the bus to Quito. A good time overall.
The process of getting there with 10 people, though, was quite intense. Four hours of internet searching, myriad long-distance phone calls, and tons of frustration later, we finally ended up finding a hostel and a bus ride for 10 of us. We booked the hostel through a website that looked legit, and the bus ride was actually organized through the host family of Oskar, one of the volunteers in our group. The evening before we left (Thursday), I get a phone call from Oskar saying that the bus actually doesn't go through Manta at all; in fact, it goes the exact opposite direction. How that happened, I haven't a clue, but Oskar and his host family frantically looked for other options for the whole night and we ended up booking a private bus (a whole $25 per person--very very expensive for a bus ride).
Friday evening saw us all squashed around Oskar's host family's dinner table eating a full out meal that his family had made for us. It was quite a squeeze since Oskar's house is so tiny--he lives in Collaqui, a smaller more rural town than Tumbaco that is an hour from Quito, in a house not meant to have a 6 foot something guy living in it. The ceilings are extremely low so Oskar's going to have a permanently bent-over back by the end of his 6 months, I think.
Then we piled into our tiny, private bus and traveled 9 hours overnight to Manta. We stopped right outside of Collaqui to pick up the bus driver's family (they were going to vacation in Manta as well) so we ended up with 16 people and our piles of luggage crushed into this bus. Needless to say, no one slept much, what with the heat that just kept getting hotter as we traveled down from the mountains and the obnoxious Spanish music the bus driver was playing. At like 3am or so, we had to suffer through this playlist of the saddest and most ballad-like music ever: "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion from "Titanic," "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (oh MUUSA), etc. etc. It was awful.
We finally arrived in Manta at around 7:30/8am-ish but had the most impossible time finding our hostel. Not joking, every 20 feet or so, our driver, Roberto, would stop and ask where the street was, and every single person would reply, "Muy largos" which basically means "Very far." We were far out of Manta by this time and feeling a bit desperate. We had no idea where we were, where our hostel was, and it was pouring rain. Not ideal weather for the beach. It was looking grim.
Then, we saw this totally gorgeous beach out of our bus windows and our driver turned off the main road and headed toward this beach to a hostel right on the water. We were like, "Oh my god. This can't be our hostel," because it was stunning and RIGHT there on the sea. But actually, it wasn't our hostel. It was the hostel where we asked for directions. Sad sad.
But then! Not only did our initial bus ride turn out to be going the wrong direction, but then we found out the hostel we booked online didn't exist! It was a fake website that stole the $27 reservation fee we paid for our supposed hostel. Luckily, the splendid hostel at which we were currently had enough available rooms for us all--for $20 per person per night (again, very very expensive). We ate some breakfast there then spent the day at the beach, only a 2 minute walk from our front door. The rain had stopped, the sun was peaking shyly through the clouds, the waves were big, and the water warm. So great. And oh man, even when it's cloudy, the sun here in Ecuador is so strong. We put loads of sunscreen on and still managed a decent tan on the first day. And the coast is already loads hotter than in mountainous Quito. It was actually humid, something I haven't experienced here in Ecuador at all until now. So great, though. Until I lost my glasses in the Pacific. Whoops. I didn't realize I was wearing them and got knocked over by a huge wave and there went the glasses. So the entire weekend, I had to borrow my friend Olivia's glasses, but I still couldn't see well at all. Total bummer being blind the whole weekend but now I have my spare pair and all is well.
That night was surprisingly quiet. There was a decent amount of people hanging out on the beach during the day so we expected there to be a pretty big party on the beach that night, it being Carnaval weekend and all. But no, it totally emptied around 6pm or so. So we were all hanging out in one of our rooms at the hostel, sad that we were missing Carnaval fun, when we heard a knock at the door. It was our fantastic bus driver saying that he'd found us a way cheaper hostel in the actual city part of Manta! And for only $5 per person per night! He wanted us to actually leave right then so that we wouldn't have to pay for the night at this expensive hostel. We ended up staying at the nice hostel one night. (We felt bad--we couldn't just leave after the hostel people had helped us so much when we tried to figure out where we were staying that night.) Despite being so expensive, the hostel was really awesome--it had air conditioning, a pool, cheap foodÉ.
The next day, Sunday, was beautifully sunny and crazy hot. We spent the morning on the beach once again, then packed everything back into our bus to go to the new hostel. We were all paying our $20 per person to the hostel owner when some trouble arose. The hostel people were kinda angry with us since we had said we'd stay for all three nights and now were leaving after only one. So they wanted us to come with them to check our rooms to see if there was anything broken or whatnot. They walked straight into our bathroom and pulled the lock out of the doorknob and claimed that we broke it. We had obviously not, and the lock worked fine even though it could pop out of the doorknob. So they made us pay $40 extra for that, and even though we knew they were totally cheating us, we had to pay. After all that, we speedily drove away towards Manta.
The rest of that day was spent on yet another beach, another totally gorgeous one that some Ecuadorian friends we'd met at the expensive hostel brought us to. Having Ecuadorian friends, I'm realizing, is a really great thing because they know what's up. Like, where to find the best beaches, for example. We lazed around at the beach some more--swimming, tanning, playing cards, and messing around with this stuff that has a name sounding like "karaoke." Basically, it's this stuff that comes in a can that is a mix between silly string and foamy soap and you spray it at each other only during Carnaval weekend. The first time I'd used it was the day we left for Manta. My school had its own Carnaval celebration, complete with a junk food feast, "karaoke" fun, costumes (they don't have Halloween here--they dress up for Carnaval!), and even a parade down the street with banners saying "Long live Carnaval but without water!" (My host mom is trying to make the point that throwing water--which happens excessively during Carnaval--is a waste of water and hence, throw "karaoke" instead.) But basically, this "karaoke" stuff is awesome. We had great fun at the beach totally covering each other with the stuff then dunking each other in the water.
That evening, despite being Valentine's Day, almost all of us crashed and went to bed early. Being in the sun all day and not getting enough sleep drains the energy out of you, so I ended up getting 10 hours of sleep that night. The most sleep I've had in Ecuador so far!
On Monday, Carnaval started. We all slept in so the day began at around noon when we tried to walk down the street to get breakfast. The second we stepped out of the hostel's front door, we were bombarded by water balloons. (It was the bus driver's kids actually--they were staying at the same hostel as us.) We picked up speed, turned the corner, and were drenched with now bucketsful of water. Luckily, we'd been smart enough to wear our bathing suits but man, we got so wet. But that's Carnaval for you! People walk around in the streets carrying water guns, kids get a hold of hoses and spray passing cars, water balloons and buckets are constantly held, ready for any passersby. It's impossible to stay dry on Carnaval.
After breakfast, we had an even longer walk down to the beach. We chose to go to the one that we could see out our hostel window, one that we hadn't been to yet. Turned out, the beach was really dirty, and it was clear that gringos were rare sights there. We got some of the weirdest looks. Later we realized that our hostel was in the sorta sketchy part of town, and hence the beach was sorta sketchy as well. So we cleared out of the beach pretty quickly and went shopping for snack food at the Supermaxi (our best friend now) instead. Then, feeling hungry, we ate at the only open restaurant in the entire town, KFC.
The evening was pretty lame--we never found where the actual Carnaval party was--and we ended up, disappointed, on the roof/balcony of our hostel eating our recently purchased junk food. Not our preferred way to celebrate Carnaval but whatever. And then, after spending most of the night on the roof, we had a few hours sleep then it was back on the bus to Quito. A good time overall.
A day in the life of Leslie
To get some idea of what I do all day....
- Wake up at 6am.
- Don't get out of bed until 6:45am and end up being late. I thought this would change on coming to Ecuador, and I would magically turn into a morning person. Nope.
- Breakfast by myself at 7am because everyone else has been up since 4am. I now drink coffee because I'm realizing that although I could wake up at 6am and be ready for high school, being ready for teaching is a whole other story. I actually have to have energy. Hence, weird Ecuadorian coffee with lots of sugar.
- Run outside to help the other teachers clean the school and yard. This mostly involves either sweeping, picking up leaves, or watering the dirt. (When it's dry it gets really dusty if you don't water the ground.)
- The kids usually arrive between 7 and 7:30 so we're supposed to open the door for them and give them a kiss on the cheek.
- Basica starts at 7:30am with Profe. Raquel. I watch the rest of the kids play in the yard until 8am when their classes start. They always begin with "rompe de cabezas" (puzzles) and then lessons start.
- (I will use today, Monday, as an example of what a normal day is like because I think today has been the most normal day so far, what my day SHOULD be and not the messiness it has been. The mess is not completely sorted out--my fellow English teacher, Adriana, did indeed quit and we only found out yesterday, and there still is no main teacher for Pre Kinder--but today I tag-teamed with my host sister, Chabella, and it went super well. I would say stuff in English and some Spanish, and she would repeat stuff in Spanish when the kids couldn't understand the English.)
- At 8am, I start English with Pre Kinder. Today we had a great lesson about the family and made family trees. Normally, I'll be having 45 minute classes, but right now they only expect me to do 20-30 minutes. But! Chabella and I managed to have an entire 45 minute class anyway! Woot.
- At 9am, I start English with Primero de Basica. We talked about the neighborhood today and had an hour-long class! This class is so great to work with--they're easy to control, and I always have new ideas for things to do with them.
- Then, I helped outside with everyone's recess and snack. The kids all have to sit around a table, say "la oracion" or short prayer, and then when they're finished, put their own chairs away and put their trash in Senor Basurero (Mr. Trash--he's always hungry). All of this is a lesson in independence since we're not supposed to help them with any of it.
- At 11:15, it's time for English with Basica. We're working with fruits, so I read them "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle and talked about the fruits. Again, the class was a full 45 minutes! So I've realized that if I have a proper partner (Chabella was awesome), it can work out quite well. It's great to have help controlling the kids, keeping their attention, and repeating instructions in Spanish if the kids don't understand.
- At noon, I supervise dismissal. Pre Kinder and Primero de Basica begin to be picked up at noon. This is the time I get to just play with them. Our favorite games are "Comame" (meaning "Eat me" in which I'm a wolf and I run around saying I'm hungry and try to catch them) and the bus ride (where the kids each collect a handful of leaves, climb up the ladder to the slide, give me money and tell me where they want to go--"A Quito! A Puembo! A Guayaquil!" and then slide down the slide "Bien viaje!").
- Once all of the kids have gone (Basica leaves at 12:30), we clean the classrooms. I get to debrief and think about the day while I sweep, sweep, sweep the classes. It's a great part of my day.
- Then, if my host mom hasn't already started, thus begins the two-hour process of cooking lunch. I refuse to light the stove ever because the only way to do it is to stick your hand with the match into the burner (and the matches here are strange--they're made almost entirely of wax and are super bendy and super short), turn on the gas, and hope to god your hand doesn't go up in flames. You also have to wash EVERYTHING with soap and water, even the fruits. In the States, I've washed things with just water, but it's strange to wash with soap as well. You can't drink the water here, though, because you'll get sick. We have big jugs of water here that you use for drinking.
- After lunch is prepared, a grace is said (I'm waiting a bit longer before I break out the good 'ole Massicotte graces), and then we dig into a meal usually consisting of rice, meat, potatoes, and salad with a fruit salad slathered in honey and oatmeal for dessert. They really like sweet things here--juices, coffee, tea, and desserts are all incredibly sweet.
- You say "Gracias" when you're finished (and I'm always the last to finish eating; again, some things haven't changed) and then begin to do the dishes. No dishwasher of course.
- After that, we all sorta do our own things. Sometimes my host mom has classes or a meeting, my sister generally goes out with friends or her boyfriend, my brother has school until 4pm. I always shower at some point, which is always an experience. Actually, the entire bathroom situation is always an experience. To shower, I have to go to one bathroom, to pee I have to go to another, to use a mirror, I have to go another. So between the three bathrooms, I manage to get everything done, but it's a hike back and forth.
- Other times, I do some laundry. They only have a washer, no dryer, which means all my clothes are really stiff. And the washer doesn't really wash your clothes very well, just sorta twirls them around and takes forever doing so. When it finally stops, you have to hang your clothes on the fences and clothes lines to dry. Of course, my luck has been recently that the minute after I'm finished putting my clothes on the line, it starts to rain, and I have to run around crazy trying to gather them all up again. My host brother thinks this is the funniest thing in the world. He is wrong.
- Sometimes, I'll do more cleaning and sweep/dust my room. Or if I'm too lazy, I'll forget cleaning and take a nap. Or watch a movie, read, write blog entries, etc.
- Other times, I'll do some traveling. Maybe once or twice a week, I'll go to Quito to meet a friend and have dinner or something. Other days, I'll just walk down the street to the internet cafe.
- In the evening, I am generally making the lesson plans for the following day, eating a little something, and just hanging around with the family. Then it's bedtime at 9pm.
- Wake up at 6am.
- Don't get out of bed until 6:45am and end up being late. I thought this would change on coming to Ecuador, and I would magically turn into a morning person. Nope.
- Breakfast by myself at 7am because everyone else has been up since 4am. I now drink coffee because I'm realizing that although I could wake up at 6am and be ready for high school, being ready for teaching is a whole other story. I actually have to have energy. Hence, weird Ecuadorian coffee with lots of sugar.
- Run outside to help the other teachers clean the school and yard. This mostly involves either sweeping, picking up leaves, or watering the dirt. (When it's dry it gets really dusty if you don't water the ground.)
- The kids usually arrive between 7 and 7:30 so we're supposed to open the door for them and give them a kiss on the cheek.
- Basica starts at 7:30am with Profe. Raquel. I watch the rest of the kids play in the yard until 8am when their classes start. They always begin with "rompe de cabezas" (puzzles) and then lessons start.
- (I will use today, Monday, as an example of what a normal day is like because I think today has been the most normal day so far, what my day SHOULD be and not the messiness it has been. The mess is not completely sorted out--my fellow English teacher, Adriana, did indeed quit and we only found out yesterday, and there still is no main teacher for Pre Kinder--but today I tag-teamed with my host sister, Chabella, and it went super well. I would say stuff in English and some Spanish, and she would repeat stuff in Spanish when the kids couldn't understand the English.)
- At 8am, I start English with Pre Kinder. Today we had a great lesson about the family and made family trees. Normally, I'll be having 45 minute classes, but right now they only expect me to do 20-30 minutes. But! Chabella and I managed to have an entire 45 minute class anyway! Woot.
- At 9am, I start English with Primero de Basica. We talked about the neighborhood today and had an hour-long class! This class is so great to work with--they're easy to control, and I always have new ideas for things to do with them.
- Then, I helped outside with everyone's recess and snack. The kids all have to sit around a table, say "la oracion" or short prayer, and then when they're finished, put their own chairs away and put their trash in Senor Basurero (Mr. Trash--he's always hungry). All of this is a lesson in independence since we're not supposed to help them with any of it.
- At 11:15, it's time for English with Basica. We're working with fruits, so I read them "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle and talked about the fruits. Again, the class was a full 45 minutes! So I've realized that if I have a proper partner (Chabella was awesome), it can work out quite well. It's great to have help controlling the kids, keeping their attention, and repeating instructions in Spanish if the kids don't understand.
- At noon, I supervise dismissal. Pre Kinder and Primero de Basica begin to be picked up at noon. This is the time I get to just play with them. Our favorite games are "Comame" (meaning "Eat me" in which I'm a wolf and I run around saying I'm hungry and try to catch them) and the bus ride (where the kids each collect a handful of leaves, climb up the ladder to the slide, give me money and tell me where they want to go--"A Quito! A Puembo! A Guayaquil!" and then slide down the slide "Bien viaje!").
- Once all of the kids have gone (Basica leaves at 12:30), we clean the classrooms. I get to debrief and think about the day while I sweep, sweep, sweep the classes. It's a great part of my day.
- Then, if my host mom hasn't already started, thus begins the two-hour process of cooking lunch. I refuse to light the stove ever because the only way to do it is to stick your hand with the match into the burner (and the matches here are strange--they're made almost entirely of wax and are super bendy and super short), turn on the gas, and hope to god your hand doesn't go up in flames. You also have to wash EVERYTHING with soap and water, even the fruits. In the States, I've washed things with just water, but it's strange to wash with soap as well. You can't drink the water here, though, because you'll get sick. We have big jugs of water here that you use for drinking.
- After lunch is prepared, a grace is said (I'm waiting a bit longer before I break out the good 'ole Massicotte graces), and then we dig into a meal usually consisting of rice, meat, potatoes, and salad with a fruit salad slathered in honey and oatmeal for dessert. They really like sweet things here--juices, coffee, tea, and desserts are all incredibly sweet.
- You say "Gracias" when you're finished (and I'm always the last to finish eating; again, some things haven't changed) and then begin to do the dishes. No dishwasher of course.
- After that, we all sorta do our own things. Sometimes my host mom has classes or a meeting, my sister generally goes out with friends or her boyfriend, my brother has school until 4pm. I always shower at some point, which is always an experience. Actually, the entire bathroom situation is always an experience. To shower, I have to go to one bathroom, to pee I have to go to another, to use a mirror, I have to go another. So between the three bathrooms, I manage to get everything done, but it's a hike back and forth.
- Other times, I do some laundry. They only have a washer, no dryer, which means all my clothes are really stiff. And the washer doesn't really wash your clothes very well, just sorta twirls them around and takes forever doing so. When it finally stops, you have to hang your clothes on the fences and clothes lines to dry. Of course, my luck has been recently that the minute after I'm finished putting my clothes on the line, it starts to rain, and I have to run around crazy trying to gather them all up again. My host brother thinks this is the funniest thing in the world. He is wrong.
- Sometimes, I'll do more cleaning and sweep/dust my room. Or if I'm too lazy, I'll forget cleaning and take a nap. Or watch a movie, read, write blog entries, etc.
- Other times, I'll do some traveling. Maybe once or twice a week, I'll go to Quito to meet a friend and have dinner or something. Other days, I'll just walk down the street to the internet cafe.
- In the evening, I am generally making the lesson plans for the following day, eating a little something, and just hanging around with the family. Then it's bedtime at 9pm.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Some observations about Ecuador
Sorry... there are two posts this time too!
- There are actually quite a lot of black people here. I get a little surprise every time they open their mouths and start speaking rapid Spanish. In Indianapolis, the black people and the Hispanic population don't generally get along so well so hearing a black person speak Spanish, I'm just like "This is great!"
- There are also lots of white people. Lots of volunteers, lots of travelers, but many more than I thought I would see. Especially in "Gringolandia" or La Mariscal where we hang out most weekends, there are just mobs of white people.
- The men here have a weird way of showing their respect for ladies. It's part of their lifestyle to whistle at a girl passing by and say things like "Que linda, Que bonita" ("Hey beautiful" basically). At first I was like, okay wait a minute. Not cool. But that's actually how they show their respect; it's like a compliment. They don't mean anything disrespectful. So besides getting used to that, being a girl here is quite great. Men always give ladies their seats on the bus, and we girls can often get into places for free while men have to pay.
- They were totally right when they said that Ecuadorians are in general very nice people. The second I pull out my map of Quito to find something, I have someone asking me if I need help getting someplace. Or if someone sees us struggling to understand something in Spanish when we're trying to get a hostal or a meal or something, almost always someone is there offering to help translate or negotiate.
- Before I came here, I was warned that wearing revealing clothing (tank tops, shorts, short skirts, etc.) was not common for Ecuadorians and if I didn't want to stick out I shouldn't wear them. However, let me tell you, many Ecuadorians wear quite revealing clothing, but the one thing they absolutely do not wear outside of the house is flip flops (or "jandals" as they call them in New Zealand). I've discovered the reason is that you get stepped on quite a bit on the buses so now my bruised feet are safely covered in sneakers or closed-toe sandals. But despite not wearing flip flops, the women here are huge fans of high heels. With all the walking they do, I can't believe how they manage.
- It is extremely difficult to get change here. It's frustrating because the ATMs give mostly $20 bills (and some of the volunteers came from their home countries with $50's) and since most everyday things (like the bus, a bottle of water, lunch) cost so little that most places can't give you change for a $20.
- Everyone loves music here. If a song they know comes on the radio, they are singing out loud despite being on a bus full of crowded people. Or they'll sit in front of their stores and just sing along to the radio, not shy at all. We even ran into a guy on the bus who was lying in the middle of the floor just singing. And not only do they like to sing, but they like to dance. Salsa, hip hop, pop, more salsa. Nobody's ashamed to totally put themselves out there and feel the music. So great!
- Ecuadorians love to add "ito" to every single word they can. Ahorita ("ahora", means "now"), poquito (poco-a little bit), jabonito (jabon-soap), Ernestito (my host brother, Ernesto)É.
- Milk comes in bags. It's so weird.
- Amidst all the normally dressed people walking around in Ecuador, there are lots of folks still dressing in the indigenous style. They are mostly women wearing these long skirts and lots of colorful scarves and a traditional hat. Many of them come into the city to beg. Others to sell things. It's just strange seeing such traditional clothing in a modern city like Quito.
- Clothing is surprisingly expensive here. I haven't been able to find a shirt under $20Éand jeans cost $50. I can't believe how people can afford clothes!
- You would think that everything in Ecuador is really cheap. A lot of it is (for example, 24 roses for $1, a three course meal for $2, a bus ride across the city for $.25) but other things are super super expensive. I already mentioned the clothes, but during our many trips to the supermarket to stock up on junk food, we found that lots of the foods are not cheap. It's because it's imported food, but it makes us want to cry that a small bottle of Nutella costs $10 here in Ecuador.
I'm sure there will be more observations, but this is it for now. Ciao ciao!
- There are actually quite a lot of black people here. I get a little surprise every time they open their mouths and start speaking rapid Spanish. In Indianapolis, the black people and the Hispanic population don't generally get along so well so hearing a black person speak Spanish, I'm just like "This is great!"
- There are also lots of white people. Lots of volunteers, lots of travelers, but many more than I thought I would see. Especially in "Gringolandia" or La Mariscal where we hang out most weekends, there are just mobs of white people.
- The men here have a weird way of showing their respect for ladies. It's part of their lifestyle to whistle at a girl passing by and say things like "Que linda, Que bonita" ("Hey beautiful" basically). At first I was like, okay wait a minute. Not cool. But that's actually how they show their respect; it's like a compliment. They don't mean anything disrespectful. So besides getting used to that, being a girl here is quite great. Men always give ladies their seats on the bus, and we girls can often get into places for free while men have to pay.
- They were totally right when they said that Ecuadorians are in general very nice people. The second I pull out my map of Quito to find something, I have someone asking me if I need help getting someplace. Or if someone sees us struggling to understand something in Spanish when we're trying to get a hostal or a meal or something, almost always someone is there offering to help translate or negotiate.
- Before I came here, I was warned that wearing revealing clothing (tank tops, shorts, short skirts, etc.) was not common for Ecuadorians and if I didn't want to stick out I shouldn't wear them. However, let me tell you, many Ecuadorians wear quite revealing clothing, but the one thing they absolutely do not wear outside of the house is flip flops (or "jandals" as they call them in New Zealand). I've discovered the reason is that you get stepped on quite a bit on the buses so now my bruised feet are safely covered in sneakers or closed-toe sandals. But despite not wearing flip flops, the women here are huge fans of high heels. With all the walking they do, I can't believe how they manage.
- It is extremely difficult to get change here. It's frustrating because the ATMs give mostly $20 bills (and some of the volunteers came from their home countries with $50's) and since most everyday things (like the bus, a bottle of water, lunch) cost so little that most places can't give you change for a $20.
- Everyone loves music here. If a song they know comes on the radio, they are singing out loud despite being on a bus full of crowded people. Or they'll sit in front of their stores and just sing along to the radio, not shy at all. We even ran into a guy on the bus who was lying in the middle of the floor just singing. And not only do they like to sing, but they like to dance. Salsa, hip hop, pop, more salsa. Nobody's ashamed to totally put themselves out there and feel the music. So great!
- Ecuadorians love to add "ito" to every single word they can. Ahorita ("ahora", means "now"), poquito (poco-a little bit), jabonito (jabon-soap), Ernestito (my host brother, Ernesto)É.
- Milk comes in bags. It's so weird.
- Amidst all the normally dressed people walking around in Ecuador, there are lots of folks still dressing in the indigenous style. They are mostly women wearing these long skirts and lots of colorful scarves and a traditional hat. Many of them come into the city to beg. Others to sell things. It's just strange seeing such traditional clothing in a modern city like Quito.
- Clothing is surprisingly expensive here. I haven't been able to find a shirt under $20Éand jeans cost $50. I can't believe how people can afford clothes!
- You would think that everything in Ecuador is really cheap. A lot of it is (for example, 24 roses for $1, a three course meal for $2, a bus ride across the city for $.25) but other things are super super expensive. I already mentioned the clothes, but during our many trips to the supermarket to stock up on junk food, we found that lots of the foods are not cheap. It's because it's imported food, but it makes us want to cry that a small bottle of Nutella costs $10 here in Ecuador.
I'm sure there will be more observations, but this is it for now. Ciao ciao!
First week of teaching
Oh wow. I've survived my first week of teaching. It has certainly been a struggle but I think the worst is over. Now that the kids are used to seeing my around, I think they'll learn to respect my authority and will quiet down. That was really the main problem this first week--the kids just didn't know me, didn't know my limits, wanted to test me, didn't respect me. It was frustrating since, after watching the other teachers at the school, I was actually doing the exact same things as they were but my kids would always misbehave to the max. It'll get a bit more calm after that respect is gained, I'm thinking.
And actually, I've been put in charge of my own classes much more than I had expected. As it turned out, on Tuesday, instead of me just helping the other teachers, I was put in charge of my host mom's class, Primero de Basica, because she had to go to a meeting. The beginning was rough--I just sorta sat there since another teacher would come in to tell the kids what to do. But by the end of the day, I actually managed to do a lesson by myself with them. I was told they needed to learn the vowel "u" and was given some sheets of paper with the letter "u" drawn on them that the kids were supposed to paint. The last project they'd done was to paint so we just colored the block letter "u" instead. And then, because that took like 5 minutes, I played teacher for a bit and started asking them words that started with "u." (I had to fetch my dictionary, though. I've discovered there aren't many Spanish words starting with "u" besides unicornio, uñas, uvas, and uno.) So I drew pictures of these things on the board and they copied them onto their papers. I was so proud. They managed to fill their entire paper with "u" things and even practiced writing the letter "u" several times.
The next day we had English classes, which went a bit better than on Monday. We managed to stay on schedule and had a lesson for every class. Pre Kinder was better but still not great, Primero de Basica was overall really good, and then Basica was fine until the end when four boys ended up playing a game in the bathroom rather than participate in our beautiful rendition of the song "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes."
Then today everyone had music class, which normally wouldn't mean anything different but the usual music teacher was home sick and her husband was there to take her place. The other teachers had me help him out the whole day, following him from class to class. So we sang lots and lots of songs and even went on a little walk up the hill from the school ("to listen to the sounds in nature." We ended up coming back with arms full of wildflowers because the kids just couldn't resist picking them.) It felt like what my job SHOULD be like--helping out the main teacher with his lesson plan. I'm finding with Adriana that I'm actually the main teacher. Claro, she knows more Spanish than I do, but she's too quiet and calm for the kids and is totally not used to working with this age group. (She's been teaching teens and adults for 15 years.) She told me on Wednesday that she wasn't going to come back--she couldn't stand the kids and couldn't teach them. I really do hope she comes back or, at least, that my host mom finds another English teacher.
I absolutely love these kids, though. I've been spending lots of time with Primero de Basica (ages 5-6) so I'm getting to know them pretty well. There's Fernando who is a very fast learner and the best student in the class (but not in behaviorÉ.) Anabel and Camila are best buds and a wild pair, especially Anabel who today colored her paper entirely black because she was in a bad mood. She also likes to call me "Lellie" which is super cute. Chubby Alex always brings a little white stuffed dog to school and is just such a sweet kid. I saw him and Camila getting their flirt on during recess the other dayÉgotta watch out for those two =) Then there's Jonathon who's also a good student, very loud, and has a mouth full of rotting teeth. Very cute. Lastly, we have Talia and Josue. Josue takes about 5 years to eat his lunch because he eats so freaking much for such a tiny kid. Most of the kids have leftovers from their lunches, give them to Josue, who then totally devours all of it, but very slowly. And Talia is actually 8 years old, I think, but she's one of our special kids. You have to help her out with her schoolwork every step of the way, but she's got a super grin and the cutest way of running up to you to give you a big hug.
This weekend was also pretty interesting. On Friday, we had a going away party for Sigrun. She only has about 2 weeks left in Ecuador before it's back to chilly Iceland for her. Now, I had thought that this going away party was going to be a calm shindig with invitees like our host family's family (grandparents, cousins, etc.) and some of Sigrun's friends. It turned out being a grand party--lots of Sigrun's volunteer friends came, I invited a few of mine as well, and my host bro and sis invited some cousins. It was quite eventful--loud music, lots of dancing, even a power outage (which of course meant continuing by candlelight). Definitely not what I had expected but great fun all the same!
Then, because a few friends from the night before had spent the night (they live 3.5 hours away), we all went into Quito the next day just to hang out, do some laundry, eat food, etc. Which would've been a grand plan if it hadn't poured all day long. So we ended up walking around in the rain for hours and now I've got the inevitable walk-around-all-day-in-the-rain sickness and have lost my voice. I'm a little worried how I'm going to control my wild kids tomorrow at school with just a whisper for a voiceÉ. It's always an adventure here in Ecuador!
After this coming week of more intense volunteer work, it's Carnival! It's a national holiday, I believe, in all Latin American countries, so everyone gets off work and school. So we volunteers are going to the coast for the weekend! Parties, dancing, tanning, swimming--we all can't wait!
And actually, I've been put in charge of my own classes much more than I had expected. As it turned out, on Tuesday, instead of me just helping the other teachers, I was put in charge of my host mom's class, Primero de Basica, because she had to go to a meeting. The beginning was rough--I just sorta sat there since another teacher would come in to tell the kids what to do. But by the end of the day, I actually managed to do a lesson by myself with them. I was told they needed to learn the vowel "u" and was given some sheets of paper with the letter "u" drawn on them that the kids were supposed to paint. The last project they'd done was to paint so we just colored the block letter "u" instead. And then, because that took like 5 minutes, I played teacher for a bit and started asking them words that started with "u." (I had to fetch my dictionary, though. I've discovered there aren't many Spanish words starting with "u" besides unicornio, uñas, uvas, and uno.) So I drew pictures of these things on the board and they copied them onto their papers. I was so proud. They managed to fill their entire paper with "u" things and even practiced writing the letter "u" several times.
The next day we had English classes, which went a bit better than on Monday. We managed to stay on schedule and had a lesson for every class. Pre Kinder was better but still not great, Primero de Basica was overall really good, and then Basica was fine until the end when four boys ended up playing a game in the bathroom rather than participate in our beautiful rendition of the song "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes."
Then today everyone had music class, which normally wouldn't mean anything different but the usual music teacher was home sick and her husband was there to take her place. The other teachers had me help him out the whole day, following him from class to class. So we sang lots and lots of songs and even went on a little walk up the hill from the school ("to listen to the sounds in nature." We ended up coming back with arms full of wildflowers because the kids just couldn't resist picking them.) It felt like what my job SHOULD be like--helping out the main teacher with his lesson plan. I'm finding with Adriana that I'm actually the main teacher. Claro, she knows more Spanish than I do, but she's too quiet and calm for the kids and is totally not used to working with this age group. (She's been teaching teens and adults for 15 years.) She told me on Wednesday that she wasn't going to come back--she couldn't stand the kids and couldn't teach them. I really do hope she comes back or, at least, that my host mom finds another English teacher.
I absolutely love these kids, though. I've been spending lots of time with Primero de Basica (ages 5-6) so I'm getting to know them pretty well. There's Fernando who is a very fast learner and the best student in the class (but not in behaviorÉ.) Anabel and Camila are best buds and a wild pair, especially Anabel who today colored her paper entirely black because she was in a bad mood. She also likes to call me "Lellie" which is super cute. Chubby Alex always brings a little white stuffed dog to school and is just such a sweet kid. I saw him and Camila getting their flirt on during recess the other dayÉgotta watch out for those two =) Then there's Jonathon who's also a good student, very loud, and has a mouth full of rotting teeth. Very cute. Lastly, we have Talia and Josue. Josue takes about 5 years to eat his lunch because he eats so freaking much for such a tiny kid. Most of the kids have leftovers from their lunches, give them to Josue, who then totally devours all of it, but very slowly. And Talia is actually 8 years old, I think, but she's one of our special kids. You have to help her out with her schoolwork every step of the way, but she's got a super grin and the cutest way of running up to you to give you a big hug.
This weekend was also pretty interesting. On Friday, we had a going away party for Sigrun. She only has about 2 weeks left in Ecuador before it's back to chilly Iceland for her. Now, I had thought that this going away party was going to be a calm shindig with invitees like our host family's family (grandparents, cousins, etc.) and some of Sigrun's friends. It turned out being a grand party--lots of Sigrun's volunteer friends came, I invited a few of mine as well, and my host bro and sis invited some cousins. It was quite eventful--loud music, lots of dancing, even a power outage (which of course meant continuing by candlelight). Definitely not what I had expected but great fun all the same!
Then, because a few friends from the night before had spent the night (they live 3.5 hours away), we all went into Quito the next day just to hang out, do some laundry, eat food, etc. Which would've been a grand plan if it hadn't poured all day long. So we ended up walking around in the rain for hours and now I've got the inevitable walk-around-all-day-in-the-rain sickness and have lost my voice. I'm a little worried how I'm going to control my wild kids tomorrow at school with just a whisper for a voiceÉ. It's always an adventure here in Ecuador!
After this coming week of more intense volunteer work, it's Carnival! It's a national holiday, I believe, in all Latin American countries, so everyone gets off work and school. So we volunteers are going to the coast for the weekend! Parties, dancing, tanning, swimming--we all can't wait!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Teaching, Day 1
Sorry--I'm putting two entries up at once since it's been awhile since my last blog....
On Sunday, Chabella and Ernesto (host sister and brother) invited me to visit their grandparents' house with them. It was the first time they'd taken me anywhere so it was really great just to chat and walk around with them. On the way down the hill to the bus, we were bombarded by a ton of water balloons by these neighbor kids. After we dashed out of the way, managing to stay mostly dry, Chabella explained that February was Carnival month, and to celebrate, Ecuadorians throw lots and lots of water. So February can be really fun--unless you need to go to a business meeting or to work or something. Showing up to work soaking wet is not very classy.
Their grandparents' house is about 10 minutes by bus. We walked in through a blue gate into a cute little garden and then through the open front door. I met both their grandparents and also Ernesto and Chabella's dad. It was a little intense though because all of them were having a pretty heated discussion about (from what I could catch--old people Spanish is very difficult to understand) the upcoming divorce between Ernesto and Chabella's mom and dad and then something about buying a house. Not sure what the house part was about. But I managed to stay pretty occupied by looking at the tons and tons of art on the walls and reading the Quito newspaper. I was so proud of myself because I read an entire article in Spanish about the terremoto (earthquake) in Haiti. Which I actually didn't know had happened until like a week ago. The school here is collecting bars of soap to send over to Haiti which is really great seeing how these kids and the school itself don't have much money.
After the awkward, family drama conversation, Chabella and Ernesto took me around Tumbaco a bit. I saw the tiny Tumbaco park, which is really just a fountain with some grass around it, and we browsed through a couple music/movie stores. I already know I'm going to be coming home with lots of both music and movies--music because my brother is totally obsessed with reggae and always has it turned up really loud in the house so that I'm also becoming obsessed and movies because they're soooo cheap. Cheap mostly because they're illegally video taped in the movie theaters but whatever.
That night was also really great because we had a family movie night of sorts. Chabella, Ernesto, our mom, and I all squished onto the couch and gorged ourselves on animal crackers, candy, and popcorn while we first watched this really dumb Ecuadorian movie with a name something like "Rodents" and then a really bad copy of "Avatar." "Rodents" was absolutely ridiculous. If I hadn't been so exhausted and afraid of offending my family, I would've been laughing my head off the ENTIRE time. One bad thing after another kept happening. An example scene would be: these two "tough guys" rob a house, one gets shot in the shoulder by the house owner, then the house owner gets shot and killed, then the tough guys smoke some coke and drink some drank, and then they find out that their cousin's dad (so their uncle) died during surgery, their cousin had a seizure, their other cousin is pregnant, etc. etc. etc. It was so bad is was hilarious. The only cool thing about it was that it was filmed in Ecuador and it showed some very typical Ecuadorian things. (For example, they showed this shower that was the EXACT same type of shower in my house here. Kinda neat.)
Today (Monday) was the first day of teaching. Of course, it was just my luck that I woke up horribly sick and couldn't get out of bed until 9am rather than at 7:30am when school starts. My mom/boss told me off for that laterÉ whoops. Adriana, the other English teacher, can't come to the school until 10:15am because she has an English class every morning until then. So when she arrived, we started with the Pre Kinder class. Oh my god. They had just come in from their recess and would NOT pay attention or sit still or do anything but roll on the ground and hit each other. We had to have the other teachers help us just to get these kids to stop running around, and we hardly got anything done besides a half-hearted name game and this thing called a "bolsa magic." (A "magic bag" is a bag that each student reaches into and pulls something out of--could be a colored object, an animal, a picture of a fruit, etc.--and then they're asked "What color is this?" or "What animal is this?" etc.) Finally, our 45 minutes were up, and we moved onto Primero de Bascia, but somehow we ended up only having 15 minutes with them. We'll learn the schedule eventually I suppose. This is the easiest class--there are less kids and they're much more chill. We actually got to do our lesson plan with them (learning the names of the family in English and teaching them a song). And we never even got to the oldest class because school was over.
I'm realizing teaching is quite difficult. You always have to be on your feet, must be able to improvise if something doesn't go right (and it never does), and be really creative every day in coming up with interesting ways to get these kids to learn. I'm really glad I love kids, though, because otherwise the difficulty would not be worth it. Already, when the kids were leaving today, they would come up and ask me questions or give me a hug or give me a goodbye kiss. They make me want to get better.
Thankfully, instead of me teaching my own class tomorrow since Adriana only comes Mondays and Wednesdays, there will be no English class. I'll just be helping out in the other classes, and we'll resume our English class on Wednesday. The kids in the Basica class, who didn't have English today, kept asking me when they were going to have English and were very sad to learn that it would be two days from now. After a few weeks, though, I'm sure we'll fall into a schedule, and the kids will actually learn things in English rather than us just trying to get them to sit down and listen. But oh boy, what a crazy day!
On Sunday, Chabella and Ernesto (host sister and brother) invited me to visit their grandparents' house with them. It was the first time they'd taken me anywhere so it was really great just to chat and walk around with them. On the way down the hill to the bus, we were bombarded by a ton of water balloons by these neighbor kids. After we dashed out of the way, managing to stay mostly dry, Chabella explained that February was Carnival month, and to celebrate, Ecuadorians throw lots and lots of water. So February can be really fun--unless you need to go to a business meeting or to work or something. Showing up to work soaking wet is not very classy.
Their grandparents' house is about 10 minutes by bus. We walked in through a blue gate into a cute little garden and then through the open front door. I met both their grandparents and also Ernesto and Chabella's dad. It was a little intense though because all of them were having a pretty heated discussion about (from what I could catch--old people Spanish is very difficult to understand) the upcoming divorce between Ernesto and Chabella's mom and dad and then something about buying a house. Not sure what the house part was about. But I managed to stay pretty occupied by looking at the tons and tons of art on the walls and reading the Quito newspaper. I was so proud of myself because I read an entire article in Spanish about the terremoto (earthquake) in Haiti. Which I actually didn't know had happened until like a week ago. The school here is collecting bars of soap to send over to Haiti which is really great seeing how these kids and the school itself don't have much money.
After the awkward, family drama conversation, Chabella and Ernesto took me around Tumbaco a bit. I saw the tiny Tumbaco park, which is really just a fountain with some grass around it, and we browsed through a couple music/movie stores. I already know I'm going to be coming home with lots of both music and movies--music because my brother is totally obsessed with reggae and always has it turned up really loud in the house so that I'm also becoming obsessed and movies because they're soooo cheap. Cheap mostly because they're illegally video taped in the movie theaters but whatever.
That night was also really great because we had a family movie night of sorts. Chabella, Ernesto, our mom, and I all squished onto the couch and gorged ourselves on animal crackers, candy, and popcorn while we first watched this really dumb Ecuadorian movie with a name something like "Rodents" and then a really bad copy of "Avatar." "Rodents" was absolutely ridiculous. If I hadn't been so exhausted and afraid of offending my family, I would've been laughing my head off the ENTIRE time. One bad thing after another kept happening. An example scene would be: these two "tough guys" rob a house, one gets shot in the shoulder by the house owner, then the house owner gets shot and killed, then the tough guys smoke some coke and drink some drank, and then they find out that their cousin's dad (so their uncle) died during surgery, their cousin had a seizure, their other cousin is pregnant, etc. etc. etc. It was so bad is was hilarious. The only cool thing about it was that it was filmed in Ecuador and it showed some very typical Ecuadorian things. (For example, they showed this shower that was the EXACT same type of shower in my house here. Kinda neat.)
Today (Monday) was the first day of teaching. Of course, it was just my luck that I woke up horribly sick and couldn't get out of bed until 9am rather than at 7:30am when school starts. My mom/boss told me off for that laterÉ whoops. Adriana, the other English teacher, can't come to the school until 10:15am because she has an English class every morning until then. So when she arrived, we started with the Pre Kinder class. Oh my god. They had just come in from their recess and would NOT pay attention or sit still or do anything but roll on the ground and hit each other. We had to have the other teachers help us just to get these kids to stop running around, and we hardly got anything done besides a half-hearted name game and this thing called a "bolsa magic." (A "magic bag" is a bag that each student reaches into and pulls something out of--could be a colored object, an animal, a picture of a fruit, etc.--and then they're asked "What color is this?" or "What animal is this?" etc.) Finally, our 45 minutes were up, and we moved onto Primero de Bascia, but somehow we ended up only having 15 minutes with them. We'll learn the schedule eventually I suppose. This is the easiest class--there are less kids and they're much more chill. We actually got to do our lesson plan with them (learning the names of the family in English and teaching them a song). And we never even got to the oldest class because school was over.
I'm realizing teaching is quite difficult. You always have to be on your feet, must be able to improvise if something doesn't go right (and it never does), and be really creative every day in coming up with interesting ways to get these kids to learn. I'm really glad I love kids, though, because otherwise the difficulty would not be worth it. Already, when the kids were leaving today, they would come up and ask me questions or give me a hug or give me a goodbye kiss. They make me want to get better.
Thankfully, instead of me teaching my own class tomorrow since Adriana only comes Mondays and Wednesdays, there will be no English class. I'll just be helping out in the other classes, and we'll resume our English class on Wednesday. The kids in the Basica class, who didn't have English today, kept asking me when they were going to have English and were very sad to learn that it would be two days from now. After a few weeks, though, I'm sure we'll fall into a schedule, and the kids will actually learn things in English rather than us just trying to get them to sit down and listen. But oh boy, what a crazy day!
Feast of fruits and the weekend
Thursday was the last day of Spanish classes. Everyone was so glad because the classes had started getting into really detailed stuff that we won't understand until we have a firm grip on the language. But to celebrate, our teachers took us once again to the fruit market, Santa Clara, and each person used $1 to buy some fruit. We returned to our school and had a feast of fruits! There were some really exotic fruits: for example, the pitahaya, which is sorta spiky on the outside and has a clear, sweet gel with tiny black seeds on the inside; the granadilla, which looks like an orange on the outside but has a long stem and an inside filled with gooey stuff that looks like snot with crunchy seeds. And then we also had papaya, bananas, mango (the BEST mango I've ever had), coconut, watermelon, and tree tomato juice. We decided it was the best meal we've had yet.
After, we gorged ourselves yet again but this time on huge slices of pizza. For some reason, we all thought that once we got to Ecuador, there'd only be Ecuadorian food. So we always get real excited when we see a place selling pizza or noodles or ice cream. We've also had some really great Indian food when we went to a goodbye party for one of the VASE staff members.
After lunch, we got our "censos" which are our residency cards for Ecuador. Because we'll be living here so long, we need the cards to say that we do indeed live here. (I've also heard that sometimes you pay less for things like national parks, etc.) But getting these cards was quite a task. Not only did we show up 30 minutes late because we couldn't find the place, but then it turned out we didn't have some of the paperwork we needed. So we were there for around 2 hours trying to sort this thing out. While we were waiting, we met this very nice woman from California who was there to get her passport re-stamped with the "I'm legally allowed to be Ecuador" stamp. Turns out, while she was on her 7 week vacation here in Ecuador (yay for retirement), a gang of people attacked her taxi and stole her things. The taxi driver was apparently in cohorts with these robbers, and this woman's life was threatened and her things stolen. We were all like, "Oh my god. That is the scariest thing ever." But this woman seemed pretty calm about it, only upset about how much of a pain it was to get another passport and visa. In this same office, we met some fellow American youth who were there for a study abroad program. They were there getting their "censos" as well and were preparing to study at a school on the Galapagos Islands for 3 months. Which is super cool because unless you've got $1000 to spare, there's no way you can get to the Galapagos, unless you're a student like these guys were. Super chevere.
This past week I've also met twice with Adriana, the other English teacher, and we already have our lesson plans ready for next week. It's actually quite difficult because between us not knowing each others' languages very well and our different styles of working with kids, it's sometimes hard to come to a compromise. I prefer to do some improvising, to see how things go, how the kids react, and then go from there. Adriana, however, wants to plan out every little detail before we get to class. I can already tell that our first week of teaching is going to be VERY interesting. But despite the challenge of teaching, I can't wait to start working with the kids. Ever since I met them last week, every morning on my way to catch the bus for Spanish classes they follow me asking "But teacher, why are you leaving? When are you going to teach us English?" It's the cutest thing.
Also, because we've been eating so much ice cream and chocolate and this stuff called caña (which is a plant stalk that when you chew it, it releases a really sweet juice that is so delicious), I've been trying to think of ways to get some exercise here. I've decided that running around Tumbaco would be a very bad idea. Not only do I stick out because I'm a white female but there are TONS of dogs here. I think it would attract the entire street's attention to see a white girl running up the hill amidst a pack of yapping dogs. Not exactly what I'm looking for. So figuring that out might take some time.
On Friday, we volunteers took a trip to Otavalo, a city about two hours to the north of Quito. First we did some shopping at a famous market in Otavalo which is full of indigenous arts and crafts. Then we drove a ways to a gorgeous waterfall which we were told had freezing cold water. But we all jumped in with our swimsuits anyways and ran around crazy in the water for a bit. It wasn't all that cold and felt SO good after hiking in the heat! So that was great fun. We had lunch and then tried to drive to this famous, gigantic tree in Otavalo but turns out the road to the tree didn't exist anymore! Oops. On the way back to Quito, we stopped at a cafe for hot chocolate and Ecuadorian biscotti. The biscotti was much different than the kind in the States--they were more like salty, dry biscuits and I didn't like them much. Then, for those of us who lived outside of Quito, we stayed in a hostal for the night rather than pay for a taxi to get home. Hostals are all new to me but the ones here in Quito are actually really nice. Usually they're about $10 per person and you get a room and a private bathroom and free breakfast if you're lucky. At some hostals you have to share with other people but we found one with our own room.
On Monday I start teaching!
After, we gorged ourselves yet again but this time on huge slices of pizza. For some reason, we all thought that once we got to Ecuador, there'd only be Ecuadorian food. So we always get real excited when we see a place selling pizza or noodles or ice cream. We've also had some really great Indian food when we went to a goodbye party for one of the VASE staff members.
After lunch, we got our "censos" which are our residency cards for Ecuador. Because we'll be living here so long, we need the cards to say that we do indeed live here. (I've also heard that sometimes you pay less for things like national parks, etc.) But getting these cards was quite a task. Not only did we show up 30 minutes late because we couldn't find the place, but then it turned out we didn't have some of the paperwork we needed. So we were there for around 2 hours trying to sort this thing out. While we were waiting, we met this very nice woman from California who was there to get her passport re-stamped with the "I'm legally allowed to be Ecuador" stamp. Turns out, while she was on her 7 week vacation here in Ecuador (yay for retirement), a gang of people attacked her taxi and stole her things. The taxi driver was apparently in cohorts with these robbers, and this woman's life was threatened and her things stolen. We were all like, "Oh my god. That is the scariest thing ever." But this woman seemed pretty calm about it, only upset about how much of a pain it was to get another passport and visa. In this same office, we met some fellow American youth who were there for a study abroad program. They were there getting their "censos" as well and were preparing to study at a school on the Galapagos Islands for 3 months. Which is super cool because unless you've got $1000 to spare, there's no way you can get to the Galapagos, unless you're a student like these guys were. Super chevere.
This past week I've also met twice with Adriana, the other English teacher, and we already have our lesson plans ready for next week. It's actually quite difficult because between us not knowing each others' languages very well and our different styles of working with kids, it's sometimes hard to come to a compromise. I prefer to do some improvising, to see how things go, how the kids react, and then go from there. Adriana, however, wants to plan out every little detail before we get to class. I can already tell that our first week of teaching is going to be VERY interesting. But despite the challenge of teaching, I can't wait to start working with the kids. Ever since I met them last week, every morning on my way to catch the bus for Spanish classes they follow me asking "But teacher, why are you leaving? When are you going to teach us English?" It's the cutest thing.
Also, because we've been eating so much ice cream and chocolate and this stuff called caña (which is a plant stalk that when you chew it, it releases a really sweet juice that is so delicious), I've been trying to think of ways to get some exercise here. I've decided that running around Tumbaco would be a very bad idea. Not only do I stick out because I'm a white female but there are TONS of dogs here. I think it would attract the entire street's attention to see a white girl running up the hill amidst a pack of yapping dogs. Not exactly what I'm looking for. So figuring that out might take some time.
On Friday, we volunteers took a trip to Otavalo, a city about two hours to the north of Quito. First we did some shopping at a famous market in Otavalo which is full of indigenous arts and crafts. Then we drove a ways to a gorgeous waterfall which we were told had freezing cold water. But we all jumped in with our swimsuits anyways and ran around crazy in the water for a bit. It wasn't all that cold and felt SO good after hiking in the heat! So that was great fun. We had lunch and then tried to drive to this famous, gigantic tree in Otavalo but turns out the road to the tree didn't exist anymore! Oops. On the way back to Quito, we stopped at a cafe for hot chocolate and Ecuadorian biscotti. The biscotti was much different than the kind in the States--they were more like salty, dry biscuits and I didn't like them much. Then, for those of us who lived outside of Quito, we stayed in a hostal for the night rather than pay for a taxi to get home. Hostals are all new to me but the ones here in Quito are actually really nice. Usually they're about $10 per person and you get a room and a private bathroom and free breakfast if you're lucky. At some hostals you have to share with other people but we found one with our own room.
On Monday I start teaching!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
My project
Today, instead of going to my Spanish class, I stayed at home to learn the ropes of the school day. It was Sigrun's last day of teaching so it was my last chance to sit in during her classes to see what goes on. In the school (which is called Jose Antonio Velasco), there are three grades: Pre-Kinder (4 year-olds), Basico Primero (5-6 year olds), and Basico (7-8 year olds). There are on average 10 kids in each class--only about 35 in the whole school. With all three grades, the teaching method is songs and games rather than writing things down on paper. So we sang all these songs like "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" and "The Hokey Pokey" which the kids love because they can move around and be loud. Having never been a teacher before, it was a little intimidating. But unlike Sigrun, I won't be the sole English teacher in the school. I'll be helping a new teacher named Senora Adriana as the assistant English teacher. I got to meet her today, and I really like her a lot. However, I've noticed that here in Ecuador, a lot of people who teach English actually don't know a lot of English themselves. For example, my host mom is the director of the school at which I work, the school that is teaching kids English, yet she knows probably less than 10 words herself. And as part of his high school requirements, my host brother, Ernesto, has to teach English to older folks on the weekends, yet he knows about 15 words in English. Senora Adriana is currently taking English classes at I guess a university so she's better than both my host mom and brother, but she's still not even close to fluent. She and I were joking today that I'm going to have to teach her English and she's going to have to teach me Spanish. But I think between the two of us, we should be able to accomplish something in the classroom.
I also finally was able to meet the kids at the school. It's kinda bad when the 5-year-olds talk better Spanish than you, but hey, I'm learning. But the kids are so sweet, very wild, and unfortunately come from some pretty rough families. They struggle to understand that hitting and stealing from each other is not okay. And in the classroom, they are SUPER wild, especially Pre-Kinder, but I think that's just the age. However, I don't remember my own elementary school days being so wild--we never had kids who wandered off and did their own thing when the teacher was trying to have a lesson. There are a few kids here who are apparently impossible to work with so they get away with not doing the lesson like the rest of the class. Already, I'm trying to think of ways to improve and build on what they've already learned. It's going to be really difficult but I can't wait to get started!
Before all the kids left to go home, we had a party to celebrate Sigrun's last day of teaching. The kids were all really sad to see her go and kept giving her hugs and kisses. It was so sweet.
Also, the host family situation is getting much better. It was really awkward for awhile because I couldn't figure out how to fit into their schedule. For awhile, I would only see my brother because I'd wake up and walk out the door for Spanish classes and return home and go to bed before the rest of my family even got home. I've learned that eating a meal with them is the best way to spend time with them. So today after the school day was over, Sigrun, my mami, and I all ate lunch together and talked about things. Twas good.
Also something interesting: since the vast majority of people here are Catholic (95%), everyone keeps asking me what religion I am. And of course, how does one explain Unitarian Universalism in English let alone Spanish? It´s been interesting.
That´s it for now,
Les
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Classes
This week Spanish classes began. I wake up at about 6:45 and catch the bus right outside my house at 7:30. I'm starting to get the hang of the bus systems, confusing as they can be. To get into Quito, I have to take a green bus which either stops outside my house or if I just miss that one, I can walk down the street to catch one of many more on the main road. Once in Quito, I use the ECOVIA which is one of three bus systems in the city. Luckily, I only need the one and don't have to bother with the blue and green buses in the city as well. The hard part is getting home. I have to take the RIGHT green bus or else I could end up in another small Ecuadorian town that is not Tumbaco. And there's also not really an official bus stop near my house so I have to pay attention and tell the bus driver when to stop. Learning to recognize the right run-down house that indicates my stop can be a bit difficult.
Once I finally get to Spanish classes (it's about an hour and a half away), we start with grammar for the first hour and a half or so. Right now, we're reviewing the past tenses which are the hardest and soooo confusing. It can be a bit difficult because the teacher only speaks Spanish and doesn't do much translating into English. Already, there have been lots of occasions where we just have no idea what she just said. I'm in the intermediate level, so I can't even imagine how hard it must be for the basic level class! After grammar and a short break, our intermediate class has a discussion while the basic class learns more vocab and grammar. So far, we've talked about marriage and health, discussing the differences between Ecuador and our own countries. Today, because we were talking about health, our teacher took us to a market that sells tons of fruits and herbs. A huge difference in Ecuadorian health is that many people use "natural medicines" (i.e. plants, herbs, teas, etc. to cure all sorts of stomach pains and headaches). So at the market, our teacher showed us the different herbs and plants that Ecuadorians use to cure their various ailments. Already, I'm in love with this tea called "cedron" that tastes lemon-y and supposedly helps with stomach pains.
After class, all of us volunteers go to lunch around the area. A typical lunch for Ecuadorians includes a soup, then a meat and rice dish, then dessert, and usually juice. And all of that for only $2.25. But it's quite a lot of food since lunch is the biggest meal of the day. Then after lunch, we've been just walking around--sometimes getting ice cream, other times shopping for shampoo, other times just looking around--but we always end up at el Parque El Ejido (a very large park only about 10 minutes away from our classes). Mostly we just sit and talk for a bit but today our New Zealand volunteer taught us how to play touch rugby! And then the German volunteers taught us some German which was super entertaining. We were absolutely horrible with both the rugby and the German but it was great fun. This coming weekend, we are also planning on a game of Ultimate Frisbee in the park and are inviting the other ICYE volunteers who have been here since August. Should be fun =]
I generally end up taking the bus back home at around 16:00 or 16:30 (they use the 24 hours system which is taking some getting used to) which means I'm home at about 18:00 or 19:00. Generally when I get home, only my brother, Ernesto, is home so we sit around, watch TV, do our homework, and talk. I'm always so tired after the day that I go to bed pretty early.
I forgot to mention this in my last entry, but when we went to the Centro Historico, there was actually this huge demonstration going on. The central plaza was filled with people and banners and chants and also TONS of police. The police and some military folks all lined up in front of the government building to stop the protesters from coming any closer. It wasn't violent at all, just a peaceful protest of the government. There's actually a lot of political unrest right now in Ecuador which I will try my best to explain. First off, Ecuador has had so many presidents it's unbelievable. I think they said that in the course of nine years, they've had nine presidents. The people keep kicking them out because the presidents have either been very corrupt or because the people were unhappy with a president's policy. For example, Ecuador's currency used to be the sucre but when the president changed the currency to the dollar due to some super intense inflation, lots of people lost tons of money. Hence, the president got the boot. Right now, the president is Correa. Many people were happy with him for awhile--he changed the constitution in hope that it would better protect the people and he promised lots of other really great things--but now people are saying he's not holding true to his promises. Lots of the people are now calling for a guy named Lucio (who was the president a few years ago) to come back and replace Correa. However, the people actually kicked out Lucio a few years ago because I believe they said that he was "mentally unstable." (I'm having trouble keeping track of which president did what but I think that's correct.) But now they want crazy Lucio back and are talking about kicking out Correa. It's all really kinda crazy but that's Ecuador for you.
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