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

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.

Host family!

I'm not sure when I will be able to put this on my actual blog since, well, the way it works here is that you type on your laptop all the stuff you want to put online and then you have to go to an internet cafe to actually put it on the internet. There´s a WiFi place about 20 mins away but things are a bit complicated. So I might write about a few days then put them up later.

But today is Thursday, the day orientation ended and all of us moved into our host families! The last "huzzah" for orientation was a scavenger hunt all around Quito! We had teams of three and had to rush around the city finding places and getting clues. It was the first time we were out on our own which meant lots of other firsts: riding the bus, asking for directions (in Spanish! Example: We asked a woman, "Where is the office of letters?" We couldn't remember how to say post office! But we got there alright =] ), and lots of walking around a new city. Everyone so far has been so nice and is always glad to let us know how to get to places like "the office of letters." Turns out, my team won! We got to the end first while everyone else was either way behind or lost! Go team!

After that, everyone split to go to their host families. I am living in a smaller town called Tumbaco which is in "the valley" of Ecuador. It's only about 50 minutes outside of Quito. There are lots and lots of dogs so they suggest you put rocks in your pockets to scare them away. In the States, I have my cellphone in my pocket, in Tumbaco, I have rocks. The first day with my host family was a bit awkward since they barely speak English and I barely know Spanish. I have a host brother, Ernesto, who is 16, a host sister, whose name is Anna Isabel but her friends call her Anita but at home she's called Chumbella (not sure how to spell it yet….), and my host mama. The first day I was with them was very hard because everyone in my family had other things to do, so I just sort of sat there and tried to make awkward small-talk with my brother. To be honest, I was really worried because my god! It was so hard to communicate! Even with my five years of Spanish!

Also, funny story: I arrived at my host family's house, and my brother and I were waiting around for the others to arrive. It was about 19:00, the time when lots of Ecuadorians eat dinner. So I asked Ernesto, "So when are we eating dinner?" And he said, "Oh, we don't eat at night. Just a big lunch." I have to get used to that. Having only one very large meal everyday plus a small breakfast. I've already got some food hoarded in my room…. I don't understand how they can only eat twice a day! It's crazy.

My house is actually also the school where I´ll be working. There´s a big yard in the front with a playground and a huge avocado tree. I might have to learn to like avocados because they probably have hundreds just on that tree! So there´s a main building with the kitchen and bathroom and living room and the classrooms and then you walk outside to all of our bedrooms. I´m actually sleeping in my brother´s room right now since we also still have another volunteer (named Sigrun from Iceland) whose 6 months will be up in about a week. After she leaves, I get her room. She´s been so helpful though, showing me around a bit and translating some when I need it.

The day after I met my family (Friday), all of the volunteers were supposed to met in Quito to go El Centro Historico. Instead of taking the bus that I'll most likely be taking from now on, I took a taxi to save time. Ecuadorians drive crazy!! I was quite scared, but my driver, Gustavo, was really nice and distracted me from his crazy driving by asking me questions and coping with my butchered responses.

El Centro Historico is the historic part of Quito. There´s a huge plaza called Plaza Grande with lots of important bulidings around it. We toured the government palace where the president has his office, and then we got a tourguide name Luis who brought us around the rest of Centro Historico. Luis was very good at telling us everything shady and sexual about the area: how much money you could get for stealing something out of La Compania (one of the largest churches in Quito), where to find a drug that will knock you out for a good 12 hours, where to see the Angel with the Large Penis, etc. It was pretty funny.

Day 2 with my host family showed much improvements. It's really difficult for me to understand mi mami because she talks so fast. But Chumbella, my sister, knows some English, and we all had a nice conversation around the kitchen table. Segrun and I made a cake and we ate that with the family.

On Monday I start Spanish classes. I can´t wait since they should help a lot.

Hope everything is well in the States!

Ciao!

Leslie

I´m here!

Well, I have arrived in Quito, Ecuador! Only two days here and I've already experienced the entire weather spectrum (from cloudy, windy 40 degrees to bright, sunny 75) as well as eaten lots of "odd" things (mainly, tree tomato juice and carrot soup with popcorn! Instead of putting crackers in their soup, Ecuadorians put unbuttered popcorn! So good!)

This week is orientation with the organization I am part of. The umbrella organization is called ICYE (International Cultural Youth Exchange) but the Ecuadorian branch is called VASE. Basically, this week they will be teaching us everything we need to know about living in Ecuador. Today we talked about cultural differences (a kiss on the cheek is the correct way to greet someone), safety issues (hold onto your bag on the bus or someone will take it guaranteed!), and issues that might come up in our projects and host families and how to deal with them appropriately. We also got to walk around Quito for the first time today. Quito (which is the capital) has about 2 million people and the city is sprawled in a valley with mountains right in front of you to the west. Because it is so close to the equator, the sun is SO hot. Not really the air, just the sun. It also prevents the weather from changing much from day to day. Like I said though, in one day you can experience all of the seasons: morning is like spring, daytime-summer, nighttime-winter. But overall, they say Quito is like "eternal spring." Soooo nice.

There are about 12 volunteers, plus three "trainers," living here in a gorgeous building in Quito that used to house missionaries who were about to go work in the Amazon. It's been great sitting in the sun on the large, 3rd floor patio which has a great view of the city and the mountains, just drinking it all in. And the other volunteers are really great. They mainly come from Germany, Iceland, and New Zealand with great accents and already a talent in multiple languages. I didn't know this but in Germany it is required for all students to complete one year of either military service or social service and that's why we have all these great people from Germany working like me with VASE. It's been so cool getting to know them all and compare our cultures. (In Iceland, for example, kids go to high school through age 20. In New Zealand, they call high school "college" and after that they go to "university.") And you would think that with everyone speaking English we would be able to understand one another, but that is not the case. New Zealand slang and strong German accents sometimes make things a bit complicated =]

As for things coming up, I begin living with my host family on Thursday after orientation ends, have some travel plans with the other VASE volunteers for the next few days after that, then begin my project on Feb. 1. But you'll hear more about those things when they happen.

More later,
Leslie