This is gonna be a doozy

Holy long time, Batman!!

 (left: JUICE! It´s a big deal here. I wish I had taken a pic of the menu...sigh)

Sorry, kids.  Life just swept me away down here on the equator.  I just finished up the orientation portion of this experience on Friday.  It has been a long, but fruitful month. Lots of info flying at me, lots of getting to know Quito and people and families.  The focus of the last two weeks has been practice teaching which was a great learning tool for what to expect in the next year.  We offered a free two-week English course at a local school in Quito.  The volunteers then worked in teaching groups of three.  The first and last days were group teaching days, then in between we each took a couple of individual teaching days.  I don´t know if that made any sense.  Long story short: I was responsible for three days of lesson planning and teaching for a 2 hour long class in Basic English.  It is strongly recommended that we don´t use any Spanish even for the beginning students.  This makes communication more......interesting.  And def. more fulfilling.  Lots of hand gestures, cognates, and encouragement so the students feel safe to test drive the language even if they make mistakes.

 So for those three days of individual teaching, I woke up at 5am, got ready, made sure I had time to eat breakfast (so that my host mom wouldn´t freak out...no literally, one day the other volunteer in my house rushed out bc she was late and that´s all I heard about that evening when I got home ¨oh, pobrecita! Christine didn´t eat breakfast this morning!! She didn´t even drink her juice OR coffee!! Que lastima! She should have taken some bread with her! Oh my little girl!¨ etc., etc.  Juice, by the way, is made fresh daily with allll sorts of fruits. It is a way of life.  A blender comes standard with every house, I´m pretty sure.) I then took the bus at 6 or 6:15, arrived at the school around 6:40 and started class at 7.   This schedule isn´t too terrible, but the kicker was then having orientation all day after class and then going out at night.  The latter might have been a bit more optional, but ya know...ya kinda gotta.  Bonding with everyone and all.

Entonces.... Ah yes!  There has been some maneuvering going on down here with my placement site.  After a somewhat awkward weekend trip to Portoviejo and the subsequent discussion with my site directors, I was offered the opportunity to stay in Quito for the rest of the year.  I jumped on this opportunity.  Porto wasn´t terrible, persay, but it wasn´t ideal for me.  The family claimed they didn´t know I was coming during my weekend visit.  Then they didn´t really offer me dinner the first night.  The father was away ¨on business¨and when he returned there may or may not have been some tension with the wife.  All I know is that they didn´t sleep in the same room and I´m not really sure he stayed at all.  However, their kids were adorable.  Two 6 year old twin boys who loved playing soccer with me and taking pictures with my digital camera.  The decision to stay in Quito wasn´t the easiest, but at the end of the day, I´m really glad I´m staying.  There is so much more diversity and things to do here.

So now that Quito is my reality, I´ve moved into my permanent host family for the year.  They are amazing! Their names are Daniel and Diego. They have been together for six years and share the apartment with their dog, Teddy.  I have my own room, my own bathroom and the internet! (hence this long ass post) There are a handful of other volunteers within a five minute drive from my place and I´ll have about a 20-30 minute commute to work in the mornings.  

Since I won´t start teaching until October 20th, here is my list of things to do:

Buy a guitar

Day trip to Otavalo, the biggest open air artisan market in Latin America

Go to a DVD store where you can score movies for about a buck and buy the crap out of it

Check out Banos for a weekend,  a really fun town that offers a plethora of outdoor adventure-type activities like horseback riding, canopy gliding (?), hiking, etc.

Go shopping.  Since I packed for coastal weather, I think I might need to purchase different attire.

Oh and plan a Halloween party.  Apparently on Oct. 31st there is going to be a showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show at a local theatre.  This should clearly be followed by a costume party. I´m stoked.

Ah I´m sure there´s more but I can´t type any more and I´m sure your eyes are tired.

Peace and Love,

C

Sunday, August 30, 2009

(right: the cathedral of Santo Domingo in an area of historic Quito called La Ronda. This is about a 5 minute walk from my house)

Hola todos!
Today was a great day. It was my first full day with my host family. There two of us volunteers living here for this first month. When I leave for Portoviejo at the end of September, Christine (the other volunteer) will stay here for the entire year. It’s a really great set up. We each have our own rooms complete with a big-girl bed (aka a double), a tv and space for all the things I packed. The room locks from both the inside and the outside, which is nice, but I’m not terribly worried about it because the family is so respectful, caring and generous. They treat us like their own daughters and they’ve been hosting volunteers for over 20 years. Marco and Elisa are my host father and mother who live with us. We also get to spend a lot of time with their 25-year-old daughter Doris and her husband Edy. Doris is 7 months pregnant with their first child, Nicholas. Down the street are Edy’s parents. They are all super helpful in showing us how get around and which buses to take. Not to mention they feed us all the time! This morning I was journaling outside when a neighbor approached. He greeted me enthusiastically and when I told him who I was, he said he already knew! Needless to say, the people here are pretty great. Our house is in an area called La Loma Grande, which is located about 20 minutes south of downtown in the historic part of the city. The buildings and architecture here are very beautiful. Near our house is the touristy section of Old Quito called La Ronda. The streets are narrow and made of brick, there are lots of little shops and even more history. This is also where one can find the amazing old cathedrals like La capilla de Santo Domingo.
One of the biggest cultural differences I’ve noticed so far is how the family spends time together. Today, around mid afternoon, we all returned to the house after a group picnic. Christine and I were then ushered into the master bedroom where the entire family sat on the bed at watched TV together. It’s called un descanso, or a rest. With the Biography channel (in Spanish) highlighting Andy Garcia in the background, we all sprawled out on the bed and chatted, watched the program and even napped a bit. At first, it didn’t feel like much a rest to me because I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on. But I went with the flow and eventually nodded off a bit. I think this practice, while somewhat strange to Americans, is something I could totally get used to. Who doesn’t like to siesta in the afternoon?! Well, there’s no doubt I could write more, but I need to get some sleep as tomorrow is our first real day of training, Spanish classes and probably much more. Hasta luego!

Tuesday, September 1st
These past few days have been rather full with orientation type things. Lots of discussions on safety and culture along with Spanish classes at a local school. Most of the activity happens in an area known as Gringolandia or Mariscals. It's a really fun, touristy part of town. Think 8th Street in Holland but busier, more places with live music and dance clubs. If I didn't emphasize this earlier, my host family is really great. On the 19th Christine and I are going to a baby shower for Doris. The entire family is so accommodating.
This Friday, the entire group of volunteers are going to a place called Papallacta. It's a famous geographical site with hot springs, gysers and the like. I'll know more after Friday :)
Funny story: I was trying to chat up the owner of this cafe to practice my conversational Spanish and she told me that she doesn't speak English. I guess I wasn't aunnciating well. But fear not, I can already tell my Spanish skillz are on the rise. I'm starting to think in Spanish, understand more and soon, I will probably be dreaming in Spanish. Maybe. It's up for debate.

I'm hoping to post more pictures soon. Unfortunately, the uploading speed is rather slow at the moment. If my FB album is successful, check out more there. If not...then just hang tight.