Today is the best day of my life, Tomorrow will be so much better

February 22, 2013. First time teaching in a classroom yesterday! It was pretty terrible lol. I was co-teaching with a really nice profesora named Maritza in noveno, which means ninth, but it’s not the same as 9^th grade in the US. Here, they have 1-9 educacion basica and then 1-3 of bachillerato. So 9^th is equivalent to our 8^th grade. The kids are great, they’re very interested when a gringa is teaching, but they can’t understand me! They’re not used to native speakers so when I would give an instruction, they stared blankly. Maritza would repeat (in English) almost exactly the same way and they would go “ohhh” and immediately do it. So I’m learning to slow down, repeat, and use physical gestures more often. I had 2 classes yesterday and felt like I already improved in learning from the 1^st class, but it still felt pretty stressful. Today, I had 1 class and I got to run a couple of vocabulary games. It went really well! I think they learned a little and they had a lot of fun, they’re very competitive!

This was at the same military school as our observation before. They all wear little military uniforms and the school is all ages. Today, as I was leaving, a little girl, no more than 8 years-old was passing by and looked up and said, in pure astonishment, “wowwwww! Gringa!” 

 

Here, instead of the students changing classrooms after each period, the teacher goes to the next classroom. So when the teacher enters the English class, she says “good morning, cadets” they respond with “good morning, teacher”. She asks “how are you feeling today?” and they reply, in unison, “Today is the best day of my life. Tomorrow will be so much better.” I’m not sure if they know what this means, but I like it. A lot.

After classes, we had time to go out for lunch so we got pizza and capped it off with ice cream, which we ate in the rain waiting for the bus. We ended up having to take a taxi because the buses had people hanging out of them, they were so packed. They built a new airport and it’s close to our town so half the buses that are normally in Tumbaco are now sent to the airport. It’s proving to be a huge hassle so I’m glad there are no permanent site assignments in this area.

This whole week was pretty stressful for all of the trainees so we had a party to celebrate our hard work. There is a trainee whose host family has a HUGE house with a separate house for parties and a huge yard. It was so nice to just relax and hang out, drink and dance. Especially because next week is our tech trip, which means we’ll be splitting up and visiting new cities and having another really busy week. (I’m going to Ibarra, Chota, and Otavalo). We have planned charlas (lectures) with teachers, we’ll be teaching some high school classes, and receiving language and culture classes in the afternoons. It’s exciting but it will be a lot of work. Wish me luck.

Thank you for reading. I hope you’re having the best day of your life, too.

<3 Chels

Mal Aire

February 19^th, 2013. I am going to relay this with my best effort of translating the idea as it was explained to me in Spanish, but I make no promises and I truly hope I don’t butcher this and offend anyone.

I came home from training and found my host parents picking various plants on the side of the road. They said that baby Ayllen was in a very bad mood and had “mal aire”, which directly translates to bad air, and she needs these herbs. I had no idea what this meant and thought that she was just guessing at Ayllen’s emotions like we usually do. (We usually come up with crazy reasons for her grumpiness, like she’s been working really hard all day at being a baby and no one understands her, etc.) But no, my host mom explains, she is “ojeada”, which means that people have been looking at her with bad thoughts and have given her this mal aire. They can tell that this is what has happened because she has been in a bad mood all day and does not want to play or eat. The only solution, Sonia explained, is to rub an egg (whole, uncracked) all over her body and then bathe her in these herbs and give her tea from the herbs. (…ok… makes sense… I thought to myself) So I watched this process in awe. She used the egg to draw crosses on each part of the baby’s body as she whispered something (which I assume were prayers), the baby bathed in this very bitter herb bath, which made the whole house smell like a funky hippie candle shop, and the baby drank the yucky tea. Sonia then cracked the egg into a glass and said that the bubbles rising from the egg were the bad air. She said she can not throw out the egg or the bathwater or take the baby out of the house until the next day at noon.

One of the most interesting things I’ve seen in Ecuador… and in my life. I really hope that I don’t get mal aire.

All my love,

Chels

El Sabor Ecuatoriano

Sunday, February 17^th. We had a potluck at the training center a couple weeks ago. It went so well and everyone was so fat and happy that we’re having another one this week. Last time, I signed up for Alchochas Rellenas, which are stuffed peppers (but they’re not hot). My host mom had made some for dinner one night and they were so good, I decided to try and make them myself. The potluck was the same day as our first big presentation and I had a lot of work to do for it. My host mom and I had gone to the market and I bought most of the ingredients to make the peppers with shrimp, cheese, peas, carrots, onion, and garlic with a cream sauce on top. Sonia knew that I had a lot of homework to do, so she tricked me and cooked almost everything when I was at school and when I was in the shower, she just saved the stuffing part for me to do which is really easy. Anyway, it was really nice of her and everyone absolutely loved the peppers. This time I signed up for a dessert so that if I didn’t have time, I would just buy something so that my host mom wouldn’t be burdened again. As soon as I mentioned this, my host mom decided we needed to make Tres Leches cake so that I could learn. My host dad has made this several times while my host mom was pregnant so he walked me through it. It looks amazing and I saved the recipe. Momma- I’ll make it for Christmas dessert J

Also, for lunch today, my host mom made ceviche Ecuatoriano, which is way different than the Mexican kind I know and love, but I gotta say, it was better! It had all the normal stuff like shrimp, tomatoes, onion, green peppers, lime juice, orange juice, cilantro, garlic, but on top, they add a bunch of crunchy condiments. There was thin sliced, fried plantains, roasted corn kernels, and popcorn! And rice, of course. The ceviche is like a cold soup with lots of flavorful liquid so you add the crunchy stuff as you’re eating to absorb all the juice. I immediately thought of my brother in-law, Chris and all of his awesome seafood creations. I’ll make this sometime for you when I get back, bro. Also, happy birthday!!! Wish I could have come to your brunch and thrown back some beers with you.

In other news! The president, Rafael Correa, won the election by 56% and will serve his second term. I’m not allowed to have political opinions, but I will say that I think this is the best result, safety-wise. Because he has such a high approval rating, I don’t think there will be many protests or uprisings. My host parents are happy so I’m happy. I also found out that it is mandatory to vote here. You are fined 30-something dollars if you don’t vote. Interesting.

Anyway, I also made pancakes again today and we sat around the table stuffed for about an hour after breakfast, watching Men in Black in espanol. Then for dinner my host mom couldn’t decide what to make and randomly asked me how we eat tuna in the states. I explained a tuna sandwich and they had never heard of it. They eat it with rice and potatoes (go figure) so I made tuna melts for dinner. Overall, today was an excellent food day. They have a saying when they’re full here, “la barriga llena, el corazon contento” (stomach full, heart happy). Lovin el sabor Ecuatoriano.

Thank you for reading and thank you for caring about my barriga gorda.

Xoxo

Chels

La Ley Seca

The presidential election is tomorrow, Sunday, February 17^th. Ecuador has a very passionate culture in general, and especially about its politics. So for the weekend of the election, they implement “La Ley Seca” (Dry Law) and it is illegal to sell, purchase, or consume alcohol from Friday to Monday. The Peace Corps also has an additional rule during this weekend called Standfast, in which all trainees and volunteers must stay within their site during this particular weekend, we are not allowed to travel even to nearby towns. This is a safety precaution in case there are any political protests or unsafe situations. For many of the volunteers, this translates to: BORING.

However, one of the other trainees was having a quincenera at her house for her host cousin and invited me! It was so much fun and so very different from the other one I attended. It had the great food and the yummy cake and the nice people and LOTS of dancing, but this one had much less pressure to drink. (Probably because of Ley Seca). Also, because there were 3 gringas, they were extra nice to us. They taught us to salsa and let us borrow a big sombrero to take pictures. They even did a shout out to “la gente de los Estados Unidos” and played a Rhianna song, which we then proceeded to sing every lyric of.

Also, this party focused on different traditions. Rather than the choreographed dances, instead, there were symbolic gifts that the “damas” (bridal party-like friends of the birthday girl) presented to her. And there were lots of “ligas” (garters)! Here, the birthday girl wears 10 garters (I think maybe it’s normally 15 but this girl had 10) and her “caballero” (sort of like a date except in this case, it was her cousin and in the previous party was just a friend) takes the garters off of her legs one-by-one and then gives them to the single guys at the party. The single guys then put the garters on the damas. However, at this party there were only 3 or 4 damas so they went around looking for different girls to put them on. The girl would have to stand on a chair in a dress and often in heels! And the guy would slip it on her leg as the crowd yelled “sube sube sube!” which means higher! Many of these guys and girls were about 15 years-old. Luckily, I was off in a corner and did not get pressured into this tradition. Then, we played a guessing game. They got all of the single girls to stand in a circle and we had to go around and guess which fruit the birthday girl was thinking of. I guessed cherry and ding ding ding! Cherry it is! I had no idea what I just won but they made me stand there in front of the whole party and went and found a single guy. What an appropriate guess because my face was red as a cherry. He was then advised to put the last garter on my leg! Chuta! (Spanish way of saying shit!) Luckily, I was wearing pants. And now I have a scandalous souvenir.

There was another guessing game after that, involving animals so I guessed vaca (cow) hoping I wouldn’t win and my trainee friend won and got a pretty pink bouquet! Chuta! They passed around shots of watermelon liquor and a cigar. I did not partake in anything as I needed to get home at a decent time and didn’t want to risk getting arrested on my way home. I was really wishing that it wasn’t the weekend of Ley Seca because the drinking options were great, but I had such a good time it didn’t even matter.

I felt bad about coming home late because the way the door is designed, I can’t just unlock it and come in, I have to have someone unlatch it, so I had to wake my host mom up at about 10:45. I’m going to make pancakes tomorrow morning to try and make it up to her.

Funny baby: I forgot to add this to a different blog, but Ayllen is learning to walk and has a brand new “andador” which is a little chair on wheels. She is such an adorable little menace wheeling around the house trying to destroy things. It’s so much fun. She wheels herself real fast over to my doorway and grunts and smacks the door, waiting for permission to enter. As soon as I say “hola Ayllen”, she comes barreling in, wreaking havoc. I’ll try to take a video at some point, it’s too cute to not capture on film.

Goodnight, United States. I miss you dearly.

<3 Chels

The Middle of the World

Dude. Yesterday, I was sitting around the house minding my own business when the entire family showed up. Sonia had said that if the rain let up a little we’d head into Quito, then my mom and my sister and Colton called from the States! Which was an awesome surprise! I love trying to talk to Colton, I have a hard time understanding him on the phone but he makes my heart feel so full. So I had just lost service talking to them and 8 host family members walked in around 2 and didn’t leave until 8pm. I didn’t mind at all because it’s always so interesting to get a different piece of Ecuador, but it’s just so funny how no one plans here. So my host mom made an awesome lunch for everyone and then we watched Battleship, starring Rhianna, in Espanol, for the second time. I had made pancakes for breakfast and my host parents told everyone how good they were, which made me really happy and then everyone tasted the light syrup straight from the bottle lol. My host mom and I also made a cheesecake with fresh blackberry compote on top. Holy geez.Exactly what I needed. I’ve been feeling like my taste buds are missing home lately, just because we eat a lot of chicken and rice and they don’t use a lot of sauces here. But this was gourmet Sunday and I was in Heaven (and a food coma). 

So as the day was winding down, my host parents told the whole family that we would meet up today to celebrate Carnaval. A bunch of ideas were thrown around and they argued about the various pools, rivers, and hot springs nearby (everyone bathes in some fashion for Carnaval) and I was really confused because my host parents had said they were going to take me to a tourist site on Monday. Apparently they were just being nice but they knew that the extended family never really goes anywhere.

So we got up early and headed to La Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World), which is a touristy site at the 0 degree latitude line, the equator. I was happily surprised that it was not hokey as I expected it to be. They had mini museums throughout the area, they actually call the site a city, it’s quite big with lots of shops and restaurants. They also had live music in celebration of Carnaval, plenty of espuma, and get this- bullfighting! Although it was sad to watch because I felt really bad for the bulls, it was THRILLING and they don’t kill the bulls or hurt them, they just taunt them. That’s what I kept telling myself because it was such a guilty pleasure, my host mom was screaming the whole time and even baby Ayllen was clapping and learned how to say “ole”. I have some video, but I can’t believe I didn’t catch it on film when the bull got his revenge and trampled the guy! Toro-1, Toredor-0.

Great day overall, but very long. We were out from 8am to 8pm. Had some more cheesecake for dinner and my host parents told me to sleep in as long as I want tomorrow, and I will take them up on that. This weekend is the first time in Ecuador that I’ve felt cold. When it rained before, it was still warm, but now, it’s very difficult to leave my dolphin blanket. I also just bought a book in English after painfully reading 65 pages of a Spanish book. I foresee a long day curled up in bed tomorrow.

Some things I have learned so far (in no particular order): Tacos= high heels, not dinner. Pincho= delish-kabob, not a bad word. Sometimes it’s okay to push- when getting on a crowded bus at a station, it’s necessary. It doesn’t matter what size or shape you are, leggings as pants= totally acceptable. Any animal could be a pet. And some pets are grilled and eaten. 

Mundane discovery made today: my Chive sweatshirt has a secret pocket! I’ve been wearing this thing almost every day and just found this out! SO PERFECT FOR ECUADOR where pickpocketing is rampant and good hiding spots are a blessing.

Keep calm and chive on, from Ecuador, with love.

Chels

I walk the line.

Ayllen, 5 pounds lighter on the Ecuator

My wonderful host family

Totally hoping for a cross breed between llamas and flamingos

Wrong. Just ugly llamas.

BULLFIGHTING!

Temblor

I woke up at 5:30am in order to get ready for the volcano hike and it was raining, pouring really hard. I texted the other volunteers and we decided to wait until a bit later to see if it would clear up. It didn’t. The drainage system here is no better than San Diego so in some places, there are lake-size puddles on dirt roads, and thus, some serious mud. 

I was sitting at my desk/plastic table attempting to read a book in Spanish around 9:00am and suddenly everything was shaking. My door squeaks a lot and it was opening and closing on its own and squeaking and I felt dizzy. It lasted about 15 seconds and I could have sworn it was my imagination. Finally I stood up and walked out in to the kitchen just as my host mom carried the baby out of their room and I said “terremoto?” and she said “temblor?” There was a 7.0 earthquake in Pasto, Colombia so all of Ecuador felt the effects but no damage or injuries were reported. In some houses near the Colombian border things fell off the wall and it was much stronger, but everyone is okay. I’m not afraid of earthquakes in California, but I admit I was a little scared here. It felt different and I’m absolutely sure that there was no consideration of building standards for this house as it looks like it was pieced together with brick and wood. Next time, I’ll try to keep in mind all the earthquake preparedness drills we had to do in school, back when earthquakes never seemed like a threat to me. 

So between buckets of rain and an earthquake, it didn’t seem like a good idea to hike a volcano today. My host parents said it would be dangerous as there could have been landslides. Plus I don’t have hiking boots, just running shoes so I’d be slipping and sliding all over the place. I’ll try to hike it next weekend instead. A lot of people are going out of town this weekend for the 4 day Carnaval so it looks like I’ll be resting a lot instead of adventuring. Though if the rain lets up, Sonia is going to take me to Quito tomorrow as she needs to run errands and I can find a bookstore which sells some English books. I’ve been dying for a good book.

My host mom just made soup for lunch called “carto de bola”, which I would have named “everything but the kitchen sink”- it had yuca, ribs, corn on the cob, ground beef, a big ball of mush with peas, carrots, raisins!, green beans, tomatoes, and peanut butter. It was so interesting and SO filling. They use peanuts/peanut butter in such a different way here! Only in savory dishes, usually with meat. They got grossed out when I explained what a PB&J was. Tomorrow I’m making pancakes for the family as they’ve never had them and they bought light syrup when I moved in because it was something they recognized as being American. I guess I won’t make the chocolate chip and peanut butter pancakes Amy usually made at 3770. 

<3 Chels

Carnaval

Friday February 8, 2013. Brazil is famous for its Carnaval celebration- its colorful, beautiful, grandiose parties. Ecuador is less famous but they definitely celebrate. In a very different way.Carnaval is similar to Mardi Gras in the sense that it comes right before the 40 days of Lent. Instead of drunken debauchery, Ecuadorians play with food and water! In some of the tamer cities, like Ambato, the people have beautiful parades and throw flower petals and baskets of fruit. Here in Tumbaco, you walk around during Carnaval weekend and you will be pummeled by water balloons or “espuma”. 

Carnaval is celebrated for the weekend and also on Monday and Tuesday with no work or school, but Tumbaco started celebrating early this week. As we were walking home from school on a quiet dirt road, some kids were hiding behind a brick wall, throwing water balloons (one of which was frozen) and then yesterday, I got drive-by espuma’ed. Espuma is this very thin foam, similar to the consistency of soap suds, lighter than shaving cream. They buy huge cans of espuma and spray it at each other during this week. I was just walking down a busy road, minding my own business and another volunteer and I were suddenly doused with this foam. Which is when a brilliant idea occurred to me. All of us volunteers had heard about Carnaval and were very excited for the 4 day weekend, but hadn’t yet experienced it. So I spread the word to all of the female volunteers that we were going to attack the boys after class on Friday. We feigned a meeting and got all the boys to stay in one spot. It. Was. Awesome. There was espuma EVERYWHERE! Some of the volunteers risked their cameras and took some photos so I’ll post when they share. It was the most fun I’ve had in Ecuador. And now there will be 4 more days of it! 

In some of the wilder places, people celebrate Carnaval by throwing eggs, oil, flour, and even paint at each other. And I mean at strangers! We usually go to the market on Sundays to buy food to cook for the week but my host parents advised me that we can’t go this weekend because they will most likely throw the fish water at us or animal parts. So cool!

Tomorrow I’m hiking a volcano. I’ll try to take lots of photos in between huffing and puffing. The altitude really gets me up here. Plus I’m really out of shape. Plus they’ve been feeding me chimborazos of rice for each meal.

Talk at you soon. Que viva Carnaval!

<3 Chels