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Published: September 4th 2009
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Host family in Quito!
Alfredo, Inés, me, Andrea, Gabi and Alex. Hello again! Still alive and still very well!
Have you ever tried showering without running water or electricity? Well, I just did. Manoveuring buckets of water and trying to shower in the light of a cell phone, not the easiest task. I moved to my little village and we only get two hours of water a day maximum and the power has been off for several hours again. Somehow we don’t have candles so I use my cellphone. My laptop batteries are running low too, so if I don’t write much this time, it because my computer died. But let’s structure this:
First of all: I have found my bag, on my second last day in Quito I let them open their luggage store room again and what is sitting right there in front of all the other bags? Right, my bag. Exactly how I described it 1000 times, but “we have searched through the luggage store room 4 times”. I have definitely learned not to trust anybody here with anything important. Do it yourself or nobody else will, no matter what they promise you. And one day that liar-face airline woman had a nervous breakdown right in front of me.
It had been a bad day and then I turned up. Well, she sort of deserved (but yes, I still felt bad for her).
Other than all that, my time in Quito was really great! My host family was nice, even though we didn’t get that close (if it was for the language barrier or not, I don’t know). I had my own room, closet, a computer with DSL internet and a bathroom with hot water. For the almost 4 weeks I spent in Quito I lived with them. Really not that different, the dad works a lot, the mom stays at home and takes care of the food, laundry etc. and the children go to uni or work. They have 4 nice cars and a nice house, so they are quite well off.
For 4 weeks I had Spanish lessons every morning, first with a group, later private lessons. Learned quite a bit, all the basic grammar, now I just have to learn how to actually use it. For 2 weeks I had a Teaching English as a Second Language course in the afternoon, the other two free time in which we got to explore the city (or the
The Tower again
and from the top airport in my case). Nonetheless I managed to see a bit of the city. The old city centre, the Centro Historico, really is pretty. Especially the churches and monasteries are beautiful.
Especially remarkable is the basillica, the biggest church in Quito. You can climb all the way up in one of the towers and on the top floor, right underneath the roof, are 4 little open (!) doorways, that lead to 4 half a square metre platforms. There is nothing to hold you back from falling 30 metre down onto the street. It’s crazy thrilling and so ridiculously dangerous “only in Ecuador”. Took some sweet pictures and don’t worry, we didn’t over do it.
Went out a couple of times with my little host sister (20) and/or some other German volunteers. Mostly to the mariscal also called “Gringolandia” because it’s where ALL the tourists meet who of course are ALL gringos from the States. It’s nice but nothing special, not at all like Ecuador and doesn’t even come close to the Berlin nightlife.
One day we took the lift up Quito’s volcanoe Pichincha. From up there (>4000 metres) you have an awesome view over the city, that occupies a good
50 kilometres of a valley that is just 10 kilometres wide. On clear days we could also see the volcanoe Cotopaxi, that is over 6000 metres high.
Oh and random story, before I forget. One day my host family and I went to visit relatives near Ibarra and we went to this little restaurant in this little Ecuadorian village and what’s hanging on one of the walls? A Moosehead sign! They didn’t have Moosehead, but it was still sweet and I was happy (and probably all of my host family’s relatives thought I was crazy).
I have a lot more stories about my Quito time but I am running out of battery (maybe next time).
So last Saturday I left Quito and made my way to Puerto Quito, the main village of the region here (~2000 inhabitants) and from there to my village Buenos Aires (the 2nd biggest, with approximately 1000 inhabitants). If any of you thought Peterborough was a small little hick town, come here and you will never ever say that again! I promise.
My family here only consists of my single host father. His name is Rober, he is 40 and we get along quite well so
Other church
I am not good with names ;) far but he is a Jehova’s Witness. And they are building a new church right now and because of that we are rooming with 3 other witness volunteers, actually all of his friends are Jehova’s witnesses. Rober is somewhat of a missionary, he goes out to talk to people and stuff. All of the Jehova’s witnesses are really nice and friendly but only as long as you don’t think about how stupid this is. But I am not going to rant about that now.
My house is made of stone (some others are just wood) and really clean. Rober is somewhat obsessed with cleanliness which gets annoying at times but on the other hand keeps anything bigger than an ant (such as cockroaches, centripedes etc.) from entering the house. + the food must be very clean too as I haven’t had any stomach problems so far. Definitely things I am very happy about. Today was my first day as a teacher. My first class was a grade 3 class and they just ate me for breakfast. They went absolutely wild. And while I was trying to calm down a knife fight (they get a carpet knife to sharpen their pencils…),
the home room teacher sat outside the classroom, enjoying the morning sun, not even thinking about doing anything at all to help me. Great!
The next class went a lot better though. Had 6th graders and they were calm, friendly and interested. Did a small review of the stuff they learned from the German volunteer last year (really not a lot, but a tiny little bit) and they actually wanted to know more. Really restored my self-confidence.
Tomorrow I have to catch the only bus from here to Puerto Quito at 5 in the morning, there is some sort of reunion from my organization. I am hoping to upload this there.
Still don’t have light, so now I have to pack things for three days to the light of my cellphone, oh I love Ecuador 😉
Actually, it’s really been great so far. The real thing has only just started and life here is very very different to what I know. It will definitely be hard and frustrating at times but I have already learned and experienced so much and I know there is soooo much more to come. It will be an amazing year!
So, I am running out
of batteries so bye!
Not sure when I will be able to write again, but remember: No news, are good news.
Hasta luego muchachos!
Max
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matteo
non-member comment
wow...i'd sooo badly come to visit u...are u a teacher???ehhehhe...