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Published: April 13th 2008
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Well, after almost a year of talking, a few threatened trip derailments and a couple of months of frenzied planning - I’m here!
9 hours after leaving my LA hostel I was greeted by the organizer of the volunteering program who chauffered me to my new home - giving me a great view of the city in the 40 minute drive.
Quito sits in a bowl built of surrounding mountains and volcanos (some active, some not - lap of the gods type stuff). The city is a triumph of against-all-odds architecture with much of the urban constructions resting precariously on 45-plus-degree slopes. The topography makes for some devastatingly beautiful views and some terrifyingly unlikely structures.
Thankfully, the place I am staying sits comfortingly on ground solidly parallel to the horizon. Whatever ill-conceived ideas I had about Ecuadorian dwellings were shattered on arriving in my home-for-now. I am staying in a well furnished, clean and comfortable three bedroom apartment which sits behind the gorgeous host family house - full of lush furnishings and vibrant Mexican-style rendered walls.
There are so many things to say about Quito and Ecuadorian life in general but I guess the most pressing realisation
Quito landscape 1
How do the houses stay up? upon arriving here has been the full extent of what it is to be in a foreign country with an alien language. Thus far I have only met two people who have more than a smattering of English. Quickly I came to see that not only could I not ask directions - or even buy a pack of cigarettes - competently, but the little somethings normally sprinkled throughout conversation with strangers to show and share goodwill also eluded me. Passing phrases like ‘How are you?” and “Crappy weather, huh?” that had always seemed so superficial and irrelevant now show their true value in their absence.
Thankfully, my first stop is a two week intensive course to give me the basics of Spanish - which I will hopefully be able to build on over the next five months. My morning begins (begrudgingly) at 8am with the arrival of my permanently chirpy teacher, Deborah. She is a native Quito-ite (?) and a great English speaker too.
Deborah stays for two hours, filling my ailing head to bursting with Spanish in all its glorious and confusing genderising and myriad verb conjugations. She is a living gem who deals with my (sometimes)
belligerence and (rare) tears with grace and patience - especially since it takes her an hour to and from getting to me and she spends the intervening time during the day working in a café to be able to make ends meet.
The rest of my afternoon generally passes in a blur of local street wanderings, study and playing with the family dog (who I feel a great bond with as her understanding of Spanish is possibly even less than mine (she may disagree) - I’ve (somewhat guiltily) even taught her to ‘sit’ - in English - viva la rebellion 😉)
At 4pm Deborah returns for 2 hours to revisit what we learned in the morning and generally make me feel dwarfed by the task ahead (truth be told, I don’t need her for that - the 98 (!) different forms of any individual verb tells that tale all by itself (ves).)
Without internet or social events to distract me, I’ve come to think of this time as my own private Spanish vipassana retreat - sans meditation - which (hopefully!) will prepare me for Quito life proper. Thus far I have had 6 lessons and only in
My non Spanish speaking friend
The only being I´ve met who knows less Spanish than I the last day or so have I felt that I might actually be making some progress. I almost hugged a kind old man who very patiently talked me through creating the sentence I wanted to convey with only sprinkled words and vigorous charades from me to go on.
Tonight I’m taking my first steps out into inner city Quito - leaving the cosseted world of my comfortable apartment behind for the Friday night delights of the Mariscal (or gringolandia - ‘gringo’ being the local name for tourists.)
I’m meeting up with Deborah later and have a few hours to kill (and the internet has proven a worthy weapon to kill it with).
I stepped outside my hostel / bar briefly earlier but doom-filled premonitions read in countless blogs / guidebooks / websites warning against individuals (particularly females) taking on the mariscal beyond dusk limited my adventures dramatically. Deborah assures me this is rubbish but I’m not up for testing the theory just yet. Maybe when I know the vocabulary for ‘HELP!” I’ll be more adventurous 😉
I have one more week in Conocoto before I head off to Cloud Forest where I will be volunteering in
Security - Ecuador style
A common way of deterring would be thieves is to build broken up bottles into the top of walls... ouch! the country village of Las Tolas - both in the forest and village where I’ll be discovering life sans electricity - and I thought life without the internet was a challenge!
Until I write again - keep the emails coming. I love to hear from friends abroad 😉
Buenos noches,
Becx
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anonymous
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Hey Miss Bec, Great to hear it is all going so well. Good luck in the Cloud forest (what a great name!). You know where to find me if you need anything official OK!!! I have you quite literally RSSed you so feed me or ring me when you can. sending you lots of boldness and intuition, you'll be just marvellous. cath xoxo