ECUADOR AT LAST

---

I am in another country. That is the one thing that I am absolutely sure of.
From the beginning..
There are 9 of us in my AFS group. 7 girls, 2 boys. It´s been great actually, usually AFS programs can have up to 100 students. We´ve kind of bonded. It´s funny because I am the only one with brown hair and brown eyes, everyone else is blond and blue eyed ( except for one brown haired boy).. It ´s odd. Anyway, we spent the weekend cooped up in a Miami hotel, and listened to AFS rules, and talked about Ecuador. The flight was good, big plane, lots of empty seats. We all made it through customs, and were immediately carted out of Guayaquil in a big van. An hour later, we stopped at what seemed to be a little inn or something, there were about ten stray dogs (all perfectly docile, don´t worry) all around our van, parked to about ten little cabin-huts. We were fed a huge plate of chicken, rice and beans.. and then we went to bed in our casitas. (well, I showered first, no hot water). We worked our way to sleep through crowing roosters and donkey squeals sounding from what seemed like directly behind our hut. In the morning we investigated, and found that despite what we´d guessed, this was not a little farm with cabins, it was the hot spot for people from both La Gloria and Guayaquil to have a drink, eat, have a swim, take a horseback ride, or see Martin the monkey. It got crazy in the middle of the day, music blasting, chickens everywhere.. but we just had a complete day of orientation about Ecuador. That night we were very tired, so we played an intense game of Egyptian Ratslap and went to bed. This morning (seems like weeks ago now) we went on the little horse trailride, showered and.. said quick goodbyes as we split away with our new families (back in Guayaquil). My family is wonderful, they are the sweetest people, extremely welcoming and warm. Communication is exhausting. And, did I mention I now have a pet iguana)can{t find the question mark sorry, everything on this keyboard is weird) anyway, as we left the building where we met up, some guard on the street handed me a little iguana, I thought that was very cool, but when I tried to give it back, he just pointed at me. I still don{t totally know what´s going on, but so far as I can tell, it{s my new pet iguana (I named him Manuel) I feel kind of bad for him, but he´d probably get runover outside. Haha, i{ll keep you posted. We walked around the Malecon, and I saw a lot of the city today. Im not being very descriptive, sorry so much more has happened but I am tired and I don´t want to forget!!!
Hasta luego!!

Oh, and the food here is delicious (no indigestion yet, yes!) but they give you SO DAMN MUCH. It{s rougher than it sounds. So far though, I am glad to say, a lot of the things I was told in Orientation isn{t true of my family. I{m still being careful though!

---

Comments

[sandy]

iguana
glad to hear you have made it safely and are settling in...allegra linked your blog to hers, so i can read both of them together..have an amazing time, but don;t get too attached to Manuel, as he probably would be suspect at "homeland security"....be well and come home with great stories to tell xxooo sandy

[Emily(mom!)]

National Iguana Awareness Day
I think it's quite the cosmic synchronicity that you were gifted an iguana on the exact day of the year that has been declared offically as "National Iguana Awareness Day"! Yes, I read this in the pet column in the Santa Rosa newspaper, and as you know, and Craig F. will tell you, it's written, therefore it MUST be TRUE!! We send our best regards to Manuel. He can grow to be 6 feet long in 3 years. Hmmm...Maybe you can take him to that famous park in Guayaquil where he can dwell freely with others of his kind?? (and poop on others of our kind from the trees...)What does your familia think of him? Sounds like a very rich adventure so far, keep up the great writing, we love you!!! Besitos!!