Bienvenidos A Ecuador

---

I am currently sitting in a small internet cafe around the corner from my new place of residence in Tumbaco, Ecuador. And where to begin... I suppose I have been here for about a week and a half so far. It seems longer than that...

I am living with an older couple, in their 50s I believe. They do not speak a word of english. Once again, I have been reminded of how much you can communicate without actually knowing the words you are trying to communicate. I know some spanish, but let´s just say there is room for A LOT of improvement. They are very nice though and somehow we manage. Their grandson and granddaughter are around fairly often. He´s 14 and she´s 8. The 8 year old, Emilia, is more interested in being my friend. We spent 2 hours coloring together on my bed on Saturday which I thoroughly enjoyed. Much of the time I drew pictures and asked how to say them in spanish. Kids are good friends to have when you are still trying to learn a language.

On Sunday, Emilia and Zoila (my host mom) helped me wash my clothes on a rock outside. They do have a washer, but they are supposed to teach me the rock method since I very likely will not have one at my site in a few months. It was suprisingly effective, and though time-consuming, I kind of enjoyed it. It got slightly weird at the end when we got to my underwear, and Emilia and I stood next to each other scrubbing it down. I was relieved I had left my thongs for another time.

So I live with this host family, but I do not spend that much time with them. We go to our Peace Corps training center compound Monday thru Friday from 8 until 5 and Saturday 8 to 12 30. A small group of us walk to and from the center everyday, which is an hour each way. This is definitely a schedule that I don´t think I´ve ever seen in my life. I have to be home by about 7 every night because that´s when it gets dark and hence more dangerous. Apparently there are quite a few thefts that occur around here. I have behaved myself very well thus far, though it is killing me not to be able to walk Anywhere alone Ever. I am dealing though. Upon arrival home every evening, Zoila has a huge cooked meal waiting which always includes a soup to start, then a plate of food including rice, some sort of meat, and usually another side dish. Oh, and freshly made juice is served with every meal as well. For breakfast, she makes me a fried or hard boiled egg or bowl of fresh fruit, coffee made with milk, and some sort of bread. There is also a family just down from the training compound that makes us all lunch everyday similar to what Zoila serves me for dinner. Needless to say, I am not going hungry. And I probably would´ve gained 20 lbs by now if it weren´t for walking to and from ´school.´

Training is interesting. It is basically school, which I am not used to. And not like college classes, but more like high school where you have school ALL day. Maybe even elementary school actually since we have breaks like recess and we do an inordinate amount of ice breakers, games, and presentations involving stick figure drawings and the like. We have training in spanish, safety and security, health, and then our technical training. I am in the natural resources conservation group. So far we have learned how to form youth groups. They like to just throw us into situations, such as the other morning we met in town and they gave us some questions. Then they set us free to approach random people on the street and ask them these questions (in spanish ofcourse). We did this for about 2 hours. Somehow another girl and I actually ended up in a school in front of multiple classrooms asking the kids these questions. Luckily she knew a bit more spanish than I.

I am afraid that is all I have time to write for now. It is about 5 minutes to 7, and I have to get home. Not enough time in a day! I will write more extensively soon. And see if I can´t get a few pictures on here one of these days, even though I´ve taken a total of about 3. More to come...

---

Comments

[Bill Hill]

home by 7!
Hats off to Zoilia for managing what your parents could not. Thanks Hon, for the first blog. I love the details : Coloring with Emilia, and learning Spanish that way. More...