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Published: September 5th 2006
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Since I arrived I have been asking Guadelupe if we can cook some traditional Ecuadorean dishes together. Being very accommodating, she chose Saturday morning as a good time to teach us how to make prawn ceviche- a delicious cold soup with lime, coriander, tomatoes and onions. Unfortunately this coincided with my humungous hangover from a very funny and random Friday night out. Peeling prawns was a serious struggle as was eating the results of our efforts. Whoops.
I decided to be much more healthy on the Sunday by joining in with the Ciclopaseo. Normally you´d have to be mad to cycle in Quito due to the crazy driving and pollution, but on the last Sunday of every month a route from North to South through the city is closed to traffic and everyone gets on their bike. It was great, there were loads of people on bikes and it seemed like the entire population of Quito was involved in some kind of sporting activity or other in the parks. It wasn´t hardcore cycling, and we did stop once it started pouring with rain, but it was a really good way to see the city. Perhaps we should try it in
London...
I also visited the Basilica this week. Ordinarily my interest in cathedrals is pretty minimal but when visiting countries where Health and Safety rules haven´t yet ruined everything fun and exciting there´s often an added dimension. In this basilica you´re allowed to go unaccompanied up into the roof space above the vaulted ceiling, go behind the clock faces and climb up tiny rickety ladders to the top of the very highest spire. So much more fun than just looking at statues (although having said that, this was quite fun too - as turtles, armadillos, anteaters etc featured quite heavily in these!)
I also found time to go to a football match between the two Quito teams, Liga and Nacional. It was muy divertido and we learnt a few choice new Spanish phrases too! Whilst buying our tickets I got interviewed by a roving reporter from the local sports channel who got very excited when I said I was from England; was I was Beckham's cousin was the next question!
My first week at 'work' was a bit disappointing however. I started on Monday at a drop-in centre for street children. The idea, I think, is that
it's somewhere for them to go to take a break from shoe-shining and selling stuff in the street. Nice idea but the reality was that volunteers outnumbered children 2-1 and no-one (children or volunteers) really seemed to have a clue what they were doing there. Some volunteers who had been there for months (?) had tried to set up some activities but the children didn't really stay for longer than 10 minutes at a time and without anyone 'in charge' they´d found it hard to organise things despite their good intentions. When I turned up the next day to find no children there at all I decided to try a different project.
This one is also for street children but is more of a care-home rather than a drop-in centre. Fairly typically the woman who was supposed to meet me didn´t turn up so I was left to try and figure out how things worked by myself. I needn't have worried since it didn't take me very long to work out that, here also, there was no organisation to speak of and the children are pretty much left to their own devices in between doing chores. When I eventually
found an adult to talk to she suggested that I should just watch the children because they tended to fight all the time! Hmmm..I wonder why? In true British teacherly fashion I immediately wanted to impose some structured activities but it's very hard when you don't speak the language very well and there are absolutely no resources to speak of. Again, I needn't have worried as the children are so bored that they are receptive to any activity. When I made some play-dough on Friday you´d have thought I´d given them $100 each and they were engrossed for the next 2 and a half hours. They obviously dont get much oppportunity to work creatively as they had no idea what to make or how to make it. So we had great fun and when we packed up one girl who is 13 was literally begging me to carry on. At least that made me think that volunteering is serving some kind of purpose here. I keep being assured that things will be different next week as school classes begin again. This served as a timely reminder that, however frustrating things seemed here, if I was in England I would be
going back to work next week and suddenly things didn´t seem quite so bad after all!
The condensed version: In and around Quito this week. Surprise, surprise, things in South America are frustratingly disorganised.
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sam
non-member comment
culture shock
another great report M, makes you realise what the kids have here and apparently it's still not enough! Must be very rewarding to see the pleasure that just some play dough brings them. They'll miss you! Sam x