So I actually wrote that last post on Friday afternoon but the internet was being sketchy and I couldn't get it uploaded. I decided to leave it though and start a new post because otherwise that other one would be in serious danger of becoming even less brief and less frequent.
As a sidenote I tried to upload the video of the dance and it's just too big a job for my interwebs as they are right now. I'll have to do it when I get home.
Friday: After I left the internet cafe I went with Yajaira to visit Miguelito, the 10o-year-old Galapagan tortoise. He arrived here in Bahia about 100 years ago as a tiny little guy stowed away on some ship. The story goes that the captain found him and gave him to a family living here in Bahía because he wasn't going back to the Galapagos soon so he figured it would be better to leave the little guy here. The family apparently got bored with the tortoise after a while or just thought he would be happier living on the beach so they put him out to sea. He didn't get far though. He just washed up into the rocky part of the shore on the same beach and hung out for a while until he was found by a father and son who were out taking a walk. They took the little tortoise home with them and after a while he started becoming a big tortoise. A really really big tortoise. Whatever they were keeping him in was made out of wood and he was soon able to break out and stroll around town. For a while he would go down to the marketplace every morning and the people there would feed him fruits and vegetables and then he'd go gallumphing back home. But one day our friend the tortoise stumbled upon the garden of a wealthy lady in town. It was a big and beautiful garden admired by all, including Mr. Tortoise. So naturally he went in and ate all the lady's vegetables and flowers and pretty much laid waste to the place. The lady was furious and convinced authorities that he was a public menace and should be put away. I should mention here that they had once tried to return the tortoise to the Galapagos but since he was so used to being fed carrots and fruits he had trouble getting accustomed to eating cactus and became very sick for lack of nutrition. The Bahíans had also tried getting him a lady tortoise at some point but they didn't get along well. I think maybe he was just confused by the whole business... Anyway. So the rich lady had him relocated to a school for boys where the walls are concrete and the gates are metal and he can't get around town so easily and he's lived there ever since. The school is called Miguel Something Something and therefore our tortoise was christened Miguelito when he was moved to his new home.
So I met Miguelito. He's an AMAZING creature. His current state is a little sad though. I mean he's 100 years old and he's a HUMONGOUS tortoise and now he's blind in one eye. So he doesn't really do much moving around. He doesn't really do much period. Except for sit and sleep and wake up and tolerate people. But I'm really glad I got to meet him. It was very cool.
After Spanish I went to my dance class and then went over to Vladir and Sandra's house for dinner. They had invited us (the volunteers and the art teacher from Genesis) over for a special dinner. It was very very nice. After dinner we watched part of a video of Cirque du Soleil that Vladir has and that was pretty awesome as well. Then the Cerro Seco crew showed up. We had invited them to our house party but we hadn't totally expected them to come so that was great. Vladir also had a few friends that came over and eventually Diego (Genesis English teacher) showed up too with his brother and his friend. The party went off really really well considering what a last-minute decision it had been. For a while it was English-speakers inside and Spanish-speakers outside and bilinguals in your comfort zone but eventually people started to mix a little more. Then a few of us moved all of our furniture and put on some dance music and the living room became the ballroom for a while. Later we all went down to the beach where we encountered a bunch of people playing didjeridoos, drums and a strange mix of other instruments. At least some of them were Planet Drum volunteers but I don't know who else was there. THEN there was beach volleyball and more dancing and lots of talking and a few of us were out on the beach until around 4:30 in the morning. It was TONS of fun but a fairly poor decision because
SATURDAY: Rachel, Kathy and I were scheduled to meet Carmen and Yasmin, two Genesis teachers, at the dock at 7:30 this morning. We got ourselves up and out there on time but it was a bit tough on Rachel and me, who had gotten almost 2 hours of sleep each. But we met there on the dock and took a ferry across the estuary to San Vicente, Bahía's little brother. From San Vicente we took a bus out about a half hour to the middle of the countryside where we got off for our tour of La Isla Corazon. Isla Corazon is a naturally occurring mangrove island that appeared about 8 years ago and is named for its resemblance to the shape of a heart. A mangrove island is not necessarily what you would typically picture as a tropical island. It's essentially a big swamp in the middle of the Chone River, and it is home to many different kinds of interesting bugs, crabs, and birds. The tour is done on a canoe. We travel through some natural canals in the island under a canopy of mangroves and come within inches of some really incredibly colorful crabs and the famous frigate birds which are Bahía's symbol. They are big black birds with white throats and a deep clicking call that almost sounds like a tiger purring. The adult males have a red air sac on their throats that they inflate when they want to find a mate. They are really beautiful birds and the island is absolutely full of them. I couldn't believe how close to the boat they were willing to fly. The tour was really fascinating and allowed me to forget how tired I was for a while. Afterwards we came back to Bahía, got some lunch and GOT SOME SLEEP. So now I'm feeling quite good. I have quite a few things to get done before I go though. I can't believe how soon it's ending. But I'm gonna think instead about how much of it hasn't actually yet ended. So it's off the computer and back to my life to enjoy my last few days in this beautiful place.
Love to all
Hasta Luego
Kelsey
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Neither Brief Nor Frequent!
Ok. So the brief and frequent idea didn’t work so well : ) My oh my. The trouble is when I have free time to write it usually means that not much of interest is going on... and when cool and exciting things are happening it usually means that I’m not sitting around typing on my blog. So I have to wait for things to collect a little bit so I can catch up when I have downtime. But sometimes I wait too long as we have seen (Q.E.D.)
SO I left off after Manta. It turns out Kathy and Rachel are great. They are both very interesting and fun to talk to. Very different. But I like them both. Kathy is a high school biology teacher from British Columbia who is on sabbatical. She enjoys scuba diving (like Paul) and was in the Galapagos on a different volunteer program just earlier this year. Rachel is from Maryland. She graduated from a small college there last year with a bachelor’s in English. She has traveled a lot. Dominican Republic, China, all over Europe, but this is her first time in Ecuador. She doesn’t particularly care for the food here which is a major bummer for her but she’s a good sport about it. I like having four people in the house.
The week after Manta was a tough one. My third grade class were being little monkeys and we hardly got any work done and halfway through the week I came down with stomach troubles. It’s not very uncommon when traveling in a foreign country, especially a developing one, and getting used to the food. But I was surprised it came on so late. Well I opted not to take my medicine because the MOST COMMON side effects include nausea, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, yeast infection, changes in liver function, and pain or discomfort in the abdomen. The instructions also mention that the drug causes increased skin sensibility and exposure to the sun should be minimized or avoided. Well I’m on the equator so the latter wasn’t really an option and the side effects sounded approximately one bajillion times worse than what I already had, and Kathy told me she took the same medicine once while travelling and had really bad side effects that didn’t go away for a month. So I skipped the Cipro and took some Pepto Bismol and dealt with the stomach pain. Also everyone advised me to drink lots of water to keep hydrated. So I did. Even though it tasted awful because the sickness had changed my taste perception... I thought. Nope. I realized last Saturday morning that my water tasted awful because my water bottle was contaminated. Wahwahwahhh. So that was a shitty piece of news. But I got a new water bottle and drank some chamomile tea with oregano in it (it sounds weird but it was actually really good. Try it. It’s magic.) and I immediately started to feel better.
Saturday morning was Día de la Familia. It was a really cool event and I really enjoyed watching the performances, but I still felt fairly lousy and was unable to eat any of the hundreds of cakes that the mamas brought for everyone. That’s ok. I contented myself with some rice and pan de yucca. And I had other things to worry about. My stressful sick week was also my last chance to get the swing/tap dance put together. It was a struggle, just like everything else that week. I had to threaten to cancel it a few times just to keep their attention. But when it came down to the performance the dancers did very well. I was soooo proud of them. I have a video of the dance that I’ll try to post. We’ll see if it works. Speaking of that, I know I haven’t put up any pictures in a while but they take even longer than writing so I haven’t found the time. I have bajillions though so maybe when I get home I’ll get them organized and uploaded.
After Día de la Familia festivities I went to Canoa with the other three volunteers, Vladir and his wife Sandra. It’s the classic picture of a South American beach town... lots of thatched roofs, bamboo, palm trees and hammocks. And of course lots of tourists. On Saturday there were probably more gringos there than Ecuadorians. This makes the town seem really out of place and almost artificial. It’s a great place to go for the weekend though, because the beach is big and beautiful and the malecón (seaside) is literally lined with 15 or 20 little salsoteca/bar places that are great for drinking and dancing and hanging out all night. Bahía conversely has the one club that we went to two weeks ago and NO other night life. So in that way it is nice to have Canoa nearby. I could never stand to live there though. While Bahía’s tourist industry is really depressed, Canoa’s tourist industry is really its only industry. Most of the city is bars, hostels, hostels with bars, and shops for buying souvenirs and trinkets made out of shells. If you are in Canoa and you want a bank, a supermarket, or anything else practical you need to come to Bahía. Many of the people who live there are foreigners who have bought up the hostels and bars and hostels with bars. Actually the guy who served us breakfast on Sunday is from Colorado. He came down to Canoa nine months ago for his honeymoon. Liked it. Bought a bar. And now lives there with his wife. I can’t imagine doing that. I think I would get bored pretty quickly in that town. I like to relax but I can only take it for so long before it stops being relaxing and I need a sense of purpose again.
Anyway, Vladir and Sandra came back to Bahía Saturday night. The four of us volunteers stayed in one of the many hostels. THEY HAVE HOT SHOWERS THERE!!!!! I really wanted to go out dancing Saturday night but I was just exhausted even though my stomach was feeling better. I went to bed around 10:30 but the next day Rachel and I decided to stay an extra night so we could go out dancing. Well. It was unbelievable the change that came over Canoa from Saturday to Sunday. Saturday night we had trouble finding a place to stay, the hostels were full and the streets were crowded. Bars with no walls were flashing with colored lights. They were blasting all different kinds of music trying to compete with other wall-less huts just a few feet away and creating a really cacophonous if lively atmosphere.
Sunday the streets were empty. Absolutely empty except for a few stray dogs and even fewer stray drunks. All of the bars along the malecón were closed. Completely silent and dark. All of the bars off the malecón were closed as well. All the hostels with bars were now just hostels with vacancies and the town was bizarrely quiet. Much quieter than Bahía at night. There was ONE open bar that we found. The Coloradan guy’s bar. There was no dancing there but Rachel and I went in to just hang out for a while and to avoid a drunk guy who was trying to follow us home. It was strange being so completely surrounded by Americans, American music, the English language. It was actually kind of comforting as I had gotten pretty homesick during my tough week. And it was nice for a day to see pancakes, omelettes, and french toast on a breakfast menu. But pretty soon I just felt like, “Wait. I want to go back to Ecuador now. I miss Ecuador.” So we did. Monday morning. We didn’t have classes at Genesis that day because everyone had come in on Saturday for the morning’s events. That is why Rachel and I were able to stay that extra night in Canoa. Alas, we didn’t spend it dancing, but it was fun to hang out on the beach all day and really not to have any obligations or plans for a while. And Rachel is good company.
This week has just flown by. I can’t believe it is already Friday. Monday will be my last day at Genesis. Tuesday I’m going up to Primero de Octubre again to help paint the new classroom, and Wednesday I leave for Guayaquil pretty early in the morning. Dude.
This week has been going much better than the last one though, despite the speed. I feel much better now, my third graders have been well-behaved... relatively, and with the dance performance over my classloads have been a bit lighter everyday. I’m back in my evening dance classes which I missed a lot last week and the other night I actually went down to the beach for a walk and tap danced around the light house for about an hour before bed.
Yesterday I went with Rachel and Kathy and all of our Spanish teachers to the Bahía de Caraquez museum. It was actually really awesome. It’s quite small but very nicely put together and Yajaira was just full of historical information on every single piece in the museum. There is one floor of Ecuadorian art, but there was another power outage just before we got there (the third since I’ve been here) so the art was very difficult to see and therefore not very engaging. Upstairs, on the floor with lots of windows and natural light is an exhibit on the making of the Panama hat. Many people don’t realize that Panama hats are actually very specifically Ecuadorian hats. They are made in a city here in Manabí province called Montecristi. They are called Panama hats because Ecuadorians found that the workers and later the tourists on the canal represented an excellent market and so they went up there to sell the hats. Therefore, for a long time, most Northerners and Europeans who had these hats obtained them in Panama. Anyway the making of the hats is incredibly difficult and laborious work and requires the maker of the hat to be stooped uncomfortably over a stone mold for the majority of the process. One hat can easily take three months to weave. But the result is really beautiful, and the extra fine ones you can fold up and stick in your pocket and when you pull them out again they’ll spring right back into shape.
The other part of the museum I really liked were the rooms and rooms of artifacts from various indigenous tribes of the Manabí area. As I mentioned above, Yajaira’s knowledge of the pottery, weaponry, art and history of all of these different tribes is pretty much encyclopedic. And also the power came back on by the time we got to this part of the museum. For those two reasons, the historical exhibits were really fascinating. Pictures to follow eventually.
Today we were planning to go to Palma Morena again (the club we went to two weeks ago) but I think it’s going to be closed because there is an election this Sunday which means that starting at 12AM tomorrow (midnight tonight) it is illegal for Ecuadorians to consume alcohol. So it looks like we may be hosting a party at the volunteer house instead.
OH YEAH the football game! Or soccer rather. Ecuador beat Argentina this week. I went with the volunteers up to Cerro Seco, an ecological reserve up on the big hill in Bahía, to watch the game with the volunteers there. The head of Cerro Seco is good friends with Vladir so we were all invited. We weren’t told what kind of footwear would be optimal for the trip so we all went in flip-flops and regretted it as we neared the very steep piece of dirt road at the top of the hill. The TV was set up outdoors in a little gazebo-like area with chairs, couch and hammock. Ecuador won 2-0. Fun was had by all. And afterwards we had a little cumbia dance party on the hill. It was a lovely night and we met three of the Cerro Seco volunteers: a very nice couple from Holland and a sweet British girl who was celebrating her birthday that day. We also met a few Ecuadorian university students studying ecology and marine biology who work at the reserve as well.
Gotta go. Spanish class begins. My last one! : (
SO I left off after Manta. It turns out Kathy and Rachel are great. They are both very interesting and fun to talk to. Very different. But I like them both. Kathy is a high school biology teacher from British Columbia who is on sabbatical. She enjoys scuba diving (like Paul) and was in the Galapagos on a different volunteer program just earlier this year. Rachel is from Maryland. She graduated from a small college there last year with a bachelor’s in English. She has traveled a lot. Dominican Republic, China, all over Europe, but this is her first time in Ecuador. She doesn’t particularly care for the food here which is a major bummer for her but she’s a good sport about it. I like having four people in the house.
The week after Manta was a tough one. My third grade class were being little monkeys and we hardly got any work done and halfway through the week I came down with stomach troubles. It’s not very uncommon when traveling in a foreign country, especially a developing one, and getting used to the food. But I was surprised it came on so late. Well I opted not to take my medicine because the MOST COMMON side effects include nausea, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, yeast infection, changes in liver function, and pain or discomfort in the abdomen. The instructions also mention that the drug causes increased skin sensibility and exposure to the sun should be minimized or avoided. Well I’m on the equator so the latter wasn’t really an option and the side effects sounded approximately one bajillion times worse than what I already had, and Kathy told me she took the same medicine once while travelling and had really bad side effects that didn’t go away for a month. So I skipped the Cipro and took some Pepto Bismol and dealt with the stomach pain. Also everyone advised me to drink lots of water to keep hydrated. So I did. Even though it tasted awful because the sickness had changed my taste perception... I thought. Nope. I realized last Saturday morning that my water tasted awful because my water bottle was contaminated. Wahwahwahhh. So that was a shitty piece of news. But I got a new water bottle and drank some chamomile tea with oregano in it (it sounds weird but it was actually really good. Try it. It’s magic.) and I immediately started to feel better.
Saturday morning was Día de la Familia. It was a really cool event and I really enjoyed watching the performances, but I still felt fairly lousy and was unable to eat any of the hundreds of cakes that the mamas brought for everyone. That’s ok. I contented myself with some rice and pan de yucca. And I had other things to worry about. My stressful sick week was also my last chance to get the swing/tap dance put together. It was a struggle, just like everything else that week. I had to threaten to cancel it a few times just to keep their attention. But when it came down to the performance the dancers did very well. I was soooo proud of them. I have a video of the dance that I’ll try to post. We’ll see if it works. Speaking of that, I know I haven’t put up any pictures in a while but they take even longer than writing so I haven’t found the time. I have bajillions though so maybe when I get home I’ll get them organized and uploaded.
After Día de la Familia festivities I went to Canoa with the other three volunteers, Vladir and his wife Sandra. It’s the classic picture of a South American beach town... lots of thatched roofs, bamboo, palm trees and hammocks. And of course lots of tourists. On Saturday there were probably more gringos there than Ecuadorians. This makes the town seem really out of place and almost artificial. It’s a great place to go for the weekend though, because the beach is big and beautiful and the malecón (seaside) is literally lined with 15 or 20 little salsoteca/bar places that are great for drinking and dancing and hanging out all night. Bahía conversely has the one club that we went to two weeks ago and NO other night life. So in that way it is nice to have Canoa nearby. I could never stand to live there though. While Bahía’s tourist industry is really depressed, Canoa’s tourist industry is really its only industry. Most of the city is bars, hostels, hostels with bars, and shops for buying souvenirs and trinkets made out of shells. If you are in Canoa and you want a bank, a supermarket, or anything else practical you need to come to Bahía. Many of the people who live there are foreigners who have bought up the hostels and bars and hostels with bars. Actually the guy who served us breakfast on Sunday is from Colorado. He came down to Canoa nine months ago for his honeymoon. Liked it. Bought a bar. And now lives there with his wife. I can’t imagine doing that. I think I would get bored pretty quickly in that town. I like to relax but I can only take it for so long before it stops being relaxing and I need a sense of purpose again.
Anyway, Vladir and Sandra came back to Bahía Saturday night. The four of us volunteers stayed in one of the many hostels. THEY HAVE HOT SHOWERS THERE!!!!! I really wanted to go out dancing Saturday night but I was just exhausted even though my stomach was feeling better. I went to bed around 10:30 but the next day Rachel and I decided to stay an extra night so we could go out dancing. Well. It was unbelievable the change that came over Canoa from Saturday to Sunday. Saturday night we had trouble finding a place to stay, the hostels were full and the streets were crowded. Bars with no walls were flashing with colored lights. They were blasting all different kinds of music trying to compete with other wall-less huts just a few feet away and creating a really cacophonous if lively atmosphere.
Sunday the streets were empty. Absolutely empty except for a few stray dogs and even fewer stray drunks. All of the bars along the malecón were closed. Completely silent and dark. All of the bars off the malecón were closed as well. All the hostels with bars were now just hostels with vacancies and the town was bizarrely quiet. Much quieter than Bahía at night. There was ONE open bar that we found. The Coloradan guy’s bar. There was no dancing there but Rachel and I went in to just hang out for a while and to avoid a drunk guy who was trying to follow us home. It was strange being so completely surrounded by Americans, American music, the English language. It was actually kind of comforting as I had gotten pretty homesick during my tough week. And it was nice for a day to see pancakes, omelettes, and french toast on a breakfast menu. But pretty soon I just felt like, “Wait. I want to go back to Ecuador now. I miss Ecuador.” So we did. Monday morning. We didn’t have classes at Genesis that day because everyone had come in on Saturday for the morning’s events. That is why Rachel and I were able to stay that extra night in Canoa. Alas, we didn’t spend it dancing, but it was fun to hang out on the beach all day and really not to have any obligations or plans for a while. And Rachel is good company.
This week has just flown by. I can’t believe it is already Friday. Monday will be my last day at Genesis. Tuesday I’m going up to Primero de Octubre again to help paint the new classroom, and Wednesday I leave for Guayaquil pretty early in the morning. Dude.
This week has been going much better than the last one though, despite the speed. I feel much better now, my third graders have been well-behaved... relatively, and with the dance performance over my classloads have been a bit lighter everyday. I’m back in my evening dance classes which I missed a lot last week and the other night I actually went down to the beach for a walk and tap danced around the light house for about an hour before bed.
Yesterday I went with Rachel and Kathy and all of our Spanish teachers to the Bahía de Caraquez museum. It was actually really awesome. It’s quite small but very nicely put together and Yajaira was just full of historical information on every single piece in the museum. There is one floor of Ecuadorian art, but there was another power outage just before we got there (the third since I’ve been here) so the art was very difficult to see and therefore not very engaging. Upstairs, on the floor with lots of windows and natural light is an exhibit on the making of the Panama hat. Many people don’t realize that Panama hats are actually very specifically Ecuadorian hats. They are made in a city here in Manabí province called Montecristi. They are called Panama hats because Ecuadorians found that the workers and later the tourists on the canal represented an excellent market and so they went up there to sell the hats. Therefore, for a long time, most Northerners and Europeans who had these hats obtained them in Panama. Anyway the making of the hats is incredibly difficult and laborious work and requires the maker of the hat to be stooped uncomfortably over a stone mold for the majority of the process. One hat can easily take three months to weave. But the result is really beautiful, and the extra fine ones you can fold up and stick in your pocket and when you pull them out again they’ll spring right back into shape.
The other part of the museum I really liked were the rooms and rooms of artifacts from various indigenous tribes of the Manabí area. As I mentioned above, Yajaira’s knowledge of the pottery, weaponry, art and history of all of these different tribes is pretty much encyclopedic. And also the power came back on by the time we got to this part of the museum. For those two reasons, the historical exhibits were really fascinating. Pictures to follow eventually.
Today we were planning to go to Palma Morena again (the club we went to two weeks ago) but I think it’s going to be closed because there is an election this Sunday which means that starting at 12AM tomorrow (midnight tonight) it is illegal for Ecuadorians to consume alcohol. So it looks like we may be hosting a party at the volunteer house instead.
OH YEAH the football game! Or soccer rather. Ecuador beat Argentina this week. I went with the volunteers up to Cerro Seco, an ecological reserve up on the big hill in Bahía, to watch the game with the volunteers there. The head of Cerro Seco is good friends with Vladir so we were all invited. We weren’t told what kind of footwear would be optimal for the trip so we all went in flip-flops and regretted it as we neared the very steep piece of dirt road at the top of the hill. The TV was set up outdoors in a little gazebo-like area with chairs, couch and hammock. Ecuador won 2-0. Fun was had by all. And afterwards we had a little cumbia dance party on the hill. It was a lovely night and we met three of the Cerro Seco volunteers: a very nice couple from Holland and a sweet British girl who was celebrating her birthday that day. We also met a few Ecuadorian university students studying ecology and marine biology who work at the reserve as well.
Gotta go. Spanish class begins. My last one! : (
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Manta and Palma Morena
This is the first of my attempts to write more brief and frequent posts. Easier to write and read. We'll see how it goes.
I went with Paul and Vladir to Manta yesterday. It is a bigger, wealthier city than Bahía about 1.5 hours down the coast. I don't particularly like Manta. It has big American-looking malls, movie theaters, large fancy gated housing developments. It also has American-looking price tags. But at the same time there are a lot of areas downtown that are dirty and rundown and look like some of the poorest parts of Guayaquil. And even the big developed department stores look kind of cheesy and fake. So it seems to have the worst of both worlds... unless you like to play tennis. The tennis club is HUGE and beautiful. We went to the sport shop there because Vladir needed new shoes. He and his daughters are all really into tennis. So he bought new shoes... and then ended up buying a new racket, socks and wristbands. Then we went to the mall to buy a new bathing suit for Vladir's daughter Nina. I don't know what kind of thirteen-year-old girl thinks it's a good idea to send her father out to choose a swimsuit for her but apparently it's the Nina kind. So I picked it out. I hope she likes it. Then we went to the Manta airport to pick up Kathy, a new volunteer from Canada. She seems very nice so far. She is a high school biology teacher in British Columbia about Paul's age.
After we got back from Manta we went out to meet Yajaira, Diego and Karen (who was the English teacher at Genesis before Diego) and the six of us went out to a club called Palma Morena. As I think I mentioned before it is the only night club left in Bahía. But it is a very nice one. It is pretty small but the music is good, the admission is free, the drinks are cheap and the decor is cool. All of the tables are antique treadle sewing machine tables and the walls are covered in art and messages written by customers as well as a lot of antique metal work and various gadgets. And all the tables are lit with candlelight.
We talked all night. In English and Spanish. And I was very pleased with my ability to speak and understand. My progress has been so gradual that it's been hard for me to notice and sometimes I have a really hard time and get discouraged but I definitely think my Spanish has improved. A Lot. I also danced some salsa and merengue with Diego which was great fun. It was cool because he has been my partner/assistant teacher in the swing classes with the kids and I'm used to having to help him with steps but when it came to salsa/merengue I discovered yesterday he can outdance me by a mile. He was very patient though and taught me a lot. Today has been very relaxing. I went swimming on the ocean side of Bahía for the first time today with Paul and Kathy. It was lovely. It's always surprising for me to walk into a warm Pacific Ocean and it's a bit cleaner than the estuary. And also when I went swimming in the estuary last time a fish swam into my suit which was... distressing. So yep. I like the ocean.
That's the last two days. I'll be meeting Rachel probably within the next two hours and then tomorrow it's back to school.
Chau
Tía Kelsey
I went with Paul and Vladir to Manta yesterday. It is a bigger, wealthier city than Bahía about 1.5 hours down the coast. I don't particularly like Manta. It has big American-looking malls, movie theaters, large fancy gated housing developments. It also has American-looking price tags. But at the same time there are a lot of areas downtown that are dirty and rundown and look like some of the poorest parts of Guayaquil. And even the big developed department stores look kind of cheesy and fake. So it seems to have the worst of both worlds... unless you like to play tennis. The tennis club is HUGE and beautiful. We went to the sport shop there because Vladir needed new shoes. He and his daughters are all really into tennis. So he bought new shoes... and then ended up buying a new racket, socks and wristbands. Then we went to the mall to buy a new bathing suit for Vladir's daughter Nina. I don't know what kind of thirteen-year-old girl thinks it's a good idea to send her father out to choose a swimsuit for her but apparently it's the Nina kind. So I picked it out. I hope she likes it. Then we went to the Manta airport to pick up Kathy, a new volunteer from Canada. She seems very nice so far. She is a high school biology teacher in British Columbia about Paul's age.
After we got back from Manta we went out to meet Yajaira, Diego and Karen (who was the English teacher at Genesis before Diego) and the six of us went out to a club called Palma Morena. As I think I mentioned before it is the only night club left in Bahía. But it is a very nice one. It is pretty small but the music is good, the admission is free, the drinks are cheap and the decor is cool. All of the tables are antique treadle sewing machine tables and the walls are covered in art and messages written by customers as well as a lot of antique metal work and various gadgets. And all the tables are lit with candlelight.
We talked all night. In English and Spanish. And I was very pleased with my ability to speak and understand. My progress has been so gradual that it's been hard for me to notice and sometimes I have a really hard time and get discouraged but I definitely think my Spanish has improved. A Lot. I also danced some salsa and merengue with Diego which was great fun. It was cool because he has been my partner/assistant teacher in the swing classes with the kids and I'm used to having to help him with steps but when it came to salsa/merengue I discovered yesterday he can outdance me by a mile. He was very patient though and taught me a lot. Today has been very relaxing. I went swimming on the ocean side of Bahía for the first time today with Paul and Kathy. It was lovely. It's always surprising for me to walk into a warm Pacific Ocean and it's a bit cleaner than the estuary. And also when I went swimming in the estuary last time a fish swam into my suit which was... distressing. So yep. I like the ocean.
That's the last two days. I'll be meeting Rachel probably within the next two hours and then tomorrow it's back to school.
Chau
Tía Kelsey
Friday, May 29, 2009
Two weeks already. Yikes!
Wow I've been busy. There's so much to cover now. Classes have been going quite well. I'm keeping very busy. Wake up. School. Lunch. Spanish class. 1.5 hours of free time. Dinner. Dance Class. Necessary prep for school tomorrow. Crash. AND AGAIN.
But today is Friday :D
So the events of the last two weeks...
School
I'm working with the sixth and seventh graders on a dance for Día de la Familia. It is sort of a combination of tap and swing and charleston set to the Entr'acte from the Hot Mikado. It is pretty short but pretty tricky and they're doing a great job. The partner bit was tough for a while but it is getting better. I told them that anyone who didn't want to do it didn't have to and that would be totally fine with me... but when their parents came to see the show and asked them why they were standing around in the back for half the dance they would have to tell them that they were too little to dance with a girl/boy without crying about it. This little pride blow worked shockingly well on the boys. The girls weren't buying it so much but enough of them fell in line that I've now got five couples.
Meanwhile I'm teaching Skinamarinkydinkydink to the 2nd graders. They are SO cute. Especially when singing that ridiculous song. Then the fourth and fifth graders both have songs about oceans and trees and flowers and butterflies and taking care of the Earth. Those songs are sweet but the kids don't like them so much because they are wordier and harder. The little ones however are really into their song, especially the arm motions that go along with it.
Día de la Familia isn't a real holiday but it is the school's way of celebrating Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Child's Day (which I think we could use in the U.S.) all at once. Apparently they used to celebrate them each separately in school but some kids' parents would have to work and couldn't make it and the kids would cry etc. So this is on a Saturday (a week from tomorrow) and there will be performances by students, parents and teachers alike. It should be a great event. I'm excited.
Primero de Octubre
Primero de Octubre is a little public school up in the mountains just east of Bahía. From where I'm living it's a 40-minute bus ride and a 2.5 mile walk over hill and dale in the Ecuadorian sun. It is really and truly out in the middle of nowhere. The only way you know to tell the bus driver to let you off is when you see a patch of mountainside that turns from greenish to brownish for about two seconds. Then if there is a sign across the road made out of a tire on a pole you know you're in the right place and you can begin your hike up the mountain. It's an adventure just getting there.
Before the Genesis Foundation and Children of Ecuador Organization started funding it, it consisted of one classroom and some holes for toilets. Now it has a bathroom, a kitchen, and three classrooms divided roughly by age. The oldest seventh graders are 16 and17 years old. Most of the kids walk to school from two or more miles away and some ride in on horses and donkeys. It's quite a change from Genesis. I'm not teaching there regularly but Paul goes to Primero twice a week. I went last Friday with Paul, Sandra (Vladir's wife and Director of Genesis School), and Francisco who is an education evaluator employed by the municipal government. He's a really great guy and a very charismatic teacher but he did NOT enjoy the hike at all. He all but fainted when we finally got to the school. I observed some classes and then they served us a delicious, classic, Ecuadorian lunch of rice, beans, chicken, and fried plantains. I'll be going back to Primero de Octubre a couple of times over the next two weeks to help build and paint one of the unfinished classrooms.
San Clemente
The day after we went to Primero, Vladir took Paul and me to San Clemente, a little beach town about an hour away by bus. The beach in San Clemente is much bigger and better for swimming in than the beach here. We left Bahía around 10AM and spent most of the day on the beach swimming and playing frisbee and getting burnt (nope that was just me). Around 3:00 we went to a little restaurant/bar owned by a friend of Vladir's. The bar-owner is a German guy named Meyer but he has been living in Ecuador for years and has an Ecuadorian wife. At the bar we met up with a few more of Vladir's friends, had lunch and hung out until about 9PM. Everyone but me drank a lot of beer. I stuck with my orange soda and water for the most part but eventually Vladir made me try some of Meyer's homemade aguardiente. It's a type of hard alcohol, similar to rum, made from sugar cane and flavored with fruit. Actually in theory it sounds kind of nice and as straight alcoholic drinks go it wasn't too bad, but to me it still tasted more like vomit than anything else.
Oh and also at the bar I got stung by a really evil-looking little caterpillar guy. It was on the leg of the table where we were sitting and when I brushed it with my ankle it poisoned me with its little spines. It isn't dangerous though. Just hurts like a bee sting for a little while. Bummer. So from San Clemente I brought back a renewed dislike of alcoholic beverages, a little bit of gusanito poison and a massive sunburn. But all-in-all it was a very very fun day.
In Other News
Life is seeming pretty normal. I've been feeling really well and really happy but I'm still missing home from time to time. I saw a rare gringo wearing a Cal Golden Bears tshirt when I was walking with my Spanish professor one day. It turns out he's from Berkeley so it was cool to meet someone from home. I've been very readily nostalgic everytime I see signs of California or the U.S. Even things I never particularly liked like the final song in Grease become very endearing when they unexpectedly show up down here. Oh yeah I also went to see a group of 5 guitarists from Quito play at the museum last week. I went with Paul, Yajaira(my Spanish teacher), Mariuxi (Paul´s Spanish teacher), and Diego (the Genesis English teacher). Tomorrow night I´m going out with the same group to Palma Morena, the only nightclub still open in Bahía. They've all closed as people here have less and less money to spend on going out. Bahía isn't doing too well these days. There are more taxis than there are people almost and everything is pretty easily accessible by foot or bus anyway. If people aren't taxi drivers they are probably selling ice cream, jewelry, or little pastries on the street. Which other people still generally can't afford and don't really need. All of the big apartment buildings that you can see in photos of the city are owned by rich people from Quito (the capital) who only use them in July and August for vacation. So they are abandoned for most of the year. This town needs some major booster shots to its industry and infrastructure if it wants to reverse this downward spiral into obscurity. And speaking of that I heard the other side of the story about the ban on the New Year Parade that I mentioned in my previous post. Apparently it didn't have so much to do with complaining tourists as the public health hazard of having a massive street party with no public restrooms, lifeguards on the beach, or other safety measures that the city doesn't have the resources to provide. That all makes more sense now. But like I said, it is a downward spiral because the more Bahía loses its nightclubs and street parties, the less attractive it is to tourists and rich vacationers and this town can't afford to be losing any sources of income.
But on the other hand education is improving and there are a lot of energetic people like Vladir and the Planet Drum guys who have ideas for getting this city back on its feet. The Genesis Foundation's next project is to build a professional institute to educate and train Bahía's citizens for jobs more lucrative and fulfilling than streetvending. So there is hope for this little city that I'm growing to love more and more everyday.
Oh and we have two new volunteers coming in tomorrow. One is from the US and she is roughly my age. And the other is from Canada and she is roughly Paul's age. So that's exciting. But I must be off now. People to see. Things to do. 'Til Later.
Tía Kelsey
But today is Friday :D
So the events of the last two weeks...
School
I'm working with the sixth and seventh graders on a dance for Día de la Familia. It is sort of a combination of tap and swing and charleston set to the Entr'acte from the Hot Mikado. It is pretty short but pretty tricky and they're doing a great job. The partner bit was tough for a while but it is getting better. I told them that anyone who didn't want to do it didn't have to and that would be totally fine with me... but when their parents came to see the show and asked them why they were standing around in the back for half the dance they would have to tell them that they were too little to dance with a girl/boy without crying about it. This little pride blow worked shockingly well on the boys. The girls weren't buying it so much but enough of them fell in line that I've now got five couples.
Meanwhile I'm teaching Skinamarinkydinkydink to the 2nd graders. They are SO cute. Especially when singing that ridiculous song. Then the fourth and fifth graders both have songs about oceans and trees and flowers and butterflies and taking care of the Earth. Those songs are sweet but the kids don't like them so much because they are wordier and harder. The little ones however are really into their song, especially the arm motions that go along with it.
Día de la Familia isn't a real holiday but it is the school's way of celebrating Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Child's Day (which I think we could use in the U.S.) all at once. Apparently they used to celebrate them each separately in school but some kids' parents would have to work and couldn't make it and the kids would cry etc. So this is on a Saturday (a week from tomorrow) and there will be performances by students, parents and teachers alike. It should be a great event. I'm excited.
Primero de Octubre
Primero de Octubre is a little public school up in the mountains just east of Bahía. From where I'm living it's a 40-minute bus ride and a 2.5 mile walk over hill and dale in the Ecuadorian sun. It is really and truly out in the middle of nowhere. The only way you know to tell the bus driver to let you off is when you see a patch of mountainside that turns from greenish to brownish for about two seconds. Then if there is a sign across the road made out of a tire on a pole you know you're in the right place and you can begin your hike up the mountain. It's an adventure just getting there.
Before the Genesis Foundation and Children of Ecuador Organization started funding it, it consisted of one classroom and some holes for toilets. Now it has a bathroom, a kitchen, and three classrooms divided roughly by age. The oldest seventh graders are 16 and17 years old. Most of the kids walk to school from two or more miles away and some ride in on horses and donkeys. It's quite a change from Genesis. I'm not teaching there regularly but Paul goes to Primero twice a week. I went last Friday with Paul, Sandra (Vladir's wife and Director of Genesis School), and Francisco who is an education evaluator employed by the municipal government. He's a really great guy and a very charismatic teacher but he did NOT enjoy the hike at all. He all but fainted when we finally got to the school. I observed some classes and then they served us a delicious, classic, Ecuadorian lunch of rice, beans, chicken, and fried plantains. I'll be going back to Primero de Octubre a couple of times over the next two weeks to help build and paint one of the unfinished classrooms.
San Clemente
The day after we went to Primero, Vladir took Paul and me to San Clemente, a little beach town about an hour away by bus. The beach in San Clemente is much bigger and better for swimming in than the beach here. We left Bahía around 10AM and spent most of the day on the beach swimming and playing frisbee and getting burnt (nope that was just me). Around 3:00 we went to a little restaurant/bar owned by a friend of Vladir's. The bar-owner is a German guy named Meyer but he has been living in Ecuador for years and has an Ecuadorian wife. At the bar we met up with a few more of Vladir's friends, had lunch and hung out until about 9PM. Everyone but me drank a lot of beer. I stuck with my orange soda and water for the most part but eventually Vladir made me try some of Meyer's homemade aguardiente. It's a type of hard alcohol, similar to rum, made from sugar cane and flavored with fruit. Actually in theory it sounds kind of nice and as straight alcoholic drinks go it wasn't too bad, but to me it still tasted more like vomit than anything else.
Oh and also at the bar I got stung by a really evil-looking little caterpillar guy. It was on the leg of the table where we were sitting and when I brushed it with my ankle it poisoned me with its little spines. It isn't dangerous though. Just hurts like a bee sting for a little while. Bummer. So from San Clemente I brought back a renewed dislike of alcoholic beverages, a little bit of gusanito poison and a massive sunburn. But all-in-all it was a very very fun day.
In Other News
Life is seeming pretty normal. I've been feeling really well and really happy but I'm still missing home from time to time. I saw a rare gringo wearing a Cal Golden Bears tshirt when I was walking with my Spanish professor one day. It turns out he's from Berkeley so it was cool to meet someone from home. I've been very readily nostalgic everytime I see signs of California or the U.S. Even things I never particularly liked like the final song in Grease become very endearing when they unexpectedly show up down here. Oh yeah I also went to see a group of 5 guitarists from Quito play at the museum last week. I went with Paul, Yajaira(my Spanish teacher), Mariuxi (Paul´s Spanish teacher), and Diego (the Genesis English teacher). Tomorrow night I´m going out with the same group to Palma Morena, the only nightclub still open in Bahía. They've all closed as people here have less and less money to spend on going out. Bahía isn't doing too well these days. There are more taxis than there are people almost and everything is pretty easily accessible by foot or bus anyway. If people aren't taxi drivers they are probably selling ice cream, jewelry, or little pastries on the street. Which other people still generally can't afford and don't really need. All of the big apartment buildings that you can see in photos of the city are owned by rich people from Quito (the capital) who only use them in July and August for vacation. So they are abandoned for most of the year. This town needs some major booster shots to its industry and infrastructure if it wants to reverse this downward spiral into obscurity. And speaking of that I heard the other side of the story about the ban on the New Year Parade that I mentioned in my previous post. Apparently it didn't have so much to do with complaining tourists as the public health hazard of having a massive street party with no public restrooms, lifeguards on the beach, or other safety measures that the city doesn't have the resources to provide. That all makes more sense now. But like I said, it is a downward spiral because the more Bahía loses its nightclubs and street parties, the less attractive it is to tourists and rich vacationers and this town can't afford to be losing any sources of income.
But on the other hand education is improving and there are a lot of energetic people like Vladir and the Planet Drum guys who have ideas for getting this city back on its feet. The Genesis Foundation's next project is to build a professional institute to educate and train Bahía's citizens for jobs more lucrative and fulfilling than streetvending. So there is hope for this little city that I'm growing to love more and more everyday.
Oh and we have two new volunteers coming in tomorrow. One is from the US and she is roughly my age. And the other is from Canada and she is roughly Paul's age. So that's exciting. But I must be off now. People to see. Things to do. 'Til Later.
Tía Kelsey
Saturday, May 16, 2009
¡Bahía de Caraquez!
WOW. Again. It’s been an apt way to start posts so far it seems. I haven’t even been here two days yet and it feels like it’s been a week. Where to begin... my arrival I suppose. It was a long busride, about 5 hours but the trip was smooth and I had a lot of legroom and got some sleep along the way. Between dozes I saw a lot of the Ecuadorean countryside and a few more cities in detail as we drove through them. Jipijapi, Portoviejo, and some others with apparently less memorable names. There was one village that was really tiny, just a cluster of shacks and fields, not much going on, but there was a HUGE sculpture, maybe 20 feet tall or more, of an ear of corn. I don’t know what it was made of but it was covered entirely with tiny pieces of mosaic tiles in different colors of orange, yellow, green, etc. It was totally mind-blowing and within seconds it was gone, WHOOSH. That describes a lot of things so far this trip, including the city of Guayaquil. However I’ll be fine taking some time away from that city... especially since now I’m in Bahía de Caraquez, which hopefully won’t whoosh by too quickly in the next 30-some days.
The City: Bahía is a peninsula at the convergence of an estuary and the Pacific Ocean, very much like San Francisco in that way. It is pretty poor but very clean compared to the other Ecuadorean cities I’ve seen, urban-looking but quiet and tiny. I think it is probably about the size of Santa Venetia. Or as a more general point of reference, the perimeter is very easily walkable within an hour. The city was declared an Eco-Ciudad/Eco-City some time in the nineties as part of a joint effort between the mayor at the time and an American organization called Planet Drum to begin a movement toward environmental sustainability. City-wide eco-education programs, eco-taxi systems (big tricycles with extra seats) and separated compost and garbage collection were all instated as part of the plan. But over the last five years a lot of these programs have lost their drive with the new mayor who seems much less interested in the whole project. He apparently also set up a 10 o clock curfew for New Year’s Eve due to complaints from tourists that they were tired and the traditional city-wide street party was too loud. I find it hard to imagine tourists saying that or any mayor doing that, but so said my Spanish teacher and she’s lived here most of her life. The mayor just got reelected three weeks ago for the next 5 years.
The House: I’m staying in a house that’s much more modest than the B&B I was at in Guayaquil. There is a squeaky choir of bats in permanent residence inside the roof and a cold shower that will give you electric shocks if you aren’t careful, but my bedroom has windows in three of it’s walls, one of which looks out on the beach a block away... so I’m not complaining. I live with an Irishman named Paul. He’s has been volunteering here a month already. He’s pretty easygoing. We get along quite well. We live next door to Sandra the director of Genesis School, and her husband Vladir the director of the volunteer program. They have two daughters who will be some of my students at the school. Across the street is Marta’s house. She is an amazing gregarious lady who feeds us delicious lunch and dinner everyday. She has two granddaughters who I believe attend Genesis on scholarships based on her agreement to feed the volunteers. I’ll be teaching both of them too.
The School: Unidad Educativa Genesis is a private school on the outskirts of Bahía. It’s a short walk and an 18 cent busride away. It’s beautiful. I’ll have to get some pictures of it soon. The walls are very colorfully painted and there are murals around the playground, and each child in the school has a potted plant that he or she is personally responsible for maintaining. The school is among the first in Ecuador to teach ecological awareness, recycling, conservation, etc. as part of the city’s Eco-city movement. The classes are Pre-K through Seventh and they’re planning to add on an eighth grade next year. I’m going to be the primary English teacher for the second and third graders, teacher of Math in English to the fifth graders, assistant English teacher to the 4th graders and once a week I’m teaching a tap class to the fifth through seventh graders as part of the PE program. I’m also helping to organize the English section of the kids’ presentation to their parents on Día de la Familia, June 6th. I work with Diego, the resident English teacher. He is very enthusiastic and receptive of ideas and suggestions. His English isn’t perfect but he is eager to perfect it and his class management skills and relationship with the kids are excellent. So we work well together.
The Kids: Are Amazing. Just so amazing. They are energetic as elementary schoolers are apt to be, but for the most part they are focused and interested and excited to learn. They call all of their teachers Tía and Tío (or aunt and uncle) I’m Tía Kelsey. They seem very interested in my foreign-ness and they already seem to trust me and respect me as an authority figure. They like to play Simon Says with Diego and they totally love the Hokey Pokey. I taught that to the second and fourth grades today and we had a lot of fun.
Life: School goes from about 7AM to 1:30PM every day. Afterwards I go to Marta’s for lunch and then meet Tía Yajaira (5th grade general teacher and my Spanish teacher) for my Spanish lesson. Friday we walked around the city for two hours and she asked me about America and my life and my family and told me about hers as well as some Ecuadorean and Bahían history. She’s a sweet and interesting lady and working with her two hours a day for the next month is looking like it will improve my Spanish quite a bit. After my lesson I went home for a little while, got dinner at Marta’s and then went with Sandra to her dance class. It’s a combination of different styles of latin dance, salsa, merengue, regueton... taught more like a cardio workout than a dance class by this very charismatic gay Ecuadorean guy who can move his hips better than any of the women in the class and seems to have a two-year-old’s lack of inhibitions and endless supply of energy. The class is very very fun but very exhausting. There are a few places around town to go dancing at night and several more in some nearby cities. I’ll probably do a little bit more exploring on weekends to come but right now I’ve got plenty to explore here in Bahía and plenty of work to do before Monday’s classes. Hasta luego.
Tía Kelsey
The City: Bahía is a peninsula at the convergence of an estuary and the Pacific Ocean, very much like San Francisco in that way. It is pretty poor but very clean compared to the other Ecuadorean cities I’ve seen, urban-looking but quiet and tiny. I think it is probably about the size of Santa Venetia. Or as a more general point of reference, the perimeter is very easily walkable within an hour. The city was declared an Eco-Ciudad/Eco-City some time in the nineties as part of a joint effort between the mayor at the time and an American organization called Planet Drum to begin a movement toward environmental sustainability. City-wide eco-education programs, eco-taxi systems (big tricycles with extra seats) and separated compost and garbage collection were all instated as part of the plan. But over the last five years a lot of these programs have lost their drive with the new mayor who seems much less interested in the whole project. He apparently also set up a 10 o clock curfew for New Year’s Eve due to complaints from tourists that they were tired and the traditional city-wide street party was too loud. I find it hard to imagine tourists saying that or any mayor doing that, but so said my Spanish teacher and she’s lived here most of her life. The mayor just got reelected three weeks ago for the next 5 years.
The House: I’m staying in a house that’s much more modest than the B&B I was at in Guayaquil. There is a squeaky choir of bats in permanent residence inside the roof and a cold shower that will give you electric shocks if you aren’t careful, but my bedroom has windows in three of it’s walls, one of which looks out on the beach a block away... so I’m not complaining. I live with an Irishman named Paul. He’s has been volunteering here a month already. He’s pretty easygoing. We get along quite well. We live next door to Sandra the director of Genesis School, and her husband Vladir the director of the volunteer program. They have two daughters who will be some of my students at the school. Across the street is Marta’s house. She is an amazing gregarious lady who feeds us delicious lunch and dinner everyday. She has two granddaughters who I believe attend Genesis on scholarships based on her agreement to feed the volunteers. I’ll be teaching both of them too.
The School: Unidad Educativa Genesis is a private school on the outskirts of Bahía. It’s a short walk and an 18 cent busride away. It’s beautiful. I’ll have to get some pictures of it soon. The walls are very colorfully painted and there are murals around the playground, and each child in the school has a potted plant that he or she is personally responsible for maintaining. The school is among the first in Ecuador to teach ecological awareness, recycling, conservation, etc. as part of the city’s Eco-city movement. The classes are Pre-K through Seventh and they’re planning to add on an eighth grade next year. I’m going to be the primary English teacher for the second and third graders, teacher of Math in English to the fifth graders, assistant English teacher to the 4th graders and once a week I’m teaching a tap class to the fifth through seventh graders as part of the PE program. I’m also helping to organize the English section of the kids’ presentation to their parents on Día de la Familia, June 6th. I work with Diego, the resident English teacher. He is very enthusiastic and receptive of ideas and suggestions. His English isn’t perfect but he is eager to perfect it and his class management skills and relationship with the kids are excellent. So we work well together.
The Kids: Are Amazing. Just so amazing. They are energetic as elementary schoolers are apt to be, but for the most part they are focused and interested and excited to learn. They call all of their teachers Tía and Tío (or aunt and uncle) I’m Tía Kelsey. They seem very interested in my foreign-ness and they already seem to trust me and respect me as an authority figure. They like to play Simon Says with Diego and they totally love the Hokey Pokey. I taught that to the second and fourth grades today and we had a lot of fun.
Life: School goes from about 7AM to 1:30PM every day. Afterwards I go to Marta’s for lunch and then meet Tía Yajaira (5th grade general teacher and my Spanish teacher) for my Spanish lesson. Friday we walked around the city for two hours and she asked me about America and my life and my family and told me about hers as well as some Ecuadorean and Bahían history. She’s a sweet and interesting lady and working with her two hours a day for the next month is looking like it will improve my Spanish quite a bit. After my lesson I went home for a little while, got dinner at Marta’s and then went with Sandra to her dance class. It’s a combination of different styles of latin dance, salsa, merengue, regueton... taught more like a cardio workout than a dance class by this very charismatic gay Ecuadorean guy who can move his hips better than any of the women in the class and seems to have a two-year-old’s lack of inhibitions and endless supply of energy. The class is very very fun but very exhausting. There are a few places around town to go dancing at night and several more in some nearby cities. I’ll probably do a little bit more exploring on weekends to come but right now I’ve got plenty to explore here in Bahía and plenty of work to do before Monday’s classes. Hasta luego.
Tía Kelsey
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Fotos de Guayaquil
Go to the Photobucket Album and click on the Slideshow link to see them in order with titles.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Day 1 - Guayaquil
Wow. What a day. I left Jill in LA around 2:00 this morning and flew to San Jose, Costa Rica, Quito (the capital of Ecuador) and then Guayaquil (Ecuador's largest city.) I'm here in Guayaquil at a lovely Bed & Breakfast place run by a really sweet Ecuadorean lady and her family. I arrived at 4pm and have been running around like crazy ever since. Really. Ellen, my host, gave me some maps and told me about some parks and monuments and gardens etc. I should see and told me how to get there. So I set out. It turned out not to be as easy a sightseeing adventure as I'd anticipated. It was certainly an adventure though. I got soooo lost. The bus system here is very confusing and my rusty Spanish wasn't helping me too much with sorting it out. So I got off at a few wrong stops. Some too early, some too late, some completely outside the actual city of Guayaquil. But I made it back and I'm still alive and well so that's what counts I suppose. And in the process I saw a lot of parts of Guayaquil that I'd never have seen if I knew what I was doing.
The city reminds me a lot of New York actually. Big, loud, insanely fast-paced and totally energizing and fun or stressful and terrifying depending on your mood. My mood changed a bit throughout the day so I got to experience both sides : ) It's even structured similar to New York with it's avenidas running one way and calles running perpendicular and it's very own brown river! And the traffic makes Manhattan look like a suburb. There are no lines on the road. It's an absolute free-for-all. The buses usually stop for women and children but for able-bodied men they pretty much just slow down. I knew the buses would be an adventure when I asked Ellen where the bus stops on her street and she said (paraphrased translation) "Oh, anywhere along here really. That tree is usually good."
The other thing I've noticed about the city, again like NYC, it has a reputation for being very impersonal and dangerous. The big city, muggers at every turn, anyone who can will screw you over, try not to look like a tourist. The literature from the hospital had a long packet of precautions to take, places to avoid, and it's not that that's bad advice. It's important to be aware and on your guard and to avoid situations where people can take advantage of you but the people in the city are just people and the city is just a city. This seems painfully obvious now that I'm writing it, but it really struck me. Other than the language shift, which is definitely difficult, especially since Ecuadorians tend to pronounce Ss like Hs (Son treh ehcuelah en ehta ciudad...that's not a real statihtic but you get the point) WOW that was a massive digression. Anywhom... other than the language shift, not much adjustment is needed to understand this place. People are generally nice and happy to help. And even when I was at my most lost and completely vulnerable and tired and low on options and in the middle of a "sketchy" neighborhood three strangers helped me out and got me safely back to my house despite my inability to provide them with useful directions or a clear statement of the problem.
Well that was a longer post than I'd anticipated. Pictures will be up soon but not tonight. I'm exhausted. PEACE.
The city reminds me a lot of New York actually. Big, loud, insanely fast-paced and totally energizing and fun or stressful and terrifying depending on your mood. My mood changed a bit throughout the day so I got to experience both sides : ) It's even structured similar to New York with it's avenidas running one way and calles running perpendicular and it's very own brown river! And the traffic makes Manhattan look like a suburb. There are no lines on the road. It's an absolute free-for-all. The buses usually stop for women and children but for able-bodied men they pretty much just slow down. I knew the buses would be an adventure when I asked Ellen where the bus stops on her street and she said (paraphrased translation) "Oh, anywhere along here really. That tree is usually good."
The other thing I've noticed about the city, again like NYC, it has a reputation for being very impersonal and dangerous. The big city, muggers at every turn, anyone who can will screw you over, try not to look like a tourist. The literature from the hospital had a long packet of precautions to take, places to avoid, and it's not that that's bad advice. It's important to be aware and on your guard and to avoid situations where people can take advantage of you but the people in the city are just people and the city is just a city. This seems painfully obvious now that I'm writing it, but it really struck me. Other than the language shift, which is definitely difficult, especially since Ecuadorians tend to pronounce Ss like Hs (Son treh ehcuelah en ehta ciudad...that's not a real statihtic but you get the point) WOW that was a massive digression. Anywhom... other than the language shift, not much adjustment is needed to understand this place. People are generally nice and happy to help. And even when I was at my most lost and completely vulnerable and tired and low on options and in the middle of a "sketchy" neighborhood three strangers helped me out and got me safely back to my house despite my inability to provide them with useful directions or a clear statement of the problem.
Well that was a longer post than I'd anticipated. Pictures will be up soon but not tonight. I'm exhausted. PEACE.
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