Goodness, I've been neglecting this. It's been a super busy three weeks since I moved to Quito, and although I actually have internet in my house (well, primarily my bathroom) and have tons to talk about, I just never got up the energy to write this. Here goes before I fall even more behind...
So I finally moved in with host family #2 in Quito. I have a teeny tiny bed and a bathroom that's pretty much my own and gets the best wi-fi in the house in a good-sized house in the northern part of Quito (Sector Los Laureles: De los Pepinos y de los Mortiños = streets of the cucumbers and of the blueberries). The family is really nice on the whole, but my greatest issue is that I'm constantly compared to their previous exchange student. Basically Gina was really great and really perfect and I rarely seem to live up to her. This, along with a few other things kind of threw me into a funk for my first little while in Quito. After crazy miscommunication and transportation problems and a small nervous breakdown and my brother telling me how awesome Gina was on my very first day of classes, I was obviously not in the best place. That, combined with Quito's raininess and how cold my house is, didn't do great things for my morale.
Generally, though, I really enjoy Quito. We have two lectures every morning by Ecuadorian bigshots in their respective fields who come tell us (in Spanish) what the very basics that gringos need to know to better understand Ecuador. Although I feel like I've learned a lot, I also feel like I actually know very little about any one subject and that I only have more questions than answers. In the afternoons, I either come home and do massive amounts of reading or explore other parts of the city and go to museums or shopping. Highlights include: the Guayasamin museum, el centro historico, el mercado artesanal, a soccer game, and lots of ice cream. Also, this family is extremely supportive of my going out at night (Gina never came back until 3am because she loved to dance and was super fun, and I must be lame and conservative if I come back before then), so I'm actually able to hang out with my friends. What power there is in having my own key to the house! After my spirits finally rose and I earned respect from the fam by going dancing on a Tuesday night for my friend's birthday, it was time to leave for the final excursion to the coast!
We flew to Guayaquil on Wednesday morning on what was perhaps the most frightening flying experience I've ever had. The plane had major problems maintaining internal temperature and pressure, and there were some scary moments involving intense inner ear pain and a cabin full of translucent cloud-like gas. After the longest 45 minute flight ever, we arrived in Guayaquil, dashed off to the hotel, and then went to the Malecon 2000 for lunch. Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador and the country's economic hub, but is also known for its crime, heightened machismo, and not being particularly attractive to tourists. In 2000 they redid the whole boardwalk along the river to represent Guayaquil's place in the modern world (complete with IMAX theater). We then went to a modern/precolombian art museum, which had the most amazing archeological pieces I've probably ever seen. Ecuador is basically the birthplace of South American civilization, and these groups produced tons of seriously mind blowing ceramic pieces. Cut to a visit to a park full of iguanas, a nap at the hotel, a quick talk on Guayaquil validating Ecuador's most human rights abusive president, the most delicious shwarma that has ever been tasted, climbing 444 steps to reach a lighthouse at the top of the hill, sleeping, and a giant living history museum/zoo on Thursday morning.
After leaving Guayaquil on Thursday, we drove up the coast for a few hours, stopping for some ridiculously good ceviche and a beach, before reaching our village stays. We were divided into groups of two, each with our own pueblo to stay in for 5 days to study life. I was paired with my friend Amanda, and we went to Palmar, a town of about 1000 right on the beach. There was a briefly really awkward moment where we wandered aimlessly through the town trying to find our host family near the church and drew tons of unnecessary attention with our big backpacks and jugs of water. We found our family soon after, Sandra, her husband Danilo, and their children Danilo (18, who ignored us the entire time and never once spoke a single word), Carolina (16, carries much of the responsibility in the family and wants to be a doctor), Gema (8) and Anabella (6). They all live together in a small house with a living room, two bedrooms, an attached kitchen and a bathroom without running water in an outbuilding in the yard, and the rest of the family lives on a compound right near them. I don't think I can adequately express our experiences, but I'll try to sum up the most active and interesting: Amanda and I were the guests of honor at an intercommunity cultural festival and sat with the judges and got a shout-out from the emcee; I saw/heard 12 chickens being slaughtered; one day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner we had gigantic plates of chicken and rice, amounting to a conservative estimate of about 10-12 cups of rice consumed that day; our family gave us a bunch of shells after our trip to the beach, but 12 of them turned out to be hermit crabs that took over our room; the rest of the time basically consisted of us playing with the children, wandering around town, buying ice cream, sitting in hammocks, being completely exhausted all the time, and being super ostentatious in this tiny pueblo. These few days were probably the most influential experience I've had thus far in Ecuador - while I think I'm changing in certain ways all the time, it's made me rethink the ways in which I view poverty, generosity, family, and community.
In complete contrast with our time in Palmar, we rejoined the group on Monday afternoon in Alandaluz, an absolutely amazing eco-lodge on the ocean in Manabi that's essentially recreated the environment that once was. With our cute cabins, running water, normal portions of food, and the return to life as part of a group of 23, it was a huge transition but one that was certainly appreciated. As always, we "processed" our experiences in the evening with the group (essentially a cross between academic discussion and group therapy) before relaxing for the rest of the evening. Tuesday was spent swimming in the ocean practically all day and enjoying the opportunity to rest before real life here picks up again, with the exception of my ISP meeting, which I'll elaborate on in a moment. In the evening, we were finally able to have our "big-ass bonfire", as Faba says, a huge, hot, bamboo fire where we all sat around having lovely conversations and warming ourselves after our quick swim. At times like those, I love to think about what I would be doing at Whitman on an average Tuesday night and be grateful for these amazing experiences. Wednesday was our final day and after swimming all morning (and accidentally falling asleep on the beach, getting what is probably one of my top 3 worst sunburns ever) and visiting the bamboo church in nearby Puerto Rico, we all got back on the bus to go to the Manta airport. Suddenly, myself and many others all began to feel sick, and between the bumpy bus ride and the tiny plane, it wasn't the greatest afternoon.
I've now been back in Quito for two days. We had the day off from classes yesterday to reacclimate to the altitude and work on our two papers that were due today. Between my unhappy stomach and my profoundly bad sunburn, I spent most of the day in bed. Sad transition, but better here than at the ocean, I suppose. My stomach at least is feeling generally better today, so my family can stop worrying that I have a parasite (Gina came back from the coast with a parasite and was just so very sick!). After some pretty nonacademic class this morning (highlight: 20 minute lecture from a famous painter before giving us 30 minutes to buy his work), I made a run to the artisan market and I'm starting to think about all the gifts I'm going to have to eventually buy for my friends (and obviously, myself). I'm leaving for the city of Baños bright and early tomorrow morning and staying there until Sunday with my friends to hike, go to the baths, ride horses, and generally adventure. It's pretty much the beautiful, outdoorsy, "alternative gringo" place to go in Ecuador, and I'm excited for the weekend.
Now back to the ISP (Independent Study Project)... I finally know what I'm doing! I leave a week from tomorrow to move in with a new family in the indigenous pueblo of Salazaca (30 min from each Ambato y Baños) to learn to weave with them, and probably also learn Quechua seeing as they're native Quechua speakers, and we'll both be speaking Spanish as a second language. It seems like a super interesting community with a really strong indigenous identity (the Salazacas were moved by the Incas from Bolivia during the mitamayas to Ecuador where they have become the most popular weavers around), and I'm really excited, in a nervous and anxious kind of way, to get started!
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