Weeks 2 & 3

Alright, so I decided to put weeks 2 and 3 together so I could catch up on my weekly blogs so inherently it's going to be another long blog. If you have a problem with that get over it because you can’t do anything about it J

I will start off with my living situation. The end of week 2 marked our move to our house in Conocoto and the end of my home stay. I was actually a bit sad to move out. My host family was amazing and I will definitely miss Alexandria and Daisi, I had a lot of fun with them. Enough with the sappy nonsense and now on to our house in Conocoto. It’s a huge PINK stucco house filled with 16 people, awesome. Things are a bit crowded at the moment but the old PD’s (program directors) are trickling out of the house one by one. By August 7^th we will have the house to ourselves which is definitely bitter sweet. Right now they have all 9 of us new PD’s (program directors, remember) crammed into a 3 bedroom apartment which we have access to via a makeshift hobbit doorway on the roof.

Now onto work. We have mucho mucho meetings to solidify our organizational roles and program responsibilities. They have been very helpful in determining our responsibilities and goals. Nothing is set in stone as of yet but I believe I will be working with our micro-finance program, children’s art (stepping outside of my box there), possibly healthy cooking class, and I will have a role within our agriculture program. As far as organizational roles go (meaning roles to help MPIE internally run efficiently and effectively) I will be helping with grant writing, which I am very excited about, as well as in-kind donor relations. For example I will be updating our wish list to reflect our program needs as well as recording in-kind donations (non-monetary donations, so specific items programs need) and sending out thank you letters.

Sweet, things are finally falling into place. But it hasn’t all been about work these past two weeks. First let us talk about the food. If you know me well you can attest to how adventurous I am with food. It just so happens that right outside of my home stay resides a park, and in that park is a street food market with a fantastic array of Ecuadorian food. What did I eat from there; well I’ll tell you but don’t get squeamish. Let me just start off with saying that grilled cow intestines are amazing. Great flavor if they are prepared correctly with the consistency of calamari. The most interesting dish I tried comes in the form of a soup. The official name is soupa de treinta y uno. It starts off quite normal with a nice broth with potatoes and beef. However, there happens to be more ingredients that make up this typical Ecuadorian dish. I had no idea what these strange looking pieces of meat? were until the next day via my Spanish teacher. Here is a list of what I ate that day, which happened to be delicious: cow lung, cow heart, cow intestines, and cow stomach. If you ever swing by Quito and are around the street Floresta stop by and try it out, you won’t regret it. Oh, I also ate guinea pig. A GIANT guinea pig. Cuy (ku-ey) is the proper name in Ecuador. This wasn’t at the food market I previously talked about but at a restaurant. It is a typical dish here in Ecuador and you can find it at many restaurants. They cook it in its entirety, gutted of course, on a huge stick over an open flame and it is fantastic. Don’t kid yourself you would like it. Do you like bacon? Then you like cuy. Point proven.

The highlight of my trip thus far from an entertainment stand point is attending a La Liga soccer game. La Liga is Quito’s best soccer team and as of last year South America’s best team. They won the South American cup last year which is a cup that includes South America’s best teams. We were fortunate enough to attend a game against their arch rivals, Barcelona of Guayaquil, another Ecuadorian city close to the coast. It was an amazing experience and as far as enthusiasm and atmosphere goes it has topped any professional sporting event I have attended in the states. They were lighting freaking flares in the stands, ya that’s right flares. You know what you use to attract airplanes when you are lost? Ya, those. Tall boy beers, Flares, and ongoing team chants makes for a great game. Oh, not to mention our pre-gaming in a convenience store parking lot before the game. Am I still in college? Hope everyone is doing well. Until next time.

Your South American Gringo

Week 1

Alright, this blog was supposed to be up after week 1 but that just didn’t happen. I’m hoping this isn’t a habitual thing, but I am one of the world’s biggest procrastinators. Anyway, this is the rundown of my first week in Ecuador.

I didn’t know what to expect before taking on this adventure. Those of you close to me can attest to the nervousness, anxiety and stress I took on in the closing weeks of my departure. Many thoughts run through your head when you are leaving everything you know and the people you love for over a year. Primarily, did I make the right decision? It is an important question but one that I couldn’t answer and a decision I couldn’t take back (I’m bounded by contract). Nevertheless I made it and I am happy to announce that the stress and anxiety have dissipated, and the menacing question in my head has been answered. I have absolutely made the right decision.

I arrived the night of July 10^th around 11:30 en la noche. I didn’t know what to expect. It was not only my first time out of the country, but I was being picked up by my Ecuadorian home stay family, all of whom supposedly only speak Spanish. This should have been a bit terrifying for a guy who only knows a few key Spanish phrases, most important being “mucho cervaza por favor.” I’m just kidding, but seriously, it’s important. However, I wasn’t nervous. I can probably attribute this to our orientation in Miami. By the time it came to completion I felt great about our organization, Manna Project International (MPI), and the people I will be working/living with for the next 13 months. Each of us come from different backgrounds and bring a bit of diversity and intelligence to the group. They are fantastic people to be around and we all get along very well.

So now a brief synopsis on my current living situation and the family I am staying with. My living situation is quite unique but awesome. I live in a small apartment complex owned by my amazing and very kind host family. On the bottom floor they run a gym. Saaaweet! I’ve taken advantage of that a few times. I stay on the second floor with the grandmother/mother. Across the hall are the remnants of a failed helado (ice cream) business. On the third floor reside the son and daughter of the grandmother I live with. Meri, whom Brock lives with (another PD in MPI) has two daughters Alexandria and Daisy. Alexandria is 14 and Daisy is 13. They love to be around Brock and I and the feeling is mutual on our end. They are energetic, fun and just plain awesome girls (when they aren’t cheating at the card game Uno). We have a lot of fun with them, they help us with our Spanish homework, and are a great asset in practicing our attempts of Spanish (which always seem to come out in Spanglish) because they never hesitate to correct us “Gringos”. Meri’s brother (forget and can’t pronounce his name) dwells across from them. He also has two children, Nicolas who is about 8 months and a 2 year old daughter Emelia. Once again, amazing kids. Emelia is full of life. She is always laughing and absolutely loves me (can’t blame her) and Nicolas walks around in his stroller/walker (not sure what you call it but I hope I had one when I was his age) like Fred Flintstone.

Now I’ll move onto the day to day activities of week 1. Spanish from 8:30-12:30 Monday through Friday. Yup, that’s four straight hours of one-on-one Spanish with a teacher that knows absolutely zero English. It’s painful, but I have already gotten a lot out of it. After class we usually go back to our home stays to eat lunch then regress to the Spanish school for meetings. The purposes of the meetings are to give us more information about the programs we will be taking over. Nightly activities have also been abundant. We have been going out to various restaurants and bars throughout new Quito which has been dubbed “Gringolandia” where we absolutely contribute to the nickname. I could go on forever about other things such as my trip to our host family’s other house in Cayambe trip where I rounded up a rooster with my hands in order to put him into his coop. But in all honestly I’m sick of writing this first blog. It’s much longer than I expected but they won’t all be this long I can assure you of that. I hope to have another one up the middle of this week. Thanks for reading and hasta lluego.