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.