The Second Week

I spent this week volunteering in the school in the mornings and taking classes in the afternoon.  We have moved through all of the basics and are working on irregular past participles and the imperative.  It really is a lot to learn, especially since we don’t have too much free time until after dinner, which can last for an hour or more.  Recently, we have each been required to prepare a presentation for the dinner table to help us practice speaking.  We can talk about whatever we want, so I wrote about visiting Peru and working as a lifeguard in the summers.

On Tuesday, we had a meeting with Dr. Alvear, who is the coordinator for the local hospitals and clinics that we will be working in.  We are going to meet every Tuesday and each time, two of us are going to present on something about Ecuador.  Colleen talked about teenage pregnancy and Alyson gave a brief history of the country.  It was actually named for the Equator, which runs through the country.  We are actually planning to visit “the middle of the world” tomorrow, which should be pretty cool. 

During the meeting, we also talked about the government, because Ecuador is having their presidential election next month.  Dr. Alvear told us that the government controls everything, even though they say that the people are “free” and Ecuadorians have to file tax reports every month.  There are also restrictions on how many hours per week people can work, so if you need some extra money and want to work overtime, you can’t.  There is a huge division between upper class and lower class; the later accounts for 50% of the population.  She said that in poor families, the boys are sent to school and the girls stay home, which contributes to the lack of family planning and high teenage pregnancy rates.  Many of the people are Catholic, which also dissuades young girls from using contraception.  The society is also machismo, so girls and women have to ask their husbands/ boyfriends to go to the clinic to receive contraception, which is another major deterrent.  Abortions are illegal, but often a woman who does not want to be pregnant will get an almost-abortion and then go to the hospital and have a stillbirth.  Alyson and Erin have been at the maternidad hospital this week and they say that there is a large room full of women who have spontaneously lost their babies.

Dr. Alvear explained to us about how the government takes advantage of the  people in poverty to get reelected.  Every Saturday, the president comes on the radio and talks about all of the great things that he is doing.  For example, the government spent $1 million to build a school in one indigenous village.  It is complete with state-of-the-art computers and the latest technology.  So the people who hear that the president did this think “oh wow, that was so nice… the government must really care… etc etc.”  The problem, she said, was that the poor population is illiterate and lack critical thinking skills.   This propaganda is the onl information they receive because they can’t read a newspaper or anything else.  They also fail to realize that while that one school is helping that one area, there are more efficient ways of spending that money. 

It seems that one of the main goals of this government is health care for the poor population.  I think that if a teenage girl gets pregnant, she receives $30/ month from the government (I think it’s something like that).  There is also something similar to welfare for low-income families.  And Dr. Alvear said that it’s nice that they have something to live on but it also allows the cycle to continue.  She said that what the government really needs to do is create jobs for these people to work.  Sound familiar?

Today, we did not have class in the afternoon, but went on a short tour of Quito.  We drove to the top of a big hill to see the city from up high.  We took a few pictures and then drove over to El panecillo, which is a statue of the virgin Mary that overlooks the city.  Then, we went to see a church and while I was going to take a picture of it, I ended up talking to some guy from Italy who spoke Spanish.  And I had a whole conversation in Spanish!!  I felt so proud because when I came ehrej less than two weeks ago, my vocabulary consisted of hola, buenos diaz, and como esta.  Then today, I had about an hour long conversation!  It wasn’t fluent but we did talk about what I was doing in Quito and how having conversations with people is a better way to learn a language than in classroom.  He said that English is the number one language to know, and Spanish is number two.  He was there with his niece, who he wants to learn English.  I traded email addresses with her so that we can both practice our respective languages.

Tomorrow is my last day in the school and I am very sad to leave my children.  My teacher told them today that it would be last day tomorrow and they were all so sad, saying “noooo, Brooke, you should just live here!” 

Well, that’s a thought.

The weekend in Baños

At 6:00 on Friday afternoon, we piled into Enrique’s bus for the journey to Baños.  We arrived to our hostel around 11 pm, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then rested up for the next day. 

On Saturday, we rented bikes for $5 and set off for the mountains.  There is only one road that leads through the mountains and has a lot of activities along the way.  Most of the ride was downhill and the scenery was very pretty.  At our first stop, we hiked uphill to see the first waterfall.  Along the way, we passed a fishfarm that was rigged up using the power from the waterfall.  We continued biking until we reached “the canopy”, which was a structure built up 30 – 40 ft on one side of the cliff that dropped down to the river.  On the other side was another waterfall and people could zipline across.  We took a cart-like thing that went across the ravine on a zipline but it was slow and steady and designed for people to take pictures from and enjoy the scenery.  At the next stop, I went on a zipline that was 1 km (0.6 mi) long across the river.  It was different from other ziplining because I laid horizontally with my chest to the ground and feet strapped in.  I was instructed to put my hands behind my back until I reached the yellow flag, at which point, I opened my arms out like superman.  The zipline was so fast that I had tears streaming down my face.  I really liked it. 

Jumping off the bridge!

At the next stop, we crossed a bridge that you could jump off of, and this is called puenting.  So naturally, I decided to do it.  The bridge was 35 meters (~100 ft) above the river.  I was strapped in and instructed to jump headfirst with my arms out wide.  So I did.  And then I swung back and forth under the bridge until they threw me rope to pull me back to land. 

We finally made it to the last waterfall, which required another hike that took about 20 minutes.  This waterfall was the biggest and most beautiful of all because it was surrounded by cliffs and extremely powerful.  Next to the waterfall was a fortress-type area where people could stand and take pictures.  The bottom of the fortress was wet from all of the water spraying back up into the air.  There was also a tunnel along the cliff that led to another fortress that let you touch the waterfall; you could almost stand behind it.  But in order to get through the tunnel you literally had to squat down low and kind of crab-walk it through to the opening.

We hiked back up to where we had parked our bikes after the 22 km (~13 mi) bikeride through the mountians.  We ate lunch at a little café restaurant.  I had spaghetti with pasta sauce, tuna, mushrooms, green peppers, onion, shredded cheese and some sort of herb.  It was very delicious.  (ps Mom I explicitly analyzed the dish so that we can make it at homeJ).

Later that evening, we took a “volcano tour.”  We drove up another mountain on a party bus, which was wooden and painted all sorts of colors, with bright lights flashing and American pop music playing.  There were families and couples on the bus too.  At the top of the mountain, was a small camp-like area with small shops to buy food.  We went over to a gazebo, which overlooked the city of Baños.  I like cities much better when they are far away and all lit up in the night.  Banos is actually quite small, I counted 7 x 10 blocks.  But it was very cute tucked away in the valley.  That may be my favorite view so far.

On Sunday, we did “extreme ziplining” at another location.  The tour consisted of a zipline, which was similar to the one I did before.  Then we walked along a wobbly suspension bridge.  After that, we rock climbed to a higher point on the cliff to reach another zipline.  There were rungs in the side of the mountain to help you climb and a bright orange line that your carribeaners are clipped to.  The coolest part was that we had to move our own carribeaners at each point where the line was bolted to the rock, while balancing on the cliff.  Then, we zipped back across the river.

Love the bridge jumping!

After that, we went to the bigger bridge, for another round of puenting.  This bridge was 100 meters (~300 ft) above the river.  So naturally, I decided to jump off of this one too.  It was so much fun.

We grabbed a bite for lunch and shopped a little bit.  I also stopped by a little ice cream shop and ate a choco banana.  They freeze a banana on a stick, then dip it in chocolate and add some sprinkles.  What a great treat for 50 cents!

The bus ride home was a little bit shorter and we were all exhausted.  This week I am back to volunteering at the school in the mornings and still taking classes in the afternoon.  It is a lot of work!  But in a good way, because I feel like I am experiencing everyday life in Quito and learning a lot of Spanish.  When I come home I think that I am going to start watching movies in Spanish to help my learning curve!

En la Escuela (in the school)

This morning and yesterday morning, I volunteered at a local elementary school, Jardin de Infantes Mercedes Boboa.  The school is only one block away from our homestay.  The children in my class are 5 and 6 years old, so I assume that the class is kindergarten or first grade.  They are so cute!  On the first day, I walked in with Rosita and a girl (who I now know is Josephina) jumped up and gave me a hug!  I was worried that I might have to teach, which would be muy dificíl but my work mostly consists of copying patterns into the children’s notebooks for their homework, and cutting out shapes from worksheets.

I don’t remember too much of Kindergarten, but I feel as if school here is a lot less structured than in the United States.  The kids get about two hours of recess in a five hour school day.  Today, I played with them in the courtyard, which is huge by the way.  I wonder what they eat though because those kids have tons and tons of energy.  We jumped up and down steps, collected dandelions, played on the firemans pole, hung on the bars and made a big dog pile.  The kids seem to like me, they call me either “brook-ah” or “profa.”  They talk to me and sometimes I can understand what they are saying, which is a lot better than where I was three days ago.

 The time in the classroom is spent either counting words in the sentence that the teacher says aloud, or coloring one part of a picture in the color that the teacher tells them.  It is a little bit strange to me, because I remember doing stations and the alphabet in kindergarten.  I might also just be accustomed to structured classtime.  I also haven’t been able to find out much about the education system because my Spanish is so weak.  Even if I knew how to ask the questions, it would be difficult to understand the response.  Hopefully, I can find out more as my Spanish improved.

After working at the school from 7:30 – 12, I stop by home to make lunch from the groceries that I bought.  Then I had more Spanish classes from 1 – 4 pm.  We really are learning so much that it’s almost too much to process, but I am trying to make connections in conversation to the things we learn.  I am really happy with the teaching style; it is pretty similar to how I learned German.  I have no idea how “fluent” I will be by the end of this trip but I am certainly becoming more competent every day.

Tonight after dinner we are going out on the town.  Tomorrow we don’t have Spanish class in the afternoon, but I will be back at the school again in the morning.  Then we are leaving for Baños at 6 pm!  They have hot springs, white water rafting, bungee jumping and lots of trails to hike and bike!

Mucho Español

Monday and Tuesday were full days of Spanish classes.  They weren’t kidding when they named the program “intensive beginner Spanish.”  We were in class from 8 am to noon, with one 15 minute break.  Lunch was from 12 to 1 and then we were back in class from 1 to 4 pm, with another 15 minute break.  On the first day, we learned how to ask and answer five basic questions: 1. Cómo te llamas? (What is your name?).  2. Tienes hermandos? (Do you have siblings) 3. De dónde eras? (Where are you from?)  4. Donde estás? (Where are you?) 5. Cuántos años tienes? (How old are you).  We also learned people in the family, professions, countries and nationalities, directions, numbers, a long list of regular verbs and basic anatomy.  It was definitely a lot for one day but I can speak a lot of what we learned.  I also feel much more competent than I did when we got here.  The hard part is understanding when somebody else speaks!

Rosita has a daughter who lives in Bolivia.  She is visiting this week with her son, Oliver, who is probably about 2 years old.  We have been hanging out after dinner the past few nights and playing with balloons.  It’s perfect because neither one of us speaks much Spanish.

Quito is a big city, and it is the capital of Ecuador.  We live in the Northern part of the city, which seems to be pretty wealthy.  The school where we learn Spanish is a little less than a mile walk from our house and the people here are very aggressive drivers so anytime we cross the street we have to run.  Quito has similar architecture to Peru: lots of colors, and the buildings are mostly made up of squares and rectangles, with flat roofs.  We can easily see the Andes in the distance.  There are three buses that run throughout the city.  The one that we will be taking to/ from our clinical sites is called the trole bus.  It costs a quarter for each ride, regardless of how far you go.  Also, the money here is kind of strange, because they accept US dollars, but often you will receive gold dollars as your change instead of bills.  There are also coins that are worth the same amount and roughly the same size as dimes and quarters, but they are not dimes and quarters.  It all seems very random to me.

I love my homestay.  The food is absolutely fantastic.  Sunday night we had tomatoes stuffed with chicken and cheese, along with soup, rice and cucumbers.  Monday night we had a mushroom soup, fish, and broccoli in some sort of citrus juice.  It is getting hard to keep track of all of it because we keep having different stuff.  All of the flavors are so rich.

Orientation

I made it to Quito all by myself!  It was a little bit scary becasue my layover in Panama City was tight - the plane landed at 8:30 and my next flight took off at 8:58.  I made it though!  And I am proud to say that I did it on my own.  I met a very nice lady who was an RN at a prison.  Those people in prison have it made, from what I hear.

I made it to my homestay after midnight but my room is very nice.  I have a big bed and my own bathroom, and it is located behind the house.  There are six of us staying with Rosita, two girls (Brooke and Ghazala) are second year PA students and their accomodations are outside with me.  Inside, there are two fourth year medical students (Erin and Alyson) and a girl from Seattle (Colleen).  They are all very nice.

Today was reserved for orientation. We woke up for breakfast at 9, then headed over to the language school.  We had to take a Spanish test... I wrote my name and the date (hombre y fecha) and then I drew a picture on the back.  Pretty sure I passed.

Rosita also went over homestay rules and safety precautions.  I'm not going to tell you everything she said because it is going to make you worry too much, but just rest assured that we are going to be just fine.

We grabbed some lunch.  I ate empanadas, which are kind of like perogies except that they have meat inside instead of potatoes.

When we went back to the language school, we met Dra. Alvera, who is in charge of our clinical rotations.  My plan for the month is to take 7 hours of language class tomorrow and Tuesday, then start work with a local nonprofit.  I'm not sure which one I will be at yet but Rosita said that I will be working with children.  Next week I will also be volunteering.  The third week I will be doing rotations at Clinica de Adolescente, in pediatrics and for the final week I will be at Hospital Militar, for surgery.  However, this is all subject to change.

The weekends are free for us to do as we please.  The group talked about visiting Baños, which is a town about 4 hours away.  Rosita suggested it to us, and it sounds as if there are many things to do. 

And last but not least, I got sunburnt today.  I guess that’s what happens when you are at an altitude of 9,000 ft.

Waiting on the Airplane...

I'm flying out of Dulles on Copa Airlines and online they say that you are supposed to be at the airport 3 hours before take off, so my dad dropped me off at 12:30.  There are not very many people in Dulles from what I can tell; it seems very empty.  Which  made for a rather enjoyable trip through security.  I had a can of Tony Chachare's Creole Seasoning in my carry on for my home stay and the security people had to open it and do a test on it to make sure that it wasn't a bomb. (It wasn't).  They didn't ask about the Old Bay though!

Not totally sure what I am going to do in the next two and a half hours before the plane takes off.  I'd do like these two old ladies are doing and sleep, but I already did that today.  

Maybe I will start reading the Spanish Dictionary Jo got me for Christmas!!

Preparing for Ecuador

Hi all,

I decided to put all of my adventures on the same blog website since having too many would get confusing - and I plan to never stop going on adventures!  Last January I travelled to Peru and absolutely loved it!  It was the best three weeks of my life and deepened my desire to travel, especially to South America.  Check out the posts below to see some of the things we did on that trip!

This January, I am traveling to Quito, Ecuador for a program through Child Family Health International (CFHI) called Intensive Beginner Spanish and Healthcare in Quito.  I will be living with a home stay family, taking Spanish classes, volunteering with some local non-profits, and working with physicians in local health clinics.  You can check out more about the organization and the program at their website, www.cfhi.org.

This is going to be a very big experience and I am so much looking forward to it!  I hope you all will get a chance to check out the blog every once in a while!