Where to even start…I seriously need to start posting more often because so much time passes and then I can’t remember what has happened. It is strange here in Ecuador, because time seems to go really slow, but then I look back and don’t know what happened to the last couple of weeks. Currently I should be lesson planning, but I am writing to you all instead.
Political Unrest in Ecuador...
A couple of weeks ago things got a little crazy here in Ecuador. The president, Rafael Correa decided to cut the benefits of Police here and extend the time it takes to get a promotion. Needless to say, the police were unhappy. Well, that is an understatement. They were furious. This all happened three weeks ago and things got pretty crazy in Quito and Guayaquil. Police across the nation decided to go on strike, protest, and riot in the streets. So what this meant was that no law enforcement was happening and there was a lot of looting, robbery, assault, and other things taking place while the police refused to do their jobs. Now, I can’t claim that all of the police were like this, actually it wasn’t even close to the majority of the police in Ecuador. This is extremely unfortunate because they are all lumped together as angry and violent. The morning of September 30th all of this chaos ensued. When Rafael (who lets face it, is a bit of a socialist) Correa went to talk to the police they didn’t want to hear what he had to say and while he was limping (he recently had knee surgery) to his car they threw tear gas right in his face and he was rushed to the hospital. So he spent the day cooped up in the police hospital outside of Quito. The military took over the duties of the police and at the end of the day when Correa was trying to return to his Presidential palace in the center of Quito there was a shoot out between the military and the police. This was unfortunate and approximately 5 people were killed. Correa was returned to his palace safely and gave a long speech at 10:00pm at night. Ecuador doesn’t exactly have the best track record for being stable politically. Before Correa, there was even more political unrest and in a 10-year period from 1997-2007 Ecuador had 8 presidents and two of them were overthrown during political unrest.
Things in Ambato during the day were pretty calm. I received a phone call and was told through our phone tree that we were in a state of emergency and to stay in the house. It was a long couple of days to say the least. Milena (my 11-year-old niece here in the house) and I played the card game SPEED. She absolutely loves it and we have been playing it ever since. I did leave the house with my family to buy more Saldo for my phone, and things were a little more crazy than normal. Dumpsters were in the middle of the streets and there was some sort of protest happening that I heard in the distance. But I was safe and sound with my family.
It was somewhat surreal the next day (Friday) because it seemed like the country was back to normal. Especially in Ambato it didn’t seem any different than any other day. However, in the big cities of Quito and Guayaquil they are still recovering and the police and slowly getting back to work. It is essential to be on guard though, especially now. Last weekend while we were in Quito my friend’s camera was stolen out of her purse while she was dancing. And in the last two weeks two other of my WorldTeach friends were also robbed. So it is serious stuff, and I am always on my guard. I never take anything too valuable out and I put my money, phone, and any other expensive items in my bra. Yep, that is right, my bra. It would take a lot of nerve for a robber to go for those items, however I don’t think many would even think that valuable items would be placed in someone’s bra. So it has worked out really well so far.
SECAP Ambato!
Things have started to settle down here at SECAP. Actually, things have been going really well. I am starting to warm up to the idea of SECAP in general. Those first couple of weeks were crazy…really crazy. What ended up happening was that they hired another teacher and split the class. I technically have 24 people on my lists, but as SECAP predicted, people have dropped out. My second class only has 19 people that come regularly and let me tell you, it is so much better than 39. I don’t have a curriculum or a book. At first I was feeling overwhelmed, but now that I have just finished my fifth week of teaching, I feel like I am starting to get the hang of this teaching thing. I feel like I can confidently say that my Basic 1 Babies know the following: pronouns, the verb “to be”, colors, numbers, the alphabet, frequency adverbs, the simple present tense, and the present progressive. It is a great feeling when I am grading and I get 2 100% in a row. It was a big deal for me. There are always those 10/49 scores that I get from students, but the good students out weigh the bad. I am also happy to report that I haven’t had to rip up any quizzes yet. I have a strict no cheating policy that includes: no talking, no looking at another student’s paper, and no writing the notes on any surface (including the body). I let my students know that if I even suspect that they are cheating I will rip up their paper. I demonstrate this every time we have a quiz with a piece of paper and a live reenactment complete with me ripping up a paper and lots of scared faces and hushed whispers.
The first couple of weeks I was making copies in the office upstairs clumsily trying to figure out how to align the paper and make them 2 sided. Then tragedy struck and the copier was low on toner. I had heard about a mean old man that makes copies in the basement. I also heard rumor that he has signs up that warn people that if they don’t say hello he will either assume that you are deaf, stupid, or rude. So I made my way down to the basement and sure enough when I entered the room there were signs taped around the wall emphasizing how important it was to be polite. With this in mind I decided to introduce myself first thing and say good afternoon. Francisco was whistling through his teeth and dressed head to toe in a bright blue jump suit (the kind that mechanics wear) with the SECAP logo. He looked at me, said hello and greeted me with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. Since my first encounter with Francisco I have become friends with him and concluded that he is a sweet heart. He is in fact one of my favorite people that I have met in Ecuador. He calls me mija and always asks me, “¿que tal bonita?”. I adore him and will continue to need copies so that I can talk to him and see how he is doing.
Krishna and I have been at SECAP for 5 weeks now and noticed that there are some pretty sweet SECAP sweaters. At first Krishna commented on the secretary’s sweater and that he wanted one. I think she assumed that he was just trying to be polite. She didn’t realize that we both actually wanted one. So the next day it was my turn. I asked the secretary, “can we get SECAP sweaters too?” with this, she looked pleasantly surprised and picked up the phone to make the calls. She called in the people who make the sweaters and told us that they would be in to take our measurements the following Friday. So Krishna and I made our way over to SECAP Friday morning. Before I entered the building I saw two women outside of SECAP bargaining and in the hand of one of the women was a live guinea pig. Yep. That is right they were negotiating prices for the “cuy” and when they both agreed they threw the cuy in the sack. I didn’t exactly know how to react to this. For some reason I expected the cuy they eat here to be ugly and a nastier version of the guinea pigs we have in the states as pets. However, no such luck. I hope that little guy went quickly or escaped the cuy farm and made it out to the wild. I also had Quinoa for the first time yesterday so the name of my blog is finally verified. There is most definitely Andes, Quinoa, and Cuy here in Ecuador. Anyways, back to the SECAP sweaters. We showed up on Friday morning and let me just say that Ecuadorians take “casual Friday” very seriously. We walked into the office and when we normally see suits, ties, skirts, nylons, jackets, and high heels, we instead were surrounded by people in sweat suits. It was rather amusing sitting there as we waited for the people to show up. I was expecting to be measured with a tape measure, however after 45 minutes of waiting they showed up with sweater and just had us try them on. They asked us if they were okay and then Krishna asked, “can we have something embroidered underneath the SECAP logo?” and they said of course! Our names? Teacher? Profesor/profesora? Yes! The last one! So our sweaters will be complete with SECAP logos and profesor/profesora embroidered underneath. How badass. I am so excited. And when they show up Krishna and I will have to have a photo shoot in our new sweaters.
Teeeaaaaccchhhhherrrrrrrr.....Por favorrrrrrr......
In my classroom, my students call me "teacher" however there is something here called the "ecua-whine". This is part of their accent. I have slowly started to pick it up and am practicing all the time. So instead of being "Teacher" my students draw out every syllable possible when talking to me especially when they want or need something. Thus, the title of this section.
My students are simply the best. One day while I was about to start the class one of my students from my first class suggested that we elect a class president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. The election process was unorganized, but after an excrutiating half an hour of “elections” we finally had our elected officials. I wasn’t really sure what our panel of politicians would do in my Basic 1 SECAP class, but they really got into it. Last week there were several announcements and my students told me that they wanted to have a party next Thursday to celebrate Halloween, Dia de Difuntos and Dia de los Santos. I am excited for this cultural exchange! One day they started tearing up pieces of paper and crumpling them up and putting them in a bag. Then they went around and each student pulled out a piece of paper. One of the students received Señorita Colada Morada, which is apparently a bad thing after I heard the student who received it groan in disappointment. I still have no idea what this all means, all I know is that I am excited for our party on Thursday. I am trying to figure out if they have pumpkins here so that we can carve a few…or what to show them about Halloween. It is going to be awesome.
My second class has a mix of students regarding their jobs, ages, and ability levels. Now that there are only 19 of them, I feel like I am able to help them and get to know each of them individually. One of my students has the best facial expressions. She always looks up at me puzzled with the strange rules of English and tells me how difficult it is. However, last night as she was handing me her quiz she told me, “teacher, I am starting to understand English more now”. After I heard this I felt like doing a victory lap! It is one of the best feelings to know that my students are starting to understand. My second class also noticed that I have been going through dry erase markers quickly. They decided to collect money from each student in the class and pitch in to buy me markers. I was so touched and taken aback. I didn’t know what to say except, “thank you, thank you, thank you. I really appreciate this. You guys are the best!” After this my students started to wipe away the imaginary tears that were falling from their eyes indicating that they were just as touched as I was. This week I was invited out for Salchipapas after my first class with a couple of my students who are Ecuadorian women around my age. Salchipapas are French fries with pieces of hot dogs covered in some sort of garlic mayo and served with a flimsy plastic fork that resembles a toothpick more than an actual fork. As long as I don’t think too much about the mayo, I have to say Salchipapas is rather delicious. And I also appreciated the invitation from my students. After our salchipapas outing we went “dar vuelta-ing” or cruising and rode around Ambato in the car talking. It was really fun! This isn’t all that common in the States and I was expecting to actually go somewhere, but it was still a blast!
When I first arrived in Ecuador all of the WorldTeach volunteers bought cell phones. We went with our director to a mall where we bought the cheapest phones we could find. The phone I ended up with was $35 Comcel (?) model. At first it seemed adequate for what I needed, texting and calling. However over the last two months I have become increasingly more annoyed. I am now well aware of the flaws of this cheap phone. Let the list begin: 1. the phone has no vibrate, 2. when I receive a call or text no name appears only the number (so unless I memorized all the numbers there is no way of knowing who is calling), 3. You can’t see what you said in the messages you sent, 4. It randomly drops calls and refuses to send text messages, 5. There is no volume control and 6. The keypad doesn’t lock. It was starting to get annoying, but I was too cheap to buy a new phone until today. That’s right, I bought a new phone today. It is an LG model (one I have heard of) and it has all the features that my piece of crap phone didn’t. I am quite happy to have the vibrate option in my life and it even has a Sudoku game on it. It really is the little things in life that make it worthwhile and having a working cell phone is definitely one of those little things.
I am finally getting the hang of Ambato and public transportation. I have been making my way down to the centro to eat breakfast with my friends at our regular spot. I feel like I am getting into a routine. The only thing now is to work in exercising in my schedule.
That is pretty much my life in a nut shell. I hope you enjoy the posts! I am going to try to post more often so that my posts aren’t novels like the last couple have been. I love you all and hope all is well in the states. One thing I miss for sure is fall. I miss those changing leaves! And the cold air, but Ecuador has a lot to offer, so I am going to make the most of my year here!
Cuidate, abrazos, y chao!
Caitlin (Catalina, aka Cata)
Here are a couple of pictures of my life in Ecuador!
This is my host family! My host parents Nestor and Elvia, and Host niece Milena!
My Friend Cheryl and I in Quito outside of the President's Palace with the Guard
Friends and I outside of the house of Juan Leon Mera, a famous Ecuadorian writer who was from Ambato!
Leslie, Shari, Will & I making Sunday Brunch at Kate K.'s House!
