So this is what being a teacher is all about…

Showing off my SECAP Sweater

So I started teaching my second module at SECAP Ambato last Monday with more wisdom, knowledge, and a module of teaching experience under my belt. I was ready and prepared to start my classes. The only problem was that when I showed up for the first day of classes, I had 3 students in my first class. This was drastically different from the beginning of the first module where the SECAP administration tried to put 40 people in my second class. What was the deal? And the same thing happened to my coworker and friend Krishna who was teaching two floors below me. When I approached the people in charge they told me that they hadn’t put any publicity in the newspaper because they didn’t want the same thing to happen again where I had 40 people in my class. I tried to understand this, however I had no students. If there is one thing that I have learned here in Ecuador is to be patient and flexible. I clearly was annoyed, but in this country the only thing you can do is breathe and go with the flow. So we didn’t start our classes. The following week we gave placement tests after SECAP advertised English classes in the newspaper and finally, we started our classes for (real this time) two weeks late. I had some of the same students and a couple of new faces. I was excited to start teaching.

The module started out pretty slow with students trickling in each day. I have been thinking a lot lately about how I can improve upon my teaching experience from last module and I have been giving it more time, invested in a book (thank you Azar), and asked the students what they wanted to learn. After almost 2 months of vacation it has been somewhat difficult getting back into the swing of things. I teach two basic II classes and teach them the same thing everyday. This is the reason why it amazes me how different my two classes can be. Last Thursday I put together what I thought was  killer lesson plan on Prepositions of location (on, in, between, behind, next to, etc.). 

My awesome SECAP drawing

I had expertly drawn a map of SECAP for my students and included some vocabulary. Then I had the bright idea to do a Scavenger Hunt with my students by hiding clues around the building. I spent hours writing the clues, making the cards for each team, and then placing the clues around SECAP. The only real problem was that I didn’t really think this process through. Scavenger hunts are intense, complicated, and confusing. As I was setting up the clues for my first class I realized the complexity of a scavenger hunt. I did get it set up for my students and they loved it. They sprinted all over SECAP, reading the clues that included prepositions of location and worked as a team. Despite the confusion with the hunt, my students had a great time.

The real SECAP Ambato

I expected for my second class to be just as excited as my first about my SECAP drawing and scavenger hunt. However, while I was teaching prepositions of location I kept hearing snickering and laughing. I ignored it at first, but then stopped what I was doing and asked, “what are you laughing at?” My students were laughing silently and one of them finally was brave enough to say, “teacher, pizza”. Needless to say I was not amused. I lectured my students for a while saying that it was disrespectful to be trying to order pizza during class. It just put a damper on my mood. I was excited for the scavenger hunt portion of the class. Between classes I had set up a grid for the different clues and locations for the scavenger hunt to avoid confusion. During the break I took the clues and my grid around and was trying to set everything up. Somehow, I confused myself even more. I was trying to get all the clues in the right places for 25-30 minutes before I decided to just give up all together. By this point I was so annoyed with my second class I sent them home. When I came back into the room and told them that we were done, they sat their stunned for a couple of minutes. They could tell I was annoyed and upset about the stupid scavenger hunt and pizza fiasco that was my class. Soon I started to hear my students make comments like, “Teacher, don’t worry be happy”, “it’s okay teacher”, “be calm teacher”.  When I get annoyed or upset I don’t yell or scream, it is more of a silent thing. Although my class crashed and burned, it made me appreciate the struggles teachers go through each day. To all my teachers out there, I just wanted to say thank you for all that you do and sorry for all the difficult students that you have to deal with. What a crazy and chaotic life you lead. I have a better understanding of what you do and know how difficult, but rewarding it can be. 

Piojos…one Spanish word I NEVER want to run into again. EVER.

yours truly...look at that head of hair

Hi, my name is Caitlin, and I have lice. (Disclaimer: some curse words in this bog post) Over my Holiday break in Ecuador, I made a discovery…I had lice. After traveling for several weeks with my family to Mindo, Otavalo, Quito, Cuenca, and finally Ambato my head started to itch, but I didn’t think twice about it. It started itching more and more…and I started to worry. I have the tendency of being really paranoid about getting sick and I’ll admit, I am somewhat of a germ-o-phobe. Finally, I had my sister check my hair. The verdict: LICE. I immediately started to feel dirty and gross. I had absolutely no desire to do anything except to take care of the situation. To double check I had my host mom come and check my head and she started to tell me that there were only dead eggs, when my sister at the same time saw a live one. I can’t tell you how disgusted I was. I started to freak out! My sister started to freak out too, however the only thing that my host mom said was, “tranquilo….solamente el shampoo y ellos se van”. I somehow didn’t get any comfort from this statement. At the time we had a date with my host dad and parents to take a tour of Ambato, so no time to deal with it then.

            When I told my host dad, he shrugged it off and told me to get in the car so we could show my parents around Ambato. “Suck it up” he seemed to say. When I told my mom that I had lice, she seemed to shrink away from me in paranoia. I sat in between my mom and sister, both scared about those damn piojos. What a mess. I was one unhappy camper. I somehow managed to stop thinking about it too much as we went to the market for llapingachos and cocomora juice. We made the trek up to Parque de La Familia where we had an amazing view of the volcán Tungurahua exploding. My parents were thoroughly impressed. After we went for Colada Morada, buñelos, and tamales.

            That night I opened the box containing the lice shampoo, Veronique. It claimed, “elimina piojos y liendres en solo 10 minutos” It could eliminate lice and their eggs in only 10 minutes! It seemed too good to be true. The directions were as followed:

            Modo De Empleo:

·         Moje bien el cabello y appliqué Veronique friccionando el cuero cabulludo y deje que actúe durate 10 minutos, luego enjuague con abundante agua.

·         Remueve los piojs y liendres muertos con el piene especial.

It seemed easy enough, however I have some of the thickest and curliest hair of anyone that I know besides my sister who was standing besides me deciphering the instructions as well. She was hesitant, but reluctantly agreed to pick through my hair with the comb that came with the shampoo. We spent several hours doing this using all sorts of supplies including: a flashlight, tweezers, a headlamp, and the comb that was supplied. Let me just say, it was one hell of a way to spend Christmas Eve night. I would like to take this opportunity to commend my sister Julie for her bravery and willingness to help. I really appreciated it.

my tool kit...

            On Christmas day I decided to take my family to Baños. We walked around town, saw a live nativity scene processing through town, and shopped. We were hanging out when my sister spotted more eggs. I started freaking out again. I had my mom pick through a small section of my hair right then and there in the middle of Baños. After this, I went straight to a supermarket and B-lined it to the Mayo aisle. Conveniently enough I turned around and there was the Sarah wrap. We headed back to Ambato and my mother and I camped out in the bathroom for several hours as she picked through my hair. That night it was time for the Mayo. My sister assisted me in this “task”. Let me just say that putting in Mayo in your hair is one of the most disgusting experiences ever. Now every time I see it, I have a pretty severe gag reflex. As I knelt my head forward, Julie squeezed the mayo from a bag onto my hair and I massaged it into my scalp. Seeing as this was such a ridiculous idea, Julie and I couldn’t stop laughing. The fun didn’t stop there as we wrapped my hair in layers of Saran Wrap.

            The next day I told my host parents about the mayo and saran wrap and my host dad made a joke about also putting French fries and ketchup in my hair to top it all off. I just had to laugh. My Ecuadorian family must think we are crazy. Right then and there I realized that this incident with lice is probably one of the biggest differences in culture I have come across. When someone gets lice here, it isn’t a big deal. Go to the pharmacy, buy the shampoo, use the shampoo, and comb through the hair with the brush. Simple. However, our American culture has taught us to thoroughly freak the fuck out! Do you remember those days in elementary school where you and the rest of the school went to see the nurse for lice checks? How terrifying was that? And if you were the unlucky one who had lice you were sent home and not allowed to come back until you have the “situation” taken care of. Our methods of getting rid of Lice include: washing EVERYTHING you own in scalding hot water, putting items in air tight bags for more than two weeks, mayo-ing (yep, I totally just made that a verb all you English Teachers) and saran wrapping hair to suffocate those fuckers, and spending relentless hours picking through each strand of hair to be extra sure they are all gone. Even after this we are still paranoid. Every time our head itches the thought, “oh god, what if they aren’t gone?” pops into our brains.

infamous mayo in a bag

            I have come to the conclusion that we need to calm down. Take the advice of my host mom’s favorite word of all time, “tranquilo”. How many of you hear that every time you are freaking out? I know I hear it constantly. I need to start embracing this instead of just thinking, oh Ecuador. As of now, I am Lice free. After some more extensive scalp searching and removing of the piojos by my mother, things are looking good. I took all my clothes to the Laundromat and had every item washed in hot water. I really need to thank my family for being so great as I was having a rough couple of days. My dad paid for my Laundromat services and my mom and sister spent hours picking through my hair. I am so grateful to have them in my lives. Although this experience was humiliating (only to me) and exhausting, it was also very humbling. I will listen to my host mom, “tranquilo Cata, todo esta bien”. It’s the truth, everything is good. I don’t know where I got them from, maybe a bus, taxi, or sleeping in a hostel. Who knows. All I know now is that situations are what you make of them. If this happens to anyone while we are in Ecuador, Call me. I can sympathize, help, and do my best to console. Let me end with the piojo support group slogan, “Hi, my name is Caitlin. I have been piojo free for 2 weeks now”.

Mom deserves a round of applause  for lice with this hair Circa 1991

Sending love from the Big A!

Caitlin Kerrigan

SECAP Ambato

Little Bit of this, Little Bit of That...Past Month in Ecuador

My first class

Halloween:

            My students and I decided that we needed to celebrate Dia de Difuntos and Halloween here at SECAP. I was definitely the most excited about the parties with both classes. Dia de Difuntos is all about honoring loved ones who have passed on. It is a full day affair where Ecuadorians go to the cemeteries and clean the graves of dead relatives. They cook traditional food including Guagua de Pan (bread in the shape of a baby) and Colada Morada (Hot, thick, fruit beverage made of various Ecuadorian fruit). In my first class we elected random Señores and Señoritas like Señorita Colada Morada and Señor Cuchara. When I asked my students what all of this meant, I literally got nothing, “teacherrrr….porque”. When my students asked me what the history of Halloween was, I didn’t have much to tell them either. Have you ever stopped and thought about it? Where did Halloween come from? Each of my classes planned programs including crowns, sashes, and lots of colada morada, pan, and small trinkets. My students sat me right up front and at the end of the program I was presented with a life size Gua gua (aka baby bread). The rest of the time we just hung out and my students danced.

My second class

Life size Guagua

SECAP Ambato!

            Now my second class really went all out. I told them jokingly that I would give them extra credit if they dressed up. I think all of them but 3 dressed up. We spent the first hour decorating with streamers and banners, setting out food, and drinks. The costumes included a vampire, a pumpkin, 4 witches, Minnie mouse, and a clown/luchador. I ran out of time to invest in an actual costume and ended up making a TV for my head complete with straws for antennae. My class hosted the party in our penthouse classroom on the top floor. Krishna’s class and my class combined forces had a joint party. My students ushered me over and presented a bag of trinkets for me (2 mini tea sets, piggy bank, various pins, figurines, spoons, and a chicken whistle). I was truly touched. It was so sweet.

Cuenca:

Leslie and I in Cuenca in front of the Cathedral

Mateo and his friends

            The Ambato gang decided to take advantage of the long weekend and travel 6 hours by bus to Cuenca. Cuenca has the reputation of being the most beautiful city filled with the most beautiful people. I have to say that Cuenca did live up to the expectations. Every corner is adorned with colonial style houses, plazas, and historic churches. We got into Cuenca and checked into Perla Cuencana Hostel. It was mismatched and random. It turned out that the only worker was a 17-year-old boy named Mateo who was pleasant and friendly. The hostel only had one key to the front door and on our first night Mateo asked us to either come back before midnight or after 2:00am. Kind of a weird request, but it turned out that these are the 2 hours he sleeps during the night. The next night after a day out we returned to the hostel. Mateo knocked on the door and ushered me into his room. He needed help creating a costume, so I called my friend Leslie into the room and we made him a toga out of an extra sheet. Then he proceeded to show us his dance routine to back-to-back  Pussycat Doll songs (Buttons and When I Grow Up) that ended in the splits. It was phenomenal. When we made it back later that night Mateo and his friends were in drag for a costume/dance contest. Turns out Mateo turned out to be very gay. 

Life in Ambato:

Llapingachos lunch: Delicious

            My life in Ambato is really starting to pick up. I am going to the gym, taking full advantage of public transportation, teaching, and meeting up with friends. My host family has been busy preparing the store for the holiday season with trips to Cuenca and Guayaquil to buy more merchandise for their store. I am always so happy when my host mom is back. It just isn’t the same without her. We have occasional family outings on Sundays. About a month a go, I went to the pool with my family. However, this was no ordinary pool…it had hot tubs, saunas, and all the perks. I had to wear a swim cap and hung out with my host mom as she showed me how the pool works. My host parents are incredibly patient with me. While I was swimming in the pool with Milena a camera crew approached me. I assume I was targeted because I was literally the only gringa in the pool. They asked me where I was from, how I liked Ecuador, and if I liked the pool. Apparently this was for a tourism show that aired on the local channel. Sadly, I never saw it. After the pool the family piled in the car and headed towards the food market in downtown for llapingachos (potato and cheese pancakes). For a $1.50 you can get a great lunch of llapingachos, sausage, avocado, beets, and lettuce. For an extra $0.50 you can get a delicious jugo (juice). I discovered CocoMora (coconut/berry) juice, and it is delicious. So good.

Ambato’s Independence Day:

Swamp Man from the military

            Ambato celebrated its Independence Day on November 12^th. Leslie’s students had invited us to watch the parade with them downtown. Now, I was unaware of what a big deal this parade is. Ambateños really go all out. We had front row seats that Leslie’s students had rented for us. The parade entailed high school band after high school band passing by. There were literally 50 high schools with bands, marches, and color guard. Each band has several people (usually little boys) running around the band picking up dropped drumsticks and being the water boy. There were thousands of people lining Cevallos street. Naturally, when there are a lot of people they want and need food from vendors. Vendors wander the streets and yell, “papas, papas, papas” (insert specific food) as fast as they can until they catch someone’s attention. My favorite of the day was when an ice cream vendor stopped in front of me and started selling his goods. As he was prepping an ice cream (and standing RIGHT in the way), he dropped it. He put it back in his cooler and then 2 seconds later proceeded to sell the very ice cream cone that was dropped on the ground (aka dirty street). That is Ecuador for you. Apparently Rafael Correa was in Ambato for the parade, but I didn’t see him. The parade ended with the military bands, tanks, swamp men, and bayonets. Quite the spectacle.

Chiva!

Chiva:

            For our Director Kate’s birthday a bunch of WorldTeach people came into Quito to partake in the festivities. The easiest way to describe a Chiva is a party bus. It is open (no windows) with disco balls and lights, music, whistles, and free canelazo (alcohol). It then drives around Quito while the inhabitants get progressively drunk. It sounds kind of strange, but I am telling you it was incredibly fun. I hope I can go on another chiva here in Ecuador. It was a blast!

            One thing that we were warned about during Orientation was that we would be robbed. This just so happened to me. Luckily I wasn’t assaulted or anything like that. I woke up the next morning and couldn’t find my wallet. My thief must have slipped his hand in my pocket or grabbed my wallet off of the table. Anyways, nothing too valuable was lost (no debit/credit cards) only a couple of ID cards and a couple of bucks. Lesson learned. I have everything replaced except for my worldteach id card, but that is okay.

WorldTeach Girls in Cuenca!

            This will be my first Thanksgiving away from home. I have to say that I have been a little homesick seeing facebook updates about snow, Harry Potter premiers, and Thanksgiving. I am missing Oregon, and all my friends and family. I can’t believe that I have less than 2 weeks of my classes left. I have combated homesickness by investing in Peanut butter and making PB & J for my students. They were adamant that they didn’t want to try peanut butter. However I insisted that they try it and brought in PB & J. Needless to say, it was a huge success. Some of them weren’t huge fans, but some of them LOVED it. Peanut butter is here in MegaMaxi and I suspect that several students have gone and bought it to eat. I also gave a sample to my host parents who loved it as well. I am pretty sure my host dad has been sneaking peanut butter out of the jar because it is significantly lighter. This makes me smile. That’s all for now!

Another blog post soon. I love you all and hope you have a great turkey day!

Caitlin

Getting The Hang of Things and my life in Ambato!

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 30^th 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!

My Field Director, Kate Kurnick and I at the Chocolate and Wine Festivities. She is INCREDIBLE! 

SECAP: Ambato Style

Alright, how to even start describing my time at SECAP Ambato…Here it goes…

Krishna and I walked into SECAP the first Monday we got here 2 weeks ago. SECAP is an acronym for Servicio Ecuatoriano De Capitación Profesional is a trade school for anyone who wants to go back to school or take classes on the side. I have a range of students from the age of 12 to 60. It is pretty crazy! There is a 5 story main building where the administration and classrooms are. Then there are also several other buildings where other classes are held. When I arrive everyday I am greeted by the friendly and slightly toothless security guard. That first day we walked into SECAP not knowing who to talk to seeing as I only had the back of a MEGAMAXI receipt where I had scribbled names on the night before when I had talked to my director. We ended up talking to a woman for half of an hour and then found out that we were going to be giving placement tests for the next couple of weeks. So we returned the next day and looked over the placement tests for Basic I and Intermediate II. How it works is that right now SECAP is offering 2 class levels, Basic I and Intermediate II. If they pass the Basic 1 test they are supposed to wait 3 months for the next round of classes when Basic II is offered. If they pass the Intermediate II test, they can enter this class, but if they don’t they can either start all the way over with Basic I, wait three months for Basic II, or six months for Intermediate I. After hearing these options the majority of the students took the Intermediate II classes and most of them didn’t pass. So when it was time to start classes, instead of having 2 basic classes and 2 intermediate classes, we had 3 basic and 1 intermediate.

My class schedule is Monday through Thursday with two 2.5 hour classes. Despite having ridiculously long classes, my schedule isn’t too shabby because I also have Fridays off. The first class is from 3:45-6:15pm and the second is from 6:30-9:00pm. My first class is pretty young, I have 30ish students who are close in age to me. I would say late teens to 26 with the addition of a 45 year old. My second class at one point had 40 people signed up for the class. At first I didn’t have a list and didn’t know that I was over by 10 students. The thing is, WorldTeach and SECAP signed a contract that WorldTeach volunteers are not supposed to have more than 30 students in each of their classes from the beginning of the term. I was basically over by a third of what I should have been. I asked the other volunteer Krishna, if he had as many students in his class and he didn’t. When I asked why I had so many students they told me it was because of the “room” that I am in. It is basically a giant conference room that they call the auditorium. It has desks and tables, just barely enough for the 39 students in my class.

When I voiced my concern to the SECAP people that I had WAY too many people in my class after my first class, they told me, “tranquilo, tranquilo, hay estudiantes no estarán en la clase después uno o dos semanas” basically what they told me was “be calm, be calm, there won’t be this many people in the class in a couple of weeks because they will drop out”. This was not comforting. It only got better the next day when one of the SECAP people brought another student to my class, “por favor, uno más?” in front of the student. How do you say no to that? By that time I had 40 people in my class and I was starting to panic. I called my director 3 minutes before class started to double check that this wasn’t okay, and sure enough, it is not okay. So I taught my class that night and talked to my director the following day.  She called SECAP Ambato and yelled at them for a bit that they were breaking contract. She told themt hat I would have my own classroom with 30 students or less. IT was their problem to fix, not mine. So when I arrived that afternoon, I was ushered into the office of another random SECAP person and told to sit down. I talked with the people and they wanted to hire me an assistant for my class. This was a nice gesture, but not part of the deal. All I told them was that I had to talk to my director about the situation. By the end of my first class they had called somebody into SECAP to be my assistant for this past Monday. She seemed nice, but I wasn’t too sure how her English was. I called my director again and told her about the solution SECAP had come up with hiring me an assistant. Again, she insisted that I would have my own classroom with less than 30 students. She called SECAP again and told them this and they agreed that they would split the class and some would go with me and some would go with the assistant. This seemed like a reasonable agreement and Kate (my director) and I were okay with this agreement.

Monday rolled around and I went to class. There were only 31 students in my class that day, and SECAP didn’t want to split the class. So we stayed together as a big group. My assistant showed up but sat on the side of the class while I lectured and then left early. The more I talked to her the more I realized that her English was not good. Luckily my host brother Neto who studied and lived in England for 4 years and teaches history in English at a high school decided that he wanted to come and watch me teach and help if needed. Believe me, it was fun for him to be there and he was such a big help. Plus it was good for my students to hear the difference between an “American” (United Sates) accent and an English Accent.

 When I called Kate the next day to give her an update on the situation she told me that she wanted to put me on strike until SECAP Ambato got their act together. I told her that I could teach this class, but she mentioned that she didn’t want this to happen in the future and that it is more the principle that they can’t continue to overbook the classes in the future. I wasn’t too wild about the idea of going on strike, but I am willing to take one for the team. Kate even wanted to put all of the SECAP volunteers on strike until my situation in Ambato was fixed. She called some more people, got into a brawl with the lady here at Ambato and then called the headquarters in Quito. They had no idea this was happening and that SECAP wasn’t doing much to help the situation. They were just waiting for the numbers to drop. Apparently this is a trend for SECAP Ambato, but no other volunteers had made such a big deal. What a mess. In the mean time I was getting really stressed about the situation, but I am so freaking lucky to have our WorldTeach staff. They are truly amazing. So apparently the situation is being fixed. I don’t really know what is going to happen except they want to move some people to the afternoon class or put 5 people with someone else so that there are officially only 30 people in my class. So work has been only a little stressful…Asi es la vida right? This is a popular phrase that basically translates to, “well that is life”. I am still a little taken aback that all happened to me. Regardless my students are great! It is unfortunate because they are the ones who will suffer the most. I certainly hope that the situation will get better soon.

Seriously though, my students and my family have made my time in Ambato so awesome. I am lucky to be here. Despite this fiasco or nightmare at SECAP, things are going well. I took a trip to Baños which is this super touristy hot spot at the foot of a volcano. It is this beautiful little city with lots of hostels, extreme sports, and dance clubs. I went with a couple of friends overnight and it was a blast! I was also invited to an Ecuadorian film called Zoquillo Express about 4 Ecuadorian women who want to go to the U.S. and are basically tricked by their guide that they are driving through Columbia, and the other countries to make it to the U.S. when in reality their tour guide is just driving them around the countryside of Ecuador. I was so flattered because I was invited by two of my students. It made me very happy. And then we went out to get a drink afterwards. I am starting to see that despite the lack of curriculum and all the disorganization my students at SECAP are wonderful. They are motivated to learn and really enjoy my class. Teaching has also be so much fun. I was also invited to the mall tonight with a couple of students. Yesterday on my day off I spent the better part of the day teaching my host niece the card game speed. I think we played the game upwards of 30 times so far and listened to California Girls by Katy Perry 10 times. I think we will be playing it a lot…

A lot of really random things have been happening though. Yesterday I didn’t have class because there is a bus strike going on. I still don’t know if I have class today, but the latest update is that there are police protests going on all over the country trying to overthrow the government. So, things have been interesting around here. I really don’t know what to expect and don’t even know if I am having class tonight. I guess I will just go with it for right now.  Thanks for reading all of this! I know it is a lot. I will try to write more frequently I am just trying to get this teaching thing under control. I will keep you all updated on my life and hopefully more updates will be coming soon.

Sending love from Ecuador!

Caitlin

p.s. another blog soon about the police protests happening right now...

Made it to Ambato!

 Hello everyone! I am so sorry for the delay in my blog posts. I know it has been a long time and I apologize! I have made it to Ambato and so far I really really like it.

My last couple of weeks in Quito were really good. Where  did I leave off? I think the last blog post that I wrote was over 2 weeks ago. A couple of weekends ago I went to Otavalo with my family in Quito. My host grandma (who is only 58) named Mariana grew up in Otavalo. Her parents still live in Otavalo. First let me explain what Otavalo is like. Otavalo is a mid sized city that is famous for its markets. In the Lonely Planet guidebook it is number three in the top ten things to do in Ecuador. It is described as,

“The modern world comes crashing up against the old in a sensory assault of color, smell, and sound. Under the cloud-covered shadow of the Imbabura volcanic peak, virtually the whole town is transformed into a street market. From the spectacularly colorful, locally woven textiles to the carved wooden trinkets; from the food vendors selling hot snacks from hand-woven baskets to the colorful watercolorists from the Peruvian school painting and selling their scenes of local folklore.”

And let me tell you, it was just that. It was beautiful. Situated at the foot of a volcano Otavalo had a beautiful backdrop. On the drives in and out I kept thinking to myself, “this is so beautiful”. It was breathtaking. I will definitely be taking a trip back to Otavalo this upcoming year. Plus Mariana’s family was so sweet. Her parents are both 86 years old, have been married for 68 years and had 10 children. When I talked to the mom, she kept telling me how proud she was of their children, “todos mis hijos son educativo y profesionales” All of them are educated and have are professionals. She also called me mijita which is a term of endearment that means my little daughter. That is one thing about Ecuadorians, they are so friendly and take you under their wing without hesitation. In both families I became mija just like that. All of the family came over and we prepared a big lunch that came from the market just outside of their house. The abuelitos have an internet café that leads to their house in the back. It was such a cool house that opened up to a courtyard that lead back to their room and kitchen. Then on the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th floor of the house were all the extra bedrooms for their 10 children. This house was awesome! They have also told me that whenever I want to come to Otavalo I am welcome to stay with them in their house. It was a really nice day.

Orientation continued in Quito for another two weeks. We started learning how to become teachers and learned quickly. We also had the opportunity to teach English in a free 2-week course offered at the local SECAP, or professional trade school. We each had 2 or three days to teach and get all of our jitters out. It was very helpful. I know what works and what doesn’t. And if I might say so, I think it went really well. I was pleased with my 3 days of teaching. At first I was a little discouraged because I was given advanced students and had no idea what to teach them, but by the end I was excelling. We had a party at the end of the course and gave them certificates at a restaurant and had beers. It was great. I really enjoyed myself and now have some people to hang out when I return to Quito (besides my fellow World Teach volunteers, of course).

I finally arrived in Ambato yesterday afternoon. There are 6 WorldTeach volunteers including myself here in Ambato. Usually volunteers just take a bus to get to Ambato when they move from Quito, but luckily one of us had an in with a tour guide company because he knew the guy from when his family visited earlier.  Anyways, long story short I thought that we were going to get a 12 passenger van and was pleasantly surprised when there was a private tour bus in front of the hotel. The $20 bucks was worth it with a private driver who took care of our luggage for us and delivered us to each of our houses.

I haven’t seen much of Ambato yet, but it seems like a really nice city! It was destroyed in an earthquake in 1949 so it was rebuilt from this. The buildings don’t really match and the city isn’t all that pretty, but I don’t really care. It is surrounded by the Andes and the volcano Tungarahua is close by. There is a town center with statues, a square, churches, and government buildings. Tomorrow I am going to try to conquer public transit to find my way to SECAP where I will be teaching English for the year.

My family in Ambato is great! I live with my host parents, Elvia and Nestor who are both in their 50’s. She runs the family store that is literally right outside of her house. You can step into the store from the hallway. The store is full of random items that she buys in Quito, Cuenca, and Guayquil to sell here in Ambato. I thought Nestor worked for the University here in Ambato, but he said he does something different. I still haven’t quite figured that out yet. They have 4 children, 3 boys and 1 girl. The oldest son lives and works in Spain with his wife and I probably won’t meet him. Girleza is the daughter in her 30’s and she is quite the powerhouse. She is the manager of a clothing store here in the local mall and in other branches in Ecuador. She is definitely the cool older sister. She is totally glamorous, beautiful, and  so smart. She lives here in the house with her 11-year-old daughter, Milena who is quite the chatter bug. She has shown me everything in the house and taken me on a tour of all her stuffed animals and photos of the family. She is welcoming and gives lots of hugs! She is the little sister that I never had. I met the other two sons and they were very nice. Daniel, comes home on the weekends but studies in Quito during the week, he was really nice. Nestor is the other son who is a high school English teacher here in Ambato. He lived abroad in England for 4 years and is fluent in English. He promised that when he gets back from a conference in Guayaquil he would show me around Ambato, so that is really cool!

I live in a big beautiful house in a centrally located and safe neighborhood. The house is so beautiful. I have my own room, and share a bathroom. I arrived yesterday afternoon with a nasty cold, but it hasn’t deterred me from anything. I absolutely love this family. Last night they took me to a professional basketball game where Ambato beat Quito! I am calling that a good omen for the year! Pro basketball here is pretty interesting. It was kind of like high school basketball in the states. Nonetheless, it was really fun and I had a great time with my new family. After sleeping for 12 hours last night, The family went on a walk in the park here in Ambato. It was a really cool park that had tons of trees and a nice walking trail. I think I will be going there often this year. After our walk I tried a local dish of cooked pig skin (yum! . . .not) with chochos (a type of bean), tostadas (toasted corn kernels), and an onion and tomato salad all topped off with orange. I wasn’t a big fan of the pig skin, it was really chewy and didn’t taste all that great, but I am glad that I tried it for sure! After we came back and had a big lunch we went outside of the city to see where Girleza and her boyfriend are building a house, had ice cream, and then returned back to the house. Then I discovered that I had wireless internet! If I had to choose between wireless internet and hot water, I would definitely choose internet so that I can be in touch with all of you! After I skyped with mom and my best friend Alex, we went to the mall and watched a movie. Man, I lucked out. What an awesome day! I am so happy to be in Ambato and to be with this family! Sorry for the obnoxiously long post! If you are still reading, know that I think of everyone of you often.

Sending all my love from Ecuador,

Caitlin