Give me a Keys...

Give Me a Keys…(kiss)

            Over the past several weeks I taught my students about minimal pairs. What is a minimal pair you ask? Well, a minimal pair is when two words sound similar to foreign speakers. For example: kiss and keys. If you ever ask a Spanish speaker to pronounce each of these words, you will find that it is very difficult for them to distinguish between the two. For a class I planned a lesson on minimal pairs in the English language. There is an extensive list including some of personal my favorites: kiss/keys, bitch/beach, hurt/heart/hard, very/berry, and bird/beard/beer. This all originated when one of my students was trying to say “the bird flies South for the winter”. Except, I thought she was sayiny, “the beard flies South for the winter”. As a teacher, I try to be as supportive and encouraging as possible. But when I heard a sentence about a flying beard, I honesty had no idea what she was talking about. Soon I realized what she meant to say and just started to chuckle to myself. I have a strict NO SPANISH policy in my classroom, but one of my students raised her hand and asked me, “teacher, How do you say, pajaro, oso, cerveza, aveja, y barba?” At first I was confused and had her repeat them so I could write them on the board: pajaro=bird, oso=bear, cerveza=beer, aveja=bee, and barba=beard. The gears in my brain started to click together. This was a matter of pronunciation.

            One night I went to a discotec in Baños, a small touristy town about an hour away from Ambato with friends for Christie’s birthday. Christie’s students (all girls) from Baños decided to show us around and take us to all the best discotecs. As the night progressed the girls started developing crushes on Krishna and Will, the two attractive gringos that they were hanging out with. They started making their moves on Krishna and his baby blue jeans he recently bought. One of the girls approached Krishna and with the English they knew, “Give me a keys!!!” At this point Krishna was thoroughly confused and pulled his keys out of his pocket for the hotel. I am not exactly sure what happened after that, but needless to say it was a fun night.

            This makes me stop and think about all the things that I mispronounce in Spanish. My Spanish is good, really good. It is at a point where if I make a mistake Ecuadorians don’t really take the time to stop and correct me unless it is a catastrophic mistake. However, this doesn’t happen often.  During my last year of high school I was a teacher aid in a Spanish 1 class. It was the first day and the students were practicing saying in spanish, “when is your birthday? My birthday is on…”. The word “birthday” in Spanish is cumpleaño. The ñ sound is vital and instead students were saying, cumple ano. Mrs. Franssen, the teacher and native Spanish speaker stopped the class altogether and told them, “No, no, no. Do you know what you are saying? Happy butthole, not Happy Birthday”. The class burst out in laughter before correcting themselves and moving on. This also reminded me of a time when my mom, sister, and I ran into a Spanish speaking man looking for the hospital. My mom stepped forward confidently and told him, “continue en este calle y cruz una puta. El hospital es en la derecha.” The man, just stopped and looked dumbfounded and started to laugh. My sister and I both looked at each other and started laughing as well. Basically Mom told the guy to continue on this street and cross the bitch. The hospital is on the right. She was rather pleased with herself until we told her that she said bitch instead of bridge (bitch=puta, bridge=Puente). I commonly confuse the difference between dollar and pain here. That is always embarrassing when I ask the taxi driver, “one pain?” instead of one dollar? But it is okay to make mistakes. If I could give advice I would just say laugh at yourself when you make a mistake, correct it, and move on. If my students accidentally say, “give me a keys (kiss)”, “where is the bitch (beach)?”, “I loaf (love) you” I just smile and pronounce the word for them again. Being a teacher takes a ton of patience, and I just tell them it is okay and to move on. This is definitely a highlight of teaching. I tell them about all the mistakes I make in Spanish, laugh at myself and move on.

Personal Shopper:

A couple weeks ago I asked the secretary at SECAP where she buys her business clothes because I am running low and needed some. Without hesitation, Elizabeth told me to come to SECAP at 9:00am sharp to go shopping with her. Not so bad huh? A personal shopper and new friend. We ended up going to a giant market. It was crazy. There were rows upon rows of random clothing items, food, electronics, basically you name it and they have it. I was overwhelmed with everything around me. Elizabeth guided me through the aisles and aisles of clothing. We stopped at a bunch of different stands to try to find pants. However, I am clearly a giant in this country. It was really hard to find clothes big enough for me. Ecuadorians in general are small people so it was quite difficult to find a pair for me. After several hours we found several pairs of work pants! I got a pair of purple and black plaid (yes, I know) and some dark gray pants. I am pleased with my selection. Ecuadorians also have a thing for wearing stretchy tight pants. This is something I need to get used to I suppose…

So Ridiculous…

Last Tuesday I was in my class teaching when there was an urgent knock on the door. I went to open the door and the secretary was there telling me she needed me to do something right now. It is very important and for the administration. “Ahora? Estoy enseñando mi clase ahora”, “Si, ahora.” So I told my students I would be right back and headed downstairs. Elizabeth had handed me a flash drive and a sticky note with illegible instructions. When I came into the office no one knew what I was talking about. They looked at me with blank faces until Elizabeth showed up again. She opened up the document where I was supposed to be answering questions. I started to read what I thought was a very important document for the SECAP administration. Turns out that it was the director of SECAP Ambato’s English homework. I thought to myself, “You have got to be kidding me. Really? This is not okay.” I asked Elizabeth what this was, and where the director that has chosen to ignore me for the past 5 months was and why I was doing his homework. She told me to wait while she went to get him. He came over and I explained to him, that I should not be doing his homework and that he interrupted my class and that my students were waiting for me. Did he expect me to do his homework? He explained that he didn’t want me to do his homework, but to explain the directions of what he was supposed to do. I thought to myself, “well why didn’t you just come ask me instead of sending the secretary?” This whole situation was so incredibly awkward. I didn’t really know how to react, except to tell him to come and ask me in my class with my students. It was inappropriate to expect me to do his homework. I couldn’t help but sit there exasperated for quite some time. It was so crazy.

Class in Revolt!

Not against me however. Last module I was stationed on the 5^th floor of SECAP in the Auditorium. I like to call it the “pent house”. This really isn’t a classroom at all, but I think they thought it would be good for my class of 40 students that never happened. The first week I had class with my 8 students in the auditorium but then we started moving around because SECAP was having some sort of conference and needed the Auditorium. My class was placed in 6 different classrooms before my students had enough. We were told one room was permanently ours, but then they couldn’t find the key and we had to use a different room anyways. I was annoyed, but I think my students were even more outraged. I suggested that we go and talk to the guy in charge half jokingly, and they agreed! We marched down and claimed we were on strike until we had our own PERMANENT classroom. Our new guy in charge, Fabian is a reasonable guy and made it happen. So, now we have our classroom. Caitlin and Students: 1 SECAP Administration: 0. Go US!

Cotopaxi:

At the first Refuge: 15,780 ft 

Last weekend I conquered a mountain. Well, not quite, but close. One of Krishna’s students asked me if I wanted to go with her to Chimborazo. I wasn’t really sure what she meant. Were we going to just hike around? Climb the mountain? Do nothing? I kept asking for more information but received nothing. Being the flexible person that I am, I decided to put my apprehension behind me and just go for it. I showed up at Parque Cevallos and met up with Pris, her cousin, and his friends. It turns out we were going to Cotopaxi instead of Chimborazo and that it was a big group going and we were just going to be walking around. We took the bus to Cotopaxi and then started climbing the mountain. We made it to the first refuge at 4810 meters or 15,780.6 ft. It is safe to say, that this is the highest I have ever been in my entire life. It was s cool.

Día de San Valentín:

A couple of students from my first class

Valentine’s day this year was the best yet. My students decided to have a party in both classes. My first class technically has 10 students, but 7 students showed up. If my students know how to do something, it is throwing a party. They brought cake, chicken, fries, rice, sandwiches, chocolates, colas, marshmallows, and various candies. We just sat, ate ate, and talked for several hours. It was a great time. My next class did not disappoint either. My students brought streamers and all sort of things to decorate and started the festivities. They brought lots of food and music. There were several speeches, and then they presented me with some really nice earrings they bought for me as a class. It was so sweet, I didn’t really know what to do, except say thank you and give a nice long speech emphasizing that they were my family and how much I loved them. It was fantastic!

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!