Summertime happenings

 

Since the school year wrapped up around the end of June, what, you ask, does a TEFL volunteer do to keep busy during these summer months?

First, I have to mention the Open House that our students from the “US Cultures”-themed after-school English club put on to wrap up their participation in the club. The open house was held at my high school in the afternoon, and students worked in small groups to share some of things they had learned during the 8 weeks of the club. Some examples included presentations on traditional German foods, how to make Mexican “papel picado,” how to write Chinese characters, and the spices of Indian cuisine. I was so proud of the work the students put into sharing their knowledge, using their English, and working together to organize the event. There was pretty good attendance, too, including special visitor and photographer Zack from Ibarra (thanks for the pics!)

Another highlight was participating in a teacher training workshop in Quito in early July– I co-presented (to over 100 Quito teachers!) along with a fellow PCV about how to teach vocabulary: It always feels so rewarding to do teacher trainings, and all the participants did a great job in the sessions. We shared and practiced with teachers many different classroom activities focusing on vocabulary, as well as discussing the many different aspects of vocabulary knowledge. Thanks Rae for taking pictures of me teaching during the session!

Then it was off to Mindo, a beautiful small town in the cloud forest about 2 hours away from Quito, for the US embassy summer camp! This is an English immersion camp for high school students from around the country, sponsored by the embassy. We welcomed 2 different groups of students to the camp, whose theme this year was “Environment.” I was one of the leaders of “Team Endangered Species.” The embassy camps have been one of the highlights of my service because the students are so amazing. I was so proud of our groups for all the hard work they did there. During the week we had the chance to visit a mariposario (butterfly farm? Butterfly house? Unclear on the best English translation here) and a chocolate factory, El Quetzal. In my free time in Mindo, I also got to go ziplining through the trees!

Then it was back to Riobamba to prepare for another summer camp! Camp Riobamba was a day-camp for students ages 10 and up, from several different schools around the city. The theme, you ask? Detectives! Students got to write secret messages in invisible ink, practice their power of observation, play fun games like Mafia, learn about Morse code, even build marshmallow shooters (a detective has got to defend herself!), and more, all while practicing their English! On the last day of camp, we took a mini field trip and had a picnic in the park, with parents and families invited along. It was another awesome week with students. Sometimes I wish camps could be my year-round job! I hope to find small ways to incorporate the fun and energy of camp-style learning into the regular grind of English classes in the coming year.

Who looks like they’re having a better time here, the students or the counselors?

In between activities like camps and teacher trainings, I’ve had time to continue exploring this beautiful country, from Mindo waterfall hikes to high-altitude treks around frigid misty lagunas. Next week my parents will be making their second visit to Ecuador, and I’m excited to spend time with them exploring Cuenca! After that I will be headed back up to Quito for a few days to help with in-service training of volunteers. Then soon enough it will be back to school, for my last school year in Ecuador…. How time flies.

Saludos from Ecuador, and hoping all is well in your part of the world!

The latest from Ecuador

The last time I posted a blog update in February we were in plenas vacaciones de Carnaval here in Ecuador. It’s now late May and the school year will be coming to a close in about a month. A highlight of March was vacations for Semana Santa, which for me included a long weekend at the beach in Puerto Lopez, one of my favorite Ecuadorian beach towns.

The most noteworthy event of April should have been the annual fiestas de Riobamba, but tragedy struck here in Ecuador when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake occurred on the Northern coast. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands more injured, many more losing their homes, including several volunteers who were evacuated from their sites. I was extremely lucky because I didn’t even feel the quake (and seem to be the only person in the country who did not); I was at a parade for fiestas de Riobamba and didn’t feel a thing. I have, however, been recently awoken at 3am by aftershocks, a scary experience. The country is facing a long recovery in the regions that were affected by the quake in April. One positive thing to note is the amazing amount of solidarity shown to the victims; immediately after the event, people in the city of Riobamba and at my school were already organizing themselves to collect donations of food and supplies to send to the affected areas. I saw one of my co-teachers at the high school accept not only her own family members whose home was destroyed but also another family into her home for several weeks after the earthquake. Solidarity and self-sacrifice are characteristics that I have seen that the vast majority of Ecuadorians possess, and it shows in times of crisis.

Compared to what many people experienced, I personally was extremely lucky and was not very affected by April’s tragedy. One thing that changed for our entire Peace Corps group, however, was that our mid-service conference, which was planned for early May, was postponed until June. So next month I will be traveling to Quito with the rest of my group for 4 days of training, which mark halfway point of our 2 years of service. We have now actually passed that landmark by about a month, which means that we have only 11 months left here in Ecuador. It’s a little surreal to think that this experience is more than halfway over and now I will be counting my time here in months rather than years. I have begun to think about post-Peace Corps life but haven’t made any big decisions yet, apart from completing my degree. I’m telling myself there’s still plenty of time for that.

This month, May, one of the highlights has been a new English club for students that my fellow Riobamba volunteers and I have begun leading on Monday afternoons. The club is English-only and the theme is the different world cultures that form a part of U.S. culture. We are doing activities relating to Mexican, Indian, Chinese, and German cultures, while exposing the students to the diversity present in the USA. I think it’s easy for students to see the US as only what they see movies, pretty homogenous, full of blond-haired and blue-eyed monolingual English speakers, so we’re trying to show them otherwise. The club has been great so far and the students are really motivated and willing to participate and learn! The culmination will be an open house at the end of June to show what they’ve learned to parents, teachers and friends.

I’m very much looking forward to the vacaciones because that means activities like summer camps and teacher trainings. In Riobamba we are planning a detective-themed English camp, where students will work in teams to solve a mystery throughout the week. In early July I’ll be helping with a teacher-training workshop in Quito. I also hope to participate in this year’s US Embassy-sponsored English summer camp. School vacation months are definitely something to look forward to because of the flexibility to do things like this and get a little more travel time in!

Thanks for reading my sporadic updates and I hope that all is well in your part of the world!

Long overdue update

I’ve recently realized I’ve been terribly remiss in my blogging duties because my last entry was in SEPTEMBER y estamos en febrero ya. Qué bestia. I can really say that time has been flying by. The end of January marked 1 year in Ecuador for me. In some ways it feels like just yesterday– as cliche as that is– I was receiving my Peace Corps invitation to Ecuador and googling this country that I knew next to nothing about. And now? I’ve traveled a lot around the country, feel at home in Riobamba, and feel like part of me will always be Ecuadorian. It’s amazing what a year can do, and I look forward to the second year (and change) of my service here. Anyway, since it’s been so long, I’m just going to share highlights from each month since the last time I posted on here.

 

September:

September, (right after my parents’ visit), was sort of a tough month for me because school had technically started but not really– no one had schedules and I spent a lot of time just sitting around feeling really unproductive. This lasted for 3-4 weeks and was pretty frustrating. Looking back, I should have figured out how to make work for myself and been a little more proactive. Well, it’s a lesson to use for the future.

On the positive side, at the end of September I started piano lessons! It was pretty spontaneous– I met a piano teacher while waiting for a bus– and decided to try something new. As a kid I took guitar lessons but didn’t really take to it and quit before long. However, I’m still going to my piano lessons, I bought myself a keyboard and practice almost daily. It’s fun and a challenge and probably very good for my brain.

October:

October was a busy month!

In early October, I participated in a 2-day TOT (training of teachers) in Guaranda, a city about 2 hours from my site of Riobamba. With several other PCVs, we gave workshops to English teachers on different topics such as lesson planning, assessment and rubric design, games and activities in the classroom, and writing objectives for lessons. It was really productive and I think the teachers all learned a lot. Also in early October, I joined several other PCVs in putting on a summer camp in Pasaje, near Machala in the coastal province of El Oro, for kids there who were on a school break between semesters (coastal and sierran school schedules in Ecuador are different). It was a great week, with friends and awesome students. Us TEFL volunteers helped coordinate English games and activities for the students, even though the camp was mostly focused on drug, alcohol, sex and health education. I love when I can participate in summer camps, it’s a nice break from classroom English and the students who participate seem to be really motivated and enthusiastic. And the Saturday after the camp, some PCV friends and I did an awesome waterfall hike in the El Oro province, among the many cacao and banana plantations. Beautiful!

 

In mid October, I moved into my own place! It’s a 2-bedroom, furnished apartment– I got really lucky! It’s only a 10-minute bus ride or 25-min walk from school. One of the teachers at my high school (who’s since moved on to work at a university full-time but who I still count as a good friend of mine) put me in touch with the owner, and Peace Corps approved the place right away. I still see my old host family from time to time, but I love living on my own. It’s the first time I’ve ever lived all on my own apartment sans family, host family or roommates and I have to say it’s great. I love the independence and freedom! And I get along great with my vecis (short for vecinos– neighbors) too.

 

And at the end of October, my sister came to visit! It was really spontaneous; she was supposed to have come in August with my parents but got sick right before the trip and couldn’t make it. My mom managed to talk the airline into giving her a voucher for travel at another time, and so October it was. I had a long weekend for the day of the dead festivities, and so Zoey got to experience lots of colada morada, the traditional thick, purple, sweet drink here for day of the dead. We hung out in Quito, Riobamba and made a day trip to Guano. Zoey met some of my teachers, neighbors, and friends and everyone was really gracious and welcoming. It was great for my sister to see a little slice of my life here in Ecuador. A fun and spontaneous visit!

 

November

Things were picking up at school finally by November, and I kept busy with classes and worked on a couple projects at school, along with my sitemate Lucy. I created a presentation about applying to US colleges and universities for my class of International Baccalaureate students, who had expressed interest in this. Also, we planned a Thanksgiving celebration as part of the annual department Open Houses that my school puts on in November each year. With the help of all the English teachers, we prepared students to give presentations to their peers about different aspects of the North American holiday, and we also prepared 6 huge sweet potato casseroles to serve at the event. I think we spend an entire weekend baking! The students also created a “Thanksgiving tree” with a hand-shaped cutout of colored construction paper for each student representing a “leaf” on the tree. On each leaf the student who created it wrote 5 things they were thankful for in their life. It was fun getting to teach our students about Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday).

 

The open houses were part of the larger “fiestas patronales del colegio”, celebrating the birthday of the patron/namesake of the high school, Pedro Vicente Maldonado, a famous scientist, mathematician, and geographer from Riobamba. These fiestas are a big deal for the school. Classes were cut short for over 2 weeks to prepare for them. In addition to the open houses, there was a big parade through downtown Riobamba in which every course did a choreographed dance with costumes and all. In addition to other events.

 

I did take one (quick!) trip up to Ibarra in November, to celebrate Thanksgiving with a bunch of other PCVs. It was a big festive dinner and I ate way too much! It was nice to celebrate with friends– we also had a Thanksgiving dinner here in Riobamba. So there was no lack of Thanksgiving in my life here in Ecuador. Throughout November I also kept busy with my piano classes and my weekly conversation class for adults in the Casa de la Cultura (a cultural center) in Riobamba.

 

December

December was a fun month! In early December I traveled to Cuenca for the first time. I participated in a CDC focus group for PCVs from Ecuador, then spent the weekend exploring the city with some PCV friends. Cuenca is a beautiful city with lots of museums, gorgeous architecture and delicious food. We also visiting a PCV friend’s site in the small town of Gualaceo, about an hour by bus from Cuenca, and we did a gorgeous hike in Cajas National Park.

In December there were also lots of Christmas festivities in Riobamba and at my school. A big tradition around Christmas-time here in Ecuador is to put on “novenas,” which are 9 events held on 9 consecutive days that consist of gathering together and singing Christmas songs, praying, and eating. This happened in my school but also goes on in workplaces, public places, and families’ homes. Many classes at school also organized Christmas events. Riobamba got into the Christmas spirit with lights, decorations, etc around town.

Of course my biggest highlight from December was traveling home for Christmas and New Years! It has been almost a year since I left, so it was great to go back to California and spend time with friends and family, even if the week went by really really quickly. I ate a ton of my favorite foods, almost constantly, and managed to gain 4 pounds in a week. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself.

Aaaaand then came 2016!

In January, I participated in a medical brigade with an organization called Timmy Global Health. It was my first time going to the Oriente, or amazon jungle region, of Ecuador, and it was a fantastic experience. I was helping out with the brigade, which took place in Tena and surrounding communities, in the capacity of interpreter. So, I helped take patients’ histories, helped the doctors communicate with patients in the consult rooms, and helped dispense medication to the patients and explain to them how to use their medications. The brigade consisted of visiting doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and college students from the U.S. Since the majority of them didn’t speak Spanish, that’s where the interpreters came in. It was really a productive and gratifying week and I also got to enjoy the beauty of the jungle.

From January 15th to Feb 1st, my dear friends from Pomona, Amanda and Keith, were here in Ecuador to visit me. It was the first stop for them on a big trip around the Pacific Rim. Now they’re in New Zealand and they have a ton of countries on their itinerary, they’ll be traveling til May! I was so happy to see them and grateful that they made it down to Ecuador. We spent time in Quito, Riobamba, and the jungle (in Pastaza province near Puyo) together. They also went down to Cuenca while I was working during the week. It was great showing them around and for me the highlight was definitely the jungle tour! We did a 2-day tour which included waterfall hikes, a canoe ride, a visit to an indigenous community, and sightings of monkeys, macaws, alligators, as well as learning about lots of medicinal jungle plants. What a cool weekend, and this is within 3-4 hours of Riobamba! Couldn’t be more different terrain though.

 

And now, in February, it’s vacations for Carnaval! Carnaval is a big celebration here in Ecuador. Teachers have a long weekend and students have a week off of school. Traditionally people play with water balloons, water guns, as well as paint, flour and eggs, and foam spray cans known as “cariocas”. I’ve already been attacked several times and it’s not even technically Carnaval yet. These vacations also coincide with the end of the semester at school. So last week we were giving exams, and on the 15th begins the new semester. This past semester really flew by fast and I can’t help but feel like I was not productive enough at my school. Next semester I am going to finally start the weekly workshops for teachers and “English club” for students that I have been planning and haven’t gotten around to. I also aim to be better about planning with my teachers. Here it is on my blog so I hope this helps hold me more accountable. I need to do my best at school despite all the challenges that exist there. If not, I’ll just continue to have regrets and wonder if I could’ve done more. I have to try not to let the difficulties of working in a public high school in Ecuador weigh me down…. focus not on the majority of students who are totally uninterested in English, but try to do more for the few who are… not blame everything on the disorganization and inefficiency of the system but focus on what I can do within that system.

 

Ok, that’s my long overdue update. I need to write out my thoughts and experiences more frequently because with my very imperfect memory this is a big help for me to be able to look back later and see what I’ve actually been up to during this time that’s flying by. In a year I’ll be wrapping up my time in Ecuador, and that’s going to come up on me sooner than I know it. Thanks for reading, and hasta pronto!

 

My parents’ first visit to Ecuador

My parents recently made a trip down to Ecuador to visit me. We had an amazing time! Luckily my dad was good about documenting the trip, and has given me permission to share his photos on my blog! So here’s a recap of the visit along with pics courtesy of dad.

My parents arrived late on a Monday night to the Quito airport, where I met them, and from there we headed to our AirBnB to crash. On the first day, a Tuesday, we took a double-decker tour bus around Quito, hopping on and off and different sites and neighborhoods: the Parque Carolina, the Mariscal, the Mercado Artesanal, the Basilica, the Centro Historico, la Ronda, el Panecillo. Some photos from this day:

On Wednesday, we took a day trip to Otavalo and Cotacachi, in the Imbabura province, abour 2 hours from Quito. We visited the famous market in Otavalo, where my mom picked up an alpaca sweater and I got a scarf. We walked around, had cafecito, and eventually headed up to a waterfall (Peguche) for a nice small hike. In the afternoon we headed to the small town of Cotacachi for more exploring, cafecito, and meeting up with a couple of my volunteer friends. Then we caught the bus back to Otavalo and then back to Quito. A few photos:

On Thursday we headed to Riobamba, and had a really nice, long lunch with my host family at my house, followed by cafecito in the evening with some of my adult English students. It was great for my parents to meet some of my Riobamba people 🙂

Then on Friday, we explored Riobamba, walked around, and mostly did a lot of eating! Morocho and pancito in the morning, hornado and juice at La Merced market, tortillas de maiz, and then later to Guano for fritada and cholas (a brown-sugar filled pastry from Guano, a small town near Riobamba). We also visited my high school, Pedro Vicente Maldonado (both campuses!) My mom also got to experience the magic of Ecuadorian nail salons (endless design possibilities, and so affordable!) when we got manicures in the afternoon with my host sister.

Saturday took us on the train to Colta, another small indigenous town nearby, where we also got to see the oldest Catholic church in Ecuador. Unfortunately this day was just my mom and me, as my dad felt sick and had to spend the day resting in the hotel (we think altitude finally caught up to him). Luckily on Sunday he was feeling better for our trip back to Quito. Here’s a couple of my mom’s pictures from Saturday:

The following week, Monday-Friday, I attended a Peace Corps conference with my Omnibus (Peace Corps training group) from 8am to 5pm in Nayon, and met up with my parents back in Quito in the evenings. What did they do with themselves during their days in Quito?? A lot! My host mom from Nayon was nice enough to take them to la Mitad del Mundo (the Equator line) and a bunch of other other places, including the Guayasamin museum. They also explored the Centro Historico on their own, and my dad made it up the Teleferico (fear of heights prevented my mom from joining in on that adventure). 

We got to have some nice dinners together in the evenings; highlights include Shibumi for sushi (highly recommended and they will make creative vegetarian sushi gladly!), and dinner with my host family from Nayon, which was lovely. Here I am with my parents and my Nayon host parents:

And a gorgeous shot of the main street in Nayon in the afternoon:

It was so incredibly great to see my parents in Ecuador, introduce them to both of my host families, explore some new places, and show them a little piece of my life in Riobamba.

Does it seem like I have been on vacation for ages? Look for a back to school post soon!

Lately: School’s out for summer!

An update on all the things I’ve been doing since summer vacation began!

Embassy Summer Camp in Quito

After regular classes ended at the beginning of July, I headed to Quito (Cumbaya, actually, right outside of Quito) for a week and a half to participate in the US Embassy’s English immersion summer camp. This is a camp for high school students from all around Ecuador who have special scholarships from the embassy, so this means the kids at the camp were highly motivated, excited about English and a lot of them with (already) really excellent English communication abilities. The theme of the camp was “International English” and students were divided up into country groups, out of the 5 countries in the world with the most English speakers: the USA, the UK, China, India and Germany (does this list surprise you?). My group was Germany, so with two other PCV group leaders, we planned lessons about German history, language, dance, food, traditions, etc. I was in charge of the “music” lesson, so I talked about Christmas traditions in Germany and taught the kids to sing “Oh Christmas Tree”, and I also planned the “language” lesson, so I created a lesson comparing “Denglisch” (the mix of German and English) to “Spanglish” and including a discussion about how languages influence each other and why some people are preoccupied with the notion of language purity. The students had some really interesting discussions, I was impressed! In the evenings, there were other activities like movie night and a dance party. Then on the last day of camp, each country group put together a presentation for the whole group showcasing what they learned during camp. So our kids did a German folk dance for all their peers! It was so fun to work with the kids in a camp setting and to see a lot of other Peace Corps Volunteers again who also came out to Quito for the camp.

The view from the retreat center in Cumbaya where the camp was held

Students from Team Germany working together during a lesson

Students performing a traditional German folk dance

Students from Team China showing off their Chinese zodiac calendar

A thank-you card given to me by the students on Team Germany

Supletorios and el Show de Ingles

After returning to Riobamba from the camp, I found myself back in my school in the middle of what’s called “supletorios” – two weeks of make-up/remedial classes for students who did not pass a given class. Lots of students at my school had to stay around for English supletorios. I had missed the first week of supletorios while I was in Quito for the camp, so I sort of came back to school at an awkward moment; however, I was able to provide support to two of the English teachers at my school who were working with supletorio students to prepare a “show de Ingles” (English show) with poetry, skits, singing, and dancing. During the week, we spent class periods practicing the acts for the show, and on Friday, the students performed on the outdoor stage for the rest of the supletorio students. It was nice to see some of the students who had struggled most with English during the year get up onstage and speak or sing in English (despite lots of stage fright!).

Students performing for their peers at the ‘Show de Ingles’

Weekend in Guayaquil

After supletorios ended, I headed to Guayaquil for the weekend of July 26-27^th to meet up with some other PCVs and run the Guayaquil half marathon/10K. I had originally planned on running the half marathon, but my training had stalled and I felt I didn’t have enough long runs under my belt, so I decided to play it safe and just do the 10K. Which I think was probably a smart decision. On Saturday after checking into the hostel, my friends and I headed to the convention center in Guayaquil to pick up our race numbers and packets. We were surprised to find a huge event at the center, a festival of local gastronomy with TONS of food stalls and free samples of coffee, chocolate, ice creams, sauces, and lots of other delicious stuff… Basically we made a day out of it! When we headed upstairs to actually pick up our packets, though, we waited for over an hour before being told that there were no more spots left in the race. A little disappointing because we would not get official chip times or T-shirts, but we decided to just show up and run anyway, unofficially. It turns out a lot of people had the same idea as us, because bright and early at 6am on Sunday morning, when we showed up to run, lots of other runners had no number either. I felt good during the 10k itself—it started early enough to not be TOO hot during the race, and the course was flat and easy, if not the most scenic. My time was around 54:30, or about an 8:47 pace. After finishing my race, the other 10k runners and I cheered on our half marathoner friends. Then we all headed back for showers and to grab a quick bite to eat before catching buses back to our respective sites. It was a quick but fun weekend getaway with friends, food, and running, some of the best things there are!

During the race and after!

Riobamba Summer Camp

During the last weekend of July, I helped out at an English summer camp here in Riobamba, organized by my site-mate Erin at her school, Colegio Riobamba. It was a day camp this time, not a sleep-away one like the embassy camp. The students were local, mostly from Colegio Riobamba, and a couple even came from my school (including my 13- year old host brother). The theme of the camp was “The Amazing Race”, and students completed a variety of challenges to win points (the team with the most points at the end of the camp got homemade cookies baked by another volunteer!). They also got points for speaking as much English as possible and for stealing other teams’ flags. The kids also made recycled art and played baseball and American football. It was fun spending the week with kids and other volunteers who also came out to do the camp. I think the sports section was especially fun for the kids because most hadn’t ever played baseball or American football before!  Thanks to a connection made by  Erin, on the last day of camp, we headed to the training complex of the Grupo de Operaciones Especiales (GOE), part of the Ecuadorian armed forces, and the kids got to try rapelling and doing the police obstacle course. Pretty cool! The camp was a great success overall and a rewarding way to spend a week during the summer break from school. Also a way to spend the afternoons exploring Riobamba and surrounding areas like Guano and Colta with other volunteer friends. On the Saturday after camp ended, a bunch of us headed to Chimborazo. It was an exceptionally clear (and warm!) day.

Students working on a recycled art project

Triumphant campers after making it up this ramp at the police obstacle course

Gorgeous day on Chimborazo!

Travels! Esmeraldas, Bucay, and Puerto Lopez

After camp ended, Erin and I decided to take a spontaneous trip to the beach, to the province of Esmeraldas. I took a night bus on Sunday night (one day after Erin headed to the coast—she got the last bus ticket for Saturday night!) and arrived in the beach town of  Atacames in the early hours of the morning on Monday. After sleeping a few more hours in a hostel in Atacames, I headed to the nearby beach town of Tonsupa to meet up with Erin. We spent time walking along the beach, drinking batidos (smoothies) and fruit salads, and we even went whale watching and saw humpback whales up close! We also visited Atacames, Muisne, and Esmeraldas (the city) before heading back to Riobamba. We must have not felt done traveling, because a couple days later we took off again! This time we stopped in Bucay, a city between Riobamba and Guayaquil in the transitional zone between coast and sierra, with lots of natural beauty and opportunities for adventure sports and things. Erin knows a guide for an adventure tour company in Bucay, and so we got to do canyoning (rapelling down a waterfall) and try rafting. It was my first time doing both these things, which were both a little scary but super fun! After our action-packed day in Bucay, we headed back to the coast, this time to Puerto Lopez, Manabi. Puerto Lopez is an adorable beach town where we relaxed, ate good food, and then headed out to do a tour of la Isla de la Plata (the “poor man’s Galapagos”) where we saw tortoises, blue footed boobies, fragatas, humpback whales (from the boat out to the island), and even lots of cool fish while snorkeling! On our last day we visited a nearby beach called Los Frailes, which was beautiful and had a lot of paths for coastline hiking, and finally, we visited the community of Agua Blanca, where we did a tour and learned about the native Manteno population before taking mud baths in a natural laguna! The trip back to Riobamba started bright and early at 3:30 am and it was a long travel day… but well worth it for the adventures we had!

Beach in Esmeraldas

Taking a ferry to the island town of Muisne

Pretty typical of my eating while on the coast: lots of delicious fruit and dishes made from verde (green plantain)

This pina colada that Erin and I shared in Tonsupa was more fruit than cocktail… but man was it good!

Beautiful Bucay!

Waterfall in Bucay (Don’t worry, mom…. the one I rappelled down was smaller than this J )

Sea turtles on la Isla de la Plata!

It’s blue-footed booby mating season!

Awkward selfie with blue footed booby

View from la Isla de la Plata

The males of this species of bird called fragatas inflate a large red sac under their chins to attract females

Humpback whale sighting on the way back to Puerto Lopez from la Isla de la Plata! Incredible.

Sunset in Puerto Lopez

Seashell collecting at Los Frailes beach

View from the mirador above Los Frailes beach

Lucky for me I have a lot to look forward to still because in a few days my mom and dad will be arriving in Ecuador to visit! Can’t wait!

How to Speak Ecuadorian

When I arrived in Ecuador I was lucky to already be pretty fluent in Spanish. But that doesn’t mean I’m not improving or learning new things all the time. Specifically, I’m learning the nuances of Ecuadorian (or even more specifically, Sierran, and even more specifcally, from Riobamba) Spanish! If you know me well then you know that I’m kind of obsessed with analyzing language, so I can’t help but do so daily as I go through the course of my work/life/social interactions in Spanish. Here are some of the  Ecuadorianisms that I’ve found most prominent and useful to add into my own speech in order to fit in here linguistically. Use them liberally to sound more Ecuadorian when you speak Spanish!

De gana: sin razón (without reason, for no reason, senselessly). Example: No me hagas venir de gana.

Chévere: genial (cool, awesome, great). Frequently “¡Qué chévere!”

Alhaja – bonito, agradable. (beautiful, pretty, nice).

Ya mismo—“right now” (but can be any indefinite future time). “Ya mismo” can mean in 5 minutes or several hours…

¡Qué bestia!– Literally translated into English this would be “What beast!” … It’s a common exclamation that can be used in many situations, like when something is really shocking, bad, or even very good!

¡Chuta!– Another really common exclamation, kind of like “Shoot!” Usually used when something bad happens, or to express shock or surprise.

Full– This is a really interesting one. Looks like the English word “full,” right? But it’s pronounced “fool” and is used in a slightly different way than in English. It’s used as an adverb, for example:
“Comí full” (Comí mucho/ I ate a lot) or “La literatura me interesa full” (La literatura me interesa mucho/ Literature interests me a lot). Basically, it has the sense of “mucho” or “a lot” in English. Or use it as an adjective of quantity: “Hay full libros en la mesa”, (There are a lot of books on the table) or to express that a place was literally “full” (usually of people): “Quisimos entrar en el estadio pero estaba full” (We tried to enter the stadium but it was full).

Guagua – baby or small child (this is a Kichwa word)

Guambra – adolescent (also a Kichwa word)

ñaño/ñaña – hermano/hermana (brother/sister)… also Kichwa and in my experience, used even more often than “Hermano” or “hermana” here

¿No es cierto?: A tag question used at the end of a sentence or phrase (Literally: Isn’t it true/certain?). For example: “El bus pasa por aquí, ¿no es cierto?” (The bus passes by here, right?) Also a common tag question: ¿Sí or no? (Yes or no?)

Dar …. –ando/–iendo, and Using future tense for commands: These are two command forms that are used frequently here. In fact I would say that each of these is more common than the standard tu/usted/ustedes commands. They seem to both have the function of softening the command. An example of the first form would be: “Dame abriendo la puerta, por favor” (“Open the door, please.” Literally translated into English it would be something like: “Give me opening the door, please”). An example of the second form: “Lavarás los platos y dejarás todo limpio” (“Wash the plates and leave everything clean.” Formally it is using the future tense, so literally translated it is “You will wash all the plates and you will leave everything clean).

…Ve (at the end of a sentence or phrase). : literally “See”. Tacked on often to the end of sentences, not just questions, but also statements.

No más—literally “no more;” very common at the end of sentences or phrases “Un cafecito no más” (A coffee, no more) “Siga no más” (Continue, no more– sort of like “go right ahead”), or “Una hora no más” (one hour, no more).

“Saber” instead of the standard “soler” (an auxiliary verb used to talk about habits and routines).  Used to express what people usually/aways/have habits of doing. Example:
“Sabemos comer a las dos” (We usually/always eat lunch at 2pm). This is a really common construction here but I hadn’t heard it before I came to Ecuador.

Veras… (Vera, Veran) before  a sentence to call attention to what’s about to be said (similar to, “Look…” in English)

-ito/ita/ -cito/-cita: the diminutive forms of adjectives, nouns, and names are extremely common: for example “calientito”, “sopita”, or, in the case of myself, “Norita”

-el/la + name. Usually when talking about people using their first names (although not when addressing people directly), Ecuadorians will use the definite article “the” before the person’s name. For example: “la Nora,” “el Mateo,” “la Ximena.” So, Literally I am “the Nora.”

Voseo– this is the informal use of “vos” instead of “tu.” Pretty common in everyday informal speech.

As you can see, the linguist in me spares nothing from analysis! I’m sure these observations are just scratching the surface of the complexity that is any dialect of a language… including Ecuadorian Sierran Spanish! I hope you fellow language geeks have found this as interesting as I have 🙂 Ciao for now! (oh, and ciao! is also the most common way to say goodbye here).

“Riobamba is beautiful” … Nevados y frutas

Lately the students in one of the classes that I work with have been preparing oral presentations about themselves and their interests. Many (most) of these speeches tend to start in the following formulaic way: “Hello teacher, hello my friends, my name is so-and-so. I am X number of years old. I live in Riobamba. Riobamba is beautiful”… and then go on to describe the student’s love of playing soccer on the weekends. While I have been constantly stressing the importance of using a VARIETY of different descriptive adjectives (not only “beautiful,” “good,” “big,” “nice” and “fun”), it’s actually hard to pick a better single adjective than “beautiful” to describe Riobamba, when you think about it, and when you consider this city surrounded by mountains on a clear, bright day. Riobamba really is beautiful. The best thing? Mountain views! I recently visited the refuges at the base of Chimborazo. With one of my fellow teachers, we reached the segundo refugio (second refuge), at 16,404 feet! Pretty cool to say that’s the highest altitude I’ve ever experienced. Here are some photos of our visit:

What else have I been enjoying about beautiful Riobamba lately? Well if we’ve chatted at all you know I’m obsessed with the fruit variety that surrounds me daily here… So many delicious fruits! Here’s a few of my favorites that I’ve been collecting pictures of to show you. I had never eaten any of these fruits before coming to Ecuador

Tomate de arbol (“tree tomato”)”

Guayaba:

Pepino (not, not a cucumber– which here they call “pepinillo” … but more like a kind of small sweet melon, with a cool purple tiger-striped exterior):

Maracuya:

Babaco:

Granadilla (maaaybe my favorite… so sweet and delicious eaten with a spoon right out of its shell)

Most Ecuadorians seem to only eat a lot of these fruits in juice form… And I’ve gotten several weird looks/comments/people being concerned that if I eat the seeds it will somehow hurt me. However I think all of these fruits are delicious eaten as is, seeds and all!

So there you have it… Mountains and fruit. Probably 2 of my favorite things about this corner of the world! What can I say, my students are right. Riobamba is “biutiful!”

From training to site

Time for a long-overdue update! On April 21st, training ended and I swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer in an official ceremony in Quito.

In the first photo I’m with the Peace Corps Ecuador country director and the US ambassador to Ecuador, in the second one I’m with my new host mom from Riobamba and the ambassador.

It was hard to say goodbye to my wonderful host family in Nayon! But I was ready for training to be over and to get to my site and begin working in my school

Group photo with my Nayon host family!

On April 22nd I arrived to my new host family’s home in Riobamba, and the next day I went straight to my new high school. I’m sort of jumping in to work near the end of the school year– there’s slightly less than 2 months of school left– and still getting the hang of things in my school. I started by observing a few classes and now am slowly starting to help out the English teachers in their classes. I am working with 9 different English teachers at 2 different campuses/locations. I work with mostly the equivalent of 10th graders, with some (equivalent of) 12th grade classes and 8th grade classes mixed in. One of my classes is an International Baccalaureate class, whose students seem really motivated and excited about English, so I’m especially looking forward to working with them. Every teacher and class is a little bit different, and I think it will take some time before I get into the swing of things, but it’s definitely exciting to start meeting the students and getting to know the teachers at my school. They’ve all been so welcoming and helpful to this newbie so far!

One thing that has been tricky is getting used to constant changes in the school schedule, and it seems there’s often no way to know about them in advance. Yesterday, for example, was the Friday before the weekend of Mother’s Day, and most of my classes ended up being cancelled for special Mother’s Day activities/programming. Here’s a photo of the students from one class reciting poems to honor the teachers who are moms (for some reason I was invited to this… not a mom, so it was a little awkward but sweet as the students passed out food and cake, roses, and each individually came around and hugged us… all 35+ students!)

Interestingly, mother’s day seems to be a much bigger deal here than in the states. I don’t remember ever having big celebrations at school for mother’s day, and one of my teachers told me it was a really big travel day all throughout Ecuador because people place a lot of importance on being with their mothers on this weekend.

So what else do I do in Riobamba while I’m not at school? Well I have a lot of cafes con humitas…

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Hang out with my host family a lot. Spend a lot of time walking around the city. And admire this view of Chimborazo:

Hoping to have some outdoor adventures to share soon.

Saludos de Riobamba! I’m hoping all’s well in your corner of the world. And feliz dia de la mama of course!

T

Trip to La Costa

Last week, our training group loaded up into a bus and headed to Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, and about a 7-8 hour ride from Quito. The coastal region of Ecuador has a totally different climate (hot and humid!), different vegetation and landscape, different food, and a different accent from the sierra region. It was kind of like being in another country! Guayaquil is a big bustling modern city with wide palm-tree lined avenues.  We were only there for a very brief time, and we stuck mostly to the small, central, more touristy part of the city, but what I saw I really enjoyed. Highlights were walking along the malecon (boardwalk along the river Guayas), walking up the hill of Las Peñas (a colonial neighborhood built on a hill and topped by a lighthouse), and visiting the markets La Bahia (many blocks of vendors selling everything you could ever need) and Caraguay (huge food market). We got to visit a small beach community called Playas after spending a few days in Guayaquil. What a treat to go to the beach! A small group of friends and I also decided to spend one extra day on the beach– this time in a popular beach town called Salinas, in the province of Santa Elena– before making the loooong trip back to Quito. Here’s a few pictures from the trip!

Headed up the stairs in Las Peñas in Guayaquil

Lighthouse at the top of the hill

I forgot to mention there is this park in Guayquil absolutely full of iguanas!

Arriving at the beach town of Playas at sunset!

Murals in Playas.

Last stop- the more crowded beach destination of Salinas!

It was a great time to relax in a hammock — here in the hostal in Salinas.

Only a few more days before I swear in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and move to Riobamba! Next time I write here I will have moved and settled into my new host family’s place and started my new job… Wish me luck!

Semana Santa

After returning from our site visits, we briefly returned to the normal training schedule in Nayon before taking a 4-day weekend off of training for Semana Santa, or Holy Week, which is the week leading up to Easter if you didn’t know (I did not) and one of the most important holidays for Catholics and therefore for Ecuadorians too. Here they celebrate with lots of time  going to mass and visiting churches and eating a traditional dish called Fanesca on Good Friday. On Thursday, which was the first day of the long weekend, I went with my host mom and another trainee to have a touristy day in Quito– we took a tour on a double decker bus, which was actually pretty cool because you could hop on and off where you wanted, thereby seeing lots of the city in a day without the stress of public transportation. So we hopped off to visit the Basilica de Quito, an enormous neogothic cathedral in the Centro Historico, and climbed all the way up its vertigo-inducing heights. We were rewarded with an awesome view of the city! Being that we were with my host mom, we took tons of pictures. The purple masks are cucuruchos (see Friday…).

This staircase was scary… but the views were worth it

We also hopped off the tour bus in the neighborhood of central Quito called La Ronda, a very cute pedestrian zone with cafes, restaurants, bars, and artisan shops. We had hot chocolate, coffee, and empanadas de morocho (morocho is a kind of corn)– delicious!

Anyway, you were probably wondering about those cucuruchos. They are the people who participate in the procession in Quito on Good Friday wearing purple cloaks and hoods, often barefoot, carrying crosses, whipping themselves, or wrapped in barbed wire to repent for their sins. This procession is called Jesus del Gran Poder, and on Good Friday I got to witness it. It was certainly an impressive sight, there were probably thousands of these cucuruchos marching through the streets of Quito. Can’t help but find them a bit frightening! But interesting to see nonetheless. This is a hundreds-of-years old tradition for Ecuador on Good Friday. Here’s more info about them: http://jpgmag.com/stories/15313.

And then on Saturday, we continued with the Semana Santa festivities by eating fanesca! Fanesca is a traditional dish that is only served once a year during Semana Santa. It’s also unique to Ecuador. Fanesca is a really big deal here, it takes days to prepare because it requires a lot of peeling of grains beforehand, and it’s a huge social event to get together and make fanesca. Oh, and you never make it in small quantities. It’s meatless because you’re not supposed to eat meat of Good Friday. It sometimes has fried bacalao (a kind of fish), but my host family made it with the fish on the side, so whoever wanted it could add it to theirs. Basically its a very hearty, creamy soup made with tons of grains: habas, chochos, corn, green peas, and squash, potato, cream, cheese…. Served with a slice hard boiled egg on top plus tiny empanadas and slices of fried maduro (ripe plantain). It’s so delicious and SO filling! I ate 2 bowls for lunch around 2:30 pm and could barely eat at all for the rest of the day. I can’t think of a dish in the US that has this much tradition around it and that’s only served once a year. Can you?

This wasn’t even all of it. It didn’t all fit in this giant pot so there was a second, smaller pot on the side… In my host family’s house, there were about 22 guests over to eat fanesca, and almost everyone had seconds (very acceptable with fanesca). And there was only a little leftover!

My host mom decorated the feast with cucuruchos!

Que rico!

Here I am enjoying a little pre-fanesca beer with a fellow trainee who I invited over to my host family’s fanesca feast.

After Saturday there was one more day of the long weekend, and my host mom took me for a hike at La Mica, a laguna near the volcano Antisana. It was chilly and a little overcast and cloudy, which obscured views of Antisana, but it was still a beautiful place to see. Very tranquil and not too far from Quito! I would definitely go back.

And that wrapped up my very full long weekend of Semana Santa in Quito! I have more to post about the trip I just returned from yesterday to the Ecuadorian coast… but it’ll have to wait a bit as I have some homework to finish up for tomorrow and I must get to it. This week is the last full week of training (in 10 days I will be swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and moving to Riobamba!) and it will be a busy one for sure. Assignments due, exams, teaching in the schools for a few more days. But a coast post is promised very soon! Thanks for reading, and ciao for now!