Things I Can Now Cross Off My Bucket List (that most likely were never on anybody's bucket list)

This morning when I was walking to work I saw a teenage boy riding his bike. He stopped on the road when he saw an old woman walking without shoes on and bent over probably in pain from Arthritis or from just being old. I kept walking and then saw him ride past me carrying the old lady on his handlebars. I was thinking about how I don't think that is anything I would ever see in the US, and definitely wasn't something I had seen before. That led me to start thinking of all of the "firsts" that I have witnessed since coming here. I then developed a long list, and thought I would share a few on the blog. Some are not meant for the internet (think: bugbites everywhere, lack of access to bathrooms, etc)

1. I have now seen two dead puppies. I also saw the mother dog carry her dead child in her mouth and then sleep with the dead puppy as a pillow. I also almost stepped on a dead puppy in the middle of the night on my way to the bathroom. I also saw my host mom put a dead puppy in a plastic bag and then throw it into the woods. All of these things were traumatic and not something I hope happens ever again.

2. I have pretended to be asleep twice when groups of people come from other communities and dance at our house for Inti Raymi. They then expect to receive food, hence pretending to not be there slash be asleep. I have also helped my host mom give many groups food. But only if they come before 9:00pm.

3. I have spent more than a month being woken up every morning by roosters. I have also spent more than a month getting up before 7am every day. Usually there is no sleeping at my house after 5:45am due to noise from both animals and people and the radio.

4. I have spent more than a month going to bed before 9:00pm every day. By that I mean I'm normally in bed by 8:30 because after we eat dinner there is nothing else to do. But after I'm in bed I read Divergent so I probably have stayed up passed 9:00pm. But I definitely haven't been awake passed 11:00pm since getting here.

5. I have taught kids who can speak to each other in Kichwa, their indigenous language, and know that I don't understand and therefore have a very easy time plotting against me.

6. I have gone an entire day without speaking any english at all, besides talking to myself.

7. I have danced for Inti Raymi twice with my community, Agualongo.

8. I have witnessed men get incredibly wasted and pass out or puke in front of their small children at Inti Raymi. Kind of traumatizing also but not as much as the dead puppies.

9. I have eaten rice, pasta, potatoes, and bread all in one meal.

10. I have eaten more potatoes in the last five weeks than I did over the course of the entire last year including Bolivia. I do not plan on eating potatoes for at least 6 months after July 29th.

11. I have sat there and smiled while people from my community are clearly talking about me in Kichwa and laughing. I don't think they are saying bad things, or at least I doubt it, but it is still really awkward. I'm looking forward to going back to being able to understand most of the time.

12. I have walked uphill both ways home and spent more than two hours most days walking in total. I guess that is how I am making up for all the potatoes.

13. I have gotten comfortable enough with my host family to get under the covers of their bed when we're watching TV, to make fun of the other people in my family, and to truly feel like I am more a part of the family than I am a guest. I am so incredibly excited to go home, have summer, see everybody etc but I know that it will be incredibly hard to leave my host family especially after another month with them.

I'm sure there are plenty of other firsts, but for now I can't think of them. 

Sunday Excursions

A view of Otavalo from our Lechero Tree hike.

Are you aware that the equator runs through Ecuador?

So when I arrived Hauna told me that her and her husband, Kiah, try to go on an adventure every Sunday to take advantage of all the stuff there is to do around Otavalo. They said I was welcome to come any Sunday so since I also want to take advantage of being here and my host family just sits around on Sundays, I have gone with them on two adventures since getting here.

The first Sunday I was here I met them at their apartment in Otavalo, we packed a lunch (PB&Js, a welcome change from potatoes and rice) and we hiked up to the Lechero Tree. The Lechero Tree is apparently very important in some kind of indigenous legend. There were two people in love or something and they sinned so now the man is the mountain and the woman is the tree and they constantly look at each other but can't get any closer. I'm not exactly sure, but it is something along those lines.

Anyway, the hike was super pretty and it was nice to get a break from my host family and have something to do after a few days of doing absolutely nothing because at that point I hadn't started teaching. It was a slightly difficult hike, especially for me newly adjusting to the altitude. After arriving back in Otavalo we rewarded ourselves with beers at a rooftop restaurant. Overall it was a good way to spend my first Sunday in Ecuador and a nice bonding experience.

The Lechero Tree. 

Classic me looking short picture.
This is Kiah, Hauna, and me at the Lechero Tree.

The next Friday (I know, not a Sunday excursion but still an excursion) Hauna's ex-spanish student from the US was visiting and he and Hauna came up to Larcacunga where I taught. After school was over we went out to lunch and then visited Peguche, a waterfall really close to Otavalo. We took the bus there and it is a pretty built-up touristy place with a stone walkway to the bottom of the waterfall. It was still amazingly beautiful and a nice way to spend an afternoon.

The waterfall.

Sam, me, Hauna, and Kiah at the waterfall.

The next Sunday (last week) Tyler (the only other intern still here), Hauna, Kiah and I went to La Mitad del Mundo, The Middle of the World. We had tried to go the Wednesday before because it was the equinox and apparently you don't have a shadow on the equinox but we ended up getting on the wrong bus and not having enough time. So, it turned into a Sunday adventure. We took the bus two hours to Quito and then another half hour to a place that felt a lot like Ecuadorian Disney World. There were little shops and restaurants scattered all around the central monument which marks the center of the world.

The lady taking our picture said "do something" so we were forced to pose.

A yellow line runs from East to West marking where the equator is and there were tons of tourists taking classic "I'm standing in the eastern and western hemisphere at the same time" photos. Fun fact: the line was drawn and the monument was built before GPS technology so it is actually something like 0.8 degrees off. But the damage had been done so we, the tourist, choose to pretend that isn't the case.

My classic both hemispheres photo.

 We went up in the monument and saw pretty cool views of the city. Then we walked through and museum that summed up all the different and diverse indigenous groups scattered throughout the country. It was really interesting.

A view from the top of the monument.

Afterwards we searched for a brewery but everything ended up being closed. Qutio is quite dead on Sundays. We ended up eating a late lunch at a Colombian restaurant and heading back to Otavalo. It was an exhausting but really fun day, especially since it was so totally different than my average day here.

School Observations

In a lot of ways teaching here in Ecuador has been really similar to my experiences teaching and being a student in school in the US. The students study math, literature, social studies, etc. They have music once a week and they love gym class. However, there are several things I've noticed about school here that is extremely different.

The first art class I taught: masks.

1. Grades. This is the difference that is weirdest to me. Grades here are super public, they just announce them to the whole class. It seems that kids care just as much about grades, but there is no privacy when it comes to that information. It is really weird to me when I am writing down grades and the kids just come up and look at the list, but I'm fighting the urge to tell them to mind their own business because apparently here it is everybody's business.

2. Worksheets. They weirdly don't exist here. When we were reviewing for exams (which are this week and next week) the teachers wrote out review sheets for them, but then copied the questions onto the white board and each student had to copy it into his or her notebook. Everything is in the notebook, no handouts, it is all copied down.

3. Neatness. Apparently here handwriting, the color pen you use, how straight your letters are etc are all important. The neatness of your notebook is an important part of your grade, almost as important as the actual answer.

My english class learning the parts of the body and drawing with chalk.

4. Gym. Several thing about "cultura fisica" are different than the gym class I'm used to. First of all, it is all outside and at any moment dogs can run into the middle of the soccer game or cows might come and almost trample the first graders. Yes, that happened. Also, they split up based on gender not age. That means that the first and seventh graders play soccer or volleyball together, instead of all the seventh graders playing together. That is really weird to me because the first graders end up just standing there or running away from the ball.

5. Uniforms. Obviously there are some schools in the US that have uniforms, I just didn't go to them. But here every school has a uniform. AND, your uniform is part of your grade. Just like the neatness of your handwriting, having the correct uniform on the correct day matters for your grade. It seems a little unfair to me that as a first grader if your parents sends you in the wrong uniform or if it rains the day before and your uniform doesn't dry, your grade suffers. However, they do all look pretty cute in their navy vests on Mondays and their grey sweatsuits on Fridays.

English class.

Learning emotions. I did all of those impressive drawings.

7. Snack. Every day a different mother comes in a cooks snack for us. Instead of goldfish or saltine crackers though we have soup or rice with beans or lentils. For me, thats definitely a step up. The mothers have to cook one day for every kid they have in the school. Since they are all from one community and every mother has several kids there are only so many different cooks and the food is always pretty similar: simple but good. They also get granola bars or cookies from the government.

8. Exams. The exams here are more about memorization than actually knowing anything. At least for the 1st-4th graders the teacher made up a review worksheet and had them all copy it into their notebooks and study it. Then, she had me type up that exact review sheet and that was their exam. It is kind of unfortunate because I don't think they really retain any of the actual skills but rather just memorize answers. The fourth graders that I worked with on Monday have basically zero reading comprehension but they can answer questions about the stories they've read because we practiced with the review sheet.

9. The biggest difference at the school I work at is the fact that there are only two classrooms. 1st-4th graders are all together and 5th-7th. That means that there is tons of time spend working independently. That is a skill that I'm not sure many students in the US have. I know that as a second grader if I had been left alone all morning with a workbook I wouldn't gotten anything done. The discipline that all of the kids have been forced to develop is pretty impressive. However, I know that their learning is also suffering because of the lack of attention.

Inti Raymi

Happy summer solstice! Here in Ecuador basically the entire month of June is the indigenous celebration called Inti Raymi. Although for non-indigenous mestizos it isn't such a big deal, for my family and other indigenous people in this area it is the biggest holiday of the year.

The community of Panacillo, where Tyler the other intern lives. He and
Hauna are dancing (they are the ones who look like white people)

Two Sundays ago the entire community of Agualongo took the bus to Combugan (no idea how that is spelled) for the main Inti Raymi celebration. All 24 communities in the area went and for some, including Agualong, attendance was mandatory. Seriously, the charge you the bus fare as well as $5 per person who doesn't attend. Seems kind of contradictory to the idea of what a party is in general, but maybe that is my Western point of view. My host mom wasn't too excited about going though but she had to, so we went.

It was a crazy and pretty incredible thing to see. There were hundreds of people there, food stands, ice cream vendors walking around and even cotton candy! Each community brought a large selection of gifts for the community that was hosting. We had 13 live chickens in our bus as well as fruit baskets, bread, and some soda to give the community. Each community dances in a circle up to the main stage and then gives their gifts. In the end, the host community gives some of the stuff back for each community to split up when they get home. Somehow what the get back has to do with how much they bring next year. The community that hosts is decided by lottery each year and although it is an honor it ends up costing them quite a lot of money.

Tyler dancing with a  chicken.

The women dance with fruit baskets. I didn't get to try, but was
informed that they are very heavy.

I danced with Agualongo, the community where I live, which was a weird experience. The dance is basically just stomping around so it was pretty easy to learn, but also quite tiring. After dancing with them I was with the other gringos from Tandana and we were asked to dance with three more communities. Helped us earn the fried cheese empanadas we had afterwards.

Each community dances with a stick of live chickens and then gives
them to the host community as a gift. We found where all of them are stored.

Last weekend the teenage boys from Agualongo danced and played the drums in a little group going from house to house in our community and the two next door. Luckily they came to us at 8:30pm when I was still awake so I filmed some of it and it didn't wake me up in the middle of the night. Tyler, the other volunteer, wasn't so lucky. When they dance from house to house each family is supposed to give them something to eat or drink. I think people are less and less strict about it now, but my host mom said that when she was a kid they used to make a huge vat of chicha (corn alcohol) and have it ready for the dancers who would come every day for the whole month. I'm so glad it is only on the weekends now.

Next Sunday we are headed to another community to do it all over again. Sounds exhausting but I bet it will be cool, and it is definitely a unique experience! 

Feliz Día del Niño

This past Sunday (June 1st) was the official Day of the Children here in Ecuador. At school, we celebrated last Friday. It was like the Halloween Fair, Field Day, and May Day all combined Ecuador style. It made me wish even more than I already do (which is a lot) that I was still a Foote School student.

I arrived to the kids sweeping the soccer/basketball/volleyball cement field. In their grey sweat suits (the Friday gym uniform) they kind of looked to me like prisoners. Anyway, after the field was clean the games started. I thought they had class in the morning and then fun stuff in the afternoon, but the teachers told me they would never pay attention on a day like Día del Niño, so they just didn't bother having class at all.

Looking like prisoners.

The day included:

1. Fútbol

2. Sack race

3. Spoon and marble race thing

4. Tomato dance

5. Dance performances (with costumes!)

6. The ice cream man coming (also like Foote, creepy old man ice cream guy)

7. Balloon popping hugging game

8. Cake!

One of the teachers asked if there was a day of the children in the US and when I told her know she was very surprised. I said it seemed like a good idea and something that my childhood was lacking, but I suppose that halloween pretty much makes up for that.

Señorita Sisa and her daughter. She teaches the younger kids.