Hearing hearing your wonderous stories
Hearing your wonderous stories
It is no lie I see deeply into the future
Imagine everything
You're close
And were you there
To stand so cautiously at first
And then so high
As he spoke my spirit climbed into the sky
I bid it to return
To hear your wonderous stories
It has been a while since I have updated you. So this blog
post is going to be about a lot of little stories from my life in the past
week.
Lets start out with now, as some of you may know I am
helping this really cool American in Guaranda help teach English some
afternoons. I am really enjoying it and end up doing it most days that there is
class. Hannah (the other American) is headed back to the states for a few weeks
so there will not be class, but she needed to give one last test. So I am
covering for her and am the teacher in charge today. I am currently writing
this while the 3 kids that showed up for advanced class today take the test.
Its pretty fun if you ask me, I mean today is not the most climatic day because
I am just chilling while they take there test, but that’s ok. Ecuadorians have
a special skill… cheating… you can put them in different rooms and they can
still get answers off each other (ok maybe not quite, but it seems like that).
This blog post might be a tad choppy because I have to interrupt it with
glanced up and possible warnings. Anyway… being a teacher has been something
that I have wanted to do since about 4th grade, and this is just
solidifying my desire. Who knows where life will take me, but it would not be a
surprise if it took me, as least for a while, to do ESL (English as a second
language).
Last week was Ferrio, basically just holiday. The main event
in Guaranda was Day of the Dead, but Cuenca (a huge near by city) had its large
yearly festival and Latacunga (another city) did as well. It was a 5 day, much
appreciated weekend. My family seemed to do a different thing every day. On
Wednesday we headed out to a near by town and ate Cuy. Cuy is a traditional dish
of Ecuador that is, to put it bluntly, skewered roasted guinea pig. It was ok,
but as I am not a huge fan of meat and I thought that Cuy had a sort of fishy
taste it wasn’t my favorite part. But it was a must have Ecuadorian experience.
After that we headed out to a near by church that is located on top of a
mountain. It was amazingly beautiful and a great walk. The day was very relaxed
and wonderful. The next day we got up at 5:30 to head to a town about an hour
and a half away and we went to a local water park. Although it wasn’t large
compared to the dells it was a fun morning with the family bobbing up and down
in a wave pool and making chains going down the waterslides. I was a little (ok
a lot) terrified the whole time that I was going to have to pull out my life
guarding skills and save somebody. Most Ecuadorians have very poor swimming
ability and the lifeguards supplied by the water park all were wearing life
vests, not a boost to my confidence. But we made it through the day with only
sunburn. Whew. The rest of the weekend was spent doing different activities
closer to home in Guaranda. The most memorable would be what I would call, the
Jamaican go cart races in cool running equivalent of boat races. People showed
up with boats in various states of disrepair and revved their engines around a
small lake for about 3 hours. Then there was a race, but I didn’t know when the
race started so it was very anticlimactic. I only figured out that it started
when it was over… and everybody started clapping as one boat took a victory
lap. Jaja.
The last Ecuadorian adventure that I have time to tell you
about today is my next medical saga. As many of you know, I got bit by a dog,
while running, on Sunday. I was just jogging along and bam… it was attached to
my rear end. What is up with that? It took enough motivation to get my self out
anyway that getting bit by a dog on top of that… lets just say I wasn’t happy.
I am now 4/7 done with my shot series for rabies. Yep… they are in my stomach.
Not fun, but better than rabies… and a good story later. J
Livin’ on the loose.
Ok so you finally had some Cuy--it's about time. You are very matter-of-fact about it! I won't ask for details about exactly how it looked.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Jamaican bobsled boat races had me laughing out loud. "I didn't know the race had started until it was over and everyone was clapping." I think this sums up some part of your Ecuadorian go-with-the-flow-but-I-often-don't-have-a-clue-what's-happening attitude.
Good for you.
Wonderful!
Wow. And that was all this week?!? I'd say there's definitely enough excitement going on. So sorry to hear about your dog bite and the need for rabies shots.... ouch.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the wonderful Post!
Teach on Ellie!!! You are so good at it, and those are lucky Guarandans who are moving forward with their English because of your enthusiasm, and generosity!
ReplyDelete