Hace una semana

Ok, this is kind of weird. I´m on the blogger website, but everthing is in Spanish! Anyways, just a brief recap of the past week. It´s probably going to be rather disjointed, and I feel my Spanish is getting better at the expense of my English, so disculpame.

I think I left off where I arrived in Quito. I managed to find my way to the main bus station, Terminal de Terrestre and catch a bus to La Hacienda Picalqui, about an hour and a half away. On the way there, they were playing the Japan game on the TV on the bus (TVs in vehicles seem to be pretty ubiquitous here), but unfortunately they lost in the last few minutes. Fortunately, this was not a sign of my luck since I made it to the Hacienda in one piece. My first day, I met Stuart, the director of the volunteer program, and Ronin, my Irish-British roommate, who taught me such useful phrases as ¨Dios le page¨- may God pay you - and some Quechua words such as hangover, which I have since forgotten. Wednesday night, some of us headed into Quito to experience World Cup fever here in Ecuador. Having won its first game, the Ecuadorians have been in high spirits, and this game basically determined whether they would move on to the next round. Thursday morning, our plan was to find the biggest screen in town, which was supposed to be in this big park by the Mariscal Sucre (modern, new Quito). Much to our disappointment, the sceen was 4 big screen TVs put together so there was a big cross running through the middle of the view. We decided to watch it elsewhere, and we ended up in the Ecudaorian version of IHOP, with overpriced food, but at least we had a good view of the game. And of course, they won, so the entire town was in a god mood. I left that day to come back to the hacienda, and resume normal life.

Now normal life here has been quite interesting. Here are a random sampling of experiences I´ve had in my first week.

- The bus system here is amazing. There are so many buses, and you can basically go anywhere on them. They are also amazingly cheap. I took a probably 3-4 mile bus ride and it cost me a grand total of 14 cents. However, on the Pan-American highway, the main highway that runs the length of South America and is very hilly here, the bus drivers drive like they´re in a video game race. They pass each other on the most dangerous looking hills and turns, with hundred foot drops on one side, but somehow they make it.

- People have some strange names here. I expected the stereotypical Juan, Maria, etc. Not necessarily. I have my meals with two families. One family, the father is Frederman, mother Lucia. Not too bad. Then, the first three kids are a textbook of Russian history: Vladimir, Estallyn, Llenyn, followed by Ronny and Patricia. The other family is composed of Luis and Esperanza, whose kids are Brian, Erica, Magdali? (Maggy). Last night, I dined with the latter family, and it was an amazing experience. Maybe because my Spanish has improved, but I could actually semi-converse with the kids. After dinner, I taught the kids how to make origami cranes and ninja stars, and Erica made me one of those friendship bracelets. How awesome.

- Working on the farm has been pretty cool. Most of the stuff we eat is straight off the farm. Yesterday, I helped cut some alfalfa for the cuyes (guinea pigs). By some, it was probably at least a football fields worth, so it was quite a lot. And they do this all by hand. It was fine for one day, and actually, I only helped in the morning, but man, I don´t know if I could do this every day of my life. The previous few days, I basically helped weed the vegetable gardens. I think yesterday had to be my most interesting overall moment on the hacienda, however. Not because of the cutting of wild alfalfa but my early morning experience. Stuart, the director, arranged for me to help milk the cows in the morning since I had never milked a cow before. I was quite pumped since it seems so romantic in that rustic, farmy way. Anyways, I start milking the cow, and all´s well. I hear Johnny (yes, he´s Ecuadorian) behind me, and of course, his squirts of milk sound bigger than mine, but it´s ok, size isn´t everything. Then, my cow procedes to pee, and by pee, it was more like a bucket of piss was coming out of its rearend. It splashed everywhere, and I had to pick up the bucket so none would get in the bucket. A few minutes later, I go over to work the other side with my back to a cow that is not being milked. I hear ¨splat splat splat¨ and I feel something hit the back of my head. Lo and behold, the cow had taken a humongous dump, and it had splattered against my backside. I needed to do laundry anyways, but that just made the laundry even more urgent. I did my laundry after lunch, and I have since discovered that doing laundry by hand is an art form. When I did my laundry by hand, things did not get clean - they just got less dirty. So, sorry Gene, the pants I borrowed from you are still kind of dirty mas o menos.

- Right now I´m in Otavalo, a place famous for its wool market every Saturday. I´m on my way to the community where I´ll stay these next three weeks called El Paraiso. It´s supposed to be gorgeous - in the Intag River valley, lush semi-tropical environment. There, I´m supposed to teach the kids, and I´m excited and anxious at the same time. I know my Spanish has a long way to go, and this will be a great opportunnity to learn it, but it kind of makes me anxious at the same time. I´ve always believed that I could do anything pretty well if I spent enough time on it, so this will be my chance to prove it. Vamos a mirar. I need to hop on the bus soon, which is supposed to be a 3 hour ride, so I´m going to leave it at that. Wish me luck and pray for me, if you do that kind of thing. Ciao!