UPDATE

So now I have 2 months under my belt here.  The first month, September, was orientation in Quito.  Mostly that was good.  I stayed with a great woman, learned a lot, and received a lot of information--culture, history, teaching do’s and don’ts, safety & health issues, Spanish classes, a salsa class, etc.

Then I arrived, where I am and will be until the end of June, in Cuenca.  The adjustment has been so much more difficult than I could possibly have dreamed.  I thought I would just slide into life here.  Not so!  Teaching, which I did not assume would be simple, has had its challenges.  One of the most difficult aspects is that there is no curriculum so deciding what to teach is hard and extremely time-consuming.  Some classes go very well, others are ho-hum.  Trying to be creative, interesting, engaging, while teaching a mixed level of students, all of whom are supposed to be at level Intermedio II, is very demanding.  I chuckle to myself at how strict I am: absolutely NO SPANISH is allowed in the classroom, no cell phones, no talking to your neighbor (in any language), and I am about to institute no use of dictionaries for translating when someone is speaking (because you’re not paying attention & are missing whatever is being spoken about or done while your head is in your dictionary).  So doing the job I came to do--teaching--has been hard work.

A particularly fun class, was about 1 1/2 weeks ago, when the topic I chose, after receiving the suggestion from one of my students, was Ecuadorian food.  We went, as a class, out to dinner to eat Ecuadorian food and had cuy (guinea pig).  See plate with cuy below.  What a great class that was.  Everyone let their hair down.  Amazing how relaxed everyone was outside of the classroom.  The only rule that I had was that until 8 PM, when class time officially ends, English was the only language that could be spoken.  Several students continued in English well after 8 PM & 2 of those were 2 students who hardly speak in the classroom!  A very insightful experience for everyone. 

Another challenge, which has been harder than I had thought would be is living here, in a developing country.  The family with whom I’m living and I have recently overcome a hurdle.  Suffice it to say, that after a sort of confrontation when we laid the cards on the table, we’ve reached a better understanding.  There were a lot of misunderstandings, miscommunications, misinterpretations, and incorrect assumptions, many of which may have been related to cultural differences and the language (my Spanish is improving, but there is so much I don’t get!).  Without going into detail, after a meeting of the minds last week, my family and I are in a much better place.  Yeah!!  Now I am included in many of their activities, we can laugh, and seem to have a much better sense of mutuality.  

Last Saturday (10/29) I went with them to an amazing extravaganza at their sons’ school.  Then on Sunday (10/30) I went with them to the grandmother’s country home.  Very sweet little place in the country without the usual sounds of the city--traffic, machinery, sirens.  All I heard there was birds, sheep, frogs, and of course the usual barking of dogs.  Grandmother raises cuy!  This past Tuesday (11/1) evening, the evening before the El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), my family picked me up at the school where I work and we went to the cemetery to lay flowers on the grandfather’s grave.  What an amazing place.  Graves are placed one on top of another in what looks like buildings that go on forever, filled with thousands of people who have died.  You have to climb ladders to bring the flowers to some of the graves.  There are no words that I know that I can use to describe this place or the experience.  

Nov. 2 through Nov. 4 was a holiday, celebrating Cuenca’s Independence Day.  The whole country was on vacation.  On the morning of Nov. 2, I went with Olga, the mother of the family with whom I am living, to the Feria Libre, a huge outdoor market where everything under the sun is sold:  vegetables, fruit, grass for cuy, fresh (unrefrigerated) meat, chicken, fish, grains, clothes of all kinds, etc.  

It was fun shopping with her, but also difficult lugging everything that we bought.  (There are no grocery carts!)  Later that day we had a special feast at my house.  Several of Grandmother’s cuys were brought to the house.  (I had been told that they would arrive alive and I would help to kill them, but they arrived having previously been slaughtered.)  They were skewered on long wooden poles--through their mouths and coming out the other end.  I cooked 2 cuy to a golden crisp over a fire outside.  I must say that they tasted delicious.  Grandma, 2 aunts, an uncle, and 2 nephews, ages 2 and 18, and of course my family, all took part in the feast.  One of the aunts cooked the cuy with me.  We chatted endlessly (en español) and made a very nice connection.  I really like her and hope to see her again.

On the morning of Nov. 3, I took Fernando, the 15 year old son of my host family, and one of his friends to an amusement park.  I should have known better that it wasn’t my kind of thing, but it was a good way to make a deeper connection with Fernando, who is a sweet young man.  I went on one ride with them.  I think Fernando wanted me to do more, but one was enough for me.  The only casualty was that his friend lost his hat and felt that it was Fernando’s fault.  

Another challenging living issue is making friends.  In general, I don’t find that to be easy & it is not easy in another country with so many barriers, language, culture, limited time, to name a few.  It seems to be happening, but slowly, which is to be expected.  It was very validating during one of the afternoons over the vacation period to run into a group of 5 of my colleagues from my program who decided to come to Cuenca over the holiday to get away from their various sites, which include Guayaquil, Quito, Riobamba, & Loja.  We got together for a drink & shared our various stories.  It’s been up and down for all.  Some have had family issues, some school issues, feeling lonely, all are still adjusting.  No one has just slid into this experience without some bumps along the way.  All expressed some degree of envy that Cuenca is a great place to be............   

On Nov. 4 I went with my family to a resort-like place about 1 1/2 hours away from Cuenca.  It’s good to get out of the city & breathe clean air.  I swam my usual 50 laps that I haven’t done since I left the Berkshires.  What a gift that was & I can still do it without any difficulty.  I believe I impressed my family!  I left my family on my own (by bus) to get back in time to attend an ex-pat gathering at a local bar in Cuenca.  Not than I am an ex-pat, but I have known about this group that gathers every Friday night & thought it might be a way to make some connections.  (Normally I cannot go because I teach until 8 PM & the group is pretty much disassembled by the time I would ever be able to get there.)  The gathering was fine, but not something to get all that excited about.  The ex-pat community is living a completely different life than I am.  

On Nov. 6 I spent the entire day with my host family at grandmother’s house in the country.  The women (mother, grandmother, & Claudia) worked hard in the kitchen making ceviche.  So good!  The 3 sons and father played, relaxed, rested, read the newspaper, etc.  I did have a conversation with Olga (mother of the household) about the macho culture here.  She works so hard & seems frustrated & exhausted.  It seems to be a given that the women wait on the men.  She feels that it’s changing, but slowly.  I don’t really see a change in the household where I’m living and the boys certainly are not growing up with any sense that they should lift a finger when it comes to giving a hand in the kitchen before, during, or after a meal.  One of these days something is going to give.....

Anyway, this holiday time has been a nice rest from the rigors of teaching.  The next break is mid-December........  Hopefully I will find more opportunities to play in between the teaching.........