Amazonía

OK, I´m back, and I can no longer put off writing this post. Well, actually I could, but that would involve going and watching Ecuadoran news with my mom and host sister, and I´d rather do this. Shit, I´m such a bad exchange student....

The Amazon was great. Here they call it the Oriente, which means East, because it´s on the East side of the country (not because it´s closer to the Orient). We were only gone for 5 days, 2 of those pretty full of traveling, so overall we were only in the jungle for about 3 days, which was not enough. Fortunately, I´m going back with my parents, aunt and uncle when they come down in December.

Highlights:

1. We spent part of a day in an indigenous village along the Río Napo. In the morning we did art projects and played tag with the kids, ranging from about first to sixth grade (they have to go to a different village for higher education). We got to see them go through their daily routine of songs, including the national anthem and some song that goes "Somos soldaditos/de chocolate" (we are the little chocolate soldiers). In return, they asked us to sing them our national anthem - probably the first time in quite a while that most of us had sang the whole thing out loud (fortunately we remembered the words).

Then we did a minga (a community project), in which we planted a bunch of different fruit trees along the edge of the river that borders the community. In reality, the kids did it for us, because gringos obviously don´t know how to plant jack. But it´s the effort that counts, right?

In the afternoon we played a game of soccer against what seemed like the whole town. If you were to actually count everyone that was on the field (which was easily bigger than Whitman´s, which is about the biggest legally allowed by FIFA), it was probably about 10 of us against 20 of them. The fact that their average age was probably 11 doesn´t matter. The average 11-year-old here probably has skill equivalent to a high school varsity player in the US. (Boys, that is - women here generally do not play soccer. In fact, I absolutely SHOCKED one of my friend´s host cousins when I told him that there are, *gasp*, girls in the US that are better at soccer than me. I think he had the idea I was about national team caliber. Maybe I should´ve let him keep thinking that...)

2. I´m sure most of you have now seen the pictures of me and Mona. However, don´t be fooled by her wooly, charming outer shell. In reality, she´s a sexist little bitch. She wouldn´t go anywhere near any of the women for the first day we were there, but was all over the guys constantly. When she finally "warmed up" to me, she actually just latched herself onto my face and tried to chew my eyebrow off. But it was totally worth it.

3. I´m now with my new host family in Quito. It´s just the mom, her 20-year-old daugher, and (drumroll....) their miniature dachshund! No, seriously, I´m not kidding. Her name is Chupeta (which I think means popsicle, but don´t quote me on that), and she looks exactly like Chestnut. She´s just about as spoiled, too.

I´m super stoked to be in Quito. As a general rule, the Quito families are less affluent, so my host mom works all day and my host sister takes classes and works. Ergo, I will have a lot of free time to roam the city and not feel guilty about not being home socializing with my host family. Host families are probably the most enriching part of the study abroad experience - I think they´re indispensible, especially when you´re trying to learn a language. However, they´re also exhausting and can be boring. I might learn Spanish by idly chatting and watching anime dubbed en Español, but that doesn´t mean I enjoy it. Also, it´s a huge adjustment to go from the freedom of US universities to a house in which you have to ask permission to go out at night. We all felt like we had been wisked back to high school. And again, I don´t mean this to sound negative. In a lot of ways, I really like the heavy emphasis on family in Ecuadoran (and broader Latin American) society. Young people have more respect for their parents, and in exchange the parents take care of them for a long time, which has certain monetary benefits. ´

That´s all. Love!
Alice