Back to Bloggin'

I think the last time I posted it was maybe two weeks ago --- but I have good excuses for the writing lapse. For one, my brother, John, visited me in Ecuador on his spring break from law school and we traveled around together for the week. We spent a couple days in Quito (seeing the sights...churches, miradores, markets, etc.), then continued on to Mindo (a beautiful little town in the cloud forest where we stayed at a beautiful eco-lodge...unfortunately we got VERY sick...I am not going to go into details, trust me, it is for your best interest). After a seven hour bus journey on "recovering" stomachs (to say the least) we made it to my "hometown" of Baños (gracias a dios) and enjoyed having some time to regain our energies...we ended up doing a go-kart tour of the waterfalls around the area, going on a hike, visiting the mountain town where I teach, and much more! Overall we had a great trip and I was so glad to have had a miembro de mi fam to share my new home with! John and I traveled back to the U.S. together (or rather we left the airport the same night), which leads me to my second excuse for not blogging recently -- I have been at home for the past week and a half! And believe me, as much as I love Grand Rapids, I can't say that it inspires me to write/reflect. Regardless, it has been great to recharge my energies, think about how I want to spend my last couple months in Ecuador (I will still be living in El Triunfo and teaching at the elementary school), and relax. I almost could not get over the fact that in the U.S you can actually throw toilet paper down the toilet...as John said when he arrived back home "God Bless the U.S.A!"

And now for an additional "pitch" to all readers....I also spent a lot of my time at home working on stationary (made from the paintings done by los niños from El Triunfo) which I am selling for a minimum donation of $10. The proceeds of the stationary will go 100% towards the founding of a library in the elementary school in El Triunfo! If you are interested in buying some stationary please contact me at mmishler@middlebury.edu, and I will hook you up! (See attached letter).

For now, enjoy the pictures (including John milking his first cow) and I will be back to blogging via Ecuador sometime later this week as I head back Thursday morning....just in time for Semana Santa!

Día de la Mujer

Día de la Mujer, which falls on March 8th to be exact, is supposedly an international holiday…although I will admit that I never knew the holiday existed until this past Monday. Regardless, I think it is one of my new favorite holidays. The day started with a two-hour program put on by the seventh grade class. The program consisted of songs, poems, dances and a rose presentation (one given to each of the female teachers). To represent the women and mothers in all parts of the world, the seventh grade class split up into groups and learned dances from different parts of the world. The songs chosen to represent the Estados Unidos were “You Ain’t Nuthin’ but a Hound Dog” along with a mix of other similar songs, which I thought was hilarious. Maybe they think that is still how we are getting our groove on in the USA. I guess I am alright with that misconception, as I would say that as a whole we Americans just don’t know how to move like Latin Americans do. Actually, there is no comparison…while the LA youngsters grow up with their hips swinging to the constant blaring beats of merengue and salsa I was clapping along to “B-I-N-G-O” and “Row your Boat” (along with s slew of Disney songs) until I was old enough to choose my own radio station (and then it was Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys, dios mio).

Getting back to the topic of Día de la Mujer, after the program classes were cancelled and all teachers went to a close-by town to have a trout lunch (I fished for the trout myself thank you very much), followed by more than a few drinks and some friendly dancing to nacional música de Ecuador, cumbia and salsa. I like to imagine my experiences here in the escuela in a small Ecuadorian mountain town happening back in my elementary and high school in the US…although it is hard to imagine because it would never happen. The two education systems really are worlds apart.

I am going to have a respite from school stories and the likes because this Saturday (in only three days) John (mi hermano) is coming to visit for a week and then I am going home for a week and a half. I am going to pick up John in Quito where we will spend a couple days, then off to Mindo and the cloud rainforest for a couple days and then to Baños/El Triunfo. It will be nice to be home for a bit to recharge and to take some time to think about things I can do in the school and teaching wise as there aren’t many resources here in El Triunfo. Project ideas? Want to help sponsor a new library in the elementary school República de Suiza? Holler at me!

Besote,
Megan

PS – Feliz de de la Mujer (a couple days late) to all the mujeres that read this blog. Especially to my mom who es la major de todas! ☺

Makin' Progress

I would without a doubt say I have really enjoyed my first two months here in Ecuador, and in El Triunfo (wow, I can’t believe it has been two months), but I would also say that in the last few days something has really clicked and I am really feeling like part of the community and forging new relationships.

From high school girls asking me to help them with homework or paint their nails, playing volleyball with a group of girls my age, going horseback riding, or learning to make a mean mora (blackberry) shake, I feel as though I am just getting to a level in the community that I can really help students and make long lasting friendships and connections.

This past Saturday for example I headed down to Baños (the tourist town down the mountain) on the morning bus from El Triunfo and sat with a 16 year old high school student, Morelia. Morelia is a sweetheart. She often stops by my house to ask me to help her with homework (often when she is on her way to feed her families pig down the road). Morelia has 7 siblings, of which the two eldest boys are a little delayed because the Mom used to give them pure cane liquor when they were babies to calm them down and stop them from crying and the eldest sister who got pregnant with one of her teachers when she was 15. Bueno, regardless of the family history, Morelia is a doll. Thus, I invited her to come to breakfast with me at a local hostel that has a nice rooftop terrace breakfast area. I figured she didn’t have any money so I offered to pay for her and convinced her to come along. When I opened the door to the hostel (which is a pretty nice, clean, hostel, but is by no means what I would call luxurious) Morelia told me she was ashamed to enter because she had never been in a hotel before and on the way up the stairs she literally asked me if it was O.K if she talked. Not kidding. I told her that of course she could talk, she had just as much the right to talk as anyone in the building!

On another note, after another trip to Quito today (leaving form El Triunfo at 3:00 am (gag me) to make it to Quito the exact hour the Consulate opened) I officially am done with all the visa hassle as my visa application was approved and everything will be ready to pick up by the end of the week! Yipee! Double yippee because on the taxi drive back to the bus terminal I bought 50 roses for one dollar at a road-side stand!

I am looking forward to a weekend trip to the historical city of Cuenca with Isabel who I live with and her three-year old daughter and looking even more forward to John coming in a little less than 2 weeks (especially because he is bringing starburst jelly beans). Hehe.

LLL! Longer letter later…

Love,
Megita

A Day in Quito

Since I have decided to extend my stay here in Ecuador I have been spending a good amount of time trying to figure out what I have to do regarding visas. For US citizens, upon arrival in Ecuador they are given a 12-X visa – which allows them 90 days in a calendar year to be in the country. Since I am staying over 90 days, this visa won’t suffice. Until about a year ago it costs 10 cents and a visit to the local consul to extend the visa to 180 days in a calendar year but over the last few months the policy for tourist visas has changed numerous times and for this reason it has been really confusing figuring out exactly what I have to do. Gracias a dios, I finally got all my papers together (and found out that they were the correct ones, yippee), so I headed to Quito yesterday to apply for the visa (unfortunately I have to return to Quito Monday to see if my application has been authorized in order for it to be processed).

QUITO. Not wanting to travel alone, I asked Segundo (the mountain/treasure guide I have mentioned before), since he doesn’t work anymore (although he is almost 80 and still leads trips into the Llaganates…the mysterious national park that borders El Triunfo), to accompany me to Quito. After picking some fresh fruit for a tonga (Kichwa word meaning food supply) we set off for Quito and 6 am from El Triunfo arriving to Quito at 11:00 (which didn’t give us much time to make it to the consulate which closes as 12). Luckily, we got all the visa drama settled, so we had the rest of the day to track down one of Segundo’s friends that he wanted to see. Segundo has a lot of friends. Having led over 200 trips into the Llanagantes, and having befriended I am guessing all of the trekkers, it is no surprise. We finally got a hold of his friend Juan del Hierro who invited us to his house at 3. Having time to spare we headed to the Instituto de Geográfico Militar (the military institute of geography) to look for maps of the Llanganates. The military officer working in the map area figured we were setting off to search for the supposed 60 plus tons of Incan gold hidden in the Llaganates, and pointed to a random spot on the map saying he already knew where the treasure was. In reality, Segundo just wants to take a trip to a lagoon in the Llagantes that he flew over once in helicopter. We ended up buying two maps (the first maps the honored guide had ever owned of the beloved Llanganates) even though he could walk the trails with his eyes closed, and then we spontaneously called another friend of Segundo’s who invited us to lunch.

This friend, Fernando, who called Segundo “hermano,” treated us to a delicious seafood lunch. When he had to head back to work and Segundo and I still had about a half hour to spare before heading to the house of Juan del Hierro we decided to order dessert…which ended up being two huge banana splits. According to Segundo desserts like ice cream are like liquids and have lots of vitamins, thus you can eat as much as you want. I like this idea. Eventually we grabbed a cab and headed to the northern part of the city where Segundo’s friend had given us directions to his house. Or rather, we had scribbled down on scrap paper one street name and about five times “turn right,” “turn left at the next curve,” “turn right and go straight for a while,” “turn right at the auto shop.” As I’m sure you could have guesses, we got pretty lost. The cab driver not being the nicest, and me being out of cell phone credit to call and ask for directions, we got out of the cab where we figured we were pretty close and set out to find the house on foot. Having entered two other houses, taken about ten wrong turns, and an hour later we arrived to the house of Juan del Hierro. A huge white house in a gated community overlooking all of Quito, my campesino friend Segundo definitely looked out of place. But, I could tell from the start Juan and Segundo were old friends. Sharing story after story about trips into the Llaganates and reminiscing about old friends, it didn’t matter that Juan had a huge house and two BMW’s in the driveway. Not to mention he had beautiful original artwork hung all the house, half of which was signed and dedicated to Juan del Hierro himself. We spent the latter part of the reunion talking about the Ministerio de turismo and about the possibility of El Triunfo being a site for a community tourism project. It is in this conversation that I got roped into helping gather personal stories and history of the Llangates, along with photos, routes, tourist packages, etc. to present to the Ministerio de Turismo in a couple months.

After our visit with Juan del Hierro (I really like this name, which is why I keep mentioning him by his full name), we headed to the bus terminal and back to Baños. In Baños we finally convinced a taxi driver to take us up the mountain to El Triunfo and ended up arriving to our respective houses at about 11:45 pm. What a day!

holaaaaa

It has been a while since I last blogged…so I will try to give some good updates.

This past Tuesday, the official day of carnaval, I went with a group of people to Puyo (a town about an hour away that is in the jungle) to go swimming and (of course) play carnaval. We ended up going to a park that had numerous lagoons and lakes to swim in (and even saw a little monkey playing in the trees). Everyone went swimming and some little boys were effortlessly trying to get me to swim them across the deep-water on my back…which was really tiring. After a packed lunch of, take a guess, chicken and rice, we all climbed back into the two trucks and headed back to El Triunfo. A group of about twelve of us were in the back of the truck, aka we were prime targets for those playing carnaval…throwing buckets of water on us from roof tops, water balloons from the streets, even other trucks were throwing things at us. We of course were prepared as well and every time we crossed a river we stopped to refill our buckets and bottles with water. Once we even stopped to buy cane liquor (pure alcohol from the cane plant that they mix with a variety of fruity flavors)…it is pretty strong stuff to say the least. I was absolutely soaked the entire return trip and will admit I am feeling the effects with a nasty cold.

On Thursday I did a painting activity with the second and fourth graders. I started by asking each class to think about something that represents their daily life here in El Triunfo. Immediately the students were shouting out ideas: trucha (trout), milking cows, picking mora (blackberry), riding horses, the volcano, el monte (the mountains up the hill from the center of town), etc. I tried to have each student focus on a simple idea for the actual painting, something they could really focus in on. Although the actual hour or so I spent with each class painting was a bit stressful (picture me alone with a class of about 25 students who had never painted before), and none of the teachers were too helpful, the majority of the paintings turned out great. You can look forward to seeing a selected few of the painting on stationary for sale in the local Cascade and Ada area (and by contacting the lovely Shelley Mishler) in the near future. Hint, hint fundraiser for the elementary school here in El Triunfo…my goal is to start a library here with children’s books as there are currently 180 students and less than 10 books in the school. With 100% certainty I would say that the students spend a larger part of the school day playing fútbol (soccer) than reading. Although it may be more accurate to say that they don’t read at all.

As of last week I am spending Fridays helping to teach English in the high school, right up the hill from the elementary school. There are actually only about 50 students in the high school because the majority of high school-age students in the area either attend high school in Baños (the bigger town about an hour down the mountain) or only attend school on Saturdays in order to help out with farming and household chores. It is fun to work with an older age group and they certainly propose a entirely different set of challenges than the students in the elementary school. For example a student in ninth year spent the entire class hour making kissy faces at me. I have been in contact with a couple of my favorite Spanish teachers from high school and we are planning to Skype in the coming week, allowing the US students to practice Spanish and my students to practice English, an intercambio/exchange of sorts.

Yesterday I made chocolate chip cookies, however as I discovered there is no cookie sheet in all of El Triunfo I had to opt for chocolate chip bars…which ended up rather gooey and misshaped.

Well, I think that is all I can think of for now…I will try to post again later this week!

Carnaval pics and bad news

Below are some carnaval pics (the aftershots) and pics of my dear pacha (who died yesterday from a sickness she had because she received her puppy vaccinations too late). Pobre Pacha!

carnaval!

We have a five day weekend this week because of carnaval. Since we Americans do not really celebrate carnaval, what most likely comes to mind when you hear about the holiday is Brazil and the half naked (or basically completely naked) glittery women that dance samba in the street. Well, that is one example of carnaval, but here in Ecuador they have their own set of traditions – traditions of which I feel free to comment on as I sit here writing this soaking wet. Here in Ecuador carnaval is celebrated with parades and parties and a non-stop celebration of “love and friendship” (as quoted on an invitation I just received to a carnaval party Sunday night). However, the tradition that the kids like most and that reminds everyone that carnaval has arrived is to “mojarse” aka get everyone wet and or messy. This can be done with water balloons, buckets of water, splashing water from a sink, squirt guns, etc…and then you are reminded of how wet you are when flour, egg and silly string are added to the mix.

So to “jugar carnaval” here in Ecuador all you really need it water. So basically everyone is fair game to play and get played. This past Thursday school was shortened to a half-day in order to play carnaval with the students. I had heard about the “traditions” and thus came prepared…with silly string, eggs (one of which I cracked on the school director’s head), flours, and water balloons (which I woke up extra early to fill). By the end of the almost two hour “play-time” I looked like a drowning ghost: absolutely drenched with flour plastered all over my arms, face and hair. I think I still have some flour in my ear.

Tomorrow I am headed to Baños, the hopping tourist town 45 minutes down the mountain from El Triunfo, to watch the parade (and call my Mommy to wish her a Feliz Cumpleaños) and Sunday I am headed to Ambato (the biggest city within a two hour distance from El Triunfo) to watch the even bigger parade and rodeo.

¡Vive carnval!