The Challenges.

I´ve been thinking about how to write this post for a while now, I wasn´t sure how to do so without being misunderstood. I knew before coming here that I would be faced with challenges and pushed outside of my comfort zone. I actually wanted this, because I know it´s necessary for me to grow as a person. What I guess I didn´t realize is that facing the challenges and living outside of my comfort zone is quite hard and sometimes exhausting. I know for a fact that it´´ll all be worth it in the end, but for the moment I´m struggling. One of the biggest personal challenges I think I´m facing is to not be as close to my host family as I would have liked to. I really expected to build very strong realtionships with the members of my host family but this hasn´t happened. Talking to the other Intercordians I realized I´m not the only one to feel this way. It´s kind of hard to explain because I absolutely adore my host family, they´re truly amazing people, especially my host mom and dad. I just feel like a guest of lot of the time and that´s not how I´d like it to be. Like how they always give me the best of whatever food they have or how they won´t let me help them work in the fields. It makes me uncomfortable at times. But by now, I´ve learned how to deal with it.

Another personal challenge I´ve faced has been working at the day care. I feel like I´m not doing much there to help out. The kids are also at an age where it´s hard to build actual relationships with them because they´re more interested in running around all the time. I´m glad I get to watch the work of a social worker and teach english night classes. It kind of makes up for how useless I feel at the day care.

Then there´s the simple fact of constantly being outside of my comfort zone. There are times when there´s nothing I´d like more than to be cuddled up on the couch at home in the presence of my mom and just feel comfortable. But then some simple special moment happens, like a kid giving me a hug or my host dad calling me his daughter or spending time with my fellow Intercordians, and everything becomes alright. I hold on to those moments real tight because they´re what keeps me going. 

A challenge which I think is faced by most Intercordians here is to be seen as the ¨white foreigner¨. It makes me sad to see some of the people here associate my skin colour with a higher status of some sorts. It´s subtle and not shown by everyone but when I do get that feeling, it really don´t like it. They know they are a hard working bunch though, because I´ve heard them joking around about how doctors, lawyers and engineers wake up late in the morning and get to the office at 9am, while they (the people from the ¨campo¨ or countryside) wake up before the sun to start working. I can´t help but agree with them. Seeing how hard working these people are has been really eye-opening. Every day I see older women hauling some huge bag of corn on their backs, people taking their cows from one place to the other, children carrying their younger sibling on their backs. Last Saturday my whole family went up the hill to tend to the fields. They left at 5am and came back at 6pm. That´s a huge day´s work out in the sun. It´s inspiring to see all of this, and it makes me want to become a better person. I have a lot of time to think while I´m here because my only real distraction is books. I think about what kind of person I want to be and what I can do to achieve this. I´ve become so much more sensitive to the different socio-economic situations of people. It´s one thing to read or hear about people who lead different lives than us in the North, it´s another thing to actually live with them. There´s no way to actually understand it than to live it. It´s hard but very rewarding.

I guess what this whole post is to try to make people realize that this whole 3 months isn´t about having fun all the time, but instead it´s a complete learning experience. I´m learning more being in this small community in the Ecuadorian Andes than any university class I can take. And every day I remind myself of the truly amazing popportunity I have to be here, because it´s easy to forget in the midst of all things.

Here are a few pictures as promised.

Here is the guinea pig. Mmmm!

Here it is again with my host brother but without its insides!

Here is the enormous plate of food they served!

Here´s me eating the guinea pig!! I look way more excited than I actually was.

Here is the family dancing. It was getting pretty late..

Here is some sugar cane. They sell these bags for 50 cents, it´s well worth it!!  

Here is a group of musicians and me!

An Ecuadorian Fiesta in the Andes.

This past Saturday was my youngest host brother´s confirmation. We all went to mass at 9am and it lasted until 11:30am. It´s pretty similar to a confirmation back home. However, what follows is pretty different. My host brother´s godparents drove us back home after the mass. We all sat in one of the rooms in the house which they had cleared completely for the fiesta. First came the soup, which could be considered a full meal with all it´s pataotes and piece of chicken. Then came the actual meal. HA. It was gigantic. It had this kind of corn called ¨mote¨, patatoes with a sauce, a boiled egg, and many piece of meat which included guiney pig. Yes, guiney pig. I finaly had my first taste of it and let me tell you it was probably my last. It had a funky taste to it, not that terrible but I wouldn´t eat it again, especially knowing that I´m eating what is considered a pet back home. Anyways, I didn´t get that big of a plate because I warned them not to feed me so much. It is a costum here to pass plastic bags to guests after a meal, and people just bring whatever they can´t eat back home. Like doggy bags. Anyways, after lunch the drinking and dancing began. Slowly but surely the alcohol kicks in and people start dancing more. I wish I could load videos on here of them dancing but it won´t let me. Let´s just say, as a sober one, it was very intersting to watch. I did dance a bit also but I mostly observed.

So to sum things up, my understanding of the focus of the fiestas here are on Eating, Drinking and Dancing. Quite the party let me tell you.

I´ll try to post pictures of this fiesta and other stuff next time I come to the internet cafe because it´s not letting me today for some reason.

I hope everyone is well at home. I miss you all so much!
Besos,
Marissa

A Typical Day.

On Mondays, Wedenesday and Fridays, I get up at 7:20. I eat breakfast which consists of a piece of bread with jam and fruits. At 8:00 I head to the day care which is a 5 min walk away from my house. I spend the morning there until noon which is when I go home for lunch. My host mom or host brothers usually have lunch ready for me. I normally get some kind of fresh fruit juice (!!!), rice and either an egg, chicken or pasta. I enjoy lunch a lot but I am obviously spoiled to always have it ready for me. After lunch I take the bus (which costs 16 cents) to the hospital where I spend the afternoon until 3 or 4. After that I either head home right away or go into town to use the internet. My host family usually isn´t home before 6 pm so I get bored if I go home too early. We usually start getting supper ready around 6:30 and finish eating around 8:00. After that I usually help my host mom with the dishes although lately I´ve been playing UNO with my host brothers. The first time I asked one of my host brothers if he liked playing cards, he answered that only taxi drivers really play cards so I obviously didn´t taken my UNO game out that day. Now that I have though, they never want to stop playing! After a couple rounds I normally go to my room to read until 9:00, which is when I go to bed. Pretty early, I know, but the sleep is well needed.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I get up at 7:00. I eat breakfast and take the bus to the hospital where I spend the morning with the social worker or if she´s not there I work with a nurse and Janice. At noon I head back home for lunch and then I go to the day care for the afternoon until 3. I´ve started giving English night classes because I felt like I could do more for the community. I teach twice a week from 4 pm to 6 pm. Two other Intercordians come to help me out. I really enjoy doing this although it´s challenging. The kids are great though, sometimes shy but mostly willing to try. It makes up for long days but I like being busy.

Trip to the Amazon (Part 2)

I forgot to mention in the last post that I made a new friend while at the lodge. His name is Toño. He is the cutest thing I´ve ever seen. Ever. We became friends while the group was away on their treck. Slowly but surely he started trusting me and started climbing all over me. He liked stealing our food, drinking our juice and eating grasshoppers. But I still loved him.

Anyways, Sunday morning we already had to leave the beautiful lodge. We went white water rafting that morning though and it was amazing! Scary at times, but lots of fun. When the guide would yell ¨inside!¨, we´d all have to croutch inside the raft and a wave of water would submerse us. We lost one once, she got caught in the wave. But she the guide quickly caught her and brought her back on the raft. When the water was calm, we could get off and float for a while. It was a very fun time! When we were done, we got on the bus and headed back to Quito where we stayed the night again. The next morning most of the group went to tour Quito while me and Janice met up with my friend whom I met during my exchange to Belgium 2 years ago. I hadn´t seen him since and it was really nice to meet up with him and catch up. He took us to the mall because Janice had to order contact lenses. Then we met up with the rest of the group for lunch. After we ate it was already time to head back to Cayambe. We got back here tired and achy but it was all worth it. We had a wonderful trip!

Trip to the Amazon (Part 1)

Last Thursday, 11 out of the 12 Intercordians here in Ecuador headed to Quito to begin our trip to the Amazon. We all met at a hostal where we stayed the night. We went out to eat and then to a couple bars.

Pic on the left: Janice, Me and Alanna.
Pic on the right: Nick, Janice and Maria.

A van picked us up at the hostal the next morning around 8 and we were on our way to Tena. It took us about 5 hours to get there. First off, we stopped at this kind of water park. We felt the heat as soon as we stepped off the bus. It´s crazy how the weather changes here from the coast to the andes to the amazon. There we went into this pitched black cave (with flashlights) and just climbed and swam our way through it. It was really cool! After that we ate lunch in Tena and then took 3 different trucks to get to our lodge. They got sturdier as we went further into the rainforest since the roads got worst and worst. The last road we took has only been there for 5 years. The community around there had no electricity or water before that. About an hour and a half later, we finally arrived. The lodge was very nice, the scenery was incredible. The noise of the bugs was so loud! We did have to kill a couple inside our room. We went to swim in a river close by which was very refreshing. After supper we played cards for a while then went to bed. The next morning was the treck throught the woods. The travel agent here in Cayambe told us that it would be a 3 or 4 hour walk. Then the guide at the lodge told us 5 to 6 hour walk. I was all set to leave until I decided it would probably be best if I stayed at the lodge because of the problems I have with my feet. That was probably one of the best decisions I´ve ever made. They ended up taking close to 11 hours!! My feet would have definitely died by then! So while all my friends were off trecking through the rainforest, I ended up going to a village and making chocolate from scratch. At the lodge there was a Dutch girl doing research for her thesis. She´s doing it on how the new road has affected the live of the people living in that area. So that morning I went with her to the community where she´s been interviewing people for 2 weeks. We had a hard time because some of them were afraid of us and some were just too shy to talk. We finally ended up interviewing one man who was very articulate and nice. On our way back it started pouring rain (even though it´s ¨dry¨ season now), but in the warmth of the rainforest, it didn´t matter, it was actually quite nice! We had lunch then I relaxed on a hammock until Carolyn, the Dutch girl, came to ask if I wanted to make chocolate. Of couse I did! We had chocolate beans which we first grilled and then took of the shell. Then we grinded them twice, the second time sugar mixed to it. We ended up making chocolate sauce, which we then ate with bananas. It tasted amazing, to say the least! After that we played some pool but it was getting pretty late so we started to get worried for the group who was now in the rainforest in the pitch black, with only 2 flashlights for 12 people. Some of the staff went to look for them but had no luck. When they finally got back at 9 o´clock (3 hours after they were supposed to), everyone was fine, exhausted but fine. We had supper and then made a bonfire. It was very nice!

On being a foreigner and on women´s role.

Before coming to Ecuador, I imagine I would kind of blend in with the people since I have dark hair and brown eyes. This brought me comfort because I don´t like to stand out. Well, I was wrong. I definitely stand out here. The people in Cayambe have darker skin, especially in the villages outside of town (which is where I live). So when I walk down the street or hop on the bus, I get stared at like I´m some sort of weird stranger. The kids automatically assume that I´m North American and that I speak english because they´ll yell "Hello!" to me or "Good Morning" when I walk by. The other day a kid asked me "How are you?" when I got on the bus, which is pretty cute but just goes to show that they have no idea that English is actually my second language and probably don´t know that French is spoken in Canada. All of us Canadians or foreigners are the same to them. It´s disappointing, that I don´t blend in, but I guess I should have expected it. I tried to explain to my host family that Canada is very multicultural and people are of all colors, which they hadn´t really realized before. Anyways, I just wanted to point out that the color of your skin can sometimes change someone´s opinion about you, especially in a place like here where everyone looks alike and there isn´t much cultural diversity.

An interesting thing I´ve noticed since being here is the difference in the role and perception of women here compared to in Canada. I was cooking lunch with my host mom the other day and she was teaching me how to make something on the stove. She asked me if I had an oven at home (because they don´t) and I said yes. She said that if my future husband doesn´t get me an oven like her, I´ll know how to cook on a stove. This clearly made me see how they see a women as uncapable of bying herself an oven. The husband deals with the money and that´s that. I haven´t felt that my host is really authoritive in the family. He respects my host mom a lot and I´m pretty sure they make decisions together. But more and more I´m starting to think that this isn´t the case in most families here. I´ve already heard of a few women being hit by their husband, often when they´re drunk, which is a whole other issue (the rate of alcoholism here seems to be very high). My host family also explained to me that one of the reasons why women have so many children here is because their husbands are afraid that they´ll go running off with another man. Their way of avoiding this is to not let them use birth control so that they have to care for more babies and more children. It´s kind of hard to hear and see all this, since women in Canada have so much independence and respect. A single working woman would not be seen here, while in Canada it´s pretty normal. Anyways, I hope to learn more about this subject in the next 2 months. It´s definitely eye opening!