Leaving the Country and First Impressions of Ecuador

I have been in Ecuador for a week now, but I have been so busy with orientation and getting settled into my host family's house that this is the first chance I am getting to write on my blog. 

Packing it Up and Making it Rain

As I was packing to leave for Ecuador, I had to keep in mind that the limit on the airline we would take to South America only allowed for two check-in bags at no more than 50 lbs. a piece if I didn't want to pay a ridiculous fine.  I was careful to select clothing with neutral colors that would be easy to mix-and-match so I would be able to take less clothing with me.  The result: every shirt and sweater in my suitcase is gray.

Fashion Emergency!

The currency in Ecuador is the U.S. dollar, but we were well warned that it is very difficult to use large bills here (anything larger than $10) and equally as difficult to get them broken at cashiers.  This, in addition to the suggestion to bring at least $300 in cash with us, ensured that I came ready to make it rain on Ecuador should an appropriate situation arise.

Quito

I am beginning my year in the capital city of Ecuador, Quito.  All of the WorldTeach volunteers will be spending the first month in Quito for orientation where we will learn more about the Ecuadorian culture and begin classes to obtain TEFL certification for teaching English as a second language.  After the first month I am moving to another large city in Ecuador two hours south of Quito called Ambato.

La Mariscal

After we checked into the hotel my first night in Quito, we had a couple of hours to kill so me and a few other volunteers walked around the neighborhood called La Mariscal.  This was well before any kind of orientation about the city of Quito and which areas are safe to carry a camera around in (it turns out none of them are), so I took a few pictures.  The neighborhood is also known as "Gringolandia" because there are so many tourists who stay there and it is a great place to get pick-pocketed if you are not paying attention.  

Quito looks pretty much exactly like I imagined it would.  Unlike Manhattan, the buildings in Quito aren't built too high up.  This means that the city is much less compressed and covers a tremendous amount of land.  Quito is also located in the Sierra mountains, high enough that  malaria carrying mosquitoes can't survive the altitude and luggage carrying Americans can't walk up a flight of stairs. The city is also different from any city I have been to in the U.S. because the nature around the city is almost always visible.  Since the buildings don't rise too high, mountains and volcanoes can be seen in the background from many parts of the city.  Even in the country's capital city nature defiantly refuses to be hidden, which is appropriate considering Ecuador's history of destruction caused by earthquakes and volcano eruptions.

Los Pazmiño

The family I will be staying with for the next month in Quito are called the Pazmiños.  They live in a suburban area far from downtown Quito.  They are a large family, (Pazmiños can actually be found in many parts of the city) but only seven live in the house I am staying at.  Three generations are represented including Señor and Señora Pazmiño, their three children, one son-in-law, and one three year old granddaughter.  They must be used to living with lots of people in the house because I am staying here with three other WorldTeach volunteers who will also be moving to other parts of the country at the end of orientation.  

The gringos of the house: Chris, myself, Justin, and Will.

There are great views of the city from the roof of our house, especially at night when Quito lights up (picture of that to come).

Scare Tactics 

Before we would learn anything about being teachers in orientation, we first had to learn about how to be safe in Ecuador.  This part of orientation took the form of horror stories from previous years to terrify us so severely that we don't make the same mistakes as former volunteers.  We heard stories of armed take overs of buses, kidnappings on mountain expeditions,  and drunk bus drivers cruising off mountains.  But don't worry!  Now I know how to avoid getting into these situations myself and be smart about living in a third-world country.

One of the important points of these safety meeting was the knowledge that no matter how cautious we are in Ecuador, each of us will almost certainly be the victim of some crime during our year here.  The good news is that in Ecuador almost all of the crimes are crimes of poverty.  This means that robbers are only out for money and victims are rarely injured if they cooperate.  We have only been here six days and one volunteer has already been robbed.  While she was on a packed (a word which takes on a whole new meaning in the context of Ecuadorian public transportation) bus, someone slit her pocketbook with a knife and stole her money, credit card, and camera.  Typical of a crime of poverty, she is completely unharmed and the criminal wanted nothing more than her valuables. 

The final threat we were warned about was more terrifying than anything I have described so far.  Getting onto a bus with a drunk driver is avoidable if I am paying attention.  Getting robbed will suck, but I am confident that I will never be hurt as long as I give up what I have.  The one thing that would scar me for life was what our director promised would happen to at least one of us during a year living in Ecuador: shitting your pants.

As a grown-ass adult, I cannot think of anything that would be more embarrassing than shitting myself.  Not only does your muscle control have to be seriously compromised to not be able to control your bowel movements,  you also need to destroy the work done by years of constant social pressures that have been telling you since you were potty trained that shitting yourself is entirely unacceptable in any society and it can only lead to exclusion and ridicule.  The most terrifying tale of the day took place in our director's apartment last year when two volunteers traded stories of how they shat themselves.  Really!?  At least two people shat themselves last year and it is a common enough event that it was made part of our orientation?  Regardless of the circumstances, no matter how sick I am or how many other people shit themselves, if I shit my pants while I am in Ecuador I will not have the courage to return home and face my family and friends again.  I will be a changed man.  A shamed and defeated man.

Spanish

The Spanish they speak in Ecuador so far has been very pleasing to me.  Ecuadorians speak quite slowly in the Sierra (something that cannot be said of the Spanish spoken on the coast) and they do not use a ton of slang.  The hardest part will be learning the words adopted from the indigenous language of Ecuador, Quichua.  There are many Quichua loan words that are commonly used in the Spanish here that you won't find in any dictionary.  Overall I am understanding Ecuadorian Spanish considerably better than the Mexican Spanish I heard when I studied abroad in Puebla and I think Ecuador will be a great place to improve my listening and speaking skills