Settling Down

Before I write about anything new in my blog, it seems as if I own a small apology to Comcel, the company that manufactures my Ecuadorian cell phone.

It was brought to my attention two nights ago that two of the features I claimed were missing from my phone—the option to send mass texts and the ability see the name of the person texting me—are in fact available.  These features, however, are poorly implemented and require a gratuitous amount of button pushing.  So while my initial review stands to be humbled slightly, the final evaluation of my cell phone has not changed: it's a joke of a phone that Comcel has no right to be manufacturing in the year 2010.


The Farm

Since I didn't really start working this week (I only had to give some placement exams) my host father took me to his farm on Thursday.  It is located in a town not too far south of Ambato called Cevallos.  My host father is a retired civil engineer,  so he goes to the farm every day to take care of his two cows, fruit crops, and two not so friendly farm dogs.  

On the way up we stopped at a market to buy food for the cows.  While I was waiting for my host father to get what he needed I heard a very familiar noise coming from the other side of the plaza.  It wasn't long before I realized what I was hearing were the nostalgic tweets and purrs of guinea pigs from my childhood.  In contrast to the pets I had as a kid, these guinea pigs were being sold as food, not as pets.  

Host nephew Lucho and host dad Pablo

For anyone who has never been to Ecuador or any of the surrounding countries, guinea pigs are a traditional dish of the people of the Andes, and although I have yet to try cuy (as they are called here) they are apparently tasty.  I also learned today that cuy are very expensive in this country and buying a whole cooked one costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $20.  If my elementary school memories of pet guinea pigs reproducing at an incredible rate serve me right, selling cuy seems like it could be a very profitable business here in Ecuador...

I helped my host father pack the truck up with potatoes he had grown and we went back into town to deliver them to his customers.  My host father actually has cuy on his farm that he sells as well, but they were all sold out the day I visited.  He probably sold them before I came so I didn't pull a "Free Willy" and let them all go so they could live in the wild with their guinea pig herd, or however wild guinea pigs roll.

*Not really pertinent to recounting my day at the farm but worth noting nonetheless, when we stopped for gas on the way to the farm I saw an awesome dog.  He was straight posting up on the roof of the gas station, barking at people when they walked by.  I could tell he was a boss because the paint on the wall was worn down from where his feet were hanging, clearly indicating that he runs shit at that gas station from the roof every day. 

Sure the ground floor is easily broken into, but the roof?  You'd have to be a damn fool

Small World

I have a family friend that happens to live in Ambato so I mentioned it to my host family at dinner one night.  They asked me what his name was and to my surprise they knew his family and where he lived.  Turns out he is only about a ten minute walk from my house and I've already been over to eat dinner at his place.  Similarly, when I went out with my host brother and some volunteers the other night he knew some of the other random Ecuadorians that were eating at the restaurant.  I'm learning that Ambato is quite a small city and that families know each others' names.  That is one aspect of Ambato that is making me like living here more than in Quito.  The communities here are more close knit and I feel safer knowing that my family is acquainted with a lot of people in town.

On Saturday I went with two of my volunteer friends to a park to throw a frisbee.  When we arrived there was a game of soccer going on so we opted to join in instead of being super American and throwing a frisbee amongst ourselves.  The people we played with were very nice to us and even let us pick teams after the first game.  They play every Saturday so I think I'll probably end up at that park again at least once a week from now on.

After the first month of orientation in Quito being cautiously lectured about the dangers of Ecuador, it has been really nice to actually get settled down in Ambato a bit and meet genuinely nice Ecuadorian people.  I think most of the volunteers placed outside of Quito were concerned at first that their permanent residence was not mentioned in any guide books as being a place of interest to visit.  In the case of Ambato, however, I am starting to believe that a place doesn't need to be a tourist attraction to be a good place to live.  So far I am enjoying my time in Ambato and I am looking forward to making friends and building a life for myself here over the next year.

Teaching (No Seriously, for Real this Time)

Tomorrow afternoon I teach my first real class at a trade school called SECAP.  The students are mostly professional adults looking to improve their English, sometimes because their job depends on them being able to speak English.  I am really excited to be working at SECAP as opposed to a university because even though my students will be busy with their jobs and families, they are at least motivated to learn and they are attending classes on their own will (and paying out of their own pocket).  My classes are two and a half hours long each, so I am going to have to spend a lot of time lesson planning to fill my whole class.  The advantage to this schedule is that I have Fridays off, which should give me a bit more flexibility to travel on the weekends.

Speaking of traveling, I will be in Georgia and North Carolina October 18th and 19th respectively, trying to put my boyish charm to work on med school admissions committees.  I expect to see at least half the people reading this in the Atlanta International Airport when I arrive.

Hair

For a long time now I have combed my hair exclusively to the left.  Since I got a haircut here in Ecuador, though, I have been having a hard time getting it to stay put on the left.  I figured I would try to flip it to the right, and sure enough it stayed much better that way.  I thought it could be the result of the way the barber cut my hair, but I think I came up with a more likely explanation: it goes the other way now because I am in the southern hemisphere.  

When I go back to the States in October I'll report back and see if my hypothesis is correct, and if it is, book my ticket to the north pole to conduct further research.