Las similaridades y las differencias

There are many things in Ecuador that are different than the things I experience at home, but there are also many similarities, and I am continually surprised by both. I thought I might as well catalogue a few of them for you, so that you get an idea of my life here. Part of the reason I am doing this is because I really have done nothing since I wrote my last entry. My cold knocked me out pretty well for a few days, and since then I have just been going to Colegio, coming home, writing and reading for the afternoon, eating supper, and visiting with Mariana, Kiko, and whoever is over in the evening. I am also including pictures from Colegio Americano, though I know I will take many more soon. I know many of you were curious to learn more about the school, so I will pass along more of what I know so far.



For a few interesting similarities, Ecuadorians drive on the right side of the road, use the American dollar, like to go on vacation, watch a lot of TV, use e-mail to keep in touch with family and friends, and go by our seasons, even though they are in the southern hemisphere. I get rather confused about that, because this is still Colegio Americano’s summer term, but the ecuatorianos say that this is their winter, and their winter just happens to be a tiny bit hotter in Guayaquil than their summer. In my host home, I can take hot showers every morning, a luxury that I often haven’t had in the U.S. and was not necessarily expecting here. The supermercados are very similar to those at home, so I haven’t found shopping to be very difficult. Since I grew up close to a large city, living in Guayaquil isn’t very strange to me. I love to walk, and I am getting more confident with both my directions and safety on my walks. And no one needs to comment on my sense of direction—I’m not doing that badly at all finding my way around. There are security guards everywhere, so I feel pretty safe, though I am a bit nervous about getting in over my head with Spanish, obviously. I also met a woman who was half-Norwegian and came to supper last night. It was a weird experience, because I kept looking at her and thinking that she was just going to start speaking English, and she looked so familiar, making me think I was home in Minnesota. Once we were done with supper, everyone started talking about traveling, and she mentioned that her dad was from Norway, at which moment everything I had been thinking made sense! My host family also goes to church every week, which I appreciate, since that is very important to me.



I have had some really interesting conversations about faith with my host family, and especially with Kiko’s sister, Elvia, who is very sweet and friendly. She and I have very fun Spanglish conversations, since her English is just a little bit better than my Spanish. She has a deep faith, and she loves traveling and spending time with people. Unfortunately, this love is going to take her away from me, since she is going to the United States for a month, and she is leaving next week! I will miss having her to talk with! Of course, the family is Catholic, and I think there is only one Lutheran church in all the huge city of Guayaquil, which by the way has about three million people! Today I told Gregoria, one of the custodians at Colegio Americano, that I am Lutheran, and she asked me suspiciously if I believed in God. There really are not very many Lutherans in the world outside of my neighborhood and northern Europe! I went to mass again with Mariana and Kiko last week, but the next weekend I am home, I am determined to find one of the churches that I’ve been searching the internet for! It’s been good going to mass, but combining the unfamiliar liturgy and Spanish together makes for a very confused Christina! I have struggled to understand anything the priest is saying, actually, and I had chalked it up to the Ecuadorian accent, but Elvia just told me tonight that their padre is from Spain, which would explain a lot, since both weeks church has made me think that I'm not as far along on my Spanish as I had thought!



As for differences, they use the metric system and the Celsius temperature scale, they don’t usually have air conditioning, times on stores are posted in military time, and obviously, most of them speak Spanish as their first language. I brushed up on some of my metric conversions last week to tell Maria, the maid, how tall I am and what the temperature was in Minnesota. Like much of Latin America, drinking the tap water is not recommended, so we either boil the water or use a big dispenser. I do brush my teeth with the water, though, and I haven’t had any problems. The water does not taste strange at all, but I’ll stick with the filtered water for drinking, I think. They also eat very differently, not only traditional Ecuadorian foods, but with an emphasis on different parts of the meal. At nearly every meal, drinks are not on the table until each person individually gets their own, usually when they are done with most of their food. They also do not eat that many fruits and vegetables, though they are very inexpensive here. Elvia tells me that meat used to be cheaper here, too, and that most Ecuadorians eat much more of that than anything else. When the price of meat started to rise, people started complaining of a food shortage, but only because they don’t really consider vegetables to be food. I have started to like vegetables much more the last few years, so every time we have a big vegetable dish I take at least two helpings.



Right now, I am actually missing cookies the most. I may have to bake some soon! People here also seem to exercise less than people in the United States, and that’s saying a lot considering how little I myself usually exercise! I have a feeling that I will probably exercise more while I am here than while I am in the States as a reaction toward the inactivity I see here. One final difference that is true for many other countries is that many more people have servants here, since labor is much cheaper and there are very different ideas about social classes. Mariana and Kiko employ Maria, who has been working for them for eighteen years, and her 29-year-old daughter Karina. They are both very friendly and capable, and since they don’t speak any English, they make me practice my Spanish more. Because of my middle class American worldview, having servants seems a bit off to me, but down here it’s just a way of life. It makes me rather bored sometimes, since I really don’t have anything I can do around the house usually, but there are obviously nice parts to that.



English class has its moments, though it is very obvious that both teachers and students are very excited to be done with the summer term, though they will hopping right into the normal school year, so it will not be much of a relief! Dino will be going back to just coordinating the technology on campus, though, so he is particularly excited to be done for the summer. I’ve gotten to know the kids much better, and I know how to say and spell all their names. I’ve talked much more to the “quiet kids” this week, since Arturo’s little group is always in a little huddle. Oh, cliques. Arturo has been late even more this week; yesterday he was four hours late for class, which I didn’t think was possible. We start class every day some time after eight, take a little break at nine, take a lunch break at eleven, and then get out at one. And yes, Arturo showed up on Tuesday at noon! The three girls that don’t hang out with Arturo have been talking with me quite a bit the last three days, which has been really fun. We talked about movies today. On Monday when I got back into the classroom after break, I put my head down on the desk, not even thinking about how weird it was that the lights were off. Very quickly, I started hearing weird squeaking noises from the front of the room, and when I looked up at Dino’s desk, I saw a small figure with a baseball cap hiding underneath and realized it was Pablo! I said, “Hey Pablo,” and he was very disappointed that he hadn’t scared me. I told him I could go out and let him try his luck with someone more skittish, but he lost heart and gave up. He’s a cutie. His dad works at the school.



Camila’s mom works at the school as well, and when Mariana was getting ready to go to a conference in Bógota, Colombia, where she will be until Saturday, she asked Camila’s mother if I could go with them to the beach and spare myself from boredom, so I’m headed to the beach once again, this time for a long weekend. I’m not sure who is going, except for Camila’s family and Anamaria, the kinder teacher who went with us to Malecón 2000 last week. I’m really excited to get to know more of the teachers, and excited to be going back to the beach, though it may be very crowded, since it is one of the last weekends before school starts. Sorry I haven’t taken any iguana pictures yet! I’ll do that soon!



Thank you so much, those of you who have been praying! My Spanish really is getting better, though my diccionario is going to be pretty worn-out by the end of my time here. Please pray that Mariana would be safe in Bógota, and that she would enjoy herself, even though she is still not feeling totally healthy from her illness the last few weeks. Pray that I would find new ways to bless the people here. I have been pretty bored this last week, since I have no class preparation time yet and nothing really to do in the evenings, so I want to find ways to spend my time that help others, in addition to just keeping me from going insane! There is only so much crocheting and scrapbooking that I can handle, and I could fit only so much in my suitcases in the first place.
I love you all! I pray that you all have a blessed week!