Overall, the trip was fabulous. The staff at the Fulbright Commission in Quito were on top of their game and planned an excellent week: they rolled out the red carpet for us and programmed relevant, interesting seminars. My only complaint is that they overdid it on feeding us! With buffet gourmet meals three times a day, I think most of us experienced that post-Thanksgiving dinner uncomfortably full sensation a few too many times!
Other highlights of the week:
•Speaking English! But with people who, like me, are “losing” their English fluency and inserting English-ized Spanish words (like “manifestation” instead of “protest” and “invert” instead of “invest”) as well as useful Spanish words that just don’t have a satisfactory counterpart (like pendiente, juicioso…)
•One night in Quito, we went to a dance performance called Humanizarte that gave us a taste of some of the styles of indigenous music and dance from around Ecuador. The dancers were so animated and you could tell they were enjoying themselves. To top it off, at the end the pulled us all out of our seats to join them!
•Having HOT SHOWERS! It doesn’t matter that Barranquilla is hot all year round—a cold shower is still unpleasant.
•Seeing two friends in Quito: one, a guy named Christian who is part of Campus Crusade in Ecuador and who I met when he was visiting Colombia when I arrived last July. My first weekend in Barranquilla, I traveled to Cartagena with him and Ginette. I also saw my friend María, an Ecuadorian co-worker from summer 2008 when I worked on the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Those are the kind of people that you never really know if you’ll see again, so it was neat to be able to re-connect—this time in their hometown.
•Sharing stories with the other Fulbrighters. Many of them I hadn’t seen since our orientation seminar last August, since we are spread all over Colombia. It was also great to meet the ETAs who are living in Venezuela (they have some crazy stories!), Ecuador and Peru (who have only been in-country three weeks!). Our Colombia crew is by far the biggest (16 of the 29 total ETAs) and we are also the farthest along in our grant periods (only about 6 weeks left!). One afternoon we had a time to present our side projects, or what we’ve dedicated ourselves to aside from teaching. It’s amazing the diversity of projects: from working with HIV patients to researching river preservation to teaching IDPs (internally displaced people) to designing promotional materials for a museum to creating a project to turn plastic bags yarn for knitting…the creativity is astounding.
•During our stay at the resort in Arashá, we spent a morning teaching English at two local schools. Though I doubt the kids really learned much English from a one-hour drop-in, I think they enjoyed the fact that it was something different. Not knowing the exact age we’d be with or their English level, my group planned a fairly flexible lesson on parts of the body (Simon says, Head & Shoulders, Knees and Toes). We were surprised by how basic their level actually was, but eventually they caught on!
•I know I’ve said so already, but the sessions were EXCELLENT! The director of the Fulbright Commission in Ecuador, Susana Cabeza de Vaca, taught about culture in the most brilliant, concise, enlightening presentation I’ve ever heard. She talked about the “polychromic” mindset of Latinos and how, when juxtaposed with the U.S. American “monochromic” way of thinking, clashes occur. She put into words exactly what we’ve all lived throughout these past eight months. We also had the U.S. State department RELO (Regional English Language Officer) of the Andes and the Ecuador ELF (English Language Fellow) teach us about EFL methodologies. It left me thinking “I want to start over!” Seeing how I only have four weeks left of class this semester, there are a few things I can still implement, but others will have to wait for a future semester.
•I checked another item off my bucket list…standing on the equator! OK, it turns out the huge “Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World) monument outside of Quito is actually off by several meters, but we’ll call that close enough :)
My concluding thought about Ecuador is that it is a BEAUTIFUL country and I hope to go back someday. I’m thankful to have been able to visit (especially on Fulbright’s tab) but nice hotels, tour buses, and fancy restaurants aren’t my preferred way to travel. I would love to be able to interact more with the people and culture and get a more “authentic” glimpse of Ecuador. I have high hopes that will happen someday in the future.
[The internet here at the airport is slower than a Galapagos giant turtle, so I'll go back and post more pics later!]
