Mailing address:
Iglesia Verbo
Brittany Hoffman
Av. 10 de Agosto 1-196 y
Lorenzo Piedra
Cuenca, Ecuador
Sudamérica
Monday 2/2
· Plane delayed. Long, awkward waiting
· Flight to Houston on tiniest plane known to man.
· Long flight to Quito. Ate bad food and ignored a lame movie.
· Got through customs by midnight.
· Had a snack at a café and slept in a hostel.
Tuesday 2/3
· Long day of touring. Visited monuments and an ecological preserve with a caldera. Shopping in the market.
· Finally got internet perched at the top of the stairs.
· Lunch was guinea pig. Dinner was tongue and a semi-alcoholic corn drink. Nicely done, B.
Wednesday 2/4
· Left the hostel for more touring.
· Visited political and historical sites, the president’s offices, the house of Spain’s ambassador, etc.
· Visited the equator. Kicked the sign over while doing a handstand. Again, nicely done.
· Flew to Cuenca, which was only 35 min.
· Met the fam- Marcela, Javier, Isabel, and Gabriella (Gabby)
· Isabel is 16 and Gabby is 14
· Bruno the dog is a golden retriever and absolutely adorable.
· Isabel knjows quite a bit of English but Gabby not so much.
· I asked tons of questions and they saw pics of my family, Christin, Mia, and Joel.
· Papa Velez seemed a little rough at first, but he’s cool.
· I’m their seventh charge.
Thursday 2/5
· Started the day with a shower (which was only slightly tricky, as far as foreign showers go, meaning that after a 20 second orientation it took me under 10 min to get it going).
· Then it was off to the classroom for orientation with the hilarious Gustavo. We learned about the history of the church and some cultural tidbits.
· Patricia showed us a bit about the map of the city.
· I had a little time to chill before exploring the bus routes with Patricia and the group. We went downtown.
· We saw the main plazas and hippy market. It was a lot of walking, but we stopped for ice cream (which brought to my attention how inferior ours most definitely is). We saw a little old lady fall off the curb and almost get run over—when I say almost, I mean she still has her left hand and head because she tucked and rolled. Her shawl and knee were less fortunate—the former getting stuck under the wheel and the latter gushing blood, which was sopped up by the former. Then we headed home at six.
· Dinner was hot dogs. I declined mayonnaise and funnions for mine. Culture has its limits. Then I chillaxed with the girls, talking about music, classes, and picking up some words that I probably shouldn’t know. Meh, I’ll write it off as culture.
Friday 2/6
· Best bilingual botches:
o My favorite kind of ice cream is mint (menta) ice cream or mind (mente) ice cream?
o My dad works in a sidewalk (acera) factory instead of a steel (acero) factory.
· I think that after seeing my well-shaped pigtails, Mama Velez made some comment which referenced Ecuadorian conquests, but I didn’t ask her to repeat it.
· We started the day with more exploring with our Spanish teacher, Patricia, to get us more familiarized with the bus system. I’m not sure we paid much attention to the actual routes, but we liked bumping around and watching the locals laugh at us.
· We visited La Fundaccion to see where we’ll be working. Then we headed to El Hospital de los Rios.
· After lunch we went back to the hospital to meet our physiology prof and find out what we’d gotten ourselves into. We had a lot of time left before meeting back at the church, so we chilled in the city with Sebastion, Maria’s son, as our tour guide.
· We visited their grandmother, who’s the cutest little thing, before heading home.
· Then we played cards. They taught me a game, and I showed them Spoons, which Mama Velez promptly schooled me at. After finding a card on the floor, they called me a dirty cheater. After a short trip to the store, I’m calling it a day.
Saturday 2/7
· Kicked off the day with bread and fresh strawberry jelly. A-MAZ-ING. I watched some TV with Gabby, then, by request, we made chocolate chip cookies. Marcela went out especially to buy the ingredients. For the components being a little different and the oven only going to 250 degrees, they turned out pretty well.
· Time to get crackin’ on that 150ish pages of physiology I’m supposed to know by Monday . . .
· Things to get used to: not flushing toilet paper, putting the seat down, making my bed, and wearing shoes in the house.
· Oh yeah, I’m a head taller than all of them. I really feel like I “blend” when we go out.
· Nothing breaks up the boredom of reading a textbook like spending 3 hours visiting relatives. They told me we were just running a few errands . . . It also meant kissing 10 new people— I have no idea who they were— both when we arrived and when we left. I felt like I was playing kissing duck duck goose, just going around the room.
· I’m averaging 10-11 hours of sleep a night. That’s how long it takes for my bilingual brain to regenerate.
· The personal dictionary expands to 200 entries.
· When I noted the arranged fruit basket on the table, I hadn’t considered that it was for some expressed purpose. The basket Marcela took to her sick relatives was minus two strawberries.
Sunday 2/8
· Church was pretty good. The music was more contemporary than I’m used to, which I liked. I understood most of the message, which was about facing giants.
· Not only does my family now know the meaning of “slug bug”, but they are capable of employing “nose goes” for who does the dishes, (Papa Velez lost).
· Spent the afternoon reading and window shopping at the mall. I have to say, it’s kind of an ego trip to be taller than 80% of the population.
· I think I’m corrupting them faster than I intended. Tonight they mastered BS. They caught on pretty fast, but were no match for my master mentirosa skills. If I felt tainted at all, it was in how they pronounce “ace”. Just think of the worst possible way to say it and you’ve probably got it right.
· Mama Marcela won’t stop trying to feed me. I don’t mean like, polite inquiries every so often to make sure I’m fed. She’ll go through a whole list of options, hoping to strike gold with something to tickle my taste buds. Maybe she thinks that if she stuffs me full of food it’ll reverse my growth so I’ll fit in with the locals . . .
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