Amoebas & Soccer

February 21, 2010
Today I woke up late to breakfast. We were told 8:30 but then people started walking around the hallway yelling it was going on “right now” at 7:45. And our activity was actually at 9:00 instead of 9:30. So I was the second to last person to eat!
After breakfast we broke up into our language groups, me being in the more advanced. Our activity was to go around our city and find out things such as where is the police station, where the post office is, shopping at the local market, and finding different restaurants and stuff. It was really fun but I accidently bought some fruit that had been washed in water, which we are not suppose to drink, so now I am pretty sure I am going to get some amoebas in my stomach. But I am okay with it because I was thinking of just drinking the tap water and getting the amoebas and getting it over with. The advantages would be so much better than constantly thinking about and choosing the type of food you can eat and never drinking tap water. First, you would get sick (diarrhea), which sucks, but afterward you would be okay (hopefully). And second, they would eat away at all my fat and I would lose weight. As long as they maintained a balance and didn’t eat my important tissues away, I would gladly let them “settle down” and make a home in my intestines.
So anyways, after that we continued with our language classes and learned a lot of the local lingo. Since our group is comprised of an Ecuadorian, a Guatemalan, two Mexicans, two Puerto Ricans, and an American (gringo), a lot of the vocabulary we had was a bit different between each other but even more so between the Ecuadorian vocabulary. The most important things we learned were words with sexual connotation, innuendo, or just plain dirty. I know you may be laughing but it was actually very important. Turns out that “bolsa”, which a couple of us thought meant bag, turns out to means “nut sack” here. So you get the point.

Well after we finished our language activities we had about 3 hours till dinner. I actually surprise myself and played soccer, which I am just not very good at. I know you may be thinking, “wait a minute, you are Mexican, you should know this.” But I just never really played or felt confident enough to join when people did play. Anyways, I did play. And I was GREAT! Well maybe not so great, but my skills were much better than I expected. I was stealing balls, and passing, and I even made a goal. I knew several people who were looking forward to playing soccer with the locals but I was kind of dreading it because I just thought I was so sucky. But it turns out my Mexican “roots” came through and helped me out. Now I am pumped to show the little Ecuadorian children what I got. Haha

After soccer and stuff we went to dinner and then came out to our little gazebo and started just talking. A volunteer talked to the guy who works in our “compound” and ordered a couple of beers for us. So we all started drinking and just hanging out. Well this night just turned out to be excellent. It was just a very casual, laid-back atmosphere. We brought the music and people started dancing and stuff. I became good friends with the cook and the keeper of the “compound”. But what was really interesting was how casually everyone just moved from group to group and how easily it was to become part of a conversation. You just got to really know people.

But tomorrow apparently we are starting to do hard-core training so I guess I should go to sleep now and see how that goes. Till next time.


At the center of the world!


I passed out on the equator!


The alpacas who hang out around the monument.



The official equator center.




You have less strength on the equator so when you stand right on the line and hold your thumb and forefinger together, it is really easy for someone to pull them apart. However if you stand a foot away from the equator you gain your strength back. So strange.

And the experiment with the water is true too. If you pull the plug on the equator there is no spin but if you do it to the south or north of the equator, the water will drain clockwise or counterclockwise.


This is an animal called the ¨penis fish¨ by us because if you go to the rainforest and pee in the water, it will follow your urine and go up your uretha and then start to live and grow inside by sucking out all the blood in that area!!! OUCH!!!