Down in Ecuador: My host family

February 26, 2010 Friday
So I am with my host family this night. It is the first night I am away from the rest of the PC trainees. It’s a little weird, I’m not gonna lie. But this is what PC is suppose to be like right? And we were already told that we might become lonely and depressed because we will be isolated from the rest of our friends. So there isn’t really much I can do about it. I think I will be fine however, and am not too worried about it. Well that’s what I say right now, but of course things can change. A perfect example was the blog I wrote earlier about how I liked everyone here. Well that is no longer the case. Haha Some people turned out differently than I imagined and so I don’t feel drawn to hang out with them. Seriously if you are gonna be a show-off or uptight person, I don’t want to hang out with you. But I am not completely withdrawing myself from them, and in some cases, I cannot withdraw myself from them. I will continue to go with the flow and maybe they can see their own faults. What I do know is that I am not gonna let it slide all the time. If they put me in a position where I feel I have been pushed too far or intentionally made to feel insignificant, I will speak up. But hopefully that never has to happen. I am quite pragmatic and so I know never to burn bridges and give people slack while they adjust.
So anyways, back to my family. They picked us up today from our training center which I am going to miss. It was such a beautiful place. I just remembered I didn’t even take pictures of it. But I think we may get to go back. The cooking ladies loved me so much and I’m not saying that to be pretentious. First, they asked me if I had a picture of myself that I could give to them for like a keepsake. Unfortunately, I don’t keep self-portraits of myself on-hand, so they had to settle for receiving one later through email. The facilitators which we will see a couple of times as well also loved me. The facilitator I have now is kind of strict and so sometimes it gets a little boring.
Ok so back to my family. They picked me up at “school” and brought me back in their car to “La Chimba”. This is where I will spend the following 8 weeks learning more advanced/technical Spanish and training for my program. They have a really house. I think they have recently renovated it because it has a large type of patio and the restroom looks really good. I have a wooden floor and there is tile all inside the house. However I don’t think they are rich because they have only the basic minimum. They don’t have a table to eat at besides a small rectangular stand that could be used as a kid table. They told me to eat there while they sat in the kitchen on little stools with no table. My room only has a bed and a chair. There is no desk, drawers, cabinets, etc. So I have a suitcase full of stuff, that I am not sure where to put because I just have a bare floor. I think I am going to try to find some box crates and make some drawers and stands. My brother-in-law came up with that idea while in Mexico. However, I am not sure if I will be able to find any crates here. I may have to go to a bigger city.
I was actually very surprised at dinner because apparently they like to feed volunteers a lot of food and instead I got a bowl of soup with noodles and potatoes. But I didn’t mind, because I wasn’t very hungary since I still feel a little sick. I think my fever is doing better but I have to keep taking medicine to keep it low and let my body fight whatever it is I have. But I was feeling pretty bad this afternoon. It could have been the combination of vaccinations I had to get as well: three.
My family has two little kids who are so funny. Kevin and Fernanda are 5 and 9 respectively. Fernanda keeps staring at me so I make sure to gaze away. And Kevin keeps holding my hand. I think they are just really interested in me. But they are fun and not annoying which is a plus. They kind of remind me of my sister and me. Fernanda is constantly beating up Kevin and never lets him ride the bicycle. And Kevin is always a little sad and whines because of that. Haha
The landscape here is just beautiful. My house is right next to this deep sort of canyon with a river flowing beneath and there is green pastures everywhere. I went to pick up the milk from the their pasture when we arrived and it was very pretty. I like my “abuela” because she speaks Kichwa and is just hilarious. I am sure she is constantly talking about me in Kichwa but I just laugh.
I think that is all. Till next time.