What the Heck-ador

What the Heck-ador

I am sitting at the dining room table while bossa nova is playing in the kitchen where cooking is happening.  It is raining cats and dogs (and probably horses) outside, thundering and lightening, and probably hailing. (When they say Quito has a rainy season they were NOT messing around.)  But I am warm and cozy, enjoying the music and I also have a hot cup of tea.

Three days ago I got caught in a rain…It was raining so hard that even with my umbrella I was totally soaked.  The wind was so hard that it kept turning my umbrella inside out and there were times I thought I would just pull a Mary Poppins and get carried away.  I was rushing to the bus stop with a colleague but the rain and hail and thunder was so loud we could not even talk to each other.  The water was deep on the streets that you could not step or jump over the high parts. My pants were so wet when I got to the bus stop I could not pull the material from my pocket from the rest of the pants to get my bus fare (25 cents).  We finally made it on to the warm, dry, relatively quiet bus.  For some reason, and on this day only, the bus driver dropped us three blocks from our stop.  I had concluded that the umbrella had made no difference and wasn’t worth the bother so I walked from the bus to the house without the umbrella.  I am not sure I have ever been more wrong in my life -the umbrella had made a significant difference.  While I did my best to contain the puddles that surrounded me upon entry it took me about 15-20 minutes to wipe up all the water in the house resulting from my entrance. Three days later my shoes and the inside of my backpack are still damp to wet. I may just end my life long boycott of rain ponchos/coats, as while that event was actually funny I would hate to arrive to class that wet!

So you can see why, I am actively totally enjoying the sound of rain OUTSIDE while I am INSIDE!

We did a fun activity in our orientation where everyone wrote one thing they loved about Ecuador so far and one that went under the heading “What the heck-ador”.  I found the answers fun but also reflective of the transition to life in Quito.  In the category of “what the heck” we had buses and bus drivers. I have it easy (in fact getting on my bus is an act of comfort for me) but I think many of the volunteers find themselves boarding buses that seem like they can’t hold another person but somehow, one is expected to get on and hang on.  Sometimes the drivers drive like bats out of hell and maintaining balance to get on, stay on your feet, and get off can be challenging.   Especially when the bus driver sees no reason to stop the bus for the WHOLE time you are getting on or off. There have been times when I think, ahhh I am getting this now- and then a young woman with a kid on one hip, another on the opposite hand carrying groceries and wearing stiletto heels handles it all without even noticing.  Another “what the heck” is the gringo tax – the extra amount you pay for everything because - well  why not? This happens in stores and especially in taxis.  This troubles a lot of people but I expected it and have accepted it and assume it is happening to me on a regular basis. The other worry about taxis are the pirate taxis and kidnappings are not as rare as one would hope.  We do have uber.

And another major adjustment is plumbing.  The word plumbing – like the little black dress- covers a multitude of sins.  This ranges from not being able to flush toilet paper, not being able to drink from the tap, to having showers with no pressure and no hot water.   And then the lack of wifi is a life changer for those born after the smartphone.

But the positives did outweigh the negatives. One surprising positive to me was how much the kids (they are kids to me) love the dogs and puppies.  There are many dogs running around all the time and tend to be friendly.  In orientation they taught us how to stand down a dog.  When I was growing up dogs just ran freely in the neighborhood (the down side to this is I watched about 5 of my cats being killed) and I knew how to stand down a dog coming at me by age 4. So this, like the tiendas, lack of box stores, etc.  takes me back to my 20’s.  The food here is a great plus.  Lunches – the big meal of the day are around $3.00-$5.00, there are more types of fruits here than I knew existed and we all love aji – the ubiquitous sauce which differs from place to place and person to person.  And of course there is the  natural beauty which includes mountains, volcanoes and hummingbirds.  And generally, the people are friendly and very patient with the non-Spanish speaker.

Mostly I have not been participating in the extracurricular activities provided as the noise level can be hard for me ( 35 twenty somethings at the peak of excitement) and also well – it would be me and 35 twenty somethings at the peak of excitement.  But Saturday night I rode the chivas bus. A chivas bus is a party bus with goes real slow, there is music and dancing, drinking, and strobe lights and videos. It’s a lot of fun and I am told, an essential cultural experience. 

Things are going well for me,  orientation  mostly over and then orientation at my actual school and then start the process of teaching Oct. 24.  That gives me about 8 free days and for the most part I am taking Spanish.  I don’t know if I can learn a language or not…but I am going to give it all I got! I am mostly adjusted to the altitude and new life… but lack of mental fortitude can show up in the most unexpected places.  In a practice class I spelled grammar with one “m” and participle without an “i”.

And just 10 minutes ago while I was writing this -lightening struck right outside the window!  I don’t think my London housemates have ever been near a lightening strike. ( and those of you living in Santa Cruz don't even know lightening very well!)

Ciao for now

vw