Wow! I can´t believe it has been a month since my
last post. I would not describe my days
as being busy, yet time seems to be flying.
Time is a funny thing. This month
was filled with more days trying to fill out community surveys and working on
my analysis of community needs. I also
began a steady routine of teaching English in the schools of LLoa and am
starting to look forward to projects with the youth of creating crafts made of
recycled materials to be sold in LLoa on busy tourist weekends.
Imagination
and creativity have been the words at the forefront of my mind when I wake up
every day, for both my own personal thoughts and in my interactions with others.
Highlights
of my month have been:
- Spanish tutoring. Twice a week I take the bus into Quito in the evening to meet my Spanish tutor, Diana, in her home for an hour of tutoring on Spanish grammar and pronunciation. I feel so lucky to have Diana as a tutor, she is fantastic! The more I am growing comfortable with Spanish the more I am realizing that there might only be room for one language in my head. It is not hard to notice that my spelling and general understanding of English words seems to be digressing as Spanish begins to make more and more sense in my mind. There are times when I am searching for words in Spanish, and then I realize I don´t know how I would say it in English either.
- Generally felling like I am a part of LLoa. On the streets, in the schools, neighbors, tiendas… I feel like people have accepted me into the community and are opening up more and more in their interactions with me. The kids shout my name (Rebe or Rebequita) whenever they see me and I am graced with lots of hugs whenever I pass by the school. The second weekend in October there was a regional meeting for all the volunteers in my cluster (11ish volunteers). I realized part way through the meeting that I have become proud to be able to say I live in LLoa. This realization hit as I became aware that all my conversations seemed to turn back to how great LLoa is.
- Finding humor in random things like… Hair Gel. Many of the male teenagers in Quito understand style to be something achieved with buckets of hair gel. I imagine their mornings to be reenactments of the opening scene to the movie, ‘Grease.´ In my mind this is how I see it… After jumping a few times to fit into complicated jeans with zippers all over the place the radio would be turned to techno salsa and their position would be taken in front of the mirror. The mirror would reveal a face scrunched up in a self-critical expression as a comb is wielded this way creating intricate sculptures out of their hair. I have had a few moments sitting behind particularly intricate, hair-art on the bus when I have had to fight the urge to touch it… how satisfying it would be to rustle that hair making it crinkle as dry leaves do under your feet in the fall.
- Another joy of mine this month has been the start of project with an amazing friend of mine from college, Stacey Seiler, who is currently a third grade teacher in Baltimore County, Maryland. Through the World Wise Schools project of the Peace Corps we have started a blog in which her class will communicate with me and others in my community as way to learn a bit about one another’s culture. For those that are interested, the blog we created can be views at this address: marylandecuador.blogspot.com
- Another reliable source of happiness for me has been my host family. My host Mom, Isabelle is a little fire cracker. Without fail every morning at 4:00 I hear her frenzied shuffling of feet as she rushes to go milk the cows. My slow moving host Dad, Alfonzo, is the polar opposite and according to Isabelle´s shouts at him, he always seems to be running behind. I live upstairs with these two. We have a nice balance of respecting each other’s space while also always leaving our doors open for conversation. Isabelle, who reaches about my shoulder in height, has gotten into the habit of hugging me, picking me up and down a few times a day. Everyone should have a lesson in hugging from Isabelle, she gives the best hugs. Downstairs lives Carmen and her two daughters Mayra and Adamáris. Mayra is undoubtedly my best friend in LLoa. Her favorite thing to talk about is what kind of bread we are going to make on Saturday… this has become a fun little tradition of ours. So far we have made: honey oat, chocolate, tomato, carrot, blueberry, and corn bread. Adamáris, is a four year old with the attitude and style of a teenager. When my friend Ryan cut my hair realllllly short, I can home and she instantly told me, ‘How ugly.’ She then told me everyone one going to think I was a boy. She also had a solution; she put her bow in my hair.
I would
like to send a few messages out to anyone reading this…
I hope
everyone is doing okay in the wake of hurricane Sandy. My thoughts are with all of you.
Happy Halloween
to everyone!
And, finally,
a HUGE joy to share with the world… My double cousin Dan, and Mili had their
baby today. I have been smiling all day
thinking about my new niece, Kaia, the leader of the next generation of Browns!
Here are the only new pictures I have on my flash drive at the moment...
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| Kids group, Arte al Aire Libre, attempts to draw a bunny rabbit together with a marker attached to a tennis ball. |
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| Mayra reads the book, 'The Giving Tree,' while Adamáris draws pictures and waits for her hair to curl. |
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| Sunset in the Andes from my bedroom window. |
