“How do you say (insert random english word) in Spanish?”
“Where are we going next?”
“Gap yah!”
These are the phrases that have been most commonly heard by my poor ears since my group of eight volunteers arrived in Quito five days ago. Aside from D (who spent five or so weeks before then bouncing around the Ecuadorian coast) the rest are oh so new to the wild west that is this equatorial country. The savory scents of grilled street meat fill their heads with horror stories of traveler´s sickness. The congested buses give them a taste of the fact that most Ecuadorian´s do not have the same sense of personal space as they do. As one of my volunteers (we´ll call her S for now) found out that coffee takes a bit longer than in her native land. I explained that they had to grow the coffee beans, and milk the cow. Tranquilo.
It´s my job, among other things, to guide this group. To ease them into life in Latin America. To show them the absolute beauty in the fact that in order to pay for a group meal, we must work together and pay each other as the restaurant simply does not have enough change for all of us. Bills higher than 20 USD are absolutely useless here due to the fact that there is not the same amount of cash flowing through the economy. They will learn. Oh yes they will.
The first part of this ten week program takes place in the small indigenous communtiy of Chilcapamba. We have been graciously hosted by Alfonso Morales and his family in their sprawling finca. Our project so far has included the development of a garden that will be devoted solely to feeding the school located next door. Gratifying.
I forgot to charge my camera so unfortunately I’ll have to come back and add photos to this post at a later date. We are currently in the town of Otavalo for the weekend, widely known for it’s craft goods that are sold at the weekend market in the center of town. Overwhelming.
More to come. Thanks for reading.
-F
everroamer 