August 27, 2006
So the good news is that I seem to be on the mend – I guess I kicked that pneumonia/meningitis bug pretty quickly. Although I’m still coughing up a storm, my fever hasn’t come back today (at least not yet), and it doesn’t feel like a 200 lb man is standing on my chest. After all my bitching about feeling so lonely and dejected here, Rosario came home to make me soup and a very strong hot lemon drink she swore would cure me. I was so emotional that I had to hold back the tears as I thanked her for taking care of me. And Sally (new volunteer from New Zealand who is fabulous) came to check on me too, which was really sweet.
A little bit about home remedies here. The lemon drink I received last night was essentially fresh-squeezed lemon juice heated up. No added water, no sugar. Muy fuerte! But I consider myself lucky. Colleen had a cold last week and her host mother insisted on giving her the following elixir: a hot beverage made from boiling oranges, garlic, onion, and radishes. From Colleen’s description it was just as bad as it sounds.
I skipped the scheduled trips this weekend in order to hang out at home and rest. I really didn’t want to miss any social activities here as doing so seems to put one out of the loop so quickly. Not that the people here are looking to ostracize anyone, it’s simply that the shared experiences increase friendships. And like camp or college, friendships here form quickly and deeply simply due to the circumstances and time constraints. So no that I’ve missed going out with the gang on Friday, the hike Saturday, dinner at Chrissie’s casa last night, and the full-day trip to the cloud forest today, it feels like I’ve missed the equivalent of months of socializing at home.
But it was the right thing to do. Although I felt pretty crappy, I had a nice day yesterday hanging out in my room reading and studying my Spanish. It was my first really relaxing lazy day here, and I think I really needed it. I’ve now torn through the only two books I brought with me (Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything and Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex – both of which I highly recommend) and I’ve only been here for three weeks. I think I’ll have to take a trip to Quito just to find an English-language bookstore.
This morning I went to mass with Madre. I mentioned last night that I would like to go to mass while I’m here, and she insisted I go with her to her church today (8:00 am mass, Dios Mio). I was definitely the only Gringa there, and my incessant coughing didn’t allow me to keep a low profile. I loved the church, as it was just the right mixture of Catholic gaudiness within a very functional space. It’s a pretty new church where normal people go – it’s not the historic churches in the center of town that a tourist might visit. And I have to say, what’s great about being Catholic is that wherever I go to mass, the structure is essentially the same. Although I didn’t understand all the Spanish, I knew what was going on most of the time and was able to participate.
But I have to mention, the music at this church cracked me up. The two off-key women who made up the choir were accompanied by a Casio-type keyboard programmed to (kind of) imitate an organ, and yes, complete with the backbeat. I thought I was going to crack up when I heard it.
Tomorrow I head back to school to finish up the kids’ last week of summer session. I’m really looking forward to starting the regular term as I’ll finally have some idea of the curriculum these kids are supposed to follow and who is in what grade. Unfortunately the big problem is that once the local teacher is in charge, a lot of the creative stuff we do with the kids gets thrown out the window. Copying is the primary method of teaching here, so kids gain literacy through the process of copying what the teacher writes. Obviously this doesn’t encourage the students to develop their own voice.
On of the goals in summer school has been to get the kids to write without the need to copy. In Muenala, we gave the students journals and assigned a topic for each day, such as family, animals, friends, games, etc. This was a good exercise, but didn’t require a whole lot of imagination. So last week Sally and I decided we would change the activity to creative writing. It’s been a real challenge to get these kids to write their own stories, but I think we’ve been pretty successful. Generally we read a story to the kids first, and talk about it to make sure they understood (keep in mind that Spanish is their second language), then we give them a pile of pictures from which they have to choose a few and write a story about those pictures. The kids are starting to get into the activity, so each day the stories are getting better. My hope is that I’ll be able to continue the exercise somehow once the school year begins, but it’s hard to say if that’s possible.
And I’ll close today by sharing some purchases I made on Thursday at the outdoor produce market (imagine a farmer’s market in your town that’s held everyday, all year). I purchased 8 tomatoes, 5 avocados, and one pineapple – all fresh, all wonderful – for $2.30. And that was the gringo price – had I been local, and/or more in the mood to bargain, it would have been less. At 50¢ per pineapple, I think I’ll have one a week while I’m here.
A little bit about home remedies here. The lemon drink I received last night was essentially fresh-squeezed lemon juice heated up. No added water, no sugar. Muy fuerte! But I consider myself lucky. Colleen had a cold last week and her host mother insisted on giving her the following elixir: a hot beverage made from boiling oranges, garlic, onion, and radishes. From Colleen’s description it was just as bad as it sounds.
I skipped the scheduled trips this weekend in order to hang out at home and rest. I really didn’t want to miss any social activities here as doing so seems to put one out of the loop so quickly. Not that the people here are looking to ostracize anyone, it’s simply that the shared experiences increase friendships. And like camp or college, friendships here form quickly and deeply simply due to the circumstances and time constraints. So no that I’ve missed going out with the gang on Friday, the hike Saturday, dinner at Chrissie’s casa last night, and the full-day trip to the cloud forest today, it feels like I’ve missed the equivalent of months of socializing at home.
But it was the right thing to do. Although I felt pretty crappy, I had a nice day yesterday hanging out in my room reading and studying my Spanish. It was my first really relaxing lazy day here, and I think I really needed it. I’ve now torn through the only two books I brought with me (Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything and Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex – both of which I highly recommend) and I’ve only been here for three weeks. I think I’ll have to take a trip to Quito just to find an English-language bookstore.
This morning I went to mass with Madre. I mentioned last night that I would like to go to mass while I’m here, and she insisted I go with her to her church today (8:00 am mass, Dios Mio). I was definitely the only Gringa there, and my incessant coughing didn’t allow me to keep a low profile. I loved the church, as it was just the right mixture of Catholic gaudiness within a very functional space. It’s a pretty new church where normal people go – it’s not the historic churches in the center of town that a tourist might visit. And I have to say, what’s great about being Catholic is that wherever I go to mass, the structure is essentially the same. Although I didn’t understand all the Spanish, I knew what was going on most of the time and was able to participate.
But I have to mention, the music at this church cracked me up. The two off-key women who made up the choir were accompanied by a Casio-type keyboard programmed to (kind of) imitate an organ, and yes, complete with the backbeat. I thought I was going to crack up when I heard it.
Tomorrow I head back to school to finish up the kids’ last week of summer session. I’m really looking forward to starting the regular term as I’ll finally have some idea of the curriculum these kids are supposed to follow and who is in what grade. Unfortunately the big problem is that once the local teacher is in charge, a lot of the creative stuff we do with the kids gets thrown out the window. Copying is the primary method of teaching here, so kids gain literacy through the process of copying what the teacher writes. Obviously this doesn’t encourage the students to develop their own voice.
On of the goals in summer school has been to get the kids to write without the need to copy. In Muenala, we gave the students journals and assigned a topic for each day, such as family, animals, friends, games, etc. This was a good exercise, but didn’t require a whole lot of imagination. So last week Sally and I decided we would change the activity to creative writing. It’s been a real challenge to get these kids to write their own stories, but I think we’ve been pretty successful. Generally we read a story to the kids first, and talk about it to make sure they understood (keep in mind that Spanish is their second language), then we give them a pile of pictures from which they have to choose a few and write a story about those pictures. The kids are starting to get into the activity, so each day the stories are getting better. My hope is that I’ll be able to continue the exercise somehow once the school year begins, but it’s hard to say if that’s possible.
And I’ll close today by sharing some purchases I made on Thursday at the outdoor produce market (imagine a farmer’s market in your town that’s held everyday, all year). I purchased 8 tomatoes, 5 avocados, and one pineapple – all fresh, all wonderful – for $2.30. And that was the gringo price – had I been local, and/or more in the mood to bargain, it would have been less. At 50¢ per pineapple, I think I’ll have one a week while I’m here.
posted by Melissa In Ecuador at 5:34 PM
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