An Average Day

So yall like the pictures above? If you do, head to My Pictures link on the right. It´s under Useful Links. Two of those were taken not five minutes from where I live and work. Two were taken in Baños, Ecuador. The city, not the bathroom.

So I don´t have much to talk about, hence the reason I haven´t blogged this week. But then I realized the reason for that is that I´m sort of getting accustomed to living down here. My life now is routine, which is weird, but by no means bad. So I figured I´d just tell yall about my normal day, followed of course by blog points. I´ve been teaching now for three weeks and will continue for two more weeks before I come home to work and celebrate the holidays with everyone!

Anyway, my normal day is waking up in the morning and taking breakfast with the Ecuatorian family I´m living with. It´s pretty great, normally some fresh bread, coffee, fruit, juice, and some form of egg. Nothing excessive, but a great way to start the day. Then I help with religion classes from 8-11:00. In those classes, I´m a teacher´s aid. From 11:00-12:00 I have my own class, which is soooooooooo much better. I love doing what I wish and seeing these kids´ knowledge grow. From 12 to 1:30 I have a break where I either study and eat out or return to the house and eat again with my family. Then I tutor everday from 1:30 to 4:00. This is easily my favorite part of the day. I work with four different students all of which need different instruction. This is where I feel like I´m contributing. I try to teach practical stuff as well as life lessons. I will only be with these kids for five weeks, so I figure life lessons will probably go a longer way than sums and subtractions. I try to teach them why it´s important to learn how to read, why it´s important to know how to add, and then we read books and do sums. Then from 4-7 I do my own studying, Spanish and Pediatrics, head back to the house and have a good meal. I get to read for an hour or two before I hit the sack. I hope that blog wasn´t dry, but I figured I´d share what I´m doing. I know my mom will enjoy it at least.

Blog Points:
1. So buses are terribly common here! I mean they are everywhere, but unlike buses in the states, they don´t have bathrooms. So according to what I saw the other day, it´s totally cool to open the window and let your four year old pee in the wind when they need to go. Don´t worry about the open windows down bus!!!

2. The other day I heard this funky song, it was like a clubbing song with a good rythym. Well sometimes in songs like these you may expect to hear the electronic voice in the background say something to the effect of, oh yeah, or oh baby, or yeah yeah yeah, or go. You know what I´m talking about. Well this song had GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL mixed in it a hundred times. Ruined the song.

3. Saw a guy walking down a crowded sidewalk the other day. Was a bit surprised that he was leading five geese in front of him! Was more surprised that no one else on the sidewalk found this odd!

4. Loved this kid...Remember LA Lights? If you never had them, you probably dreamed of winning them on Double Dare or Finders Keepers. Well for those that don´t know them, everytime a kid steps the heel lights up. Pretty cool. Well Latin America took this to an entirely new level. This kid was wearing LA Squeaks! No joke, everytime he took a step, the shoes had a speaker that let out this loud squeak! Poor parents...

5. I passed by this store that was incredibly crowded. Whenever there´s a crowd I generally look to see what odd thing is going on. I wasn´t dissappointed this time either. Turns out it was a clothes store, and they were having a big sale. What kind of sale you might ask? A before Christmas sale? A soon to be after Thankgiving sale? No no, it was an ¨Invierno Venta¨ A Winter Sale!!! Give me a break! You´re on the Equator! What the hell? :)

One last thing. I´m putting out feelers for anyone who is willing to teach me how to ride a motorcycle over Christmas break. If you know how and have a bike, please be in touch.

Latinas, Latinas, Latinas!

So, I would be lying if I said I hadn’t flirted, danced, and kissed Latinas while I’ve been down here. For those that know me, yall probably think that every time I’ve talked to a Latina I’ve probably flirted with her. That may or may not be true, but that aside, I had my first “date” this past Sunday, and a few funny things happened, enough funny things to blog about it at least.

First she tells me that we should go to “el jardin”. I’m like, sure, sounds good to me. It sounds good to me because el jardin translates to “the garden”. I have no idea what the el jardin is, but it’s gotta be a bit romantic right? After all it’s called the garden. So I catch a bus there, knowing what street it’s on. I was actually a bit surprised because on the front of the bus it also said “el jardin.” So I ask someone on the bus if they know where “el jardin” is located, and if they could tell me when we arrive there so I could hop off the bus. He agrees, and five minutes later points to the garden. I look out the window and see a supermall as big as any in Birmingham!!!

So I meet her at the entrance, and we stroll all through the garden (mall) just like we were in eighth grade. I wish I had told the bus driver, “Thanks mom, could you pick me up in three hours a couple hundred yards down the street?” Sure enough we pass by a Sunglasses Hut and an Abercrombie and Fitch. If only I had fully endorsed this and went and tried on sunglasses. Fortunately we saw a Baskin Robbins, which was awesome since they are fading out rapidly in America. I got a mint chocolate chip cone just like when I was eight years old. It was delicious. What was weird about the Baskin Robbins? She paid without me knowing.

So now we’ve trolled through a mall, and she’s paid for our ice cream.

I decide that we should go to the park across the street. She agrees quickly, so I imagine she doesn’t want to troll the mall either. We get there and there is this magician doing a show for a bunch of kids and parents. There’s probably a hundred people all laughing when we approach. As soon as I show up the magician stops his show and gets a free joke out of me. He says, “Hablas Spanish?” That’s the equivalent of saying, “Do you speak Espanol?” I say of course and so then in Spanish in front of everyone he asks me where I’m from. I say the United States, and he then grabs his hat walks over to me and then says, well then I’m charging you three dollars for admission. Everyone laughed including me. It was in good humor. (I didn’t pay.)

So now I’ve trolled the mall, had a girl pay for my ice cream, and had over a hundred people laugh at me.

After we watch for several minutes, she decides that we should go sit down in the shade under a tree. Sounds good to me, I mean hell some people pay six dollars an hour for conversational Spanish. I’ll get get a good couple hours of conversational Spanish for free, and she’ll throw in free Baskin Robbins. Anyway, we sit down for about ten seconds when a soccer ball drills her in the side. I’m talking Valderrama from the nineties might not have been able to kick a ball this hard. I realize quickly that no one is sitting in this shade because it is directly behind the make shift goal that these six guys had setup to play soccer.

So now I have trolled through a mall, had a girl pay for my ice cream, been laughed at by 100+ people, and now have a date on the verge of tears from pain.

Don’t get me wrong, she must have been thinking “Now I’ve had to walk through a mall with this guy, buy his ice cream, had a hundred people laugh at us, and now I get hit by a soccer ball!”

Well she must not have been too discouraged by everything because she wants to go snuggle up under a different tree. I obviously don’t discourage the idea, but do find it odd because within probably a thirty-meter radius, there are probably ten or twelve couples snuggling under ten or twelve different trees. This park was huge. On one sign I saw a water area, a bmx bike area, a basketball area, a soccer area, but funny that I didn’t notice the “public display of affection” area. I guess it doesn’t translate.

Anyway, after a couple of hours she has to go back to where she’s from. (She’s catching a bus to Guayquil later that afternoon.) So we wait for her bus to take her to her other bus. When we see it in the distance she looks me in the eyes and says, “Estas bien conmigo?” Literally translates to “Are you fine with me?” I mean in the land of ambiguous questions, this has to be the Reina!!! You know? I mean what the hell? She’s about to hop on her bus, I don’t have time for her to explain what that means, so I say Si. What else can I say? I mean I’m caught between an espada (sword) and a pared (wall). If you think about it, this question could mean anything.

So in the end, I trolled a mall, had a girl buy me my ice cream, got laughed at by 100+ people, and could possibly be “dating” this girl that I’ll probably only see one more time in my life without knowing it.

With all that said, it was a great time, and she’s a good girl.

A couple of things for those still reading. I’m not going to add blog points. I have a few saved up, but I’ll just add them next time. I want to start writing more so you’ll have them in a few days.

Lastly, I need to shout out to a couple of blogs. First, my friend Rob McDonald’s blog. I’m not sure how I didn’t post the link to his blog on my website yet. He was a big inspiration why I’m blogging. Check out his sight, it’s on the right side. Second, to Jason Wilson. His blog is much more well written than mine, and I’m sure he’s going to have a heyday after he reads this. Lastly, my cousin Merrill is blogging. Check it out at merrillstewart.blogspot.com. He lives with me in Ecuador obviously. (How typical, the only two Alabamians in Ecuador, and they are cousins living together, right?)

Oh I’ve also posted more pics. So go to the link above and to the right to see them. They are actually beautiful!!!

El Centro de Muchacho Trabajador

Wow! It’s been a while. Okay, so as has been my life for the past two months, things continue to change. I finished my training at the Red Cross, and at the end they give us all a test that we have to make an 80% on. By “all” I mean about 22 Ecuadorians and 1 gringo (me). I look at the test, thinking and hoping it would be multiple choice, and see nothing but questions and lines. Lots of lines. Turns out every question had to be answered with three to four sentences, and there were like twenty questions!!! So needless to say, I was the ADHD kid who stayed much later finishing the exam than everyone else. I passed, and then went to get my schedule for volunteering, and it turns out I could only work like 5 to 10 hours a week at the Red Cross. Before I did the training they told me I could work a full schedule there after training. I’m not sure why all that happened but it did, and so I changed jobs.

So since last Monday morning, I’ve been a schoolteacher/tutor. Turns out that a place close to my house needs volunteers for teaching street kids (kids that have to work to bring in money for their family generally selling candy or polishing shoes). I told them I’d be in Quito for five more weeks, and they said that would be great. Everything is in Spanish and so difficult! Not because of the Spanish, but because teaching has to be the hardest job on the planet. Really, we should all call our old teachers and thank them. Anyway, I have a class in the mornings on Tuesday/Thursday/Friday, I help with classes in the mornings on Monday/Wednesday, but my favorite part is the tutoring every afternoon. I work with a teacher for a class of about six. Turns out these six are the “special” class. Special meaning they’ve never had education. They range from 9 to 12 years in age. Let me give you an example of what I taught yesterday. This one child Derio, age 12, can add very well. I was quite impressed, seeing how I’m teaching the rest to add. So I try to teach him to add bigger numbers like 167 + 573. I find out he can add them after I teach him to carry tens and all, but he can’t name them. So then I tell him to write the numbers from 0 to 100 in order and he can’t do it. This kid has learned to add because he has been on the street selling candy, but no one taught him how to count. It was shocking. I mean how foreign must addition be if you don’t know that the numbers go in order. Talk about doing blindly what you’re told. Anyway, it’s been great. I’m mainly teaching reading, writing, addition and subtraction. I have to throw this plug in, my hat is off to my sister who teaches special education and somehow loves it. I mean I enjoy what I’m doing, but I know there is no way I would have the patience to do this full time. Not a chance. I always realized how smart teachers had to be, in the sense of being able to see where all their students were, and somehow getting them all to the same level. But I never realized until now how enthusiastic and patient teachers have to be. God Bless them.

Blog Points:

1. I went to a crazy Latino rock concert the other night. There were mosh pits with people swinging, but the best part was the drummer, who was the same drummer from the Tenacious D movie but without horns. He was bald but with a long mullet, sported a Motorhead shirt for five minutes until he took it off, sweet MegaDeath leather pants, and ran and jumped off the stage swinging at his fans during one of the moshes. No joke.
2. So my friend Naomi broke her arm. She was in a village at the time, and there were no doctors, so thankfully this guy saw her and offered to set her arm until she went to the hospital. In retrospect, the doctor said it was a good job. So two questions…what did he use to set the arm? And how much did he charge? Popsicle sticks and $3.
3. The trolley that I use on a daily basis, plays Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer on a daily basis.

Deportivo Quito contra Barcelona

So it's been way too long since I've blogged. I'm sorry about that, especially for those of you who read this blog in hopes to procrastinate working for a little while longer. Anyway, maybe today this will knock off three more minutes of your workday. Also, if you want to knock off more time, I've added more photos. Look at the links to the right and click on the one for my photos.

So the latest updates are that I took my first test in Spanish yesterday. I have to make an eighty percent on the test to be certified to volunteer with the Red Cross. I won't find out if I passed until Tuesday. I also started working with a pediatrician in the mornings here, and apparently I'm supposed to teach an anatomy and physiology class for an hour and half on Monday afternoons for the next eight weeks. Thankfully the class is in English. Needless to say, Life in Ecuador is random.

So I went to a soccer match the other day. TOTAL MAYHEM!!! First, it was Deportive Quito versus Barcelona. Against what you might think, it was between two of the biggest teams in Ecuador (not from Spain). Anyway, there's this kid that lives with our family who bleeds Deportivo Quito, so of course I bought a $5 jersey and went to the game with a few friends. Let me tell you a few things that went down at the match.
1. When we entered it was so crowded that we couldn't see the game. Then we see these folks scaling what turns out to be a wall to watch the game from a ledge. We decide it's a good idea and do it. Turns out we had to enter the girls bathroom climb a ledge there then crawl through a broken "window" (metal bars) to get on the ledge for the game. Could you imagine that happening in Jordan-Hare? Anyway, we had a great view up there.
2. I also saw about four fist fights in the crowd during the game.
3. They sell many more tickets than people can actually watch the game, so at one point during the game we hear this huge BOOM below us, then saw a flood of people enter and push and shove until I thought someone was going to die in the mob. Turns out the people BROKE DOWN A METAL DOOR in order to enter the stadium! Total madness. Thankfully no one got hurt.
4. Finally, towards the end of the game it was pretty cold. I could tell others were cold, but there was really nothing to do about it I thought. Then I looked to my left and saw a big ass fire!!! Turns out the team that was losing was burning all the flags of the winning team. I mean it was in the stands, and it was BIG. I mean probably ten feet by ten feet and five feet high. Which in the middle of the crowded stadium is pretty substantial. I waited for the police or whoever to come put it out, but they didn't. Apparently, it's totally normal to have bonfires out of opponents garments during a game.
Anyway, though the fans are MUCH crazier than at an SEC football game, the game is not nearly as exciting, but it just isn't loud at all. I mean there are fanatics that do some crazy stuff like that guy from South Korea that lit himself on fire, but the atmosphere is not near as loud as Jordan-Hare.

Anyhow, I promise the car ride story from Venezuela soon. I've just been real busy. I've enjoyed yall's comments! Thanks!

Blog Points:
1. Hearing the Talking Heads blasting Psychokiller out of a car was pretty fabulous.
2. My red cross volunteering class ordered lunch to go the other day. So with the lunch came a drink, pineapple juice. Besides being delicious, it was served in a plastic bag.
3. There is a moderately sized store at the corner of my street. It sells bananas. It doesn't sell anything else.
4. My family made burritos the other day. I was pretty amazed, this being the first time I had anything resembling Mexican food since I arrived in South America. So when we sat down, no one knew how to eat them except for Isabela who made them, and even she wasn't too sure. I had to teach a South American family how to eat a burrito. So weird.

Yall check out the pics!

Quito...making Denver feel ashamed

So I’m long overdue for a blog. Especially considering how much has changed in my life. So last I spoke to yall I was getting frisked by the FARC. In reality it wasn’t the FARC, it was really just the Bogota airport security. Nonetheless, they were armed with serious looking automatic rifles, so the rush was still there. Thankfully they didn’t find my box of Cuban cigars. Just kidding. It’s great because you can fly around here having no problems with Cuban cigars. Now returning to America with them should be different.

Anyway, so here are my plans in case you are interested. I have been working at a hostel for room and board this past week. It’s been great because I haven’t had to pay anything, and I have gotten to know the city. I found an excellent apartment that I should be moving into on Sunday. It’s right in the area of town I want to live, next to the Red Cross (which I’ll explain later), cheap, real nice, and the family that runs it is Ecuadorian, so I’ll be spending a lot of time with them. So now, if you want to come to Ecuador, I’ve got a place for you to stay! Anyway, my cousin Merrill is moving down here in a couple of weeks, so we are going to share the apartment. It’s for two.

As far as volunteering my plans have changed. I am going to volunteer with the Red Cross of Ecuador. I think I have learned sufficient Spanish to work with them. I had a 30-minute interview with them, and passed, so I guess I know enough Spanish. I have to go to training this Saturday and Sunday and next Saturday and Sunday. After that, I should be riding in ambulances all over Ecuador. Needless to say, I’m incredibly excited. I’ve been reading this medical book they gave me for the training. It’s like 200 pages. I know all the medicine in the book, but the problem is the Spanish. Trying to read a 200 page technical book in Spanish in less than a week in a half is difficult. But it’s perfect because it is teaching me medical Spanish and that is a major reason I came here. So with that said, Jeff I would be careful. I imagine the points are about to start raining when I’m riding ambulances all across Quito.

That’s enough for now. I don’t want to bore yall, so here are the blog points. By the responses and emails I’ve received, it seems these are everyone’s favorite part of the blog. Oh and next week I’m going to blog about my taxi ride in Venezuela. One of the greatest things that has ever happened to me, so be ready…

Blog Points:
1. I needed to buy a flash drive, so I went to a place in an affluent part of town called the “Center of Commerce”. All these stores were like six feet by six feet. My favorite store was displaying nothing random, only a brand new PlayStation 3, jewelry, cameras, and blenders.
2. I found another store, not in the Center of Commerce, which was real nice and real big. What did it sell? Nothing out of the ordinary either…only refrigerators, washing machines, and sweet ass motorcycles. I think I saw a coupon for a free oil change with the purchase of a Maytag dryer.
3. This guy Christian, who I’ve become friends with, works on the corner selling kabobs cooked on a grill. And believe me they are delicious and only 60 cents. So the other day a lot of people came at once, so he needed to speed up the cooking process to ensure their business. So what did he do? Only pulled out a Vidal-Sassoon hair dryer and started blow-drying them. They were delicious.
4. Lastly, I heard a great song on the radio the other day. I’m curious to know when was the last time you heard this band? Or better yet, when was the last time you thought of them? What band and song? Nothing but the classic Two Princes by The Electric Spin Doctors.

Bogota

Okay, this is just too good a blog to pass up. I cannot type much becuase I do not have much time.

True or False: I am currently blogging in Bogota, Columbia after getting frisked by someone who is probably in the FARC.

Answer: True

The past four hours of my life have been pretty damn hectic. When I arrived in Caracas from Maracaibo, I literally ran from the domestic gate to the international gate. When I got there he told me my flight was closed. The reason I was late was because of the friggin Venezuelan Airline that does not take e-tickets, but somehow sells them. Anyway, I had to plead with the man and tell him that I was a volunteer doctor and that they were waiting on me in Ecuador. (half-true) Anyway, they guy said, well do you have fifty bucks, then I said, that the reason I was late was because your airline took forever getting here, yada yada yada. It was the first time I had to speak heated in Spanish. Anyway, it was awesome. He eventually let me in without having to pay the extra fifty bucks. Then I ran all through the airport and made it to my flight. Anyway, I gotta go now because I think my flight to Quito is about to leave.

BLOG POINT: I just got frisked by the FARC!!!

P.S. The blog is dedicated to my dad. It turns out that we are our parents after all. I know my dad taught me sweet talking and hard talking, and that is the reason I made my connection. I am one hundred percent sure he would have made that connection as well.

¿Ecuador?

So, I have some news. It turns out the man I was working with and I did not get along. It is kind of difficult for me to comprehend, seeing how if you know me, you probably don´t know a single person that I don´t get along with. In fact, even I can´t think of a person until now. And even now, I´m not entirely sure why we cannot work together. Anyway, for his sake I´m not going to go into any details. What I do know is that I got evicted the other day. Which is pretty lame, but it´s also strangly cool to say that I got evicted in Venezuela. I have a friend who was deported from Ireland once. I must say, being deported is way better than being evicted.

Anyway, that aside, I think this is all for the better. I have prayed about it for days, and I have a great peace as to what happened. I am now headed to Quito, Ecuador. I am going to work with the program CENIT. Check out www.cenitecuador.org. I´m really excited about it, and heck, I get to live in Quito! (which I´ve heard is amazing) Also, since Quito is more pricy than rural Venezuela, I´m coming home for Thanksgiving and am planning on working in America until the week after Christmas. I gotta make some grub, then back to Quito for five more months. So, if anyone want to travel and visit me in Quito, yall bring it!

Excited,
Stewart