My Last Few Days...

...were spent primarily with my sweet, kind, and dear Ecuadorian friends and family. I miss them already and will ALWAYS remember each of them for the incredibly special part they played in my Ecuadorian life and experience and the impact each of them had on me. ¡Les quiero!

Gonzalo, me, and Fabiola

My café barista friends Consuela & Rafael

Papito Gonzalito :)

My beautiful sister Josefa

Mamá Mechita, me, Josefa

Me and the most wonderful host mom in the world!

Quito Quirks

Well, here we are. Tomorrow is my last day in Quito, and I’m headed home Sunday morning. Surreal that this semester is ending, surreal that I’m finally going to be back in the USA –  this time to stay for longer than just three weeks –  and surreal that I’ll be home with my family for the first time in four months and then back at Duke for the first time in eight months. I’M. SO. EXCITED! Today marks exactly 16 weeks of being in Ecuador, and I can say with confidence that my language skills, ability to be independent in a big (foreign) city, and even just daily interactions have all developed significantly from when I first arrived. The other day a sweet elderly Ecuadorian woman stopped me when I was walking home and asked me for directions, and by golly, I knew exactly where she was trying to go and was able to give her directions for how to get there in Spanish. It wasn’t until later that I realized how backwards that was from when I first got here and was constantly lost, language-confused, and just a typical touristy gringo! Oh how things have changed in the past four months…

Here are some random “quirks” about Quito and life here that I've discovered over the course of this semester:

1. When you order a coffee, you’re actually ordering whole milk with maybe a dash of coffee. If you want ACTUAL strong, caffeinated coffee, you have to specify “café con AGUA” (coffee w/ water) – and they think it's strange when you then proceed to put a little milk in it.

2. The buses don’t ever fully stop...they “pause” just long enough for you to jump on – assuming you are skilled enough to jump the correct distance at just the right time when the bus rolls by you. Dangerous? Potentially...

3. Whenever you take a taxi, you MUST negotiate the price ahead of time or you WILL get ripped off. Bartering is totally normal in nearly every context.

4. When people say “The seasons are changing!” they actually mean the average temperature has dropped from approximately 72 degrees to approximately 65 degrees. Eternal springtime!

5. When you are riding on a public bus, about 95% of the time there will be at least one person who will jump on and try to sell you stuff – chips, ice cream, CDs, children's books, you name it. Every so often someone will jump on and start delivering a political speech or some other form of political propaganda. And then every once in a while, someone will get on carrying a boom-box and start rapping or singing to the audience of bus-riders.

6. Even in crosswalks, pedestrians NEVER have the right of way. Cars will not stop for you if you are crossing the street. Ever. Period. They may honk at you if they're about to hit you...but they definitely won't slow down!

7. They don't have to wait until after Thanksgiving to start the Christmas season here, because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving! So, you start seeing Christmas trees, lights, and nativity scenes appear in every single shop, grocery store, and mall beginning in early November. (It's kind of great actually.)

8. Don't bother carrying around $20 bills (or anything bigger) – making change anywhere is near impossible. Most restaurants and stores only accept $5s or $10s, even though banks and ATM machines still seem to only give out $20s. Not exactly helpful.

9. It costs 25 cents to take a bus ANYWHERE in the city. That means 25 cents to go five blocks down the road or 25 cents to travel an hour and a half to the furthest bus station in Quito. Yay for cheap public transportation!

10. Public bathrooms rarely have toilet paper. Which means: always remember to carry tissues with you in your bag! You can pretty easily judge how "fancy" a place is by whether or not their restroom has toilet paper in it. Some places even charge you a nickel or a dime for toilet paper or just for using their bathroom. So again, DON'T forget the tissues.

11. Eggs, milk, butter, and an assortment of other dairy products are not always refrigerated. I typically just try not to think about it because it makes me scared...

12. Cat-calling and whistling, as well as PDA, are totally socially acceptable. Neither of these things is really okay with me...hence neither is something I will miss having to hear/see all the time.

13. As you may already know, "Latin American time” is NOT like "U.S. time.” Similar to time in Africa, scheduling is very flexible, and I have yet to see any event (including classes, meetings, appointments, etc.) start exactly on time. I have also found that their general usage of the words/phrases “ahora", "ahorita", and "ya vengo” significantly contribute to this issue. Let me explain:

• "Ahora" – which literally means “now” in English, can actually mean “anytime today" OR "possibly tomorrow if I don’t end up having time today.”
• “Ahorita” – which literally means “RIGHT now” can mean either “right this very second” OR “within the next hour or so...when I get around to it.” 
• Confused yet? It gets even more difficult! "Ya vengo" – which literally means “I am already coming” actually means “I’ll be right there” or "I'll be right back" – which could mean in 5 min, a few days, or anywhere in between.

Basically, you should just give up trying to figure out when anything is actually going to start or when you're going to be meeting someone and just accept that it'll happen when it happens! Lessons in patience...

That's all I've got for now! Hasta luego -

Galápagos Islands

Our last and final program trip to the Galápagos Islands was nothing short of incredible. The anticipation had been building up for quite awhile and we were all anxious to experience what everyone here in Ecuador boasts as one of the “7 wonders of the underwater world” (which it officially IS...I looked it up!) – and it certainly did NOT disappoint. Unlike the other program trips, this one was entirely just for fun and enjoyment and had no “educational objectives” – so needless to say we all couldn’t wait to kick back for a few days before finals began and take in the extraordinary beauty of this “underwater wonder.” We visited four of the islands in just four days – San Cristobal, Santa Cruz, Floreana, and Baltra – and spent many hours enjoying leisurely boat rides and frequent stops at various beaches along the way. I could gush for days about how amazing the Galápagos are, but I think my pictures describe it better than I can, so I’ll let you see for yourselves...

Major highlights included:

• Swimming and snorkeling with sea lions, marine turtles, sharks (although I didn’t personally see one, apparently there WAS a shark sighting!), penguins, HUGE manta rays, and an assortment of bright and beautiful fish.

• Watching dolphins jump and play right up alongside our boat during one of our sailing trips between islands.

Look closely...I caught a shot of one of the dolphins mid-jump!

• Visiting the Charles Darwin research station and seeing many different types of tortoises and other reptiles, including a tortoise appropriately named “Lonesome George," who is the very last tortoise of his species in existence.

 

• Swimming and relaxing on an idyllic, paradisal beach for the afternoon.

• Exciting animal sightings including a blue-footed booby (bird with bright blue feet native to the Galápagos) and a plethora of funny-looking iguanas!

• Visiting a couple different conservation sites where we saw hundreds of tortoises in their natural habitats.

• Watching the sunset over the ocean from the top of the boat…breathtaking.

It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and an unforgettable experience that I am so grateful for! And a great way to end this semester abroad with a bang.

The whole group – Duke in the Andes Fall 2011

Thankful

Well, at least this time I actually have a good reason for not having blogged in so long – my computer charger broke a couple weeks ago and I had to make do for a while borrowing my host family’s computer and other people’s Mac chargers. That is, until I finally realized that Apple has a WORLDWIDE warranty (duh) and I went by the Apple Tech store a mere 15-minute walk from my apartment, whereupon they presented me with a brand-new, free charger in less than 24 hours. This happened on Thanksgiving, which seemed appropriate since I’ve never been SO thankful for Apple’s stellar customer service! (haha).

Okay, so that’s not actually the ONLY reason I haven’t blogged in a while...the truth is, the past three weeks have continued to feel challenging, tense, and at times I would even say quite painful. I’ve been dealing with battles both internal and external (without going into detail) that have exhausted me and discouraged me even more. My motivation to do ANYTHING other than watch movies or go to the gym is I would say at an all-time low, a result of dealing with these “battles” and feeling continually homesick. So yes…that’s the truth. I know that I’m “learning” and “growing” and “being stretched” – but to be honest, it doesn’t really feel worth it right now, and it’s not actually that much of an encouragement, at least in this moment.

A few weeks ago I finished reading Shauna Niequist’s book Bittersweet, a collection of short stories and “thoughts on change, grace, and learning the hard way” – and as you might be able to infer from this description, it could not have been a more PERFECT book for me to read this semester. You know when you read a book or watch a movie or hear a song, and it just completely describes or depicts or embodies how you are feeling, what you are going through, what you are thinking to yourself – or, sometimes, it’s just exactly what you needed to hear – to know that you’re not alone? This book was that for me. This passage, in particular, is what I needed to hear and be reminded of. It’s long, but I’m putting in the whole thing, just in case maybe it’s what you need to hear too :)

“I used to think that the growth we experience through pain, physical or not, was a consolation prize. I thought that what we really want are easy lives, and if we can’t have those, then we can at least become deep, grounded people who grow through heartbreak. But I don’t know anyone who has an easy life forever. Everyone I know gets their heart broken sometime, by something. The question is not, will my life be easy or will my heart break? But rather, when my heart breaks, will I choose to grow? Sometimes in the moments of the most searing pain, we think we don’t have a choice. But we do. It’s in those moments that we make the most important choice: grow or give up. It’s easy to want to give up under the weight of what we’re carrying. It seems sometimes like the only possible choice. But there’s always, always another choice, and transformation is waiting for us just beyond that choice. This is what I know: God can make something beautiful out of anything, out of darkness and trash and broken bones. He can shine light into even the blackest night, and he leaves us glimpses of hope. New life and new beauty are all around us, waiting to be discovered, waiting to be seen.”

So, even though there have been a few points along the way where I’ve given up (okay, maybe more than a few), today I’ve chosen and I’m choosing to find something beautiful. And in the spirit of it being Thanksgiving week, I’m choosing to be thankful. I’m thankful that this week I received an RA position for next semester – a job that I really wanted. I’m thankful for someone finding my keys and phone and sending them back to me. I’m thankful for my always-loving host family. I’m thankful for my elderly friend Gonzalo and our sweet coffee dates. I’m thankful for a Thanksgiving celebration that – while not quite the same as being home – was still joyous and festive and DELICIOUS. And, of course, I’m thankful for Apple’s worldwide warranty :)

                            Me and Gonzalo at our café                       Me, my host mom, and host sister 

                                                                                                                        at Thanksgiving dinner

Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas season!!

Esmeraldas

It’s long overdue, but here’s a summary (mostly in pictures) of our brief 3-day trip to the Afro-Ecuadorian community of Playa de Oro (from the weekend of Nov. 10-12):

We took a red-eye bus ride Wednesday night and arrived 9 hours later on Thursday morning at the coastal community, a bit bleary-eyed and sweating up a storm from the heat and humidity. It all seemed very reminiscent of the Amazon, as we took a similar canoe ride down to the village where we were staying. When we got there, were greeted by some of the community members with traditional music, an enthusiastic welcome, and a huge, delicious lunch of fried fish and rice (we ate lots of wonderful fresh seafood throughout the weekend!)

Needless to say we were all pretty exhausted, so the rest of the day was spent chatting about history and traditions. Basically, the ancestors of this particular community were brought sometime in the late 1700s from Africa and enslaved with the purpose of extracting gold from the river basin. Oral history, poetry, and music is also important to the community, so we heard from a local man about their way of documenting history through a type of poem called a décima, and listened to a bit of traditional Marimba music.

On Friday we took a hike through the jungle (which included an exciting spotting by one of our guides of a tiger footprint – luckily they’re nocturnal!), and went swimming in a beautiful laguna next to a little waterfall. On our way back, we stopped at one of the rocky beaches and learned (very basically) how to pan for gold. We also had a lesson back at the community of how to make sugar from sugar cane – an extremely physically strenuous process!

          

That night we had a big fiesta with members of the community, complete with traditional music (both their upbeat Marimba music as well as a rather pathetic rendition of some “traditional American music” from us..) and Marimba dance.

The next morning we left the community and ate lunch at the house of Papa Roncón, a legendary marimba-player and story-teller of the Esmeraldas region. The marimba music and dance is a beautiful example and symbol of the many ways in which the Afro community is dedicated to preserving their roots and traditions. Papa Roncón was very charismatic and welcoming, and after another seafood-filled lunch and an hour of music-making with Papa, we started the long journey back to Quito.

...and coming up next weekend: GALÁPAGOS!

Quilotoa

Last week was a “feriado” in Quito, meaning a holiday break! Wednesday was Día de los Muertos and Thursday was Cuenca Independence Day (which I’m pretty sure is just used as an excuse to not have school/work for the rest of the week after Day of the Dead). Anyways, pretty much everyone in Ecuador takes the 5-day weekend to travel, and of course we did as well! Instead of going away for the whole 5 days though, a group of us opted to avoid the mass crowds and traffic and instead just head for a couple of days to the highly-recommended Quilotoa Volcano/Crater Lake, about 4 hours from the outskirts of Quito. The trip ended up being so fun and Quilotoa was even more beautiful than I could have imagined, and it was the perfect amount of time to be gone.

The Quilotoa lake is inside a volcanic crater, and the locals claim that the lake is “bottomless” (though geologists say that it is actually about 820 ft. deep…either way, not jumping in there!) We were up even higher than Quito in elevation (it’s about 12,800 ft. at the top of the crater) and it’s extremely cold and windy – but the incredible view was well worth it!

On Friday morning we woke up bright and early to begin our venture on what we thought was a 6-hour hike around the lake. However, we naively assumed that the “Quilotoa loop” that everyone talks about was at the BASE of the lake, and it was not until we had hiked all the way down the crazy-steep crater to the edge of the water that we realized the “loop” is not in fact at the bottom but rather at the EDGE of the crater, back at the top. Well, whoops! As we looked fearfully up at the ominous hill we had just come down, I joked, “Well, what goes down must come back up!” (Can’t say I’ve ever said that on a hike before…a bit counter-intuitive!) But, in the end, we all made it up just fine and felt very accomplished and fit when we reached the top!

Naturally though, once we got back to the top of the crater we had little desire to start all over on a new 6-hour trek, so we decided to hike instead for a couple hours along the REAL loop, eat lunch at a scenic spot somewhere along the way, and then turn back around. A few hours later we hopped on a bus back to Quito, and arrived back at our homes around dinnertime.

(Back at the top!)

This coming weekend, our whole group is heading to Playa de Oro in the coastal Esmeraldas region for a program excursion. The unit we are currently studying in our core course is “the Afro-Andean Diaspora,” so we will be visiting a native community on the coast and learning more about the history and rights movements of the Afro-Ecuadorian communities (as well as hitting the beach for a few hours!) Check back for a summary of the trip next week!

Step by Step, Day by Day

I have been such a slacker with the blogging lately! I guess it’s one of those things that kind of gets pushed down in priority when there’s a lot else going on. Anyways, I’ve been thinking about writing a blog on this subject for the past week or so, and I’m finally getting around to it. First, a little background story…

When I was in Kenya, often times our team would go to some location – a church, a school, a worship service – and we’d spontaneously be asked to perform a song. The first time we had to do this, I believe we were at our local church, and we decided that the easiest, simplest, shortest song that everyone knew how to sing was “Step by Step.” If you’ve ever been to church in your life, ever, I’m guessing you know the one I’m taking about – “God you are my God, and I will ever praise you…I will seek you in the morning, and I will learn to walk in your ways, and step by step you’ll lead me…and I will follow you all of my days.” After about the second or third time of being asked to sing on-the-spot in front of a group of people, it kind of became assumed that we would always just use our go-to, SUPER exiting and elaborate song, Step by Step (kidding about the exciting part). By the end of the trip, we had done this so many times, that not only was everyone incredibly sick of this particular song, but it became somewhat of a running joke that it was the only one we EVER sang when asked to sing for other people. I swear to you I actually had a dream one night, while in Kenya, that I was leading worship for a huge conference somewhere, and when I got up on stage to start singing, the ONLY song I could remember the words/tune to was Step by Step. I’m not kidding. I woke up laughing.

Well, I personally believe that God has a pretty amusing sense of humor, because now I’m here in Ecuador, finding myself many times easily discouraged or frustrated or homesick, and the words of that song – while incredibly simple – have never been such a beautiful reminder. Take it step by step, day by day – God’s been placing those words on my heart over and over – and I will lead you. I’ve heard many pastors and speakers use the analogy of God leading us like a father leads their toddler when teaching them how to walk. They take one step, maybe two, before they inevitably fall down. But a father never gives up on his child. He picks them back up, when they’re ready, and continues to lead them, slowly and patiently. I’ve had that image go through my mind a lot recently – it’s at times what I feel this season of my life has metaphorically looked like, like I'm only able to make it one or two steps before something knocks me back down, or I lose my own balance and forget that I need God to hold me. It’s incredibly tiring, and not at all easy to be patient and persevering, especially with my personality that seems inclined to go about a million miles an hour without really pausing to breathe. But God is teaching me this semester something that I have needed to learn for YEARS – that when I’ve overwhelmed with emotion or stress or whatever it may be, I need to slow down, allow myself space and time to relax, and choose to take it step by step, day by day.

I had to make a difficult decision last week – I decided to withdraw from one of my classes. The migraine I mentioned in my last post ended up lasting for over two weeks (part of the reason I haven’t blogged in so long) – coming in cluster headaches and residual migraine pain that didn’t let up until only about 5 days ago. I am suspicious that it may have had something to do with the high altitude, but I am close to positive that the emotional and mental stress I have been dealing with, combined with all the changes and adjustments that go along with living in a different country, also had a huge part to do with it. Either way, my health (in all respects of the word) was quickly waning, and on top of everything else we had just begun our graduate-level class which was entirely in Spanish and met 6 hours a week. Pretty much needless to say, I absolutely could not handle it on top of everything else going on. So instead of doing what I usually do – sucking it up and letting myself stay stressed and anxious – I made the decision to withdraw and use the extra time in my schedule to relax and rest. You may be thinking, “well of course you needed to do that, that’s an easy decision to make,” but that wasn’t exactly how I felt at the time. I don’t give up easily and I don’t like the feeling of failure at ALL, and I’m terrible at saying no to things even when I know I don’t have time for them (although I have gotten much better at that since the beginning of college). But once I made the decision, I KNEW it was the best thing I could have done. It was a step in the right direction and a step towards learning how to better take care of myself.

My friend posted this quote on her Facebook a while back, and I thought it was perfectly “in theme” with this blog: “If God sends us on stony paths, He will provide us with strong shoes” (Alexander MacLaren). I love this image of walking down a road equipped with God’s power leading our feet. So, with the “strong shoes” I trust that God has given me, I’m taking it step by step, one day at a time. And when I do fall, He is providing me daily with the strength to pick myself back up, and keep walking this journey.