Hello everyone! Here in Ecuador, things are starting to settle into a bit of a routine. Most mornings I go running with Raquel and Cristina Gomezcoello at 6:30. We run along the Yanucay river pathway in a big loop. Running is almost as exciting as driving in Ecuador. The trails tend to have a lot of holes and puddles and people to dodge around. The most exciting part is running down a steep hill on a gravel road. Tributaries of water from the rain have made deep ruts and loose sand. Definitely fun.
We eat breakfast at around 7 o’clock. Most mornings we have some type of banana or yucca or corn. Surprisingly, I have actually eaten very few “normal” bananas (like the ones we have in Canada) here in Ecuador. Most of the time we have some kind of cooked bananas. There is this type of big banana called platanos that are not very sweet, and are quite hard when green. Sometimes we have these banans boiled, or mashed and fried, or boiled and mashed, is sliced and fried like chips. It actually tastes more like potato than banana. The other food that we often have for breakfast is “muchin” which is boiled and mashed yucca root (like fibrous potato) which has been formed into balls around cheese and fried. It is very good! Other days we have humita, which is a type of corn meal served wrapped in a corn leaf. Most breakfasts we also have queso (cheese) and papaya (a type of red melon), and everyday, we have either hot chocolate or coffee… but not like the coffee in Canada! Here, they serve the coffee made with pure milk and very sweet. Now that it my kind of coffee!
After breakfast I go with Senora Blanca (the mother from the family I am living with—the Goemzcoellos) to the colegio bilingue (bilingual school), which is about a five minute walk away. From about 7:30 to 8 or 8:30 is the time that I have internet access at the school. I usually meet Justo in a little computer room at the school. After checking my email, I walk around the school and try to find one of the English teachers. I usually work with Senor Patricio, and older Ecuadorian teacher, or Senor Pedro, an American English teacher. They teach English to the grade 4, 5 and 6 students. The children are very affectionate, and I rarely make it across the campus without at least a few kids running up and giving me a hug or calling out, “Kimberly!!!” I usually help with five 40-minute classes each morning. I try to provide some individual attention to the students in the classes and assist in keeping order, and correcting written work and pronunciation. A lot of the children don’t know how bad my Spanish is, so they ask me a lot of questions very fast in Spanish. I usually have to resort to asking them to ask the other teacher. Sometimes it is a hard on my curiosity when I don’t understand everything. I understand enough Spanish to know that they are talking about me, but not exactly what they are saying!
At about 12:30, school is finished, and I walk back to the Gomezcoello’s house. We have lunch at around 1:45 or 2. I forgot to mention that we usually have a snack at the school during the recess break at 10. For lunch, we usually have some kind of soup, rice, lettuce and tomato salad, hominy and broad beans. There is often some kind of meat or eggs. Yum! I really enjoy helping Blanca with preparing food. I love to see how they cook, and to learn new words and phrases in Spanish too. Almuerzo (lunch) is my favorite meal of the day.
In the afternoon, I teach English to home schoolers on most days. I go to their houses and teach for two hours with each family. On Tuesday this week, I went by myself for the first time to one of the family’s houses by bicycle. I was a little nervous about that, because in Ecuador, if you are small, you are not respected on the roads! Just like some of the cars don’t have seatbelts, they don’t have bicycle helmets either! Thank the Lord that I made it there safely. Right now I have about 10 students from four families. Sometimes it is a real challenge to teach English when I don’t know much Spanish. There is also a broad difference in language ability, so it is hard sometimes to help everyone to learn. I struggle with trying to share the more complex and important subjects of the gospel because of the language barrier. Thank the Lord that His Word can speak despite our insufficiencies. You can pray that I would have a servants heart, and know where to spend my time to the best furtherance of the gospel.
I have to go now… I will post more later! Thanks for your prayers.
Chow amigos!
