My Ecua 4th of July

It’s been an interesting past couple of days. I’ve had some low points, high points, and weird points for sure.  Last week Wednesday, I woke up feeling a little sorry for myself. A good friend finished her service and left Ecuador. My projects aren’t taking off very quickly, and I was just generally feeling a little down:

Fortunately, on Wednesdays I go to a rural neighboring town to teach a very loosely structured English class with another Volunteer. We had sort of vaguely decided that we were going to do a lesson on the planets. It was exactly the adorable hot mess that I needed.

When we asked the kids to label the planets in Spanish to see how much they knew, they rushed to the white board, and I can’t even pretend I had anything resembling classroom control for a few minutes. I told the other volunteer that this would resemble a good day at the high school. He just looked at me, slightly confused, and said “where the students have all gone crazy, and you’re holding a sleepy puppy?”. I had to clarify that I was just pleased with such a high level of participation (even if it was a bit of a mess at the moment). The little puppy I was holding was just a bonus. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to be sad while holding a sleepy puppy.

Later, when we were quizzing them on the English names for the planets, one of the kids exclaimed “yo, yo, yo! ya sí sé! [me, me, me! I know them!]… Mars, Hoopiter, Saturday….” I have to admit that I couldn’t keep a straight face for that one.  At one point, the class was even more of a Spanish lesson than an English lesson. When we asked “What do you call Mercurio in English?,” apparently our pronunciation was unacceptable, and the kids started slowly enunciating “Meeer-cuuur-E-O.” They didn’t see why that was humorous in English class. Also they called me “Senorita Meaghan,” which was just super cute.

Anyway, I left high-spirited and especially pleased because the fancy gringo mall is on the way home, and I had some shopping to do. I was on the hunt for ingredients for a 4th of July dessert. Blueberries were a lost cause, but I found strawberry applesauce there! It was actually made in Michigan, so I’m buying local?

After we finished shopping, we even got coconut soft-serve ice cream.

I stopped at a couple more markets on the way home because that’s just how grocery shopping in Ecuador works, and got started on thoroughly washing all fruits and veggies that I had purchased. Spinach (for what my counterparts later called an “exotic” salad), strawberries, blackberries, and blue-ish grapes (for a fruit pizza) all have a very bad reputation as higher than normal risk for amoebas.  However, my real surprise came while washing the cauliflower I bought.  When I came across a little worm crawling around in my food, I may have freaked out a little.

My host mom heard my scream, and asked, very concerned, if I had cut myself. I told her “No! Worse! So much worse! There’s a worm in my coliflor!” She laughed a little and took care of it while I just sort of awkwardly walked around the small kitchen. I’m still a new Volunteer, OK?

So with only minimal hiccups, I was able to prepare some pretty delightful treats for a Going Away party that we had for my  site mate at school on the 4th of July. It was of course a little bitter sweat for many reasons, but I’m glad I was doing something special on the 4th. Even though the party wasn’t specifically for America’s Independence Day, I took the chance to dress up a la the star-spangled banner, which was nice, but after the series of catcalls on the way to school (and at school), I remembered why I stopped doing that, trying to look nice that is.

I also learned that day that summer work is near impossible. It’s not actually summer yet, but, well, it might as well be. My host mom actually told me yesterday “Meaghan, you should just forget about working in the summer. It’s not going to happen.” So, that’s where work is at.  On the 4th, I went to talk to another school official about a secondary project and while no work was discussed, I somehow got roped into a really strange tango lesson? The school official also tried to set me up with the tango instructor (who is married).

So, um, yeah, it will definitely be a 4th of july that I never forget.