I <3 Guayaquil

I cannot say how much I love it here. I could live with this family for a year more. Little Maria Eduarda is running around the house trying to entertain the adorable baby Alexa Marie.  Alex just walked up to me and told me how much he really regrets that I have to leave and that I must write to him. We have spent the early afternoon going out to eat plantain chips and...a ceviche like food that I fail at remembering the name of. Apparently this is the food that Ecuadorians eat for hangovers. Last night Mika and I had an adventure in downtown Guyaquil during which we got lost and met a helpful man who works for a local newspaper who helped us safely find our way back. I would write more, so that you might better understand my love for this place, but I am off to fall in love with it even more on yet another adventure with my family. Ciao!

My sweet host brother, Jose, and the all too-cute baby, Alexa Marie

Maria Eduarda--this girl was born a movie star

Warm Morocho is for Hot Evenings

It felt a little bit like I was living on the set of Slumdog Millionaire, except this is no movie. This is real life. Poverty is not always what people imagine--hungry, incapable persons living under a scorching sun--poverty is plenty of food, but food that is of poor quality and nutrition. Poverty is plenty of available work, but work that is dangerous, and brings in the handsome sum of less than two dollars a day. Here in guayaquil, we are staying with host families that live in a very wealthy quarter of the city called Samborondon. Outside of this sector, on the way to Duran, are the squatter communities that we are trying to help through the nonprofit organization Hogar de Christo. And then I learned that there is a class of people living here that have even less than the squatters...I just, um, can't explain how I feel about that. People always say that life I the US is so fortunate, but I had heard that all too often to really believe it before finally coming here and seeing it.

We spent the greater portion of today building a bamboo house for a woman that had purchased the "kit" from Hogar de Christo a few months ago (for about $800...and these houses will last around three years, during which time the families can reinforce them for greater durability and longevity) but had no way of building it.  The houses are built on stilts here because the rainy season guarantees flooding across Guayaquil.  These one room houses can support up to 10 people, though that seems like a miserably cramped lifestyle to me.  The most exciting part of the project was that we also were able to add a composting toilet--the only one around this area and a strong symbol of the beginning of improved sanitation in the developing parts of Ecuador.

But enough on toilets...

There are a few things you should know if you want a picture of Guayaquil:

1) as in the rest of Ecuador, lunch is the biggest meal of the day

2) a taxi ride across town only costs $4

3) the doors on public buses remain forever open...and vendors of ice cream, water, and candy hop on and off as they please

4) the richest man in Ecuador lives only a few neighborhoods away, and children of important figures here go to UEES (Universidad Espiritual Santo), so to get onto the very campus without a guide, you need to scan your fingerprint

5) Chifa! Chinese Ecuadorian food. Trust me, it sucks, don't risk your health for it.

6) most of the old town burned years ago...except for a small portion of downtown...aka, not a whole lot of authentic Guayaquil to get a taste off

7) iguanas are everywhere! University of Washington has squirrels and UEES has iguanas. A park in the middle of the city is absolutely filled with them, and visitors who (despite the signs prohibiting it) try to cuddle them

8) all neighborhoods here in Samborodon (that I have seen at least) are gated. They are little havens of safety in what is by far the safest part of Guayaquil

9) it is not at all uncommon here for people to have live in housekeepers...which brings me to my host family.

I got ridiculously lucky with my family--it is such a unique scenario, and one that I am really having a lot of fun being a part of. I live with Gretta (my host mom), Jose (dad), Jose (28 year old bro), Mika (exchange student from Japan), Emanuel (cousin), Maria Eduarda (adorable, 6 years old, the housekeeper's daughter), and the sweet sweet housekeeper, Solanda. Solanda made me a pile of  patacones (not sure on the spelling, but they are double fried plantains--super yummy) for breakfast yesterday and refused to let me help with any dishes. I am getting spoiled down here.

Spanish is coming really quickly for me now, except for when Emanuel spoils me by speaking in English. Regardless, I don't see how I couldn't have picked it up during the four hour long conversations that follow dinner each night. 

Morocho! Ecuadorian street food, aka empanadas and this warm and cinnamon-y milkshake of a drink (made with corn and...I honestly have no idea), is muy muy rico.

The Barcelona football team was here for a soccer game...and they lost, which made for some happy Ecuadorians. I am sure you know that the excitement about football here reaches considerably higher levels here than it does in the States, but opposing fans will fight in the streets and clog the roads until Samborondon no longer seems nearly as wealthy as it actually is.

After work yesterday, we went to an artisan market and ate Chifa.  And then later on in the evening, I went to the benediction of a new Madonna/waterfall/outdoor extension of the local church.  My host mom gave a speech, a famous ecuadorian soprano sang a short program, and then everyone prayed the rosary in spanish (from what I can tell, religion other than Catholicism is as rare here as blonde hair). 

In short, this week is going by much much too fast. Guayaquil is definitely going to show up again in my future. No doubt about that. But for now, I have a fresh crab dinner awaiting me (and the best part is that the crabs here are purple! So elegant, right?).  Ciao!

Polar Opposites

Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador, has all walks of life: from Latin America's most affluent, to the impoverished people of the slums. I was lucky enough to experience both of these in a single day and relay back to you what I will always remember as one of the more interesting days of my life. In the morning and afternoon, our group spent time working with Hogar de Cristo to build a home for a single mother with two children. The house, a simple one room raised structure, would be one like the tens of thousands I saw coating the hills for as far as the eye could see. Its foundation required 11 wholes, 40 centimeters deep that were made by driving a 6-foot metal stake laboriously into the tough bedrock, in some places breaking apart stones in a way I only thought could be accomplished by a jackhammer. Once these were completed, the hot Ecuadorian sun began to punish us in the afternoon and staying hydrated was of utmost importance. 

With the help of local carpenters, we watched as post after post was erected and cemented with concrete. All this done by hand and with very few tools other than a shovel, saw, measuring tape, level, and strings. The ease and raw skill impressed me as these carpenters guided us in rapidly putting together a house in the space of 7 hours. Finally we hoisted wall after wall up onto the raised structure to finish the project and successfully give a much needed home to a lady and children in need. Oh, the sense of accomplishment in helping those in need!

Note: this post was for last friday

"Michelle and I wouldn't let people book for only one night...you wouldn't stay in the Amazon for one night and you certainly wouldn't stay in the Galapagos for one night, so don't stay here for one night." Andres has his forehead creased with emotion as he tries to convey to all of us the same concept we all traveled here with. Tourists should not travel with the expectation of being endlessly pleased. We think that paying lump sums of money and making the effort to travel to distant places entitles us to drive by all of nature's wonders as if the world were just one big parade. I will miss the Black Sheep Inn and its owner and founders. Andres is very passionate about the environment.  He is not an Eco-freak or a stereotypical treehugger or a pretentious recycling snob, he just wants to set a humble but good example for the world by caring not only for the environment, but the people who live there.

The airport is a complete change of scenery from the peaceful slopes of Chugchilan. You can see Cotopaxi (a large and snow-covered volcano here) in the distance from here, and it reminds me of Mt. Rainier in a pleasant sort of way. Most of the conversation amongst our group concerns Spanish...I think the majority of us, myself included, are nervous to meet our host families...and excited too, of course. Only one more hour!

Yesterday we trekked to the Cloud Forest. Picture some kind of mysterious hybrid between the Amazon jungle and the forests you can find in the Pacific Northwest, then add a little more mist, and you have the right idea.  Out of the green float little pink globules that look almost like natural neon glow sticks.  Yellow and brown spotted flowers that look like they could give birth to banana slugs are nested near a small waterfall. The trees here have been bedecked time and time again with streamers of heavy moss, making it difficult to see the sky. Our guide for this trek, Miguel, is some kind of superhuman. Not only does he have an incredible awareness of direction throughout the Andes, but he has an inner motor that could inspire the Energizer Bunny. You could ask esta cansado? And he would just laugh at you.

And it's time to board...so ciao!