Notes From a God Forsaken Place

The title of this post comes from a line in a letter that my Grandma wrote me. The letter ended, "...and be careful in the God Forsaken place!". I got the letter while I was in Quito this weekend. There were a bunch of other PCVs in the office and they all got a kick out of hearing that. While in Quito I also got another Cardinals calender from my Aunt and Uncle, Glenn and Kathy. Since I already received one, I gave the extra to the PC nurse at the office. She is from South St. Louis (Graduated from Nerinx Hall) and greatly appreciated a little bit of home in Quito. I also bought a radio/alarm clock/iPod docking station. Now I can listen to the iPod without having to use the headphones and when I wake up (using my watch as an alarm was starting to get old). Although I have only had it a couple of days, I´ve used it a lot. It wasn´t that expensive and it is small enough that I´ll be able to bring it back to the States. I also got my new phone from the PC office. It is an older model than my previous one and has a slight problem. When I get a call, it only vibrates. This lack of ringing my cause a problem, so I´m going to see if I can switch them when I go back to Quito next month.

It was nice to be in Quito too because five of my friends were there too. I called/e-mailed them all last week and we all decided to meet up. It was nice to speak English and go out to some nice restaurants with friend (Indian and Pizza). Lastly, I went to the grocery store to stock up on supplies. I got all that I needed, but they were out of American Peanut Butter...Horrible! Then I headed back to La Libertad. After all that good food (which included my first Big Mac in four months), it was funny to get home to a meal with the family of boiled potatoes and fried rabbit stomach (note: the rabbit was actually very good).

When I got back, I first checked on my plants in their Coke Bottle "GreenHouses". To my surprise, they are actually growing! I feel like a new mother (I´m right there with you Marla). For the first time in my life, something that I planted is growing. Now I just have to find a place to put the little plants. Sauerkraut City here I come.

When I got back, I also finished helping out my neighbor with a little project. He is in charge of the local Men´s Fútbol League and needed the official rule book written on the computer. I offered to help and re-typed most of it. It wasn´t the rules of soccer, but just the rules of the league. I think it ended up being about 20 pages. Ecuador is in the process of writing a new Constitution (Their current Constitution is less than 10 years old). If soccer rules are any indication, the new Constitution will be enormous.

Right now, we are having exams at the grade school. They are going about as I expected...terribly. The kids, due either to my incompetence or their lack of desire, learned nothing. The average from the fifth grade was 21%. The Director is asking me to teach all the grades next year, but I´m going to stick with only a couple of hours a week.

Some people have also been asking me to teach their kids individually. I´ve always said yes, but the kids never have shown up at the decided on time. Finally last week, a kid actually showed up (1 1/2 hours late). We talked for two hours and made an appointment for this week, but he didn´t show up for that. I don´t know, but it seems like people are very excited about learning English, but don´t follow through.

NOTES:
- I finally got bit by one of the dogs in town. It´s not a big deal. I was at a guys house talking about a project and his dog came from behind me and snapped at my leg. I had jeans on, so no damage done, but I´d been waiting for one of the dogs here to get me. They are less pets, and more guards, so everywhere I walk they come out of the houses to bark.

- A bunch of tourists drove through town last week on their way to the mountains. They had a ton of North Face gear, so I could tell that they were going climbing. We had bad weather for two days after that, so I don´t think the got to see very much from the top. I thought that it was funny that people would pay a ton of money to come from the States to my site when I get to get paid to live here. Then I thought that they get to leave after a couple of days, and I have to say. Maybe the jokes on me.

- Two of my friends got robbed at gunpoint in Quito this weekend after I left. If I had decided to stay another day, I would have been with them. They are fine and only lost some cash, but it could have been worse.

- Funny story. All the teachers at the High School have a hard time remembering my name. They all call me Mike after the old Volunteer. It is always Mike this and Mike that. Yesterday Mike came to L.L with some other PC bosses to look at his old project and when the teachers saw him they ran up to him yelling, "Jay!". I guess it works both ways.