What these eyes have seen.

5-31-11

From living in the mountains, to traveling across the country to a small town of Tonsupa (the coast, and therefore, the beach), I have seen some sights.  Zack, a retired doctor from the states, John, and I left around 2:30 to drive to Quito, then to Tonsupa.  The drive was long (7 hours by bus), but magnificent.  We descended from the mountains; roads narrow and winding.  Most of the drive was in the dark (since it gets dark around 6PM), but we were still able to enjoy all the views of valleys, mountains, and the tops of trees.  We arrived to the FEVI volunteer housing about 10:30 or 11PM, where we were greeted by the most gracious people who are our “host family”.  They are the ones who did the cooking, cleaning, sitting around the table with us, showing us around town, etc.  

Friday consisted of John and I walking the beach in the morning, and then coming back to the volunteer houses to eat a delicious breakfast, including a Batido (it’s like a thick smoothie).  During the day, we hung out with the family and enjoyed different views of the ocean.  At night, all of us went to a nearby, much more popular town to see what was going on at the beach (keep in mind this was also a holiday weekend for Ecuador). There was lots of dancing to be done the next following nights.

The weather was very hot and sunny (I’m thinking 90-100 F), so the light breeze was necessary the whole time we were there.

On Saturday, I spent a lot of time reading in the shade, lying comfortably in a hammock.  We spent a lot of time talking at the table with the family, while eating delicious food from the coast.  There are quite a few differences between people from the mountains and the coast, but the most well known difference is that they do not pronounce “s” at the end of words where it is usually necessary, and instead replace an “h” sound at the end of the word or in the middle of “estar”.  I adapted well to this way of speaking in that I could understand most of what was being said.  John, Zack and I went to the beach for a few hours until the clouds came in (which is very common in the afternoon) and we headed home for dinner at 6PM. Some of the food included Cerviche (sp?), which was a mixture of rice, fish, shrimp, vegetables, etc.  Other dishes were soup, chicken, rice, fruit juices, etc.  All in all, really good food.  Saturday night, we all went out to the bigger city for “beach clubbing”, which is basically lots of loud music and dancing.  This time it was a lot more fun because we didn’t just stay at one of the restaurants, but we explored about 4 different ones, trying to avoid reggaeton music because it’s hard to dance to ;-) . After we were tired of dancing (no!), we hopped into a “Mototaxi”, which is a motorcycle with a carriage-like platform on the back of it, and headed home.  

Sunday was a day of rest in paradise.  Actually it was too hot to be called paradise haha.  We all slept in pretty late, ate breakfast at 11:30 AM, then lunch at 1:00PM.  We took a bus (again costing $.20 per person), and strolled to a park where Andrés (our “host dad” who is actually about 22 years old) had a soccer game.  Since the game didn’t start right away, we took our time playing pool “villa” at a nearby hole-in-the-wall, which is actually outdoors.  It was billiards, so I learned a new game of pool.  After a few rounds of billiards, we watched Andrés play soccer.  Keep in mind that this is a small town, which probably hasn’t seen many  white girls with blonde hair, so one of the soccer players from the other team noticed that I had a camera in my hand and wanted me to take a picture of him.  One could say that he had a big ego, because after he scored a goal he came running with his shirt over his head right to where we were sitting and smiled really big for me. Haha.  So as not to run into him again after the game, John, Zack and I walked the beach on the way home (AND saved $.20 each).  It included a beautiful sunset and the last time we were going to be putting our feet in the salt water for a while.  We arrived home and ate dinner and talked to our host family for quite a while.  I had been feeling like I was getting a cold, so I retired early that night.

I forgot to add that Thursday before we left for Tonsupa, we took all the kids (Munequitos) to the zoo~

Where I spent my time reading in this orange hammock.

John and I at a bar/restaurant on the beach.

The host family (excluding Andres), plus Zack and John at the soccer game.

The guy from the other soccer team who really enjoyed showing off for me.

Monday, where we toured the smaller part of Tonsupa; much of it being really poor.

Monday was the end of our “vacation”, so we had many things to get done.  John, Zack and I headed into the bigger town to see a local orphanage which was really cool.  Since we didn’t get to talk to people in the orphanage, we just stuck our heads into where it was located.  The idea of this place is really cool. It’s like 7-9 group homes surrounded by a playground.  Each home has a “mother” (I guess some of the mothers had been previous kids in the orphanage, so they knew much about it) and about 8-9 kids.  I’m not exactly sure on this, but the mothers’ jobs were to clean and cook for the children and get paid so much money to cover those costs.  From the orphanage, we sought out an internet café since the wireless in our guest house was not working properly.  AND they had actually brewed coffee instead of the instant stuff, so I was pretty happy about that.  Seeing as there are going to be many students going to Tonsupa to work in the school and/or clinic, I needed to be trained as how to get there etc, in case I would be the one taking the students there.  We saw and met the director of the school in Tonsupa where there are about 5 classrooms; 1 vacant for the retired doctor (John) to do basic checkups and to give recommendations/education to the people living in the area.  John will be starting up these checkups next week for at least a few hours a week, since the need is high in that area. Tonsupa is a pretty poor area if you get out to the rural part where the school is. It truly seems like a different world out there, since the houses are basically shacks, floors still dirt, and cooking over a fire instead of our high technological electrical stoves. We visited a girl’s family in Tonsupa who was staying at the guesthouse for a few nights, who had 18 people living in her house with her. She was telling me earlier that there are not only 18 people living in her house, but also 10 dogs (5 little, 5 big).  When we visited her family, I looked around their house and felt extremely fortunate for everything that I have.  Even though many of the things I have aren’t even necessary in order to live.  I’ve recognized how happy people are even without material things that we are so used to having.  There is something about living simply that is so attractive. After much walking to a nearby bus station (more like a stop on the side of a road), a family-friend who had previously given us rides on the mototaxi, saw us on the side of the road, picked us up, and brought us home.  In the afternoon, we were taken to the bus station for our long trip home to Quito—then to Lumbisí.  Great weekend!