Thursday, April 24, 2008
Not much to report from the last three days. We have spent our time in classes, at the beach and just generally hanging out. I would call the next bit of stuff random musings.
Just in the last few days I have noticed that I am really starting to think in Spanish. When the kids talk I translate it into Spanish sentences and repeat them aloud. I think if I had more time here I could really get a good handle on the language, but then again I would probably go crazy from lack of clean clothes, a good night’s sleep and a soft bed.
Tate has made a new group of friends. They are kids that live around our school so he and Joshua (Freddy and Raquel’s son, age 7) can play and I can be in our room doing stuff. I like that better. Cora played with them all last night but there are no girls and I think she got bored with the boy play. As I am sure you can imagine, they all have stick guns and are running around shooting each other. The fact that they can do that for 2 hours a night, 3 nights in a row amazes me. Of course, Tate’s voice is the loudest and he just keeps yelling “bang, bang, bang” over and over again.
When Tate plays with his friends at home he frequently directs the narratives that take place. That seems to be the case here too, except that he is doing it in his own version of spanglish (with an accent) that I am sure no one can understand. “Joshua, counto to vente then looko para me.” The funny thing is to hear all these kids yelling “Tate, Tate!” as they run around.
The claim to fame in Puerto Lopez is that nearly 1000 humpback whales go by here in the summer months. The town is what you would call touristy, but not in the sense we think of in the US. There are about 10 excursion companies here and the restaurants offer menus in English. There are also several hosterias, but more what we would think of as small inns, not hotels. P. Lopez is along the Ruta del Sol, Route of the Sun, so that brings people here as well. It is still a small place and it is not possible to get things here that we could in Quito. Richard, the Brit staying here at the school with us, had to go to Manta (a three hour bus ride each way) to get tennis shoes big enough for his feet.
It is time to say goodbye to our friends here tomorrow. I am having a cake made so that we can have a little fiesta before our bus leaves. We have small gifts for everyone and the kids are very excited about giving those.
I am more than a little worried about the bus trip tomorrow. It is four hours with no bathroom stops. I am sure they will stop in an emergency situation but I have already told the kids that we are not drinking anything after noon tomorrow. When we arrive in Guyauaquil we are, thankfully, being picked up by Jill’s (Larkellen’s sister) friend Nicia. She is American and lives here doing missionary work with her husband Chris. They have four kids and two of them are Tate and Cora’s age. I think we are going to have dinner with them tomorrow night. After a night in a guest house we head to the airport and our plane takes off at 9am Saturday morning. We spend the whole rest of the day working our way home and if all goes well we will wake up in our own beds on Sunday morning.
I have enjoyed sharing our journey with you and hope it has encouraged at least some of you to travel to Ecuador. It is a beautiful country with very friendly people and so much to see and do.
Hasta Luego!
Not much to report from the last three days. We have spent our time in classes, at the beach and just generally hanging out. I would call the next bit of stuff random musings.
Just in the last few days I have noticed that I am really starting to think in Spanish. When the kids talk I translate it into Spanish sentences and repeat them aloud. I think if I had more time here I could really get a good handle on the language, but then again I would probably go crazy from lack of clean clothes, a good night’s sleep and a soft bed.
Tate has made a new group of friends. They are kids that live around our school so he and Joshua (Freddy and Raquel’s son, age 7) can play and I can be in our room doing stuff. I like that better. Cora played with them all last night but there are no girls and I think she got bored with the boy play. As I am sure you can imagine, they all have stick guns and are running around shooting each other. The fact that they can do that for 2 hours a night, 3 nights in a row amazes me. Of course, Tate’s voice is the loudest and he just keeps yelling “bang, bang, bang” over and over again.
When Tate plays with his friends at home he frequently directs the narratives that take place. That seems to be the case here too, except that he is doing it in his own version of spanglish (with an accent) that I am sure no one can understand. “Joshua, counto to vente then looko para me.” The funny thing is to hear all these kids yelling “Tate, Tate!” as they run around.
The claim to fame in Puerto Lopez is that nearly 1000 humpback whales go by here in the summer months. The town is what you would call touristy, but not in the sense we think of in the US. There are about 10 excursion companies here and the restaurants offer menus in English. There are also several hosterias, but more what we would think of as small inns, not hotels. P. Lopez is along the Ruta del Sol, Route of the Sun, so that brings people here as well. It is still a small place and it is not possible to get things here that we could in Quito. Richard, the Brit staying here at the school with us, had to go to Manta (a three hour bus ride each way) to get tennis shoes big enough for his feet.
It is time to say goodbye to our friends here tomorrow. I am having a cake made so that we can have a little fiesta before our bus leaves. We have small gifts for everyone and the kids are very excited about giving those.
I am more than a little worried about the bus trip tomorrow. It is four hours with no bathroom stops. I am sure they will stop in an emergency situation but I have already told the kids that we are not drinking anything after noon tomorrow. When we arrive in Guyauaquil we are, thankfully, being picked up by Jill’s (Larkellen’s sister) friend Nicia. She is American and lives here doing missionary work with her husband Chris. They have four kids and two of them are Tate and Cora’s age. I think we are going to have dinner with them tomorrow night. After a night in a guest house we head to the airport and our plane takes off at 9am Saturday morning. We spend the whole rest of the day working our way home and if all goes well we will wake up in our own beds on Sunday morning.
I have enjoyed sharing our journey with you and hope it has encouraged at least some of you to travel to Ecuador. It is a beautiful country with very friendly people and so much to see and do.
Hasta Luego!
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