Monday, September 27, 2010

Oh, Ecuador...

That is all I can say this week. Oh, Ecuador...

  • Worldteach has a contract with the Ecuadorian government where we teach adults. CECAMI (where I work) has us teaching kids. We told our director (Kate) for Worldteach and she told CECAMI to get them out of our class because it is breaking the law and could possibly shut Worldteach down. CECAMI, of course, doesn´t care. So now I´m teaching kids when I´m not supposed to and I ask CECAMI to take them out of my class and they say (in front of the kid) ¨Why don´t you want him/her in your class? Do you not like him/her?¨ No, dumbo, I am not allowed to teach kids! You know this but still your way to make the situation better is to make the kid think it´s my fault and I just don´t like him/her.
  • I have tomorrow off for a holiday. I didn´t officially know that until today.
  • CECAMI called me at 9pm on Thursday night to tell me I had a conversation class at 8am on Monday. I show up at 8am and no one comes. I ask the assistant in the office and she said, ¨Of course no one came, there is a program in the high schools this morning.¨
  • I have random bites all over my legs. I thought they were mosquito bites. It turns out I have fleas because the dog at my house has fleas. Yes, I have fleas...
  • I came home to an empty house Saturday night and my host family had never mentioned they had an alarm system. I use my keys and the alarm goes off. Frantically I call my host mother and she is able to explain where the alarm is and what the code is. I´m thinking, wow that was crazy. Then the police sirens started and the police showed up. Luckily I was able to explain the situation to them and they didn´t even come in the house.
  • I was walking down the street and a car starts to follow me for 2 blocks honking at me and trying to get me to get in his car. I was 4 blocks from my house and I had to get in a taxi and pay $1 because a creeper wanted to kidnap me.
  • I still can´t convince my host family that milk should be cold when you drink it. They insist on serving me lukewarm milk with my cereal.
  • I eat corn for breakfast every couple of days. An ear of corn.... for breakfast....
  • My new schedule is from 8-9am and 4-8pm. Everything opens at 10am, closes from 12-3, and closes for good at 8. Not sure when I´m supposed to get work done...
  • And I don´t have access to my classroom in the morning between 10-12 because it is used for a tourism class. So they use all my stuff and rearrange everything. Which means from 3-4 I´m putting all my stuff back together.
  • I took a bus from Quito to Ibarra this weekend and two very smelly men sat in front of me.
  • On these buses they play very stupid fighting movies. Basically everyone gets the shit kicked out of them and dies. The movies are also insanely loud and you can´t drown out the sound of a leg breaking and blood curdling screams.
  • I can´t sleep, read, or listen to my Ipod on a bus. If I lose concentration for any amount of time my stuff will get stolen.

Oh, Ecuador.....

2 comments:

  1. ouch dude. rough week! it'll get better. at least you've got stories to tell your grandkids :)

    i love you! call you later.

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