Todo Es Posible....

Once again, I’ve finally added pictures to my Galapagos post. Check them out.

Not a lot has happened since we returned from the Galapagos, except I’ve correctly called some impressive upsets in my March Madness bracket (yes, I actually had Cleveland State, Dayton, and… That School Up North). That, and on Friday my class went to an orphanage in Quito to see the effects of poverty and machismo on Latin American families. We got to talk with the director about the backgrounds of the girls and how they ended up there, but it’s nothing you wouldn’t expect. What was cool was getting to play with the kids. We arrived just in time for their half hour recess, so we got to join a small game of soccer, some freeze tag, and the Spanish version of “Down by the banks of the hanky-panky,” but instead of bullfrogs jumping “from bank to banky,” it had something to do with a plane throwing papers out the side and guessing which color the papers were, and then there was some other game that had to do with who burnt and stole twenty-five loaves of bread, and I completely did not understand the point of that one. Whatever, it was a lot of fun, and an incredible excuse to get out of the classroom.

Friday night, we did go out to a bar to TRY to watch the OSU-Siena game, but the only CBS feed available in Ecuador is out of Miami, so we mainly had to resort to scoreboard watching while we saw Florida State embarrass themselves to Wisconsin. We did, unfortunately, get to see the end of regulation, the end of the first OT, and worst of all, the end of the second OT. I have no one left to root for. But hey, how ‘bout them Blue Jackets?

Saturday afternoon, a small group of us went to Colonial Quito so see the Basilica, a beautiful European gothic-style cathedral that started construction in 1883 (it’s still not done). The Basilica has three large towers that you can climb for beautiful views of the city: a bell tower at the north end and two identical clock towers at the southwest and southeast corners. We climbed the bell tower first (the ladders are on the outside of the building), and though we never felt like we were in danger, it was a little freaky because we were climbing in a rainstorm, so the ladder was wet and it was pretty windy…. But that just makes climbing a huge tower more of an adventure, right? After getting some sweet pics, we climbed back down and realized that it was not just rain, but actually a thunderstorm we were climbing these huge towers in, so naturally, we continued towards the clock towers. The clock towers are higher than the bell tower, but also generally safer and more enclosed... until you reach the top. The top floor, still on the inside of the tower, is no more than metal wires making a grid of 3”x3” squares, with some of the wires broken. At the corners of the top floor are openings in the walls, where you can actually step outside the tower onto small platforms roughly two square feet in area and roughly a mile above the ground, with nothing holding you back, and remember that we also had the bonus of a thunderstorm. We all did it (not all at the same time), and it was pretty cool, but I was terrified and more than a little glad to get back inside the tower.

Sweet picture of la Virgen.

I was standing RIGHT THERE.









This is for Coop, to show that Americans are not the only ones who have trouble with patriotism and religion.



This is the view from OUTSIDE the tower...



Yesterday afternoon, I had a large sort of goodbye lunch with my entire Ecuafamilia after church. The food was good, but so was the company. I’ve said it before, but I really do love spending time with this family, and I’m not going to have much more time with them—I have a lot of work to do tonight for the end of class, and the entire program is going out to dinner tonight at some 15th-floor restaurant near school for a farewell dinner, and Tuesday afternoon/evening will be spent frantically packing for my return to the United States. I wish there were more free time after the end of classes here for me to spend with my familia, but that’s the way it is.

Regarding the end of classes, my last day of class is today, and now all that’s left is to give our final presentations tomorrow morning and hand in our papers. I’ll start working on both of those after school today, as well as a skit that my class has to put on as part of the farewell celebration with all of our teachers in the school. Each class will put on some sort of 5-minute skit, with the topics ranging from the trips to the teachers to the classes, among others. This is definitely the least important thing I have to work on tonight, but I will probably devote the most time to it. Sounds like a good plan, right?

As for my return to the United States, the plan is for me to not go to sleep tomorrow night, because I’ll need to be at Quito International Airport at 4:00 AM Wednesday (and I’ll probably need to use all of that time for packing, too). My flight is scheduled to depart Quito at 6:30 in the morning, and arrive in Houston at 11:55 AM (5 hours, 25 minutes). There are six or seven people from my group on that flight, so it should be chévere. I then have a 2.5-hour layover until 2:25 PM Central Time, when I will board Continental Airlines Flight 1844 bound for CLEVELAND, OHIO, scheduled to last 2 hours, 46 minutes, getting me into NE Ohio at 6:11 PM Eastern Time. I can’t wait.

Cultural Note of the Day: Instead of focusing on one specific part of Latin American culture for the final Cultural Note of the Day, I’m going to focus on the culture as a whole. The phrase, “Todo es posible, nada es seguro,” is more or less the motto of life in Latin America, and living here for a mere eleven weeks is more than enough to let you understand the truth of the statement. It translates to “Everything is possible, nothing is certain,” and it pretty much applies to every aspect of this culture. Everything is possible—you can travel within these individual countries, travel to other countries, vote for change, start a business, buy off the police; but nothing is certain—has the road washed out, did the government just randomly decide to sever ties with the other nation, is there still a government, will your business’s security system work, has the other guy already bought off the police. The political instability and lack of discipline in law enforcement, combined with the limited economic resources, really serve to nurture the sense that everything is possible but absolutely nothing is certain. It’s an interesting dynamic that we as Americans are not used to dealing with: our governments are stable, our infrastructure cared for, our police dedicated, our economy strong (yes, even in recession). Here, not only can they not count on any of that, but any one of those things can change overnight. Todo es posible, nada es seguro.

SHOUT-OUTS GO TO: Everyone who’s left me comments, or sent me emails, or has somehow communicated to me that this blog was being read (if you’re currently not included in this Shout-Out but want to be, leave me a comment and I’ll count it). I’ve loved getting feedback from you, and knowing that this was for more than just my own personal entertainment. Even if I didn’t respond to something you wrote personally, trust me, I read it. If you’ve been keeping up with my writing, I probably miss you, and I probably can’t wait to get back to the States and see you again. And…. Horse. Thanks to all of you, and I’ll see you all soon.

From Ecuador,
Andy

P.S. While this is my last real post from Ecuador, I expect to have the Things We Learned In Ecuador list tomorrow evening. There will be at least one more post after this, coming from American soil, hopefully no later than this weekend.... just in case you want more Gringo Lingo.