Guaya-killin´ Time

Well, in a drastic improvement over Santo Domingo, we arrived in Guayaquil last night at around 10pm.

Things are getting a little awkward in Bua. First of all, because we are cooking for ourselves (at the request of the family), we don´t eat our meals with them, and our contact with the family (in other words, Spanish) is a little limited. Plus, all of the other volunteers (except for a new, very unhappy seeming girl) have left, so no one is at the cultural center; even if we spent more time there, apparently it is very much a split group, with volunteers on one side of the table and locals on the other. The cultural exchange that we think we would get apparently does not exist.

We go to the school two days a week, for about an hour each day. I´m getting a little worried about my class; the group seems not to have any interest whatsoever in the class. I have one kid who answers every question I ask, and it is only through him that anyone else in the class does anything. I´m wondering if they actually want to be there. Though, to be honest, their music is less than stellar...

I really like Guayaquil. Despite not being the capital, it is the largest city in Ecuador. It is also their center of commerce, and their ¨central park¨ is the massive, beautiful Malecon 2000, an urban waterfront renewal project. It has so much cool stuff to see. In addition, there is a cool little historic district/neighborhood called Las Peñas, where there are also lots of little cool shops and bars and restaurants.

We are thinking that we will try to travel on the weekends; after all, we have school only Tuesday and Thursday, with lots of time off to do other things. There´s just really nothing to do in Bua- everyone our age is married with children, and all the men do is get uselessly drunk and play pool. Not very good to practice Spanish. Fortunately, our favorite toilet town (santo domingo) has a bus terminal, and we can get to all of the best places in Ecuador: Guayaquil (here now), Quito, I think we can go back to Otavalo if we wanted, Ibarra, Baños, and Cuenca. I´m really excited about the last two, they seem like a lot of fun.

Anyway, I will post more as more things happen. Ta ta!