The month
of April has passed, and I am now closing in on the end of my exchange. This
month began with the birthday of my neighbor, Maria Lorena (we call her Bebi).
Turning 13, Bebi is like a sister to me. She’s rather quiet but we get along
well, it’s always fun being with her. That evening we had cake and laughed
along with her friends and family.
Cordillera,
my school, in the past years has had a week of sports where all the students
form different teams and play each other in basketball and soccer. In the first
week of April we had these seven days of sports. Our team name was called the
Pechugas, which is in fact the nickname I have been given here due to the
newspaper mistaking my last name for Pechu. Pechuga in English is chicken
breast. I find the nickname to be pretty funny. The whole week we spent playing
against other teams from our school. Although we didn’t win it all, it was a
fun time being amongst classmates and competing. It reminded me of baseball
back home, and I realized how much I missed that sense of team and competition.
Ecuador is
a country with lots of touristic potential. In the past, the economy has
flourished much by the extraction of petroleum within the country. However,
there is now much more conflict erupting with the issue over whether or not to
infiltrate the rainforest part of Ecuador to extract more petroleum. For this
reason, the country has looked for other methods to help the economy. Tourism
is their answer. In order to spread its name, the country has begun a campaign
called ALL YOU NEED IS ECUADOR. With this, they have taken each letter from
this phrase (for example, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a large man made letter S
has been placed) and constructed them to then be set in several large cities
around the world. There are letters in cities such as Berlin, Germany, London,
England, Sao Paolo, Brazil and a bunch more. The letters from the word Ecuador
on the other hand, have been placed in distinct cities within Ecuador itself.
For example, in my town, Loja, they have placed the U. This campaign is
worldwide and will help to make Ecuador known. The problem is just that, the
lack of popularity, although Ecuador is in fact one of the best options for tourism.
It has four select regions: the Andes mountain range filled with active
volcanoes and sulfuric lakes, the pacific coast with long stretches of
beautiful beaches, the Amazon rainforest with the densest amount of
biodiversity on the planet, and the Galapagos Islands, a group of volcanic
islands famous for being the birthplace of Charles Darwin’s theory of
evolution. With these assets, plus being an economical choice, Ecuador seems to
have a promising future in tourism.
In the middle of April, district wide sports began. This is just like in
Texas, except quite a bit less organized. Our school was to participate in
soccer, so naturally I joined the team. We had one practice and the next day
already our first match. To get to the game, we took a public bus to a local
park. Here there was a dirt field where we were to play. The game was at 10 in
the morning, which was fine with me as it meant missing classes. We ended up
tying with no goals for either team. After the game, we all hopped into the
back of our coach’s (our coach is the PE teacher) truck, and drove to a local
restaurant to eat. All this is
completely different to what I know about sports back home. Back home we take a
school bus, practice every day, play at night so that parents and fans can watch,
and play on a nice regularly kept field. I never realized how much that really
was, until I hopped off the smelly bus and stepped onto the dirt field here in
Loja. Although it was cool being part of
the team here, I was shown just how much more developed Texas is in sports in
schools. I am now grateful, truly grateful, because the people here in Loja
don’t know what it is to have what I had. On the other hand, everyone here
enjoys what they have. The soccer game was less competitive, more fun. We all
just wanted to play soccer because it’s something we like. Even the coach was
less uptight. Not to mention going to a restaurant after the game with the
coach although we should have been in classes; this would never happen in
Texas. I do appreciate what I have now, but I realize that although the people
here have less, they do not realize that there is more so they are not missing
anything. They are satisfied with what
they have. Back home sometimes I feel like we want too much. In the sense of
sports, it should be about the love of the sport, not about the amount of fans,
nor the coolness of the uniforms, none of that. Here in Ecuador, or at least in
Loja from what I have seen, people still play for the fun of it, not for the
show that everyone wants. Our soccer
team ended up playing a couple more games, although I was only there for one
due to traveling. However, when I did attend, I got to play a bit as forward,
although soccer is not really my sport.
On the 10th of April, my neighbors, three daughters,
performed at a concert. Here they sang and played piano, each of them with a
different style. All three of them were amazing, and I was very proud because
it was like watching my own little sisters perform.
My classmate and good friend Diego Roman turned 18 on the 11th.
He had a little barbeque/party at his house that evening with classmates,
friends, and family. It was a good time singing, dancing, and eating some
(almost Texas) quality barbeque. Diego is a really good friend of mine. He and
I joke a lot together about fighting chickens one day, as it is done here in
Ecuador and he has family members who do it. I thank Diego for being one of my
better friends. Although he is super skinny, Diego’s got a fat heart.
Our maid’s son, Sebastian, turned 2 on the 12th of this
month. He is like a baby brother to me and it will be strange when I go back
home without a 2 year old always around. For his birthday we had dinner and
cake, inviting some friends over to enjoy the special day with us. Sebas is
growing up fast. When I first arrived he could not walk yet, and now he is already
beginning to talk.
I celebrated my first Easter away from home this year. It was a lot
different. Here in Ecuador the Easter Bunny does not play a part, so that was
already a big change. In fact, it was not as big of a deal as I thought it
would be. All we did was on Good Friday ate a traditional soup which is made
with many ingredients except for meat. It was a tasty soup by the name of
Fanesca. On Easter Sunday we got together with friends and family and ate a lot
of food, including soups, turkey, vegetables of all sorts, and lots of
different pies for dessert. It was a good time, although I missed not having an
Easter hunt.
The last week of April, Xenia(the german exchange student in my town)
and I went to visit Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Xenia will be leaving the
third of May back to her country, so we decided to take a trip to Quito so that
she gets to see it at least once. So, with our bags packed, we got on a bus and
11 hours later arrived in the big old capital. Since I had already visited
Quito, I was able to show her around. It was fun being with just her, she is
like a sister now, as we traveled around town visiting old churches, going up
the teleferico to see the city from on top of Mount Pichincha, standing over
the Equator, and at times getting lost because we didn’t understand the bus
system. We were all on our own, doing tourism our way. That’s what made it so
fun, no one was controlling us. The last day we also went to Lake Quilotoa, a
giant sulfuric water lake 3 hours from the capital. We went with Dome’s (the
girl that was in my house in Texas) dad and brother and a couple other exchange
students. It was a cool experience. After that long week however, it was time
to come back to Loja.
This month I experienced quite a few new things. This is good because it
can get boring, and there is not always that much to do in Loja. Many of my
friends tend to end up drinking and partying. The problem is that there are no
real malls, or places to go when one is bored. Luckily I now have a gym
membership which keeps me away from that bad influence. It is sad because many
people I have met here are digging themselves holes, as alcohol is just about
all they have. Either way that is part of exchange, you see the good and you
see the bad. You just have to decide what is right. My months here are becoming
less, as now there are only three left. I have learned a lot, and will continue
to make the most out of my time here in Loja, Ecuador
Greetings,
Chris
