Hi guys!
So this morning, my roommates, Alyssa and Janessa, and I had the morning shift off, so we made plans to go into town. We wanted to maximize the time we spent there, so we woke up as early as we normally would for shift. However, when we looked it up, we realized that nothing in Ecuador really opens until 10 AM. Oops.
We spent the next hour or so just hanging out and talking at the volunteer house, and then went to the first stop on our excursion--the Ecuadorean mall. One of the first things that I noticed about the mall in Ecuador was the bizarre music--it was a mixture of American pop music from 5-10 years ago, strange arrangements of said pop music (I heard a choral version of Royals by Lorde), and latin songs. It's weird to walk around in.
At the mall, we went to the grocery store, partially for the cultural experience and partially because Alyssa needed shampoo. Shampoo apparently comes in bags in Ecuador (as does milk), so that was a little bit weird. They also had all these really strange fruits that I've never seen before--I took photos, but I'll upload them tomorrow. It's after midnight here, and I have a shift bright and early in the morning.
The store had this bread section that was phenomenal. I wish I could write down the smell--just imagine the scent of baking bread, but magnified. Plus, it was ridiculously cheap--I bought a roll that cost 16 cents. They also sell bagged pancakes in that section--I'm not quite sure if you heat them up in a toaster or how you prepare them, but it was definitely interesting to see.
The grocery store also had really strange eggs--smaller than chicken eggs, and speckled with brown dots. I have no idea what animal they were from, but they were definitely not laid by your average chicken. And they don't refrigerate eggs (or milk) in the grocery stores here, which feels so odd.
We walked around the mall for a bit after that (learning that they don't have toilet paper in bathroom stalls here, but that you have to grab it from a canister on the wall before you go in), and peeked around the other stores. They have a lot of very American-seeming stores. If it weren't all in Spanish, I wouldn't have been surprised if it were plopped down in the center of some suburb in the US. They even have a KFC (which we didn't try).
After the mall, we went to the artisan market. I'll save my descriptions of that for tomorrow, when I can post photos of some of the gorgeous artwork. They also sold musical instruments, and we overheard someone playing Summertime on a traditional Ecuadorean instrument, which was...quite a sound.
Our next stop was the flower market, which was huge and full of flowers (shocking. Flowers in a flower market). Janessa loves flowers, so she had a lot of fun looking at (and smelling) everything. You could honestly sense the smell wafting down the street from a few blocks away.
We then went back to OSSO for a quick lunch, then to leave for our shift. We went to an orphanage called Remar, which primarily houses the children of drug abusers. (They also run a rehab program for the kids' parents.) It was pretty mellow, as most of the kids were out at a dance, but we played with the few that were there. We started with losing a soccer match--one of the players on the other team had this phenomenal footwork that he loved to show off. We then went on to play a matching game and Twister with them. It was a fun shift, but there wasn't much to do because there were so few kids there.
This evening, all of the volunteers went out to go see Dunirk. It was good, but very intense. On the way to the theater, we passed a park with a zipline that a few of us absolutely had to try, so we went on it. As we were leaving, a police officer came over and told us that the playground was for children only. (Fortunately, he told us after we had gone on, because it was really fun). I guess now I can officially say I've had a run-in with foreign police.
Thanks for reading guys! I'll post photos tomorrow. Stay wonderful
So this morning, my roommates, Alyssa and Janessa, and I had the morning shift off, so we made plans to go into town. We wanted to maximize the time we spent there, so we woke up as early as we normally would for shift. However, when we looked it up, we realized that nothing in Ecuador really opens until 10 AM. Oops.
We spent the next hour or so just hanging out and talking at the volunteer house, and then went to the first stop on our excursion--the Ecuadorean mall. One of the first things that I noticed about the mall in Ecuador was the bizarre music--it was a mixture of American pop music from 5-10 years ago, strange arrangements of said pop music (I heard a choral version of Royals by Lorde), and latin songs. It's weird to walk around in.
At the mall, we went to the grocery store, partially for the cultural experience and partially because Alyssa needed shampoo. Shampoo apparently comes in bags in Ecuador (as does milk), so that was a little bit weird. They also had all these really strange fruits that I've never seen before--I took photos, but I'll upload them tomorrow. It's after midnight here, and I have a shift bright and early in the morning.
The store had this bread section that was phenomenal. I wish I could write down the smell--just imagine the scent of baking bread, but magnified. Plus, it was ridiculously cheap--I bought a roll that cost 16 cents. They also sell bagged pancakes in that section--I'm not quite sure if you heat them up in a toaster or how you prepare them, but it was definitely interesting to see.
The grocery store also had really strange eggs--smaller than chicken eggs, and speckled with brown dots. I have no idea what animal they were from, but they were definitely not laid by your average chicken. And they don't refrigerate eggs (or milk) in the grocery stores here, which feels so odd.
We walked around the mall for a bit after that (learning that they don't have toilet paper in bathroom stalls here, but that you have to grab it from a canister on the wall before you go in), and peeked around the other stores. They have a lot of very American-seeming stores. If it weren't all in Spanish, I wouldn't have been surprised if it were plopped down in the center of some suburb in the US. They even have a KFC (which we didn't try).
After the mall, we went to the artisan market. I'll save my descriptions of that for tomorrow, when I can post photos of some of the gorgeous artwork. They also sold musical instruments, and we overheard someone playing Summertime on a traditional Ecuadorean instrument, which was...quite a sound.
Our next stop was the flower market, which was huge and full of flowers (shocking. Flowers in a flower market). Janessa loves flowers, so she had a lot of fun looking at (and smelling) everything. You could honestly sense the smell wafting down the street from a few blocks away.
We then went back to OSSO for a quick lunch, then to leave for our shift. We went to an orphanage called Remar, which primarily houses the children of drug abusers. (They also run a rehab program for the kids' parents.) It was pretty mellow, as most of the kids were out at a dance, but we played with the few that were there. We started with losing a soccer match--one of the players on the other team had this phenomenal footwork that he loved to show off. We then went on to play a matching game and Twister with them. It was a fun shift, but there wasn't much to do because there were so few kids there.
This evening, all of the volunteers went out to go see Dunirk. It was good, but very intense. On the way to the theater, we passed a park with a zipline that a few of us absolutely had to try, so we went on it. As we were leaving, a police officer came over and told us that the playground was for children only. (Fortunately, he told us after we had gone on, because it was really fun). I guess now I can officially say I've had a run-in with foreign police.
Thanks for reading guys! I'll post photos tomorrow. Stay wonderful
I am glad to see that you are getting a break from all of your hard (but very rewarding) work with the kids. I still want to see a photo of you in your new coat - after it's been cleaned! We love you and miss you.
ReplyDeleteThank you! The break was nice, but the work is better. And you should have gotten the photo by text.
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