First few days in Macas

     So, I have some catching up to do for the last few days, but it’s been massively, enormously, overwhelmingly busy.

     Last Friday, I started out in Quito. I had been invited to church with Sara Risser, an older missionary lady who lives in Quito. I went, even though I would be pushed for time getting back to my hotel and getting to the airport. It was different, of course. The song service was praise songs, a mixture of English and Spanish. FYI, it's kind of strange to have a praise song you could sing in your sleep be changed into Spanish. The message was in English, but definitely not a sermon, more like just a rambling speech that happened to have bible verses attached. Maybe it was just the guest speaker...
     I barely made it back to my hotel in time to change out of my church clothes and get my bags to the lobby in time to meet my driver. One of the first indications I had a problem was that this driver spoke zero English. Thursday I had been out shopping, and most of my interactions with people I had either understood the little Spanish they’d said to me or they had understood the little English I spoke to them. Well, change of plans starting now. My moderately good Spanish in Mississippi was rapidly becoming basic to bad Spanish in Ecuador, and that’s a problem.
     The airport I flew out of in Quito was a small company called Saereo, not the main airport. With a small amount of rigamarore, and $50 in overweight fees, I was finally on a plane to Macas.
     I arrived at 2:30, a little early, but the Gutierrezes were there to pick me up shortly. We dropped my bags up at my apartment, and left for their house so I could sign my orientation papers. I stayed over there waiting for Laura and her mom, and we ate supper there. My first Ecuadorian meal, yucca patties with cheese (yucca is similar to potatoes) and a chicken stew. Wendy sort of scared me when she took the chicken head and feet out of the stew haha, but I’ve come to understand many Ecuadorians use those to flavor food. I doubt I get brave enough to try that in my kitchen though!

     I got back to my apartment around 10, and unpacked. My apartment might just be the strangest place I've lived in yet, but it works for two or for five just as well. I'm in the process of taking pictures of everything just so I can show everybody back home.

     After lunch yesterday, Laura took me to the upper school where she works (I will work at the preschool across town) and gave me the official tour and introduced me around. I realized more than ever than my Spanish skills were not only inadequate, but embarrassingly absent. I told Laura today that when I’m just smiling and nodding while they talk at me I sort of feel like a half-retarded person, or someone who is deaf but nobody else knows.
     The ’mastery of the Spanish language not needed for this position’ part of the job description pretty much translates to ’you don’t need to be 100% fluent, but 90% would be advisable’. Unlike Belize, where most people I encountered spoke at least passable English, here it’s kind of rare for me to find a really fluent English speaker. For example, the teachers at the Preschool I’ll be working with. They speak ONLY. SPANISH. And that is kind of making me freak out a little. I realize I’ll pick up a lot, but school starts in two weeks…and that just scares me to death.
     The things I understand very well are money, like buying things and how much they cost, and greetings/goodbyes/being polite. Of course, that's what I do most. And the people here are very patient and accomodating. They find it very endearing that we're learning, and even if we mess up awfully they just laugh, help us find the right word, and go along with it. They do find my name very funny. Here, my name is pronounced more like Alicia, and they asked if, in the US, my name was Alice, like Alice in Wonderland. We had a good laugh at that, and told them no, Alice was an old lady name in America.

     Cool things I've done since arriving in Macas:
    
     Bought groceries at the Royal. There are two 'grocery stores' in Macas. One, the Tia, is like the Wal-Mart here. No, it's not anything close to a real Wal-Mart, but it has the most packaged foods and such. The Royal is like Dollar General compared to Wally World at home. It's smaller, but it's close to my apartment, and that counts for a lot in a place where you walk everywhere. I'm hoping to visit Tia soon, but I'll be taxi-ing back with my groceries.

     Went to the fruit market. It's like First Monday on steroids. The name is the 27th of February market, because that's what street it's on (streets here are commonly named for dates, like 5th of August or 10th of December). They sell any kind of fruit, vegetables, chickens, homemade sugarcane syrup (kind of like dark Karo), and homemade goods including pirated CDs/DVDs for $1.

     Ate THE best pizza. Homemade crust, homemade mozzarella (cheese is a big thing here), a very small amount of homemade sauce, just perfectly seasoned. And three of us ate until we were completely stuffed, with drinks, for $11.

     Taxi rides. Like US taxis, but without anyone having ever studied a drivers manual. All for the great price of $1! By far, the fastest way to get ANYWHERE!

     The BREAD. Fresh bread stores everywhere. A fresh, hot from the oven croissant with real butter will change your life. And five fresh, hot from the oven croissants for 90 cents will make you wonder why in the world you pay $3 for Wonderbread.