Pensamientos de Sudamérica: La Calera

So. Much. Rain...everyday. I write to you all bundled up in my warm clothes because Ecuador decided it would go ahead and have freakish amounts of rain this November. To all who advised me against bringing my puffy to save space in my pack- I am so, so glad I chose to maintain my stubornness and not listen.

I have now been living in the community of La Calera for about three weeks. I lucked out with accommadations once again. I´m pretty sure I´m living with one of the two wealthiest families in the community. They dove into tourism the minute foreigners started flocking to Ecuador, and have done generally well with it. They also have a convenience store inside the front of their house, a paper/school and office supply store, and sell vegetables at the market in Cotacachi. I have my own private room in a seperate building from the main house, a private bathroom attached to my room, and three delicious meals everyday, although, as delicious as the food is, I´m pretty sick of soup, bread, potatoes, and rice. I never thought I´d see the day when I wanted to turn down carbs, but it has arrived. The mix of potatoes and noodles, potatoes and rice, or potatoes and everything is standard for every meal. My host family is great, and does all they can to make me as comfortable as possible. I am currently living with seven other people (more when groups of tourists come through), six of whom are female.

I split my days between teaching English classes at the school in the community and helping out at what is basically the community daycare. The classes are going generally well. As to be expected, there are plenty of little shits that don´t want to learn anything, and make a habit of being generally disruptive, but there are enough kids who really want to learn to make it worth it. My fourth grade class always saves my mood. They pay attention with only a few gentle reminders, and come to the room I hang out in to ask a million questions and beg me to teach their class. As for the daycare- I think that the conditions would make every mother from the United States that I know cringe. They most definitely have a different standard of hygeine here, and independence is taught at a very early age, generally by necessity. However, that being said, the kids get warm meals and a safe place to spend their days, which is much more than some would be getting otherwise.

So this has been my life, and will continue to be for about another week. Afterward I´m moving on. I´m pretty well on my own right now, as the people I arrived with headed to Peru, so improvisation is pretty key. A couple of my farming options also fell through, so I´m strongly considering totally changing my plans and heading to the coast to be a surf bum for a couple weeks until my mom and Georgia get here for Christmas. I could use some sun.