Teacher Day

The way people treat teachers in the states sometimes really gets to me. Teaching not only carries the immense responsibility of shaping the future leaders of our country, but also requires a strenuous work ethic. However, as we all know, teachers could never support a family on their salary. For these reasons I was super pumped when I was told that Ecaudor celebrates a ¨Dia del Maestro,¨where everyone in the country honors their teachers for all their hard work. Little did I know, however, that teacher´s day in Ecuador would end up being one of the coolest days of my whole life.

It started out pretty normal. I had been covering Ally´s classes for her while she was in the states, and since she hadn´t given me anything to do with her morning class I entertained her morning advanced students with a stirring game of Monopoly in an effort to practice our bargaining skills. I was also in a good mood because I knew that Thursday would be my last day of teaching at CECAMI before I started my new job. That´s when I received the first of many suprises. While I was teaching Ally´s class, my students invited me to come into my old classroom to receive a present.

I walked into my class and every student was lined up, with the president of our class holding a picture frame with a bow on it. The class president commented on how much they appreciated my work efforts and then gave me a present. When I looked I was stunned. I saw a photo of me with all my students at CECAMI, but couldn´t remember when we had taken the photo. I thus asked my students when we had taken the photo. They chuckled and pointed to Fernando, a student in my class who works as a Graphic Designer. Fernando had actually spliced a photo of everyone in our class into the background of CECAMI´s school grounds. I was immensely touched and hugged each and everyone one of my morning students, thinking that it would be the last time that I would see them for a while.

Oh how I was wrong. When I returned to teach Ally´s afternoon class, the secretary of our school told me to go wait in a classroom for a special treat. Suprised I went to the classroom to help on of my students with her English homework. Ally´s afternoon class finally came and got me about an hour later. They were all dressed in their nicest clothes and giddy to escort me to CECAMI´s lecture hall.

Every single student from CECAMI was packed into the lecture hall smiling at me as I walked in. I was escorted to the center table at the front of the room. Balloons covered the ceiling and everyong was giddy with excitement. My students had thrown me a suprise party to congratulate me for my promotion and thank me for my work at CECAMI. Here´s the list of the night´s events:

-The party featured a television camera and a preofessional photographer that documented the whole event. I was promised a copy of the CD with all of the photos and video in about three months.

- The director of my school opened the program by sharing some incredibly nice words about my work at the school. He was followed by the president of the Student body at CECAMI who awarded me a hand knit sweater and clock to put in my apartment in Quito.

-After the president of the student body spoke, the mayor of Ibarra´s private assistant awarded me Ibarra´s Medal of Distinguished Service, honoring Academic Merit and committment to the Township of Ibarra. He later gave me a certificate signed by the mayor of Ibarra thanking me extensively and offering Ibarra as a home for me whenever I needed to return. The mayor had originally planned to come himself, but had to attend a special emergency conference in light of Ecuador´s political elections (I´ll let you know the results by the end of this week).

-Each class then presented a special dedication for me that they had been practicing for weeks. My morning class sang me a Spanish song about friendship. My night class hired Mariachis. My afternoon class performed the song ¨You´re Beautiful¨by (which by the way is the most popular song ever in this country). Ally´s afternoon class had written a poem about why they like learning English which they read in front of the whole audience. I didn´t know what else to do besides give standing ovations to each group.

-The mariachis then made me put on a gigantic sombrero and dance in front of every single students. I was probably tomato red, but did my best rendition of the Steveo swing.

-Next every single person got a cup of champagne and and representatives from each class gave a toast.

-Next everybody in the whole room danced together after I gave them the official invitation to come to the dance floor. We clearly formed a congo line and cha cha chad around and around.

-Then everyone sat down and asked me to say a few words to the whole group. I gave the best thank you I could muster in Spanish.

-Then my students presented me with a guitar and demanded that I sing. I naturally sang ¨Let it Be¨and closed the song by having 100 Ecuadorians repeat the chorus all together one extra time.

- Then every student asked to take a picture with me.

-Then we ate Fritada (which if you check Ally´s blog is her favorite food).

I mean what can I really say. It was an amazing, generous, caring, unbelievable, awesome, emotional party. I have never been so taken aback by such an outpouring of affection in my life. All in honor of Teacher´s Day.

The States needs to get on this one stat. I can´t tell you how hard it is sometimes to be a teacher, but days like the one I had make everything whorthwhile in an instant. I was unbelievably touched and proud of the work I had done. For those of you reading please make sure to take time out of your day to honor your teachers. We at least owe that much to them.

PS I am actually writing this letter from Quito! I start my new job tomorrow.

Take Care!
Kanetrain

Vueltas

When you arrive in Ecuador you inevitably hear a slew of people talking about ¨Vamos a dar una vuelta.¨Literally translated it means, ¨Let´s go to do a turn,¨but it actually means, ¨Let´s go out and do something.¨

The greatest thing about dar-ing vueltas is that you never know what you actually are going to do. One time my host family in Quito asked me if I wanted to Dar a vuelta at about 3 in the afternoon. We got back at about 2 in the morning. You really just never know.

The daring vuelta phenomenom has created for me in inability to say no when someone asks me if I want to do something. Thus when one of my Ecuadorian friends asked me if I wanted to go visit her church with her on Wednesday night, I couldn´t refuse. With unlimited possibillites awaiting for me and nothing really better to do, I signed up for the church excursion excited about what lay ahead of me.

Then my Ecuadorian friend asked me if I had a Bible. You can imagine the shock when I told her that no, I don´t have a bible, but she later said it was OK and that I could come with her anyway. Nevertheless I was slightly puzzled. What church doesn´t have their own Bibles? That was Monday.

The next day I saw her was Tuesday. At that juncture she informed me that her church was home to people touched by God that could read futures. I became more intrigued and slightly scared, but then again you cannot back out on an invitation if you have already committed so I pressed on, ready to enter the church on Wednesday night.

[Please excuse the above paragraphs. I feel like I am not making that much sense. For those of you not following, a student invited me to go to church, I said yes, she told me it was a church with psychics, and I was slightly suprised.]

Back to the story. Last night my student and I hopped in a cab, picked up another student, and drove to the outskirts of town behind the supermarket. We hopped out of the cab and entered the church.

The church looked kind of like a gather of the Aitkin Lion´s club. There were plastic chairs everywhere and a blue banner ornated the walls. In the corner was a band made up of a woman with a tamborine and a man with a CD player. All throughout the room were important looking people with badges. In front of evertything, standing on a pulpit completely blocked from my view by a huge pillar, stood the preacher.

The preacher, according to my students, was from the coast of Colombia, which pretty much guarantees the Brad Pit from Snatch version of Spanish. Thus a sentence like ¨Jesus graced us with his presence and saved our sins Amen¨ sounds like, ¨JasdfneoianefnAMEN!¨As you might imagine I didn´t catch much of his sermon. However, it was the most intense sermon for the listeners I have ever seen. The reason everyone needed a bible is that in the midst of this sermon, the preacher occasionally shouts out passages from the bible and the whole congregation sprints to find the passage. The important people with badges scurry around the room trying to help people find the passages before the preacher skips on to the next one. I was clearly OUT of my league.

However, the woman behind me was an Olympically accalimed Bible page turner. She literally found the passages for me, my two Ecuadorian friends, and herself in like 6 seconds flat. It was awesome.

In the midst of the sermon everyone was instructed to stand up Amen. This was the one thing I understood out of the whole sermon. Thus we stood up and all broke into Spanish hymns. The CD player guy turned on the CD which resounded throughout the room with a stirring rendition of Big Band. The tamborine rattled away. I felt like we were all moving in slow motion at a formal mid weeklies dance. However I did manage to understand the lyrics to the hymn. It was basically, Jesus is here and you can pray for whatever you want because he will answer. After two renditions of the words I was able to belt out the final repetition to my liking.

The pastor finally stepped down and I though we were done, but OH-HO-HO fiction can be fun. Once the pastor stepped down everyone immediately filed into the four front pews. Once in the pews I watched in amazement as the important looking people with badges started grabbing people´s heads, shaking in extasy, only to lean down, cup their hand over a person´s ear and whisper furiously for five minutes straight. After the whispering they would rest their hand on the person´s head, say a quick AMEN, and yeah listo. I asked my friend what I was in for. She explained that these people were touched by the father and were going to prophesize my future. Only in Ecuador.

While I was sitting down the pastor approached me and asked me if I spoke Spanish. I was mildly uncomfortable with the whole scene because that´s what happens sometimes when everyone in a room is staring intently at you, and I pressed on. I stammered out that yes I spoke Spanish and wanted my reading in Spanish. Thinking back it might have been interesting to have my future told in English by an Ecuaorian, but at the time I wanted the authentic experience.

As I waited my turn I started to calm down. It absolutely outstanding how much quicker people accept you when you speak their language and well. They stopped staring and went along with their business. Thank god for Ernesto´s classes.

The girl who was going to read my future finally approached me. I had never met her a day in my life. She put her hands on my head started shaking and then my future was laid out before me. She spoke in machine gun Spanish, loud enough to be uncomfortable, but not so loud as to be unbearable. I was shocked at how much I understood. My Spanish really is getting to the point where I feel comfortable in any situation (besides Colombian people from the coast). Here´s an example of what she said:

¨Hello my son. I am your guardian and I am your protector. You will soon experience signifigant changes in your life but I will protect you. My son. My son. During these changes you will encounter signifigant obstacles but keep fighting. Keep pressing on my son. Keep fighting. You will also experience a period of sadness but keep fighting. You are doing excellent work you are a special person in my hear my son. You will also have to bear circumstances in which you will have very little money but money is not everything my son. Keep fighting keep struggling to achieve what you believe in and you will be successful. ¨

Holy guacamole right? This person has never met me in her life and managed to tell me that I was going to go through changes (I am switching jobs), that I was going to encoutner obstacles (Ecuador is about to go through some serious political turmoil-more on that on Monday or Tuesday), sadness ( I am going to miss the friends I have made in Ibarra a lot when I have to make all new friends), and that I wasn´t going to have any money (600 bucks a month is my salary). Unbelievable!!

Obviously what she said was vague and could apply to many people, but I was really impressed by how well she pegged me. Not saying that I am a convert, but it was defintely an interesting way to experience spirituality. While she was whispering in my ear her voice was all raspy and strange as well, almost like she was speaking from another world. Really a fascinating experience.

I guess you learn something everyday and that´s the true beauty of living in a forein country. Obviously in the states you can have new experiences, but they just aren´t as pronounced.

Off to enjoy some ceviche for lunch. Hope everyone else is well.

kane

4AM in the Morning

About two years ago my friend (names protected save the innocent) Schlongbert and his roommate Mrs. IAlwaysDraftSeanAlexander started to watch the DVD first season of 24 late on a Sunday afternoon. At this point in my lifetime I had no idea who Jack Bauer was or what CTU stood for. Thus I called Schlongbert the next day to see if he wanted to come play basketball with me. However, he was indisposed because he and his roommate and spent the ENTIRE night watching 24. In fact they only stopped watching the entire season because they had to go to work on Monday morning in 20 minutes. Thus my friend was, shall we say ¨mildly exhausted,¨ from powering through an entire night´s worth of 24, only to have to go for a full day´s work 20 minutes after the season ended.

So why would I tell this story on a blog about Ecuador?

This past Saturday afternoon I walked in on my family watching a televised marathon of 24 on television. I chuckled thinking about Schlongerbert and IDraftSeanAlexander and went to bed.

Nature called at 4AM, so naturally I got up to go to the bathroom and who should I find at 4AM in the morning in the television room, but none other than my ENTIRE family watching 24! Not even kidding one bit. By this point President Palmer was dead and Logan was sneakily redefining the meaning of the word ¨Patriotic.¨

I thus sat down to watch a for a little bit and I giddily listened to their in depth analysis. Every time the show went to commercial the whole family would start yelling about what they thought was going to happen next. It was absolutely hysterical. I will never forget the sound of my host Dad yelling at his family, ¨Será MEELES, Será MEELES!!, which basically means that my host Dad though one of the president´s security officers, Miles (English Pronounciation My-Lz), was responsible for some wrongdoing against Jack Bauer.

Thus you can bet your bottom dollar that we all watched Jack get involved for another season last night. Can´t believe that the guy from Harold and Kumar go to White Castle is responsible for a nation in ruins. Shouldn´t he be eating hamburgers and blowing off medical school?

Take care,
Kane

Playland Park

Real quick name four things that you take for granted.

Did you happen to say ¨Incredibly Large Roller Coasters?¨

Easter is a huge deal in Ecuador. So much so that people take Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off from work. In fact after Carnaval it kind of seems like every month has a select holiday where working just isn´t the focus of people´s lives.

However, when everyone in the country doesn´t work that means that NOTHING is open in the entire city. Thus even though you have a whole host of people at home with nothing to do, you do not have any restaurants, bars, discos, or anything else open.

See a business venture? Me too. And so did ¨PlayLand Park.¨

If I had never been to the Aitkin County Fair, then I would have been absolutely shocked by PlaylandPark. However, Since I did hop aboard the Tiltawhirl a couple of times in my day, I kind of knew what to expect. Playland Park is basically a county fair that takes up the space of a basketball gymnasium where everyone can go to ride roller coasters, eat crappy food, and play mindless popgun games.

However a couple of aspects make PlayLand Park especially wonderful. First is that they chose an English name. Thus nobody in all of Ibarra knows what I am talking about when I say, ¨PlayLand Park¨, but everyone understands each other when they yell out ¨Vamos al PlalenPar!¨Funny how some pronunciations just don´t quite crossover.

The second best thing about PlayLand Park is Ecuadorian Carnies. I think Austin Powers was the first person I heard describe a Carnie. According to Austin Powers, ¨Carnies¨or the people who work at County Fairs have ¨ Small Hands.¨Ecuadorian Carnies are the shadiest people I have ever laid eyes on in my whole life. They are all unbelievably tiny, and none of them have taken a shower (even though April is RainyRainyRainy Season) in about six years. None of them look anything in the eye except for money. They all have long black hair that they wear in the latest ¨BirdsNest¨style. All of them speak Spanish but nobody can understand anything they say. They are almost dead ringers for this dude who used to work on my mom´s buildings when I was a kid who´s name escapes me at the moment.

PlayLand park has one ride called the Taglata or something that is the MOST uncomfortable and not fun experience I have ever been on. It´s basically a giant ring that vibrates up and down trying to throw its passengers off of the bench and onto the floor. However, the Carnies operate this ride on an absolute mission to kill whoever dares climb aboard. I saw at least three or four girls get thrown from their chairs and onto the floor where they popped around like that one kid who can´t use a trampoline and the rest of the kids friends try to popcorn him or her up. However, this isn´t nice forgiving rubber. THis is cold hard steel. And the best part is that nobody makes in effort to stop the ride. They Carnies just mercilessly flop their victims about until someone is brave enough to offer them a pantleg on which they can climb back to their seat.

Which brings me to my main point. In the states we all grow up with Amusement Parks with LARGE rides. However nobody in Ecuador has ever seen anything that big, nor do they have anything besides the Pirate Ship ride that we might consider High Altitude thrills. Thus EVERYONE in this country is absolutely petrified of heights. last night I was hanging out with some of my most macho friends and almost none of them would brave PlayLand Park´s big rides. They probably would have run scared if they even smelled the Tiltawhirl. Cannot even fathom what they would have thought about DropZone or Top Gun. It´s just a completely different world.

Thus I got to thinking that maybe this fear transfers to other aspects of life? What other things in the states do we have that make an effort to conquer basic fears? Why is it that we decided to build huge thrill rides in the United States? It cannot solely be for the amusement factor. I think people in the states are much more comfortable conquering fears than are people in Ecuador, but maybe I am just reading into things too much.

Which brings me to the next thing that we have in the states that there is NONE of in Ecuador. I can´t remember if I have already mentioned this, but Ecuador has no stand up comedians. It´s completely absent from the culture, even though lots of people love telling jokes. How did the comedy club become woven into US culture and why?

Please excuse the abrubt finish but I am signing off tonight with unanswered questions rather than answers. Just dont have it in me. Hope everyone is having a blast back home.

-Kane

Pascua

Have you ever sat at a lunch table with a group of friends and just wondered what it would be like to put all of your lunches together in a big pot, cook for four hours, and serve?

Right me neither.....

But, that´s exactly what Ecuadorian people do every Easter. Damas y Caballeros I give you...

Fanesca.

I first heard about this peculiar substance about two weeks before Easter. Having garnered a reputation as a ¨bottomless pit¨of sorts due to my incredible ability to put away mass amounts of food, people started talking about the one dish I might not be able to have three helpings of. I was immediately intrigued and asked people what was inside this mysterious Easter dish. Remember that scene in Forrest Gump where Bubba takes like three hours to describe what goes into making shrimp? The second place winner for longest food description goes to La Fanesca. After asking my innocent question I was instantly treated to a vocabulary quiz of every single Ecuadorian ¨grano¨ known to mankind.

Here the basic scoop on Fanesca:

Ingredients: corn, peas, every bean ever invented, milk, hard boiled egg, lettuce, six different kinds of fish (no meat on Easter), and ¨los adornos.¨ I won´t waste your time writing down every bean and every adorno because you would be bored and I would definitely contract carpal tunnel syndrome. It´s intense.

Cooking Directions: Another cool facet about Fanesca. Basically nobody knows the recipe because you cannot find it in a cookbook and it´s actually something that has been passed down through the generations. All I know is that you put a ton of milk into a HUGE pot, add all the ingredients, grab a bowl, put some lettuce in the bottom of the bowl, slop on some fanesca, add all of the toppings and eat. Cooking time is somewhere in the neigborhood of four to five hours. With prep time you are looking at a six to seven hour cooking experience minimum.

Taste: D-LISH. Not even kidding. It tastes kind of like a vegetarian curry with fried dough balls on top. However, it´s one of those dishes where you take one bite and you feel like you have eaten about six pounds of steak. It´s awesome. Fanesca packs the most pure ¨I am going to fill you up NOW¨punch in all of history. Imagine grinding up ten half pound hamburgers and then putting them into a small bowl of soup. Thus you are dominating a quarterpounder with every bite. AWESOME.

History: Coolest part of Fanesca. No one knows the recipe and no one knows where it came from. The only thing I have garnered is that Fanesca comes from Juana Esca, the first chick to ever make it. It started off as a sort of Indigenous people garbage-can pot luck dinner. Everyone would come from all parts of the countryside with the grain that they grew on their farm. Everyone would arrive, throw their ingredient into a gigantic garbage can like pot, drink beer all day, and then eat dinner out of the garbage can. Now however, people guard their Fanesca recipes like treasured heirlooms. The hubaloo around Fanesca kind of reminds me of American Chilli recipes in that ever Chilli is basically the same, but everyone thinks theirs is special and everyone adds their own secret ingredients. However, a Chilli competition in the States is on par with a mid season Arena Football Game. Sure it´s fun for everyone involved, but nobody really will plan their day around the event. En cambio a Fanesca competition in Ecuador would probably draw more people than the Rose Bowl and more money would change hands than March Madness. People are redonkulously serious about their Fanesca.

Added Benefits:
You know how wine gets better with age? Is there any food for which the same thing applies? Somehow Fanesca manages to taste better on the second day. All the tastes just continue to mix together and you just can´t beat day old Fanesca.

Big Deal Factor:
My host mom has already prepared two Fanescas so that she doesn´t screw up the Easter batch. People are taking the day off from work tomorrow just to shuck corn and peal beans. I probably will gain fifteen pounds by Sunday afternoon. Just a smashing good time for all involved.

US Easter Factor:
Defintely going to miss chocolate Easter Bunnies and those weird Rabbit puff candies called ¨No Me Acuerdo-Puffs or something maybe¨, but I can´t say that I am going to miss it all that much. In my opinion the US needs to develop some sort of Easter dish pronto. I am having way too much fun Fanescaing it up down South.

But I have never been that much of a sweets guy anyway.

Take Care and HAPPY EASTER/SPRING BREAK!
Kane