Little Things

a lot of times it's the little things about life in ecuador that interest me the most. most people here are modest and subtle, and after living here over 15 months, it's sometimes easy to overlook ecuador's subtleties. for instance, when having a convo with most ecuadorians, they say "ahh. . ya, ya" and an ambiguous-sounding "uh-uh" versus the american "yeah/right" and "mm-hmm". especially the "ahh. . " part, they say to mean "you dont say!" and they inflect a high-itched "mmmmm. . " a lot to mean "i don't know/well what do ya know".

one of my favorites to use is "chuta", which means "jeez", or perhaps even "shit". i would feel bad if it meant shit, except that adults here have no problem cussing around kids. kids here arent sheltered - they live & learn, they dont have earmuffs and if they fall off their bike theyre rarely consoled.

theres also machismo here thats not so subtle - it leads the bus drivers to sometimes race eachother even on busy & unsafe roads, and when they play a movie on a bus it's usually a bad action flick starring jackie chan, jean-claude van damme, steven segal, or bruce willis.

people use nicknames a lot here, im still learning what some of them mean - last week i just learned that people say "suca" to mean blonde, hence they call my neighbor alexandra "suca". it makes life a little more interesting when you're working with guys named duck, cat, clown, fingerling, horse, and froggy. my name isnt as cool, but some friends call me "mishky", because it sounds like kaminsky. it's a kichwa word meaning "sweet".

when people greet (women) here, as with many latin american countries, you kiss on the left cheek. but not every woman does it all the time, which makes it awkward when you're goin for the handshake and theyre goin for the peck. it's a fraction of a second, but not the most distinguished way to meet.

when they pick up trash in the afternoon in tena, they play music on the truck to let people know theyre coming. unfortunately, it's a an annoying 1-minute song that plays over & over. like dane cook, i was inspired to write some lyrics to it, "briiing out your traaash, weee'd like to eat. whateeever you gooot, wiiill be delicious." it's not as good as "horse on a forklift" or even "force ona horklift", but it's a start. honestly though, i like the idea of playing music on the garbage trucks, espacially in the afternoon. early morning is another story. but i dont see why american cities don't do it.

when people are eating here other people typrically greet them with "buen provecho" (which is also the name of a good cookbook we got). one could translate it into "good appetite" , aka ¨bon apetite", but i rack my brains sometimes trying to translate it into enlgish. i realized we don't really say anything like that in america. "good appetite" just sounds weird, maybe "good eatin" if you're from the south, but if anything you would just say "bon apetite".

my 94 year-old neighbor is in surprisingly good health, despite the herpes rash he had on his torso last week. anyways, ive been reading on the porch at night lately, and whenever he sees me as he's walking up the stairs to his apartment, he always says "acabando los ojos" (finishing the eyes) in an tired-old-man voice. i usually reply "si. . claro", with a grin. it's one of the few things he says that i can understand. i just think it's amusing. maybe i should heed the advice of a 94 year-old that can still see, and not to read as much.

the coast, mas

as i was saying in my last blog, i went to the coast. for the ecua-unsavvy, the country is generally divided into 4 geographic regions. where i live - the jungly oriente (east) - the andes-mountainy sierra that runs through the middle, the hot & humid coast, and the galapagos 600 miles off the coast. i had been to the 3 other regions - the galapagos most recently in december when my fam visited. so i was anxious to get to the coast, the only part i didnt know. i feel now that ive seen much of ecuador (even if most of it's been looking out from a bus). of course, going to the beach was a good enuf motivation in itself.

so we hung out at andrea's house for a couple days, going for a hike in the forest reserve se works with, and visiting her neighbors. her community is afro-ecuadorian and small (~200 ppl), and like most small communities , visiting neighbors is about the only thing they do as a pasttime (besides futbol). the afro part comes from centuries ago when spanish settlers brought with them slaves to do grunt work like mine gold that was supposed to be in the region. the slaves escaped and were liberated , and now manyoftheir ancestors live on the coast, especially in and around the northwest province of esmeraldas (which i hope to visit someday). taking a bus south to jama, we could see huge football field-sized shrimp ponds that dwarf the tilapia ponds at my project (~300 m2). once in jama, we bought 2 bottles of ' rom pom pom', that is, directly quoting andrea, "the best spanglish rum-flavored alcohol with essence of coco in the world". we proceded to kill one bottle on the bus ride to canoa, between 5 people (andrea's ecua boyfriend from nearby came, too). it's actually really good, especially for just $1.25 a bottle. too bad they don't sell it in tena.

arriving in canoa, there were far fewer people than i expected. hey, more beach for us. had we gone the following week im sure thered be more people for spring break. it looked like your typical small beach town, except for maybe more loose dogs and smaller shops. we found a $5pp hostal a block from the beach, bought a jaba (12 pack of pilsener beers), and finished that and the other bottle of rom pom pom. ah, the beach life. with nice buzzes, we went down to the water, which was theperfect temperature. the sand was perfectly textured. the waves were even the perfect height, about 5-6 ft. there were surfers, but not many. after an hour of frolicking, we went tothe bar for happy hour & watched a beautiful sunset. the bar seemed to be the place for gringos, being maybe 1 ecuadorian for every 10 gringos. after a few drinks there we got another jaba and went back to the hostal. we killed those beers, and i subsequently puked. most of the night is pretty hazy. ah, the beach life.

if there's anything better than drinking in canoa, and the beach in canoa, it's the food in canoa. there's several small restaurants serving mariscos like ceviche, calamari, fish, and crab, of course with the abundant verde (platano) chips. and street vendors sell empanadas, fresh fruit juices, and one of my favorites, corviche - an empanada made with verde and filled with fish. 4 could fill me, and they only cost 25 cents. that's another thing about canoa - the food is cheaper. i dont really know why, but tena is just more expensive. with all this goin on, it kinda makes me wish i was living out on the coast. but then i realize it probably wouldnt be as cool if i actually lived there. i might think tena is a great site if i lived in canoa. nonetheless, i must return to canoa before i leave.