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.