Life at Latitude 3

It´s a bit hard to believe that it´s been almost a year now since I came back to Ecuador for the 2nd time. In October 2004, when I came up with the crazy idea of going to South America for 6 months, I never imagined 6 months would stretch into a couple of years. But coming into Ecuador this 3rd time was def. the hardest.

For one thing, I came back when the teaching cycle was ending, meaning that all of my friends were saying goodbye. I know lots of Ecuadorians, but in terms of what I would call really good friends, most of them are other teachers. But it makes sense. If I moved back to the states, I´d have to relocate and find new friends. Most people my age are married or at least have children, and don´t have time to make new friendships. The people I´d prob. socialize the most would be people I worked with, which is what is happening here.

For another thing, I know that need to make a serious decision about my future. Most of my personal belongings are stored in my grandparents´house, and I need to either start using that stuff (ie. move back to the states) or decide to set up on a more permanent basis here (ie sell that stuff). And when it comes to that decision, I just feel at a loss. On the one hand, my family and great majority of my friends live in the states. Considering that none of them have even visited me yet, I doubt that any of them would pick up their lives to move down here to live with me, and of course I don´t expect that. Which means that if I stay here, I either pay $900 a year to come home and see people, or I forgo seeing very important people in my life for a few years at a time. Not a cheerful thought. So what keeps me here? I don´t know how to explain it other than Ecuador´s current slogan for tourism is “Life at its purest.” And while life is far from perfect here, I feel like it´s much easier to live a life that is closer to my personal values. I can either walk or take public transportation to get anywhere I want to go, meaning that I never need a car. Because of the climate, I never need to use energy to blow dry my hair, machine wash or dry my clothes, and locally grown fresh food is a 20 second walk away. And of course I could, and people do, live socially conscious lives back in the states, but somehow it´s just easier here.

And there are a ton of other little things that keep me here. Like, I just realized how incredibly cheap and easy it is to make popcorn on the stovetop. And I´m not talking about buying one of those popcorn-tin filled things at the store. And I like how I have a fruit woman, and a vegetable woman, and a guy we affectionately call the Amigo who runs a tiny tienda where I can buy lemons at 11pm if I need them. And I still love hearing and speaking spanish. And I know – I can have all these things back in the states – but it would mean prob. living in the heart of a a city like Chicago or New York, which has never appealed to me. I like that I can have these things, and live in a city as small and as appealing as Madison, WI.

So, that´s where I´m at with my life. In a few days I start working at the preschool again. A friend of mine who worked there had to leave unexpectedly, and there are still 4 months left in the year. I will be working with the smallest and cutest kids – the 2-3 yr olds. Some are so young that they haven´t started speaking in any language, but you can tell that they´re taking it all in. I´ll be teaching opposites (up! down! Big! Small!) and animals with them in the a.m., and then in the afternoon, teach a class to teens. So I go from singing “Wheels on the Bus” to teaching the freaking 3rd conditional and adjective order all in one day. good times.

I´m sure I´ll have stories about the kids in my next blurb – hasta el próximo mes – cariño del ecuador!