TEFL in Ecuador

Certainly the most striking thing about Riobamba is its parks and historical buildings, which often accompany one another, and litter the historical Primera Constituyente street. Although very impressive and beautiful from a distance, a closer inspection gives the impression that these places are past their prime. While I stand a decent chance of running into visiting foreigners within these parks, there are no Notre-Dame-like crowds of tourists to inspire exceptional caretaking of sites. At least for the churches, there are religious motivations for upkeep, but the parks have found an unexpected niche in this town.
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My first marriage proposal of the trip occurred today. All the guys at the front desk thought it was hilarious. Silvia has proved to be a very funny and in-your-face old woman. “You’re very handsome. Are you single?” she asked me point-blank while the guys and I were talking about how I liked Riobamba. They betrayed the answer to her. “Why don’t you marry me and take me to America with you?” The seriousness on her face belied all the laughter surrounding me. They explained to me that she was having trouble getting a visa to get to America. “Hey, it was worth a shot.” She kept her candid manner—a perfect delivery. “She is a very funny old woman,” Sandro needlessly explains. Silvia replied, “If you can’t laugh in this life, you might as well die and get it over with.” She won my respect, but not my hand in marriage.
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Social life in Riobamba exists almost entirely on one length of street separated by a median with palm trees, called “10 de Agosto.” There are numerous restaurants and shops, karaoke bars, night clubs, and there is one clothing mall which to an American is like one big discount rack at Ross. There is a lack of recreational facilities like gymnasiums or jogging trails—although there is an Olympic stadium—and there is not a single cinema in the whole city, which is a big disappointment to the natives. On Friday and Saturday nights, the streets become inundated with young people. Where did they all come from? There is a lot of drinking, especially of the native beer, Pilsener, and even more dancing. Clubs blaring the popular Latin dance music, Reggaeton, are packed. Unlike clubs in America, there are five or six different styles of dancing in which almost everyone seems to be proficient. To my chagrin, none of them are the Tango. I really wanted to say to someone, “Let’s Tango!” There is even loud music blaring in the streets due to the upcoming elections, along with dancers waving flags associated with a particular party or candidate. It remains to be seen whether the loud music in the streets will end with the elections, but it seems to me that at least the annoying national anthem will subside.
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Suddenly in a classroom setting again, roles reversed, my mind flashes back to the 3 P’s posted on the wall of my elementary school classroom: Prompt, Prepared, Polite. I remember them because they seem to represent a large part of the differences I have experienced in this cultural shift from Colorado to Ecuador.
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Top two things not to do your first day in Ecuador: 1. Lose your passport. 2. Lose your wallet. I picked the smarter of the two. So, my first lesson for travel around the world is to trust in the goodness of people. Not muggers or strangers walking down the street, but normal people who will help you when you get into that inevitable scrape, people with big smiles who open their arms and say “bienvenidos!”
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