I thought that this weekend I would write a bit about the
new culture of which I am becoming accustomed.
To put it simply, Ecuador’s culture is full of complexities
and intricacies that I was not expecting. I will begin with the family unit.
Here in the mountain region, sierra, the people are conservative and somewhat
reserved.
The typical Ecuadorian familial roles are as follows:
Father: Worker, leader of family, and at times, distant.
Mother: Takes care of all things within the house. Cooks,
cleans, organizes, serves, and loves. In my family, my mother also works 2
jobs.
Kids: Taken care of by mother. Have chores but nothing in
comparison to mother.
My family here in Ecuador bucks the stereotypical family in
a few ways. My mother works two jobs. She is an elementary school teacher as
well as a secretary at the church that my family attends. She cooks dinner when
she returns home from the very long day of work. In regards to chores, the
family divides the chores amongst themselves. After meals we wash our own
dishes and pitch in with anything else that is needed. Every weekend we have a
deep cleaning session. We all wash clothes, clean our rooms, sweep and mop the
floors, garden, weed, feed animals, and other random household chores that come
up. Personally, I like this type of environment. It feels similar to my life in
the States. Many other volunteers have a host mother that waits on the men and
the volunteers hand and foot and I think I would be uncomfortable in the role.
My host dad is a truck driver. He drives to Guayquil and
other cities of export during the week. The family only sees him one or two
days a week. This does not take away from their relationship however. The
family is very tight knit and keeps in contact constantly. My host family has
two kids that live in the house. They go to a private school in Quito nearly an
hour away. They get on a bus around 6:00 am and return around 2:00 pm. When I
return from training they are usually hanging out watching the Simpsons after
completing their chores.
Meals are a whole story to themselves. Fresh juice is served
with every meal. I do not think I have had the exact same juice twice. The
family eats all meals together. It is considered taboo, at least in my family,
to eat alone. This has been a major adjustment for me. For breakfast we
typically eat bread, coffee, juice and maybe some fruit. Rice is never out of
the question. Our breakfast is small because my host mother is on the go to get
to her job. Lunch is the largest meal of the day. A usual lunch a combination
of the following: potatoes, juice, chicken, beans, fresh fruit, and as with
every meal, rice. Dinner is much smaller, consisting of soup, rice, and
potatoes. It is also served near bedtime. I have learned the hard way that one
should overeat at lunch to last until dinner time. The food overall is very
bland. If you know me well, you know how important to me this is. I can barley
handle salsa in a TexMex restaurant so I was delighted to hear that my host
country’s food would be without spice. This is not to say that you cannot make
your food spicy. A salsa, Aji, is served alongside every meal. I tried this one
time, and spent the rest of the evening coughing, drinking milk, and overall
feeling rough. For the most part, I enjoy the food. The diet is much healthier
here than in the States. There are no preservatives put in any of the food
bought at normal stores. Of course, you can find typical American food but it
is much more expensive and at times past the expiration date.
Now on to my first earthquake... This morning I was working
on an assignment and began to feel a strange rocking in my room. At first I
thought it was someone running on the roof and shaking the house. After it did
not stop for 30 seconds I put everything down and held the bed. It was moving
along with the other things in my room. It was not violent at all. It simply
felt like I was on a boat with small waves rocking the house. My host brother
asked if I felt that and I responded that I did. Soon after the “temblor” I got
several texts from the Peace Corps about it and checking if I was alright. It
was a different experience but I was never really in danger. My family took the
opportunity to explain what to do in case of a large quake that hit close to
home which I appreciated. It turns out the earthquake was very strong, 7.0
magnitude, but it was very deep in the earth so the effects were not as severe.
I feel this would be
on my mind for a long time if this occurred to me in the States, but here it is
just another new experience.
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