EIL Intercultural Learning

It's E-Day plus 10 today. Sounds like a long time but it's passed me by very quickly which is a bit scary but it reflects how good a time I'm having here. Picking up the story here from the last blog (sorry for the gap between them, wrote a blog 2 days ago but internet connection broke before I had fully finished and I lost it completely!) I joined up with the second group of Americans on the Thursday night as the group I was with have gone to the Galapogas islands. But the second group have also turned out to be a fantastic group. We left Quito Friday morning after talking about our fears and expectations for the homestay. The journey was much better than expected as we talked away any nerves until the last 5 minutes of the 4 hour journey, when suddenly the bus became very tense and quiet. But as we all knew deep down, our fears were misplaced and our host families have turned out to be brilliant.

My family is small compared to most with just 3 of them. The father Luis is a poet, the mother Andrea is a optician and their 3 year old son Tomas is a natural entertainer. They're a great family but are a very rare bunch of Ecuadorians given that they're vegetarians. But they've really looked after me well cooking me meat which is very nice of them. We get on well and the language barrier has been very funny at times as I often have to resort to hand gestures or speedy dictionary navigation to communicate. It's been good though as my family are very laid back and are very understanding about my lack of spanish. To be fair I find myself now being able to understand the majority of what they say but because of not previously studying spanish, I find it difficult to reply fully in spanish but I am improving slowly as I pick up words and phrases.

Although we're all spread out in Riobamba, our group has kept together very well since arriving. On the Saturday it was the 4th of July and one of the yanks birthday so we all went out to celebrate that night and everyone had a great time. It must be that these trips attract similar people but whatever the reason all the yanks have been sincere and friendly people who I really get along easily with. And since I get along with both groups they're both bringing me on any day excursions out of Riobamba, so I'll be hiking on Chimborazo twice and other things like that whereas the plan was just once with just one group. So I've got things really good in that regard and pretty much every regard on this trip. We started our community service  yesterday painting a school and we have another two days of it to go (I'll have another 3 with the other group when they arrive). It's been hard work but we are all having a laugh and it's great to see a group get on so well.

Throughout the trip the friendliness of Ecuadorian people has been very apparent. The lastest example was last night when myself and a yank went into town to play soccer and we ended up getting to play a full match on an indoor astro turf pitch with a bunch of Ecuadorians. They were so cool about letting us play it was great. It was also the first time I really felt the altitude hit me. Because of being so much higher up (9000 ft!) there´s less oxygen which gives you a burning sensation in your lungs and you can feel light headed after the game. But it was a great game all the same.

Not too much else to include now. Apologies for the lenght but alot can happen in 5 days here as I'd guess it shows. I hope everyone is keeping well at home, in the family, friends and with the people in EIL. Thanks again for comments and e-mails, it's great to hear from people. Until next time, Gary.