Day 2

Yesterday continued what I'm sure will be a great tradition of things not going according to plan. I met Andrea's mother again, as she had come home late last night after we were all asleep. I squeezed in some gift-giving before her ride to work picked her up. Andrea and I decided to look for a sweater to replace the one I'd forgotten at home, so we walked the winding path through her neighborhood that lead to the bus route. We saw some probable little stores (of the tiny storefront type) out the window as we passed through a neighborhood, so we got out and perused, but, picky and poor me, I found nothing to my taste and budget. We caught another bus to the orphanage, where I promptly forgot all of my Spanish as the guard approached the gate. We somehow communicated that we wanted to volunteer, but he said we'd have to come back on Monday to get the permission of the head directors. We were planning on returning on Monday anyway to look through the records, so it wasn't a terrible inconvenience, except that we'd been looking forward to time with the new kids at the orphanage. Andrea's mom and her friend were in the area, so they picked us up and dropped us off in another good shopping district, telling Andrea to go visit her grandmother after we were done. I bought a knock-off adidas sweater for ten bucks from an indigina who was selling them on the sidewalk; I was more annoyed that it said “Adidas” than that it was a knock-off and its bright green stripes weren't really my style, but it was comfortable and cheap and we were getting a little desperate for something that worked at that point. We passed by a large market selling food and clothes and I got another jacket-- this one plain dark gray and very cozy-- for six dollars. Then we headed on bus to Andrea's grandmother's house, where we found that she wasn't home. However, when Andrea's father called and told her to pick up the car from the mechanic, we were happy that we'd come, since it was very close by. The young boys (13 to 16, by the looks) who were assisting the mechanic told us that the car would be ready in 20 minutes. We left to eat some lunch (a yummy soup from a small but classy-looking restaurant) and briefly watch a game of team soccer in the park, and when we returned to the mechanic, he took us on a test drive to make sure the car wasn't making any noise. After that, we went to pick up Andrea's cousins from the store where her uncle sold pizza cones. They made one for Andrea and I and we ate it as we talked with the family for a bit. They told me they'd love lessons for their oldest boy, Juan Diego, who is eight years old and evidently a national swimming champion of the elementary sports bracket. He seems to be both intelligent and technology-addicted. He has a cell phone that gives him access to Facebook and something called WhatsUp, apparently an American phenomenon that I've missed. His brother, Juan Ignacio ('nacho') is a precocious three-year-old who doesn't take easily to strangers, and is a fan of making weird faces and saying funny and insulting things. Since he's a little too young to sit and learn things, they just want lessons for Diego. He's a fun, cute kid, and I'd be happy to teach him with the materials I brought for the other cousins for free, but they said they'd insist on paying me. We took the kids back to the house, where they and a friend (boyfriend?) of the mom joined us for dinner. The latter is evidently more technology-addicted than most young people in the States, and kept the computer at the table and watched YouTube videos (mostly excerpts from America's Got Talent and similar shows) during the meal. I was sort of weirded out to see this in Ecuador, but it reminded me that it's a society in transition, and they haven't quite figured out the rules of this whole technology game yet. I'd put this as part of a wider trend-- the gap between rich, middle class, and poor is such that technology is a bit of a status symbol; not necessarily that one is rich, but that one is not one of the pobres. And thus it's acceptable to be a little bit addicted. After that, we went upstairs and watched TV on the big bed for a bit before settling in for the night. This is quite a change from my first trip, but there are pros and cons to both ways of approaching Ecuador, and I'm overjoyed for the hospitality and company of those around me. More to come. It's time to make Arepas. Hooray!