We left Kalispell, Montana on Monday 10/18 with four bags weighing in just under 50 pounds a piece checked through to Quito, Ecuador. We flew to Seattle and then to Dallas Fort Worth. We arrived just before midnight, thought about how nice it was to be in John and Christine's hometown, and checked into a hotel in the airport. FYI, the most frightening aspect of our travels that day was the Monorail train that navigated around the Dallas airport. It was like a tipsy roller coaster ride in the dark.
Bright and early the next morning, we departed to Miami and then on to Quito. We arrived about 6pm Ecuador time (which is currently an hour behind EST, but soon to be the same once the East “falls back.”) The baggage claim and customs went smoothly. We were met by Fabiola, a friend the Erickson’s had made while down here on medical mission trips. We took a taxi to our driver, Romero, an acquaintance of the Erickson's , who was waiting out on the highway in order to avoid the downtown Quito traffic. When Andy and I were in Malta in December 2008 we thought we would never be more scared on the road—e.g. our bus navigated steep hills and sharp turns—all without headlights in the pitch black. We, however, were wrong.
The driving system in Ecuador is rather peculiar. Sure they drive on the same side of the road as we do in the States, but actually, not necessarily so. Lanes are really just a suggestion and all vehicles swerved in and out of them at will--blinkers? ha. Even the double lines in the middle of the road can be ignored in order to leap frog vehicles. The main form of communication seemed to be flashing your brights at the car in front of you-- to make them move into the safety lane so you could pass them, for instance. Yet the lack of seat belts and swerving aside, what was most noticeable was the constant supply of broken down buses, cars, and trucks along the side of the road, which, I’m sure you can infer, made the swerving and the lack of consideration for lanes or other vehicles, all the more frequent. There were people, too, just walking next to the highway. In fact, school buses just kind of stopped in the right lane and let out the kids to walk alongside the highway to wherever home was. Nonetheless, Romero, though fully integrated into the Ecuadorian driving system, was an excellent driver, and we only felt fear from the automobiles around us rather than the one we were in.
Phew. All the above for a two-hour car ride, though Fabiola and Romero considerately included a bathroom stop. At the stop Fabiola inquired to as whether or not I had papél—which I did not (because it never occurred to me that a bathroom would not have toilet paper, or for that matter, toilet seats.) She kindly gave me 2/3 of her own and all was well, except for perhaps the burning in my thighs as I squatted over the toilet seat (after having sat all day long.) We were delivered to “the compound” which is an apartment where visiting missionaries stop over before leaving for more remote parts of Ecuador. We stayed there for a couple nights until we had set up our apartment (a minute down the street). This included constructing a bed frame and removing and re-installing a propane tank among many other tasks (e.g. picture us carrying an ornate, round, wood table down the street). Thank goodness for the tools Dr. Erickson had sent us down with. We would have been up a creek without them.
As it were, the busy day of moving I had an extremely sore throat (and nearly finished one the bag of Ricolas we brought with us). Then Friday I awoke achy, rather feverish, and in full sinus infection mode. Andy and I agreed that I should start on Zithromax and Tylenol Cold (which fortunately has a decongestant in it.) I slept most of the day until we went with Anita, another friend, who was the translator on all of the Erickson’s trips down South and also Fabiola’s daughter, to see about internet and meet and pay the landlord our monthly rent.
Which brings us to today, in which, not unlike most days, we spent nearly the entire day reading Harry Potter in Spanish (Harry Potter y el prisionero de Azkaban), practicing with Rosetta Stone on the computer, scouring 501 Spanish Verbs, and reviewing grammar concepts. I woke feeling a bit better, so hopefully I’ll continue on the up and up. It would certainly be nice for Andy who has made every meal and cleaned up every meal (including the bleaching of all the vajilla—our dishes), since I’ve been too weak to stand too long.
Speaking of dishes, it’s been a rough week culinary wise and not because Andy’s been left in the kitchen by himself. There is a small, i.e. dorm room size, Micro Mercado where you can buy the basics (though more expensively) and then there is the MegaMaxi (a Target/Walmart type store) where you can buy anything. It is a twenty-minute walk from where we live, though it usually requires a taxi ride back. Taxi rides, by the way, are a dollar to just about wherever you go in the city. Anyway, it’s been rolls of bread for breakfast, lentils for lunch, and plain pasta for dinner. Oh yes, we do not have a refrigerator yet (Fabiola is lending us an extra of hers though we have yet to figure out how to get it from her house to ours.) Thus, we have been on the zero perishable food diet, which has already gotten old. Today we bought saltines and Gatorade mix—which seem like they might become a staple for our stomachs.
We must not ever drink the water here or use it to brush our teeth or open our mouths in the shower (which I found out yesterday is hard when you can’t breath out of your nose and you’re washing your face). We’ve done well so far with this, as in the bleach bath after we (okay Andy) has washed the dishes, but you have to stay vigilant. And along this train of thought, they do not put the toilet paper in the toilet after they use it. Which I’m assuming is because of a poor plumbing system, but the concept of putting your toilet paper in the trash next to you after going to the bathroom is taking some getting used to. I fear the day when one of us accidentally intakes bad water and loose bowel movements result.
On that note, I bring this entry to a close and wonder whether or not publicly displaying all this information is really a good idea. Perhaps I’ll need to censor myself, but to record an experience like this, where’s the fun in that?
No comments:
Post a Comment