Getting to know New Quito - Kelly's first week in Ecuador

Antipodeans Abroad- Blog- Week 1
The Ecuadorian Antipodeans September gap breakers are currently enjoying the “settlement” part of our 12 week placement in Quito. The adventure began on Thursday the 9th of September 2010, with the majority of the group flying in from Australia. These travelers enjoyed approximately 24 hours flying time from Sydney, but all arrived happy and excited to begin their 12 week placements in South America.

The group is being hosted by local Ecuadorian families, with all volunteers living within a five minute walking radius from each other. We are being hosted in apartments, as in Ecuador to own a house is extremely expensive. This is one of the many contrasts, that we have seen thus far, to Australia. The housing groups vary in size, from 2-4 and even 5 volunteers. The housing groups are as follows:

· Garigarra & Melissa
· Alex & Spencer
· Kelly & Jess
· Caroline, Olivia, Bec, Erin & Emily
· Samantha, Klara, Katie & Steph
· Katelan, Chloe, Edwina & Tess

As we are still in the introductory days of our placement, we have been taking the time to explore Quito. After we all re-attached ourselves to technology by purchasing Ecuadorian sim cards on Friday we explored our local shopping areas. We were all struck by the low prices of items in Ecuador. You can buy bananas here for 66 US cents per kilogram!

Saturday was the introductory day for our program. We all aimed to meet at Marcelo‘s (our In Country Agent)house at 8:30am for a team meeting, but true to south American time the meeting did not begin until 9am. In this session he told us what things we needed to look out for in Ecuador, in particular the important safety lessons that would get us through our placements. After his talk I can safely say that no-one in our group will be taking our passports out of our apartments, accepting papers from people on the streets or keeping anything in our back pockets! Although Marcelo’s stories explained the worst possible scenarios of what could happen in Ecuador, it was very valuable for us to hear, in order for us to make this placement the best (and safest) that it can possibly be.

The weekend took us to Old Quito, the historic centre of Quito city. Old town a world heritage listed part of Quito. As you walk through the streets you see buildings with amazing architecture, grand churches, small markets and people wandering around in traditional dress. As we walked through Oldtown on Sunday we saw up to three parades in the streets, 2 traditional interpretive dance performances and 1 anti-government rally. It was quite the sight to see! Although we couldn’t understand the main vocalists at the rally, we were able to pick up the fact it was in relation to health care.

This week has seen the beginning of Spanish lessons for our group at L’Academia de Espanol en Quito. When we arrived on Monday we were greeted by the English-speaking director, who led us to a language placement test. Emily was by far the high achiever on the test! She was the only member of our team who was allowed to complete the test :S. We were all sorted into separate Spanish classes according to our Spanish abilities. These classes go from 8:30-1pm every day this week and are preparing us for interacting with the children that we will be working with in our placements. Our volunteering placements commence next Wednesday after our official Spanish lessons have ended.

In addition to the Spanish lessons we have been exploring Quito City further. Over the last few days we have visited the “Parkets” , one of the largest artistic craft markets in Quito and the Cajillo de el hombre.

This was an amazing tribute to the Ecuadorian painter Guayasamin, who believed strongly in equality for all human beings

. He drew inspiration from the plight of the incas, negros, mayans, aztec’s and the indigenous people. His paintings showed so much emotion and gave the viewer the opportunity to emotionally connect with the cause that he was so passionate about. It was truly inspirational to see.

Although we have only been in Ecuador for a short period of time, every volunteer has been struck by the cultural differences between our new country and our lives back home. The main differences between Ecuadorian and Australian life that our team has seen thus far are:
· The food- Lunch is the main meal of the day in Ecuador
· The traffic- Road Rules is a seemingly non-existent concept for the drivers in Quito
· The noise- All airplanes fly extremely low at all hours of the day
· The public transport- It’s amazing! Very organized and cheap
· The cost of items- Many meals cost less than $2 USD in Ecuador
· The police- There is an extremely high police presence in New Quito. They all carry guns
· The importance of family
· The division of social classes within one city
· The way western culture has touched this community
· The addiction to neon clothing
· The temperature- it’s warm!!

Another blog coming soon,
Kelly