Well as you know from my last blog I’m not in Ecuador anymore… or even Cambodia for that matter butttt I started this blog while I was in Ecuador for y’all and never got around to posting it.. so here it is, an in depth look on my daily life in Ecuador.
DAY IN THE LIFE- MORGAN GOES TO JESSS
6:45 I open my eyes for the first time since the night before and just blank stare at the wall for a bit
6:49- I do some sort of acrobatic move to slide down off of the top bunk and head down stairs for breky
6:50- I grab one of the plastic dining room chairs down and sit on it just staring at the back of my hand and occasionally glancing up at the 4 early risers that have been in there for a fat minute now doing their quiet time
7:06ish- “Who wants to pray for breakfast”
7:07- we all get in line for Fabi’s Wonderfull breakfast creation… varying from cereal to pan de yuca to arroz con leche. Plus his homemade juice that nobody seems to like but me…
7:32- we start to wrap up and wash our plates and cups and all that jazz
8:02- people start getting their shoes on to leave, wildflowers (my team) asks to borrow any last minute clothing items from the other teams
8:05- I start doing the big dishes and wait the Blaize and B-dog to help rinse, dry and put away
8:47- We finish and I go back up stairs to get ready
8:58- I finally decide what to wear for the day and put it on before I get yelled at to leave
9:01- I scramble to find my water bottle and shoes before 10:00… then I realize its past ten when the rest of my team is waiting for me
9:02- we start walking to our first bus stop
9:10- start waiting for a bus that says TERMINAL CARCELEN (but usually we just hop on the CATAR and hope it takes us to the right place)
9:15- keep waiting
9:21- the bus shows up, Arielle has already handed out our money in an orderly fashion so the line leader will hand over the designated amount of quarters
9:42- we hop off the first bus, check our shoulders to make sure we aren’t missing anyone, and then quickly run across the 6 lane street before the light turns green
9:44- we begin the waiting process again… this time looking for a bus that says EDEN
9:53- The bus will show up completely empty and we have a hard decision of where to sit
DEPENDING ON THE DAY OF THE WEEK WE GO TO DIFFERENT HIGH SCHOOLS (MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY: JESSS)(TUESDAY, THURSDAY: ISM)
(FUN FACTS: to get to JESSS we pass ISM’s bus stop on the second bus we take)
9:57- we get off the bus and walk down a big aa hill, cross a 2 lane street, to a side street where JESSS is waiting for us
10:02- we get there a couple minutes late cause we didn’t leave our house on time
10:03- despite being late we still take a bathroom break before heading up to the English hallway
10:05- we cross through the “bar” and say hi to the lunch ladies that so graciously make us lunch everyday
10:07- we get upstairs to catch the last couple minutes of class before the bell rings for the teacher meetings, so we all gather in Christy’s room and take a seat in the desks
10:10- the unusually long bell rings that plays a specific song I will never forget and Christy leaves the room keeping some background music on from YouTube
10:11- we immediately jump on the wifi that barely works especially when we are all on it so Arielle and B-dog get their cards out. And we wait untilll we hear the next bell
10:30- that second bell rings and we disperse in 2’s to our designated classroom for that week… this week I’m with teacher Claudia with Sam
10:34- students start flowing in a couple minutes after the bell but thats alright we only have like 7 kids max in our class we are waiting for
10:35- as the kids start flowing in Sam and I ask Claudia if there’s anything she needs us to do specifically for that day… a typical response usually looks like: “I don’t think so… what ever you want”… so thats what we do… hang out until she tells us other wise
11:00- she might ask us to “teach” around now soo thats what we will do. We both walk to stand in front of the class and try to teach them English a different way then how we learned it. I think mostly the teachers just like to hear our pronunciation
11:50- the kids now have a break or something so my team and I return back into teach Christy’s room, place the chairs in a circle and hop back on that wifi for a lil. This time though we break out the chips Fabi got us for lunch and we all look like animals shoving our face with some Ecuadorian brand Dorito, or Cheeto. We like to listen to music during this time, talk, laugh, sometimes do team time but usually just soak up our crappy wifi time. (Also this is the time we get those donuts from the “bar” downstairs)
12:50- we begin our second and final class of the day with younger students. Maybe around the age of 13-14/ rather than the 15-16 year olds from earlier. These students are normally more talkative and lively so sometimes they will talk to us, but right now they are focused on decorating their classroom door Christmas themed as part of a competition with the other 2 English classes.
2:10- the final bell rings and we all collect our stuff before heading down stairs for our actual lunch!
2:11- we make it downstairs (Emma normally slides down the ramp) and set the table up with enough chairs for our team and our friend Caleb from Georgia (Caleb is our age and moved to Ecuador to learn Spanish better… now he’s teaching English full time to the little ones in the primary school and living with the principal)
2:15- we hang out and talk for a bit while the lunch ladies are finishing up preparing our meal. They start by bringing out some juice and like a cookie sort of thing.
2:17- the food comes and everyone eats as much as they can… and whatever they don’t eat (like the ketchup blob on the rice) Arielle or myself will finish so we are respecting our lunch ladies friends.
2:32- were all finished by this point and now we are just talking and hanging out with Caleb until everyones ready to go
2:45- around now we are usually all ready to go home.. or go get ice cream… so we begin to say bye to everyone and walk out towards the bus stop
2:50- we are faced with the giant hill that we once walked down… but now we have to walk up. Its normally pretty chilly in the morning but in the afternoon when we have to walk up the hill it is steamy…
3:02- we make it to the bus stop normally with ice cream sandwiches in our hand and wait until the busses are ready to leave (there are normally like 3 sitting there but only one leaves)
3:10- the bus finally leaves and we get yet another seat on the bus. During this time my team normally listens to music but I like to take in all the sounds of Quito
3:21- we make it to our first stop so we give the bus attendant our money, since they sometimes haven’t gotten there yet, and get off the bus
3:22- then we cross the street and wait for the CATAR bus
3:26- it usually doesn’t take long, but the bus is crowded so we stand smushed between multiple bodies all the way home
3:40- we finally get off our last bus and start walking home past, the empanada shop, the fruit and veggie shop, and the pizza place
3:50- we make it home!!! We buzz in at the front gate but then realize we are the only ones home so we kick the gate and it opens. We then take our shoes off.. never putting them away on the rack… say hi to the dogs (Sunny, Guapa, and Lula) and go inside.
3:51- since no one is home I normally spread out on the couches downstairs where its quiet and take a nap or journal or read the Bible or something…
4:30- right before people start coming home ill get my shoes on a try to workout.. sometimes that looks like running other times its just a quick circuit on the front lawn.
4:30-5:00- all the other teams start showing up and the house gets louder…. At this point I’m usually done with my workout and I’m chilling on my bed talking to the homies.
5:00-6:30- people are just hanging out talking, playing volleyball/basketball, taking showers etc so I do whatever lol
6:30- on a good day this is when they call people down for dinner: “dinners ready!” (its normally Skylar cause she’s hungry and proactive)
6:40- we all finally make our way to the living room/ dining room area before Fabi comes out to talk to us… its normally like a mini sermon of something he’s learning or something he wants to share with us (we love you Fabi)
7:01- “who wants to pray for dinner?’
7:03- we pray and then we begin to line up for dinner. (“presbyterians” first… lol we mean pescatarians) I start setting the tables and the chairs back up because we moved them when we cleaned for breakfast in the morning
7:09- I get my food sit down, eat, talk about my day, laugh, spend time with my peeps. You will typically here people trying to get rid of food like “who wants my meat” or “does anyone want the rest of this” or “does anyone like the juice” so ill normally end up eating way more than I should so that Fabi doesn’t get mad because of left over food on our plates.
7:30- we wrap up eating for the night and a designated team does dishes for all of us
7:31- after dinner depending on the day and whose team time it is… we might still have to do team time… and we will gather in our room to do some
9:00- its prolly close to 9 now and ill go back down stairs to mingle see if people are making food and try to get some haha
9:30-10:00- anytime in between that time ill normally start getting ready for bed. Washing my face, brushing my teeth.. shower if I really need it… etc.
INSERT ISM DAYS
Everything is the same except our second bus we get off earlier and normally make it right at 10:00…
10:00- we walk into school, sign in and go to our designated class with our designated teacher. Emma and I are teaching together because her teacher said he didn’t need her help. So we find teacher Denisse and walk into our class room. These students are always excited to see us so they give us a warm welcome and we make our way to the back of the class room.
10:30- not long until that bell rings for recess (these kids are probably 6th-ish grade) we go upstairs to the teachers lounge to work on grading for Denisse… if she didn’t have papers yet or she wasn’t there, my team and I would meet on the roof top next to the soccer field and eat our weird sandwiches and chips from Fabi.
11:10- this means study hall… most days we don’t go and just continue grading… but on our first day we got to play the game mafia with our new students and it was so much fun
11:50- and classes start again but with the way Emma and I’s schedule works we barely had afternoon classes so guess what we did.. more grading for other teachers!
2:30- we were almost never there past 2:30 grading or teaching so by this point we were on our way out.
2:37- we would make it to the bus stop… right across from a panderia!!! They had THE BEST banana bread so we couldn’t help but get some
2:45- the eden bus then came and picked us up along with a bunch of our students.
AND FROM THERE ON OUT ITS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME…
Terribly sorry this guy is so late… I was working on it in Ecuador but just never got around to posting it… and I blinked and now all the sudden I’m home. Sooo better late than never I guess… stay posted for the Cambodia one!
Shout out to the quarantine for all this blogging time though XD
