The People: Part 3

It usually takes me about 6 months of netflix and frozen pizza/beer weekends to make friends in a new place. What do I mean by frozen pizza/beer weekends? That is when I move to a new place and I do not have any friends, so I end up eating a lot of frozen pizza accompanied with beer and netflix. But that is not the issue at hand. Usually it takes 6 months for me to feel like I fit in...like I have friends...like I belong. This time in Cuenca I feel like it has happened so much faster! And without frozen pizza (though there has been beer involved...though it is see through). This is mainly because Brigitte is a better friend maker thank me. 

So we begin our last segment of "the people" in Cuenca.

Monica and Brigitte displaying the tools of the trade.

 Monica is a worker at the Fundacion Arenal. For those of you who don't "hablo espanol"...that is Foundation Arenal. She patiently put up with our attempts to help little pre-school to kindergarten age chicitos work on their homework. This meant her both patiently explaining the homework to two groups. First, to the ninos. Then to Brigitte and I. She is incredibly patient and uses all sorts of tactics to motivate the kids to work. It is only by the grace of God and Monica's patience that we were able to lead kids across town on the buses (it was craaaaaazy. we filled up half the bus!).We will miss Monica!

Fausto taking a rare pause from work for a photo.

Fausto is another worker at Fundacion Arenal. Fausto reminds me of my father (and I have an incredible amount of respect for my father). He is constantly working. He is a musician (he said he plays a variety of Andino instruments), a teacher, a worker at an after school program, he visits the sick and the lonely...he just does not stop! He has a magicality about him that gets kids to listen. Whenever the kids were acting out of line, all we had to say was, "We are going to tell Fausto," and suddenly they were saluting at attention standing rigidly and waiting for orders. His Christian passion for service and sharing love with others is enviable. We are going to miss Fausto.

Don Gabriel and I hamming it up for the camera.

Gabriel, or Don Gabriel has been one of our closest friends in Cuenca. Early on in our time here in Cuenca he looked at us and had compassion on us. We have traveled to his home town and sampled the finest salchipapas this side of the Mississippi. We have been with him on Harry Potter buses. We have snorted tobacco together. We have swam behind waterfalls together. We have attempted running early in the morning together (it lasted about two weeks and we only actually successfully met up about 2 times. The other times we made plans to meet each other, but for some reason or other couldn't find each other in the morning...it became a running joke, "See you tomorrow to run," one of us would say, and of course we would not see the other when we ran...). Did I also mention that he was Brigitte's teacher for nearly three months? We are going to miss Gabriel. Ya tenemos un amigo. Tenemos a Don Gabriel.

Don Gabriel and Brigitte

Brigitte and Esperanza take a moment out of negotiating.

Esperanza has been our go to in the market. She points out what is in season. She can make a bag of 10 oranges in 2 seconds flat. Esperanza means hope...and her bright spirit and joyful attitude always made us feel like we had done so much more than just conducted a transaction at the market! She would even sometimes throw in a "yampa" (a yampa is an extra...an extra tomato...an extra orange...we learned this and then would ask for yampas all the time).

Marcela y Anita doing what they do best. Marcela explaining how we are going to cook some food, and Anita taking notes over how to cook the food!

Marcela taught our cooking classes. She is a great chef. She likes everything to be tiny. We will miss her shouting, "MAS PEQUENO!" at us when we are cutting up onions (seriously...I have never seen onions cut so small). From her we learned how to make empanadas, papas locras, empanadas, and a million other dishes. We are going to have withdrawal tomorrow afternoon when it is time for cooking class and we will not be here! We will miss Marcela. 

Anita is the secretary at Amauta. She let us into the building every day when we would buzz the door. She just got married last Friday. She would always talk to us about how she didn't want to go to her English classes on Thursdays (she wanted to stay with us and eat after the cooking class). She is a sneaky English speaker...we think she is very fluent, but she hides it. And only when you need a random word translated does she bust out her English. We will miss Anita!

Brigitte and I with Isabel, our last teacher we had at Amauta.

Isabel was our last teacher. We had Isabel after we decided to take classes together the last month (up until then, we had taken classes separetly when I was under the impression that I was more "advanced" than Brigitte...she caught up and we combined classes). We enjoyed Isabel's advice on parenting (kid wants to try a cigarette, make them smoke the whole pack...kid wants to try a alcohol...hear comes a hangover), her love stories (ask her about her declaration of love to the American whilst singing ballads in the room next door), and her grammatical explanations (something about rum and whisky). We will miss Isabel.

Adriana and I...Adriana was my teacher for one day!

I started out with Gaby as my teacher. But when Gaby went away I had one day with Adriana. She introduced me to Oscar Wilde (that is irony, isn't it?). She is a really good teacher, we had many friends who had classes with her who said very postitive things about her. We will miss Adriana. 

Daisy and I. Daisy was the teacher I had for the longest period of time. We shared a love for bikes and talking about Justin Bieber.

Daisy was my teacher for the month of September and October. She was incredibly patient. She put up with my pathetic Spanish and my pining for things American (she endured my stories of the Cubs and how we never get what we want (Joe Girardi)...how I missed pizza...etc...). She pushed us to speak Spanish. She said, "I don't want to hear you speaking English any more during the breaks!" We needed to hear that. After that rebuke, it was all Spanish all the time...so much so that other students asked us, "Do you guys ever speak English during the breaks." No. We don't. We didn't. Thanks to Daisy. We will miss Daisy.

Brigitte and Miriam lounging on a couch at school. 

Miriam teaches Spanish as well, but both of us have never had her. But, she is the one who introduced Brigitte to "bailo terapia", which means dance therapy. The whole province has a new initiative to make the women of Ecuador healthier, so they are now counseling at dance therapy...it is really just a dance/ aerobic like class in the park. Brigitte will miss going to "bailo terapia" with Miram. 

Gaby and I. The first of many teachers that I had!

Gaby was the first teacher that I had when we started here at in Cuenca. Her and Gabriel were a killer combination of teachers. Every weekend was a different excursion around the town of Cuenca...all mixed up in with different legends and stories of Cuenca past. We will miss Gaby!

We are so thankful for the people we have come to know here in Cuenca...and we did not list them all...the guy that sold us milk and yogurt, the German girls who volunteered with us at Fundacion Arenal, the many different students who came through and took classes with us (such as Raymond and France...Steve...John...Kevin to name a few)...we are so thankful. It has been a great experience...tomorrow we will finally get up and leave our apartment and head south.