Well guys, I have to be honest, I probably will never see you again. I miss you all so much, but the only way I'm leaving the Galapagos is floating across the ocean back to you in a coffin. Or whenever my visa runs out. Whichever comes first.
My host family is, for the Ecuadorian culture, pretty unconventional. Doris and Antonio, my host parents, are living together in sin, as my mom likes to say. (Antonio is divorced, and they haven't married.) I also have a host sister, her name is Genesis, she is adopted and she is 6, and I will probably keep her around because every morning when I roll out of bed with an afro of unneccessarily frizzy hair and an awkward, uneven sunburn she smiles at me and tells me that I am beautiful. She is beautiful, actually. I will post pictures of my host family soon. I think Genesis may be sick, though (I don't know if I've mentioned this... but around 85 % of the population here on the Galapagos has HIV). I think that she is sick because she has been traveling back and forth to Guayaquil, where there is better medical facilities, and also she is pale, probably from staying indoors a lot. A lot of the population is infected, but so far nothing has been discussed in the household and I am not about to ask.
Antonio has a bunch of little jobs, one of which I am convinced is a babysitter. Either that or children flock to him and spend their siestas playing with his big belly and watching TV in their tiny living room. Even infants find their way to Antonio. So yeah, he must be a babysitter.
Doris is an English teacher (at first I thought - score! But she makes me speak Spanish all the time) and she also runs a hostel and I am staying there with a girl from my program. I guess there will be people running in and out all the time. But I have to say, I am so happy to be rooming with Amanda! It was a lonely thought thinking I would be in this host family situation by myself. She isn't from my circle of friends here but she is positive, active, and really fun to be around. She is blonde, so she gets a lot of attention from Ecuadorians. She walks by and they just look at her and say "ooooo, mira, rubia!" (oooh look, blonde girl). She is 20 and engaged! Ahh! She got engaged when she was 18. Clearly, she knows what she wants. Haaha. Her fiancee and mother are actually coming to visit around the same time as Nathan.
Oh I didn't tell you! Nathan is visiting!! Aaahhh :) :) He has been working extra hard in Boston and he is going to come see me before he does his study abroad semester in Chile. And hopefully, I will be able to visit him after I finish up in the Galaps:) It will definitely break up this not-seeing-each-other for 7 months ordeal and also, I reaaaallly wanna go and see Chile. And Peru. But there is a good chance that I will be traveling alone so Peru probably isn't in the cards.
ANYWAY, the living quarters are humble ones and that's fine with me. My other friends have pretty sweet setups and their own huge rooms and bathrooms and all that, but I'm happier this way. I never had that much personal space to begin with and I have come to realize that when I have too much space to my own I don't really know what to do with it. Not to mention, wealty people like to put introduced plant species in their gardens that attract roachesPlus, I have a hammocking area! SCORE! The only downside to living with a less wealthy family, though, is the food. On the first day, I told Antonio that I was a vegetarian, so I had refried KFC chicken with french fries and mayonaisse for lunch. The family is on a diet, I guess, so we had french fries and chicken hotdogs for breakfast. Yeah, I dunno about this Ecuadorian food. The ketchup isn't even real ketchup. Kim, you would probably hate it here for that reason. Everything is fried with white rice. And frankly, I'm getting a bit fat! So I've been trying to stay active and cut out the ice cream and beer. Emphasis on trying.
Anyway, the food might be the worst idea Ecuador has ever had, second to drilling in the Amazon of course, but the biodiversity and beautiful environment certainly makes up for it. This is the most beautiful place that I will ever spend time in, poverty, HIV, refried KFC and all.
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