November-December

Happy holidays from Riobamba!  Here the city is full of lights, décor, and at least three parades a day.

These past two months have been full of classes, trips, trainings, and lots of new cultural experiences.  Somehow I was lucky enough to get invited to an Ecuadorian wedding for my friend Janeth's step-uncle--I was honored to be included in such a special event!  The ceremony was held at a local Catholic church, and everyone walked down the aisle after the bride which was new to me.  Afterwards, I rode with Janeth's family to an outdoor tent with heaters (it can get down to the mid-40s here at night) in the northern part of the city for the reception.  I would estimate that there were about 200 people there, and there was no shortage of whisky, beer, and cuy (guinea pigs) to go around!  The bride and groom had their first dance along with their bridal party and organized a receiving line for gifts, and everyone enjoyed a champagne toast.  The couple had also booked two bands (one traditional Andean highland style and one rhythmic cumbia group), and everyone from children to grandparents was up and dancing to songs that lasted a minimum of twenty minutes each.  Dinner (a soup followed by a main course) was served around 11:30 PM, and by the time we left after 1 AM the cake hadn't yet been served and the party was still going strong.  I had a fantastic time with Janeth and her family and was blown away by the lively atmosphere and overall attention to detail!

Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo's (UNACH) fall semester started in early November, which has helped me establish more of a daily routine and feel more connected to the university community.  I am co-leading the English Conversation Club and assisting in phonology, international test prep, intermediate language, and English for specific purposes courses.  All of the professors I have been collaborating with have made me feel very welcome and have given me a lot of freedom as to how I want to design my lesson plans.  Many times, the professors will leave the room and let me run the class as I see fit, sometimes with little to no notice.  The students at UNACH come from all over Ecuador, and almost all of my classes (which are usually 2-3 hours long) are held in the campus' brand new building.  Besides one minor physical scuffle between students that took place when the professor was gone which was very awkward for me to respond to, I have absolutely loved teaching and getting to know the students.  Some UNACH highlights include sharing the "Peter Piper" tongue twister as a warm-up and having the class become so invested in the correct pronunciation that the professor let them spend an hour working on it and introducing students to the song "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer," which I had to explain is a joke.  I have also organized some debates and conversation activities which, per the professor's request, focused on some pretty heavy topics, and these discussions have helped me learn a lot about Ecuadorian culture.

In addition to working at the university, I travel to an indigenous community called Columbe Grande about an hour south of Riobamba high in the mountains once a week.  I leave the city early in the morning and travel with the school's very kind director to the campus, which is an intercultural bilingual Kichwa-Spanish school with about seventy students ages 4-15.  I work with the students grouped by ages into elementary, intermediate, and high level classes teaching English and typically use lots of songs, group activities, and outdoor games to introduce new topics.  "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" and "Simon Says" are a few of my greatest hits if I do say so myself.  Earlier this month, I was gifted a gorgeous striped red poncho, which was very special and extremely generous of the teachers and director.  It will also be very helpful for the extremely cold morning temperatures at such a high altitude.

Two weeks ago, the teachers organized a hike for me and the higher level students to explore the gorgeous countryside and allow the students to teach me more about their culture.  Our group started trekking after the morning civic program (which involves a lot of attention and respect given to the Ecuadorian flag) and hiked for about three hours.  The school is situated in a very rural agricultural part of the Chimborazo Province with insane volcano views and lush mountains that look like they are covered with green carpet.  Along the route, we passed many students' houses, and at one point we passed a student's family's donkey.  After ensuring I would not crush him, the group of 20 or so students cheered and laughed as I rode the donkey in random circles without reins or any sort of equipment.  We later made it to another community and visited their school, played lots of soccer, and encountered many sheep, cows, dogs, and a herd of llamas which stampeded past us!

These past two months, I have been fortunate to travel around the highland region.  In early November, I met up with my friends Riley and Halee in Cuenca, a gorgeous city in the south known for its UNESCO-recognized historic center, incredible French and Spanish architecture, vibrant arts and culture scene, and high concentration of expats.  We were there during the city's independence celebrations and took full advantage of the many, many artisan markets and the diverse international food scene.  In Cuenca, we also met up with some other Fulbrighters for a fun evening and squeezed way too many people into a pick-up truck to visit Cajas National Park with some Ecuadorian friends.  Other mentionable moments include taking a walking tour of the city's historic center, seeing an Immersive Van Gogh exhibition for a fraction of the cost in the US, climbing the bell towers of Cuenca's enormuos cathedral, and visiting the Pumapungo Museum to see Incan ruins and real shrunken human and sloth heads which are typical of some groups in the Amazon region.  If you are interested, here is an NY Times article which includes pictures of these artifacts.

I also travelled to Ecuador's capital Quito four times, which is a very scenic three-hour drive north of Riobamba.  The Fulbright Commission of Ecuador celebrated its 66th anniversary on Halloween and also hosted a Thanksgiving luncheon at a nice hotel downtown.  Since most of the other current US grantees arrived later than I did, Fulbright also hosted a second orientation where I got to meet the research cohort and hear about their work with DNA, frogs, and Indigenous communities.  Several guest speakers, including visitors from the US Embassy and researchers, gave us context on the political, cultural, and environmental status of Ecuador, and I learned that Ecuador has over 650 species of frogs and eight separate language families (the entire continent of Europe only has three!).  It was great to meet other grantees from all over the US, and a few of us we even went indoor bouldering as a group.  Two weekends ago, I returned to Quito for an Ashtanga yoga workshop led by teachers from the Canary Islands after my very kind yoga teacher from the local studio I've been practicing at invited me.  This form of yoga is characterized by strict breathing patterns and a rigid sequence of postures, and while I was far from the most expert yogi at the event, I did meet a lot of really cool people!

Riobambans do not shy away from Christmas cheer.  The city is known for its "Pases del Niño," or religious parades celebrating the nativity which are heavily influenced by local Indigenous cultures.   The city has had dozens (not an exaggeration) of these parades all month, and the university was kind enough to include me and my roommate in a traditional coastal marimba dance for the massive UNACH Pase del Niño.  One of my students is a makeup artist and generously offered to do my hair and makeup along with some other friends at a professor's parents' home before the event.  After several somewhat stressful practices, I was under the impression that we would be performing for 45 minutes to an hour.  The group of thirty or so students, my roommate, and I ended up dancing for over two hours through the streets of Riobamba to a song (whose title, fun fact, means "voluptuous woman") which is now permanently burned into my memory.  I had an amazing time taking in the parade's scale (my dance crew was only one of thirty groups) and festive energy while wearing a beautiful typical dress the school rented for us.