Merry, Merry, Happy 2009!!!
I’m sending a big abrazo to all those that I love and miss or haven’t spoken with in far too long. I hope all of your hectic holidays were well worth the stress, and that you were able to spend any vacation days you might have had with loved ones.
So here is what I have been up recently: After a month getting certified to teach English, three weeks being a tourist in Peru, and some pretty intense bus rides, I arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador at 1 am on a Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Two of my mother’s sisters were there to pick me up, and whisk me off to my new home (my 94 year old grandmother’s house) and into my long lost Ecuadorian family. And I was whisked. The next few weeks were Carrión family boot camp. I cleaned, I prayed, I went to mass, I ate lots of rice and was lectured on the class of people I should aspire to spend time with. When I arrived I had no work, no friends, no freedom, and no paints or canvasses. It was a shock to the system. My grandmother called me a disgrace to the family name a few times when I didn’t come home til 10pm. And my aunt commented later that, “it’s just not worth it to be outside of the house—there’s nothing out there worth seeing anyway.” She said that if I really wanted to see anything I could arrange it with an older male cousin or uncle. I just wanted to be able to explore the city that my mother once called her home…On my own two feet, not six paces behind a chaperone...however, this was not “proper.”
Since then things have changed quite a bit. My grandmother remembers my name for one thing. We have gotten to know each other quite well over the past month. For another, I am out of the house long enough to type you all this chock-full-of-love email. I have started work and have friends and family to spend time with.
It seems that Cuenca is a beautiful city filled with art and architecture, an interesting cultural dichotomy and lots of new foods to try. The religious festivals are the best in the country and the rivers are the most picturesque. I’ll soon get to see other parts of Ecuador, but for now I am settling in, working as an English teacher at a university called Univesidad Technológica de las Americas and at a non-profit language school called Centro de Estudios Interamericanos, and also trying to find the time to paint. My family is all here too, and there are plenty of them to get to know. I have cousins from 0 to 40 years old and aunts and uncles from 36 to 70 years old. They are everywhere! Like avocadoes! Like avocadoes all over Cuenca!! Which is nice.
Lots of love and sincere wishes for a healthy prosperous new year,
I miss you all tons, and hope to hear how each and every one of y'all are doing.
Best,
Jamie
I’m sending a big abrazo to all those that I love and miss or haven’t spoken with in far too long. I hope all of your hectic holidays were well worth the stress, and that you were able to spend any vacation days you might have had with loved ones.
So here is what I have been up recently: After a month getting certified to teach English, three weeks being a tourist in Peru, and some pretty intense bus rides, I arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador at 1 am on a Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Two of my mother’s sisters were there to pick me up, and whisk me off to my new home (my 94 year old grandmother’s house) and into my long lost Ecuadorian family. And I was whisked. The next few weeks were Carrión family boot camp. I cleaned, I prayed, I went to mass, I ate lots of rice and was lectured on the class of people I should aspire to spend time with. When I arrived I had no work, no friends, no freedom, and no paints or canvasses. It was a shock to the system. My grandmother called me a disgrace to the family name a few times when I didn’t come home til 10pm. And my aunt commented later that, “it’s just not worth it to be outside of the house—there’s nothing out there worth seeing anyway.” She said that if I really wanted to see anything I could arrange it with an older male cousin or uncle. I just wanted to be able to explore the city that my mother once called her home…On my own two feet, not six paces behind a chaperone...however, this was not “proper.”
Since then things have changed quite a bit. My grandmother remembers my name for one thing. We have gotten to know each other quite well over the past month. For another, I am out of the house long enough to type you all this chock-full-of-love email. I have started work and have friends and family to spend time with.
It seems that Cuenca is a beautiful city filled with art and architecture, an interesting cultural dichotomy and lots of new foods to try. The religious festivals are the best in the country and the rivers are the most picturesque. I’ll soon get to see other parts of Ecuador, but for now I am settling in, working as an English teacher at a university called Univesidad Technológica de las Americas and at a non-profit language school called Centro de Estudios Interamericanos, and also trying to find the time to paint. My family is all here too, and there are plenty of them to get to know. I have cousins from 0 to 40 years old and aunts and uncles from 36 to 70 years old. They are everywhere! Like avocadoes! Like avocadoes all over Cuenca!! Which is nice.Lots of love and sincere wishes for a healthy prosperous new year,
I miss you all tons, and hope to hear how each and every one of y'all are doing.
Best,
Jamie
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