I made it successfully out of Quito and into paradise (i.e. Manta).
I will try to send out more updates later while I'm sitting next to my pool ;) but for now, here is the health update: For the week before I left Quito I thought that I had malaria again. As it turns out, I do not! I still feel very crappy much to my host mother's dismay...I told her when I got back from the doc that he had said I was sick and now she expects me to be better immediately...but she has also seriously restricted my diet. I am now allowed a bowl of soup at lunch and crackers at dinner. Haha, awesome.
My doctor was a rather very unfriendly man....he asked me a bunch of questions, which I answered...and then he palpated my stomach and listened to me breathe. And then he went outside to get my teacher to declare that I didn't understand what he was saying, so we repeated the exact same things over again. Cranky butt declared that I have a digestive tract infection and put me on 4 separate medications. One of them is a powder that I have to take in water and it is half bubble gum half death flavored. I like it a lot. I'll be on these medications for awhile...I'll let you know when I am healthy and perky again.
Holy cow so we have hardly any students here. It is quite a change from Quito, and it was a little bit stressful the first day suddenly being in a much more formal school and without any friends to laugh about it with. Anyway, I got home from school the first day and discovered no one was home except for the hired help lady. She is adorable and I want to stick her in my pocket and pull her out so she can smile at me and announce that it is hot out...I think she thinks that is all that I understand how to say :) So I sat by the pool and tried to make the internet work (no luck back then), texted everyone I know in Quito, and then went for a swim. All of this made me feel much better. I fully intend to swim everyday :)
I may not go surfing in the afternoons like planned because that beach is a 30 minute bus ride away. We'll see, it could still happen...but it is a lot less work to just stay at my house and swim in the pool :)
Yesterday my teacher and I visited the beach and walked around Manta. It is very different from Quito, lots of small dirty roads...I got lost getting back to school after lunch yesterday. ...I can not even describe to you the heat here, it is powerful awful being this close to the sun.
It is very close to Africa hot here. Not quite Africa hot, but if I go outside I start sweating buckets. Literally buckets. My teacher and I had a good laugh about my sweating today. And by WE I mean HE laughed while my entire body cried from every one of my pores. Seriously, it is a bit of switch here. I have air-conditioning in my bedroom, but it I turn it on, it leaks water all over my desk and belongings. I need to adjust to the heat anyway, so I just I leave the a/c on “fan.”
I got a glorious sunburn today thanks to the fact that I sweated off all of my sunscreen the instant I applied it. I knew it was happening but there was nothing I could do...I just kept wiping the sweat away. Tomorrow I will wear more clothes to protect my burns, thus causing me too sweat more. It is going to be awesome.
My teacher seems nice if a bit immature, but he is the opposite of every other Ecuatoriano man I've ever met. Ecuador and Sud America in general are pretty machisimo while this guy is very timid and wants me to take the lead on things...like walking down the sidewalk which is awkward since I don't know where we are going! Aw my little awkward buddy.
I have a pet gecko here, his name is Bob. Yesterday I touched him, he liked that. He doesn't like having his picture taken, it makes him fall off the wall and make a plopping noise when he hits the floor. I like him.
Well I guess it is time for me to go sweat in the kitchen while the houselady feeds me boiling hot liquids and foods. Awesome.
<3 Amber
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