I´ve had a couple requests for more information about my life here in Machala, so I´m going to write a general report on my life here in the Banana Capital of the world.
That was my introduction...this is my first body paragraph:
My family here is the Lazo Serrano family, and they are fairly well known in the community. Federico (my host father) is the head of the agricultural section of the University...basically he´s in charge of the growing of the many different types of bananas and other fruit that they grow here for the University. I´m not entirely sure why they do this, and why this is so important, but apparently it is. He is a short man (everyone in this family is short...I´m a giant here) with a gruff exterior, and is very opinionated, but not in an obnoxious way. In this, he kind of reminds me of you, dad...he has his opinions, and its very difficult to change them, even if they´re a bit ridiculous. And when they are a bit ridiculous, people tell him they are ridiculous, and he doesn´t get angry or embarrassed, he just continues believing what he believes and accepts that he´s in the minority. He´s also got a pretty good sense of humor, and I think he enjoys the fact that there´s now another man in the house to help stem the estrogen tide, as we´ve had many conversations about the incomprehensible parts of the female mind...
Carmen (my host mother) is a professor of horticulture, and is also a bit of an artist who has had a few paintings and sculptures put on display at various art shows. She talks incredibly fast and softly, and is a pretty good representation of the stereotypical sweet latino wife, cares for her husband and is mostly deferential to him, but it´s also fairly obvious that she has the final say in the house. She also laughs at the sometimes crude and off-color jokes that Federico makes, which is awesome, because it´s allowed me to feel a lot more comfortable with joking myself...and as I have come to figure out, the quickest way for me to feel completely comfortable in my situations is by being able to say whatever ridiculous joke or thoughts come to my head. Carmen is a very big reason I feel very much at home here in this family. One other thing about Carmen...every night after dinner around 10 or 11 or so, we have a tradition. She and I, and most often one or both of my host sisters, will be working around the dining room table on our lesson plans, preparing for class the next day, and it never fails that around 1030 Carmen begins to fall asleep in the middle of her work. She starts sitting up straight and typing something on her computer. Then you notice that you don´t hear her typing anymore and you look over and her mouth is slightly open, her eyes are completely shut, and she´s starting to nod her head. She continuously lowers her head, every once in a while waking up and typing for about 20 seconds until this process starts again. A couple days ago, she went from an upright position to literally having her forehead resting on her keyboard in about three minutes, all without waking up once...it was awesome. In the 30 minutes to an hour that she´s like this she gets max 5 minutes of actual work done, very similar to my real mother...however for mom it´s not because she´s unconscious but because she has no idea how to actually USE the computer. It is interesting how I´m able to see a good amount of similarities between my host parents here and my real parents back home, once again something that has made it very very easy to feel at home here. I´m continuously struck at how lucky I have been in terms of host families...
Now we move onto my host sisters. Back when I was a child (go ahead dad, make the joke: "mentally, you´re still a child", ha ha ha, you slay me), I for some reason always wanted an older sister. No idea why. Then that wish was half fulfilled by our adoption of Bev...I now had a sister, and with her I neither needed (nor desired) another one (at all...just kidding Bev...). Here in Machala, I have two older host sisters, one who is 29 and one who is 35. (There´s a third who´s 26, but she´s married and lives in Cuenca, so I don´t see her nearly as much as Lizette and Arlene) When I first read their ages I thought that these two would be real adults, and that it would be like living in a house with four people who were very much separated from me by their age, stage in life, and/or maturity. I could not have been more wrong. Maybe it´s because the stages of life are not as clearly defined once you graduate from college. Maybe it´s because we all have the same type of job (Lizette teaches business communication something-or-other and Arlene teaches tour guide and travel agency information, both at the same university as me). Maybe it´s because they could be considered midgets back home (I´m not lying when I say that my healthy 180 pounds is more weight than both of them combined, we checked it out yesterday, and they are both barely five feet). Whatever the reason, I interact with them the exact same way I interact with people from back home, same jokes, same way of saying whatever is on my mind. I´ve even reached a level of physical comfort with them that has led to many a time where, on the couch while doing lesson plans at night, both of them have fallen asleep, one with their back leaning against my arm and the other´s head resting on my shoulder or lap. It´s an interesting position, because it´s a mixture of me already feeling brotherly protectiveness of them and them also acting very protectively of me as I would imagine most older sisters do. They have made sure that I know my way around the bus system and that I am doing well in my classes, they´ve stopped me on my way to work in a slightly wrinkled shirt and ironed it for me (I will not be learning how to iron down here in Ecuador), hell, they even accompanied me to get my first haircut here (and sat and joked around with the hair dresser about how she was making me into the most handsome gringo Machala had ever seen...jokes here are also expected). Having had to protect my younger brother my entire life from the cruel cruel world, it sort of feels nice to be looked after as thoroughly as I am in the Lazo family.
Lizette is the eldest, and she´s an interesting mix of a professional and a socialite on one hand, and an older sister who´s still a kid on the other. In other words, Lizette takes her job very seriously, is a very good teacher, and also is very aware of the right way of hosting parties and interacting with other people of the community (it was her birthday party that we had here a couple weekends ago, and she planned everything to a T, it was really one of the best organized parties I´ve been to...more on that later). However, she also watches telenovelas in her pajamas while eating dessert, talks with the dogs like one would talk to a baby, and has had many interesting conversations with me and Arlene about various topics including dating someone much older or younger and masturbation. She also studied in France when she was younger, and knows some English, so she´s a help on those occasions when I don´t understand a key word in the conversation.
If I had to choose a favorite person in this family it would probably be Arlene. She´s the middle child of the family, and she has some definite classic second child characteristics. She´s a lot less reserved, a little more wild, a little more emotional, a little less bound by social restrictions, likes to drink (as much as an Ecuadorian woman can without seeming inappropriate, remember, this is still very much a machista society), has a great sense of humor, likes to poke fun at other people, and is the easiest person to talk to that I´ve met here in Ecuador, gringo or native. However, she´s also very professional when it comes to her teaching, and has an entirely different kind of maturity as well. Arlene was married a few years ago to a man I have since met and deemed a class A douchebag. Needless to say, they are now divorced, but during their marriage they did have a kid. And Arlene is one hell of a mother, completely devoted to Alexandre without spoiling him, never hesitant in showing him how much she loves him, and she also manuevers the sticky situation of a messy divorce very well, making it her priority that he is left free from dealing with the unfortunate situation as much as possible. Due to her motherhood, she´s home a lot more than anyone else as well, so I spend the most time with her out of anyone in the family.
Which brings us to Alexandre. This kid is awesome. And adorable. And he loves me. I´m talking his face lights up every morning (afternoon) when I first come downstairs, which is one damn good way of waking up everyday. I´ve taken to calling him "hombre" and everytime I say "gracias hombre" he responds with "de nada buen hombre". He also calls me compadre, and yesterday he decided that I was his uncle, and called me Tio Bryce for the rest of the day. Whenever we go out, I let him ride on my shoulders, and on buses and boats he always asks to sit in my lap. I wrestle with him a lot, and the family joke is that I didn´t need to join a gym (oh yeah I joined a gym) because I can just use him as my weights. I´ve also rediscovered my passion for playing hide-and-go-seek and tag. Oh, and if you need more proof of how adorable this kid is: the first week I got here he realized I had my room to myself (he and Arlene share a room, and Lizette often sleeps their too, so he´s used to sleeping with people in the room) and so he gave me his stuffed Buzz Lightyear, one of his favorite toys, so that I wouldn´t have to sleep alone. This kid is off the chain.
I believe I haven´t told many people this yet for some reason, but as of two weeks ago we have a German volunteer living here as well. Jessica is 19 and is here after living in Quito for a month to do work with a childrens organization as well as one for women...I don´t really know, anytime I hear something about women celebrating their womenness I zone out... However, I haven´t really written anything about her because she and I don´t have that much interaction. She´s not very social with this family, she´s either on the computer or upstairs with her door shut. We´ve tried to get her to hang out with us and stuff, but she´s more comfortable I guess with staying alone upstairs...i dunno...germans are weird...
We also have a maid who is here every weekday until the afternoons. This is a part of Ecuadorian culture that I´m not entirely sure how to deal with. Her name is Marilu and she is definitely expected to do whatever the family asks. This includes making the beds, even though I make it myself every morning, doing the laundry, cooking lunch every day (amazing cook, amazing food), even cleaning the rooms. However, the family interacts with her very similarly to the way they interact with each other, with maybe a little more formality from the parents, but it´s not a condescending relationship. Marilu has a family of her own, and sometimes after school her two daughters come to the house to play with Alexandre. Overall, Marilu is very nice, but somewhat subservient. And did I mention she can cook hella good?
Another extended family member is a guy who lives a couple blocks down and who went to school with the youngest daughter of the family, Evelyn, but who has been a close family friend for most of their lives, in fact, Carmen calls him the son she´s never had. I think his name is Jorge Luis or something like that, but everyone calls him "Flaco". With K209 and my boys back home, and then the dudemen in Quito, I was feeling a little surrounded by estrogen in comparison. However, Flaco is definitely very cool, and has become my closest guy friend here at this moment. Also very funny and very laid back, he´s a graphic designer and also draws comic books, and he´s decided that I´m going to start playing soccer with him and his friends every Sunday that I´m not travelling.
Finally, we have the final members of the family, the dogs. There are two outside dogs: "la negra" and "madonna", some sort of hounds who serve as guard dogs and bark like crazy whenever anyone comes near the front gate. They took a couple days to warm up, but now freak out with excitement when I get dropped off after work, which is nice in proving that I am now a part of this family. There´s also a cocker spaniel who lives inside named sam, who is not nearly as crazy as mugzy, but does occasionally play tug of war with a stuffed animal, and I´ve been able to lift him off the ground while he holds it in his jaws...just like mugzy. He also has warmed up to me very quickly, to the point where Arlene and I now have competitions to see who he comes over to when we both call him...
This is my Machala family, easily the best thing about Machala that I´ve experienced, and that in no way is a negative reflection about the city. I am very lucky to be placed here, and am expecting to keep in touch with this family well after I leave. In the next entry I´ll talk a little more about the teaching, my classes, and some of the things I´ve done here already in Machala.
(That was my closing paragraph)
