Arrival in Sangolqui

After spending a week in Quito doing orientation activities and getting all of our oficial documentation done, we finally packed up all our stuff and arrived in Sangolquí on the Friday. Our leaving Quito was like our arrival at the airport, we had to pile all of our stuff on to our bus, and even tie a bunch of it to the top because we had so little space. It was definetly an interesting group excerices getting all that stuff up, and then once arriving having to take it all down.

The ride to Sangolqui was very interesting and indicative of the urban nature of Ecuador. It reminded me a lot of my experience in Sri Lanka, technically we were leaving the city however we never once left an urban area as we were going there. We did however stay completely within the valley as we went which afforded us a great view of the city as we were leaving. There were also many chances to peer over the edge of a cliff a look down several meters below. All of this within an urban setting.

Our introduction to Sangolqui took place at the local army base. That was the only place in town that could accomodate the large number of people in our group and all the family members associated with us. At the army base we were introduced to our families, had dinner with them, and then did a presentation involving, dancing, music, and a little theatre. This event was of course dress up which allowed each person to show a side of themselves we might not have seen in the day to day.

Having prepared and practiced our presentation we then were all crowded into a side room where we waited for our families to arrive. This was by far the most stressful event we had been through so far. The only information we had about our family was a little slip of paper Maria had given us with the names of our family, nothing else. All of us stood in anticipation, waiting for our name to be called when we would then meet the strangers who we would be living with for the next four months. Finally my name was called and as I walked out to meet my family, was relieved that yes, they were human, and that despite my limited Spanish we could still communicate with each other.

A bit about my family: The parents are Ernesto, who owns a small shop in town, and his wife Alicia. They currently have two of their kids living with them Carlos and Alba, and a third German (pronounced Herman) who is married and has two kids. At their house they also have an adorable dog named Dana.

After we were served the meal and had a bit of time to chat with our host families it was time for us to do our presentation. To kick things off we started with a song by an Acadian artist named Cayouche called “C’est ca mon Acadie.” Jean-Charles(also on banjo), Tim and I sang the verses and we were joined by Jennifer and Natalie on the chorus. The song went something like this:

Driver dans derriere d’un pickup
Marcher toute nus dans la pluie
Allez me baigner dans un lac
C’est ca, mon Acadie

Il doit faire beau sur la cote ouest
Il doit faire chaude dans le prairies
A l’Ontario et au Quebec
Ca battre pas mon Acadie

After we had many more interesting things to present. There was a poem read in Hungarian, a song in Hebrew, two girls that did belly dancing, a Quebecois song in French, a skit about maple syrup, some line dancing, a group that sang Four Strong Winds, and probably a few other things that I now forget.

The most bizarre and abstract of our presentation was an interpretive dance that was meant to be a recreation of logging in British Columbia. Interestingly it was only the TRENT students who participated in this artistic creation. It began with some people spaced out on the stage curled up in little balls, then to the tune of some melancholy banjo music they slowly began to “grow.” Then two students one pretending to be a bear and another some sort of bird/moose? frolicked among the trees. But! Then entered two loggers and as they danced threw their arms out symbolically cutting down the trees and then pulling them back up to construct houses. Then the bear and the bird/moose reappeared throwing their limbs in frustration and then taking refuge in the only trees that were left. At least that’s what I think was happening, others may choose to differ with me. I’m not sure what sort of impact this had upon the community but they seem to have accepted us anyways so it can’t have made that bad an impression.

After talking with my family for a bit more we decided to head back home. My house was not far from the army base but given that this was all happening at night I was completely disorientated on the way to the house. When we arrived home I was immediately shown to my room which was not to big, not to small and just off of the living room. I took a few minutes to unpack some of my stuff and then was then asked by my host brother and sister if I wanted to go out that night. I thought to myself, why not? To read about what happened see my next post!