Musings from the softer side

Greetings family and friends,

"Todo es neuvo"...everything is new! It's scary yet exciting. It's daunting but exhilarating. Each day we venture out of the comfort zone of our apartment presents a new challenge. Did I mention exhausting?? Learning a new language at our age is no walk in the park, but I was unprepared for the emotional exhaustion of being hearing impaired and learning a new language. The pronunciation! E is pronounced like a, i is pronounced like e, g sounds like h but don't forget the h is silent! And that rolling sound made with the tongue with the letter r? Well, that one will have to wait.

I love the Ecuadorian people and have been moved by their generosity and hospitality. While riding in the van from Guayauqil to Cuenca, aside from the astounding beauty of the scenery, two things happened that I will never forget. Our seatmates were a young couple from Cuenca who were in Guayaquil on business, Marysol and Claudio. Marysol and I connected instantly, in spite of our language barrier. She knew a little English and I had my dog-eared Spanish dictionary. For the next four hours, through halting "Spanglish" and pantomimes, we managed to learn much about each other. When we arrived in Cuenca, the driver stopped at the edge of town where passengers are normally dropped off. Negotiations transpired (with lots of gestures) between Marysol and the driver and Marysol obviously won. The driver reluctantly started up the van and delivered us to Claudio and Marysol's home where she insisted on driving us to our apartment. So...we were personally delivered to our front door by perfect strangers who had no agenda except kindness. Many hugs later, we promised to get together for dinner after we know the language better.

The second memorable thing that happened was with the other van riders. Two timid young girls from the rural area were also traveling to Cuenca. At about the halfway point, I bravely announced that I needed to use the "bano" (one of the few words Spanish words I knew). With a disgruntled look, the van driver stopped at a restaurant where the rural girls and I ran giggling like schoolgirls to the outside bathroom. (It's a girl-thing, even in Ecuador!) I finished first and went back to the van. However, the girls detoured into the restaurant and bought lollipops for all of us, driver included. For the remainder of the trip, we all happily sucked on lollipops while I mused over the wonderful lesson I had just witnessed on generosity.

Hasta luego (see you later)!