Could it have gone better?

I have spent the last four days on my site visit, getting to know the place I will be living for the next two years. Before I get into it, I’ll give you a general observation: I’m really excited about it.

I figure the best way to recap this excursion would be through several blog posts, instead of one massive one — who has the patience to read a behemoth post, let alone write one.

For the first three months, I will be living with my boss’ family. He is 30 years old and unmarried. His parents are old, work in a travel agency, and very cute. This should be a good time.

Every morning, the family sits together at the breakfast table. My dad chugs a plastic bag of honey and he is amazed that I take my coffee black. Because he sits at a desk all day and has plenty of time to read newspapers, he buys three different newspapers and brings them all to the breakfast table. This gives me the opportunity to catch up on all the local and national news (It’s election time right now, so everybody is really excited about that, but I can’t get any more into that). I have a lot to say about Ecuadorian newspapers, but I´ll get into those during another post.

Going into the site visit (and Peace Corps, in general), my biggest concern was how the people of Ecuador would react to me being Jewish. I know there aren't many Jews in Ecuador (about 500 families in Quito). And I know there has recently been some anti-Semitism in Latin America (e.g. Venezuela). But after a month of pretending to be an atheist with my current host family, I reasoned that I couldn't live two years hiding my Judaism.

So, one morning at breakfast, I told my new host dad that the reason I am a vegetarian is because of my religion. After I explained to him the general rules of eating kosher and how I really enjoy eating meat but I can´t eat the meat in this country, he probed me about three subjects. This is the order:

1. Hava Nagila-He asked me if I knew how to sing the song. I said I do and that I have three different versions of the song on my iPod (one traditional and two clubby versions). I told him that it is a very famous dance and that they do the dance at all Jewish festivals.
   
   We will listen to the song when I return at the beginning of the May.


2. Entebbe-For those of you who do not know, my Hebrew name is Yoni. I was named after Yoni Netanyahu, the commander of the Israeli raid on Entebbe, Uganda to rescue passengers from a hijacked airliner. So I obviously feel a connection to Netanyahu and to the mission.
   
   My dad asked me about the Israeli raid in Uganda. He said it was incredible how Israel can conduct such successful missions so far from Israel. I told him about how I was named after the leader of that mission.
   
   I think the two of us are on our way to a very special connection. Maybe I can get my hands on a copy of Operation Thunderbolt...


3. Then, he asked me if it was true that Jews are really successful in business...
   
   I laughed.

That day at work, we had an office-wide potluck. I asked what the occasion was. And my co-worker said it was just for fun with no real reason. (I understand that I am talking about the office staff before I actually talked about having an office. I wanted to do my recap thematically, not chronologically)

They said they were serving congrejo for lunch. I had no idea what congrejo was. I asked if it was pescado ("fish," which I eat according to my diet). They said that it was.

It wasn't.

I don´t know what type of shellfish it was, but I know that it's not kosher. I explained to my co-worker that I can´t eat this kind of seafood because it doesn't follow my religious diet. They were very receptive and respectful.

Instead, I ate tuna and was happy.

Based upon their reaction to my keeping kosher and my dad´s questions after me saying that I am Jewish, I am really looking forward to these next two years at my site. I can´t tell you how happy I was walking to my office after that breakfast with my dad. The town must think I am the crazy gringo who smiles all the time. This might be true but I had a more legitimate reason to be ecstatic that morning.

The purpose for the short site visit was to get to know and be comfortable in the place the PC has assigned to you for the next two years. I think we accomplished that mission. How they reacted to my being Jewish makes me feel very hopeful about how the great the next two years can be.