Guest Bloggers: The Brothers Arrive

After a full day of travel, we touched down in Guayaquil at 10:55 PM, taxied to the gate, went through an initial customs inspection that included a full-body thermal scan for evidence of H1N1 (thankfully, Avery did not bring any from Canada), went through a subsequent customs investigation where Ruby was cited (in writing) for bringing one nectarine into the country, and then into the outstretched arms of Yoni.

Giddy up!

Yoni was only aware that Ruby was coming to visit him. Just as they were about to leave the terminal, Avery nearly pounced on Yoni from behind. What a great surprise. (Thanks to all of you for keeping it a secret.)

Three minutes later, we were on our way to the Central Bus Station in Guayaquil for a 12:35 AM bus back to Yoni's town. We learned that this was probably the safest bus station in the country, but anywhere outside of the station, not advisable after dark. We caught up with each other for about an hour—sharing some stories, gifts, mandelbread, bagels, and baklava—waiting for the bus to arrive.

We got on the 12:35 bus and by 4:10, were dropped off three blocks from Yoni's new apartment. Some of us slept on the bus, others had more trouble because the air conditioning was on so high. Earlier in the day, Yoni had shlepped half of his stuff to the apartment and it was all sitting in a clump in his room. The rest of the apartment was bare. "No hay nada," as he would recall a few times today. We made no fuss about sleeping arrangements since we were all exhausted.

This morning, Yoni went out to go pick up some fruit for breakfast, maqueños and maracuyas. They were más rico. We spent the first part of the morning meeting and hanging out with some of Yoni's coworkers at the office. A little after 10:00 AM, we accompanied him to school for a three-hour environmental education session with eighth grader girls. Yoni likes to begin each class with a rompe hielo (ice breaker) and this morning's questions were: what is your favorite ice cream? and what is one thing that your friends probably don't know about you?. We were able to put together an answer in Spanish without too much difficulty (though it had been a while since either of us had really practiced speaking this idioma). The class then divided into groups, per Yoni's instructions, and went out to the school yard to work on their garden. The class was preparing the grounds for germinating fruit seeds this Friday. Fruit seeds that will likely be brought to class on Friday include (in español): pera, naranja, manzana, limon, frejol, aguacate, uva, sandia, tomate, pimiento, maiz, hava, grosella, guayaba, culantro, chirimoya, mandarina, papaya, guava, badea, melon, yuca, durazno, lima, mango, granadilla, cereza, maracuya, ciruelo y camote.

The next class did the same thing. Afterward, we shared a little snack with the science teacher and Yoni's municipal counterpart. Later, we had a light lunch of pea soup, tuna, and rice. This was good energy for an afternoon of buying some apartment essentials (broom, garbage cans, wash basin, pillows, soap, etc) and moving the rest of Yoni's furniture, unpacking, assembling, and overall, just arranging everything. We finished most of this up by 5:30 and went to help out at the community garden. At first, only a few little kids were there to water the plant beds. Within an hour, about seven adults were watering the beds, transplanting radishes, and preparing new plant beds by breaking up the hard soil. We were really impressed by Yoni and the neighborhood's efforts in establishing this communal garden. The impressive sugar cane fence, rock-bordered walking paths, and saplings just breaking through the soil gave us a real sense of pride in what Yoni was doing (and trying to do) here in Ecuador.

Later, we bought a few items to cook up for dinner and had a nice meal back at Yoni's apartment.

It's awesome spending time with Yoni and just observing him interact with the community. Some highlights from today, in no particular order:

• Seeing the chispita
• Meeting Yoni's home-stay father
• Being introduced to everyone as when I went to the airport last night to pick up one brother, there were two
• Early morning cold shower (it was actually quite refreshing)

Lots more adventuring planned for the next eight days. We'll try to keep you posted.