nueva gente en la calle

we have a new neighbor downstairs. 

he´s a community college languages professor from NC.  He´s married, with four kids, but his wife and kids are at home (she teaches pre-GED writing).  he grew up in Africa because his parents were medical missionaries and speaks fluent french, so he started out teaching french.  His wife is from latin america so once he met her he started learning spanish so he could communicate with her family, so now he teaches spanish too.  he´s here for 6 weeks because he read about nuevo mundo in a book or something and emailed the school asking if they needed any short term volunteers and if there´s one thing you shouldn´t do as a foundation it´s turn down volunteers so here he is. 

their kids are tri-lingual.  He only speaks around them in french, and his wife speaks spanish.  he said that when his first daughter was growing up they were so confused because her first words were in english and they were only speaking in french and spanish so how did that happen?  but then they realised that they spoke to each other in english in front of her so of course she picked up on it.  so now they only speak in french and spanish in front of the kids.  which I think is so interesting!  he speaks to his wife in french, she answers in spanish.  his kids are most comfortable in english and spanish, so they respond to him in either one of those.  he said they´ve always been way ahead in english classes in school too, because they have such a foundation in languages.  whenever they travel to spanish or french speaking countries they buy used books to read to their kids.  so cool.  almost makes you want to have kids. 

he´s planning a doctorate on little-known ecuadorian literature and is looking stuff up while he´s here.  he and his wife do that travel and volunteer places thing that is oh so popular right now, and which sounds super fun.  we think he´s a supercool guy.  we took him out for avena polaca one night and this whole story came out and now we want to be just like him when we grow up.  he knows so much about international volunteering because he grew up in it and has done a lot of it.  so yay, new friends.

5k in Ecuador

The school where elyse works, santiago de apostol, was a part of a 5k for child workers today (since their mission is to serve child workers and those children at risk).  we went, not to run but to be supportive. 

it was totally weird.  it was on the puntilla, the rich area of town, at the Guayaquil tennis club.  which is REALLY nice.  they have a riverside pool and housing and it´s ridiculous.  But all these Santiago students went and ran alongside all these pelucon ecuadorians who obviously run regularly and had matching running outfits and could afford and want to pay the entrance fee and they ran down these paved tree-lined streets and it was so many things that do not exist in my life here.  but the kids really appreciated having us there cheering them on, and it was so cool to see them running.  then we got free breakfast (ham sandwich, cake, and a banana).  so good times. 

also, it´s been in the 70s here and we´re all freezing, wearing long pants and worrying about our upcoming trip to the beach and it being too cold to swim.