4:46 PM, we´re all in the internet cafe, decompressing after a day that started out late - our exhausted travelers slept in, and all reported sleeping well. Tom´s feeling much better, though he still doesn´t have much of an appetite. We had breakfast at the hotel (it´s included), follwed by a trip on the Trole to the market (the same one where Janneke and I used to do our grocery shopping every week) and I sent the students out in groups of 2, to meet back at the assigned spot in 45 minutes, with two assignments: Find weird, new kinds of fruit, and ask as many folks as they could about their thoughts on tomorrow´s vote (whether or not to scrap the current constitution and start over). THey were unable to find anyone against the idea of a new constitution, and came back with six or eight new kinds of fruit, some of them new to me as well. We sat on a park bench and sampled them - Tom had a somewhat violent reaction to them, judging by the sounds he made. But they seem not to have actually made him sick. Then we were off to Parque Carolina, where their assignment was similar - no fruit ths time, though. And some of them saw a brawl in a soccer match! Very exciting. But they didn´t let it interrupt their interview tih a man who´d alread emigrated and then decided to come home. Very impressive and interesting man, they said, with deep knowledge about seemingly everything.
Wrapped up the afternoon at the mall Ël Jardin, which was an enormous contrast to the working-class Ecuadorians we saw recreating in the park. Lunch there, and then I had the students find our way home, which they did admirably, and with no help from me at all.
We´ll rest at the hotel for a while before trying to get in line for a free concert of Ecuadorian music to be held tonight at the Teatro Nacional Sucre, newly restored - hopefully my freinds Elena and Maria Eugenia will be able to join us. Got to go call them - Photos soon, I promise!
Mr Johnson
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment