A FULLER FAMILY UPDATE:
THE GIRLS:
For the past two months, the girls have been on a school break for the “temporada alta.” Sarah and Julia have been training for the upcoming South American Championship Optimist regatta that is being hosted by the Salinas Yacht club during the first two weeks of April. Their mornings are filled with workouts and team building exercises, and their afternoons are spent practicing and honing their sailboat racing skills with other members of the Ecuadorian team. Their coaches are among the best in the world, and the training is taken quite seriously. In fact, in addition to the excellent on the water coaching, the team was recently prepped by a sports psychologist, a nutritionist gave dietary recommendations and each sailor is being evaluated by the Olympic committee for fitness. Quite a program! No wonder Ecuador is frequently represented by some of the best Optimist sailors in the world at the various Optimist regattas world-wide. Ellen is also sailing every day in the Salinas Yacht Club Optimist School for beginner racers. Each of the girls continues to work on their home-school assignments to make sure they stay in step with their peers in West Hartford. Their Ecuadorian school starts back up again April 1st. Unfortunately, the regatta conflicts with the first two weeks of school. Perhaps they can attend school for the first few hours each day…. We’ll see.
TRAVEL:
We visited the Galapagos by sailboat for one glorious week in January. We loved being on board a large catamaran, sailing from island to island. Viewing the wildlife was quite an awesome experience. Due to the remoteness of the islands, the animals have been without human predators for the most part, and are therefore unafraid of humans. It was amazing being able to watch close up the caring of a young Blue Footed Booby by its parents, the consumption of a field mouse by a Galapagos Hawk, the motionless sharks as they rested in their caves, the head-bobbing of marine iguanas as they protected their turf, the grazing of sea turtles along the algae covered rocks, the playfulness of the penguins as they dove off rocks, the gravity defying leaps followed by impressive splashes from courting Manta Rays, and adorable baby sea-lions as they suckled from their mothers. The ruggedness and barrenness of some of the volcanic islands was other-worldly. At times, it felt like we were trekking through an episode of “Lost in Space” and at other times it felt like we were walking through an immense blacktop parking lot that had suffered damage from giant frost heaves.
In February, we took a trip to the Oriente, to visit the Amazonia jungle. We traveled by canoe and raft to see the way the indigenous people of Ecuador live, to experience the jungle forest, and to view monkeys and other wildlife. The afternoon downpours were so impressive that the girls opted to take their showers in their bathing suits in the abundant and pelting rain!
Next we visited Quito, the capitol city of Ecuador. Quito is nestled among the Andes Mountains and is in site of several volcanoes. We stayed with friends in Cumbaya, a suburb of Quito, and we were treated to the insider’s view of Quito. Our hosts toured us through museums and churches, to the tops of mountains and monuments, to the Mundial del Mundo (Center of the World) to walk the line of the equator, and to remote towns for shopping for Ecuadorian handicrafts. We also enrolled in the Simon Bolivar School of Spanish to brush up on our verbs and practice correct uses of indirect objects!
VOLUNTEER MEDICINE:
Rob is volunteering his services at the Luis Vernaza Hospital in Guayaquil, a facility supported by a private charitable organization that provides medical care to the poor. Rob is focusing his efforts in two areas: 1) participating in the day to day medical care of patients, and 2) making administrative recommendations and facilitating structural changes. The Luis Vernaza hospital has been in the process of revamping its emergency room and the care of its patients. Since Rob is a specialist in Emergency Medicine and the chief of service of the UConn Emergency Department, the timing of the sabbatical could not have been more relevant. Rob spent the first few months of his sabbatical working in the wards and Emergency Room so that he could learn the system and get to know some of the doctors and nurses. He has worked hard to build relationships, establish himself as a reputable and knowledgeable physician, learn the current system of care, and identify areas that need change. Since January, he has been focusing more on the administrative changes that are slated to occur. He runs meetings, soothes egos and works to find common ground between the administrators and doctors. In addition to helping the Luis Vernaza Hospital, Rob has given lectures to doctors in a local hospital, and taught a medical school class at the University of Spiritus Sanctus Medical School.
This week, Rob is hosting a family practice resident and five medical students from the University of Connecticut who have traveled here during their spring break. He is expecting several more students from Connecticut in the weeks to come.
SPANISH:
We are continually amazed by both the intricacies of the Spanish language (those nuances we fear we will never completely grasp) and the generosity and acceptance of the Ecuadorian people for our many mistakes with their beautiful language.
Our individual attempts at learning Spanish have revealed a lot about ourselves as individuals. For myself, my conversational skills are not very speedy. I unconsciously prioritize correct uses of verb tenses and placement of nouns over the general flow of my speaking. That has always been true for me as a communicator, being more confident in the mechanics of my writing than in the effectiveness of my verbal communication. Speaking off the top of my head is not something that comes easily for me in English or Spanish. In Ecuador, I am much more comfortable writing text messages and emails in Spanish than I am in picking up the phone to speak.
For Rob, his vibrant personality, generosity and warmth gush forward in exaggerated hand movements that are communicated way ahead of his actual words. His use of words comes slowly but genuinely. He understands everything that is said to him, and he communicates in an engaging and personable style. People are drawn to him and they enjoy his stories. A few months ago a friend of ours told him that he sounds like the wise old Native American Chief from the movies of old: halting words spoken in the infinitive, but with profound depth and wisdom.
The girls have learned Spanish in ways that equally reflect their personalities. Sarah has developed a wonderful Ecuadorian teenager style of speaking, using lots of diminutives such as “ahorita” and “ratito” for ahora (now) and rato (short period of time). Her friends (of which there are MANY) give her a “9” because she can speak without much of an accent and can understand almost everything. Sarah has grown to be a very social kid, and her language success reflects this stage in her life.
Julia is a true “tween,” caught somewhere between teenage and childhood. This tenuous position in her life is reflected in her timid use of language especially when she is feeling self-conscious. At times when she is feeling more confident, she speaks Spanish with good pronunciation and content. Julia has a wonderful language base upon which to build as she gains confidence and maturation. It will be fun to see her back at her Ecuadorian school in a few weeks where she can use her improved language skills with her peers.
Ellen is at the chatter-box age, in English AND in Spanish! She is as uninhibited by her own grammatical errors as much as she is unconcerned by a lingering chocolate milk mustache. She playfully banters with her peers using Ecuadorian slang, and she understands almost everything her friends say. She enjoys school, and considers herself pretty much Ecuadorian. In fact she is very upset when her father refers to her as a “gringa” (warm/inoffensive slang for North American female in Latin America).