One month in Ecuador!

I wrote this post last Thursday, when I had been in Ecuador for one month, but when I had almost finished writing it, I lost connection and it only got back today. So I will post it now, but just keep in mind that I wrote it on the 17th of September.

Today I have been one month in Ecuador!
It is crazy to think about how long I have been here already and how much I have already experienced. And that changes are on their way - it's gonna be exciting!

I feel really weird about having been here for one month! Because as I said I have been here for quite a long time. I have been away from home for longer than I have ever been before. But I do not feel that I have been away for that long time. It is so weird. I think for now it just feels like a small holiday, but I know that it is not true. I still have 11 months left here, and I really look forward to experiencing more! There is still a lot of experiences that awaits me.

I still do not regret coming here! Sometimes I think "Maybe I would have had a better experience if I had gone to .... Or if I had just spend time travelling to .... Or maybe I should just have started studying...". But I also know that I would not have had any of the experiences I have had so far if I had done anything different! And I would not change any of my new friendships or experiences for anything. I know that this is where I am supposed to be right now, so I have just decided to not regret a single thing and just enjoy my life down here. Maybe I would have another experience somewhere else? But I certainly would not have my experience. And I love my experience!

Furthermore it is pretty weird to hear about life in Denmark. How it is turning into fall and the weather is gray. Seeing a new bunch of students write on my high school's Facebook page. Hearing about people's university studies - life goes on in Denmark as well and I am definitely not the only one up for new experiences.

Tuesday I had a pretty important meeting with VASE and when everything is settled I have big changes in sight and probably some explanation to do! I cannot really update you yet, but so far I am happy!

Today and yesterday I have been of work because I have been sick. Which have also shown me a bit about the Ecuadorian way of doing things! I had no clue on who to contact from the kindergarten as I have been given absolutely no contact information.
The apartment we live in are on top of an office belonging to the administration of the organisation where a couple of persons are working each day, so when my roomie left for work she told them, that I was sick and asked them to call the kindergarten. As it turns out they did not inform the kindergarten before the end of the day and the kindergarten teachers had been really frustrated with the fact that I were not there.
So that is just the Ecuadorian way of doing things! It can be a bit frustrating sometimes, but I just have to get used to it.

As I have taken no new pictures during the last 1½ week or so, I will finally give you some pictures of the apartment I am living in at the moment.
And some funny moments we have had:

Like the bathroom door locking from the inside and us being unable to open it so someone from the project had to come and spend 15 minutes trying to open it so we could take a shower. It has actually happened a number of times, so we have made the agreement: Never close a door unless you are inside a room.

Or that we are supposed to have hot water. Supposed to. During our almost 4 week stay here I have had one shower that was fairly warm. And I have had numerous showers with ice cold water!

We are also washing our clothes by hand, which is pretty ambitious when we have no hot water.

We have also finally gained access to our roof terrace! The door had been locked and the key we where told was the right key was definitely the wrong key. But we have had a temporary roomie who have been living her on and off for two weeks and volunteered on the project earlier. And she knew where the right key was!

Shower in one room and toilet in another.
Toilet i det ene rum og bad i det andet. 

Kitchen and living room in one. I miss something soft to sit in!
Køkken og opholdsrum i et. Der mangler dog en blød sofa.

Night view
Udsigten om aftenen.

Jeg skrev originalt dette indlæg den 17 september, da jeg havde været her en måned. Men da jeg var færdig med at skrive indlægget, mistede jeg internetforbindelsen, så derfor får I indlægget nu.

Wuhuu, i dag har jeg været i Ecuador i en måned!

Det er virkelig vildt at tænke på hvor lang tid jeg har været her og hvor mange ting jeg allerede har oplevet. Og der er ændringer på vej - det bliver spændende!

Det føles meget underligt at jeg har været her en måned. Fordi som tidligere nævnt har jeg jo været her ret lang tid og været væk hjemmefra længere tid end nogensinde før. Men stadigvæk føles det ikke som om at det er en måned siden jeg rejste hjemmefra.

Lige nu føles det nok bare mest af alt som en kort ferie eller noget i den stil. Men jeg har jo stadigvæk 11 måneder tilbage og jeg glæder mig virkelig til at opleve masser af flere ting. Der venter mig jo stadigvæk mange nye oplevelser.

Og jeg fortryder stadigvæk ikke mit valg om at tage herned. Nogle gange tager jeg mig selv i at tænke "Måske ville jeg have haft en bedre oplevelse hvis jeg bare var taget til .... Eller hvis jeg bare havde besluttet mig for at rejse til ... Eller måske skulle jeg bare være begyndt at studere...".

Men jeg ved også at jeg ikke ville have haft nogle af mine hidtige oplevelser hvis jeg havde været et hvilket som helst andet sted i verden og gjort en hvilken som helst anden ting. Og jeg ville ikke bytte mine oplevelser eller nye venskaber for noget. Jeg ved at det er meningen at jeg skal være her nu, så jeg har bare besluttet mig for ikke at fortryde noget og i stedet nyde mit ophold hernede. Måske ville jeg have andre oplevelser et andet sted? Men jeg ville jo ikke have min oplevelse!

Det er også ret underligt at høre nyt fra Danmark. Hvordan det bliver efterår, se nye elever skrive i min gamle skoles Facebook-gruppe og høre om folks nye liv på universitetet. Jeg er bestemt ikke den eneste der får nye oplevelser,

I tirsdags havde jeg et ret vigtigt møde med VASE og når alting er planlagt, så har jeg store ændringer i sigte og formentligt nogle forklaringer at komme med. Jeg kan ikke fortælle jer hvad endnu, men lige nu er jeg glad!

I går og i dag har jeg ikke været på mit projekt, da jeg har været syg (igen). Hvilket også har givet mig en lektion i hvordan man gør tingene i Ecuador.

Jeg har ingen kontakt information på folk fra børnehaven, og vores lejlighed ligger oven på et kontor, hvor der er administrative medarbejdere hver dag. Så da min roomie tog afsted til hendes børnehave fortalte hun dem at jeg var syg og bad dem om at kontakte børnehaven jeg arbejder i. Hvilket de selvfølgelig ikke gjorde før slutningen af dagen og alle pædagogerne havde været virkelig frustrerede over at jeg ikke var der. (Det skal nævnes at de er 3 pædagoger til 70 børn).

Men det er jo bare den ecuadorianske måde at gøre tingene på. Det kan være frustrerende, men jeg må jo bare vende mig til det.

Da jeg ikke rigtig har taget nogen billeder den sidste 1½ uge, kan I endelig få lidt billeder fra lejligheden, der er at finde imellem den engelske og danske del.

Og nogle lidt sjove øjeblikke...

Som for eksempel at døren indtil vores badeværelse gik i baglås, ikke kunne åbnes med en nøgle og nogen fra projektet bruge 15 minutter på at åbne døren. Det er sket flere gange, hvilket har medført aftalen: Du lukker ikke en dør, medmindre du er inde i rummet.

Det er også meningen at vi skal have varmt vand. Men det har vi bare ikke. I løbet af vores tid her har jeg været så heldig at få et nogenlunde varmt bad. Og rigtig mange iskolde bade!

Og vi vasker vores tøj i hånden, hvilket er lidt ambitiøst, når vi jo ikke har noget varmt vand.

Vi har også endelig fået adgang til vores tag-terrasse. Den nøgle vi havde fået var ikke den rigtige, men vi har haft en midlertidig roomie, der har været frivillig på projektet tidligere og som kunne vise os hvor den rigtige nøgle var.

My new favorite place, hiking, being sick and starting my project.

So when I left of the last time, I left you at La Mitad del Mundo and I told you that a lot had happened during the last weekend.

Saturday Rebecca's and Constanza's host mom had arranged a small trip that I went on with Stefanie, Sofie and Brónagh. She had rented a small school bus, that could seat around 12 people.
We had to meet up at Terminal Carcelen and on our way me and my roomie thought we took the right bus, because it said Carcelen. Which of course made us end up in the middle of nowhere... Later it turned out that the bus said Carcelen Bajo - which is a part of a city. But we got a bus to the terminal and was ready to head out on the trip.
We had to drive somewhere between 2 and 3 hours and on our way, we passed the equatorial line - again. And this time the drivers ensured us that it was the real equator. But who knows? Probably not... I have lost my faith in that there will be a monument at a real site.

Det sidste indlæg jeg skrev sluttede ved La Mitad del Mundo og jeg fortalte jer, at der var en sket en masse igennem min weekend.

Lørdag have Rebeccas og Constanzas værtsmor arrangeret en lille tur, som jeg tog på sammen med Stefanie, Sofie og Brónagh. Hun havde lejet en lille skolebus, der havde plads til omkring 12 mennesker.
Vi skulle mødes ved Terminal Carcelen og vi var overbeviste om, at vi var på vej i den rigtige retning - indtil vi endte ved verdens ende. Vi havde taget en bus, hvor skiltet sagde Carcelen og vi opdagede først efterfølgende at skiltet sagde Carcelen Bajo, der er en del af en by. Ups! Men vi fandt en anden bus og vi kom kun en smule for sent.
Vi skulle køre mellem 2 og 3 timer og på vejen passerede vi et monument der viste den ækvatoriale linje - igen. Og chaufførerne forsikrede os om, at dette var det rigtige sted. Men jeg har altså opgivet håbet om at jeg vil se et monument på det rigtige sted.

Equator? From the left: Stefanie, me, Sofie, Constanza, Brónagh and Rebecca.
Ækvator? Fra venstre: Stefanie, mig, Sofie, Constanza, Brónagh og Rebecca

On the trip to Otavalo we also had a stop at a lake and it was probably the most exciting 15 minutes because we saw a lake, took pictures there and we saw lamas and took pictures with them.

På turen til Otavalo stoppede vi også ved en sø og det var nogle meget spændende 15 minutter, for vi så både en sø og lamaer og fik massere af billeder.

Me and my new friend.
Mig og min nye ven

On the trip we went to Otavalo, where we visited a market - the city is mostly famous for the big market. I found a nice alpaca-sweatshirt and it is so soft!
We had a traditional meal for lunch in the city( which might have made us all sick), where after we started the rest of the tour. We headed past a waterfall where we took pictures and then towards a really beautiful lake, which was (for me) the best part of the trip! I loved it there. It is my new favorite place in the world. I could have spent hours there looking on the lake and the hills in the lake and the mountains behind, but we had to move on. We were given the possibility to either go sailing on the lake or go to another city, where they sold leather goods.
I had clearly been more up for the boat trip, even though we would have to wait for almost an hour, but almost all the other girls wanted to go to the city with the leather goods, so we went there and some of the others really loved the place and really wants to go back there.
We spent some time in the city and drove back afterwards and got to see the night view on our way back and was back at the apartment pretty late.

På turen tog vi til Otavalo, der mest af alt er berømt for et stort marked, som også var hvad vi besøgte i byen. Jeg købte en alpaka-sweatshirt, og den er simpelthen så dejlig blød!
Vi spiste også en traditionel frokost i byen (der formentligt er skyld i at vi alle blev syge) før vi begav os videre på turen. På turen passerede vi et vandfald og derefter en virkelig smuk sø med bjerge i baggrunden - jeg kunne være blevet der i timer og bare have kigget ud over søen. Vi fik muligheden for enten at tage en sejltur på søen eller tage til en by, hvor de solgte forskellige læder-ting.
Jeg ville helst have været på bådturen men de fleste af de andre ville hellere til byen og de var rigtig vilde med byen og alle læder-tingene.
Vi var i byen i en times tid, hvorefter vi kørte tilbage mod Quito. Det nåede at blive mørkt inden vi kom tilbage til lejligheden.

The lunch that might have made us all sick. Beef, corn (both soft and crispy), potato-puffs, salad and cheese empanadas.
Den frokost der formentligt har gjort os alle syge. Oksekød, majs (både bløde og sprøde), kartoffel-puffere, salat og empanadas med ost.

Waterfall.
Vandfald.

My new favorite place in the world!
Mit nye yndlingssted i verden.

The (second) lake we visited.
Den anden sø vi besøgte.

Of course we also had plans for Sunday, where I went with my roomie to Pichincha wish is a volcano that overlooks Quito. Normally people just take the telefariqo up the first way and take a look at the view, but we also wanted to hike! So we hiked to one of the peaks in 4696 meters height, which is normally a 5 hour hike, but we spent a little more as we decided to take lots of breaks and take it easy to the top to be sure to make it instead of ending up having to give up halfway through. It was a very beautiful hike, but as it was quite cloudy that day we actually hiked into the skies. And we made it to the top, talking with a couple of other guys and every time you met someone they said hi.
On the top we had no view as we were in the cloud, but just before we left they started clearing and we had a few moments where we could see the view.
Instead of showing the pictures from the hike here on the blog I made a small video from the hike, including all the beautiful views we had on the trip - I did not want to make the video longer than 3 minutes, but I just had so many pictures.

Og selvfølgelig havde jeg også planer for søndag, hvor jeg besteg Pichincha, en vulkan, sammen med min roomie. Normalt tager man bare en kabelbane op det første stykke a vejen, men vi ville helt til toppen. Så vi vandrede op til 4696 meter (en stigning på 600 meter). Normalt tager det cirka 5 timer at nå toppen, men vi besluttede os for at tage det stille og roligt, fordi vi ville være sikre på at nå toppen.
Det var forholdsvis skyet så vi vandrede faktisk ind i skyerne. Vi nåede toppen og mødte en masse mennesker på vejen - Og selvfølgelig hilser man da på hinanden.
På toppen havde vi ikke rigtig nogen udsigt, da toppen var indhyllet i en sky. Heldigvis nåede skyerne lige at forsvinde inden vi begyndte tilbageturen. Så vi nåede lige at se udsigten - heldigvis.
I stedet for at smide en masse billeder op besluttede jeg mig for at lave en video (imens jeg var syg), der kan vise den smukke udsigt fra turen. Jeg ville ikke lave en video der var længere en 3 minutter, men jeg havde simpelthen så mange flotte billeder fra turen.

After the hike, for me starting Monday morning, we got ill. And it turns out that almost the entire group I went to Otavalo with have been sick, so I think it might have been some food we ate on the trip. Tuesday we where supposed to start our project but only had a short meeting, where after we got the rest of the day of to hopefully feel better and I have been feeling a bit bad until now and I am not sure that I am feeling a 100 % well yet.

Wednesday I started my project. Me and Stefanie are working in two different kindergartens belonging to Fundación Sembrer Esperanza. She can walk and I have to take the bus. The work hours are from 8-16 and I have lunch and some fruit at the project. As I have not brought my camera to the project I have no pictures from there.
I have been put in the group of 2-3 year olds, but my best experience so far have been with some of the older kids.
They have a kind of toy that you can put together and build things of. I put together a crown, found my dictionary and found out how to say "princess crown" and told the kids that it was a princess crown and put it on the head of one of the girls. All the kids loved it and they are also really fascinated by my height and my blond hair.

Otherwise I have been doing the following things.

1. Changing diapers
2. Entertaining and looking after the kids
3. Feeding the kids (they eat breakfast and lunch at the project)
4. Preparing some name-tags for the children.
5. Changing their clothes
6. Cleaning their faces
7. Helping with cleaning the kindergarten.
8. Comforting the children
9. Watching the children and make sure that they do not make trouble during nap-time.

In the start a lot of the children go home early, because they have to get used to being at the kindergarten, so after 11 a lot of the children went home.
Those who know me have a pretty good idea of how much I like the work ;)

This weekend I have not done anything exciting at all. I have just relaxed and tried to get well again. Next week I will go back to having plans again.


Efter vandreturen blev vi syge. For mig startede det mandag morgen, og eftersom det viste sig at alle fra vores Otavalo-tur har været syge, så tror jeg at det har været frokosten.
Tirsdag var det meningen at vi skulle være startet på projektet, men efter et kort møde fik vi fri resten af dagen til at få det bedre. Jeg er vist også stadigvæk en smule syg.

Onsdag startede jeg så mit projekt. Stefanie og jeg arbejder i hver vores børnehave, der hører under Fundación Sembrer Esperanza. Hun kan gå og jeg skal tage bussen. Jeg skal arbejde fra 8-16, men bliver givet frokost og frugt i arbejdstiden.
Jeg er blevet sat til at arbejde med de 2-3 årige, men min bedste oplevelse indtil videre har været med nogle af de ældste børn.
De har noget legetøj som kan "bygges" sammen. Så jeg lavede en krone, fandt ud af hvordan man siger "prinsessekrone" og satte den på hovedet af en af pigerne. Og de elskede det!
Derudover er de alle sammen meget fascinerede af mit lyse hår og min højde.

Ellers har jeg lavet de følgende ting:

1. Skiftet bleer
2. Underholdt og holdt øje med børnene
3. Madet børnene (de får morgenmad og frokost på projektet)
4. Forberedt navneskilte til børnene
5. Skiftet deres tøj
6. Rengjort deres ansigter
7. Hjulpet med at rengøre børnehaven
8. Trøstet børnene
9. Holdt øje med børnene og sørget for at de ikke har lavet noget problemer under deres lur.

Her i starten tager størstedelen af børnene tidligt hjem, fordi de skal vende sig til at være der. Så efter 11 er der stort set ikke nogen børn tilbage. Dem der kender mig har nok en meget god idé om hvor meget jeg bryder mig om projektet ;)

Den her weekend har jeg bare brugt på at slappe af og jeg har absolut ikke lavet noget spændende. Jeg ville gerne være rask. Men jeg har allerede planer for næste uge, så det er jo skønt!