Catholics Galore

As a non-Mormon living in Salt Lake City, I must confess to being occasionally irritated with the extensive influence Mormonism has over the local community.  It has a church building on practically every corner, it has a seminary building next to every public school in the State of Utah, and it has its fingers in just about everything.

Personally, I don´t think like a Mormon, I don´t act like a Mormon, and I will never be a Mormon.  But having said that, I have many Mormon friends, and I will probably always have Mormon friends.  My chiropractor and dentist are both Mormon, my HVAC guy and Roto-Rooter guy are both Mormon, all of them have given me excellent service over the years, and I readily recommend them to other people.  I am non-Mormon, but not anti-Mormon.

So it´s interesting that I am not the least bit bothered by the extensive influence that the Catholic Church has over the local community here in Cuenca, in fact I´ve attended Mass at least two times, and also poked my head into several other Catholic Church buildings.  Here in Cuenca the Catholic Church has a building on every corner, it has a school near every public school, and it has its fingers in just about everything.

Why am I not bothered by the influence that the Catholic Church has over Cuenca?  Because I was raised Catholic, I went to Catholic schools for 12 years, and the majority of my family and relatives are still Catholic.

Yeah, conversions take place, and some people switch religions, but it seems that for the majority of the people in the world, their religion is determined by the family which raises them.  People stay with the familiar … most by choice, but unfortunately some by force.

I have believed for many years that it is not helpful to the soul of the world, not helpful to the spiritual well-being of the universe, to believe that my religion is the one, true, religion. Practice your religion and devote yourself to God, if that is how the Spirit within you is guiding you, but you wander away from the center of Love when you begin to think that your religion is better than the next, when you begin to think that your righteousness exceeds others.  I dare say that virtually every religion worth following that has ever existed has warned against judging others, has preached about the supreme power of unconditional love ... the same love that does not and cannot include self-righteous judgment of others.  If you only ever love, friends and enemies alike will call you Holy, a Saint, an Avatar, a Shaman, a Good Person, Righteous Among the Nations, and any number of other superlatives.

God created a multi-religion, multi-cultural, multi-language, multi-color, multi-whatnot world.  Obviously, God loves diversity … and does not favor one stripe over another.

Slow the Gringo Down

I have read that if you get impatient with a Latino service provider that you could aggravate the situation, and today I experienced that very phenomenon.

I was at the grocery store and found what I thought was the shortest checkout line, but after I had emptied my cart on the belt I learned that the family in front of me, after paying for their groceries, wanted to buy multiple gift certificates and do any number of other post-sale activities (including chat with the cashier). 

What the hell do you do in situations like this?  Normally I have a book or my iPod with me for situations just like this, but alas not this day.  So you wait and watch, and wait and try to appear invisible, and wait and review the items for sale at the checkout, and wait and consider moving all of your stuff to another line, and wait …, etc.

Meanwhile, the senorita cashier (maybe 19 years old) can´t help but notice my growing impatience, and apparently, decides to stretch the process even more and Slow the Gringo Down.

Finally, after waiting for what seemed like enough time for a baby to be conceived and born, she´s just about to start scanning my items when some young hombre shows up with his few items and persuades her (without too much prompting) to process his sale before mine.  I´m standing there where the bagger would normally be standing, watching this scene.  She did not dare to turn around and look at me, and processed his sale while enjoying a chuckle with him in Spanish.  And then post-sale, she continues to chat with him like he´s an old friend and they just met on the street.

At that point I lost my cool and angrily said to her in Spanish something like, “Young Lady!  A little bit faster please!”  Then the hombre looked at me as if to say, “What the F --- is the matter with you, Gringo?,” while continuing to stand in the middle of the lane.  So then I angrily waved at him to get out, and barked “Adios!”  Then he uttered a Spanish word at me that I didn´t recognize, which is probably a good thing.  It sounded like a word I´ve heard yelled at soccer games toward members of the opposing team (or at members of your team if they are playing sucky soccer that night). 

Then the senorita decides that she does not know the price of the vegetables and fruits that I´ve selected, and dispatches a coworker with them to the produce department to verify the prices.  At this point I am standing in the lane where I should be, waiting to pay, and looking at her to see if she will at least look at me.  No, she continues to scan the crowd looking for the lost coworker, and, not wanting to make her feel threatened, I too scan the crowd.  After another long wait, and just before I was about to give up on the whole process, my produce returned.

When she finally handed me my receipt, I was so pissed that I was the one that could not, or dare not, look at her.  It was not my finest moment in culturally sensitivity, and I sincerely hope that in the future I will be able to get out my ego and become the observer in situations like that, to be present in the moment and not be bothered even when it seems that I am being provoked.

In any case, grace appeared in the form of Juan, the young lad who appeared to wheel my groceries out to the bus stop.  When he learned I was taking the bus, he dashed back into the grocery store to get me a huge plastic bag that would make it easier to carry all my groceries on the bus.  While we walked the 2 blocks to the bus stop, I learned that he had just arrived from Peru to start law school in Cuenca.  Maybe he should study shoppers’ rights.  

Different and the Same

A visit to a different country is an excellent opportunity to get out of what you think is normal, to see how life is lived differently by other people of the world.  Several times since I´ve been here in Ecuador I´ve caught myself saying things like, “Why don´t they have that here?”, or “Why do they do that here?”, or something along those lines.  But then I remember that my way is not THE way, and that what I am used to in my country is not what people are used to in other countries.

We all share the same Life, and we are all one in the innermost Self -- only the outward forms are different. 

With that in mind, I´d like to share some of the differences I have observed in Ecuador … things that are not better or worse, just different.

Eggs are not refrigerated here … in the grocery store you´ll find them on the shelf, generally near the bread section.

Most stores are not open before about 9:30 AM, and most of the same stores are not open on Sundays.

No one wears shorts, except for a few of us gringos that have invaded the area.

Coffee cups max out at about 8 ounces, 10 ounces if you are lucky.  (I have a 20-ouncer at home).

Lined yellow legal notepads, the kind I write on virtually every day, don´t exist here.

Vehicles have the right-of-way.  If you´re in what looks like a crosswalk, and a vehicle arrives and wants to be in that space too, you better dash for the sidewalk or you could be in for a world of hurt.

As far as I can tell, smokers can smoke just about anywhere they please.

People standing in the middle of the sidewalk and talking will not move to get out of the way of a walker, even when they see a walker approaching … your job as a walker is to exit the sidewalk to walk around them if you want to continue walking in the direction you were walking.

Speaking of sidewalks, if you venture just a few blocks from the city center, sidewalks can be wide, narrow, undulating, or simply not there.

Catholic nuns still wear the habit here.  I still remember Sister Stephan, she was the coolest nun ever.  She would play softball with us at recess, and after drilling one to the outfield, she would speed around the bases with her habit flying in the wind while she held on to her headpiece.  That Sister could hit!

Trash bins are tiny.  The apartment building where I am living has 24 apartments, and if I am not mistaken, it is serviced by two tiny trash bins about the size of the one I have at my house in Salt Lake City.

There are no chicken buses here.  (Well, Salt Lake City does not have any either).  I miss chicken buses.

Extra large as a size is rare … you can look for days before you find extra large clothes.  And when you find them, you´ll find them at places that sell to gringos.  Yes, the people are of smaller stature here, but also you do not see here the epidemic of obesity that we have in the United States.

Speaking of smaller sizes, the countertops are lower here.

I could go on and one, but you get the picture.  When you travel to a different country, you´ll find that many things are different … and that people are the same.

Journey to Cuenca

Por fin ... we´re in the air.


I´m on a full Continental Airlines flight that just lifted off from Salt Lake City in route to Houston, and then I´m on to Panama City, finally arriving in Quayaquil later tonight. The airport was packed this morning, and the line to go through security was so long that it nearly reached the exit door. Fortunately, I had my iPod with me, and one 30-minute Pimsleur Spanish lesson lasted me all the way to the passport check desk. Waiting in line is so much more tolerable when you have something to occupy your mind, as opposed to watching anxiously with critical eyes everything that is happening around you. So, I wasn´t one of the people thinking things like:


"Why would anyone wear flip-flops in Utah in December while rushing to catch a flight? Now there´s a big clan of rich spoiled brats. How can you be so oblivious to the dozens of people waiting behind you -- move! Why do all the people with anything that looks like a kid get to cut in front of us? Got enough makeup on there, lady? Who the hell travels with a snow thrower? Hmm ... I didn´t know that a leopard skin top went so well with plaid pants?"


Actually, I´m exaggerating a bit with regard to the snow thrower, and I must confess that I did wonder about the guy in flip-flops while thinking to myself that that is something I don´t ever see me doing -- but who knows?


I´m excited to be on this adventure to Ecuador, and also a bit anxious about the prospect of teaching up to 4 different English classes a day. I´ll get my assignments during Teacher orientation a few days from now. But there´s a fair bit of travel to do before then, as well as new things to experience and new people to meet along the way.


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I´m on the plane in Houston, waiting to take off for Panama. Looks like we´re about 20 minutes late departing -- Latin American time has already started!


My final destination is Cuenca, which is increasingly becoming a popular destination for retirees from the United States and Canada. They can live in Cuenca for about half the cost of living in North America, and not sacrifice anything in the way of creature comforts.


Interestingly, the retired American couple sitting beside me on the plane considered moving to Cuenca, at least for part of the year, but decided against it after seeing 3 of their retired neighbors in Panama move to Cuenca only to return to Panama some time later.


I´m not sure that my wife and I can use that as a guage for the retirement-ability of Cuenca, since this couple (and presumably their friends) want to live where many other expats live in retirement. In fact, seeing expats such as these leave Cuenca might be a good sign for us -- we don´t want to go with the expat flow.


The retired gentleman sitting beside me said another thing that indicated how different him and I might think. I asked him what activities he´s engaged in right there in his Panamanian expat hot spot, and he said, "I mostly sit around and drink coffee with my buddies." Except for the caffeine, in my opinion that type of lifestyle is not very stimulating.


In some respects it´s difficult to believe that retirement is just around the corner, but the reality is that Sheri will complete her 30 years of service to the Government in 5 more years. Life already feels like it is flying by, so the next 5 years surely will fly by as well.


One of our goals in life, which we firest applied to our wedding, and which we seek to apply to every experience that feels like it could fly by, is ... no blurage. By that we mean that we are going to focus on preventing the experience from becoming a blur. Stay in the moment ... enjoy ... take in the sounds, sites, flavors, and feelings ... no blurage.


So, right now is the perfect time to apply that goal. I don´t want to wake up 3 months from now having failed to fully live my 3-month stint as an English Teacher to Ecuadorians. And on top of that, there is a whole new culture to experience ... different sounds, different sites, different flavors, different people. Sheri will be with me here for the month of February, and hopefully we´ll help each other stay focused on the present.


And speaking of the present, we are now in the air on our way to Panama City.


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I´m in the air again, this time en route from Panama to Guayaquil, Ecuador. We are scheduled to arrive at 11:30 P.M. Guayaquil-time, and at this point I have no idea how that compares to Salt Lake City time -- I´m not sure how many time zones I´ve travelled through, perhaps only a few.


When I arrive in Guayaquil I plan to take a taxi to the bus station, and then get on either the 12:30 A.M. or 1:30 A.M. bus for a 4-hour bus ride to Cuenca. I hope that I´ll be able to get some sleep on the bus.


When I arrive in Cuenca I´ll probably have breakfast and then do some exploring before going to the school where I´ll be teaching English. Teacher orientation will be the next day, but I´ll go to the school a day early to get the list of available apartments nearby. I already have a hostal line up to stay in for 4 nights to give me time to find an apartment, and can also stay there for the rest of the month for only $10 a night. For that price I´ll have a private room and bathroom, and have access to a shared kitchen.


I´ve entered a part of the world where Spanish is the default language, and English is an option when available. Another thing I´ve noticed is that I´m starting to tower over people in height; the difference is nowhere near as pronounced as it was in the highlands of Guatemala, but I´m definitely one of the tallest people in the room now. And speaking of differences, when was the last time you the reader received a complimentary meal on your flight? Evidently, that is still the norm once you fly out of U.S. airspace ... I received a meal both on the way to Panama and on the way to Ecuador.


We´re about 30 minutes from Ecuador. I think I´ll try to catch a few ZZ´s before we land.


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Wow! What a ride! As I write these words, it´s about 3:30 A.M., and I am sitting in my room in the hostal in Cuenca. I did not expect to be here so early.


Guayaquil was kind of a blur. The passport verification line went fast, and so did the line to go through customs. Next thing I know I´m in a taxi headed for the bus station. I must say that the bus station in not nearly as pretty as it looked in the online pictures. It´s an extremely large, cavernous, building, with dozens of little tiendas inside, most of which were closed at midnight. I fumbled around in there trying to find my way to the ticket office, and after being sent in 2 or 3 different directions, I found myself taking the elevator up one floor. There I spied a bus with the engine running and it was looking like it was ready to leave. I asked 2 guys standing nearby where that bus was going, and they said Cuenca. So I asked if I could get on, and they asked me for my ticket. I said I didn´t have one ... and so after paying an under the table $1 fee, they let me through the gate and flagged down the bus with me (as it had started to pull away from the curb). Turns out the guy helping me was the driver´s assistant, so he took my one bag and through it under the bus in storage, and then we both jumped on and away we went.


And boy, did we ever go. Somehow I managed to get on the "midnight express." Everything I had ever read said that the bus ride from Guayaquil to Cuenca should take at least 4 hours, but we made it in 3 hours and 20 minutes. That bus was barreling down the highway, slinging us all back and forth as the skillful bus driver navigated the curves in the road as we ascended from sea level up to Cuenca which sits at 8300 feet above sea level.


I´m here!

Ecuador, here we come!

God willing and the creek don’t rise, I will be leaving next week for Ecuador to begin a 3-month stint as an English Teacher for a nonprofit academic institution by the name of Center for Interamerican Studies (www.cedei.org). Sheri will set out on February 1^st to join me, eager to spend the month of February traversing the city of Cuenca and surrounding areas in search of all the best restaurants, yoga classes, woven fabrics, and anything else that looks fun and adventurous. 

I will be blogging about our adventures at http://weluvutah.blogspot.com/, and sending each blog article to the friends and family on our email distribution list.  If you’re reading this email message, you’re on the list and will be receiving our updates.  However, if you would prefer not to receive our updates, just reply to this message and ask to be removed from the list – no problem, I’ll remove your email address immediately!

It would be fantastic if you could send a donation to the Tandana Foundation through our FirstGiving website www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/spanish/tandana.  This is an organization that is forging friendships and providing direct assistance to many people in Ecuador.

Hasta luego, Amigos (See you later, Friends).  Voy a escribirles otra vez muy pronto de Ecuador.  (I’m going to write to you again very soon from Ecuador).

Keith and Sheri

TEFL - Teaching English as a Foreign Language

If you have ever thought about teaching English in another country, and if you don’t already have a TEFL certificate (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), now might be a good time to get that certificate.

First of all, the TEFL certificate is widely accepted and will get you a job teaching English just about anywhere you want to go.  The only certificate that might be a little more desirable is the TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) only because someone normally earns the TESOL through university studies, and thus it not only takes more time to earn the TESOL, it generally costs a WHOLE LOT MORE.  But from what I have seen, the TEFL certificate is just as good … and a lot CHEAPER and LESS TIME CONSUMING to earn.

Now you can find schools all over the world that would gladly take your money (and as much of it as they can get) to give you a TEFL certificate without doing hardly any work.  But that’s not what you want, right?  Besides, if you get your certificate through one of these fly-by-nights, you may not get that job you want as an English teacher.

Before I started my TEFL training, I did extensive research on the internet to find legitimate certificate-issuing TEFL training institutes/schools.  In my opinion, you can trust two schools in particular – BridgeTEFL, and the other is called i-to-i TEFL.  You can find i-to-i TEFL at www.onlinetefl.com, they place students all over the world, and seem to have an excellent program.  I was very close to choosing i-to-i TEFL because their online course was a bit cheaper, but they are based in Europe and I was afraid that my personal tutor as well as their online and print materials would be “European English,” and I did not want to add that to the mix.  Having said that, I expect that some of my fears are unfounded, and that I probably would have had an equally good experience with them.  But having said that, I chose BridgeTEFL, also widely known and respected, and based here in the United States.  You can take BridgeTEFL courses locally if you can get in the class (which were booked when I tried), or you can take their course entirely online at www.teflonline.com.

I was very pleased with the BridgeTEFL program I took online at www.teflonline.com.  It is not an easy program by any stretch of the imagination – it took me about 8 weeks to finish the course – but it was very informative, with very well developed materials and video tutorials.  You will also have a personal tutor that corrects your assignments, and with whom you can communicate throughout the course.

Earlier in this message I said that now might be a good time to get a TEFL certificate because I noticed that both these training institutes have their prices about as low as their going to ever be.  The 120 hour online TEFL course by i-to-i TEFL is currently being offered for only $249 if you purchase the course (I think) by November 11^th, more information is at http://www.onlinetefl.com/tefl-courses/online-tefl-course-120.html?source=ET_us_campaign_081111.  BridgeTEFL has also discounted their online course, if you buy during November the price for the 120 hour online program is $416.50 (which is what I paid for it several months ago), and you can find more information at http://www.teflonline.com/tefl-course-120.php.  Again, I felt completely comfortable with BridgeTEFL, and was willing to spend the extra money to go with them, and I took their online course.

Ecuador and Tandana Foundation

God willing, Sheri and I will be in Ecuador for the month of February, 2012, and in preparation for our trip we would like to ask our friends and family to support the Tandana Foundation in their efforts to make friends in Ecuador.

The Tandana Foundation is a small charity that has a really cool philosophy about doing charitable work.  On their web site at www.tandanafoundation.org it says that they seek “to form cross-cultural friendships, to experience a rich indigenous culture, and to make a difference in the lives of new friends.”  It goes on to say what they are NOT … specifically, that the “Tandana Foundation is not about ‘helping the poor unfortunates’ or imposing a developmentalist worldview or any particular religion.”  With a focus on making friends, in the last 5 years they have provided medical care to 3500 people, as well as dental care to an additional 650 people.

We think this philosophy is “right on,” and we hope that you will make a donation to their efforts to make friends in Ecuador.  Donating to the Tandana Foundation through our FirstGiving website www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/spanish/tandana is simple, fast and totally secure … and is the most efficient way to support our fundraising efforts.  You can also donate by sending a check to:

The Tandana Foundation

2933 Lower Bellbrook Rd.

Spring Valley OH, 45370

Another option for giving is to send money directly to us (although this is not tax-deductible like the above option).  We will collect any money that you want to send directly to us, and we will carry the entire amount to Ecuador and do “random acts of kindness” … such as give a few bucks to someone on the street who looks like they could use a few, or stop by a local charity and hand them some cash, etc.  How wonderful it is to see the love and gratitude that fills a person’s heart when they are helped by a complete stranger.  You can send a check to us and we will see to it that the entire amount is given away in Ecuador.

Please forward our fundraising page www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/spanish/tandana to anyone you think might want to donate as well, and thank you for your love and support.

Sheri & Keith