How to Make a First Impression

One of the things that I have been looking forward to most out of the whole Peace Corps experience is living with a host family.  Our first two days in Ecuador were spent staying at el Centro de Espiritualidad San Patricio, a retreat from which we had a chartered bus to the Peace Corps Training Center.  Day three was the day that we got to move in with our hosts. With my fear of being well behind most of the group at Spanish eased, my nerves had turned to excitement.

Everyone was given a card with their first names on it, and told that somewhere out in the mass of host families, your host had the card with your last name. After much confusion, I was introduced to my host mother Adriana. She's about 5 feet tall and full of energy, and I can tell immediately that this is going to be great. I grabbed my bags, we hopped in her car, and off we went to my home for the next 11 weeks.

Basically, all that we were told about our homestays was that we would have our own rooms and that they are in Tumbaco, the same town as the training center. The only request I put on my form was that I would prefer a house with children. I didn't have any feel for what a typical house in Tumbaco is like, though from the windows of the bus it was obvious that there are some very nice places to live. Due to the high crime rate, gated communities are fairly common for those that can afford them, and it wasn't a surprise when we pulled up to a gate. The house is actually behind a second gate that closes in the yard. 

I'm greeted by two dogs, and a lovely house on top of a lush, rabbit and fruit tree inhabited yard! Adriana's husband and son, both Jorge, are in Quito for a while because Jorge Jr. has to take driver's ed, so Adriana gives me the tour and I start to set up my room while she prepares lunch.  I go into the kitchen and start asking what everything is, if there's anything I can do, etc. When I ask about the mandarin oranges Adriana tells me to follow her and walks out the door to show me the tree. I close the door behind me and off we...

Oops! Remember that security thing? Well, another part of that is having a door that locks automatically.  So there we are, about an hour after I arrive and I have locked us out of the house. Smooth. But it gets better. The gate to the driveway is latched, and you need a key to open it. In short, we couldn't get into the house, nor could we leave the yard.  My window is the only one open, but it has ironwork bars covering it.  We try prying the lock on the kitchen window open with wire to no avail.  The walls of the yard are at least two meters high, but with a ladder Adriana is able to peer over and call to her neighbor, who of course is not home. I carry the ladder to the gate to the street, and fortunately Adriana is able to flag down someone and borrow their phone to call her husband, who happens to be on the opposite side of Quito, a little over an hour away.  I finally get to see the mandarin orange tree, and we sit at the table eating bunches of grapes from another tree in her yard.  Good times