July 11th, 2008
After 3 layovers, 2 airlines, and 13 hours of gruesome traveling, I finally arrive at my new home bordering the equator. I met a few interesting people along the way—an elderly lady visiting South Carolina from Florida, a 22-year old Colombian native in the Miami-Bogota tire business, an older Ecuadorian couple, and a Chinese couple from Guang Zhou. Once in Fort Lauderdale, I switched airlines from US Airways to Avianca (be careful--you will be charged an extra $25 for having 2 bags if you switch from domestic to international), a South American-based airline. Thus, even in Florida, everyone, and I mean everyone, spoke to me in Espanol. All I did was nod, smile, and respond with enthusiasm, “si, bueno!” It seemed to work 8/10 times. I did not hear one word of Ingles, except for the occasional overhead translation that made sense 3/10 times.
Fortunately, everyone has been so accommodating and amicable—something I am not used to going to school on the East coast. The Colombian man Geff (pronounced “Heyff”) gave me an introductory Spanish lesson on the plane from Fort Lauderdale to Bogota, Columbia, and made sure I got onto my connecting flight without trouble. While waiting at the gate in Colombia, I started feeling awkward, until a group of 40 or so Asian tourists arrived at the gate and crowded around me. I peeked at their passports. They were either from China, Japan, or Korea. A couple with Chinese passports sat across from me, and I started to speak to them. "Ni hao, ni men jiang zhong wen ma?" The lady said I don't look Chinese. I bit my impulsive tongue. They came alone and were here for “travel” around Quito. An Ecuadorian man sitting across from them tried to teach the Chinese lady how to say “buenos dias.” The lady started sounding out each syllable in ping ying, with the speech fluctuations and all: “boo-en-yoes-dee-as.” I chuckled to myself trying not to laugh out loud.
Before I knew it, for the next 30 or so minutes, I became their translator for the Ecuadorian man. The Chinese couple wanted to look for a translator, and was trying to figure out what to do after they got to Quito. I’m really not sure how the hell a Chinese-speaking couple with no English or Spanish speaking skills have been able to make it this far, and what they are going to do once they get to Quito. The lady had a Chinese-Spanish dictionary, which she was flipping through trying to look up the Chinese translation to “hola.”
Of course, on the final ride to Quito, I was put in an emergency exit seat. The flight attendant came by and spoke something to me in Spanish, so I nodded and said “Si, bueno.” Then she repeated the same thing to the men sitting on the same row, and gave us a pamphlet to read and follow while she gave us instructions. I had no idea what was going on, so I just kept smiling and nodding. Luckily, the Ecuadorian man was sitting across from me, and told me that I shouldn’t sit on an emergency exit seat if I couldn’t understand a word the flight attendant was saying to me. I switched seats with a native Spanish-speaker, and just so happened to be placed next to another Chinese couple. "There are no accidents."--Kung Fu Panda
The Ecuadorian man helped me through customs (although customs is a serious joke in Ecuador…) and even carried my bags for me, before making sure I was in safe hands. Before I knew it, Mark (the MPI Ecuador Director) was welcoming me “home”, along with Luke (MPI board member) and my host family, with warm open arms. I think I am going to have plenty to look forward to in the next 13 months…
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