The Host Family

Somehow, my stay in Ecuador is nearly over. For the last two and a half weeks, I´ve been living with the Jordan family, about a 10 minute walk from the Spanish school. The Jordans live pretty comfortably in a 3 story home. I have the 3rd floor to myself, with my own bathroom. Sometimes, the showers are hot, but mostly just lukewarm. I don´t really have too much to complain about, though.

I mostly interact with my host mother, Elvia. She´s the one who feeds me, and she usually eats with me. At first, our conversation was pretty darn limited, seeing as she speaks about as much English as I speak Spanish, and while it´s still limited, it´s gotten much better. For the most part I´m able to understand and be understood.

The main difficulties with Elvia have been (a. She serves me waaaaay too much food. Whether I like it or not, I can´t always eat that much. I tried suggesting smaller portions, but it didn´t do much good. And (b. She´s a bit overprotective. I think it´s because she has 3 sons and no daughters, but I´m pretty sure she´d prefer it if I just didn´t leave the house. This was a bit confusing at first, because I wasn´t sure when I actually needed to take a taxi or when she was just being a bit strange. I had to ask around to find out when the taxi was necessary. (Ex. She wanted me to take a taxi coming home from class, before it´s actually dark out. Not necessary. She also suggested I not bring my camera with me when I go out. What´s the point?)

I see Señor Jordan occasionally at meals, but mostly he just shuffles around the house, carrying his little radio. He´ll be at the table in the dining room, listening to some talk radio show, then when he´s done, he´ll unplug his radio, shuffle into the living room, and plug it back in.

Like I said, they have 3 sons. All of them are a bit older than me, and 2 of them live at home. I´ve seen them only a handful of times. All I know is that Rodrigo is getting married next month and he likes to sing. Jamie is very tall, according to Ecuadorian standards, and speaks the best English out of all of them. He translated a few things for me when I first got here, but I don´t think I´ve seen him in the last week. I finally met Juan the other day for about 2 minutes. I was attempting to eat some mashed potatoes when a small boy came running into the dining room. I assume he belongs to Juan.

They also have a cleaning lady, who is a tiny, tiny woman. She barely comes up to my chest level. She took me to the pharmacy to get me some medication for the allergy issues that suddenly popped up when I got to Quito. It was necessary for her to come with me since I couldn´t just grab a box of Claritin off the shelf, but had to actually talk to a pharmacist. I assume she got me the right meds, because I stopped sneezing immediately. She also addresses me as Señorita. I find this hilarious. By the way, if you want to hear something really funny, listen to the locals attempt to pronounce Rowedder. They usually give up after the 5th or 6th try and ask if it´s ok if they just call me Kelli. That´s Señorita Kelli, thank you very much.