New Post 1

I have a little bit of trouble fitting into the culture here, and sometimes I feel like I'm in 6th grade again with the "no one understands me" type of attitude. Paul had his going away party, a big fiesta. Everyone dances with everyone, and every time I tried to sit down, someone asked me to dance. This was fun for about an hour, and then I didn't want to dance anymore, particularly not with my smarmy most frequent partner. And I just got kicked back onto the dance floor. Also I kept refusing drinks after my first cup of puntas and orange juice- puntas being 50% alcohol in content. For those of you who know me, I don't drink, both because I don't like how it makes me feel and alcoholism runs strongly in my family.

Then Iladio asks me to dance. He works on the farm, and his kids are my absolute favorite. So of course I was relieved- here is someone I know, like, who is polite and friendly. We start to talk. By which I mean to say, he begins with this: "So, you don't like Ecuadorians, do you?" WHAT? By which I mean to say, I reply, "Why do you say that? That's not's true, Iladio." He shrugs, doesn't know why it just seems that way. Probably because I have been refusing drinks and dances. They just have no boundaries- I'm not allowed to be politely different and not want to dance or drink. Then he goes on to ask when I'm leaving. Next week. That's too bad, he tells me, because I am the prettiest volunteer that has been here and he miss me and never forget me. This is getting weird. He's 40 and his wife is yards away. Do you have a boyfriend he asks me? No. Why not? I decide to spare him- but mostly myself- my last two relationship stories. I don't know, Iladio, past relationships haven't worked out and I haven't met anyone new. Are you happy with Ruth? Oh yes. And we have kids. After a few more minutes he passes me off to dance with Alex. What's funny is that he wasn't hitting on me. We had a totally appropriate Ecuadorian conversation.