A lot of times I get the question, “What is/was it like living with an Ecuadorian family?” There’s always one thing I say to which anyone who has ever experienced host family life can relate: Some days you find out that you are getting in the car and going on an adventure. You usually don’t know where. You can ask. And they’ll tell you. Probably more than once. And you still don’t know.
I’ve been plugging back in with Lourdes’ family this week. And today was one of those days.
Becca and I came over yesterday (Saturday) to hang out with everyone (Lourdes’ family and our friend Ruth, a Youth World intern who is the “new Danny” at Emaús). During the course of our visit, Lourdes told me the group was going somewhere in the morning. I didn’t quite catch it, but I figured Ruth did, so I made a note to ask later. Before I knew it I had been invited and had accepted, still not quite sure what I was getting into. After the day had gone by and Becca and I were getting ready to leave, Ruth asked “are you going with us tomorrow to… wherever it is we’re going?” If Ruth didn’t know, then my hopes of figuring out our destination beforehand were now certainly dashed.
I find this a good place to note that while I knew we’d be leaving at 10:00 in the morning, I was definitely not informed that there would be no church service beforehand. So I totally showed up and hour early in a button-down shirt after taking a rather expensive taxi ride to be here “on time” rather than what could have been a 25 cent Trolley ride and still been on time. I arrived to a house in which hardly anyone was awake, but I did get breakfast out of the deal, so not a total loss. But still, I just
It turned out that the main adventure for the day was celebrating Father’s Day with lunch out at a restaurant in the family’s old neighborhood. I’ve never been anywhere out to eat with the family (except for two glasses of juice with Lourdes right before I left the country last year), so this was a pretty big deal. I’ve also never seen Ecuadorians unable to finish a meal, so when I say that we left with three carry-out bags, you should be shocked. Probably more shocked than some of you North Americans might be to know that Jose ordered cuy.
The above picture is of the lunch Jose ordered. I feel like this would be cute… if it were a pint-sized version of some less manly object than a grill. Like a legit grill. Those are seriously coals underneath.
Overall, this was on the low-key end of the adventures I’ve semi-accidentally had. And certainly on the delicious end as well.
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