Market in Otavalo

In 1986 – 87, I spent a year as an exchange student in Quito, Ecuador. There is not enough flowery and emotional vocabulary to capture how entranced I was by the people, the land, the mountains, the culture, and the experience in general! I became a strong believer in second language learning and cultural immersion (my mother says I became militant). My perception of the experience and memories of my year were infused with all of the passion and romance that an 18-year-old can muster – which was a lot in my case!

I went back to visit my host family in Quito a couple of times while I was in college, but quickly realized that a short visit was not the same.  I spent too much time trying to recapture my student exchange experience. So when life got busy with studies, marriage, work, and kids, I let the visits go.  I maintained loose contact with my host family, but otherwise kept the whole experience packed away and to myself.

Then about a year ago, I started getting the itch to reconnect with my Ecuadorian family and friends (after all, email and Facebook exist now). It was like I could almost hear the country calling me back, telling me not to take it all so seriously.

Finally this April I returned to Quito, this time accompanied by my husband. By day we were the carefree tourist couple taking a vacation without the kids. By night we were the “extended” family trying to keep up with invitations from family members. It was a good mix for a week away, but we were completely exhausted upon our return to the U.S.!

So here are some comparisons and contrasts between Quito 2009 and the Quito of the late 1980s:

• I had absolutely delicious bread with farmer’s cheese and coffee every morning for breakfast. No change there!
• Llapingachos (fried potato patties with cheese) are still very tasty! And now I like spicy things, so I enjoyed the salsas with them.
• The city seems cleaner, as a few friends told me it would be.
• There is lots and lots of traffic. This is the most common thing my family mentioned to me when they were describing the changes.
• They’ve added a trolley bus with a dedicated lane to their public transportation system. It runs north-south through the city. I wonder how many other cities in the world do this, because it seems pretty popular and efficient.
• The valleys to the east, like Tumbaco, have become very popular suburbs. It was nice to see that some of the roads there were still dirt and rock, reminding me of the times I had bounced around in the back of a pick-up truck on the way to family parrilladas, or barbecues in the country.
• You can ride the TelefériQo! This cable car ride up the side of Pichincha to over 12,000 ft. in altitude is rather new. The views are spectacular!
• Calle La Ronda, a historic street in the city’s center, is now safe for the public. I only remember my host father pointing to the entrance of it in 1986. Looking for a pleasant evening out? Stroll through Calle La Ronda enjoying the shops and restaurants along the way. Be sure to try a canelazo (hot, cinnamon alcoholic beverage)!

Pichincha - the volcano

Then there were all the places we visited that I’d never seen 22 years ago, like the excellent museum in the Casa de la Cultura, the inside of the cathedral La Compañia, and various restaurants that I would not have spent the money on then.

In the end I accomplished what I wanted. I reconnected with family – hugging my host mother for the first time in over 18 years was a wonderful feeling. I became reacquainted with Quito and its people. And I got to see the Ande again. There’s something about being nestled in among the mountain chain of Pichincha that soothes my soul, so I won’t wait 18 years for the next visit.

Amid all of the articles and reports about green energy, there are also reminders that energy efficiency is a key component of the overall plan. Energy efficiency gives me hope. Although I dream of strapping solar panels to the roof and digging up the yard to put in geothermal heating, those aren’t realistic solutions for me right now.

Recently I spent some time reading about energy “leaks” from small appliances that stay plugged in. When we turn off an appliance, it may use what is being called “standby power” instead of shutting down completely. Small appliances that maintain any kind of lit display are obvious culprits (microwaves, coffee makers). Others may have those large, box-shaped transformer plugs that contain circuitry that does not shut down even though the appliance is off (chargers). Then there are the appliances that have a remote control associated with them (TV, DVD player).

Here is one source of measurements listing how much power various appliances use after we turn them off. The list of offenders includes our favorite office electronics: desktop and laptop computers, printers, and cordless phones – to name a few.

What to do? Unplug what you can when you’re finished with it. Use a power strip for office equipment that has a switch you can turn off at the end of the day. This will decrease energy waste. Keep an eye out for future developments in this area as small appliance manufacturers meet this challenge.

Now that I have virtuously unplugged my coffee maker and turned off the office power strip for over a week, it’s time for a broader search around the house. I rarely use that stereo in the family room. Does our finished basement really need its own set of cordless phones? Looks like a project for the rest of my Saturday.

A random selection of further reading:

Don’t go crazy with power strips: Power Strip Safety , Daisy Chains ; Energy efficiency: Rocky Mountain Institute ; Small appliance energy use: Consumer Energy Center

Here are a few that I check periodically:

• United Nations Volunteers
• Idealist
• Kiva
• Ashoka
• Volunteer Match

And here are a couple in Spanish:

• Haces Falta
• ONGinfo (Although not a site meant for linking volunteers to tasks, perhaps you can find a nonprofit that you really like and contact them directly.)

Do you know of others?

Some sites are available in languages besides English.  Try typing your language’s abbreviation after the .org/ in the web address.  For example, I like to look at the Idealist opportunities in Spanish since those listings are more likely to show opportunities for translation into my native language, so I go to idealist.org/es.

I have a very nice relationship with an environmental organization in Argentina. I have translated key portions of their website into English so they can attract broader interest. In addition to the warm-fuzzy feeling I get by helping them out, I now know some people in Argentina. If I ever get the chance to travel there, I’ll already have a group of people that I can connect with.

So do you have a favorite cause, or are you particularly fond of a certain region? Maybe they could use the help of a volunteer translator.

I live outside Washington, DC, which is a great area for keeping up with my Spanish language skills. I can sing along with the radio (El Zol), chat with my Salvadoran neighbors, or get in touch with other Spanish-speaking friends. However, I really needed something that would get me out of the office regularly and help me maintain my conversational skills. Meetup offered a solution.

On the Meetup website you can find groups of people local to you who have your same interests and then meet with them offline. A while ago I joined a nearby language exchange Meetup group, and this weekend I finally attended one of their conversation meetups. About 25 of us - a mix of native English and Spanish speakers - met at a local coffee shop for some light Sunday afternoon conversation. For the first hour we spoke in Spanish, and for the second we switched to English.

There’s nothing like conversation, of course, to give your brain a work out in a second language. Among the topics we discussed were the economy, the construction business, government jobs, shriveling retirement accounts, families, travel, dating, and local dance clubs. Since I am not in the construction business, for example, (nor am I familiar with the dating scene) those conversations added a little to my vocabulary. New words are always good.

One of the perks of being a linguist is that our practice and training includes travel and immersion in other cultures. For the times in between world travel, language Meetup groups can be a great opportunity to maintain fluency and meet people. Next weekend, the group is hosting a hike along the river in Washington, DC. I can speak in Spanish and get exercise at the same time!

A couple of years ago, my daughter did a science fair project about maximizing the energy generated by a wind turbine. We bought a kit from Kid Wind that included the gear box, shafts, and PVC parts for constructing a tower. It was my daughter’s job to construct the blades and decide which aspect of the blade design she would test. It was a cool project – definitely one of those that I hovered over and wanted to take control of so I could play with it myself!

Don’t have one of these nifty sets in your basement? You can still get an idea about the factors that affect wind energy production by visiting an interactive feature on the environmental page of the National Geographic website. It has tabs that provide a basic introduction to the parts of a wind turbine and the factors that affect energy production. Then you can try it out yourself by adjusting various factors: wind speed, altitude, tower height, and blade radius.

Give it a try!

My Twitter account

I feel successful so far with this week’s internet work. I’ve got my Twitter up and running. I’ve got the basics of this blog working. Next week: finalize the blog and set up a Facebook fan page for the business.

I did manage to do some paid and volunteer translation in the middle of all of that! Now I’ll have to put the work fun on hold while I enjoy a long weekend away with some friends in Marlborough, MA.