My host family in El Oro

Wednesday, September 23th

So I thought I would post a blog just about my host family here in El Retiro as it is rather large. However, everyone is also really nice. My host mom and dad are 59 and they have eight kids…yes that is right, eight kids. Thankfully for me they are all grown up, but then this of course means grandkids. However, three of the eight kids live abroad in Spain right now so that leaves five here, all but one of which are married. Now before I continue, let me just say that I know some of the daughters better than others and therefore I know more about some than others.

The oldest daughter, Carmon, lives next door to my house and has at least two kids that I know of one of which is 16, a boy, and the other which is 2, a girl…but in all honesty, I don’t really know too much about them and I have never seen the husband…that is if there is one too. The next oldest daughter, Betty, lives down the road and has two kids, one son, Mario, who is 8 and one daughter, Shirley, who is 11. The father is a part of the military though so he is out of town most of the time. The next daughter, Joana, lives here in El Retiro but a little further out of town with her husband and daughter of about 4, Valoria, who is a handful. Joana goes to University all day Saturday and the husband works with the Bananas all week around more or less, so that leaves Valoria at our house all day Saturday. Then there is Diana who is 23 years old who is not married but has a son, Kenneth, who is two years old and they live in Machala. However, they tend to spend the night here plenty which leads to many nights of no sleep for me as the two year old doesn’t go to sleep until midnight, he naps a lot during the day, and well…he is two. There is also the brother of my host dad who tends to be babysitting Kenneth. So where ever Kenneth is, the Uncle is as well. And last but not least, the son…who’s name I can’t remember…is married to Lydia with two sons, one who is 5 I believe, Michael, and one who is just about a month old. But I do believe that their marriage is far from great as I never really see the two of them together and he ends up sleeping over here every now and then as I don’t think she lets him into the house when he has been drinking.

So in case you are trying to keep track, the host family is my host mom and dad – Milda and Larry, with eight children – Carmon, Betty, Joana, Diana, the son who’s name I can’t remember, and three children abroad in Spain (I am not sure what order..I only know that Carom is the oldest followed by Betty and that Diana is the same age as me) – and eight grandkids that I know of – The two of Carmon, Mario and Shirley, Valoria, Kenneth, Michael and the new baby. All in all, it is a lot to try and keep track of!

Everyone though is very nice and they try their best to talk with me when they can. However, after living with my host family for the past month, I definitely know that I will want to get my own place for a few reasons. One would be Kenneth, the 2 year old basically because he is two and has a voice that you can hear all the time. Normally screaming something like, mommy mommy mommy, or I want I want I want, with other loud banging noises on whatever he can bang on, at nine to midnight without anyone telling him to hush up. What can I say though; he is two and a very cute kid.

Another one to mention would be Valoria who will enter into my room anytime it is not locked…and when it is locked she just figures that means you pound on the door for five minutes. She is always running around and full of energy though, that is for sure.

And last but not least with the kids you have Michael and Jeffery, who is 7 I believe. Jeffery isn’t a part of the family by blood, but he works at the house sweeping up the bird poop and whatnot just about every day. They enjoy listening to Michael Jackson way too many times and singing and dancing along to it. Not to mention that when I lock myself in the room when Jeffery is around, he just takes it up to himself to climb my wall and say hello to me from there (the ceilings are open at the top).

Then you have the hammer that puts the nail in the coffin, my host Dad snores. And not just a little here, we are talking a lot and loud. All of this combined, just reminds me why I enjoy living by myself so much even when the people are really nice!

Okay…so I think that is enough on my host family. All in all, they are really nice but I can’t help the fact that I still really enjoy living by myself and am looking forward to being able to again in two more months. The down side of this is that my host family won’t understand why I want to move out, so that will be another hurdle that I will have to deal with when it comes. In Ecuador, people don’t move out of the house unless they are married, that is just pretty much how it goes. And even then, it isn’t uncommon to have young mothers/families live with their parents. The family life here is very different from the states; from how you raise your children to who has what responsibilities. But I guess that is one of those things that I will just have to deal with when it gets here.