first month in Olon

Hello Ola,

By now, I have been living in Olon, a small village north of Playas right next to Montanita, my main project here in Ecuador, for one month. The beginning was not easy, as I really missed Playas with my family, all my friends, my super cool students, and the German volunteers there. The first week, I felt more homesick for Playas than I have ever felt for Germany in my entire time here.

But as always in life, one gets used to everything, so I quickly settled in here and feel at home. What bothered me the most at the beginning were all the tourists walking around in Olon. Because we are only 3 km from Montanita, which is the internationally famous party place of Ecuador, a lot of European or American backpackers also come through Olon. On one hand, that's pretty cool because you get to meet people from all over the world, but on the other hand, it takes longer to find and get to know the right locals. Our project leader here, Jonathan, is really active because he is the cultural representative of the district, so we do a lot of things with him. This weekend, for example, we went to a youth camp a few kilometers south of Olon. We hiked for 4 hours in jungle-like mountains and bathed in a waterfall.

Other than that, the music school is already going quite well, considering that we started the project from scratch. The cultural house where we teach is completely new and by far the most beautiful music school of all the projects. I have about 15 students in total, but many of them come irregularly, so I usually teach for only 4 hours a day from 4-8. This leaves more time for surfing and relaxing, which is nice after my full day program in Playas.

My new family here is super nice and very easy-going! Sometimes they even understand my sarcasm, which is unusual for Ecuadorians, haha.

I have my own room, and for a week now, even with a mirror, hot shower water, and super delicious food (which unfortunately makes me gain a lot of weight)! But no matter, I need to enjoy it as long as there is still nice fatty meat with rice and cola without vegetables, before I go back to the eco paradise in the Westerwald, hahaha.

My family here is already making plans with whom they can marry me, when I will have children, and how many, so that I stay here :D Ecuadorians can be really crazy sometimes... just the other day, a 40-year-old man first asked me if I'm single before he wanted to know my name, only to then announce that he is also not married and is looking. But many Germans would be shocked by the values here anyway.

Otherwise, I have joined the women's soccer team in Olon and weekly demonstrate my clumsiness in dealing with balls. Although the women, due to their bodies, which have mostly been through a few pregnancies, are not in top form, so we mostly play for fun. But still, I am always being substituted right away as soon as another player is available... haha. It's good that we almost always play with fewer players :D

In Puerto Lopez, the next bigger city, half an hour north of Olon, you can watch whales in August and September. So in my first week, I did the tour with a friend from Galapagos and was absolutely impressed with how close you can get to the animals. It's really amazing when a 6-meter humpback whale jumps out of the sea just 8 meters away from you!! Unfortunately, my phone gave up that day, so the photos are not very sharp...

See you soon!

Henrike