Photos; Jon Brandt
Jon Brandt has been volunteering as an English teacher in Ecuador since September. Here’s a tribute to the things he’s experienced thus far.
Months in Ecuador: 9
Times when cat calls were directed at me by large groups of high school girls: 4
Extremely awkward ‘kiss on the cheek’ screw ups: 8
Most consecutive days without speaking English: 4
Hours spent traveling on buses: 168
Nighttime bus hijackings: 1
Cities and towns visited: 22
Other countries visited: 2
Consecutive days seeing someone pee in the street: 270
Video by Jon Brandt
Soccer games attended: 3
Cock fights attended: 0
Cases of Malaria, Dengue Fever, Dysentery, or Swine Flu: 0
Average seasons per day: 4
Times summer was declared, only to be renounced the following day: 6
Major elections for a new constitution and president: 2
Number of meals served with rice: 230
Students taught: 126
Students who actually learned something: 8
Bootleg DVDs bought: 55
Bed bug scares: 3
Beer choices in Ecuador: 3-4, tops
Baltazar Ushca
Altitude-related beer explosions: 9
Times Facebook friended by random Ecuadorians I’ve never met: 7
In depth conversations about bowel movements: Any time 2 or more volunteers meet
Brutal sunburns: 2
Extra notches cut into my belt due to weight loss: 2
Hours of work per day: 4
Average games of Solitaire played per day: 25
Community Connection
Read Jon’s harrowing first person account of a midnight bus heist in Ecuador! Or, on the lighter side, learn how you can volunteer in Ecuador through the Experimental Learning Ecuadorian Programs.
Have a good “By the Numbers” you’re interested in submitting? Please send to david [at] matadornetwork [dot] com.
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9 Comments... join the discussion!
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Hey Colin,
The bus hijacking was pretty awful, as you can probably imagine. Here’s the link to that blog post about the incident.
http://ttravelguy.blogspot.com/2008/09/great-bus-heist.html
I don’t want to say that these things are common, and there’s probably no way to get real numbers on how often they happen, but frequently enough so that people aren’t surprised about them. In the aftermath, a lot of people told me it was stupid to take a night bus, especially on the coast, which is considered more dangerous. However, I know people that have taken night buses for years and never had any trouble. What it came down to was simple bad luck. You can play the odds long enough, or you could just be unluckily on that one bus.
So I’m not sure if that answers your question, but maybe it’s a question that can’t really be answered to clearly.
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Great post and super video. Your: By the Numbers gets the readern to want more details. Book in the making?
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Good for you – no cock fights. Did you write a blog about the bus hijacking?
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Love it, Jon! Having just spent 5 months in Bolivia/Peru, I cracked up on each of these with a “It’s funny ’cause it’s true.”
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Wow! I’d love to know the logic behind the students taught/students who actually learned something numbers. I’m scared to start estimating those numbers with my students…
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Basically I looked at grades and thought back to the students who I could remember really coming away better than when they started the course. Believe it or not, it’s kind of easy to remember the ones who stuck out as great students.
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Brilliant! Thanks for taking me back to my time in Ecuador. It doesn’t look like much has changes since I was there back in 1998. Ate the guinea pig, received the cat calls, traveled 24 hours at a time on the night buses, drank the Pilsiner, got tested for parasites, saw a presidential election and ate plenty of rice. You hit the nail on the head with this one. Loved it.
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Great post and video, Jon. You’ll pick that weight back up here, I bet.
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