Mango Ice Cream

Our three Mngo trees are starting to get serious about their mango production. Yesterday we found about six on the ground in the morning. By evening we had another five or six. When we woke up this morning an even dozen was still on the ground.

This weekend we gave away a bag of mangos. Today I've been on my computer looking at my recipe program for mango recipes. I found 45 recipes calling for mangos, including a dozen for mango salsa, mango ice cream and mango sorbet.

Looks like we'll be trying out a lot of these recipes in the comining months. The mango tree is filled with lots of green mangos not ready to fall.

Mangos anyone?

Visitors

Today Justin, our Director from Quito, is coming into pay us a short visit. He has been doing this at the end of each session of English classes. Partly it is to show the flag in this small part of Ecuador, and partly to see how things are going.

Justin is a fun guy. He was born and raised in Iowa and wanted to be an actor. He studied acting in New York and London. He spent several years in London trying to break into Shakespearean Theater with minimal success. He ended up teaching English in Spain as a break to earn some money, and kept at it. He eventually ended up in Ecuador and then into the Director of English at EIL-Ecuador.

His career: Iowa-New York-London-Spain, has lead to an odd quirk which he calls his “Mid-Atlantic” accent… one part American Mid-West and one part cultured English with a strong sense of the stage about everything he says. It is about as non-neutral a neutral accent as you can get.

End of English Course Confusion

Well, we’re counting the last days for the current session of English Classes. Most of the classes have their final day Wednesday, although my class needs to make up one day we missed, so we go to Thursday. The next set of classes have a big change, so lots of confusion going on.

First of all, we had established that there would be a one-week break between the end of one cycle and the start of a new one. This is partly to give the students a well-earned break, the teachers a well-earned break, and to tidy up the paperwork from one set while preparing for the next.

For me this is most important. We are using a rotating system to offer the various levels of Air Traffic Controller English at one time. There are five total levels, with three levels offered at each time. At each break, the teacher teaching the lowest level rotates up to teach the next highest level, while the other two teachers repeat their classes with new groups as they advance. This time, I’m teaching the lowest group, so next cycle I’ll take over the highest-level students at the final level. I’ll then teach this end-class for three running cycles until the program here in Guayaquil is complete.

And I’m looking forward to the break, so I have sometime to prepare for teaching the new level.

Then the bosses at the Quito DAC said, no, if we want the next cycle of classes finished before the Holidays, then we need to start without a week’s break. None f the student’s liked this. None of the teachers liked this. No matter, we have to do it anyway.

So it goes back and forth a few times so now we are going to have a week’s break but we will have classes on some extra Fridays and Saturdays to make up the missed days.

How can scheduling English Classes be so difficult?

So, anyway, I have a full teaching schedule through Thursday of this week. Then we have a day to get our paperwork and student reports competed. Then we have a week off.

Isn’t that how we started?

MANGOS MANGOS MANGOS

Well, the mangoes are now ripening and beginning to drop at a steady rate. Each morning I head to the back patio and start picking them up. Each morning I pick up 2-4 ripe mangos off the ground to take to the kitchen. I throw away another 4-6 that are still too green to be of use. Most of them are the size of my fist. But as I look above at the mango trees I see thousands more, much bigger, and still green.

Anyone need mangos?

New Opportunities in Ecuador!

Our English classes for the Air Traffic Controllers in Guayaquil are going well. We have one more week before we finish the current cycle and I’m rushing to get everything done with my students. It is amazing to me how hard they work. The ATCs in Ecuador do a difficult and very important job in managing the airways over Ecuador. Most also have second jobs to help their family, plus they are required to take these mandatory English classes. This is a hard-working bunch.

One thing Lisa and I have been working hard at, are developing more English classes. Our contract here for Guayaquil goes through April 07. But we want to stay longer, so we have been working at trying to get more English classes going so that we’ll have an income we can stay on.

Well the first step is coming through. We have a group of teenage boys, some of whom are going to the US and Canada next year on student exchange programs. Monday we start a conversational English class with them to help get them ready for living in North America. Hopefully, these additional classes will lead to more opportunities. At least we hope!

Strange English for Ecuador ATC

I teach an unusual English for my students. It is more technical, with an emphasis on listening comprehension and pronunciation/enunciation. This is important because the ATC’s main communication in English is with pilots on the radio. So my course has a lot to do with basic language forms, as well as terminology, official and unofficial, used by pilots.

Listening comprehension is so vital. Many of the ATC’s in Guayaquil, Ecuador, were taught English by other Ecuadorians. They have big problems speaking with rough accents and understanding the accents of native speakers.

For instance, I came into the radar installation to assist with some English. A plane had taken off, headed to the United States. The pilot contacted Guayaquil and stated he needed to return, because there was a problem with a passenger. The Air Traffic Controller couldn’t understand what the pilot was saying. I listened and could easily tell the pilot was reporting that a doctor on board had diagnosed the passenger with an acute attack of appendicitis and required immediate emergency care. The phrase, “Acute attack of appendicitis” absolutely flummoxed the Guayaquil staff.

Fortunately, my translation cleared it up, and the plane came in with the necessary emergency medical personnel ready. But it does illustrate the difficulties. The non-native speaking controllers can easily handle the average, day-to-day English needed. They are trained in it and use it every day. It is when something unusual happens that go outside their normal English where they encounter problems.

English in Guayaquil, Ecuador

One of the challenges in teaching the Air Traffic Controllers here in Ecuador is the problems they have with the Ecuadorian education system. Specifically, their English instruction uniformly sucks. It’s worse here in Guayaquil. In Quito there is a lot of tourism, so a lot of native language speakers hang around for a few months to finance their wanderings by giving English classes. They at least are there to remedy the grossest problems in Ecuador’s English teaching. Guayaquil, however, is not the Ecuador tourist hotspot Quito is, so there are very few native English speakers here to remedy the worst of the English problems.

The problem is, most schools here use older textbooks that teach 1950s style British English. Hell, even the British don’t speak like that anymore! My Ecuadorian students always come with me with written compositions talking about smoking jackets! It’s fortunate I know what a smoking jacket is… or was.

Guayaquil, Ecuador to Los Angeles

Well, I'm finally in Los Angeles. What a trip.

The Continental flight was great. In fact, the new Guayaquil International lobby is very nice. The new Olmedo Passenger Terminal is well done, attractive and very comfortable. It will be an installation Guayaquil and Ecuador can be proud of.

Anyway, It was one of the newer, more comfortable planes, a Boeng 767. Plus it was only about 1/4 full, so I had all three seats in my row to myself. I did my normal - can't-sleep-on-the-plane so I was getting pretty dozy when we landed in Houston about 9:30. But the customs and stuff went very smooth, since there weren't any lines to speak of at this time of the morning.

I hustled over to my gate for my LA connection and got there in lots of time. but I found the Lima-Houston flight, which was the originating flight for my LA leg, was late. No worry about too short of a layover today. The flight finally came in and we loaded up. Then the fun began.

After we settled and were ready, I noticed we were sitting, waiting to go, but nothing was happening. Several times they announced "We can't leave until all passengers are seated with their safety belts fastened and all seats and tray-tables in their upright and locked position."

After the fourth time, you'd think we'd understand that.

Then they announced we needed to get our personal belongings and leave the plane! It seems that when the tug attached itself to our plane to push it back the tow bar broke and they were afraid that there might have been some damage to the landing gear. They weren't sure, but to be sure and to follow FAA guidelines they needed the passengers off the plane so they could run the checks.

Well, after about 90 minutes we were back on the plane and winging our way West. It was like the earlier flight. It was sparsely passengered and again I had a row of three seats all to myself. I finally managed an hour's sleep, laying across the three seats. It was after one when I emerged from the airport, with only 1 hour of sleep in the last 20, so I was really happy nothing was scheduled for Sunday.

So I checked into a hotel near the airport, the Rennaissance which is one of my favorites. I hit Burger King and went to my room and turned on football. I fell asleep almost immediately and didn't wake up until the room alarm went off at 5:00 AM. I'm still a bit punch-drunk but I feel much better. I'm going to take my time this morning, get cleaned up, have some coffee and breakfast before I head to get my meetings and errands done.

Heading home!

Well, I'm just clearing up the final paperwork to free me up. I'm heading home to the United States for a week. I've been in Ecuador for seven months, and it will be good to get back, even if it is a short time. Not to mention even if I'm leaving at ´1 AM. YUCCCHH!!!

I´ll be in Los Angeles for a day, then a few days in Palm Springs, CA. Then either to Arizona to see some family or back to LA.

One week later I'll be back in Ecuador to teach English to the Air traffic Controllers of Guayaquil. So goodbye, Quito! Goodbye, Guayaquil! I'll be back real soon!