Running with Teachers

A week back I was invited to speak about Thanksgiving and what it means to me at an event held by Universidad de las Americas here in Quito. The big event was today, and proving a common theme of my time here, it was nothing like I expected.

First off, I couldn’t find the place! Urban campuses are often spread out and this one was no exception; finally, after asking two guards and a random lady, I managed to find the lecture hall. Second surprise, it was an event for all their English teachers to hear a few native speakers (there were four of us gringos), not a student in sight… I had though the whole thing was for students, but I was there, they had free food, the people seemed nice, and so I went with it.

We ended up getting in a big circle (maybe 25 people total) and initiated a Q and A session along with gringos sharing personal T-giving experiences; it worked out pretty well. After that we watched a slide show about basic Thanksgiving facts and then, this is where it gets really weird, we split into two groups for “game time.” I have never seen anything like it among scholarly types in all my life.

Essentially, each team elected a champion of the round and they moved to the center of the room to stand behind the “start-line.” A question about Thanksgiving was then read and at the conclusion of the question the champions sprinted for a set of keys about 15 meters off on a table. The first person to get the keys had first shot to answer the question; failure gave the other team a chance. One lady body-checked a guy into a chair! She got the key. At times I wasn’t exactly sure what the rules were, people would start running before the question was finished, the previously mentioned physical contact, lots of screaming, but a good time was had by all. Definitely a new experience to say the least! And yes, of course I got the key and the question☺

On a completely different topic, I have realized as of late that during my time here in Ecuador I have not see a single obese person… Yes, there are overweight people, but the epidemic of obesity currently afflicting the US apparently hasn’t reached Ecuador. I am not sure exactly all the reasons playing into this, but I imagine diet is one of the largest factors.

In the lab we continue to make progress, I recently got my first look at the “enemy” in real life. Amazing how such small organisms can cause so much misery.



(Stained slide of a Trypanosoma cruzi cell culture, the infectious agent in Chagas disease.)