When you ask geography experts what seasons you can find in Ecuador, they say that you get a Dry season ( summer) and a wet season (winter). However when you ask the natives, the Ecuadorians, they say that although that may be true, in each day they experience all four seasons. In the morning they experience spring, where it feels as if light fog just falls on our faces, followed by summer during midday, when the sun honestly just burns through you. In the afternoon there is autumn, where the wind might blow a bit and temperatures start dropping again, and then at night of course winter, when it honestly is so cold, you can’t believe that exact same day it was hot about 5 hours ago.
Well today, 09 September 2015, was the day that we would receive our site placements. That morning I felt a bit like autumn, cause my emotions were sort of calm, but they were also blowing all over the place. I can remember being very anxious about finding out. I had some hopes of where I wanted to go, who I wanted to be with, but they were all only hopes. About 10 minutes before we were about to find out our sites, I experienced major summer, where all the hopes and thoughts I had that morning were now just turning in my stomach, burning me from the inside. I could not decide which emotion to adopt, cause all of them just felt so uncomfortable. Emery, Gabriella (two of my new very good friends) and I were sitting next to each other when we were in the circle, with our eyes closed and about to receive our sites. When we opened our eyes, Gabriella said that Emery and I do not have the same sites, and then I looked at their backs, and saw that they did. I jumped straight from summer to winter, where I was on the verge of crying. I could not believe that my two best friends are going to be together, and I won’t be. Hence one of my hopes was already not gonna become reality. I just felt down and not in the mood for anything else to be honest.
However as we were coming together in our new, smaller, regional cohort, and Sara (my team leader) told me that we are going to Cazuay, which is a combination of the Cañar and Azuay regions in southern Ecuador, I slowly started feeling how I am shifting into spring, just dusting off some of the snow on my shoulders. She gave me my community paper, that had my host family on it, and I immediately began to smile so brightly, I cannot even begin to explain. My mother teaches crafts, which I have always been interested in just learning about. My brother does Judo. Like how exciting is that?!!! I mean, I am out of this world already. And then when at long last I get to what my apprenticeship was, I wanted to jump out of my skin. I had gotten an apprenticeship with Red Cross, which is just too amazing. I really wanted this, because I am looking at studying medicine in University. But not even that, I found myself on the verge of crying again, but not because I was sad, but because everything was just so perfect for me. I shined brighter then the sun.
And so that’s how I, just like Ecuador, experienced my very own version of the four seasons in a matter of one day.
I’m Dunn….
