Our 15-day “Inland & Amazon” adventure tour in Ecuador had gone smoothly so far. Granted, it was only the fourth day, and so far none of the back stabbing and cattiness of the women had surfaced, which would later make the journey…shall we say, more interesting. The previous two nights had been spent staying with a local Quechua family deep in the jungles of the Amazon, and surprisingly enough it did not prove as disagreeable as had been feared, notwithstanding the lack of electricity, abundance of mosquitoes, and bathing in an outhouse. Whatever was lacking in entertainment was made up for by the hospitality of our hosts and their children who demonstrated a traditional Quechua marriage ceremony, and the animated conversations helped along by countless bottles of the local cerveza trucked in from the nearby town of Tena.
The following morning, a visit to the nearby elementary school in Cando was suggested by Veronica, our GAP tour leader. As part of their program to give back to communities that its tours visit, GAP Adventures, thru its non-profit foundation Planeterra.org, had noted that children in the community needed to walk several hours to the nearest school a few towns away, thus they had helped establish this school a few years ago. Now, over twenty children between the ages of 6 and 11 attend classes daily. We first stopped by in Tena and merrily shopped for pens, notebooks and other whatnot which were intended as gifts to the school children. Upon reaching the school, the children promptly gave a rousing rendition of their school hymn. In turn, we presented the gifts, including the frisbees and footballs Krista and Linda brought over from Canada, much to their delight – the excitement was such that class almost degenerated into a frisbee throwing contest if their teacher Esther had not brought things under control.
Veronica suggested we teach them some English words, like counting from one to ten. Piece of cake. The children eagerly listened to our instruction and shouted out the numbers the best they could. At this point, seeing how our group was composed of a virtual United Nations of members, a light bulb went off in someone’s head and it was suggested that we teach them the same numbers in our respective native tongues. Tabea (Swiss) started things off in German, breezing through the numbers while everyone else grappled with the tongue-twisting gnashing syllables – such a harsh language! Linda (Canadian) followed suit, demonstrating her prowess of that most flowery of languages – French. Sadly, our attempts at nasal intonations failed to impress. Then, it was Luc’s (Belgian) turn – he made gurgly sounds that resembled mutterings by drunken Dutch sailors.
After his presentation, as all eyes focused on myself (our two Aussie friends were left wilting on the sidelines), with great fanfare I announced that I would be teaching in not one, but two – yes, two – languages, Mandarin and Tagalog. I then proceeded to do just that – though my memory was fuzzy at times (payback for 10 years of faking my way through classes) – which pretty much trumped everyone else’s efforts. Soon everyone was in awe of my linguistic talents, compliments were showered and my ego swelled twenty-fold with pride at my newly found celebrity. The glory proved to be short-lived though.
Upon my return to work, as I patiently waited while my colleague H.C. Yang thumbed through the pics with feigned interest, she suddenly bolted upright and exclaimed, “Hey, moron! Look at your Chinese numbers! Number 4 is wrong, wrong, wrong!!!”. Though I vehemently protested to the contrary, H.C. was equally certain of being in the right, and in the back of my mind doubts were beginning to form. After much dispute, our other colleague Joanne weighed in and corroborated her findings – much to H.C.’s glee, as she continuously reminded me of this shameful debacle. So much for my Mandarin expertise. I take consolation that the schoolchildren of Cando are none the wiser – until the next Mandarin-speaking tourist comes to town.
Appendix
GAP Adventures
http://www.gapadventures.com
Planeterra
