Conferencia en Guayaquil

I returned to Cuenca last night from a 4 day conference en Guayaquil called SDL (semanario de desarrollo de líderes). It was quite the experience. We left Cuenca at 1:30am and arrived en Guayaquil at 6:45am. I love the Ecuadorian night bus rides. Not only came someone over the height of 5´6" not sleep due to lack of room, but the bus driver plays música all night long. Not relaxing, tranquil música, but salsa and reggeaton.
Obviously, conferences are so different from the Canada ones. There were about 45 delegates, however, only about 1/3 of us actually attended the sessions. It was held in a Military Compound. Man, talk about being a spectical, a gringa in a military compound - use your imagination. There was basically no water to shower or brush one´s teeth because everytime it rains in Guayaquil (and it rained a lot) there is no water. La vida, it´s all part of the Ecuadorian experience. I must admit, it was quite mentally exchuasting 4 days of working in spanish with no real time to my self to absorbe and process everything. It was also a little frustrating to not be able to contribute in a manner that I would like to. I mean, I would go to development, leadership, communication, etc... session and even if I understood everything I couldn´t really add anything meaningful to the discussion. I can´t deny that it is hard, but nothing worth doing is easy. Good news, my reading, writing and listening skills are vastly improving. However, my speaking is still quite limited though.
I got to try an Ecuadorian meal of chicken´s feet....I don´t recommend it if you ever have the opportunity to eat them. In the Sierra one of the tyipcal dishes is Cuyi (which is gineapig (sp?)) I haven´t tried it yet, I am definately going to give it a try. Hey, why not. I can´t be worse than chicken´s feet....well, I hope not.

Until next time,
Steph