Working to Live

“This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” 
-Alan Watts

I read it as, "Take the world in your hands: TEACH English"

We teach for a non-profit language academy called CEDEI. The acronym stands for a nobel mission: a Center for Interamerican Studies. I like that term “Interamerican.” As you travelers may have noticed, the term “American” takes on an interesting and sometimes controversial connotation in South America. Though I wasn't aware that there was another way to describe myself, a person from the United States, other than as an “Americano,” I recently discovered from my Spanish teacher that I had two alternate ways of describing my origin: either as a “Norte Americano” or as an “Estado Unidensìa.” And I like these, the specificity of the titles, as alternatives to generally claiming two continents as my homeland. However, with “Norte Americano” I could still be confused as either Mexican or Canadian…ok fine, only Canadian, and I guess that wouldn't be so bad either (if know Canadians, then you know what I'm talking about…good folks).

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It's hard to describe the change Lynsey and I have experienced when it comes to our pace of life. In Chicago, we both felt like we were fighting to stay above water at work, and once doing so, to ration the remaining hours with activities meaningful enough to keep us going. For me, the pace seemed unsustainable, and I was not interested in seeing what would happen when I ran out of gas. Ecuador is different, and our work schedule is a big part of the change we've experienced. We currently each teach three classes; two daily during the week and one on Saturday morning. Our weekday classes last an hour or an hour fifteen, basically only filling the afternoon block from 3 pm to about 5:45 pm (with breaks). We have the intention (and option) to pick up more classes during the next cycle, but for now can't help but revel in the free time at our disposal. Yes, idleness is the something or other…of the devil, but we've been anything but idle. The scales have been turned upside down and suddenly there's more time to live than to work! Time to read, write, walk, design, go to the market, cook, see Cuenca, exercise, and think - all without a dark cloud of burden over our heads. It is our honeymoon period in Cuenca, and we're enjoying it, but we plan on putting life before work as we mold our day-to-day here.

In the classroom both Lynsey and I are getting into the ESL (English as a Second Language) groove. I teach two classes of niños (kids, all somewhere around 10 years old), and Lynsey's classes are mostly made up of teenagers ranging from 12 to 15 years old. I've been teaching my kids random units such as “Sports and Games,” “Aztecs,” and “Natural Disasters.” Don't think for a moment that I wasn't majorly digging the chance to dive into Cortés and the conquest (quick story: when I asked my students why they speak Spanish in Ecuador, one girl replied, “Because the Aztecs and the Spanish got married…”). With niños and ESL it's basically “the journey is the destination,” and success means they pick up vocabulary and grammar points while studying and speaking about these generally unconnected units. My niños are (almost) always very sweet, love to laugh, and have no problem only speaking English during class. They can get a bit wild; all that pent up energy from sitting in a desk at school all day and copying from the board, and I often have to remember that our lessons are their parents paying good money for additional English studies. After being a high school teacher, these kids have definitely pushed me to be more creative in my delivery and constantly thinking about keeping them on the move.

Overall, work is not “easy,” as we're daily challenged to teach language and keep students engaged, but I will say that it's enjoyable, manageable, and definitely sustainable. For those of you that are wondering how you could stay afloat financially while also experiencing another culture - consider teaching English yourself (I plan to put up a post about how to make this happen). We are making what we need to live, but our focus here is the living and not the making. There's certainly demand for teachers, and no shortage of incredible places to live in this world.

If you have a few minutes check out the video below narrated by Alan Watts, one of my favorite philosophers and author of "The Wisdom of Insecurity," as he tackles the question of how we spend our lives...