The Little Thing...Chicken...For Soup

This is what I said to the guy running the tienda just down the block from my apartment when I wanted to buy a bouillon cube for my soup broth.  Before buying my bouillon cube I attempted to go to the market to buy a chicken bone to boil, but I became so nauseous at the site and smell of all the whole, dead chickens-- feet and skin still on-- that I left in search of fresh air before I could manage to try to ask for what I wanted.

 So a bouillon cube it was for me. Anyway, I dread shopping here because I can't just go into a store, pick out what I want,pay, and leave. In most cases I have to go up to a counter and ask for what I want, which of course makes it glaringly obvious that I am a non-Spanish speaking Gringa. This is the crux of most of my insecurity here in Ecuador: I don't speak Spanish. Most of the time I am able to use hand gestures and single words in succession (like the title of my post), or point to what I want. Sometimes I bring a friend, which makes things much less painful during the buying process, but I do not love the feeling of not being independent. Either way, I always, always walk away wishing I knew more Spanish. I am also fairly aware that people probably charge me a higher price because I am white and unable to fully (or even partially) communicate with them.  This is just a fact of life here, at least for now.

On the other hand, my Spanish use in the classroom is getting better. I am supposed to speak to my students solely in English, which I do 99% of the time. I don't really have a choice. But I have learned the words for write, draw, be quite, etc., and I use them when I necessary. I also have my students write down the new vocab in Spanish and English on the board, and draw a picture. Once our new vocab is on the board they all copy this into their notebooks, which gives me time to copy the Spanish words into my own notebook. I will not pretend to have learned all my student's English vocab in Spanish, even with the help of my new system. But it is helping me with exposure.  The other day I was trying to help a student in my class with special needs (who does not speak any English), and using very broken Spanish and lots of gesturing and visual aids, I eventually got the point across to him.  As I was turning to leave him, the girl sitting next to him grabbed my arm excitedly and said "Tia! You are starting to learn more Spanish! Good job!" It was really endearing (especially with her accent).