Friends, Friendship, and Socializing

I think anyone considering moving to, and living in another culture needs to think about their support network. Support networks are very important in our everyday lives and many times we do not realize their importance until they are no longer readily available.

My good friends (or we can call them my support network), now live thousands of miles away from me and it takes a good day of Internet connectivity for me to be able to talk with them. Plus, I'm not much of a phone person, so that makes things harder. Yes, there's email, Facebook, Skype, Messenger, etc. but nothing replaces sitting around with a glass of wine with your friends joking in your native tongue (no, don't worry I'm not drinking wine while I'm pregnant).

Here, I find myself fitting in to an existing network, that of my husband. Now please don't get me wrong. The women in this group are amazing, strong, beautiful, intelligent, and I consider them to be my friends. They are in every way wonderful, but they are not my support network that I have known since elementary or middle school that have seen me through my ups and downs for the last 14+ years of my life. It takes time to build this type of relationship and confidence in others, no matter where you are. It takes longer to build this type of relationship and confidence in a second language and in a culture that is not your own.

Just reading what I posted I also realize that maybe I am separating myself too much, forming a "me" and "them" situation. This may be true and may be something that I analyze about myself later on... for now I'll let it be.

For now I'd like to move on to the concept of socializing. I LOVE socializing here because things, at least in our circle, are very on a whim. We will stop by to see someone in the afternoon and they will be having their kid's birthday party that night and invite us to come over. We show up and it's a part of all their family members and us. There is food, drinks (once again, no I'm not drinking during my pregnancy!), balloons, everything. So random, yet so wonderful. We also do these random dinners. We will start talking with one couple then before you know it our kitchen is full of 15 adults and 5 children all cooking and eating pizza or something together. Wonderful!

So, to summarize (because I have to actually get to work now), just as with any move, developing a new support network can be difficult, especially with language and cultural differences to work with. But people in Ecuador are open, friendly, and love to socialize. I think as "gringos" we just need to break down our walls and allow people in and allow ourselves to let go a bit and trust those around us.

Hasta pronto!
Becca

The new cathedral in Cuenca, Ecuador; the city we call home.