Do you remember when I first arrived in this field and decided to forego immediately learning my way around so as to concentrate on learning people's names? It had seemed so wise at the time, such a good and right priority.
When we go to the north part of our field, there are a number of bus connections that must be made in different towns, sometimes at bus terminals, sometimes on a random street in town, sometimes on the side of a road somewhere out in the middle of nothingness. On our first round out that way, I happily followed along behind Marsha, confident that she would lead us aright and we would arrive at our desired destination with nary a worry or a problem. "I'll pay attention to all of this next time we come," I said to myself. This would later prove to be problematic.
Usually we visit this part of our field every other weekend. However, due to Carnaval celebrations in the country, we did not make the trip back north for a whole month. On February 19, as Marsha and I travelled from the coast back to Guayaquil in order to get on another bus to head north to Babahoyo and beyond, Marsha made the dire announcement that she didn't think she should travel any further. She was sick.
"Luísa can go with you," Marsha said. "She knows her way around." Whew! That's a relief because I'm pretty much clueless. The decision was made. Marsha went to La Martha and to bed, and Luísa hurried to the bus terminal to meet up with me and thus begin our adventure. We bought our tickets to Babahoyo and boarded the bus. "You do know that we have two studies this evening, right?" I asked Luísa. No, she didn't. Good thing reading on the bus doesn't make her motion sick. "I'm really glad you know your way around up here because I have no idea where we're going," I commented a while later. "Ummm. I don't know my way around" was her reply. Apparently she had been to one of the locations that we were to visit once or twice. That was it. So there went my illusion that I would have a guide.
Long story short: We did okay. We only had to make two phone calls (both that very day) to say that we didn't know how to get to where we needed to go from where we were. Turns out we were very close both times, but very close doesn't get you in the door! Anyway, the rest of the weekend, we made our way around, depending on our friends, kind bus drivers and other helpful people that we met along the way. And it worked.
And I have to say that I probably know my way around that neck of the woods better than any other part of our field now. Trial by fire usually works!
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