San Cayetano
The neighborhood where I lived since I born is “San Cayetano” in Ambato, Ecuador. It is located in the southwest of the city. San Cayetano is a small neighborhood, clean, beautiful, safe, and little quiet than other communities. It has many beautiful houses, two small parks, some supermarkets, a hospital, a restaurant, a pharmacy, and a taxi cooperative. All of those places are close to one another. I lived with my mother and my three siblings, from when I was born until I came to the United States of America. I lived in “San Cayetano” for 17 years, so almost half of my whole life was spent there. I grew up there, and it is where I had the best memories of my life. I had many good moments, which gave me the best experiences in my childhood and in my adolescence. I can remember all of these moments, such as meeting with my best friend, eating the delicious food at the restaurant “Los Frutos,” playing at the park until night, and the celebration of some festivals like the New Year.
I have met many people from the school, in a park, in the neighborhood, or a party, but Yvonne has been my best friend for 15 years. I met Yvonne when I was 5 or 6 years old. She is the person with whom I can share my secrets, with have adventures with many good stories. I have had many best friends, but the most important in my life is Yvonne. I am older than she is by 1 year and 5 months. I consider her my best friend because she always has been with me in any circumstance, even when I am in another country. I have the best memories with her when we played in her house, in the park, and in the street of the neighborhood. One of the best stories that Yvonne and I had in the neighborhood is when we escaped from our houses. One Saturday when we were eight years old, I was in my best friend’s house like every Saturday. We were very bored at home, so we decided to go to play soccer in the neighborhood park. We asked our mothers if we could go, but they said no. Nevertheless, we wanted to have fun, so we escaped to play without saying anything to our mothers. While we were playing soccer with other neighbors, our mothers were looking us around the neighborhood. They were screaming our names until we heard them at 7:30 pm. Yvonne and I were scared because we thought that our mother would beat us. However, they just gave a punishment, which was that we could not go to play in the park, nor go outside of our house for 2 weeks. This is just one of many adventures that I had gotten into with her in the neighborhood.
After we played at my best friend’s house, Yvonne and I bought a hamburger, a fried chicken with French fries, and a strawberry milkshake at a restaurant, which was in front of her house. She was not the owner because she rented the house behind the restaurant. The owner of it is a neighbor, who lives next to my house. His name is Jose, but the neighbors called him “Don Pepito.” Jose is good, humble, and polite. I knew that he made the restaurant because he loved to cook. Another reason was there was not a good restaurant in the neighborhood, so it helped to improve his economy at that time. The restaurant is called “Los Frutos,” which in English is “The Fruits.” This restaurant has been around for 50 years in the neighborhood. It is a small restaurant. “The Frutos” opened only in the afternoon and made many kinds of food like sandwiches, fried chicken, and a traditional plate from my city called “Churrasco,” and so on. It is popular since the food is delicious, and the price is not too expensive. I also saw from my window that many people from other parts of the city came to eat. Now, “The Frutos” is open all day and makes more food, such as lunch, and dinner.
Another good memory is the time that I had in the park. One of the local two parks was located one block from my house. It was not too big; it had two small fields that were for playing soccer, and the other to play volleyball. It had a small hall where anyone could have parties, weddings, and more. In addition, it had small playground, such as swing, slide, and a big snail. I remember that I loved to go to the park because my house did not have space to play. I had a funny story. One day when I was 7 years old, my brothers, and I went to the park. My brothers always left me alone in the playground, and they went to play volleyball. I remember that I liked to climb on the swing that had with two seats. Then, I was playing and gaining more speed on the swing, so I fell down on the ground because my weight was light for the speed I had. I did not cry, but my right hand hurt me. Then, they called me to come back home. When I got home, I put ice in my hand because it was a little puppy. The funny part was that my brothers did not know about it since they were playing and did not take care of me. The park was the funniest part in my childhood and my adolescence. It also helped to improve in my favorite sport, which has always been soccer.
I loved the festivals that we did on Christmas, New Year, and the own San Cayetano festival. For example, to celebrate the New Year, all of the neighbors made a medium rag doll with cartons, newspapers, and glue. We celebrated together dancing, singing the New Year in the street of the neighborhood until 12 pm, then we burned the rag doll, and everybody gave hugs and said, “Have a happy New Year.”
San Cayetano has always been an important part of my life because is the place where I grew and got a beautiful story and many adventures. I shared the best moments of my life there. It is a place, which gave me a lot of happiness, friends, and lovely moments. I will never forget my experiences, although I live in another city and country now. I have not only lived these moments, I have many more stories from Cayetano, which are funny and happy.
