I guess I am getting senioritis with my blog entries, I was pumping out one a month but now with my time winding down in San Lorenzo I have gotten too lazy or just forgot to blog. That´s a shame for the 10 people who may have had an interest in reading about the goings on in a town of 300 people in the middle of the Ecuadorian Andes. Anyways, for my faithful reader(s) (i.e. HI MOM!) I think I should do a despedida (goodbye) just for shits and giggles.

The standard clichés of the Peace Corps Volunteer right when he or she is leaving their site is usually always the same. ¨The two years just flew by¨ or ¨It was rough at first but I really grew to love my community, host family or my projects¨ or my personal favorite ¨I wouldn´t trade this experience for anything¨. For me personally, all of those clichés have some truth in them…that´s why there are clichés in the first place. From day one in San Lorenzo, I felt comfortable with my host family and the people in general. I never felt alone (well as much as a tall gringo in the middle of a tiny Ecuadorian town in the highlands can feel) and always had a support system if I needed it. However, the truth is that I never really needed that said support system because I mentally prepared myself of life in Ecuador before I came down here. If I had 3 meals a day, running water and wasn´t cold at night, I considered it a success. Anyways, from a social standpoint, I never felt I needed to escape my site every weekend like some other PCVS tend to do.

From a work standpoint, I could either take a glass half empty or a glass half full approach. I will just say that the glass was filled 50% full. Maybe I could of done more if I came in more aggressive and forced some work, but then I wouldn´t of integrated with the community like how one should when being a gringo in a small town of 300. I always felt you needed to earn people´s trust and find out how they work and go about things instead of saying ¨okay, so here is what I need to do and you should just do what I say¨. So it´s a nice way of of saying that I slacked off the first year and didn´t do anything until the second year haha. All smart ass comments aside, I always went to bed saying that I didn´t do anything of substance that day or week, but looking back, you realize that you did more than originally thought.

Also one needs to realize that coming in as a young gringo still learning the language in a community that is not really receptive to change, that doing (or trying at least) what I did is an accomplish in and of itself. You realize that helping out building an irrigation canal or an organic family garden or teaching someone who to prepare organic fertilizers…yeah those were fine, but most people are going to remember the conversations with the gringo and learning about Los Estados Unidos and its culture. It was fun playing ambassador because I may be the only foreigner that they truly will get to know in their lives and with that comes a sense of responsibility to educate them about the good ol´ US of A.

With that, I bid you all chao…I hope all of you have enjoyed reading about my 27 month journey in Ecuador. I will be travelling for a few weeks after I leave Ecuador but this blog is called my life in Ecuador, not my life in Peru, Chile and Argentina. Plus, I will probably not feel like blogging as I am not a big writer in the first place. So with that being said, this has truly been an experience of a lifetime living and working in this beautiful and tiny South American country. The people that I have met are truly some of the most generous and happy people that I have ever met. I will remember them for the rest of my life and I wish that you all have a chance to come down and visit my home away from home sometime, mi lindo Ecuador.

Hasta luego

We just had our COS (Close of Service) conference which tells me two things. One, I am almost done down here in Ecuador. Two, I NEED TO FIND A JOB NOW. Sorry for all caps on that one but its not something I´m chomping at the bit to do now. During our COS conference, while being flooded with all sorts of paperwork (do you realize we have to sign a form that requires us to fly an american carrier back to the states? take that TACA airlines! you´re not getting my money!) before we leave at peace corps volunteers, we were informed that the sustainable agriculture program is going to be terminated in the next two years. The group of volunteers that are in training right now are the last AG volunteers to enter the country. This means in a few years there won´t be any more volunteers that do what I (and many other talented gringos) do in Ecuador.

Agriculture has been in Ecuador since the inception of Peace Corps Ecuador, 50 years ago. There have been TWO program managers in Agriculture in this time, while other programs have had that many program managers in the last two years. It certainly is a sad day as the AG staff (especially our program managers Nelson and Eduardo) are two of the best that PC Ecuador has. The reason behind the move is that there are so many sites in Ecuador and not enough qualified applicants to fill the positions from the US. From that perspective it does make sense because not many people focus their careers on agriculture. A lot of the volunteers that came down here for training don´t know how to prune a tree. Second, Peace Corps Ecuador is adding a program, Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). Now, it could be said that I have already been apart of that program for the last two years, even though I am an agriculture volunteer. The Peace Corps wants to focus its resources on Health, Small Businesses, Natural Resources and English in the near future. I have always wondered why Peace Corps is even in Ecuador in the first place. There is a reason why it is called posh corps. Lots of volunteers live in the city in nice apartments with wireless internet...is that really a peace corps experience? Meanwhile, in the areas where volunteers are needed, volunteers can´t go there because of safety concerns. So it has become a double edged sword here in Ecuador.

Oh, and we´re a few weeks away from Carnaval here in Guaranda, I can´t wait for the debuachery.

I ended up going home to southern California for Christmas and new years and you always hear about the term ¨culture shock¨, in which a person who has been living abroad comes home after awhile and is in shock at everything. Being home for two and a half weeks, there were some moments where it felt weird, but then again, growing up and living in southern California, you can´t be too shocked after living in a Latin American country and coming home. Seeing as how half of the kids that I spoke to at my mom´s middle school speak Spanish, there really isn´t too much culture shock in there.

It definitely felt good to be home (or close to it) for two and a half weeks and not eat white rice twice a day and see all of my family and friends for Christmas and new years. Though it did not feel like I was back in the United States, more like on a vacation and I was at LAX again back on a plane back to Ecuador. On my first leg of my trip back to Ecuador, I got bumped up to first class (first time ever!) because a family wanted to sit together and I was taking one of the spots. However, my flight left at 1:30AM so I couldn´t really enjoy all the immenities of a first class passenger because I wanted to sleep the whole time. Though I must say the leg room was a nice plus and the breakfast Belgian waffles were superb! Plus all the evil stares from the economy class passengers as they walked by made me feel like a pompous trust fund kid, so that’s always fun!

So now its back my little pueblo of San Lorenzo as I am going to try to make one final push here in these last few months to make a positive impact on the community. There will not be another gringo or gringa coming in to fill my spot in May so I would really like to put my ¨stamp¨ on the community while ALSO trying to find a job in this wonderful whimisical world we call the US economy.

I may have mentioned this before, but it always feels weird to spend US holidays in a foreign country, especially with a holiday like Thanksgiving, which is truly an american holiday. Last year I happen to be travelling around because my brother came down to visit, this year I decided to impart some American culture on the lovely people of San Lorenzo. The thing that surprised me the most is that when talking to some of the people in my community, they knew what Thanksgiving was or should we say…el dia de accion de gracias. They didn´t know the history behind the holiday but realized that it was an American holiday where we eat turkey. I guess some American stereotypes shown on TV down here trickle down the countryside as well!

Anyways, I decided to cook a typical Thanksgiving dinner for my host family because their concepts of American Food are hamburgers and hot dogs (which is kind of sad that they are true about that part). To find a turkey, I decided to chop down a tree, whittle a bow and arrow out of it, then just go Rambo style and hunt a wild turkey out in the country…but then I woke up haha (it would be awesome to do that though). The truth is that finding a turkey in the local market or grocery store was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Most Ecuadorians do eat turkey during the holiday season, but usually it is for Christmas, not thanksgiving. They start offering turkeys on December 1st…nearly a week after Thanksgiving. Luckily, I did find one place that was selling parts of turkey, not the whole bird, so I was happy to at least find turkey, but then I had to explain to my host family that usually we have the whole bird, not just parts. Starting to cook at 10am, I cooked about 12 pieces of turkey, made a pumpkin pie from scratch (even the crust although the pumpkin I found was a little different than the dark orange ones found in the states), mashed potatoes, and a mushroom casserole (though I couldn´t find those crispy things that you put on the casserole). I finally finished at 5pm and we ate shortly thereafter. The cool thing was the my host mom and brother asked a lot of questions about Thanksgiving and what we were supposed to do (can we drink this? Why do we eat this type of food? Ect) and it turned out to be a great cultural experience. Plus, I got a big thumbs up about the pumpkin pie…I was a little worried because I had never made pumpkin pie from scratch before!

The other thing that happened recently was the national census happened here in Ecuador. The Peace Corps informed us to be ready to answer questions orally plus do a survey on a scantron type form. I was ready to inform them that I am a government spy being sent to a small country town to infiltrate any and all citizens and then extract oil for our big oil companies in Ecuador´s rainforest…but I think drawing attention to myself when I am already a tall pale skinned gringo probably wouldn´t be the best idea. It was actually pretty boring, I never talked to the census people because maria Elena told them that I live with her and that I am leaving in April anyways, so what is the point exactly?

I bet it was a treat for some of the census people though. I talked with a director of a school in which I do a school garden (in a small community outside of san Lorenzo) and she told me she had to ride a horse for 5 hours one way just to get to some of the houses that they had to census. That’s a devoted citizen! I am pretty sure she wasn´t paid for that. Anyways, I am not sure if I am going to do another blog entry before I head back to the states in two weeks (can’t wait!) for Christmas and News Years. Should be interesting seeing how things have changed since I have been gone…

Seeing as how peace corps volunteers live in their respective countries for 2 or sometimes 3 years, they meet people from the country that they live in. Most become acquaintances, some become friends, some become a boyfriend or girlfriend…and then there are those special times when you find your soul mate and decide to marry them. That just happened to a volunteer here in Ecuador…and unfortunately it is not me (still searching ha ha). It happened to be my friend Laura (who lived in the same community as me-Pesillo-during our training days) and I honestly could not be happier for her. I had never been to a wedding in Ecuador…especially one with a gringa marrying an Ecuadorian, so going in I was thinking it was going to be an experience. Boy was it ever.

The wedding was located in Puyo, the largest city in the Ecuadorian oriente (Amazon region), just on the cusp on the Amazon rain forest. There is nothing like the beauty of the rainforest and the ride from the highlands dropping into the rainforest is really breathtaking. The energy within the volunteers who made it was palapable, you could feel it in the air. Plus to top it off…I was asked to be an usher…you know I didn´t turn down THAT opportunity. It was a catholic ceremony and was surprisingly short and to the point although it was done all in Spanish and I am not sure some of Laura´s family and friends could understand it. That is beside the point however because actions have more meaning than words. Fast forward to the reception…my work is done and its time to get to the speeches. Only in a wedding like this do you get the bride, groom, maid of honor, and best man´s speeches translated by one of the volunteers (good job Lydia!). I don´t why…but I found this unforgettable, the groom´s speech was especially good. Then came the first dance ( a slow dance with a mix of bachata…because its Ecuador) and the booze starts flowing. You know it is an Ecuadorian wedding when the caterers are giving out shots of whiskey and water and we are gathered around in a circle dancing or talking and that the standard wedding gift was 20 dollars in a envelope (hey, we make 300 dollars a month, what do you expect?). Back to the shot giving, that is how we drink in Ecuador, no one has their individual drink, there is one selected person who serves you a shot of beer, wine, or hard stuff in a cup and then it gets passed to the next person in the circle. It gets a little getting used to…but now I don´t know of another way to drink! Anyways, meeting the groom´s family and friends was fun, his family is from the coast (esmereldas, where the population is predominately afro-ecuadorian) and Columbia, though he is Ecuadorian and they relocated to Puyo. There is a unjustified stereotype of Columbians in Ecuador and I was happy to let them know that no, I don´t think you are a criminal and I just want to be your friend.

Overall, the wedding was a blast and I hope for the best Laura and Rodrigo… que el matrimonio dure para siempre.

I guess you´re really not a peace corps volunteer until the country you´re working in has an attempted presidential assassination attempt, right? I mean, that should be one of the requisites besides learning a new language, awkward conversations with drunk people, planned projects that don´t go according to plans and being asked to translate ¨Billy Jean¨ or other Michael Jackson songs to Spanish. I don´t want to brag…but I´m pretty good on the latter subject. Anyways, here is the story about this presidential assassination attempt. Apparently, President Correa and the fellow assemblymen want to lower the wages of the national police force and lets just say that the lovely men and woman of the national police force are not too pleased with these turn of events. For the last couple of days, in every major city there have been marches and protests by the police force and their allies. The other day I happened to be Guaranda when one of these lovely marches passed and I have to give it to the people of Ecuador, they know how to protest and march with the best of them. }

Well yesterday (sept 30th) they was a giant protest and rally in Quito, the nation´s capital and home of President Correa. He gave an impassioned speech (on a side note, latin American presidents really know how to make emotional speeches, nearly screaming at the crowd of people below them) about peace and tranquility but I don´t think it mattered. As he was trying to get through the mob to make another speech, somebody decided to drop tear gas around the group of people that happened to include the president. The president, obviously not wearing a gas mask, sustained some respiratory injuries and was immediately rushed to the nearby hospital. Not deterred, he continued to talk to the media while recuperating in the hospital, take that national police force! The ironic thing about the whole situation is that the people who protect Correa on a daily basis where the people who were trying to take him out, unbelievable. I don´t understand it, you´re unhappy with your wages and decide to make a pre-emptive strike on your country´s leader? Lets face it, judging by what I have seen from the National Police Force, I´m not sure that they should be asking for MORE wages, just sayin´.

It does not stop there, in Guayaquil, with the police protesting and making their opinions known, many people decided to start vandalizing buildings and stealing items from local supermarkets, mom and pop stores, even mcdonalds! I guess stealing stuff makes you want to have a big mac or quarter pounder with cheese. Businesses, public transportation, schools and airports were shut down on that Thursday (30th) for fear of more unsavory activity. Suffice to say, I am not allowed to go anywhere (especially the major cities like Quito or Guayaquil) until everything calms down. Luckily…the news is saying things are getting back to normal (at least in Guayaquil) slowly and surely, we´ll see. In other news, things in San Lorenzo couldn´t be more calmer, all the kids are excited because they have the day off (writing this on a Friday) and don´t have to go to school…you know, the whole ¨get the day off because the president was almost assassinated!¨ day, we never got those days in the states. Good times…but not really.

One of the things that I love about Ecuador and one of the things I prefer in Ecuador over the US is the public transportation system. You literally can find a bus that goes to every single hole in the whole town of 200 people in the middle of nowhere everyday because of the fact that only people with money have cars (and that means a large percentage of the population rides in a bus) and two…Ecuador is a very small country (the size of Nevada or Colorado). For this reason, you can get from one part of the country (say the coast) to the other side of the country (the amazon jungle) in one day by riding the bus…and that is with going over the andes mountains. So being a peace corps volunteer and not being allowed to drive a car, I frequently take the bus if I need to go somewhere…and I really enjoy it, here is why:

1. Bus drivers and their crew: Ecuadorian bus drivers can be a dicey proposition sometimes but I can safely say that I haven´t been in an accident while riding in a bus. Most of the highways here are two laners and the bus drivers love to play chicken with oncoming traffic, I am thinking they get bored with the endless driving they have to do and can´t afford speed pills so playing games with oncoming traffic helps keep the edge. A bus driver always has an ayudante (a helper) that comes around and collects the passenger´s fares. These guys need to know all the prices from every imaginable stop because the bus makes a lot of stops…I mean a lot of them. They all yell out the major destinations while hanging out of the bus. For example, if I am going to Guayaquil from Quito…he´d probably be yelling ¨Ambato! Riobamba! Guayaquil!¨ or something like that. Usually the ayudante is a younger guy…I always thought this would be a pretty cool summer job if I was in high school. Plus, when the ayudante has nothing to do, he usually hits on the hottest looking female in the bus, which isn´t bad either.

2. Venders: This is one of the first things you´ll notice while travelling on the bus, people will try to sell you anything. Bus rides here don´t have layovers in large cities where you can stop and have a bit to eat. So usually, the food comes to you. Any type of food is sold, from candy to potato chips to secos de pollo (chicken and rice) to banana bread to drinks. But it´s not just food they try to sell you…movies, music, herbal remedies, Colombian cocaine(kidding)…you name it, you can buy it on a bus here. Sometimes people will randomly get on the bus, make a 5 or 10 minute speech about their product (and how their relative is terminally ill or they are) and try to get the sympathy buy. Usually it works on me…but the ginseng tea is tremendous!

3. The People in General: This is the favorite part of riding the bus for me personally. People seem to be a little more open and friendly in this country and it´s not uncommon to have a long conversation with a stranger on the bus. It probably helps that I´m a gringo and people are interested in what the hell I´m doing in their country. People don´t pop in their ipods and tune out the world (although some people do this). Sometimes I´ll sit next to a drunk who wants to try out their English skills on me. Usually the standard conversation is:

Drunk: Hey! TEACH ME ENGLISH!

Me: Sir, please calm down, yes I can teach you a few words

Drunk: HELLO! GOOD MORNING!

Me: very good

Drunk: How do you say ¨I want to have sex with you¨ in English?

Other times I will sit next to an indigenous person who speaks kichwa and likes to look at me, then say something to their friends, look at me, and then laugh. I feel out of the loop in this conversation. Now I know how the people in my community feel when I speak English around them.

Riding the bus isn´t always fun, especially for a gringo. When i find a seat, I usually can´t stretch out my gigantic legs unless there is no one sitting next to me. And if I don´t find a seat, a lot of times i can´t stand up straight because the bus is not big enough for my height (this is usually a problem taking the bus back to san lorenzo). But then again...I am really going to miss this interactions when I go back to the states and am stuck in traffic for two or three hours a day…

The thing about living in San Lorenzo for over a year now is that now I have seen everything that happens in a calendar year and know what is going to happen. For example, in July and August there is an extensive increase in drinking and partying because in July there are fiestas every week in Santiago (a small town near San Lorenzo) and in August the fiestas come to San Lorenzo. You know the fiestas are coming when they start building the plaza de toros (bull stadium) and the old ferris wheel, which is as bad as you might think it is. The bull stadium is built out of wood and holds about 150 people and is really the main attraction of the fiestas.

The toros are a staple to every campo community during their annual fiestas and it really is a family affair. In San Lorenzo, I got to go with the guys in a community up to the paramo, which is the land above about 13000 or 14000 feet and it is freezing cold. Anyways, a bunch of guys from the community and their relatives head up to the paramo where they round up the bulls that they are going to use for the fiestas like old western cowboys. It really made me feel like I am in a western movie…only if we´re speaking Spanish and freezing our asses off. Now I wasn´t on a horse doing the rounding up but I heard a lot of cussing a Spanish as people fall off their horses trying to round up these wild bulls. Once the bulls are rounded up…they are taken a nearby ranch and on the day of the bullfighting, the bulls are brought to the plaza in a large pick up drunk.

Having these bullfights is not like what you might of seen on TV or how they do it in Spain. It is truly community bullfighting, as in, anybody who wants to hop in the ring, takes off their jacket and can give it a go. Usually, those who know what they are doing spend the majority of time hanging around these pesky beasts. However, there is always a drunk who can barely stand up gets in there, nearly gets decapulated by a bull´s horn and gets dragged out of the ring by two of his buddies. Now obviously…if the local gringo decides to watch the events…you know, just to watch, you know his skinny butt is going to be dragged in there for a little bit. And I was…and I lived to write this blog entry so you know he didn´t die. I am not going to lie to the 10 people that read this…I was pretty scared about going in there after seeing other people get hurt. I am used to being around steers…but these are bulls (meaning they haven´t been castrated), they have large horns and let’s just say they haven’t been halter broken either. So when they get set loose in the ring, they can get pretty nasty. Luckily for me, I wasn´t drunk and had enough reflexes to not let the bull hit me and got a decent cheer from the crowd. In and out of there, 3 to 4 minutes tops I would say. But once you do something once (like I intended), they expect you to do it every time they have the bulls because…well, they love doing it and expect everyone else to love doing it as well. And maybe I will…but this time after a beer or two to calm the nerves a bit. ¡Que viva la fiesta!

In baseball, there is a stretch of time called ¨the dog days¨of august, in which all the teams start going through the motions. They start their seasons in early april and finish them at the end of september, playing nearly every day for nearly six months. At the beginning of august is when teams have gone through a large portion of the schedule but can´t quite see the finish line. Usually they´re tired of playing and want the season to be over with.

That is kind of how I feel with my peace corps experience right now. I am going through the ¨dog days¨. For me, it is just all the little things that build up over time where at some point you feel that is the way it is and is always going to be. Just a note, I don´t want to sound too pessimistic here because I still feel like I have hope in my community and don´t get me wrong, I love my community and all the people that live here, especially my host family...BUT at some point all the ¨yeah, that sounds great, I would love to try that¨lines that are thrown my way and then nothing ever happens really starts to get on my nerves. It really makes you not want to trust anybody on their word. It is not like the people are malicious and want to lie to you, maybe they are just too nice to say no to the gringo and just plain forget (which I would put these odds at about even).

The one of the tens of thousands of things I have learned in San Lorenzo or my experience in general is that if I am the one that is initiating everything, then the odds of that project continuing to exist after I leave are slim to nil. I can´t tell you how many times I have had a conversation with a farmer about the benefits of having their own garden, implementing new crops or trying out organic methods, them agreeing with what I say and being genuinely interested and willing to try it out...then we set up a meeting on their property and they´re not there or too busy too show up. Now I realize that all of these farmers work all day in their fields and are extremely poor and don´t want to take any more chances to even further deplete their income. But if everyone you knew grew corn, planted and harvested at the same time and there was one guy who grew lettuce and cabbage in addition to their corn, wouldn´t you think that the guy who grew cabbage and lettuce would have an easier time finding a market for their product? Lets not get into the fact that growing corn on the same piece of land every year for the past 50 (or more) years severely depletes the nutrients of the soil and actually hinders the amount of corn you can grow and harvest every year. Lets just say say that a 24 year old gringo with a weird ass accent isn´t going to get through to a 75 year old farmer with a 4th grade education. But hey, it sounds good on sunday afternoon when he´s drunk off moonshine and you´re explaining the benefits of organic farming.

Well, enough of my smart-ass rant because I´m not trying to be cynical. I do have a lot of success stories and I really hope that my time in the community has not or will not be a total waste of time for all those involved. I am still excited and optimistic about the shredder project as we are going to make harinas (flours) from the wheat and corn seeds in addition to the fertilizers and animal feeds. The flours can be a value added product which can be sold to families in the community and potentially other markets around San Lorenzo. We hope to have a demonstration within the next couple of weeks and maybe a few people will get excited and want to continue along with the project.

I hope so...woof, woof.

So finally, FINALLY the shredder has made its way to its cozy home..San Lorenzo! After hearing from the people in Quito, who built the machine, 3 weeks ago that it was done and that they would figure out the shipping details...well that is one thing you don´t trust in this country. If you want something done, you really have to bug the hell out of people and make them feel that you are pestering them to really get anything done. I honestly could of let the people in Quito linger three or four more weeks but that would of been three or four more weeks of my community not starting this project. So finally, last wednesday, the people are arthur fried (the company in quit that built the shredder) sent the machin to Ambato, where I rented a truck and had it shipped to San Lorenzo.

Maria Elena (my counterpartand host mom), a few jovenes from the community, and I had out first test run with the shredder yesterday. It took a few minutes for the baby to warm up and start (at first I thought that it would never start...¨my god, 2000 bucks out of the window¨ was my first thought) but it did and we sampled some organic waste (small leaves, branches, plants and grass) and then worked in some corn stalks as well. The thing works great and the jovenes seemed to enjoy the machine as well, which is a good thing since we will try to start an ecological group using the young men in the community as a start. This machine was built to shredd corn stalks and grind them up, which is a great thing since we will try to sell an animal feed using the corn stalk as a base to the families who have animals (which is pretty much 99.9999999% of the community).

What we will try in the next coming weeks is to give demonstrations and talks to people in San Lorenzo and all smaller communities around San Lorenzo showing exactly what the shredder can do and how it can make organic fertilizer and animal feed. This will HOPEFULLY lead to more people giving organics a shot when people plant corn in september or october.

As with everything in this country...we´ll see how it goes...

Like they always say, time sure does fly when you’re living in Ecuador while constantly humbling yourself with the language and playing with animal poop on a constant basis, or do they? Well anyways, on april 30 was the end of the first year at San Lorenzo (I wasn’t there for the big celebration…sure everyone there missed me a lot) and I can honestly say that, well I hope to get more stuff done in my second year than the first one. Most people say that the first year at your site in for integration and building the base for the projects that you and the community want to do and the second year is to implement them and hopefully make them sustainable. We’ll see about the sustainable part, especially when it comes to this shredder project. The good news is that the company in Quito that is building the shredder, Arthur Fried (they have a website is you are completely bored and want to look at farm equipment for awhile), has built the shredder and I have seen the finished project. Within the week, my community and I will have to find the transportation from Riobamba (where Arthur Fried will send the shredder) to San Lorenzo, where it will be its home to many incredible sustainable projects in the future…not sure if that will happen but it sounds really good.

On a personal note…I am dating a mona (female monkey, people call people from the coast monkeys…well people from the sierra do, lots of jokes that go back and forth from people from the coast and sierra) and I very happy. Her name is Marta and she is a cousin of my host sister, Mamuchi. She came to San Lorenzo for her vacation days from college for a few weeks and well…there you go. She lives in Guayaquil, so there is a distance but so far, so good. A mona and a gringo…only in peace corps I guess.

One down, one to go…

well after 6 months of talk, planning, waiting, waiting, getting the approval from peace corps, waiting some more...the shredder project has finally been funded! i found out from peace corps that my project got fully funded on my birthday and i couldn´t ask for a better birthday present than that. Peace corps is going to send me a list of all the donors and how much they donated but for the people who donated...thank you sooooooooo much from the bottom of my heart, there are not words to describe my gratefulness to you all. I promise to get this project running and am determined to make it sustainable and will try to post pictures when i can.

More or less, the plan with the project is develop an ecological club using young men and woman (jovenes) in the community to help construct the compost beds and help with the collection of organic wastes from families one time a week. There is already a truck that comes every thursday to pick up the trash and recyclables (i can´t spell haha)...why not a truck that picks up the organic wastes too? Figure I am not asking too much here. We´ll see what happens but i am excited because this will be the first thing in the community that has my footprint on it. Gardens with families and school, workdays with the canal, giving talk about organic agriculture and teaching english are fine but i feel that none of these actually have a shelflife and can be sustainable...i am hoping this project can.

On another note, it was my birthday on the 12th and it was great to celebrate it with my host sister, who turned 21 on the same day. Actually there was another kid that turned 22 on the same day...amazing, i never knew somebody with the 12th as a birthday in the states and here i find two people in the same community of 300 people in ecuador...small world.

anyways...till next time (i am going to withhold a comment about obama and healthcare, don´t live in your country right now haha)

I guess every society on earth has a time of the year where they do nothing but drink, sing, eat, and sing some more for day and after day for a week (or until they just can't do it anymore and pass out in the middle of the street). For ecuadorians...it is definitely carnaval. Now, I'm not sure if my judgement is clouded because carnaval is craziest in the exact province in which I live, but all I can say is...wow. Starting from wednesday before valentines day, there was a guaranteed parade/dance/drinkfest every day/night in either San Lorenzo or Guaranda or some other city/village until the tuesday after valentines day. And let's just say I partaked in these festivities, not unwillingly because you know...it helps with the "integration process". Highlights from this weekend that was.

1. I was chosen to be a "caballero" (gentleman) for the San Lorenzo election of the queen of carnaval. The queen of carnaval is akin to a miss usa or a beauty pageant. It's a pretty big deal. The reason why I was chosen (not just because of my stunning good looks haha) was because each organization has to have a representative there and my counterpart's organization had one. It was kind of cool because I got to wear a suit and tie and i didn't think that i would need it after the swearing in ceremony. Suffice to say, our representative (kristina) came in 4th place. Not sure if it was because I did a bad job or if she was picked out 2 days before the election took place and was way in over her head, eh.

2. Any time that you can get an elvis pressly impersonation from a drunk ecuadorian who can't speak a word of english so ends up singing "jailhouse rock" but with more a yelling incoherent jumble of noise, well, you have to take that and I run with it. By the way, as far as ecuadorians are concerned, i know elvis pressly and michael jackson personally, especially michael jackson because i live in southern california.

3. Being sprayed with a shaving cream like substance, being dowsed with water, having flour thrown on you at any particular moment is actually a lot more fun than it sounds or reads. And if you don't like it, then you're not enjoying carnaval. Que bonito es carnaval!

4. My parents happend to visit me and San Lorenzo during the craziest two days of the year, and they were not immune to the carnaval treatment. They were here on monday when San Lorenzo does their true carnaval celebration with a parade in the morning and then a drunken dancefest from about 12pm to 8pm (or whenever the DJ stops and everyone is passed out drunk). And no, they weren't part of that dancefest, though that would of been some great photos for sure. It's always an interesting time when your parents give water and flour poured on them...and you're waiting for the outburst of anger...but then it doesn't happen. I warned them.

5. Que bonito es carnaval, this line is going to be stuck in his head for the rest of my life as i heard about 32897409374 renditions of the song over the past month. Que bonito es carnaval is the stock line, then for the next few stanzas, you can put in whatever frase you want to. Therefore, there can be as many ways to sing the song as you want, and I am pretty sure I heard every last one humanely possible.

I would say imagine a mardi gras or news years celebration and mutiply that over a week and now you get the generally idea of carnaval in Guaranda. Now that carnaval is over, I guess I have to go back to reality and work again.

(sigh.)

hey everyone,

my project for the shredder has been approved by Peace Corps and you can now look for it on the peace corps website. how you might ask? easy!

1. either google peace corps partenerships or go to peacecorps.gov and look for partnerships.

2. click on ¨donate to volunteer projects¨

3. then go to ¨search by country of service¨ and pick ecuador (not saying you can´t pick another country because i´m sure all the lovely other PCVs out there would love your support too)

4. then click on community compost project or my name Raser,J and read about my project some more if you want.

5. help a brother out!

I know things are tough and not everyone has a lot of expendable income right now and there are defenitely more troubling things out in the world (Haiti) but if you know somebody, anybody, that would be interested in my project, guide them to the peace corps partnerships page on the peace corps website and search for my project.

Thanks!

Here is the thing about where I live and I would say the province (though I would not want to make any rash generalizations), it's pretty tranquilo (calm), not a lot of weird or crazy stuff happens. I wouldn't say its boring, but when you think of the places you want to visit in Ecuador, Guaranda or any other spot in Bolivar would be on top of the list...unless we're talking about Carnaval. Carnaval is kind of a big deal around here, it is the biggest celebration in the province and especially in San Lorenzo. People talk about it all year, everyone's cousin, or uncle, or 2nd stepbrother venture in from around the country (and many times outside the country) to celebrate. Kids make water balloons, water guns, or use bucket of water to toss on family members, random people in the street, or of course...tall gringos. I'm not sure exactly why they toss water for carnaval and when i ask, i get the "oh, its carnaval." They also tell me that during carnaval people throw flour and cooking oil on you too. Keep in mind this is happening right after the new year, has been going on the entire month and will continue all of February I am sure. Carnaval has special songs, dances, and foods that are prepared for the week of February 12-18th. Oh yeah...I am sure there will be heavy drinking involved as well, it wouldn't be an ecuadorian celebration without a little parajo azul.

As far as my work goes (if you really want to call it that)...little by little. Everything moves about 10 times slower down here when trying to work with people, especially government organization. I do understand that a gringo's request for a random town of 300 people may not be the highest on anyone lists down here. Just learning to be more patient and go with the flow. I am waiting on the OK of the shredder project by Peace Corps Quito and once it is OK'd there and Peace Corps Washington, then the project can go on the peace corps website and hopefully the 10 people that read this can donate and tell their wonderful, caring, extremely good looking friends to donate as well! In the meantime, I am giving talks about organic fertilizer, school gardens, and when I can, help with the canal that we have here, but that thing is such a quagmire that I am not sure if it worth the time and effort.

Well, till next time...

Well, I haven't checked in awhile and don't really have anything new to say about my work right now besides school and family gardens, and trying to finish up this application for peace corps partnerships. But I have been living in Ecuador for a little over 9 months so I figured write a few things that the 5 people who read this might find interesting about Ecuadorian culture or what I have experienced at San Lorenzo, so without futher ado, here are 8 things that I can say without being over the top....

1. "Ecua-Time"

This basically refers to anything time related, whether it be a meeting that should start at 2 and ends up starting at 3....or 4....or 5....especially if you're living out in the campo like me. It's funny, some people will show up an hour late to something and then complain about the meeting not starting on time...what?! This used to really be a pet peeve for me but slowly I have gotten used to it.

2. My Height

Now I guess being a little over 6 feet would make me fairly tall in the states but in Ecuador...I know how pro basketball players feel. I get this question all the tall..."are you the tallest person in the united states?" from fully grown men. Now I understand that I maybe the 5 or 6th gringo that they have ever seen and maybe am the tallest one, but I still find it kind of funny.

3. My Feet

Just so that you know I have gigantic feet here...it makes everyone awestruck when we compare shoe sizes. So basically I think either I am a giant and have somehow found myself in middle earth with hobbits. This somehow boosts my ego.

4. English

Obviously being the only american here, I get about 54908357 questions a day about how you say this word or that word in english. Usually they ask about cuss words or animal names so that the kids can insult their friends and the friend who got insulted gets this bewildered look on their face like "I don't understand what i was just called but it i know it was mean". Favorite insults that are said down here by the kids include "goat", "guinea pig" and my personal favorite, "look at my little chicken"

5. White Rice

Staple of all diets in Ecuador (and probably a lot of other countries outside of the US), I have learned to eat and enjoy it 2-3 times a day. Now when I haven't eaten it in two days, I feel really excited when I eat it. This probably makes me a really wierd person, I know.

6. Hideous Horror Movies

All of my ecua-friends absolutely LOVE these movies. All of the Freddy and Jason sequals, all of the Saw movies, the Texas chainsaw massacre remakes, you name it, they love it. I don't know if it is all the violence or maye just watching gringos being stupid and then being chopped into pieces or tortured but it really makes their day. Also with movies, blockbusters that come out in the states (like Transformers) are immediately available down here, illegally filmed in the movie theater then sold down here. Usually they are in terrible quality and come in DVD's like "6 of the best Will Ferrel comedies", so 6 or 7 movies come on one DVD. I found this pretty cool for some reason.

7. Busses

Just so you know, if you're like 80 percent of ecuadorians and have to get somewhere, you need to take the bus. For me (somebody that never really took the bus before) it has been a refreshing and fun experience. A lot of times, I will be waiting for a bus to leave and everyone will take their seats until all of them are filled up, except the one next to me and other times, people just can't wait to talk to me and ask up their pent up questions about the states. I have definitely met some interesting people on the bus for sure. Also, just know that when you ride on a bus in ecuador, you maybe be going only 40 miles, but it will take 2 hours to get there because of the non-stop "stops" to pick up people on the side of the rode and drop them off. Plus, there are usually no bathrooms on the busses (I haven't been in one that has had one) so be prepared to hold it.

8. 1.50 almuerzos (lunches) and meriendas (dinners)

Quite possibly one of my favorite things in Ecuador. At any middle class restuarant, you can usually order an almuerzo during lunch time or a merienda during dinner time and get the following:

A. A tasty soup (sometimes chicken noodle, sometimes a creamy soup with the serve popcorn on the side (I love this by the way) or something with quinoa in it) for the appetizer

B. White rice with some sort of vegetable (beet or carrot) or plantain or bean (lentils, beans) and a decent portioned piece of meat (usually chicken or beef)

C. A fresh juice (lemonade, papaya, pineapple, tomate de arbol (don't know the english word), orange) or other types of tropical fruit. Delicious.

All for 1.50 or sometimes 2.00 for all that...are you kidding me?! Makes me never want to pay 6 or 7 bucks for a sandwich in the states...

Just a quick note today. I am working on funds for my shredder project and am filing for a grant with the USDA for support. However, there is a limited amount of funding that PC Ecuador can get (100,000) for all the applicants, which may seem like a lot but since every recipient gets around 7,000...and when there are a lot of applicants, not all of them get accepted. Soooo....there is another program that Peace Corps does for funding called Peace Corps Partnerships. In this program I fill our my project sheet (what I am doing, the materials needed, how it is going to affect the community, etc) and hopefully, I recieve donations from friends, familily, organizations (profit or non-profit) from the U.S. to help finance the project down here, since my community can´t afford to pay for everything.

So if any of you are reading this blog (all 5 of you haha) and would be interested in supporting my project (if you don´t know what the project is...read my post called ¨a project¨), respond to the blog with your contact info (name, address, phone number, organization) and I will put your name of the list of potential people who could donate. Or if you have rich friends or know of someone or an organization that would be interested in donating, reply or send an email to me. In the form, I have to put down 8 or 9 people or organizations that could show an interest just so Peace Corps knows that there are people that could support this project, it doesn´t mean that peace corps is going to contact you asking for money, but it is more to gauge an interest. Check out the link below to read about other projects that PCV´s are doing around the world and to see how peace corps partnerships works...I kind of sound like a Peace Corps tool but hey...have to get the word out about this.

Here is the link

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors

I guess when ecuadorians decide to do something, they really put their hearts into it. It really doesn´t matter what it is, drinking, partying, working, or in this case, striking. We don´t have just one national strike in Ecuador right now, but two. First, the teachers are striking because their benefits are being cut and many of the teachers that have put in the years are set to get a pay cut, some of them get their salaries cut in half. So basically the teachers in the large cities (Quito and Guayaquil) are striking and all the schools around the nation fall in line, usually. Some schools are teachers in Guaranda have crossed the line and have resumed school, others haven´t, especially in San Lorenzo. I think that some of the teachers are enjoying it because they get some extra vacation time but who knows how long they will be on strike. This means that I can´t work with the schools doing gardens and environmental education...which is a large part of my work, but it gives me more time to work on other projects so I guess their is an upside to everything.

The other strike involves the indigenous population, who are striking over water rights because the government wants to privatize water, or so is the rumor. The indigenous people are blocking the roads, especially near cities in the Oriente, where there are lots of groups. Honestly, I am not sure what to make of all of this but people rallying together against ¨the man¨is a pretty common theme in latin america, especially ecuador. We´ll see where it goes from here.

Oh, by the way, in addition to me duties in San Lorenzo, apparently I am a part-time firefighter as well. A few weeks ago I was tending to the garden I have at my house when my host-mom´s sister tells me to grab a shovel and help with a small fire that was on a hill in San Lorenzo. I wasn´t too shocked as most of the farmers here burn their land after they harvest their crops, in this case, corn. But this fire wasn´t exactly a controlled one burning just the intended area. So I rushed up the hill to join my fellow san lorenzens and put out the fire. The closest homes to the fire didn´t have hoses that could help put it out so we took our shovels and smacked down the flames while putting dirt on the others. The fires weren´t that big, but I would like to exaggerate the fact because it makes me sound like a real badass to put out blazing flames with a shovel and dirt. Anyways, the good part was that these fires were happening around 6pm in the afternoon so the cold of the night soon put them all out. That is about how exciting things get in San Lorenzo, you have to start fires to get people really excited about something.

Well, I finally have a long term project to work on, something that I can busy myself every day since family or school gardens are exactly a 9-5 job and I think I might go crazy if I don´t have something to do everyday. The project is basically constructing a shredder that can chop up food and organic wastes and then can be descomposed in beds to fertilizer, with the help of the cure all of animal shit. Then, these bags of fertilizer will be sold out of my counterpart´s cooperative to farmers at discount prices that are far lower then the chemical stuff they buy in the city. Hopefully this project can be small business project as well as we can hire some jovenes (young men) from San Lorenzo to be the employees and then long term would be to form a sort of ecological club in San Lorenzo using this project as a base.

But before that happens, a lot of stuff needs to happen first. We need funding for this project, so I am filling out a PL-480 form, which is like a grant from the USDA to help fund a developmental project abroad. It can be up to 7,000 dollars which could easily covers the costs of this project. However, I am primarily responsible for doing the PL-480 and it should be interesting because I have never written a grant before, let alone in Spanish. Lets just say I am wearing out my spanish-english dictionary as we speak. It is really tough and frustrating at times but it is helping my vocabulary so I guess there is always a benefit. So if we get the funding, we can either buy or construct the shredder. What is exciting is that a friend of mine´s cousin actually makes the exact shredders that we care looking for...it really is a small world. Then we have to ask for the support of the local government to help us gather up the kitchen scraps and organic wastes from the families around San Lorenzo. There is a truck that comes by once a week that picks up the trash so this could be doable. If they don´t want to support us, then it might be a little harder. You never know with small town politics. We´ll see, but I am really exciting about the potential of the project in the benefits (organic fertilizer, education for the young kids who work, employment, small businesses, and the knowledge for the farmers that they can actually cust their costs and improve their soil at the same time).

Also, I am excited about our reconnect conference next week, I will be able to see some other PCVs that I haven´t seen in a few months, though we won´t all be together, since it is regional and they split us up depending on the region (coast, highlands, jungle). But something is better than nothing I figure.

Till next time....

One of the first things I learned about Ecuadorian Culture (besides ecua-time) are these annual events that each community has called fiestas. They are usually held one month a year every year where everyone in their respective communities, plus it seems like every known relative, get together and have fun, ecuadorian style. For what reason? Supposedly it is religion (catholic) as one weekend my community celebrates the patron saint (Lorenzo, hence the name of the town), another is the virgen, another is something I can´t remember off the top of my head. All that I can tell is that their may be a lot of religious sentiment and some people do go to church and worship, I see a lot of booze, bullfights, and baile.

Now I haven´t been to fiestas in every town across Ecuador, but I have been to three or four, and as far as I can tell, the majority consist of these few items. If you don´t have them, it can´t be an Ecuadorian fiesta.

1. ¨Toros¨ - I am not sure why they´re called toros since the ecuadorians actually use young cows, but I guess toros sounds better than saying, lets go to the vacas. Usually there is a fenced in area, similar to a corral, and people stand around watch as people bullfight the cows. In San Lorenzo, they built a small stadium out of wood and charge people to see the toros, but hey, atleast you get a stadium seat. A lot of times people from the crowd hop it and give it a go, it is pretty fascinating to watch. Usually, it ends up being drunk people who run in the ring and try to get the cow´s attention, once successfully done, they run to the side of the ring and hop over before the cow rams them. Sometimes it is successful, sometimes it isn´t. The crowd gets into it when someone get tromped, as long as they are not too hurt. By the way, there are red cross people in the crowd as well. Being stomped and showing off your scars in alomost like a badge of honor. My local friends want me to give it a shot, we´ll see how it goes.

2. ¨Baile¨- or dance for all you gringos out there. Pretty self explanatory, as it starts around 10pm and goes to about 2 or 3 in the morning, when the music shuts off. Mix lots of beer and trago (a rum type liquor) plus a DJ on the stage plus ecuadorians and you get the drift. 80% of the men are drunk and even some of the women drink too, but not as much. What gets me in that the songs are mixed into sets, so during one song you can dance from 15 minutes to sometimes 45 straight minutes. It is no wonder that ecuadorians don´t move around a lot when they dance, you would get too tired and the buzz might actually wear off. Not to worry though, there are people that walk around and hand you bear or trago during the dance. We wouldn´t want to lose the drunkeness factor.

3. ¨Games and Fireworks¨- A small old ferris wheel was built in our plaza, foosball tables are here, endless vendors hocking food, trinkets, music, and DVDs are everywhere. At night before the baile, firecrackers and small fireworks are blown up. Firecrackers are a big deal in San Lorenzo, everyone loves them.

So there you have it, enjoy.

When I first got to San Lorenzo nearly three months ago, the first week was exciting and filled with moments like ¨wow, its great that I am here¨and älright, the peace corps experience is finally happenning¨. Yet, after a week here, I started to get bored...really bored. On the pamphlet that details my project, at the bottom of it, it says ¨this site is devoted to someone who has a lot of motivation¨, so I guess that is what the Peace Corps thinks I have. There is no set project that I walked into, as most things that I work on are based on the seasons or when schools are in session.

So with me being bored, I just started walking around my community and tried to get to know people in my broken spanish. As expected, some interesting moments with a lot of lost in translation. It is especially tough with the older people because I can´t tell if they are speaking spanish or quechua or if i just can´t understand it...probably the third option. Anyways, people would ask me what I am doing and I would tell them that I am walking around (they give me the weirdest looks...especially if i am on a hike...if you are walking somewhere, it usually is because you are working, but not exercising).

What has really helped me out are these CAT tools, which have forced me to talk to practically every different family in san lorenzo and usually during the interviews I tell them my job description and often help with their gardens or doing something with english after that. This has opened the doors into doing other projects, like creating organic fertilizers and things like that. Though one part of my work is working on the canal, we have finished up the mingas (workdays) to clean up the canal so it can be used, doing projects at this point is going to be challenging because trying to communicate with the canal president is like talking to a wall. It is amazing how this guy got elected as president because everyone I talk to complains about the water situation here. Yet...he´ll probably get re-elected...that is small town ecuadorian politics for you I guess.

It really is amazing how time goes by faster when you have something to do nearly everyday, I finally feel like I am actually doing something. The first large project that I want to work in is getting a large shredder that can take food waste, chop it up, and in time, can be used as a compost/fertilizer mixture for gardens and farms. But the shredder must be built because I doubt anyone has one at a reasonable price in Ecuador. So I am going to have to talk to engineers in Guarandsa to see if they can help a gringo out, we´ll see.

I am also excited about august as San Lorenzo has its fiestas, in which the whole town parties every weekend for a reason I really don´t know, but I am sure I will find out soon enough.

first off i would like to say happy 4th of the july to the millions of people (or 10) who read this blog, it is always interesting being in a foreign country on major american holidays, especially when you´re literally the only american in your whole province. on the fourth of july, i thought i would write about an ecuadorian...obviously, right?

now i am working with as many farmers and families as i can with their fields or indivividual gardens. one of them is named luis, and he has literally inspired my work here...not to get all cheasy here or anything like that. luis lives with his family (wife and two kids) and has only 9 fingers because he lost his thumb in a late night accident in Guayaquil (where he used to live) before coming to san lorenzo. He lives in a large house (shack might be the most appropriate word) with no running water, no electricity, soil as a floor, and numerous holes in the wall. This might not seem too bad but it gets pretty cold here in san lorenzo and makes for a pretty cozy sleep. Luis has never been to school and his knowledge come from life experiences-

this may not seem to bad as many ecuadorians live without running water, electricity and have soil as a floor. but luis lives with such a passion in his life, every time i see him or work with him, he has a smile on his face as if he is lucky just to be living today. their family does not have any expendable income but he grows everything his family needs (organically by the way) with all ailments to illnesses coming from plants that he grows, like manzanilla. He has a real passion for the environment and the land he works on, he really respects it. He tries to pursuade people to grow different crops (instead of corn, wheat or potatoes) and grow them the natural way because when you don´t have the money to afford fertilizers, you have to figure out another way.

every time i have ¨one of those days¨, i go talk to luis and his energy seems to cheer me up and make me realize that even the worst days here aren´t that bad.

oh on a side note, my mom sent me a camping shower so now i am not showering with cold water like the pervious 4 months. i thought i would look forward to this day like christmas morning but a part of me is going to miss those cold showers, something about them is psychotically refreshing. i mean, i could take them whenever i want but when you´re in the sierra, it doesn´t seem too tempting.

for those of you in the states, blow up a piece of america for me today

So San Lorenzo celebrated its 475 anniversary on June 1st and they have a parade evey year to show off the organizations that they have in the community. One of the organizations is the cooperative of san lorenzo in which my counterpart in the manager of. So I wake up that day knowing that there is going to be a parade and celebration but what I didn´t know is that I was going to be in it as well walking with her. It definitely was a little awkward since we walked in the front of the parade just behind the president of the junta parraoquial (its like the mayor ) and no one walking behind us for a great length as everyone in town is there looking at you. I didn´t know whether to wave and stop or just keep walking while drunk people are yelling in a mixture of slurred spanish and kichwa (or quichoa)...at 10 am.

Last sunday the community had their junta parroquial elections (city council), in which my counterpart and her brother were on one of the lists. I would consider their veiwpoints to be more along the lines of the green party, or some type of a liberal candidate. Suffice to say, they ended up coming in 5th place out of 5 lists (although, one person was chosen from each list to be on the city council, so my counterpart´s brother made it that way). Anyways, this is important to me because in small towns, to get any projects going, you need to converse with the junta parroquial. I haven´t talked with the president too much but from what I hear she is pretty easy to get along with so I feel this won´t hinder anything moving forward, but who knows. What I am really glad for is that the elections are finally over in this town. Not a day didn´t go by that I didn´t hear a song from each of the party´s (yes, they all have songs) lists being played ad nauseum for hours every day. 6am? why not....10:30pm?....sure, lets give it a go. Then, we have each people who represent the lists drive around in their trucks with megaphones attached to the top of the trucks yelling out their propaganda. They sure enjoy their politics down here.

On a different note, at our house, we were out of running water for about a week at the start of june so i learned how to live without running water for awhile (wasn´t too bad, just a little more work). Anyways, I had to bath myself and learned the time old tradition of the bucket bath. I don´t think I have taken one of those since I was washed as a baby in the sink of our house. I found it a little hard not to get the shampoo out of my eyes when I washed my hair, I think I need to lean back further on attempts in the future. Live and learn I guess.

One of the first projects we are supose to do as PCVs is called CAT, which is basically a community needs assessment project. I am suppose to interview 50 or so families and find out what sort of long term porojects I can develop over the next two years. We give a presentation at our reconnect conference in a few months with our counterpart and then give the presentation again to our community. Anyways, during my interviews with the families (the ones that actually agree to talk to me...I think most people think I am a missionary or something), I inevitably talk about what I am doing in the community. I give the whole thing about community gardens, working on the irrigation canal, small businesses, and then I mention casually that I am willing to help out with english classes, or atleast tutor people who want help.

Usually people just smile and nod until I tell them that I am willing to help their son, daughter and themselves with english, then they perk up like it is christmas morning. ¨clases de ingles, en serio?¨ is usually the typical response. And word has gotten around town that the gringo is willing to help out with english, so this has given me something to do on top of the other stuff i am working on. I have to remind my fellow san lorenzons (i am sure that is what they are called) that i willing to help and tutor but that I am NOT an english teacher. It certainly has been a learning experience for me as one day I am helping a 10 year old kid who basically knows nothing to a 29 year old woman who can read and write but needs help speaking. I am trying not to make this my number one goal here but it has helped fill out the schedule and hopefully some of the kids will use it later in the their lives.

As far as the other projects go, i have my own demonstration garden going and have had a few workdays getting the community garden going at the local health center. Also, we have had a few mingas (workdays) on the canal outside of san lorenzo, avalanches of dirt get into the canal as must be cleaned out with many of the following combination: shovel, pick, hoe, 35 to 40 ecuadorians, one tall gringo. Any of these combinations will suffice to cleaning out a canal. Make sure that it is really hot while you´re at it.

Other than that, I am just trying to intergrate with my community, really try to get to know the locals, it has been fun at times, awkward at others and plain hilarious when you see people who are afraid to talk to you sober but when they are drunk (usually sundays), they absolutely love slurring their spanish to the new gringo.

Till next time

During our training, the peace corps does a session on your state of mind once you get to your site. It is said that volunteers go through a U curve of some sorts. First you arrive in Ecuador or at your site, and you are in the honeymoon period. Everything is so exciting to you, the food, the culture, learning spanish, getting to know your fellow PCVs, etc. Then reality starts to set in, you start missing your family, friends from back home, miss having all the creature comforts that you had back in the states. It is said that you enter a depressed period. Then with time, you either stay depressed and truly start to dislike this country or you start heading back up the U curve, into the humor/ acceptance stage of your perios of service. Well, apparently, this weekend I went through the whole damn U curve...

So for the first time last weekend, I really got sick. Not the ¨oh, I have diarrhia, i just need to drink some water and I´ll be alright¨, that happens all the time...or atleast to me. Not only did I have diarrhia, but I had these sulfur type burps, which are not fun and they taste absolutely disgusting. I would of thrown up too had I actually been able to eat some food. The reason I got sick...maybe it was playing with animal shit all day trying to get a compost pile going while later cooking that night with meat that was probably better left untouched. This was sunday...monday and tuesday really didn´t feel that great. Everything little thing that bothers you about a place becomes compounded when you are sick. The cold showers, eating plates of white rice after white rice, the bumpy bus rides that take twice as long as they should, that fact that in most houses, I can´t stand up straight because the walls are made for 6ft gringos and that you have lost weight from being sick. All those things, and then you realize ¨why am I here right now...what am I doing here?¨

Yet then you wake up one day (i.e. today) and you feel better. The air smells cleaner, you can actually eat breakfast, the spanish just seems to flow out of you, you don´t have to think about it. You realize that life here doesn´t suck, it would of sucked if I was sick in the states too. And you´re heading back up that U curve...

After nearly a 10 month application process (how many times did I have to go to the dentist?), then a 5 month wait after learning that I would be going to Ecuador and 9 weeks of training, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! It is...finally...here. Omnibus 101 swore in last wednesday at the ambassador´s office in Quito in the lawn in front of the building. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I am exciting about getting to my site, integrating into the community and continuing some projects however I will miss my fellow volunteers from 101 that I have gotten to know pretty well over the last 9 weeks. Anyways, I guess all good things must come to an end as I get ready to the real Peace Corps experience. I got into San Lorenzo on Thursday, a day after the swear-in celebration...I´m not going to lie...the 6 hour bus ride wasn´t the greateast experience I have had ;-). Anyways, I am excited to be here and glad that training is over (another safety and security session and I don´t know what I would have done...)

We spent three days in Quito before heading out, it was kind of crazy because Ecuador just had its presidential elections and Rafael Correa got re-elected, which is apparently the first time that has happend in the last 40 years. There have been 8 presidents in the last 10 years...so stability might be a good thing. I don´t know too much about Correa so I won´t comment on it, but it seems opinions are mixed. The interesting thing is that when we were in Quito, we were all standing on a street corner and a guy told us that ¨Correa was coming around the corner and we couldn´t cross the street¨. Not 30 seconds later, a caravan rolls by and Correa passes us by with his window down not 5 feet away. I was dissapointed I didn´t get a pic but I did wave as us and ask us where we were from. Ahhh, the glamarous life of a peace corps volunteer!

Anyways, I got an address at my site, if you want to send me something (letters, paperbacks, non perishable food would be appreciated). Just don´t declare anything and limit it to under 4.4 pounds (4 pounds to be safe), I don´t want to go to customs to pick it up.

Josh Raser

Casilla 02-01-32

Guaranda, Ecuador

South America

till next time...

A lot has happend in the last two weeks as I have not had time to update this thing. It was cool spending Semana Santa in Pesillo with my host family and have some down time with them. One of the days my host mother made us fanesca, which is a typical ecuadorian dish, consisting of soup and other vegetables (supposedly it has 12 grains in it). It was really good...served with this drink that tasted like a cross between oatmeal and horchata. During that weekend, I got to experience something rather incredible. One of the PCTs, Ian, who is jewish, hosted a sader at the restaurant in Pesillo, where one other PCT, Mike, lives. Mike´s host family was there and so was every other PCT in Pesillo. It was interesting to say the least because first I didn´t know what a sader is and second, it was mostly in Spanish. You really have to love the cross-cultural immersion of Jewish and the Catholic religions together. My contribution to the whole thing was helping Mike´s host family paint their restaurant, pretty random but they were doing it and I offered to help.

After that, our entire group headed to Porto-Quito to start our 8 day cultural/technical trip. Porto-Quito is located about 2 hours west of Quito in what is known as a transitional zone. It was extremely hot and the conditions were almost jungle like...very humid. It was fun hanging out by the pool, playing soccer, and just relaxing for a few days. Even the cold showers felt nice! Anyways, we did do some organic gardening sessions, mixed in with a ¨leadership¨ session, which was actually very informational and not boring. I have tons of bug bites on my calfs to prove that I went there, the itching has just started to subside. After that, the sierra group (all the volunteers heading to work in sierra region, about 16 of us) headed to Riobamba, which is about 4 hours south of Quito. One of the larger cities in Ecuador, it was a good change of pace to actually experience a larger city in Ecuador. The agricultural group headed to an organic farm just outside of Riobamba and visited a farm with its own microclimate that can grow fruit (such as oranges, blackberries, and limes) that normally cannot be grown in the sierra because of its climate. Fascinating stuff and something to aspire to at my site. After Riombamba, the group headed to Salinas, which is about 2 hours west of Riobamba and 1 1/2 hours north of my site in San Lorenzo. Salinas is known for its cheese, chocolate and other value added products like soccer balls. Spending time there (along with some breathtaking hiking) showed me what could be done with local resources if used properly, definitely something to aspire to.

Really tired from traveling all day...10 more days until my projects begin!

Ashta Cama

As stated in the last blog post, my site will be in San Lorenzo, a tiny pueblo of about 800 people 6 hours south of Quito by bus. This week I got to visit my site for a few days, meet my counterpart, and look at some of the projects that I will be continuing. On sunday I headed down with Mary, who is one of our co-trainers and the PCV which I will be replacing. The bus ride was long...but once I got there, it was all worth it. San Lorenzo is a nestled in the mountains of the sierra, on a clear day you can see Chimborazo, which is the highest mountain in Ecuador. I arrived to meet my host-family, who is all super nice and welcoming. It helped to know that I am the 2nd PCV to ever be there, so everyone is down didn´t seem to shocked to see another gringo...I think. My host-mother is my counterpart (the person I am working closely with) and she also happens to be pretty amazing. She is a single mom, raising three kids (20 year old daughter, 13 year old son, 5 year old daughter) and is also the president of the cooperative that I am working with. I honestly don´t know when she sleeps but it has to be sometime during the night. I got along with the family instantly even though my spanish is not where I want it to be (which is to say...perfect) but it helps to be able to laugh at yourself.

I got to see the canal that I will be working on, it extends about 5 km back from the city in the hills...beautiful hike with amazing views of the city and surrounding communities. So if anyone comes down to visit me...you know of one place where we are going. Checked out the gardens at the schools...i said i would offer to help out teaching english...don´t be surprised if I am english teacher to go along with peace corps volunteer in a few months. I am really excited about a few reforestation projects that I can be involved with and the vermicomposting project as well. Basically we would take food waste from the city and chop it up in a shredder and use it in worm beds to make compost. We would still need to design and make the shredder, which mary would help me with.

As far as the cooperative goes...I will be helping Maria (my counterpart) make value-added products to help create small businesses. Two of the highlights are making marmelade out of sambor (similar to watermelon) and making wine. Wine is usually not grown in this part of Ecuador but it will be interesting to see what happens with that.

I am really excited about everything right now...I always thought my peace corps experience would be living in some shack by myself in the middle of nowhere with no running water and electricity. I don´t know if I got lucky or not, maybe I should of applied to go to Africa then. I guess I came in with such low expectations that everything I recieve is a luxury, I don´t know. Anyways...I got a week then we head out on our technical trips (a week learning agricultural practices with other volunteers that will be living in the Sierra)...stoked about that.

Ciao

So after 6 months of knowing what country I am going to in the peace corps (Ecuador, duh...), I finally know where I will be spending the next two years. My site is a small town about 6 hours south of Quito (by bus) in the Sierra called San Lorenzo, in the province of Bolivar. It is a town of about 800 people with a surrounding community of 2,000, sort of like Pesillo. The neareast city is Guaranda, which I will be going to for supplies and Riobamba (which I heard was really nice as well). One of the 4 co-trainers that we have right now worked and lived at that site so I get to pick her brain about everything. My official job description is a bit open-ended but here are the highlights:

1. I will be working with an agricultural cooperative that is interested in promoting small value-added projects and also work with the community to improve record-keeping and collection mechanisms.

2. Improve irrigation use and water management, especially field level irrigation

3. Crop diversification, school, and family gardens. (also help with solid waste management using worm composting)

It sounds like a lot and I guess it is, but I will be working in an unstructured environment and need to ¨self-motivated¨. We´ll see how it goes...very excited about the whole thing. I will be doing a site visit on sunday through thursday of next week in San Lorenzo to check it out and get to know my counterpart, the person who I will be working with the closest (she happens to be my host mother for the first 3 months so that is cool). From the map, San Lorenzo is sort of in the middle of Ecuador, maybe a little south...but I like it because I am in the mountains and can get to the coast or oriente (jungle) within a day, so I can visit other volunteers as well.

It is great knowing where I will be going to...finally, now I can prepare myself for the next stage of Peace Corps life.

Til´ next time

Here is the thing about living your whole life at sea level...living in a city that is 10,000ft above sea level is kind of hard to do at first. When I arrived in Quito...walking uphill on a street was like running a marathon, I felt exhausted. Everyone says that you need a few weeks to adjust to the altitude and they were not kidding, it takes a while. This is entering my fourth week in Ecuador and I finally feel like I am back to where I was before I left. I went for a hike in these hills outside of Pesillo with a few other PCTs (that is what we are called...Peace Corps Trainees) and actually felt really good, it felt great to actually do physical activities again and it is good to have people around me who share that passion. Also, the other thing I am getting used to is being at such as high elevation right on the equator...I got burned even though it was cloudy that day and I already put on sunscreen in the morning. So, I am putting on sunscreen even if it is snowing around here.

My birthday was last thursday and I, along with other sustainable ag volunteers got to go to this town called Puembo and spend a day learning organic agriculture practices on a farm. It was a beautiful day and the food was excellent (it all came from the farm!). WHen I got home, my ¨parents¨surprised me with red roses and a delicacy in Ecuador...Cuy! Cuy (guinea pig) is only eaten during special fiestas and days. I had been wanting to try it forever and I got to...pretty good I must say. It tastes like a gamey chicken with a duck-like crust. I enjoyed it a lot (and a good change of pace from the rice!). Things are going by pretty quickly down here, next tuesday (24th i think) I will find out where I will be spending the next two years of my life...very excited, think I will be happy wherever I go...Ecuador is a very beautiful and ecologically diverse country. Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!

Ashta Cama

I guess the one thing to make you stick out in a town of 1,000 Ecuadorians if you aren´t already an over 6 feet gringo is to go around town with your peace corps buddy and pick up animal shit with a shovel and a wheelburrow. Sounds like good times on a saturday afternoon, huh? We actually had a good reason for this besides the pure entertainment we caused the onlookers. Our group that lives in Pesillo officially started a garden project (which everyone does) and it is currently taking place at mi casa. Our garden should have the best compost pile because A) we have cuy (guinea pigs for the gringos) shit, which has the most nutrients in it B) we have egg shells, C) because during a field trip everyone else was giving us their wasted food scraps, indirectly helping our cause, and D) because we are badasses, duh.

We spent all day saturday working as group with the help of a few neighborhood kids (mi hermanito, Paul, is a great worker by the way) and tilled the soil with hoes and raised the beds. It is amazing what one day of working can do when everyone is working together. I am really excited about this garden. I will post pictures of that and my house and the nieghborhoood where I live in next time...if I remember. Other than that, things are moving along. I should find out where I am living for the next two years in a couple of weeks, I am really excited about that. Some of the meeting that the Peace Corps have are very thorough...if you catch my drift, but it is in our best interest I guess. I am learning more than I ever wanted to know manure and compost, but it should help me in the long term with whatever my project calls for.

Ciao

It has been a busy last 7 days, flying to D.C., meeting up with the volunteers, there are 46 of us! We flew down to Miami, then arrived in Quito with no problems, where we took buses to the hostel where trainers and other peace corps volunteers were there greeting us, it was nice. In Quito, we spent 3 days doing orientation stuff, like getting shots, taking a language interview test (I tested at intermediate, which surpised me) and letting us know what we could and could not do while we are peace corps volunteers...the list is pretty long. Anyways, we really didn´t have time to explore Quito since we were so busy but from the parts I did see, it seemed pretty nice. During our three days, we go to do a tourist thing but taking a bus up to the mitad del mundo (middle of the earth, equator) which was pretty kids, they had some scientific experiements that blew my mind.

As far as the host family siuation goes, we were put into groups of five based on our undertsanding of spanish. So since I tested out as an intermediate, I am with a group who all speak spanish at a similar level to me, which is nice. Our group got assigned in a small town called Pesillo, which is about 40 minute bus ride from Cayambe. This sounds a lot, but we only have to go into Cayambe two days a week for a technical training (for me, that is learning how to deal with donkey poop) and the buses go about 25 miles per hour since the roads are far from straight. Pesillo is a cool little town, most of the people farm and have pigs, chickens, dogs, or donkeys in the backyard. My place is a little nicer than I thought it would be, but you definitely know that you are in the third world, but I find the life down here refreshing and simple, which is a nice change of pace from the states. My family owns a little store in front of their house and have about 10 diary cows in a location about 5 miles from their house. I am now milking cows everyday in the afternoon! My forearms are getting a workout. My family is really nice, they have a son, 20, that works in Quito, a dughter, 13 and a another son, 7. I am getting along with them really well. I don´t think I have embarrassed myself too much...I think.

I am enjoying my time so far, relearning spanish quickly and looking forward to our agriculture sessions in the upcoming weeks and am safe as can be!

Hasta luego

Welcome to the long anticipated and hopefully highly entertaining blog of my experiences in Ecuador for the Peace Corps! I figured since I am leaving for the Peace Corps next Monday, February 23, I might as well kick this thing off. For those who don't know me and randomly stumbled onto this blog...thanks for reading! Anyways, my name is Josh and I am going into the Peace Corps as a Sustainable Agriculture Volunteer in the country Ecuador. I hopefully will be working with small farmers to adopt sustainable agriculture practices to increase production, develop small business projects with agriculture, among other things that involve agriculture and sustainability. Sounds like a lot...and I guess it is...but the reality is that I will probably be shoveling around animal poop all day. As of right now, I am doing my last minute packing (who knew I needed a vegetable peeler...) and working on my español before I take off for DC next monday. Anyways, here is what my schedule looks like (for the next few weeks at least):

February 23: fly to DCFebruary 24-25: Meet up with other volunteers, get shots, orientation and fly to Quito on the 25thFebruary 25-28: Hang out in Quito, get acclimated to the altitude, do language and culture trainingFebruary 29: Take a bus to Cayambe, Ecuador (a city about 1 1/2 hours north of Quito) and live with a host family and do the vaunted Peace Corps language and culture training for 9 weeks. 

Throughout the next 27 months, I hope to update the blog as much as I can with posts and pictures.  I will have a laptop down there but obviously getting on the internet will be a bigger challenge and who knows how often that will happen. 

Til' next time...