It’s the end of October and I have less than 7 weeks left in the Peace Corps… wow. I can remember getting to Ecuador and while it seems like such a short time ago, but I also feel that it was so long ago because of how much I have changed and adapted since then. So here I am trying to start processing that I’m leaving in a relatively short time. Right now it seems hard to imagine leaving my life here – my work, friends, my host family, and even my house with all the plantain and mango trees I have planted. Of course I’m excited for many things, including seeing long-lost friends and family, hot water, considerably fewer bugs, having my own means of transportation, etc. but it will definitely be a big adjustment. I am planning to take Dali with me now though, so at least I won’t have to deal with leaving her behind. I still have mixed emotions about it, as I think it will be an adjustment for her as she’s never been in weather cooler than 70 degrees and we’ll be arriving in December. And I know she will miss my host family and their dogs. But I also think that she will be happier with me, and if I leave her she will be sad at least for a long time. Plus I worry about her getting hit by a car and not getting the type of care she’s accustomed to (I pamper her a lot). So I don’t know what’s best for her, or if it’s responsible of me to take her with me when I don’t know what I’ll be doing a year from now or where I’ll be (hopefully in grad school somewhere!) …

Well to catch you up on what I’ve been up to since I last posted… I’ve been back in Ecuador since the end of August and have been doing better medically. My stomach has either adjusted more or I’m being more careful (I do think twice about buying just anything off the street now, though I refuse to give up some of my favorite foods) but I haven’t really had stomach problems. I did however cut my hand last week and had to get stitches. I was making dinner for my host brother Joao, as a “thank you” for always helping me and being a good friend, and I made spicy enchiladas. Well, since the host parents were gone that day, the host sister came over too, but she doesn’t like spicy food so I decided to heat up some lasagna for her that I had frozen. The lasagna wasn’t very good because it was dry and lacking sauce, but I had a container of frozen sauce too, so I was just going to add some sauce to make it better. I heated some up and we ate, then Najabi wanted more, so I went to get more lasagna and more sauce out. The way I got the sauce out was using my kitchen knife to scrape it out, like putting the point in the center and twisting it. Well, I had just sharpened my knife that day and the knife slipped and cut through the sauce, the side of the container, and into my palm. I know, pretty stupid and avoidable, and no, I was not drinking (though I had made a Gin and Tonic for me and Joao so he could try it)… It was pretty deep and bleeding a lot, and I ran to the kitchen and washed it off and let the blood drip down the sink. I called for Joao and he came in and told me I was definitely going to need stitches (I was just staring at it at the time) and I told him to bring me my medical kit and cell phone. I used an antiseptic wash to clean it, and then put gauze on it and called the Peace Corps doctor. She told me to go to the ER at the health center in my site, and Joao and I hopped in a moto-taxi and went. There they looked at it, cleaned it, and stitched it up. I almost passed out when they were injecting the anesthetic, as they stick the needle in the wound then poke around inside in about 8 directions injecting the anesthetic. I started sweating profusely, felt nauseous, then very dizzy, and thought it was a reaction to the anesthetic so then panicked more, but I told them I didn’t feel good and they had me lay down and after a few minutes it passed. They put me on a vigorous antibiotic regimen and I had a lot of nausea from the antibiotics for the week I was on them, and they likely killed off whatever natural antibiotics my stomach had regrown, but I’m off them now! Yesterday I went to Guayaquil because the Peace Corps doctor was there doing checkups and stuff, and she took out the stitches. I once again felt sick/dizzy/etc. but it wasn’t as bad as the first time and I didn’t have to lie down. She had a bit of a hard time getting them out because the scissors were big, so my hand is really sore today again. The cut is still pretty open, but dad said not to worry about the scarring and that the important stuff underneath is probably healed. But still I’m trying to immobilize it and have had it wrapped with an ace bandage since last night. So another week and hopefully I’ll be as good as new :) and I’m definitely going to be careful with my knife, and not try to cut through frozen stuff anymore!

I have spent most of my time in the last month and a half studying for the GREs. I had the psychology one the 15th in Quito, so I did all of my medical evaluations then. I got a clean bill of health – no cavities, no parasites, etc. The psychology GRE took me a little by surprise, which is bad considering I did 6 practice tests in preparation. I did a practice test the day before the exam and did pretty well and got a score I would certainly be satisfied with. Then the real test had more lengthy and complex questions and I don’t feel very confident in my score. But I was glad it was over and was completely exhausted. Then the 22nd I had the Revised General GRE test. I’ve focused more on the Psychology GRE than the General one, as the Psychology one clearly requires more specific and detailed knowledge, but spent the last weeks splitting time equally between the two materials. And the night before the exam I stayed at a friend’s house in Guayaquil, who was also taking the test, so we spent the whole day reviewing math and cramming the “top GRE words” list. I feel like the test went okay, except I did very poorly on the writing part. The paper test is more difficult for the writing section because you can’t go back and add things or change order, and also I am much quicker at typing than hand-writing. But I do prefer the paper version of the math and verbal sections, so I guess that balances it out. Anyway, I felt good about the math, ok about the verbal, and bad about the writing. I’ll find out when I get my score in 6 weeks! At least it’s over :)

As far as work goes, I’ve been doing less than usual. The new volunteer has started taking over several of the programs, and I’ve been doing some side projects outside of the high school. I finally found use for all of the children’s books I brought from the states – I started a literacy program in a very small elementary school about 35 minutes outside of my town. A friend is a teacher there, and since I only have a few books I wanted to go to a small school (all of the schools in my town are pretty big). I also have the environmental educational club up and running and they are planning a big event in the colegio to raise awareness and educate their peers. We are going to do a recycling competition between all of the classes and the winner will get their classroom repainted with an environmental mural. They also want to do a used clothing drive to donate to a small town for Christmas. First is the competition, then in December we’ll do the other project. Before I leave I still want to do an Ecuador map in the colegio too, but I’m hoping that will be done in the next few weeks. We’re also planning a big event for World AIDS Day with the health center. I went today and talked to a friend that works there, and she introduced me to the chair of the committee that’s planning the event (or, will be planning the event ya mismo!). We talked about the event and I’m going to participate with the kids from the colegio again this year. We’ll be part of the parade and have an informative stand in the open house in the park, and I’ll probably get the students to dress up like clowns or something fun again. I hope I can get the same youth as last year to participate again – I had a great time with it last year! Then on Friday Dec 2 we’re going to do another event in the high school since the students can’t attend the public event on Thursday. We’re going to have music and little skits and an informational booth. The Centro de salud is going to have several informational booths and also a clinic to do the rapid HIV tests for those that want to. I’m not sure how it will go over with the students, but I’m hoping it will be well received. We’re also going to do an HIV awareness mural either before or the day of the event in the colegio. Then after World AIDS day on Dec 1, I’ll only have another week before I head to Quito to sign my paperwork. After I do my Close of Service I’ll be returning to my site to get Dali, my bags, etc. and flying out of Guayaquil on the 18th. Hard to believe it! I’m excited that I’ll be here for World AIDS Day, as that’s been one of my favorite events over the last 2 years.

Okay, I’m gonna get off here because my hand is really hurting now. And I should do some work stuff or grad school stuff :) I’ll try to write again soon about how the final projects are going and what I’m doing to finish things up here.

So it’s been a really long time since I wrote, and a lot has happened since then. In june I went home for one of my best friends (from college) wedding. I ended up getting stuck in Chicago overnight, but really was only a 8 hr delay and by the time I got to the hotel (an hr from the airport!) and slept 3 hrs I was headed back. I got to Cincy on one of the early morning business flights, completely exhausted but happy to be home. First we went to get breakfast, and then did the dress fitting, then I picked up another one of my best college friends and sorority sisters from the airport, who flew in from Maine for the wedding. She came a few days early to hang out with me :) When we got back to the house it was naptime, then I set about getting my life organized. Luckily I was able to take 2 weeks of home vacation instead of 1 (since I extended my service an extra 4 months). On Friday, the day before the wedding, we drove up to northern Ohio (roadtrip!) stopping by Wittenberg on the way. There I had Mike & Rosy’s (the restaurant I worked at in college) and met up with a couple college friends that are now working at Witt. From Witt to Norwalk it was all country roads but it was great getting to catch up with Natty on the drive. Two years since we’ve seen each other and so much has changed, but when we are together it’s like old times. When we finally got to the hotel, we dropped our stuff off and met up with another sorority sister who had arrived as well, and we all headed to the reception hall to help decorate and hang out. Then we went to bed to rest up for the big day! Since my hair was really short and I was trying to save money (Peace Corps volunteer = broke) I didn’t get my hair and nails done with the other bridesmaids but instead just met up with them to get dressed. Kelsey looked so beautiful in her dress! When the time finally came we loaded up and headed to the wedding, which was by a lake on a college campus. It was so funny we were trying to hide the bride running around outside ducking behind walls until we found a “safe” place to wait for the wedding to start. When the moment came we all walked to the lake and it was soo beautiful. Since I hadn’t been there the day before for the rehearsal the order got a little messed up up front, but it was okay because everyone was looking at Kelsey and Jack, the bride and groom. It was so picturesque and a beautiful sunny, clear skies day for the wedding. It was over pretty fast and we stuck around for pictures, then we headed to the reception. It was very casual and fun, and I couldn’t believe they were finally married (they had been together since high school and I had never known them when they were single). I was so happy I was able to come home for the wedding and be part of their special day. And it was so exciting to get to see so many people from college! Who knows when the next time we’ll all be together will be – who’s getting married next? Haha

The next day we all pretty much just got up and headed home. Natty and I met up with another sorority sister in Cincy that night for pizza, so they could see each other before she flew out the next morning. I had a dull headache that evening but figured it was from not sleeping much the night before. The next morning I dropped her at the airport then went home and went back to sleep. When I woke up I had a terrible headache and later that night, a fever developed. So I figured I’d picked up something at the wedding, and just rested. Well that whole week the fever and headache continued, and I spent most of the week in bed or laying around the house resting. I was still trying to get ready to leave the next Tuesday, so I did some errands and visiting in that time, but the headache at times was so strong that I couldn’t stand up. On Thursday my dad called a doctor friend and he agreed to see me, so I called the Peace Corps Office of Medical Services and got permission to go see him. They did a flu test which came back negative, but the doc said based on the symptoms it probably was the flu (since the tests are only about 70% accurate) and that they couldn’t give me Tamiflu at that point so I’d just have to wait it out. They offered to do more complete testing but I decided to wait and see if I got better. On Saturday I was worse and decided to get some testing done, so PC office approved and they sent in for a full workup (Malaria, Dengue, flu, blood panels, various stool tests, etc.) and I got that done Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon the doc called and said I was positive for giardia, a protozoa in stool, so I did the treatment for that. Then Sunday he called again and said I was positive for Epstein-Barr virus, aka mononucleosis, which is likely what had been causing the fever, headache, etc. So I checked with Peace Corps and they decided to put me on Medical Hold, which basically means that I’m in the states until further notice (maximum of 45 days) without terminating me status as a Volunteer and without having to use more vacation days. Later that week the doc called again to say I was also positive for E. Coli, and put me on antibiotics for that. Though I originally didn’t present with swollen tonsils or sore throat, by Thursday I hadn’t slept in 2 days, could no longer swallow without excruciating pain, and my tonsils were so swollen and puss-covered it was unbearable to even talk, so I was writing to communicate. Unfortunately I still had to take antibiotics for the E.Coli treatment. But since I wasn’t able to eat anything but small quantities of broth and ice, both of which were painful, the antibiotics were making me very nauseated. So it was a nasty cycle, and by Friday morning I was dehydrated and felt like I couldn’t take the pain and nausea anymore. So we got an appointment with another doctor in the same practice (the other was on vacation) and went to see her. After checking me over, she decided to admit me to the hospital, so we headed over and checked in. They ran the IV for rehydrating and to give me the antibiotics, steroids, and pain meds. I was pretty miserable for the first day but the pain meds helped and allowed me to sleep, which helped my mental health at least. At home I felt bad calling for my mom in the middle of the night for ice or pain meds but at the hospital that’s what the nurses were there for so I didn’t feel guilty. The steroids helped the swelling and not having to take the antibiotics orally made me feel better, and little by little I got better. Once I was doing a little better, a few friends came to visit, as well as a couple of people from church and of course my parents, and I was lucky to have my best friend from high school working nights (she’s a RN) on the floor below mine so I got to see her lots! Then finally 4 days in the hospital (and on July 4th!) the doctor decided to send me home to finish the recovery. I spent a few days in bed recovering, sleeping pretty much 14-16 hrs a day. That was the most tired I have been I think, but then by that weekend I was feeling a little better and got back to sleeping more like 10 hrs. Mom went to Germany for a couple days, though she wanted to stay I made her go :) Then when she got back, I was there a few more days before I got the medical clearance and came back to Ecuador June 21st.

After I got back to site, I ate something bad and was sick with a 104 fever and diarrhea 4 days after arriving in Ecuador. I was worried about my spleen and/or the mono coming back in full force so I called the Peace Corps doctors and had tests done. They put me on antibiotics and the fever and stomach issues went away pretty much right after I started the antibiotics. The next Monday I went to Quito to help the trainees do a World Map project in the training center in tumbaco. We nearly finished the world map the first day (Tuesday) and I was going to be there until Thursday evening, so we used the leftover supplies to do the first Ecuador map, and one of the trainees had an idea for a mural that we started as well. It was a lot of fun getting to paint for 3 days, getting to know the trainees and see staff. On the last day, Thursday, the trainees had a lunch for their host families, and I ate the food there. Turns out they don’t quite know how to prepare foods yet, and by the time I got back to Quito (I was staying in a hotel overnight) I was feeling really sick and had a lot of diarrhea. I tried eating a little, but after eating nd drinking a Sprite I threw up. Then I threw up again, and when I wasn’t throwing up I had diarrhea. The problem with being sick was that I was flying out at 7am to get back to Guayaquil, then had to take a bus to my site, and had a big event Friday that I needed to be feeling ok for. So I got a couple hrs of sleep, ate some pepto, and went to the airport. It was dangerous – I had to go to the bathroom about every 15 mins even though I hadn’t eaten or drunken anything since about 4pm the night before. But I just went to the bathroom a lot, got to Guayaquil, and used the bathroom then got on a bus, hoping I could make it back to my site. Thankfully at that point I had virtually nothing left in me and made it to my site without having to get off the bus. Friday we had a big youth concert that I’ve been planning with a youth group for the last 4 months, so I went to sleep for 2 hours then got up and had to get to work. I just drank Pedialyte and thankfully it seemed that the food poisoning had all been cleared out so I made it through the event without problems. The event was really fun, and though of course not everything worked out to plan, we had a great turnout and the bands that performed did really well. We had a break-dance/hip-hip group and a theater from Guayaquil, a dance group from Pedro Carbo, a folkloric music group, and a fairly well-known Christian group from Pedro Carbo (my host brother Jair’s group). We also had invited 3 other groups but they didn’t end up performing, but it worked out just fine in the end. I was very happy with the event, especially considering I hadn’t been here to do anything for the last 2 months haha.

Though I had just been home, I ended up going home last Friday for my grandpa’s funeral. He had been sick and doing very poorly for the last few weeks, and passed away August 17th in the morning. It was very hard for me to be here while it was all happening back home, especially when my parents called to tell me that he wasn’t going to recover and likely would be passing within a couple days. I wrote him a letter the day before he died, and thanks to my parents was able to go home for the funeral. The visitation, church service and burial were all packed with friends, family, and loved ones. His sisters all came, some from as far as California, Chicago, and Florida. And though Kevin had just gotten to Texas (for grad school in Austin) he also flew home. Ryan and Jenn and Ang all drove up too, so it was great getting to be all together again. And I know having everyone together made it easier. But these things are never easy, and I know it would have been much harder if I couldn’t have gone home. Grandpa was a great, loving, strong man and he will be missed by all.

Now I’m back in my site again, and have to get work “restarted”. The new volunteer who is replacing me is here now, so after 2 years as the only American, that will be an adjustment for me. And since I’ve basically been gone since June I’m going to have to restart all of my work – boo! Dali was very happy to see me again, and after giving her a bath today I got some pictures of her. She’s so cute :) Ok well I’m gonna sign off – hasta luego!

So it’s been an embarrassingly long time since I posted anything on here.. Sorry. To be fair, I checked on here a few times and no one had commented about my absence, so I figured maybe no one was reading it anyway. Also, I’ve been journaling by hand every couple days, so that makes me feel like I don’t want to post on here… But alas, I’m back to talk about what I’ve been up to the last… 3 months :)

Soooo since February, I had a stressful time off work, in which I was bored, thinking about home, and getting increasingly frustrated with things here. But since I started back to work in April I’ve been feeling pretty good.

So, catch you up on work really quick. I’m doing 2 afterschool English courses, one with the kids from last year and one with new kids. The new kids are in their last year or 2 of high school (so juniors/seniors) and this year they’re from a very diverse range of classes. I have kids from all of the specialties (chemistry, mechanics, accounting, social sciences, etc.) and they were selected based on their interest in learning English (hopefully making the class more stable as far as week to week attendance). Then my Tuesday students are the same from last year, which I combined into 1 class since we only had 18ish that consistently showed last year (plus the seniors who graduated already). And I’ve allowed about 5 of them to bring friends to join the class. They seem like a pretty good group. They did fairly well on the pre-test (an English exam that will be re-administered at the end of the year), so I guess they learned something last year haha.

And in the colegio we’re doing another set of Cuanto Sabes de VIH y SIDA, the HIV education program. This year two of the previous participants (who entered the course as problem youth) are helping us run the course as youth educators since two of last year’s youth educators didn’t have time for the program this year.

Also on Saturday mornings I’m working with the group of “problem” youth from last year, who participated in Cuanto Sabes. We’re doing a youth group, and I selected each of them to help me plan activities for one meeting, and themes for each meeting, such as “leadership” “teamwork” “sexual education” “family planning” “communication” etc. I think we’re going to go to the town’s pool one day too, as that was their request. I guess I’ll find a way to work that into our curriculum :) And since there’s only about 10 of them in the group, they’re supposed to invite one other participant to come to our meeting on Saturday, so we’ll see how that goes! I’m looking forward to working with them – they’re a really fun group.

Other than that, I’m trying to get a couple more programs running in the colegio. One is a escuela para padres (school for parents) in which I’d do workshops with groups of parents to help improve communication with their youth, or educate them on various themes. I’m hoping to have that up and going in June. The psychologists also asked me to help them work with “problem” students during classtime, so I’m not sure what exactly I’m gonna do with that. After seeing the progress and positive change in the youth I worked with last year, they apparently think I can fix any problematic student ha. Also, after doing a big event for Earth Day (see below), one of the teachers presented a project idea to me about doing an environmental education program. After discussing it, I think we’re going to train youth on environmental education and use them as peer educators within the school. And if that goes well, we are planning to expand the program to the other schools in town. In addition to workshops, we’re gonna paint murals and make materials for future workshops. So funding of course is always a question, but after talking to my program manager last week, it looks like that won’t be much of an issue :) So in the next couple days I need to sit down with the teacher and we can start making real plans and apply for the funding.

So the Earth Day event in April was something I thought of on a whim, then wrote it up and went to the high school to talk to them about it. Then of course everything fell into place, more or less ha. It was all art-related, with different activities. First, we went around and announced that we were having a school wide art competition and that the 5 winning designs would be used in a mural, matted and hung in the rectors office, and the winners would receive a secret surprise (yes, it was a secret even to me until the week of the event ha!). So the Wednesday before Earth Day I had to prime the wall so we could do the mural Thursday, then went to collect the designs and we ended up with 264, which was a huge surprise. Granted, there are nearly 2000 students, so statistically it wasn’t a huge percentage, but I was just hoping for 100! That night I stayed up until 3am going through the designs and finally selected the 5 winners. Then I and created a unified design incorporating the 5 designs. The next day was the planned assembly, where we would talk about the meaning behind Earth Day, explain what Global Youth Service Day is, and present the 5 winning designs. Buuut as is my luck, it rained the whole night and whole morning. So we postponed that. But by 10 the sun was up so we started doing the mural. I and the art teacher drew the design on the wall and started getting kids out of her class in small groups to paint. We painted all the way through 5pm that day, and some of the kids wanted to come back the next day, so we headed back Friday morning at 8am to start again (the school was on holiday that day for something). After another full day, we had more or less finished. The only thing left was doing some outlining and touching up the details (which I decided I was just gonna do myself to ensure good results…). I planned on going in on Saturday or Sunday, but after working the whole morning Saturday in the Cuanto Sabes and youth group programs, decided to rest and instead went in Monday. Finally, it was clear skies in the morning so we had the assembly and presented the winners. It was cool because the winners ended up being from different grades, so we had a diverse group. We gave them certificates and took photos with their matted designs, and planned when to have the pizza party (what I had finally decided would be the prize!). Finally, Thursday we had the pizza party. I made another huuuuuge pizza – enough for 20-25 people (had it cooked in a bakery), a big pan of brownies, soft drinks, chips, etc. We invited the English department (since they’d helped me with so much), the teachers and psychologists that were involved in the planning, the secretaries, and the rector of the colegio. And finally, after nearly 2 weeks of nothing but doing the project, the Earth Day event was over :) I still have to paint on the protective varnish though – oops :) I really enjoyed the event and seeing so many youth involved in the design and painting process, and received a lot of requests from the students for another art competition/mural painting. I told them “ya mismo” ha

Last week I was in Quito for our Close of Service conference, where Peace Corps starts to prepare us for closing our service, finishing projects, telling people goodbye, as well as the possibility very difficult transition back to the states. Back to the high cost of living, back to not having jobs, back to the real life. Most of us will undergo “reverse” culture shock trying to readjust to what used to be our normal lives. It was interesting thinking through all of it and trying to mentally prepare ourselves. However, for me and several of my fellow 102ers (102 was our training group number, so I refer to ourselves as 102ers), that transition will be delayed. I received official news last week that I received my request for an extension of service, meaning I will be staying in Ecuador until December 21, 2011! I will be using that extra time to continue my work with the schools and transition the new volunteer that will be arriving to replace me in August. I see is almost as a second opportunity to do everything I’ve thought about, or wanted to do during my time in Ecuador. For example, I haven’t really done a lot with environmental education and this project idea fell into my lap in April, but that wouldn’t have been a possibility with my extension. It will also make my time back home a little shorter before grad school (hopefully going August 2012). So my new plan is this: get home in December, spend about a month at home getting reacclimated, then start traveling. I want to go see my brother and sister-in-law in Tennessee, spend some time with my sister in Lexington, visit old college friends anywhere from Maine to Baltimore, and spend a month or so in Texas visiting my brother who is moving out there for grad school. And that’s just in the U.S…. I realized recently that my dream to go to India may never happen if I don’t do it before I go to grad school. Sooo, I’m thinking India in April of 2012. Anyone want to join me??? I’m hoping to find some sort of short-term work (volunteer or whatever) so I have some structure, but still able to travel around the country and see the culture, eat the food, who know whatever else. And another volunteer will be in Bangladesh next year, so I may head there to visit her too. I know what you’re thinking. 1, I haven’t even gotten back to the states yet why am I planning to leave already! And 2, isn’t Ecuador enough as far as adventure and exotic life. Well, number one, I’ll likely be spending the rest of my life back in the states. And number two, my answer is that I don’t want to put off this dream and I guess I’m trying to check this off my bucket list. And I figure if I go to grad school, I’m either gonna get funding (crossing my fingers for that one!) or will be tens of thousands of dollars in debt, which I’ll spend the next 5-10 years paying off… so why not go blow my money traveling to Asia and just go MORE into debt when I go to grad school, because let’s be honest, what’s another few thousand dollars of debt to pay back… anyway, I guess my mind can change any moment, but I really feel like this is what I want to do. Ask me in a year and we’ll see ha. Oh, also at the conference we did another oral language proficiency test (like the same we did during training) and I received Advanced High level of Spanish, which I’m very happy with :)

During our trip to Quito we also got to attend the event for the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps (and 49 years in Ecuador). It was a very classy event, and I was glad I brought back my little black cocktail dress when I went home for Christmas! And the highlight of the event for me was that 2 weeks before the event I received a call from the PTO at the office asking me to speak at the event! They wanted me to talk about Ecuadorian youth and touch on some of my experiences working in my site. It was a great honor to be selected, and honestly a huge surprise to me. I told her that had she asked me 2 years ago my answer would have been “definitely not” but after 2 years working and growing in Ecuador, I was happy to do it. And after she had my interest she said “oh, it’s in Spanish in front of approximately 270 guests” – YIKES! But I knew I’d be upset with myself if I turned it down, so I wrote the speech, sent it in, had it edited, etc, and “practiced” (yeah, I only read through it maybe 10 times…). I was really nervous once we got to the event and couldn’t really focus on what everyone before me was saying (I was at the end of the event), but finally it was my turn. I was so nervous I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to walk up to the podium. When I got up there I was shaking but I put my speech in front of me, grabbed ahold of the podium with both hands, and started. I apparently spoke really fast at the beginning, but at some point I looked at my fellow 102ers, and just relaxed. And once I reached the part where I talked about a funny experience working with the “problem” youth in the Cuanto Sabes program, I stopped reading the speech and started telling the story. I’m not sure how Peace Corps felt about me going off of the written speech, but I jumped back in a couple of times to throw in the phrases they had made better from my original speech. And then I finished. It was over before I knew it, and I walked away happy with how it had gone. I’m completely satisfied with it and so glad I put myself out there and accepted the invitation. Then of course we had free wine, so I celebrated :) My host brother Joao also was invited to the event and came up for the evening, so we walked around greeting people and presenting him to the Peace Corps staff. I also was interviewed by a radio program, but she just asked more personal questions (what’s your favorite thing about Ecuador, what brought you here, what foods do you like, what work do you love doing, do you have an Ecuadorian boyfriend, do you want one, etc). Overall the event was really really nice (sushi for appetizer!) and it was so nice that Peace Corps invited my group to attend as part of our Close of Service Conference.

Alright, I’m gonna sign out, but I’ll try to keep this stuff updated more frequently… and if not I’ll be back to the states in June for a week so maybe then!

So lately I’ve had a lot of downtime from work since we’re still in vacations from school, but I guess in 2 weeks we will start doing the planning for the entire next school year so I’ll be doing some prep in the next few weeks. I want to literally plan out what I’m going to be doing in ever session for each program that I’m going to be doing. I’m also starting planning to do another concert this year like we did for Global Youth Service Days last year. We’re looking at doing it in August for International Youth Day instead of Global Youth Service Days since the concert was rained out last time. And in August we would be safe from the rain… Since the youth group that planned the concert last time is no longer together, I’ve approached a group of youth that are currently in the process of getting started up in Pedro Carbo. The couple people I’ve talked to seem to be excited, and the best part is that they have done several fundraising events and have had a lot of success, which will be essential to having a concert without external funding sources. I’m also going help them with some project ideas they have, including doing some youth development workshops and leadership activities. Plus they’ve had a lot of trouble making contacts in the colegio (high school) that I work with so I think I can help some with that. We’re trying to get things planned really early so that we can have a successful event in the end.

Speaking of our event for Global Youth Service Days, we’ve been getting some late results from our concert etc. I got a call from my program manager a few weeks ago that the agency Youth Service America, who founded GYSD, included us in their “toolkit” for planning the event in 2011, as an example for a successful event. We’re in the following document:

http://tools.ysa.org/downloads/gysd/toolkits/introduction.pdf

on page eight of the “Introduction” document if you wanna check it out :) It’s just a short description but it’s pretty awesome that we got international recognition for the event! Also, we had a page and a half description of the event on the Peace Corps Ecuador annual report, which is sent to all volunteers and their Ecuadorian counterparts. Finally, the office of press relations from the embassy came and interviewed me, my host brother (who coordinated the youth group and did most of the planning for the concert), and one of the youth promoters I work with in the HIV/AIDS prevention program in the high school. We have a possibility of being selected to be part of the Peace Corps 50th anniversary/49th anniversary in Ecuador video that Peace Corps Ecuador is putting together and will be showing at a celebration in August. I hope we get selected :) All of this was great for not only my town but for the youth that were involved, and I was pleasantly surprised for the sudden spotlight since it has been almost a year since the event. It also has lit a fire under my butt to get something planned for GYSD (something INDOOR) and also doing another concert here in my site.

The other side project that has occupied a lot of my time for the last few months is a supplemental manual in spanish that I was writing to accompany the World Map Project. The idea is that volunteers can either use the ready-to-use activities in the manual or give the manual directly to the receiving school/agency, with the hope that the maps will be more frequently used and create a sustainable project. Well, after sitting on the idea since September, I started working on it 3 or 4 times a week starting in January, and fiiinally got it finished last week. It turned out to be 64 pages, and though a lot of the content is maps or pictures, I also edited all of the photos and maps so that was a big consumer of my time. I was so glad to have it done! Now I’m just waiting on my program manager to edit it (definitely check my Spanish!) and get it back to me. She seems happy with it from what I’ve heard so far, so I’m hoping it will work well in practice with other volunteers!

Well I don’t have a whole lot more going on. I recently went to a friend’s site near here to visit with her and some other volunteers, and that was a really fun overnight trip! And on Friday I’m going to meet with my program manager to discuss some things and decided to stay with my friend in the city for the night and hang out. I’m taking advantage of having a light work-load and travelling a little. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to travel for Carnaval this year since I have Dali. I don’t think my host family will be staying here in my site so they won’t be able to watch her, so I think I’ll be staying home with her. I’m pretty bummed about that since Carnaval was so much fun last year, but what can I do :)

I’ve been taking Dali to jog pretty much every day, for a short distance but I’m feeling healthier and happier. I saw an unflattering picture of myself and decided I want to lose some weight and get back into better shape – I’ve been slacking for too many months! And the exercise keeps Dali sane and me from killing her haha. Plus I gotta get fit for Kelsey’s wedding in June :)

Hope you are all doing well, and I’ll hopefully be updating again soon with more interesting content! hehe

Ok I’m going to do several updates as different blog posts to keep the length down, so read back to the previous posts if you want to know what I’ve been doing for the last 3 months :)

Well in December I got to take my first trip back to the U.S. for 3 weeks for Christmas, so I was pretty excited the weeks leading up to my visit. Since I had just gotten my puppy, I was also feeling some mixed emotions as I didn’t really want to leave her. But I knew she would be my motivation to return after 3 weeks :)

So I was set to fly out the 8th of Dec in the morning and arrive at home around 11:30pm the same day. Since I had to leave Guayaquil pretty early in the morning I planned to stay in a hotel in Guayaquil. I also found out another volunteer would be leaving on the same flight to Miami so I invited her to stay at the hotel too. And a couple of Guayaquil volunteers also joined us since the hotel is so nice :) Well my host family decided they would drive me to Guayaquil on the 7th so we set out with the host parents, the host sister, the host dog (Max) and my puppy Dali. The plan was to leave Dali at the host grandmas house in Guayaquil but turns out those dogs didn’t like Dali, so we ended up taking her in the car to go to the hotel. But we took a detour because my host family wanted to buy a few things for my family, so we went to the artisanal market. And I found out Dali gets carsick, as she vomited all over the towel I had brought for her. So when we got to the hotel I felt even worse because not only was I telling my puppy goodbye for 3 weeks, but she was feeling really crappy from the car ride. But alas I told her and my host family goodbye for now anyway. That evening we went to a mall and hung out with my host brother for awhile before heading to the hotel and getting to bed.

The next day we headed for the airport in time for our flight, but I was having some stomach trouble so I spent much of the airport time in the bathroom haha. Our flight was late but finally we boarded and took off. 4 hours and some intense turbulence later, we landed in Miami on US soil. It was pretty surreal! We had arrived in Miami about 45 minutes late, and my connection was pretty tight, but I thought I could still make it. Of course we had to go through customs still though, and for some reason our baggage got caught up and didn’t come out for almost an hour, so I assumed I wasn’t making my connection. I ran through customs and talke to the lady in charge but she told me my flight was closed so I would have to reschedule. I was pretty upset, as were many other passengers, but I got into the rebooking line trying not to cry that I might not get home until the next day. To my luck, the lady said there was a direct flight to Cincinnati (I was supposed to go through Chicago) that would get me in 30 minutes later than my original flight :) So I found a pay phone (did you know it costs $1.00 to make a 5 minute phone call on a pay phone?? WOW) and called my mom to tell her about the flight change. After several hours in Miami, I finally boarded to Cincinnati, and though the flight was a little late taking off, arrived around midnight. I was so happy to see my parents waiting for me at the airport! We said our hellos and hugged then loaded up the car and headed home.

It was so nice to be home, and sooo comfortable. I was impressed by having climate control, hot water, good ethnic foods, toilets you can throw the TP in, a comfy bed, carpet in the house, etc. etc. etc. There are too many things to name really. Then there was seeing my friends, family, pets, etc. I’m just going to give a rundown of more or less what I did, because since the people who read my blog are from the U.S., and I saw a lot of you, I don’t feel like writing too much hehe

I hung out with my best friend from high school before anyone else, and we went to Panera for lunch (yumm!) then out to target, where I promptly bought all of the Glee CDs hehe. It was great to see her and amazing to see how much she’s grown up since I left :) Then the first weekend back was my roommate from college’s wedding, and even though we were expecting a huge snow storm, one of my BFFs from college decided to come to Cincinnati anyway. She got to my house the night before the wedding so we got to talk and catch up. Saturday we went and got skyline (actually Gold Star because the Skyline had closed) and drove to the wedding, where we got to see other friends from college. The wedding was pretty and it was great seeing people I hadn’t seen in years! Then we checked into the hotel and got ready for the reception, which thankfully a shuttle was taking us to and from. The reception was really pretty and I was soooo excited to have GOOD beer available. I enjoyed several different types of beer with the company of my old friends and it was overall a great night. Plus my old roomie looked amazing! After the reception we went back to the hotel and hung out at the hotel bar before heading to bed. The next day we all went our separate ways

During my trip home I had a few doctors appointments, went to the school that we have a pen pal program with and talked to them about Ecuador/Peace Corps, went out to eat with my family, and visited with friends and family a lot. Plus for Christmas Eve I was able to see the extended family and have Christmas morning with my family at my parents house. There were lots of dogs there this year, which was pretty intense but fun/funny. Dali would have fit right in! Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday and I really enjoyed being home. I got everything I wanted for Christmas this year :)

I haven’t written a blog post that does justice to my trip back home, but I think I’m done writing for today. All you really need to know is that I had a great time seeing friends and family, and will be excited to go back when I finish my service. I miss everyone a lot but am glad I was able to see people. :) And for now, I'm back in Ecuador, but have great memories of home to look back on for the next months as I finish my Peace Corps service.

Ok I’m going to do several updates as different blog posts to keep the length down, so read back to the previous posts if you want to know what I’ve been doing for the last 3 months :)

So my big final event before heading back to the states in December for Christmas was organizing World AIDS Day within the high school that I work with. The Cuanto Sabes youth HIV education program lasted through the end of November, with the graduation celebration the first weekend of December. Sidetrack for a moment: The program was such a great experience for me. The youth that taught their peers about HIV/AIDS demonstrated a great change throughout the duration of the program, from being very timid the first day to pulling of pretty complicated activities with confidence by the end. And the “indisciplined” youth that participated in the program were nightmares at the beginning but by the end they were so great. In reality we only planned to have 6 sessions but the last week they argued with me, claiming I told them we would have one more week. I was so impressed by their desire to continue (giving up their Saturdays by the way) that I agreed we could meet one more week. We ended up using that week to have a graduation celebration. I know these kids usually don’t get the opportunity to show their talents and be reinforced for good positive behaviors, so I decided to make a really big deal out of it. I made invitations and told the kids they had to invite their parents, and could invite friends or other relatives if they wanted. With the youth promoters, we planned who would bring what refreshments, and I promised them I’d make American style sweets, like chocolate chip cookies and brownies. The day of the event came and some of the kids showed up alone, but many brought a friend, a boyfriend/girlfriend, a parents, or a sibling. We played musical chairs then the teacher that helped organize the program said a few words. I also noticed the principal was there that day so I asked him if he would say a few words. Finally, I told the kids and parents how proud I was of the accomplishments the group had achieved, and gave each of them certificates for completing the program. The youth told me they want to do a program with me again the next year, which I intend to do. Finally we took a group picture and sent them home. Overall I feel like I learned a lot about these kids and how youth here think, and think I was able to reach and teach them through the duration of the program. I would say it has been one of my best experiences thusfar in Peace Corps.

(Photo of the Cuanto Sabes Graduation group)

For World AIDS Day (Dec 1) myself and my Cuanto Sabes group participated in the community-wide events, from the parade to the open house in the park. During our Cuanto Sabes program when we were talking about goals and the future, one of the boys mentioned that he was a professional clown for a couple years with his father, who is also a clown. He talked about decided to go back to school instead of pursuing clowning long-term, but that he liked entertaining people and making them laugh. So when I was thinking about what we should do for World AIDS Day, I realized I had some great talent available. I selected 8 of the youth who had regularly attended and participated in the Cuanto Sabes program and asked them to help out for World AIDS Day. With the high school I coordinated our participation and got permission for the youth to miss class that day. As far as our participation, I asked 4 of the boys to dress up as clowns, so we could present our message in a more fun way. During the parade they were hilarious! They were doing all sorts of clown stuff, from making human pyramids to doing the clown motorcycle skit, etc. I made a roulette board for community members to play a game and receive one of 3 prizes: condom, candy, or toy. I also had balloons to make balloon animals, and taught all of the youth how to make giraffes, dogs, and a couple other easy animals (which I myself learned how to make the night before via internet – thank you youtube!). So the clowns ran around being goofy, handing out balloon animals to the kids, and getting the adults and youth to play the World AIDS Day roulette.

The parade ended in the central park, where we were going to have an open house with other organizations from the community, including the maternity clinic, health center, etc. I had asked the health center for condoms to give away at our stand, so we had about 400 condoms to give to community member. I had asked the youth promoters to come and help by doing condom demonstrations and talk about the important topics like transmission of HIV. So they were doing a great job with that. And the clowns surprised me by also doing some condom demonstrations (correctly!) with some of their friends and other youth they knew. They did an excellent job! And 2 of the youth promoters even went on stage and demonstrated how to use a condom in front of the entire crowd – I couldn’t believe that these were the same youth who could barely speak in front of their peers the first day of the workshops! At the end of the event we were out of everything – condoms, candy, toys, and balloon animals. The balloon animals were a huge hit, as most people had never seen anything like it before.

The end results of World AIDS Day were that the youth demonstrated to their peers that being informed and preventative can save your life, which is ultimately the most effective way of youth education; that these “indisciplined” youth got to have an opportunity to shine and gain self-confidence in a positive manner; the high school saw that these kids aren’t lost causes, that they had a great amount of potential even though they require some extra effort; and I saw that even though I had worked with these youth for 6 weeks, I was still underestimating them and their abilities. It was an amazing, albeit stressful for me, day. And so that each and every one of the youth remembers that day and the potential they have, I printed copies of our group photo for each of them.

Photos of the World AIDS Day Activities

Ok I’m going to do several updates as different blog posts to keep the length down, so read back to the previous posts if you want to know what I’ve been doing for the last 3 months :)

Well it’s been a looong time since I updated my blog (sorry!) but I’m getting to it now finally :) So the last time I update was… November, right after I got my puppy. Yikes! Weelll my puppy is much bigger now than when I first got her. We went to a *real* vet about 5 weeks ago and had her checked over, and she’s in good health, and today we have to go get another round of puppy vaccines, and I’m excited to see how much she weighs now. She weighed 15.7 pounds before and I’m betting she’s around 20 now. I got her better dog food (Pedigree) since the last vet visit and she loves it, plus it supposedly is much healthier for her, so she’s gotten bigger without getting fatter. She’s definitely bigger than max now, has lots of energy and is very happy.

Last weekend we went to Puerto Lopez, a nearby beach, with another volunteer, and I decided to take Dali to see what she thought of the beach. She loooooved it! The getting there part was pretty difficult and she vomited (again!) in my host family’s car, but did okay in the buses. Once we got to the beach she was just so relaxed and happy! She really enjoys digging in sand now (there’s some sand outside my house and she’s always making holes), so she loved having so much sand to play with. And at one point I took her on a little jog along the beach and made her run into the water a little. She was surprised and she doesn’t like getting wet, but in the end she was running into the water by herself some :) There weren’t a lot of dogs so I let her run free some, and the dogs she did encounter were very playful. She also played some fetch and just enjoyed lying round and exploring. After awhile I decided to get into the water all the way to swim some, and she came to the water’s edge with me. She started to follow me but didn’t want to get too wet so she would run in and when the waves came in she ran back out. But she started getting very distressed as I went further out and decided to follow me, so she started jumping high above the waves and following me in. Then a big wave came and knocked her down, rolling her over, so I ran over and picked her up – she was pretty panicked haha. But that didn’t keep her away from the water, so I think she really did enjoy it :) The next day she again got in the water and ran along the surf, just so happy and free. It was hard taking her away from the beach since I could tell how happy she was there!

Since we’ve been back she’s back to her normal self – a lot of attention seeking behaviors, lots of barking, etc. but we’ve had several “playdates” with a neighbor dog that have kept her entertained. There’s a puppy about 3 months older than her that lives a few houses down, and previously said puppy was always tied up in the front of their house, but now the owners decided it’s big enough to run on its own, so they’ve let it loose. It always wanted to play with Dali before and I usually stopped to pet it, so one day it came to my house and I decided to let it into the yard to play with Dali. At first Dali wasn’t happy with another dog coming into her territory but it didn’t take long for her to be excited and play. The puppy stayed for about 3 hours that day, they chased and wrestled until they were both exhausted. Then it came back a couple days later and only stayed a short time (they were getting on my nerves). Dali is the dominant one, even though the older puppy is significantly bigger than her, and the other puppy is afraid of her. So when Dali got too aggressive in their playing, the other puppy would run and get under my legs, no matter if I was cooking or working or whatever, so I got annoyed and decided I’d had enough for the day. But it’s a sweet puppy and Dali loves having another dog to play with since Max doesn’t play at all.

Here’s a newer picture of my baby for you all to see how much bigger she is!

So I’m in Quito at the moment finishing up my medical midservice exams. Had both my physical and dental appointments today, which is basically everything. I could take a bus back tonight but decided to stay here and tomorrow morning go to visit my host family from La Chimba (assuming they’ll be around..). I planned to visit them during our real Midservice but with all the police issues and riots (see the post before), I didn’t get to see the family, so now’s the time! Tomorrow I’m gonna do that and head back on a night bus tomorrow night, so I can get back to my site as fast as possible because… of my new puppy :) Anyone who has facebook surely knows about my puppy, but those who haven’t seen her, here is a picture:

And here´s a link to my facebook album of her:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058046&id=46900557&l=ba9271a0ce

She’s cute right??? That picture is from the second day I had her, and now I’ve had her for 12 days, so she’s put on some weight, shed all the fleas and ticks, and is playful and happy. Currently since I’m in Quito I haven’t seen her since yesterday at 6pm, and to be honest I miss her :( my host family is taking care of her while I’m gone, but I like having her around. She’s a good cuddler and so fun to wake up to when she’s so playful. She’s a bit bitey, and I have some cuts on my hand to prove it, but she really likes chewing on her toys when my hand isn’t available. The last week we didn’t have work (vacations) so I was home a lot with her. I taught her some tricks – she now knows sit and ven (come, in Spanish). I also taught her how to fetch (more or less. Sometimes she forgets the ball, or drops the ball on the way back to see me, etc) and am trying to get her used to the Frisbee I bought her so that when she’s bigger she can fetch a Frisbee. She has a lot of energy, so once I’m back from Quito I’m hoping she will like going jogging with me to burn some of that puppy excitement off. Currently, she will play for about 30 minutes, then pass out for an hr, then play again, then pass out again. She eats A LOT. I bought her 2.5kg (about 5.5 lbs and I think she’ll have eaten it all by the time I get home from Quito yikes!

Well, I got her from a community that I work in. One of the mothers I work with, her brother had a bunch of puppies, and they had gotten rid of all but 2. So I mentioned to her I wanted a puppy and she said “okay” and there it was :) I went to pick her up and chose the one I have (out of the remaining 2). She was really really scared to be taken from her mom, didn’t enjoy the mototaxi ride to my house, and was covered with fleas and ticks and lice. So I took her home and gave her a hot bath (which she didn’t’ like either), made her some chicken rice soup, and laid her on a heating pad to sleep. While she slept I picked off the fleas that had survived the bath, ew. She slept like a rock! At first she didn’t eat or drink, but little by little she did. She was really weak and afraid of me for the first couple days. Every time I would walk up to her she would cower and shake, but over time she got used to my presence. I bought her toys and a towel to sleep on, and treats and food, etc. I also took her to the vet, got her some anti-worms medicine, and twice a day vitamin solution (apparently she had anemia? I know..) Now she has put on weight, has a great deal of strength, and even more energy – a good healthy puppy! I’m working on training her and trying to socialize her with other dogs, but unfortunately there aren’t a lot of dogs around that will play or not try to kill her.. Most of the dogs are very aggressive and want to hurt her, and the other dogs like Max (my host family dog) or Dino (my neighbor’s dog) have no interest in playing and just stand there while Dali barks and bites at them. I wish they had a dog park in my town! :) Of course puppies are a pain in the butt sometimes, like when I need to work and she’s so playful, or that she occasionally has an accident in the house (she is more or less potty trained though poop outside woohoo!!), but for now I’m soo happy I have her she’s such a great companion and makes me so happy :)

That’s about all I’m gonna write this time. But I´ll be updating soon as I am travelling to visit my first host family in La Chimba on Wednesday! I´m sure I´ll have lots to update, but unfortunately no photos because I didn´t want to bring my camera to Quito :( 30 days until I’m home! Catch ya again soon!

Quick update:

Today I’m working at home, trying to do paperwork and respond to emails, get ready for the work week, write a little of the world map activities book, etc. Last week I had a lot planned with the colegio: Thurs 3 workshops with the Cuanto Sabes (HIV program) group in three elementary schools in the morning then English class in the afternoon, Friday global handwashing day in the morning then a meeting in one of the recintos (communities outside of my site) in the afternoon, Saturday the first session of the Cuanto Sabes program in the high school in the morning, Saturday afternoon a meeting in another recinto. But as it turned out I ended up with a great deal of free time because the colegio let out early Wednesday and the kids didn’t have class the rest of the week. The teachers had meetings, something like in-service trainings, so the colegio was closed. They also told me all of the schools in the canton (county) were going to be closed; hence we rescheduled the Cuanto Sabes in the elementary schools. Turns out that was totally false (only 3 schools didn’t have class!), but we had rescheduled so oh well. So I just had the recinto meetings to go to. Those went pretty well, the Friday meeting we dealt with some roadblocks (figuratively) but the community came up with some really creative solutions. The one Saturday was supposed to be with the entire community, the leaders, and the mayor of my site, buuut it turns out the leaders didn’t publicize it as they promised they would, so we had a small meeting. With that group of mothers we’re starting some income-generation projects, which I’m stoked about. For now I’m teaching them to make cookies/cakes/brownies and we’re going to sell them (there’s not really any providers but there is a market). I brought some brownies and chocolate chip cookies to the meeting Saturday, they decided they liked them and want to learn to make them, and then we sold the rest and made over $10 in profits.

This week will be another busy week. Today is my relaxed day, then tomorrow I’m going to the municipio at 9am with the president of one of the recintos to start the process of soliciting funding for the casa comunal they want in their community. Then I have English class in the afternoon. This week they’ll be getting their pen pal responses in each of my classes and write their responses, and also are doing progress tests on the material we’ve covered in class (the Tuesday class did it last week and while they didn’t learn everything we’ve covered, they did really good overall!). So Wednesday we’ll be doing the Cuanto Sabes in the elementary schools, 3 sessions in 3 schools, which will take up the whole morning. Then in the afternoon, English class. Thursday I’m going to the recinto to teach the women’s group to make cookies/brownies, talk about best practices in income-generation, see if they have any interest in other types of project (paper making, soap making, community banking), and teach a little about money. I’m really excited about this project! I’ve been thinking about doing income generation with these ladies for awhile, and now we have the initiative and purpose (raising money for construction of a casa comunal). Then Thursday afternoon I’ll be in English class, again :) Friday I’m planning on starting with the English class in my host dad’s school, if I can bear it haha. Then Saturday morning we have our Cuanto Sabes with the colegio. Plus I have a feeling another meeting with one of the three recintos will pop up somewhere during the week. Busy week!

I just found out one of my friends that lives near me will be leaving to move to a different site, since she’s had a lot of problems in Guayaquil. So yesterday I went and spent time with her since we don’t know when exactly she’ll be leaving. She also doesn’t know where she’s going, but the two options she’s been told are both far from Guayas (in Esmeraldas and Loja) but I think it will be good for her. She’s been robbed a lot and is facing a lot of stress because of it. But it's always sad to see friends move!

Alright, I’m gonna sign off here for now. :) Jessica

So I guess everyone wants a blog update since all the media coverage about the political turmoil in Ecuador. It’s only been a week but it seems longer… Well as some of you know, I was in Quito for our midservice conference, which lasted Monday-Wednesday then I had to stay until Friday night to get all of my medical checkups (after a year we get out yearly physicals). Well, Thursday I was going to be free, just waiting around til Friday, so me and a couple people from my training group decided to go to visit our first host families in La Chimba. But I had phone issues so I had to stop by the office, so I was waiting for the office to open at 9. I went down and sat with a couple vols for breakfast, and one of them got a call from another volunteer who had been told to stay in Quito, that something was going on with the police. Someone called their program manager to verify it and we were told that yes, they had activated the emergency action plan, and the stage we were at just meant stay where you are. Specifically we couldn’t leave Quito because the police were blocking roads, stopping buses, and even closed down the airports throughout the country. We knew there were “problems” but protests happen like every other week in Ecuador, so I personally was like “yahyah another one…”. But as I put my bag back in the hotel room I saw on the news some really violent police protesting, the president in the middle of a mob, etc. so figured “ok maybe this is a big deal…” I decided to get my phone checked out at the office, so I walked down there with another vol. When we got to the office we were informed that not only could we not leave Quito, but we couldn’t leave the Peace Corps office. Of course, what is our first thought – CRAP it’s almost lunch time, what will we eat?! After hanging out gossiping and looking up all of the dramatic headlines on the (free) internet at the office, there was an air of curiosity and a little worry. The interim country director called us into a meeting and explained the situation and that we were being kept there for our safety since outside the situation was a little risky. No police, lots of criminals = not a good situation. Once the criminals realized the police were not protecting the country, chaos broke out – looting, bank robberies, petty crimes turning violent. Which seems to be the point of the police protest. One news report presented a quote from a police officer that basically said “One hour without police – let’s see what happens”. Okay so the reason for the police protest isn’t totally clear to me, but basically they say the president was going to cut their benefits (some particular types of rewards and benefits), but the president said that’s not what he was doing, so who knows. But either way they protested. Anyway, back to the story… so we hung out in the office which was pretty cool because we were able to see the office at work in a crisis situation. I will say that I feel much more secure in Ecuador having seen how effective they are at their jobs in emergency situations, even when our country director was back in the states for a meeting (hence the “interim CD”). Every 15 minutes or so they pulled us into meetings to give us updates, and even found out that one pizza place was not only still delivering, but also had a “police riot special” haha. So we ordered pizza and sat around waiting for more news. At some point, the president declared a state of exception, which is the step under military law. Basically, since the police weren’t protecting the country, the president authorized the military to step in and regain control of the violence, looting, etc. Finally, they decided to send us to the hostel that was a couple blocks from the office so that we could wait in a more comfortable environment. So we packed up the pizza, big jugs of water, and some military ration kits (in case of emergency) and they drove us in peace corps vehicles to the hostel (can you say blue diplomatic license plates – nice) where we were confined to the premises. Once back at the hostel we ate pizza then realized there was a possibility of being in this hostel for several days without leaving. The nice things about the hostel: they had a restaurant, cable TV in every room, hot water, and an adorable golden retriever that guards the place. Plus the staff were SOOO great for the whole time, helping us with anything we needed, going out to buy food to make dinner for 40+ volunteers, and taking care of us like we were their children. So I was thinking, alright a few days here while everything calms down – score! I will admit, though we were never really close to being evacuated, the thought of being taken straight from Quito without being able to come back to my site was devastating. It is something we should always be ready for, because it often happens that way. And we talked about it in training, have inventory lists etc so our belongings could be picked up for us, and I’ve even talked to my host family about it a little, but it was really hard thinking about it actually happening. But thankfully, Peace Corps decided to get us home – a lot sooner than I thought!

Thursday night, still back in the hotel, we watched as the military leaders (who up to that point hadn’t taken sides) pledged their allegiance to the president and democracy, which basically ended the theory that it was a military coup. To explain: yes, the country was in chaos and the police became the “bad guys” for awhile, but at least to my knowledge, the military was not behind the unrest. There were some units that had joined sides with the police, which oddly I didn’t hear about until I talked to my family back in the states that night, but the big problem with the conflict was not the military, it was the lack of police presence that caused chaos. And sure, the police were mad at the president, so he was at risk, but I am surprised it was called an attempted coup – it never appeared to be.

Anyway, after dinner we could hear the gunfight at the hospital where the president was being held captive as the military moved in to rescue him. It was surreal. We were sitting and talking in the restaurant when the news started showing action, so we stopped and watched, then realized that the “pop pop” we heard outside was the same gunfire we were hearing on the TV. The staff at the hostel decided to close the restaurant and told us to go back into the main building because they were concerned about stray bullets (again, taking really great care of us). Then the guy got out a fake gun and stood guard at the gate of the hostel complex (fake gun wouldn’t do much but it made us all feel better). About 20 minutes later, we watched as the president showed up at his palace and made a speech, then afterwards all news coverage ended and soccer was dominating all channels. Weird right? It almost seemed like it hadn’t happened… so bizarre. Well, since we were on lockdown, the hostel staff had bought a bunch of beer, because really what else is there to do?? So we hung out, drank a little, and processed the incident. I stayed up hanging out with some friends, and when we got hungry we decided to try one of the military ready to eat meals (called MREs, can anyone explain to me why they’re not REMs…?). Well, it came with tootsie rolls, (score) some really weird tasting fake cheddar cheese sauce, really dry bread, and a not too bad minty cookies. They had issued each of us 3 emergency rations, and said obviously we could eat them but probably wouldn’t haha. Each of the meals contains like 3000 calories or something, insane! Anyway, we tried the MREs, not impressed, and then I went to bed, totally excited to sleep in and have another full day chilling at the hostel with everyone.

So imagine my surprise when at 7:30am we are woken up and told to pack up that they’ll be picking us up to take us to the office :( Still soccer on the TV, still seems like nothing happened like it was a bad dream, weird. When we got to the office they told us that the country was stabilized and they wanted us to get back to our sites since it would be safer to be out of Quito if anything else started up. In fact, the country was safe enough that we could even travel on night buses without problems, so me and most of the Guayas people decided to hang out in Quito until the night bus. We went out to lunch, went to a movie, and chilled at the office – again, like normal, like nothing had happened. It’s something I can’t comprehend – one day there’s total chaos then the next we go to a movie and everything is normal. Anyway, we headed back on the night bus and it went without incident. In Guayaquil I went to a friend’s house to wait until my host family was passing through with their car and could come pick me up (was a little worried about the buses to my site since they are a little sketchy normally). So I came back to my site and people would just say “No pasa nada” and dismiss the whole “chaos throughout the country” thing with a wave of the hand. Granted, I was very happy that “no pasa nada” and I was able to come back to my site. And I’m still happy to be back =)

Aside from the big incident that I figured needed to be explained, everything has been going pretty well. I am still having my after-school English courses in the high school, but I’m going to be losing one of my classes (the older kids end class at the end of October to do practicum) which kind of sucks. A couple funny things happened when I was gone for a week to Quito – 1. everyone in my site apparently noticed my absence (from my lady at the market to my neighbor to the lady with the local tienda – who knew people noticed??) and 2. Everyone discovered work for me during my absence. The director of the colegio asked me to help with a “gang” of problem students that are on the verge of expulsion, using my psychology knowledge and great charla skills (sarcasm on both of those). Under the conditions that I can also work with the parents and teachers, I’ve agreed to come to the colegio and work with them on leadership, values, etc. to try to make a difference, but am pretty lost on where to start with the kids. Sigh. That will be my tough assignment. The easy and even more dreaded one is that I’m going to be teaching English 2 hours a week in my host dad’s school to a group of forty 5th graders, who have had zero English at this point. I can’t say no obviously, but the only justification for the English classes I have now is that it’s more of a youth development program, where we do a lot of character building activities and basically mini-workshops disguised as English class. So I need to think of a way to work with these 5th graders that won’t drive me insane, but with their total lack of English knowledge I don’t have a lot to build on. I will have to do boring stuff like the alphabet and colors… Outside of the schools, I’m getting into the heart of my community development projects. I met with a big group in one of the recintos (tiny towns outside of my site but part of the county) and we’re meeting again this week with *hopefully* the entire community to work through some of the details. This week we’re meeting with the whole community in another recinto, which is a community of about 200 houses (huge compared to the other ones I’m working with). I also went to the really small recinto and they’ve pledged to raise $50 toward the construction of an escuela. The funding is a real problem – I am hoping the local government will support the project, or I’ll have to start looking for other funding which I don’t know if I want to do. People here think all money comes from foreigners and I don’t want to reinforce that. I’m afraid I’m in over my head with this, but I think I’ll pull it off... somehow. The big problem is that my organization has given me zero zero zero help and I thought we were in on this project together. That’s another issue, another time.

Our Cuanto Sabes de VIH y SIDA (the youth HIV/AIDS education program) training of trainers was finished a few weeks ago, and now we’re getting ready for the newly trained youth to replicate their knowledge with their classmates and peers. Thursday we’re going to three elementary schools to do three workshops back to back (hope it’s not too much for them on their first time!). It’s mainly for practice and for PR (public relations) for the colegio, because the real thing starts on Saturday. They’ll be starting their first of six workshops with groups of students from the colegio! Today we met to prepare but only 2 of the youth came, so it wasn’t exactly an effective preparation meeting. I’m keeping my need to plan and organize in check and trying to go with the flow more so I don’t stress them out – I’m sure they’ll do great. I’ll update when I have results from the charlas!

Alright well I’m gonna peace out (such a short entry I know!). Hope all’s well back home – miss you all! :)

Well it’s been quite awhile now since I've written again... but here I am! It’s gonna be an extremely very long post, and I am drinking a late-night energy drink so I can get this and lots of work done.. Also at the moment I am making chocolate chip cookies for my host dog’s birthday party tomorrow. Yes, it’s max’s birthday, and yes, I am baking for a dog’s birthday. More for my host sister Najabi though. A couple of days ago she informed me I had forgotten his made-up birthday, being September 1. After being accused of forgetting about my adorable max, I remembered vaguely talking to her about how they didn’t know when max’s real birthday was but we had decided to make it sometime in the next few months. Apparently we set a date, which I of course forgot because I didn’t write it my schedule. So I told her (and the dog) I was sorry for missing the birthday and explained it would be better to have the birthday party this weekend on Sunday, since everyone is so busy during the week. Sooo tomorrow (I’m writing this Saturday night) after lunch we will have cake in the form of a large chocolate chip cookie, I will have prepared some sort of meat-dish for max since he can’t have chocolate, I will give him his birthday gift (I started sewing a “supermax” cape for him when I was still living with my host family aka last October or something, but in the guilt for forgetting his birthday I came home and finished the cape. Not my best sewing but hey it’s for a dog...), and Najabi will have invited a few of her young friends over for the party. But it makes her happy so party on!

Speaking of birthdays, Sunday is also my dad’s birthday! I know you probably don’t like sharing your birthday, dad, but at least it’s with the cutest dog in South America – you know since you got to meet max! So anyway, I wish you a very happy birthday, and I’m sure by the time you’ve read this we will have talked on Skype =) Love you E&B!

Sunday is also our second to last Cuanto Sabes session (the HIV/AIDS training of trainers with colegio students). We’re in the final stages where we’re talking about how the students will do their replications with their peers, both in formal and informal situations. Tomorrow we’re practicing 3 basic points of the program: basic info about HIV/AIDS, self-esteem/values/decision making, and discrimination and how to reduce the stigma. We will also do the formal “post-test” where we measure what our kids have learned – I feel pretty confident in our kids! We started with a group of 25 from 5 colegios and 2 health promoters from the health center. We are going to finish with about 12 youth and 1 health promoter but I think we’ve really achieved quality of quantity. They surprised me when we played jeopardy last week, both with factual information and ability to control situations. What do I mean by control situations? Well, one of the big problems here is that IF people know what a condom is and how to use it, they still have trouble convincing their mate to actually use one. So we did some role-playing and the girl who picked “prevention for 300” totally surprised me. Not only did she have quick responses that we had provided them with, but she added her own flair and was really convincing. Hopefully the youth that aren’t to that point now will reach there when they’re doing the replications. My mind is spinning with ideas for this group of kids :) But anyway, with our training of trainers coming to an end I am finishing one of my big projects.

We’ve also come to the end of the second world map project with the colegio I work with. The actual drawing and painting was so fast, but then with my parents and Kevin visiting I took a couple weeks of leave from the colegio, so this week I’ve been tying up the rest of the project. This map is painted on a wall, but it the same size as the first one we did. The youth involved in the project also changed, as the Liceo de Lideres (the group of youth I was working with before) have dissolved as a youth group. So I took the project to my colegio and the director was excited. I decided to work with my English classes on it. But before I got them involved I used some of the youth that had helped with the first map to do the drawing – much easier than having new kids doing it… But I worked the map into our class time, with an hour of English class and an hour of painting for those who wanted to participate. Almost all of the students jumped at the chance to paint and kept asking when they would get to paint again. We finished all of the painting before my family got here, and then after they left I went back and did the outlining and labeling. This week in class we put the final touches on it (but will continue next week since only some of the kids came to class this week – 2 week break really threw them off). Each of the kids who helped on the map is putting his/her handprint around the map, and then we will be writing their name inside the hand, a creative form for signatures. I'm also starting to design an Ecuador map to do. It will be done with the same basic principles; I just have to develop it since there is no manual. This I’ll probably do in October since September will be cut short with our mid-service conference.

My English classes are going about the same. I’m still not thrilled to be teaching them, but I like the steadiness and I really like getting to know the kids. Plus the novelty of being a gringa still hasn’t worn off for them, so I’m still fun to be around apparently. We had our first movie day in August. Some may say it’s a waste of a class, and I agree somewhat, but just making sure they’re watching a movie in English (with Spanish subtitles) every once in a while seems like a good thing to me. Plus they love it. I made sugar and chocolate chip cookies last time – sharing our culture too! The next one is scheduled for the beginning of October right after I get back from midservice; that way I don’t have such a stressful week getting back.

So in other news. I found out about 6 weeks ago that I’m going to be a host aunt! My host brother’s girlfriend is a couple months pregnant now. Things with my host family have definitely changed a lot, but a month later things are starting to find a new rhythm and settle back into normalcy. I suppose she’ll be due sometime in April, so I’ll get to have a newborn to play with for a few months. Obviously it’s a pretty tough situation because they’re both very young, but apart from that – who doesn’t love a baby?!? I’m excited to have a baby to play with, and am crossing my finger to be a “madrina” aka godmother. I also promised Andy I’d “teach” English for its first few months. I’ll sing it some English lullabies and see if any of the language sticks haha. I’m also starting Monday (if I don’t forget like I did last week) to teach Najabi and Andy some English. Then they can teach the baby English – more sustainable haha

This is a good place to take a reading break – the next part will be very long…

So the part I’m sure some of you are more interested in: My parents and Kevin came to visit me in August! It was a great visit and flew by so quickly. My mom got here on the 11th, so in the evening I met up with my host brother Joao in Guayaquil to get her from the airport. Her flight came in at 10:25pm so we had some time to kill so we went to see a movie. I was so distracted throughout the movie I only vaguely remember the plot. But we went and got her from the airport after she finally made it through customs and everything. My heart leapt when I saw her walking out of the gate and was so great to hug her when she circled around to where we were waiting. Obviously she was very tired from traveling, but we got in the car and came back to my site. When we got to my house we stayed up for awhile talking and meanwhile I was pilfering all of the goodies she brought me from home :) but at some point we were both too tired so we went to bed. The next morning I had a community development/leadership workshop in one of the recintos and since she was awake and ready, she decided to go with me. It was so nice having her with me and seeing me work. Plus all of the women were stoked to meet her. After that we came back to my house and relaxed for about 2 minutes before going to my host family’s for lunch. My host mom is soo great – she prepared basically all of the lunches for when my family was here so they could try the best home-cooked typical foods! Then, after eating we had to run again – this time to the colegio, because I had English class. I had planned it so the movie days were that week so that we just got there and put on a movie. My mom talked to one of the English teachers some, and then after the movie was over we were finally free for the day. We went back to my house and relaxed a little, took a nap etc.

Over the next two days I took her around town, to the market, to the Tia (grocery store in my town!), etc. until the day arrived when we were to pick up Kevin and dad as well! My host mom made encembollado for my mom to try, so we filled up on that in the morning. Then instead of going straight to Guayaquil we hopped over to one of the touristy towns near here, called Nobol. Nobol is the site of the church “Narcisa de Jesus” which is based on the life of a girl that is held to esteem of a saint, due to her lifestyle and sacrifices for religion. Anyway, it’s a famous town that people from all over Ecuador come to be healed and to pray. We checked out the church and museum, then went and tried maduros con queso, which is the food the town is known for. We also had a humita which was also delicious. Afterwards we got on another bus and headed to Guayaquil. We went to one of the malls and did some shopping, buying pretty much every kind of exotic fruit available. Just like to note that we spent over an hour and a half in the SuperMaxi – I had to show off Ecuador’s huge grocery store! Then we went up to the food court and had some shrimp-stuffed patacones – mmm. Joao met up with us at that point and we hung out a little bit killing time until it was time to go to the airport. At the airport we waited for awhile until Kevin and dad came out! My dad texted me from customs to tell me they were in Ecuador :) We gathered them up and headed back to my site, another late arrival! Once back, I once again pilfered the luggage, and we sat around and chatted for awhile. Then once again when everyone’s eyes were closing we headed to bed.

In the morning I got up and did my Cuanto Sabes workshop, then came home from that to gather my family for lunch at the host family’s house. We had a ceviche FEAST. My host mom made sooo much ceviche we couldn’t finish it, and ended up eating ceviche for breakfast for the next two days haha. We also introduced my family to Club Verde with the ceviche – they approved but acknowledged that with lack of options here in Ecuador the beer situation was a little grim… educated at last haha. For the next two days we pretty much ate lunch and dinner with the host family and stayed until late in the evening playing Uno and the new game, Jenga. I also took them to the store, to the market, and to the colegio I work at so they could see it and check out the world map that was almost completed. The time in my site passed rapidly and suddenly it was time to go to Guayaquil to leave for Tena, in the Amazon region. Joao drove us to Guayaquil and we hung out there for the afternoon. To fill time, we decided to go bowling! It was my first time in Ecuador (and first time playing in over 2 years), and it was Joao’s actual first time playing. It was a lot of fun and a better use of time than a movie, as we all agreed in the end. After killing enough time, we went back to the terminal, ate dinner, and prepared for the 10 hour night bus ride. I tried to prepare my parents for the sharp curves after you enter the mountains, excessively loud bad movies playing, and possibility of theft. Turns out the bus company we selected was not so great, so we were on the exact opposite of “executive”. It was worse quality than the buses that I take from Guayaquil to my site, but with chairs that lay back more. But oh well, live and learn. We got on the bus and got settled, everyone with their neck pillows and earplugs. I took a trusty diphen, my constant night-bus companion, and passed out pretty quickly. After a couple of hours (around 10pm, that’s what happens when you leave at 7:30pm…) I woke and realized we were stopped and on a dirt road. Then I remember my friend saying that the road to Riobamba is pretty bad and under construction, but to be safe I stayed awake until we reached a paved, normal looking road. Then I slept intermittently until we got to Tena.

We were all very happy to reach solid ground.. There we went to the company’s office and after a couple hours hanging out there, we taken to the lodge outside of Tena. It was beautiful – perched on a cliff about 500 feet about a river, hammocks everywhere, and to top it off, a parrot named Manuko that talked! The first day we thought we would have a pretty easy start but alas that was not the case. We had just enough time to settle in then the guide came to get us for our first hike – to scale canyons. The hike was really interesting. The guides pointed out tons of plants and animals, everything from natural medicinal plants to the huge and dangerous conga ants. And we all even tasted the lemon ants which taste very strongly of lemons when you eat them. I had two servings of the ants haha! Once we reached the stream the guides gave us all natural clay facemasks from the riverbed – talk about spa treatment haha! Then we got to some caves and smelled putrid bat poop. At which point we were informed we would be climbing up into the caverns, wedging ourselves between the crevices and climbing up slowly that way. At this point one of the guides left and took my mom on a different route just walking since with her arm problem she wasn’t so sure about doing the climbing. I went up first and had a bit of a panic attack once I got up about 15 feet and reached a harder part. Fear of heights, exhaustion from having not slept much on the night bus, and having to trust these two guides that had minutes before thrown spiky balls at us that left stinging silicon in our hands – not for me. But alas I somehow kept going and reached the top, shaking like crazy. But the canyons didn’t end… we went through a series of canyons that were just plain disgusting, with bats flying overhead and us leaning and putting our hands in wet bat poop. Not my favorite part of the trip for sure… Buuut we finally made it, totally disgusting and tired. After a hike back to the cabins, we showered (they even had hot water!) and had lunch. Then we had a little time before the afternoon activity so we laid down in the hammocks. Needless to say, I’m a pretty serious napper. So when they came to get us to walk to the river for a swim, I along with the rest of the fam, was passed out so we passed on the afternoon activity and stayed in the hammocks. Then we had dinner, played some Phase 10, and went to bed.

Early the next morning we got up and loaded into a pickup truck (it wouldn’t be Ecuador without a ride in the back of a truck!) to go to an Amazonian Kichwa (or Quichua) village. They took us around and showed us more plants, including the hallucinogenic trumpet vine, yucca, cinnamon, and plantains. They dug me up a plantain tree sprout so I could bring it back to my site and plant it in my yard to have a plantain tree someday, then put it in a beautiful wrapping made from the plantain leaves – very professional looking! They also demonstrated achiote, which is a seed pod that Ecuadorians use the red powder out of for anything from painting faces (which is what they demonstrated) to food coloring. My face painting apparently meant something like “chieftress of the village”. Lastly, they made us crowns from palm and gave me the chieftress’s crown. Then we went into one of the houses and they showed us how to make chicha (a yucca based, fermented alcoholic drink that is extremely typical of Ecuador, from the coast to the mountains to the Amazon) and explained how the house was made etc. Then we bought jewelry that the village women had made, jumped back into the truck, and went back to the lodge.

After lunch and a short nap, we changed into swimming clothes and went down to the river where we went for a river tubing trip down the river. Towards the end of the trip, the river joins with another river, which comes from Cotopaxi in the mountains, aka it was very cold water. The guides tricked me, Kevin, and dad into jumping into the river at the joining point, which was extremely cold and had a decent current. But we all managed to get back into the rafts and finished the trip, where we were picked up in a truck and taken back to the lodge. After dinner we went to the bar and had a few beers. We played Phase 10 and taught our guide how to play. He decided it was too complicated so he taught us an Ecuadorian game, cuarenta. It was a lot of fun, but after a while we decided to go to bed to get ready for our big third day.

The third day we were picked up in a truck and taken to the other lodge that is owned by the same company. The lodge is more isolated and doesn’t even have electricity. But we were just there for a day excursion with another guide – we were going to the waterfalls! After a 3-4 hour hike with the company of a beautiful black dog, we reached the falls.

At this point, we had to decide if we were going to go up them or not, because once started you couldn’t turn around. We initially didn’t think my mom would go because of her arm but after seeing how it was set up she decided to go for it. We thought before that we would be basically pulling ourselves up a rope through the falls with sheer force, but the guide showed that we were climbing with mostly feet and just using the rope for safety and for a little help. So we all decided to do it, including the guide’s dog. It was so amusing when after we had all gotten up each step, he would go back down and carry/push the dog up the cliffs. There were a total of three waterfalls, with the first one the easiest. The first one we just went around, climbing small slanted rock faces and a small portion in the water. Too easy. Then we got to the second waterfall. (enter dramatic music). This one was going up through the water, and it had a pretty tough looking current. We got a little nervous, but the guide ran up and secured the rope for us then my mom went first. It was divided into 2 parts, a 15 ft climb through a little water then a 35ish foot climb through a heavy fall of water. We all got up to the first step and waited then once everyone was up the guide showed us exactly how to go up the next part. For example we should basically just walk using the rope as a safety if we started to fall, not leaning out or squatting and supporting ourselves on the rope. Again, mom went first. She looked nervous but made it to the top! Then I went, and found it wasn’t as hard as it looked. But it definitely got my heart pumping from the excitement! One everyone made it to the top of that we had a little piece left to go, then we waited while the guide went to bring the dog up :) At this point we were all soaked and our rubber boots were totally filled with water, so we didn’t bother trying to keep dry anymore. We reached the last waterfall, and it turned out we weren’t going up it, we just hung out in the pool below. We got a great photo with me, Kevin, mom, and dad under the falling water then had a snack to get our strength back up – it would be a long hike back. Then we climbed uphill to the top of the mountain ridge and walked along that until we reached the edge and we came down. He kept saying, it’s flat from here but alas it was generally never flat. And at the end of the ridge when we had to go down the mountain we were going down some very steep slopes, which seemed extra hard after the emotional and exhausting hike to/through the falls. But finally we made it to the lodge, a bit behind schedule.

We were so exhausted and were looking forward to a break after lunch, but surprise! After lunch he looked at us and asked “do you want 5 or 10 minutes before we head out for the next hike?”. We seriously considered calling off the afternoon activity to nap in the hammocks and give our blistering feet a break, but after about 15 minutes he came to find us and we decided to go for it. We packed up everything and hiked to the road entrance where we left all of the bags to go to the lagoon, the afternoon activity. The black dog came along again and had made best friends with Kevin, who had given into playing fetch/tug-of-war/attack every stick in site. We made pretty good time getting there, so we had awhile to hang out at the lagoon. It was beautiful! Buuuut it was very very cold. Like, when you get in, you can’t breathe cold. It was water coming down from the snow-capped mountains… And with the sun low in the sky it wasn’t looking good for us to take part in this activity. But our guide jumped in, and not much later Kevin decided to go for it as well. Mom and I sat on the rocks down at the water’s edge for quite awhile, with the intention of “easing in” (feet in, then legs in, etc). Meanwhile dad was just focusing on taking pictures… during this time Kevin got out of the water, so it wasn’t looking good for him getting back in. But then I decided to go for it, so I told Kevin if he got back in I would get in too. So I did. And I stopped breathing. It was so cold it hurt. It was literally like jumping into ice water. After a few minutes my body adjusted. And by that I mean I couldn’t feel my feet anymore, so Kevin and I headed to the source of the water to get a better look at the waterfall. Then we heard a shriek as dad and mom jumped in and came to join us. There was a little space in the rocks that looked like a baby pool. Not much warmer but we sat there for a minute before the guide told us it was time to go. So we did the logical thing and used the little current as a slide, slipping from the rock down into the big pool. When we got out we instantly warmed up some. I remember my dad saying that as cold as the water was, hypothermia is a serious possibility if you stay in the water too long. Tell that to the jovenes who were just having the time of their lives haha. One thing I actually liked about the lagoon is that I really think the coldness kept me from being sore from our morning hike. Because after everything we did that morning, I didn’t hurt the next day. In a way it also relaxed us once we were out of the water… We started the walk back and the guy who was picking us up to take us to the other lodge came to find us along the road since he was early (imagine that, in Ecuador!!).

When we got back to the lodge we showered and had dinner, then headed to the bar to chat, have a few beers, and play cuarenta with our guide. A huuuge group of Germans had arrived the night before, so we were joined by lots of beer drinking tourists. The lodge actually ran out of beer the night before by the way. We knew it would happen, but the guides seemed to think 4 habas was enough. Clearly don’t understand Germans haha. The last night was a lot of fun and Kevin and I hung out at the bar after mom and dad went to bed, playing cards with the guides. But it was clear our time was almost up, which meant their time in Ecuador was almost up… So when the guides went out for the night we headed to bed so we could enjoy the last day in Tena.

That morning we were to go to a cultural museum and wildlife refuge down the river, transported in motorized canoes. We were given a different guide as our guide started his vacation that day, so we headed out with a family of 3 Germans who had just arrived. The son is volunteering in a town in the mountains and like me, his family came to visit him. When we got to the place to get in the canoe, we got in and headed downriver. First stop: the culture museum. There we saw plant life, learned how to shoot a blow gun (which convinced me to buy one, albeit smaller than the one we tried that day. Yes, I have an Amazonian blow gun. its awesome.), and saw a museum on the history of the Amazonian Indians. Then we hopped back in the canoe and went further down to the wildlife reserve. It was pretty neat and we were able to see a lot of animals that we didn’t see in real life, as they have moved more into the forest away from humans for safety and tranquility. For example, we saw monkeys, all sorts of birds, rodents, cats, etc. (for a complete listing ask my mom, I’m sure she has a list of animals and everything). Then after buying my aforementioned blowgun, we got back into the canoe and headed upstream to the place we started. There we had lunch and headed back to the lodge in the pickup. I fell asleep in the back of the pickup – first time ever. Don’t ask how, I don’t know… so we got back, showered, packed up, and had a quick dinner before being taken in our very last pickup truck back to Tena, where we were scheduled to leave at 7:30pm.

This bus was much nicer that the other, and once we got in Guayaquil the general consensus was that everyone slept better. Once in Guayaquil we took a taxi to the hotel where Kevin and I slept for a few hours and my parents did all of our dirty laundry (yah!). When we all woke up, showered, and put on clean clothes we headed out to see the city! First stop: the Bahia for bootleg movies :) We spent awhile browsing there then Kevin and I bought some movies. Then we headed north where we passed by the iguana park, checked out the cathedral, and I showed them the post office before we headed to the Sweet ‘n Coffee for an afternoon perk-up. After some coffee, I showed them the Metro via (basically above-ground subway, and the public transportation I prefer when in the city) . It was a fairly full car, so they really got the experience haha. But we just rode it up 2 stops where we got off and walked until we found the artisanal market. There we bought all sorts of stuff and I got to practice my haggling skills :) I got some jewelry and a change purse. Kevin got a dominos set, earrings for a friend, and maybe something else? Mom and dad bought 2 hammocks. And dad got a panama hat. Then we continued north to the area called Las Peñas. It’s at the north end of the riverfront boardwalk and consists of 400+ stairs that go up to a lighthouse and a church on one of the only hills in Guayaquil. There you can see the expanse of the city and it’s just a pretty view. We went up, looked around, and then walked back down, totally sweaty and thirsty. So we walked down and headed to a restaurant for dinner. One of the other volunteers met up with us and we had a dinner at a restaurant with a nice view over the river. It was a nice relaxing dinner, but not the best food and myself and my mom were paying later…

Afterwards we called a cab and headed back to the hotel, stopping at a store to buy peanuts (they brought back like 6 bags of raw peanuts as gifts since fresh-toasted peanuts were one of their favorite things about Ecuador). While at said store, I got very sick and spent awhile in the mall bathroom before we checked out and headed back to the hotel. There I made use of the free internet while they packed, then we sat around and talked before going to bed. No one wanted to sleep as my mom and Kevin were leaving in the morning, but sheer exhaustion took away the option and we all slept like babies in the plush beds of the hotel. The next morning we all woke up and got ready, then took a cab to the airport. We hung around as much as we could until it was time for them to go through security :’(

After they had left, dad and I headed to the bus terminal where we bought tickets to Puerto Lopez, a beach town in Manabí. We boarded and headed out, arriving about 3.5 hours later in the little beach town. The first priority was lunch, as it was around 2 and we hadn’t eaten since 7am. So we walked along the beach and found a restaurant where I had shrimp in a yummy peanut sauce. We called around to the hotels and everyone was booked, but there was a hostel next to the restaurant so we checked it out and decided to stay there. After dropping our stuff off we headed out to find a whale-watching tour company. Everyone was basically saying the same thing, with the same cost, etc. but we found a place that seemed a lot more professional so we signed up with them to go whale-watching the next morning.

We walked along the beach for awhile, watching the fishing boats coming in and the ensuing attack of seagulls, fragatas, and other marine birds hoping to steal a fish or at least part of a fish. After the excitement of that wore off we walked to one of the beach-side cabanas and ordered a drink and hung out for awhile. Since we just had the Lonely Planet travel guide to go off of, we decided to check out a highly rated Colombian restaurant we had seen. When we got there we decided on the cazuela (fish, shrimp, other seafood, onions, peppers, tomato, garlic cooked in a sauce and served boiling in a cast iron bowl). Normally cazuela is made in a tomato based sauce, but apparently Colombia wins at cazuela. It was made in a super rich, creamy, cheesy sauce. Possibly one of the best foods I have ever tasted, and definitely one of the best I’ve found in Ecuador. We were stuffed and tired, so we took a stroll along the street and did some window shopping, making mental notes of things we might want to buy (a tagua necklace for me haha). We turned in pretty early and dreamt of whales, which we would hopefully see the next day.

The next morning we got up and grabbed a generic bread and egg breakfast then hung out at the shop until we had our group and got on the boat to go whale watching. We sat up in the very front with a young couple from Europe (she was from Germany, he was from Portugal, they met in Holland. Speak 7 languages between them. Typical Europeans haha). We headed toward the island, called Isla de la Plata, where we would land to see a variety of marine birds. When we were pretty close we came up on a group of humpback whales. See, the whales are from Antarctica and come north during June-September with the north-bound cold current to mate and give birth. Then after the season is over, they head back south until next year. We were one of 5 boats watching the whale that was jumping up some, and it was very exciting for me especially since it was my first time seeing a whale not in the zoo. After awhile we headed toward the island again. There we ran into another group, but we didn’t watch for as long as we did the first time. Once we got to the island we had muffins and bananas for a snack. One of the guides brought the sea turtles surrounding us to our attention by tossing some banana peel, which the turtles loved and swam up to us for.

Once we got on land the guides split us into 2 groups – the big group of Germans, and the mismatched group that included us, the European couple, and a couple from Spain. We decided to do the longer but flatter hike with the promise of seeing blue footed boobies, red footed boobies, fragatas, and some other marine bird. The first few feet we saw blue footed boobies off in the distance so we all stopped and took pictures. We had no idea how close we would actually get to them! The hike was interesting overall. There wasn’t a lot of plant life to see but we saw sooo many blue footed boobies. We literally were feet away from some of them, as they were walking and mating in the foot-path. We also saw them in every stage of the mating process from single to doing the ritual call callback procedure, to the mutual dancing, to tail up ready to mate, to nesting. We saw so many that after awhile it was like “oh just another blue footed boobie”… syke! It was pretty cool. We also got to see fragatas, which are the immense black birds with huge red pouches under their necks that inflate during the mating process. And finally, we saw three nesting red footed boobies at a distance. The trip was interesting to see the boobies and fragatas, as these do not live on the mainland of Ecuador. After the hike we were all pretty tired, but the guide seemed annoyed by our slowness hehe.

When we got back to the boat we were given box lunches and we went to the snorkeling location. It was pretty cool so only about 5 of us decided to snorkel. And the water took my breath away when I jumped in – chilly! We only snorkeled for around 15 minutes but we saw some big pretty fish, some trumpet fish, and white coral. I enjoyed getting back in the water with the mask and fins – reminded me of scuba diving! I spent plenty of time diving under the water and swimming through the schools of fish :) after the snorkeling we got back on the boat and headed back to the mainland.

The water had gotten really rough during the day and on the way back we were thrashed around by 6ft swells. The boat kept leaving the water completely and then slamming down really hard on the water. At first it was fun and we were laughing but after 45 minutes our butts hurt and it had lost its thrill. But once we were near shore we came right up on a group of 3 active whales. That is, all three of them were jumping out of the water! They were jumping one after another and spraying water like crazy. And we were soo close! I got a great video of them and some photos too. It seemed like the perfect end to the day, the whales telling us goodbye just as we reached land! We watched of awhile but it was almost dark and the whales stopped showing off so much, so we continued on.

We were all happy to get to land after the rough trip back. Dad and I showered and decided to go to dinner at the Colombian place again. Why settle for trying mediocre food when you know where the best food is? So we went back and once again got the cazuela. We once again left there stuffed, so we walked along the street again. This time we stopped at the tagua place and dad bought me a tagua whale necklace to remember our trip by :) Instead of going straight to bed, we decided to go to the cabanas on the beach and relax a bit. I had a pina colada and dad got a coconut batido (basically like a milkshake made with coconut). Once we had called it a night we headed to bed.

The next morning we decided to just head back to Guayaquil in the morning instead of hanging out there anymore, so we grabbed breakfast and hopped on a bus. I wanted to stop in my site for a few things, so we stopped here, unloaded photos from the cameras and I packed up all of my dirty laundry to take advantage of free laundry at the hotel! Once everything was done we hopped another bus and headed to Guayaquil, where we checked into the hotel and relaxed a bit. For dinner we went to a buffet restaurant that had been highly recommended, but it was eh okay. In fact, dad was pretty sick from it. Good thing my stomach is used to ecuafood… After packing and everything, we headed to bed, once again dreading morning when we would take another trip to the airport… in the morning we got ready and headed to the airport, where we waited as long as we could until it was time for him to go through security. I was suddenly alone again after 2 weeks of translating, constant accompaniment, and love. So I worked on getting everything I needed to do in the city done and head back to my site. I got my mail and did some shopping, then packed all of my clean clothes in my bag and went back to site.

Thankfully I had a short trip with some of my friends that weekend to help transition me from family & America to alone & Ecuador. Now, things are more of less back to normal. I’m getting back into work and trying to keep myself busy. I have enjoyed having alone time again, as that is what I’m used to, but it was so great to have Kevin and my parents here visiting me. I also was very happy that we had planned the trip as we did, so that I got to spend some time alone with both of my parents. And I am soo happy Kevin was able to come visit too. He got to see my site AND the Amazon – what a trip =) Now that I’m 13 months into my 24 months of service, Christmas doesn’t seem so far away. I will be happy to be reunited with America for sure! But until then, my Ecuador it is =)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051278&id=46900557&l=18347f5895

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051284&id=46900557&l=3783ef2076

Here are links to the two photo albums I have on facebook, which I have set to public so that you should be able to follow this link to see them. Lots of pictures but we did lots of stuff! Well, wrote for over 3 hours this time… Long post! Until another day…

“Anything to get more of this feeling

You take the high I’ll take the low

We’ll get there before you know

We ain't got no time to waste

We got too much life to taste”

“40 Dogs” by Bob Schneider

First, Happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers, uncles, and grandpas out there, but especially to my grandpa, uncle john and uncle time, and the best dad in the world =) Love you E&B.

Another big event recently happened as well. June 17th was the 1 year anniversary of omnibus 102 landing in Ecuador. It’s so weird thinking back to the process of packing, the night I spent crying and stressed right before leaving for Miami, the orientation in Miami and meeting my future trainees, arriving in Quito and not understanding 3 words the little Ecuadorians were saying to me, moving in with a random family an hour after meeting them, and the whole process of training and getting to know Ecuador and my fellow trainees. Things normalized a little during training, then after those 9 weeks ended, so ended that normalization. We were tossed to our propio sitios, alone, in a new and very different part of the country, lugging 3 bags through Guayaquil praying not to get robbed in this scary big city, then the process of learning the city and so far having good luck in said city (crosses fingers), getting to know my site, host family, and community members, and going through the ups and downs of daily life and work. But I’m still here. And I’m proud of myself and fellow 102ers for making it through 1 year. Congrats! And with the dawn of our 1 year anniversary, now enters a new group of trainees, so congrats and good luck to them as well!

So the thing is, I’ve really pissed off the weather gods somehow, maybe by constantly cursing the heat and random animals/bugs I’ve encountered in my time thusfar in Ecuador, or maybe because by simply joining up with Miley Cyrus’s foundation for the concert (seems more likely right?) but either way, it has almost been confirmed.

April 16, 2010 in the central park: Rain. Concert: Postponed until June, AFTER the rainy season “ends”.

End of April, all of May, first 2 weeks of June: No Rain. Rainy season has been declared “over”

June 18, 2010: As I prep the paint, brushes, snacks for the big mural starting at 8am the next morning what do I hear but splat splat splat on my roof. Well crap, someone is peeing on my roof again? “Haha! You think you’re PAINTING tomorrow” said the weather gods while unleashing a fury of rain, which then continued for 11 hrs. “That’ll show ya…”

June 19, 2010 9:00am big wall on the edge of town: Rain finally stopped and I see blue sky through the clouds! “Woohoo! Let’s paint!!” A couple hours later, the weather gods realized we hadn’t called off the mural. “Wait wait, you’re painting on a bamboo structure 15 feet off the ground? I give you more rain then! HAHA” The rest of the mural: postponed until…?

June 20, 2010 in the whole town: flooding downpours for 3 hours.

June 26, 2010 in the central park: Concert? What do you think?? Results TBA next time I have internet.

As far as work goes, I don’t have a “normal” work schedule, but I guess that means that non-normal is normal, so we’ll say for simplicity that work is normal (but remember that doesn’t really mean “normal”) uhh.. Well, I per usual have had a lot of changes in my work and life here. One of the biggest changes is that we’ve come to an understanding that the youth group “Liceo de Lideres” that I’ve been working with is dissolving. The youth involved have been with the group for 5 years and are all working, in the university in Guayaquil, and/or have wives/families at this point, as well as have lost interest in the group and doing activities. For a lot of my time here it has seemed like pulling teeth to get them to participate in the activities they choose and help plan, and I finally brought it up with a couple of them. They confirmed what I expected, which is that they just aren’t interested anymore and that there’s really no way to re-interest them at this point in their lives. Part of this revelation on my part was when I did a charla with a group of younger youth that are involved in another youth organization and some youth from the Liceo. I saw how active, participatory, and generally interested the younger kids were as opposed to the older ones, and started talking to my host brother about integrating some younger kids into the group. He agreed, and as they have been moving in, we’ve seen the older ones moving out. So So… we have a few activities that we’re finishing up as a “group” (the mural, the concert) then we will be proceeding working with them on an individual basis if they’re still interested. For example, a couple of them are interested in doing the HIV/AIDS education program that we are starting in 2 weeks, and I plan to invite some of the interested ones to help in other projects, but we will no longer be meeting and doing activities as a group. In some ways, this is pretty bad timing as we have a list of projects in place and/or coming up, but I’ve also established myself with other connections and been busy with work so it’s been a lot less stressful on me as far as worrying about keeping the group going. I do wish I had a chance to see the group in action a couple years ago – they’ve done some pretty impressive work and have built a good reputation in town.

As far as other work, as I mentioned I’ve been keeping busy. I’ve made contact with the biggest public colegio in town and started that afterschool English program I’ve been blogging about for the last few months. It isn’t exactly what I envisioned, it’s actually more like a class than a tutoring program. And by that I mean, it’s a class. Tuesdays and Wednesdays from last week until the end of the school year in December, I have class with 2 groups of 20 students that were selected based on low English knowledge/skills from the first 4 years of colegio (aka middle school and freshman year, 12-15 yrs old). We’ve only had one class per group so far, and they went pretty well, but I’m trying to learn quickly since I’ve never had training as a teacher. For example, Thursdays I have a group that is about 50% boys as opposed to the other class that’s about 30% boys. Guess what that means? Assigned seating on Thursday. The first class, the boys that know each other were talking, poking each other, giggling, etc. for the whole class. We’ll see how they like that when I put them on opposite sides of the room. Ha. Also, because it’s a mixed-level class (students from 4 different grades, and within that problem I have kids that know a lot and some that have never paid attention in a single English class), I’m going to have some challenges in normalizing the material so it’s not too hard but still interesting. So I have the 2 classes Tues and Thurs, and I’ve also decided to start an advanced class Wed afternoons for interested students in their last year of colegio to prep them for their college English classes. I’m thinking that class will be much easier and more relaxed. Though their English may not be much better, they’re older and a little more mature, right? I’m also offering a 30 min tutoring session after class with a couple of the students that have never paid attention in an English class as a way to get them up to speed with the group. It’s definitely been a lot of work, but I kinda like getting all prepared for class :) The class is very different from anything their used to here, as I’m doing it more like a liberal-arts college course. We have 4 built-in movie days (which you betcha will be movies with an educational theme!), music, a guest day (aka the week my mom visits in August, surprise mom!), two days of presentations (they’ll be responsible for researching and presenting with groups at the end of the term), and the last day is a fiesta where I’ll make some sort of American goodies to bring so we keep it within the “English class” theme. I also plan to integrate educational topics via mini charlas during class session once I feel the group has enough trust and friendship. Right now, most of the kids don’t really know each other as they’ve been selected from different classes and grades, so it’ll take awhile to develop trust within the group. I’m also having them doing a mandatory private journal at the end of each class so they have 5 mins set aside to reflect on what we’ve learned, what’s going on in life, etc. The idea is that they’ll learn a little about themselves and hopefully at the end of the term they can look back and see what they’re learned and how they’re changed during the course of the next 6 months. They think it’s pretty lame right now, and they may continue thinking that, but I’ll never know if I don’t try right?

Aside from the English classes, as I mentioned before, we’re finishing up the GYSD concert this weekend. Rain or shine, I don’t think we’ll be postponing it again. We’re also starting the Cuanto Sabe? HIV/AIDS youth education program on July 4th (happy birthday USA!) which will continue for 8 weeks. I’ll be pretty much on my own planning that as my host brother (who is running it with me) is gone all day every day except Thurs/Fri/Sat evenings and Sundays. But I’m not too stressed about the charlas themselves, so once we get the manual printed and all that stuff I’ll be golden. Also, as you may remember, we applied for the GetURGoodOn grant (for the concert and world map project) on a whim, and as a backup we went ahead and applied for a Peace Corps Partnership Program grant to do a world map project as well, but we got both. So now, after doing the one world map, we are committed to doing another before Aug 31. As I mentioned, the Liceo has all but disintegrated, leaving me with funds and no youth (first time a PC volunteer has had that problem I bet!). So now that I’ve made contact in the colegio, I’m hoping that we can paint it there with the students. Tomorrow morning I go to talk to the director of the colegio to see what he thinks about the whole idea, but I’m hoping they’ll be game. Otherwise, one of the other colegios or escuelas will surely want to, it’s just a matter of making new contacts to do so (less easy on me).

One final note. I was never very interested in futbol (“soccer” for you North Americans) but here it’s as much a part of life as water and rice. And right now we’re in the midst of the most exciting 31 days in South America – mundial. The mundial or World Cup is the reason for the power shortages in Ecuador. The games start at 6am and go until the afternoon, and when Brazil, Argentina, or Paraguay play, people feign dengue fever to get to stay home from work and school. My host family has 3 tvs in their house, and I kid you not, all three tvs run the soccer games. On a personal note, I’m rooting for the U.S. and Germany heart and soul. And if/when they’re out of the championship, I’ll be switching to a South American country – guess that makes me a follower. And don’t even get me started on the Emelec/Barcelona soccer teams rivalry… but who is #1 in Ecuador? That’s right. And if you don’t know, google it. =)

One of the most important yet nonvital things died today. My blender (second one in 6 months…) kicked the bucket today trying to make me a cream of spinach/green bean/cracked wheat soup. See yesterday I happened to make a mixed veggie soup, with broccoli, celery, onions, and garlic, which I then decided to blend. And it was rica! A little backstory: I was in Guayaquil the other day and the store had fruits and veggies 20% off so I bought tons of veggies (celery, peppers, onions, broccoli, cucumber, spinach, etc) because I haven’t been eating very healthily lately. Ok, so anyway today I decided to do the same thing, but I wanted to make it spinach based and I threw in some beans that are getting old. So what happened? I steamed the veggies and boiled the cracked wheat in milk, let it all sit a few hours, then put the spinach with a sufficient quantity of liquid into the blender. A few seconds in I knew it was having trouble but I gave it some encouragement and thought it would pull through. Nope. I stopped the blender after a few seconds to see what the problem was and when I tried to start it again, it made no noise, no movement, absolutely no effort to convert my veggies into a delicious creamy soup. So instead I have a milky soup with clumps of spinach, floating cracked wheat, and whole green beans (I was going to cut and blend them after the spinach but with the blender broken it just seemed useless so I'm eating them whole) Though the presentation is waaay off, the flavor turned out pretty good, so looks like soup for the my next 5 meals. Just gotta watch out for the whole garlic cloves I steamed thinking theyd be blended into a pulp…

My other culinary choice today is a fruit called Pitahaya, which is yellow and looks kinda spikey, almost like cactusfruit (I think it actually is a type of cactus fruit…). Inside is a clearish jell with little black seeds. The secret about this fruit is that it is a natural laxative. I had bought one when I was living in the sierra but didn’t know what it was and didn’t eat much because the host kids poked at it until it was really gross looking. And I tried one at carnival that another volunteer brought from the amazon region. It has a delious flavor but if you’re not careful you’ll be in the bathroom the next few days. Anyway, I found it when I bought all the veggies the other day so I bought one. I cant remember how much is too much, but it was soo good I ate half of it :/ and I guess I’ll find out. I haven’t had any parasites or stomach infections for awhile, so this will be a good cleansing haha

On a side note, I went back to the school today for the first time with my host mom. 3 minutes in I remembered why I hadn’t been back to the schools. Not only is it a Friday, but I also was unaware that she is teaching the very same class I had my first school experience with. This is the class where I nearly was stabbed with a pencil and a kid was depantsed when they were under my “control”. I’m happy to say moving from the 5th to 6th grade at least a few of the kids have matured… But today I went to help my host mom make abacas with the kids. I had prepared one out of recycled materials, using Styrofoam (from my TV purchase) as the base, sticks as the poles, and 2 liter caps with holes punched in them as the ball thingies. Well only a few of the kids had brought supplies, so I came back and got the mountain of Styrofoam I had in a box to use for crafting or whatever. I got back to the school and chopped them up into pieces for the kids who didn’t have any, making a huge mess of little Styrofoam pieces, which I then cleaned up. The crafting went pretty well but the atmosphere is just too much for me. I need to find some actual regular work, but if I’m going the school route I’m going to go to the high school. I also need to continue preparing the tutoring programs that I’ve planned… ya mismo haha

Continuing the story from the last post…

Okay so they make this extra long paint roller to apply the lacquer, and it is leaving some lines at the edge of the roller, so they decide to use a brush to smooth out the lines, but the problem is that with a 8 ft by 15 ft plane, how do you reach the middle parts without touching the board? Just fyi I highly recommend looking up the pictures (and soon to be a video posted as well) I have on facebook of this process because I cant do it justice describing it in words. So first they get my hammock hanging lines and try to tie Leo, one of the jovenes so that he can be supported to lean out over the boards to reach. But that doesn’t work, so theyre like oh here use a belt. Well I ended up giving them one of my cloth belts to use instead of the leather one one of the jovenes had. So he ties the belt around his waist and 2 of the other jovenes hold the belt while Leo leans over the map to reach the center. I’m sure you’re thinking that there are many many ways this could go wrong, I was too at the time. scenario 1: his feet (the pivot point) slip on my tile floor and he faceplants on the wet lacquer. Scenario 2: they can’t hold him and again, he faceplants on the wet lacquer. Scenario 3: the belt isn’t secure enough to hold his weight, he faceplants on the wet lacquer. Or scenario 4: it actually works. Well I was sitting there taking pictures the whole time, and laughing at them (it was one of the most amusing things I have seen here in Ecuador) and one time they were laughing and having a hard time holding him and I thought scenario 2 was a sure thing. His nose was about an inch from the map and he was flailing his arms, but one of the other jovenes stepped in and helped hoist him up. So it worked! But they were just having too much fun so they kept doing it again and again, which increased when another 8 jovenes showed up, this time just recreating for fun rather than function. Somehow though, they got the lacquer painted, albeit that they weren’t done until 1:30am Friday night, 8 hours before the event was to start! So I went to bed, slept terribly, and woke up with a headache from the smell of the lacquer in my house.

And wouldn’t you believe it, when I woke up at 7 Saturday morning we didn’t have power!! We hadn’t had a power outage in months and months, but of course. I figured it would only last an hour or so, so I just got dressed and decided to come home to shower later before the event actually started. So we started preparing for the event. First, we went to the park with the big tent (protection from the sun etc) and the jovenes set that up. Ok, and I kid you not, there were men in the park cutting down trees. They were taking huge branches off the trees, apparently cleaning up the park. It was unbelievable! We had filed a permit to use the park for the day, so we essentially had right of way, but they were like, yah we don’t care we have to trim the trees. But we stayed out of their way and just got covered with sawdust…

A couple other volunteers from Guayaquil came out for the event, so I met up with them in a park and they set up the booth from VIHDA, and organization based out of Guayaquil that works in HIV/AIDS prevention. I was really happy that they were able to come out to my site for the open house, plus it was good publicity for them since I live so close to the city and most people go to the city for testing and treatment. But so far, no other organizations had shown up – thank you hora ecuatoriana. And still no power. Then I came back to my house hoping to be able to shower (without power, I don’t have water) so we hung out here for a few minutes before heading back to the park. Still no power. Once at the park, we needed to go get the tshirts. One of the jovenes that works there had told me the night before that the shirts were all done, no worries we could come as early as 8am to pick them up. So one of the jovenes took me to the tshirt place, and wouldn’t you believe it, they only had 8 of 30 shirts done, with the event starting in half an hour. And it wasn’t just that the logos just needed to be painted on, but no they hadn’t even finished sewing a majority of the shirts. And still no power. So until the power came back, the sewing machines wouldn’t work. But we took the shirts that were ready and went back to the park. I was feeling a bit stressed at this point but having my fellow volunteers here really helped me keep cool. So back at the park, they had put up the 20 by 20 ft tent and several of the organizations had shown up, which was a huge relief. But there still wasn’t power, so the DJ hadn’t shown. Oh, and one of the TV stations from Guayaquil came out to shoot some coverage of the event for the news, so they were there and the press guy introduced me to the newscaster, at which point I introduced him to my host brother as the youth he was going to interview. I wasn’t planning on doing an interview as we’re generally discouraged from it and it made me nervous to be talking in Spanish in front of a camera. But anyway, I then went back to the tshirt place to see how things were going, and they had another 5 ready or something, but still no power. At this point it was maybe 11am and the event had started at 10am, so I was pretty upset with the tshirt people but played it cool. I think if I had let the shirt issue get to me I would have just lost it for the whole day so I just put a smile on my face and went back to the park. The open house was going great at that point. We had a good turnout from the community and each of the booths had information for the community. The groups that participated included: the health center with information on birth control and family planning (very good for the youth to learn about), the consejo cantonal de la ninez y adolescencia with information about children/youth rights, a group from the municipio (local government) that works with youth to develop public speaking and acting skills (there was a 15 yr old doing a beautiful monologue in front of about 100 people in the park), Movimiento Mi Cometa (the organization I work with) with information about their programs for families with children under age 5, Fundacion VIHDA with information on HIV/AIDS, and CAAM with information about agriculture/environmental education and an ecological park that they developed in a small town outside of my site. Then around 11:30 a woman came up to me and said her mom was looking for me for the refreshments. I had worked with an organization in my town to get them to donate a refreshment in exchange for helping them with some workshops with youth in the community, but I hadn’t seen anyone from that organization though they were supposed to be there. But I knew the woman who was preparing the refreshments, so me and one of the jovenes went to her house and picked up 100 hamburgers and 100 juices. She is such a sweet little lady, she had made 100 of everything and made an extra one free of charge specifically for me, which she insisted on watching me taste in front of her (she may have been trying to poison me haha). But we returned to the park with the food and it was like throwing candy at a parade – people were all over it and it was all distributed in minutes. The TV people were waiting for me when I got back though, saying “ok we’re ready to interview you now” so again I pushed one of the jovenes in front of them. They responded by saying “ok we will interview him on the event and how the community collaborated, and then we’ll interview you on the Peace Corps and what you’re doing here in Ecuador” Ok so I was super nervous now because I had tried to avoid him and trying any more would be considered seriously rude, so I had to give in. But the problem was that the volunteer leader for my program (a 3rd year volunteer that works in the office in Quito and travels around to help volunteers in their sites) was at the event taking photos and video footage, and as I said before Peace Corps is a little weird about volunteers talking to the media. So I was afraid of getting in trouble with PC as she was going to have pictures and video of me interviewing with a national TV station. But anyway, my host brother did his interview, then they asked me about my work etc. and I played it super safe, giving the standard response we were taught during training “Peace Corps is an organization that provides technical assistance in countries around the world. The mission of PC is to provide technical support in development, promote the culture and understanding of the US here in Ecuador, and promote the culture and understanding of Ecuador back in the US. PC Ecuador has 4 programs: agriculture, natural resources, community health, and youth and families and I am a volunteer of the youth and families program. I work in my site with jovenes and an organization called Mi Cometa doing community development blah blah blah” but I know I came across as really nervous. I was mostly nervous about getting in trouble with Peace Corps, then secondly about my Spanish. And I kept thinking, man I haven’t even gotten to shower today… Oh, and still no power. Around 12:30 the flow of people slowed down a bit so we decided to end and clean up the open house. At this point the power was back on (yay!!) but the tshirts were still not all finished. And the PCVL from the office wanted to interview me and my host brother about how the event was planned, etc. but I wanted to wait for my tshirt (I had a PC logo put on the sleeve and it looked really awesome). So we finally got the shirt and we did the interview, then phew it was time to relax briefly before getting ready for the concert that was starting at 6. However it was starting to cloud over and I predicted rain. Everyone told me I should just be positive, which I responded that I was just being realistic...

I came back to my house with one of the volunteers and we relaxed and ate brownies (good stress reliever) for awhile then needed to run to the store, so we went out. Well the jovenes had gone to the park to meet up with the DJ and do sound checks etc. And sure enough, it started pouring. I mean, pouring! It was one of the heaviest downpours I’ve ever seen. The streets instantly flooded, the mototaxis were splashing through 4 inch puddles, and we ran into the store to stay dry. Then I called my host brother to see what was happening at the park and he started explaining that there was a problem, so I said we would just come meet them at the park. By the time we got to the park, it was still raining but the downpour had stopped. But they explained that because the equipment and instruments got wet, they couldn’t be played for a couple of weeks. So unfortunately our backup of having the concert Sunday if it rained Saturday was also out the door. But there was nothing we could do at that point, so we packed up the equipment, cleaned up the park, and planned to reschedule for June when the rains are finally over. We had planned a little afterparty and someone suggested having a mini concert because the band still wanted to play. So I offered up my house (I have a garage door thing that would have worked to put the band inside and the door open with people out under the porch) but we ended up going to my host families house. They gathered up a couple of guitars and a drum set and an amp, and played a “mini concert” but at that point people were more interested in just having the party, so after a few songs they got out a stereo system and put away the instruments. I had prepared a huge pot of spaghetti sauce for the 15 person band that came from Guayaquil so they all came over and I made the noodles. They all ate the spaghetti and brownies, which ended up alllll over my floor haha. We went back to the party for awhile and it was really great getting to hang out with my jovenes – I had been stressed for several weeks and now I could relax and enjoy myself. Then me and the other vol came back to my house to use the bathroom but I sat down in the hammock and she sat in one of the chairs and we both knew it was over, no more party for us. We hung out for awhile then went to sleep. Apparently the party lasted until like 5am but I was so exhausted we were in bed by 12:30 :)

So the event didn’t go as planned, but I am really happy with it. A big part of the event was the collaboration between community organizations. Through the planning meetings we were able to make contacts in the community for collaboration on future projects and develop a network of organizations that work with youth in my site. And the concert is still going to happen, but we’re shooting for mid-june and it won’t be as big of an event because it won’t be happening with the other events for GYSD. We also had talked about painting a mural with the Consejo Cantonal de la Ninez y Adolescencia for GYSD but we ended up pushing that back for May 16th for lack of time April 24-25. But that will for sure still be happening next weekend.

I also worked with another organization to do a leadership workshop with community youth, including the Liceo de Lideres (youth group that I usually work with), some of the youth I tutor in English (their form of payment is to help me with projects/workshops when theyre available since I cant accept payment for the tutoring), and a group of high school students that have been selected as potential leaders. It was really great working with the high school aged kids. They have a very different attitude than the older youth and participate more actively, which was a nice change of pace. It was great getting to meet some of them and I am looking forward to working with them in the future. In addition to the leadership workshop last weekend, I'm collaborating with the same organization to plan another workshop with the same group in July. The cool thing about working with this organization is that they take care of the funding, the logistics (finding a location, providing refreshments, giving me supplies like markers and paper), and they have the means but not the methods to do the workshops. The woman I’ve been working with has so much work that she’s super excited to prepare the logistics and leave the workshops to me. She is required to do these workshops in the community, but I can tell she’s too busy to take interest in doing them personally, so theyre very excited to have me to take charge of that aspect. This is what counterpart organizations often are like so its not terribly unusual for most volunteers, but for me it’s such a refreshing change of pace – having an office etc. But I like the freedoms I have from my counterpart agency and have gotten used to the lack of structure, so for example changing to another counterpart agency that has an office and offers structure would not be my first choice at this point. Plus if I were to work with them they would definitely put me on paper-pushing duty. Much better to maintain the “outside contractor” sort of relationship.

Meanwhile life back home is continuing. The last friends I know in Kappa Delta (and at Wittenberg) will be graduating this year (congrats class of 2010!!) but it will be weird not knowing anyone in the house anymore. And my little brother just finished up his junior year, which seems totally unreal. My fellow 2008 grads, Wittenberg and NKU, are really getting into their grad programs and jobs, getting boyfriends, breaking up with boyfriends, and more shockingly, getting engaged/married like lightening. I just saw a couple pictures of cousins that will always be little kids in my mind, but in reality they’re entering middle school, high school, getting girlfriends/boyfriends, and even graduating from high school this year to start college next year, all of which I will be in Ecuador for. Family friends are getting married, having kids, changing jobs/houses, going to college/grad school. Next week my grandparents are moving from the house they’ve lived in for my whole life to a modern house in a subdivision. My siblings are all doing great things, working, studying and changing the world, one lab experiment/one bed at a time :) My parents have apparently planted a monstrous garden and are busy working and taking care of the insane dog, which I haven’t heard about in awhile, so I guess no news is good news haha. And meanwhile my life here continues. It blows my mind to think that May 17th I will have been in Ecuador for 11 months, in site for almost 9. I feel so comfortable with the friends I have made here and with the tranquilo life/workstyle I have developed, yet thinking about home and how life continues seems surreal. Every once in a while I have an eye opener when I find out someone close to me has made a big life change, marriage, job, school, etc. but otherwise its just easier to not think about it, to live life normally here. I have become comfortable here, not necessarily happy all of the time, but happy enough that I know this is where I belong right now. I have become very satisfied with my site and my work, and though it was tough when I first got here, I truly believe my programming staff put me in the perfect site for me. That’s not saying I don’t dislike aspects of my site (the heat, the bugs, some parts of the culture) but I feel integrated very well into my town. In fact, thinking of leaving Ecuador permanently is very difficult to think of. A lot of volunteers that I have talked to are at the same point as me right now. Many have even talked of extending for a 3rd year, which is something I too am neither considering nor ruling out at this point. Trying to make a decision when we aren’t even halfway through our 2 yrs is impossible, as so much can change in just weeks here. But looking at the number of people who extend statistically, the majority of us will at some point become tired of the culture, tired of the language, tired of the work, tired of the machismo, and ready to return to the states. So I wonder when that point comes, though I assume it is different for everyone. Only time will tell whether I hit that point sooner or later in my service, but it is an interesting concept to reflect about at this point in my service, and something I want to record for myself and you all. There is your deep reflection for the month, hope you enjoyed it :)

Alright, I think I’m all done writing, and I’m sure you are all done reading, so until another day, peace.

So I’m back to the blog after another hiatus, sorry about that :) I was really busy until the weekend of the 24th, then I spent some time just relaxing and getting my life back in order, such as cleaning my filthy house (which was covered in brownies after the dinner party on the 24th) and doing laundry (I had begun buying clothing because everything was dirty). But I’m back now, and though work hasn’t picked back up yet, I’m to the point where it’s time to do something, even though my laundry is once again reaching the top of the laundry hamper (which is actually a cardboard box with a plastic bag in it, but I’m roughing it right?) Now most volunteers would take care of these domestic things during their weekends, but as it turns out, I actually do most of my work on weekends. The jovenes have started back to classes in the universities, so they’re pretty much busy all week, leaving the weekends free. I’m they’re overjoyed by the fact that I take up some of their weekends with my work, but at least for now they participate. So during the week unless I make work for myself, I don’t really have anything that I have to do. Work could include going back to what I was doing, going with the women who work with kids under 5 yrs old in the homes, or I could go back to helping in the schools. The first option doesn’t interest me too much because I don’t feel like I was really helping with anything. It was a great way to meet 150+ families in the community, but as far as productivity, eh... So then there’s the school option. Well I’ve explained how the schools are here, crazy, loud, possibility of getting stabbed with pencils, etc. So in the end the school will be my work week, it’s just a matter of succumbing to my destiny, oh, and getting out of bed at 6am to be ready for school. My host mom has been pressuring me to come help her in her math classes. Side note, her school has changed its format this year, possibly because of the new principal that has taken over. Before, the kids would stay in the classroom and the teacher would rotate. Now, the teachers rotate with some of the classes (under 5th grade I think), and the 6th (which is what my host mom is teaching this year) and 7th have the same teacher in the same classroom all day every day. Actually, I might have that a little mixed up, but the idea is that they’ve changed their system, which can only be a good thing. So anyway, my host mom is back in the government mandated university refresher classes for teachers, and they’ve been doing math for the last couple months. One day I told her I like math and used to tutor in middle school (less relevant) and in college (more relevant) so she got really excited and now I’ve been helping her, and sometimes her colleagues, on their math lessons. I know it has to be really hard to go back and relearn algebra and trigonometry, etc. after not looking at it for a long time, but she is really doing a great job with it. What usually happens is that I read through the problems, get an idea of how to do it, then we work through it step by step. Afterwards, I have her explain it back to me, and we brainstorm ways to make it more concrete and simple for her 6th graders. Then she goes to the university class and usually they get together in groups of 4 and talk about their homework. At which point she explains to her colleagues how to do the problems, then sometimes they have to present the problem to the rest of their class. And sometimes her fellow teachers come to our study sessions to get extra help as well. So I feel really good about tutoring her because not only is she learning, but she is also teaching what she has learned to the other teachers, which then helps put the information into the students’ hands in a more efficient and accurate manner. I feel like it makes a bigger difference than just working with the students directly, and therefore is a better use of my time. Also, my host mom has been getting really great grades in her math class on the exams, which demonstrates that she is actually learning it well enough to replicate on the tests. She is always so excited to tell me how the test went. After the last one she came home and said “I did so good they’ll have to give me 11 out of 10!!” and was super excited. Now I don’t know what grade she actually received, but I would suspect it was pretty high. It’s not foolproof teaching math here though. I have heard that division is taught very differently here, but haven’t figured out how they teach it. What we usually do, is I explain to her how I know how to do it, what I learned in school in the US, then I explain what the goal is (for example dividing 5 by 10 to get ½) and she then does it in the techniques they use here. And sometimes she explains what she did to me, but usually as long as she gets what we’re doing and has her way of doing it, we drop it and move on. But anyway, she has been asking me to come help in her math class, to pull a couple of the struggling kids aside and work one on one with them, which again, I’ve been avoiding the schools, but I will be doing that a few days a week starting this week I think. I also want to get an afterschool tutoring program started on Fridays, but haven’t gotten the initiative to move forward with the plans.

So in preparation for the Global Youth Service Day event we had, I made cookies and brownies for the jovenes to sell to raise money (but we decided to just eat them instead). The jovenes had been asking and asking me to teach them to make chocolate chip cookies, so one day I told them if they wanted to learn to come over to my house because that’s what I was going to make that night. So we had 6 of the jovenes in my house ready to learn. I got out the recipe and walked them through it step by step, translating the directions. Things were going great until we got to “butter”. When I told them ½ a cup, they gasped and gave me dubious looks. Then one of them got out the measuring cup and measured it out, asking me if I was sure that was right. After he filled up to ½ a cup and mixed it into the eggs, etc. they were all grossed out and said they had no idea that’s what cookies are made out of (they ate them all that night though, so I guess they got over it!). The good part of this story though is that because of the cookie making, they decided that they want to learn to make HEALTHY foods so now I have a captive audience to teach about nutrition and cooking. Our first goal is learning to make salads, American style. I have ranch powder, so we’ll make ranch dressing, and make it with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. I also want to teach them some variations on salads, such as making chicken breast for the salads, oil and vinegar dressing, and Mexican taco salads. Then I want to teach them some entrees from the US, and they all really want to learn to make pizza (which I just did the other day, but this time I made a deep dish pizza pie = amazing!!). Plus I know whatever I make they’ll eat, which is a plus :)

Speaking of kitcheny things, I spent an hour and a half defrosting my freezer Saturday night. I have a big 1 door fridge/freezer combo, and I don’t know if it’s because it’s so hot here or what, but the freezers in this country always fill with frost. I’d been ignoring it ignoring it but finally Saturday night it was so frosty that the big door couldn’t close, so I decided it was time to do something about it. I took everything out of the fridge/freezer and hacked away at the ice with a knife, then eventually just put a bucket in the fridge and turned the fan so it was blowing into the freezer (turned out to be just like air conditioning haha!!) and after 3 buckets of icy water and an hr later, it was defrosted. I can’t believe my freezer is so big! It had been so full of ice (literally at least 3 inches on all of the freezer walls) that I didn’t realize how big it was. And I read in our Buen Provecho cookbook that Peace Corps provides us with, that a trick to making defrosting much easier in the future is putting butter all over the coils. So after it was defrosted I buttered my hand and smeared it all over the freezer, inside and out. Hopefully that will help; I guess I’ll know in a few months when it’s all frosty again!

Okay so an update on what happened for Global Youth Service Day (April 24). As you know if you read the last blog, we received a grant from GetURGoodOn (a foundation established by Miley Cyrus) and Youth Service America to hold a weekend of events for GYSD. First we wanted to make an 8 by 15 foot portable world map to be used by the local schools in their educational programming. We started the map 3 weeks before the event which made me a little nervous. But the first day of working on it the jovenes drew the entire thing, grid and all, in 3.5 hours. I was thoroughly impressed, not only with the speediness, but also by the quality. Sure we lost a couple of island countries, but that’s sometime you just have to accept and paint later once the ocean is done. We were planning on starting painting the next day, but the jovenes were unenthusiastic, so we waited until the next weekend. We started painting and I realized it wasn’t going to go as fast as the drawing did, but they painted and painted for about 4 hrs, covering a great deal of 2 of the 3 plywood sheets. Then another day they started the next plywood, and after 4 days of painting, things were looking pretty good. Then the week of the event I started getting nervous. We still needed to finish painting, draw the outline and label the countries, have the wood joined together with hinges, and paint on the protective lacquer. So I did some painting etc by myself in the house, mostly rediscovering all of the islands we had lost in the south pacific and Caribbean. But often when I was painting a couple of the jovenes would come over and join me, so I was rarely alone. The Thursday before the event we took the wood to be joined at a carpentry shop, installing the hinges and cutting off an extra inch we had somehow acquired one of the boards... Then the day before the event we had a huge group of youth came over and we outlined and labeled everything. The night before the event, they started working with the lacquer, but it was a challenge because the brushes were leaving streaks and we were worried about the marker smearing with the oil based lacquer. But after several hours of discussing it, they finally devised a roller taped to a pole that they used to reach all parts of the board....

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Unfortunately I’m almost out of internet so I’m going to post what I have written, but I’m going to continue writing the rest of the story right now so as soon as I have internet again I promise it will be continued!! Love and miss you all!

So I know it’s been awhile (again) but I’ve been pretty busy with work lately. Me and my group of jovenes (youth) and planning a huge event for Global Youth Service Day (April 23-25). It started with the idea that we would do the World Map Project to give to the schools (a mobile 8 by 15 ft map) and a concert featuring a band from my organization in Guayaquil. And on a whim I applied for a “GetURGoodOn” grant sponsored by Youth Service America and Miley Cyrus. Didn’t think we’d get it, so I also did a Peace Corps Partnership Program grant application for just doing the world map. But surprise, we got the GetURGoodOn grant! So suddenly we have almost $300 to spend on making this event into a huge thing. First my host brother (the leader of the group) and I wrote up a proposal and sent it to the mayor (beaurocracy is huge here). Then after waiting for 4 hrs we had a meeting with him and discussed the idea. He jumped for it and is really excited we have an activity planned (and financed). There aren’t a lot of things for youth to do in my town so they turn to drugs and alcohol for pastimes, so the plan is for GYSD to be a jumping off point to connect with the youth in the community and try to work with them through the mayoral office. So the mayor set up a meeting with the leaders of organizations that work with youth in my town. We met twice with that group planning activities and just getting to know each other so we can collaborate more easily in the future in projects for the youth. After GYSD they want to meet and plan bimonthly activities for youth in the community =) And so far we have this planned:

Friday April 23:

• finish the World Map Project

• advertise for the concert (fliers, posters, and a truck that drives around making loud announcements)

Saturday April 24:

• an open house during the day with information for jovenes in the community (health center will have info about sex ed/STDs, mayors office will have info on their youth programs, etc)

• presentation of the World Map to the city by the group of jovenes

• a concert starting in the late afternoon with 5 youth bands from the community and 2 bands from my organization in Guayaquil

Sunday April 25:

• is also World Education Day, so we’re collaborating with the ministry of education to do a mural about juventud (youthism?) and theyre also doing an open house on the educational opportunities available in the area

• cleaning up the park from the concert

This project has basically turned into a volunteers dream. I helped get the project off the ground and now the community has taken and molded it to the event they want, which is theoretically sustainable. I’m still involved in everything but having community leaders involved provides greater sustainability. In fact, the mayor’s office said they want to make this an annual event that they will run next year and will put it in the budget so funding isn’t an issue. Of course, I’ve had a little bit of a hard time letting my baby go, but it’s great to see how well everything is going. And I did design the logo for the T-shirts so I have my imprint :) Oh, and some of the vols that live close to here are gonna come out for the concert and finally see my site. And my program manager said she’d really like to come down from Quito if she can manage, so I’m getting a lot of help from the Peace Corps side! But anyway, I’ve been busy doing prep for the meetings and the event, writing oficios (formal letters), handouts, etc. and I’m about to be a whole lot busier because we bought the materials for doing the Map and we have less than 3 wks to paint it (and its huge). Also I’m going to an AIDS conference with my host brother Tuesday-Friday, so I won’t be around to help with the painting, and I’ll be surprised if they work on it while we’re going. I need to get a bunch of stuff done tomorrow, like preparing the press releases (we’re inviting the Guayaquil newspapers to put in a story on the event, but I have to get the press releases checked by Peace Corps, so I need to get moving on that).

I’ve also been busy helping my host mom on math for her government mandated university ‘refesher’ course. She has class every mon and wed, so I help her twice a week, usually for about 3 hrs. She understands it but has a hard time figuring out how to explain it to 6th graders, so I've been helping think of alternative education techniques (using marbles for doing division etc). And I’ve also been helping one of the girls in the community with her English. Schools start here tomorrow and they are given work to do before the year starts, so I helped her with some grammar and pronunciation. She’s very bright and caught on quickly, and she says she wants to be an English teacher. So if that’s the case, I’ll be working with her a lot.

On that note, I am also trying to coordinate with one of the high schools to do English tutoring for 3 hrs in the afternoon twice a week. Right now, kids who need help with English and know where I live just come to my house, but that’s not really ideal for me as I cant really say no even if I'm busy. So what I want to do it just set up a time and place to be that they can come get help if they want it. Which is why I need to talk to the high school principal, to be given access to a classroom and for them to tell the English classes that I’m available for free tutoring. I much prefer this to teaching English, seeing as how I’m not a teacher. Annnd I’m trying to start a tutoring program with my jovenes which I hope will turn into a mentoring program similar to Big Brothers Big Sisters. I talked to a few of them and they said they’d be willing to go to one of the elementary schools to help some of the kids that are having trouble. The idea is every Friday we’ll have the program in the afternoon and the youth will be on a schedule so they only have to “work” every couple of weeks, though they could of course help out whenever they wanted. It would be a nice way for them to give back to the community and help the children who come from problematic families. And my long-term idea is to form pairs between the youth and kids so that the youth can help them with non-school issues, maybe having soccer games or movie parties or something. Using the youth as mentors for struggling kids in the community.

And I’ve been talking with my host mom about preparing some sort of easy-to-use program for using the World Map in the elementary and high schools. The idea is that they have a sort of culture fair, where the kids each get a country, research it, and present it in a world fair. I did that in middle school and really enjoyed it, and it would be motivation for the kids to learn about other cultures, use the map, and gain the confidence in researching and presenting material. My host mom likes the idea, so I’ll be drawing up another oficio for the schools, as soon as the GYSD stuff calms down.

And the last thing is that the jovenes are participating in a soccer league for the next couple months. I’m sorta like the soccer mom for the whole team, even though the refs kicked me out of the stadium the first game because women weren’t allowed on the field. But we’ve worked that out now so next weekend I’ll be able to hang out with the team while they play. They have really weird rules here. But anyway, they’re doing training Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with games on Sunday, and I’m going to try to support them by participating in some of the exercises. Thursday I went with them when they were just scrimmaging, thinking I’d participate, but it soon became clear that they play way too rough when they’re just playing around. So I’ll stick to jogging and stuff with them. So that fills the rest of my time :)

Alrighty, going to sign off. I realize this was just about work, but as you can see that’s pretty much all I do for now. I haven’t gone around to the homes, which is my initial assignment with my organization, in several months because of all the other stuff going on. Things should calm down after GYSD though

Still rains a good bit, and its still hot, though tonight is pretty pleasant, so maybe the hot seasons almost over..

Alright, peace out!

First of all, happy 21st birthday to my little brother Kevin :) I wish I could be there to celebrate with you, love you!

Since it’s been soo long since I updated it just feels like such a daunting task, to catch up on everything, so unfortunately if you want a post I'm just gonna skip whatever else from the last month and write what I feel like :)

First of all, Omnibus 102 has officially been in site for over 6 months (February 20th was 6 months)! And in country almost 9 months (9 months in a week or so)!! Wow, time passes so quickly yet so slowly. And the world keeps on moving back home… My parents had to deliver some bad news a few weeks ago over the phone, something I know they dreaded doing and continue to dread having to do for any other occasion. It is hard being thousands of miles from the ones you love yet telling/receiving bad news. My dog of 18 and a half yrs, Bitsy, passed away February 16. She had a wonderfully long life and overcame great odds several years ago when a huge tumor was removed from her spleen. I honestly was starting to think she was Wonder Dog. I’m sad that she won’t be there when I come home but I knew it was likely to happen while I was gone for 2 years. She was the best dog I ever could have wished and prayed for, and she will be greatly missed, but I’m sure she is happy and no longer weighed down by her aged body. After all, all dogs go to heaven

So I can’t really remember if I talked about the crickets in previous posts, but yah. They are huge and disgusting. It was a tough few weeks when they first arrived. Basically when the rainy season starts, the crickets come out of the ground and like to go in people’s houses to scare them and eat their clothes. Ew. And they’re huge. And they are very unskilled flyers so they can usually go about 3 feet then plummet to the ground, usually on me or near me. Plus I was killing at least 20 of them nightly during the first part of the rainy season, so they were pretty much everywhere. It was a pretty jumpy time for me. And they’re huge, like easily 3 inches long with a very very tough exoskeleton (if you want to kill them you really gotta put your weight into it). And when you do kill them, it’s like a crush then squish, because once you get through the outer shell inside they’re just like jelly. Buuut I survived through the major plague and now I have them but they’re much less frequent and also smaller. The ones I've been killing lately have been like teenage size, just an inch or so, and without the super tough skeleton. Oh, the big ones are clumsy as I mentioned and also like cockroaches (which I've had more since the rainy season started, and those too near the size of my hand) they can’t flip themselves over if they’re on their back. So during the plague, I would go to sweep out the dead bodies in the morning and as soon as the broom touched them they would come back to life and start squirming. Ew. But anyway, the ones I have now are much more agile and to kill them I sometimes have to jump around like an Irish dancer. But I always win :) Other creepy crawlers I've had since the rainy season include: more ants, as expected; scorpions (very nasty looking black 4 inch long with a huge stinger, ugh... but not deadly – my host brother got stung by one on his leg and said it was like a bee sting but it went away after a couple of days); the aforementioned cockroaches; and of course mosquitoes. The mosquitoes are ridiculous! The females are huge, can be half an inch across, but slow (which makes them an easy target with the bug zapper my family sent me!!). The males are smaller, faster, and smarter. They not only creep up without me seeing them, but they bite through anything – jeans, 2 long sleeve shirts, socks, etc. And the little bastards bite anything that is open to air. I have bites on my ears and hands, even though I am constantly putting on repellent! The other things that have been eating me are small flying bugs that look like gnats but I think may be baby mosquitoes (if that’s possible?). They pass through the mosquito net and get me in my sleep, so what I've been doing is taking the bug zapper into the net with me, setting my light on a timer to go off after a couple of hrs (they come toward the light) and sit and wait for them. After I kill about 20 of them (and I have masking tape in my net too to pick up their bodies so I'm not sleeping in a bug graveyard) and it seems like they’ve calmed down, I finally get to sleep. I just started this counterattack method about a week ago and it seems to be working. Finally, I have a lot more newts living in my house now. They’ve been having babies, because there are some precious little inch long wall crawlers in here. Some of my fellow volunteers are afraid or disgusted by the little lizards, but I like them for 3 reasons. 1: they’re terrified of me. Sometimes they startle me if I turn on a light and they scamper up the walls, but once I realize its them they’re already hiding from me anyway. 2: they eat mosquitoes, moths, whatever other bugs are hanging out in my house. And for this I am very very appreciative. They’re great hunters! I've seen a newt stalking its prey for 30 minutes, slowly inching forward until it’s within lunging distance then BAM dinner. Also, the crickets make cricket noises (extremely loud, deafening really) at night in some people’s houses. In my house though, the cricket makes noise for 15 mins maximum and soon the newts move in and kill and eat it. There was a cricket in the corner making lots of noise about 20 mins ago but about 10 mins ago the noise stopped and I just saw 3 newts scamper from the corner. Coincidence? And 3: They’re soo cute! I wish they wouldn’t be so afraid of me so I could interact with them, but I guess that’s their choice. I don’t know if I would want to have it crawling on me, but I’d like to get up close and feed it a moth or something. The only downsides are when they scatter up the walls when I turn on the light (startles me sometimes) and they leave poop around the house. The poop looks like mouse poop, but I had deducted that it is indeed from the newts based on the fall patterns but then I actually saw one of them poop once which confirmed it. They have large poop for such little critters…

So the other thing about the rainy season is that it is HOT! Last night it was 92°F at 7pm. Yeah. Today’s a little cooler at 82°F while I’m writing at 10:30pm. Buut we’ve also had a lot of problems with the power in my town, again. Specifically my street. Last night the transformer blew out (with sparks etc) for the 3rd time this month. I've gotten really fast at getting up and unplugging everything, starting with the TV/computer, then the fridge and the water pump, then I get the little stuff. The other day when the power blew it burned my host family’s fridge, washing machine, and their TV. And my neighbor’s fridge burned up too. I’ve been lucky; I only lost my recharger for AA/AAA batteries and a couple of light bulbs. It’s gotten pretty ridiculous though. Today when the power guys came to fix the transformer a lot of people on the street went to talk to them. I just watched so I don’t know exactly what they were saying but they spent about 30 mins fixing the transformer and brought in some new equipment this time so hopefully it’s good now… They temporarily rerouted the power or something last night so we only were out a couple of hours. Today we didn’t have power from 8am until 7pm though… Which also sucks when its 90°+ in the shade, because my fan doesn’t work without the power. Also my water pump doesn’t, so it was a smelly day :) but that’s the life here. I’m lucky I have a placement where there is electricity!

So work wise I’ve been working outside of my town now for the past month or so. It’s not very steady work, which means I have lots of down time, but it’s been pretty fun and rewarding. Basically I've been going to the big city working with the health promoters that I trained to do AIDS charlas. They are in charge of planning the workshops and I’m there as support and to answer questions etc. Last week I went to an AIDS foundation that another volunteer works with It was very helpful. They gave me some handouts and posters to use in the workshops and talked with the new director of the AIDS program. Peace Corps Ecuador is being expanded by adding staff and another 50+ volunteers in the next year. In addition to the four current programs (Health, Youth and Families, Agriculture, Natural Resources) they are adding an HIV/AIDS subprogram into the health sector that will be focusing in the highest-risk provinces in Ecuador. Because Guayas (the province I live in) has the highest incidence, most of the volunteers are supposed to be stationed here. Anyway, I received some pointers for the charlas and some materials to use, which has been super helpful. Overall the charlas have gone really well, some better than others. The apparent success of the charlas was inversely correlated with the number of children present (imagine that correlation graph you psych majors!). Basically the best ones were where they were few children, and babies are easier to deal with than bored mischievous toddlers. The workshops were for both the parents, but in reality there was only one man in the workshop, if any. Obviously it’s important and more effective to get the message to both the man and woman, but I am more comfortable doing the charlas with the moms anyway :) Each of the charlas consisted of basic information about HIV/AIDS, an activity called “truth or fiction” where common myths were dispelled (you can get HIV from shaking hands, etc), and sometimes an activity called “Levels of Risk” where the participants decide whether certain behavior has high risk low risk or no risk of transmitting the virus. So pretty much every charla was the same. After the first 10 or so I felt like I could do it in my sleep. Then something surprising happened. When we were talking about the use of protection in sexual relationships, one of the mothers asked what a condom was. And the promoter turned to me to explain. It shouldn’t have, but her question really caught me off guard. And of course no one had a condom with them so I set out with my insufficient Spanish (if we were going to talk about condoms I would have read through the material to refresh the terminology etc) to explain what it was. So we fumbled our way through that (afterwards I realized that there was probably a pharmacy the next street over where I could have bought one to explain better but things always work out better in afterthought) and I plan to go back another time to that group to demonstrate and explain properly. But on the bus right home I was thinking about the incident and realized that probably most of the moms wouldn’t have a clue what a condom is. The high schools just recently started teaching sex ed, and I don’t know how extensively they cover the material, but sexual education is one of the topics the high schools have requested my assistance in. So the next day when I set out to do the next charla, I brought a condom with me. Talk about taboo! I asked if anyone knew how to use a condom or if I should demonstrate and received awkward silence. So I asked the lady whose house we were in if I could borrow a plantain. There was a lot of giggling but we got through it and now they probably all think that the gringa is absolutely insane. And I discarded the plantain just before they got the idea to get out the camera phones – score! I’m too realistic to think that now that they know what a condom is they’ll be buying and using them, BUT they won’t be forgetting that charla any time soon and hopefully they took away something besides the funny parts. Afterwards I talked with a few of the mothers about whether it was a good idea to show how to use a condom (it's hard to tell how conservative people are and I was worried I had offended someone) and they said they thought it was great. They said it’s such a taboo topic so some people were uncomfortable but it is good information that most people haven’t heard and I presented it in a funny yet respectful and informative manner. One of the moms asked if I could come back and she’d bring her teenage girls so I could explain it to them – yikes! So I’ve decided to be prepared for teaching about condoms in the last couple charlas but again save it for the end of the charla so I can get a feel for the group. If I had pulled a condom out at the beginning of that charla who knows how it would have gone over. So even though sex ed was not something I was really interested in doing as part of my service, I guess I’m learning to live with it. There's definitely a need here. Next challenge, sex ed with high schoolers – yikes!

So now that that potentially awkward part is over, depending on who is reading this… What else is new? I bought a toaster oven finally (which broke my budget for March haha). I splurged and got a good one. It’s about a foot tall and has 2 heating elements on the top and 2 on the bottom of the oven. It was $43 and to get a small crappy one was $25, so it was a bit more expensive than I planned but I am soo happy I got this one. It bakes perfectly! I’ve been making baked maduros (yellow sweet plantains that you eat with cheese or margarine); bread like it’s my job (I bought yeast when I got the oven. I forgot how good yeast bread is as opposed to baking powder bread…), and even made brownies for me and my host brother Saturday. The brownies turned out excellent! I used cocoa powder like you use for making hot chocolate, ground peanuts, and put chunks of chocolate bar inside. Like heaven. I also gave some to my neighbors who were sitting outside and we had a great bonding moment. And I found out they can smell everything I cook in my house, and they say I cook good smelling stuff all the time. I guess I’ll have to start sharing more :) This weekend was a big cooking weekend for me. My host mom was at her mom’s finishing up her graduate thesis, so only my host dad and one of the host brothers was at the house and of course the men here have no clue how to cook so they’d been eating street food for several days. So Thursday night I made spaghetti and homemade garlic bread for them, and Friday night I made a ham bacon and veggie frittata (if that’s what it’s called.. it’s basically an omelet but baked). Then they left for the beach Saturday morning and the other host brother came to my town, so I made macaroni and cheese and brownies for us. Then the family got back from the beach last night but this morning my host mom went back to her mom’s to work on her thesis, so the 2 guys were left alone again. So tonight I made a potato cheese soup (I was sad to find that after the fridge was off all day from the power outages the bacon/ham mix I had bought went bad) and homemade soft pretzels (all that I lacked was a mug of Hofbräuhaus beer to have a good German meal). My host brother and one of his friends came over and ate. I was expecting to bring the food to their house but they came over here and quite frankly my house is a huge mess, so I was pretty embarrassed. But it was motivation enough that after they left I cleaned my house haha. I’ve learned that if I’m going to offer food to the men in this country I should put some aside for me if I want any for later :) so I stored enough for lunch tomorrow in my fridge before they got here haha. I did start back at the gym last week though (I was really sick for a week then another week just feeling icky and not wanting to work out) and it’s been great. It is soo hot here to be working out, but I know that the hour I’m at the gym is an hour of good exercise between the workout and the heat. Tomorrow should be a gym day but since I have internet I don’t know if I’ll go. Though I haven’t been working much in my site, I’ve been busy trying to prepare for an event my jovenes and I are planning. I’ll tell about that in the next post, hopefully after the event has been a huge success :)

Things with my host family have changed a lot recently with the schools on winter vacation, the cook having her baby, and my host brother Andy starting at the university. First, the schools are on break so my host sister is out of classes and my host parents are off work until April. (something I’ve never really understood is that the schools in the sierra have different break schedules, so they’re not in vacations right now. Maybe it has to do with harvest times?) My host mom and sister have spent pretty much the whole time at her mom’s house because my host mom is finishing her graduate thesis and is working with her sister who also lives there. And there are cousins there for my host sister to play with that are near her age, which is nice for her. It’s weird that every time I go to my host family’s house there’s no one there. Which is also partly because the cook/house cleaner had her baby a couple of weeks ago, so she’s off work (potentially permanently since she now has 3 kids and can’t put the baby in day care until he’s 1 year old). Which means that the 2 remaining family members (the host dad and host brother Joao) are there sometimes (but they don’t cook as I talked about earlier). To clarify about the brothers: the 16 yr old, Jair, is in high school in the big city. The 20 year old, Andy, just started in the university in the big city in January and is living at his grandmother’s house except when he comes here on some weekends. And the 24 yr old, Joao, is also in the university but prefers to commute so he lives here and is gone some days to the university. Anyway, especially when I was living with them, I spent a lot of time talking with Andy, and now that he’s not around, I feel my Spanish slipping. It has made me realize how much he helped me with my Spanish and how patient he always is explaining things to me, talking to me is like talking to a half literate 5 year old. It’s also due to my weird work situation right now and that the host family is basically not around at all, but it’s something I’ve noticed and wanted to reflect on. That being said, I also am going to start working harder on my Spanish since I don’t have as much conversational exposure. Meaning studying once a week and trying to watch movies in Spanish with English subtitles. And I’m sure when I get back to daily work in my town next week things will improve as well.

Emotionally, life remains a roller coaster. I have good days and bad days, and I’ve hit my first real slump in the roller coaster. It’s been especially hard with the host family not around much, but soon things will get back to normal in that department. And my work schedule isn’t helping. It will be work to go back to getting up at 7 to go to the houses, but I know that I need that routine right now. But every time I'm having a bad day there’s always that little thing that makes everything seem better, a random text, running into a friend in the street, getting a free apple from the little lady at the market, or having an apparent stranger walk up to my house. That last one’s a good story: Sunday a woman came to my house to get a drink of water and knew me but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out who she was. But I invited her in and she plopped down in my hammock like we were best buds. I maintained a guard as if she were a stranger but treated her like a friend (something I’ve gotten incredibly good out here) because odds are I know her I just don’t remember her, and she sat here in my house and chatted with me for about an hr. Before you freak out, 1) she knew my host family and 2) Andy told her to come here for water since they were out at his house and 3) she wasn’t an immediate threat even if I didn’t know her. But apparently I knew her, her husband, and her daughter. It was awkward for me but entertaining in general. We chatted about my house, about life here in my town, about work, about her husband who was at the bar watching the soccer game, about her daughter that lives in the sierra – I know everything she bought for her daughter’s house, etc. After about an hr I told her I needed to get to the market before it closed so I walked over to the host family’s house with her and she hung out with Andy while I made my escape. I was afraid it was too obvious that I was just trying to get out of the situation, but went with it anyway. Later I asked him who she was… turns out she’s my host aunt, but I only met her once and she lives in the big city. Of course she remembered me but I think I played it off fairly well that I knew her. I felt a little bad about it and hope she didn’t think I was rude and blowing her off something. Next time I see her I’ll have to be extra friendly though. And I’m supposed to email her a recipe for pizza, so I’ll be extra friendly in the email. Still don’t know her name though…

The last thing I wanna tell you about is Carnaval. I was getting over having a bacterial stomach infection/an amoeba I named Jimmy, but decided to go to Guaranda for Carnaval. I’m going to try to experience Ecuador more instead of staying in my site all the time. I’m not going to be out of my site tons either, I’m just talking about taking a 3 day weekend to go to a different part of Ecuador instead of sticking around here in the coast. Anyway, Guaranda is one of the biggest Carnaval celebrations in Ecuador and I happen to have a friend who lives there, so it was the perfect opportunity. Getting to Guaranda was a challenge though. We knew tickets would be hard to buy the day of, so someone went a few days ahead of time and bought the tickets. But that bus company decided to cancel all of their buses (why??? No one knows) so we got our money back. So the day of we went to a different company and bought tickets (for a totally jacked up price by the way). There was a miscommunication between my friend and the ticket lady and we understood that there basically were no scheduled buses; it was more of a first come first serve. So we took our time, ate something, and then went to get on the bus. But what the lady meant was there was no hour for the buses to arrive, they just get there when they get there, but the bus number and seats are assigned. So basically we had missed our bus. So I was designated to get us different tickets or our money back. After about 20 mins I was getting nowhere so I had the person who bought the tickets come down hoping that could fix the situation. But they wouldn’t give us new seats and wouldn’t give us our money back, no deal. So I negotiated that we could ride the 5 hrs sitting on our bags on the floor (best case scenario at this point). Luckily they went for it and we spent 5 miserable hrs (more so for me because I was already feeling nauseas from the amoeba and the roads in the sierra are really windy) sitting on the bus but we finally made it to Guaranda! In the end I was so glad we went… Carnaval is Mardi Gras for Latin/South America, minus the beads and flashing people (at least where I went). In Guaranda they had an extravagant parade with all types of dancing, costumes (there was a group dressed as cavemen?), and tooooons of water/flour/foam. Basically it’s like a free-for-all with people throwing buckets of water, water balloons, tossing flour or corn starch on your head, and spraying this foam from big cans. The foam is really neat, it pretty much dissolves when you touch it and it’s apparently water based because it doesn’t leave an oily residue or anything. The colored ones do leave coloring but when I got back to site I was able to wash out the stains without much trouble. The best part is that it smells really good! So basically it’s not bad to get sprayed with, and even more fun to spray back :) It’s so crazy though; you have little 5 year olds running around attacking adults and grandmas without any repercussions except maybe getting a bucket dumped on his head. And that little cute grandma is the one holding the bucket. Amazing. It would get old for any length of time, but it was so much fun for the couple days I was there. And because it is an Ecuadorian holiday, people drink A LOT. I couldn’t drink because I was still on amoeba meds (apparently will make you violently ill if you drink on them, and I didn’t feel like finding out. Side note though, I lost like 10 lbs in a week with an amoeba. It was a painful week but there’s always a silver lining). And the people I was with weren’t huge drinkers, so we pretty much just enjoyed the festivities during the day then at night we just chilled and played cards or whatever. It was really nice and just the mental health break I needed. Now that I’ve seen the sierran celebrations, I think next year I’ll head to the beach for Carnaval :)

FYI here’s the link to my facebook album so if you’re online you should check it out. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044645&id=46900557&l=32ee64547a

Ok last thing for real. I finally started my gardening project :) I planted tomatoes, basil, beans, and bought a lime tree sapling (though that seems to be pretty much dead at this point…). So far the lime is outside (as the guy told me to do) but everything else is inside in planters. If the lime tree dies I’m gonna go back to the guy and talk to him, and try to get a discount on another tree (though it was only $2.50). The sad thing about the lime tree though is that it won’t yield fruit for 2 or 3 years, so I won’t get to reap the benefits of the tree. I guess when I come back to visit some years in the future it may be here though :)

Alright, I think I covered pretty much everything I have to say for now, which is a good thing because I’ve been typing for 3 hrs and surely you all stopped reading 3 pages ago :) The problem is that once I don’t update for a long time it’s hard to start again, but I’ll try to update more often so I don’t get back in the same situation again. Hope all’s well, miss you all!

Okay so I know it’s been a ridiculously long time since I wrote, but my life has been a little loco here. I pretty much haven’t posted anything since New Years if I’m remembering correctly soo this will be a long one. Enjoy!

In January we had our first reconnect conference for my training group. They divided us into 3 groups and sent us to 3 different cities around Ecuador because it is more cost-efficient than getting everyone together in Quito. I was pretty disappointed to find out I wouldn’t be seeing everyone but excited to get to see a new city in the sierra (mountains). In the end I think it was wise for them to split us up – I can’t imagine sitting through 3 times as many presentations as I did. So anyway, we had to be at the hotel at 11:30am, and the city is 5 hours from Guayaquil, which is about 2 hours from my site. Do the math and obviously I wasn’t going to be able to leave that morning for the conference. So I went to Guayaquil the night before and stayed with a friend there, which ended up being really nice since we had to gether up and leave at 5:30am the next day. In addition to us volunteers going, we all invited 1 counterpart or work partner to attend the conference with us. We decided we would meet the counterparts at the bus terminal and had pre-purchased the tickets the night before. We told them to be there about an hour early (building in time for the hora Ecuatoriana) but of course we were one duckling short when it came time for us to leave. Thankfully my counterpart was there and ready to go early! Well, my friend’s counterpart was somewhere in the terminal (which is basically like a small mall) but we couldn’t locate her – it was very chaotic. Finally everyone else got on the bus and we held the bus until we were able to find our lost duckling. So finally we made it out of Guayaquil and headed for Cuenca. Along the way there were delays from construction/possible mudslide and an accident, but we made it on time and all together :) The conference was pretty interesting overall. We each had to present the findings of our community diagnostic interviews we did in site, which were 20 minute presentations each. This got a little long but it was interesting hearing about everyone else’s sites and their projects. We also had several days of planning, where we worked with our counterparts to plan a new project to start after the conference. I’m planning to start a mentoring program similar to Big Brothers Big Sisters, but it’s going to be a very long process starting with developing the youth group. The best parts of the conference were the city and the ‘nightlife’. The city is really pretty and looks almost like Europe (it is obviously a very well-off city overall). Also, the climate was great, it was jeans and tshirt weather with a sweatshirt at night – a nice change from the steamy coast! And the ‘nightlife’ involved us going out to an Austrian café (that had rouladin!) for drinks after the conference/dinner. They had 2 for 1 specials all day every day: Monday rum and coke, Tuesday gin and tonic, Wednesday mojitos. So we took advantage of those and wound down at the end of the night. However we had to be up at 7 every day so it was more of a night cap than a fiesta. We also found a microbrewery one night that had good beer, which is a change from the normal Ecuadorian options (which include Pilsner, Brahms, and my personal favorite – simply from lack of options – Club). We were provided all meals at the hotel which was nice but one night I went out with a couple volunteers to an Indian restaurant (far from Guru back at home but still a nice change of tastes). Overall in this week I’d say I gained 5 pounds because we were eating breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and sitting in meetings in-between. Our counterparts left a day before us so we had a day to do stuff that was only related to volunteers. On that day they gave us a fun break and sent us out on a scavenger hunt to get to know the city. It was very relaxed (we had plenty of time to stop for ice cream) and we had to go see places like the markets and museums, which were really interesting. They had cut our conference short because threats that the indigenous population was going to blockade the roads in protest of unfavorable legislation, but the protests never happened. We were still sent straight to site a day early though because the possibility of turmoil  We had planned to have a get-together for our whole training group the Saturday after the conference but this had to be cancelled as well…

After the conference Ang came to visit! I had a full 2 weeks planned out with the campo, beach, city, and transitional zone all included but nothing ever works out as planned… We started by spending time here in my site. The days are all a little mixed up in my head, but one day we went to a finca (farm) with my host family to pick mangos, papaya, melons, and guava. It was a lot of fun and we made it out just before the rain started. I had a very interesting experience using an outhouse at the farm when I got stomach cramps. Lets just say there some confusion between using a hole in the floor and an old unused toilet. We also got to feed some mangos to starving pigs and saw a dancing dog. Not only did we get to take more mangos than we were able to eat, as we left the dueno gave us a melon as a gift (the 3rd I had been gifted for Ang and I). Another day we went on a tour of the nearby 3 towns, including a walk on the malicon of the Rio Daule, a tour of a huge church, window shopping for a hammock (which we bought later in the adventure), and a sampling of the best tortillas in the area. The reason we went on the excursion was so Ang could see the countryside and experience riding the local buses, 2 things that are integral to my life here. One day we just relaxed here in my town, went to the local free market, went to the Tia store, and just walked around with my host brother as a tour guide. Ang also got to try corviche, my favorite food here (fish, onion, cilantro and peanut butter in a ball of grated green plantain, fried). For one meal we went to the host family’s house and had ceviche that my host mom had made (which is undeniably the best ceviche in town). We also cooked chicken fried rice, chicken stirfry, and egg rolls for the host family one night (using the Oriental Wok sauce Ang brought me!). They loved it. Then Sunday we went with the host brothers and the whole group of jovenes and the host cousin Wendy to a nearby river to swim. This was my first time at the river and I wasn’t aware there was so much hiking to get there (it was kinda like that short German walk) so ang and I were both unprepared in flip flops. But once we got to the river it was gorgeous. It was a pool of water with a small waterfall feeding it, with huge boulders to jump off of into the pool (the boys did, we did not). It was pretty unfortunate to get all cleaned off and fresh feeling then have to hike back to the car, so I ended up sweaty when we got there. But it was definitely worth the trip. On the way back we stopped along the road and bought water, candies, and other snacks that are typical of the province of Manabi (where we were). After we got back to my site we showered, packed, and headed out for Guayaquil to leave for Quito (this was a change of plans – I had to go to the Peace Corps medical office in Quito for a bizarre rash I had on my body). We hung out in the terminal and had dinner, then Ang got to experience the night bus. It was one of the better trips I’ve had – we got the front row, had the leg supports that are on TransEcuador, got snacks, and had air conditioning the whole way. Ang was out in a couple minutes and I was soon following. We got to Quito in the early morning and took at taxi to the Peace Corps office, where we napped until the office opened (we were in the lounge not out on the street. There’s 24hr access for volunteers). Then I went up and talked to the doctor, found out when and where the appointment was, then we were able to leave and eat breakfast then go check in at the hotel. Skipping the boring details, we saw Avatar 3d (which I really liked! And we kept the 3d glasses from…), Ang tried cuy (guinea pig) at a restaurant in the mariscal (said it tasted like chicken), got to catch up with my old language facilitators, saw several volunteers I hadn’t seen since swearing-in, and spent lots of time sitting around the PC office. After some disagreements, we decided to let dice make our decisions about the trip plans. The dice said to stay another night in Quito, eat Papa Johns (my stomach agreed, mmm), and go to Otavalo the next day with one of my friends from training. So after she was done doing stuff at the office, we all headed out. Otavalo is known for the indigenous hand-crafts market, where you can buy pretty much anything for the right price. They have really pretty tapestries and stuff like that. We got there right before the market closed, which was a disadvantage because we didn’t have much time but was an advantage because we got better deals because everyone wanted to make some money before going home. Ang bought a hammock for her house, a scarf, a panama hat (which are made in Ecuador and marketed from panama), and an owl made out of a gourd. We also bought a pretty handcrafted chess set for my host family as a thank you for watching over my house. In my opinion we got some great deals. For example, the hammock we saw was almost identical to the one we were scoping out near my site. Price near site: $35, price we got: $20. My friend did most of the haggling for us, which is good because I hate doing it! After the market closed we headed back to my friends house to crash for the night. We ate some corn on the cob with cheese and tried to go to a winery to taste wine but since they were closed we bought some Pilsner instead. After sitting around chatting for awhile we went to sleep. I had forgotten how cold it can get up in the sierra at night! The next morning we got up early and hopped a bus to go to an Afro-Ecuadorian town called Mascarilla, where they make African-style masks (we had gone there on cultural trip). I thought it would be neat for ang to see/buy them because they’re so interesting. Some are made by kids as young as 14 but look professional. Ang bought a big one with its tongue sticking out for dad, and a small one for herself. The woman also gave her another small one as a gift, which is very illustrative of their community. We hopped another bus heading back towards Quito and stopped in Ibarra to eat a bite. Afterwards, we got on the bus for Quito, trying to make it back to the office in time for a meeting. Of course we were on the slowest bus ever, crawling up the mountains we finally got to Quito a couple hours late, but still were able to do the language interviews at the office. Afterwards we headed out to eat sushi at the nearby mall  it was delicious! The last time I had left Quito I had eaten sushi and felt like it was perfect to have before boarding a night-bus, so we did it again. Perfect again. We got to the bus office and unfortunately they had sold out of the “direct” route but we bought one that left around 11 so we would still arrive in Guayaquil around 8am. Buut there was something going on (accident, construction, etc) and we sat for about 4 hours in traffic in the middle of the night. I was pretty much asleep but kept waking up to see we were still sitting. It also got really hot on the bus since they turned it off to save gas. Then I don’t know if they took an alternate route or what but we finally were moving again. And we kept moving. I have no idea how it happened but we didn’t arrive in Guayaquil until 12:30 the next afternoon! We pretty much just hopped on a bus to come back to Pedro Carbo and relaxed the rest of the night. Then Saturday we left for the Marriot in Guayaquil (posh!). That night for dinner we walked to the nearby San Marino and had Italian that’s the Ecuadorian equivalent to the Macaroni Grill – it was delicious! That night I took a long hot bath and wow was it amazing. We got to bed early because the next day we had to be in Bucay, a town in the transitional zone, to go to a waterfall. So we got up at 6am and got on a bus (buses are the theme here) to Bucay. There we met up with my friend and her friend Juan whose family owns the waterfall. It was about an hour up into the mountains in his pickup, but we finally got there. Now, the plan was to basically repel down the 120 ft waterfall, which sounded great to me until we got there. Then it was more of “oh shit oh shit”. My friend went first since she’d done it before, then Ang decided to go so I could translate the instructions at the top of the falls for her. She made it down to the bottom intact, so I decided I could then go. I couldn’t believe what I was doing as I put my feet on the ledge and leaned backwards. But somehow I did it, and about halfway down I started having fun. I did some extra bouncing off the wall and had some fun but next thing I knew I was at the bottom. It was a little disappointing to have reached land but when Juan saw that we all liked it he offered to take us to another one. I had cut up my hand on the rope because I didn’t have gloves, but it wasn’t bad so I was up for another waterfall. So Juan got us more gear (the next waterfall was a little bigger than the one we had gone down) and we had to go down about 20 ft then there was the big waterfall. Well one by one we got down there and when it came time to go down the big one my friend was going first and was going to be our safety lines from the bottom (since we only had 1 guide with us). But it was a lot higher than we thought, and the water was falling much harder than we thought (I could barely pull up the rope that was hanging down the falls because the water pressure was so strong) which makes it more difficult, so we ended up chickening out. But then we had to get back UP the 20 ft piece we’d already done. Luckily the other guide came over to see how it was going (and mentioned that he wasn’t allowing his people to go down the bigger one because the water current was too strong that day, which made us think we definitely shouldn’t do it) and was able to help us out. Instead of climbing the wall (which I thought looked easier) we climbed back up through the riverbed, which basically involved the guides pulling us up slick algae covered rocks. A little bruised up and pretty embarrassed that we had to be rescued we finally made it to the top. Juan just laughed it off but I bet he’ll think twice about taking gringas down those falls again  Afterwards we went to a house along the road that basically makes moonshine and mixes it with jugo de caña (juice made from sugar cane). We actually made the juice though. It’s hard to describe but theres a machine that strips the sugar cane and squeezes out the juice but its powered by manpower like something in an old mining cartoon. We had to push big wooden poles in a circle while it stripped the sugar cane. Anyway, it was very interesting to try and part of the tour that Juan does when he takes people to the falls. Afterwards we got back to the town, changed into dry clothes, and went out to dinner before heading back to Guayaquil.

Ok I realize I am literally stopping in the middle of the story but I will continue it another day!

This is a random kind of update with 2 little rants/stories. I’ll be updating soon with details about Christmas Day and New Years Eve!

I’m just going to say now, this is my opinion (and definitely not the opinion of Peace Corps or the U.S. government – I have a general disclaimer on my blog too) and hope I’m not offending any of my readers, especially since I don’t have enough readers to lose any  One of the weirdest things I’ve experienced here is the attitude here toward the attack on the twin towers in 2003. It’s like a movie opportunity and people just bring it up like it’s no big deal. And I know 9/11 holds different sentiments for everyone based on their experiences, but for me it is a very tragic event that should be regarded with reverence. Here people bring it up out of the blue in casual conversation just to see my reaction, or at least that is how I have perceived it every time. It’s like they throw the hook out on the line to see what kinda fish theyre gonna catch in their query, but have nothing to say themselves. They are just curious, adding to the “I’m an animal in the zoo that everyone likes to poke” analogy of being a Peace Corps volunteer. Also, I've had several people ask me if I've seen the movie (don’t even remember which movie) because it has really cool special effects and is so interesting. To them it is no different from watching 2012 or another disaster movie because it’s just a movie. And they don’t understand that to me it really happened, I watched it happen on tv while I was sitting in math class and that it involves a lot of complicated emotions. Personally I’m disgusted that movies were made about 9/11 because someone in Hollywood got rich off glamorizing a tragic event where many innocent people lost their lives. As such, I have never and will never watch them. The other more recent event that made me think and therefore write about the attitude here is the celebration at new years (which I’ll write another blog about) where people make viejos (which are basically dolls in the form of people, cartoon characters, etc) and burn them before midnight to celebrate the ending year. I received a text from someone I work with saying I needed to go to the city to see the huge twin towers that were constructed and on display to be burned. I was taken aback and asked my host brother if “torres gemelos” really meant twin towers because I figured I was somehow mistaken in my Spanish. It seems so awful to me to build a replica of the twin towers just to burn intentionally at a party. And the hardest part for me is not knowing why. Why are they building and burning the twin towers? For shock value? Or because the event holds no emotional connection for them as it does for many Americans? Why don’t they just build a skyscraper, why are they making them specifically in the image of the World Trade Center? I tell myself it is out of respect and in honor of the tragedy and I hope that’s the truth. Regardless, I don’t think I’ll get used to how they talk about it, but I guess there’s a lot of stuff I tolerate but will never get used to here so I’ll just add it to my list 

On a lighter note, I had the first dream in Spanish that I’ve remembered, which occurred the first night of 2010. Everyone says this means you just ‘understand’ another language but I woke up feeling about the same about my language skills as when I went to bed last night, and incidentally, last year. I may have dreamed in Spanish before but the problem is that I don’t remember my dreams from the nighttime here. I guess I'm just so tired I pass out. But this dream I remember because I slept in late today after all the celebrations last night and would have had this dream sometime between 9am and 11am, when I was woken by a text message. It was a pretty bizarre dream really. Even though I don’t read into dreams much maybe one of you will have some insight for me! So I was in my site here in Ecuador, and I hopped on a Coactur bus (one of the interprovincial bus companies that runs through my town) with a coworker (don’t remember who, just that it was someone I work with). I had been at the development office I’ve been working with aside from my primary project. And for some reason I hopped the bus to just get to the other side of town when I’d normally walk or take a mototaxi (though I've always wondered if you can get on the bus at one end of town and off at the other…). But the bus driver who was a blond woman (not very Ecuadorian apparently) locked the door and wouldn’t let anyone off and left the town. Everyone was arguing with her and complaining that they needed to get off, but she just said tough luck you can get off in the next town (which is pretty far from my town and therefore a huge inconvenience) and kept the door locked. So I talk to her, and this blond Ecuadorian driver was speaking to me in pretty poor English. Then we switched to Spanish because she didn’t understand my response in English. And after this point all dialogue was is Spanish. So anyway, I was basically telling her she sucked for not opening the doors and letting us out, and then she took a different turn so we weren’t even going to the next town. I few minutes later we arrived at this beautiful valley and she unlocked the door and let us out. It was really arid without any greenery, but there was a rock mountain and the largest full moon I had ever seen surrounded by sparkling stars on a blue-black sky. It was a cool and crystal clear night. The rock mountain had a gold quarry and it sparkled like diamonds. There were workers dressed in tunics walking up and down the path with baskets on their heads. Though it’s hard to describe, it was the most picturesque image I have ever “seen”. It looked like something out of a Disney movie (the scenery was most closely related to Aladdin) but real life not a cartoon. So I'm staring up at the sky and the rock mountain when there’s a commotion and I turn around to find our driver lying on the ground obviously sick or something. We figured out that we thought she had a heart attack and we had to get her to the hospital in the nearby city, but none of us knew how she had driven us here… then I got a text message that woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep after that. So fellow lovers of psychology – what does it mean?? :-P

Well I have a quick Christmas update. First, feliz navidad! Second, I’m in a funky mood, so forgive me this time. For those of you back in the states I miss you more than you can know this holiday season. I miss everyone/everything so much it hurts to think about missing Christmas. As my first Christmas away from home (and I am bien lejos) this year, I spent most of Christmas Eve feeling pretty sorry for myself and in generally a foul mood. I of course had to keep a half-smile on since I was out with the jovenes (youth group) throwing a Christmas party in one of the little campo towns, but afterwards my host brother saw through it and called me out. We were riding in the back of the camioneta (truck) heading back to my town from the campo. He nodded then said “well we’re your family now” and pointed to all of the jovenes. I laughed and explained that I was really happy with that but that it isn’t even close to the same. He accepted failure and settled to just try to cheer me up. Then I got hit in the face by an overhead branch as we sped through the dirt roads. But after laughing it off, I realized I felt better that he (and all the jovenes as they were listening in) knew I was missing my country and my family – makes them understand what sacrifices I am making by being here (which I know are totally by my own choice so I don’t really have anyone to blame but myself). I’m glad I have adapted the ‘what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger’ attitude regarding my Peace Corps service. I keep telling myself, well if I can make it through insert problem (dengue fever, dancing in front of this crowd, explaining sex to jovenes, and now Christmas away from my family) I know I can make it two years here. And of everything I’ve had to deal with, missing Christmas has been the hardest. I knew running off to hang out with other volunteers would help me ‘forget’ it’s Christmas and therefore not miss it so much, but I decided I wanted to celebrate Christmas normally, even if it meant putting myself through a little pain. So I decided to stay in my site and spend Christmas Eve with my host family. After 6 hours with the jovenes, I came home and showered off the caked dust from riding in the back of a truck on dirt roads for a couple hours. I had told my host mom I would come over after I showered to hang out, but I guess then decided I might need some help getting across the street so they sent the 10 year old girl and the newly bathed and dressed up dog to find me. I told her I’d be over soon and that I was just doing something for a minute. So I made the salad I promised to bring and packed up my computer, hard drive, etc. so I could show them pictures from back in the states (something I’ve been promising my host mom for 4 months and never gotten around to). The way it was described to me, they would all be hanging out, but as it turned out the 2 older boys were sleeping, the younger was running around with friends, and the mom and the 10 yr old girl were watching tv pretty unresponsively. So I got my computer out and played around on the internet for awhile. I had asked the 16 year old about going to church with him so finally around 8 we went. It was a very modern looking church, with a guitar/drum band, a projector with computer, and a very modern looking building. We sat up in the balcony and at first they just sung a few non-christmas songs and I was pretty bummed I signed up for 2 hrs of singing songs I didn’t know. But then they had some kids do a dance, had a little skit, and a few Christmas songs (same music, different words in Spanish so that the meanings of the songs were changed a lot). It was pretty interesting and I was glad I went, even though I wasn’t really following much of it I enjoyed just being in a place to think. Then my host brother handed me a little pamphlet that was stuck in the bible to look at. It was hate propaganda against homosexuals. The usual – “God hates gays and you are going to hell” with references to Sodom and Gomorrah to which my host brother laughed and asked me if I liked. I looked at him and just handed it back and say it was trash, rolling my eyes and said I could explain my viewpoint at a more appropriate time but basically I don’t like churches teaching people to hate others because of differences. Regardless of my religious beliefs, I don’t understand how churches can teach hatred to children, who this comic was obviously directed toward. Anyway we decided to peace out after about an hour and a half because I was hungry and I thought my host mom was joking when she told me we would be eating at midnight, so I was ready to get home and eat something. But when we got home, her and the daughter were sleeping and the brothers said ‘not a joke, we will be eating at midnight’. Bummer I thought, so I ran to my house to get something else and eat a few bites of chocoflakes cereal – mmm. When I got back the host brothers were horsing around and woke up the host mom, so I showed pictures of family/life in the states to the oldest host brother and my host mom. Oh, the dad had returned from AWOL and was sleeping off his day’s activities in the hammock outside. So after they got bored of seeing holidays in the states, pictures of our house and the 4 seasons we have, snow included, we started preparing to eat. As it turns out the midnight rule is more of a general thing, so we ate at 11:45. They carried the daughter to the table and made her pick her head up for a picture, and the host dad stumbled into the bedroom without eating or even acknowledging the presence of people in the house. But the rest of us who were awake enjoyed a yummy dinner of pavo (turkey), lettuce, potatoes, and a cheese crème with a side of chocolate bread and chocolate milk. It was delicious – the turkey was the best I’ve had in a long time (different but not better than how you prepare turkey mom). Then I handed out the little gifts I had for each of them, minus the girl who had gone to bed and the dad who had hopefully made it to the bed. The gifts were little things I had brought from the states to give them when I moved in 4 months ago but never had, so they worked as Christmas presents instead. To the mom I gave a little magnetic fishing game (the one where the fish spin around and open and close their mouths while you try to pick them up via their open mouths). The 24 year old got one of those stretchy squishy ball things with a flashing light inside that lights up when you hit it – to use in the discos because he loves to dance. The 20 year old got a magnetic 3 game set, with chess, checkers, and Parcheesi. The 16 year old got a 1 person jumping elimination game like the ones they have at cracker barrel. The girl got a mini butterfly kite and the host dad got one of the bowls dad made from wood that I brought with me. I also bought them a card that plays I wish you a merry Christmas when you open it, and I wrote them a short note about how glad I have them here. Lastly, the dog got a headband with reindeer antlers with bells, which the 20 year old host brother stole and wore around. They all seemed to love the gifts and it really made me feel happier to give them something and see how excited they were. After the brothers left to go out, the girl somehow woke back up and opened my gift and the gifts from the parents, so us girls (host mom, sister, and me) got to spend some time together before I decided to head home 

Though I have surrounded myself with people I have grown close to here, I cant explain how hard today was and tomorrow will probably be. I found myself tearing up over stupid things and just feeling miserably self-pitying for the last few days. And I know it is pretty ridiculous because obviously this is something I chose when I signed up for the Peace Corps, but seeing everyone else here spending time with family, and knowing back home they’re celebrating without me – it’s hard. I feel just like I felt the days leading up to leaving for Ecuador in the first place. I know it will pass, and as far as I’m concerned personally, this will be a huge emotional accomplishment as I have never spent Christmas away from home. But let’s just say I’m glad I will be heading back home for Christmas next year!

So as not to end on a bad note, I am extremely excited for a couple things tomorrow:

• opening my “presents” in the morning. I received several packages from my mom over the last week or so, and I've been saving them in the fridge (so ants don’t get inside and ruin anything) for Christmas morning. Tonight (as it was past midnight) I opened one of the packages and allowed myself to remove one item – an NKU t-shirt.

• I decided as my Christmas present to myself I was going to buy something special for Christmas breakfast (since we do a huge breakfast with family in the states) so I bought some gouda cheese. It was bien caro (expensive) but I have been thinking about it every time I open my fridge for the last week. I also have bacon left over from something I cooked for my host family, and today I went and bought from fruit so I can make a fruit plate. If I feel like it I also could make pancakes with yogurt – so many options!

• Tomorrow morning I also will be able to “spend” Christmas morning with my family in the states thanks to modern technology – aka internet, skype, and a webcam. If all goes according to plan they can turn on the webcam and I can sit and watch everyone open presents, and vice versa with my packages. If the internet is sucking, then I’ll just suffice to talk to everyone and hear about their presents 

• Finally, I’m going to meet up with a couple fellow volunteers and have a dinner with them for Christmas. I feel like hanging out with other Americans will be very helpful as we are all missing a lot and understand what we are all going through this time of year.

I am writing this because I wanted to share how I feel about being away from home, and also details of the celebrations here, but alas my blog has turned out pretty so I’m going to sign off and keep an eye out for Santa aka Papa Noel! Merry Christmas to all – Love and Miss you!

Ok I’m back to give a few more updates!

First, December 1 was World AIDS Day. I teamed up with another organization in my town to do charlas (educational workshops) in one of the colegios (high schools) here. We were planning for Dec 1 and were supposed to have a meeting Monday of the week before to plan the details. As is the style here, I showed up for the meeting but no one else did. So I left the guy a note to say I’d been there and to call me, but didn’t hear anything. Wednesday Nov 25 was the Day against violence against women and families and I had heard from a woman I met on the street that there was going to be a parade and open house. I didn’t know what time it was at but as I was walking around that morning I saw someone from the municipio (mayor’s office) helping a cute little lady set up an information booth in the park. So I passed by and introduced myself. I stood there awkwardly for a few minutes then decided to ask if I could help with anything. She looked at me funny for a few minutes, so I clarified that I could do whatever, hang things, move stuff, etc. So she handed me some ribbon and told me to put it up on the tent edge. While I was hanging ribbons and posters and stuff, we talked and it turns out she is a member of a women’s group that meets on Wednesday mornings. They organize themselves to do crafts and stuff to sell. I haven’t been able to make I to a meeting yet but hopefully will go sometime soon. The parade ended at the park and the mayor and board were there. They had some kids from the schools dancing, a few speeches, and people just mingling. So anyway, I ran into the guy that I was supposed to meet with about World AIDS Day and he explained something came up and he couldn’t be at the office that day. But he had time right after the event was over, so around lunchtime I met him at his office to plan the charlas. I didn’t want to show up to the meeting unprepared so I had drawn up an agenda of possible activities then figured they would want to change them around some. The secretary of education also came and they decided it would be best to do the charla that Friday instead of the following week. I was really glad I had it all planned! They also offered the services of a woman that works in their office who is either or a doctor or a nurse and specialized in HIV/AIDS – perfect! I met with her and showed her what I had planned and she said it looked good, so we decided to meet before the charla Friday to finalize everything. So Friday morning I showed up early and made the posters, then sat around waiting. She said something about us waiting on a car, but I watched as the time we were supposed to start the charla came and went. Then the car we were waiting on arrived and I asked how long it would take to get to the high school – 20 minutes or so. So me, the medica, and the secretary of education piled in the car and drove to the colegio. I didn’t realize that it actually isn’t in my town – it’s out in the campo (country), so by the time we got there we were about 45 minutes late. They also then told me I would be doing 2 charlas and had about 40 minutes for each one (the plan had been 2 groups with an hr and a half each) so I had to make some last minute changes, which involved cutting the charla down to 1 activity. So the first group went pretty well, I was glad I had 2 ecuadorians there helping me but I felt like I did a good job. The kids had fun (it was a team competition with true/false about HIV/AIDS and I gave them all candy at the end). Since I had to cut the activities, the medica suggested we do the other main activity with the next group. Because that activity was more based on the previous activity, it turned out that the second group kinda got jipped. They didn’t get as much information during the activity, so at the end we basically summarized everything else they would have learned if we did both activities. In retrospect, I think we should have just done the same activity with the second group, but live and learn. At least they had fun, and the activity was a little faster, which made the other 2 women happy. So after an hr and a half of talking in Spanish with a bunch of high school kids, I was glad to pile back into the car and be done working for the day!

That was the first World AIDS Day activity I did. We also had planned more charlas for the next Monday but that fell through, so instead I met with the health promoters that work with that organization to plan the World AIDS Day activities. Meanwhile I was trying to round up the people from my organization to get them to participate in the parade – very chaotic to be in charge of getting people informed! I also made posters, interviewed labs and health clinics to get details on how much HIV testing cost/where it was available/etc., and made over 450 red ribbons to hand out with candy during the parade. So World AIDS Day came, and not only did we end up having enough people show up from my organization, but I also got a nurse I had met the week before to join our group in the parade. She and I ran around handing out ribbons and explaining to people that there was going to be free HIV testing in the park – if people in my town didn’t think I was crazy before they definitely do now! It’s okay though, I feel like at least we were trying to inform people. The reason I jumped into prepping for World AIDS Day so ambitiously is because when I was doing community assessments with the health providers I found out that (supposedly) 60% of the population in my town has HIV/AIDS. Now I know that receiving statistics from providers can be quite exaggerated (though I heard around 60% from all of the clinics), but even if this is an overestimate chances are that it’s at least close, which is way more people than I expected. The surveys I’ve done with families and youth also show that there is very little knowledge regarding how you get HIV or even what it is. Anyways I’ve decided that HIV/AIDS education is something I’m really interesting in doing in my town, so I will continue programming even now that World AIDS Day has passed.

As far as work goes, I also set up schedules with the promoters so they would know when they needed to come get me to go to work. Good in theory, not so much in practice. They still don’t remember and I find myself sending a lot of text reminders. It’s frustrating because I want to help them with their work but they are so flaky that it’s hard. And I can talk to the people at my office (who are the ones who requested a volunteer and want me to be doing stuff) and they can talk to the promoters but it doesn’t change anything. Some days it’s just easier mentally to do stuff at my house or go around to other organizations to do interviews than to constantly remind them that I’m supposed to be working with them. I know it sounds kinda dumb since I just have to send a text but 1. Having to text someone every day to remind them is 31 texts a month – not what I want to be wasting my texts/ money on! and 2. By the time I realize they aren’t coming and I have to send the text I'm then sitting at my house pissed off that I had to get up early and have sat around waiting for a couple hours. If I were in the states I could text 5 mins after the person was supposed to arrive but here I usually wait somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour because it’s not normal to be on time (but I have to be ready in case they ARE on time, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to argue my point). The schedule I made should have fixed this as I gave them a list of dates and everything, but apparently not. It really is such a little thing but it makes me feel like I’m a burden on them and that I’m not being productive, which just frustrates me. And really, I hate having to get up at 6:30 to leave at 7:30 when I’m sitting at my house until 9:30 – you all know how much I like to sleep! It’s not a deal-breaker, just something that annoys me about how my work is going right now.

On the other hand, I have kept myself busy doing more independent work and meeting with other organizations, and of course playing around in my new house  I also still have the TV that the guy said he was coming to get several weeks ago, so whenever he actually get it I believe my productivity will increase drastically. I also try to spend time with my host family, mostly with the brothers. I went to their house to eat ceviche one day for lunch (since that’s not something I really wanna cook for myself – way too much work!), have watched a couple movies with the brothers, and have been spending LOTS of time with the brothers and their friends (aka the youth group I’m also supposed to be working with). It turns out that I really enjoy their company now that I have a choice whether/when I see the brothers’ friends. The youth group (which I’m going to refer to as the liceo from here on since it takes me awhile to remember “youth group”) has been doing some fundraising to provide Christmas gifts to some kids and have a party with them, so I’ve been helping them out (more like just standing there being the token gringa). They’ve sold chuzos (grilled sausages) a few times and I've just gone and hung out with them while they sold them. Other than the normal annoyances of hanging out with young Ecuadorian men (being asked out etc) they’ve been a lot of fun. I figure if I just ignore the propositions they’ll eventually go away. I don’t really have anything to worry about, they’re harmless and everyone knows I’m “protected” because of my host brothers – they just get annoying sometimes. But when we aren’t talking about me and my dating life, I enjoy getting to know them. It’s also nice just knowing people my age – if only there were more girls in the liceo! I did get invited to a birthday party of one of the guys. Yay for feeling like I have more friends! And all of this because I moved out of the host family’s house – sounds good. Tonight I am going to make mayonnaise for them to sell on the sausages. I don’t really know how but it was safer than letting the boys try to make it, and they think I’m a cooking genius, so hopefully I don’t screw this up! I know the lady last time made it from eggs, lime, oil, and soy milk. I feel like after this experience I won’t want mayo for awhile though, like Ang’s aversion to ranch dressing…

Other than the prospect of making mayo, I’ve been enjoying cooking for myself. I haven’t been making any meat dishes, just eating beans, veggies, fruit, milk, and eggs. Eventually I’ll start buying chicken to cook, but for now I’m happy with the beans and eggs for protein. My favorite new thing is CEREAL! I hadn’t had cereal since being in Ecuador until I moved into my own place, and now that’s pretty much when I want for breakfast every morning. Unfortunately it’s kinda expensive, and the cereal sold in my town is all super-sugary, but until I tire of it I've been eating a CocoPuffs knockoff with skim milk (another thing we never had in my host family’s house!) I also rarely cook with oil, eat mostly veggies, and make my juice without sugar. Overall I see this working out really well for me. The only big problem is that it’s hard to cook some things in small portions. Thankfully my host family is still open to my cooking and also now that I have a freezer I can freeze portions. A few nights ago I made a 5 bean soup (though I only know what 3 of the beans are, the others I just bought because they were in the store) and have been eating portions of that with variations – with cheese crumbles, spinach, peppers, spicy, soupy, etc. It’s basically a base that I just add whatever I feel like. I also made alfredo sauce the other day, which I shared with my host family (and they loved – thanks for sending that seasoning packed grandma!). I had a little leftover so I threw the rest into the bean base, and it made a really yummy mix. However it turns out my stomach can’t handle the bean stuff more than once a day as I found out the hard way, so I ended up freezing a bunch of it so it won’t spoil. I also bought spinach and lettuce (which are both ridiculously cheap!) and have eaten some salads (though it’s risky not cooking them, so I tend to steam them or put them in something to cook). I feel so excited about my freedom of diet, but at the same time I do miss some of the Ecuadorian foods that I can’t make/don’t know where to buy. For example, since I don’t have an oven I can’t make maduros con queso (roasted yellow plantain with cheese on the side), or tortillas (corn tortillas with cheese inside). I just need to get around to asking my family where they bought the tortillas though, since they usually just bought them instead of making them.

Speaking of food, that brings me to my next point – Christmas! I know that Christmas is going to be a really hard time for me, and I’ve been missing my family a lot in the time leading up to the holiday, but thankfully I've been getting packages and mail to make me feel better  And I bought a couple special things to celebrate Christmas morning – gouda cheese and bacon! Both were quite expensive but I decided it would be my Christmas present to myself. I had decided to go to another town for Christmas Eve but I think I’ve changed my mind. My host family celebrates on Christmas Eve with a dinner and though they haven’t invited me since I told them I’m going out of town, I’m sure they would be happy if I joined them. Also the town I was going to go to is about 6.5 hours from here, and I just don’t think I want to be traveling so much for Christmas. Finally, I want to try to find a church to go to on the 24th or 25th, depending on when they have services here. I don’t usually go to church because they’re mostly all catholic and because I try to separate myself from religion (because everyone thinks I'm a missionary), but I feel like going to a Christmas service would really help. Some of the other volunteers are meeting up on Christmas closer to my town but I’m not sure yet if I’m going to go. My host brother also told me that there aren’t many buses and they are really really full right around Christmas (since people are travelling a lot). And if I decide to stay here on Christmas day, I’m going to have my own big breakfast like we always do at home (with pancakes and bacon and gouda cheese) and talk to my family back in the states on skype – this just sounds like a better idea than travelling around in a bus. I also got a couple packages from family in the states and while I couldn’t resist opening and starting the jigsaw puzzle my grandma sent me (thanks grandma!!) I’ve saved the package my mom sent me to open on Christmas morning! And I wasn’t sure if there were sweets in it so just in case I put it in the fridge so the ants couldn’t enjoy my present before me  I’m so excited for opening my Christmas presents – all wrapped up in bubble wrap envelops! Cultural note: I asked my host brother what they do for Christmas and he said that on Christmas Eve they just spend time together and eat a dinner, then Christmas day they sometimes go to the city to spend time with other family members. He said they don’t do any gift exchange – just when they were younger and got toys. A lot of families go to church but he said they don’t. Mostly it just seems like they spend time with family, much like what happens in the states as well.

Another event that’s coming up is New Years. Again, I planned to go visit friends but I think I’m going to hang out here with my host brothers and their friends. One of the traditions they do here is people make big figurines called “viejos” (old things) and at midnight they burn them in the streets. They’re made of wood wrapped in paper and painted, and people make all sorts of things. I’ve seen robots, action figures, famous people, aliens, etc. but my host family has a tradition that they make something they want in the next year. For example, a few years ago they were finishing the house they live in, so they made a house for new years. This year I think they’re going to make a car because they want a new car – it’s supposed to be good luck. I plan to help them make the viejo when they get around to it, and have even thought about making one myself (after I see how it’s done we’ll see). Sometimes people also put firecrackers in the viejos so they make lots of noise and are more entertaining. I haven’t brought it up with the liceo yet (because I haven’t decided if I’m willing) but I’m thinking about offering to have a new year’s party here. Since I have a huge yard, we could just have it outside, and I have a perfect place to make a bonfire. I figure we could borrow a grill and make hot dogs and veggies/plantains and maybe even s’mores on the bonfire! I would probably make the house off-limits (the guys can use the bathroom outside so I’d only let the girls in to use the bathroom) and of course I’d lock up all my stuff (I can *probably* trust the youth but I don’t know them well enough yet to really trust them) but with my huge yard I think I could make it work. In reality it would probably just be my host brothers and a few of their close friends I’ve hung out with a lot, but still I think it could be fun. And of course it would be BYOB – I’m too poor  The liceo was talking about wanting to have a party but they don’t know where, so I’ll probably talk to my host brothers to see what they think about the idea.

Another thing that’s coming up is that Ang is coming to visit in Jan! I’m so excited! I’ve been planning out what we’re going to do, and I think we’ll be in my site some and at the beach some and in the city some. I’m excited to get to travel around but I’m mostly excited that she’s coming and that I can show someone my life here. I can write and write but it’s so different to experience it and I’m glad I have the opportunity to share it with someone in person  When I was working out at the gym today, looking out over my town (my gym’s on the 3rd floor with an open wall so I can see over most of the buildings in my town) I realized that in less than a month Ang would be here and get to experience my life, and how excited I am to get to show her how cool (though not in the traditional sense as it is generally up in the 90s) my town is and my life here. I also realized that’s what I have – I have a life here. It’s a different life than I had back in the states, and of course I miss my friends/family and life in the U.S. a lot, but this has become “normal” to me. Even though it’s limited because of my term as a volunteer, this place is my home for 2 years; this is my work, my life. It was a strange feeling and I can’t really explain it, but that’s the best I can do 

Oh and a side note, we still are having power outages. For now they’re just for 4 hours every morning (thankfully not at night anymore). I am hoping that soon they’ll be over as the rainy season is slowly starting and the rivers will eventually have water. For now we just get a little rain some days/nights (an hour or so), but little by little it will pick up until we have rain most of the day/night. I don’t really know what it’s really like, but you all get to experience the anticipation with me as we approach the “rainy season” – something that didn’t really exist back in Kentucky!

Okay I think that’s about all I’ve done/am going to be doing, so I’m gonna sign off. But if I don’t get to talk to you all, have a good Christmas and I miss you all!!

December 6, 2009

I’m writing you from my new house! I moved out of the host family’s house and into my own house this past weekend. It’s very strange and new still, but I know I’ll get used to it soon! Even though sometimes it drove me insane, I am still used to being around the family and the loud presence of jovenes, so having my own place and quiet is a little strange. The landlord lent my his tv for a few days after I moved in because he didn’t feel like moving it so I had cable for a few days. So it was a slow adjustment because I at least had the noise of tv for awhile.

So about my house, it’s really nice. It’s really spacious for one person and has 2 ‘bedrooms’ but one is just empty now since I only need one room. The one that’s empty has a big metal door that’s like a garage door, so at some point I may use that for some purpose. I bought a fridge and a stove-top and my landlord surprised me and let me borrow a hammock, bed, and a gas tank, saving me from having to buy a lot of expensive stuff. I also borrowed a fan from a friend, so I essentially got out of having to buy much stuff! Also my host family gave me a small Christmas tree to use so I can decorate my house :) the house is very secure, and I have all of the keys to all of the doors, which makes me a little nervous that I’m going to lose them. I’m planning on giving 1 copy of the keys to my host family in case I do lock myself out, because the doors lock automatically when I leave. Right now I feel like a janitor because I have 10 keys on my key chain now – doubles of: lock on the gate to get to the house, front door, back door, lock on the water tank, keys to my bedroom (the other bedroom and the bathroom I don’t care around). Other than that the house is really great. It’s strange to have my own place but I'm excited to get to ‘nest’! I’m going to buy wood to make a table, and I made a makeshift closet by hanging a broom handle with cable from the metal supports of the room (which I was really proud of doing so innovatevly!”. However my host family is helping me a lot getting stuff settled in. Today the host dad came and put some nails in the walls for me (apparently just trying to hammer nails into a cement wall makes big cracks in the cement so its better to drill a hole then put the nail in) and said he’ll come back to install towel racks, other nail hangers, and even a real closet and shelf system in the kitchen when I’m ready. Oh and the windows now are just glass without screen, so I’ve been putting screen on the windows/openings to keep the mosquitos down a little (I did buy a fumigator spray today to kill the mosquitos sometimes when I just need a break). He seems pretty excited to be able to help and I’m welcoming the help. If I would have just nailed the nails in without asking him for a hammer I would have big cracks in my wall right now. I have lots of stuff to learn about Ecuadorian housing!

Well, it’s been awhile since I last updated. For one thing, we don’t have consistent power. There is a nationwide power shortage so the government has been doing scheduled power cuts twice a day. Here ours is out in the morning from 8am until 10 or 1030, then in the evening from 5 until 7 or 8. Every year the rivers run dry, which is where they generate most of their energy, so during the months before the rainy season starts there are always power cuts. Its annoying at times, but that is how it is here. One thing I think is pretty dumb though is that in the big city the street signals are connected to the same power source and they don’t have a backup generator to provide power during the cuts. They cut the power there during the mid afternoon, while people are out having lunch or driving home from work. So they have cops directing traffic at all of the intersections because the lights don’t work. It seems pretty inefficient, but I guess they cant prevent it.

Another issue that’s going on right now is that with the droughts there isn’t enough food in the fields for the cows so the cows are really skinny and not giving off very much milk. Therefore, the price of cheese made in the coastal region has doubled in the last month. Milk from the sierra is just as cheap because they have plenty of grass for the cows, but the milk is brought here pasteurized so people here cant make cheese from that milk. Apparently this isn’t a regular thing though – this year is the first time its happened.

A few weekends ago I went with my host family out to a farm in the campo (country). It’s the farm of my host dad’s family, but none of his family lives on the farm. They have a family that they pay to work the land and a house for visitors. So we went and stayed in the visitors house. My host parents, host sister, and about 15 relatives and I all climbed into a camioneta to get to the house, which is really far back on bad roads. It was a little scary getting to the farm but once we got there it was soo interesting! Near the farm we tried to cross over a small creek, but it turns out the small creek was a bit deeper and mushier than the driver realized. Sooo we got stuck. First the men got out and tried to push, then they put rocks underneath the tires to try to help. Tires still spinning we decided that everyone should unload, so we all climbed out to reduce the weight. Then after watching the men struggle without progress, the women decided to help. After a few tries I was the only woman still helping, while the others took pictures of the efforts. Finally we got the truck unstuck but I apparently was holding/pushing wrong because I didn’t have a good hold once it starting moving. I made a split-second decision to keep pushing even though I knew I wouldn’t make it out of the muck unscathed, which resulted in the truck getting out and me on my knees in the 8 inch deep mud. I tried to get up a couple times and failed, just falling back down (which my host mom got on video) until one of the guys came and helped me up. Everyone fussed over the fact that my pants and shoes were covered in goop, but I told them I’d rather just wait to deal with it til we got to the farm, so I just rinsed me hands off in water pool of the creek (with 3 of the men standing around just in case I needed help or fell into the creek). Everyone laughed at me for only bringing 1 pair of jeans until I pointed out it was only an overnight trip, at which point they still laughed because I was covered in mud. It was a dirty experience but at least it seemed to be my initiation into the extended family. It broke the ice between us and seemed to show them I’m out there to help and make an effort, that I’m no different from them just because I’m from the U.S. So anyway, after the creek extravaganza we headed on our way to the farm!

When we got there my host dad took me around the woods to show me the various fruit trees – including orange, coconut, plantain, plum, banana, lime, guanabana, and papaya trees. He knows how much I love coconuts so he used a long cane to knock the rest of the coconuts off the 75 ft tree which was a really interesting process. He started by putting the end of the cane near the tree then hoisted the cane up like a high jumper until he had it upright. Then he twisted and hit the coconut until it fell. It sounds really easy but my super-strong host dad had trouble controlling the cane so one of his nephews who looks like a line-backer came by and help him. I sat by and took pictures (I offered to help but both of us knew it wouldn’t be much help haha) So anyway, we collected various fruits and it was truly one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had here in Ecuador – an experience I couldn’t get in the U.S.! After going on our walk, we went back and had lunch. Afterward, we went down to the river to “bathe” which I translated as swim but actually meant bathe, as in soap, shampoo, etc. That was a real “I’m actually in the Peace Corps” experience, but it was actually pretty fun. The water was a huge relief from the heat and I learned to wash my body under my clothes which was pretty awkward. I spent a good amount of time in the water enjoying the freshness and company of the host family. Then we went up and had dinner. After dinner there is of course no power, so the sun went down and we sat around talking over candles. I didn’t last long though and went to bed pretty early. The next morning at 5am my host mom burst into my room and excitedly told me that the monkey was singing and I needed to get up to hear it. Even though I’d gone to bed early I wasn’t ready to get up yet, so I just laid there in the bed and listened for about 20 minutes until I fell back asleep. It was a very monkey-from-the-zoo singing, but really neat to be hearing. The monkey lives a little ways from the house we were staying in, so naturally the next day when I got up they told me we were going for a hike to find the monkey. I was pretty excited, not only to look for the monkey and see my first in the wild monkey (there is a little baby pet monkey chained to a sign on a roof in my town that I pass by sometimes, and he comes out and jumps around when I pass – so cool!) but to just check out more of the wilderness of the campo. So we prepared to head out, which involved putting jeans on and tucking them into my socks to keep the millions of little red ticks from getting inside my clothes. We walked and walked through the forest, and passed the monkey’s habitat area without a sighting (sad face). After a long hike we arrived at a small cane house and rested for a few minutes before heading down to the creek bed. There wasn’t much water as it’s the dry season, but I imagine it is gorgeous during the rainy season. There was a cascade of rocks and boulders followed by a short bed then a 50 ft dropoff that would make a beautiful waterfall. While they played around I spotted a really pretty and huge tree that I could easily climb and relax on. When they finally noticed me up there I was taking pictures of them, then one of the relatives came and took my camera to get pictures of me on the awesome tree. Eventually the host dad went down to the waterfall edge and climbed down so he could get a picture of all of us on the ledge from below. I can only imagine how cool the waterfall is during the rainy season! After awhile we headed back up to the little cane house and my host dad made a fire to smoke the ticks off our clothes and the termites of the cane house. Then we headed back on the long hike towards the house. After we got there I decided to go out into the forest and gather some oranges and limes for everyone to take back home. I picked enough to fill a big bucket then when I got back to the house my host family was leaving for another walk so I tagged along. This one involved crossing a stream on rocks in my tennis shoes then hiking through a very arid environment until we reached a really pretty riverbed. I decided not to swim because I was in my normal clothes and shoes, and walking back in wet clothes wouldn’t be fun, but the host family got in. After I’d had my fill of the scenery I decided to go back because I was feeling very dehydrated. When I reached the stream I saw a beautiful butterfly that I think was a monarch. I tried to get a picture but it flew away just before the picture took. This time crossing the stream in my tennis shoes on little rock steps didn’t work out and I ended up with a very wet right foot. But it was ok because when I got back I just laid the shoes out to dry and went to bathe in the river again. This time everyone came and went from the river and I stayed longer, and ended up getting to bathe without clothes, which was much neater than with clothes on under the hot sun :) It was such a relaxing and natural feeling bathing in this fresh and clean stream – amazing! I rejoined the family at the house for lunch after awhile then we prepared to leave. Of course the camioneta was running on Ecua-time so it was a couple hours late, but I passed this time playing with the little boy that lived on the farm. He was so cute and different from the kids in my town because they are very isolated living on the farm. Initially he was really afraid of my differentness and shy, just watching me from a few feet away. But after awhile I finally got him talking and we made drawing with the corn kernels and played some hide and seek games. I went back upstairs into the house for awhile because I needed a little break from entertaining him and when I got back he had collected a bunch more corn kernels to play with – it was soo cute! Finally as the camioneta arrived I was trying to pull a splinter out of his foot, which ended up being pretty unsuccessful unfortunately, but he was so cute pretending it didn’t hurt yet flinching when I touched it with the tweezers. When we drove away he was sitting on the ground watching us leave, waving, with a puzzling look on his face. It was a very cool experience, and probably the closest thing I will have to interacting with the indigenous people here in the coast region. After a long but pretty trip back in the camioneta, we arrived at the car just as the sun had set and headed back to my town.

One thing I feel a little guilty, but that’s not really the right word - maybe self-conscious, about is that no matter how hard I try to be just another person here I am always treated as if I'm above everyone on the pecking order. For example, normally the father would be served food first in a traditional Ecuadorian family, but with me I am always served first, whether I’m in my host families house or in a guest’s house. I also am always given my own bed when we’ve been on vacations even though usually 2-3 people are sharing beds (which I am secretly grateful for because I've never liked sharing a bed with another person). It’s just strange to receive special treatment all the time. I don’t know if it’s because of my skin color/nationality or because of respect for my decision to move to Ecuador and work and live with the people here, but I tell myself it’s the latter to help me feel better. It is very strange to move from being a majority as a white woman to be in the states to being a “rich and powerful” minority here, receiving respect and privileges just for things I cannot change, how I was born to be. I sympathize with the white men in peace corps, who receive more special treatment than white women because they are basically at the top of the social order in Ecuador. Nonetheless, I am sometimes grateful for the special treatment when it keeps me from having to deal with things I’m uncomfortable with even though normally it just annoys me. And there’s your reflection for this post :)

Another random note, my host mother from the sierra called me the other day. When I picked up my phone and saw it was here I was really confused and wondered if I had put someone else’s number on her name because I couldn’t imagine her calling me. Then I had a little panicky feeling and wondered if something bad had happened to someone in the family. I answered it and kept waiting for some sort of news – good or bad. But news never came, she just asked how things were going and what I was doing, then when I was coming to visit, and abruptly said goodbye and hung up. I used to think about them all the time, but to be honest I hadn’t thought about them in awhile since I've gotten used to being here, but now the longing to see them is back again. I feel such a desire to see them, especially the kids, and the feelings of missing them are back stronger than ever. They were the first Ecuadorians I really got to know and I feel like they are a huge part of my experience in Peace Corps. So many days spent with them, and though the number of days isn’t that many relative to my life, they make up a huge part of my transition process. I’m also a little surprised that they were thinking about me enough to call, especially when I know they don’t have a lot of money and every call costs. But anyway, I told her the next time I was in Quito I was planning to visit and that I miss them a lot, and I hope I conveyed that I really do miss them. I am really hoping for a reason that I have to go to Quito so I can go see them, even though I said I wouldn’t be back until August probably.

Ok I’m gonna sign off but I plan to do another update soon including:

- World AIDS Day activities

- Work update

- More details about MY NEW HOUSE! :)

Check out these pics on facebook with work stuff and my new house!

Work pics:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042449&id=46900557&l=bdf6e800e4

My first house (who would've thought it would be in Ecuador!) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042592&id=46900557&l=c3158e48ca

6 de Noviembre 2009

So I'm hanging out bored playing online jigsaw puzzles (yup got back into that old habit again!) and figured I might as well update all of you. 3 updates in 2 days - good luck trying to keep up :)

So I was in my first earthquake last week. Before you get too excited, it wasn’t a big deal – just a small shake. I was sitting at the kitchen table working on my computer and the family was scattered throughout the house. My chair shook and I looked around the chair to pet the dog, thinking he was hitting the chair leg for attention but he wasn’t anywhere near. I looked pretty loco looking down and around the chair. I was confused for a minute then just ignored it and went back to the work. A few minutes later my host brother burst out of his room and my mom came out and they started talking about the “earthquake”. They looked at me and asked if I felt it and I explained yes but I thought the dog had pulled a sneak attack which they thought was funny. Anyway, it was barely noticeable and people standing didn’t feel it, so it wasn’t a big deal but in addition to the 3 major earthquakes they’ve had in eastern Ecuador, it’s a healthy reminder that it is possible here. Since I don’t have any experience with earthquakes I read over safety tips and stuff so if we get a bigger one I’ll be prepared. It’s weird having the ground moving like that though!

So for Halloween a group of us met up in the big city, dressed up, and went out to a discoteca. I dressed up as a vampire, pretty easy but as it turns out wearing a sweater in a totally packed club wasn’t my best decision! But at least everyone was totally sweating from dancing and the heat. It was a lot of fun though. It had a cover then free drinks after that, but of course the drinks were bottom shelf stuff. Being my first time out in Guayaquil I was a little nervous so I just had a couple beers and called it a night. Super packed, but I think the club would be more fun on a normal night, so I bet we’ll be heading back there sometime. It was also nice to get to hang out with other volunteers that aren’t in my training class in addition to our normal crew. With so many of us near the big city we tend to hang out with each other a lot since we know each other already. Even though in the states I don’t really do much on Halloween, it was nice getting to do something here – the American holidays can be lonely and suddenly are much more important here. The Ecuadorians also celebrated Halloween to an extent. Children dress up in costume all day, just going about their normal business – go to the store, walk around town dressed in costume. Then in the evening the teens and young adults go to clubs or parties dressed in costume. To me it seemed more that they are embracing the American holiday as a way to have a party – totally legit though! This assumption is based on the fact that my host brother asked me why we celebrate Halloween and said here they celebrate because we do in the states. It also may be related to the Ecuadorian holiday November 1. This is the “Dia de los Santos” and it’s a huge holiday here. The families all gather and go to the cemetery to celebrate their loved ones. There are also different foods and food venders chill out by the cemetery selling food and drinks. The youth often head to the beach to celebrate because the entire country is off work for Monday and Tuesday, and the schools take the whole week for vacations. It is pretty interesting

A really gross (and very Peace Corps-like) story… I was in a hurry to get somewhere so I unpacked my backpack onto my bed very quickly. I had pens and pencils and erasers and that kinda stuff in it, so I was just grabbing by the handful and putting on the bed. Well I put a handful on the bed then as I was scooping another I saw something moving in the previous pile. I moved the piece of paper off and it was a huge cockroach, like 4 inches long. He was upside down so he couldn’t move or anything, so I had a minute to freak out! I jumped up and down and shook my hands and made this high pitched squeaking noise with the little air I could manage to breathe (I didn’t want to alarm my host brother into thinking there was something terrible happening). After a few minutes of that followed by a stream of curse words I realized I had 2 options. Deal with it myself or get my host brother, who would make fun of me for the rest of my time here in Ecuador. I started to get him then realized will be living in my own place soon and I might as well start dealing with this stuff now. So I double bagged a couple grocery bags, picked it up like you pick up dog poop, tied it, put it on the ground, and proceeded to rain-dance on it until I was sure it was sufficiently dead (about 5 minutes later). I carefully picked up the bag and put it out in the trash. Then I grabbed my soap and washed my hands for several minutes, scrubbing every part that may have touched the nasty thing. After this ordeal I dumped the backpack contents and went for a walk to clear my memory a little. Thinking about this later, I realize how lucky I have been with my Peace Corps experience as far as gross bugs and such!

Well we are officially 2 weeks short of our “3 months in site” date! And as such, I have my official site visit coming up soon, where one my manager people comes to my site to see how things are going. I’m stressing about this a little because my work is still very… slow and complicated. Hopefully she can help me work things out a little bit though. Also I have to have apartments ready to be approved. The apartment search has been incredibly difficult but I finally got a lucky break yesterday. A friend of my family showed me an apartment on the main street, which was nice but waaay out of the Peace Corps price range, so I explained that to him and he was like “well me and my family are living in a house near your current house” (and a bunch of stuff I didn’t understand) which didn’t make sense to me because I wasn’t interested in living with another family. But I followed him to the house where there were like 3 women and a couple kids and he started showing it to me. Not sure exactly how to broach the subject I said “it’s nice, but don’t they live here…?” at which point I realized what I hadn’t understand previously, that they are just living there temporarily to fix it up. So everyone had a good laugh as the lightbulb clicked in my head for everyone to see. It’s really great though, so I’m hoping it works out. I’ll know in 2 weeks if it gets approved, and if it does I’ll give more details then. I’m still looking for more places but I really love that house so cross your fingers for me!!

So one of the things I’ve been cooking for my family since I got here is spaghetti, because they love it. However, last weekend when I was out of town my host mom decided to cook it herself. It was both a relief and saddening for me. Relief because now if they want spaghetti they can cook it. Sad because that was kinda my “thing”, my way of contributing, and now I’m not really needed anymore. She made it for lunch again today so I pushed down the bad feelings and told her how good it was. It was really good, lacked a few things so I gave her some pointers, but I think she was relieved I liked it. It’s a very strange thing though – I make them spaghetti when they want it because they seem to like it so much, but she wants to make it for me/thinks I want to make it because I like it so much. I do love having a change from the normal foods here but I’ve never had so much Italian, we have spaghetti/lasagna almost every week! Definitely helps keep my American-food cravings down though! I haven’t taught them to make hamburgers yet though, so I still have one secret! Also I think I’m going to make them chili cheese dogs soon. I have some gold star seasoning, so just need to buy the meat, hot dogs, buns, and cheddar cheese! I’m definitely ready to break open those seasoning packets :)

As far as adjustment to the new life here goes, it’s very complicated. Sometimes everything is great, and other times I feel like a hormonal pregnant mood-swinging teenage bitch (sorry to the family, no other word really conveys what I’m trying to say). This is totally common with volunteers, and just with adjusting to living in a new country in general (or at least that’s what I‘m telling myself…), but it is so frustrating sometimes. For example, I am craving dill pickles, and of course I have not found any here in Ecuador (…adding pickle seasoning to the list of things I want Ang to bring when she visits… haha). I also worry that my host family doesn’t understand the emotional reactions I have, but for the most part I do a good job concealing this from them – they just think I'm tired or busy from what they say. I’m not proud of my emotional responses and do everything I can to just get out of the situation and take a walk but I will be happy when this part of the adjustment process is over! I think it will be better when I actually have my own place too so I can have “peace and quiet” on a regular basis. This experience just reinforces my knowledge that I’m not good at living with people! I’m also going to be very sad to leave my host family though. I wish I were able to live with people better because they are totally awesome. At least I will be living super close if I get one of the 2 places I’ve picked out to move to. And hopefully we can keep a really great relationship so I get to spend a lot of time with them – I just need my own place to retreat to when I need it!

Also, I have found my current second home – the gym in my town. It has soo much character I LOVE it! Okay try to visualize: it’s painted seafoam green and hot pink, has mirrors on the walls like an old dance studio, and one wall is completely open (it’s on the 3rd floor). The open wall is great for providing a cross breeze but also provides a nice home for dozens of birds, so there is bird poop all over the place. Every time I enter the gym birds squawk and take off out into the street. Okay now for the equipment: pretty much all of the equipment is circa 1980 but mostly in functioning shape. For cardio items there are 2 elliptical (my personal favorite), 2 bikes (funky positioning so they’re uncomfortable to ride), a stair machine (made out of hydraulic pumps), and a treadmill (that doesn’t have a motor, you just push it to run on it) – none of which are electrical, they’re all mechanical (for you old fogies I realize that natural progression was from mechanical to electrical but it’s weird for me because I’ve never really used machines like these). As far as weight machines, there’s several newer looking weight machines (the chin up/bench press one is my favorite) and a TON of free-weights. They also have a TV with workout videos (nope, won’t be doing that in the presence of testosterone-fueled men) and a stereo with music (there’s one workout CD I totally LOVE – it starts with Eye of the Tiger, which is basically the best workout song ever!, progresses through some good 70s disco music, Michael Jackson, and ends with reggaetone. I really might slyly steal this CD to make a copy). Besides the fact that everything’s covered with poop from the birds, it’s way nicer than I thought it would be and the best part its only 50 cents for an hour. Also, it’s never very crowded (though I haven’t been on weekends yet), and the guy that owns it is a doc who has a practice on the 1st floor. It’s also a block from my house and really safe – what more could I ask for! I’m gonna go every other day with a 2 day break once a week (or that’s my goal at least). The cool part is that since I’m paying for an hr I pretty much have to stay for an hr so I’m getting some great workouts in. But the absolute best part is that I don’t have to run by vicious dogs and cat-calling men anymore – no one can even look in since it’s the 3rd floor! Maybe I do have a chance to get in shape here :) And I'll be getting a photo up ASAP of my sweet gym, it's too cool to do justice describing without pictures

Ok finally, if you’re out of Christmas gift ideas and want to help support our work here in Ecuador, check out these calendars. The photos were taken by current volunteers here in Ecuador and compiled by our Volunteer Advisory Committee. All proceeds go to support small project grants and volunteer activities (which we need money for!) and the photos are really amazing. They’re $10 each or 5 for $40, which includes shipping to anywhere in the U.S. (allow 2-8 wks for delivery apparently, so you better order ASAP for Christmas!). Please consider buying these for those relatives, coworkers, or friends whom you don’t know what else to get for Christmas! Check out the website for a preview and to order them – I know I’m going to!

http://www.friendsofecuador.org/index.php?tg=articles&topics=8

Current English song stuck in my playlist: “High Road” by Fort Minor

Current Spanish song stuck in my playlist: “Llamada de Emergencia” by Daddy Yankee

Longer update coming but for now, PC had my address wrong just a little (it was wrong before). It shouldn't have affected any incoming mail (according to PC) but to make things easier please change the address you have (the middle set of numbers is 01 not 11)

Jessica Baldridge

Casilla 09-01-11805

Guayaquil, Guayas

Ecuador

South America

K I'll update again this weekend!

"Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot... But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But who was he really? What was he like? We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world."

-V for Vendetta

just a quick note - i bought an internet card for my computer (to save my computer from the thousand viruses in the cyber cafes here) and i have free unlimited internet for the first month - so open a skype account (it's free and really easy), search for my email (s08.jbaldridge@wittenberg.edu), add me as a friend, then we can chat (with video if the internet is working well enough) for FREE! after the free month ill only be buying internet occasionally so now's your chance to chat with me :)

21 de Octubre 2009

Back for another update!

Work has been alright, pretty much the same – some days I’m busy and productive and some days I sit around and don’t do much. I appreciate the flexibility but it’s hard not to feel useless sometimes. Tuesday we had a mtg with our new coordinator for my program, the boss from the office in Guayaquil, and the 3 promoters who work in the homes. We met at my host family’s house here at 9:30 – so realistically it started at 10:30. It was really nice to get to meet with the boss from the office again and this time I had an agenda and felt important running the meeting haha! I also am doing a few small side projects, like preparing pamphlets with information for the families we work with. The boss liked that idea a lot and I felt the rare moment of usefulness. I also did a brief training in the community assessment interviews that I have delegated to the promoters to do (go me, I will have 135 completed interviews in 2 weeks!). The reason I’m having them do them is because they know the families better than me and therefore are more likely to receive truthful answers. Also, not that it’s a determining factor, I am happy to have less work for me. I will still go around to houses and do interviews at random, and also go to the leaders of the community, health centers, schools, etc. so it’s not like I’m taking all the work off my back. Oh, and I will have the nice job of putting the data in the computer and analyzing all of it. But either way, it will sure be a help for them to do so many interviews! And since my organization is really interested in the results and applying them to their programs, they are fully backing me :) I’m not sure how useful the results really are for me, but for the organization at least it’s a set of statistics they can go off of. And for me, it’s a project to focus on, to keep busy, to feel useful.

At the meeting was also our new coordinator for the project in my site. She seems very nice. She is a psychologist (soo excited about that point – maybe I’ll lose the job of curing the kids of all of their psychological problems, which would take a LOT of pressure off of me!) who lives in Guayaquil (not so excited about that point – I’m not sure how often she will actually be in my town since it is 1.5 hrs away..). She technically would be my new counterpart, but I had talked with the boss at the office in Guayaquil (I went to the office last Friday for a meeting) and expressed my concerns (she isn’t from my town, doesn’t have contacts in my town, won’t be in my town much, I won’t be in a lot of contact with her since she isn’t here, etc. – all related to location) so I’m deciding on a new counterpart right now. To be honest, it will just be on paper. I big part of the meeting was finding which of the promoters can help with the jobs my counterpart would have – making contacts, helping with the interviews, looking for an apartment, etc. – and instead of having 1 counterpart, the job is now divided amongst the 3 promoters. I put my host brother as my counterpart on paper (technically haven’t emailed the form in yet actually…) because he is someone who I see regularly, most likely to know where I am, has a lot of contacts, and is associated with a different project of the same organization (a project that I’m also working with). So yah, I’m feeling a lot more independent and free with this change, though a lot more responsibility of my job rests on me since we don’t have an office to go to every day.

Also, I had made a coffee cake for the meeting so I could feel like a good host. I was a little worried they wouldn’t like it because it wasn’t like Ecuadorian cake – aka it was moist and delicious – but they loved it. I was so relieved! The lady from the office even asked me to email her the recipe (which I had a fun time trying to translate last night! She’ll be lucky if she can replicate since it’s in broken Spanish and I don’t really cook strictly from recipes…). The cake itself was decent but what really made it was the icing, which was a total accident! I actually was trying to make fudge for my host family (I felt bad making cake for the mtg but nothing for the fam) but it never solidified. I think it’s because I used panela (unrefined sugar, bought in block form) instead of regular sugar. I also added some ground peanuts. And margarine because I don’t know where to buy real butter (I think the butter issue is what killed it). Either way, I ended up with a super sugary, delicious, thick panela syrup with peanut flavor, so I poured some over the cake to top it off. My host mom said she was more interested in learning to make the topping than the cake! Since the fudge didn’t work I made them a cake last night, which was gone this morning. I’m starting to think they may actually like my cooking :)

Speaking of cooking, I know you won’t believe it but I ate not one but two crabs tonight for dinner. And not canned crab but real live watched-them-die crabs. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little sick eating it because I kept thinking of them being alive, but at least they killed them before they put them in the water so I didn’t have to listen to them scream (some people say it’s just steam I swear they scream). The flavor was okay, and it was a lot of work for not a lot of food (they had pretty skinny legs), but I did it. The plan tonight for dinner was that my host mom was gonna pick up some choclo (corn) on the way back from Guayaquil, but then she walked it with a huge smile on her face carrying a string of crabs and my stomach dropped. They were all sooo excited about the crabs and I broke the news that I don’t eat crab. My host mom argued with me for a minute about it and said I would love them, but I feigned ignorance (works well with my host fam). She said I could eat a tortilla that they had brought for breakfast but I could tell she was disappointed. I got to my room and decided that no, I was going to try the crab. One of the things of being in Peace Corps is that I can convince myself to eat almost anything, and not only that but I have a responsibility to give every food I encounter here a chance. Soo I came back to the kitchen and told her I didn’t know if I would like it but I would give it a try. Plus it was starting to smell yummy (really just the seasoned water but at least it was making me a little hungry). This cheered her up and I helped make the salad. When we sat down to eat I just stared at my plate for a minute then finally asked for help. They laughed that I had no idea how to eat crab, then got the cooking stone (a rock they use to grind and mash things) and handed it to me. The first try splattered shell, meat, and some liquid all over the place and my host mom decided she would have to show me, explaining “carefully, slowly” several times. After this I was set loose on the poor crustacean legs. My first 2 tries I pulled the meat out without having to crack it, so I proudly thought “wow I’m really good at this” but turns out it was just beginners luck! I used the rock a lot, while my family just cracked the shell with their teeth (that’s not something I could stomach doing though, maybe next time…) So I had gotten into it when I got the body. I took the rock and gave it a good whack, then my host mom intervened and showed me how to open it without the rock. And boy, was I sad I opened that thing. I’m okay with the white leg meat, but there was something brown and gooey and absolutely unappetizing. She told me to pour the salad inside and mix it up and drink it. I expressed my concern for this part and then told them I would be happy to share the body – it wasn’t the part I preferred. So my host mom gladly took it off my hands and I considered if I wanted another or should just eat the tortilla. After walking around the kitchen for a minute they said if I just wanted to eat the legs that was fine, and I decided I actually kind of liked the flavor, though it was still a lot of work, but why not – I’m in the Peace Corps! So I grabbed a smaller guy, passed the body off to the host dad, and got to work. It was actually pretty good, and I think poco a poco I can get used to the idea of eating those cute little crustaceans – though I would still prefer not to see them alive before I eat them! I took a picture of them alive and almost took one while I was eating but my hands were really messy so I decided not to. I told my host family that my family in the states wouldn’t believe I ate crab so they might have to vouch for me!

The other pic is of my FAVORITE food here! it's called corviche, and heres (mas o menos) how you make it. Grind up green plantain, mix with gound peanuts, take a piece of fish and pat corn breading around it so it's encased, then put the fish/corn breading inside the platano/peanut, then put this whole thing back in the husk and fry it. serve with ahi salsa - que rico! we dont eat it every often but mm its good. and cheap - i just found out the lady sells them for 30 cents each. she cooks and sells them out of her house. oh and theres another version made with yellow plaintain (which is really sweet) and something else sweet gooey and delicious inside. tastes kinda like banana mixed with funnel cake. :)

I’d like to point out that my life doesn’t actually revolve around cooking, but I have received a lot of feedback that you all like reading about food experiences, which is why a lot of my blog is centered around food!

So last Friday I was in Guayaquil for a mtg at my organization and decided I wanted to do something that night. Seeing as how my options in my town are pretty limited I texted a friend that lives in a nearby town to see what she was up to. I’d been wanting to see her town and I felt spontaneous so after my never-ending meeting I hopped a bus to go see her. Now when I say spontaneous, I mean I decided to go spend the night somewhere with nothing – no clothes, shower supplies (important in the heat here!), meds, toothbrush – nothing. So I ran to the store and bought some wine and Doritos, the essentials! The town she lives in is smaller than my town (but unlike my town somehow they have the kind of ice cream you scoop, not just buy from a cooler) and it is divided by a river. And to cross the river you have to walk across a bridge made of cane. I was a little nervous at first – it creaks and moves and shakes and there are holes – but I figured she hadn’t fallen in for her 2 months so I would be ok. Anyway it was fun, we watched Twilight (Sarah I thought of you when I saw awkward Jasper!), ate Doritos, and drank wine Friday night, then Saturday we went across the cane bridge to the town. It was neat getting to see another person’s site and just do something spontaneous – it felt so liberating! Of course, I had to get approval and everything from Peace Corps so it wasn’t totally spontaneous but still more than my normal life. Also, it was nice seeing what it’s like to have a smaller town. It’s not by any means as small as La Chimba was but it has a very different atmosphere than my town. She also isn’t the first volunteer in her site, which changes the atmosphere a lot, and also causes people to constantly refer to the previous volunteer. We waited all morning to see a parade with horses but kept receiving “ya mismo” responses (can mean anything from 10 minutes to 10 hours) and when I left at 3 it still hadn’t happened… On Saturday I went with her to check out apartments. She found the coolest apartment, I am soo jealous! It is huge, fully furnished, safe – perfect! I have hope that if she can find something so cool in her town, surely in my larger town there will be something neat too!

On Tuesday I talked to the promoters and my former counterpart about needing to find an apartment to get approved next month when I have my visit from my program training specialist. I still don’t know when I’m actually going to move out of my host family’s house (I’m really torn whether I want to have my own place, live with them longer, etc.) but I need to have 2 options that meet Peace Corps standards for the visit. So anyway, they’ve been telling me about apartments they’ve seen that are for rent, but it looks like price range may be difficult for me. One of the promoters showed me an apartment then I found out its $100/month, and my maximum is $70/month. I told her that and she said that almost all of the apartments in my town go for $100/month, so I’m feeling like I won’t be able to find anything very nice. She called me this afternoon and showed me a set of apartments that go for $70, so hopefully I can get the owner to show me the apartment soon. It doesn’t look that nice from the outside and it’s first floor (I wanted 2nd), but thanks to one way windows (pretty cool for security!) I couldn’t see anything about the inside. Anyway, I’ve heard of about 4 apartments so far, but I haven’t seen them and expect several are out of my price range. I should be able to find lots of options though since my town is so big, so I’m crossing my fingers!

Okay final bit of news. I called the PC doctor on Saturday night because he was about to go off duty for a couple weeks (there is a different doc but they don’t know anything about me or my medical history) and firmly requested again that I be allowed to get the Dengue Fever test. He told me “yes of course!” (as if I hadn’t requested before) and said to go Monday. Not only did I have permission, he said I didn’t have to go to Guayaquil since there is a lab in my town. So Monday I went to this lab and they drew the blood, I paid my $12, they laughed at me a lot (hopefully because I'm a gringa and said something stupid… I was a little nervous they were just gonna take my blood and not test it - $12 from the dumb gringa for no work!), and told me to come back Tuesday in the afternoon. So I went and finally received proof that I had dengue. I was really relieved and a little bitter. Relieved because if it wasn’t dengue, I wouldn’t have known I had and probably would never know. Bitter because I couldn’t just get the blood test without having to fight for it. Either way, I just wanna say – I was right. I DID have dengue. Every doctor I dealt with was wrong and I was right. And a $12 blood test proves it. So there. I sound like a 5 year old, but it’s been a long 5 weeks from being sick to finally having an answer. Anyway, now that I know, I would like to keep from getting it again. I’ve been wearing the cancer-causing mosquito repellent pretty much constantly, and I'm still getting bites but the number is definitely decreasing. I’m also going after the mosquitoes I see with a passion, smacking, squishing, slapping them whenever I get the chance. And occasionally resorting to spraying my room when I’m severely outnumbered – that kills them all quickly but then I inhale cancer all night. I wish mosquitoes didn’t exist. They don’t have a purpose and they suck, literally.

Alrighty it’s late so I'm gonna get to bed so I can get up early in the morning! Peace :)

Here are my photo albums on Facebook, anyone should be able to access then even if you're not on Facebook so you can see my pictures!

Photos from Training:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038835&id=46900557&l=616c53fd5f

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037219&id=46900557&l=30d42f29e9

First 3 months in site:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040694&id=46900557&l=75e6d54a65

Skype Pics of talking with the family:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040218&id=46900557&l=872b7570ee

11 de Octubre 2009

Ok well here’s a decent update since I have some time to write today:

I went to Guayaquil last Thursday to get my phone that had finally been repaired, and when we entered the city they had closed off a part of the big highway and it was full of military. I mean it looked like full out war. They had tanks and heavy artillery jeeps; soldiers with machine guns, grenade launchers, bayonets, etc; helicopters flying overhead. It was surreal. I saw weapons I had only seen on TV of images of Iraq or other hostile territories and they were within 50 feet from our passing bus. And this was a huge line military – I read in the paper that lines on that road there were about 5,000 soldiers and over 100 tanks/jeeps, all armed to the teeth. At first when I saw the troops I thought of the protests and civil unrest that’s been going on here in Ecuador and panicked thinking the military was moving into Guayaquil for some reason. But then I remembered that the following day there were going to be massive parades and celebrations for the independence day, so I felt much better. It was definitely a sight to see though. I wish I’d had my camera so I could show you the enormous number of military – something you would never see back in the states!

To explain the part about the protests briefly if you haven’t seen it on the news, there have been a lot of issues between the national government and various groups recently. As such, three groups were protesting over the last few weeks, the indigenous peoples, teachers, and labor groups. Because of the possibility of violence and road closures during these protests (which did occur in some regions), Peace Corps placed us under travel restrictions, so we were not able to leave our sites for just under 2 weeks. But the issues have been resolved/are in the discussion phase and we are free to travel again as security has been restored. In my town there weren’t any problems with any of these groups. The day before teachers started protesting throughout the country and refused to work I asked my host mom whether she was going to work the next day. She looked at me and laughed and said, of course, that’s her job and they don’t get into the protesting here. However the travel restrictions prevented me from getting my phone fixed in a more timely manner which was a bummer.

So this last Friday (Oct 9) was the Independence day of Guayaquil, which is a national holiday because it was a huge movement for democracy and standing up to the Spanish control back in 1890. Because of that the schools/universities were closed on Friday and Saturday, so my family decided to go to the beach to visit relatives for a short vacation. Of course then they asked if I wanted to go I had to say yes :) So we left Friday morning early and drove to Guayaquil to pick up the nephew of my host parents, then passed through on to Santa Elena.

Only the 10 yr old girl, the 6 yr old nephew, and my host parents went – the host brothers all stayed here at the house for whatever reason. It was so cute how excited the kids were – it reminded me how cool it was to get to go to the beach when we were young and how excited we were to jump into those waves. I was excited to not only get to spend time at the beautiful beach but just to get a vacation from my site. Unfortunately the weather didn’t really cooperate with us and it was quite cold for the beach. This is the cold season so it wasn’t unexpected but I was still a little disappointed. The high temperature was 77ish during the day, which sounds warm for you people back in KY, but I’m not adapted to having temperatures up in the 90s every day, so it seemed really cold. Also, it was completely cloudy and windy – very much like Florida in the cold season. I didn’t think to bring any long sleeve shirts because hey, we were going to the beach right?

In La Libertad we ate breakfast in a restaurant next to the fish market where they cook different kinds of fish and yellow plantains on a grill and serve them to you at these big communal tables with a salad for $2.25 (see photo). It was a very “local” experience, very Ecuadorian and not at all touristy. The fish was good, but in the traditional style it was served whole, eyes and fin and all, which I’ve actually gotten pretty accustomed to. Not my favorite but what can ya do? It was a huge fish so I ate about half then passed the rest on to my host family to eat. They devoured it, offering me the head which my host mom says is the best part, but I graciously refused and said I would try the head another time. My host dad ordered something that was fish eggs and he said it was from a really large fish. It was about 7 inches long, roundish (kinda looked like a sausage) and filled with thousands of small fish eggs. I tried it but it didn’t seem to have much flavor, just a texture like quinoa but it was eggs instead. The kids really liked it but to me it just seemed bland and dry. After we ate the fish breakfast we walked around the market and my family told me about the different kinds of fish they were selling. I took a couple pictures, including a swordfish head that was sticking up into the air. It smelled very fishy which I'm not a huge fan of, but was interesting to see all the different seafood. After that experience we walked to the centro comercial (shopping center) and looked around. I bought a bunch of jewelry for cheap, which is my favorite part of the coast culture (I got 5 pairs of earrings, a surfboard “Ecuador” necklace, and a bracelet with “Amor y Paz” in ecuadors colors where the “y” is a peace sign – all for $4.75). I’m trying to put a picture on here of them if I can get it uploaded, so look for that.

After the shopping we headed to the beach because the kids really wanted to get into the ocean. I just stayed on the sand and read because it was soo cold, but they hopped around in the ocean collecting shell treasures and playing in the sand. For the rest of the day we pretty much hopped beach to beach from La Libertad up to Barcelona, about an hour drive straight through. I did end up swimming in a cove because I couldn’t stand the thought of not getting in the ocean at all on my vacation. It was cold. Very very cold. My host dad decided not to get in, but my host mom got in with me, which was nice. We got to chit chat a little about the beaches in the U.S. and stuff like that. We could only manage to stay in for about 15 minutes then we were shivering too hard so we got out and ran to the showers. Now, here not only do you pay to use the public bathrooms (anywhere from $0.10 to $0.30), but you also pay to use the showers ($0.50) because people don’t just rinse the sand off, they take real showers. It was an interesting experience for me – very “Peace Corps”. I hung my clothes and towel on a nail and showered a foot away from them, the whole time trying to keep from soaking my clothes. To be honest, I felt like I was doing something a bum might do in the states, but here it is normal to take a real shower at the beach. It was strange, but at the least the water was warm and we were clean when we got into the car! Then we drove to my host dad’s cousin’s house in Barcelona (in the campo about 15 mins from the beach) where we were going to stay the night.

After my beach shower I was clean but hadn’t really cleaned up much, like I hadn’t put on makeup of earrings or anything, which I was okay with. But after a few minutes at the relative’s house, they rushed me into the car and we headed out to the town center because apparently there was a fiesta for the patron saint of the town. Not only was a poorly dressed for such an event, I also didn’t realize we were leaving for more than a couple minutes so I had to pee. So at the center I used some random woman’s bathroom, then we piled back into the car and drove to the next town to pick up people for this fiesta. We drove behind 2 trucks that were full of people – there was a band, people with bottle rockets, etc. – typical EcuaFiesta fashion. So we drove to this next town, and I was thinking “ok the fiesta is here” but we went to a church, they ceremoniously carried out the Virgin Mary and loaded her into the truck, then we drove around the town playing music and shooting fireworks off, apparently informing people in this town that we were having a fiesta in Barcelona. After about 15 minutes of driving, our caravan (now of about 10 cars and 15 motorcycles and 3 more trucks of people) left to return to Barcelona. But instead of stopping, we passed through to go to the town on the other side, collecting more people. Finally we returned to the house of the uncle while the caravan went to the neighborhood of the fiesta. I wanted to go to the fiesta and when I asked I was given the normal Ecuadorian response – “Ya mismo” which translates roughly to “yah yah soon soon” and can imply anything from 5 minutes to 5 hours to never. Well we ended up just sitting and talking with the aunt and uncle, which was alright because we were all exhausted from traveling. It was nice to get to talk to them as well, and I realized my Spanish has either improved or I have just gotten used to the costal accent. I actually carried on a normal conversation without a whole lot of miscommunication – yay! Then we went to bed early and boy did I sleep like a baby!

The next morning we got up and had breakfast (really good fresh bread and cheese with hand squeezed orange juice) then went to see the artesian coop store in the town. I bought a really neat purse made of a reed/grass and leather with a zipper closure (I didn’t plan to buy anything but I just fell in love with it) and a little container made of the reed/grass (I’ll look up the name) for $10. The purse was $8 (would cost $20 or more in the states) and the container was $2.50 but I got her to sell both to me for $10. I could have probably gotten the price lower but this stuff was so beautiful and I don’t mind supporting the local artisans. Afterwards we drove to some nearby towns looking for bakeries to buy bags of bread to take to family back in my site. The bread in the coast is much better than here in my town, so we ended up buying 3 large grocery bags full to give to family here. We also stopped at a lot of artesian shops to see the crafts (there were so many beautiful things!). We returned to the house and my host mom and the aunt made a shrimp ceviche (mmm delicious) then we headed out to go to the beach in Salinas. Oh and the uncle gave me a yummy looking watermelon because he remembered I really like watermelon – so nice of him! The people here are so friendly! In Salinas we hung out on the beach for awhile, the kids played in the ocean while I sat and talked with the parents, then we went into Santa Elena to another relative’s house to visit. There we watched a little of the Ecuador-Uruguay game and visited. They had baby ducks and chickens which were really cute. We decided to change our plans and drive back in the night instead of getting up early and driving back this morning, so we stopped quickly in the center of Santa Elena to see a church there that the colonial Spaniards constructed, then we headed back. I couldn’t sleep in the car and everyone else was so it was kinda boring, but I had brought my MP3 player so at least I could listen to music. While we spent a lot of our beach vaca in the car driving between beaches and houses, it was still really nice to get out of my town. I feel so much more relaxed and less frustrated after just a few days enjoying myself with my family

This morning I woke up and the mango tree behind out house is starting to ripen! I ate 3 mangoes for breakfast (this type of mango is about the size of an apple with a huge pit) and they are so sweet and delicious. This kind isn’t cultivated for export – it only is available in Ecuador (or other countries where it’s grown). I’m really excited for the rest of the fruit to ripen! The cherry tree is also ripening, but the cherries I tried that were supposed to be ripe didn’t seem to have any flavor to me, so I don’t know if it’s a different variety or if they’re just not in their prime yet. I also tried an under ripe plum today from another tree in our backyard, which is a delicacy here. It was sour and tasted very green, but everyone here loves them. I think maybe they like the green flavor, but that’s something I’m not very accustomed to.

Well this entry is long enough, so I’m gonna sign off! I couldn't wait to get the pictures uploaded so i'll do that another time!

8 Octubre 2009

So a short reflection on things I have gained an understanding of here in Ecuador. I never gave much thought to how difficult it is to leave your country, your family, and your home to live in another place for more than just a vacation. Specifically I’m referring to the exchange students we had, most in particular Isabel because I lived at home with her. I never understood nor tried to understand how hard it must have been for them, especially at a younger age. I’m having a hard time explaining it in words, but I looking back so much makes sense – I can feel the emotions she must have been feeling, understand the difficulties she faced. Her constant frustration, feeling lost and isolated, looking for people to relate to and activities to do… At the time I didn’t give it any thought, just figured that she was fine because our family was so inviting and because we had the assistance of speaking German that everything must have been great for her. And I really wish I had considered her experience from her point of view more back then because I think that was something I was supposed to get out of having an exchange student. But I was so focused on how she was affecting my life and how it must be so cool for her to get to study for a year in America that I didn’t think about the difficulties of displacing your life for an extended period of time. And obviously she made that adjustment and seemed to enjoy her time with us. Given my experiences here, this is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. I feel like I’m learning something I should have begun to understand through the experience of having an exchange student, but this time I’m on the other side trying to explain the emotions and experiences to my host family here. And it is very frustrating sometimes trying to explain it in another language to people who haven’t even left the country much less taken the chance to live somewhere else. I find myself thinking “you can’t understand” when I talk to them because of the frustration of trying to explain something so complicated. My host brother and I talked about this last night because another friend has decided to return to the US this week. He was saying how we are supposed to be here for 2 years and how it doesn’t make sense to get here and just go home without finishing. He wasn’t able to understand that a lot of people really love the idea of Peace Corps but the reality of it is that it is very difficult to live in another country almost completely isolated from familiar people and things, in a different culture, struggling to speak a new language. The closest agreement we came to was that when he spent a night at his girlfriend’s house an hour away he missed being in his bed and having his things. He seemed to think it was the same which was frustrating as I tried to explain the fact that he was at least in the same culture and same language, but at least he is trying to understand. Anyway, I just wanted to share my reflection on my experience here in relation to the experiences of our exchange students as this was not a concept I had considered in the past. I know it’s a little jumbled to read - forgive me my English skills are decreasing gradually :)

Ok weeelll I had another update written but 1st the computer I went to at the cyber erased my flash drive so I lost that copy. But of course I had the copy on my computer at home buut when I went to format the flash drive to remove the viruses that I got from the cyber, somehow it also formatted the SD drive that I store my journals on, so I lost that copy as well. So now I will have to re'write it, but I don´t know when I´ll have time to do so, so it might be awhile.

Phone´s still broken though, so that´s why I won´t be answering texts/calls until it´s fixed.

Keep writing me! :)

September 19, 2009

Thats a photo of me with my new hair cut (see below for the story)

So I know my posts have been a little dry but I've had an interesting time recently, so hopefully I can add some humor in here (Now that I’ve written the whole thing I came back to say it’s really long, sorry! It’s so hard to try to write everything in a semi-organized fashion, I kinda just write what I would say, which can be pretty verbose and scattered. If I were a good writer I would go back and rewrite, but alas I don’t have the time, patience, or urge to do so. So you get to follow along my though processes for an exorbitant amount of time) The first thing that comes in mind to share is my first “teaching” experience in Ecuador. I use quotes because I was supposed to be observing my host mom teaching language classes (side note: Thursday I really wanted to go back to work but I hadn’t heard back from my counterpart so I tagged along with my host mom. And by really wanted to go back to work I mean I really wanted to go back to sleep when my 6am alarm went off, but after a week and I half without working I knew that afternoon I would regret not getting up and doing something productive, soo I threw myself in the freezing cold shower and was instantly awake). So I get into this 3rd grade classroom with my host mom and she teaches for a few minutes, and boy are these kids restless. It’s a very different environment in the classrooms here, very chaotic and she literally has to scream for them to hear/listen to her. Then she comes over and tells me she has a meeting with the directora (principal) and a couple of the moms, and she’ll be back in 5 minutes. I’m like um ok great? So she leaves the kids with a little story to read in their textbooks. Wellll that lasts for about 2.5 minutes, then one by one they start misbehaving. At first they’re just joking around, then they start running around, then they start climbing the windows like little monkeys (the windows are just bars without glass, and they start about chest level for me, so they had to grab hold and pull up – I'm impressed by the agility of these kids!). Then some of them start running out of the door. A few ask me to go to the bathroom, and I let the first one go, but then when all of them asked, I figured out quickly they just wanted to escape. I felt like a movie star, surrounded by paparazzi touching me and asking me questions, except this was little kids poking me until I looked at them and asking repeatedly to go to the bathroom. Well I had a dilemma because I didn’t want anyone to pee their pants (how embarrassing for little kids!) and I was afraid that the one who needed the bathroom would be denied because the group wanted attention. At this point the noise had drawn a crowd of the parents who hadn’t left yet, some of whom were yelling at their children to sit down and behave. So I decided the safest thing was to ask the parents, so I asked one of the moms about the bathroom thing, and she said not to let them go because the 1 I had let go was picking a fight somewhere. Well, then some of them decided they wanted to just go without permission, so I lost two more out the door, one of whom wasn’t even in the class according to the moms. So the moms were like, just close the door duh! Again, dilemma: do I literally lock these kids in the room with me, that seems like entrapment or holding them against their will or something? But ruling out the moral issues, I decided that the legal system here probably wouldn’t have a problem with it and what else was I supposed to do?? So I shut the door and stood in front of it, checking my watch. It had gone from calm reading to totally loco in about 7 minutes. At this point they were running and throwing things and writing on the board and erasing what the teacher had written and all kinda of crazy stuff, so I confiscated the dryboard eraser and markers and a large stick someone had pulled out of nowhere and remained guarding the door. A male teacher came by at one point and restored semi-order for about 30 seconds then he lost interest and left as did the parents, so now I was on my own with these boogers. I knew if I took charge by teaching something they would calm down but I didn’t really wanna go there, so I kept checking my watch. 20 minutes. Chaos. Kids asking me stuff in Spanish amidst all of this = no way I could understand. Then it happened, I was talking to one child and I heard laughter. When I turned a boy was pulling up his pants – he had been depantsed. That was the end of it, I had let it go too long and I was taking charge. I yelled for all of them to sit down immediately and when they saw the look on my face they obeyed, only a few of the problem children resisting, but they gave in very quickly with my “obey or else” look. So after I had them at least seated (there were still paper airplanes flying) I asked them if they had learned any English in school, which caught their attention as well. They had learned the numbers 1-9 so we recited those, and I was teaching them the numbers 10-15 when my host mom fiiiiinally returned, a little proud smile on her face when she saw I was teaching English to a well-behaved class of 35 demon children. 5 minutes with the hora ecuatoriano (Ecuadorian hour) = 30 minutes real time. I was soo glad she came back to a well behaved classroom and didn’t see what a mess I’d made of it while she was gone! Well I sat and de-stressed while these little angels told her how great I had done when she was gone and how they really wanted me to come back. Yah, no way if there’s any chance I’ll be alone with them for more than a few minutes. Just a note, they acted up like crazy even while the teacher was there, kids getting out of their seats when they felt like it, yelling out answers, walking/climbing around. Phew I would looove to see these children in American schools – they wouldn’t be able to act like that where there’s actually a system of respect and discipline – or maybe I just haven’t visited any American schools recently. This just reminded me of a zoo with a trainer trying to control AND teach the animals, but really just yelling and hoping to make a difference in 1 or 2 of the 35 children’s lives. I did work 1 on 1 with some of the kids during the group work time, which was actually pretty cool. They’ll listen to anything I have to say since I'm a new gringa! That was class #1.

Class #2 was 4th graders, and I was a little worried when we were walking to that class and my host mom said “that was the easy class, here comes the crazy one.” I silently prayed I wouldn’t be left alone with them or I might just walk out on the Ecuadorian education system. Well as usual they were really quiet and shy when I first introduced myself, but one I took a backstage seat and watched my host mom teach they opened up a little bit. Then they started coming up to me and asking questions, or just coming up to say hi, which was cute except for the fact that my host mom was still standing teaching. I also strategically stood near a few boys who seemed to be having issues, which helped them focus on the teacher very nicely – good old proximity control! There were 2 boys in particular in this class who seemed to have a lot of issues paying attention and sitting still, but they also seemed to be looking for affirmation, so they would bring up their notebooks while she was teaching just to show her how good of notes they were taking. Adorable, but I could tell they were really wearing her patience, so I tried to help keep them focused. Well they were learning about articles in this particular lesson (la, el, los, las, etc – aka “the” in English) and my host mom wrote about 20 words on the board and had them copy and fill in the articles. Some of the children were running up every answer to ask her to check them so she was very busy. So busy she didn’t notice a boy copying the answers from his friends notebook. I bet he thought he was really sneaky, he kept peeking under the desk, writing, then looking around the room for a minute. Buuut clever as he was it was obvious since I was watching him. I walked over and before he had noticed and hidden the notebook I had my hand out and told him to give it to me. The notebook quickly disappeared into his friend’s backpack, so I told him he needed to do his own work and that I would be watching – I don’t think he was my biggest fan. Well, at this point everyone keeps coming up and tattling that so and so it cheating. Not only did I not know their names, but I was at this point walking around the room simultaneously helping kids who were struggling and using proximity control to control the cheating. I noticed a couple things that bother me about the education system here. For one, the kids who are trying get a lot of punishment. For example, several of the kids kept walking up, putting their notebooks on the teachers desk, standing there, and copying the words from the board. Or they would get up and come to me to ask what the word on the board was (they couldn’t read her handwriting). The teacher would notice them and yell at them to sit down they shouldn’t be out of their seats. But they kept doing it and kept being yelled at. I figured it was because either the handwriting (something they can’t help), or they were sitting too far away to see (something they can’t help – the classrooms here are set very backheavy, away from the teacher and the board, because of how large the rooms are, so a lot of kids are really far back. This encourages distraction/goofing off and makes it hard for kids to hear/see. I think this is a general problem with schools here since I've seen it in every school I've been in). I received confirmation when I was working with a really sweet quiet boy who just couldn’t do the assignment. He was supposed to copy words from the board into lines but only could do it when I was spelling it out for him. Then there was a word-search and he had to look for different words off the board and again he just stared at his paper with a sad look on his face. When I explained he just needed to find those words, he nodded then just looked up at the board. So I asked him if he wanted me to copy the words down for him and he nodded. I copied the words and told him I’d come check on him in a minute. I kept an eye on him and saw he wasn’t copying them from his neighbor, he was intently doing this word search. When I went back a few minutes later he proudly showed me his paper, completed perfectly. After the class I told my host mom about this and she said she knows he can’t read. But he had read the sentences in his book to me, so I explained I think it’s a problem with self-esteem and the fact that he can’t see the board. She then explained how she doesn’t have time to help him with the other 35+ kids demanding so much attention, which is frustrating but absolutely true. There are a few kids who are so desperate for attention (who show signs that this is due to abuse or neglect at home) that she can’t begin to focus on working with the more reserved ones, so they just fall through the cracks. It’s terrible and I know it goes on back in the states too, but the scale is much more extreme here. From my initial surveys with community members, it seems like a lot of kids don’t finish high school, usually for economic reasons (they have to work in the fields or on the streets). I also think a lot of this inability to divide attention equally stems from the lack of disciple/order in the classroom. It is completely chaotic. I believe that in some smaller schools out in the campo this isn’t as much of an issues, as my visit to the school of my counterpart was nothing like this, but I think the schools in the city (at least both of my host parents schools) are completely chaotic. My host brother was telling me that when he was in elementary school, during recess a couple of 4th graders were play-WWF-wrestling (this is how a lot of tragic stories begin) and one ended up in a choke-hold for too long and asphyxiated. I know that happened a lot in the states too, but things in the states changed as a result. Here, it seems very little has changed. My host bro said recess is better now, but when I was there kids were climbing on walls and roofs, running with sticks, throwing rocks, and smuggling candy and who knows what else in through the windows. It was unbelievable. They literally corralled them for 10 minutes to get them back into classes, and during this time I took away weapons (large sticks, rocks, etc) from 3 different kids who were chasing their classmates around. There’s a little cultural difference for you, the kids here are violent. They hit, kick, scream, do whatever they want and they generally receive nothing besides maybe a look from the adult. There doesn’t appear to be much discipline in general because the attitude is “oh it’s okay that he just punched the other child, he’s just playing. That’s normal.” And I don’t mean light punches, they’re full out aggressive attacks. It’s worse with boys than girls, but I have seen many a girl throw a tantrum when she doesn’t get her way or get into physical violence with a peer. The adults are very permissive with children here and pretty much let them do anything, even though they usually weakly say “no, don’t do that” a few times, but they always give in. Bad news when no never means no for a person’s whole life (which also apparently translates to other social settings but thankfully I haven’t had any issues there). Okay another issues with the system here: recess occurs not between classes but during a class. Soo we have the kids in this class for 45 minutes, then they go run and act crazy for 15, then they go back for 45, and of course are going to do absolutely nothing for at least the first 20 minutes. So we’re looking at about an hour of productive (and I say that loosely) time for this class period.. Who’s idea was that, really?? It would be so easy to correct, and also just by moving the classrooms into a structured format (all facing forward, closer to the board/teacher), and implementing a little discipline.. I can imagine the differences. Anyway, when class was over the 4th graders were so cute, they all came up and shook my hand – that time I felt like a celebrity doing good, not surrounded by paparazzi. Well I only went to those 2 classes with my mom because the only class she was supposed to have had been changed to computers for the day, so she only was teaching 2. So after that, we left early and I headed to the market to buy some veggies. When I was walking back I passed a couple kids from the first class and they stopped to talk to me. It was then I decided that no matter what else I do here in my site, I want to work with kids in the schools at least part of my time, even if it’s just once a week. Whether I’m teaching English, or helping children individually in classes, or working with the kids to develop a tutoring program, that afternoon was the happiest I've been since I've been at my site. I’ve had days when I’ve accomplished more, but this reminded me why I’m here in Ecuador, why I’m dealing with all of the changes and cultural differences, and why I’m putting myself through missing my life at home. And I know it’s not the kind of work that’s going to change the world, but if I change just one or two of their lives I think it’ll be enough of a reward for me. I want to balance this with the organizational work I’m going to be doing, and hopefully in that aspect I’ll be able to work on sustainable development. That part of my work is so overwhelming and obscure – how am I supposed to know how to create programs that are sustainable, that will help the community, etc., and what exactly AM I supposed to be doing?? I know it’ll work itself out with time, but for now it’s really difficult to deal with. Working with the kids provided me with some sort of concrete experience – it’s easy and I know how to do it, and I enjoy it. So that’s what I need right now, and that’s what I’m gonna do

Since this is already over 4 pages, I’m gonna save the other topics I was going to write about for another time, except to tell about my first Ecuadorian hair cut. So I explained to my host mom that I needed to cut my hair since it was long enough to tie up and it hadn’t been cut for 4.5 months now. She asked how I wanted it and I showed her a picture like it was before and explained I just wanted it layered, basically just like it was but all of it shorter. She said some word back and demonstrated with her hands what I’d just described, so I thought we had an understanding. So we headed to the beauty salon here. She talked to the lady and I said a few words of clarification, used hand gestures to explain, everything I could so this would go smoothly (a fellow volunteer had a very bad experience with her first haircut and ended up with a mullet and I was trying to avoid it). Well she starts cutting. Things are looking pretty good for awhile, then she starts cutting some parts really short but I keep telling myself she knows what she’s doing and throw a few words to clarify again, and she appears to understand. Well the scissors are moving as fast as her mouth, and I swear she’s cutting without looking at this point, just chatting with my host mom. Eventually I start literally squirming in my seat, telling myself it’s just hair and it’ll grow out, then finally it’s over. I’m just staring blankly in the mirror (the woman’s still just chatting away not noticing anything, blow-drying my hair) when my host brother walks in and says something about how my hair is shorter than his (he does have pretty long wavy hair, so it’s not like I have a buzz cut or anything), then he sees my face/reaction, laughs, and walks away chuckling to himself. In the end she didn’t layer it, didn’t cut everything, just cut some parts really short and left some parts long – basically did nothing I told her to do. Okay, the top is still pretty long (3.5 inches or so, don’t think she cut it at all), the back was cut to about 1.5 inches, but not the sides in the back (that part is like half an inch), and the sides range from 2 inches to .5 inches, depending on which part. Now, my whole point of cutting my hair was because I wanted it shorting because for one it’s a lot cooler here in the heat, and I guess the lady accomplished that much at least. Buut for whatever reason, they seem to think Americans like mullets (which I blame on the American TV shows they have here). Before you start judging, my hair wasn’t a total mullet, but definitely was a close cousin, too close for me. So I pay the lady the dollar and walk out stunned, trying to decide how long it will take before I can meet up with any other Americans or take any pictures of myself. And my host mom is insisting she likes it, so I tell her I like it to – what good does it do to be negative at that point? Well now a few days later, I’m actually starting to like it. I know it hasn’t grown a lot, but it doesn’t look like a mullet anymore, and my only big issue is I wish the top part was a little shorter (but I’m not getting into going back to any salons here). It’s actually a lot of fun, after I shower I just towel dry it then let it air dry without using a brush, and it’s really wild and curly looking. With a little mousse it would be more fun (and with a little gel it could seriously be a Mohawk, which I think I’m going to have to try at some point). Then after it’s dry I can brush it so it looks like I didn’t roll out of bed, but it still sticks up and is curly some. It’s very free and wild (not to mention really cool in the hot climate) while still presentable - I think my hair type is perfect for this cut. I got compliments from my coworkers today when they saw it, and I'm really happy with it. So the lesson: I guess everything works out in the end, even scary Ecuadorian haircuts. I just need to get it cut and wait a few days before leaving the house so it fixes itself

Okay I realize this turned into a long, probably really boring entry, but I had decided to be sure to write this weekend especially since I’ve gotten lots of encouragement from my friends back home: I’m glad those of you who are reading this are reading it and letting me know (not sure if that sentence makes sense). It’s really easy to feel like people don’t read my blog which makes it easy to not write often, especially since I get to talk to my family fairly often so it’s not like this is the only means of communication with them. It’s hard not being able to chat with you all when I want to, and I always think “oh man ___ would really get a kick out of this”, or “I wish I could tell ___ about this” – buuut then I usually forget before I write it down haha! And I really like getting little messages or facebook chatting about what’s going on in your lives (you know who you are) sooo send those when you have time! And if you haven’t heard it, look up “You know you want me” by Pitbull and Calle Ocho – it’s playing all the time here and therefore is in my head constantly, and I actually really like it.

One more little thing: I am feeling much better. I don’t know what tropical illness I had, but I know it was probably transmitted by mosquitoes and it was either a systemic viral infection or dengue fever. I'm gonna get a test later on to check if it was dengue, but the point is I am feeling almost back to normal. The only thing is that I’m really tired, sleeping 12 hrs a night, which I think is how it will be for awhile. I did start running again, and once I get back to a regular work routine, I think the tiredness will work itself out. Maybe I’ll just be going to bed at 8pm for awhile like I have been, but that’s okay because I think that’s what my body needs right now. It was definitely one of the most miserable times in my life, which was all that much harder since I’m here away from my home. Thanks for all the well-wishes, they really helped me feel better! And yes, I’m trying to avoid the mosquitoes, but the little buggers are really fast and smart – I've gotten a couple bites today and I can’t figure out when or how but apparently they were in my pants somehow. I’m killing them as fast as I can but they’re pretty much everywhere here and they’re small and sneaky and did I mention fast? :)

Ok thanks for reading this long entry (unless you cheated and just skipped to the end like I used to do in the “Make Your Own Adventure” books…)

Jessica

Grandma: Since I know you read this to grandpa when mom gives it to you, I just wanted to say hi and I love you and miss you. I just got your letter with the newspaper clippings – the article about the world’s oldest dog and the comics. You know, I never read the comics back in the states, but I really like getting them here. I’ve hung them on the wall with my pictures (I brought some with me to Ecuador and mom has been mailing me some too, so I made a collage). I know this will probably take awhile to get to you, and the next letter you write will take awhile to get to me, but I just wanted to say thank you for consistently writing me. I hope you are both healthy and happy, and I think about you often too. Try not to worry, I am doing well here. I’m glad you have the opportunity to read these blog entries and hopefully they’re interesting enough to keep you entertained! Miss you and Love you both! Jess

Jodi Stapleton, I just saw you are following my blog. How are you??? Are you still at DCCH? I want an update on how you´re doing and all! Miss you!!

So I´ve been sick for the last week and this is my first day feeling back to normal, and I want to post something but the only thing I have is what I´ve done for the Peace Corps about my sickness, so here that is. I´ll make a real post when I´ve got some energy again!

Monday: went to bed at 8 because of a headache and low fever (around 100°F) that started after dinner

Tuesday: woke with bad headache (pain around the eyes, forehead, temples, back of the head) and achy body (mostly neck and back). Stayed home and slept until 2pm, then read for most of the day. Thinking it was possibly a tension headache, I went for a jog at 5pm. Afterwards I showered and felt more relaxed but the headache was persistent. I went to bed at 8pm with a fever of 100.4°F and took Tylenol from the med kit to reduce the fever. IWell then i woke up at 1145 to pee, freeeeezing cold. So i put on more clothes. Let me describe this to you: i’m sleeping in a room that was 76 degrees that night, sleeping in: shorts, track pants, socks, a tank top, long sleeve shirt, and hoodie sweatshirt with the hood up, underneath a sheet and a heavy wool blanket. Well i couldnt get warm and back to sleep, so i took my temperatura and it was up a little, around 101.6 or so. Since i was then cold and hungry, i got up and made some hot chocolate with a rice/chicken broth soup – my mind was thinking i was getting a stomach problem because of not washing strawberries with Vitalin (a washing agent) on Sunday. So finally i feel full and almost warm, so i took some ibuprofen, laid down and start shivering. I had trouble sleeping because I was so cold and shivering so dozed until about 2:15am. I then got up to use the bathroom and when I returned to my room I checked my temperature (102.6°F). At that point I removed the clothing and blankets, wiped down with cool water, and took another Tylenol from the med kit for the fever. I was able to fall asleep after about 45 minutes and slept until 8:45am on Wednesday.

Wednesday: When I checked my temperature around 9am it had returned to a low fever (100.8°F). I called Dr. and left a message on his cell phone around 9:30am and when I hadn’t heard back I called the emergency cell number around 11:30am. He then called me back and instructed me to buy Tempra 500 every 4 hours for 24 hours for the headache and to not take any more ibuprofen. The headache had subsided to a dull ache with more sharp pain when standing, bending down, or making rapid movements. I went to the pharmacy and bought the Tempra 500 and began taking at 3:00pm. I went to bed early that evening, waking to take each dose of the Tempra.

Thursday: I woke around 10am with just a slight headache remaining. I finished the last dose of Tempra at 11:00am on Thursday. I called Dr. in the early afternoon on Thursday and told him I felt much better and that the headache had all but passed. My left ankle was hurting pretty severely but I figured it was unrelated and I had just twisted or irritated the ankle, which I previously injured. Also, my back was hurting but I figured it was just from laying in my bed so much in the past few days. Around 4:00pm but i knew the next symptom would be a rash starting on the hands or feet (according to this great book they gave us). I was sitting at the park and kept thinking i saw a rash on my hands and forearms, but then couldnt decided if i was just imagining or creating it, psychologically, because i knew it would be next if it was dengue. Talk about a mind-game. So i just decided to ignore it since i would find out soon enough (if i had a rash the next step would be a high fever in the night). When i got home i hung out, then when i went to shower i noticed the beginnings of a rash on my feet and thighs, plus a definite rash on my back. I kinda freaked out at that point, showered quickly, and called the doc. My host family suggested it was Dengue Fever after seeing the rash. I also took several photos of the rash. He instructed me to take 2 Diphen (Benadryl) from the med kit immediately and 1 more before midnight. At this point I did not have a headache but my ankle and back were still hurting. The blood vessels in my eyes had also ruptured and parts of my eyes were very red. When I put LiquidTears in my eyes they burned and the redness spread. I also had a low fever around 100°F. I took the Diphen and slept until the next morning.

Friday: I woke on Friday with a worse headache than before and could barely get out of bed. It was originating from behind my eyes and forehead, was worse when I was getting up or moving around, and I couldn’t move my head without feeling nauseous from the headache. It was pounding when I was lying still and unbearable when I was moving around. I called Dr. that morning and was told to not take any Tylenol/Tempra and to take Diphen for the rash. He also said I would probably be able to go to Guayaquil to Clinic Kennedy on Saturday if not improved. I took a Diphen and slept until 12pm, ate lunch and showered, then went back to sleep until 5:30pm. I sat around and watched TV until bedtime and tried to go to sleep. I had a fever around 100.5°F throughout the night. I was unable to sleep because of the headache and felt like I was going to throw up because of the pain, but finally fell asleep at 5am with a cold rag on my head.

Saturday: I woke on Saturday at 730am with the same unbearable headache and my host brother offered to take me to Guayaquil to go to the doctor. I tried to call Dr. between 8:30am and 9am but was unable to get through, so I decided to leave for Guayaquil and call en route. A fellow PCV sent me the number for the other PC doc (which I had failed to put in my phone), so I called her and spoke to her. She authorized me to go to Clinic Kennedy, so I went. I arrived at 10:30am and was given a bed immediately and completed paperwork. So I got to the ER and was given a room immediately, and a nurse took my blood pressure and temperature (they take their temp in the armpit, which was weiiiiird). Then the doc came in and I described my symptoms to him, and he said they were going to do some blood work. So a labtech drew 2 vials of blood, and only needed 3 holes to do so! Then I laid in the ER for 2 hrs while they checked the results. Finally, 4 hrs after arriving the doc came in and said he didn’t think it was dengue but rather a systemic viral infection, but he wasn’t sure either way (the dengue lab will be negative until 2 weeks after onset of symptoms, so I hve to be rechecked in a couple weeks to know if it was dengue). Either way, he prescribed me some pain meds and vitamin c (?) and I headed on my way after paying a huuuge amount, thankfully Peace Corps will reimburse me! Well I felt like I was going to throw up and starting passing out while I waited for my bro, so the first thing we did was get lunch and I took the pain meds. About 40 min later the pain had subsided and I felt soo much better, still crappy but not in tremendous pain. Saturday I continued to take the Parabay and it continued to help with the headache.

Sunday: I woke and still had the dull headache but it was significantly improved since Friday. I stopped taking the Parabay to see if the headache would return and it did return somewhat but much less strongly. I still feel a little groggy and very tired, but the pain remains as a low pain, no longer sharp and nauseating.

Now Monday im not feeling pain much, just achiness and groggy and really really tired, so hopefully that’s the end of my illness.

So, Dengue or no Dengue? I´ll find out with a blood test in a couple weeks..

23 de Agosto 2009

Hola! So I have now moved to my new site as a PCV(Peace Corps Volunteer)! I am going to be living here for the next 2 years, wow! also, my address has changed, so here is the new one (it’s a P.O. Box in the nearest big city):

Jessica Baldridge PCV

Casilla 09-11-11805

Guayaquil, Guayas

Ecuador

South America

Also, be warned that this is a really long post, sorry :)

So last time I wrote I was still living in La Chimba and had returned from our tech trip to the beach. We only had a few weeks of training left at that point, which flew by very quickly. We had meeting after meeting but thankfully toward the end we starting having some fun times, and the attitude kinda changed a bit, even with the staff. We had an accidental fiesta at my house one night during our last week of training, where we had a drink at 2 with lunch, intended to return to classes in the afternoon, but one thing turned into another and we ended up having a fun fiesta. We also were permitted to have a congrats/goodbye party one night, but I ended up just staying for about an hour because I planned to make dinner for my family. I did have an amazing margarita though :) As far as actual training, the last week was pretty much passing tests and getting final information about what was going to happen in Quito and in our sites. We had tests for safety and security, and a medical test, plus our final language proficiency interviews (LPI). Obviously I passed all the tests, because if I had failed I wouldn’t have been able to swear in as a volunteer. As far as the LPI, I was very nervous because I felt like I hadn’t spoken Spanish in 3 weeks, with spending so much time with fellow Americans on our tech trip and in La Chimba. Also, I found out I was interviewing with one of the facilitators that made me really nervous – he has very stoic unemotional eyes and isn’t very interactive in the interviews. He is the one I interviewed with the first time, which I pretty much had nightmares from haha. Lastly, it was really awkward because the only place to have the interview was in an SUV. So here I am in a car with a man that makes me nervous, tape recorder recording my broken Spanish, knowing this interview is extremely important, and hoping that my Spanish level doesn’t drop. Well, though it was awkward, I ended up going up a level, so I ended on advanced-low, which I am extremely happy with. I was a little surprised as I wasn’t sure my Spanish had actually improved, but whether it was an improvement or they just like promoting people to give them confidence, I don’t care :) after we had completed all of the required competencies, the training sessions were more fun. Everyone adapted the attitude that we had basically made it and just had to sit through a few more meetings. It was definitely a bittersweet time though, as we all knew we would soon be moving to our sites and away from our host families and each other.

The last few days with my family were hard. I tried to spend as much time as possible with the kids, playing soccer or volleyball or whatever. I also wanted to spend time with La Chimba Chicas though, so it was a tough balance. We also completed the mural the Friday before we left. The whole time since we had started people we asking “where is the condor?” because the condor is very important in ecuador. Well, that was the last thing we did, so we went the Friday before we left and I painted it. I thought looked great, then my mom came in and said “great, but it should be black” and I had painted it brown because the 7 year old said to make it brown. I pretty much just shrugged it off because there was no time to change it, and I don’t think it was that big of a deal. It was just a bitter/funny moment though, that I finally did the condor and it wasn’t how they liked it. That was the comment we got, amidst the beautiful sunset, the gorgeous mountains – all that really mattered was the condor. We all got a good laugh out of it though :)

One thing that was really cool was that Peace Corps sponsored a Family Appreciation Day the day before we left for Quito. At first I didn’t think my family was coming, because my dad had a meeting with the mayor (he recently was appointed as a member of the board, a consejo is I think what it’s called). My mom also said she had to walk the cows to a nearby town and wasn’t sure if she’d be back in time, and then she had to go to 2 weddings that day as well. The 12 year old sister had tae kwon do on Saturdays, so I knew she couldn’t come either. And without an escort, the 2 younger kids couldn’t come. So basically I was a little disappointed because I figured my family wouldn’t be there, especially because I had volunteered to sing a song with a group in honor of our families. But that morning my host mom said she would be coming with the two younger kids, so I was happy. When they arrived at the celebration, they had my host dad with them too, which was really neat. I asked him about his meeting and he said he had called the mayor and told him he needed to come to my event to spend time with me before I left, which was so nice! I was really excited to have them all there, and I wish the 12 year old had been able to make it as well. So the day began late, per Ecuadorian standards. We had decorated the training facility with banners and balloons, and had prepared enough food for 250 people. It started with our training staff saying a few words, then a group of trainees did a traditional Sierra dance, which was choreographed and looked really good in the traditional dress. Then we sang our song and the facilitators sang another. Then it was time for lunch – it was an amazing lunch. Peace corps provided us with funds to buy/make food, so we had an enormous amount. We had bought 2 full roasted pigs and each community made a side dish. We had made guacamole and other groups made: deviled eggs, salsa, a lentil salad, walnut and grape salad, 7 layer salad, potatoes, cake, cookies and more stuff I cant think off. But basically it was delicious. It was so funny because we had more than enough food, as many families didn’t attend, but the tradition of people taking home fundas (to go plates/bags) held firm, and most families left with enough food for dinner as well. After we socialized a bit we stayed to clean up while the families left. I got a great picture with my family (minus the 12 year old), which I printed out for them in the larger town and gave them as a gift. Also we had drawn pictures of a memory we had with our families to give to them. I drew all of us making s’mores the day I had cooked for them, and it turned out pretty well. The seemed to like it, even though it wasn’t my best artistic work ever. Well after the appreciation day we had our goodbye/congrats party at a bar in cayambe, so I got back a little late. I had planned to cook dinner and assumed the family would be awake as it was still early for dinner, but they had gone to bed because they were tired. Since I had bought the stuff to cook, I decided to cook anyway, and the 3 kids got up and ate with me. It was a lot of fun but also sad because I would be leaving very early the next day. I still hadn’t packed, so after they went to bed I stayed up really late and packed everything up. I’m not even going to get into it, but it was so incredibly stressful – I couldn’t fit everything in my bags since I had an additional 4 shirts and a sweatshirt plus the thousand heavy manuals Peace Corps had given us.. with all of the other emotions of leaving I almost cried. Finally, I made a bag of things to leave with my family there and just called it a day. So I went to bed at 130 or so and slept poorly until 5, when my parents got up to milk the cows. I had decided to get up and get ready, and if I had time I would go back to sleep until I had to leave. So I got up and told them goodbye, which was very rushed as they had to leave for the cows. I got myself ready and the 2 girls got up at 6 to make my breakfast. It was a yummy breakfast – one of the best I’d had in awhile – with juice, coffee, and the leftover rice and salchichas (hot dogs) from my cooking the night before. They were so cute though, making the juice and coffee without sugar like I like it (though the juice was bitter without sugar, but I didn’t want to hurt their feelings so I just drank it). Then I had to tell them bye :( I gave them the picture I had printed of me and them, and I had written a note on the back for them to remember me by. The two younger kids were the hardest to say goodbye to – the girl latched on to me when I hugged her and I almost started crying, but I managed to hold it together. Then I went into the bedroom where the boy was still sleeping to tell him bye. It was so adorable, he jump up out of bed in his spiderman costume that he had slept in with a huge grin on his face, and I started cracking up. I wish I had a picture, he was soo cute. Then when I told him bye he latched on too and wouldn’t let me go and my eyes teared up. Finally I was able to get my bags and go, without letting any tears fall. I didn’t want to make it harder for them, because I know it was really difficult for the kids already. So I walked down to the street when the bus stops, somehow carrying my bags – it was very difficult because they were heavy and bulky and I hadn’t slept very much at all. Once the bus came and we all had loaded up, I dozed for the hour ride to cayambe, where we met up with everyone to take buses to quito. I slept soo well in the bus to quito, I did the drooling thing and everything haha.

Quito (Aug 16-19)

So the next part is about Quito, where we had our final days as trainees before swearing in as volunteers. We got there on Sunday, dropped our bags off, then headed to a cultural trip to the Middle of the World. First we stopped and had lunch near the middle of the earth with all of our staff, including the country director and the training staff. It was an amazing lunch, I think we counted 5 courses, and I got pictures of all of the courses too. Just to put it in comparison, it cost $13 and a normal lunch here is $1.50 or $2. $13 is a lot of money, but thankfully peace corps picked up the tab :) it was our congratulations lunch I believe. After lunch we went on a walk to the museum at the middle of the earth. After a few minutes in that museum, we found out we went to the wrong one and had prepurchased tickets to the other, so we left and went to the other one. I had my first experience really haggling outside of the museum. I had lost my sunglasses on the tech trip, and it was a really sunny day, so I stopped at a lady selling sunglasses to check the price. She told me $12 so I started walking again. But one of the training staff stopped me and took me back to her, then he asked what I would pay, so I said under $5 was fair. He then basically haggled the price for me down to $4, which was an interesting experience. I learned you have to use the Ecuadorian whiny voice and keep saying things like “no sea malita señora”, “por favor señora” etc. It was really interesting, and I got a pair of nice sunglasses and still was ripped off, but less of a rippoff than I would have gotten on my own. The second museum was more touristy and had a museum where you could go up and stand above the equator and see out over the mountains. Then we walked around though the shops and I bought a little changepurse for 50 cents and a pair of cute brown earrings for $1. I got a couple pics on the equator, which I’ll try to get on facebook soon. After the museums we headed back to the hostal, then I went to the local mall to a grocery store. I also caved and had a cheeseburger from mcdonalds – just as good here as in the states, but tastes better because it is something from the states! Then we took a cab back to the hostal, had dinner, and hung out and drank wine until bed. The next morning we had to be up and head to the peace corps office. There we basically had meetings all day but we got to go out to the mall for lunch, and I had mcdonalds big mac – again, better here than in the states! After lunch, more meetings. Then at the hostal we watched Idiocracy, which I had gotten from my stored bag – I forgot how much I loved this movie! After the movie I headed to bed early.

The next morning we had a practice emergency action plan (EAP) activation, where we used the hostal as if we were in our sites and had to consolidate and evacuate. It was pretty stressful for me because I was named as our cluster ECC (emergency cluster coordinator) so I was basically in charge of getting a group of 15 people to evacuation safely. And of course they provided us with lots of twists – in our group we had 2 people break their legs, a couple people go missing along the way, people’s cell phones broke, the planes couldn’t fit everyone, etc. It was really stressful to try to talk to the staff on the phone while sitting in a room with 15 talking people, but I think it will be impossible to forget what happens in the EAP because of my role in this ‘game’. Hopefully we won’t have to activate the EAP in real life though! I think we all learned a lot and though it was pretty rushed and definitely different from real life it was good practice. After the EAP Game we headed into the office for more meetings. That day we had lunch at the office, then had a self-defense course with some U.S. marines – definitely the highlight of our day! They taught us some escape moves in case someone grabs us from behind or whatever – basically how to react quickly, injure/surprise them to give us time to get away. It was fun and the punching/kicking exercises were a nice stress reliever :) after the day at the office we headed back to the hostal. This was Tuesday, and there is a papa johns on the same block as the hostal, and the papa johns had 2 for 1 Tuesdays. Soo a group of us went to papa johns for dinner that night. It was AMAZING, you have no idea how much you miss certain American foods when you live in another country, especially a country with drastically different foods. Anyway, we devoured our pizza then we headed back to the hostal, where a party was beginning. Since it was our last night together as a group we had decided to have a little fiesta to celebrate. It was pretty relaxed, people just sitting around chatting and drinking. They also opened up the room with the pool table for us to use, which was cool. Also, Joanna got out her steamer and steamed everyone’s dresses for swearing in :) She also helped me iron my dress, because I am not nearly as competent in this category as she is. It was funny, she came in and I was ironing, and she said something like “oh Jessica.. I’ll help you.. I’ll just do it for you” and laughed. How was I supposed to know I should add water to make it steam for that kind of fabric :P And she did a much better job much more quickly than I could have, so that was awesome. After that I drank a little wine and socialized with everyone. I headed to bed about 12:30, exhausted, but the party was still raving downstairs. The next day we had to be up and ready pretty early to go to the ambassador’s residence for swearing in. It was a really beautiful palace, of course with a ton of security. The ambassador really likes birds and there were hummingbirds and other pretty birds everywhere, in addition to the marvelous flowers surrounding the house. We got there and took some pictures, then we started the ceremony. It was a lot like a graduation ceremony, with 2 people in our group giving speeches, the ambassador and the country director speaking, etc. We all even got to get pictures receiving our “diplomas” with the ambassador and the director. They also had a traditional Ecuadorian ballet perform for us, which was neat. Then we had a breakfast with bagels (!), and socialized for awhile until it was time to leave. I got a lot of pictures at the ceremony and with friends, but my camera died towards the end :( After the swearing in ceremony, and we were officially volunteers (!!), we headed back to the hostal to pack up our stuff. We took all of our bags to the PC Office, retrieved our bags we had left in Quito for training, and repacked. I spent a long time repacking all of my bags, trying to make it all fit and not be too heavy to carry. People started leaving right after the ceremony and some people weren’t leaving until the next day. I wasn’t scheduled to leave until that night, taking an overnight bus, so I hung out at the office all day, repacked, played on the internet, played with the random assortment of volunteers’ puppies that were at the office, etc. For dinner we headed to the nearby mall and had sushi, which was delicious! I had half of a thai roll, and half of a californiaish roll, plus a nice fruity girl drink. Expensive, but it was our celebration of swearing in as volunteers, and our last bit of time together. After dinner, we returned to the office, got our bags, and went to the bus terminal. The taxi driver was really nice and we had a nice chat on the way to the office, even though he ripped us off on the taxi fare – things you just gotta get used to in Ecuador. We bought the last 6 tickets for the last bus to Guayaquil, yikes! (apparently we should have reserved them, though PC said we would be fine..) It was funny, as we were hanging out in the bus terminal I was drinking a cup of coke, and this lady walked by me and knocked the coke out of my hand, spraying coke everywhere on our bags. She said something like “oh that’s too bad, your coke fell” then looked at me helplessly, so I just shooed her away and cleaned it up, but we remarked how it’s so strange that here it’s like “oh too bad that fell”, not “oh no I’m sorry I knocked that out of your hand” – it’s all the accidental se’s fault! (for those of you who know some Spanish) Anyway, not a big deal, just an interesting cultural point. So we didn’t have seats by each other on the bus, which was a bummer, but lucky for us when we got on, the seat numbers were all goofy, like 40 and 41 were after 34 and 35, which was then followed by 36 and 37. So we just took seats next to each other and played the dumb American card/asked people if they wouldn’t mind if we sat together, and we ended up getting to sit together. This takes a lot of stress out of the night buses, since you don’t have to worry about the person next to you being creepy or robbing you or anything. I had taken a sleeping/motion sickness pill before getting on the bus, so it took about 10 minutes until I was passed out cold. I slept pretty well on this bus, though it got a little hot until I opened a window, and of course the seats aren’t very comfortable.. and this bus driver drove like a madman through the mountains – the times I woke up from the jerking around I honestly wasn’t sure we would make it there without crashing. But thankfully we arrived in Guayaquil safe and sound, a little groggy, but actually more rested than I had been after a night bus. Me and 2 other people who had to catch other buses hung out in the terminal and had breakfast. Then they left to catch their buses and I waited around for my new host brother to pick me up. He got there earlier than I expected, and I had just gone to the bathroom (which is incredibly difficult to do with a backpack and 2 rolling suitcases and no one to watch the bags. The bags didn’t fit into the stall so I had to kind of keep my hand out of the stall holding my bags so they didn’t get stolen, meanwhile squatting over the seat – you don’t sit on the seats here – while my brother was at the same time calling me. Very stressful, but I made it). Then we made a couple of stops in Guayaquil before heading to my house.

My Site (Aug 20 and on)

After we got to my house I went to my room to relax for a few minutes before lunch, laid down with the intention of just sending a few texts, but in actuality I passed out for 2 and a half hours – oops. It was an amazing nap though! When I got up we ate and hung out at the house. I also got to talk to my family and the Coopers, who were vacationing in Florida, which was really nice. It’s been awhile since I’ve talked to them, so I was happy to hear how things were going etc. I went to bed pretty early that night, catching up on sleep from the night bus.

The next day was Friday, and I didn’t plan to start work until Monday. My office wanted me to come into Guayaquil Friday morning for an all-staff meeting, but thankfully my counterpart was in Quito for the weekend, so I didn’t have an escort, and got out of having to come into Guayaquil. I was happy to take a few days to relax, unpack, etc. So Friday I slept in a little, then went for a run in the late morning – super hot, but at least there wasn’t much sun at the time. Afterwards, I came back to the house and chilled here, discovered that there are several tv channels in English. After showering and eating lunch, I headed out to walk around the town to get to know it a little. I went to the store in town and the free market, buying a few things for my room. The rest of Friday I pretty much hung out at the house, relaxing and reading a lot.

Saturday we got up really early to go to Guayaquil, because my mom has class and the rest of the family goes to spend time with the grandma. The house of my host grandma is crazy with dogs – she has 5 or 6 Chihuahuas that live inside (and don’t like me very much, as their little barks and bites show) and a wiener dog and 2 large dogs that live outside. I’ve taken a liking to the little wienerdog, and he seems to like me too. He keeps the Chihuahuas away from me somewhat. Also, pretty much the whole extended family was at her house, as they all live within the same area. So there were like 6 kids running around, the grandma, 2 aunts, 2 teenage boys, and the 9 dogs. It was a little chaotic, but by the end of the day I had adjusted. Also, my 2 younger host brothers live there with their grandma because one is in high school in Guayaquil and one is working there. Later in the morning, my 19 year old host brother and his cousin escorted me to a supermarket and to the center of Guayaquil, which has a walkway along the river and is really pretty. I found a (slightly expensive) hanging closet organizer at the supermarket, which made me happier than it ever would have in the states – I am still pretty happy about it, it makes putting my stuff in my room much easier. We walked a little through the center of Guayaquil then stood by the river and talked. It was a pretty cool day and I enjoyed getting out a little. Then we returned to the grandmas house, had lunch, then I took a nice siesta – she has a fan in her room, which made me decide I would like to buy one – heavenly when it’s steaming hot all the time! We were at the grandma’s through dinner, then we drove back home and went to bed.

Sunday was pretty bland – I went for a run in the morning, against the advice of my host mom (because the sun was too strong) – but I only go for about 20 mins near our house, and I take a frozen water (which melts before I get back), so it’s not unsafe or anything, it is just unusual for Ecuadorians. After I cooled off from the run, which takes about an hour or so, my mom got home and I helped make lunch – ceviche mixto. It was ceviche with shrimp and mussels, tomato, onion, green peppers, and chifles (plantain chips) to scoop with. It was delicious, but it took a really long time to make. I learned a lot, and she was excited to get to teach me. Also, we talked about how she wants to get into the habit of running in the mornings again, so we planned to run at 5 every day (or so..) before she goes to work. She seems pretty happy about this, and is excited to run then come make breakfast together. It’s good for me to, as long as I can get myself up at 5, because I have someone to run with and it’s still cool at 5am. After lunch I went with my host brother to meet some of the youth involved in the leaders group I will be working with. We basically drove around for a couple of hours meeting people, and someone suggested we go to the circus that is in town. So we headed back to the house, ate dinner (we had coviche, which I tried on my site visit. Its plantain, fish, onion, and peanut butter all mixed up and baked – sooo delicious, one of my favorite foods here), watched the Barcelona soccer game (because my brother loves Barcelona, and we apparently will be going to a game in Guayaquil sometime in the future), then headed to the circus. We met up with my counterpart as well to go, but none of my brother’s other friends ended up coming. It was a really entertaining circus. It was low budget – admission was $2 – and they didn’t have any animals or anything, but it lasted for 3 hrs and they had some really talented people. They had magicians, comedians, tight-rope walkers, jugglers, acrobats that jumped through knife-filled rings, high flying acrobats, etc. and the most interesting (and simultaneously awkward) part was these 4 very heavy women who danced in very revealing spandex outfits, like, thongs. Not only were they barely covered, they were dancing like strippers, in this family-friendly circus. Very bizarre to me because I wouldn’t want my kids to see this, but I guess that’s just another cultural difference. Anyway, they danced like 4 times and every time they came out we cracked up because what else could you do? Also, all of the acrobats performed without harnesses, which I guess is normal for low-budget small circuses, but it made me really nervous. Every time they would do some crazy stunt 35 feet up, I would freak out a little bit. At the same time, it made everything they did more impressive though. Anyway, we got out of the circus really late, but when we were walking home we stopped at the fiesta that was going on in the street to watch. They taught me to dance the traditional dance of the coast, which is kinda like salsa. And of course the locals really enjoyed watching me try to learn, since I basically have 2 left feet. People actually stopped dancing and just stared at us, but that’s something that happened a lot in the sierra too :) We just hung out in the street for a little bit then headed home as it was almost 1 already. I had a lot of fun, and it was nice to get out a little instead of just being here at the house all of the time.

Today I got up a little late but I don’t seem to have plans. I was supposed to have a meeting but of course that may or may not happen. Also, this week is very stressful for my organization because it is being evaluated by the organization that provides them funding, so I’m prepared to just take it slow this week and probably not have much to do. Which is okay, I know I will be busy enough soon.

I’ve already tried to adapt a little to the customs of the coast – I painted my nails and toenails (it’s basically forbidden to wear open toed shoes if your toenails aren’t painted), am wearing dangly earrings (another plus for women to do), and also pretty much always have to wear makeup (even though everyone sweats most of it off pretty quickly haha). Either way, I think with the guidance of my host mom, I might be able to fit in a little better soon :) And hopefully with the running and healthier diet I can lose some of this training weight!

Hope all is well back at home, thanks for reading through this incredibly long post. I suspect I will be able to post more often and probably wont have as much to say next time since this post covers a lot of events, so yah, less next time, promise :) miss and love you all!

Tech Trip:

So we went on our tech trip to Santa Elena this past week, which was sooo fun!

 Sunday/Monday: We left Quito on the night bus Sunday night and arrived in Guayaquil on Monday morning. The bus ride was pretty miserable as I couldn’t sleep well and was still sick with stomach problems (but thankfully I finished my antibiotics on Monday night so I was feeling much better). In Guayaquil and had breakfast with a few volunteers from that area, one of whom I had met on my site visit. It was neat getting to talk to them, as they were from different programs and at different stages of their 2 years. Then we headed to the town on the beach, where we checked into our hotel, ate a delicious fresh seafood lunch, then headed to the beach to relax a little. We hung out there for awhile and enjoyed the sun, then we returned to the hotel and had meetings to get ready for our charlas (presentations) that we would be giving throughout the week on our tech trip. Afterwards, we headed out to dinner. The group I was with ended up just walking around for awhile until we found a little local hole in the wall place, where they were grilling seafood, chicken, and every type of plantain imaginable out on a hibachi-style grill. They also served us superman-style Club beer, which was a plus for them. During the dinner three old men playing guitars came in and serenaded us for some money, which was fun. By the end of the night we felt like real locals haha. Then we headed to a cute bar across the street from the beach and had girly drinks. I had a pina colada, which ended up not being so good. But it was the atmosphere that we were going for, which was very touristy-beachy. They also had cirque de soleil playing on a giant screen which was interesting to watch. Afterwards we headed back and slept since we were still really groggy from the night before.

 Tuesday: We got up on Tuesday and had to start working a little - boo! We headed to a school in La Libertad where one of our groups gave their charla to kids in the school. Then we went to lunch and afterwards we headed to the local mall for a little while to kill time. In the afternoon we went to a local organization to check it out and give another charla to a group of women. When we left, one of the volunteers was distracted talking to someone and of course, this is the one time no one counted that we had everyone. So a few minutes after our chaotic departure, she called one of us and we had to go back and get her, so then we had a joke that we had to check for her anytime we left somewhere. Once we had everyone, we headed to a local health clinic to see the work they were doing there. We then returned to the hotel and headed out for dinner. We went to another local dive with the same kind of hibachi style food (yummy) then headed back to the hotel to socialize and relax with a few drinks. We ended up staying up really late, but it was definitely a good time.

 Wednesday: We got up on Wednesday morning a little chuchaqui :) and packed up to move to the next town. We stopped by the bus terminal to buy our tickets back to Quito, then took a bus to Palmar, another beach town. I got a nice nap on that bus since I was pretty tired from the night before. We got to the town and had a meeting with an organization there, then went for a walk on the beach. It was really pretty and interesting as there were a lot of fisherman working on the beach. Then we had an amazing ceviche lunch in a cute bamboo hut and hung out a little longer before taking the bus to another beach town. We checked into our hostal there (which was totally cute with hammocks outside and was a block from the beach) then headed with a current volunteer to get ice cream. The ice cream trip turned into a very long trip to check out a local community. This community is involved in a lot of agricultural micro enterprise projects, which was really interesting to see. They make a lot of purses and hats and jewelry out of various plants, and I helped support them by buying a pair of cool greenish blue dangly earrings (which I’m super excited about obviously, because everyone on the coast wears earrings, it‘s basically a requirement). We also went on a short German walk (!!) through the campo and saw a lot of pretty plants and interesting stuff. We returned back to the town via a crazy camioneta ride with a disagreement with the camioneta driver, but we made it safely. Then we literally had dinner in a cabana on the beach. It was an awesome fish and rice and plantain dinner, and the man who owned the place was so nice and friendly. Afterwards, we returned back to the hostal for bed.

 Thursday/Friday: Thursday morning we got to sleep in pretty late, then we headed to another local beach town to meet with an international organization there. This organization was so incredibly organized and very similar in structure and goals to the Peace Corps - very impressive. So we met with them for a little while, then we headed out to the beach for a break. Some people helped the locals pull their boat up the beach using huge logs as rollers and a rope to pull, then we walked around and looked in the tide pools. We meet up with some fishermen who had captured octopuses, so we played with that for awhile, then we also found a bunch of fish, sea urchins, and even one sea star in the tide pools. After awhile we headed back into the office to chat with the people of the organization until lunch. They served us lunch in their little outdoor restaurant, which was awesome. We had shrimp soup and rice and a delicious shrimp in a rich cream sauce (probably my favorite thing I ate the whole trip), and we shared octopus ceviche (yes, the octopus we had held hours before). I wasn’t a fan of the octopus because it was really chewy, but I did eat a couple bites of it. After lunch they took us to a cake place that is famous for their desserts. I had a piece of cheesecake, then we decided to split another piece between a few of us - it was soo delicious and rich. Afterwards, we headed back to the office and we hung out for awhile, watched surfers out in the ocean, and looked hopefully for whales (we didn‘t see any). Then a group of young adults that have an oyster micro enterprise business came and talked to us about their group. It was really interesting hearing about how their group functions and their purpose, etc. Then their youth group arrived and one of our groups did a charla with them. After saying our goodbyes, we headed back to our hostal. It was just about sunset, so we headed to the beach to watch the sun set. It was amazingly beautiful (see pictures on facebook). Then we headed down to the same cabana for dinner. We had yummy fish, beans, rice, and plantains for dinner - I don’t think I could ever get tired of the food on the coast! ok, so my group was scheduled to present our charla on Friday morning at a high school to a class of 10-30 kids for an hour or so. But at dinner we caught word that we were actually presenting to the entire senior class of 60-70 in 40 minutes. So our plans for our charla were basically obsolete, and we had only a few hours to prepare a new charla. After dinner we headed back to the hostal and started over on our preparations. (continuted below about the charla)

 Friday: Originally we were going to do a charla about goals where the kids pretend it’s 10 years in the future and are being interviewed about their life. This would have been nearly impossible with 70 kids, so we switched to doing teamwork/communications stuff. We basically picked 4 activities that are common in the U.S. at leadership camps (like human knot, putting themselves in order without speaking, etc) and talked about communication, trust, and teamwork, which ended up working out pretty perfect because we were outside and the kids were able to move around a lot. I think they really enjoyed themselves and actually hadn’t done these types of activities before, which was really cool. So as stressful as it was trying to redo the charla the night before, I think it went really well. After the charla, we returned to the hostal and had some meetings/did some paperwork, then we basically had free time until lunch. So we packed up and headed to the beach for a few hours. I had forgotten my bathing suit so I swam in shorts and a tank top, then laid out for a awhile. It was very nice and relaxing, and the beach was beautiful. The water was a little rough but it was nice getting to swim in the ocean. Then we walked up to different cabanas for lunch. I ate a yummy shrimp soup, fish with a fried rice, and a grilled platano maduro (yellow plantain). It was the perfect last meal on the beach :) We headed back to the hostal, showered, and packed up. We hopped on the bus and I realized I’d left my sunglasses at the hostal which sucked, but at least they were cheap haha. We had a few hours to kill before our bus so we went to the mall and had dinner. I had KFC (a twister with fries and a soda) which was delicious. It’s amazing how much better things taste when they aren’t easily accessible. We headed to the bus station, where we still had about 2 hrs, so I joined a few people for a beer across the street while we waited. It was very chill and great to relax before getting on the 12 hour night bus. The bus wasn’t too bad, and I was able to sleep for a majority of the time (not well since it was really uncomfortable), but it wasn’t bad. It was definitely a shock when I arrived in the sierra (mountains) on Saturday morning in my t shirt and capris - my first priority was getting on some warmer clothes! Overall, our tech trip was a blast and we pretty much avoided any problems/drama. It was really neat getting to know people that I haven’t spent a lot of time with before, and of course being on beautiful beaches eating awesome seafood certainly helped make it one of the best weeks in Ecuador yet :)

Lastly, a very interesting thing happened in my training community this past Sunday. President Correa (Ecuador), President __________(Bolivia), and writer ________ (Guatemala), among other politicians and rights leaders were here inaugurating the opening of a cultural center honoring a local indigenous rights activist, Transito Aguana. Hugo Chavez (president of Venezuela) was also supposed to be attending but for some reason he didn’t make it. I highly recommend looking up some information on Transito Aguana - she was an amazing woman that transformed the rights of the indigenous population not only in Ecuador but throughout South America, think Mother Teresa of South America. She just died earlier this year at the age of 100, and I am honestly sad that I was not here sooner and could have met her. They just completed the cultural center honoring her and her work, which opened today in my town, and they are hoping to make it a major cultural stop in this area. But anyway, back to the event Sunday. Now, my town is about 500 people and is very small, so when I heard that these important people were coming I was sure it was a joke. But no, it was the truth. I was no more than 30 feet away from them in an open crowd watching them speak and taking pictures. It was crazy to me. Also, the security was way different than it would be if this was happening in the states. They flew into the town in 2 helicopters and landed on the football field that was covered with maybe 20 armored guards (which we watched from my roof), drove to the centro de acopio in a parade of impressive looking cars (which drove by us as we walked), then the leaders just walked into the crowd with only a few guards on each side of them. Yes there were certainly a lot of heavily armed military and police throughout the event, but it didn’t appear that the presidents were wearing armored clothing or anything. Also, there was no security check for people to pass through, you just walked into the event and could have been carrying whatever you wanted. It was shocking to me because in the states you would go through metal detectors, show ID, get patted down, etc. and here you just walked in like “whatever”. Granted, it was a very peaceful event honoring an esteemed woman, but still, we were shocked. At the event they did a lot of interesting ceremonies and each of the guests gave a speech, and there was traditional dance and dress. My host mom also gave a speech because she is the president of the community, and she did a great job. I took a lot of videos of the speeches in addition to photos of everything that was happening. Overall it was really interesting and I would love to share it with you all but unfortunately I will never have the time to upload everything on the internet - the internet is just too slow here. I will be putting a few pictures on facebook though, so keep an eye out for that.

Okay, there’s the update for now! I probably wont be updating before I get to my site next week. We have our swearing-in next week - only one more week until we are officially PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS!!! I am so excited :) Next time you hear from me I will be finished with training and will be a PCV!

Another update:

Obviously I was able to post from my site, which I did previously. However, I have some other stuff to put on here from before/after then.

 As far as my Spanish level, I had my language proficiency interview last week, and my Spanish has improved since we got to Ecuador and had our first interview. So now I’ve moved up to intermedio-alto (one level up from where I was). Also, I found it a lot easier to improve my Spanish when I was at my site, since there’s basically no one to speak English to. I was speaking solely Spanish for 3 days, and by the end I was definitely a lot more confident in my Spanish. Of course now that we’ve returned back from our sites, we are speaking a lot of English, so it’s regressed a bit more. We also switched our language facilitators after our site visits. We have a new facilitator who is from the costa region and seems like a lot of fun. In the process, one of our La Chimba group members was switched out because her Spanish level improved, which sucks (that she switched out of our group, not that her Spanish improved). We only have a few more weeks of language training before we head to Quito to swear in as VOLUNTEERS - yikes! Time is flying by sooo fast!

 We’ve been working with members of La Chimba (sort of, mostly just my siblings and a couple of their friends) on a mural in the Centro de Acopio. They just tiled the floor in the building and also wanted to paint murals depicting history and life in La Chimba. My mom, the president of the community, organized this event but they didn’t have a lot of turnout, so it has turned out to be a project between us PC trainees and a few youth in the community. We have been using the design of my dad, who had a pretty strong vision for the mural. I would love to post a picture of it on here when its finished, but if I cant, keep an eye out in my facebook pictures because I will be putting pics on there. We have painted 2 days and are planning 1 more for the 2nd weekend in august

 Rob and Joanna keep checking to be sure that I update my blog for you all in their family, and say hello from them as well! So if you’re still reading my blog, hey from Rob and Joanna!

 Well I’m heading out to my tech trip this coming weekend with about 10 other volunteers in my program and 5 facilitators. We’re going to several locations in Guayas/Santa Elena over about a week to work with current volunteers on their projects and to get some practice working in the field. So I will get to trade in the frigid weather here for beachy weather, and on occasion, an actual beach to hang out on. I also think the group is going to be pretty fun, so I am really looking forward to this trip.

 July 30th was the start of the big fiesta in La Chimba. I was really sick that day and slept the whole day except about 2 hrs around lunchtime, so when 7 came around I was a little sick still but also stir-crazy, so I decided to head out to the fiesta with the rest of the gringas. So I got dressed in the traditional clothes of the sierra and went out with my family. After arriving at the party location, my mom and Peyton’s sister put us in the back of a camioneta (truck) and we drove down the hill to the centro de acopio, so we figured the party had been moved. In reality, we just went down there to walk up with the rest of the party in the parade, which was mostly just cold and strange. When we got back up to the cancha (stadium) where the fiesta was, the rest of the gringas were there. Peyton and Alice pansied out of dressing in the traditional clothes because “it was too cold” but Lindsay and Leslie dressed up. So we met up with everyone and joined in on the traditional circle dance for awhile. There was a drunk old man who kept talking to us and Lindsay got to practice her “No me toces!” which scared him off. Then we hung out for awhile until the dance competition started… the three of us who were dressed in the traditional clothes joined one of the groups and danced in front of everyone (in a circle of course), which was terribly funny to all of the Ecuadorians. They kept announcing over the speakers “bienvienidos a La Chimba y nuestra bonita pais a nuestros companeros extraneros” aka “welcome to La Chimba and our beautiful country to our foreign companions” while we were dancing, and we were offered bastante (excessive) drinks of chicha (a drink very popular in the sierra which has a definite interesting flavor) or wine or shots of liquors. Afterwards, we watched a couple more dances and tried this hot tea with a slight bit of alcohol (which was great because it was warm). After each group danced they turned on some disco-like music and we went into the center of the group with some of our friends and danced. The Ecuadorians thought it was hilarious because they aren‘t used to american-style dancing, but it was a lot of fun. I’m pretty sure that they all thought we were drunk but in fact we had only tried a little of the chicha and that light tea. They turned off the music to apparently begin round 2 of the circle dances. We watched some of the dances and they kept turning on 5-10 seconds of disco-like music between groups - we were pretty sure just to see the gringas dance for a minute, because they would turn it off and laugh at us, and not so subtly. It was a lot of fun though and personally I’m over being worried that they will think we are weird or whatever. They could see we were having fun, even if it is a different type of dancing and fun than they have. Then we realized that every group was going to dance 3 times which would take a really long time, so we decided to head home. Overall the night was a lot of fun.

 So July 31st the festivities continued. We went into the nearby town to deal with some paperwork then we returned to the town near here for coffee, which turned into a 2 hr long coffee/lunch/cards/games good time with PC people. Afterwards, we returned to our community to have our language group while learning about the cultural aspects of the fiesta here. Another group was in our town already asking cultural questions to the people of our town, so we got to hang out with them a little bit too. We went to the cancha (stadium) to watch the volleyball game. A few people (including Rob, for the family of Rob/Joanna) ended up making up a team and playing against an Ecuadorian team, which we unfortunately lost. Rob was a giant and managed to get some great blocks and spikes in since he could jump above the net. It was a great effort and everyone had a lot of fun. One thing to explain about Ecuadorian volleyball though is that they use a soccer ball instead of a volley ball. If you don’t understand how much that hurts, go find a soccer ball and hit it around with your arms for awhile. Peyton’s arms were already bruised up pretty bad right after the game. Anyway, after the volleyball, we went to watch the toros (bulls). They had something like 8 bulls in this little enclosed field and a group of young men were in there playing with them with red cloths. It wasn’t very interesting, apparently because the actual bull fighting event isn’t until tomorrow. But we hung out there for awhile until we decided to head back to my house to make Smores :) we built a fire outside (with a lot of help from my host mom) and had smores with my 2 youngest siblings. It was fun and Lindsay shared a secret (which I highly recommend you all try!) - put peanut butter on the smores or even just on cooked marshmallows. It was soo yummy!

 I can no longer say that I’m avoided the sickness. This past Wednesday I had some diarrhea in the morning, but felt better, so I just went into classes. I was feeling pretty sick by the time I got home on Wednesday and that night I had several diarrhea issues plus a fever, so I decided to go to bed early. That night I had some trouble sleeping, with a really disturbing realistic dream/possibly hallucination so when I woke up on Thursday and had more diarrhea and felt like I was going to throw up I checked my temperature and still had a fever. Since I hadn’t slept well and still felt sick, I ended up calling the nurse who reminded me to take the rehydration salts and call back if my fever rose. So I basically called in sick to my language class and went back to sleep and slept until 11:30 when I got up and decided to eat something. I also decided to call into my afternoon tech session because there was just no way I was going in. The tiendas had been out of bread so we didn’t have bread in my house, and nothing else really sounded okay to eat, so I walked to the store, which was an incredibly slow and painful walk at that point. I bought some oriental noodles, chicken bouillon, and bread (they had gotten their supply in). I came home and made that, ate a little, of course used the bathroom again, checked my temperature (still had a fever) then went back to sleep. I slept until 5 or so, when I got up and showered, then slept until 7. At 7 I got up and dressed for the fiesta, etc (see above). I was worried I wouldn’t be able to sleep that night after sleeping the WHOLE day (except for an hr and a half at lunch), but after the fiesta I came home and passed out. I slept the whole night until my alarm woke me up in the morning, which was really surprising. Friday morning I felt better but still not quite up to par. My stomach basically just hurt all day, until after all of the marshmallows in the evening, which had me in the bathroom again for another 2 times. After rechecking my temperature, I discovered I didn’t have a fever, but was still really excited to get to sleep in on Saturday. Definitely drank rehydration salts though to help with the diarrhea, which will hopefully be over soon.. Saturday I was definitely still sick so the doctor sent me to get some antibiotics, which will hopefully help!

 Obviously my birthday was Sunday the 26th, which was very strange to not be celebrating at home in the states. When I first woke up it was really sad because all I could think of was how I wanted to be at home celebrating with my family, but my friends here really helped make it a great day. I slept in (until 8!!) then got up and hand washed my laundry in the cold for 2 hours (boo, but it had to be done..). My little siblings were so cute, they gave me big hugs and told me happy birthday when they first saw me. There are always soccer games on Sundays, so Peyton texted me to see if I was going to come up to the cancha to watch the games. So after the laundry was hanging to dry, I decided my birthday present was to make myself shower (since it had been a few days). The water was pretty cold, but it did refresh me a little bit. So afterwards, I headed to the cancha and hung out with Peyton. The referee who had befriended us and talks to us at every soccer Sunday came over and chatted with us for a good long time. He was doing the awkward no personal space that is common in Latin American countries, but he is very interesting to talk to. Then Lindsay got to the cancha and hung out with us for awhile. She had a backpack full of alcohol/mixers, which really reminded me of college. For my birthday she had bought wine and all of the ingredients for making kahlua (vodka, coffee, vanilla, sugar), which we planned to make later that night. We headed back to my house and made a quick spaghetti for lunch (perfect lunch for me!). Leslie and Alice came over at that point, and Alice brought the cake we had made the night before (when I stayed out until 11pm - unheard of, the LATEST I’d be out at that point). We then headed down to the town close to our community to get café pasado (real, not instant coffee) at a new restaurant that had opened. We had our coffee then met up with some other people, one of whom had a birthday a few days before mine. So we had a delicious set of snacks - chocolate covered strawberries, cake, and homemade kahlua. We hung out there for a few minutes before headed back to our community. My family had gone to a nearby town for a fiesta, which I didn’t go to because I had made plans already (but I felt really bad because they apparently had planned this as a celebration for my birthday, but in normal Ecuadorian fashion had not told me). They were home when I got here, and they made me feel better by telling me that I didn’t miss anything and I just would have been bored (clearly trying to make me feel better, but at least they tried). We had dinner, then basically they went to bed and I hung out and waited for mom and dad to call from the states. Overall, it was a different birthday than I’m used to but I really enjoyed myself thanks to my friends and host family here. I felt really blessed to have made such good friends here that could cheer me up on a day that would have been otherwise very hard to be away from home.

Ok I know this was a scattered update, so hopefully I can get a better one done next time!

Just a quick update from my permanent site, then I´ll actually write a good blog entry when I get back to my training site;

SO I´m going to be moving to the costal region in August! I am currently here doing a visit to evaluate the site and what kind of work I will be doing. I can´t say exactly where ¨here¨is but I´m about an hour from Quayaquil and a couple houirs fromt he beach. It is considered campo region outsie of the city that I live in, which is where I think I will end up doing a lot of work as well. Basically, my house is awesome, my family seems great, there are a lot of mosquitos (but I´m on malaria prevention meds), it´s HOT here during the early afternoon, but cold at night, they have every type of fruit you can imagine, and it´s all grown within a 50 mile radius, rice is a main export (but it´s better rice than in the sierra), and the second biggest export in the area is bananas (woohoo!!). So far (in 2 days) I´ve eaten banans, watermelon, mangos, many oranges, and lots of fresh fruit juices. Me gusta mucho! Also, they eat significantly more vegetables here than in the sierra, which I am soo excited about. My family doesn´t expect me to eat a lot of rice either, and have even given me several meals without rice. Also, because it´s so hot I haven´t eaten much which they seem to get and keep telling me I don´t have to finish it. As for my family, I have a mom and dad in their 40s who are professors int he local schools, An older brother who is 26, 2 younger brothers who are 19 and 16, and a little sister who is 10. They are all very helpful and patient while I get used to their Costal accents, and in fact the older brother is very good at english, which has been helpful. The 10 year old really wants to learn english, which is something I have encountered a lot of here. Everyone asks ¨whats this in english¨ haha. Oh, I did eat cow intestines for dinner last night.. yeahhh.. not my favorite lol

This morning I went to a local school with my counterpart to see what kind of work goes on in the schools. It was about 40 minutes out of my city, with 3 profesors and 15 kids per class in 3 separate classrooms. Very dusty getting there, and definitely are small towns. Everyone was really nice and made it clear that one thing they would want help with is an english teacher for the kids. I will definitely keep that open as an options. I also got to meet a lot of teachers because we took a camioneta (basically rode in the back of a truck) to the school with all of the teachers. I feel as though it was a very valuable experience and I met a lot of potential coworkers. After we got back we went to the municipal building and I met the staff of pretty much all of the departments. I even got to sit down and talk to the mayor a bit, which was neat. However there will be a new mayor as of friday, so I will hopefully get to meet him as well. It is really nice being so welcomed into a city, and everyone seems to be excited for me to come back in August.

My organization is super organized and I really admire the work that they are doing. I am excited to get to work with them, and I have found several other potential projects to start up as secondary projects. I definitely have lots of people to meet, and everyone stares at the gringa walking down the street, but my host brother assures me that I will know everyone in the town by the end of the 2 years. I think the Peace Corps really has a great site here and I hope I can meet everyones expectations. Everyone they have put me in contact with will be an amazing asset and there are a lot of projects already running in this town. Of course anything can happen and projects end, but I feel really lucky about my town.

Okay, there´s your update about my site! I´m gonna sign off and hopefully post a blog early next week with what all has been happening in training (you´ve missed a lot!) Miss you all!

I hope everything is going well for you back in the states! Everything is very interesting here, I’m adjusting to the food, culture, language, and altitude. I’m in a very small community in the Andes mountains. I have running water (but I can’t drink it because it’s not “treated water“ aka agua potable), sometimes warm showers (warm being just a little warmer than frigid), and live in the coldest training community where the least amount of clothes I wear is 2 layers and as a rule I can always see my breath. Not exactly what I expected when I found out I was in Ecuador lol. I do really like it here despite the cold. My host family is really awesome. Though they can never replace my real family, I feel very lucky to be living with such an wonderful family. I think they are enjoying my Spanish learning. The most recent funny mistake was asking my host dad how his vieja (old) was - which was supposed to be viaje (trip). Also, they love when I teach them English words, especially puppy, which sounds very similar to Papi (what they call the dad). So when the girl asks if she can give the leftovers to the dog, she says puppy, and everyone laughs because it sounds like she is giving the leftovers to the dad. Those are some of the innocent mistakes I have made. Thankfully the accidental mistakes that turn out to be sexual have been in our language group instead of my family, like saying introducir instead of presentar. Look it up if you want to know. I feel like everything we say in Spanish can be sexual because our facilitator is always correcting us and having to explain the difference lol Guess I’ll learn them as I go, and it’s better to make those mistakes with PC staff then people in the community!

I know it’s been awhile since I updated soo, here’s an update of what’s been going on:

-Health stuff: I’ve had a few sunburns (pretty hard to avoid when pretty much living on the Ecuador) but they have been manageable. I am in the habit of putting on sunscreen first thing every morning though - yay! I haven’t been very sick, just a little normal traveller’s adjustment from the food and water. This morning I woke up with “La gripa” or something like that. At least that’s what my host mom said I have. It’s basically a cold - runny nose, drainage, sore throat, etc. My whole body is also aching but I believe that’s because of soccer yesterday. No fever, no related GI problems = no problems lol

-We have a lot of meetings/trainings during the week. I also have had my first interview with the program managers and have my second LPI (language proficiency interview) next week, so hopefully my Spanish will have improved by then (I think it has for sure) I also know what to expect with the interview which will make it much easier. I felt okay about the first interview (in Quito) but was really nervous when they started recording the interview. I still managed to place in the intermediate-medium language group, which is actually within the acceptable range for being nominated to be a volunteer. But I really need to continually improve on this score, so I’ll find out how I’m doing next week.

-Back to general stuff we do during the week: We’ve learned a crazy amount of medical and safety/security information, plus community entry techniques and other technical information related to my program. The safety and security info has been pretty hard to hear for a lot of us, but I think they’re just trying to make us super-aware of possibilities. I can definitely say they have trained us well - when I’m in the cities or using public transit I am on the verge of paranoid all of the time. Better than not paying attention I guess.

-We also have smaller language and culture training with our language facilitator when we’re not in meetings as an omnibus. My group meets in the centre de acopio of my community. It consists of me and the other 4 trainees in my community, who are around the same language level and I think we all have the same learning style (we did learning style tests in Quito). I like our group a lot but we switch facilitators in a couple weeks, so we will have a different teaching style. One thing we have all started to think about is what will happen in 7 weeks when we head to different sites all over the country. We’re going to try to keep in touch, but I think it is really hard. It’s so hard to imagine not seeing everyone in our omnibus every day or two, and the current PCVs say it is a big shock to the system. We’ll have to see when we get there I guess

-Last weekend we went on our “cultural trip”. Mine was to a afro-Ecuadorian community called Mascarilla. We left early Friday and returned Saturday evening. It was really interesting - we watched a video on their heritage and culture, made masques, ate traditional food, stayed with families in their community, and best of all watched their traditional dances “La bomba“. We also went on several short german walks, aka 3 hrs., one to the river through the jungle. We saw a bunch of different plants/trees, like bananas, lemons, oranges, sugar cane, avacado trees, etc. That part was really neat, and I got to eat an orange off the tree - soo delicious! It is a much hotter climate and because there is a river nearby, there were mosquitos EVERYWHERE. It was like walking into a swarm of gnats, but they were mosquitos. And they seemed to like the bug spray that PC gave us. I came back with only 10 or so bites on my legs, and I was really lucky compared to most people. The community also has an organic farming program and creates organic fertilizer to sell. They have row after row of decompost rows (?), huge piles of compost that they lay with other soil into the rows, and they turn the soil every weekend. It apparently takes 6 months for the soil to be ready to bag and sell. It was really interesting and I thought of mom and her compost bins :) The most awesome part of the trip with the dance Friday night. We were able to watch some traditional bomba dancing (I have several videos of it) with 6 young girls and a woman balancing half-full bottles of wine on their heads. The woman not only danced with it on her head, she laid down and did one-armed pushups while balancing the bottle. AMAZING! After the dance we also watched the local kids play soccer, and some PCTs and staff played against the kids. The kids won, of course lol. I bought a really pretty masque in Mascarilla that is a moon and a sun joining, with faces on both. It’s really pretty and is hanging over my bed here at my host house.

-Thursday we had our first presentation in Spanish to community members. I did a skit with a couple other people about good communication within families and friends, and I think it went pretty well. We had practiced the skit in front of staff and PCTs Tuesday, so we sort of knew what we were doing. I still was a little nervous speaking Spanish in front of native speakers, but I think that’s why we are doing so much practice right now. Soon we wont have a whole group of gringos, we will be on our own. Scary lol. I believe we have another presentation in the upcoming week. So we will probably be practicing those on Wednesday. We also had a puppet show last Tuesday in front of PCTs and staff about good communication addressing some issues with drinking. I prefer using puppets because you can read off a script :)

-Friday we celebrated the 4th of July with current PCVs and staff in the town near here. We had a soccer tournament, traditional American cookout food, volleyball, basketball, and a mareina competition. First was the mareina competition (basically beauty queen competition, based on team spirit, clothes, and answers to questions about how to be a good volunteer). One of the girls from my community was our nominee and she dressed up in the traditional clothes of our town. She didn’t win but I would say our clothes were definitely the best and most traditional, so we should have won! :) Then we had a soccer tournament by communities. I played goalie for the first time in my life-scary! We played the first game and did really well but no one managed to score, so it came down to penalty kicks, which of course sucks for the goalie. I blocked the first 2 shots but the 3rd got past me, and my team wasn’t able to get any goals in, so we lost tragically. But it was still a lot of fun, and it freed us up to play volleyball/basketball or watch soccer. Then we ate lunch. It was so nice to have traditional american cookout food (hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, potato salad, fruit salad, tea, soda, roasted veggies, cake) AND not be afraid that the food would make you sick! After lunch they finished the soccer tournament, I played volleyball, then a group of us headed out to go to the store in the big city. After some yummy ice cream, we headed home totally exhausted. It was such a fun day, I wish we could do that instead of meetings every day!

-today I woke up and had breakfast with my host family. They were a little concerned because I slept until 8 lol. After breakfast I spent 3 hours doing laundry (yes, by hand with soap and water). This is my 3rd time doing laundry, but this time I did the pile of clothes that has been sitting, so I currently have no dirty clothes :) so maybe I wont have to do laundry this week! I also organized my room so I have somewhere to put clean clothes. I was going to go to hang out in another community to celebrate the 4th by watching movies, but don’t want to spread my germs to the other PCTs if I can help it. So, now I’m updating this, then I’m going to sweep my room and spend time with the family. Tomorrow we are heading into town to buy groceries, primarily rice and potatoes I think. Good thing I walk 20 minutes up and down hills to and from the bus everyday or the carbs here would kill me! We are also planning to start a community soccer club in our town because when we were out practicing for our soccer tournament we had 4 kids join, so it seems pretty easy to get people together to play soccer. Sounds like a good way to start a youth group in our town. And that way we have some more exercise as well :)

I uploaded a few photos to facebook, so check them out if you are on there. Otherwise I’ll continue to try to upload them here when I have time to figure out how.

And time has been FLYING by. I can’t believe that we find out our sites in less than 2 weeks! Hopefully I will get to update by then!

OH, SOMEONE PLEASE POST SOME NEWS ON HERE! I feel so out of touch with the world. I’ve found out through other PCTs what’s happening in the Bachelor, that Michael Jackson died, and that there was an overthrow of the government in Honduras (any recent news on that?), and that’s the entirety of my news knowledge. So pleaaaase, what is happening outside of Ecuador???? Thanks in advance :) Hasta luego!

Still here in Ecuador! I wrote a blog entry last night but can´t get the file to open on this computer, so I will have to retry another day. Hopefully this week during training in the larger town I will have time.

please post some news from around the world on here, this is worse for getting news than it was in the Witt bubble :)

Hasta Luego

Wow so I’m in Ecuador! It still doesn’t seem quite real, at least not as a long-term deal. Quick recap:

Flew down to miami on Tuesday morning after basically no sleep, sat through a ton of meetings, then went out for a nice dinner with my fellow trainees. Then we headed to bed and got up for the airport the next morning. Had about 4 hrs to wait at the airport once we were past security because for some reason the peace corps finds it necessary for us to be there super early, but whatever, it kept my stress level waaay down

Had an interesting flight and landed in quito without any problems. The mountains were sooo beautiful coming into quito, sticking up just above the clouds while the sun was setting. Amazing. We were greeted at the airport by out training staff and pushed through security/H1N1 checks pretty quickly, piled into tiny vans, and headed to the hotel. It was very pretty and almost like a bed and breakfast feel to it. Had a yummy dinner, then hung out until bed. In the morning we packed up again, headed to the peace corps office and did meetings/paperwork/medical checks/etc until time to leave for the next town. Saw the beautiful mountains on our visit, and switched from the southern to the northern hemisphere as well :)

 We arrived in our next location and checked into the hostel, etc then hung out until dinner, then bed. The next few days at the hostel were pretty much just meetings and craziness, followed by some light partying in the evenings (we were literally locked inside the hostel complex and told we would be kicked out if we were caught sneaking out, no joking around there). It is the carnival season in our town, and there were people out partying throughout the day/night. One of the mornings we went to the street and watched the kids from the school next door practice their dance for the parade this weekend. It was soo neat.

Finally, this morning we got up and got ready, had a couple meetings, then we actually got to meet out host families. We did some activities at the hostel, then packed up and left. We went out to lunch in town before leaving for my smaller community, but we weren’t allowed to eat any fruits or veggies because of issues with possibly unsafe preparation, so I managed some beef things. Then we hired a driver and rode to my community outside of the larger city, which is located further up into the mountains. It is a very rural village with very few amenities, but I think I will love it. My family is so neat, they have had like 5 previous peace corps trainees stay with them, and they seem pretty used to having a gringa for a visitor :) I also have 3 host siblings, the boy is 6 (today is actually his birthday!) and the two girls are 7 and 12. They have a cute black lab puppy named Beethoven (totally loved that part!), a bunch of pigs, a cat, and supposedly a guinea pig (have yet to see this though). Well we pretty much got here, dropped everything off, then headed to a nearby town for a fiesta celebrating the indigenous peoples in this area. It was so interesting, everyone was in traditional attire based on their community which included masks dresses and other costumes, and there was tons of singing, dancing, and musical instruments. I really wish I could have taken my camera but I need to get used to the community before I bring anything a gringa would normally have. They are having a similar festival in my town in august, so perhaps I can get some pics then. After the fiesta I could barely keep my eyes open, so my host mom made me go nap, not that I really minded :) after 20 mins I came out and played soccer with my siblings. They were impressed by my goofy stunts, like doing headballs, juggling the soccer ball, etc. They were not impressed by my lack of stamina, and no matter how many times I tried to explain that it’s because of the altitude, the concept didn’t seem to cross the language barrier. Anyway, it was a ton of fun and the parents ended up coming out to watch us for awhile. We also bought fruit from their fruit truck that drives around the town, so I got to check out some different fruits. Then I went with my host parents and host brother (who literally hid in the truck after he was told he couldn’t go, so he went) to obtain milk. We drove around to a bunch of farms nearby and either picked up the milk already prepared or watched them milk the cow. Then we had to go to the city center to pay for the milk or something, not sure. I just know it was wicked cold. I was shivering in my Wittenberg sweatshirt and vest on top. We also passed a bunch of people coming back from the fiesta, most of whom were drunk, and most of whom stood in the road until we stopped, then offered us the alcohol they drink (cant remember what it’s called but it tastes like pure alcohol with a little licorice flavoring). Thankfully my host dad received all of the drinks and I just had a small sip to taste it. I also saw a drunk man fall off a horse. Very interesting.

Throughout the day things were a little quiet and awkward with the host parents because my Spanish is really bad right now, so I spent a lot of the time with the kids. After the milk adventure, we came back and had dinner. It was good - rice, chicken, plantains, and hot milk :) one thing to comment on though is that it is weird being served the best parts of the chicken. It makes me feel a little bad though because I don’t really even like chicken, so I don’t need the best stuff. It was motivation enough for me to eat pretty much all of my piece of chicken, down to the bones. I also gave them the gifts I brought for them, which went over better than expected. I gave the little boy a Frisbee, the younger girl the mini butterfly kite, and the older girl a magnetic 3 board game set. I gave the parents one of the bowls that my dad made from sycamore tree, which I feel like went over really well. They kept remarking how beautiful it is and wouldn’t let the little boy destroy it too much. I also gave them 3 postcards from Kentucky and promised to explain them later when my Spanish is a bit better. Lastly, I had brought 2 issues of People en Espanol so I gave them to all of them. All of the girls seemed to love it, including my host mom, especially the perfume pages :) then after dinner we cleaned up, which they let me help with finally, and headed to bed, which is where I am writing this from.

Saturday I am going to the larger town where we had our orientation with my older host sister to buy gifts for my host brother’s birthday. I’m pretty excited about this part, since I haven’t had much time to explore yet. Also, I am hoping to talk my sister into taking me to an internet café, which obviously worked if you are reading this. As far as accessibility to internet, phone, etc. I basically wont have much. I think I will be lucky if I can make it to the city every 2 weeks or so and since my town has nothing except electricity (if you’re lucky, which thankfully I am), I wont be on here much.

Hope all is well with you all! I miss you and would love to hear from you, even if I won’t be able to check it for awhile. Having continued support will help make this experience much easier :) and enjoy the couple pics I’ve (hopefully) been able to post on here! Adios!

One of my friends asked me some questions and I thought it might be helpful to post them since it explains some new information. If you have more questions you want answered, post them on here and I'll answer what I can when I can :)

A. How does this whole peace corps thing work? Are you allowed to leave at all? Like to visit home?

I get 2 vacation days a month which can be built up and used at once. Now, depending on what I'm doing, I may have weekends off anyway, so theoretically I could travel some on the weekends. But as far as big trips, I use vacation days, and when I cash in my saved up vacation days I received additional vacation pay to offset the cost of travel. I can travel back to the U.S. but only plan to if I have a family emergency (or if I can get permission to come back for Kelsey's wedding I will probably do that). We have to get permission from the country director to travel, mostly for safety reasons and so they know how to contact us in case of an emergency, etc. I believe we are also "strongly advised" not to travel to certain countries that are dangerous, like Brazil or Colombia, because of the drug cartels.

B. Where are you staying?

I don't know much about where I'll be or what exactly I'll be doing. I know I leave June 16th for Miami, where I will stay until midday on June 17th. The one day in Miami will be spent in meetings preparing for our departure to Ecuador. Then I know that I will be staying in Quito for 4 days. Not sure what all we do there, but I know that we will be receiving all of our pre-service medical screenings including vaccinations, and being briefed on safety etc. in Ecuador. Then, I know I will be spending the majority of the 3 month training in Cayambe, a town in the mountain region about an hour and a half north of Quito. It is in the northern hemisphere, btw, because we will cross over the equator when driving from Quito to Cayambe. Lastly, sometime during the 3 month training period I will find out where my site will be, and should be spending about a week there before completing the training, being sworn in, and heading to my project site.

C. Do you get compensated at all?

I basically receive a room and board stipend, with some extra for whatever else. It's a modest amount, meant to allow me to live at the same level as the people of Ecuador. Then when I return to the U.S. at the completion of my service I will receive a "reacclimation stipend" to start up again here in America.

D. How does the whole visitors thing work?

I'm not allowed to have visitors for the first or last three months, but for the other 21 months I can. How easy it is just depends on where I am and if I am staying with a host family or if I have my own place. Are you gonna come visit??

I just started this blog in preparations for heading to Ecuador in June :) So to fill everything in:

I started applying last May, had my interview in June, then dragged my feet through the medical/dental review process because of starting a new job, and finally received my invitation email March 23 and the paperwork in the mail March 27. I accepted March 30th and have been trying to work through the paperwork and preparations since! :)I'm currently working as a Therapeutic Behavior Specialist in a residential treatment facility for extremely at-risk youth aged 6 to 14 with moderate to severe behavioral and emotional problems. Most come from urban areas of Greater Cincinnati, but some from more rural regions of Kentucky. My last day full-time is May 10th, then I'm going to travel and visit with friends and family before departing on my Ecuador adventure.My project:Program: Youth and FamiliesJob Title: Urban Youth Development, Community Service - It seems like a pretty broad job to me, I could be doing many different projects within this field. The general assignment is to work with at-risk youth and families while helping communities to develop programs to assist themDeparture: June 15, 2009Goals:1) Youth Stewardship: provide Youth with increased opportunities for education, enrichment, and self-esteem enhancement (training youth in "Life Skills" or vocational skills, improve leadership capabilities, improve literacy through afterschool programming)2) Efforts in Community and Organizational Development: work to increase the capacity of local community organizations to address needs of youth and families (training community leaders, improve efficiency of programs, develop community-based activities, provide support for improving economic conditions through business education etc)3) Prevention: assist youth and families in becoming better equipped to deal with life's challenges (training community members in: HIV/AIDS prevention, sex education, women's rights, children's rights, family violence, parenting, drug and alcohol abuse, and conflict resolution)As far as location, I won't know exactly where in-country I will be going until part-way through training, but my pamphlet says that most sites are in "marginal urban neighborhoods" in small/large cities. Pretty vague but I'm starting to get used to not knowing much hahaWell that's all I have time for now!