So I have been back in the States for a little over a month now and have gotten to spend some time with my family as well as see some friends from high school and college. I am slowly but surely starting to readjust and I decided it was about time to write my last Blog entry for this adventure.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy to be back in the States and I would also be lying if I said I didn't miss the people of El Retiro and all of my youth and kids in Ecuador. It really is a very unique situation that I decided to put myself in. I put myself into an environment, where I knew I would never truly belong, and then I forced myself to make a life there. But man have I ever gained a lot from doing that.

First things first - Readjustment. It certainly isn't easy, that is for sure. And let me be the first to tell you that they are some things that you think you might have missed, but haven't! For example:

1 - The television and technology: Half of the stuff you watch on TV you kick yourself for being silly enough to waste time watching but then you continue to watch it because it is addicting for some odd reason. And as for technology, I get that it all can be very useful...but I am just not there yet. Don't tweet me, just call me for crying out loud!

2 - All of the different foods: Sometimes not having so many options is actually a good thing...the cereal aisle really is kind of scary! And of course almost everything costs more.

3 - Warm water: As enjoyable it is for showers, I often find myself forgetting to turn the knob from hot to cold or visa-versa as I'm just used to turning the faucet on and getting what you get.

4 - Cars: Driving can be scary sometimes and I have to admit I miss being able to have some drinks and then just all hoping on a bus and getting safely home. Not to mention...traffic can be a major downer and sometimes it is just nice not to have to drive and waste the gas money!

5 - Full length mirrors and air-conditioning: Sometimes you really don't want to see yourself full figured! It is easier/better to see a small portion. And as nice as air-conditioning can be, darn do I ever get cold sitting in church or at the grocery store because they have it cranked up!

And then of course there are those things which you really have missed:

1 - Family and friends: There is nothing that can come close to having people around you who really do understand you and know you.

2 - Being clean: Don't miss the dirt and heat or the fact that I never really felt clean while in Ecuador.

3 - Washer and drying: I can't say that I miss my concrete slab and having to hand wash my clothes at least once or twice a week just so it wouldn't become too overwhelming to do all at once.

4 - Blending in: There are other tall white girls around me and I LOVE it. I really don't like having all the attention on me.

5 - Microwave popcorn: What can I say? I know what I like and I have missed having a microwave for a lot of different things.

I am sure that there is plenty more that I could add to both of the lists. But the bottom line and the point I guess I am making is that I like and dislike things about both the U.S. and Ecuador.

My trip back to Nashville went pretty well with only a few bumps along the way. I had to go through some extra steps because I brought Tito (my cat) back with me, but she is definitely worth it. Although I might not have said that when I had to take her though security with me. In case you might ever need to know, when you take a pet through airport security you have to actually take the pet out of the cage and walk through the metal detector with the pet to the other side as the cage gets sent through the x-ray machine. Tito was not to fond of that and ended up hissing at a security guard as she clawed me up a little. However, I held on tight and made sure we got her back into that cage ASAP.

Otherwise I have just been here in Nashville living with my parents which is helping a lot. And thankfully my mom, who is allergic to cats, is not having any problems with having Tito in the house (Tito is living in my bathroom and bedroom). We are all very happy about that to say the least as I love them both very much :)

I am not sure that I can really articulate what this experience has meant to me. But I can definitely say that without a doubt it has helped shape who I am. It is almost like you do a detox for two years from everything in your life; your friends, your family, your culture, you language...everything. Once you take all of the distractions out of your life, you are left with just yourself. Sometimes that can be a good thing and other times it can be a very hard thing.

Over these past two years I have learned about another culture which has in turn helped me learn more about myself in ways I never thought were possible. El Retiro will always be "mi pueblo" in Ecuador and a part of my heart will always be with those kids and youth. This experience has pushed me both mentally and physically to points which I never thought I would reach. However, sometimes you have to reach those limits to truly know and understand who you are.

Peace Corps is not an easy thing to do at all. But if you are able to stick it out, what you learn from it truly is priceless and it is something that you will take with you for the rest of your life; at least I know I will.

So it is official...I am no longer a PCV but a RPCV! Turned in all of the paperwork, got all of the correct signatures, and I am once again just another U.S. citizen instead of a government employee living in Ecuador...although still having the government passport is rather nice :)

Unfortunately, the office has decided not to send a PCV to replace me at my site as they have decided that my site has too many challenges and issues for anyone in this new Omnibus group to handle. I guess that says something about myself and being able to be successful in my site over the past two years, but it also makes me really sad because the PC development program is supposed to be over 6 years split between three volunteers. I was just the first volunteer which makes me sad for my youth who won't be getting a replacement...but there isn't anything I can do about it so as Forrest Gump would say...that's all I have to say about that.

Otherwise I think I have gone into a sort of numb stage where I can decide whether I am excited, nervous, scared, sad, happy, or anything at all really! I think this is just because you really feel all of it at once which is such a contradiction for the most part. Overall, I would have to say this is probably the most bipolar I have felt in all of my service with wanting to leave and at the same time not really feeling ready to leave as my life is here at the moment! All apart of the experience I guess.

So tonight I am headed back to my site on my last twelve hour bus ride!!! Can't say that I am going to miss those...but it is bitter sweat to be in Quito one last time.

Once back to site I am going to have about six days to pack all of my stuff up, sell the things I am selling, and give away all of the rest. It will be a fun and exciting time I am sure as emotional at the same time. But I definitely feel ready to get back to my site and start the packing.

This weekend I have my despedida, going away party, with my friends in Machala on Saturday. Then next week Monday I have my despedida with the school where I am currently teaching at and Tuesday and Wednesday I will be at my local school saying goodbye to everyone there. I am sure it will be emotional and there will be a lot of "no te vayas" (don't go), which I have already heard a lot of over this past month, but they will have a lot more meaning this next week I think.

It has been an incredible past two years is so many ways. Another chapter in my book of life as one might say. And I can honestly say that I have learned so much with this experience and I know that I will carry that information and knowledge with me for the rest of my life.

Life is all about change and everything that you do in life will have a lasting effect on who you are. Peace Corps is just another chapter in my life which is, has, and will shape who I am today. Learning to look at life from a different cultures view point is truly amazing and something I will carry with me forever.

In exactly one week from today I will no longer be an official PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) but a RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) and exactly two weeks from today I will be in Nashville TN along with my family and my cat from Ecuador, Tito. And to be honest, I don't even know how to let that really sink in!

My life has been here in El Retiro Ecuador for the past TWO years now. For a girl that tends to move around a lot, staying in one place for two years definitely counts for something! It has for sure been a time period that has helped me figure out what I want to do with my life and have a better understanding of others in general.

This past month my work has been coming to a close with me giving my last classes of English as well as my last English review sessions. I also ran another half marathon in Guayaquil which I ran quicker than my last time, but it wasn't near as pleasant.

I have some type of parasite that is for sure. And because of that parasite I can only run for about an hour before I literally get the runs. With this in mind, I managed to run the half marathon in 1:54:12...but it wasn't easy. For the last hour I was in a lot of pain as my parasites were not in the mood to be running. So although I managed to beat my time from the last time I ran...it wasn't nearly as pleasant. The next half marathon I am going to run is in Nashville on September 24th and I am will hopefully not have parasites then and it won't be nearly as unpleasant.

After the race we carried on for a day at the beach in Ecuador to drink rum and coke along with beers and seafood. We decided to go to a more unknown beach area called Ayangue, which was pleasant for the day. Then we went back to Guayaquil to celebrate the 4th with some other PCVs there. All in all, it was pretty nice.

That is really about all that I have been up to. The last month of service is a very unique one where you feel like there is so much to do and at the same time there is so much time just waiting around to head back to the States.

Next week I will head up to Quito to finish with the Peace Corps and then come back to El Retiro for one last week to say my goodbyes. All in all, it is a very emotional time with a lot of things to finish up and get ready to go back to the States.

6-17-11

It is really hard for me to truly understand, much less believe, that I only have 41 more days left here in Ecuador. Time never ceases to amaze me with the mind tricks that is can play.

This past month I have been busy doing a lot of paperwork for the PC and working on tying up loose ends here and there. My work has fallen into a nice schedule where I teach English twice a week in a neighboring town, have my after school review sessions in my town three times a week, and a community bank meeting every other Monday. Those are my main projects at the moment.

I have tried to keep these projects pretty simple and laid-back as I will be leaving in a month. However, I am still working with the teachers that I have made relationships with trying to help them out with whatever I can. This past month especially I worked with the school psychologist to help plan and implement some workshops that she can do with the youth. As it is towards the end of my service, it is nice to have these relationships where I can still do some work and not have to start a new project of my own.

So all in all, I have managed to keep myself busy between my couple of classes and workshops along with working with the teachers. Then in my spare time of course there is the PC paperwork that I have to do before I can leave…and let me tell you, the government LOVES their paperwork.

Amongst surveys on pretty much every aspect of your service we have to write a one page summary of our PC service for the Country Director to sign verifying that we were in the PC, a four to five page report on your community where you live and aspects that could be useful to future volunteers at that site, and a six to ten page report summarizing you two years of service in your community and recommendations of what they need to continuing doing to keep developing…in Spanish. And those are just the main reports that we have to do before we can leave!

We have a Close of Service (COS) check list that we have to complete before we can leave the PC and I think the packet in total is about 10 pages. Three pages are the actual checklist of things you need to do or complete before you leave, such as the reports, closing your bank account, extra. The other seven or so are forms that you have to sign before you leave giving PC the right to do x, y, or z and saying that you won’t hold them responsible for x, y, or z. As you can see…I have read these forms very carefully…

Other than the work aspect I have also been busy saying my social goodbyes. I went up to Bucay one weekend for my friend’s belated birthday surprise party. More recently the El Oro cluster went to Jambeli Island one more time for a night together on the beach. All but two of the PCVs of El Oro made it out to Jambeli as well as three World Teach Volunteers from Machala. It was a really relaxing weekend on the beach one last time together which was nice.

We also went on one more day hike to Chilla El Oro where the highest point was 3,900 meters or 12,795 feet. It started to rain for the last 20 minutes of our hike give or take as well. And although the views were beautiful and amazing once again, I have to say that I am over the altitude and rain with hikes. I think the INCA trail was my high point and from there I feel pretty set on my need to hike the Andes…at least for now.

Random points to mention would be that one night when I stayed over at Sarah’s place we found a scorpion in her bed…yes that is right folks, a full grown black scorpion that must have been about 3 to 4 inches when you included the tail thing. Sarah killed it with her shoe as she screamed out die die die over and over again. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep that much that night.

I am also now included in the having amoebas club. They were asymptomatic and living happily inside of me for who knows how long really. The medicine I have to take to get ride of them was not pleasant to say the less. I had to take two horse pills a day for three days and couldn’t drink for two days after completion of the pills. Side affects of this medicine include and are not limited to upset stomach, bloating, constipation, fever, diarrhea, a lack of energy, feeling lethargic, and a metallic taste in your month. All in all, the medicine just resulted in upsetting my amoebas and now I am no longer asymptomatic but definitely still have amoebas. I plan on taking care of them when I go home as it is too much of a hassle to try and get ride of them now knowing that I will probably just get them once again before I am back in the States.

Now it is finally hitting me that I have a little more than a month left here in Ecuador….and I have to be the first to admit that I have mixed feelings. Ecuador has become my home for better or worse, and it will be weird at first to leave it to return back to the States. And yet I know that I am ready to head back to what I know and start to make a life for myself in Nashville. It is a weird mixture of feelings that I don’t even think I can put into words.

Over this next month, besides finishing my paperwork and selling or giving away most of my stuff, I am going to go to Cuenca one more time and we have a half marathon planned for July 3rd in Guayaquil with a trip to the beach attached to that weekend for the 4th of July. It will be one nice last hurrah with some of my PCV friends before we all say our final goodbyes for now.

Starting July 11th we have exams here followed by a week of vacation. Therefore, my last three weeks in country more or less I don’t really have any work as my classes stop. It will be good to have that time to wrap up all of the loose ends as well as start to apply to some jobs back home, and yet I am a little nervous to have that much time sitting around with just all of my thoughts! I am sure it will be a good thing though once it is all said and done as I am sure that I will be busier than I think for sure.

They tell you that the PC experience is the toughest job that you will ever love, which couldn’t be truer in many ways. I have learned so much about myself which I will carry with me for the rest of my life and I know that my youth will carry some of my lessons and memories with them for the rest of their lives.

However, they don’t explain to you how difficult it will be to adjust to your new life when you first arrive and how difficult it will be to leave it when the time comes. The reason they don’t explain this to you, is because they can’t explain it to you; you have to live it.

Over the past two years I have been able to truly see things for a different view point and I have made memories and experiences that will last a lifetime. As a former volunteer once said, my problem is that I am 25 years old and I have already had the experience of a lifetime.

So needless to say I have been rather busy these past couple of months. With trips here and there along with work starting up again with school, I have found myself busy with little things here and there.

However, I have realized that I need to take the time to update my blog as I do have a lot to say! April was a busy month of school starting again, hikes to Zaruma, Cuneca, and Paccha, a 15km race, as well as the long awaited Machu Picchu trip. All in all, it was a pretty good month.

Towards the start of April I made a couple of little hikes around El Oro and one trip up to Cuenca doing some shopping as well as visiting the Cajas National Park in that area. I started the month with a simple hike around Zaruma to a waterfall area and exploring the city some more. I went with another PCV to visit the PCV that lives in Zaruma and he showed us around the area. The hiking was not very long, but a nice start to a month full of hikes.

After that trip I made a little longer trip with another PCV up to Cuenca Ecuador with the intent of hiking around Cajas National Park for a day as well as having a second day full of shopping in the markets or Cuenca and a couple of towns close by.

The hike around Cajas National Park was incredible. We followed the "pink" hike which went around about five different lakes, through a little forest and of course up and down some mountains. Now besides the fact that the hike is beautiful in itself, you are also up at about 3915 meters, or about 12,845 feet, above sea level. In case you don't know, let me tell you; altitude changes things. Not only does it make the hike harder, but it also makes you feel like you are literally in the clouds.

It was a great hike though which took us about three or four hours in total to make it around the loop. Thankfully as well, the rain put off until we were at the end of the hike and could get the bus back to Cuenca.

The next day we went shopping around two towns outside of Cuenca which are both about an hour away from Cuenca and about 5 minutes from each other. It was nice to go and see these other towns and look around at the shops. The one town is known for their jewelry and even I have to say that there was too much jewelry there to look at! After a while it all started to seem the same and yet you hadn't even visited half of the stores in the town. So needless to say, I spent some money in that town and now have some very nice jewelry to bring back with me to States that I bought at pretty good prices.

All in all, I would have to say it is very hard to go wrong with a trip to Cuenca and the surrounding areas. A great second hike for the month but I much harder one than the first.

Then I got talked into...literally he came to my town and talked me into getting into his car and going on this hike with them...to a hike around Paccha El Oro. At this point, I was pretty sore from all of the hiking I had done over the past couple of weeks as well as preparing for a 15 km race. But I decided last minute to go along with the group to Paccha for a day hike.

However, this day hike turned into something else. We didn't end up starting the hike until around 2pm and the objective was to try to make it to some kind of ruins in the Paccha area. And yet, we never did find ruins. It got to be about 4 or 5pm and we realized that if we didn't turn back soon that it would be dark before we made it back to the car. And of course how could I forget to mention...this hike, is really more like climbing through little streams and mud, or I guess I should say up the mountain side.

With our luck, as we decided to give up on finding the ruins and turn back down the mountain it decided to DOWNPOUR. And I mean buckets here people. To the point where the little streams turned into landslides that we had to walk down and through to get back to the car. After two hours of that...I think it would be fair to say that I was re-thinking my decision to come in the first place!

However, we all made it back to the car safely but completely drenched. Thankful to be back in the dry car we went to stop in at the PCV's house that lives in Paccha to get some dry clothes before heading back...and let me tell you that I look good in men's long-johns and a men's white undershirt!

To add to the fun, the car then would not restart as the electronic key had gotten wet and decided not to start the car. After about 30 minutes of messing around with the key, we finally got the car to start and headed back home to get pizza for dinner. It was quite the adventure that I had never planned to say the least!

Now to the fun part of April which I like to call the hardest thing I have ever done in my life...or at least one of them for sure. We ran a 15 km race in Cuenca Ecuador...this is at 2,560 meters or about 8,399 ft. I live at sea level in the heat of El Oro. So needless to say, I struggled a little with the altitude and never plan on running in altitude EVER again in my life. Been there done that, happy I survived.

All in all, I ran the 15 km in Cuenca at 1:29:41 and was happy to be alive. There were two inclines along the race and I use the world inclines loosely as Cuenca is in the Andes. It was really hard to keep running and breathing and I am happy that I never had to do it again. I guess by the end of it all my lips turned a little blue from the lack of oxygen and the cold weather as it rained on and off during the race. A proud moment for me that I will never repeat again in my life :)

Once we realized that we could run 15 km at 2,560 meters it was time to rest for a week before our trip off to Machu Picchu. Sarah and I traveled by plane from Guayaquil Ecuador to Lima Peru to get a bus from there to Cusco Peru. All in all, it took a good solid two days to travel there as the bus ride took 21 hours.

Then we had one day in Cusco to shop and adjust to the altitude before we started our four day three night hike through the Andes on the INCA trail to Machu Picchu. Cusco was a really nice town with a lot of travelers which was nice for us for a change. It was nice to be able to talk to random people in English and see what brought them to South America.

The hike was absolutely incredible and I don't know how to say it besides that. The INCA trail is really amazing, not an easy thing to do at all, but truly worth every bit of pain. I managed to lose two more toe nails along the trail (for a total of three lost at the moment) and bruise up one of my big toe nails as well as two blisters on the bottom of my shoe - Moral of the story, hiking shoes really are worth it.

But the hike was amazing. The first day was an easy day with some up and down parts and getting to see our first ruins towards the end of the day. The ruins along the trail really are something as there is nothing around them besides the mountains. It was a great weather day as well to start the trail off.

The second day was the hardest day and we knew that it would be. We had the full day to hike up about 1,000 meters or about 3280 feet to the highest point on the trail, called Dead Woman's Pass, at 4215 meters...just about 13,828 feet. Needless to say, it was a long day and very difficult. There were women along the way that sold water and snacks as well. But after Dead Woman's Pass there weren't anymore.

The second day we didn't see any ruins, but it was something just to know that we had made it through the hardest day with our 20lb packs on our backs as well. We were proud of ourselves and ready for the third day.

The third day was the longest distance day of around 17km or walking. It was also the day with the most ruins as we got to see three different ones. I can not even begin to tell you how beautiful all of this was. The ruins are just so high up there hidden in the mountains which in themselves are absolutely amazing. It did start to rain a little which was a bummer in some ways, but then again we felt like we were already up in the clouds so it seemed fitting in some ways too.

The four day was the Machu Picchu day arriving through the Sun Gate. We started about 3:40 in the morning to wait at the gate until it opened at 5am. From there we hiked another two hours to the Sun Gate and got to watch the sunrise over Machu Picchu.

After that we walked down to Machu Picchu where we actually had to leave the ruins to drop off our packs and enter again without them. It was really quite the site and I am very thankful that I have had the opportunity to see it. We spent the remainder of day four walking around Machu Picchu until around 2pm where we headed down to Agua Calientes to go to the hot springs...and let me tell you, those were really nice after four days of hiking!

Then we got the train back to Km 82 where a bus picked us up and brought us back into Cusco for the night. The next day we took the 21 hour bus back to Lima and then flew out of Lima the next day to Guayaquil and a bus back to our sites.

It was an amazing trip which I recommend to anyone and everyone. However, it is not easy and they really aren’t joking around when they say you should train some.

So that was my month of April. I have also started back up with working at the schools where I have resorted to teaching English because I simply don't want to fight against it anymore. I am still doing my after school English classes in town as well and the community bank is functioning at the moment.

We also just had our COS conference up in Quito to go over all of the paperwork that we have to do to leave the PC and let me tell you it is just about as much if not more than what we had to do to get in! Got to love the government.

Amazing to think that I have been here for two years and yet incredible to think about how much I have learned as well. I have bought my ticket to return back to the States and will be back in Nashville TN on July 29th 2011.

I am ready to be heading home and yet I know that these memories from the past two years will live in my heart forever and I am very grateful for that.

March 23, 2011

One might ask what do these things all have in common. To which I reply, covering me from head to toe and basically just all over this past month. The reason for this is pretty simple as well; it was March, meaning Carnival and my 25th birthday.

For those of you who have been to New Orleans and think you have really experienced the true meaning of Carnival I have just one thing to say to you; you haven’t. The South American countries know the true meaning of Carnival which entails at least a full week of all play and no work as well as an “optional” month of work leading up to that full week.

So what do you do for a month of no real work? That’s easy. You go to beaches, play in any body of water that is close to where you live, have constant water wars even if the people involved in the water war don’t want to take part, shoot foam at any kid that looks at you the wrong way or even slightly looks like he or she might be causing trouble, and put flour all over people’s faces and heads at every party. But above all else, stay up until at least the sun comes up or you pass out from the constant consumption of Pilsner, box wine, or homemade liquor. Or at least that is what everyone did in my little town here in Ecuador.

As for me, I decided to take part in Carnival this year and went to Guaranda in the Sierra, which is known for their Carnival activities and parades. Here in Ecuador it is common for people from the Sierra to come to the Coast and vice-a-versa for Carnival. However, Guaranda is one of the main cities known for the overall Carnival experience. And it just so happens that one of the PCVs from my omnibus lives in Guaranda as well as some World Teach volunteers, so it just made logical sense.

All in all Guaranda was a really fun experience but not one that I will rush back to once again. Between World Teach and Peace Corps there were about 35 or so gringos coming and going from all of the Carnival Activities. Where I stayed we had 12 people between two rooms one night and then 16 people between three rooms the next night with one shared bathroom for all. We became very close really quickly.

In all honestly, it was a lot of fun which included a lot of water wars, foam wars, water balloons, flour, group meals, parades, concerts, and of course Pilsner. Not liking beer made it a little harder for me to enjoy as it was everywhere but little else was found for consumption. I made it work somehow though. And I should mention as well, that buses really do make prime targets for water in the hopes that maybe someone has a window open.

A basic Carnival day consisted of waking up, at the grand hour of nine or ten, and having a group breakfast of eggs, cheese, and tomatoes with bread. Then we would all head off to the daily parade (I swear there was a different parade everyday). The parade would last for at least three hours which would consists of consistent consumption of Pilsner, with water wars and foam wars mixed in between with the random flour being thrown. Once you’ve had your fill of that you continue on to your late lunch or dinner depending on the time and then head out to one of the many concerts that took place around the town. The concerts would go on throughout the night which would be mixed with more foam wars and the water being sprayed turning into beer being sprayed.

Now if you were one of the lucky ones who had someone who really liked you at Carnival you also got an egg smashed on your head at some point throughout the day. Lucky for me, I did not. Then you would retire once the sun came up or you decided that you couldn’t take anymore for that day and needed to go to bed so you could get up and do it all over again the following day.

Like I said, it was a lot of fun but I am glad that experience in my life is over as well. I definitely got my share of water poured down my back as well as foam sprayed all over my body and flour in my hair. And I have got to say, water balloons from more than three stories high should just not be allowed because that feels like a rock being thrown at you. Not to mention that it doesn’t even break on the person that it hits because of the velocity!

All there is left to say for Carnival is the simply Carnival song which you will hear at least fifty times each day: Chicha quiero chichi quiero, trago no trago no. Guapos quiero guapos quiero viejos no viejos no. Que bonito es Canaval!

After the activities of Carnival my 25th birthday was right around the corner. And thankfully for me, the only present I got from Ecuador this year was to not have electricity in the morning on my birthday. But I will take that over Dengue any year!

For my birthday I went out to Chilies with my closest PCV for Happy Hour. Yes that is right ladies and gentlemen, there is an actual Chilies in Machala Ecuador! I am still not really sure why they opened up one here or how successful it will be, as it only opened that week of my birthday, but I guess time will tell on that one.

So we had two for one margaritas and enjoyed some free tortilla chips. A couple of my friends came and joined, Ecuadorean and American, and we had pizza afterwards as the food in Chilies was above our budgets. From there we went over to my Ecuadorean friend’s house in Machala where she had gathered our other friends and there were all there waiting to surprise me. They had completely decorated her apartment with Saint Patrick Day’s and birthday stuff. It was really nice.

Now the tradition in Ecuador for birthdays is to get your face shoved in the cake after you blow out the candles and before the cake is divided up. And sadly for me, I could not escape the tradition. This would be where cake ended up all over my face and maybe even a little up the nose. Thank you Ecuador!

It was a really fun night and ended up with us going out to a dance bar for a little while before returning back to my friend’s apartment and having one more drink as well as some micro waved popcorn and some good conversation before bed. I have to say that my 25th birthday was definitely much more fun than my 24th. Crazy to think that I am now 25! It’s like I should have my life figured out by now or something…ha!

Other than being covered in baking goods and water, I have actually done some work this past month as well. We finished up our summer camps with English and self-esteem. They were both really big hits with the kids and even if they didn’t managed to really learn any of the material I know that those classes will stick with them just because they enjoyed them. They also really loved the album that they each ended up with at the end of the camp. It was more work than I thought it would be, but definitely worth it to see how appreciative they were for all of it.

Now I am in a little lull with camps having ended and waiting for school to start on April 4th. Once school starts up again I will be teaching self-esteem classes as well as after school English help classes with 7th, 8th, and 9th once a week respectively. Not to mention INFA after school Math and Language will start up again as well. Basically I am just going to continue with all of my projects from last school year as they were all successful and I had a relatively full schedule with them all.

Working with my INFA counterpart we have also started up a community bank…or maybe I should really say are in the process of. We have had a couple of meetings but are struggling on really getting people committed as is the way with pretty much everything here in Ecuador. And with a community bank the people need to be committed completely before we start. I really do have faith though that it will work out and it will be a great project to finish with so to say.

So in the next couple of weeks I plan on visiting the Sierra El Oro of Zaruma, where there is a PCV, and doing some hikes while relaxing some in the cool Sierra climate escaping this thing called heat which we have a lot of. Hopefully I will also make my way to Cuenca at some point to shop at some of the artesian shops and maybe get in some hiking. Unfortunately, the PCV that wants to go with me to Cuenca works pretty much every day I don’t and vice-a-versa. So those plans are still up in the air for now. Either way, these next couple of weeks I plan on making some small two or three day trips here and there.

On the 17th of April I have a 15k that I am going to run in Cuenca which I hope will not kill me…I mean, 15k itself is a lot…then add 2530 meters to it! Shortly thereafter Sarah and I have our Manchu Picchu trip the last week of April into the first couple of days in May which is all paid for and set besides hostels. And then we have our COS (close of service) conference that first full week in May up in Quito. Crazy to think that time is so close and yet not hard to believe is some ways as well!

My daily life at the moment consists of running every morning followed by studying GRE words. I am pretty sure that I want to go into teaching when I get back to the States which means that I need to take some tests, apply to some programs, and all that fun jazz to get ready to be teaching by 2012 or 2013. Wow…that is crazy to think about!

All in all, it is really hard to sum up everything that has happened over the past two years or the ways that this experience will stick with me for life. I guess all I really can say is that I am and always will be very grateful for what the Peace Corps has given me and yet I will be content to leave the Peace Corps as well when the time comes. The hardest thing of this experience really has nothing to do with the experience itself, a third world country, a first world country, the time period or anything like that. It is simply change which would have happened if I had joined the PC or not. However, the difference is that change in Peace Corps is magnified with the experience.

550 days was the total amount of consecutive days that I spent outside of the United States. Or more simply put a year and a half. However, for some reason it sounds more impressive when you state the amount in days which I realized as I was filling out my custom form when we landed in Miami. It is hard to believe that much time has passed since I started this adventure of mine.

My trip home to the States was really enjoyable and just about the right amount of time. The actual travel to get from El Retiro Ecuador to Nashville TN was about 36 hours once it was all said and done with a twelve hour bus ride and an eight hour layover in Miami. The actual time on an airplane though was only about seven hours spread between two different flights. Not too shabby.

I got into Nashville very late at night three days before Christmas which gave me one day to go out and explore the American culture once again as I refused to go out anywhere near the malls on Christmas Eve. Christmas was spent with my family in Nashville with my mom, dad, and brother. It was a lot of fun as always when we get together.

Then the day after Boxing Day I left Nashville to head up North. Over a period of five days I drove from Nashville TN to Cleveland OH, Midland MI, Lima OH, and Sydney OH back down to Nashville just in time to see the ball…or in Nashville’s case the guitar…drop for New Years Eve. In an odd way I really enjoyed all of the driving which was give or take 1500 miles and took about 24 hours. It reminded me of all the driving that I used to do and after not having driven for a year and half it was rather enjoyable to just turn on the radio and sing out loud to songs that were new to me at least. It was also really great to see my friends from back home and worth the drive. However, with this said I was ready to be back in Nashville once it was all said and done.

From there my trip back to the States really entailed two main things – Stupid TV programs and a lot of food with wine and cider to go along with it. I guess you could put some shopping into that mix as well. While I was home I managed to gain ten pounds which was worth every single pound. Plus I managed to lose all of it when I got back to Ecuador so it was a win-win for sure.

I can’t really say that much surprised me when I went back to the States. I mean, the culture between the States and Ecuador is very different and there are different aspects to both cultures which are positive and negative. The one thing I will say is that it really made me realize that for better or worse my life is here in Ecuador at the moment. I have accepted the Ecuadorean culture and embraced it as a part of my life even if there are certain aspects of it which drives me crazy sometimes. So when I went out to a bar I thought it is very odd that people weren’t constantly dancing all of the time or that buying a drink for $5 is normal because you won’t be able to find any drink for under $2 like here in Ecuador.

Once it was time to head back to Ecuador I was ready to get back to my South American home and get back into my daily routine of life. The actual trip back to El Retiro was just about as painful as the one to the States. But this time instead of being greeted by my family I came home to my cat.

My house was pretty much how I had left it with a couple more spiders and cockroaches having moved in. The other new aspect to my house was that a couple of roosters decided to make their new home the three foot space between my house and my neighbor’s walls. And it just so happens that my bed is literally placed on the other side of this wall. Now after careful consideration, I fully believe that I am capable of killing a rooster or a chicken for that matter. A pig, lamb, or cow I am not so sure that I could. But give me a rooster or a chicken and I have enough hatred in me that I really believe I could kill it with no guilt.

You see these roosters, or any rooster for that matter, have no concept of time. That wonderful old saying of having a rooster for an alarm clock is a load of crap. A rooster will crow all day and all night at any time they feel like it. These particular roosters decided it was best to do most of their noise making between the hours of 4 and 7 a.m. I was not very enthusiastic about this at all as one might guess. I have grown used to the noises of living in the Ecuadorean country where there is no such thing as a noise violation, but these roosters were something else.

So for a little over a week I woke up around the hours of 4 or 5 a.m., went up to my roof, and promptly dumped a bucket of water on these roosters to get them to move out of the area between the two walls so I could attempt to go back to sleep. Now the kicker is that my water doesn’t restart in the morning until about 5 a.m. So it got to the point where I filled up the bucket the night before so that I would be sure to have a full bucket to dump on them in the morning hours. Moral to the story, if you have problems with roosters, just dump water on them and they will eventually get the point that they are not wanted there.

Speaking of animals, my cat Tito went into heat while I was back in the States meaning it was time to get her neutered when I got back to Ecuador. This process was more complex than I thought it would be as I thought the hardest part would be getting her calm enough to do the surgery in Machala. The difficult part however was taking care of her the week following the surgery. Never having a dog or cat before, this was definitely another experience for me to caulk up. I am just glad that it is done now though and I don’t have to worry about having kittens or the wrath of her in heat ever again.

Other fun random things that I have seen since I have been back in Ecuador include a monkey tied to a window swing back and forth with a leash around its waist and a dog in a rice bag with only its head showing on a bus. With the monkey I thought it was a mechanical monkey on a string that swayed back and forth. But with a closer look I realized it was an actual live monkey on a six foot string tied to a window. The dog in the rice bag just made me chuckle as he tried to get out of the bag and the owner had to shove him back in and re-tie the string so only his head was out of the bag and he couldn’t run away. Almost as good as a cage I suppose.

Now I am back into the swing of life once again which is really rather slow paced at the moment since it is the “summer” months until April. I am teaching a Basic English summer camp class twice a week as well as a self-esteem class once a week with local youth. Other than that, most of my time is spent running, studying GRE words, going to the markets, cooking, hand-washing clothes, watching movies, and taking naps. I also managed to lose my toe nail again because of running although this time it has decided not to grow back quite right for the time being.

Upcoming events include Carnival at the start of March which basically means that people throw water, eggs, flour, and whatever else they can find at random people walking in the streets. They also take daily trips to which ever river or beach is closest. So this year I think I am going to go to Guaranda which is known from their Carnival activities instead of just getting randomly soaked in the streets. I also have my birthday in March where I am planning on going to Cuenca for a couple of days as long as I don’t get Dengue as a birthday present again.

We are currently in the hot/rainy season which means VERY hot humid weather with more mosquitoes and landslides. I am going to post some pictures on Facebook of the effects of the rain as well. I have decided that Ecuador has two seasons that should be called the hot season and the very hot season because that is all there is where I live.

However, the humidity and heat makes taking afternoon naps apart of your daily schedule as you can’t help but become tired with the excessive heat and sun. And as much as I hate to admit it, I have definitely adapted the concept of “asi es la vida”, “no pasa nada”, and “ya mismo”. Basically it all means, sit back, relax, don’t worry, and I’ll get around to it when I get around to it. It’s a hard life, but someone has to do it.

So I just thought that I would take a quick moment to post a short blog stating that there will be a longer one in the near future yet to come. My trip home to states went very well and was enjoyed by all I do believe. Christmas and New Years with my family were very relaxing and enjoyable. And although it was hard to leave it also felt right to leave as I have realized that my life is here in Ecuador now for better or worse.

I am currently in the months of vacation which means that I am doing the equivalent of summer camps. This also inevitably means that I am teaching some classes of English along with some self-esteem courses. Three times a week I am doing these camps and the rest of the time I spend running, eating correctly (which means often trips to the markets), studying GRE words, and watching movies...it is a hard life...but someone has to do it :)

More soon to come, I promise!

So I just thought I would take a moment to reflect upon the fact that I have been living outside of the States for a year and a half now...and it is finally starting to really hit me! I never really realized how living outside of the States for that amount of time can really change your view point on things.

Tomorrow I start my 36 hour trip, give or take, back to the States to visit for three weeks. I take an over night 12 hour bus up to Quito where my flight to Miami leaves from. Then after a 7 hour layover I fly out from Miami to Nashville arriving around 11pm and getting to my parents house at about midnight. It is really crazy to think that my visit back to the States is finally here!

It is also very strange how weird it seems to be leaving Ecuador, even knowing that I will be coming back. With that said, I can only imagine how it will feel when I leave for good to return to the States. It really is amazing how much we adapt to what is around us and how comfortable we become with what we have now matter if it is really what we want or not. That wonderful word of "change". No matter if it is a good change or a bad change, it most often proves hard to do.

Just a quick update for those of you that are still following my blog.

Thanksgiving as you can imagine isn't a holiday here or anywhere else in the world really than the States. So we tend to make our own celebrations here in the PC for events that are just celebrated in the States. For this past Thanksgiving a group of PCVs got together in a city in the Jungle of Ecuadorean, also know as Macas.

The original plan was to raise three turkeys and then kill them all the day before Thanksgiving. However...two turkeys died from causes unknown and one escaped and probably died shortly there after. So we ended up buying two turkeys from Quito and then bringing them out to Macas. It ended up being a great success with lots of food. Everyone pitched in and made a dish to share with the group. There were about 50 people give or take and plenty of food to go around. Pictures have been upload onto Facebook as well.

After cooking all day, we then ate and drank ourselves into a solid sleep. The next day we went white water rafting, filling up two rafts, on one of the rivers in the Jungle. We were told that the river we went down was a 3 to 4 on the white water rafting scale of difficulty. It was a lot of fun...and yes I did manage to be one of the two people that fell out. We had no hope of staying in once we hit that rock. But we were out and back in the raft before we even realized what was going on. A great wrap up to a fun Thanksgiving Jungle trip.

Now I am back in site wrapping up the school year as it comes to an end the start of January and I will be leaving for the States on December 22nd. Needless to say, I am very excited to be visiting the States and getting to spend Christmas and New Years with my family. I will be in the States for a total of three weeks coming back to Ecuador on January the 12th. When I do get back into the States on the 22nd, it will have been a year and a half since I have been there. Sounds absolutely crazy when I put it that way...but then again what about this experience isn't crazy when you think about it?

So I had some spare time at a computer with internet so I decided I really should post a Blog in relation to my Galapagos trip. To put it simply, it was very enjoyable and very much needed.

I went on an 8 day 7 night cruise trip with my Auntie Alex, Uncle Andy, and Alex's brother Richard all from England. This managed to cause some confusion as people didn't really understand what a 24 year old female from the states, who could speak Spanish, was doing with three people from England who were not her parents. Needless to say, it took some explaining as to how we all got grouped together and why I was able to speak Spanish and know the Ecuadorean culture. I also think that at least once or twice people thought I was British or that they were actually from the States. We do know how to keep it interesting us Parkers.

The cruise was broken up into two groups if you will, with some people only doing a 4d 3n or 5d 4n and us, along with two others, doing the full 8d 7n. On the first leg of the trip we had 12 guest total on the boat and on the second leg we had 13. It was very interesting to meet everyone from the different parts of the world. All in all, we had Americans, British, Russian, German, Irish, Finnish, and Swedish to mention a few.

A general overview of the trip would be snorkeling, dingo rides, walks along the beaches, sea lions, lava fields, sea turtles, birds or many kinds, penguins, sting rays, blue footed boobies of course, sharks, giant tortoises, sun sets, sun rises, and a lot of beautiful scenery. Our days were complete from 7am until 7pm and were fully enjoyable looking at and observing all of the wild life. We made many trips on and off the boat daily to different beaches, lava fields, ports, dingo rides, or to go snorkeling.

Highlights for me definitely include swimming with a penguin, sea turtles, sting rays, sea lions, and even some reef sharks. And when I say swimming here, I really do mean swimming with them. The sea turtles, sting rays, and reef sharks were aplenty along with many different types of fish (thank goodness though the sharks stayed at the bottom...and yes I may have screamed into my snorkel a couple of times). The penguin we happened to find while he was eating so he really did just swim around us for a while which was probably one of my favorite parts. And of course the sea lions I think thought we were there to play with them as they would come right up to you and then at the last second switch course away so they wouldn't actually hit you.

The wildlife and scenery of the Galapagos is really beautiful and lives up to the standard that they say. And we were also there during the baby sea lion seasons...adorable for sure. However, I also really enjoyed spending some time with my Aunt, Uncle, and Richard. It was really nice to go out all day and enjoy the Islands and then be able to come back to the boat and have some good conversation accompanied with wine of course.

I was even allowed to drive the boat at one point...and I really do mean I drove it for about 45 minutes from one cove to a port. Why they decided to let me drive the $2 million catamaran boat I am still not sure, but oh well! It is a lot harder than you would think though to actually keep the silly compass on the mark that you need to. And once we got to the port the captain told me to head towards the red light on the shore line. So I headed towards the one that I saw but I didn't think that was right as it wasn't by the town. I then came to find out that the red light I saw was actually for the airport...my bad...but I did manage to find the right blinking red light to go towards!

The one thing that I do have to mention about the Galapagos is that although it is a part of Ecuador, it is not the Ecuador I live in at all! With such heavy influences of truism, it really does change the culture and way of life. You can almost always find someone who speaks English, all of the prices have about a 100% increase, and things in general are cleaner and nicer. The Galapagos are still Ecuador, but it is definitely not the Ecuador that I know.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip including microwave popcorn, hot showers, good food and wine, amazing scenery and wildlife, and some great people. As my Uncle said, I am sure this is something that we all will remember for a very long time.

P.S. I will post pictures up on Facebook when I can! I took a ton so I have to go through them and decide which ones to upload at some point.

October 22, 2010

Once again I find myself at a loss as to how I should start this blog entry. It is crazy to think that I have now lived here in Ecuador for 16 months and even crazier when I realize that it will have been a year and half since I have been in the States when I come home to visit over Christmas. Nevertheless, this is the life that I have chosen at the moment.

A couple of updates on my life would be that I ran my first half marathon. 21 kilometers, a little over 13 miles, in 2:04:54 averaging 9:37 minute miles. Not too shabby at all if I do say so myself. However, I did manage to loss a toenail in the process and had to do no physical activity for the following week because of the abuse that I put my body through. I never really was one to hold myself back even if my body might have wanted to at times. All in all, it is another thing that I can cross off my list. I would love to say this inspired me to do a full marathon, but I still stick to the fact that you have to be slightly insane to run for almost four hours.

We also had our mid-service meeting up in Quito with the rest of my 102 Omnibus. It was definitely a PC milestone making it to mid-service and it was really nice to get to see everyone again as well. It never ceases to amaze me how different each and everyone’s PC experience is. Especially here in Ecuador where you can drive up the road 10 kilometers and discover what seems to be a completely different culture at times. Ecuador truly is very diverse for the size of this country.

To make things interesting, while we were up in Quito the Ecuadorean police decided to protest against our current president; Correa. It seems like we have a national strike here in this country about once a month either because of the indigenous, teachers, or transportation not agreeing on something. In some ways it is almost comical because the strikes tend to accomplish very little and yet they keep having them. So we all got locked in our hostel for the day, completely safe but we could hear everything going on outside.

With this particular strike it became rather dangerous because the police decided to “take the day off” so to say. In other words, it was a dream for any thief. Many banks got robbed as well as some stores and everything was pretty much closed for the day. The day concluded with a 45 minute gun fight at the police hospital in Quito between the Ecuadorean military (in favor of Correa) and the Ecuadorean police as Correa was “being kept against his will” at the hospital after being treated for tear gas poisoning. I think the death count was up to about six the last I knew with about forty injured – All police and military. The following day, of course, everything went back to normal.

Latin America countries are famous for their use of tear gas, machismo, and strikes. Ecuador proved this that day with the President telling the people striking against him, “Si quieres matarme, matame! Aqui yo estoy!” while being tear gased. This translates to, “if you want to kill me, kill me! Here I am”. Once again, this country never ceases to amaze me. Although I would have to say the real amazing part was how quickly everything returned to normal. The military were in control for the following week and then everything went back to normal.

Other than that, I do have to say I am in love…with my cat Tito. That is one thing I am completely sure of. I am also pretty sure that I am not completely able to articulate myself in English properly anymore. Sometimes I find myself not being able to remember a word in English and I tend to speak in a sort of Spanglish. I mean, my spelling was bad before I came to the PC, but now it is horrible. I guess that is the price you pay when you try to learn another language!

In the upcoming…well days really now…I am going on a weeklong cruise to the Galapagos Islands with my Uncle Andy, Auntie Alex, and her brother from England. I am very excited to be able to spend some time with them as well as see the beautiful Islands that I have heard so much about. It will also be really nice to take a couple of weeks of vacation to escape everything. And then before I realize it, Christmas will be here and it will be time for my vacation back to the States.

I would love to be able to tell you that I absolutely love this experience; but that would be a lie. I love what I am learning from this experience, but man can it ever be hard at times. There is really no way to explain the hardships of being a PCV, but after living here for sixteen months I can certainly feel the effects of them. Feeling so disconnected from pretty much everyone as you don’t completely fit in the community you live in, I will always be the weird Gringa, and things back home have changed without you there. It is a feeling that I don’t think you can replicate any other way. Now the great thing about this crappy feeling is how much you learn about yourself and the world in the process. It really is true that sometimes clarity comes to you in your hardest moments. And for that I am very grateful.

There really is not too much new to report, but I figured that I would post a quick blog for the month of September. Crazy to believe that it is already September and that at this time next year I will be back in the States!

This month is the start of the random trips and vacations so to say. At the start of this week the organization Ecuadent came back to my area to do a dental mission. So I helped them with translation which was very rewarding as was the medical mission back in February. We saw 837 patients over about 5 days - cleaning, sealants, florid, fillings, and pullings. It was a busy week, but well worth it. I learned a lot about dental care, but I am happy to say that I did not see any births this time around at the hospital! However, pulling teeth involves more blood than any of the stuff that I saw during the medical mission...and the kids are awake the whole time. So that was definitely another once in a lifetime experience. Or at least I hope I don't have to get any teeth pulled eventually!

Other than that, I have a lot of paperwork due this month for the PC office and we also have our mid-service workshop, medical, and dental check-ups at the end of this month up in Quito for a week. And as silly as it sounds, leaving site for a week now takes some work to prepare for! You have to inform everyone and cancel all of your classes, and now, I have to find someone to take care of my cat for the week! I am sure that the mid-service workshop and seeing everyone will be well worth while, but it will also be a lot to do I am sure.

On a final note, I have also posted up some more pictures on my Facebook account of my recent trips and of course my cat Tito.

So that is pretty much this month short and sweet for you :)

August 16, 2010

August…wow does that ever seem hard to believe at times. It was a year ago this month when I swore in as a PCV and moved to my little town in the middle of the banana fields that I now know as my home. Time really does play tricks on you to say the least.

I have to say though, as I approach my one year mark of being in site (August 20, 2010 is my actual one year mark in El Retiro with one year two months in country), it is amazing to think how far I have come and how much I have learned. And yet at the same time it is amazing to think how much more I have yet to go through! My Omnibus started with 45 people and are now down to 34 due to many different reasons ranging from just not being able to happy here, health problems or issues, and deciding from a site relocation or early terminating. Our group has now graduated to being “Juniors” as well as the new group of PCVs swear-in this week.

So what am I up to with my one year mark quickly approaching you might ask? Well in all honesty, not much has changed since my last blog update. My work is my work which I have happy with, as I love working with the kids and youth, but I tend to be frustrated with as sustainable development is a very difficult thing to achieve. I am still teaching at my local school with three classes a week for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade as well as doing after school English review classes for those same grades once a week.

INFA fired my counterpart but his replacement is a 26 year old female, Yomaira, who I believe will be a good replacement. So with INFA I am helping out with an after school math and language course once a week as well as a program called “Aventura de la Vida” (self-esteem and what not) once a week. The last thing of work that I have recently picked up is teaching at the equivalent of an elementary school, in the neighboring town of Recreo, once a week for grades kindergarten to 6th grade where we are doing a project called “Mi Propio Album” (my personal album) for the kids to have and look back at when they get older. My final project to update you all on is one with the parents actually. “Escuela para Padres” (school for parents) I do with the school Psychologist, where we try to hold a meeting once a month give or take, to help teach parents how to help their children grow and develop.

So that would be my work in a nutshell. Definitely keeping myself busy, but sometimes struggling with the real importance of what I am doing and how successful I am truly being. However, when I do take a step back I realize that in a given week I am working with about 150 to 175 kids and youth and about 20 adults/teachers not counting the new program of “Escuela para Padres” where we probably get about 40 parents each meeting once a month. So you can’t fault me for trying, that’s for sure!

Other than work, my main update is that I now have a kitten named Tito. My host mother sent over her errand boy to my house one day last week with a rice bag. And inside that rice bag was a poor little kitten scared to death. He told me that if I did not take the kitten they were going to kill it…and they would have, not a doubt in my mind. So I decided to take him and I have already fallen in love with the silly thing. He pounces on everything, scratches my hands, chews on the electric cords when I am not looking, thinks my legs are climbing posts, wants to play all the time while only sleeping for periods of two or three hours at a time, and meows at the smell of shrimp and chicken like he is starving although he is nowhere near it; but he is all mine.

Other highlights in my life would include what I like to think of as an all new low. A got wolf-whistled at…what’s new you might say…but it was by a parrot. Which then proceeded to say “corre corre, hola” (run run, hello) after he whistled at me. I actually had to take a double look at the parrot to make sure I was really seeing what I thought I was.

Another wonder of Ecuadorean life would be the way they give complements. I guess I should also mention that here saying, he’s the little fat guy over there, or she is the little thin girl over there, is completely acceptable and really expected. As for me, I have lost some weight since when I first came to my town. To which people say to me, “What happened to you”! To which I reply, “What do you mean”. “You are so thin”, they say (which leaving it at that would be fine and good). But they continue with, “When you first got here you were so fat”! End of conversation and out goes the feel good feeling that you started with.

Health wise I am still doing pretty well. Right now is our “winter” if you will with it being cold (to which I realized I now think the low 70s are cold…I know I am in trouble when I get back home!) and I did manage to get a bit of the Flu. I am almost completely over it though, thank goodness, as it lasted for almost a week and a half where I spent a lot of time close to a toilet. Other than that though, I am still doing pretty well in regards to health. My electronics though are struggling with the heat, humidity, and dust. My IPOD dock has managed to die and my computer is struggling at times. As my Dad will you tell, it is the Ecuadorean dengue, dust, mosquitoes, heat, pollution, kill your electronic illness. Oh well, such is life; could be MUCH worse.

A big part of the second year is vacation time as well. Most PCVs start feeling at ease with their projects and have more time to travel in their second year than their first. For me, upcoming vacations include a trip to the Galapagos Islands, with my Uncle Andy and Auntie Alex, at the end of October into the beginning of November, a trip in May of 2011 to hike the INCA trail in Peru with another PCV Sarah, and my favorite, a trip back to the States December 22nd to January 12th (ticket has been bought and everything). So mark your calendars at home! I am sure that there will be other small trips here and there in-between all of that, but those are the main ones.

There are probably a million and one other little things and stories that I could tell. But in all honesty, life is just life here. It is hard sometimes, but not in the ways that you necessarily think it would be. You miss the little things mainly, which are not even the little things that you think you would miss. You begin to realize what life is really about and what is important to you. It still amazes me how much you can learn about yourself and life when you remove yourself from your culture, your language, your friends, and your family.

This next year I am sure will be very challenging in many different ways than my first year was. And although I do not believe that I will learn as much from my second year as I did from my first, I think that it might prove to be even harder to get through. If there is one thing that I have learned while being here, it is that I love my culture and my language and that I miss them both. Although I have learned to appreciate the Ecuadorean culture and the differences between our two cultures, I would have to pick the American culture over the Ecuadorean just about every time.

I know that this experience is once in a life time and one that I will cherish forever. For that, I cannot be anything but grateful for every day that I have here. However, at the same time I cannot help but dream about being home in the States with my culture, my language, my friends, and my family.

As I walk to school, down the one main road in my town which literally resides in the middle of banana fields, I find myself wondering how I got here. However, once I get to the school and see the faces of all three hundred kids who know my name and come up to greet me with hugs and kisses, I am reminded of how. Teaching classes on self-esteem, values, goals, aspirations, stereotypes, relationships, and sexuality is a constant struggle as the things I say seem to go through one ear and out the other most of the time. In spite of this, I see daily changes in the kids that I work with simply because I am their friend.

In one of the first months in my community I remember my host mom laughing at me because she said that my only friends were kids ages six to sixteen. And now after living here for almost a year, I would have to say that I am privileged to say they are my friends as I have learned as much from them as they have from me. My classes and workshops have successes as well as failures with many frustrations along the way. However, what gives meaning to my service are not the classes that I teach, it is the kids in those classes that I interact with every day.

It really is true what they say about this experience; it is a one of a kind experience that will push you mentally, physically, and emotionally in ways that you never thought of or thought would be possible. Some days you will feel bipolar and wonder why you are here and why you can’t leave at the same time. You will find yourself counting down the time you have left and then you won’t be able to decide if that amount is too short or too long. I know that when I leave here I will feel joy to be returning back to my family and culture and yet sadness to be leaving my kids and culture that I have learned so much about and come to love.

Wednesday, June 23

Wow, it is kind of hard to believe that June is actually almost over with already! The whole concept of time here has yet to cease to amaze me as it seems to go by so slowly during the day and yet once the month is almost over you are left wondering where the month went. Another one of the many mysteries of the Peace Corps life I suppose.

The visit with my parents was very enjoyable and a nice break from life in Ecuador in some ways. Highlights for me were definitely sleeping in air-conditioning under covers, multiple hot showers where you do not sweat after them, eating good food and not worrying about the price because everything seemed cheap to my parents, Christmas in May as my parents brought me two suitcases full of goodies from home, microwave popcorn…yes this does make the top of my list, don’t judge me…and of course spending time with my parents and speaking in English. However, I do not suspect that they will be coming back here anytime soon as the only real reason they came to begin with was because of me. I am planning on going home for 21 days (the max vacation time you can take at one time) over Christmas this year and into New Years. Although I did enjoy seeing the differences with these two holidays last year by staying in Ecuador, I much prefer to be home for them with my family and friends.

So where does that leave me now you might ask. That would be a pretty good question. The last couple of months my counterpart has been struggling with his job and this past week INFA fired him. So my work with INFA has been very minimal lately. The new representative of INFA in my community just started work this past Monday. However, she is completely new to INFA as an organization so she has a lot to learn on her own before she starts working with me on projects. This basically leaves me with my work at the local school teaching 7th to 9th grade once a week with weekly after school English review classes for each grade as well. Of course I throw in trips to the river with the kids every once and a while too. Surprisingly though, I have managed to keep myself somewhat busy with random errands and trips…not to mention I am to the point now in my service where “la hora Ecuatoriana” seems normal and right. If I don’t have time for my afternoon nap…or glass of wine at times…my day just doesn’t seem quite right. Not to mention I think I have replaced the concept of having to go into the office every day with making myself go running every morning to get me out of bed. So far though, I can’t really complain about this aspect…however I do foresee myself complaining about not being able to do this once I return back to the States.

All in all though, I am still pretty content with my work. Sustainable development, one of the three main goals of the PC, is a phrase that all of the PCVs discuss time and time again as it really does seem impossible to achieve sometimes being a foreigner living in a different culture. However for myself personally, I know what is keeping me in the PC are the kids that I see every day in my community. To make it through the full PC service, you have to find that one thing that makes it all worth it to you; for me that is the kids.

In one of the first months in my community I remember my host mom laughing at me…one of the many times…because she was saying that my only friends were kids ages six to about sixteen. And now after living here for almost a year, I would have to say that I am glad they are my “friends” as I seem to fit in better with them than I do with the people who are my own age as all of the women have a kid or two at least and all of the men just want to drink and sleep with me. So between what I have to pick from, I will choose the kids any day, anytime.

Now as to the funny aspects of the PC life, I guess I should mention a couple of things here. One being that I have now lived in Ecuador for a full year…and that still amazes me. It also helps me realize just how much I have come to accept life here as it is. Some things, such as fitting seven people on one motorcycle or constantly throwing the trash on the ground or out the window, will always make me shake my head. However, living in constant dirt where when you wash your clothes (by hand may I remind you) the water is guaranteed to turn black before you are done or being so immune to the cat calls and whistles that you don’t even flinch anymore when someone yells out at you, I have strangely adapted to. Another thing that I have adapted to is the simplicity of life. The great part about this is that you enjoy the simple things in life so much more such as a warm shower or walking around in a clean park.

With all of that said, I have to admit that at the age of 24 I never thought that I would willingly take a pair of child-proof blue school scissors and use them to cut my own hair after getting my hair cut the day before at a salon. I don’t know why, but for some reason the Ecuadoreans really do believe that a slight mullet cut on a Caucasian woman looks really good…and I strongly disagree. However, I was pleasantly surprise with the end result after about an hour of me cutting off the back part of my mullet. I just woke up that day and said that’s it; I’ve had enough of this semi-mullet crap. Then I literally pulled the back part of my hair together and hacked off a good couple of inches. The funny part of the story is that I never even touched the front part of my hair as it was already cut really short. All I did was even out the back part of my hair to make it as short as the front already was. The end result is that I now have really short hair, but at least it is not a mullet. And I must proudly add, I did a pretty darn good job at making it all even considering I cut it myself with the help of a couple of mirrors.

Some strange sites that I have seen recently have been bags of trash floating down the river, as that is how some people choose to get rid of their trash. Yet that isn’t the part that really surprised me as trash being thrown wherever whenever is pretty normal here. The part that amazed me was that the kids were playing in the river when the trash came by and instead of jumping out of realizing just how disgusting it was, they ended up using the bags of trash as water float toys…I was actually speechless and really rather grossed out. I guess I forget sometimes just how easily amused kids can be.

I am not sure when I got to this point, but I can honestly say that I am really just used to life here. You are reminded almost daily about the cultural differences, but the day-to-day life you adapt to before you even realize that you are. Although I think I might be partially deaf when I return to the States, as they listen to music and movies at the top level possible all of the time and blow out your ear drums, I know that all of this will have been worthwhile.

The main thing that I have learned from this experience is what is important to me. It really is amazing just how much your culture, friends, and family all affect who you are and how you make the decisions that you do in life without you even realizing it. In my opinion, learning what is truly important to you is a hard thing to do. That is something though that I feel I have achieved with my PC experience and for that I am very grateful. Another thing that I have realized is that I love my own culture. I have a huge amount of respect for different cultures and ways of thinking. However, when push comes to show I will pick my own culture just about every time.

After a year in country and ten months into my two year service, I have learned a lot about so many different things. On the other hand, I am not really sure how much more I have to “learn” in the upcoming year. I do not doubt that I will have many more experiences and make many more memories, but what I have come here to learn I believe that I already have. With that said, by completing my two years of service I know that I will gain a great amount of respect within myself for that accomplishment. Not to mention that with all that this experience has given me, I owe it to the people in my community and this country to fulfill my commitment to them.

The Peace Corps experience really is just that; a once in a lifetime experience. Then again, isn’t life just that as well?

May 26, 2010

(So I was going to add in my comments to his blog as well...but for those of you that know my dad the blog speaks for itself and therefore I have decided not to add in any comments besides this one...only my father...love ya!)

Hepatitis A & B, malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, tetanus, altitude sickness, multiple uses for bottled water, ear plugs, suntan lotion, DEET mosquito spray, fresh fruit and vegetable cleaners, and enemas are some of the considerations for before, during, and after a trip to Ecuador. They are not all necessary to survive…..but better safe than sorry.

A little larger than the UK, Ecuador has a diversified culture, climate, and geography. People range from the natives of the Oriente Amazon Basin to those of the Andes, from growing city centers of the big capital city of Quito to a banana and shrimp center and port city of Machala, from smaller communities than El Retiro to Columbian and Peruvian border towns, from the Galapagos Islands to immigrant attracting cities like Cuenca to name a few. Each seems to have their personal history, story, and sometimes their own language and traditional dress code. The Incan and Spanish heritages are very evident even though they were relatively short lived periods. One can choose between burning up on the coastal plain or suffering a degree of oxygen deprivation in the cooler mountains. Four seasons are replaced with two, wet or dry, which due to a large dependency on hydro electric power can affect the politics, civil demonstrations, and power outages as well as the number of mosquitoes. Active and extinct volcanoes overlook Quito, snow covered mountains virtually sit on the Equator, jungles lie on one side of the Andes while Pacific coastal plains are on the other. Although only there a short time, I believe we probably saw more sides to Ecuador than many Ecuadorians will see in their lifetime.

Internal transportation is mostly accommodated by air, bus, coach, trams, taxis, cars, pickup trucks, motorbikes and bicycles. Air travel is definitely upscale for which in my shorts I felt underdressed. Buses are frequent and cheap with their price options apparently varying with the amount of graffiti, safety, and number of armed guards aboard. Quito trams can be packed like Japanese subway trains making great locations to meet pick pocketers which I had the pleasure to encounter and from which I hope some local is benefitting from improved vision that the cheap pair of spectacles afforded me. As packed as they can be there always seems space for just a few more ladies carrying the equivalent of a portable farm on their back. Taxis seem very affordable for foreign visitors with a willingness to cram as many people and overstuff as much as a small vehicle permits. Want more space? Then just see how high you can stack stuff on the flat bed of a pickup, or how many families you can cram in it and on it. Three on a motorbike? - No problem! Cars are European small sized with all the common world brands including Skoda (which I have not thought of for years!), DYK (KIA?), and Chevrolet on cars I did not know they even made. The roads are not bad in general if you remember the speed bumps that occur from time to time, the military and police check points, toll booths in certain areas, low flying agricultural sprayers, traffic lights and speed limits which may be thought of as optional, and my favorite….roundabouts!

The cities are littered, noisy and very active for most hours of the day. The locals hustle and bustle about their business giving the foreigners a quizzical look as they pass or even take the opportunity to practice their English which may range from a word or two they think they have picked up to what they learned when they illegally lived in New Mexico or New Jersey for three years. Quito as a Capital city has its fair share of English speakers, but good luck elsewhere at non-tourist sites where sun reddened white skin is a novelty. Small towns like El Retiro are littered, quieter, have their own pace, street animals such as dogs, chickens, roosters, and cats with people walking around or sitting in the front of their homes escaping the increased heat inside. Children are very evident, and are often seen in their school uniforms. Although there are areas as in all countries you have to be on your guard, people of all ages seemed very friendly to me particularly as my Spanish is practically non-existent. Perhaps it was Lesley’s conversational Spanish, or the fact she really did live where she does, or that they knew her, or simply my smile, wave, or “Buenos” which was reciprocated.

Food was good for me but then again I was a tourist eating for the most part at non-typical places. Fruit was plentiful and in many guises and forms I did not have a clue about. Shrimp were cheap and tasty. Fish came in two varieties – from the rivers or from the sea. The baked goods were good and meat was cooked to my liking i.e. overcooked. ‘Aqua’ in bottles or bags was readily available and often refreshingly cold. Chicken and rice were common when you did not want to experiment and many experiences where available if you did including ceviche. Fried foods were indeed prevalent and although the country can produce many vegetables unless they were potatoes they rarely appeared in the meals.

Litter was everywhere except inside the buses which had signs “Do not throw litter in the bus” which apparently is interpreted as an encouragement to throw it out of the window. This is not to say civic pride is not important, it is just not measured by the amount of trash lying around but perhaps rather by the number of cock fighting rings, or indoor soccer fields (which are outdoor), or the number of statues and memorials and actual working fountains, or the number of Cathedrals you can get around a public square etc. The people may be missing a lot of what ‘we’ take for granted, but cell phones and internet cafes are not amongst them and I believe this connection with each other and the information age will have a marked effect upon their future.

On another note, I have always enjoyed what I considered representative music of Latin South America from pan flutes to Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66, but I was totally unprepared for the bombardment of Reggaeton which seems to be required by law to be played in taxis and busses at decibel levels that would be heard above my gasoline 2 stroke lawnmower. If I was not already partially deaf before my trip I would be by my return. I think I should look to invest in the stock of an Ecuadorian hearing aid company particularly as their currency is the US dollar.

Otavalo, Huaquillas, Cuenca, and Machala all have classic open air street markets we visited that included specialty areas selling traditional local artisan goods, clothes, electronics, jewelry, fresh meat ( I mean carve it from the animal right there) , fish, seafood, poultry ,produce, flowers, currency exchange by men with suitcases, and much more. They even seemed to group the stores selling similar items together for your convenience. Bartering here is the name of the game unless you, as someone who sticks out like a sore thumb because of your race, height, inept Spanish etc., do not wish to play and therefore pay full price telling yourself that back home it would be considered cheap. Tipping is generally rare in Ecuador which once embraced is strangely enjoyable to us foreigners as it appears to us that people do their job without expecting extra compensation. A more realistic way of looking at this is that the taxi driver and street vendor will often start you at a price which is way more than accommodates a 10-15% tip.

What is the Peace Corps and what are they doing in countries like Ecuador? Why would anyone want to be a PCV? These are questions I have discussed with Lesley on several occasions. There are several ‘stock’ answers, but they always seem to be just a part of it. We enjoyed meeting several PCV’s and had a very pleasant visit to the head Quito office. The office is about trying to achieve the commendable goals of the Peace Corps in an acceptable prescribed non-political manner by training, vetting, placing, supporting, and monitoring volunteers in areas of the country they have identified may benefit developmentally in areas such as social, education, business, agriculture etc. That is not what I call an easy task. The Volunteers wind up in a Country not of their choosing, in a culture and language very foreign to most of them, trying to get involved and ‘develop’ a local community perhaps alongside other local organizations. That is not what I personally call a desirable task, but it does seem to attract many even if it does not retain them all. Enthusiasm, goodwill, dreams, and ideals are easier to extinguish than maintain and promote.

So, what counts as success? There are some obvious success stories and legacies, but perhaps most success is less obvious but just as real. The PCV’s expose themselves to a real life personal test of growth and development all of their own. They may not use the word ‘enjoy’ to describe their experience but prefer to use ‘value’. Even the failures do not diminish the success of trying to make such a positive difference. Such an experience as this will help them know who they are, what they value, and probably help them and us in our future. Foundations of buildings are generally hidden below ground for more apparent structures to be built upon and all PCV’s help lay a foundation on which good things can be built. You certainly have my respect and I wish you all well.

The blunt truth is as much as I have learned about Ecuador; the only reason I went or would return is my family…thanks Lesley! No amount of photographs, SKYPEING, book or blog reading can impart the experience of being there, and that is certainly not the same as living there. It is a unique, vibrant, growing third world country and may be desirable for many, but not this particular individual as it breaks the pact I made a long time ago with the sun which has the capacity to burn me on a cloudy day if it so wishes.

As it has been duly noted by Janet and Lesley that whilst in Ecuador I said on more than one occasion “Leave me alone, I am happy!” ….and having seen the amount of impromptu soccer games in the schools and towns on any reasonably flat piece of available land (often bounded by precipitous drops or busy roads) together with several very good looking soccer stadiums I will conclude as a complement to Ecuador by saying I will be rooting for them in most International soccer games…..as they don’t play England too often!

A blog entry by my Mom with some of my comments placed in with italics:

May 25, 2010

Yes, as Lesley so succinctly put it in her last, short blog entry, her parents went to Ecuador to visit her after her absence of 11 months. One of her final brainstorms during our visit was that we write the blog entry this time instead of her. I really think it was just a stroke of luck that she thought of suggesting this as a parting assignment for her parents. As if visiting Ecuador wasn’t enough for us to do!! Anyway, whatever her motive, we have risen to the challenge and have decided that each of us will write about our experiences and thoughts. I will go first and John’s impressions will follow shortly in another entry.

What can you say about seeing your daughter for the first time in such a long time? We arrived late in the evening in Quito and were so glad to see Lesley in the throng of people outside of immigration waiting for us. She stood out with her height and pale color and was a sight for sore eyes. After traveling almost 5 hours from Atlanta it is amazing to know the time is the same in Ecuador as in Nashville. We didn’t have to contend with jet lag at all. She quickly led us out of the airport and we were approached by taxi drivers hoping these three foreigners needed a lift somewhere. The first amazing thing that happened was Lesley talking like a native and making sure she negotiated the rate and the safety with the cabbie (The real rate being $4, the taxi wanting to charge me $6 and me settling on $5 only to have my father give the cabbie $7 as he tipped which they don’t do here…love you dad…and so did the cabbie!). I think it surprised him she could speak Spanish so well! All the way to the hotel she continued to converse with him without a hitch (I was trying to prove to the cabbie that he could not just rob us…). I just sat back in amazement in the back seat so very grateful she knew what to do and how to handle the situation. Don’t ever go to Ecuador without someone who speaks conversational Spanish at a minimum. You are an obvious physical target and simply have to have someone who understands what is being said!

The altitude in Quito smacks you right in the face the minute you arrive. It is much higher than Denver and takes a while to get used to for sure. We spent the next week there seeing the sites around the city including several spots claiming to be the exact site of the equator, Old Town, the Peace Corps headquarters, one of the major shopping centers in Quito and, of course, going to Papa John’s so Lesley could have some pizza (which mom ended up enjoying just about as much as I did!). We saw one MacDonald’s as well as a couple of Burger Kings (adult males were actually wearing the crowns they give you) and lots and lots of KFC places. The Ecuadorians certainly love their chicken and KFC is making the most of it (but no biscuits or Mac-n-cheese…just rice and beans). We went to the Super Maxi (like a Meijer’s or Super Wal-Mart) and compared prices looking at some very different fruits and vegetables. A couple of bottles of wine were purchased too just to double check for comparison reasons! We traveled up the gondola one day and saw the city down in the valley below. The Andes Mountains ring the city with planes coming out of the sky and landing right in the middle of it all. They are building a new airport that was suppose to already be completed, but taking into account Ecuadorian timing (la hora Ecuatoriana), it might get done in another couple of years. We could just see some of the snow covered peaks of a couple of the volcanoes that are still active. I think one of them showered Quito with a thin covering of ash in the early 2000s.

We traveled out of the city twice on bus trips further north into the country where Lesley had her first couple of months of training. Our first trip was to Otavalo where there is an artisan market. It is even higher elevation there and the trip took about 2 hours. There was an indigenous uprising during this time (some sort of issue with who controls the water supply, i.e. the indigenous or the current government) and the trip back took about 3 hours because the main road was blocked as part of the protest and the police were rerouting everyone through a town with very small streets. You can’t describe the ability of the bus drivers to negotiate the terrain! They did show Air Force One in Spanish during the trip! We learned several days later that another group had tried to make the trip the day after we did and they were unsuccessful due to the conflict. We consider ourselves lucky to have made it to see the area. It is surprisingly stark and looks a lot like the arid southwest of the US without all of the colors you see in New Mexico. We had some very good trout for lunch there (they get it from their streams and it is on a lot of menus).

We headed north again on another day and went to Cayambe (the Peace Corps training site where Lesley spent two months) and on up to the actual village where Lesley stayed with a family for her first two months. We meet her host Mom and the sister who lives there too. It was really nice to see and experience the actual places where Lesley had been. Let me tell you that pictures don’t begin to truly represent the experience. You have to be there to actually get a sense of what they went through during training. This part of the north was quite different from the other being greener and plusher with lots of flowers growing throughout the region for export throughout the world (busiest times of the year being Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day…go figure). This is the area (according to the book) that is known for its bread and bakeries so we tried some of the fare. We had to select our items while the flies were sniffing them too……..I wouldn’t go there just to sample the breads!

Next we flew to the Machala area where Lesley is assigned. Two to three hour bus trips are tolerable, but it takes 12 hours to get from Quito to Machala and I wasn’t about to do one of those trips (always best to do overnight if possible…a little fyi just in case you need to know some day). So we acted like the rich Americans they took us to be and flew down to the south very close to the Peruvian border. Lesley made the trip with us and is now spoiled with flying, but will take the bus in the future because the PCV is poor and she would rather spend her few dollars on Magnum ice cream bars than plane tickets (sadly…I agree. Ten dollars compared to ninety for the flight adds up)! What a difference a one hour makes in the topography and the climate of a country. We could see the banana fields and the multiple shrimp farms on our approach to the area. And as we deplaned the humidity hit you smack in the face. Quito was sunny, dry, mountainous and quite comfortable (all though Lesley kept complaining of it being cold…only for part of the time…!) and Machala was humid, hot (33 degrees Centigrade upon arrival (91 F) and very flat.

The next day we went to see Lesley’s place where we stored our valuables until our departure. She feels very safe in her barrio and I am grateful. Most of the stores, businesses, hotels, etc in Machala have armed guards; even some of the buses do too, so it is reassuring to know that she feels OK. Again pictures cannot describe the extent of the experience. It is hot, dirty (my feet have never been so dirty each night after walking during the day…baby wipes work wonders for this right next to my bed) with lots of loud music, buses and noise, noise, noise. Her barrio is much quieter except for the drunken men and the rooster! Ask her about the rock she threw at him once (I missed…but there is always next time)!

We had one more bus trip to Cuenca for a couple of days which is back in the Sierra with altitude issues again (which we forgot about until we started to drink wine the first night up there…wine and altitude equals a fun outcome), but nicer weather for sure. It reminded us of a city in Europe and we saw more gringos there than any place else. We even talked to one couple from Florida and another from Las Vegas who were either retiring there or thinking of doing that because of the low cost of living. Not my choice for sure, but different strokes for different folks. We stayed at a very nice bed and breakfast place which I would highly recommend if you ever visit!

We spent the last couple of days back in El Oro. We meet two other PCVs down at the Peru border and had a meal with them. Lesley gets together with them a couple of times a month for support, wine and food. They appreciated the parents buying the meal and actually spending time coming to see where they are and what their environment is like. The country director actually closed one of the sites while we were there and one of the PCVs will be relocated due to the harshness of the area……….just goes to illustrate the actual realities of the PCVs in El Oro. We also treated a couple more PCVs that live closer to Machala to pizza (they really miss pizza) and got to meet them. Chrissy is the person who saved Lesley from fainting at the internet café during her dengue fever experience and took her to the clinic for safe keeping. It was great to be able to meet them all and spend a little bit of time with them trying to make their experience a bit more tolerable for one evening.

All in all it was a great trip. It was wonderful to see Lesley and to spend so much time with her. She enjoyed the air conditioning, sleeping with a sheet and the hot showers she had while she stayed with us at the hotels (and microwave popcorn…oh how I have missed you microwave popcorn…). We bought her a larger fan (it would have been the first thing on my list the first day I arrived), a couple of chairs (she actually has a place to sit down now other than her bed…I have my hammock too!-just plastic ones, but they will do), several bottles of wine for future consumption and stocked her up with some of the more expensive items from the local grocery that she is too poor to buy like sauce mixes for her beloved pasta dishes. We met lots of the kids at the school along with several of the teachers, the school principle and the superintendent too. They all love her and told us it was an honor to have her as part of their school in El Retiro. Lesley might post a couple of the pictures we took of all the children swarming us at the school yard (already on facebook). We ate at her host parents’ restaurant and met several members of the family where she spent several months. I agree with her though that it is much better to have a place of her own.

I could go on and on, but I want to send this to Lesley so she can get it posted. I am sure she will eventually add her own thoughts and impressions of our visit (already am cause I am that good). So much happened in such a short time there are lots of experiences that could be shared. Let’s just end this by saying I don’t think either of us got any diseases from the trip (although we are still taking the malaria drugs for another 4 weeks to make sure) and Ecuador and the Ecuadorian people are beautiful and gracious, but I wouldn’t exactly call this a vacation destination for any of our friends or for a return trip for us either! I am glad I went though, to experience just a small bit of what Lesley is living for these two years. I only have love and admiration for her and her efforts. She is a stronger, braver woman than I was at her age. We love you sweetie!!!!!!!!! (What can I say mom…I kind of like you guys too and am glad that you came).

So I know that I am in need of a blog post...and I really do intend to do one here in about two weeks to update everyone on my life. For now though the update is pretty simple. My parents are here visting me!!! We are spending one week up in the Quito area and then a second week down where I live in the Machala area. Anyways, I will be sure to post a better blog once they have left with all of the details and fun stuff. For now, I am just enjoying my parents visit :)

So I just thought I would take a quick moment to share what I have seen thus far for Easter Sunday here in Ecuador...well more like one observation that I would like to make.

I don't think that most of them take part in a sunrise service...however, I do believe that most of them take part in a sunrise drink as the men in my town were already at the bar when I went out for my morning run at 8:30am. Leave it to the Ecuadoreans....

4-3-10

So as my title rather gives the punch line away…these past few weeks, basically the month of March, I have spent with Dengue Fever from a mosquito bite in bed as well as some other health problems. However, before I jump ahead of myself to my Dengue Fever, I should speak a little about my second degree burns that I gave myself from the sun here in Ecuador.

As I mention in my last blog, I went to the beach and got sunburned really badly on my thighs which normally does not see any sunlight. So for that week I struggled around in skirts, watered down my thighs about three times a day with cold water, and tried my best to not irritate my thighs in any way…which can be really hard when you are trying to haul groceries on a bus and people are looking at you funny for not putting them on your lap. Not to mention trying to explain to kids that you cannot play ball with them because you can barely move as it is! All in all, it made for a really long week. Nonetheless, I still decided to trek it up to Quito for the 103 picnic and hang out with some other PCVs that following weekend.

Good old PC though at the time had restricted night travel as in no traveling after 7pm. This makes going up to Quito a two day trip for me because my bus from Machala to Quito is at least twelve hours and almost all of the buses don’t leave until the night time. Not to mention being on a bus all day really is not the most appealing…if it is a twelve hour or more bus trip, it is much better to do at night. So with all of this, I went up northward about five hours to one of my friend PCVs site in Bucay on Wednesday so that we could finish the traveling to Quito on Thursday of about eight more hours. Then we traveled an hour more to the training site of Cayambe for the picnic on Friday morning/afternoon.

However, on the Wednesday before I started traveling I realized that the area around my burned thighs was starting to turn purple like it was a bruise (I think we decided later that this was really one of the early signs of Dengue as I also thing that I got bite on my thigh). At the time, I figured it was just because the swelling from the burn was starting to go down as I only burnt the front part of my thighs really badly, but just to be safe I called the doctor and he said for me to stop in the office on Friday since I was going to be in town.

So I went in Friday morning and that is when he told me I had bad second degree burns on both my thighs and that it was worse than what he thought when I had talked to him. At this point, my thighs had started to blister and in all honesty they were at their worst point with pain and discomfort. You can ask anyone who saw them…they were really bad burns. The worst sunburn I have actually ever had in my life…which says a lot for this really white girl…and hopefully ever will have. So he gave me a load of Tylenol so that I could take that to the max for pain and he gave me a transparent lotion called Caladryl Clear. He also told me that if the pain got worse and the Tylenol did not cover it, to give him a call and he would help me out.

Thankfully, that Caladryl Clear worked miracles for the burns. At first putting it on stung really badly for about a half hour after I put it on. But once I realized how much the lotion was helping the burn heal, it was worth every second of that stinging process and I continued putting it on three times a day.

All in all with the burn story…I sure hope that I have learned my lesson. And if not, I still have some discoloring on my thighs to help remind me. Secondary burns from the sun in Ecuador should have taught me something…or at least the pain and discomfort from it should have! It probably took my legs about three weeks in total to heal from the burns. I also believe that I ended up peeling at least three layers of skin off. I am now left with some discoloring on my thighs but I think that will go away with time.

So you thought that this blog was going to be about Dengue…not second degree sunburns, right? Well that is the fun part for me in the month of March. I was just full of health issues! The picnic went over really well though and it was really nice to get to hang out with other PCVs and the new PCTs. The traveling with the sunburns was definitely…well…an experience…that is one way to put it at least. But I was really glad that I struggled through it and made it up for the picnic and the party bus that Friday night in Quito (they hired a Chiva which is basically a big pick-up type truck with a DJ, lights, and alcohol that drives around for a couple of hours while you dance and drink in the back…about 40 PCVs went). As night travel had then been lifted, I took the night bus home on Saturday and got home Sunday morning.

Onto the birthday gift from Ecuador which I later realized I probably already had even before my trip up to Quito. My birthday was that following Wednesday, March 17th, and I started to get chills and bathroom issues, to put it nicely, that Monday night when I got back from my Quito adventure. I was hoping that it was just something that I ate as I had my English camp to do and I was going to help out with an INFA camp that week from Tuesday until that Friday. So I figured I would hopefully sleep it off and get to work my camps…I was wrong.

Tuesday morning I woke up with a fever of 101 after a night of not really sleeping too much. I also discovered a rash on my butt and on my arm. However, I wanted to really try myself out first and see what I could do before I called the doctors. So I went to my INFA camp and I lasted about two hours before I had to tell them I couldn’t do it and needed to go home. At that point, I had a really bad head ache and body aches. I knew that it could be, and probably was, Dengue as two of my kids have had it this past month. Not to mention the providence where I live, El Oro, has the highest rate of Dengue in Ecuador and it is the rainy season at the moment which equals more mosquitoes. So I finally gave in and called the doctors to tell them that I thought I had Dengue.

The doctor wasn’t very impressed with my 101 degree fever (as dengue fever can get very high), so I took my temperature again and it had gone up to 103 by Tuesday midday. Giving in to the fact that it was Dengue…I then began a long process of many blood tests, fevers, chills, purple colored thighs, body aches and headaches like whoa, eye sensitivity, and rashes. Not to mention, the Dengue diet of not eating because of the loss of appetite.

I went into the Machala Clinic, which is about an hour long trip in total with two buses and a little walk, to get tested for Dengue that Tuesday afternoon. Sure enough, the test came back positive for Dengue just in time for my birthday on Wednesday. Needless to say, I spent my birthday in bed with a fever that varied from 101 to 103, severe body aches and headaches, purple colored thighs, no appetite, and only wanting to sleep in quiet. I have to say though, once you have a 103 degree fever, you can definitely tell when it drops down to 101 and be very thankful! It is like night and day and so much better. That is for sure.

I also had to go back in for blood tests Wednesday, Thursday, and that Friday as the doctor wanted to keep track of my platelet count as that is the part that is dangerous with Dengue (if they drop too low you can have internal bleeding and lots of problems). By that Friday I was exhausted from the fever, body aches, headaches, eye sensitivity, not eating, and all of the traveling each day. At that point, it was an effort everyday just to get myself to walk to the bathroom or brush my teeth without passing out. So needless to say, I was very happy when the doctors told me I could take Saturday off and just go in for tests on Sunday as my platelet count was low but staying pretty much the same. I spent the weekend sleeping and just being alive really.

My first week of Dengue…I really didn’t do much of anything but lay in my bed, be alive, and try to have silence as much as I could. Honestly, I didn’t even watch or want to watch a movie or anything. Needless to say, I missed all of my camps too sadly. And I even got Reeses Pieces, Peppermint Patties, and Lafty Taffy for my birthday that I couldn’t even eat or enjoy (those don’t exist down here)! I just wanted sleep and silence which is hard to get most of the time here in Ecuador.

By Sunday I was pretty much done and out. The extra day of rest with Saturday didn’t quite do it for me. After about a week of Dengue and not eating I was spent and could barley do anything without feeling like I was going to pass out. However, by the grace of God I made it into the Clinic to get my blood test; then I passed out. My blood test came back and my platelet count had dropped…I was not happy to say the least as I knew this just meant I was going to have more blood tests and probably pass out some more. I had some issues getting a hold of our PC doctor so I went into town to SKYPE my parents as I knew they were worried and I wanted to talk to them too as we had planned for that Sunday (I had told them that passed Tuesday I thought I had Dengue…so they were in the loop the whole time).

So I dragged my passing out butt to the Internet Café like an idiot to SKYPE my parents. I think I maybe talked to them for about a minute before I realized I was so weak that I couldn’t even keep my head up. Not to mention that I could only hold the test results up to the camera for about five seconds as well (mom understands that stuff…I don’t) before I had to put my arms down. So I sat at the computer for about twenty minutes with my head on the desk trying to decide what to do…I don’t think this was a lot of fun for my parents. As my mom said…all she could think of was that I was going to pass out on her in Ecuador and that she was going to be able to watch me and not be able to do anything about it. And as my father said…you can’t even keep your head up, you can’t make decisions right now, call for help.

Me being me though, it took about twenty minutes of this conversation for me to give in and call the PCV that lives in Machala for help…love you parents! She came to the Internet Café with one of our Ecuadorean friend who has a car and they took my back to the Clinic. My PCV friend also called our doctor for me and helped to better explain my condition and get everything set up at the Clinic (being PCVs our heath is our government’s responsibility, so we have our own Ecuadorean doctors here in country in Quito that we have to call for any health issues).

So on Sunday night I got admitted to the Machala Clinic. As far as Clinics go in a third world country, I would definitely say this was top of the line in that sense. Even by American standards, I would say it was pretty decent. However, the people that put my IV in could use some work. Their first attempt really messed up my wrist to the point where it is still black and blue today. In all honesty…that was the most intense pain I felt in the shortest period with the whole experience! They manage to get it in the second time though in a different spot thank God.

They were then going to send me home Monday afternoon…however my blood tests came back and my platelet count was even lower. So I spent Monday night at the Clinic as well. I had my own room though with some cable TV and air-conditioning…so you couldn’t complain too much. Not to mention, I started to eat some again on Sunday night when I forced some soup down and I managed to eat a little at each meal thereafter. I also had a couple of visitors as my friends slowly started to all learn that I was sick. This was when the fever, chills, body aches, eye sensitivity, purple thighs, and headaches all started to go away and the rashes started to come.

Now the main thing that was a pain in the butt with the rashes is that you can’t sleep much because just when you are about to go to sleep, you start to itch. Or if you are asleep, you will wake up because of the itchiness. Basically…itchy rashes stink to put it nicely and mine lasted for the following full week.

I went home Tuesday as my blood counts were going up and I got to spend Wednesday and Thursday resting in my bed, starting to eat again, and just build back up my strength. This would be the time period when I started to watch many films and TV series that you can buy very cheap down here in this kind of not so legal market. Friday I went in for my final blood test and my counts were way up and I was in the clear.

So that would bring me to this past week. Unfortunately and kind of fortunately this last week was supposed to be my week of rest before school starts next week as I ended up missing my two weeks of camps because of the Dengue. So it has been good to bring myself back up to full charge but on the same point I am ready for some work again as I think I have watched WAY too many films and TV series…one being the whole first season of Lost and probably at least ten movies and reruns of One Tree Hill and Grey’s Anatomy from my parents. I also started running again yesterday which will be really good for me and I still have yet to get myself a table and some chairs; maybe next week!

So in a nutshell…Dengue equals not fun. Chills, fever, severe body aches, severe headaches, purple thighs, eye sensitivity, loss of appetite, becoming extremely weak, passing out, eight blood tests on different days, a very bad IV attempt, a successful IV, and body rashes does not equal a fun two weeks. On the bright side though, they kind of all blur together now in my memory! I guess all of those symptoms together would do that to your memory though.

I also want to thank everyone for all of the birthday wishes and thoughts as well as all of the positive remarks and emails about my experience. They were all very much appreciated even if I was pretty sick at the time. Not to mention those Reeses Pieces, Peppermint Patties, and Lafty Taffy have all come in handy this past week and been fully enjoyed with some still left to enjoy.

I also managed to get an ingrown toenail this past month as well as an ingrown fingernail which I didn’t even know was possible! After my second degree burns and my Dengue experience I also had A LOT of laundry to do by hand which took me two separate days to complete all of for a couple of reasons…one being that there wasn’t enough room on the line for all of my clothes. Another reason is that the soap that I use to wash my clothes I realized doesn’t work too well with my skin when used a lot. So I got soap burns if you will on two of my fingers which took four days to heal up; then I got gloves. I also don’t think that I wore pants for the month of March…partially because of the heat and partially because I couldn’t with my burns. What can I say; this past month I have just had some issues!

School starts back up this Monday and I plan to start running everyday again to try and get myself into better shape and keep off the ten pounds that I lost with my Dengue diet. Dengue is really quite common here though, so I guess it was bound to happen to me at one point or another. The good news is that I now have immunity against the strain that I had…I think there are four strains in total. Most of the people in my community have had Dengue though; normally between the ages of ten and twelve or so. As the locals say, the first time you get it, well that stinks, the second time is even worse, and the third time you die (this is not always true...it is just what the locals say). But don’t worry; I strongly doubt I will get it again! And if I was to get Dengue again, I am pretty sure that the PC would move me to a site where there isn’t Dengue.

So that was the month of March for me…lots of time in my bed and many more once in a life time (hopefully I won’t experience Dengue or second degree burns again) experiences. I also had another first when I bought a new towel and a new sheet because all of mine smelled so bad and I was too weak to do the laundry…got through college without doing that, but not the PC experience! With April here it is a pretty relaxed month as we are just going to start up school again, the after-school help classes, and hopefully a community bank with the INFA mothers. My parents are also coming to visit me from May 8th to the 21st with some time in Quito and some time around my site which is something to definitely look forward to. Let’s just hope that I don’t get sick again!

3-9-10

Holy Moly it is already March! That still seems really odd to me as I couldn’t even believe that Christmas was here as well as the New Year. Time here really is an odd thing; it seems to go slowly because you know how long of a time you are going to be here for and yet at the same time it is hard to believe how fast it goes by sometimes. But I can certainly say that this little girl has manage to keep herself busy these past couple of months which has helped the time go by faster as well.

Let’s see…I know that it has been ages since my last blog and I think when I left off I was still teaching at the school as the school year wound up. Everything with the classes went off fine and the school year ended the last week of January with exams. All in all, I felt that my classes where a good start and I definitely have ideas of what I am going to try and do with them next year. It is kind of funny really, because as Youth and Family volunteers, people usually either end up loving working with the schools or hating it. Most in all honesty that I know of hate it because it is a real challenge to keep in control a classroom of Ecuadorean kids who know that you are not grading them and also know that you do not fully know the language. For myself however, I have always proved to be an odd person, and I really enjoy it. It is definitely challenging with keeping the kids in control, but I think it is “vale la pena” as they say down here. Anyways, I am pretty sure that the school will ask me back again next year and I will be teaching in Colegio (7th, 8th, and 9th grade) once a week again. School starts up again the first week in April though, so I have some more time yet to figure all of that out.

So the “summer” months came…although they still call this season winter even though I am not really sure why because school is out and these are the hotter months…but anyways, the summer months have been some busy ones for me.

For starters, I now live in my own apartment! This took a lot more effort than I thought it would. I moved into my “studio apartment” the last week in January and first part of February right when school was ending. It took me a good week to purchase my bed, a cook top, gas tank, wardrobe, and all of the other random things that you need when you first move into your own place. Not to mention, one of the first things I wanted…and for my sanity needed…to do was paint the walls. Let me tell you…painting is not an easy thing much less when the weather is in the 90s with no air conditioning. It took me more or less three full days of painting to finish it all. I decided just to wear the same clothes everyday to make less laundry and man oh man did those ever smell by the end.

I also had to make many bus trips loaded up with things from Machala to El Retiro. For the larger items though, one of my Ecuadorean friends with a truck helped me haul them from Machala to El Retiro which was a great help. Once again though, I would have to say it was all vale la pena…but oh what a pain it certainly was! Pictures are up on Facebook as well now of my finished apartment. The one thing I am still lacking is a table and chairs but I am looking to go and get those sometime next week with the help of another PCV and another Ecuadorean friend as a birthday present from my parents :).

Once I finally got settled into my apartment I was off to a close by town, Pasaje, to help an American Organization called Ecuadent with one of their missions. They are an NGO based in Maryland and they do about two medical and dental missions to Ecuador each year. The founder of the organization was born in Ecuador and then moved to the States. They had contacted us and asked for help with translating as most of the doctors, nurses, and dentists do not speak Spanish. This experienced ended up being a once in a lifetime experience in itself and I am very happy that I was able to be a part of it. The medical mission was the first week and then the dental mission was supposed to come the following week. However, as most of you might remember, this time in February was when the snow was really bad back home. Because of the snow, the dental mission actually had to be canceled because the flights just did not work out. That was unfortunate, but the medical mission was amazing nonetheless.

We were able to perform 53 surgeries and 56 procedures over the week as three were done just with local anesthetic. Now for those of you that know me and my family, my mom is a nurse…and that did not get passed on to me. But man oh man did I ever learn a lot about it all that week and it was really interesting.

The first day was triage day where they evaluated everyone who came in. There were three plastic surgeons and one intern there and they were focusing on youth with cleft lips, cleft palates, burns/scare revisions, extra toes, extra fingers, and any other deformity that they thought they could help with. The first day I worked with Doctor Mike translating for him and this was his first mission as well…and I have to say I saw things that day that before then I had only seen in photos or poster signs…but seeing them right there with living people is a completely different ball game. I saw multiple scare burns from hot water, oil, and even chemicals. Not to mention the cleft lips and palates are unbelievable in themselves.

It was a very long day and a very hard day. But what made it hard was not the fact that it was long, but rather the fact that about 50% of the people that you saw you could not help for one reason or another. Some people had illnesses that the plastic surgeons could not operate on because the procedures took longer than a week or multiple surgeries to fix and others had illnesses that needed a specialist such as an orthopedic or neurological doctor to fix. This was really hard for us because the doctors would tell us they couldn’t help them and then it would be our job to explain it to the Ecuadoreans…that was hard because basically all of them could not afford to go and pay a specialist to fix their child’s problem. In other words, their children would have to continuing on living with these major disabilities.

However, after that day, we got to be the good news bringers for the most part. We had surgeries Monday to Thursday and the days were packed with backups and walk-ins for when people did not show up. Most days lasted about twelve hours. I ended up helping put in the IVs in and checking in the kids in the morning which was also an experience in itself. Kids don’t really like it when you tell them that this is going to sting like a bee…not to mention that I used to be one of those kids, so I kind of get it. We had one father who actually had to lie on his daughter, but all in all, we got them all in. And surprisingly for me, the nurses told me that in their opinion the Ecuadorean kids were easier than American kids…I guess that makes sense though as I am sure some of these Ecuadorean kids have been through a lot more than the American kids. We tended to be done checking everyone in and getting in the IVs by about eleven or noon and we would then go down to the PACU and surgery area…this is also where our lunch and the food was. The rest of the day I spent helping kids into surgery, getting their parents to the PACU after surgery, and checking in with the kids after their surgeries. Basically, I helped out where ever they needed a translator – There tended to be about three or four people translating every day.

In between all of this, we got to hang out with about 40 Americans and I think this is when I fully realized I am now socially awkward in both cultures. It took a little while to get used to being around Americans again! It also made me really realize how poor we are while we were fretting over a $1.50 drinking (because I can buy a full meal for that!) while the plastic surgeons had no problem buying us a couple. Not to mention the plastic surgeons make what we make in a year in a little less than a week.

Also, at the hospital we were able to stand in on a couple of surgeries…which would never be allowed in the States…but as one person said, the hospital we worked in here would be closed down in ten minutes if it was back in the states. But here, it will run for years yet to come. However, I decided not to watch a cleft lip or palate surgery…I opted to see a couple of scare revisions and a cyst removal from a girl that actually lives in my neighborhood. Really interesting.

I also experienced another big first for me in my life…I saw multiple people give birth…and it has affected me…for life. Ecuadoreans are good at getting pregnant and the hospital was in full function while we were there and the birth room was right by us. The first woman I saw gave birth to twins…and you try to just walk by and ignore it, but the door is wide open and the screaming you can hear everywhere! Not to mention they had a problem with the second twin that was born so they asked one of our baby doctors to help with the baby and I got called in as the translator…and I got to see it all whether I wanted to or not. I have to say…I had no idea that the placenta is basically the size of a second baby that comes out afterwards…I think my exact words might have been something along the lines of,” What the heck is that thing!”, as the placenta came out and went into the trash. All in all, it was the experience of a lifetime for sure and I know now that when I do have kids, I want drugs…lots and lots of drugs.

Although I was outside of my neighborhood for a good week working with the mission, some people in my town knew what I was doing because the mission was in the newspaper as well as on the TV News. And somehow or another, my picture was included in the newspaper article as well as on the TV program. Here is the link to the newspaper article if you care to read it translate:

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=es&tl=en&u=http://www.diariocorreo.com.ec/archivo/2010/02/08/hoy-inician-operaciones-gratuitas-a-ninos-pobres&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhiFidIVkP4VafdMqSgPRmWwP_16Aw

I probably could write at least another page about that mission and my experience. Instead though, I will just leave it as I feel very blessed and lucky to have been a part of it. I will forever remember my experiences from that week and the people that I met; both the Americans and the Ecuadoreans. The organization hopes to come back again around the same time next year and I hope that I can help them out once more. It really is amazing what people can do when they all come together to help one another.

So after that, I was beat and I got sick. Nothing really bad though thankfully, just a cold that didn’t want to leave. So I spent the following week after the mission mainly in bed trying to get better. I also got caught up on about three weeks of way overdue laundry…you have to remember this is all by hand…and things that I needed to do around and with my apartment. And of course, more PCV paperwork that was due…love the government paperwork!

Towards the end of February the easy way to describe what I did is to say one word; paint. We had two different projects that we did both that took a week respectfully. The first one was a fight against trash project where we tried to clean up some of the trash, which is everywhere in general, and put up signs and trash cans in the neighborhood. The signs the kids all painted and I painted the trash cans. All of this had messages like, don’t throw trash, or, take care of your neighborhood. Then on Friday we went out and put all of these signs up in the streets as well as the trash cans. This project proved to be very frustrating for me because I quickly realized that throwing trash on the ground or wherever for them is not only normal and accepted but a custom. To change this is going to take a very long time with many failures before having full success.

The second paint project was to draw and paint a map of the world. Sounds easy…but after putting at least 25 to 30 hours of physical labor into it, you will think differently. I can definitely say that I put blood, sweat, and tears into this project once it was all said and done. Mainly because the little kids of 6 to 10 just want to paint anything and everything and I was not having that by the end of the week on my nicely drawn map. All in all though, it turned out pretty well and I have heard a couple of people with positive responses on the map and the mural that we painted next to it. It was also really cool to see once the little kids realized, wow, Ecuador really is very, very tiny compared to the world. So once again, this project became a pain in my side and back…my whole body really…literally…but it was worth it in the end. I will put up some pictures of both the trash signs and the world map and mural on Facebook once I have the time as well so you all can see them.

I am also helping out with a summer camp that the school is putting on with kids ages 6 to 12 or so with English classes as well as another little project that I am going to have them do called “Mi Propio Album”. I have classes with them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for about two hours doing this. Overall, the camp started towards the end of February and will end the last week of March…about a month and a half in total. The kids do really enjoy it though which makes it worth the while.

I also made another classic mistake that I like to make repeatedly for some reason…I went to the beach in Ecuador. You think that I would have learned by now that with the English influence and red head gene in my family that I shouldn’t try to sunbath. But I just couldn’t help myself! And now I am paying the price as my legs are completely fried and I can barely walk…not to mention I do not think I could put on pants right now even if you paid me. So with this being my third really bad burn in my eight months of living in Ecuador, I hope that I have learned so that this can be my last.

This week, I plan on heading up to Quito to a BBQ with the new kids of Agriculture and Natural Resources Omnibus 103…that is right…it is time for a new group of PCVs here in Ecuador! It is kind of funny, but as my one fellow PCV 102er here said, it is kind of like we are going to be sophomores now. I never really thought I would be back to being a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior…but if you think about it; it really is kind of true here in PC Ecuador! And I have to admit, it feels good to know that you are moving along and up the ladder of Peace Corps getting out of that lovely freshman stage.

It is also a really surreal feeling at times too…I have been living in Ecuador now for eight months. Sometimes that still makes my head spin with all that I have done and all that I have learned. Not to mention that is the longest I have been out of the States for. The funny thing is I still have eighteen more to go with many more memories yet to make and milestones of the PCV experience to go through. It really is so true what they say about this experience; it is an experience that is one of a kind that will push you mentally, physically, and emotionally in ways that you never even thought of or thought would be possible. Not even to mention it will completely change the way you look at the world as everything in your daily life will change. I think the most surprising thing for me is how what you think you can handle and deal with changes along the way…some things are easier to handle then what you thought they would be while others are harder. Either way, you know deep down inside yourself if you will be determined enough, hardcore enough, weird enough, or in my case, stubborn enough to make it to the end.

1-19-10, Tuesday

Where to start where to start…this is always the question with these things just because there are so many points that I could start with! I think I will start with a little of what my life is currently like.

I am still living in El Retiro outside of Machala as I will continue to do so for the next 19 months of service hopefully. However, I am also still unfortunately living with my host family. Normally, after three months of living in site with your host family you then find your own apartment to move into by yourself. And yet, as I hit my five month mark tomorrow, I find myself still living with my host family as there are not really available apartments where I live. There is a lady though who is looking to build some apartments so there is some hope there. My plan is to talk with the President of the neighborhood more or less and get something moving here so that I can move out in a month or two more…if that doesn’t happen, then I will either live in Machala or Santa Rosa nearby. This is not ideal, but it is better than my current situation.

Now don’t get me wrong, my host family is not horrible by any means. But with all of the culture differences, it is hard not to have a space of your own. Especially when you consider that I have been living with host families now for a total of seven months and the culture here is VERY family based and not independence based like the States. Not being able to cook or really do anything at all without being judged can get old pretty quick as well as not having your own stuff. Not to mention there are two men in my house that snore all of the time along with three kids of the ages of two, four, and five which are here at least fifty percent of the time that make it hard to sleep at times. Point being, I need my own space for my own mental health.

Other than that, my work right now is starting to come to an end as the school year ends with the last week in February – it will start again in April. This is kind of nice though as it is going to give me some time to reflect back over everything and see how I am doing overall. We also just got back from ReConnect in Cuenca, which is your five month mark in site more or less. ReConnect is a weeklong conference with other PCVs of your group (11 for my group) and your counterparts where you get more training on how to implement projects into your community and how to work on your community assessment tools.

Projects to come in the months of vacation include a fight against the trash here in my town (where we are going to paint and put up wooden signs that say to put trash in its place more or less as well as clean up all of the trash in the street and the Indore fields), a medical and dental brigade in Pasaje, a neighboring town, for two weeks in February (with a NGO from the states called Ecuadant where we will be helping with translating, locating potential kids as patients, and spreading the word of the mission), and hopefully starting to spread the word of a community bank and possibly starting that out. I also have my first project report, like a progress report if you will, due the 5th of February for the PC and a community assessment report due on the 19th of February. So all in all, I think I will find myself enjoying the change in my schedule while still keeping relatively busy.

Now onto the fun(ny) parts of my life.

I have officially had the Ecuadorean hair cut that is given to most North Americans/Europeans/Caucasians at some point during their stay in Ecuador. This hair cut one might just call…well…a mullet. I have no idea why, but for some reason it is what a lot of PCVs have had as a hair cut at one point or another and not by choice. I understand that our hair is different, but I don’t really get why we seem to end up with a mullet cut most of the time. I had this hair cut done in Cuenca during ReConnect. So once I got back to my site I had my lady across the street, who lived in Spain for three years and therefore knows how what to do with my hair, cut my hair. So now, I no longer have the mullet. Just overall short hair which I think I can deal with since the heat is still way up there. But I can honestly say that I had a mullet for three days now…don’t know if that is proud fact or not.

Second point, I have actually had an ant in my pants now. I was in a rush one day and I tripped on the stairs and ripped a hole into my jeans (which I am proud to say I sewed up later). However, throughout the events of the day I ended up down at the river where I picked up an ant somehow. And I am not talking about a little friendly ant here. I am talking about a killer I want to bite you as many times as I can ant. So I came back home to eat my dinner and as I was finishing up I started to feel the little thing biting me in my pants. Somehow it had crawled through my hole and got itself stuck in my jeans. So I ended up excusing myself and running back over into the house so that I could rip my jeans off! In the process, I ended up grabbing the little thing through my jeans so that it would stop biting me at least. I think all in all it probably got about six good bits in…but I would like to say that I had the last word as I made sure to smash it to death with my shoe. So point number two, I can now honestly say that I have had an ant in my pants.

I now get excited when I see that there are two knobs in the shower; one for hot and one for cold is just craziness! Where I am at, we just have one knob and the temperature of what is what you get. There really isn’t a choice. I also think that I am now vaccinated against anything and everything that is possible as we just had the H1N1 vaccination as well. I cannot even tell you anymore how many shots I have had or how many things I am immune to now! And one thing that I have learned since I have been here is that chickens make great garbage disposals. They eat just about anything and everything that you would normally put down the garbage disposal. I think I have also found a new perfume for myself for the following 19 months…it is called bug spray and I tend to put it on at least once a day.

I also have come to the sad realization that I will be two different skin tones for the rest of my time here. My stomach and other parts that get no sun are still my brilliant white while my arms are starting to become a nice shade of red along with the lower half of my legs and face. I tend to wear my thick strapped tank tops a lot as well which also make for lovely tan lines. I guess while we are at it, we can also put the color black/mud brown in there as that tends to be the color of my feet with all of the dust here. I also find myself wondering if my watch tan will ever go away as well.

In other news, I think I have started to integrate some as throwing rocks at dogs is starting to seem normal (I know this might seem odd to you…but the dogs down here are the farthest thing from domestic and they do bite). Not to mention eating with a spoon for just about everything and anything, going to “bathe” yourself in a river as you jump in with all of your clothes on, sweating as you get into the shower as well as the minute you get out no matter what temperature the water is here in on the coast, and accepting the fact that random drunk men will hit on you in the middle of the day no matter what you wear, do, or say. My English has also gotten worse as well so I can only hope that my Spanish has gotten better in the process! It is actually really funny when a group of the PCVs get together now because we all speak in Spanglish and have come to the realization that we are now social awkward in Spanish as well as English. I also am starting to get used to the Spanish key board which now makes it harder to type on the English one!

Other things that might seem odd to you but now seem normal to me: buying a jaba (the equivalent of 12 forties or so) and using one cup for everyone to chug out of as you pass the cup around in a circle until all of the beer is gone, hiding in the shade the minute the sun comes out (well this was normal to me before, but still everyone does it here!), putting a ton of water on your head when the sun does come out because most of the people here have black hair, smashing a ton of people onto a bus until the bus cannot move because of the weight, bug bites twenty-four seven from some type of insect even if you cannot tell what type of insect bite it is (and yes…you will scratch them), and music on telephones. I have to say, I don’t get the last one yet! It is like headphones don’t exist here so they just blare music from their telephones where ever they are whenever they want…let me tell you, it gets old quickly.

I have three other random tidbits for you all to finish with. Number one, my whole definition of Hygiene has now changed. When you have to wash a good portion of your clothes by hand and put them all up on the line to dry…it kind of changes your definition of what is dirty. Jeans for example, they are not dirty until you can see the dirt in them. And when you sweat all day long with a lot of dust, you are never really clean other than maybe for two minutes right after you get out of the shower (but don’t worry people…I still take showers basically daily).

Number two, all I have got to say is one word; bugs – ants, spiders, flies of all types, mosquitoes, cockroaches, grasshoppers on steroids…you get the idea. I hate the lovely little things and I have also learned that with the rainy seasons it is worth the extra thirty seconds at night to tuck in my mosquito net to my bed. I quickly learned this after one night when a grasshopper on steroids (they are the size of the cockroaches) jumped up inside my net on my bed stand. The next morning I had a cockroach fly over my sleeping body onto the inside of my net. The funny part was with the cockroach, I actually didn’t get upset that there was a cockroach inside my net. I got upset because I knew I then had to get up to get my shoe to kill it.

Number three, over our Christmas vacation trip, at one of the restaurants that we ate at, we received a plate of food with a hair in it. And for the five PCVs, it was our natural reaction to point out the hair, laugh at it, and then continue shoving the food into our faces without wasting another second. It was at that moment that we realized we were starting to become immune to the oddities of a third world country. Normally, you would send the plate back and ask for a discount on your meal…instead; we all just laughed at the fact that there was a hair in our food and continued to eat it all without a second thought (this same theory tends to apply with bugs more or less).

Oh the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer…you can’t hate it because you know you will be sad to leave it. And yet, you don’t love it because deep down inside you know the things you are getting used to are not things that you want to be permanently used to…at least not for this girl.

1-18-10, Monday

So I know that this blog is way overdue…but like they say, better late than never! And with all of the holidays, we have been busy down here just like I am sure that you all were up there. We were just busy in different ways as I am sure that you will find out as you read on. A little FYI too…I plan on writing another blog post over my life in general next…I am just running behind right now!

First things first, my work is still pretty much the same but it is actually all pretty much coming to an end this week as this is the last week of classes with the next week being exams. With that said, I am a little relieved at this point because I have managed to get myself pretty busy over the last couple of months with my work which has been great. But now it is time to reflect back a little and see how I can improve things for the year to come (the school year here ends at the end of January and starts up again at the beginning of April for the coast schools like me).

As for the memories of Christmas and New Years, I would definitely say that they were some hard ones and yet interesting at the same time. It was very hard to be away from family and friends for the holidays. However, it didn’t really seem like the holidays here much either for me as the temperature I think is averaging about the high eighties to mid nineties with the real feel like temperature is up in the hundreds some days. Point being, I’m a Michigan girl…this seems like summer to me even if you want to call it winter like they do here!

Christmas – They actually don’t really celebrate it much here which surprised me a little at first but then made sense when I started to think about it. For starters, almost all of their family lives in the same block more or less. Point being, they don’t need time off to go down the street and see their mother, brother, sister, extra. Not to mention that they see their family members pretty much every day as they all live in the same area more or less. Secondly, they don’t really do presents as you could guess since the money is always on the tight side…although I do think that the men could cut down on the drinking for a week to be able to buy their kids a toy…but that is just my two cents!

However, they do have lots of candies for all of the kids who walk around door to door in the neighborhood and ask for sweets…more like Halloween in some ways which they don’t celebrate here. Thirdly, everything is still open on Christmas Eve not to mention most things on Christmas itself. The kids have school on Christmas Eve, although this is really just a fiesta for them, and on Christmas there were internet cafes open.

For Christmas this year I went to the Christmas Eve fiesta at my school (which you can see in some of my pictures on facebook) and took part in all of that including drinking some with the other teachers once the kids left at about one. After that I went down to Arenillas where another PCV in my group lives and three other PCVs from my group all came down (this is about an hour and a half from my site give or take that I go to at least once a month I would say). So the five of us all got together and had a Christmas Eve dinner. And I do have to admit, that this is the first Christmas I have ever not been to a Christmas Eve service. For our Christmas Eve service, we just sat around and exchanged experiences as we are all from different places in Ecuador more or less.

Christmas really didn’t seem like Christmas at all for many reasons. One being the weather and another being that we didn’t have Christmas music because the CD player was broken. So instead or being bummed out and mopping around we went to the border town of Ecuador and Peru, Hauquillas, that has an open market right there on the border. Hauqillas is the Ecuadorean side and Agua Verde is the Peruvian side although you really can’t tell which is which as the only thing that separates the two is a foot bridge and signs that say welcome to and goodbye from. So for Christmas we wandered around the markets and bought some cheap clothes ($3 tshirts) and had ceveche (chopped up fish, shrimp, and other sea food that is “cooked” by lemon and lime juice) for our main meal which was amazing.

Then we returned to Arenillas for the night and prepared for our four day trip to Mancora Peru (a beach site about 2-3 hours over the border). Now the trick to this trip, is getting across the border. Not because you need the right paper work, although there is that as well, but because the border is not exactly the safest place. We had to take a taxi from Agua Verdes to Los Tumbes so that we could get a bus from there to Mancora. And getting that taxi was very shady to say the least. Between the five of us though all yelling at the taxi driver, I think we made it alright. But there definitely was a time when some of us thought that we were going to be getting robbed there pretty soon. However, we made it all in one piece!

Mancora is a beach city which actually had some really good waves for surfing. And where there is surf, you have the Australians. It was nice to actually get to act like a tourist for a while though instead of having to try and blend in so much like at our sites…even though we don’t really blend in any where…I think you get the point! So we hung out at the beach and ate some really good seafood and Mexican food on and around the beach. This is where of course I hide in the shade while the other girls took in all of the sun.

The trip back to Ecuador went just fine for the most part…well we did kind of forget to go to immigration in Peru through when we entered. We went to the Ecuadorean one and figure that was enough…but we were wrong. Nonetheless, the guy couldn’t really do much to us about it since we were on our way home when we realized we messed up anyways. So as far as our passports are concerned, it is kind of like we never even went to Peru. However, I do have to say that walking through the back street part of the main market in Peru, Agua Verde, over to the border of Ecuador really felt like a scene from a movie. You had little stores everywhere with people walking through the market “streets” carrying their chickens in their armpits while pushing a trolley with other goods and you could hear people bargaining everywhere. It was really pretty neat…besides the fact that we were all just trying to make it through as fast as possible without getting robbed.

So that was my Christmas more or less; on a beach in Mancora Peru. It was kind of nice though to do something that was very different as when we had those moments when we did realize that it was Christmas that made it harder to be away from home. So the mini vacation to the beach was a good solution for that.

For New Years I decided to take an easy one. And I am proud to say that this is my first New Years in a VERY long time that my first drink was a non-alcoholic one. I actually decided to stay in my site and just have a relaxing New Years here. So for New Years Eve I went to my local school, where they were having a New Years Eve Fiesta of course, and watched my kids burn paper dolls to bring in the New Year. This is a tradition here where people buy paper dolls of different things, such as Bart Simpson, Michael Jackson (most PVCs took joy in watching these ones burn because they WORSHIP him here), random people and things, and when the clock hits twelve, they burn the dolls. Oh yeah…and I forgot to mention…inside these dolls are firecrackers and bottle rockets. So at times, it is a little dangerous, but the kids love it! They say though that this is their tradition for getting rid of all of last year’s problems and starting this year anew. I think it is away to raise the already very hot temperate to an even hotter temperate! But it was interesting to see. They don’t have an official count down either, so it is just whenever people start to burn the dolls that start the New Year.

I had actually stayed in my room until about eleven and watched a movie while drinking some wine. This worked out very nicely because I then got to walk around with some of my youth, up and down our street like they do for fun here, from eleven until one and wish everyone a Happy New Years. Once I got tired of walking up and down the street over and over again I went on home and had my first drink of the new years; guanabana juice :) Impressive, I know.

Now I figured that since for Christmas everything was open, that it would be the same with New Years. Man was I ever wrong. For New Years day EVERYTHING shuts down; even the buses don’t run. Not only were most things shut for New Years day…but they also were shut for the day after New Year’s Day and the day after the day after New Year’s Day! Basically, everyone got to have a three day hangover as New Years Day was a Friday (thus they did nothing for Saturday or Sunday either besides continuing drinking…and man did they ever continue to drink). Very interesting I thought and kind of entertaining to see all of the drunk passed out men in the streets at nine am, noon, and five pm…basically all day! However, having to fend off all of the drunk men from hitting on me, not so much fun.

So there in a nut shell where my Holidays for the end of 2009. There are more details of course if you care to hear you can just ask. But this gives you the idea of it all more or less. Thank you everyone at home for all of the great Holiday wishes, they are truly appreciated :)

Just a quick post to let you all know that I have uploaded some new pictures to my facebook account that you can all see. I still have more to upload from Christmas, but they will come along with a better blog post at some point to let you all know how I am doing.

Long story short, the Holidays were hard but expectantly so. I am glad they are over and ready to move on to the new year of 2010 :) Thanks for all of the Holiday wishes though back from the States!

So I know that it has been a while since I have gotten around to my last blog entry. I guess I would have to say that is an indicator of the routine and day to day life activities that I am getting into here. Right now, I am currently at my local school which has Internet connection as well as about 15 computers that the government has provided for them. It is pretty amazing actually...and it is really hard to actually get work done because kids and teachers are always coming in and out and wanting to talk! So I will write a quick blog for all of you instead :)

My job is pretty much the same as of now. I am teaching three times a week here at my local school over self-esteem, values, goals and all of that jazz. I also still go to a school about 30 minutes away every Tuesday for the day and teach all four of the classes there with kids from the ages of 5 to 12 with similar type topics. This is very different than the kids that I teach at the local school because the kids that I teach here are 12 to 16. So I get a little of all the age groups and I am not really sure which is better yet! They both have their advantages and their disadvantages. Although I would have to say at the moment I am leaning towards the older kids as they tend to understand more which makes it easier to teach something.

I am also still working with INFA here and there. But that is slowly coming to a stop for the end of the year and we will have to wait and see what comes with the New Year and working with INFA. I do still hope that I am able to work with them here and there because the kids with INFA (mainly 8 to 12) are a lot of fun. I guess the one new thing that I have picked up is that I am now holding three after school English classes every week here in El Retiro to try and help the local 7th, 8th, and 9th grade kids with their English. It is actually really very different to try and teach a language when it is just your native language. At times, I find it hard to explain why something is how it is...I just know that I am right when it comes to English!

The Spanish language gets better day by day and I have better days than others. I think I have really just realized that right now, I don't have the passion to learn a foreign language like I really should to capitalize on this opportunity. However, I am to the point with my language that I am comfortable enough to converse and say what I need to say. I mean, I do stand in front of kids everyday and direct a class of some sort some how!

I am still living with my host family...which is not ideal, but the only choice right now. There really are not a lot of apartments in my site and therefore it is taking quite a bit of work and time to try and find a place where I can live by myself. I have spoke with my boss though up in Quito and she is really try to work with to help the situation. But really there, there is not much that I can do but wait and hope.

Other than that, with the Holidays pretty much here, it seems really weird! The holidays are hard, and from everything that I have heard up to this point it will be one of the harder ones in my life. It is hard to be away from your family for the first time during the holidays and on top of that, you have a whole different culture and climate that you are in. I still find it hard to believe that it is December much less that Christmas is this Friday since the weather is so hot and humid!

For Christmas though, I have taken a couple of vacation days and I am going to head down south a little to Arenillas where another PCV friend lives and we are going to have Christmas there, five PCVs in all. After Christmas Eve and Christmas day there we are all going to head over the border of Peru for three days and go to the beach over there which is just about an hour across the border. I guess if you have to have a different type of holiday, you might as well make it really different! For New Years, I am not 100% sure yet, but I think that I will be heading up north in Ecuador to a beach location to celebrate with other PCVs where there is a gather in Canoa. Still haven't decided on that yet though!

So all in all, life is going pretty well. It still has a lot of ups and downs but you start to except them more and get used to them. I really can't wait to be living in my own place though hopefully pretty soon. I will miss you all for the Holidays and be thinking of you all often!!!

So as many of you have probably already guessed...they don't really celebrate Thanksgiving down here in Eucador. It is what one would call a U.S. holiday.

Therefore, I am going to run away from my site and area for the night and following morning to Guayquil to visit other PCVs there and have a somewhat of a Thanksgiving meal. I say somewhat because we are not having Turkey, it will be chicken instead because that is MUCH cheaper down here and in all honestly, I am not really sure what else there will be...but we will find out! The PC budget definately keeps you down to earth and cheap, with everything.

My bus leaves though here in about an hour so I better get going as I want to grab some snacks before I get on the three hour bus ride. That really is not that bad though, I have been on much worse! And I plan on getting back tomorrow in time for a class at Noon which makes these next twenty-four hours some busy ones. Thanks for all of the Thanksgiving Day wishes too :)

November 5th, Thursday

Oh where to start where to start. I am splitting this blog up into two parts by the way. One with my life and one with my work because I have so much to get caught up on! My PCV life is what I guess I would have to call a typical one. I have my up and down moments, days, and sometimes even hours. However, it is a little comical at times because you do realize that it is all about the little things that will change your attitude. Sometimes all you might need is to go out and buy a Magnum Ice Cream Bar and your whole attitude and outlook will change for the day. And you get to skip out on the rice for dinner. Other times, you might simply need to rant and rave to another PCV in English about your day and how none of the kids would listen to you. Or it could be just as simple as having a good conversation with a local woman where you finally feel like you understand the majority of the conversation and she understood you. Either way, it is full of ups and downs which constantly change. So here are some of the highlights from this past month.

First we can start with my love; the cat. It is certainly not the Ecuadorean creepy men here and never will be…stupid machismo. My host family has a cat and she has just had three kittens. Now the kittens are still in hiding, but the mother cat still loves me, so I have gotten to see the little kittens and even touch them one night. It is a slow process…but I will get my cat yet!

My little host nephew has the chickenpox, poor boy. However, the parents were afraid to tell me at first because they didn’t know if I had had the chickenpox or not. So they didn’t want me to know because the nephew, who is six, has to be at my host family’s house quite a lot. Once they found out that I had had the chickenpox though, they then quickly asked what they should do to help the boy out. So I pulled out my “Where There is no Doctor” book which basically just said to bathe everyday in warm water with soap and to cut his nails. So then the mom was saying to the dad that they were going to go home and do that right away. It was kind of comical.

I also go running every day, more or less, in this little cement mini-soccer field type area. They play “soccer” here, but it is called Indoor because it is played on a smaller field with a smaller ball and smaller goals. It is kind of interesting really and very popular for everyone to play. So this area, the mini cancha, is where I go running every day in many, many, many circles. However, it does have a bit of a cage around it and of course everyone stops to stare at the Gringa running in circles everyday. In light of this, I have a much better understanding of how a caged animal feels being gawked at everyday and I have to say that I feel some pity for them.

Cold showers – I am never going to get used to this but I do have to admit that I take a shower in about three minutes flat now with what I have named the jump in jump out method. There really is an art form to this just so you know. You start by splashing some water of your face and then you brave it and stick your chest in. You wash all of that down and then move on to your arms. But you only put one arm in at a time while washing. From there you go to the waist and legs just having your lower part in the shower while washing. Lastly you have the hardest part; your back and hair. Here you really just have to take a deep breath and jump on in…cold showers…

My skin tone is official red and white now. Which has made it more fun for the kids to play with as they can push on my red arms, which will then turn to white for a minute and then back to red. They think that it is a chalk type board at times and a new type of toy to play with. My stomach, which gets no sun, is still pasty white and quite the contrast to my now red arms. However, I do wear my watch everyday…so there is a lovely “tan line” there which means I don’t think I can ever go out without my watch from now on.

I love my Dad – I mean, I love my Mom too, of course. But my father figured out a way to send me my current TV shows on a DVD so that I can watch them down here. Every single time I get a new disk and put it in an instant smile comes across my face as I see my lovely shows of Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, One Tree Hill, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers and Sisters. And I get to escape for a couple of hours from whatever I am facing that day down here. Just thinking about them now makes me happy. Oh I really am such a simple person! 

I love my Mom – Wouldn’t be right if I just had a paragraph saying I love my Dad! I really do though. All of the mail that I get from home is great. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and letters. And SKYPE is amazing and great. I get to talk with my parents about once a week where we get to see each other and talk. And yes Dad…Mom and I could talk for longer so drop it! It is great though.

Bugs = Horrible. I guess they could be worse, but I had some type of bug that decided to live in my bed with me for a while so I have a lot of bites all around my legs which are just now starting to go down about a week later. I think I have taken care of that problem though for the most part as I washed all of my bedding and sprayed some RAID in my room. I think it was/is some type of ant. Who knows? All I know is that I am definitely not a fan of bugs and I actually take joy in killing them now.

Halloween we really didn’t do much. It isn’t much of a holiday here. So we just got together with a small group of PVCs and had dinner and watched some movies. I am not that big on Halloween anyways, so I was alright with it. But it definitely was nice hearing about all of the fall activities back in the States. The banana trees down here, are still showing the same strong green which they will forever. I think for Thanksgiving though we are thinking about going up to Guayaquil where the U.S. Embassy has a free meal for any American Citizens. We will have to wait and see. Oh yeah…and Christmas…you think we start decorating early in the States? The Ecuadoreans have already started to put up lights and decorations. I even saw one fake Christmas tree through a window one day.

And last but not least, we had a video camera come to my little town of El Retiro. And the people that came with the video camera were white and tall so everyone just assumed that they were my family…of course. In reality, they were all from France and there were here doing a TV program that is similar to Amazing Race back in the States. There were ten teams of two, and they are traveling all around South America doing tours in each country. However, these teams don’t have any money and cannot accept any money. They have to ask the local people for food, a place to sleep, and travel for free (or someone on a bus can pay for them if they are going to same way). They start everyday at a certain time and get to travel as far as they can towards their “check point”, which for this portion was Guayaquil, and every day they have a pager which goes off and tells them that they have to stop traveling for that day and go and talk with the local people trying to find food and a place to sleep for the night. And this couple, in their 70’s but you would never have guessed it, got stopped in El Retiro.

Since I am obviously not from Ecuador, they stopped and talked with me on my walk back from the Junta with my kids after our Aventura de la Vida. However, since I don’t speak French and they don’t speak English, we both had to try and communicate in Spanish. The woman spoke Spanish really well and the man didn’t really speak it. All in all, it made for a very interesting day. And my host family feed them both lunch and dinner for free. I also had to call the PC so that they can inform the US Embassy here that I have been tapped talking about the Peace Corps…got to love politics!

So I think that would be the highlights of my life right now. I am sure that there are more but they come and go so often that I forget most of them! It is really hard to explain the life of a PCV. Every experience is so unique and different to the next and yet there is this common thread that we all share. The common thread of having daily contradictions in our lives that make you feel bipolar at times and wonder why you are here and why you can’t leave at the same time. The fact that you find yourself counting down the time you have left and then you can’t decide if that amount is too short or too long. The fact that I know that when I leave here I will feel joy to be returning back to my family and my culture and yet at the same time sadness to be leaving the people and culture that I have learned so much about and probably will never see again.

November 5th, Thursday

So it has definitely been a while since I have gotten around to writing a blog post. It is kind of funny because it seems like not a lot has happened and yet at the same time when I sit down to think about it a lot comes to mind. So I figure that I will actually write two blogs today, one about my job down here in Ecuador and one about the my life.

My job is still really vague and always will be. Basically my objective is to work with youth and family to help improve their lives in whatever way I figure out I can. I am set up with a counterpart person…but he is not being the best of help which from what I hear is pretty common. A lot of the counterpart people here in Ecuador think that a PCV is someone who will do their job for them, which isn’t the case at all. So anyways, I still work with him but I am also starting some of my own projects. We will just have to wait and see how that all pans out.

With my counterpart and the INFA organization we currently have two after school help programs; one on Tuesday for language and one on Thursday for math. The first week we had one kid show up. So I started just telling other kids about it (as well as bringing a soccer ball to play around with after which helped) and now we have about ten kids that come with about five to ten kids hanging around to play ball afterwards. It is not the best program as the kids really just want to play for the most part, but there are always a few of them that do really listen to the language or math which makes it a good program. It also gives the kids something to do after school as we usually start at around 2:30pm, have the help season for about an hour, and then play until about 5pm.

Along with the help classes, my counterpart and I also hold a season every Wednesday called “Aventura de la Vida” for the INFA kids that starts at about 2:30 and lasts for about an hour, sometimes a little longer. This class teaches different life skills such as self-confidence, what are your dreams, alcohol is bad, tobacco is bad, and so on. We also take frequent trips to the Rio, which is about a 30 minute walk from my town, and we always seem to have more kids show up for that. It is a hard balance to get the kids to show up and yet at the same time have it be a productive charla. I mean, they are just kids after all that really just want to play for the most part.

Other than that, my counterpart has charlas here and there occasionally which sometimes happen and other times don’t. The INFA organization is a really good organization that Ecuador has for the youth and family of Ecuador. However, it is what I would call a typical Ecuadorean Organization as well.

I have started teaching at the local school three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to the equivalent of 8th, 7th, and 9th grade respectfully. There are about 20 students in each class give or take. They love having the American Senorita come in and teach especially as my classes are not the normal type. However, they are difficult at times to try and get calmed back down, especially because Spanish is so not my native language. I do think though that I am getting through to some of them with my classes, which tend to be about self-esteem, self-confidence, values, goals, and so on. As I have been told by a couple of the other volunteers down here, I am brave for taking on this age group…which at times I would definitely agree. But I really do think that this age group is among some of the kids that need to hear this message the most. So I will just keep trucking along bringing my screaming voice to class with me.

I am also going to start teaching at a school in a community about 30 minutes away from where I live in the middle of the banana fields out in the middle of nowhere really. To get there I have to take the bus first for about 15 minutes and then someone comes to the bus stop and picks me up where we drive out through the banana fields and rice patties to get to Buena Esperanza, the town where I will teach every Tuesday. This school only has kids 5 to 12 years old, so it is a little younger than what I teach at the other school. The kids are split into four class rooms there, so I will teach one hour at a time four times on Tuesday mornings. It will be among the same types of themes as what I teach to the kids at the other school, but with more drawing and play time for the younger kids. I start that next week though…so cross your fingers for me!

And lastly, I am hoping that I will be able to work with a NGO from the U.S. called Soluciones Comunitarias. It is really interesting actually what this group does. It was started by a couple of RPCVs from Honduras and an RPCV from Ecuador hopped onboard as well. They started in Honduras with their organization and are now moving down into Ecuador as well as other South American Countries. Since they have such strong ties with the PC, they tend to start there with current volunteers. They basically help small rural areas make small businesses so that the towns’ people become dependent on themselves. The organization supplies the products, such as water purifiers, solar lights, good quality glasses, and so on to the town’s people which they can then sell for a profit. The NGO also teaches business classes to the local people which will help them along their way. All in all, I think it is really interesting and I hope that it works out. The RPCV from Ecuador said that they could help me start my community bank here as well. They are planning their first visit to El Retiro in January. So hopefully that will go well and we will go from there.

As you can see, it is a lot of random stuff here and there. I don’t really have a schedule and I probably never will. I don’t have an office and probably never really will. Most of my classes go in one ear and out the other of the kids. Time goes by slow and yet at the same time fast. The experience itself is unlike any other with the constant ups and downs, which at times even you can’t explain. There was an article in the Peace Corps Times this last issue called “Sometimes you are Left with More Questions than Answers” which I think sums it up best at times:

“How do you tell friends you gave up a nice job and will return jobless, an older woman in a deepening recession, yet have no regrets? How do you tell colleagues you trudge long miles to isolated mountain schools, see crowded classrooms with kids sitting on paint cans, yet learn more than you teach? How do you explain you live among poverty and see beauty; live among HIV and see elegance; live where time is slow yet have rich, full days? How do you tell future employers you failed, yet treasure this failure more than all the successes on your resume?

As one of my PCV friends told me here when she left, they tell you at the beginning that it is really just about all of the relationships that you make along the way that really matter. But you never really realize how true that is until you are leaving at the end.

Where to start where to start...that is the question. I guess I will start with the fact that my life is still full of ups and downs everyday if not every hour. The Peace Corps experience really is a crazy thing that takes you for a ride and I have a feeling that ride will continue during my whole two years of service.

Let’s see…how about I start with some of the things that I don’t think I will ever get used to here in Ecuador:

1) Breast feeding – The moms here just pull out the boob with no relation as to where they are or what others will think. Oh yeah, and they breast feed for as long as they possibly can…this means you have kids who are talking and breast feeding at the same time. My theory, if they can ask for it, they are too old. Sorry!

2) No concept of lines – When it comes to having a line, they don’t really. It is more so push and shove your way through and whoever gets their first wins. This also means there is no concept of personal space when it comes to being in a “line” for something…or in a public place really for that matter, especially if it is crowded.

3) Noise Restrictions – This would be another thing that they don’t really have much of a concept for. I don’t really think that there are any noise violations here. And if there are noise violations, they don’t get enforced. I also think I have come to the conclusion that people don’t understand indoor voices versus outdoor voices…there is only loud and louder.

4) Ecuadorean Time – This would mean that when I say something starts at noon, I might have 5 or so people there at noon if I am lucky and by 12:30 I should have enough to at least start. However, all of the people that really planned to attend probably won’t show until 12:45 or so. And even then, you will have people walking in at 1.

5) Machismo/Drinking – This one is pretty plain and simple; women stay at home, have the babies, take care of the babies, wash the clothes, clean the house, have the food ready for their husbands, and serve it to them. Men here literally will NEVER cook a meal or clean their clothes. If for some reason a man doesn’t have a mom, daughter, sister, or woman who will do these things for him, then he will go and pay a local woman to do it for him. Drinking is pretty much that women don’t, and if they do they are considered easy, where as the men get to all of the time whenever they want.

6) Cat Calls – As someone from training told us, “trust me girls, you did not get prettier when you left America and came to Ecuador”. No, we didn’t get prettier, the men just got creepier.

I think that is a pretty good list of the main points. No don’t get me wrong, there are also some things about the culture here which I have taken a liking to as well:

1) Friendly – Everyone here is really friendly for the most part. Don’t get me wrong, you still have theft and what not. But for the most part, the average Joe you find on the street will be very friendly.

2) Fruits – There is always food around. This can be a good thing and at the same time a bad thing. However, lucky for me they have a ton of fruits here which I have fallen in love with. Now if I could just convince my host family that I really don’t eat anything for breakfast besides some fruit, I would be set!

3) The reach of a Dollar – I think this one kind of speaks for itself. Everything down here is a lot less expensive and you can make a dollar stretch a lot further down here. The only exception would be for any electronics; those are not cheaper.

4) Work to live, not live to work – This would be another one that has the positives and negatives. It is definitely a much more laid back atmosphere and this means it takes a lot more time to get something done. Or even just to have something set into motion really. It will come as it will come. Overall, this is probably a better way to live for the stress factor.

5) Hammocks – For those of you who have never taken a nap in a hammock, I strongly suggest that you do. It really is quite the feeling and experience. Not to mention that the hammocks are only comfortable for just the right amount of time so that you don’t end up taking too long of a nap.

6) $1.25 DVDs – That is right, DVDs for a buck twenty five. And the greatest thing about it is if a movie just came out in the movie theaters, you can probably find it on DVD in one of these stores in a week or under. They also have some of the US TV shows on DVDs down here too. And yes, they are all in English (Spanish captions and some are voice doubled in Spanish) and of course they are all pirated.

So there you have some of my favorite and least favorite aspects of Ecuador so far. It is hard to differentiate work from life here since the two overlap all of the time. But overall, I would have to say that life here is a day to day thing where I am definitely learning more right now than what I am teaching. The most important thing that I have learned so far though is a pretty simple thing; development work is a hard to do.

P.S. Now if I could just convince my host family here that I am a twenty-three year old woman who can take care of herself on her own, I might be set! The whole concept of an independent woman is another thing that doesn’t really exist here.

Wednesday, September 23

So once again I find myself writing a blog entry after so much time has passed I can’t remember the last blog entry of mine…and since I write these entries from my computer at home most of the time, where I don’t have internet, I can’t read my last entry either. Long story short, we are starting fresh here!

I have been at my site now for a month and three days…yes, I do know down to the day…and man oh man has that month ever seemed like a long time and at the same point it seems to have gone by relatively quickly. It is really hard to explain it, just one of those weird things I guess that time does! In all honesty, I haven’t done that much in the past month, but I am slowly starting learn that is half of the battle of the Peace Corps experience. You don’t feel like you are doing anything, but in reality, just by doing the daily things that need to get done and talking with the community that you live in you are doing “work”.

The Peace Corps experience is definitely one that I knew would be hard, but I never could have imagined that it would be this hard. And the funny thing is that you spend most of your time not really doing a whole lot which is partly what makes it so darn hard to do. And when you don’t have much that you have to do, it is even harder to find the motivation for things that you should do or might want to do.

I am currently working with INFA, an Ecuadorean group that helps children afford to go to school. We do put on educational talks every now and then, but as with most things here in Ecuador, when you say something is going to happen, it sometimes does and other times does not. And for the first couple of months here, I really do need to just work with INFA until I can start up some of my own projects once I have the right contacts.

Describing my job is a hard thing to do in itself because the job is so vague. I have no office, I have no real coworkers (besides other PCVs none of which are at my site), and my boss is a ten hours bus ride away. However, I will describe my job for you. I am going to be working with the youth in my community by teaching the themes of self-esteem, values, goals, communication, relationships, sexuality, and so on. How I am going to accomplish this task is still up in the air somewhat.

I will be using the community house to give some of these “lectures” but they will be done in a way to try and attract the youth such as forming a youth group. I also spoke with the local school and they are open to letting me teach some of these life skills there which I will start in about a month after exams and a week of vacation. As you can see, it is a pretty vague description because I am basically working on my own to try and find and utilize the resources that the community has to teach life skills to the youth. I also want to facilitate a community bank at some point and some type of trash project especially for the “indoor” soccer field (it is just like soccer and it is outside, but with a smaller field and a smaller ball…they call it indoor).

Sometimes when I start to think about all of the projects and ideas that I have for the community I get really excited. And then I realize that a lot of my ideas will probably fail because there is no current structure here to support them. With the Peace Corps, it isn’t good enough just to come up with a great idea of something that the community that you live in needs. You need to figure out some type of support structure to make that idea a living idea. And when you are the foreigner, who doesn’t speak their language really well and doesn’t know all of the customs or norms, that can be really difficult to do.

So I guess what I have to say is, I definitely have my up days and down days…and I would even go as far as to say I have my up hours and my down hours at times. However, I think at the heart of the Peace Corps experience you have a volunteer who is putting themselves into a foreign, literally and figuratively, situation where they will grow as a person and hopefully in the process help develop something at their site that will last once they leave. At the least, that volunteer will have touched someone’s life just by being their friend. And with all of the cultural barriers that are out there in the world today, having that understanding between two people of different cultures is something in itself. I would have to say that at this point, I think a successful Peace Corps volunteer is someone who has made it through the experience; that in itself is one heck of an accomplishment.

Wednesday, September 23th

So I thought I would post a blog just about my host family here in El Retiro as it is rather large. However, everyone is also really nice. My host mom and dad are 59 and they have eight kids…yes that is right, eight kids. Thankfully for me they are all grown up, but then this of course means grandkids. However, three of the eight kids live abroad in Spain right now so that leaves five here, all but one of which are married. Now before I continue, let me just say that I know some of the daughters better than others and therefore I know more about some than others.

The oldest daughter, Carmon, lives next door to my house and has at least two kids that I know of one of which is 16, a boy, and the other which is 2, a girl…but in all honesty, I don’t really know too much about them and I have never seen the husband…that is if there is one too. The next oldest daughter, Betty, lives down the road and has two kids, one son, Mario, who is 8 and one daughter, Shirley, who is 11. The father is a part of the military though so he is out of town most of the time. The next daughter, Joana, lives here in El Retiro but a little further out of town with her husband and daughter of about 4, Valoria, who is a handful. Joana goes to University all day Saturday and the husband works with the Bananas all week around more or less, so that leaves Valoria at our house all day Saturday. Then there is Diana who is 23 years old who is not married but has a son, Kenneth, who is two years old and they live in Machala. However, they tend to spend the night here plenty which leads to many nights of no sleep for me as the two year old doesn’t go to sleep until midnight, he naps a lot during the day, and well…he is two. There is also the brother of my host dad who tends to be babysitting Kenneth. So where ever Kenneth is, the Uncle is as well. And last but not least, the son…who’s name I can’t remember…is married to Lydia with two sons, one who is 5 I believe, Michael, and one who is just about a month old. But I do believe that their marriage is far from great as I never really see the two of them together and he ends up sleeping over here every now and then as I don’t think she lets him into the house when he has been drinking.

So in case you are trying to keep track, the host family is my host mom and dad – Milda and Larry, with eight children – Carmon, Betty, Joana, Diana, the son who’s name I can’t remember, and three children abroad in Spain (I am not sure what order..I only know that Carom is the oldest followed by Betty and that Diana is the same age as me) – and eight grandkids that I know of – The two of Carmon, Mario and Shirley, Valoria, Kenneth, Michael and the new baby. All in all, it is a lot to try and keep track of!

Everyone though is very nice and they try their best to talk with me when they can. However, after living with my host family for the past month, I definitely know that I will want to get my own place for a few reasons. One would be Kenneth, the 2 year old basically because he is two and has a voice that you can hear all the time. Normally screaming something like, mommy mommy mommy, or I want I want I want, with other loud banging noises on whatever he can bang on, at nine to midnight without anyone telling him to hush up. What can I say though; he is two and a very cute kid.

Another one to mention would be Valoria who will enter into my room anytime it is not locked…and when it is locked she just figures that means you pound on the door for five minutes. She is always running around and full of energy though, that is for sure.

And last but not least with the kids you have Michael and Jeffery, who is 7 I believe. Jeffery isn’t a part of the family by blood, but he works at the house sweeping up the bird poop and whatnot just about every day. They enjoy listening to Michael Jackson way too many times and singing and dancing along to it. Not to mention that when I lock myself in the room when Jeffery is around, he just takes it up to himself to climb my wall and say hello to me from there (the ceilings are open at the top).

Then you have the hammer that puts the nail in the coffin, my host Dad snores. And not just a little here, we are talking a lot and loud. All of this combined, just reminds me why I enjoy living by myself so much even when the people are really nice!

Okay…so I think that is enough on my host family. All in all, they are really nice but I can’t help the fact that I still really enjoy living by myself and am looking forward to being able to again in two more months. The down side of this is that my host family won’t understand why I want to move out, so that will be another hurdle that I will have to deal with when it comes. In Ecuador, people don’t move out of the house unless they are married, that is just pretty much how it goes. And even then, it isn’t uncommon to have young mothers/families live with their parents. The family life here is very different from the states; from how you raise your children to who has what responsibilities. But I guess that is one of those things that I will just have to deal with when it gets here.

So I have officially had my first real holiday in the States which I am missing. Good old Labor Day with the football games on with the start of college football season...yes, I have to admit I even missed the football games. But I guess this is just the first of many holidays which I will be missing in my PCV service. On the brighter side, Ecuador had a soccer game on Sunday...which they lost to Columbia...but it was still a really fun time. Not quite Labor Day with the burgers and beer, but we made do with what we have here. Moral of the story here, the next two years are going to be very interesting.

I still haven't really "done" that much with my job, but I am slowly starting to accept that is one of the main aspects of my "job". Just living in a third world country where you don't speak the language or know the culturally accepted ways of doing things is a job in itself. I did meet up with my counterpart though, so I am doing a little more with INNFA now helping here and there. I have also attending some of the local meetings in my town and was apart of the Dia De Deportes (Day of Sports) this past Sunday where, of course, I got sunburned.

My first three months here my main job (being the one that I actually have to write a report for and turn into the PC) is a survey of my neighborhood and find out about the area and the things that they want to see changed. This really just involves a lot of observing and socializing. Development really does start with the people in the community, and not yourself. I am pretty proud of myself though that I have written up a couple of surveys that I can hopefully put to use sometime starting next week after I have my counterpart give his opinion on them as well.

All in all...my mood changes all of the time if not almost hourly here. But I really think that is one of the many joys of the PC experience. There is definitely a reason it is called an experience instead of just a job. The things that I am doing here don't really fit a regular job description at all and I don't think that they need to. I guess in some ways it goes back to the good old saying you'd be surprised by how far a smiple smile goes.

Living in El Retiro for the next two years of my life is going to be by far the most challenging thing I have done in my life and the most rewarding. And even though I have days where I don't know what I am doing here, I know that when the time comes to leave this area and return back to the States, that in itself will be hard as well.

July 26 2009, Sunday

Alright, so I have a little more time now to update you on my barrio site visit to El Retiro. In all honesty, it’s kind of hard to describe the barrio as I was really only there for about three days and one of those days I went into Machala. And as we all know, first impressions are only first impressions and what you think might end up happen, may not be the case at all.

El Retiro has about 1,000 people I do believe (or at least that’s what the paper that the PC gave me says). It is basically one paved street with a handful of dirt streets that go off of that road. There are always people on the main road walking, on bike, or in cars which is kind of nice as it makes the town really seem alive. The main street is pretty long though and takes about 20 minutes to walk all the way down give or take I would say. The barrio is right off of the main road (Pan-Americana) which is really nice because there are buses that come probably about every 15 minutes that go to Machala or Santa Maria. On the other three sides of the neighborhood are banana fields…tons and tons of bananas like you wouldn’t believe. As my host dad said to me, the bananas are free here because they are everywhere. My house for the first three months is on the main street on the right hand side about half of the way down and it is, in one word, cozy.

My host family mom and dad have eight children but they are all grown and some are actually living over in Spain (two or three I think). One of her daughters lives down the street though with her two children, Mario who is eight and Shirley who is eleven, and I think that they are going to become my two best friends in the area because the kids are super cool. There dad is a policeman but only lives at home during the weekend pretty much because of where his job is. In my actual house though, it is just my host mom, dad, me, and another woman who is a worker of my mom and dad in the restaurant next door.

You see, my host family actually owns the building next door which is their kitchen and a restaurant for the community (el comedor). So they have the restaurant where they work all day on the left hand side and then their house where they sleep on the right hand side. The restaurant is really neat and there are people there ALL day long really which will help me get into the community I am sure. It is open every day but Sunday and they feed about 40 people a day I would say, give or take. Therefore, my mom is cooking pretty much all day long and she actually has two women who help her cook and clean the house, with the one actually living with us (I think she might work to pay for her “rent”) so there’s four people in the house including myself.

The restaurant is really interesting too because the three women cook everything while the man, my host dad, actually is the person who talks to the people, cleans the tables, and brings out the food. He is kind of like the hostess I suppose. The reason I say this is interesting is because it really pains the gender roles here. On the coast, machismo is a really big thing and I could definitely tell even in the couple days that I was there…and I think it will take some getting used to.

The men are the ones who do the talking and works at a job all day while the women stay at home with the kids and cook and clean the house. Not only is this true for the men and women, it is also true for the boys and girls. With the youth (11-13) that I talked with on my visit, all of the boys have some type of job and they actually want to work because they want to learn the trade of that job for when they get older, and all of the girls stay at home and help their moms. The gender roles are very much defined and the idea of machismo can be seen every day. In my opinion machismo is basically the idea that the men have to be the person “in control”, working, not really doing too much with the family, as that is the women’s job, and coming and going as he pleases. I think that I am going to find that it is also very common for the man to have another woman on the side. The women definitely rule the household though and are really the people in charge of the children by far. The kids are well, kids. However, with the structure of the family the mother is very strict with them. The gender roles will be very interesting to observe as they are definitely different in my neighborhood than they are in the States.

My host mom told me too that it is common for women to get pregnant and married as young as 15 and then get divorced, or just really be on their own, around the age of 30. Obviously all of this is just the first bit of information that I am getting and it will be interesting to see what parts are true and what aren’t. They were also really surprised though that I was 23, had no kids, and no husband or boyfriend. This isn’t really the norm for women in my town at all. They started to then ask me what I find handsome in a man (we got warned this would happen – That they would try to set us up on dates) to which I responded one thing; he has to be taller than me. This is pretty much one of my requirements no matter where I am, but with this one requirement it also cancels out about 90% of the Ecuadorean men which hopefully means they won’t set me up on any dates. Because honestly, I just don’t want that at all.

Another thing about the coast is that they are very lively, animated people who are not afraid to ask you anything. Therefore, some of the first questions you do get asked when you met someone goes something like this: What’s your name, how old are you, do you have a boyfriend, how much do you make. Now I don’t know about you, but these are not really the first questions that come to mind for me when I first met someone! But on the coast, it’s just normal.

So back to describing my neighborhood, there are a handful of soccer fields and volleyball fields which have people playing on them almost all of the time. These two sports are definitely hobbies and I think that there is a soccer game just about every day. And if you don’t play in the games, you are watching. There is also an internet café and my “sister” down the street actually has internet in her house which she said I could use too. The town also has a school, a kindergarten, two churches, a police center, a health center, a community house, bakeries, restaurants, and stores. All in all, I think it makes for a pretty nice little town. Oh yeah, they also have a stadium where people play soccer a lot and it is basically a pretty nice sized field that is fenced in.

Having my host family have the restaurant is pretty cool as well since I can go and eat pretty much whenever I want. It took me the whole time I was there to convince my host mom though that I really just want fruit for breakfast instead of a whole huge meal, which is custom for breakfast complete with rice and meat. On the last day, I got a plate full of cut up banana and apple which was amazing. She even gave me some milk with ice in it since I told her I don’t really like hot milk, which is custom here for breakfast. And for lunch it is normal to have soup as well, which in all honesty, I am just getting pretty sick of here lately so I didn’t really eat it. The next day, my host mom didn’t give me soup with my lunch. Basically, when it comes to food my host mom is amazing as she observes what I did and didn’t eat and then she tailors my next meal accordingly. Therefore, by the end of the visit I was getting more meat, less rice, vegetables that I like, such as tomato and lettuce instead of yucca…yuck…, and lots of banana. I am definitely going to enjoy the food on the coast more than what I do here in the Sierra.

The house next door to the restaurant is where I will be living. I have my own room and there is one bathroom and shower for us all (there is one in the restaurant too). And get this…there is a washing machine. I did notice that they still washed some of their clothes by hand, but I think on the coast it isn’t as common for people to wash their clothes like I do here up in the Sierra. I am pretty sure though that I will be able to use the washing machine though when it comes time to do laundry…we’ll have to wait and see though. The PCs that currently live in that area told me that they take their laundry to a cleaner about every two weeks. The laundry cleaner cleans and folds your clothes for about $2, and it is a lot easier on your clothes. We’ll have to wait and see I guess! (I also posted pictures of my barrio and what not on facebook too so you can see what I’m talking about).

There are about four current PC girls that live right around where I am. Two live in barrios that are actually apart of Machala, one lives in a barrio about 15 minutes from me, and then another lives in a different barrio as well about 30 minutes from me. So all in all, there will be about five of us all within 45 minutes of each other. This will be really nice as I know that I can have some time with Americans if I need it. It is a little weird because most of them were in the same Omnibus (they have been here for about a year) and therefore have really strong friendships. But I am sure that I will be able to join in on this as well with the support system.

My job is really still pretty vague and I think always really will be. I work with INFA, Institucion de Ninos y Familias (Institution of children and families), and will be working with the community of El Retiro as well. So Romulo and I have made up some tasks for the first few months that are as follows:

1 – Introduce me to the community and explain the Peace Corps and my purpose as I am the first PC in my town. I think Romulo even mentioned a possible Fiesta for me, but we will just have to wait and see about that!

2 – Work with INFA and what Romulo is currently doing in the community. INFA gives out becas (scholarships) to the families and in return the kids have to go to school and certain other talks and the parents are certain talks that they have to attend as well for education. So Romulo has a talk right now called “Aventura de La Vida” (adventure of life) which I believe is a class for the kids that happens two times a week. So I will be helping him with that.

3 – Start a community bank. This is a big one that the community really wants but it is a project that is going to take some time because I first have to give talks about what the community bank is and how it works and then facilitate one. Basically, I have to first educate the community about a community bank and how it works to get the interest in it and then run one with the community.

4 – Give talks to the youth about self-esteem, values, and goals. Basically, just be like a social worker for the kids and remind them that they are their greatest asset. It is along the lines of one of the programs that the PC has, “Como planear mi vida” (how to plan my life), which is a resource that I am sure I will be using often.

Those are just the basic things that we managed to come up with in the first few days…and I am sure that some of those ideas will work which others will end up failing miserably. That’s just the life of a PC though for what I have heard. Once you are actually living in the community as well you will be able to see more things of what the community actually needs and wants.

So there is a summary of my barrio and my job…or what I think will be my job…for the next two years. Like I have said above, all of this is just the first impression and it will be interesting to look back at this in two years compare it to what the community and job actually were like.

Now we have a week of training back here in Cayambe followed by a week for our technical trip. The fiesta for La Chimba is this Thursday to Sunday too so that will be interesting with many circles of dancing, with the same song being played over and over again, and of course drinking all around. I am sure it will be a interesting week to come!

July 24 2009, Friday

So I guess before I get into this long blog I should just put the summary right up here at the top in case you don’t want to keep reading. My initial site visit to the El Retiro Barrio in the El Oro providence of Ecuador went pretty well and I think overall it left a pretty good impression on me and that I left a pretty good impression on them. Now with that said, I still don’t think any of this is going to easy going…but I probably would say that no matter where my site was! You can stop there if you don’t want any more details, because here they are folks.

So the trip started out with a group of five of us and one facilitator going from Cayambe to Quito (a two hour bus ride) where we had to work our way through Quito from the old bus terminal to the new bus terminal. Sounds easy, right? Well of course not. It was a Saturday when we left and apparently that changes how the metros run in Quito and we needed to take the metros to get to the new bus terminal along with walking a block at around 8pm at night. Long story short it took us about two hours total to get from the old bus terminal to the new terminal and this is with us all having our five days of clothes and whatnot for luggage that we are hauling around while not trying to look lost or too foreign so that we don’t get targeted by a pickpocket (Quito I believe is the second highest city in Ecuador for crime with Guayaquil surpassing it).

Before I continue here let me paint a picture of the public transportation here. The public transportation here is used ALL of the time and when you are standing there on the bus with absolutely no room to breathe, much less move, not only one but two or more people will manage to somehow get on. And all of the while you will have your bum into some guy you have never met and a little lady shoving you around in front (something like this…) while people constantly get on and off. I think you are starting to see how pick pocketing is an easy hobby here with the public transportation.

Okay, so now that you have that very important picture in mind I will continue. We get to Quito and head over to the first of three different Metros we ended up taking in the city. We all get shoved on together and we even run into another group of ours that is heading to the New Terminal too. The other group gets off at a stop before our group, and the other group ended up being at the right stop and we were at the wrong one. Luckily, there was a really nice guy on the Metro with us who works for the Metros that our facilitator was talking to and he took us back over to the Metro and got us on for free going the opposite direction. The kicker is that it was a Saturday night and I guess that one Saturday to get from the old to new terminal you have to take three separate Metros instead of just the normal two. So anyways, we got back on and got off at the right stop.

We then had to walk down a little over a block to the other Metro…the only thing here is that since the new bus terminal literally opened up this last weekend, no one had ever really been to it and thus no one really knew which line to take exactly. So we ended up standing in three different lines before we finally decided it was the right one. And then once the Metro comes, well let’s just say that they don’t wait. They open the door, people literally shove themselves and whoever else is in the way on or off, and the doors close whether people are in the way or not. And here is when it gets fun.

The zipper Dana’s backpack broke…now what makes this really funny is that his backpack had actually broken that morning in Cayambe when he first tried to leave. So this second backpack was actually the backpack of his host family. And of course, it had to break right when the metro came and people where being shoved on and off while others were waiting for a different line. Somehow I ended up right at the door of the Metro as it was beginning to shut. I look into the Metro and see half of my group with the other half still on the platform along with our facilitator and Dana trying to frantically stop his belongings from falling all over the Metro floor while at the same time trying to get on the Metro without getting pushed over because he is trying to not lose his belongings…and all I’m thinking is I can’t go around this city without our facilitator right now! So I literally end up holding the door open, by myself, with my bum pushing against the right side door as I yell at the rest of my group to hurry up because I don’t know how long I can hold it open. Thankfully…we all made it on, Dana with his falling apart bag and all, and my facilitator made a comment that it was a good thing I was strong to hold open the door. It was definitely a panic moment for me as I’m sure it was for Dana too!

So we have got one more Metro to get and at this point it is about 8 and we are starting to get tired and hungry since we left Cayambe at 4. Thankfully this Metro we actually had to wait for about five minutes for which gave Dana and us time to re-pack his belongings into the room that each of us had and what bags we could make up since he now no longer had a functional backpack of his own (the mosquito net bags came in really handy here). I ended up having his toiletries in my bag (remember this). So we got all of that situated before the last Metro came and then it was just the normally getting shoved on to the Metro.

The new bus station in Quito is actually a pretty nice modern building. This is where our group breaks up again because not all five of us were going to the same place; just three to el Oro and the facilitator stayed in Quito. So the three of us; me, Dana, and Sarah; head to the Pan-Americana Bus line to buy tickets (there are lines which just go straight from point A to point B and don’t pick up anyone along the way, only drop people off; safer). The tickets were $9 and we all paid with a $20 bill and got a $10 back and a dollar coin. The reason this is “funny” is that one of us ended up getting passed back a fake $10 bill, but we were just so tired for the past two hours of running around that we didn’t notice at all…and go figure, it was Dana (this part comes into play later in the story).

Our bus ended up leaving at about 9pm so we really just had time to grab some snacks and jump on the bus at that point…which the three of us didn’t really mind either, because sitting down in assigned seats with our bags safe underneath the bus, didn’t sound like that bad of a plan at that point. So we all breathed a big sigh of relief and set in for our 10 to 11 hour bus ride. They played some weird movie which I don’t really remember and I ended up half falling asleep for pretty much the whole night. Here’s a little funny side note for you too, they serve you a free cup of coke it you want just about right before you go to bed at 10pm…I guess it’s to try and help you stay up to watch the movie. But anyways, the “sleep” that you get on these buses, isn’t really much sleep.

And then of course at 2am we got pulled over by the Army, which I guess is pretty regular, and they search all of the men. It was really kind of weird though because I think that it is regular just to get stopped and have them check your papers (citizen idea cards, and we have PC cards), but they didn’t do that at all. They just patted down all of the men and pretty much just left the women alone. Either way, it was a nice stretch for the legs.

So morning comes and we are texting one of the current PCV in Machala (the big city we are going to) and trying to figure out where we are exactly and where we need to get off. And of course…we missed all of Machala and drove right through it to Santa Maria where we got off and had to take a 30 minute public bus ride back. Definitely could have been worse, but it was a minor panic moment and way too early in the morning to have to be thinking. My counterpart that I am going to be working with was actually already at the Pan-Americana bus terminal when I got into Machala so I took off and the other two went off for their bus that they needed to take about an hour and a half for Sarah (to Arenillas about 30 minutes from the Peru border) and about two hours for Dana (to Huaquillas basically right on the Peru border).

Now remember Dana’s backpack problem…and remember those toiletries. Well you guess it; Dana went off to Hauquillas while his toiletries went off to El Retiro with me…sorry Dana!!! And of course Dana realized this about 30 minutes after we parted but by then it was too late. So he ended up having to go out and buy some necessary toiletries for the trip. Now remember that fake $10 bill Dana got given back…well you guessed it, he tried to use that for his toiletries which is where he ended up finding out it was a fake. Poor man with bad travel luck!

So I got onto my next bus which costs 0.40 and is about 30 minutes to El Retiro, my barrio, from Machala; not bad at all. My counterpart is a 27 year old man, Romulo, who works with INFA in the El Retiro barrio and lives in a barrio about 15 minutes away of El Cambio (barrio = neighborhood). Machala, which in my opinion is a pretty big city, I think I am really going to enjoying being by. It has a daily market which is about four by eight blocks FULL of fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, seafood, and even clothes. Not to mention that there are some pizza and hamburger places in Machala as well (some food places I can run to for comfort so to say) as well as some super market type stores around and places that sell DVDs in Spanish AND English! There is also a big fishermen’s port in the city and from there you can take a 20 minute ferry ride to the beach which is really an Island called Jambeli. Machala is also where I will be getting my mail at a P.O. box and it is where my bank is. So I am definitely pretty excited that it is just an easy 25-30 minute bus ride away from my barrio.

From there Romulo and I headed off to El Retiro and made small chat here and there. He seems like a really nice guy that will definitely help me out in the next two years. About 15-20 minutes from my barrio just outside of Machala is a center which they actually call “Shopping”. It is basically a mini-shopping center with a food court, a movie theater (which plays movies in English every once and a while too), and a store which is kind of like a super-sized Target from what I have heard. All in all, pretty exciting…oh yeah…I forgot one of the coolest things about Shopping. It has free wireless internet there! It is supposed to be really slow, but still, it is internet…and it is free (some of the current PCVs have even used SKYPE there). So having Shopping right by my barrio is another awesome thing.

So I guess it’s time I actually talk about my barrio, eh? But sadly I am out of time right now so I will have to wait and post up another post for my thoughts on my site. All in all though, I really do think that it is going to be good.

P.S. I posted some new pictures on Facebook of my site area as well.

So I just got back from my 10 to 11 hour bus trip, followed by another 2 hour bus trip, with an hour and a half bus trip yet to follow to get from Cayambe to the home of La Chimba. My site visit went well and I have a lot of emotions and thoughts going all around in that lovely head of mine...half of which don´t make sense because of the sleep deprivation...so I therefore plan on going home, taking a nap, and then typing a blog post from my lab top which I hope to post this weekend. All in all though, the trip went really well, and the coast is definitely a laid back lifestyle where you go with what comes...probably exactly what I need for the next two years :)

So I made it into Cayambe in time to use the internet cafe before I get to head off onto my first, of many I am sure, bus trips. My voice is starting to get better but I can definately tell that it is going to take my voice a while to get back completely. At least now though I can almost make full sentences when I talk!

I am really excited to go to my site and get my first impressions of everything. That really is about all I´ve got right now besides the fact that I am feeling pretty doped up from the medicine I am taking and I feel sleepy...which could be a good thing for this bus trip. Happy reading with the other posts!

July 17 2009, Friday

Just a couple quick updates to mention. First things first, the PC decided to not really give us a day off this weekend as we have language class first thing in the morning tomorrow and then for people who have a long trip to their site, like me, we get to leave right after for the buses. So my long journey will be tomorrow and I am actually kind of excited for it because I am sure that after two years of living down south I will be pretty familiar with this trip at the end of it all (we have to go back to Quito for certain things here and there throughout our service).

Today we just had language classes and we were able to go to Cayambe which was really good because we all needed money from the ATM for our trip. We also had to pay our host families here in La Chimba their money as well so we all definitely needed to get more money with both paying our host families and having enough money to take on our site trip with us. The ATM machines were not really working very well and it took us a couple of tries and three different machines in the end but we all ended up getting our money (the PC is still having problems with the banking at the moment). I think pretty much everyone struggled a little with the ATMs though so no one was left out.

For the fun update, I woke up this morning and couldn’t talk. Well more so as one of the PCTs said today, I sounded like one of the cartoon characters from Family Guy (I think she said the baby, Stewy) or my personal favorite and one I know that my father will love, the Godfather, when I tried to talk. I stayed up last night as well using the last of my voice to talk to my mom on the phone, which was total worth it, but it was definitely gone this morning. Once we all got together though four out of five of us realized that we needed to talk to the doctor about something or another. So we called him and he was actually going around to the communities to give out the mosquito bed nets for the people in the Malaria Zones (yes this includes me…). So he came and handed out our mosquito bed nets and then had a consultation with each of us, minus the one healthy one.

One girl has to wait on her next bowl movement to see the outcome as to if she can even go on her site visit this weekend or not (I definitely think it sounds like she’s got it the worst out of all of us!). Another girl has to go to Quito at some point to get tested to see if she is diabetic and the other girl I believe just has a cold right now with diarrhea that seems to be pretty constant. My diagnosis was the only one that the doctor could actually put a name to right now (and drive around the corner to get the medication)…and the winner is…laryngitis!

Basically, I have had a cold for about the past week and it just decided to move a little further down south into my esophagus and lungs. Everything that is coming out of my nose is really clear but when I cough I have green stuff come up from my esophagus and lungs (not to mention I have pressure around both of my ears). I also get light headed really easily especially with the altitude here. And today was the top off with my inability to speak in either Spanish or English. So I have antibiotics that I get to take over the next three days, one pill a day, and some lovely cough type medicine that I take a teaspoon of every 6 hours along with 2 ibuprofen, and I got told that my voice will be sore for about five days or so.

I realized this morning though that I was taking a total of 7 pills in the morning for the past few days give or take (2 Tylenol, 2 nasal decongestants, 1 malaria, 1 anti-allergy and 1 birth control). Now I just have to take 5 pills in the morning (2 ibuprofen, 1 malaria, 1 anti-allergy and 1 birth control) with a few more ibuprofen during the day and an antibiotic during lunch for the next two days. Got to love the crazy things a different altitude, area, and climate do to your body. There really are so many illnesses out there!

So that’s my interesting update though…that I have laryngitis and now the local people really look at me like I’m crazy when I try to talk because I’m speaking really broken Spanish in a voice that even makes the Americans laugh at me because of how weird I sound. Oh well, another experience to put in the books!

July 16 2009, Thursday

So it finally came...D-day (the “It’s going to be Okay…Just Hang In There” is from the card I got from my mommy today). But before I get to the exciting news of where my site is and how the day went, I first must update you all on the events of yesterday. Yesterday, in Cayambe (the “big” city within our training area), there was a riot in the main park. I’m not really 100% sure what happened since I was not there but I will tell you the most that I know.

Basically, a joven, or what is rumored to be possibly up to three “young people”, got into a Camineta truck (this is basically a glorified taxi driver which is really something like a Ford truck where everyone piles into the back to make it up the mountain) and the driver got robbed and murdered. The Camineta driver was from Cayambe and the murderer is not from around this area, I believe it’s possibly someone from the Coastal Area. The police managed to find the one youth (16-21 years old) and took him to jail. However, in this area there is actually a clause in their constitution which says that they can have community justice essentially (this is an area with strong indigenous roots). Therefore, there were people in the community who wanted to lynch, murder, and burn the murderer and therefore a riot followed yesterday at around 5pm in the central park of Cayambe. No one was really sure though where the murder had been taken since the police kept trying to through people off. Some of the PCTs where in Cayambe though and there was tear-gas that the police set off in the park to break up the mob. No PCTs got hurt although one or two did get exposed to some of the tear-gas which I guess is used often in Latin America from what I have been told because it is a really effective way to break up mobs. The rest of the PCTs that were in Cayambe at the time were all in building or stores and stayed there until our Duty Officer came in his car to pick them up from right outside of the building. Sad story now though is that our main big city that is close by, Cayambe, was off limits again today unless you live there.

So that’s the exciting riot story to start off this blog. But onto the super cool stuff for the day; the site selection. We got to training at 8am this morning where they prolonged the suspense until about 9:45 when they finally starting to tell us our sites. It was actually really neat as they had taped off the different regions on the floor in a map of Ecuador (even with Peligroso/dangerous signs for the Columbian boarder area). They then reached into a bag with all of our names in it, and read off our city and we ran through a little human tunnel out to the other side with the map and regions and we were then taken to our area. I think my name got called about ¾ of the way through so that most of the people where already standing on the map on the other side at the site spot. And the drum roll please!!!! My site is El Retiro – El Oro region (El Oro literally translates to the Gold). Now the funny thing is that I was actually the first of the three people in my region to get called. I am in the southern part of Ecuador in the Coast region. I have two other people from my Omnibus living in the region with one; one girl and one boy; and I do know that there are other PCVs currently down in that region, but I have no idea how many of whom as of right now.

I really would love to spend like the next page telling you information about my site…but the truth is I really don’t know much! Like I mentioned, it is on the coast and I do have to take malaria medicine for my full service (right now this is Doxycycline which I have to take daily), I think I will have a bug net to sleep under as well, and that it is going to be HOT. So like a 180 from where I am currently living as I believe the one lady told us that it is around 90 degrees F there and it is not 8,000 to 10,000 feet of altitude like where I am currently living! The bigger city that is by me is Machala (I believe it even has an airport…not international, but it is an airport) and it is about an hour to an hour and a half bus ride from my neighborhood of El Retiro or about 1,000 people. I also believe that my site has internet as well and all the basic amenities. Oh yeah, and that the main exports are bananas and shrimp.

I am working with the Instituto de la Ninez y Familia (INFA) and I will list below the aspects that have been given for me for my job (these always change once you actually are working at your site keep in mind):

• Plan and implement educational activities with the families and the community.

• Organize recreational activities with children and adolescents focused in aspects of life skills.

• Conduct workshops about bettering the quality of life for families.

• Help to start community banks and small enterprise businesses.

• Organize activities related to preventing the exploitation of children as workers and the promotion of children’s rights.

• Help to strengthen the after-school tutoring program.

I think that for the moment that is just about all of the real information that I have. We leave to go on our site visits this weekend, I leave Saturday and travel overnight (a 13-15 hour trip all in all) and get to my site for Sunday. I then leave my site Wednesday to travel overnight and get back home for Thursday. So I have about three days really in my site to explore and try to get a feel for things.

All in all, today was a really emotionally packed and exciting day. I can’t wait to learn more about my site and my nerves and emotions are jumping up and down all over the place. It’s almost like you don’t know which way is up anymore as there are a million and one thoughts that run through your head with questions and curiosity. One other thing I guess I should mention is that we lost a member of our Omnibus today as she decided to go home (we went from 45 down to 44), or as they have acronyms for everything around here, she ETed. This is sad, but also kind of expected as statistics show that one out of ten PCTs does not complete training.

Once I have had my site visit and my dad has researched my site on the web (I’m counting on you dad!) I will be sure to post up more information. As for right now though, it is REALLY late (this is 10:30 for me now) and I’ve got to finishing reading a little more information and then head to bed. Oh yeah, one other little neat thing is that the PC took our aspiration statement that we wrote back during the application process for the PC and used some of our words in a letter back to us. Remember your words: “I feel like it is apart of my responsibility to give back to people who do not feel that hope in life that I have been given. Life is too short and precious to waste it by only experience what you know.” Wow am I ever good!

So tomorrow we find out our site assignments...that is really just about all I have to say because I CAN NOT WAIT!!! I mean...let´s be realistic here, tomorrow I get to find out where I am living in Ecuador for the next two years of my life and what I will be doing. Not to mention what other Gringos will be in the area with me and therefore who will be my main support system for the next two years. All in all...pretty darn exciting.

Nothing else to say....Peace out until tomorrow!

P.S. I put more pictures up on facebook

July 12 2009, Sunday

Today was an interesting day, or at least I thought it was for me! I started off the day at 8 am when my host mom knocked on my door for desayuno (breakfast). I was already awake, like I tend to be these days anyhow as I really don’t think it’s possible to sleep in around here between the rosters, the fact that the cows need to be milked at 5am, and of course the dogs. And yet when I don’t have to get up to go to classes, I tend to just lie in bed until breakfast is ready at around 8, sometimes 9 if I’m lucky. So anyways, I get up and eat my breakfast of potato and onion soup…yes that’s right folks; potato and onion soup for breakfast. For some reason my family has soup with or for every meal (tonight was chicken soup…the Ecuadorean style, slightly different than at home). I even talked to the main language and culture guy about the soup at every meal and he was a little surprised as well. I mean, it does make sense though since it is almost always cold up here to have soup a lot. So I got up and ate my soup for breakfast.

Next I worked on some competency stuff that I have to do every week for the PC (competencies are their way of saying this is some form of a test to show that you are learning something during training). Once that fun stuff was done I walked down to the soccer field in La Chimba where three of the other PCTs from La Chimba where. There are always soccer games in La Chimba on Sunday and today there were a lot more because the women were playing too. They play on a lot smaller field though than the men and they always play with less people…I think it was 7 on the field plus the goalie for the women’s where as the men’s game is normal. So anyhow, some of our host mom’s and/or sisters were playing in some of the games so we stayed around and watched (neither my host mom nor sisters played).

Since the games were taking so long and we needed lunch, we went and bought some bread and made cheese and tomato sandwiches. We also made some guacamole dip that we put on top of the sandwiches, Sprit to drink, and some yogurt. All in all, it made for a pretty good lunch. So we made the food and then took it back to the soccer pitch were everyone looked at us with funny faces because a, we are the gringas, and b, because we were bring in a packed lunch of sandwiches. However, it didn’t face us and nor did the group of dogs that ended up circling us as we ate. All in all, the lunch was definitely a success.

The games kept on going for the most of the day so one of the girls and I decided to go on a walk up towards the mountains instead. And MAN what a view from up top. And MAN what a work out. I am definitely going to be sore tomorrow. I will be sure to get one of those pictures up because it was completely worth it for the view. Not to mention that I can now say I have climbed up one of the Andes Mountains, oh yeah! All in all it took us about three hours, two hours up and one hour down. Coming down is a lot easier, but it still takes quiet the effort. And we could even see the whole town of La Chimba from where we were. It was pretty amazing really.

Then we got home around five and I decided I should really do the laundry that I needed to get done. So I started out scrubbing away at my clothes on my rock pedestal and I thought, well hey, my shoes need a little rub off to after the day. So I went and got them and just brushed them off with a little water knowing that I would have to wear them tomorrow too because they are my only pair of tennis shoes. So I see my host brother”s shoes on the stairs drying off some too and I figure, okay, I’ll just set my right next to his. Then I go back to scrubbing away at my laundry. About five minutes later I see one of the dogs run out into the yard and he has something in his mouth but I can’t quite tell what it is. Then I look again and a little closer and I realize that it is my shoe. Not only is it my shoe in his mouth, but I then realize that my other shoe is not on the stairs anymore either.

So I run out into the yard where the dog thinks it’s a game and I grab my shoe back from him. Thankfully, it was all still in tack…but there’s still one big problem; I only have one shoe. My host brother comes out and asks me what is going on and I told him that dog took my shoe and now I only have one! So he starts to look around the three possible lots where this dog might have put my shoe. About an hour later we are still looking for me shoe. It was like it had up and vanished. So it gets to the point where I am about to start crying because I am starting to have to try and accept that I might not find my other shoe and that means that I was going to have to go shopping in a country where the average female height has got to be about 5’2” for a pair of size 11 tennis shoes. I was not amused by this thought at all. So I figured to look one more place, up on the roof. And sure enough, that’s where the little thing had stashed my shoe. Some of the laces were pulled apart, but it was all still intact. At one point though, I really thought I was going to have to slap that dog for stealing my shoes. Not amused; not amused at all. What I don’t get is that my host brother’s shoes did not get touched at all…and they were right next to mine. It’s almost like the dog knew better than to take the one pair, so he just took mine instead.

So after that I quickly finished up my laundry before it got too dark (7pm here it gets dark) and then I jumped into the shower because our walk really made me stinky and we also have the U.S. Ambassador visiting us tomorrow and our one requirement was that we were all too shower…this was a half joke and half serious I think! So I was kind of starting to dread this shower because it was already dark and cold outside but I forced myself to do it. And man was I every glad that I did because it was the BEST shower that I have had here in Ecuador. It was steaming HOT water that I loved every minute of. I really do think it was the best shower that I have had here in the country yet.

Then I got out and had my chicken noodle soup for dinner, washed the dishes from dinner, and then had some type of fresh herbal tea that my mom had picked the herbs during the day in the area she was at (it was fresh from the fields) and it was really good and enjoyable.

Now I am warm in bed and the dog that isn’t really ours, Martin (our one dog, not my best friend dog but the other one who isn’t a puppy is the shoe theft though), is moaning really loudly which means I get to try and out there and have him shut up….oh dogs. I definitely still like dogs…but I also have to say there are definitely a couple of them I wouldn’t care to ever see again. This really makes me lean toward getting a cat for sure! Goodnight…hopefully!!!

Hey you all, I´m just here in Cayambe doing my normal weekend errands. Everyone is really starting to get excited about the possible site locations and where we are all going to be which we find out on Thursday. We have been informed though that for the Youth and Family program there are 2 sites in the Oriente (jungle), 8 sites in the Sierra (highlands), and the rest which I think is about 13 or so are in the Coasta (Coast). So those are the possible locations for our group. For more information we are going to have to just all wait until Thursday...super exciting though and super nervous as well!!!!

That´s about all that is new. Besides that just the same old same old. Tomorrow is laundry day which means I will be rubbing my cloths and hands against a rock with soap for about 2 to 3 hours. We are thinking about a possible hike up the Cayambe Mountain as well during the day and of course the football game that happens every Sunday in La Chimba. It really seems like Saturday is a good day to come down to Cayambe and then have Sunday to relax in La Chimba for the upcoming week.

That´s it folks, all is still well here in Ecuador :)

July 9 2009, Thursday

Update on the Ecuadorian front. Like I mention in my last blog, we are starting to get into a routine here. There are basically lots of lectures during the day, mixed in with technical classes, language classes, and culture classes. That is pretty much the life of a PCT in a nutshell. Oh yeah, and you have to put in the competencies in there as well (basically tests) and progress reports. In the spare time that we have, which isn’t really too much, it is usually spent either traveling from point A to point B or preparing a charla or some competency for the upcoming week. And if we don’t have a charla we have to work on, then it’s either time to wash the laundry, take a shower, or take a nap. Now don’t get me wrong, we manage to mix in some time in there to have fun with each other as well…whenever we can which doesn’t tend to be that often.

I guess what I am trying to ramble on is, we don’t have much spare time during CBT (community based training). For La Chimba, it also doesn’t really help the cause that we have to spend about two hours a day traveling give or take. I think we estimated that we walk about 2 mile one way to Olmedo just about every day either to take the bus to our site for the day or to eat lunch that day (there are no restaurants in La Chimba). Then we have the 2 mile walk back as well. It is definitely one great way to get your exercise for the day, but it also really cuts back on your day when you have lectures 8am-4/4:30pm with 2 hours of travel and it being dark at 7pm easily. But we are definitely getting the trail down, that is for sure.

I have also heard though that once you are actually at your site you have loads of free time and almost don’t know what to do with it all because you don’t have all of these lectures and classes. CBT is definitely a thing of its’ own which is really needed and yet at the same time can become kind of tedious. It is a great way to strengthen our PC support group with each other though.

So this past week has basically been more lectures and classes, nothing really too crazy to report about the week. However, last weekend I went into Cayambe on Saturday where they are currently having the fiestas. In case I have forgotten to mention it in any of the blogs…which I think I might have…right now is fiesta time…for four months. That’s right, four months of fiestas every weekend. Now let me quickly define fiesta for you as well. It’s a parade that goes around for quite a few hours around the town (and by parade I mean people that dress up from each sector of the community and then dance and drink around the town), with some “typical” parade things as well such as community queens and such, with lots of people selling stuff on the street and of course...drinking and “dancing”. They always decorate the town with streamers and such. Now let me quickly define dancing for you. This would be when everyone stands around in a circle and moves their feet back and forth as they continue drinking and walking around in a circle together. I think you are starting to get the picture; lots of drinking and lots of “dancing”.

Each community in the area is assigned 1-3 weekends of fiestas, for their respected Saints, depending on the size of the community, one weekend is always the biggest, and this past weekend was the biggest one for Cayambe out of three weekends. It was actually really cool because I ended up just walking around by myself, during the day so it was safe, and just looked around at all of the street vendors. Just by doing that I ended up in the plaza de torros where sure enough, there were some “brave souls” in the middle of the ring with their red on taunting the bull; the good old running with the bulls. However, there were a lot of people in that area which was very cramped and had quite a few intoxicated people, so I didn’t stay that long watching the bulls. I then came home and spent Sunday completely in La Chimba, sleeping “in” (waking up at 8), washing my clothes, washing myself, doing general maintenance to my body such as clipping toe nails, and working on some Spanish language practice. And let me tell you, it was great to actually have the time to do all of that.

Now the interesting/sad part of this story is that some other people also went into Cayambe over the weekend and got something stolen or had some attempt to steal something. From my understanding thus far, assault is really not that common here in Ecuador, but thieves and burglary are. One girl took her camera out to take a picture of the torros and then put it back into her purse where someone grabbed into her purse and stole it. Another girl had the back of her purse pouch that they gave us to keep our valuables in, it’s like a mini purse if you will, slashed without her even knowing. However lucky for her, the knife hit her camera that was in the purse, so it didn’t get slashed enough for anything to fall out (her camera had a nick on it later she realize when she got home and saw the small slash). She said that she didn’t even feel it at all.

Now before you start to worry mom, it really could be a lot worse. Most of the theft here is pick-pocketing in the streets and it is especially common during the fiestas. So basically this just means that you have to be aware at all times and make sure to not leave things in your pockets where things can easily be taken especially in crowded situations. You just have to remember to put your belongings underneath your cloths and close to your chest where you will be more aware of someone try to steel. But enough with that downer because all in all the weekend was a lot of fun; it was also just a good reminded that we are living in a foreign country where you have to be careful.

My nose is still slightly peeling…and man do I just not understand why because this is like the fifth time it has. Oh well, that sun really is strong here. They actually told us today something about how they rate the UV rays and how dangerous they are…and the UV rays in Quito are about 2-8 points higher than what they consider to be dangerous. Long story short here, wear sunscreen you pale white gringa, and wear the silly sunscreen (thanks Dad…). My bug bites however are completely gone in the itchy and bumpy way, now they just look like really funky scares. And thankfully, the fairy has not made another visit to me but I have heard that she is having some extended visits with others.

Today I did pick up a bit of a cough though which is really annoying because I already have a hard enough time breathing up here in this altitude without the cough! I told the doctor today because he was at one of the lectures and he basically told me what I thought; this is just the Sierra form of a cold because the air up here is so thin and dry that it affects your throat like this at times. It is definitely a new feeling though for me…a new feeling that I’m not the fondest of! Hopefully tomorrow it will be better…or I will just have become more accustomed to the feeling.

We also had our first progress report today with our technical group leader for Youth and Families, Cristina (who is Ecuadorean). Everything for me was pretty much on the positive side which was nice to hear that they think I belong here even if there are sometimes when I question whether I do or not. If the trainers think that I have the right attitude for this gig, I guess I have to just agree with them and have a little more faith in myself sometimes. Now with the language competency for the day I would say that I did pretty well on, but of course I would like to have done better as they are definitely places that I can improve. My language needs work, but they know that I want to work on it and that it will come little by little…which I just have to keep reminding myself of!

Other than that, the only other news I have is that we now have another dog “living” at my house. This one however I am not too fond of as it is a larger dog, one of the larger ones I have seen really, and he tends to like to bark at night right outside my door (for example last night between the hours of 1 and 2:30 where I was wide awake). He is actually the dog of my mother’s brother who has a PCT staying with them as well. Basically the conclusion that we have come too is that this dog, Martin, doesn’t like staying at his house because he is the only dog there were here he has three other ones to play with. However…even though it is hard for me to say…I’m not a fan of Martin and I really, really wish he would just go back home (and he won’t because we have tried a couple of times and he just comes back here). So hopefully for tonight he won’t bark a whole bunch because otherwise I think I might have to go get a stick to get him to be quiet because that is what they do around here. My three dogs though I do still love and adore and my best friend still walks with me every day…the three year old girl told me his name is Bismoth…but I think that the PCT girls of La Chimba are going to give him another name at some point as he walks with us every day.

Alright, I think I’m just about blogged out for the night. The only other thing I can think of to add is that in one week we will know our site for the next two years which is…super exciting!!! It will be really nice to be able to look at the bigger picture and know where you are going to be with what type of people (because the type of people differs greatly by region just like in any country) and what type of climate. That in itself I am really excited for like I am sure all of the PCTs are. Cristina told me today that even the counter-parts that we will be working with are getting anxious and asking her when they will know who they are working with as well. So that is something for the upcoming week to really look forward too. Tomorrow night I think we are getting together with the people in Pesillo (a town about 30 minute walk away) for an “American” type dinner, and then for Saturday it is either time for a hike up into the freezing cold mountains, or a trip down into Cayambe. Sunday will probably be another nice relaxing day in La Chimba with laundry to do and a futbol game in the afternoon. Now though…it is bedtime!

Happy July 4th to everyone back in the States. Today we had a day off am I decided to come into the ¨big¨city of Cayambe for the day to meet up with some friends and relaxe for a little while (and find something good for lunch that isn´t soup)!

As for the pictures, I have figured out that you can upload them to the blog site but it takes forever and you actually end up having the pictures in the text. Because of this, I have decided that I am going to just break down and actually upload my pictures on to my facebook account. This means that if you actually want to see the pictures that I am posting, you have to look on to facebook (mom/dad...just ask Michael and he´ll be able to help you out). So that is where the pictures are going to be, on the good old world of facebook.

That is about all I have to say for this post, now off to find some good food somewhere! :)

July 03 2009, Friday

Holy moly did this week ever go by quickly! I’m still trying to decide whether that is a good thing or not though! Monday we just had our language/culture classes here in the lovely community of La Chimba and went to Olmendo for lunch I do believe if I remember correctly; Tuesday we had technical classes where we prepared our first “charla” (workshop); Wednesday we were all back together in Ayora for a couple more health and security lectures with no vaccinations, yippee skippee; Thursday we gave our first “charla” to some of the family members of the communities we live in (our topic was good communication) in Pesillo, a town about a 40 minute walk from my house; and then today we had a sports day in Cayambe where current volunteers came from around as well to enjoy the day and have a BBQ lunch in celebration of the Fourth of July. In a nut shell, that was my week and man did it ever go by quickly. The charla that we gave was in groups so that much it a lot easier than what they will actually be when we get to our site and have to put on charlas by ourselves. But it was definitely a great eye opener to the idea of them as I am sure that there are plenty of charlas in my future. We did the human knot activity, and then we had a small activity on answering some questions about yourself personally and how honest you are within yourself and your emotions and we ended with some skits that we put on to demonstrate good and poor communication. Our yeah, the trip to Pesillo was an interesting one though as the “road” that we went down was way under construction and had literally holes and trenches all the way along it. So much so to the point where we had to jump from spot to spot to keep going (although some places had boards you could walk over from point A to point B I felt the jumping methods was a little more secure). Either way, it was quite the adventure just to get to Pesillo! After that route we realized that there is another route to Pesillo, it just takes a little longer. However, if you are in the mood for an adventurous walk, the way we went was the way to go. Today was actually a lot of fun as we had a soccer tournament between all of the communities (we lost the first game, but it was still a lot of fun!). And you know what I learned from this soccer game…the altitude here is a K-I-L-L-E-R. The games only lasted 12 minutes…but then it took you about the next two following games to actually gain your breath back. At one point during the game my hands actually became all tingly and I guess that is because my body wasn’t getting enough oxygen, or at least that is what I got told! Man is that altitude every a killer. It was rather funny though watching everyone feel like they were extremely out of shape regardless as to if they actually are or not! I guess when you do go up like 8,000 feet above sea level it makes quite the difference. This is what we all learned today here at the PCT. After the games we had the BBQ with burgers, hot dogs, chips, salad, guacamole, chips, soda, and best of all…wait for it…NO rice!!! It was definitely a good old American meal which was nice to have for a change. We also got to meet and talk with some of the current volunteers here in Ecuador that had come from all around for the event. I also got to meet my “big brother” Garret, who seemed really nice and friendly. It was really nice to be able to talk to other PCV’s and I think that they enjoyed looking back at all of us and remembering for themselves when they were in our very own shoes not too long ago really. There were PCV’s from all of the groups as well here in Ecuador; Youth & Families, Health, Agriculture, and Natural Resources (probably 15 or so PCVs). All in all, it made for a really nice day and the sun even came out for the later part of the day. Once all of the activities were done for the day we got to spend the rest of the day in Cayambe hanging out, which was really nice to actually have some down time. So most of us went out and had a drink or two and then went shopping for whatever necessities we needed to get from a larger town while we were there. That was my week. I think that for the most part we are starting to get into a pretty solid routine here. I am really looking forward to having this weekend off though. Both Saturday AND Sunday! I think that tomorrow I am going to go into Cayambe during the day and meet up with some other PCTs and eat lunch and hang out for the day…actually during the day instead of during the afternoon where I don’t get back to La Chimba until 730/8 like during the weeks. Then Sunday I think I am just going to stay here in the wonderful community of La Chimba and go to the weekly soccer game. It will be really nice to stay here in the community for a day and be able to read over some Spanish information and maybe even some of the other many books the PC has given us thus far! I also think that I made a new best friend this week….one of my dogs here. He is the biggest dog that the family has, I would say medium-large size, and he ended up walking all the way with me to where we all meet up in La Chimba to then make the walk to Olmedo so we can then take the bus to Ayora. The dog decided to walk all the way to the centro of La Chimba (about 15 minutes) with me and he then continued walking with all of us to Olmeado (about 20 minutes). Thank goodness he found the way back home! He then decided to walk with me again the next day the whole way. Therefore, I do believe that I have my first best friend here in Ecuador…go figure it would be an animal! I definitely feel like we are getting into a grove with things here…I’m just not sure yet if that is a good thing or not. PCT is very different than what being an actual volunteer will be like. Here we see another Gringo daily and are able to speak English to one another and understand where the other is coming from. At our site, we might not see another Gringo for weeks. As they told us at one point, CBT (community based training) can be a lot like high school. That is in many ways a great way to describe it. It is definitely a lot of fun though, and as many of the volunteers told us today, just enjoy it basically because it will never be like this again. My family I am still really enjoying and having the baby here is really bringing a lot of other people around to our house. It is definitely an important time for this family and I feel a little bad at times that they have to worry about this Gringa as well. I know though that the family is glad in general that I am here and I know that I am really lucky to be here as well. The Lechon family is definitely a very loving one. That’s it for now folks…now it’s time to finish this glass of wine that I’ve got here and then go to bed WITHOUT setting an alarm (even though I’ll walk up tomorrow way to early either by the car getting ready to go and milk the cows at about 430, the roasters whenever they decided to start making noise, the dogs barking at goodness knows what, or a family member when they tell me breakfast is ready at about 8 or 9). Either way, just knowing that I don’t have to set an alarm is good enough for this girl.

I have pictures to put up but I´m not sure how too yet! So bare with me folks because I promise you that pictures are coming one way or another...I just don´t have the time to figure it out right now though!

June 29 2009, Monday

Just a quick little note to put in here…I realized today that we have Cuy (Guinea Pig) in our back yard in a coup that I thought had chickens in it. Now for those of you who don’t know by now, Cuy is a delicacy dish here. And it was in this moment that I realize that I think I would be a vegetarian if I had to actually kill the animal myself. Now I know this is VERY hypocritical, but I just don’t think I could actually kill one of those animals. But I love meat so much that I am just going to keep eating my met and not think of the living things in my back yard that I am actually eating.

Another quick little update is that the swelling on my ankles has definitely gone down but I think that the individual bug bites themselves have actually gotten bigger and redder and itchier if possible. But at least the swelling has gone down so that there isn’t that pressure on my ankles now when I walk. Now I just have to stop myself from scratching those big red bumps! Nothing else new to report for now.

June 28 2009, Sunday

Hard to believe that the last time I wrote anything down for my blog was three days ago. These past couple of days have been really crazy and busy and a lot of fun at the same time. But before I get to all of the new stuff that I did this past weekend I have a couple of things that I have figured out/remembered that I should probably write down and have forgotten too.

This past Monday June 22nd Estella, my Ecuadorean mom, was running around like crazy trying to get breakfast for me. I didn’t really think much of it, just that she was in a hurry or that she knew I was. Later that day when I came back from training though I learned that the reason she was running around so much. Her daughter went into labor that morning and had a little baby girl in the Cayambe Hospital that day. Estella was running around trying to get me breakfast before she went with her daughter into Cayabme, an hour trip one way by car, to give birth. Crazy, I know. Now there are a couple other crazy parts to this story as well. One being that I know realize that Estella has two sons and two daughters. She just didn’t list the one down on the paper that I filled out with her because her other daughter actually lives next door and not in the house with us. So long story short with that, I believe now that Estella has two boys (both single), one 14 and one 22, and two daughters (both married) one 23 and I’m not sure of the other’s age that lives next door with her husband and son. The father of the new born is 31.

Now the real crazy part of this story in my mind is that the new mother came back home the same day she gave birth! Not only the same day, but in a 13 hour time period including the two hours of driving. They left the house at 7am and came back the same day at 8pm. The poor new mother could barely walk. Now the new baby girl is absolutely adorable and probably just about the tiniest baby I have ever seen. And of course when they walked in with her they asked me if I wanted to hold her and I basically said nuh uh, that baby is way too small and cute for me to hold on her first day of life. Another crazy point to this story is that the father did not go to the Cayambe Hospital. He waited here at the house for phone call updates on the situation. Just a little different I thought that the mother would go but not the baby’s father. And the last crazy part of this story is that the baby still doesn’t have a name. When I asked the new mother about naming the baby, she basically said, we get to name it whenever we want to and have a good name for her. All in all though, quite the experience and now we have lots of family members and friends that are constantly coming and going. The poor new mom has to stay on bed rest for a month though which means that Estella waits on her whenever she can. So that really was the big update which I forgot to tell you about…my bad. Quick wrap-up of the week activities is that we had a lot of classes and lectures. Moving on to this weekend, which started bright and early at 5am on Friday. We went on our cultural trip this weekend. My group, the whole 45 got split up into two different groups, went to Mascarillas (an Afro-Ecuadorean culture) while the other group went to a Native Ecuadorean culture where they speak Kitchwa, the native dialect. Mascarillas was about a two hour bus trip from Cayambe. So we all meet together in Cayambe at 7:30 in the morning to head out (thus the getting up at 5 because Cayambe is about an hour to an hour and a half trip). Now Mascarillas is another smaller type community area like the areas we are currently in. However, Mascarillas is two hours DOWN the mountain which means, you guessed it, that it was much warmer (up to the 80’s) which we were all very excited about. So when we got there, everyone changed into our skirts, shorts, t-shirts, tank tops, and most importantly…sandals. Next we watch one of the local crafts take place of making a clay mask…it was really really good. Everyone had to try to make their own mask but none were as good as hers was, which she made look so easy to do. We then went on what I would call a nature walk around the community where our "tour guides" showed us the plants and their uses which included but where not limited to, bug repellent, sun screen, makeup, herbs for teas, medicine, and more. After that we went on a walk to the river…now the kicker here was finding the river. Sounds easy, right? Not when the whole river is surrounded with brush and who knows what. There really wasn’t a path to the river which might help explain why we went the wrong way about three times. At first I was wondering why one the tour guys had a machete with him…that quickly made sense. And of course in the process of making our way to the river we picked up the lovely companions of mosquitoes. So needless to say, my legs were all types of bitten up. The best part though, the river was really worth it; so beautiful and peaceful. After that we went back into the city and watched some people perform a dance known as the Bomba. It was pretty darn crazy and I have video of it that I would like to upload at some point. These women dance and they balance a glass vase on their head that has water in it while they dance around; definitely a talent. The one woman even got down during this dance and did some push-ups with this vase on the top of her head not faltering once. Pretty darn neat I thought…and a lot of talent! Everyone then ended up dancing and it was a lot of fun. We ended the day by all meeting up at the sports center and watched the locals play indoor soccer and then had some games of our own. The following day was a lot shorter so we would have time to get back at a decent time. First, we walked down to the local compost where the men basically make fertilizer from decomposition stuff. So we learned all about that process that takes a total of about 6 months for one row to become decomposed. Next, we had a nice talk given to us by a musician of the Bomba music and he spoke about how the Afro-Ecuadoreans have had trouble and still are today. His talk was really interesting. That was pretty much it for the second day of the trip because we then had to make our way back to La Chimba.

Now the kicker to this Cultural trip is that I was just getting over my sunburn disaster and now my legs are eaten up like none other by mosquitoes. The good thing is that I didn’t make my sunburn any worse during the trip, only mosquito bites. The trip home though was a hard one for me because of those bites. I really got eaten up around my ankles and the combination of my skin’s reaction to them and my legs being down all day and walked upon made my ankles swell up. By the time I got home, it hurt to walk on my ankles and it basically looked like I had two rolled ankles. So today, I spent a lot of time trying to stay off of my poor swollen ankles. Basically, I managed to get rid of one disaster, my sunburn, and replace it with another, my bug bites. Now on the good news though, my stomach is taking things better, so the fairy has left me for now.

Today we walked over to Olmedo for a little while because that is where the fiesta is this weekend and today is the last day of it. It was really interesting to see the fiesta, which is basically a parade where people get all dressed up and going around drinking a ton starting at about 8 am. The people also dance and sing to this one same sang over and over and over again. It was really interesting though and we meet up with some other PCT there as well. All in all, it made for a pretty fun day. I came home at about 3 pm and washed my cloths by hand on my rock and put them up on the clothes line. This took me about a total of two hours to complete. That was really about it for the day. After I washed my clothes I met up with the other La Chimba girls to work on some "homework" type stuff that we have and then came home for dinner and now am in bed. I sure do hope that I get to sleep some tonight though. I have taken enough Benadryl for my bug bites that I should be knocked out here pretty soon. The one thing though about the fiestas and sleep is that you don’t get a whole lot even if you don’t part-take in them. Last time I was woken up three different times, about 11 pm, 2am, and 4am, by singing people in their costumes banging on my door. You see, it’s tradition for people to go around at night and knock on doors for bread and other food and then sing you a song and have you dance with them in a circle. The down side to this is that even if you don’t answer the door, which people don’t really late at night, then the dancers just make a whole lot of noise to try and get you up (aka, they sing really loudly and pound repeatedly on your door for about 10-15 minutes). I asked my host mom today if it was better to give them food or to not give them food. She said it was better to not give them food because then they won’t come back, and yet she gave them food anyways so I asked her way. And she said simply, its tradition. So it will definitely be an interesting night for me with more banging and singing I’m sure. Oh and how could I forget the dogs barking! Must not forget that part! Sweet dreams to me.

P.S. I did already see a guy "resting" in a ditch on the way home today at about 7pm – This is common during fiestas. And a little FYI, fiestas in this area over all of Cayambe last for about four months from May to August (La Chimba has their fiesta in August).

June 25 2009, Thursday

So the fairy has arrived…what fairy you might ask…the diarrhea fairy that goes around and visits every Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) without fail. As our medical doctor told us during one of the health lectures, "diarrhea… well you’ll just have it so that’s all there is really to say". It’s not so much a question of if you will get sick while you are here, it is more so a question as to when you will get sick. Lucky for me right now, it isn’t unbearable, but it is definitely here.

We took the bus today from Cayambe up to La Chimba. And I swear, it is just about the worse bus ride I have been on in my life which last about an hour and a half. This was the second time I have taken this trip, and all of the pot holes where still there. On the bright side, it is a really beautiful country side that you get to see on the way up the mountain. It wasn’t too bad at first though because I was feeling ok at that point (and I was standing up so I had to use my whole body from falling all around). And then a seat opened up and I sat down. That’s when the fairy came to visit and I still had about 30 minutes left in the trip. And let me tell you that was just about the longest 30 minutes in my life. And all I kept thinking was, yo puedo, yo puedo (I can, I can) in reference to not pooping in my pants. Thank goodness, I was able to hold it all in until we got back to La Chimba. However, I went into the bathroom at the Centro where we have classes in La Chimba and of course there was not toilet paper. Now thankfully I had five other people who were at the place with me in the room across the way so I texted them with my phone explaining my situation. Thankfully they came through with just enough toilet paper for me to make it by. Needless to say, the fairy visited me again about four hours later and I have this suspicion that it might just be here tomorrow morning as well. On the bright side, I have enough drugs in my medical kit that I should find something that will work. Tonight I took Diphen and Bismuth tabs which will hopefully do the trick.

Besides that, my sun burn is coming in nicely from the soccer game that I went to last weekend. I think I started to try and peel a couple of places a little early because the skin that was underneath was RED and really stung. Not to mention, that it just had all this gooey stuff on it that hardened again to protect the red skin. So those places were the very top of my forehead and my right ear. And let me tell you that I am now paying for that decision. However, the rest of my sun burn is coming along nicely on my face, ears, hands, and neck. The hands don’t really hurt at all, although they look really bad, my neck really hurt yesterday but today is much better, my one ear really hurts while the other is okay, and my face the nose is a little sensitive and the top of my forehead is a no touch zone. Either way, it is coming along and trying to heal which is the good part.

So today we had two more vaccination shots…it’s like a gift that just keeps on giving and coming back to you. I had the second of my rabies shots in my left arm (I think it’s a serious of 3, so we’ve got one more to go now) and the other one was in my right arm and was for Typhoid. The shots themselves didn’t really hurt, but the Typhoid shot definitely ached afterwards for most people. The other vaccinations that we have had I recovered fine from, so I just have to be sure to not sleep on either of my arms tonight and I think that I should be fine again. But that Typhoid one was definitely something fierce.

The classes that I have throughout the week are a combination of different types of lectures including, safety and security lectures, PC policy lectures, health lectures, technical classes, language classes and maybe a couple of other things thrown in there. The technical classes and the language classes are broken down into smaller groups (mine are about 13 people for the tech class and 5 for the language). The rest of the lectures are all together with all 45 of us in Ayorra.

So where is Ayorra one might ask? That is the fun part; it is about a forty minute walk from where I live followed by a 20 minute bus ride from Olmedo. And if you can do math and know time that means that in total my commute is about an hour. So far all of our sessions have been in Ayorra, so it has made for some long days. But at the same time, I guess at least I can say that I get my exercise every day.

And today we got a lot of exercise because we walked to Olmedo like normal to take the bus, and then we took the bus to Ayorra for our morning vaccinations. Then we got on a bus after that which took us to Cayambe and we must have walked around Cayambe for about 2 hours…partly because Pablo, our , got lost and had us walk the wrong way for about an hour. So to repay us for his mistake, he paid for all of us to take the bus back to the center of Cayabme so we could walk the correct way. Next was our bus ride where I almost pooped my pants back up to Cayambe. We then had our afternoon language class and afterwards we decided that we wanted to go to Olmedo for the internet café and for some coffees for those of us who like them. So that was another 20 minutes of walking followed by 40 minutes back home. All in all, a lot of walking today, sore arms from the vaccinations, a sick stomach from the latter half of the day, and a sore leg. Which I forgot to tell you about! I think it was two days ago now I tried to walk from my room to the bathroom without a flashlight…wrong idea. I slammed by leg right into a piece of rebar that is what the stairs are made with. Needless to say, the piece of rebar won and my leg lost with a nice scrap and bruise. So what this all means…my body is sore! But that’s what the medicine is for.

I finally got to talk to my mom and dad today which made me very happy. Always nice to hear from the people at home. Not having communication like I am used to is definitely going to take some adjusting. But I’ll adjust just like I am having to for everything (definitely a part of the experience)!

A little disclaimer I would like to put in here. I definitely love it here in Ecuador. The culture and atmosphere, not to mention topography, is awesome. We definitely were lucky to be chosen for this program. And as far for the language, I think that I have come to a conclusion for now. It is definitely one of, if not the most, frustrating things that I have ever had to deal with in my life. Not being able to express yourself and not understanding others is very hard. But I have to believe that over the time and training my language skills will get better and better over the two years of service as well. Learning a language is a process and it’s not practical to think that you can just learn to speak a language in one day…even though I would like to! Poco a poco…little by little. That is the saying here. And even though I get really frustrated with the language, I know that little by little I will get it and I will improve. Now the last step for me, is to simply accept that fact (easier said than done, let me tell you)!

I think that my brain is starting to go and it is getting a little later (10pm is now LATE for me folks) so I think I better get heading to bed. Tomorrow we get to go on our Cultural Trip which should be really interesting and fun since we are going to an Afro-Ecuadorian community which is about two and a half hours from here and the weather should be with a high of 80!!!! The sad part is, we have to be in Cayambe park at 730 in the morning which means that we have to leave the center of town at 6am which means I get to wake up tomorrow at 5am. What luck? I’m sure it will be worth it though. Until later folks.

P.S. Best thing about today by far…well I guess in a close second with talking to my parents…I learned that there IS a hot water switch up in the piping and if I turn that knob I get warm water for my shower…you read right people, a WARM shower (after a week of cold ones…it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G).

June 17 2009, Wednesday

Okay..so I think I figured out how I am going to go about doing this blog thing. It is called I will pre-write blog entries onto my computer as I go along and then when I get the time to go to an internet café I will load them up off of my flash drive and post them J Or at least that is my plan at the moment.

So I have made it folks!!! I am here in Quito Ecuador, the country’s capital. The flight over wasn’t that bad at all as it was only about four hours from Miami. However, the American Airlines at the Miami airport wasn’t the most consistent or polite for that matter. I guess you could say that some of them there weren’t exactly in love with their job and you could kind of tell (some were nice too, don’t get me wrong). So after everyone made it through with checking bags and security, some bags had to be rearranged, some carry-on bags checked, certain liquids making it through while other’s did not, we all made it to the gate and awaited our flight out of the country.

The landing into Quito was absolutely B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. The Andes Mountains here are like none in the states and you feel like you are landing on top of them when you land because well…you basically do land on top of a mountain when you get here. As you come down you can see the snow capped mountains out on the side of the plane and it was amazing. The temperature was around 65 degrees or so when we arrived and it felt really nice after being in the hot Miami heat. At night it did get a little chilly, but nothing really too bad. The altitude does mess with your head a little as well but a lot of us couldn’t decide if that was because of the lack of sleep of just the altitude change. I decided for myself personally, that it was a little of both.

The customs was customs…not really too much more to say about that besides the fact that everyone made it through just fine. They had a medical check point though where they had a camera type thing that would read something off of our body while we stood on the X spot. Some people thought it was reading our body heat/temperature while others thought it had something to do with the swine flu epidemic at the moment. Either way, everyone made it through just fine.

We then had a whole group of PC people to greet us and instruct us on where to go and what to do. Our luggage got labeled and taken off to either Quito, for the two months or storage, or Cayambe, for the two months of training. Then we all loaded up into shuttle buses which took us to our Hostel, which in my book, is a really nice Hostel. More PC people where at the hostel to great us and gave each of us a red of white rose with a tip attached to it for a greeting (I got a white one). My tip was to know the difference between estoy emocionado y estoy exitado…I’ll give you a hint, one means you r are excited while the other means your aroused.

We then all went off to our rooms which hold two to four people. I ended up in a room with just one roommate. There is a big courtyard in the middle and it is all very open and beautiful. Next we had a welcoming dinner where we meet some of our key PC people that I am sure we will get to know very well over the next two years. They has reminded up to not put the toilet paper down the toilet and to not drink the tap water as it has parasites in it that we are not used to and that will get us sick. I think as far as illness goes, I have just accepted that I am going to get sick and I will deal with it when it happens! Basically, what it comes down to is that our immune systems just haven’t been exposed to the common illnesses down here and therefore we are not immune to them yet like the locals. I guess we will see how many times I end up ill and then I’ll tell you if I still have this same mentality as I do right now.

Tomorrow our day starts at 7am with breakfast and we then head off to the PC headquarters here in Quito. There are rumors going around that we are going to Cayambe tomorrow to stay at a Hostel there until we move in with our host families this upcoming Saturday. They are also rumors that tomorrow will be the vaccination day and that we will be assessed on our Spanish skills and get placed into groups accordingly. We have not officially been told any of this as of yet, but we all have pretty good reason to believe so from what we have heard unofficially. The only official announcement was that we are to bring all of our stuff with us to the PC headquarters tomorrow. I guess you’ll just have to wait until the next blog to find out!

June 18 2009, Thursday

So the rumors were correct. Today we went to the PC headquarters in Quito, which was so pretty and homey, where we had our official welcome to the Peace Corps. Following the introductions, we filled out some more paper work, received our immunizations, had our language proficiency interviews (LPI), received our PCTs allowance for the next fourteen days in cash, and finished off paper work to open a bank account here in Ecuador. Then we had lunch, got to hear from some current PCV’s here and ask them our questions with an Ecuadorian current event lecture following by a couple of US Embassy representatives. By the time that lecture came around everyone was so exhausted that we were all struggling to stay awake. After that we all loaded up on a bus to come to where I am currently at, Cayambe.

The immunizations really where too bad, but I guess I should really wait to see how my arms feel tomorrow for the final verdict. I received vaccines for Yellow Fever, Rabies 1, and Hepatitis A. The Hepatitis A was in the right arm with the other two in the left. We also were given our med kits and the doctor gave us all mask and informed up that we would have quick access to the medication for the swine flu in case any of us encounter that issue.

The LPI I was definitely lot enthusiastic about. There are a couple people here who speak fluent Spanish…I do not. I could understand everything the guy was saying to me, but I really struggled on know how to response with what vocabulary and in what tense. I guess I will find out tomorrow, or at least soon enough, how I did since I believe that they split us all up into the three groups of beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

The drive over to Cayambe took about an hour and forty-five minutes. And it was a gorgeous ride…a little bumpy, but worth it to see the Andes Mountains. Cayambe is a little higher up than Quito and not as large of a city. This is where our two months of training will take place. For tonight and tomorrow we will be staying all together at a hostel here and then on Saturday we will meet our host families for the next eight or nine weeks and go to live with them. We are still not sure if each of us will have our own host family or if we will have a four people all living together with one host family (the rumor that is going around). Either way, I am sure it will be really exciting!

Now though it is 9pm and I am exhausted. The altitude is definitely messing with my head a little and the food is going to take some getting used to like it would in any different culture. There is a lot of rice, potatoes, noodles, and chicken. And the tap water is still off limits and I think it will be the whole time I am here. I will have to learn to boil water before I use it, use a filter before use, or just break down and buy it in the bottles.

Tomorrow starts at 7am again and last all day until 7pm. The lectures for tomorrow are PC training policies, personal safety, computers/cell phones/blogs, language, program meetings, and Community Based Training (CBT) orientation. Then Saturday we go and meet our host families. Can’t wait!!!

June 20 2009, Saturday

So this time the rumors weren’t true. We are all living by ourselves with a host familia. The reasoning behind this is one that I agree with and yet at the same time is probably the hardest thing I have face this far – language. So to make a long story short, our host families only speak Spanish. And therefore, we are forced to use it and often look like a complete idiota for not knowing how to finish a sentence. Although, I do wonder at times just how ridiculous I do sound when I speak. I know I don’t use the correct verb tenses probably about 75% of the time and every once and a while I find myself not being about to finish a sentence because I don’t know the word I want to say.

So before we get to where I am now I guess I should just make a quick comment about yesterday. It was a lot of lectures. You know the good old stuff that you hear with any job that you take on. It was all necessary information though, that is for sure. And we got a phone so that we could all stay in touch with one another once we went off to our sights. My phone is a pay as you go phone, just like almost all of the phones here in Ecuador, and I am able to make international text messages for $0.25 a piece. The kicker is that I have no idea how much it cost you guys back home to receive them (my bad)! As for international phone calls, I cannot call on my phone, but I can receive them. And the best part, everything that I receive doesn’t cost me a thing. So long story short, if you really want to or need to talk to me, you can. Just depends on how much you are willing to spend. The main reason for the phone is for security and PC information though. I have my cell phone number but for security reasons we are not supposed to put them up on the blogs. So if you would like my cell phone number, just email me at lparker2008@yahoo.com and I will tell you it.

After a long day of lectures, and knowing that it was our last night all together in the hostel, we decided to have some drinks and play games that night (we were locked in the hostel at night too, so we knew we would be safe). During the day we went out to one of the more modern stores, which was like a minnie Wal-Mart, and we ended up having quite an array of alcohol at the hostel that night including whisky, tequila, scotch, red wine, and my favorite, white wine (from the box of course) combined with playing Mafia and Catch Phrase in English. It was all very good and made for a very enjoyable last night together. The phrase for the night: arriba, abajo, el centro, el dentro!

Today…in one word has been overwhelming. In a couple more words, it has been overwhelming and incredible at the same time. We met with our host families this morning in Cayambe at our hostel. After a few more lectures addressed to both the volunteers and families, we finally got to meet. My family is the Estella Lechon family from the La Chimba community. Now going back to what I said at the start of this post…they all only speak Spanish and frankly, my Spanish needs a lot of practice and help. Therefore, the following information I am going to tell you is what I tried to interpret and understand from today.

The community that I am in is way up in the Andes Mountains (an hour and a half bus ride from Cayambe where you are constantly hitting pot holes…if you don’t like those simulation rides at parks, which I do, then you would have hated it). And in case I didn’t make that clear, it is WAY up. So much to the point, that I walked for a little bit today and actually got winded from the altitude. If you can put two and two together, this also means that it is FREEZING here with a lot of wind, and yes, this does mean I am going to be buying more sweaters. There is no snow, but I swear it feels like there could be (houses here aren’t insulated at all). Now the amazing part about this area is that those things are not the first that you will realize. The first thing that you will realize is that it is absolutely B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. The mountains are everywhere you look and that view is completely awe striking. I could try to describe them, but it wouldn’t do the area justice. So I will get around to taking and posting some of those pictures.

As for mi casa y mi familia, they are very nice and their house is very cozy as well. Senora Estella is definitely the mother of the house in every sense. Sadly, she told me that her husband died about year ago from a losing fight to cancer that he fought for a year and a half. She has three children I believe…it’s hard to tell right now because there were a lot of people coming in and out of the house all day. I know that she has one son who is 22 and still lives here because I spoke with him. He works in Cayambe during the week. There is another boy who is 14 and lives here as well and I believe that is her son too. She also has a daughter, 23, who is married and actually lives right next door with her husband and child. There are also some aunts and uncles that live in the community as well, pretty much the whole family lives in the area from my understanding. Basically…I really need to learn more Spanish so that I can be sure of her answers!

Then of course there are the animals. I am in el campo, or simply put, the country. And I’m not talking about what we consider the "country", this my friend is real country. The family has three dogs that all live outside of the house and one is a puppy. Then there are a lot of chickens that live in coups outside of the house and she has a batch of babies with the chickens as well. There is also a garden in the back of the house and the front of the house is actually a store where she sells things to make money. Estella has 14 cows and one cafe as well, but they live about a five minute drive further up the mountain. She has to go twice a day up there to milk them. And let me tell you, because I went with her and her family today, it is SUPER windy and cold up there and milking those cows looks like anything but easy. Her brother also has a horse which occasionally seems to end up here.

I also got to wash some of my cloths today. How one might ask? On a rock pedestal type thing that is make for laundry by dunking my cloths into water and then rubbing a bar of soap on them and scrubbing away. Then you get to turn your clothes inside out and repeat the process. You also have to keep dumping water on the cloths so that it can rise. The pedestal is tilted so all of the water runs down and into a drain. It is actually probably one of the coolest things I have seen and I will definitely get a picture up at some point. Then you simply rinse the cloths by pouring more water on them and hanging them to dry out on the cloths line. So I washed my cloths while she did today as well. And as I was sitting there scrubbing and running out of breath because of the altitude, I asked her, is this easy for you or do you consider it hard? Her response, it is hard at first, but it becomes easy once you learn. I don’t know if I will ever really learn to do it correctly, but I do know that I have T-shirts and socks that I cleaned today out the cloths line so I must have done something right!

As for my living quarters I have my own little room that is attached to the back side of the house if you will. When I open up my door I am outside with the kitchen right across from me and the living room to my right (the crossway is outside but covered by the roof). My bathroom is kind of like an outhouse type thing that is actually right by the laundry pedestal as the laundry pedestal is what I use for my sink. The outhouse type thing has a shower and a toilet that flushes. The shower is solar powered to get the water warm so we will have to wait and see how that works for another day. But I was pretty excited to hear that I might actually get a hot shower since the last two that I have taken here have been…well…ice water. It’s called the jump in jump out method for when that happens.

I think that is all I’ve got for now…I am sure that I am leaving things out, but oh well. For the rest of training I have training 7am to 5pm Monday through Friday with the weekends for myself (tomorrow I am going to a fiesta with my family for San Jose in a nearby community). I doubt that I will write as many blogs at that point as the days will by the normal frustrations and joys of learning a new language and culture. And now…es tiempo para dormir y tener sueños en español

P.S. I had my first guinea pig meal today too…first thing right when I got here. Not as bad as what I thought it was going to be, but definitely very different. At least the head and toes were cut off though!

June 21 2009, Sunday

So just a quick little note for today, why is learning a language SO dang hard. I think today I had my first almost break down and it is completely because of the language barrier. I am starting to believe that being here thus far has actually made my Spanish worse. The people in La Chimba definitely seem to have a little of their own dialect. And my madre I do believe is like the mother of the house and town in a lot of ways. She tries to speak clearly to me, but when she actually just speaks to her family or friends there is a definite slang to it that I don’t get at all. You can also pretty much take half of what you learned in your Spanish language class and forget it because who knows what type of Spanish you actually got taught – Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, different regions, extra. Long story short, I went to a futbol game today and got sunburned because I’m a dork and forgot sunscreen and I got laughed at for my pretty much none existent Spanish at this point in time. So that pretty much killed any confidence I had for the day so I’m just kind of sat here for the rest of time…I really need those Spanish lessons to start. It is so crazy to because I actually do know more than what it seems like I do…I just can’t get it across in the correct way (I know enough that I had two people today say that she doesn’t know anything and then stop talking to me). There was a little girl though who kept at it with me. I know that this is just a part of the process, but I really wish it would speed up. Hopefully those Spanish lessons, eight hours a day Monday to Friday, will give me the confidence to talk more. Yo espero!!!