Here you are folks, 136 fotos from the month of November for your viewing pleasure!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047615&id=27500865&l=5656e9d8b8

events included:

-goodbye party for volunteer Ana with some more than embarrassing photos of me!my first fiesta season for Bahia.

-various events with the jovenes I work with

-The annual fiesta of the community storehouses complete with a beauty queen contest with evening dresses made from local agricultural products. (how can you resist!?) with a surprise guest judge, ahem, wink, wink.

-family game day

-block-style workshops about family values

-Anita's Quincenera

-BINGO! for disability

- a trip to the beach with the jovenes

Just when I thought working with the Parroquia couldn't get better, they go and invite me on the annual staff and volunteer retreat! Awwwww, shoot! And it couldn't have come at a better time! I came back from my week long vacay to not a lot to do...we'll one thing to do that I didn't really want to do: prepare for my Community Assesment Tools (CAT) Presentation at my Peace Corps Reconnect Conference. I am not sure why, but really sitting down and organizing the presentation was dramatically difficult. I had done all of the hardwork Monday, I ignored that task altogether; Tuesday, I made a superficial start, ie, opened a powerpoint document, made a title page, wrote the first two slides which didn't really tackle the meat of the diagnostic; Wednesday, I gave myself the or else talk and worked through the majority of it, by Thursday, at noon when I headed to the comedor to hang out with the kiddos and help them with their schoolwork, I was mostly done and put the finishing touches on it that evening. Sweet victory! Saturday, I was ready to roll for some good times with the good people of the Parroquia, guilt free and ready for my presentation and the conference!

Don't forget that the Parroquia is the Parish, and the Foundation is a faith-based organization, so our day of fun and games started at church, of course. 7:30 am, and we were gathered around the alter at the church in Fanca before heading out to the pools of Calcetta, sharing in a special celebratory mass, complete with a year in review reflection and team building activities.

Soon, we had all piled into two vehicles and by piled in, I mean we were basically riding Malagasy taxi-brousse style, 4 to a row, tight! Good thing I was wedged between my new friend Miguel, who is also new to the Parroquia group and Miryum who is the vice-president of the Foundation and heads ups the work at the community pharmacy in Fanca to make the ride more comfortable. The ride out to Calcetta took about an hour and a half, and it was the first time I had been out in that direction of Manabi. Here in Bahia, we are still waiting, wishing, praying for the rain to come. The campo folks have fields of dust, literally inches deep, their livelihood relies on the annual rains that still haven't come. The furthest community of our Parroquia is called el Kilometro 20, a town at the 20th Kilometer outside of Bahia and it is brown and dry for as far as the eye can see. Yet just a few more kilometers down the road, and you arrive to green, lush jungle like areas. It's amazing how drastically the climate changes within just a small area!

We arrived at about 10 am to Quinta Linda in Calcetta, an aquatic center with crisp cool water from a local spring flowing into a number of pools with slides! The first order of business, as is the culture here in Ecuador and with the group, was to eat. Bellita, the Parroquia secretary, ordered two big trays covered in cheese empanadas, bowls of a local fresh cheese dish called mojado, which seemed a lot like cottage cheese type curds formed into balls in a bowl of salty milk. You may be wrinkling up your nose, but it is eaten with maduro asada (roasted, ripe plantains) and with the mix of sweet and salty, it was DELICIOUS! It was all washed down with sweet coffee and fresh squeezed limeade. With our stomachs content we could focus on the real events of the day, enjoying the refreshing waters of Quinta Linda in the every-day-hotter climate of Manabi and throwing ourselves down waterslides.

Now everyone knows that I have rarely found a waterslide that I didn't like. Waterslide parks are kind of my dad and my thing, so you bet your booties I was excited to get to getting on the slides. But let me clarify, when I say slides, they are just a quick, straight drop into the pool. Nothing fancy, definately not Disneyworld caliber; think lacquered-up cement half-pipes. The simple design didn't discourage me in the least, I am not a waterslide snob! I rallied the troops, which didn't take a lot of work, and marched everybody to the top of the stairs to throw themselves down. I went first, of course. I being the professional, I refused to use any hand or feet friction to slow myself down, and let me tell you that lacquered cement is fast! So fast in fact that every time I got to the end of the

slide, I couldn't help but scream just a little bit. Everyone found this tirelessly amusing. I was definately the most enthusiastic over 18 year old at the pool that day and everyone just wanted to watch the silly gringa go down the slide one more time, to hear her scream and laugh some more. :D By the end of the day, I think that we got everyone to give the slides at try, at least on the smaller-kiddie one.

Later in the afternoon, a few of us found ourselves over at the billiard tables. Here in Ecuador, pool is a tavern game, and women don't go to taverns; I wasn't sure if I was invited to play or if it was appropriate to. I am not super great at pool, but I know the rules of the game, and I can make more than just a lucky shot, so I joined the boys for a few games, and didn't do half bad. I even provided a bit of the entertainment by crawling across the table for one of the shots. Its nice to know that I have found a group of people who support me, and I knew that even if it wasn't typical for a woman to play pool in Ecuador, it isn't typical for every Parroquia to have a gringa volunteer dedicated to their community work for two years either; it all goes hand in hand.

Below are few choice pictures of the day. One of the most enjoyable parts of the day for me, was getting to know everyone a little bit better, and in a different setting. I loved seeing people let loose a little, not worrying about attendance, deadlines, budgets, planning, the usual, and just enjoying everyone's company and the beautiful relaxing Quinta Linda.

(Top L: Edwardo, Marcos, Pedro, Luchito and Humberto; Top R: Luchito and I playing a round of pool; Above: the Parroquia crew basking in the pool)

Of course before the day was over, we found the time to dance and eat yet again before heading back to Bahia in the late afternoon. Clearly, I had a great time and I feel so fortunate to have found a place among this group of talented, motivated, passionate people! This is in no way the Peace Corps experience I imagined for myself, but I wouldn't trade a minute of it to be anywhere else, with any other group or doing anything different! Viva la Parroquia! I am looking forward to growing with the group in the next year and already looking forward to our next group paseo. :D

(L: P. Pedro and Nany living (er, laughing) it up; R: Caguita and I impromtu salsa-ing;)

That's a good question. In my post-college life I have found that the real world is full of acronyms; some are obvious, others less so, and some, even after you get all the words in place, still don't make much sense. RBC is one of these types. Rehabilitacion Basada en la Comunidad, or Community-Based Rehabilitation, that's what RBC stands for. You might ask yourself, so what exactly are we rehabilitating? The answer, people with disability. “Eureka! Of course, why didn't I think of that?” (don't mock me...) Ok, rehabilitation of people with disability, but how does the community do that? Well that is all part of the program...the fundamental idea of RBC is that until we live in a 100% inclusive community, we all need training and rehabilitation to achieve the goal. Its a bottom-up form of development. Seeing as people with disability are often an under-served, if not forgotten, population, the rehabilitation starts directly with them and then, secondly, addresses agency, community, and government. The first step in the RBC program is to arrive to the individuals and families living with disability and work directly to motivate them to seek out services to help and improve their own lives and conditions and to provide support and solidarity in the process. The second step is to provide simple services that are missing to ease the effects of living with disability. The final step of the community-based rehabilitation process is community outreach; educating people about disability, moving away from a taboo condition and making it a reality that exists, preparing people for interactions, creating a community environment that is hospitable to people with disability, both socially and physically (ie. handicap accessibility!!!!!!), and finally, integrating people with disability into all facets of local community life. Simple right?! Right... For my dedicated blog followers you might remember that during my site visit the INFA staff thought that I must be a disability specialist because that is what foreigners who come to Ecuador to work do, right? Well it does have some truth. About half of the volunteers that the foundation has seen in the past 2 years have been therapists and specialists in disability; and on a grander scale, the Ecuadorian government is making disability prevention and care a priority. There is a coalition survey taking place by the Cuban and Ecuadorian government to document all of the cases of disability in the country and complete a thorough study of the causes to understand and situation and devise a response. All INFA offices support RBC programs, USAID is trying to launch a disability support program, and there are a number of smaller, private foundations that support the RBC project (probably in the most effective way at present) and compose an ever growing “Red de Discapacidad”(Disability Network). (Rosie, the coordinator of the RBC Project for the foundation...she might be super woman, and she is my adopted Ecuadorian mom!!!)

Here in Bahia, the strongest response the RBC call to action had been taken on my the Fundacion Corazon Solidario, to which I belong. At present, we are addressing the first two phases of the rehabilitation process. Two wonderful and dedicated women spend their days pounding the pavement (and dusty roads) of Bahia and it's neighboring communities, visiting families who have children with disability. They arrive at the house of the family in solidarity, as a mother, a woman with compassion and experience in raising children. They converse with the mother and child, giving the mother the opportunity to share her experience, successes and frustrations, but also to ask questions and receive information and updates about services and support. Part of the job of these “madres comunitarias” o “promotores” is to check-up on the health and well-being of the child. Is he or she clean, in good health, in a safe environment? Social workers don't exist in the same capacity we in the the states think of them, so these “community moms” are often the only public eyes and ears these kids have to get help if needed. Additionally, to support the efforts of the parents, we have established a Parents Association, complete with President, Secretary and Treasurer, with monthly meetings where, yours truly, (until we secure other speakers and presenters) is guiding parents through reflection activities, goal setting, educating about health, hygiene, and childhood development (because clearly I am an expert in all of these!!!).

(Aula de Educacion Especial, Talita Kum)

The other component of the foundation's response to the disability need is a center for special education. Here in Ecuador, the average teacher is not trained to identify a disability nor to accommodate or aide a special needs student to learn to the best of their ability. Thus, the majority of children with a disability, physical or mental, are not enrolled in any school, nor do their parents prioritize educating their children in “the basics” at home. The basics of the foundation's two special needs schools involve letter and number identification and reproduction, learning colors, days of the week, months, seasons, etc. Think kindergarten material. The students range in age, abilities, and skills, but are really learning together for the first time. It is all so very simple, but really so essential. ***look out for more posts about specific activities the foundation does to support people and children living with disability!!!!***

Welcome to my home sweet home! It has taken me longer than expected to post photos of my new, and might I say, wonderful, apartment; But it has taken me longer than expected to get myself settled into my place...December is a busy time to move!!!!!! As you can see above I have a cozy little kitchen nook with just about everything a girl could ask for (minus an oven...working on getting a campo oven set up! even though I live in the city! ha ha) Below is the paseo to the rest of the apartment (it´s a small little rectangular, my apartment!) but not the terraza outside! Thats right, a streetside balcony. I am looking into some hanging hammock chairs...but I might never go to work if I have those...all lies! But I really think it might be a necessary and cozy splurge for my apartment!

Here you´ve got the "sala" where I read and work, and my amazing built in bookshelf which I fear will always look a jumbled mess!

My simple little baño! It serves me well and has a nice big shower with questionable pressure! ha ha!

and my bedroom...my bed is the best investment I made. A girl has got to have someplace comfy to sleep...especially after sleeping on a piece of foam over unforgiving wooden slats in Madagascar! And below here, we have my closet! Holler! I just bought the shelving this week which moved all of my close off the floor and into the, well, closet. Finally!

I'm not going to sugar coat it, ever since I was about 12, I stopped being so impressed with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I mean it is just always the same! Every year the same! I realize that for some people that is what they love, the expected, the tradition, but it's just not for me anymore. I still do get a little nostalgic about my local, hometown Christmas parade, but let's be honest, I think I was 17 the last time I actually saw it. If I went back now, I probably wouldn't make it to see Santa at the end, cause I already would have hauled my mom into a coffee shop for a double 12 oz. soy latte (can you tell I really want one? cause I do!) or a gingerbread latte (cause I am missing them yet another year!) to warm up and chat, cause it is cold in Bend, OR in December!

Just like last year in Madagascar, it just doesn't quite feel like the holiday season here in Ecuador for me. Sure their are some trees in windows, lights on houses, and people buying gifts right and left, but it just doesn't quite have the same feel as it does at home. Additionally, there are no community wide Christmas traditions, no programmed lighting of the city Christmas tree downtown, no school concerts...hmmmf. But finally, I got wind at the Parroquia of the Pregon de la Navidad - The Christmas Parade! Yessssssssss! The spanish volunteers, Natalia, Maria and I told Pedro that the disability group would 100% be participating. He said he would get a truck arranged for our float. Float? Yes, all the pieces of the event were start falling into place - Pedro assigns each group who wants to participate in the Parroquia's Pregon a bible verse to interpret. of course he does...as the disability project, we were to interpret a visit of Jesus to a sick child and mother where he tells them "Levantate! Animo!" (Get up! Get ready yourself ready!), which are also the theming words to the RBC project in the Parroquia.

Well the day of the pregon rolls around, and what do you know, we don't have a truck for our float. of course we don't! Isidra calls around, and secures us a truck from a neighbor. Maria, Natalia and I get to getting on cutting out giant felt letters to decorate the truck. We also make about 100 little felt flowers to decorate our float. (the budget per group for the float is $0, and the felt is free at the church, so we aprovechar-ed!!!) Of course today is burning hot, clear blue skies, with not a cloud to offer barrier from the equatorial sun! At about 1pm we pack up our felt and huff it down to Isidra's house to get to work on our float.

The truck that has been secured for us, let me say, is an antique, but not necesarily a collectors' item. We immediately get to work covering it with yards of red felt before busting out the packaging tape. It soon becomes obvious that taping is not going to suffice, we are going to have to sew/pin everything together and on to the truck! So here we are are, 5 women - 2 spaniards, 2 ecuadorians, and 1 american sewing and sweating in the blazing hot mid-day equatatorial sun. After about 2 hours our truck was looking particularly mahvelous in our opinion. We stepped inside for a few minutes to cool off and hydrate, before getting ourselves lined up for the big parade to start. I'll spare you the pictures of us sweating and sewing, and just she the final product of our work before heading off to the parade. That is me, Natalia, Maria, and Gabriela our little "sick" child for our float.

Well, we all jump into the truck and speed way to the church in Fanca, as fast as our little old truck will go, to get in line. We were a little late getting there, and were so pleased to find a group of kids from the special education schools waiting for us to arrive for them to participate! Yeah!

So this is where the Christmas Parade is probably not quite what you might expect. There were no school bands (those are reserved for local holiday parades), but instead lots of biblical costuming. It was really a "birth of christ" parade more than Christmas as we American's celebrate it...all the the groups walked/rode the length of Leonidas Plaza arriving at the hospital park for a special mass celebrating the Virgin of Guadelupe and of course, Christmas.

Below are some pictures for your viewing pleasure of the day's events.

(R: our kiddos; L: the two professors, Isidra and Oscar in their roles; B: our group with float)

Some of the other participating groups floats/respresentations:

(R: the INFA group in their Nativity; L: Me and the jovenes! B: Some of the kiddos from the Comedor)

I can still remember my first acquaintance with a “valero.” A new friend of mine, Adriana, had invited me over to her house for lunch one afternoon with her family. Adriana is the social worker for the Oficina de la Mujer (Office of the Woman) in the Municipio (City/Country Government). She had asked me to help facilitate the formation of an association of social workers in town and help them get some direction on project identification and formation. I was happy to be included and share my experience and knowledge.

Adriana is a great woman, she lives in her own house but has invited her parents to live with her, likewise, her 3 nephews live with her as well because her sister, she tells me has made mistakes and just doesn't know how to manage her life let alone her three boys'. These three boys were my first window into what would sweep Bahia as a phenomenon only to be known as “valero madness.” It was these three boys and the constant “klip klop, klip klop, miss, klip, miss, klop, klop” sounds that would soon become the soundtrack of the bus stop, the bus, the comedor, any activity with the jovenes, it would drown out the sweet sound of afternoon birds from my bedroom window and the rhythm of the waves at the beach. This first afternoon, my first encounter with the valero, I turned around mid-sentence to get a better look at these noise instruments of diversion, and Adriana commented: “when the toys are cheap, we buy them for everyone.” And so it was, at 50 cents a pop, everyone could afford a valero, and within a week, every person under the age of 23 had at least one.

The valero instantly became an obsessive albeit annoying past time. At any point that a child or young person is sitting idle, they are valero-ing. “Klip Klop, Klip Klop” Trying to get the cap on the stem as many times as possible without missing, and when one misses they get right back on track without missing a beat, like its all just part of the game and process. Watching a young person valero is like watching a zombie; there is absolutely no attention put into what one is doing, they just Klip Klop way for hours on end. I have seen a brand-new valero at noon on Tuesday and seen it a dented, used up mess by Friday. These kids are relentless! Valeros are naturally prohibited from school, Thank god. We try to keep the same rule for the refuerzo program with the kids for them to focus on their homework, but that is easier said than done...the valero is ever present.

(The Vera Sisters, Ana Lucia and Patricia are valero-pros! Here they are posing with their toys.)

I find the valeros mildly amusing. Yes, I tire of the ever present clanking they make at times. But I also find myself in awe at the tricks and speed these kids can valero. I am more apt to cheer a kid on than threaten to take it away, but I also, not so secretly, want to learn how to valero myself. Little by little I am improving. I refuse to purchase one; maybe before I leave for a souvenir of the phenomena I bore witness to, but I just can't bare to own one yet because I know I would be clanking away every waking hour! Not everyone has the patience that I have for the valero, Natalia for example. Natalia is now infamous in the parroquia for her overreaction to a valero incident. Now bear in mind this is a young woman who had come to Ecuador for 5 months to volunteer and open a special needs school. She is not religious in anyway, and really wanted nothing to do with church, catholicism, mission, anything religious. And here she was living in a church, woken up every Saturday and Sunday at 8 am by people preparing for 9am mass, and listed to mass every other day, minus Monday at 7pm. The house of the church is a public place, numerous meeting are held there, and numerous people pass through daily to meet, work, and socialize. We'll say it is a Thursday. Maria and Natalia have been up since 6:30, rode the bumpy Tosaguena bus 30 minutes to and from the community at the 20th Kilometro, they have taught 4 hours in their special needs school to a group of varying ages and differing abilities, they are tired. The two cozy into their beds ready to rest, as Natalia almost falls asleep she hears the klip klop begin. The valero is keeping her from falling asleep. She decided to read a bit, but soon finds that she can't concentrate on what she is reading because all this klip kloping is getting in the way. She storms down the hallway to find a group of jovenes upstairs in the church, Rene with valero in hand she states: “whoever is playing with that (insert bad word here) valero better put it away because the next time I hear it I am going to shove it up your (beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!!!!!!!!!!)!” In this moment, Rene has klipped, and as Natalia finishes, his valero klops. She screams and storms away. All of the jovenes quietly exit the church... Bear in mind that this event occurred after probably 3 months of daily valero-ing in the house.

Like any craze, I think that the valero phenomena will taper off with the promise of resurfacing again soon. I keep grabbing the valero when I get the opportunity and one day soon, I secretly hope to be a valero master like all of the kids and jovenes I work with in Bahia.

It took me about over a month to figure out exactly when my personal transformation as a Peace Corps volunteer took place here in Bahia. At the beginning of November I was still feeling like was was participating in things with the Parroquia and foundation, but showing up without any real personal purpose. About the second week of November things seemed to be falling into place, I had a fuller schedule, places to be, things to plan, and people who were counting on me. As I look back to that time, I have to thank another volunteer, Guillermo Rey. Guillermo arrived to Bahia, and everyone including me, thought he was another priest from Spain. Guillermo came as a volunteer with a vision of supporting families in the barrio of FANCA through a project of a community survey and a series of talleres para la familia (talks/workshops/whatever you want to call them for the family).

I was asked to participate in the project because I was working in the comedor with the kids everyday, and Guillermo was going to be spending his days at the comedor as well. Like any friendship, our relationship started out with some mildly awkward conversations mostly about Peace Corps, plans for the survey and presentations, the kids at the comedor and the community of FANCA. But everyday our friendship started to shape more and more, through shared experiences with the kids, analyzing and improving the survey, talking about the results and our observation, and mostly talking about the needs of the community and ways we could contribute to improving the situation of the barrio, the families, and the greater community that the Parroquia serves.

As far as the work that Guillermo did, we spent the afternoons of November going door to door, barrio by barrio, conducting our survey about the make up of the families and habits of the families in FANCA. Part of the survey was also inviting each of the families personally to attend a charla, or talk. The charla was a block-style type event, we bought the projector and music to each of the different sectors of FANCA, 8 in all, giving a personalized presentation in each sector of the barrio. Our response was variable, but a few people always showed up to listen to the talk about family values and the importance of communication within families.

For the entiretly of the month of Novemeber, I think I spent more time with Guillermo than any other person here. We worked together from noon-3:30 at the comedor, surveyed from 3:30-5, and then did 8 presentations together which from preparations at the church to set up, and then clean up was about 2 ½ to 3 hours. I was really the only person dedicated to helping him with his project and presentation, so I quickly became his trusty assistant, and I know that he thought of the work more of ours than his. I soon found myself at the church house most nights with he and the two other volunteers, Maria and Natalia, sharing good times, Pilsners, and our nightly communal-effort dinner or going out together. I found Guillermo to be someone who saw what I saw in much of the same way, and we spent many hours talking about possible projects in the community of FANCA, ways to support kids there, and how we could organize ourselves and the greater Bahia community to support FANCA.

One of my biggest personal challenges with the Parroquia, I feel, is finding someone with the time to listen to me bounce ideas off and give me feedback on my future plans as a volunteer; Guillermo was an invaluable resource to me in that sense. Always interested in what I had to say, and always patient enough to listen to my sometimes semi-coherent phrases until I got it all out. Just shortly before Guillermo returned to Spain, I found out from Maria and Natalia how highly he thought of me. The girls has mostly tired of hearing Guillermo's raves about how great, special and perfect I was. They told me all of this after coming to my apartment for dinner my first night in my apartment; Natalia had left her sweater and I was going to drop it off my balcony. The girls had said: I hope it doesn't get stuck on the other balcony, or on the mass of power lines outside the apartment; Guillermo responded: It's Whitney, she does everything perfect! Don't worry! And the girls had to finally tell me that Guillermo saw me with glowing halo of perfection. All of this makes me laugh, because I feel 100% less than perfection here, stumbling over my words, trying to stay on top of activities and events, and just trying to keep going at a steady pace with work here!

In all actuality, Guillermo is like a proud parent. He is about the age of my parents, he has raised his kids, and he was, I think, happy to be working alongside a young person. The day I knew he really did care about me, was a day that he was trying to make plans for the weekend to explore a bit more of the Northern Manabi area, and I made a comment that I would love to go with him somewhere, but I really needed to take advantage of the weekend to go to Portoviejo and do some shopping for my apartment where it was cheaper. I wasn't suggesting or expecting him to come with me, but without even thinking about it for a minute he was coming with me, and within an hour had arranged a ride for us to and from with Humberto who had a class that day. We went, he helped my with my price analysis and helped carry all those bags! In all honesty had it not been for him, I don't know how I could have done my shopping in one trip to Portoviejo!!!

Working with Guillermo on this project during the month of November was an invaluable experience, helping me get to know other key people that live and work in FANCA and simply becoming acquainted with the community of FANCA and finding my way around by walking through it daily. Especially, Caguita, who guided us through the sectors of FANCA, and in the process became a very good friend of mine and has introduced me to a countless number of important contacts. Also, he is just a really great guy, who has welcomed me into his family, calls just to check on how I am, and genuinely is interested in being my friend and working with me in the future for the benefit of his barrio. Honestly, from the time I arrived in Bahia, I have been facinated with FANCA, the supposed red zone of Bahia; a place you never go alone because the people are bad and rob everyone, supposedly. What we found through our surveys is that FANCA is a community of families, with numerous children. After a month of work there, I now know more people there than I do where I live in Bahia and the people are warm, fun, and interesting. They are not rich or educated, but they are good people that deserve the respect of the rest of the community.

In fact, part of our Peace Corps work in the first 4 months at site is a community diagnostic. I had struggled with how to implement this in an urban area that is big and diverse. Through the survey, I was able to become better acquainted with the community of FANCA and follow up with some focus group activities to put together a more complete idea of the barrio and its needs. I can't truly say that FANCA is my community the way that I can say with certainty that Guillermo has become a very good friend, but it is a place that I feel comfortable in now, that I care about, and that I would like to see and work toward improving in th time that I am here.

On a related note, Guillermo is returning to Bahia and the Parroquia in March and staying for two months this time. He just didn't get enough of the community here and all of the fun (I mean work) we have here. :D I am excited for the possibilities to plan and collaborate more with him in the coming months!

For more pictures from World AIDS Day and our International Day of Disability paseo check out my facebook album with 69 photos for your viewing pleasure!!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047901&id=27500865&l=66c024ced6

Did you know that December 3rd is the International Day of Disability? Well I didn't know either, but I spent the third of December with the kids from the two special needs schools that the foundation supports in FANCA and the community of Kilometro 20. Thanks to INFA, we had an extra truck to pick up about 25 kids and moms at their homes, from the campo to the city, and bring them into Bahia for a day of celebrating their special abilities and special selves. Our first stop was a visit to the infamous Miguelito, the Galapagos turtle held in captivity at a local elementary school. This was my first visit to Miguelito too; naturally, I have had some reservations about visiting an animal kept in such a sad condition, but I went to support the kids. Needless to say the kids loved him. And really his is an impressive animal. So huge and beautiful, and old! Over 100 years old, Miguelito spends his days on a dry patch of schoolyard waiting for someone to bring wanter and feed it into his nostrils. (how he drinks!!!!!) Well, I made an emergency trip to the market to buy some bananas to feed to Miguelito, which he ate peel and all. After eating about a 2 kilos of bananas, drinking 4 liters of water, being petted down by all the kids, and posing for countless pictures, we left him to rest and recuperate. Our next stop in the half day tour of Bahia was the Velisco, where INFA was hosting an event for the day. In true INFA fashion, everything was running about 2 hours late. The DJ hadn't arrived yet, nor had the snack that was promised for the kids. hmmf. But a few of the INFA staff had dressed up like clowns to sing songs and do kids games with the participants, Ivonne the director of the office read a few children's stories and some of the foundations jovenes showed up dressed in our “muneca” outfits to play with the kids, which they loved. :D After about an hour and a half there, we organized the kids, grabbed the small ones' hands and walked down the Malecon to the beach.

(Pedro with the "munecitos" and Judy dressed up like a clown! cute!)

Once we picked our spot on the beach, we stripped the kids down, rubbed their little faces up with sunscreen and all ran off together toward the ocean. The moms hung close by, but Maria, Natalia and I were really the ones in charge of keeping everyone's head above water! I was in charge of a little girl named Hagna, a sweet little ball of energy who wanted nothing more than to lay face down in the sand as the waves came up around her, oh heavens! The kids had such a good time playing and sitting in the waves and playing in the sand. Like any kid, they wanted to stay at the beach all day, and so, getting everyone changed and ready for lunch was an ordeal, to say the least!

(R: Josue suncreened-up and ready to play! L: The kiddos playing in the ocean, Below: Hagna face down in the water, just how she liked it best!)

Lunch was an extra special treat. Many of our kids from the campo, even some of the kids from the city, have never eaten in a restaurant before! One of the restaurants right on the bay, El Buen Sabor, is a friend of the foundation and agreed to host us for an extra special lunch at $1.50 per person, woooo hoooo!!!!! They served us all a generous bowl of bola de verde soup, a creamy, peanuty, oniony soup with carrots, cheese, and a big ball of mashed green plantain filled with cheese, (mmmmmmmm!!!!!!!) and a plate of fried fish, potato salad, a green salad, rice, and fried ripe plantain (no wonder I have gained weight here!!! everything is sooooo tasty and delicious, but so high calorie! what a dilemma!!!) After everyone was nice and full, we had yet another surprise for the kids' stomachs....ICE CREAM!!!!!!!! And at 25 cents a bar, how can you resist!?

(Everyone enjoying their sopa de bola. mmmmmmmmmm!!!)

Now you may be thinking, this seems like a lot of hoopla for just one day! Yes, yes it was. But it was a celebration of these kids - kids that generally people are afraid to talk to, to acknowledge; kids that don't have a chance at a “normal” life because Ecuadorian society is not prepared to include them and support them with their special abilities; and more than anything, it was their mothers hard work and dedication to bring them to school everyday for 4 months, to participate and raise money for them to be able to get out of the house, out of their rural community and see the world of Bahia that is just a short bus ride away, but whom very few have had the opportunity to see. So we saw it all and did it all in one day, in celebration of them, and with the promise to do it again shortly! For the moms that couldn't make the trip into Bahia with us, to pasear a few hours, we ordered the special lunch to go for them and delivered it to them to thank them for their hard work and collaboration for the benefit of these very special, very wonderful kids.

If I was reminded of one thing on World AIDS Day this year, it is the importance of semantics and the power our words have. As a general observation, there seemed to be a discord here in Bahia about what to call the event that is celebrated worldwide December 1st. Dia de LUCHA de SIDA – yes we are struggling and fighting to stop the spread of AIDS, but not fighting AIDS directly per say on this day, especially not fighting people living with HIV or AIDS; Dia CONTRA de SIDA – but we are not against AIDS either, we all want the cure to be found, we want the spread to stop, we want people to live long happy, productive lives, we are very pro the people living with HIV/AIDS, in fact we are working hard to make sure their health needs are met so they can live to their optima while their rights are also observed; Dia de la RESPUESTA de SIDA – a better choice of words, a day to respond to the AIDS epedemic, but how are we responding, are we judging, are we marching, are we helping, recognizing, remembering ,respecting? With all of these loaded terms being thrown around and so many people making assumptions and statements about what we should be doing, what we are doing on World AIDS day, I found it easy to lose track of the real intention of the day. Peace Corps global campaign for World AIDS day in 2009 was aprenda, sirva, respete (learn, serve, respect). In all of the flying words of World AIDS day in Bahia, LUCHA, CONTRA, RESPUESTA, I had to focus myself back on the purpose of the 1st of every December. World AIDS day is exactly on point with the Peace Corps theme this year. LEARN. Learn about the epidemic, not just about the biology of HIV and AIDS, but about the world impact, the reality of the people living in your neighborhood, community, town, state, country, region, the world. Becoming informed, and for one day letting it all sink in and really reflecting of what the AIDS epidemic means to so many people, how it affects personal lives, families, the economic impact on communities, what the epidemic means to you. SERVE. Do something, participate, educate yourself, a neighbor, a parent, a friend. Make a commitment to do what you can, however big or small it is, contribute. RESPECT. Respect the millions of people with names, families, histories just like yours that are living with HIV/AIDS. Respect and remember those that have passed away from AIDS. Respect that no one deserves to die prematurely, that the majority of people who have passed and those living with HIV and AIDS contracted the disease unknowingly; that majority of people who have died are women and children, women who contracted HIV in their own beds from a husband they have always been faithful too, and children born HIV positive because their parents didn't know or have access to anti-retro viral treatment. Respect those, who believed they were living typical lives, having relations as people have had for years, who didn't have all of the information, and are now HIV positive or living with AIDS. World AIDS Day is about solidarity. Solidarity as a worldwide community, to take one day a year to remember those who have died, recognize and celebrate those who are living, and to make a commitment to the rest of world do everything humanly possible to work towards a future where HIV/AIDS is no longer the world epidemic. Soapbox speech aside, what did my first World AIDS Day look like here in Bahia? Well because I work with a foundation that has its rhetoric and analysis in place, we got to work. In a mid-October meeting with various health professionals, community leaders, persons living with HIV and AIDS, and representatives from various groups, Father Pedro broke down the reality and gravity of the HIV epidemic here in Ecuador to the Comite para la Respuesta de VIH, SIDA y ITSs del Canton Sucre (the Sucre County Commission for the Response to HIV, AIDS and STIs). Ecuador is at a 3% confirmed infection rate (that doesn't account for those who have never been tested, surely there are many unconfirmed cases); as of October there were no more free tests to be administered, and the HIV treatment that is provided to all HIV+ people was in short supply. The government had still yet to make a statement about its plan to address the rising HIV rate in Ecuador, and how it would be meeting testing and treatment needs in the coming years. I sat in a silent room as Pedro put it bluntly to the group, Ecuador is a disgrace in its response to HIV and AIDS. Every African nation has a better plan and response to the situation of HIV and AIDS in their country than Ecuador. Ecuadorians need to stop believing that it can't happen here, not in my community, not to me – because the reality is that it is here, it is in nearly every community, and people need to educate themselves and take precautions to protect themselves. Ecuador's fate hangs in the balance in terms of HIV, and we have models to compare it to, South Africa and Brazil. When both of these countries were at the 3% danger zone, Brazil's government created a strong response moving the education, prevention, and treatment campaigns straight into the poorest, most effected communities, and today Brazil is a model country in terms of the response and management of HIV/AIDS. South Africa on the other had lacked a strong, concerted government response in the poorest, marginal, most effected communities and today South Africa has one of the highest rates of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world without the help and services that they should have to live long, productive lives with HIV. So if there are no tests, lacking anti-retro viral drugs available, misunderstanding and misconceptions about HIV, what is a community group to do? The Fundacion Corazon Solidario started its World AIDS Day campaign a day early, November 30th, at 8am a group of 40 or so gathered to embark on a door-to-door campaign to educate our neighbors and community members about the reality of HIV/AIDS in Ecuador and Bahia. We were selective in our campaign. The demographic for the highest infection rate here in Ecuador effects people living in marginal neighborhoods, who live in humble conditions, and who have “trabajo eventual,” which is to say, they work when there is work available; families who live on

just a few dollars a day, with little financial stability. The sub-group most effected by HIV/AIDS here in Ecuador: amas de casa, housewives, women who contract HIV in their own beds from their husbands. So between 9am and noon, as we walked door to door, and who do you think we found in most every home? Dutiful housewives and mothers, washing clothes by hand, preparing lunch, taking care of children, attending to small neighborhood stores, and doing the necessary odds and ends around the house. I was walking the dusty streets of Acuarela, one of the poorest barrios in Leonidas Plaza, with a good friend Raquel. In a land of few tests and fewer drugs, we talked to women about the reality of HIV in Bahia and in their own barrio. We talked about confidence, trust and communication between partners; we talked about fidelity. We also stressed us being two women walking the streets talking about HIV without fear and without shame. If nothing else, we were trying to get the topic of HIV out of the dark, because Ecuador won't see a change until people start taking about HIV and acting in a manner to prevent it. We handed out flyers, brochures, and pinned everyone with a red ribbon asking them to wear it in solidarity with those living with HIV and AIDS for the following day and as a commitment to take the necessary measures to ensure that they would live long, healthy, productive lives. I arrived to the Worlds AIDS Day event at 7am the following day feeling like we had already made some kind of positive impact toward the true purpose of the 1st of December. Within two hours, various organizations, government agencies, schools, and medical groups had set up a plethora of booths covering a variety of topics. From TB to supporting children born HIV+ it was all there. But I was particularly proud of the foundations contribution to the “open house” type of event, not only did we have a huge, puffy, red-felt lasso, we had a great topic: acknowledging the societal discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS and developing a model of inclusion and respect for people living with HIV and AIDS. So maybe I have embellished our topic a bit, but that is really what we covered in the 1001 mini-charlas that were given under our tent that day...talking about people living HIV and AIDS, their rights to participate in Ecuadorian society, and need for people to change their analysis of what it means to be HIV+, to stop being afraid, to stop judging and stop excluding these individuals.

As the event concluded a little after noon, there had been a lot of HIV/AIDS material distributed, some singing and dancing by drag queens, facts recited by elementary age kids, 1000s of red ribbons pinned, a parade, and I think something to be learned by all. In true form of the foundation, the event didn't end there. All were invited to meet up later in the evening in the community of Charapoto for a special misa (it's a catholic foundation, you should predict it by now!) to remember those who have passed away from AIDS and those who are living with HIV and AIDS. In a true Father Pedro form, it was less ritual and more reflection finding the space for a few community members to speak about those fallacidos (passed away), their spirit, their work, their commitment, and their struggle, and giving a place of support and comfort to those living with HIV to share and receive compassion from a group of people who care. All of this really did encompass the Peace Corps theme: learn, serve, respect, as well; taking the opportunity to listen and understand compassionately the reality of living with HIV, being present for the moment, and being their in solidarity, that is what the true nature of World AIDS Day is about, not about fighting against or responding, but taking a day to inform ourself, commit ourselves, and understand.

One of the first real friends that I made here in Bahia was Mario, a friend who taught me the importance of BINGO to your average Ecuadorian community. He threw the term, “bingera” out in conversation and in my usual response to ecua-vocabulary, wrinkled up my face not understanding the phrase, “la gente de Bahia son muy bingera” (the people of Bahia are very bingera). What could bingera possible mean!? That they LOVE BINGO! Of course they do!!! What could be more fun than filling BINGO cards with pieces of dried corn to win bottles of oil, bags of rice, glasses, produce, you name it, if its cheap then it is a viable prize!!!! I swear there is a BINGO event in the neighborhoods of Leonidas Plaza everyday of the week and ALL day Saturday and Sunday. You rent 2 tablas (cards) for $1 and play until all the prizes are gone. (how fun!!!!!!!) Most of the local BINGO events here are purely just something to do, but there are other events, BINGO Millionario and BINGO Solidario, are the two I have become familiar with, in order to raise funds. The BINGO Millionario involves more elaborate prizes, think blenders, toasters, dish sets, tables, etc, more complex BINGO moves (the L, T, X, blackouts, etc) and you buy your tabla per round; you pay more to win more, and the sponsor of the event makes more money in turn. The BINGO Solidario is played like the neighborhood games, but all the money goes to supporting a person in need, a group, a project, an event, etc. and the prizes are generally donated.

So how did I get to be such an expert in the world of Ecuadorian BINGO? Well I just can't get away from it! It's around every corner, I have numerous friends who “call” BINGO, a few more who rent out the game sets to groups, and well I helped plan and carry out a BINGO Solidario in November. The RBC project is broke, to put it simply. Of the four employees, two teachers and two madres comunitarias, the first are paid my a Spanish Foundation for disability, the later “paid” by INFA, and when I say “paid” by INFA I mean they are supposed to be paid, but INFA is about 4 months late in paying them...Transport to and from work is paid out of pocket, the foundation covers copies and office type supplies needed, four times a year there is an application to receive school/recreation supplies for the school and activities from INFA, but other than that, money is just not available. So in order to take the kids on small field trips and do fun things with them we needed to raise some funds. First we tried organizing some moms to sell snacks to the kids leaving their catechism classes, but the time they put in preparing and selling, was more than the money we recovered. We needed a way to get some real money! BINGO! And so we did...

Really, a BINGO is pretty easy to organize; you pick a date, rent (or in our case, borrow) the game set, print the tickets and sell them, buy/collect prizes, get a locale, and hold the event. It took all of a couple days to organize everything and we were set. Ours was a pretty small event, but also it was our first ever fundraiser and community-type event as RBC. Everyone and their mother (literally, the mothers sold the majority of the tickets...) sold about 125 tickets at a $1 a piece. Part of the trick of the BINGO Solidario is that you sell the tickets ahead of time as a fundraiser for the event, and people buy the tickets more to support the group than to come the event and play. For example, I sold a bunch of tickets here in Bahia to the “pelacones” (the term for the rich people of Ecuador) knowing that they would donate the dollar or two to the cause, but never make the trip out to the campo to actually play. We also organized all the moms of the kids to make treats to sell to the attendees and got a few other snacks and sodas donated. We had popsicles at 10 cents a piece, popcorn for 25 cents a bag, soda for 10 cents a cup, delitos (a strip of cheese or meat wrapped in dough and fried, delicious!) 3 for 25 cents, and empanadas 2 for 25 cents. During the event I was in charge of selling the snacks and I had too much fun with the microphone advertising the snacks, heckling the people to buy, sending out our youth volunteers to deliver the treats, and collecting the money! :D

(L:Natalia calling the BINGO round and Isidra, Special Needs Teacher, supervising; R: Raquel, RBC Madre Comunitaria, playing a round)

As far as the game actually went, each attendee received two tablas for each $1 ticket. The event went on for about 3 hours, until all of our prizes had been given away to winners, and I think that everyone left happy and content with the afternoon. I had a great time! All in all, we raised about $175 for the special needs school (which is a fortune for a school that has a budget of just about nothing!) As the afternoon wrapped up, we gave hugs and kisses to all of the moms for all of their hard work and dedication and invited them to join us for a “paseo” (field trip) with their kids. Thanks to their hard work, we raised enough money to cover the costs of kids and moms for our International Day of Disability field trip to Bahia, and per our calculations would still have some left over for future projects, paseos, etc.

I have had the wonderful oppertunity to experience yet another fantastic birthday outside of the States...this year celebrating a quarter of a century of ME! I thought that I could never have a birthday celebration as special as I did last year. Meeting up with other volunteers in Mahajunga to celbrate the anticipated election of President Barak Obama, wandering the streets of that beautiful city with new friends brought together by the incredible experience of living on that beautiful island, eating a 6000 Ariary Magnum ice cream (they only cost 1.25 here...), Marco´s Pizza and Wine, gelato! It was a wonderful wonderful birthday. But this year, I think my birthday was even more special because i had the chance to celebrate and share my day with new friends here in Ecuador that are becoming like my second family. But let me tell the whole story...because my plans of fun were almost foiled.

A few weeks before my birthday, I was chatting with Karla about my upcoming big 25th birthday and that I really wanted to do something to celebrate...it was also important to me that I be able to include my new friends and keep fostering the relationships that I was building. I wanted a fun, special, low cost event to celebrate with everyone and I also wanted to include a little PC goal two, sharing my culture with Ecuadorians. The idea struck me: a good old fashioned bonfire on the beach with hotdogs and marshmallows. Eureka! Karla made a stop my the office of the "Capitan" and he said to stop by the day of the bonfire to get the permit, free of charge. Holler!

So November the 5th rolled around, and Karla went to get our permit from the Capitan in the morning, and it was a no go. Due to the fiestas that had been going on in Bahia, all permits were suspended until further notice...there would be no bonfire on the beach. I got a little upset, I even cried a little (it was a stressful week! and this was the icing on the cake!!!) but I had already invited the guests - I wasnt goign to cancel my own party!!! I made the decision, we would move the party to the house! We borrowed the BBQ from Karla´s sister and set out to make our purchases: 80 hotdogs and buns, katchup, mayo, mustard, chips, soda, stuff to make salsa and guacamole, oh and some Pilsner, the national beer of Ecuador.

After some purchases and my daily work routine, I rushed back to the house to get everything ready in time for my party at 7. Time was tight, and after rushing around and stressing at 7:15 I was seated downstairs waiting for my guests to arive. No one. 7:30 no one. 8:00 still no one. I started to worried that I had planned a party for no one to enjoy...but at 8:20, right on Ecuatime, Humberto shows up with a pickup truck full of people, and yells "ya vengo" (I´ll be right back) as he drives away.

By 8:30 the whole downstairs patio is brimming with people. I turn up the music, Eik grab my camera (thank for being my photographer, girl!), Karla fires up the grill and the party begins! Within an hour, everyone has piled a hotdog or two or three to the brim with toppings, is chatting and everyone is eyeing the bags of puffed gelitan and sugar that remains on the table. Maria, one of the voluteers from Spain, says she has always wanted to roast marshmallowes like they do in the movies. I tear open the bags, hand out the skewers and the roasting fun begins! After everyone had their sugar highs in order, we played a few games, did a few dinamicas, and then as a big suprise, Father Pedro showed up to wish me a happy birthday! The party wrapped up at about 11:30, with everyone tired and content, at lease I hope so!

All in all, it was a super fun night. I loved every minute of it and know that I have to follow it up with another party next year. :D But really, the best part of the day was being with new friends, if I couldn´t have celebrated with friends and family back home, it was the next best thing!

Viva la Cumplañera!!!!

I am finding that one of the most challenging parts of being an urban volunteer is finding where you belong, with whom you work and socialize with, it's all about finding your personal “community.” The Peace Corps experience and success rests on integrating with a group of people, the community. In the rural sense of Peace Corps, the “community” is obvious. In a town or village everyone knows everyone and the generally slow pace of life facilitates ones integration into the greater community as a volunteer meets the majority of the community, gets involved in the local activities, lives a lifestyle like the rest; in this rural situation it is easy to be present, available, and become a part of the community with time just merely by living within the town/village space, participating, and sharing.

In the urban sense of Peace Corps, this sense of “community” isn't so readily visible or easily accessible. People live in divided urban spaces, barrios, where people eat, sleep and live, but who don't necessarily identify within a the community of “La Marianita,” “Los Bloques,” “Bellavista,” etc. Unlike my urban Malagasy community of Marovoay, there isn't really anything that unites the Bahia area. Students study at fiscal or private schools, near or far from their homes, the majority of people who live in Leonidas Plazas work in Bahia, and I often find that people are more connected with their friends and family in Manta, Portoviejo, Guayaquil, Charlotte, NC, New Jersey, or Spain, than with their neighbors. Mostly, I notice how much more private peoples lives are here in the Bahia area than they were in my town in Madagascar. I miss seeing neighborhood women sprawled out on grass mats together trying to catch an afternoon breeze, laughing, chatting and inviting conversation from passerbys (in fact it was rude not to converse! No one has anything THAT important to do to not talk!), I miss the sense of community that I felt in Marovoay. It was a big town, but everyone seemed to intermingle in different facets of their lives and connect. I find that here in Bahia in a town of about 20,000 people many people don't even know all of their neighbors, and aren't always interested either. In Madagascar, I found my place and community with my neighbors and co-teachers, because there was an obvious connection between, and there was a genuine interest in who I was, a single, foreign woman who had come to live at the school and teach for two years. Sure, my blue eyes and fair skin, where much a burden to me in Madagascar and many times showed me the ugliest side of sexual harassment and rudeness in people, but I was, for many, the first foreign person they had been in contact with. On the flip side, tourism brings in a large portion of the local revenue in Bahia. Blue eyes and fair skin aren't new here in Bahia, in fact, the majority of people are used to seeing faces like mine come and go regularly, spending a few nights at the “Coco Bongo” Hostal, walking the quite shaded streets of town, and then catching the “panga”(launch) to Canoa to go surfing and enjoy the beach.

In all honesty, I never imagined these first three months at site would be so difficult. I thought I would repeat my first Peace Corps experience, fall into a “community” of people I lived and worked with, and find my way within a few weeks. But I lacked a lot of the Peace Corps support and host agency support. I was placed with a regional agency that administratively serves the whole northern portion of the province of Manabi. Of the 15 staff members, 5 live in Bahia or Leonidas Plazas, and only 3 are from originally Bahia. These 15 staff members spent 40-65 hours a week at their desks filling out paperwork and filing reports with the government. I was looking for an avenue to get out into the community and not into an overworked, clerical office. Even my counterpart, a woman originally from Bahia, but who has spent the last 15 years between Portoviejo and Guayaquil was not equipped to help me find “my community” and place as a Peace Corps volunteer even with her best intentions for hosting a PCV in her agency.

About one month into my service here in Bahia, I found that I was spinning my wheels at the INFA office; I was without anything to do, I knew really no one apart from the INFA staff, and my host family. I knew it would be infintely difficult to go about finding my way as a PCV alone in the Bahia and Leonidas Plazas area. I had heard from the Municipio to INFA the serious social issues that exist, low reading rates, high rates of teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, alcoholism, child abuse and neglect; there wasn't a lack of things to do and get involved with, but the method and modes of getting to work seems daunting.

The divide between Bahia and Leonidas Plazas was one of the first things I noticed upon trying to find my place in these communities here as a Peace Corps Volunteer after moving away from INFA. They are two distinct populations, with no real border. There is an interesting divide among the people of the two towns. Bahia has the illusion of wealth and prosperity, but only 2 of the 13 barrios are made of of strikingly modern, beautiful houses and condos. Leonidas Plazas, on the other hand has a rumored reputation of dangers - robberies, fights in the streets...but that too I'm finding out is more talk than reality. But movement between the two towns is constant, necessary, and to the majority of people it seems more of of a geographical difference, Bahia – North, Leonidas Plazas – East, but to many it is a divide of class, race, moral, everything; they are complete and separate worlds.

Needless to say, in a transient community of 20,000 people divided into two distinct areas, how does a lone gringa from Oregon go about finding her way, her community and her town? That was my issue. And I think it is an urban volunteers issue all the same. In an urban area with buses and taxis, boats connecting to nearby communities, tourism, commercial exporting, trade, etc, the Peace Corps foundation of being known, integrating, and with a little effort things just falling into to place, take on a new dynamic. I can't claim Bahia-Leonidas Plazas as my “community” because I can't relate and socialize within a population so large and diverse. Rather I needed to be involved in something, to belong to some place and find my “community” in a more specific sense of the word. A daunting task when you arrive to a new city divided into 45+ barrios, alone and without a lot of direction or help.

As I have written before,I found my work partner, the Parroquia (Parish) in Leonidas Plazas and its foundation after about a month in Bahia with the help of my dear Espanolas, Maria and Natalia, and was astounded, infatuated, and excited by the work they did in the greater community of L. Plazas and its surrounding communities. In my first few weeks was here, there, everywhere; I had kissed a lot of cheeks, made a lot of small talk, and hoped that I would find my place within the group. After a month of getting acquainted with people and the work of the Parroquia community, I found that I still felt like I didn't really have a place to belong, that I was without the “community” element that Peace Corps service rests so firmly on. I can't work and be a successful volunteer if I am working alone, but it was unclear to me if I was welcome to jump into existing projects or if my place was to create something new and go it alone in the name of the Parroquia.

Father Pedro Jesus, the head of everything that is the Parroquia, is an extremely busy man. He is juggling leading the catholic community of Leonidas Plazas in terms of Mass, catechisms, and everything else church related, likewise, he is the disseminating point of all the community and service work that the foundation does: micro-finance and rural community organization, the community kitchen and homework program for kids in Fanca, the regional commission for HIV-AIDS, special education and home visits for people with disability, just to name a few. Everything that the Parroquia, its volunteers and employees do, originates from him. So finding a moment to talk with this man about my personal issues of feeling isolated, uninvolved, and without much to do, seemed like a difficult point to bring up with him in the few moments I saw him in passing...also, it is worth mentioning that I need someone with a bit of patience to talk with me. Not that I cant express myself, it just takes me a little longer than the average Spanish-speaker to get my words out and my point across and sometimes Father Pedro is not that person! And I can't blame him; he didn't solicit two years of patient conversation with a volunteer from the States, and guiding me in finding my way; I know that he is happy to have me as part of the Parroquia team, but it took some extra work on my part to get the guidance I needed from him.

Until about 2 weeks ago, I was really struggling with my lack of “belonging” feelings. I felt like I was showing up to work and collaborate with people who could care less if I was there or not. Then over the course of a few days it all started falling into place. After my trip to Guayaquil, Father Pedro told me everyone missed me and was asking where I was was. One day I had an epiphany...after 6pm, as I hang out with the jovenes(youth) of the Parroquia communiy, I am always checking my watch, not wanting to get home too late, knowing that my host family is expecting me; I also found that I didn't always go to weekend events with the Parroquia, because the host family wanted me to hang out with them or that I was rushing away as soon at they were over and not hanging out and being part of the group.

It was a hard realization to make, but I found that as long as I lived with my host family who wanted me to be a part of their family, I was never going to get involved and be a part of “my community” and rely on them like I want to and need to in order to integrate and feel like I belong.

Another thing I had to put into perspective was the hours of operation of my organization and community. The Parroquia is a Parish, a Parish committed to serving the greater community of Leonidas Plazas and the surrounding communities. It is a religious organization, but it supports a series of projects that serves all people regardless of religious affliliation in order to better all peoples quality of life. Thus the work they do doesn't fit into a 9-5 box. As a volunteer focused on working with youth and families, I had to come to terms with the fact that students study from 7am till 12 or 1pm Monday to Friday; which leaves the majority of my mornings free. Likewise, Saturday and Sunday are the ideal days to organize activities and projects with youth and families. I realized that I needed to be working from noon until the evening and be available to participate in weekend events with the Parroquia that usually start at 8am on Saturday. I also found that that I needed to remove the guilt I felt from not being available to my host family to spend every evening and weekend with them. I love my host family, they are so warm, welcoming and fun! And they have made a lot of my initial struggles here in Bahia manageable, but, I had to put into perspective that I came to Ecuador to spend two years serving in and being part of a community. Once I realized that my ability to become part of a community was being hindered by my obligations to being part of a household, I knew I needed to look for some independence from the Andrade family that has welcomed me so fully and wonderfully into their lives.

It took me days to build up the courage I needed to tell the host fam that I would be moving out. Needless to say it was taken with disappointment and sadness. The decision, however, has freed me from feeling obligated to arrive in time for dinner (which I am never hungry for at 6:30) and spend my evenings at home with Karla watching TV, when I could and should be elsewhere, involved and participating. Within the course of two weeks I learned the greatest lesson of Peace Corps Ecuador so far: BEING PRESENT. With just freeing myself of outside obligations and being available, and around that Parroquia, including evenings and weekend events, I finally feel a part of something. I have friends, people who are happy to see me, a group of jovenes (young people) who hang all over me, kids that chase me up the streets of Bahia and Leonidas Plazas to say hello, invitations to dinner, everything I was was looking for. It feels good. Mostly it feels productive, like in a matter of months I will really be involved, engaged and on my way to not just participating but contributing...finally.

I know that I am my hardest critic. It's taken me a long time to admit how hard I am on myself; never satisfied with what I am doing and always wanting to do and give more of myself. Like Father Pedro reminded me the other day, I have only been with the Parroquia two months, yet I know almost everyone who works, volunteers and colaborates; I have made it out to almost all the communities to meet the families and introduce myself; I am working with groups of mothers in Bahia and in a rural community who now trust my advice and rely on me to be there and support them, I have a group of kids at the comedor (community kitchen) that anticipate my arrival everyday and actually like doing their homework because I am there helping and supporting, and that their parents (most of whom I've not met) are excited in working with me in a training for parents in the coming months. I have to remind myself that its okay to have down time, there is nothing wrong with it, and that this time with diminish with time.

I have a lovely apartment in Bahia picked out for myself, and think it will be my first move. I had a hard time locating an apartment in Leonidas Plazas that was the right size for me and in an area of town that I liked and feel safe. On my final day of apartment hunting, I found a small house and an apartment that I both liked, but neither of them are finished (missing floors, bathrooms, etc, important things!), so I can't move into them like I'd like, which is the beginning of December. They are both in barrios filled with people from “my community.” It gave me all sorts of warm fuzzies inside to see people come out of their houses and ask if I was going to be moving nearby, and for the past few days I have been inundated with kids and teens asking me when I am moving into our neighborhood...to which I have to respond; eventually, I hope. I would love to make another move in a few months into my “community's “ neighborhood, and complete my urban integration.

A picture is worth a 1000 words! Take a look into my life in the month of October:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047593&id=27500865&l=bccdfe7064

some of the things you will find:

*charlas with parents of special needs kids*parades*Madagascar themed Bday party*hanging out and sipping cocktails with priests and friends after mass in Charapoto*working with special needs kids in the campo*impromptu face painting*

enjoy!

For those of you who speak/read Spanish here is the link to the blog of the Organization I am working with in Ecuador. And for those of you who don´t speak/read Spanish, feel free to browse the pictures and get an idea of what this foundation, parish, community organization does in the local area of where I am living!

http://www.holapanitas.blogspot.com/

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to get to escape from my city life and visit a another style of city life in Guayaquil. Now for any woman who has spent any amount of time Latin America, they can tell you all about the ridiculous, unrelenting, unnecessary amount of hissing, catcalls, smacking of lips, and other types of unwanted attention from the typical passerby. As I pounded the concrete of Gquil with my two best girls here in Ecuador, Liz and Molly, we had ample time to discuss and analyze all of this verbal harrassment (yes, that is what it is, let´s not sugar coat it anymore) nonsense.

There is some that is good, or should I say ok. Someone simply saying "que lindas ninas" as they pass by us. Because, hey, if I saw my girls and I walking down the street, I think that a simple declaration of "what cute girls!" might come flying out of my mouth too! We are cute girls! But then there is the ugly, bad, makes you feel either angry, or dirty, or some combination of the two, and usually leaves me with a scrunched up, stink face. It is the tone of voice, the look that accompanies it, a gesture, licking of lips, loud, wet, gross kissing noises from passing cars. It makes me want to scream with anger. And some times I do. And the worst part is. When I shout obsenities at these individuals, it validates them. They love it! The stark, raving, mad gringa reaction is exactly what they wanted...because it means I was listening. It worked. Me da rabia!!!!! (It makes me soooooo mad!)But this is what I am working with here...

One of the lovely Peace Corps volunteers that lives in Guayaquil has a lovely mantra to help her deal with this unwanted attention/harrassment. I am trying to adopt it into my daily life, 1)because I need something if I am going to live here 2 years as a PC volunteer, and if I am looking at a career abroad too... 2) becasue it makes me laugh, and you really need to be able to laugh at the situation. It goes a little something like this:

Man yelling catcall : "Que rica nina!!!!"" (hiss hiss, kiss, smack, hiss hiss)

Calm, cool collected PCV: "I know, right!?" (said with sarcasm, because come on!)"I am a tasty woman. See, that is why I love men. They are so observant!"

As you walk away from the catcalling man, saying this, you can´t help but crack up. Admit it. It´s funny! Well it´s making my week at least! Ha haa ha!!!

I have been feeling a little low the last few weeks, but luckily I can recognize that these feelings are all part of the typical struggle periods of Peace Corps service. It doesn't necessarily feel like a productive struggle and isn't likely to resolve itself immediately. As much as I don't want to say this, maybe this struggle is even a necessary part of finding a place and identifying a role in a community - nonetheless it doesn't feel like a positive phase of my experience here. There is, however, a page in my Youth and Families Development handbook, entitled, Critical Periods in the Life of a Peace Corps Volunteer, which is helping put my emotions, self-doubts, and anxiousness in perspective. I don't like to put myself in the “typical” box. I am an individual, independent (sometimes more than I ought to be...), and capable; I take pride in my ability to persevere in difficult situations and in my usual role as “the rock” my friends and peers can rely on. But, this strength is definitely being tried right now.

This is what my handbook tells me about the challenges and struggles of month 3-6 of Peace Corps service:

Issues to be had:

Assignment: I am finding that it would be nice if I had one...ha ha. I know that I am here as a Youth and Families Development volunteer, but the reach of this title is sweeping. Y&F volunteers do just about everything. From a direct intervention stance: working with homework programs, to starting youth groups, working in schools, organizing sports teams, giving talks and workshops to groups, but other volunteers work at an agency level creating programs, organizing workshops, developing the infrastructure to support direct intervention and the like.

For me, my given assignment, fell though within my first month here when I realized that my counterpart had no real grasp of what a Peace Corps volunteer does, nor the time to help me get out of the office and into the community on my own, but still in the name of INFA. This all feels like ancient history now...As I have written, I have moved on to a new group as my community contact, Fundacion Corazon Solidario, part of the Parroquia of Leonidas Plazas. The possibility of my assignment all of a sudden is wide open to whatever I want to do. Which leads me to...

Uncertainty of Role: I am pretty sure that I ask myself “what are you doing here?” daily. And this is a broad sweeping question. I am overwhelming impressed with the foundation I am a part of; the number of projects that exist, the quality of the work that is done, the sustainability of projects, the commitment and passion that people have to work for penance and be paid with the gratitude of improving their community and neighbors lives.

This in essence is my stemming identity issue with the Foundation...I don't really feel a part of anything. It is one of my unique challenges, I guess, in finding my own organization to work with. I didn't get the pre-arrival Peace Corps introduction, no one from the foundation wrote a solicitation asking for a volunteer, there were no months awaiting my arrival and thus no anticipation for what I could or would do. Rather I planned a meeting with Father Pedro, told him what I was capable of doing, that I liked the work he was doing in the community and would like to be a part of the working groups if there was a place for me. I was welcomed to be part of the group; as the newbie I was carted around for a week or two, to see the big picture, and then was given some phone numbers to follow up with to see the rest. After my tour de projects, I had met a lot of people, attended a few meetings, walked the length and breadth of Leonidas Plazas and felt completely lost. What I learned from my month or so of introduction, is that the Foundation is a pretty well run and organized operation. Although Father Pedro is the center of it all, all of the programs really run independently. There is no weekly or monthly meeting. Everyone just knows what is the expectation they have in regards to their work, and everything works out well. I see a ton of possibility, but feel like I am an arm’s length away from everything. Partly like I am missing a piece of the puzzle of how I can fit in and be part of the close-knit group, and partly because I don't want to step on people’s feet. Especially, because I respect so much the work that people do within the Foundation and the Parroquia, I want to make sure that individuals understand that I am interested in collaborating, improving and extending the reach of the Foundation, not changing or replacing anything. But first I need to get in a little further inside, and this takes time. I am finding my patience lacking and my ability to sit quietly and wait being tested...

Separation/Solitude: My lacking assignment and role leaves me with a lot of time to think. And when things are a little low, it's quite easy for all this thinking to be about where you might rather be, with people whom you miss, other things you might like to be doing. And all of a sudden, it doesn't matter how many friends one has made, how supported one feels by a host family, how much other good stuff is in the works...it is so easy to feel like no one understands you, that you are in this all alone. Le sigh! (but really, this has been one of my lesser issues...)

Peace Corps says to look for these signs in yourself:

Fright – not so much...

Frustration with Self – yes. definitely. I want to be working. I want to be busy. I want to be a part of it all! What am I doing wrong!?

Loneliness – some days...but my host family leaves me little time to myself to be lonely.

Weight and/or health changes – unfortunately yes. My life involves a lot more cars and buses than I expected. And too much good food is pushed in my direction. I must strike a balance between calorie consumption and daily activity!

Homesickness – only because I don't feel like I am finding my place here...

Uselessness – see “frustration with self”

So what am I doing to help myself through this rough patch I am in? Well, I am making myself get up every day, stick to a routine, and get out of the house...I make my rounds, check in with my friends and contacts, keep having the conversations I need to be having to keep ideas fresh in peoples’ minds and remind people that I am here to work, collaborate and contribute. It´s not easy and it´s not all roses, but I didn´t sign up for the easy road. I recognize that my struggle is normal and magnified in my own eyes, and I feel so lucky to have people close to me to support me and help me through it all!

Here are some pictures from my first weeks at site! They are a scatter of here and there, which is kind of what the the weeks felt like, here and there! Ready to settle into a more normal schedule and routine, I hope!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045830&id=27500865&l=90828e42b4

At times when I cross the invisible boundary that separates Bahia from its many Parroquias I have to give myself a little jolt to remind myself that I am still in the same place. The difference between standards of living in Bahia proper, and its surrounding Parroquias and communities is startling. Just 2-3 minutes drive from the beach front, luxury, high-rises live people in houses barely nailed or tied together where people live without running water or an established sewage system; people who live in some of the most extreme urban poverty you can imagine. People with only basic (and many with no) education struggle to find work, cover their basic needs, and raise children. This level of poverty extends outward from all that is Bahia central into the countryside, but somehow seems less severe without the city and its influences so close.

One of the many ways the Parroquia in Leonidas Plazas supports surrounding communities in their plight from poverty, is by providing residents with the opportunity to participate in a micro-finance program. Rather than being a Church “handout,” the micro-finance program allows individuals help themselves by taking charge of their own destiny and working toward a better life for themselves and their families.

In the urban area, the Parroquia offers small loans of less than $150 (with litte, and this year no, interest) to local people to start small businesses, or to help small-business owners expand their businesses. One of my favorite loan recipients is a man who sells delicious cream-filled pastries among other pastry things in front of the “Tia.” Apparently, before he carried a basket and wandered the streets selling his little bites of joy. But with his loan from the Parroquia, he bought a display case and rigged it up with a bicycle (which is totally the moda in Bahia) so that he can transport his place of business from his home to his chosen corner. He arrives about mid-morning to sell his treats and stays until he sells out in the afternoon. His business has expanded tremendously, because he can transport more items and has a greater chance of selling them all, which is generally does! I imagine he will be paying his loan off in the next few months as his business is booming!

The other aspect of the micro-finance takes place out in the rural, farming communities surrounding the Bahia area. In these communities people live harvest to harvest, with the dry season usually a time without work and without money to spend on their basic necessities. The idea of the micro-finance loans in these areas is to 1) give campesinos the monetary resources to allow them to prepare for the planting seasons with more ease and be less strapped for cash in the months/weeks before purchasing the seeds, fertilizers, etc., 2) to give campesinos the ability to expand their growing capacity by offering them extra funds that they would likely not have access to to plant extra fields, or try out growing new crops. The majority of local campesinos in this area grow maiz (corn), maracuya (passionfruit), and papaya.

Each year, the Parroquia gives local community members the opportunity to participate in the micro-finance project in which they can receive between $100 and $300. But unlike the urban-based loans, the rural loans are based on community organization. To receive a loan, a family, or an individual, if they are single, divorced, or widowed, must be part of the organized community. To be part of the organized community means that families and individuals participate in community projects, efforts, attend meeting twice weekly – it is a commitment, but the organized community also holds its own power, the Parroquia purchases in quantity and at discount, basic supplies like rice, flour, oil, etc, and sells to the community at cost to maintain local bodegas (store rooms) where the profit made is saved for the community fund, likewise, each community has access to the community pharmacy which stocks medications at a low price and conveniently within the community, with the same concept as the bodega. It is a basic community development concept that people are stronger in cooperation, and that if everyone pays into the community funds, the majority will benefit from the community efforts. Thus, in terms of the loans, when someone in the community takes out a loan, the whole community signs on this individual or families loan. If someone defaults on their loan, the whole community is responsible for returning that money to the Parroquia at the end of the growing season and loan period to stay in good faith with the micro-finance program for the following year. The first year that families and individuals sign on to receive a loan, they also sign onto the organized community and can receive up to $100. Those who have participated faithfully in the program before can receive up to $300.

So all this sounds great and nice. But out in the countryside...you can't just activate the phone tree to organize an informative meeting. No No. The only way to inform people that there is going to be a meeting or event is to spread the news yourself. This was how I became so informed of the micro-finance project. Padre Pedro invited me to know more about the project and spend two days in the community of Santa Marta (which by the way my host family had no idea even existed!!!) spreading the word and getting people interested in a community meeting to get all the details with the Padre himself.

For my trip out to Santa Marta, I was told to wear long pants, close-toed shoes, a hat, bug repellent and carry water. I arrived bright and early at 6:30am, ready for an adventure. I drove out to the village, hamlet rather, of Santa Marta with Father Pedro, Humberto, and Rafa and we were welcomed with a breakfast of fresh panes de almidon (breads made with cassava flour and and cheese), milk and coffee at the home of Senora Yolanda. Before long, Humberto dropped Rafa, Yolanda and I off at the first hill that constitutes the upper “loma” (hill) portion of Santa Marta at about 8am. The first few visits went quite easily; we were invited into the homes and shared the information about the micro-finance project and asked them to join in for the meeting the following day at 2pm if they were at all interested. The meeting bared no commitment, purely to get all the information from Father Pedro himself. From these two bottom houses, we hiked a solid 30-45 minutes straight up part of a mountain to the next house. We arrived huffing and puffing and a little sweaty. And continued on with our sojourn. We visited a total of 12 houses our first day, with each house being a minimum of a 30 minute walk from the last. When we arrived back to Yolanda's house in the late afternoon, we kicked back, peeled off our socks (which were saturated with dust to the point of being solid brown) and let our tired feet breath a bit.

The following day, Yolanda, Rafa and I hitched a ride with the water truck out to the other far end of Santa Marta to work our way back into the central area. It was a significantly easier day trip, and hills we climbed paled in comparison to the mountains we had gone up and down the day before. All in all, we visited 28 houses in two days, the entirety of Santa Marta, and hoped that at least a few more than the original 6 participating families would attend our meeting after two days of house visits! Now, i have to pause and say, I have not yet adapted to non-American time...I still arrive to meetings, events, and to meet people a few minutes early, even though I know that they will be a minimum of 10, usually 20 minutes late...So, you can imagine the look of horror on my face when at ten minutes to 2pm (the time the meeting is scheduled to begin) Padre Pedro asks the Senora whom we are eating lunch with for a round of coffees. At 2pm the coffee is served, and we all take our precious time drinking it...at 2:20 we casually meander in the direction of the church to see that not a single soul has yet to arrive. I guess Father Pedro knows.

For the next hour, we pace the church. (And by we, I mean Rafa and I, who have been entrusted by Father Pedro to get people excited and interested in the micro-finance project and the organized community.) Rafa and I exchange a few worried glances, and then we saw a donkey round the corner. Yes. Our first arrival came by donkey! Gotta love the campo for that! By 3:30 there were about 18 families in the church, gathered to learn more about the project. The thing that surprised me most was people's resistence to the organized community, To me, it seems like an all win system. You sign on, to a few group projects a year , that are only to better the community and your own access to resources (water, electricity, roads, etc.) and in exchange you get access to basic goods at a the lowest price and available locally, including medications, greater security, and the opportunity to become better informed and hopefully become better off financially, and personally. I guess not everyone idolizes everything that comes out of Padre Pedro's mouth like I do...and I also recognize that people who live such isolated, quiet, simple lives have reason to be hesitant, if not resistant to an idea that seems too good to be true.

All in all, 14 families said that would join into the organized community and wanted to take out loans for this growing season. Over double the year before, including two young, single men, that are taking loans out for themselves for the first time, rather than as part of their parents family. Families and individuals, and the community sign their forms and officially become united this week in another meeting that I am hoping to attend. There is still time for people to drop out, but also that opportunity for additional families or individuals to sign-on to the program as well.

I finally got a chance to upload a healthy sampling of pictures from the time I spent during training in Cayambe, Olmedo, site visit to Bahia and Quito:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2043880&id=27500865&l=adbc95f5a3

I hope you enjoy them!

I am officially a “mono,” litterally a monkey, but rather it means that I am a costena, or coastal dweller. I have officially traded papas (potatoes) for plantains, sneakers for zapatillas (sandals), chancho(pork) for mariscos(seafood), mountain views for ocean views, cold blustery weather for temperate days and breezing nights (at least for now), early bedtimes for active nights; here, no one uses the sierran “jjaa,” but then again no one uses the letter “s” here either. It's definately a different place and definately a different lifestyle. At times, when I look back at the first two months I spent in the Sierra, I can hardly believe that this is really the same country! I have complete my first month at site as a Peace Corps volunteer and it as been wonderful, incredible, stressful, and frustraing all at once. Certain things have been easier than I ever expected possible. For one my host family; they are super wonderful people and I often wonder how I was so lucky to have run across them in my frantic search for a place to live during my site visit. Upstairs in the house, is Karla, her son Carlos and I. Downstairs Karla's father and brother live. I have been welcomed into the family 100%. In fact, Don Jamie, Karla's father, tells people in town that I am one of his daughters and that I have recently returned from college in the States and I am working in Bahia, and to people new to Bahia it is a believable lie. And all the little kids in the family call me "tia" (aunt)! Ha ha!

Overall my current living situation is quite comfortable. As far a locale goes, I live in a beautiful residential neighborhood in a super nice house, with my own breezy bedroom, closet with tons of space (and not a lot to fill it with!), complete access to the kitchen, my own bathroom, and freedom to come and go as I like, pretty much the ideal situation. I watch CSI, Criminal Minds, HBO, and Latin America Idol with my host family like its my job at night, and just about every night the whole fam takes a “vuelta” (spin around town) in the car to watch the sunset over the ocean, catch a little breeze, pick ups a few things at the store and sometimes we even stop for a cheese empanada or pan de almedon snack on our way home. Don Jamie constantly compliments me on my command of “castelleno” (spanish); but he really does think of me like one of his daughters, so in that sense, I am basically perfect; I can do no wrong in his eyes. It is a super comfortable living situation for sure, and if it werent that my work here is taking on a different role, I could see myself living with them for the entirety of my service. Work is where my challenge has come. What I understood as my proposed “job” and what thought I was going to be doing here has changed completely. And that has also been the source of my furstration and anxiety in my first month. My first week at site, I spent every day on the road, traveling through the Cantones (like counties) of San Vicenty, Jama, and Pedernales, with some of the INFA staff to complete evaluations of the Creciendo con Nuestros Hijos (Growing with Our Children) project. My first impression was thus, being overwhelmed by the reach of my INFA (Instituto de la Ninez y Familia – Institute of the Child and Family) and I had still only seen a portion of the territory!

The next week was a little more “tranquilo.” I hung out in the office, saw how things opperated, chatted up the Tecnicos about their work and started making some conclusions. This is what I found: INFA is a government agency that works super hard, making sure the basic needs of it's local projects are met. The tecnicos are generally stuck to their desks filling out mountains of paperwork and getting signatures that prove to the national government that monetary resources are being used appropriately and the basic needs of the children that are being served are being met. When the Tecnicos get out of the office, it is to go to their assigned communites and to do a physical check that what the government paperwork says is the reality. Needless to say, the tecnnicos are busy. Super busy. Thus, my role, as my counterpart wants it to be, is to be creating workshops for tecnicos to organize and give in each of their communities about health, parenting, prevention, etc., and to be creating training programs for the different projects' promotors to improve the reach and services of the local INFA's office, in terms of daycare, preschool, parent groups. Additionally, I was under the impression that I was going to be working within easy access of the communities from Bahia, not up to 2 hours away with more than 250 projects and even more promoters working under the guidance of the Bahia office. As I have discussed many times with Karla in my frustration, the way this has all been presented to me, I feel like my counterpart thinks that I am here to save her INFA office! At present the tenicos dont have time to be working in the communities doing workshops or trainings, its not a matter of them not wanting to, or not valuing work at the community level, they simply are just too overloaded by the paperwork side of their jobs to spend any real time making connection and impacting communities in such a way. And in that sense, it is super frustrating for me to think of the time involved in creating, preparing, presenting, and training a staff to do something, workshops and trainings, they don't have time to do...nor do they have relationships in the communites they are assigned to, to actually make an impact. The basis of what my counterpart wants me to do is so anti-Peace Corps that I spent the next week and half paralyzed by the task ahead. Not to mention that my counterpart also threw some other tasks at me that were so beyond my realm of ability I was speechless...She needs a professional consultant and a child-development specialist, not a Peace Corps Volunteer! And I am still trying to navigate this situation with her. I have talked with her about what I can do, and what I would like to do...but she either doesn't understand me, or doesn't want to hear that I can't save her INFA office (i think it is more the latter...) But there is a silver-lining to all of this...I have become good friends with two volunteers from Spain who are working on a project for Special Needs children in the Bahia area. They are working through the Parroquia in Leonidas Plazas (technically, Bahia, but slightly different-its the part of town before you arrive to “resort city”) and when I met with Padre Pedro, I was welcoimed with open arms into their circle of community work. The Parroquia in Leonidas Plazas has a foundation called “Corazon Solidario” (Heart of Solidarity) and is run by Padre Pedro Jesus, who might be the most amazing individual I have met in my life.

The reach of his work extends to all of the surrounding “campo” sites of Bahia, where he is working to organize communities, and empowering them to exert their own power to sell their own products at a better price, to have their own community store houses of foodstuffs, local pharmacies, etc. To this end, he offers micro-finance loans with low (or this year, no) interest rates to local farmers and small business owners to allow them the oppertunity to improve their state of being. Likewise, he has a network of local health promotors that do education in their own communities and report back to the foundation about the needs that need to be met. The foundatoin also works in outreach, support and prevention of HIV/AIDS, as well as supporting people, from children to adults, with Special Needs and disabilities. The foundation also offers assistence to distressed families, providing lunches to close to 200 kids daily in a local barrio, and promoting activities and oppertunities to help youth make good choices, stay in school and stay out of trouble. In a nutshell, Padre Pedro and his foundation do just about everything. And they do it super well. To spend a week with him in the community leaves you in awe of his passion for service and social justice, and the impact that he makes in peoples lives is indeed awesome. He is quite possibly the biggest celbrity in the Bahia area for the great work he does, and I am so happy to have found a place with him and the foundation. So what does this mean I am doing? Well at present I am still following people around the like the little lost puppy I am. But everyday, I get a little spark more of what I can be doing and ways that I can be of service. I think that with Padre Pedro as a support and mentor to me, I am going to be able to make some great connections in the Parroquia and get off on the right foot to making some lasting projects with the local communities. It is nice to be collaborating with someone who already has a understanding of sustainable community development because I can pick up where the foundations outreach has already started and build from there. I am super excited about my prospects here in the Bahia area, and every day keeps getting better it seems! I'll keep you posted as things develop...

When I returned from my technical trip, I really just had one last week of training and with my host family. The week flew by, finishing up training competencies, spending time with my “Olmedo girls” (who I had lived with in town and spent virtually everyday with), last minute errands in Cayambe and preparing our despedidas with language groups, families, and Peace Corps.

For our “good-bye community” lunch, we prepared and presented a traditional dance and song. (I sang and didn't dance, surprising I know...) We also prepared a meal to share with our families. The Peace Corps ordered two Horneados (whole, baked pigs), to feed the families, and each group of volunteers in communities prepared a side dish. The classy ladies of Olmedo (that would be my group), made broccoli salad. Friday afternoon we chopped 20 heads of broccoli, kilos of grapes, bunches of green onions, and bags of raisins and walnuts in preparation for our delicious salad for the party. My family was skeptical of a raw broccoli salad, but by the end of the meal both huge pots of salad were gone!

After the party with the families, all of us trainees met up at the “Coffee Bar” in Cayambe for our personal despedida. We all ordered drinks and light snacks and enjoyed all being in one place together, since normally our personal outings were limited to groups of 5 people. A good time was had by all, but headed home early because I knew my family was preparing another special despedida for me. I walked into the house to find a cake on the table, and two huge pots on the stove. Within the next half-hour all of Edita's family was arriving and we sat down at the table to make speeches and toast with peach wine (a terrible, preferred drink in the Sierra!) We ate a soup filled with chicken insides and feet (I ate around what could...eeek) and then arroz colorado, the Ecuadorian version of fried rice with plantains, shrimp, veggies and of course, chopped up hot dogs. We all sat at the table and chatted until all of the sweet, sticky wine was gone and then I got tearful hugs and well wishes from the whole family as they left. I of course had much packing to do before bed.

I was up bright and early the next morning, to finish getting ready to leave. I got an extra special breakfast with an egg and onion sandwich and another wrapped up to take with me. :D All 5 girls loaded up Senor Segundo's truck with our many, heavy bags and I couldn't help but cry as I said good-bye to Edita and Mariela who had taken such good care of me and showed me so much love! I know that I go back and visit them at least once during my stay here!

In Quito we settled into our hostel, which would be our home the next few days. We visited the Mitad del Mundo Monument, ate a traditional lunch at a really nice restaurant, and did all the touristy things: straddled the equator and attempted to hold the world in our hands for pictures, visited the museum, etc. It was a really cool place and I can't wait to have visitors to go back and spend more time there!

We had two more days of work in the office and then Wednesday, August 19th, I swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer for the second time. I have to admit it was not quite as exciting the second time, but I did shed a tear or two during the speeches because Peace Corps service is such an awesome opportunity, and I am so privileged to be here for two years learning, growing and working. So here I am for the second time, about to head out to my corner of Ecuador this time. My bags are packed, by job description is murky, but I am so excited (and nervous) to get started once again – and this time with a much stronger grasp of the language! This has to be easier the second time around! (Right?!)

In our seventh week of training, Omnibus 102 packed up and took training on the road! Truly, this was the most fun and informative week of training yet. Each sector divided trainees into two groups, for Youth and Families one group went to the province of Esmereldas and the other group (my group) went to the provinces of Guayas and Santa Elena for a 5 day technical trip.

Myself, 10 other trainees, 3 facilitators: Ines, Lenny and Cisa, the PC language and cultural coordinator, Rolando, and Volunteer, Grace set out Sunday afternoon on the long trek to Guayaquil on the coast, about an 8 hour overnight bus trip (but not before we ate some delicious crepes in Quito for dinner!). Monday morning, we met three Guayaquil area volunteers for breakfast (one who went to Willamette and graduated with me too!) and chatted about their experiences as volunteers. Then it was on another bus, this time much shorter, to the oceanside towns of Salinas and La Libertad, where one of my fellow trainees will be working. In reward for our long trek out to the coast, we ate a delicious marisco- (seafood) filled lunch and headed to the beach to sun ourself and relax. Que rico!!! Later in the afternoon, we met up as a group to go over the objectives and tasks of our technical trip (because we're there to work, right?) and we began the preliminary planning of the workshops that were were going to give during the week with the help of our facilitators.

Our first real day of work took place in La Libertad. We met up with Alexandra, Grace's counterpart, and possibly the sexiest woman in Ecuador! (I'm talking Farrah Facet hair, body hugging jeans, heels, and an attitude and air of sexiness that just doesn't stop!!!) She is a doctor and local politician that has dramatically improved health-care access for La Libertad area. Her two main projects are a community clinic funded by the city, where anyone can go and see any doctor, therapist, dentist, get lab work, whatever for $2 a visit. Wow. Likewise she runs a free clinic at the area High School and does a lot of health promotion with the students, especially specific to sex-education and reproductive health education (and if there is any middle-aged woman who is going to get teens to listen and get on board with safer-sex it is Alexandra!). My group gave two charlas, workshops, in La Libertad; one to a group of 15 and 16 year-olds about sexuality and mainly just getting kids to talk to each other and be open about communication when talking about bodies, sexual activity, and risks. It was super fun, and the kids seemed to break through some of the shyness and start addressing the topic with maturity. The other charla was for a group of young mothers, talking about the same topic, but focused on how families can educate their kids and help them make good decisions about sexual activity.

Besides the workshops we gave in La Libertad we ate super well! We found the most economical and delicious way to eat in the tourist spot of Salinas which was super expensive (well for us as PCVs...) Dinner included: pinchos (skewered beef, chicken, or shrimp and grilled...yumm!) choclos, (sweet corn, either on the cob or in patties with onion and garlic), chelas heladas (cold beer) and plantains 101 ways (grilled and split with cheese, battered and fried, in patties, in balls, and more.) All delicious and a tasty and filling meal for about $3.

The next day we headed up the coast visit some other sites. First we stopped my Palmar, where Stephanie, a girl from my group, is going to be living. Palmar is a quiet, dirty little beach town with a lot of character and an amazing and organized youth base. We met with the coordinator of NeoJuventud, where Stephanie will be the fourth and final volunteer. The youth organization if funded and cordinated in part by CARE International and partners with the local Catholic Church. The group does a lot of peer education and outreach, organizes mingas (community cooperation projects – beach clean-ups, etc), replants the local mangroves, and has various small businesses (a bakery, cyber cafe, and alcohol-free hangout.) I think that Stephanie is going to be working with outreach and expanding the reach of the projects to more rural communities and creating a regional network of youth groups in the area. Very cool.

From Palmar we caught a bus to Manglaralto, and traveled an hour on a cramped bus standing with our backpacks...but we arrived to this sweet, little town, right in front of a beautiful beach. Our hostel had bright-colored hammacks hanging and we gladly occupied them whenever we were hanging out. I was super happy to be in Manglaralto to meet the mythical Carita who had lived with my host-family before me. Just like they said, she is a beautiful, kind woman with the hugest smile and warmest personality. She took us out to small town about 30 minutes in the campo, called Dos Mangos. It is mostly a farming and artisan community; our local guide took us to see the local production of woven hats, bags, and other things made from a special grass in the area, as well as the tagua, translated as vegetable ivory. The tagua comes from a palm-like tree, and the fruit can be eaten when it is young and when it is aged, can be dyed and carved into jewelry. I really loved it, but only found something from my friend, Molly, not for me! So I am on the look out for a tagua treasure of my own!

For dinner, Carita, had arranged for us to all have a group dinner at a little choza (hut) on the beach; the owner was the sweetest man and served us a delicious meal of marlin steaks, rice, salad and patacones (smashed and fried, green plantains – delicious with katsup!)

The following day we caught a bus further up the coast to a community called La Entrada, a town whose local economy as been transformed by the Fundacion Nobis. The local coordinator there had a full day planned for us; we visited fisherman coming in from their morning rounds, played with some still alive octopuses, talked about community entry tools, had a demonstration of their open-ocean oyster farming techniques and we did a workshop with local scholarship recipients about goal-setting. Of course another highlight of our trip was eating once again! There is a parada turistica (a tourist stop) with amazing lunches, for $2 we had one of the best meals we have had in Ecuador with a shrimp soup followed by more shrimp cooked in a white wine sauce that was absolutely amazing; a chef came and gave cooking lessons to the local restaurant to cater to a higher caliber of cuisine and we all think that it was a lesson well given and received! Then for dessert we headed to the famous “Pie Shop.” We all passed around pieces of strawberry cheesecake, oreo cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake, passionfruit pie, and more. Everything was amazing and I finally got to try the famed, real Ecuadorian coffee. Mind you, I have been drinking Nescafe for the past two months, so when I was brought just a cup of hot water I begrudgingly waited for the coffee powder to arrive momentarily. But no, a little silver pot was brought out filled with a super-strong, concentrated coffee, to which you add to your coffee. It is so rich, tasty and strong. And because my coffee addition had not been filled since I arrived, the minute the caffeine hit my blood stream, I was in the clouds with pleasure, and asked where I could purchase some of this blissfully coffee immediately. Which I did. One dollar for kilo of delicious, local, coffee.

When we returned, it was our last night in Manglaralto. I was giving the charla for the next day, and with my two partners we had planned on doing a similar goal setting activity with high school students in Mangalaralto. But there was new twist. Our group had jumped for 25 to 70 participants and our original activity was going to crash and burn with so many students. Jessica, Jcov and I, crash planned a mini-ropes course activity with three main points: communication, team-work and trust. I was super nervous about how it was all going to go, but we pulled it off with flying colors, the students were totally engaged, and at the end of the activity commented that they really liked it and wished it could have gone on for longer (which Carita says they rarely have a commentary about any activity. So our technical trip wrapped up with a success and we spent the next few hours laying in the sun and being pummeled by the barreling waves before heading out on our return trip to the Sierra. It is also worth mentioning that on our way back to La Libertad to catch the bus to Quito, there was a disco-power hour and we had a bus wide sing-and-dance-a-long. In one word: Magical.

I had the luck of being selected to live and work in beautiful Bahia de Caraquez, a coastal resort town in the Province of Manabi. It is a town of about 50,000 people, located on a peninsula in the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by water on 3 sides, clean, picturesque and absolutely charming. I am still kind of reeling that this is my Peace Corps post. There is not a hardship to be had it seems. I will spend my 2 years living in a modern, oceanside city, in an apartment similar to what I would in any US city. I'm really feeling like a Posh Corps volunteer....but know that I will find my work and life in Bahia very rewarding in almost the opposite way that I did in Madagascar.

When I arrived for site visit, the information I had about Bahia and my job there were pretty vague, so I was anxious to arrive, meet with my counterpart and get to know my new host family.

Day 1: I arrived late. Very LATE. In fact, by the time I arrived to Bahia, I had my first surprise: my counterpart had already left to a meeting in Portoviejo, 2 hours away and she would be gone all day. As soon as I pulled into the terminal, the INFA truck picked me up and took me to the office. It was clear as soon as I arrived no one knew what I was here for or what they were supposed to do with me for the day. There was another girl from the Netherlands in the office too, she wants to volunteer with special needs kids in Bahia, so she tagged along for the day too. The next surprise of the day: I was dropped of at my “host family's” house. My host family equaled a 22 year old girl, who works at INFA and lives in a 1-bedroom apartment. (not really within the PC expectations for a host family in anyway...) I changed, got ready for the day and started making some visits with my escorts...more surprises: it soon became clear that my escorts for the day believe that I am a specialist in Special Needs – as far from the truth as possible! (I would love to work with special needs kids, but I don't know anything about the field!) Angela, one of the women in the office, is under the impression that any foreigner that comes to work with kids in Ecuador, is here just for the Special Needs kids, like the girl who is in town from the Netherlands...(in the end I AM going to work with the Special Needs center, but more with creating family training program and collaborating with the center, than direct care.)

Next I go to lunch with some women from the INFA office and after we finish, they say its beach time!...so Judy (my “host” chica) takes me home to change and we spend the afternoon walking and sitting on the beach. Later that evening we meet up with Emmalee my site mate and eat pizza for dinner. I am left thinking: I am supposed to have a job and task here...day one is over and I have no idea what this office does, and I realize that I have a place to stay these 3 days, but no place to live after I swear-in!

Day 2: I arrive to the INFA office at 8am and am greeted by my counterpart, Yvonne. We sit down in her office (which is like an air-conditioned ice box!), she asks me what I think about Bahia, what my education is, and tells me that there is a lot of work to be done here. Bueno. She also tells me that the structure of INFA is changing completely - in January the organization went from being a private to a government agency, and things are quite complex now. By 8:30 Yvonne's office fills up with the whole INFA team for a meeting, and by 9am she is on her way to Portoviejo, again. Meanwhile, the whole INFA team is swirling about the office, and I am thinking again: what am I doing here!? On her way out the door, Yvonne tells me I'll be spending the day with Angela (the one who thinks I am a special needs specialist...) to show me what an average day of a tecnico is all about. Angela informs me she has some appointments scheduled starting at 10. “Great” I say, “I'd love to come along.” I spend the next hour, sorting through my paperwork getting an idea of what I need to accomplish the following day with Yvonne, and am on the phone with my program director, Cris, letting her know that my housing situation is not going to work out as is...

A few minutes before 10, Angela and I depart to the same office as before, for special needs kids. The group is in a training session. Unbeknown to me, I am about to be abandoned. Angela accompanies me upstairs, I sit down at the table, greet everyone, and they Angela peaces out and says she'll be back for me in the “tarde.” When!? She doesn't know, I don't want to make a scene, so I take out my notebook, listen and participate in the training. The meeting ends at 12, and I remain at the table, not knowing what to do with myself. Glory to grace, I get a call from my site-mate Emmalee asking if I would like to have lunch with she and her counterpart. Yes!!!! I say my goodbyes and grab a taxi (communal taxis only cost 25 cents! holler!) downtown to the Municipal where Emmalee will work.

I walk up to La Oficina de la Mujer (the Office of the Woman) I am instantly impressed with all of the women there and Emmalee's counterpart, Jacqueline. She is a brilliant, motivated, hardworking woman who has it together! She is a single mother, a respected director and she commands respect while caring for everyone who crosses her path. And she says she will help me find a place to live after work. Hallelujah!

“La Oficina de la Mujer” does a lot of consulting and event planning in the city as well as help women and children in abusive situations, they also have multiple campaigns related to reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and healthy relationships, and generally are just a resource for women and children in Bahia. At lunch I realize it is day 2 of my site visit and know more about Emmalee's projects and office than I know about mine...hmmm. I'm suddenly concerned for myself!

After lunch, Emmalee's counterpart excuses us to spend the afternoon wandering around Bahia, sampling some delicious local snacks and just soaking up this sweet spot. We stopped by INFA to find that Angela wants me nowhere around, and the other tecnicos are all out on visits (that I could have been on too!!!!), so we wandered around some more....

At 5:30, we meet Jacqueline to start the great apartment/vivencia search for me. We walked up and down the streets of Bahia checking out apartments that were being rented and I found out that living arrangement in Bahia are super nice and expensive! Not quite the PC arrangements I had pictured for myself...late in the evening I was worried that Judy and I were not going to find an apartment in the two days (Cris, my program manager, approved that I could have a roommate instead of a host family, and Judy said she would prefer to live with a roommate as opposed to alone, so we set out to find a 2 bedroom apartment). The last place we went to look at was just a one bedroom apartment behind a house, like a mother-in-law apartment. When I arrived I knew it was the best option I had seen, not too big, or fancy, very secure and safe, it seemed like I had found a place to live, at least temporarily...then the woman, Karla, said she had a room in her house that was unoccupied and asked if I would like to see it. So I went, and the more time I spent with Karla and her son Carlos ( I know, cute right?) I realized what a great family they would be to live with! So, I found a place to live and a host family all at once! I think it is going to be a really great living arrangement. They have lived with Americans before, in Chile, and Carlos was so excited that I would be moving in, he was actually bouncing! whew! At this point it was pretty late, I was tired, and I had done so much stressing that mid-day my sickness had progressed into a sinus infection with my face swelling, head aching, and teeth throbbing! What a mess! I still didn't know that INFA had in store for me for work, but at least I had now had a place to live!

Day 3:

Again, I arrived to the INFA office at 8 am to meet with my counterpart Ivonne. She was already at her desk sifting through reports and verifying things when I arrived. Then I had the best news of my site visit: we were going to spend the whole day together, talking about INFA, the needs of the community and her plan for me. FINALLY!!! In just a few words, my day was amazing.

She and I spent the majority of the morning talking about development theory, the structure of the office, and the role she wants me to play in both. She told me very directly that she wants me to do a lot of community analysis and needs assessment (which I am going to train the tecnicos to do, because we work in 4 Cantones -like counties- and I can only do so many interviews!). Next we talked about program sustainability. Ivonne strongly believes in sustainable development, in fact its a passion of hers... (she gave me her thesis to review so that we are on the same page about her methodology...) This is also Peace Corps' main goal of our work too; the idea is that we are facilitating, training, and supporting rather than leading and doing the work ourselves. This can be a hard accord to achieve because it is easier to just to it ourselves than to get people on the same page as us, with language barriers and cultural differences. Ivonne told me straight away, I would be responsible for helping staff members plan workshops and community activities, but in the field, my ultimate role would be to observe and improve, rather than do, the work directly. The reason being if I do the work in the field, then community members get used to seeing me, then when I leave, they lose their confidence in the program and progress stops.

The more time Ivonne and I talked, the more I am realized what an amazing post I was given. Theoretically, I will impact the communities my INFA office serves in the long-term because I am training and empowering people to do their work better versus doing the work myself. It was kind of bitter pill to take that I wouldn't get to be playing with kids and hanging out with youth all of the time, but then I realized there is a daycare center attached to the INFA office, which is always understaffed. That means that at any point in my day, there are kids just across the fence, who want to show me their skills on the jungle gym or a baby who need to be held, loved and talked to. Precious.

Later in the day, Ivonne took me out to a few of the barrios on the outskirts of town that INFA works in. These communities started as squatter settlements, and the city has built some infrastructure around them so that basic health and sanitation requirements are met. There are many government and church sponsored daycare and lunch programs out in these barrios because children are generally left alone while parents are at work, and school is universal here, but not obligatory, so many kids are not in school during the day. Ivonne told me that abuse (physical and sexual) is a huge problem out here, and kids grow up in the presence of too much alcohol and drugs, along with exposure to gang activity, community violence and other negative influences. It was heart-breaking to see hungry children who light up when anyone talks to them about anything. But I needed to see these barrios and understand the challenges that exist outside of the urban area and need to be addressed. I want to be out in these communities each week, because living in beautiful central Bahia, it would be easy to forget the poverty that exists in the margins of the community and focus on the urban youth who are very middle-class and privileged in comparison.

Additionally, there is a human rights center that is opening in Bahia this month. It is staffed and funded, but not programmed – so I am going to be working with the staff to set goals and initiatives to educate the community about human rights ranging from child rights, to reproductive health rights, to everything! I am super excited to learn and develop along with the professional staff and be a part of their initialization! There are also two young women from Spain, who are special needs experts, and there are opening a special needs school and center in Bahia; I will be collaborating with them to build a parent support center for special needs kids and developing a training program for parents to better support and nurture special needs kids and prepare them for adulthood. Amazing! Gaul, one of the tecnicos and I, already have plans to get a youth leadership group off the ground this fall, we just need to get the ball rolling! There are a million things that Ivonne and I discussed in this one day, I have no doubt that I will be BUSY for two years in Bahia! One thing Ivonne and I are going to work on together is opening a Children's Library with regular educational programming and activities. This is one of her life goals for the community, and I think it will be a great addition to the resources that exist in the community and I am honored that she wants me to collaborate with her.

And so my site visit went...it started out slow with many doubts, but ended with me feeling like I have a place in the office and a lot of really great work opportunities ahead of me. Just as any successful site visit should be, I didn't want to go back to training...I just wanted to get settled and get started with the next two years of life and work in Bahia!

Of course nothing can be easy and just go as planned, right? I have been fighting a pretty serious respiratory infection since arriving in Ecuador. It started just as a cough that progressed into a body rocking force of illness which progressed into a terrible cold. The PC doctor told me to keep taking my decongestants, drink lots of warm fluids and get as much rest as possible. So I did, and four weeks later I am still sick, looking my site visit in the face, and realizing that all of that cold medicine was doing other bad things to my body, mainly my digestion. hmm. I didn't make the choice, my body did. It said: NO MORE! I got my site assignment one day, and couldn't move myself from my bed for the next 2 full days.

Last Saturday, most trainees were scheduled to depart to their sites in groups, myself included. I woke up at 7am, dragged myself into the less than warm shower, and attempted to prepare myself for my trip. But my body was not cooperating. I was soon on the phone with the Training Manager and doctor, telling them that I was not going to be able to travel and them telling me I must travel. It was a frustrating morning, but in the end, I was able to spend my day resting like I needed, and I slept literally all day and all night. (Its also important to mention that my host mom thought that I was not just sick but possible possessed and wanted to call the shaman – also her mother – over to do a cleansing with an egg and cigarette. I told her, really truly I was just sick and although I am sure her mother is a wonderful healer, I really just needed to rest. So instead she made me delicious naranjada hervida, which is a warm drink of orange juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, and trago – homemade liquor; which probably explains why I slept so well!)

Nevertheless, Sunday morning I pulled myself out of bed, still not 100% but significantly better and began my adventure to La Costa. I met Lenny, one of the facilitators in Quito and he helped me navigate the metro system of buses and trolleys from one end of the city to the other; its about a 2.5 hour trip in all! He made sure I got a ticket on the 11:30pm bus to Bahia and left me to myself in the terminal for the next few hours.

My bus arrived and departed the terminal on time, in a way I had not expected! (a little different system of efficiency than Madagascar for sure!) And my trip to the coast went just as planned until about 3am, when a tire blew out. Hmmm. Now one would think this would be an easy issue to resolve: change the tire and be on our way within an hour. No. My bus had no spare tire. So we waited in the dark, steamy jungle on the side of the road for 3 hours until another tire to arrive from who knows where! By the time we were back on our way, I realized I had no cell coverage to call my counterpart who was expecting me, and advise her of the delay. I feel asleep and promptly was awoken by a distressed call from my counterpart, a woman whom I've never met, when the bus had not come in as scheduled. This being my first trip, I had no idea where we were and how long it would take to arrive...Additionally, there are a lot of small villages on the road to Bahia, but no real major cities, so when I asked my fellow bus mates where we were, they responded “Bahia,” when we were still over an hour from the town! I did finally arrive, tired and about 4 hours later than anticipated, but it was well worth the trip!

I had to wait 5 weeks but then I finally knew where I would be going....

Happy 4th of July!!!! Peace Corps Ecuador celebrated US Independence Day a day early this year with a grand event called Manana Deportivo. Each training community came to Cayambe to represent in a sudden death soccer tournament, but not before we crowned a queen of the event! Each of us picked a representative for the competition, which was part beauty contest, speech contest, and team spirt. Becky was the chosen reina (queen) for Olmedo, and we came decked out in custom made tee-shirts that said: “Olmedo, Achaychay” (our town, and what people say in place of “brrrrrr” here when it's cold) on the front, and our names and the number 24 on the back to symbolize the fiesta date in Olmedo. The competition was fierce, and the lovely Jcov took the sash to become Reina de Ombibus 102, my training group. After the fluff of the morning, the real competition began: sudden death soccer. Each game lasted just 12 minutes, but at this high elevation it felt like an hour. A few quick plays left us bent over catching our breath, but it was super fun! After an all-day competition, the group from Ayora deemed “Javier en la Casa” took the trophy home. Fun was clearly had by all.There were also a group of volunteers that traveled into the area of a meet-and-greet event. We had an American-style BBQ with hamburgers and hotdogs, veggie skewers, potato salad, coleslaw, fruit salad, guacamole and chips galore. DE-licous! Today, I have big plans with the girls from La Chimba and Olmedo to have lunch together and watch a movie at Lavanya's house to celebrate the actual day. I wish you all a great day!

When we met our host families under the canopy of the gazebo in Cayambe, they told us that we would be welcomed to the community of Olmedo con banda. The town of Olmedo celebrates the Fiestas of San Juan, the patron Saint of the town, for about 10 days and we arrived just at the beginning.

The 24th of June is the official beginning of the Fiesta, but the whole weekend before was more or less a warm-up party. And as we learned, nothing much happens on the actual day apart from a special 11am misa (Mass). But, the eve of the 24th is HUGE! My fellow trainees and I arrived home to Olmedo to see vendors setting up for the night and 2 huge piles of brush being built up for bonfires. At about 8:30pm the events started. All of the buses that run north of Cayambe are painted with “el 24 de Junio” signifying the day of the pueblo's fiesta. These buses, 27 in total, paraded through the narrow cobble stone streets of Olmedo honking and spewing their fowl black smoke at a painfully slow pace! When they get to the Church, the priest came out and blessed each of the buses, using local roses to sprinkle holy water on the front of the buses in the form of the cross and then blessed each of the drivers, too. When each of the buses had received their benediction, the community flooded into the church to hear the first Mass of the Fiesta.

After Mass, the real party began. There were fireworks galore, more precisely, bottle rockets that people lite in their hands and released! Oh heavens! The first pile of brush was set on fire in a less than dramatic fashion as the wood was clearly quite green - and Molly and I enjoyed some delicious candied grapes on a stick. (just about in that order too!) There was a live band for the occasion, and in the tradition of more fire, people prepared some very small “hot-air balloons,” for a lack of a better term, that were released into the air. Although these were adorable little, floating globes, I couldn't help but think that they had the potential to start some serious fires! (but that is the Oregonian inside of me, I guess...)

The best part of the event by far involved a tree trunk that had been sanded down and greased. It was set up telephone pole-style, with different prizes hanging at the top. Naturally, the point of the game was to shimmy up the pole and get the stuff at the top. Clearly easier said than done. There was every combination of kids and adults trying to boost each other up to the top, mostly with failure. Nevertheless, it was hilarious to watch, and eventually the right combination of small boys toward the top and strong men at the bottom was achieved at the prizes were had, but not until we had laughed enough to make our stomachs hurt!

The next four days were mostly preparations for Sunday's big fiesta. One of the biggest preparations was the pan de casa. Most bread that you find in the local panadarias is delicious, but white, fluffy bread. For the fiestas, many families prepare delicious, dense, wheat bread, called pan de casa, or bread of the house; two of my favorite breads that they made were the empanadas, which are filled with cheese and green onions, and the pan con pelota mantaquilla, which had a ball of soft delicious butter flavored bread ontop of a whole wheat roll. Outside in my host family's courtyard, they have a large wood burning oven precisely for fiesta preparations. Starting Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning, Edita's oven was occupied with breads and other preparations of all of her family and friends. I gladly sampled all of the bread that was offered to me as it came out of the oven! Que ricos son!!!!!! Saturday to Sunday, family brought over whole chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits and pigs to be cooked in the oven as well. For her family and guests, Edita prepared hornada, a popular fiesta food, a whole pig is seasoned and placed into the oven to cook until done, about 4-6 hours, as well as conejo hornada, roasted rabbit – both were amazingly delicious.

The day of the fiesta I woke up to help Edita with the preparations of the day, but mostly just did dishes for her, and let me tell you there was a monton! (huge pile) I ate breakfast twice- first my usual coffee, bread, fruit, boiled egg breakfast, and second, some tiny, but sweet and tasty corn cobs, called chochlo, and a taste of the hornada that just came out of the oven. At about 10am the desfile (parade) began with all of the local students and surrounding community groups participating and showing their support for the fiestas of San Juan in Olmedo. Each groups was dressed in costumes, either special outfits or traditional clothes. The parade lasted about 3 hours; I met up with a bunch of the other trainees that had gathered for the final fiesta day of Olmedo and mostly we sampled the street fare: cotton candy, fries with fresh salsa, cheese empanadas, litchis, mandarins, and more. Having never become hungry during the parade, on the part of our many snacks and my two morning meals, I of course when home at 1:30 for the fiesta meal. Thankfully, my host mom knows that I never want to eat too much so she gave a modest portion of food and didn't hassle me when I didn't finish my plate!

By 3pm most of the family had come and gone from Edita's house. We cleaned up the kitchen a little bit and she spent the afternoon napping, exhausted from days of preparation and little sleep. I on the other had went to the Plaza de Toros, and event that I found a least a little disturbing. The happenings at the Plaza de Toros is not the usual bullfighting you would expect. It's more like the amateur rodeo, but with only one event and everyone trying to lance the bull at the same time. Imagine an arena filled with about 60 men, ranging in age from 17-70 years old. Only about 12 of them are holding red capes to lance with, and 90% of them are so intoxicated they can't stand up! A bull is released into the ring and just charges around. The 12 men with capes are trying to “trick” the bull and earn points for the competition, but the other 48 are just running around distracting the bull and acting as collateral damage. Of course, these 48 men are often the ones not paying attention to the bull as well, so they get rammed, butted, gored and trampled during the event. The objective of the event is for one of the man to lance the bull five times, and then he receives an embroidered blanket that signifies his winning of the event.

The interesting part of the event is that people are more interested in the crazy men who are not lancing the bull, but running around, rather than the men vying for the prize. It's kind of like a train wreck activity, everyone wants to see blood! I spent a lot of time cringing in horror, but yet I too couldn't look away and stayed nearly to the end. My host mom says she hates the “toro” event in Olmedo because she knows so many of the men that go out into the arena. She can't stand to watch them be so silly and wait for them to get hurt, so she stays at home. But, since this is likely the only time I will get to witness the events of the Fiesta de San Juan, I had to go and experience it all.

The evening events of the fiesta wrapped up with singing and dancing all night long. In the town plaza there was a live band and people danced and drank the night away. And small local groups paraded up and down the streets all night long, dressed in the fiesta costume and singing the local fiesta song and looking for open doors that they could enter and entertain, in exchange from some warm chicha (a local drink made from fermented corn) and bread. Edita closed her store at about 8pm, after many groups had come to serenade throughout the day. We decided it was too cold and we were too tired to make it out to the last night's events. So we ate a dinner of delicious chicken soup and drank tea and chatted. I fell asleep to the strum of guitars and high pitched voices singing about San Juan, and so the fiestas of Olmedo wrapped up for the year...

Part of the PC training here in Ecuador includes various trips: a cultural trip, a technical trip and, of course, a site visit to our future homes! This past weekend was our cultural trip; myself and half of the training group went to a small indigenous community called Carabuela. Carabuela is a marginally urban community on the periphery of Otavalo, a town famous for it's Saturday textile market. Currently, there is an agriculture/environment volunteer working in Carabuela and she agreed to host us for the weekend and share some of her projects with us as well as organize demonstrations by local artisans.

We left our community training sites super early Friday and arrived to Carabuela at about 9:30am for a weaving demonstration; we met one of the abuelitas (grandmothers) of the town down by the stream and watched as she washed the lana (wool), during which one of my fellow trainees, Sabriga, jumped into the river to try it out. Afterward, we tried out dying, carding and spinning the wool on our own. Next we met with various textile artisans in the community to see them at work, some families knit by hand, others with a manual machine, and others weave on lap-looms. It was really interesting to talk with each of them and get a sense of their work and life. Some were young woman, educated only to the 2nd grade, others were college students working between classes and housework; but generally each household works together in their arts and for their livelihood. Overall, they earn very little money for the time they put in the and the quality work they produce. The community later held a small market place for us to purchase items, and it was hard to stomach that completely hand-knit sweaters sold for $12, hats for $2, bags for $5 and such. We all gladly purchased from the producers, as generally the community sells their products to an intermediary and receives around ten percent of what the item is sold for in the general market in Otavalo.

After our textile demonstrations, we walked to another small community to see an horno de casa (house oven) at work. During fiestas in the Sierra, families bake special whole wheat breads and whole chickens, pigs, etc, and each community has a few of these ovens which are shared. (My host family has one that has been hard at work for the past few days!) So of course we crowded into the small, smoky room to see the fresh bread emerging from the oven and got to sample a bit too. Friday was one of our language facilitators' birthday, so the family made a horse and rider out of bread for her as a gift, which was really cute! They also made little dolls out of bread which are traditional for a celebration in the fall and there is a special ritual to eating them too! Head first!

From there, we climbed a big hill to an orchard where we were were set loose with buckets to cosecha (pick or collect) fruit for our evening juice. The little fruits we collected are called uvillas (and for my Spanish-speaking readers, they are nothing like grapes), they are orange when ripe and about the size of a marble, they grow in a papery type shell, much like what is around a tomatillo, and they contain more vitamin C than an orange - among other health benefits. They are a little bitter and seedy to eat just as a fruit, but pureed into a juice, they are buenisima (very good)!

Our afternoon activities wrapped up with a mini-Quichua lesson (the indigenous language of the Sierra) which is still widely used in this community. As the evening began, we visited the local shaman for a group limpieza (cleansing) to get an idea of what the ritual is like here in Ecuador. It was very interesting, similar and yet different to the limpieza that I experienced in Mexico. In this community the main elements of the cleansing include special leaves which are tied into bunches and then sprayed with chicha (a locally made spirit) by the shaman before they are brushed, rather beat, over each of us from head to toe. The shaman's son, who is training to be a shaman, followed behind and sprayed the chicha and blew tobacco smoke at our feet to complete the ritual. It was just a taste of the custom, but they provided us the opportunity to ask questions about the ritual and their beliefs.

After our cleansing, we arrived to party in our honor at the local school! We were served a meal of potatoes (of course!), large fresh beans (the exact kind is unbeknown to me, but not like anything I know!), tomato and onion salad, campo cheese (fresh cheese, kind of like queso fresco in Mexico but with a different flavor), and cuy (guinea pig, yes, I'm serious. And I ate it. And I liked it.) The evening continued with the community performing various dances, playing music and singing. I gladly found some adorable children that were more than willing to dance with me, of course. :D At about 10pm we were partied out and exhausted from a day of climbing the hilly town of Carabuela at such a high altitude and learning so many interesting things!

Liz (a fellow evacuee from Madagascar, and my saving grace in many moments here in Ecuador,) and I shared a bed in a community member's house. The bed was small and hard (just a reed mat and about a 1 inch pad on boards), but we slept warm while little bugs made a meal out of our exposed flesh! (i.e. our stomachs, hips, backs, ankles, and one made it inside my bra! rude!) I wouldn't say I slept soundly, between feeling things crawling on my and for the fact that the party we left lasted ALL NIGHT long! People were singing and dancing and calling into the night until about 6am! Family of the house we stayed in came and went several times, and never quietly! lol! Needless to say, it was not the most restful night of sleep, but I was grateful to have a warm, safe place to sleep, nonetheless.

We woke in the morning, and were greeted by an adorable local young woman, named Sofie, who was our “cultural” guide for the day. As we walked to each of our different demonstrations for the day, she shared stories and histories about the Inca descendants in Ecuador's Sierra. She was so wonderful and interesting, it was a shame that there were so many of us and it was so difficult to keep the pace and hear her as a group.

We watched a demonstration by a local shoemaker, traditional shoes are still worn by many people in the Sierra, as many choose to keep a “traditional” dress as their everyday clothes. We also learned the history and significance of the dress and why men where white shoes and women black. Women of the Sierra wear dark skirts and shoes because they are always en luto (mourning) for the death of the last Inca King. My group of trainees have arrived during a big fiesta season, celebrating San Juan, San Pablo, and San Pedro. Consequently, these fiestas celebrating Catholic Saints, correspond with the Summer Solstice and a time of ancient celebrations called el intireymi – an Incan tradition recognizing the power that the sun gives and celebrating their King (as I understand it). So in this tradition, in the town of Carabuela, you will find the women dressed in traditional blouses with dark skirts and dark shoes, as they are always in remembrance of the last King, and the men maintain their traditions, dressing all in white, with white shoes, and wear dark ponchos. But outside of the traditional communities, people dress as they wish, and women wear which ever shoe matches their outfits for the fiestas!

After a lunch of delicious cauldo de pollo (chicken soup), we split our group into two and headed back to our host families in our separate communities, this time by public transport. I'm going to be honest, finding a bus to put 12 gringos plus 3 language facilitators on wasn't difficult, but it wasn't comfortable. We were clearly a gaggle - a gregarious gaggle of gringos on an already packed public bus. We looked quite out of place, but by now I should be used to this right? By the time we got back to Cayambe, we were all exhausted, dirty, and a little grumpy. Our bus back to Olmedo was standing room only, and what usually takes 40 minutes took over an hour. When I got back to my host family's house, I gave my saludos (greetings) and headed to bed for a late afternoon nap.

Some views of the surrounding volcanoes of Otavalo and Carabuela, the legend says they are Mother and Father to the rest!

In contrast to my training in Madagascar, Ecuador uses a real Community-Based Training model. Our group is conducting training in the area of Cayambe, an hour or so outside of Quito, but in reality we are all scattered far and wide. Our group of trainees has been divided in to 10 groups, in 10 separate and distinct communities. I am living in a small colonial community called Olmedo, of about 300 people, with 4 other volunteers.

We spend the majority of our time here with our families and with our language facilitator, Cisa. My host family's house is our meeting place, so we spend many days “in-class,” but it is mostly talking about issues of culture, learning songs, playing fun games and the like with a few grammar lessons asserted in (all in Spanish, btw). Two to three days a week we meet in another community where we have our training center for health, security, or other general meetings. In theory, we are supposed to have our technical trainings in our communities too, with a group of 10 or so meeting up with our trainers, but so far it hasn't been coordinated just right and we've met up at the training center all together

So far I have been really enjoying training. I have gotten to know the four girls of my community fairly well, and we seem to support each other very well. My host family is precious. I live with a single woman named Edita and her daughter, Mariela, who is 22. I am their fifth Peace Corps trainee, so they know the drill and don't hassle me to eat tripe soup or complain about having to boil water for me to drink. But mostly, they are just really incredible, welcoming, wonderful people. I feel like I have know my host sister forever! She is super sarcastic, which I love! And hardly an interaction goes by without us cracking jokes about the other...I am the first Youth and Families Development volunteer they have had, so Mariela is going to be my “test-joven;” rather, part of my training requirements is trying out all of the cool things I learn by creating a relationship with a young person in the community to help orient me and get me acquainted with the community from a local young person's perspective. She gladly obliged me when I asked if she would be my “joven” (young person).

Otherwise, at this point in my life here in Ecuador, I am drinking a lot of Nescafe, eating mountains rice daily, a decent helping of potatoes too, taking barely lukewarm showers, sleeping under 5 blankets, navigating my way through these mountain communities, improving my Spanish with every conversation, and taking it all in one day at a time. I definitely made the right decision in re-enrolling for Peace Service, I can't imagine being any other place, doing any other thing at this moment!