Well, I’m sick here on my birthday. I basically feel like I have a reoccurrence of mono from January – don’t know how possible this is. The bright side of this is now I don’t have to drink cheap whiskey for hours straight with the male side of my extended host family here. That would [...]
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Here’s a little story that I’ve waited a while to tell everyone. My second day in Ecuador, we were in Quito in our hostel, in the dining room hanging out before dinner. The food was going to be a bit longer, so I decided to head to the lobby to make a phone call home [...]
My counterpart never stops talking about his “plan estrategico” that they’re making in the office for the upcoming years. It sounds ridiculous to me every time, as if we’re making a strategic plan to drop stinkbombs on other competing tourism sites. Nevertheless, I too have been doing some strategic planning in my head – what [...]
Well I’m beginning to integrate into the Chone way of life. Among other things, I’m now used to eating dry baked banana and rice three times a day, I’ve started jumping off the bus while it’s still moving (next step is jumping on), and I’ve even started dropping my s’s when I’m speaking. Life here [...]
Ok I’m a HUGE nerd, but here are some things I wish I had figured out much sooner, or had been explained better…. Pronunciation system Spanish is awesome, because it’s highly phonetic. Spanish dictionaries don’t need pronunciation guides next to each word – once you know the system, you can pronounce anything. The rules for [...]
Well guys, I made my first true Ecuadorian friends. They even have their own Wikipedia page. I don’t know how I picked them up – somewhere I must have had bad water or food. Last week in Quito the day after some vicious bathroom trips, I started to develop a really high fever. Eventually the [...]
Casilla 13-03-007 Chone, Manabí Ecuador If you really want to, you can put South America on the next line. The woman in the post office had a coastal accent of the worst variety, so I really don’t know what was going on, but I’m pretty sure this will work one way or another. If you [...]
We had a our swearing in ceremony at the ambassador’s mansion in Quito, complete with moustaches, so now I’m a real volunteer. Congratulations to all of the volunteers in Omnibus 103. Afterward we had a barbecue and stayed up into the late hours of the night. It was a lot like the end of freshman [...]
Training is just about over, and we’re hanging out in Quito this week while we finish up evaluations, exams, etc. It’s actually been really great, because we’ve had a lot of time to hang out in the nice areas of Quito, which is almost like the US. I got to visit a climbing [...]
I’m back in Quito after a technical trip I took with several other volunteers in the Costa region. Our group was lucky enough to be the only one to get to go to the beach, which we were sure to rub into the other groups when we got back.
The trip started out around Quito, [...]
Wow, this place is loco. Completely different from the Sierra region, a ton more going on.
My counterpart is awesome – extremely friendly and already has a million great ideas. He’s also got a couple of really cool compadres who are my age who i’ll be working with a well. I’ve been very [...]
Chone has 75,000 people, so it’s the biggest site by far in my training group, since everyone is doing agriculture or natural resources conservation. Like any city here, it’s more dangerous. It’s been notorious for having violent gangs (in the past) and supposedly the most beautiful women in Ecuador. The province of Manabi [...]
http://picasaweb.google.com/reid.lynch
I was able to upload these thanks to the Cangahua municipal wireless connection which I have bypassed the enterprise content filter of using an ssh tunnel to an old Williams server. It was a bit of effort.
Many more photos to come….
PC training involves placing us in local communities to learn the language and culture – I’m in the friendly (y tranquilo) town of Cangahua with five others from our entering group. I’m living in a modest house near the town plaza with the Espinosa-Charro family. They have 4 kids; the three oldest live [...]
(finally)
593-8-764-1951
I can receive calls and texts for free, but cannot call internationally. I can text internationally to help set up a call. I’m still trying to figure out the cheapest way to call here – a lot of the good services are still expensive for Ecuador.
Spanish is probably the easiest language for English speakers to learn, but it’s hard. I tested pretty terribly in my preliminary interview – advanced beginner. There’s beginner, intermediate, advanced, and superior, so I’m pretty much pure gringo. I really think I’m better than I tested, but hard to argue with a native [...]
- the food – half of your plate will be filled with rice, every lunch and dinner, usually along with meat and potatoes. Interestingly, they have soup really frequently, and you put popcorn in it instead of crackers – it’s pretty good. Fruit is common, especially in juices, but the juice is [...]
Just landed…. I am speaking Spanish with real Ecuadorians!! The air is very polluted here, burns the throat a little. We had lasagna for dinner. We can’t leave the hostel because it’s dangerous.
We’ll be in Quito for 2 more days before we head a bit north to Cayambe. In a little over a week I’ll [...]
Reid Lynch, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla 17-08-8624
Quito, Ecuador
South America
Don’t forget the South America! From what I can tell I won’t actually be in Quito for most of training. Apparently I have to pay like a million dollars to pick up any package over 2 kilos, so don’t send anything heavy!
[...]
I’m eating meat again after about an 18 month hiatus. It’s really good! Right now beef is the personal favorite. We’ll see if guinea pig tops it.
Friday was my last day of work, and they were nice enough to embarrass me at the company meeting. In my bashful state, I didn’t get a chance to say thanks. I learned and grew a ton, alongside some fine (and smart) folks. Thanks. I also realized I’ll be in Ecuador [...]
I still don’t really know anything about Ecuador, but here’s some interesting yet potentially useless tidbits about the place. Also, this may be the first of many times I abuse the country’s name by combining it with other words in nonsensical ways.
1. they eat guinea pig. click here if you’re ok seeing a [...]
Here it is folks: I’m going to Ecuador (map), leaving Feb. 16, to do Natural Resources Information Technology. I don’t even know what this means, but I’m incredibly excited. The assignment is a delightful curveball.
Things are happening really fast. I’m leaving my job around Feb 1, and there are a ton [...]
A few needles, several ounces of blood and urine, and a couple of forged initials later, and I’ve been medically cleared. A HUGE relief to have this done. (I know I know, I’m a healthy guy, but it’s all about dotting your Is and crossing your Ts – apparently only 15% submit correctly [...]
Through a few minor miracles, I was able to track down my Williams Spanish placement exam results and email to them to my recruiter, who a few hours later asked me if I would accept the following nomination:
Program: Computer Science
Region: Central/South America/Caribbean
Date of Departure: March 2010
I accepted of course! What does this mean? [...]
Finishing all of my paperwork, today I had my interview, and it went well! I must say that this page on the Peace Corps wiki left me very well prepared for the questions I got asked. Nothing surprising in that regard. What did surprise me is that the language requirements seem to [...]
Only 3 days later I receive more paperwork – awesome! At least it’s a quick turnaround. Let’s see, skill addendums (yeah, addenda), banal paperwork, vegetarian questionnaire, and fingerprint charts (ew). I didn’t expect the vegetarian questionnaire, but I guess it makes sense. I’ve only been vegetarian for a little less than a year – I’m [...]
It has been about three years since I first dreamed of serving in the Peace Corps, and the time was finally right for me to submit the application. I reviewed my application and remembered that I had actually completed nearly all of it 9 months ago, but hadn’t submitted due to logistical issues at the [...]
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