This past week was All Saints Day/ Día de Todos Santos and so the whole country of Ecuador was on holiday from Wednesday through Sunday. I traveled with two peace corps volunteers and 7 Ecuadorians to the rainforest on one … Continue reading →
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I spent Halloween weekend in Cuenca and dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood ( la caperucita roja ). I bought red and white silky materials and then sowed my hooded cape by hand!!
Today I spent the day working with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer and her counterpart organization, JUCONI – Fundación Junto con los Niños. JUNCONI is a foundation that works with “street working children” in Guayaquil to promote reintegration into school, … Continue reading →
This past weekend I traveled 8 hours north of Guayaquil to the small town of San Isidro in the province of Manabí. (Map) I was invited by two Peace Corps volunteers from my omnibus to help them with an HIV … Continue reading →
My roommate Caitlin works with HIV+ teen moms based at Marianita de Jesus Maternity Hospital in Guayaquil. She is currently teaching these young women to make and sell jewelery as an additional income for their families. Here are some pictures … Continue reading →
I just got back from my Midservice conference in Quito which marks 1 year and 4 months in Ecuador! The conference was held in the new Peace Corps training center in Tumbaco which is about 45mins outside of the city. … Continue reading →
Over the past month I have been teaching English conversation classes at a English school in downtown Guayaquil called El Centro Ecuatoriano Norteamericano (CEN). I was first introduced to CEN by my counterpart Dr. Farhat while walking with him through … Continue reading →
This past week I had the incredible experience of working on a orthopedic medical mission in Cuenca, Ecuador with world renowned surgeons of Operation Rainbow. My father, a internal/ sport medicine doctor in San Francisco, first introduced me to Operation Rainbow when he volunteered for a week with Rainbow in the Dominican Republic after the [...]
A video of me dancing in las fiestas of Ayora!
I’m back to Guayaquil after almost a month of traveling with my family throughout Ecuador and Peru. This will be a trip to remember for a lifetime! We started out our trip in Quito and Cayambe where we visited my host family from training and my parents got to see the little country house where [...]
This weekend I traveled to Quito to prepare for my parents and Mariah’s arrival. I arrived in Quito on Friday night and took a bus to Cayambe where I stayed with my close Ecuadorian friends (Marisol, Monse and Daysi) three sisters who I met last year during Peace Corps training. In the month of May [...]
At the end of April I ran in the Nosotras Corremos Nike 5k race in Guayaquil. I helped organize a brigada médica (medical brigade) at Hogar de Cristo in the North of Guayaquil. With the help of two American Hogar de Cristo volunteers and two Ecuadorians we tested and educated over 80 patients. With some [...]
GREAT NEWS …. I am fully funded now through the Peace Corps Partnership Program!! Thank you to all my family and friends who donated to my project. Today I placed an order for 900 HIV rapid tests!!! I will begin my testing project in July, as soon as I return from traveling with my parents [...]
Dear Family and Friends, With great excitement and anticipation, I have spent the last few months trying to get a few projects off the ground. A majority of my projects have been centered on HIV education and HIV rapid testing in the city run hospitals. In the city of Guayaquil, 3 out of 4 people [...]
Its been quite a long time since I’ve blogged …. and a lot has been going on here in Ecuador! Over the past month I have been busy working on a proposal for the Peace Corps Partnership Program. This program gives volunteers the opportunity to fundraise for projects on the Peace Corps website. My proposal [...]
Peace Corps 50th Anniversary – March 1st 2011 From a very young age, one of my life goals has been to serve in the Peace Corps. I grew up listening to my father’s stories of his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines during the 1970s. He credits his Peace Corps experience with [...]
At the end of this past year I applied and was accepted as a new member of the Peace Corps Ecuador HIV Task Force. The task force is a working group of Peace Corps volunteers who represent provinces across the country and all project sectors (Agriculture, Youth and families, Health and HIV/AIDS). Our task force [...]
This weekend I took a hike with some friends to a set of volcanos above Tabacundo. We took a taxi truck or “camioneta” from Cayambe to the volcano and then hiked around one of the lakes. Volcán Mojanda is an inactive volcano with its last explosive eruption apx. 200,000 years ago. The volcano resides next [...]
Its been a long time since I’ve posted!! The whole month of January I was traveling in the sierran region of Ecuador. Tessa finally arrived in Guayaquil after her flight was delayed 8+ hrs from Brazil. The next day we flew to Quito and spent two days exploring the beautiful centro historico in downtown Quito. [...]
Happy New Year! Feliz Año Nuevo!! I had an amazing time celebrating NYE on the beach in Puerto López. Last Friday I woke up at 5am and took a cab with my roommate Caitlin to the Guayaquil Bus Terminal. We wanted to get to the terminal early because everyone goes to the beach for New [...]
Happy Holidays, Feliz Año Nuevo and Feliz Navidad to all my family and friends back at home! This was my first Christmas away from family. You would hardly know it was Christmas around here in Ecuador since its 85 degrees, HOT and humid! Christmas in Ecuador is an entirely different experience than how we celebrate it in the [...]
On the 15th of December I celebrated my 6 month in Ecuador!! Here are some videos of my past 1/2 year in the Peace Corps……. Milking cows with my host family in Paquestancia Doing a “dinámica” or icebreaker with kids in Paquiestancia Our Peace Corps spanish teachers dancing in Cayambe A [...]
On the coast in Ecuador there are TONS of mosquitoes during the rainy season. Over the past week and a half, we have had rain almost everyday in Guayaquil….which means more potential breeding ground for mosquitoes!! In our apartment we haven’t had that many issues with mosquitoes but there have been a couple of mornings [...]
Yesterday, my HIV AIDS Program and the rest of Peace Corps Ecuador joined people around the globe in observing World AIDS Day – El Día Mundial de la Lucha contra SIDA. Started in 1988, this important day celebrates the progress made in the battle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic while focusing attention on the many remaining challenges. My first [...]
After a long week in Quito for my Peace Corps Reconnect Conference, I’m back to work at the Municipio! I had an amazing time in the sierra visiting my host family in Paquiestanica, visiting the Otavalo market and celebrating a birthday with one of my close Ecuadorian friends in Ayora. Two Fridays ago, I traveled via night [...]
I took the plunge and finally got my hair cut!! : ) A little scared… Some pictures of my Guayaquil family in my new apartment….. My New Roomies Mike, Caitlin, Michelle, Morgan and Me HALLOWEEN IN CUENCA!!! Pictures from Ambassador Hodges visit to the Peace Corps office in Guayaquil! Giving my presentation on [...]
November 5th 2010 ¡¡VIVA LAS FIESTAS DE CUENCA!! I’ve been back from Cuenca for about four days and I can’t stop thinking about what a great time I had. Cuenca is now on my top 10 favorite cities in the world and I’m already planning my next trip (maybe when Tess comes to visit in [...]
I’m back from my long weekend in Cuenca! I had an amazing time exploring Cuenca and instantly fell in love with the beautiful and historic city. It was so great to see all my Peace Corps friends again and to spend some time in the sierra. I returned home late yesterday by bus and I’m [...]
Today was my 5k run down at the Malecon (waterfront) in downtown Guayaquil. I did it!! and had so much fun doing it ! I’m proud of myself that I took the initiative to train for the race and to also inspire other people to sign up and run with me! There was a great [...]
Today was a really productive day! TGIF!!! I spent my morning in the Municipio’s Library working on tabulating my patient encuestas and then did about 2 hours of GRE test prep. …..Yep that right, I’ve begun studying for the ever so famous GRE!! I am registered to take the test in February at the Fulbright [...]
I cannot believe that it is October already! I’m missing the fall and the changing of seasons. Here in Guayaquil it feels like summer and its only getting hotter and more humid. eeekkk! To get in the mood for October I’m keeping my eyes open for pumpkins to bring home to my host family….. and [...]
Today I woke up just like any other Monday—6:30 am start, got dressed, had breakfast, read my book over a cup of coffee and headed out of the house with my host family. I was dropped off at the bus stop on the main drag outside the enclosed community where my host family lives. My [...]
What a day it has been here in Ecuador…… This morning members of Ecuador’s national police and air force started protests and went on strike against the government of President Rafeal Correa. The Correa administration went ahead with reforms that will cut benefits for the police and military in Ecuador. Overall, the protest were a complete [...]
I will be moving into a new apartment in the middle of November before I return to Quito for my 1st Peace Corps conference called Reconnect. I will be living with two friends of mine — Michelle and Caitlin who are also HIV/AIDS PCVs in Guayaquil. Michelle found the apartment in the newspaper and we [...]
Here are some pictures of my host family’s home in Entre Ríos – Guayaquil, Ecuador My room…. the living room…. the kitchen… bathroom…. and the view of the neighborhood from the roof…..
September 14, 2010 This past week I began working on my CAT tools (Community Action Tools) in order to start gathering information about the different clinics/ hospitals run by el Municipio. I created a questionnaire geared toward patients to measure demographics (ex: where patients live, if they have medical insurance, are they employed, have been [...]
September 5th 2010 In eleven days I will have been in Ecuador for 3 months. It is hard to believe it’s already September. I miss the excitement that comes around this time of year when school is about to begin again and summer is ending – seeing friends after a long summer, starting new classes [...]
August 30th 2010 I had a very interesting first week of work at the Municipio de Guayaquil. I spent the majority of my week shadowing two resident psychologists who do pre and post HIV/AIDS test counseling at Hospital Jacobo y Maria Elena Ratinoff. The hospital is located in the Sureste (the southeast sector of the city). [...]
Over the course of a month, I had the opportunity to take Andino dance classes given by one of our spanish facilitators. We learned various different Latin dances including Salsa, Cumbia and traditional Andino dances. During the host family celebration day in Ayora, our class preformed a traditional indigenous dance as entertainment for all of our host families. The following [...]
This morning I officially swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer! We had a beautiful ceremony at the residence of the Ambassador of the United States in Quito. Here are some pictures of the event!
This past week our HIV/ AIDS program traveled to the coast for our tech trip. The purpose of the trip was to visit some of our counterpart organizations in the province of Guayas and to practice giving charlas /talks to students about HIV prevention. Sunday night we took a day bus from Cayambe to Quito and then from [...]
Some pictures from my site visit to Guayaquil! -pictures of the mayor of Guayaquil Jamie Nebot at the opening of a clinic -My counterpart Dr. Morla -Pictures from a 4 year olds birthday party that I went to with my new host family -Picture of me with my two host sisters Tatiana and Valeria
I took a long hike the other day with some other PCTs to some waterfalls in a community above Paquiestancia. It was great to spend my Sunday exploring the beautiful nature around us. Here are some pictures from our hike.
I am writing from my new office in downtown Guayaquil in the Municipio de Guayaquil. Last night I took a bus from Quito along with about 20 other PCTs and 8 hours later we arrived this morning at the bus terminal. It was a long bus ride with not much sleep but I made it! As we descended [...]
July 19th 2010 I finally got my assignment!! I will be living in the city of Guayaquil on the coast and working for the Ilustre Municipio de Guayaquil! My counterparts are Dr. Miguel Morla and Dr. Carlos Farhat who both work for the Municipio and have their own practices in the city. My site assignment [...]
Here are some pìctures from our soccer tournament this past Friday with our whole omnibus. I competed as the reina for my team -La communidad de Paquiestancia.
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