I had totally forgotten what the rainy season was like. I have a stack of muddy shoes sitting outside of my door, muddy paw prints and feet inside of my house that just never seem to go away, i have clothes sealed tight in plastic bags so that the crickets dont eat them (TRUE-IT DOES HAPPEN), i have all sorts of flying insects sending me into a panic attack every time i pass a lightbulb, i have singing frogs and crickets putting me to sleep at night, i have take.off.all.your.clothes and walk.around.in.a.bathing.suit in.front.of.a.fan heat accompanied by long rainy days that support watching every single movie on earth enseguida, i have muddy tap water (and shower water--mud baths are good right..!!??), rain water drinking water, power outages, schools-out-for-summer, i have a flower garden!! that i do not have to water everyday, i have long free days because in the rainy season not much work gets done for reasons stated above, i have a struggling exercise group that has low attendance if it has rained or is raining, i have a futbol field that is 'slippery when wet,' i have a muddy dog that just doesnt seem to get clean no matter how many times i bathe her, i have 20 kids in the family that arent in school and looking for something to do (or some trouble to get into), i have mosquitos, i have 4 more months of rainy season to go, what shall i make from it??

OUR RECYCLED PRODUCTS. SE VENDE. IF YOU WANT TO BUY SOME JUST LET ME KNOW!!! LOW PRICES :)

THE GROUP AT THE SEMINAR IN QUITO WITH OUR CERTIFICATES

AT THE AIRPORT DESPIDIENDOME

ON THE ECUATOR

IN OTAVALO

CONSEQUENCE OF THE MUDDY ROADS :( :( MUDDY DOGS!!!

YUMMY FOOD!! YUMMY SUSHI!!!

THE AQUARIUM!!! WE SAW SOME GREAT STUFF. BALTIMORE AQUARIUM-SUPER.

DADS XMAS GIFT UN RECUERDO DEL ECUADORRRRRRRRRRRRRR

MOM WITH HER GIFT FROM ECUADOR

So being home for the holidayz, I received a lot of quejas because i hadn't been bloging. sorry. I will now make a bigger effort to give updates no matter how boring i may think they are.

my last blog was on the nutrition workshop i was invited to. that workshop went well and it was a nice chance to meet other volunteers from other omnibuses as well as give them some of my first-hand experiences. In mid december I was invited to attend another workshop with my counterpart (and bff) susana where we were to learn about the creating youth groups focused around the environment and environmental issues. This too was very interesting however the majority of the seminars were on subjects that we had already mastered as a youth group working in evironmental issues. for example: 1. forming a youth group (already formed) 2.) fundraising (all over that..) 3.) service work (our life, basically) 4.) recycling and art projects (we know demasiado)

as far as our recycled art projet which is one of the biggest ones we have now we make hand bags, change purses, earrings, phone and camara cases, bracelets, key chains, susana has even made a backpack, basically anything you can thing of we can make out of all recycled materials mainly plastic bags one gets when shopping at the supermarket but we also use bottle caps and chip/candy bags.

so that seminar was from the 12-16 of december and since i was returning home to visit for xmas and new years the 20th we decided it would make more sense to bring all of my things with me and stay in and around the quito area for those few days in between and not make the 9 hr bus trip back to san isidro and then back to quito.

luckily we have a few friends who live in quito and a tio who lives in riobomba (a near by city) so we were able to pass the time nicely. We made a day trip to Otavalo (another nearby city) to do some cheap-flea market shopping, visited an un-advertised mitad del mundo, the next day we went to riombomba and visted family who took us to las aguas termales which are basically hot tubs but the water is heated by the nearby volcano, the next day we retuned to quito and just hung around and watched movies and the next day i headed home--the home in the united states that is.

the trip/flight wasn't too bad besides spanish words accidentally flying out of my mouth it was pretty smooth going through customs, security, etc in the states. arriving home wasn't that different than it was always been; meaning I did not suffer from a culture shock (which I never really did have that problem). My main goal for my home visit: eat...and I did. Between special k cereal, tofu products, ben and jerrys ice cream, raviolis-all italian food actually, tacos-all mexican food actually, sushi, chinese food, pizza, and many more products I gained about 10 lbs before heading back to Ecuador. Another mission I had was to bring back gifts for my ecuadorian family and friends-this means 10 host moms; 10 dads; around 15 sisters/brothers/cousins and another 10 grandchildren.... it wasnt easy and packing was even worse. the first week i was home was 'at home' time with the fam and the tv, the second week was 'out of home' time or friend-time where i had friends from pennsyvania, new jersey, connecticut, new york, md, and florida come visit me. we hung out in baltimore, went to the aquarium, ate seafood, went out, hung out and caught up.

the return trip home-ecuadorian home- was a bit of a mess. I had planned on checking 3 bags (all those gifts!) and carrying on a small backpack. however when checking in we were informed that to ecuador no more than 2 bags are permitted...que???? what was i supposed to do with the whole entire extra bag not to mention that each bag weighed a ridiculous amount... i had to lug the smallest one (that wasnt even small!) around and carry it on the plane. the next disaster was that they found a pair of sissors in my carry on bag (which was originally going to be checked!) and security thought i was trying to kill someone or hijack the plane. next my connecting flight was delayed an hour and i had to figure out a way to tell my ecuadorian friends who were going to see me at the airport that i would be arriving late and not to leave me. while waiting to board every half hour they delayed the flight another half hour. after waking up at 7am, leaving the house by 10am, arriving at the airport at 11am, boarding the plane at 1pm, and arriving in miami at 3pm i finally boarded my second plane at 8pm and arrive in ecaudor at 12:30am. Luckily my friend hadnt left me and had actually been waiting since 7pm (not quite sure why...bad communication between ecuadorians) we took a $15 cab ride to the house arriving at 2:30am and going right to sleep to wake up early the next morning and take the 9 hour trip to San Isidro. We planned on me taking a 9am bus directly to SI and arrived at 8:40 to find out the bus had LEFT EARLY for some unheard of reason and I had to take an indirect bus to an hour away town called Chone. I spoke to my friends though in SI and luckily they were able to get a friend to go and pick me up at the bus station for only $10. They greeted me at the terminal and it felt so good being home again (or heading home at least) and finally relaxed.

I got home and organized my bags into my stuff (put to the side) and gifts (put out to display) and called the fam...todo se volvio loco it was like a people tornado with clothes and shoes being thrown all around. I told everyone only one thing each until everyone had something and then we could go back and re-chose but pretty much everyone took about two items. I went through what was left and gave away the rest of the gifts and i am very happy (and thankful to my parents for donating clothes) that everyone that matters got something and love it...the whole gift thing was a success and i will try and upload pix of them wearing them.

I arrived to a new san isidro. We have entered the rainy season and the dirt roads have now become muddy messess and it is hot, humid, sticky with lots of rain-thats good for my plants though- and the heat always feels good in my book. now its just time to try and get back into the mix of things with work and everything and try not to let the rain hold us back.

pix will be loaded soon...

After my site visit my semi-boss lady recomended me to my real boss lady that i go to a nutrition seminar this upcomming week to help teach a session talking to younger/novice PCVs about nutrition and behavior change in their site and about my experiences, dificutlties, successes etc in my site. at first i was a little taken aback because i dont really feel ive had any real success just yet in the nutritional aspect in my site specifically with my hipertensive and diabetes groups however i suppose i was chosen because i just came up with a new nutritional plan that im planning on implementing ahora to see if this will improve.

the entire seminar is called Agriculture/Food Security & Community Health Programs and my specific session is called Community Food Secuirty Education and Promotion & Action Plan design.

sounds pretty cool right? ill let you know the deets afterwards...hopefully if i remember to write

In the begining of this month i had a semi-boss lady come to my site and visit me to check up on me, see how im doing etc. it actually went quite well and i thought id send you her feed back what she wrote on the visit. some things are a little off becuase i do so many things its normal to get confused and mash them together but here is a little update on my life here and projects:

PCV: Kasie Boehm Date: November 1, 2011

Site: San Isidro Staff: María José Mejía

Project: Community Health PCV Class: 104

People Interviewed: Kasie Boehm

Susana Loor 1st 2nd x 3rd 4th Visit

Work Review

Items to Discuss

Primary Assignment

What is going particularly well, both personally and professionally? What are you proud of? What are you doing to foster good working relationships? (Issues discussed: quarterly report feedback; successes; challenges; community contacts; future plans; satisfaction level; etc.) How’s progress with your CAT tool, what have been your findings/recommendations? If this is a 2nd year visit how did you apply PDM workshop in your community?

Kasie feels very well adapted to her community and finds her work in San Isidro to be very fulfilling. She is currently involved with several projects in town and mentioned that, even though she does not devote most of her time in a week to the Diabetes group, she considers it to be more of a primary assignment than any of her other projects because of the work it requires to attain behavior change and to ensure its sustainability. Kasie has found it really helpful to assign homework to the women in her group, so as to better guide the women and reinforce the healthy behaviors she hopes to sustain. Besides the health readings with holds regularly, she has introduced charlas on nutrition, particularly on colorful plates, measuring portions, eating more vegetables, and keeping hydrated. She thinks it would be a great idea to start this kind of talks with her aerobics group, and is looking into the possibility of doing so.

Kasie is deeply involved with the Consejo de Jóvenes of San Isidro, which is currently focusing on environment projects, such as making art from recyclables, teaching community members not to burn their trash and how to properly dispose of their trash, painting murals around town to reinforce proper waste management and practices to protect the environment. Kasie and Susana, from the Consejo de Jóvenes, work very closely and they have been able to find stores who are willing to donate plastic bags for their project. They are very excited about this initiative, especially because there seems to be demand for this kind of art and they think it would be a great opportunity to get some profits from it. The recycling project just started two weeks ago and they’re looking forward to see how everything moves forward.

With the Consejo de Jóvenes, Kasie recently worked on coordinating an open house in mid-October, where HIV testing was available, as well as condoms and information on the topic. Kasie was pleasantly surprised with the number of people who got tested, which Kasie expected to be very few, if any.

Kasie mentioned she has thought about requesting an extension, because she doesn’t want to leave until she sees a change in behavior that guarantees the sustainability of her work. She feels at home in San Isidro and will make a final decision with regards to extending her service when it is closer to her COS date.

Secondary/Other Activities

Kasie has a soccer school, once a week, and holds an aerobics class three times a week. Kasie is happy that none of the women in the group have gained weight, but she would like to start teaching nutrition to improve their wellbeing and perhaps see them lose weight.

Counterparts and Community Partners Comments

Is the PCV participating in local activities? Which ones: planning meetings, training activities, etc.? How often? What kinds of communication do you have with the PCV? Does s/he share weekly activity schedules with community contact? How do you provide guidance to the PCV, and let him or her know what activities you’d like her or him to take on? What impact is the PCV making? Skills transfer? What could the PCV do to be more effective? PCV adjustment and interaction? Language skills? How free is the assigned counterpart (or other staff) to participate in PCV activities? Areas for improvement: communication, technical areas, others? Please share a one month action plan

Kasie’s new counterpart, Susana, approached her to work with the Consejo de Jóvenes. They both agree that their work ethic is similar and that they enjoy working together; it doesn’t even feel like work to them. Susana had been working with the Fundación Granito de Arena, but just recently stopped working there due to disagreements with other people, also family members, in the executive board. She is now looking for another job, but will devote all her time to working with the Consejo de Jóvenes in moving forward with the recycling project. Susana is very happy to have Kasie in San Isidro and really values her support with the Consejo de Jóvenes. They mentioned having very good communication and being able to work things out whenever there was a problem.

Emotional, Social and Health Well Being

How are you integrating into the community? What activities do you do on your “off-time”?

Kasie has a lot of Ecuadorian friends and barely ever leaves her site. She enjoys hanging out with friends and going on a walk to rivers nearby.

Support and interaction with other PCVs:

Lisa in Chone, and Ronald and Crystall in Santo Domingo.

Programming Feedback

Do you have any comments or suggestions for your program?

- Would like to have more tools on how to motivate community members to promote and sustain behavior change, as well as simple ways to teach other people what is taught in training.

- Nutrition and exercise should be taught together, as complementing.

- More topic-specific vocab.

Training Feedback

How well did your PST or ISTs prepare you for your work? What worked well? What are some recommendations? What should be offered to prepare you for working in your site? Any suggestions or needs for upcoming training events?

- MSC was really good, got back to site charged with motivation. After that, she got involved with the HIV fair, the diabetes HW each month, the recycling project, etc. She also brought back worms from the Training Center to do compost and is looking into selling it.

- During training, it would have been cool to have more tech training on nutrition.

Peace Corps Ecuador: Volunteer Site Visit Safety Checklist

Please review the following checklist during each site visit. Any comments, problems or pending issues should be noted on this form along with dates that corrective actions should be completed.

Explain your level of confidence regarding your safety and security in your site. Have you had any incidents which have not been reported to Peace Corps. If so, will you please report the incident to the SSC? Are you aware of any recent crimes committed in the community? Do you know where the areas are to avoid (if any) in your community due to safety concerns? Do you know the police in your community? If you have safety concerns, what actions have been taken to address the situation?

Kasie feels very safe in San Isidro, although outsiders who come for the local fiestas make it unsafe.

__x___Volunteer residence meets housing criteria. Comments:

__x___Site Locator Form is complete and accurate including having site based emergency contacts. Comments: PCV closest to site, cellphone number, and counterpart name were updated.

__x___Volunteer has tested multiple means of communications with office. Comments:

__x___Volunteer has tested communications with departmental EAP rep. Comments:

__x___Volunteer has visited assembly point. Comments:

__x___Volunteer has developed personal safety plan. Comments:

__N/A___GPS Coordinates have been taken. Comments:

__x___ Meeting with police. (First visit and after any incidents) Comments:

Items in Box 2 must be verified during each site visit.

__x___Discussed any recent incidents that might affect Volunteer security in site. Comments:

__x___Discussed any transportation issues related to safety or communications. Comments:

__x___Discussed safety in terms of Volunteer lifestyle. Comments

Recommendations by PM/PTS and PCV

- Help facilitate Nutrition Education and Promotion session on upcoming FS/Nutrition workshop???

Follow-Up Items

 Ask Bibi to follow up on Nutrition workshop info and details on session

PCV Signature: ____________________________

I have received verbal feedback on this site visit.

PC Staff Signature: ___________________________

CC: PM, PS, PCV, PCV File, PTO, CD,SSC

Dear PCV: These site visit notes are meant to monitor and track activity throughout your service. A copy is provided to you for your reference. Please attend to items requiring your attention, and please feel free to respond to this if you have any questions or comments.

this past sunday i had a great day. about a month ago at my reconnect conference i got really motivated to do an HIV fair with testing. Ive wanted to do this since the very begining of my time here but the doctors

have always told me 'there are no tests for that' 'theres no money from that' 'you wont be able to find anyone who will support you' 'no one will do the tests'. so i never did it. however, a year into my service

i know the workings, the ins and outs of the system. so i thought, i mine as well give it a try because with many of the things i have done and recieved people have told me were never possible. So i mention the

idea to my counterpart and bff susana and she is totally on board. she sees the importance of this amongst the youth as well as everyone in san isidro. we start thinking of what we need, who we can ask, when to

do it. I talk to some PC friends who i think might be interested in helping out. one PC friend in guayaquil says that she has 30 tests she can donate. 30 tests is a good minimum. we set a date and start working.

after taking a few trips to bahia where all of the offices and directors are we have recieved many informational pamphlets, condoms, transportation and lunch for all those who will be helping out in the ferry,

a doctor and labratory specialist with as many tests as we can fill in one day. in addition, susana has a great idea to invite a beauty school with whom we have worked with in the past to cut hair for free as a

some-what 'prize' for the women who decide to take the test. we wanted to focus a lot on rural, stay at home moms considering that around 80% of women who have hiv in ecuador are them. also the day before is a

'rural women day' so to also celebrate that. beauty school : check. everything we needed and wanted we recieved. through a donation by a special PC Volunteer (me! but i'm hoping my mom will help me out) we

bought 10 tshirts for the 10 most active members of consejo who will be helping out that day. we chose october 16, sunday because these are the days when many of the rural community members come into town to do

their shopping or visiting. the weekend before (saturday) we have a training with the youth group where i taught them everything there is to know about HIV/AIDS so that they are well prepared and education, so that

they can explain to anyone or answer any questions and use appropriate and educated termonology. we also working on conversation and convincing tecniques seeing how HIV/AIDS is a tough subject to talk about and

that many people will have reasons not to take the test we spoke about some of those reasons and smooth and not forceful ways of explaining why they should take the test. the training went super, we even did

role-playing! the sunday afterwards (1 week away from event) we went into town to start passing out sheets and explaining what the event is so that the people start getting it into their head and thinking about the

possibility of taking the test, also so that they can invite other family or friends to come. the next week was full of making posters and preparing anything last minute. day before: we have another meeting to talk

about logisitcs, with some peace corps friends we have come out to help (in the end there were 6 other pcvs who came into san isidro to help out and thank you so much to them!!). day of: 6:30 am we start preparing

and bringing everything down to the park where we will have the event; balloons, tables, table cloths, tents, tape, posters, pamplets, papers, t-shirts, tests, chairs, music, amplification, etc. At 8am we already had

a line and people asking about where they can go to get the test done. by 9 tests were being done, music was playing, people were talking and learning about HIV/AIDS. by 10am the ladies were getting their hair cut and

styled. all day there was a long line and a full waiting room to get tested. we took a lunch break and even though the doctors from bahia had left we continued afterwards to finish up the 7 more tests my friend had

left over. after the day was completed and we starting packing up, 140 HIV tests later we were still recieving patients who were interested in getting tested. The day was beyond a success and i was more than

overwhelmed by how much help we recieved and voluntud from the people of San Isidro whom i did not think would want to take the test, whom i thought were going to have many disconocimientos and whom i thought we

would have to convince to go and get the tests. Susana and i spoke before hand and said to ourselves, we have at least 10 kids from our youth group who will take the test if no one else...and we ended up truly suprised

and happy with how great the day turned out. that we are looking towards when we can do it again.

to make that day even better. even though we were so tired from so much work and weeks of preparation, this weekend was also the special olympics for our kids with disabilities in the foundation. they went to a

nearby town 'pedernales' and 4 of our guys won gold metals!! so to celebrate we jumped upon a friends 'costa norte' (bus) on top! and cheered, blew our whistles, waved out balloons and chanted "campiones, campiones,

campiones, campiones!!!!" through the streets of town. friends and motorcycle taxis joined in when they saw us following behind and also honking their horns. people waved and cheered at us from the street. it was

a great feeling a great way to top off the day.

whats next?

Time flies so fast. I have only 10 months left and it feels like I just got here.

My puppy luna just turned 5months old! healthy and happy after recovering swiftly from a deathly motorcycle accident.

Adrianito turned 1 year old!! (on the same day) hes so big now! hasnt started walking yet but any day now hes going to take his first steps solo...

the family is still health, happy and crazy as always!

I attended my mid-service conference and got a chance to see the other volunteers in my training class again. many of whom i havent seen since reconnect which was 3 months into site. Some volunteers are doing really amazing, incredible, unbelievable things.

Reconnect definitely motivated me to get started on more projects and gave me some great ideas.

It also got me thinking about what i'm going to do after service. Now everyone says we're half way through, half way done, its time to start making our in site projects sustainable and long lasting. its crazy. I have so many things id be interested in doing, that i would love to do after service that i cannot decide. extending is definitely an option for me.

my current projects are:

AEROBICS. just as popular as ever with tons of ladies, kids and adolecentes who come out to do aerobics for 30 minutes and play soccer afterwards (which may last 2 hrs).

RECYCLING. We have placed recycling stations in each school in town to separate bottles, papers, and trash. we also have a community that separates their trash between organic and inorganic. We are working on getting a paper blender machine which we will use to make recycled paper. we also are scheduling a work shop to learn how to make purses, wallets, etc out of recycled bags.

PECHICHAL. a community we are organizing. we have painted murals, cleaned up the streets, talked with the trash truck so that it goes there every week to collect the trash (there are many rural communities that do not have trash pick up...which means they either dump it or burn it), we are planning work shops in computation and health, we have gotten them a 'botiquin' which is like a medical kit that they can use in case of a medical emergency (becuase they are so far away from town), and we have a soccer school for the kids in town.

CLUBHD. My diabetes and hipertensives have been slow lately, they dont want to change their diets or do exercises even though they know the consequences of the lifestyles they are living. at midservice i started thinking of ways i can re-vamp my teaching tecniques and so i decided that each meeting i will assign them one task. and they will dedicate the next month until the next meeting on that task. then i will assign another. hopefully this way they will learn new and healthier habits little by little.

CLJ. My youth group is still as active as every. right now were planning a huge HIV fair in town, we have made trashcans to put around town in the streets, still painting and pretty much everything i do is based on them. right now we need to focus on recruiting more kids because many of them are graduating from HS this year and will be heading to college.

thats my update! until next time !

MURALS

CLJ Murals School: Dos Caminos

Trash Clean Up Community: Pechichal

Waterfall 9 de Octubre

View of San Isidro; my town

More Murals at the school Dos Caminos

LUNA my puppy and her picture painted

http://www.sanisidromanabi.com/index.html

that is the new website for san isidro in 'imagines' there are some fotos you can look through.

update 1---luna is still alive, huge and a luna-tic!!

I cannot update my blog anymore. I'm sorry. 1.) is just that things have become so routine that for me it is too boring to put up here because its almost the same things over and over again, even though theyre new things, exciting and interesting.. 2.) im super busy, which is great, but i dont really have time to update my blog because when i finally have time at my house whether it be late at night or for 1-2 hours during the day i'm too tired to write and update my blog. 3.) my nice new camera got sand in it and wasnt working for a while so i couldnt update with pictures which isnt cool. but luckily when my mom came we did an exchange and i have a camera now!

update 2: my parents came to visit me! it was super fun we traveled all up the coast, saw a lot of cool places and museums, i played translator the whole time which was okay, interesting to see how much spanish i have actually learned. i never speak english anymore so speaking english was a big change and playing translator helped me keep my spanish fresh.

update 3: with the youth group we are doing tons of things. still painting murals, cleaning streets, organizing communities, recycling, etc.

..................RIP Vaquerito/Reguleto April 27, 2011 - June 26, 2011..............

so lunas brother was living with a member of the fam so i was super happy because they could play and grow up together and i could see him get bigger just like her and everything. a few days ago he got sick with vomiting and diarrhea and died yesterday. i didnt know he was sick until yesterday my friend (one of the main owners who is out of town) called me all frantic saying that her mom called her saying the puppy was super sick i told her right away id go see him. by the time i got there they were digging the hole.. pobrecito. he was so adorable and was perfectly fine until that point i still cant believe he died. anyway so now i have to keep super close watch on luna because she could be infected through playing all the time and because she was always at that house with me whenever i went. unfortunately until she gets older i'm not going to bring her there anymore just incase. she only has the first vaccine so shes still vulnerable. HOWEVER, i'm worried but not extremely worried because luna has always been bigger and more stronger than the others (and vaquerito), she always is out with me so shes been introduced to more things in the streets so has built up better defenses, and she always eats puppy dog food which gives her the nutrients and what not that she needs to grow strong and fight off diseases. the other always stayed in the house and ate kitchen scraps like rice and what not which just doesnt have good vitamins for a growing pupperoo. either way, its sad and cross your fingers for luna.

my projects are moving along. 1.) I'm a mural machine. i dont know why but i like murals so much for some reason and its something that i can do (and is needed in san isidro) so i'm doing it hahaha. this past week we started painting white the walls to one of the schools, we painted the foundation and started a picture there, and this week were going to finish los angeles (where we did the rain forest mural) to move on to another place. everywhere i go, in picture books for kids, i see possible mural ideas and things i can paint. theres another school that is pretty big and has toonnnnnnssssss of wall space its ridiculous i'd say probably about 40 walls (the size of the waterfall or tree murals) and so i'm looking around for different things i can put there because i already got the "okay" from the principal. in the high school once shantonu gets back from vacation were going to start the 'world map project' where on one of the walls were going to draw a map of the world and have the students paint it and learn about the different cultures. i'm super excited about that. i love painting :).

--my recycling projects are also coming along. the municipalidad is implementing a 'pilot' recycling project in bahia and through all my work and nudging in how we need a better trash and recycling system in san isidro too (and how were always forgotten and left out from being in the campo) theyve agreed to put in 4 (at my request) recycling stations that will go in the two (elem-mid) schools, the high school and the local governments office (where the consejo local juvenil office is). this is pretty exciting! will give more updates once this begins.

--i'm starting a NEW aerobics group. my MWF aerobics are still going great with tons a women and regulars and soccer which is super fun. one of the ladies even wants to join a womens soccer league and have out aerobics regulars be a team in it which is cool and exctiting! however in los angeles a barrio i'm working in which is a little far from the high school where we have aerobics has asked if i can teach there. unfortunately i think that exercise is so important especially for the people here that i have agreed and so MWF at 9 in the morning i'm going to this barrio to do aerobics there... :( i kind of dont want to because i'm going to be so tired and aerobixed out but its just so important i cant say no. i'm going to try it out to see if they even come.

--my diabetes and hipertensive groups are going well as well. we recently had a march with all of them to the park where they learned a little more about their diseases, nutrition and i gave them a little sneak peak on what aerobics is like (how embarassing--in the park in front of tons of people...and they wanted me to dance which i do not dance i do aerobic exercises haha)

there are more but ill fill you in on them once theyre more in the works. :D

18 junio 2011

Too bad i just WISH i lived in Venecia and didn’t just have a flooded house for no reason. Happy fathers day. The day before fathers day I threw a surprise party for shantonu (the other volunteer at my site). He has just arrived in the morning with his brother and his bros gf who are visiting him for a few weeks in ecuador. His birthday was last Monday. And since birthdays are big around he we figured wed throw him a bday-beinvenidos party for him and the bro. all day I was out with them doing things, showing them around san isidro (we went to the river, to eat empanadas, they went to the waterfall, etc) AND I was (secretly) planning for the fiesta. I wasn’t in my house all day. Asi que.. at some point I turned on the focet to my kitchen however i didn’t have water (sometimes theres no water in san isidro or the pressure isn’t strong enough to pump up to my 2nd floor apartment. I could use the ‘bomba’ to electrically pump it but im too lazy to go downstairs and turn it on and then off after im done using it so I usually just huff and puff and go without water if its possible. Whether that means putting off washing the dishes until later or using the big water jugs we use for drinking water. I WILL ADMIT that sometimes I will leave the knob open while I do other things and when I hear the the water has come back I will run over and start doing whatever I needed to do which is usually washing dishes). I don’t know whether I left the knob open on accident or because I meant to get back and turn it off later (which is still an accident that I forgot) either way I arrive at 1130 that night after all the fiestas to find the 3 rooms to my small

house (kitchen, living room, bedroom) filled with water and the focet still running. I tell leyla who of course laughs and jokes about how its happened before which does make me feel better and she makes jokes that im from venezia where theres always flooding. We attempt at getting the majority of the water out, leaving some more cleaning for the next day. Unbelievable. However I was lucky for many reasons:

1.) I was too tired to go out to the discoteca which if I had gone I would have come home much later and to an even bigger mess

2.) My house was semi-clean and thanks to having a puppy also, I didn’t really have anything on the floor other than a few scrap pieces of paper and some pieces of clothing

3.) I got a nice throrough clean of my floors

4.) With tiled floors I will see less damage and hopefully no stinkiness

5.) Learned my lesson

As far as the rest of my life… ive been without internet for a few days which is justamente right on the days I really need it for work. Work is continuing as normal…seguir-ing with old projects, starting new ones. June 16 marked my 1-year anniversary in country… the longest ive ever been outside of the US (it was the longest after 3 months). In 2 months I will complete my 1 year anniversary in-site and from then I have 1 year left until I complete my service. They say things change and seem to come together a lot more after one-year. Im definitely excited to see what this year has to come and im hoping ill really be able to fulfil my mission I have for myself for being here. Today I taught the kids at the rio how to play the game 500 where you try to catch a ball in a group of people to win 500 points. Oh yeah peace corps goal number 2 whatcha thinka bout dat???? Jajaja

NEW MURAL. DRAWN AND PAINTED BY CONSEJO JUVENIL SAN ISIDRO.

makes me miss my mom

Since no crazy interesting new things have happened i'm just going to keep blogging with updated pictures. this past weekend the whole fam went to the river to swim. A family member works for the bus "Costa Norte" that you use to travel from San Isidro to just about any other town outside of here and we got to use it to all travel...good thing because there are a ton of us.

US ON THE BRIDGE AT THE RIO GRANDE

Someone found one of those hairties that have hair. I guess they were made to look like your hair was twisted around..your hair and not the hair tie. anyway everyone took turns putting it on their head like a wig!! hahah here are two tios and adriano!!

its sticking out of the sides of his hat...he looked like a clown hahah.

...

Me with adrianito!! hes so big.

...we finally got around to painting the other mural. this one is of a local waterfall 9 de octubre. this wednesday were going to be painting even more murals. making san isidro more beautiful every day!!

my puppy luna!!! yesterday she turned 1 month old...

most of them are with families now. the ones that are left have homes but are sticking around a little bit to play with their brothers... theyre so adorable hopping around now ('running')

A week or so ago one of the puppies had a wound en which a fly laid eggs and it grew into worms eating at his muscle. we pulled out 40 worms in 2 days!! hes all recovered now and with his new family.

Same old San Isidro

This weekend San Isidro is in fiestas where we are celebrating 83(?) years. We have games set up around the park (like fooseball and stuff) and a "gusanito" which is like a dragon-car that has lots of two-seater sections with lights and music for the kiddies to ride around town. The celebration was kicked off yesterday with the Reina de San Isidro competition where they elected the (beauty) queen of San Isidro. One of the girls from Consejo Juvenil (youth group) participated (shes also a cousin in the fam).

It started out with a cowboy section (not really sure why).

It was followed by the bathingsuit part.

......................and lastly the formal dress.

It started at 10ish-1030 and we didn't get out of there until 2am!!! I was so tired i just wanted to the same as my friend here...

So our friend didn't win but she did very well. Everyone thinks she definitely deserved top 5 over some of the other girls. The girl that one (royal blue) also had an advantage as she had participated in pagents before and was a lot older (and more experienced) than the other girls. Everyone knew she was going to win before-hand.

Today (15 de mayo) we had the 'desfile' or street-march where every organization represented. I walked with Consejo Juvenil. It was super hot, with tons of sun. Everyone was dying and there were plenty of people/groups the streets were lines with people watching the parade along with people on balconies, car tops, in the park, and then the tons of people marching.

This wednesday I am having my first meeting with a health group that we are creating out of students in the high school. I want to use this group to help plan and have events like HIV fairs to spread knowledge about the diseases and what not. Hopefully people show up.

I've been working a lot lately in medio ambiente (environment) planning a reforestation project where we are going to plant 500 trees in San Isidro. What is even better is that the students in all of the schools are going to be the ones planting and taking care of the trees. Its looking like I will be successful and I am very excited!! In one week we will be planting (21 de mayo).

Along with that I am also starting an ecoclub which will work in environmental issues learning about the environment and then we are going to all of the schools to educate and having events and what not. throwing trash on the grounds as well as burning trash are the two things i REALLY want to change here before i leave and they are also things that i believe i CAN change with a lot of education and what not. it is a huge and very gross problem here it will change the world if the people here just change those two habits alone and nothing else.

Dog Update:

It looks like every blog until I give them away there will be a dog picture because theyre just so adorable!! theyre about 3 weeks old now and theyre getting so big. Apparently a dog can have a litter with different dads if she was with many different ones and since she is a street dog (and a machona) it wasn't that easy to keep her or the other dogs away and it is definitely apparent with some of the pups that they come from different dads. They're all so adorable anyway. I couldn't help but give some of them names already...

The mama with her babies. From right to left: Yogi--hes the biggest one and has TONS of hair (different dad than the rest) and is SUPER BLACK. hes one of the most guapos. I call him Yogi cuz he reminds me of a big bear. The white one under the mom's arm is my favorite. She is all white with a gray shadowed eye. She is super adorable and I am strategically planning in my head a way to keep her (leyla doesnt want any dogs in the house). I call her luna. Then there are two other short-haired black ones that dont have names. The next one is all white with a black shadowed eye and opposite ear. he is also one of the most adorable. I call him principe (prince). Then comes the cafecita. I'm pretty sure her dad is the pastor aleman that is my dogs boyfriend. shes the only one that looks like that. some of the other ones (like vaquerito the last one) have a little brown in them which is super random and i have no idea where it comes from. The next one is spotted and resembled his father exactly which is a chico that always hangs around here (Papito). I'm pretty sure hes the most gordo of all of them..always eating. The last one is vaquerito who reminds me a little of a cow (vaca) because of his markings. vaquerito is cowboy.

Adriano and them were born on the same day (27th) so they will complete months together. When they have one month he will have 8. Hes getting so big!!

La cafecita y 2 negritas. They still sleep in a little ball always with another one.

YOGI!!!!

,..

PRINCIPE!!! QUE PRECIOSO!

...

VAQUERITO!

...

PAPITO. Papito always howls! I don't know if its in his genes or something but whenever theyre crying for food from the mama hes always like auuuuuuuuuuuuu.

...

LUNA. All of their eyes and ears are opened and theyre walking a lot more now and starting to play with eachother. I cant wait until they start running around!!

07 de mayo del 2011

I don’t really have any updates. Things are moving along. I’m developing an Ecoclub which is an environment group, I’m planning a reforestation project and continuing with my spay and neutering project. I also am still working on Community Organizing project and my recycling (paper) project. Today are the elections here. I really have no idea who everyone is going to vote for or anything (nor do I have comments about it). I have no political opinions. I am considered a ‘mature’ or ‘old’ or ‘experienced’ volunteer now because we have received the next batch of volunteers here in Ecuador. :D. In one month I will have been in Ecuador for 1 year…!!! It doesn’t feel like it at all its crazy. I have 1 year and 3 months left to go…nuts. Hopefully I actually do something good.

The puppies are growing, chubby and are just about to open there eyes…I’ll be sure to post pictures!

If I don’t blog, happy mothers day mommy. Te amo, te extrano y te espero un buen dia.

Oh, and i went to a circus last night!! They had lions, but didn't use them...

MIS NIETOS

CHANCHITO

CHANCHA

ANDRIANITO PRECIOSO

BUENA MAMA

LAS MANITOS

BEFORE

AFTER

...but she did it right outside! 8 beautiful puppies. This morning we woke up to 6 (1 dead) and she had 3 more after that. How exciting!! and finally after waiting for what seemed like forever!! They are precious!!!

26 de abril del 2011

I’ve been waiting for 4 days now for my dog to give birth. We all thought it was going to happen by now and shes shown signs but nothing. The whole world comes by every day or whenever they see me “yeah? Now? She did it? Nada?” uhhh its crazy. Its hard for me to blog these days, I’m either busy doing other stuff, or too tired or I don’t have anything to write about.

This is my last week at the high school giving health classes and thank god because I don’t think I could take another week. I totally respect all of the teachers out there (shout out to Jackie) because I just cannot do it. I don’t know if the kids in the states are as bad but some of the kids here are just so straight up rude and disrespectful its incredible. At least they’ve learned a little bit more about health and how to be healthy. I have data from my course (before and after) so ill show you a little once ive entered it all in.

So that is 2 completed projects: Vacation Classes-English and 1month of High School-Health.

I also have my aerobics group which has been on-going for about 3-4 months. That’s a success for sure, and rather than minimizing we seem to get bigger each week. We have a good group of about 8-10 ladies that come every day, others who come every so often and then newbies. We have 2 men now too!

I have started my next (and biggest) project: Community Organization. I live in the central of San Isidro which is an entire Parroquia (county?) centralized here we have about 3,000 inhabitants. However, there are tons of outside communities (50?) which are very rural, have difficult transportations (crazy unkempt roads—worse than the center) and within those communities there is another 15,000 residents. My next project is to implement a community organization system where each community (or neighborhood) will have their own set of representatives (president, secretary, treasurer) and what I will be specializing in (and encouraging especially) are the representatives for the jovenes (youth) and health. (My idea is that) the youth representative will be in charge of creating a youth group (like Consejo Juvenil) and they will work in community service just as we do. The health representative will be in charge of keeping track of and reporting (to the Subcentro de Salud) 1.) pregnant women 2.) children under 5 and 3.) people with disabilities. This directive is so that the community itself will be able to improve their quality of life and so that they are more included and have a voice within the local government and all of the services that those who live in the center have (health, child services, etc). Each community will do a needs assessment and based upon that work amongst themselves and with us to improve their community. We have started mapping out the various communities which is the first step.  I am very excited about this and hope that we are successful.

Consejo Juvenil is still working well. We are changing the crops in our huerto to melon and medicinal herbs like aloe or teas. We are also building out recycling office where we are going to make recycled paper, notebooks, etc. We have tons of paper! We just need the office and we can start. The other week we had a huge “minga” where we cleaned an entire neighborhood ALL DAY and everyone helped from little kids to senior citizens. We cleaned the streets of all the trash (there was so much!!) and weeds so that it looked nice and presentable and we also cleaned the local river of trash and weeds. We filled like 4 of these huge trucks! Another great success!

My new hobby---->

05, abril, 2011

I am sorry I haven’t blogged in a month. Its just that not too many crazy or exciting things have happened. I guess things seem to have become normal and so I don’t feel like theyre worth blogging about because its just my life here.

I’m still working with consejo. We painted a pural (we didn’t paint it but got a local painter to paint it what we wanted). It says “cuando hayas talado el ultimo arbol, cuando hayas matado el ultimo animal, cuando hayas contaminado el ultimo rio, te daras cuenta de que el dinero no se come.”

We’re also still working on our huerto (garden), selling chocolate (making chocolate from cacao to sell), and building our recycling Project.

My English summer class ended which was bitter sweet. There were a good 5 kids i’m going to miss. But now were friends so ill see them around and hang out. We had a presentation with the parents and everything, the other volunteer made a video and I had some of my students give a dialogue in English.

(I even got a certificate!!)

A friend of consejo juvenil’s house burned down. This is fairly common. Its not too common but not unknown either as the houses are made of wood or bamboo, the heat and the electricity wires aren’t in the best conditions. Everything, everything burned down. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like starting completely over from the beginning with everything, documents, pictures, everything. We went around the town and collected food, clothes, and money (we raised around $80 and with that we went and bought more necessities—soap, plates, pots, cups, toothbrushes, underwear, etc).

I made a dog house. With the help of Shantonu the other volunteer. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned but I have a street dog. She was dying around the first few months I was here. The most severely malnutrition dog I have ever seen. She couldn’t even walk normal, she trembled and shook so much that leyla joked that she had parkinsons. But I gave her food and estefania vaccinated her against worms and she slowly gained wait and lost the shake. At first she wouldn’t come near me and I had to put the food down and back away for her to eat it but after a few months we became friends and now she basically is mine and lives at my house. After she recovered she went into selo (heat) and was a machona and all the other street dogs were chasing her. End result: my street dog is preggers. Dogs are usually pregnant from 60-80 days so she has around 3 weeks left of pregnancy and is getting pretty chubs. We made her a dog house outside because leyla doesn’t want her living inside and I want her to give birth here at the house and not some hole in the ground. She sleeps in it and everything!! Hopefully that is where she decides to have her babies and hopefully she doesn’t have them in the middle of the night so I can see it!!

We made a boat out of trees and traveled down the rio grande in it. It was pretty amazing, about 2 hrs and mad fun. We crashed, fell out, relaxed, swam in the deep parts, saw iguanas and just about everything. It is definitely something id like to get going as a regular thing and something the tourists would be super interested in doing. In the fotos that's leylas brother Roque being a pirate. hahah.

School has started again (no more vacation) and I am teaching health 3 days a week, 4 clases a day (mas o menos) to the sophomores, juniors and seniors (the system is a lot different but more or less them). Today I had my first classes with the sophomores and it went okay, not as bad as I had imagined but not super miraculously. Little by little they’re learning and its better than nothing. I’m basically just giving small charlas on nutrition, chronic diseases, exercise, sex ed and either environmental health or first aid (I haven’t decided yet). I will probably be teaching for about a month and a half.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Talk about community involvement. The pilot community “Barrio Bella Vista” where we implemented the organic and inorganic project (trashcans) all worked together today to improve their neighborhood.

First we went into the campo with a member of the community to get some cana to build the park. In the afternoon we started building. Using rope, old tires and the cana we made 3 swings. At first it was just our group and a few of the neighborhood kids watching. What we really wanted was everyone in the community to work together and at first that didn’t seem like it was going to happen but little by little people joined in as they saw what we were doing and the joy it brought to the kids. We were weeding a back area to make a clear space for a soccer field and most of the dads worked on this (those who know how to use machetes). Some worked on cutting wood pieces to make “pasamanos” or monkey bars and “subibajas” or see-saws. We had a second group of community members walk down the hill (the neighborhood is on the top of a hill and when it rains it is really hard to climb up, they have to park their cars at the bottom) and use stones to fill in the holes and make a nice path to fix the road. From 2pm until after the sun went down (7:30pm) everyone was working hard in the neighborhood—kids, men, women, and us. It was super great to see. Unfortunately I couldn’t capture it on camera

Friday; March 11, 2011

This morning I got news via text message of an earthquake that struck Japan and a possible tsunami that was said to hit the coast of Ecuador at 5:30pm. Wow. What a thing to wake up to. I went downstairs to get the bigger scoop on the news of the damage, what had happened in Japan, if the tsunami threat was serious. All day was stressful, contacting friends on the coast coast (some other volunteers were evacuated, I am about 45 minutes into the jungle/mountains so the threat was minimal), watching the waves, the clock. Closer to 5:30 hearing the news that the Galapagos was the biggest threat was daunting. Luckily, for the entire world, not much happened and we didn’t lose any more lives (human or otherwise) or one of the 7 wonders of the world. The whole day is saddening and to think that quite possibly we may be impacting the earth with our pollution and creating the high frequency of natural disasters that seem to be occurring. Maybe if everyone aimed to be more environmentally friendly or at least respecting the environment as a living entity that can affect our lives just as much as we can affect it’s we can minimize the amount of loss that was created/almost created today.

Imagine losing the Galapagos, for all those who haven’t had the chance to experience it first, and the effect that would have on the rest of the world, the repercussions that could arise from that, imaginate.

RIP/DEP

Tuesday; March 8, 2011

Feliz dia (atrasado) to all the mujeres that are reading this march 8th was international women’s day so happy day to my mom, sister, aunts, cousins, and friends I hope you celebrated and recognize(ed) that you are beautiful and special and wonderful.

Here we celebrated with a semi-large event. We invited all the local organizations to participate in a march from the top of town to the main park—no one really came as usually but we had 1.) the youth group 2.) my English class (kids) 3.) 2 members of my aerobics group 4.) the mothers of the foundation for kids with disabilities and one other group I think walk with us. HOWEVER. This day fell right in the middle (2 of 3) of carnival and so there were not very many people in town and if they were they were probably recovering from the wildness. Us ladies walked and even though there were few (there were plenty) better than none and we definitely got the word out and the whole town heard us and recognized the day. It felt great when the cars drove by honking, supporting us and how throughout the day people wished me a ‘feliz dia.’ I don’t think ive ever felt prouder being a woman, it was like my birthday but way better :).

We marched to the park where we assembled there with signs and music all day and in the night time held an event. We had performers (kids, dancers) and speakers and ended with an Ecuadorian film that spoke about why we celebrate the day and a women who went to medical school when no women studied with men and when she voted for the first time. There was surprisingly tons of people at the night event we were all kid of overwhelmed but it was a super success.

Monday, 07 de marzo, 2011

1.) from the last post "Hiking the Ecuadorian Trails" my shoe was found!! if anyone was really worried about how i lost one of my expensive, fairly new converse shoes, don't worry it was incredibly found along the way by a tio. It was dropped on the hike over, on the hike back the 7 of us didn't spot it, we had all taken it for dead-lost-forever. a few days later tio returns from the farm with my shoe, says he just saw a small piece of it in some bush along the way. que suerte.

2.) we are in carnival. It's pretty exciting, it lasts only about three days (sunday, ,monday, tuesday) and most everyone goes to the beach to celebrate. i went sunday (yesterday) afternoon with a some friends and family and we traveled to a nearby beach about 2hrs away. The beaches are crazy packed with people and music (in many beached there havent been ocupancy in rooms for weeks--all booked). I heard that during carnival they have water and egg fights in the street. luckily there were no eggs. however one of the main themes is that they want everyone to be super dirty. As we were driving out of town (san isidro) heading for the beach, in the back of the pick-up we got water thrown on us a few times. Along the way, a few other times whether it be from people in the streets or in other cars driving by. Upon arriving we got bubbles (i think) which come out of a spray can just like whipped cream (and looks like it too) sprayed all over us. Walking in the street from balconies, truckes, people walking by you get water shot or thrown at you (from a bucket). sometmies its regular water, sometimes its ice cold, sometimes its brown, and sometimes red. In addition to all of that there is paint. The paint method usually is people walking around with paint on their hands (lots of paint) and as you walk by they run up to you (from all directions) and rub their hands all over your face, body, whatever. This gets you completely covered in paint. So everyone at the beach was walking around wet with crazy army paint all over their faces and bodies and occasionally covered in white from the whipped cream bubbles. it was actually really fun and i found that there was no way to avoid it. first i tried walking normally with a serious face--that didnt work. then i tried dodging it when i saw them attacking someone in from of me id try to walk around them-further away...no use. i only wish i could celebrate this longer (i have to work) AND i really really really want to get some people with paint or water...que diversion.

unfortunately my camera broke some point during the hike (last post) so i couldnt take any pictures of the craziness...maybe i will be able to get some from a few friends later.

feliz carnaval!!

Just thought i'd put up a bunch of random pix that describe a little more my life here.

...ALOE VERA...au natural. no plastic bottles for me. straight from the plant.

My favorite tree here...it even has stairs which you can see here ^^

Like my band-aid? its made from egg. when you crack a raw egg, a thin layer stays around the shell, you peel that of and put it on a scratch or open wound and it works as a band-aid...maybe better.

This is how i drink tea...no cloth bags for me. btw the taste is so much stronger and delicious-er

Beach day...i love doing the jumping pix

In the evening (5-6) the fisher boats come back (they also leave then too...dont know their schedules too well) and they have all their fish and weight them and what not. As you can see ^^^is a shark, theyve taken out all of the teeth to make necklaces and what not :(. and down here is a huge-o fish-o.

This is right after we cut down a bunch of Cacao fruit to take out the seeds and sell them...we made about $5 solid. We just cut down another batch this past week and are going to make chocolate this time to see if we get some more money for it...plus its fun.

These are NATURAL-REAL BUBBLES. You just break a certain leaf (in a certain place and way) and you can blow bubbles. When you come visit remind me to show you this fun game.

ADRIANITO!!!! hes still adorable and getting so big!! and he laughs all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hiking to the farm.......

Taking a short break during the hike...pretty normal scene here.

Showering in the waterfall...

The end! :)

February 27, 2011

The past few days we’ve been preparing, gathering materials, monedas, writing proposals, making schedules, etc for the big day. Sunday night Consejo Juvenil and I traveled to Bahia to spend the night and wake up at the butt crack and start working for nuestro bello San Isidro. Sunday night was our first meeting and we met with a representative from the oficina de turismo and spoke about the ideas we have for turism and how to better develop our office. [coming soon!!]. Monday morning we went to the Municipal and met with anther PC Volunteer (been here for almost 2 years now—will stay a 3rd year) and her counterpart in the office for the rights and protection of women and children (or something like that) and spoke about Women’s day which is March 8th here and what we’re going to do and other projects. At 10 we went to Guacamayo Tour and learned how to make recycled paper from used paper…another project that is [Coming Soon!!] after that we went to the Patronato which is run by the mayors wife and is like the Municipal but for health. We spoke about some of our projects and requested some materials (wheel chairs, glucometros, etc). We also met received tons of promotional ads from the tourism office (next store) about all the touristy places in Manabi (to put in our office). Long, great, productive, day where we learned tons and accomplished a lot of things we’ve been dying to do. Can wait to see what comes out of it for the future!

February 15-20, 2011

With the money we’ve raised from the movies we went around this week and painted 3 peoples houses who are families who are pretty poor and part of the foundation we work with because someone in their familiy has a disability. This is just one example of the type of community service we do in town.

Also its super hot and about everyday someone says, “lets go to the pool.” “lets go to the river,” “lets go to the waterfall.” Today finally we did go to the river and played and it was pretty fun.

Hiking the Ecuadorian Trails.

Februrary 22-23, 2011

Yesterday we went to Mono, a farm of the family way way way out in the campo where the cars don’t reach in the winter because of the mud. We went about half way in the car and then walked the other half by foot. Normally they say the mud is up to your knees and its extremely hard but luckily it hasn’t rained much in the past few days and the land was pretty dry. However, that didn’t make it easy. It took us about 2 ½ hours both there and back in swealtering heat. It reminded me of hiking the appalacian trails (with pack and all—however not as heavy this time) but the heat was extremely different. We subired (climbed up) and bajared (climbed down) and seguired derecho (continued straight). After arriving we ate a lot and took a trip to a small waterfall to shower after the long, sweaty hike. As I was saying being on the farm and picking food and eating it is so great and I def got my fair share of it this trip. This farm is a lot bigger than that of leyla’s with a lot more crops and land so traveling its pretty cool (however this time we were pretty tired from the hike to do much hiking of the property). Theres also a bunch of monkeys who live here but we didn’t get a chance to see them either this trip. They also have a pond with some fish right outside that they just walk to and theres dinner. We made a fogata (bon fire) and they were roasting some of the food (bananas, etc) and I mentioned that we needed marshmallows and they asked me “for what”… they’re always asking me to show them something from the US that we eat or do and I never know something cool to expose them too…I’ve def found it: s’mores. Next time we make a bon fire I’m going out and buying all the necessities and I’m going to blow their minds.

Lastly, we slept in tents (sweet!!) –indoors—(sweet!!) woke up bright and early the next day, ate some more and were off again to return home. Today was Lisa’s birthday (she was a volunteer in the Leyla’s finca but shes kind of stuck around a lot longer than shed planned because its so great here) so after coming home we were off again (after lunch of course from food brought from the farm). We went to a nearby waterfall that I hadn’t yet been too. It was great. Super duper big (bigger than the one id been to in Costa Rica) and fairly close, def a place we can walk to when people come to visit me.

Tonight is her birthday party----don’t bother putting on make up…you face is going in the cake!!

Monday, February 14, 2011

So my youth group and I planned another movie showing a “Cine Romantico” for tonight except this time we had it in the High School. We all thought we were going to get a huge turn out because 1.) a romantic movie night on the dia de amor y amistad, who wouldn’t want to participate? 2.) Its in the high school so all the things people complained about in the huerto (mosquitos, culebras, rain, etc) didn’t exist and 3.) we had already had and promoted one cine so the second one should get more people. We were wrong. It wasn’t a failure at all, we had about 35 people show up in addition to the group and we made about $50 like the last one (selling tickets, 50 cents and popcorn 25cents and cola 15cents) so now we have a solid amount of money were going to use to do our projects.

Also, today I didn’t celebrate valentines day, I celebrated the birthday of my bff Sarah Weintraub!!! Haha but really, I haven’t had internet for two weeks in my town. I’m not sure what happened, I think one day when the power went out some cord blew and they said two days but I guess two weeks sounds about right. Hopefully they’ll fix it soon…

Saturday, February 12, 2011

This morning we went to the finca and it was a great time as usual. The farm is just so beautiful and I get a chance to see my cat and be in the naturaleza and all that good stuff. Plus its just always a good break away from things (theres no cell phone service either). Plus it helps feed my new favorite habit or addiction or thing ive learned since coming to Ecuador: eating things directly off the tree/out of the ground/etc. When it was manderina (tangerines I think) season (the earlier months I was here) I ate them even though I’m not really into the orange-flavored fruits but because it just feels so great picking things off trees and eating them right there. There’s also mangos---before they weren’t maduro or ripe but they eat them that way as well-green- and with salt and its delicious. But now they are all ripe and super duper sweet and theyre so yummy, jucy and abundant. Theres also plantains which you have to cook first so the feeling isn’t as extreme as the others but its still super fun---its kind of like hunting for your food before eating it. Lastly, I love taking leaves or grass-like looking herbs out of the ground and making tea out of it…super fun and way better than the packets, way more flavorful. I also love that now I 1.) know all of this great stuff you can eat off trees and do and how to cook it and everything and 2.) I can name all the trees and plants and know what to do with them. If were walking (or driving) through town I can name which fruits grow from which trees and even how to plant and grow some of them… :-).

Speaking of hunting for your food (a few lines up) today there was a big extravaganza in catching the gallina or hen to cook it for lunch. The boys were running around and chasing it with sticks to hit it over the head and either knock it out or stun it long enough to grab it, or better yet break its neck right there (one method haha). However this was a slippery little sucker that didn’t want to be caught (however much I enjoyed watching the chase…even videotaped it. I was rooting for the animal  ) Then they got the dog into it, getting him to chase it and either catch it or as it happened corner it so that they can catch it. It turns out that after so much chasing and running around both the boys and the dog finally succeeded but at the same time and with different chickens! It was hilarious and fun to watch---you can enjoy the end of it as well. {{VIDEO}}.

And this was it after-:) pic of food. This is a pretty typical Ecuadorian dish…way too much rice and a fatty piece of meat. Not too appetizing for me haha but they also do have tons of delicious foods as well. And the overabundance of rice is the reason they have such high obesity, diabetes and hypertension problems I suppose.

Oh and by the way my cat (black and white) was found in an outside community by a friend and so I brought him to the farm to live with the other one…who would have thought id have them both back. Also leyla put hatchi (host-sisters dog) on the finca too and is making him stay there…I guess its not only me haha.

In the afternoon I worked with Consejo Juvenil. We’re working with a little barrio right outside of town (actually above town…theyre located on a big hill that is extremely muddy and pretty much impossible to walk up…cars cannot go up it) that is pretty undeveloped. We are starting a recycling project with them and got organic and inorganic containers from the municipality to start a pilot recycling project with them and if its successful we will expand to more barrios. We are also trying to start a community bank with them…hopefully it works!

Friday, February 12, 2011

With the money we raised from the Cine (about $50) we have started moving forward with our other projects. All around town the walls are covered in peoples names as promotion to win an election in the local government. However, they used paint, painted walls and now long after the elections their names are still on the walls and fading and ugly. We’ve painted two walls (separated by a door) in the main center white and we are waiting a nice-non rainy day to paint 2 murals…one of a mountain (green) next door and the other of a local waterfall. In addition I think we’re going to write something like care for the environment. We also found a trabajador to work in our huerto (with a machete) and clean it up (all the weeds) so that we can plant platano and other things.

We’ve also planned another cine this Monday…el dia de amor y amistad. We’re going to show the movie “diario de una pasion” or “the notebook.” Except this time were going to do it in the high school because the last time in the huerto was a ton of work cleaning and bringing everything we needed there (amplification, computer, projectoer, chairs, kitchen, etc) and making the roof. Where as in the high school they have most everything were going to need. Hopefully we get a good turn out.

Besides the work with Consejo Juvenil I have started teaching English and health for vacation classes in the high school. Basically everyone in vacation now (summer) and they wanted classes that the students could take so that theyre not acting reckless in the streets. I agreed to teach (after some drama) with some reglas…I would teach but I only wanted 3 days and only in the mornings (so that I can work in the afternoons/travel if I want on the weekends), I would teach but I only want 25 students max in each class…I’ve never taught before and I don’t know how to control a class, and last I would teach but I want to teach health as well because that is why I’m here (not for English). The three days a week is really the only thing that has worked out from that agreement. I have 50 students mas o menos each class every day and they change regularly (new ones come, old ones leave). And they were so rowdy during health class (I think because theyre fairly young—12 years old average—that they don’t really want to learn health) I cant really get through the class because they wont be quiet long enough for me to teach anything. Entonces, what I think I’m going to do this upcoming week is split my English class in two and not teach health at all. Theyre young, don’t really get it and definitely wont be able to apply it to their lives and don’t want to take it.

Friday, Feb 4, 2011

Consejo Juvenil has planned a “Gran Cine” to raise money. In the huerto we’ve cleaning it all up so that we can (with our projector) show a horror movie..Friday night, in the huerto, darkness, “una noche de terror.” Last minute we decided to put up a plastic roof por ser caso que llueva, but its not going to rain we said, it cant. At 8:30 (after we’ve sold our 100 tickets!) it starts to rain. Really? Well, we have the (sketchy) roof. The power goes out in all of San Isidro. Really? About 20 people have come. We start brainstorming what we’re going to do. Give money back? Reschedule? Who knows. We start selling the popcorn and sodas we have made. After about a half hour or so, we get electricity. Gracias a dios. We repair the roof in the places its lacking. Oh wait, a piece for the amplification got broken (smashed) in the darkness when no one could see! Where are we going to find this piece at 9pm? Its only sold in one store. We tell people to wait just a bit longer while we go on a goose hunt. The majority wait. Gracias a la tia Amelia we find a piece that works. We play the movie for the few that are there, its not 100 but its some, we make $50. :) exito.

You know what would make the big scary bugs not so bad, not seeing them in the first place. I just saw the biggest cockroach I’ve ever seen crawling up the wall of my living room. It was about the size of my hand. No matter how much I dislike being around it and was tempted to just run downstairs to the other house and cry I grabbed my big piece of carboard that I call my ‘matabicho’ “bug killer” and wacked it as hard as I could before it could scramble its disgusting little legs and body out of reach. After taking my few recovery breaths I looked on the ground to where it fell to be sure it was dead, it was huge you know and that slap might not have been sufficient..i had a feeling a smush was in order. And this is my least favorite part. The fact that after it shows its horrific face it disappears!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it’s worse than never seeing it at all because now I start panicking, where could it have gone? Is it on my back, is it going to enter my bed while I’m sleeping, how could something that big just disappear into thin air where there is no place for it to go…. Oh lord give me strength.

Note: A few days later I saw it again...it went behind my mirror and was chilling there...i went down and got amber to come kill it. She said it wasn't a cookarocha but rather a cookarochaton or something along those lines which means its bigger than a cookarocha. Another note: about five minutes after she killed it (i dont want to touch it to clean it up either) it started moving again and I had to kill it again...i was successful. Last note: It may not look that big to you, but it is also smushed and missing a few parts...its huge. PSNote: all that dirt around it is dried mud that came off my shoe as i was smashing it...note.

Talking about bugs, and I know ive already mencioned many bugs, but theres another one that I always forget what its called but if you touch it it pees or something and you break out in a rash….cool. So I’ve been working in the “huerto” lately…a place where you plant crops I cant think of the word in English. But my youth group Consejo have been cleaning it this week because were going to show a movie. After a few days I started to notice a few rashes and everyones saying its this bug…sweet. So it itches a lot at first, just like a bug bite and by itching it you spread the pee (or whatever) and then you break out in a rash and then it burns. Here’s the one on my foot some people say you can even scar from it…I hope not. Gross.

Lets talk more about the rainy season (and by talk I mean I will write).

1.) Dirt roads + rain = mud roads. Some roads are so muddy (in the rural communities and including the road to Leylas farm) you cannot drive there (or leave in car), sometimes you can take a moto but either you have to leave/enter by foot (in which the mud may be knee-deep) or just stay put. The mud roads also make it difficult to get around town without getting dirty and by difficult I mean impossible. Wearing the boots are pretty fun though.

2.) Bugs—you already know.

3.) It usually rains in the afternoons, stops during dinner time, and rains again all night. However sometimes it rains all day too. Sometimes it rains extremely hard for 30 minutes and no more. Sometimes its CRAZY HOT all day and then you know a big storms coming. However, the REALLY big storms don’t come until march they say and that’s when there’s crazy thunder and lightning and wall-shaking and the works.

4.) the laundry system here is either by hand and with a rock or in a laundry machine. I luckily have a laundry machine but no body has dryers. Everything is hung dry which means in the rainy season you either hang it underneath a roof or something so that it wont get wet and then it takes days to dry, you can not wash your clothes until a clear day—but when you hang it outside you always have to be on the look out because once it starts raining that’s a whole nother day (or two) you have to wait…and if your clothes were already dry when it started raining..even worse. A few times (here and in Cayambe) I have run home when I knew it was about to start raining to save my clothes (sometimes I got there in time).

5.) Chocolate water—I believe I have talked about this in past blogs.

6.) La Pereza: when it rains, no one wants to leave. That means whatever meetings, events, groups (aerobics) you have are cancelled or postponed…for only rain. And I’m thinking: It’s the rainy season, its going to be like this for 5 months…its just a little rain. But the mentality is just different here. And I can understand it somewhat, when it rains I don’t want to leave either, but I realize I have to and I cannot let a little rain control mi vida. No?

7.) Now, everythings green. And it’s super beautiful. All of the mountains that I thought were so beautiful and breathtaking before are now even more so. There so green its hard to believe what my eyes are seeing and it really is a treasure to ride in the back of a pickup truck and take in all that beauty and naturaleza.

Thats San Isidro..

Monday, January 24, 2011-->Friday, January 21, 2011

This weekend I went to the Sierra to a city called Riobomba for a

Quincenera party which is like a sweet 16 but for 15 year old girls.

It was the neice of the brother (of leyla) and the whole San Isidro

family went…there were more than 20 of us. It was so much fun. The

traveling there and back wasn’t that great but being with the fam and

the kids and everyone made it a little easier. Along the 10 hour

journey I taught my 5 year old friend to tell time, slept a lot, ate

empanadas and just enjoyed the scenery. It was actually a nice break

from the hot, stuffy, sweaty, green and brown coast I see all the time

to be in the cool, brisk, blue, snow capped mountainous area of the

sierra. However after 4 days I was definitely ready to be back to

sweatiness.

(Buses)Our bus left San Isidro at 5am and with 3 bus transfers we arrived in

Riobomba around 2 (right after it had hailed!!---take that for the

people who think Ecuador is only heat and sun!). We did our saludos

at the house, got all situated (tons of people!) and walked around the

city a bit. I really liked Riobomba as a city and could see myself

living there however the cold just doesn’t do it for me. This night

we just went out with us kids to dance at some discotecas.

Saturday was the big day. We got up and went to rehersal. A

quincenera party here is so much like a wedding it’ll freak your

freak. There are “damas” and “caballeros” which are basically the

bridemaides and groomsmen. There is the quincenera and her specific

caballero (the couple to wed). at 7 started the real fiesta. First

we go to the church (to wed the happy pair) and afterwards we go to

the party which starts with a choreographed entrance of the wedding

party and the quincenera dances with her padrino (not father but like

godfather). Afterwards everyone dances! Late, around 10 or so we eat

dinner (and by ‘we’ I mean ‘everyone except for me’ because all there

was included meat…even the salad!...im used to it). After the food

was the ‘hora loca’ where everyone had animal masks, noise makers,

beads and basically you just danced more but with the great

accessories. After the hora loca we…danced more! Until 2 oclock when

we proceeded to go to the brother-in-law of the quincera’s bar and

dance until 5 in the morning! It was insane, super great and I think

one of if not the most fun I have had any night here in Ecuador.

>>In our dresses

The next morning we all just laughed recapping the night and the great

time we had. We did some more exploring of the city, got to go up to

the highest point and see all of Riobomba, we also went to a ‘parque

ecologico’ where we played in paddle boats and playsets. We returned

4am Friday morning where upon arriving around 3pm went directly to

sleep for the rest of the day due to the lack of sleep the rest of the

weekend. However, I’ll take this lack of sleep anytime because it was

one of the best times I had and being with the family the whole time,

I really got a chance to get closer to those whom I had already been

close to as well as those members who I haven’t gotten a good chance

to talk to often. And to think, I almost didn’t go.

(At the park)

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Yesterday after the whole Rafael shenanigans I went to stay the night

at the farm with the fam and some friends. Usually Leyla has a family

who lives and works on the farm but they had to leave and so she has

had to go and stay there most of her time taking care of everything.

Most nights members of the family will go and accompany her and spend

a night there. Last night me toco a mi. It was super fun there were

8 of us and we just watched a movie, cooked food, ate lots of raw

yummy food and fruits straight from the tree. Which, by the way,

since coming here to Ecuador I am obsessed with picking things off

trees or taking them straight from the ground and eating them or using

them to make things. Its such a cool and great concept and I am

constantly doing it even if I’m not hungry but just for the fun of it

because I can. In the morning I wanted to milk my first cow but

didn’t get a chance too. I’m sure I’ll go back soon and be able to

enjoy in that experience.

BTW, if anyone would like to come to Ecuador and live on the farm

(could be a family) for 6 months or more to work…get in contact with

me. You would get paid (like $150 a month or something) and would

have housing and all that is available on the farm...

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Update: President of the Republic, Rafael Correa (Aka: current

boyfriend, future husband to kasie nicole boehm of columbia, maryland

USA) was in tiny little pueblito San Isidro today. He paid us mere

country folk a visit—un politically—to speak with the families of

those who died in the bus accident. There were lots of whispers, hush

hush conversations, everyone keeping the same secret on Monday that

‘tomorrow the president is coming.’ At 9am I went over to the street

the high school is on (looking my best) to meet up with my friends and

wait his arrival. We tried to get into the colegio from the front,

both sides (which were not entrances and included jumping over walls)

and the back but all were guarded with policemen not letting anyone in

(including the gringa) no matter how much we pleaded and beg and

searched for excuses for why WE deserved to enter. Only those on the

list (which included the family members and other pelucones) were

allowed in. “this isn’t a political visit, its only to speak to the

affected.” Even so, I got very bitter that he wouldn’t at least say

something to the people of San Isidro, his devoted followers. A small

10 minute speech would have been nice, I mean he did travel all that

way.

He arrived in the middle school actually and walked to the colegio

(across town) which I guess was pretty ‘integrative’ of him. Then in

the colegio he spoke to the families---this is when I made my

entrance, finally. We were sitting on the walls (that we had

inspected earlier in search of a way in) and got to talking to the

guards about how we are a group of local jovenes and we just want to

put our sign up so that when he passes to leave he will see it. We

got permission and who knows if he saw it but we got into the high

school so take that you exclusive list!

After the high school in car he traveled to the subcentro (health

clinic I work at). Which I didn’t know he was going there because I

would have gone and waited there and maybe been able to meet him

because I work there as well…no one wanted to tell me, they just

wanted to keep them all to himself! Anyways, we followed corriendo

snapping fotos along the way. After the subcentro he went to the

cuerpo de bomberos—firestation. I don’t know why, ive never seen

these guys in action before but on the way there Susana (the girl I

work with with consejo juvenil) we spoke with the alcalde (mayor) of

our canton and so hopefully that conversation will help us. At the

firestation we actually got close enough to correa that he shook the

hand of my friend Melissa and took a flier from Susana about consejo

(!!!!). From the fire station he returned to the middle school to get

in his helicopter and return to being the image we see on the

television.

Btw did I mention that he is incredibly, beautifully handsome and has

green eyes (verde digo, pero verde verde verde!) that do not look real

and is super adorable and great. The end.

Friday, January 14, 2011

First and foremost i want to say that i think i have received all of

my Christmas gifts and packages and i just wanted to say thank you so

much to everyone. Simple letters mean a lot (sometimes more) and I

really appreciate it and love reading them (and receiving gifts is

always fun!). Don’t ever hesitate to send a letter (or a gift ha)!

Time has been moving somewhere in-between fast and slow. I seem to

think its been moving slowly (my projects are creeping along) but then

I look at the date and half way through January already! That marks

around 7 months of me being here in Ecuador…over half a year. And

that’s crazy.

I make tons of plans while I’m here. I may be giving you whip lash

with my constantly changing and evolving projects (I sure feel it).

So now it looks like I’m going to be working prominently with a local

youth group here in town called Consejo Jovenil. It is a youth group

that has already existed for some time now and I am friends (or know)

many of the members already including the president and we have just

gotten to talking recently about how we have many similar ideas for

what we want to do with San Isidro and she has included me in her

plans to revamp the group as a group leader. I am really excited for

this new change and as I have been feeling a little uneasy lately

because my projects haven’t been going quite as I dreamed, imagined or

hoped they would go, entering into this group sounds perfect.

As far as my other projects and all the ideas I have for example my

neutering project, diabetes clubs (which I still am attending but I

don’t think I will be playing as active as a role as I imagined), the

foundation for kids with disabilities, and other subcentro events they

have hit a bit of a standstill. Even my women’s group has felt a bit

of a stag but I’m hoping that next week we will be back in action.

The thing about my projects is I cannot do them alone. I need

community counterparts that want to and are willing to work with me on

them. Within these projects I have community counterparts but whether

it is laziness, busy-ness, lack of motivation or lo que sea they

aren’t and/or don’t seem to want to work on these projects—at least

not right now. Luckily as I was accepting that this was happening and

feeling a little worried Susana (friend and presidenta of Consejo

Jovenil) approached me with her plan for the group and with my role

and is full of a new enthusiasm and eagerness to start working and get

going with this group. Genial.

What makes becoming involved with this group even better is everything

they’re doing are things I’ve been interested in doing and have wanted

to do forever. We work in 4 main projects: Tourism, The Environment,

Health and Technology. We’re all going to be helping with everything

but I will be especially involved in the environment and health

groups. We have started making signs (wood and paint) that say

“respect the environment,” “don’t throw trash,” “the earth is your

home, care for it.” Things like that and we have begun to put them up

around the town which is a great start. We are going to start

planning educational opportunities where we can explain why its

important to care for the environment and not throw or burn trash. In

health we now have a ‘youth center’ in the clinic which is a space

(room) where all of the local youth can go directly and receive

services. This is to promote the idea of a “safe space” so that they

wont be embarrassed to go and ask questions or receive condoms and

things like that. There is much more to come I believe with this

group (hopefully) and I’ll keep you updated.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

For the new year I went to a semi-nearby beach about 5 hrs away by bus called Porto López. It was pretty and tranquilo, got to see the sunset and just pass time on the peace. For new years here they have all these dolls and they burn them in the streets…I’m not sure why or the significance of it but basically the dolls just scared me the entire week or so leading up to the night because some of them are actually life sized and you think that theyre real people. After the countdown there was a huge dance party in the street with accompanied doll burning and fireworks. It was fun. This is the town that you have witness whale watching between July and September so I definitely want to go back to be able to see that. Theres also an island nearby where you can see lots of boobies---blue footed boobies that is. I want to go to that too.

While I was gone I told my neighbors (kids) to watch my cats and feed them for me and I would pay them 25 cents a day. However unfortunately when I returned I was told that my one black cat (the better, more friendly one) Leila brought to live on the farm (she gave him away one other time but when my friend saw that I was upset he talked to her and got him back) because she doesn’t like him (because he goes in her house she says) and my other one got sick for a day or something and then went missing and came back and I guess went missing again-- I haven’t seen him since ive been back. Ill look around town for him and maybe hell come back, and as for the other one im going to try and buy a littler box so that maybe Leila will let me bring him home to live with me…kind of sad.

Monday, December 27, 2010

I completed my first dog project these past few days too. My neighbors dog had really long matted hair that bothered me and I felt super bad for it every time I passed it and I finally cut his hair. I finally talked to the owner and a few friends and I got to cutting. It was super fun and I think he feels a lot better. Especially because its getting to be super hot and really rainy and muddy all that hair couldn’t have been comfortable. I have talked to my vet sister about how I want to do a spay and neutering program because there are sooo many cats and dogs running around without homes or food and they just keep reproducing. She mentioned that her and some of her companeros would be willing to do the surgeries they just need the supplies. I contacted some organizations about donating and have gotten some good responses including contacts here in Ecuador. Were going to call and see how they can help us out and I’m pretty excited about this project to happen sometime soon in the new year (I’m shooting for February-latest).

I love playing soccer. I was super excited when I found out I was going to a latin American country for many reasons but one was that I would play lots of soccer with the local kids. And this dream is coming true and its great. I’ve also included my women’s group into it and so some of my senoras come out and play sometime which just makes it more fun and histerical. We laugh and laugh and its super great exercise. I was running and that’s good. And then I started doing aerobics which is another type of work out and now soccer is a whole different exercise entirely and its super fun. I only like playing though when its just the little kids and the senoras (some of the teens too) and one or two actually good people. Some of my friends (guys) play for real and I couldn’t even imagine playing with them I’d get destroyed but with the kids its fun to just run around.

all the pollution sure makes for beautiful sunsets...

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Last night we returned to the house and (almost) midnight we had christmas dinner. I guess they celebrate the night before here. Most of the fam was over at my house and we ate, said merry Christmas although we were all a little preoccupied and didn’t find the chirstmas to be very merry. My friend (12 years old) Olartia slept over at my house last night. I don’t know if it was because she was scared (which she slept over when tia Amelia died too) or because she knew I would be alone for christmas. Either way it was a nice little sleepover we just hung out and in the morning made breakfast and milkshakes. I’m just trying to find the right time to give my fam their gifts. Tragedy

I slept most of the afternoon. I didn’t want to go to all of the funerals or be around the people as they were mourning, it was just too sad for me. However around 5pm I gave my fam their gifts and they seemed to enjoy them. “?!Que? Eres papa noel??”

Leyla—a hammock. She was using mine and then when I moved I took it so I got her a new one

Estefania—a shower kit with sponges and stuff and some yummy smelling lotion

Ambar—shes a cook and always makes pizza so I got her a pizza cutter (the circle that rolls) and a rolling pin and a little table you can carry the pizza around. I also got Adriano a little onsie)

Rimber—leylas brother from spain arrived a few weeks ago and we’ve really hit it off..hes super hilarious and living in the house so I figured I’d get him a gift too. I wanted to get him a little toy boat because every other thing he says is “viene en el barco!” or when it comes in the boat… or when the boat comes it will have this and that. He is always referring to this boat and what it contains (the boat with all his things from spain). I wanted to write on it “oh, your gift is coming on the boat!” but then I couldn’t find a boat and I saw some board shorts—like a bathing suit. And he has horrible style and always wears these bathing suit shorts all the time (he must have like 6 pairs) so I got him another pair as a joke “because you always seem like youre going to the beach!!”

When I asked my neighbor kids what they did today (after my nap) they said “nada” and I said well did you get anything for xmas and they said nope because their mom doesn’t have money (which is true) so I took them out and told them they had $1 each and could choose anything from the town they wanted. Francisco got a little army man and Valesca got a diary with a lock on it—it costed $3 but because her brother gave the few cents he had left of his dollar to donate to her gift I paid the extra money. Plus I remember when I got my first diary with a lock on it…I think it was a Pocahontas one for easter hahah.

It was fun and it felt good to give gifts. Even though they don’t really do that here. I ran into a bunch of my friends on my way to get shantonu his gift (just a bunch of candy…nothing serious) and when I said I was on my way to buy a gift for san Antonio (they cant pronounce his name) they were all like ‘oh for what? Is it his birthday?’ all of them.. I was like no….its christmas.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas eve. This morning at around 3am a bus traveling from Quito (capital) to my town (San Isidro, the final destination) crashed and fell off the edge of a mountain. They say that it was filled beyond capacity with around 20 extra passengers and in addition to the weight of all the luggage and the excess of Christmas gifts as well combined with the probably bad condition of the bus it weighed too much and the breaks went out and it couldn’t stop in time and spun out of control around a curve. I think the final number was 23 people from San Isidro died with maybe 8 being children (and babies—7 and 3 months), a few my age and the rest older adults. The whole day people were running around trying to figure out who was on the bus, who didn’t make it, those wounded, from which families were they. My town isn’t that big, everyone knows everyone at least by last name. Because the bus was so full some parents or families told their children to get on and that they would catch the next bus. Because the bus was so full some people weeped for their loved ones who were planning to be on the bus only to find out later (luckily) that they didn’t board. Whole families died. 8 people from one family. 3 from another. 16 other passengers died not from San Isidro. That makes 39/64 fallecidos. The rest are wounded and trying to hold on. My family told me that Christmas is kind of depressing and they never really do anything to celebrate. I was prepared for that, okay with it. This however is on a whole different level and extremely sad. There was a ‘ceremony’ (not sure what you would call it) when all of the bodies arrive. The (whole basically) town lined the streets with candles as the families walked with the coffins of their loved ones through to the centro. They sang, had a mass, prayed. Seeing that many coffins, that many people and families suffering, coffins smaller than I am, little angelitos they call them. The hardest part was when in front of the small coffin was a man holding a box that held a toy car. A Christmas gift.

“La ilusion navidena se esfumo en segundos. Decenas de familiares se quedaran esperando que sus seres queridos lleguen a su destina. Hoy, un regalo amanecera debajo del arbol sin abrir y un espacio vacio sera imposible de llenar en mesa, durante la cena de Nochebuena.” –Extra Judiciales; Guayaquil, Sábado 25 de diciembre del 2010

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Birth-day. Went to Bahía (city) to buy xmas gifts for my fam and check my mail. Came back to San Isidro and started planning for my women’s group meeting. At 8 when no one was really showing up I went across the street to talk to a friends (kid) mom. While I was there my kid-friends started acted all funny and sketchy and I knew what was up. I told them I didn’t want any craziness for my birthday or my face smashed into a cake. They didn’t care. I tried to stay at my friends house for as long as possible but I knew I had to go over there at some point. I went over there, I think they thought they were still surprising me even though I had known for like an hour that they were doing this. Most of the fam was there, they sang feliz cumpleanos and happy birthday and tried to get me to “bite the cake,” when I said “nonono, I’m not stupid” they said well you still have to cut it and hand out pieces, I tried to keep myself far away but they just dove their hands into the cake and rubbed it in my face. Tasted good, felt gross. It was fun for the most part even though everyone watching me and doting on me like that really makes me nervous and uncomfortable haha. It was really nice that they wanted to do something for me. I opened some of the gifts my fam sent me from home, that was nice too, thanks! And that was that.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Saturday Shantonu and I rented a truck and went to Portoviejo (a nearby city) to buy house supplies. It was super fun buying all the stuff for my new place—brooms, cooking supplies, fridge, plates, etc) however its pricy and I still don’t have everything I’m going to want. Right now I can live here, I have a fridge and stove containers for food so today I’m going food shopping—legitimately—for my new house and I’m going to officially start cooking for myself…hopefully I wont die of hunger and it will be as good as I always thought it was (being able to chose what I eat, cooking healthy foods). My fam keeps joking about “when are you going to invite us over to eat” which I don’t mind them coming over and everyone hanging out at my house but I still am learning how to cook and me da virguenza (it embarrasses me) when they watch me cook or eat my food because I’m scared its going to taste bad. I mean I live with a chef so I don’t think ill ever win this cooking fight. I attempted to make peanut butter and oatmeal cookies the other day and I don’t know what happened but they just didn’t turn out completely right. Maybe it was the sketchy ‘baking powder’ or whatever I used, or the lack of ‘brown sugar’ or just that things are made differently here but they were sub-par.

I’m getting more excited about Christmas…it still doesn’t really feel quite like xmas yet but my secret amiga is one of my little girl friends whos 8 and so I’m not so nervous about getting her gift. I’ve also thought of pretty good gifts for my fam here so I’m excited to give them that and its fun when you think up all by yourself (without a list) a perfect gift…I hope they like it just as much as I hope they will. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get my fam gifts because they said they don’t really do that and I doubt theyre getting me ones but then I really thought about how 1.) I want to get them gifts as far as the espiritu navideno goes 2.) I would hate if they got me something and I didn’t get them something 3.) I stayed in their house for 4 months so even if we weren’t friends they deserve something and 4.) I mean, I thought of great gifts for them. Bring it on xmas!!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

So this is the official first blog from my first night sola in my new house. The fam that lived above my host families house moved out and I moved in. And it’s super nice. I have 3 rooms (bedroom, living room/comedor, kitchen), one bathroom and a balcony! There are really nice tile floors everywhere, one wall is all windows so I am constantly breathing the fresh air and getting a nice breeze or sun rays. Now I’m excited and thinking of all the things I need and want to buy (kitchen supplies, fridge, broom, couch, tv, mirrors, tables, etc). My first official apartment ever and for $100 a month id say its not too shabby. I don’t think I have enough money to buy all the things I want/need but I’m going sat to the big city (where hopefully it will be a lot cheaper) to buy everything. Maybe the TV can wait. Hopefully i have learned a sufficient amount of cooking so that I wont die of hunger.

PS. The rain is here to stay, goodbye flip flops, hello rain boots.

My Messy Bedroom and Minuit!! Living room with basically nothing in it yet...

Last but not least...kitchen. kind of cluttered...its all still new!

My Kitties

Thursday, December 09, 2010

The winter/hot season/rainy season is on it’s way. It has started raining (mostly at night) which is actually kind of nice, reminds me of costa rica and I’ve been hankering for a good rain. However the dirt roads are becoming muddy puddles and that isn’t working out too well with my flip-flops…I suppose I will finally have to conform and buy rain boots. The large bugs have also began to emerge (see photo). This is one, dunno what its called, but its gross. There are other grasshoppers that are actually the size of a parrot and fly like one too. They are beyond gross and I’m always scared one is going to fly in my hair which I’m sure will happen one day. Apparently these creatures they call bugs are EVERYWHERE in the peak of the rainy season which…I might not leave my house (if I’m even safe there!). There also exist clothing-eating bugs but apparently they really like mustard yellow and I don’t have too many clothes that are that color so maybe I’ll be safe from those guys.

What else, oh there’s ‘agua negra’—black water. Apparently theres not clean water that come out of the fosets, at first I was like well that’s fine we use bottled water all the time anyway to drink and then someone brought up showering…I guess I’ll have to wait and see what happens with that. They also say that because my town is all dirt roads and the two roads (on either side) that are the way in and out of my town are also dirt roads we become stuck here. They say sometimes the mud is knee deep? Cars cannot pass. I guess I’ll have to stock up on contact solution before that happens. I thought I was living it pretty easy for the peace corps, my power only goes out occasionally (apparently it is a lot more unstable in the winter too) I have running water (maybe even hot water once I get my own house)…who knows though, maybe in the rainy season ill get the true peace corps experience.

As far as my projects things have started moving. We had two weeks of aerobics with the women’s group (however lots of kids and boys and sometimes men come too, we don’t turn anyone away) and they wanted more so we changed womens group to Tuesday nights and now we have aerobics Monday, Wednesday and Friday (however I think we’re going to play a sport Fridays to mix it up and do something different). Our attendance is also increasing each class which is exciting and each class I’m getting more confortable and better at teaching (I love when they scream in pain! Hahaha “no mas, no mas!!”). We also talked with them about what more they want to do with the group and we might start a ‘clean up the barrio’ project/trash project with them which would be super great for me/hitting two birds with one stone because I have tons of ideas and really want to do a trash project. Everyone burns their trash here (or throws it on the mountain) and it smells awful and I don’t even want to think about the things it does to our bodies and the environment. I’m really trying to change that.

I also met with the old peeps today and the lady had known a few past PCVs here and seemed pretty excited for me to start working with them…I love old people but we have a slightly difficult time understanding each other. It’ll pass. We’re meeting Jan 6 with everyone.

Christmas lights, trees, and decorations have started going up around town. It’s kind of weird because I’m still walking around in tank tops and shorts and not at home with the fam, its also hard for me to see a Christmas tree because it just reminds me of my mom but its still cool. There is a secret santa (or amigos secretos) going around with my fam here (like 100 people)--$2 minimum gift. It sounds fun but I have no idea what to get my person (I haven’t chosen a name yet) and I don’t know I’m a little nervous about it.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

So yesterday was world aids day and we had a little event here in San Isidro in the high school. It actually went a lot better than I thought it was going to go. The few things I had seen before hand preparing for the event with the subcentro were a little sketchy and the group of kids we were working with and the doctors didn’t listen to all of my suggestions but it actually went fairly well (for example we were practicing a skit and I thought it would be better a different way and they didn’t want to change it also they made a pamphlet and some of the statistics were a little off or unnecessary and some of the wording wasn’t quite right----however at least they listened to me and took off the ‘disadvantages of using a condom’ thank god for that.) even though everything was exactly perfect it was better than doing nothing and at least the kids got a chance to hear a little bit about hiv/aids and other stds and got to talk about it a little bit. We gave out condoms and information on usage and hiv. They cancelled class (it was during the school day) so all of the school was present which was good. The principle is the other volunteers host dad so if (when) we want to have any sort of even with the hs I’m pretty sure we can just tell him and hell cancel class and we’ll have the entire school present. What was also cool was that each grade (or class-I’m not sure) put together a poster on HIV/Aids … again there was a lot of mis-information it was good that they did some stuff and it was more than I thought they would do.

To me, my first Ecuadorian world aids say was a success. And next year it will be way better.

I also have started aerobicos with my women’s group. We have classes Mondays and Thursdays and we still meet Wednesdays to have discussions or activities (we met this wed to talk about hiv/aids which was a success as well). I led the first aerobics class on Monday. It went well, we had music and everything. The women are at different levels however so some thought it was a little easy and others struggled. This can only get better as well, I will figure out ways to make it more difficult for those who need it while still including the others. We had all ages from 8 year olds to 50 years olds. It was hard teaching the class, speaking in Spanish, remembering/figuring out which moves I should do, counting (counts of what—8 or 10, 11? 15? Tres? Que?) but each time I will get more comfortable and it will get easier to teach.

Leyla also approached me about wanting to build a park next to the house where the local kids can play. We did that this past weekend, it was super cool, fun, a great use of recycled materials and we got a chance to hang out there the fam and friends for a while. Shantonu and I are going to do a ‘world map’ project with it now where we break the wall up into sections (squares) and different groups of people fill in different sections of the world map and afterwards it’s a complete map with contributions from many people. It will be super cool and then there will be a map on the wall so that the kids can play and learn geography at the same time!  I also might paint the toys? (we have swings, a spinny thing, a see saw, and something that will soon be monkey bars (its ½ of monkey bars but I saw some kids playing volleyball with it which is cool too) and do some hop-scotch or something on the ground. :)

all of the students for the event

And last, the little angel Adriano!!!

November has flown by. 5 months have flown by. This is the longest I’ve been out of the states but it doesn’t feel that long. I think maybe because I’ve lacked a regular schedule so some days and apparently months seem to fly by with nothing accomplished (or having done nothing substantial maybe is a better way to say it). I’m not looking to go home anytime soon. Two Fridays ago I met with another volunteer from a nearby town who has 8 or some month left to go. It felt great meeting with her because she’s doing SO MANY great things. However she is also working in the Municipal which is like local government office so she is surrounded by extremely motivated, active people and has about every resource at her fingertips. She also has tons of experience I will be able to learn from and she works in my local government office so I learned that many of the resources she has I will be able to use which I am very excited about (contacts, money, etc). She’s also in a city-like atmosphere (small city) which I think makes things a little more progressive and easier for her. However I still love my little campo town and it made me realize how much work we really need and I just hope I can do something substantial.

This past week I had my ‘reconnect conference.’ Which is usually at around the 4.5 month mark and we are accompanied by our counterparts but they changed it this year to the 3 month mark and without counterparts. Us volunteers split into groups of around 20 to present out CAT presentations (community assessment tool). It is basically a presentation in spanish on what we learned from our surveys and assessments of our towns as well as our project ideas. It was super interesting hearing about other peoples towns and projects. Some people are already doing amazing things or have amazing ideas which is great and crazy. We also had a series of seminars on various topics, some more helpful than others. I had said before I went that after reconnect I was going to really get going, start really planning everything I want to do and on days when I find myself unoccupied at least going to the subcentro and volunteer at the front desk for a few hours. The idea is that I will be working M-F somewhat regularly. I had said that before and reconnect did a good job of motivating me to do that and get going.

Monday, November 08, 2010

Deaths work a little differently here. Immediately after Tia Amelia died they brought her to the funeral home, still on the cot from the clinic. Then they cleaned her, put make up on her. After a few hours still they brought in the coffin and flowers. During this whole time family came in, wailing, crying. It was all very sad. Visitors came in and out all day as they heard the news, paid their respects, some stayed for hours. That night even some slept there in the funeral home upstairs (they have cots). It’s normal here. The next day, since the morning everyone was back there. Another day spent there. We waited until Sunday to have the procession to the cemetery to bury her. She had two daughters in Spain they were waiting for. The procession is as follows: the herse doesn’t exist. From the clinic to the funeral home: leyla’s truck. After the funeral home everyone walks on foot (including men carrying the casket) to the church where they have a mass, and then on foot again to the cemetery. There is a cemetery right in town but she was buried at the one way far away en the camino for the finca. It was about a half hour walk, at least. And it was super hot. From there there was more crying and wailing. At this point I didn’t really want to be around in any more. Grieving for 3 days is crazy and not really something I’m able to do. They said that it’s usually only 2 days but because they had to wait for the daughters from spain it was an extra day but still. In the states its like half a day (the funeral stuff), right?

Last night after dinner they were like okay were going to go to her house now and chat, lets go. Nononono. I had to prepare for my charla and waking up at 7:30 this morning which was super difficult following 3 long spent at a funeral home, around crying people, being mentally, emotionally and physically drained. So I stayed in alone last night which was kind of creepy to prepare for my charla this morning which I was super worried about. The charla that Tia Amelia heard the night before she died, which didn’t bother me too much just something else to think about. It was pretty hard waking up with morning so early but I was full of nerves and excitement. The first day I’m going to be working directly with my Club of diabetics and hypertensives. I was super nervous because I would be giving the presentation in front of the doctors and if I said something wrong they would def know. Also it didn’t help that the doctor kept saying that we had to kind of speed through the meeting because we had some communities to visit. My charla is usually around a half hour with interactions from the group and everything to make it interesting. I had already cut it down some because I knew but now he wanted me to cut it even more. Luckily I had prepared a little before hand so I was able to wing it, more or less. I was super nervous, shaking and stumbling over my words but besides that it went pretty well. Also because I didn’t have them interacting as I usually would I don’t know if they retained it or understood as much as I would have liked but I think/hope they did (considering they really need it, they’re supposed to come without eating breakfast to check their sugar levels but a lot of times they eat breakfast anyway which ruins the readings and then when we ask them what they ate its something horrible, today it was carne de res—red meat, and rice.) A few of the things I said the doctors would go “mmhmm” and afterwards one of them said “it was a good charla” :)

Sunday I also took a break from the funeral stuff to stop by the Seniors home with the doc but they weren’t there (no surprise). But I got a chance to talk to him about some of my ideas and he told me he was also interested in some of the same things (exercise groups, medical brigades) and really is pushing to doing an event for World Aids Day which is December first which would be great but less than a month isn’t rally enough time to plan something well but we’ll see. Tomorrow, another visit to people with disabilities in the campos. Thursday we have our next women’s group meeting where were going to talk about exercise and possibly starting an aerobics group with them. Friday is the other CLUBHD and then Quito!!

Friday, November 05, 2010

She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, I said, more than once. She reminded me of the wise old grandmother from Pocahontas. She had beautiful long black hair, dark skin full of wrinkles and eyes that still burned with a fire of life and love. She was always around and came to all of the women’s group meetings with excitement and optimism. Including the meeting last night where I told Shantonu again, ah she’s so pretty. After I sent him a text today and he came to meet me at the clinic he said, it was the one you loved? Yes. She fell off a horse. I held back my tears until we put her in the back of the camioneta, the pickup truck of her niece, leyla, my host mom. Right before we moved her from the clinic to the funeral house the church bells rung. A sound I had heard a few times before but had never known the person they rang for. This time I did. “La llevo por sus calles donde siempre andaba” she said, crying with me. I don’t know whether she was talking to me or her because of the way the spanish language is “La” and “Su” could refer to “her” or “you” formal. Didn’t matter. I don’t remember the last time I went to a funeral. I stayed with her, Tia Amelia, for hours though it didn’t feel like it. Just sitting, watching, thinking, remembering. Not much time has gone by, and we didn’t see each other everyday, but she still impacted me. It didn’t matter that most of the people stared at me, wondering who I was, maybe thinking I shouldn’t be there. We brought her to the funeral home on the cot from the clinic. She stayed that way for a few hours receiving visitors, crying hermanos, hijos, sobrinos, amigos. Later they brought in the coffin, the decorations, the dress, makeup. Her dark skin had paled and her wrinkles had faded away. She wasn’t there anymore. The most beautiful woman I had ever seen, how quickly she left.

Descansa en paz

Rosa Amelia Cedeno Mero

01/1950—05/11/2010

Thursday, November 04, 2010

I don’t have many updates. Halloween was sad I really missed the scary movies, scary music, being scared, spider webs, costumes, candy, pumpkins, and jack skellington of course. There were fiestas in the highschool and for November 2 day of the dead (people visiting their family in the cemeteries) which was cool but it wasn’t the same. Not too much has happened to update about, that’s why I haven’t written in a week.

Yesterday I went to Bahia where there was the inauguration of the longest bridge in Ecuador, prezi Rafael was there, que guapo, it was fun but a long day.

Women’s group: nutrition charla tonight—success! They were very enthusiastic-con animo. We didn’t have that big of a group as last time, it was kind of short notice and not well advertised because of the fiestas and everything but they were so excited afterwards they were talking about bringing a lot of people next time and plus I’m going to try and advertise in the subcentro. Next week: exercise. Old people on Saturday. Diabetes nutrition charla on Monday. Same on Friday. Next week is Reconnect. Sweet.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Continue moving. Monday I had a meeting with the other diabetes club and it was equally well. It is planned, next meetings I will be giving a charla on nutrition. Cross your fingers and wish me luck!

Yesterday arrived our first WWOOF volunteer! Valentin from France! All morning we cleaned the finca and prepared for his arrival. In the afternoon we showed him around a little bit…I was confused and there actually is no shower, rio it is (hope he doesn’t mind)! I think the picking the leaves off of the manderina trees and making fresh tea won him over and hopefully is worth the no-running-water thing. It’s a whole different experience, I kept saying.

Tonight (Wednesday) we had our second Women’s group meeting—cooking class. Today we made banana bread and cabobs of cut up fruit covered in home made chocolate. Mixed in was a little bit of English class. Mas o menos 30 people showed up which was huge, a few guys. I think it was the food that attracted them, or the fact that one of the women said that we would be teaching English. This is a problem we are starting to face here is that they want to learn English and 1. I am not really interested in teaching English and 2. we are here for a lot more than simply teaching English and this seems to be a concept that is hard to grasp for them. Hopefully people will show up next week and be able to see that we have a lot more knowledge to share than just the idioma that we were raised in. Next week were doing the nutrition charla which will be good practice for the two I’m going to give in a few weeks.