I finished my last training yesterday. I had such great support from all of you who donated to my "Bring a Health Program to Paul´s Town" that I was able to print enough manuals for every teacher, every classroom, and FIVE other communities around mine! Word got out that I put together a HEALTH MANUAL and everyone wanted in... I can not thank you all enough! I will be putting the extra money towards Scholarships for kids to study at the University... So don´t you worry, all the money will get used up :). Thanks again all of you and I get back on the 25th of July so be prepared to PARTY when i get back.

Love,

Paul

Hello EVERYONE!

It has been a while, I know. I am a terrible person. But I have been busy. I have finished the HEALTH MANUAL!!!! Finally, I know. I have been talking about it for the last 2 years, and it is finally done. To celebrate, a friend and I went to this beautiful Crater Lake in the middle of the country. It is 1 km by 800 meters. The legend has it that there is no bottom to the lake. Although I doubt that, it is cool to think about. In any case, I will be home the 25th of July for GOOD! We just had a our Close of Service Conference last week and out of the 50 that came here, there are 30 left... Well I look forward to seeing everyone when I get back and rekindling all those friendships that were put on hold while I have been here.

Love,

Paul

This was me, and the rest of the City workers trying to clear out a drainage ditch a few weeks ago. It was an amazing experience, and we got prettttttty wet. That's all...

We did not talk about sex, but we did talk about music being a form of self expression... The coast is SOOOOO freaking hot, and humid, and filled with mosquitos.... I got eaten alive... But still had a ton of fun. Also, the plase where I am staying is one of the poorest parts of the country... and they have been getting slammed with rain, flooding their homes, and ruining a lot of their crops, neverthless, they still find the time to smile. I am making a music video about the town, to a song that I wrote a year ago about my first visit here.... The people are really really amazing.

We had a kids camp where we talked about self-esteem, went on a hike, did some team building activities, and SEX. Yep, I taught the kids how to put on a condom, using bananas, of course. All thirty kids had NEVER seen a condom before, not heard of the pill, nor heard of any other method opf contracepion other than the "pull out method". Good thing that the Family Planning section in my manual is the BIGGEST...

Hey All,

So, I have received some emails from some worried parents (mine) and some worried friends (also mine) about the political situation in Ecuador... I live in the South of the Country... pretty far away from Colombia, and I am not to worried, and I do not fear for my life... so all is cooooool.

As for what happened, it appears that the Colombian government was chasing FARC, the guerilla group that is alleged in charge of drugs and mafia happenings in the country. The leader of the FARC group was on his way to Ecuador, made it there, and then was assassinated by the Colombian government. I am not really sure how much I can say about the politics in the country that I am living in, so I will revert you all, if you are interested, to this article in the NY Times about what happened, Latin America’s response, and a bit about Chavez’s continuing saga with the US.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/world/americas/06venez.html

It´s a good article... and worth taking a glance.

On other Ecuador news, the country declared a state of emergency a week and a half ago, as to the torrential downpours the country was getting EVERYWHERE. Although the rain has really lightened up, my little town got dumped on three days ago. So much so, the road in front of my house (once made of dirt) is now covered in large rocks because "a river ran through it" (my street being it) and decided to take everything along with "it" down the hill and to the center of town. I will be posting pictures shortly of the disaster it caused. Mud was covering the entire park, one could see but a semblance of sidewalks. People’s house and stores were completely flooded and covered in sand. Rocks came barreling into cars... and some how my house was untouched.

Sure I have wholes in my roof, and there was a little water coming from the ceilings, but nothing to write home about. As for my town, we spent the last few days working in some of the more rural communities on "mingas", which are community work projects. We shoveled a ton of dirt, removed even more water from that dirt, to free up canals so that smaller communities could have water. It has been a really trying few days, and I have been pretty sore, as I don´t think that Tustin boys are meant for manual labor (or at least not the kind of was doing). It has really brought me even closer to my community, however, as we spent hours together, outside of "the office" and even found some time to splash each other... playing carnival in early March.

I love it here, still, and can´t believe that i will be home before we all know it... First week of August... here I come :)

These are some pictures from a 2 year olds birthday party and Carnival. I got pretty wet... It was awesome

This carnival was much different than last years. Last year I was in Buenos Aires and expected a grand fiesta, however, it ends up that they don’t celebrate carnival. Well, this year I was in my town and we did indeed do it up. It involved pouring water, flour, alcohol, mud, anything that could be thrown really, on one another for four days. And while, as well as before or after, we would be drinking that home made sugar can alcohol I have grown to be tolerant of. It was a really great time and I am super glad that I stayed in Oña for it. One really important thing about Peace Corps is about being seen in your community. I have yet to leave my community in three weeks and will be staying here for another 2 weeks before I have to go up and speak to the new group. I still can not believe that I am leaving in August... really nuts. I look forward to hearing from any and all of you and seeing all of you soon enough. I did not take that many pictures, as i was a bit, well, inebriated and did not want to lose the camera. Also, as aforementioned, I was getting a ton of crap thrown on me for four days...

Love

Paul

And mom... I even spell checked this one!

The vacation was amazing. We went to the Galapagos, the Andes, the Jungle, and a cloud forest, not to mention my site for new years. It was really really great to see the family. Also, great news, my sister got into TEACH FOR AMERICA and will be moving to New York come July. So congratulate her. Here are a bunch of pictures from the trip. Family's are freaking sweet, so invite them to go on trips with you... It is a lot lot cheaper with them there... and, well, they are great company (at least mine are).

These are some LLAMAS on a sloping hill (more like a cliff) at the Choqueqirou ruins... They don´t know why they are there, neither do I, but they were pretty.

This is my friend Ali in her site... Yeah, lucky her.

Do NOT drink the water in the Amazon! That is where we pooped and peed for five days. And that is where we slept. And those Blue Things were our Jerseys... We were "Hijos de Su Madre, Padres de Sus Hijos!" Yep... Clever we are.

Those Incans were great... The pic with kids on a couch with a yellow wall is a party I had a my house before halloween (I HAVE FRIENDS!!!). The four good looking kids on the rock are the kids that I went on the Peru trip with. That rock was in the middle of a river and it took real team work and a LOT of muscles to get us up there. There is a picture from the Girls camp that we put on. Yep, I am the only guy... and Yep, those girls were 15. We have a picture of me and my best bud Jesse sipping down some Pisco Sours in LIMA. That picture that is slanted was Jesse being artsy and tasking a pic of me and my buddy tyler on our four day hike to the Incan ruins of Choququirau ) or however you spell it. That is me and my friend Calvin with our facial hair for halloween... I was The "Queen of Mustaches" and he was "Castaway." Jesse and I pretended to take a "poop" in what we thought was the area for bathrooms... That is actually where they kepts their dead... bad move on our part.

MAchu Picchu is SICK!!!! And so is that cactus... cool looking... right?

October came and went... I had a wonderful visit from Emma Olson, a friend at Berkeley. She is on a world wind tour of South America and decided to stop in my wonderful little town. we hung out, i showed her the sites, and she at cuy with the best of them) the best being myself (as I am now a resident expert on how to devour a guinea pig), the mayor (who is pretty good herself), the police chief, and some other Ecuadorians alike.). It was a great time. I also had a party for all of my close friends in Peace Corps. We had about twenty people over in my adobe house and the house functioned just like the Borovay household during Passover, just sans the matzah ball soup. we always have a big party in Cuenca every year for Halloween so i took this time to have all the kids over for a BBQ extravaganza, be it that most of them live over twelve hours away, i figured that two and a half more hours to my house would not be that big of a deal. in any case, no one complained, we partied hard and then went to cuenca the next day for the fiesta. i dressed up as a queen, but not just any queen, the Queen of Moustaches. I grew one just for the event, which was not very difficult because i do not shave all that often. I was accompanied by three other queens, all with appropriate names. The party was fun, but my Barbeque was better.

I cam back to my site for a few days, rested and got ready for a camp that we were putting on the following week. This camp was called CAMP ALMA. The Gender and Development committee puts on a camp twice a year to teach girls about small business enterprises (to ensure that they are not completely dependent on their male counterparts), leadership, and sex. We invited 16 girls from all over the country and had an amazing time. It was so incredible to see the girls from all over the country, from different backgrounds and distinct cultures get along, learn from each other and share their different ideas and viewpoints. We had speakers from a Women´s Small Business Non-Profit who gave an amazing lecture on start up business and the ins and outs of what it is to be an entrepreneur. I was the only male at the camp, so I was excused from the “sex” talk, in the hopes that the girls would be a bit more open… from what I have heard about the talk, the girls we WAY open and it was extremely informative. The girls learned a lot, cried when they said good bye to their new friends, and pledged to keep up the good work and bring back to their communities what they learned at the camp. One of the girls was from the jungle, and upon being accepted to the camp her father began saving money so that he would be able to buy her some new clothes so she would not look as poor as their family really was. This camp was an amazing opportunity for the girls, not only were they able to learn about leadership, small businesses, and sexual education, but they were awarded the opportunity to get to know a new part of the country. Most of the girls had never been outside of their own communities, let alone to the Volcano near Baños. It was really amazing, and a real high light to my Peace Corps service.

I just got back to my site and went to a party in a town called Copa Cabana. I love the name, and man did I love the dancing. I did not feel like drinking and partying too much so I decided to hang out with the Chief of Police and one of the council members…. Low and behold, I ended up getting wasted. We took the party back to my house where we all went to sleep around 4, or was it 5, well none of us could remember the exact time. It is just really nice to be back in Oña and not travelling anymore.

Thanksgiving is coming up in a few weeks. I was thinking about going to the jungle again, but it does not sound like that many people are going. We will see, I might go up to Quito, I might just stay here… I am pretty up in the air now.

Thanks for checking in and I will be posting a bit more frequently in the future…. Just little posts like this one, and hopefully some more pictures.

Love

paul

I know i have been terrible at updating this thing, But my computer is dead, or is on its last leg, so i have had some problems updating the blog. In any case, no more excuses. I went tô Peru, hiked to some ruins a few hundred miles outside of Cusco, also wento to Machu Picchu, road a homemade raft for three days on the Amazon... These pictures are

just from another rafters camera... I will be uploading my pictures as soon as I get them from the two other kids who brought their cameras. We ended up placing fourth out of the international teams, and got our asses kicked by the locals. Well, please check back in a week and i will have photos of Pink Dolphins, the jungle, the ruins, cusco, lima, iquitos, etc. It was REALLY incredible. The very top is the route we took, with a lot of detours and mistakes while tying to read the current. The offical KM total is vague but it is somewhere between 180km and 210 km. Below that is a photo when we were tired, just got done, and i have our American flag with the machette that we used to carve our raft, then it goes from the last stretch up stream, and then when we look happiest, well, yeah, that is before we even started. Thanks for looking and please keep checking for a ton of photos and a long update of the trip.

Love,

Paul

September 9, 2007

I know it is difficult, but I think that I am getting even worse at updating the blog. I am making a promise to everyone, including myself, that I will do a much better job in my last year as a Volunteer (I know, nuts that I only have a year left, less than that even!!!).

In any case, to start with the update:

I feel that I have talked about the Sister City Partnership that we have with a small town in Belgium called Bierbek. Well, I will be brief about what it is. They give my little town a lot of money and we use it to develop (for example, they gave us $5 million in 2000, which created an entirely new potable water system for my town…. A HUGE deal for a town that had a pretty high infant mortality rate because of diarrhea). So part of this program is a youth exchange program. Therefore, we had a visit of 6 young Belgium girls. Ina, Els, Sofi, Julie, Daisy, and Lota. Well the town showed them around, and I was included in the town. So we did the following things, in brief:

Waterfalls: we went to some, that were close, they were beautiful, and awesome, and I do not understand why Oña does not try to promote those instead of the other ones that are hours and hours and days away. I will never understand.

Tequila: we learned how to make it. It is not very difficult at all actually. If only there was a way to make the stuff that he comes up with taste like tequila.

Youth Camp: we went out for a night about 40 minutes away to the province of Loja for a youth camp. I learned how to Salsa, and Bachata, and did all of it while being completely sober. The French student studying here got his camera stolen by someone at the camp but whoever took it put it back in his bag later the next day. All is not lost with honesty, at least all is not lost until after a kid steals it and realizes how much he sucks and then puts it back… yippee for guilt, the Catholics might be even better than the Jews. I also won a tomato between the face dancing contest… pretty self explanatory: you put a tomato between your face and another persons and the first couple to drop the tomato loses…. I was not a loser.

Dinner at My Place: I made everyone dinner, about 8 people in total. I made a nice salad, pasta with an eggplant and garlic sauce, and something else that I can not forget. It was good, so if you come down and visit me I promise that I will cook for you…. And you WILL like it.

Cuy: All but one of the girls did not like the guinea pigs we prepared…. But the girl that did like them, really really really liked them.

Soccer: I am back with the Municipio soccer team, to be brief, we lost and have no chance at making it to the finals. Although one game might be able to be pinned on me, the last and most crucial game was NOT my fault… not to point fingers or anything, but it was C#$@!n’s fault. Yep, his not mine.

Belgium: I have to go and visit, because these girls that visited were amazing and God knows that if I visit them I will get a few great meals and some great beer…. I have almost forgotten that there exists such a thing… Beer that is NOT Pilsener (which is the only beer they sell here, for the most part at least).

Applications: They suck. I want to be a rock star instead.

That is it for the visit with the Belgium Girls…

I went to visit my friend David Wooten at his site in Quinende. It was great. I have heard a lot of things about his site, namely that it is hot as hell, humid, and ugly. I disagree with all of those things. Although I am extremely happy living in the mountains where humidity does not exist (as the humidity does not fair well with my complexion), I had great weather when I was there; it was cloudy and cool. We played a few hours of outdoor soccer (it probably does not bode well for our three day rafting trip be it that we were both incredibly sore after the game). We went to the Lake about an hour and a half into the forest from his house. It was absolutely beautiful. The lake was refreshing and it was nice to relax (because God knows that we Peace Corps volunteers work so so so so hard behind computers all day). The next day we both went to Quito and then up north for our Midservice Conference. I have less than a year left. Yep, it’s official. You all will get to see me before you know it.

The best part about the Lake experience was the joy that we brought to ten youngsters that got to play with the inner tubes that we rented… it was a little sad, however, because we just made the kids millenniums by letting them jump on these inner tubes for two hours while we waited for the best, and a volunteer was actually on her way to move to the little town we were in. so we know that there was absolutely nothing that she could do to make the same sort of “Yipee” excitement out of the kids that we just did, unless of course she happened to bring three inner tubes instead of, lets say, suitcases with clothes in them.

To end, I started a conversation section in the Peace Corps Newsletter in Ecuador (oh yeah, I was just made editor in chief of it…. No no no, don’t congratulate me… okay, go ahead). One of the better and more ridiculous conversations we had was the following with the tire “rental” place:

(David shows up in a taxi, holding two giant inner tube tires for big rigs on top of the cab. I ask him if it went okay. He says yes and that we rented them for $5 a piece. I said I could not believe it and that it was so awesome, and strange, that the guy would rent us tubes that easily and that he understood what we were going to do with them. David responds with “me neither, but we got ‘em).

Four hours later we return with the tires and the following conversation takes place:

David: Well I brought the tires back.

Man: Okay.

D: One popped though because some stupid guy put a circular saw on it in the back of a truck.

M: It will be $1 to fix.

D: Well, is there anyway that we can just return them like this, without paying the $1?

M: No.

D: Well, I rented these from you right?

M: No.

D: Really, I could have sworn that it was you who I rented these from.

M: No, you bought them from me.

Paul: David, I thought you said that you rented them?

D: I definitely asked to rent them. Maybe he did not understand me.

P: Well is there anyway that we could sell these back to you for a discount?

M: No.

P: Not even for like $6 total.

M: No. They are stretched out now and I can not use them.

P: You mean to tell me that 2 men using them to float on a lake, and then 8 kids using them as a trampoline wears them out more than a 5 ton truck?

M: Yep.

D: Well, looks like we just bought me two giant inner tubes.

So what we are looking at are the following: A quinoa tree in Cajas (the most beautiful national park in the world, and really only one of its kind; picture of cajas; picture of really small bug but my friend Tyler has a really nice camera; picture of small flower at cajas; me winning a hoola hoop competition in quito and winning these disgusing halls "candies"; me and all my friends at our midservice conference (YEAH! in less than a year i will be home!); tough peace corps life, visiting my friend David (in next picture) at a lake near his house in the forest on the Northern Coast; Paul learns how to salsa, she was very patient and pretty quick on her feet (if she wasn't, then i would have ran them over ten times, por lo menos); a guy making "tequila" (i use quotes, as the tequila tastes nothing like the tequila without quotes); and last but not least a waterfall near my site.Love, Paul. Thanks for checking in and i am off to peru for the trip of a life time so be sure to check back in in a few weeks.

Me, some friends, in front of a great and beautiful waterfall next to my house... Me and in front on the other side of the valley (the other other side being the one pictured below), right above my house. More Pictures to be uploaded tomorrow.

The Sunset looking over the coast behind my site on a camping trip with a friend.

This week has been amazing! First of all, we had a visit from the Director of Peace Corps Washington. He took us all out (of course, with the help of your wonderful tax dollars) to the nicest restaurant in Cuenca, where I had a salad with caramelized pecans, blue cheese (I forgot after a year how much I love blue cheese), and the like, which was followed by two small medallion filet mignon steaks covered in mozzarella. Then concluded with banana´s flambé (I do not know hoe that is spelled) with a coconut moose with blackberry sauce. Yep, I do not think that I will eat like that for at least a year (or at least until my family gets here in June). Then, my good buddy Matt has had his parents visiting, and we have therefore been hanging out eating more ridiculously great food and staying in the nicest hotel in all of Cuenca. So, my meals and living accomedations have really stepped it up the past few days. Don´t fret though, as I am returning back to my humble abode later today.

I have a soccer game tomorrow….. a very big game actually. If we win we make it to the playoffs, and if we don´t then we don´t. so I will keep you all posted because I know that you will be dying from the suspense. I still have a pretty big post to leave from my visit with the Belgium Sister City Youth… they were really nice, spoke great English, and there welcoming warranted the entire town to break out all the stops to show these girls a good time.

We went to a “distillery” in Oña where they make Tequila. Although I think it does nothing more than “resemble” tequila, it is much better than the sugar cane alcohol that I have been used to drinking here. He even showed us how to make it, and if I ever find a free minute (I know, but I have been really busy actually and might not have then extra time to dedicate to making my own alcohol) I will make it and send some back to the US to all you boys and girls so you can drink it, maybe spit it out, and then talk to each other about how great their friend is down in Ecuador.

Also, I have a new addition to my house: a couch. I made said couch with some foam that I bought up North at a Foam warehouse, and from the Eucalyptus that can be found in my town. I borrowed a drill, bought some nails and some clamps, some nice cloth even to be over the foam, and now I have a fully functioning couch. It is soooooo nice to sit on something comfortable… I actually just want to get home to sit on it, read a book, drink some wine, and relax before I head to Peru.

YEP! The tickets are bought and the canoe team “Hijos de Su Madre” is up and ready to represent the United States in the worlds longest balsa wood canoe race through the Amazon river in Peru. Before that, we are also doing a six day hike to a sister city of Machu Picchu about 100 miles outside of Cusco. I know, you hate me… but at least you can live vicariously through the photos that I will put up when I get back. I will probably have one more post before the trip starts (the 10 of September).

Thanks for checking in.

Love

paul

PS: Thanks for not getting mad at all the tipos. i figured that i should just get them in before i start law school.

This is sad... just to warn you. But i still think that it is worth reading, and has a moral, and everything.

I went to a party this past Tuesday. It was in the town next to mine, not more than twenty minutes away. We danced. We drank. We partied like we have so many other nights. I arrived with two other friends that I work with, two women from the coast who are outgoing, loud, and ridiculously fun. It was quite a surprise for one of them to see her professor from college.

Monica, the one whose professor I spoke about above, danced a few songs with said professor, Humberto. About an hour after the dance off we were informed that Humberto was having trouble breathing. Monica and a few other friends rushed off to get the doctor and the man stayed put in a bed, breathing hard and fast. Twenty minutes pass, the doctor arrives, and prescribes a strong diet of staying put and drinking water. The man rests, is able to walk around, and appears to be in much better shape. The rest of the night was spent dancing and drinking, doing what we do best. I hung out with his son the whole night, Pablo (some of you might see where this story is going).

At 5 in the morning I am woken up by Gisella and Monica who are trying to get out of our bedroom because they said that they could hear someone snoring incredibly loud and that people were yelling for help. I ran downstairs and saw a young girl (about my age) doing CPR. I went back upstairs, trying to think of what to do, or what would be the right action to take. I heard her yelling that he was breathing, but only a little. I am fairly confident in my CPR abilities, but when it comes to anything else I am really left without any real idea with what to do. I went back down stairs a minute later to see how things were going, and to offer my assistance in any matter possible. There was little I could do, as the few people in the room said that his breathing had lessened even more, and he shortly thereafter passed away. His son, whom was the boy I had partied with the night before, watched his father die, as did the rest of us. The doctor (the very same one that said he would be fine the night before) said that he died from choking on his own saliva. I wondered if I had gone in there, been with the few people that were performing CPR exactly like I would have done it, whether I would have changed anything, would I have known what to do? Would I have recognized the sounds that he was making as choking, and therefore turned him on his side? Instead, there were a dozen thoughts going through my mind… and unfortunately too many were centered around me, and not Humberto.

I was afraid of what would happen had I “taken control” of the situation in the room, maybe he would still be alive, maybe he would still have died. I thought about another volunteer taking a hold of a situation in her community when an old man fell sick: she took him to a hospital, he died, and the family was left with $500 in hospital bills with no means to pay them. The family threatened her life, and she was forced to quit Peace Corps and leave the country. There are a million scenarios, and everyone there felt somewhat responsible. Later that day it was made clear that he did not take care of his health. Doctors had told him to stop drinking and smoking, both of which he had yet to give up. Nevertheless, the party put a lot of things in perspective.

Life is short, but not too too short. He was 60, about. He was an accomplished professor, had three kids, loved his family, etc. But there are also a million things that he did not get to do: see his kids married, spoil his grandchildren even when his kids tell him not to, travel, spend the rest of his life with his wife, etc. I know that I am stating the obvious. It is just what I was thinking, and have been thinking about the last few days.

It was also difficult for me to express just how sorry I was to his son and family. I did not know the family that well, and had only really known the son in a social setting. I am not fluent enough to express feeling such as remorse, or regret, and did my best to give out hugs and kisses to express just how I was feeling. I think that my sentiments were felt. It was just incredible that he was dancing with his son hours before and having a great time, and hours later he perspired. I am not saying that it is any easier for families to lose a loved one over a long period of time. Nevertheless, closure was rushed in this situation. There were probably hundreds of things that he could have done (maybe changed his health habits), and that we could have done to kept him here (maybe learned more about CPR, maybe had one of us be a doctor, seen signs, etc. silly things that are not worth dwelling on), but when it comes down to it he didn’t, and we didn’t. (Another note… earlier that day an old man fell off his horse, hit his head a died instantly… a weird 12 hours to say the least).

I am having a ridiculously great time here in Ecuador. I love being here, I love my friends, and I am learning more about myself and the world than I could in the United States. What I do miss though, and wish that I could somehow figure out a way to mix and match the groups, would be the family and friends that I have back in the states. I realize that this post is a bit of a downer, well a huge downer. But I wanted to tell you all that I genuinely love and miss all of you and hope that I will see you all sooner, rather than later. Today is a new day (it does not get more cliché than that, right?) but I am in the same place, doing the same thing, and it just took something like that to kind of wake me up and show me that life is only as routine as I make it. It is on that note that I leave you, and head off to Peru in a few weeks to compete in the longest canoe race in the world through the Amazon.

I promise that the next posts will be a lot happier and much more exciting. Also, I have been busy seeing, taking pictures, and travelling around my little town and have plenty to post in a few days. I will post really soon so as not to leave such a sad one up. We just had a visit from some girls in Belgium (as part of a our Sister City agreement) and I spent quite a few days showing them around, camping, and learning to salsa… so please check up on the blog again in a week and I promise that something else will be posted (with pictures and everything!!!).

Love,

Paul

July 7, 2007

Too Too Long

It has been quite a while since I updated the Blog. I doubt many (if there were many to begin with) are going to continue to check this as regularly (if they even once did so regularly) as they used to because they probably think that I have fallen off the face of the earth. Nevertheless, I have excuses; a plethora of them in fact.

The number one reason was because I had visitors from the sates. The number two reason was because I was stuck in Quito after my medical exams because there were crazy strikes inhibiting me from returning home for a week. Thirdly, I am actually trying to work… yeah, I know, what a novel concept. Fourthly, I have been using my internet/computer time to research grad and law schools I which to apply to this fall (my God it is coming up soon, and Jesus Christ it is looking expensive). And lastly, I kind of forgot that I had a Blog to update. However, this is all going to change and it starts with today’s entry.

DC Visitors

First came Matt. He decided to visit my site for a few days after having traveled a good part of South America for a few months. He made it to my house after crossing the Peruvian border town of Huaquillas (where a friend of mine is currently working. I heard it is hell on earth, moetly because of how amazingly hot, humid and hot and humid it is. Man I love living in the mountains).

We took a walk around my town, just over the hills behind my site to show him some of the more rural communities. I had explained to him earlier the difficulty in understanding and communicating with the folks from the rural towns, be it that their accents are very distinct and that words often sound more like mumbles and annunciation was an afterthought some years ago. He did not understand, that was until we met a woman picking flowers. We were interested in what types of flowers she was picking and for what purpose. After 10 minutes of conversing, we were more confused than when the conversation was forethought. Yeah, it is that hard. But I have learned that body language is a key medium in conveying your understanding of what’s going on. Yep, a simple continuing nod up and down works wonders here.

The next day we went down to the river below my site where my friends killed a pig and made some great sausages, some of the best fritada ever (fried pick meat), and a delicious soup. Everything my vegetarian friend Matt could hope for. My buddy Juan Carlos took it upon himself to try to get me drunk with the most disgusting alcohol I have ever had. However, I had the upper hand this time, as I could tell that he was already pretty wasted and that it is customary for the person offering the drink to take a swig of it himself. Therefore, I proceeded to ask for drink after drink, one right after another, and Juan Carlos was asleep within an hour of my arrival. That might have sounded like a mean thing to do, but I assure you that my liver was stoked on the possibility of not having to process Puro (basically pure sugar cane alcohol) for an entire day. Most notably, however, was the discovery of what was believed to be a coral snake. I hate snakes, and to have found one of the most deadly snakes in the world in my town was a shock to me. What came as even more of a shock to me was when the snake was thought to be dead (after having crushed its head with a stick) I proceeded to pick it up with said stick and held it next to my face. The shock came when I put it down and it tried slithering away. That is when I decided that it was time to go. Great news though… I found out that what we saw was nothing more than a copy cat of a coral snake, a milk snake in fact, which is not venomous at all. Great news; absolutely fantastic news for me. The phrase goes: “When red touches yellow you’re a dead fellow. If red touches black you in the clear jack.” Read it. Learn it. And you will sleep soundly. Trust me.

Matt left to go and pick up the rest of our visitors. Miss Courtney Rusin and Mr. Adosh Unni were on their way and had plans on meeting Matt in Quito. I needed to be in my site a bit before I took off traveling around the country with the coming visitors. Therefore I stayed behind a few days while they all took advantage of what Quito had to offer. I met them June 15th in Ambato where we stayed with a friend of mine. We went out, played a little Beirut (or Beer Pong depending on where your from), and were pleasantly hung over and ready to attempt a 45 km bike ride from the base of the active volcano of Tunguarah in a resort community called Banos, down through the cloud forests to a town called Puyo in the jungle.

We left at 9 in the morning for the what should have been an hour bus ride to Banos. However, it had been raining for a few weeks pretty consistently which caused a land slide and a construction effort to rebuild the road, which took place on our way there of course. So, we were put two hours behind our original starting time, which most likely meant that we were not going to make it all the way to the jungle, but that was no reason to turn back, as I had heard that the bike ride (which was almost entirely down hill) was unreal beautiful.

And unreal beautiful it was indeed. Every second was picturesque. Words truly can not do the trip justice. As we passed by tiny communities barley visible through the clouds that engulfed them, you could hear waterfalls coming down on all sides of the bike path, and could barely make out the birds that zoomed by your peripherals. And all shades of green were accounted for by the different trees and plant species, the colors of the different fruits that were grown on the side of the road were spectacular. The old indigienous women with their traditional attire either selling their home grown produce or merely resting in hand carved chairs, most likely from the wood endemic to their back yard. If anyone else comes down to visit we will for sure be doing this bike ride.

Matt pointed out his vast knowledge of Ecuadorian nuts. As he told us about a nut he called Changawah. Then a nice person next to us corrected him and told him it was called Tagwah, in which his reply was “Oh yeah, Taftawaha.” To which the nice persons reply was simply, “Sorry sir, it is called Tagwah.” To which Matt then said something along the lines of, “Okay, whatever. I found the nut and I can call it whatever I want.” Becca, Adosh and I were almost crying laughing. Matt just was not listening to the boy and was too busy looking at the nut that he called “____” (fill in the blank with whatever word you’d like).

After turning in the bikes we went to a coffee shop to eat, get warm (as I forgot to mention, it had been raining for about three hours on the bike ride and when we caught a truck back to Banos we sat in the open air back for an hour and a half, while it continued to rain. But the ride in the back was ridiculously fun, I mean it had to be because we were all pretty cold), and rest a bit before the bus back home. I showed Adosh a ten dollar bill that we believed to be real, but that every Ecuadorian told me was fake. Be it that they deal with more fake bills then we do in the US I should have taken their word for it. But my idea was that because we were all wet that if I got the bill wet then they would attribute its limpness to the water and not to the bill itself. I did the logical thing and asked anyone if they had anything wet that they could put the bill in. Adosh quickly raised his hand like a gay little school boy and took the bill from my hands and put it in his shirt and began rubbing it around. As I asked him to be sure not to rip it he pulled out the bill, almost completely torn to shreds. We all look surprised and then thought that we would die laughing. To which Adosh’s next response was priceless…

“Well, guess how much this joke cost me? Yep, I’d say about ten bucks.” Adosh and I split the ten dollar bill into even half’s and now we will constantly have a reminder of that wonderful day… where I lost a fake ten dollar bill because of Adosh’s wet t-shirt.

After the bike ride we went back to Becca’s place in Ambato, showered, rested, and went right to sleep. The next day we headed out to Cuenca and Cajas.

The Cuenca tour was much like all other tours that I have given of Cuenca. In that the visitors ooed and ahhhed, and agreed that it was the most beautiful city in Ecuador. The next day we headed out to Cajas, one of my most favorite places ever.

We all headed back to my site after Cajas and spent a few days relaxing, cooking, and just hanging out. We even used my living room to eat in one night. It was fabulous. Matt and Courtney took off the next day to travel and see more of Ecuador, and Adosh left for Peru. I was left alone, probably for the best because I had to do some work on the radio and health programs I got going in my site. Which brings me to the next topic… WORK.

MORE STRIKES

It looks like some gold miners were not too happy with Corea, their Union, and themselves, as they decided to strike mere hours after I left north for Quito to get my mid-service medical exams taken care of (they all went well and both the dentist and the doctor sent me away with a clean bill of health (for the most part, be it that I had a double ear infection that was causing me to be congested, sporadic soar throat, and the constant feeling of pressure in my head as if I were changing altitudes but was never able to receive the satisfaction of my ears popping for a month. Nevertheless, after ten days of antibiotics I am 100%)). So the strikers closed all roads to and from Cuenca. Therefore I was stuck in Quito for a whole week. Be it that I was in the office every day the head of security for Peace Corps asked me to write a “funny” song about safety and security issues. I did. I sang it for the new kids, as they landed in country a few weeks ago. It is NUTS to think that I have been here over a year and that I am over half way done. This is when a lot of people go through their mid-service crisis and breakdown. I have not totally had one because I am actually working…

WORK

The radio show is going really really well. We are actually recording all of our programs so that after I leave to go back to the states they will have somewhere between twenty and thirty shows for the coming years that the Municipio can play on the radio after I leave. We have talked about everything from Rabies, to Vaccines, to Nutrition, to Domestic Violence. It is really great and I am really happy doing it. Being on the radio is pretty awesome. I even had a man come up to me, completely wasted, and started telling me about the things he learned about rabies, and what to do and who to see, and what timetables you have to be aware of if you get bitten by a dog. It was really amazing. I thought that no one listened to us… I was wrong.

HEALTH PROGRAM

I just had a meeting (well I met her at lunch, which was completely unexpected) with the head of all “Distance High Schools” in the greater Cuenca area. She heard about my health program, a completely sustainable and self administered program for Ecuadorian teachers, and when it is done she wants me to come in and train all of the teachers of some 51 communities. IF, I say if because a lot of stuff like this does not pan out, but IF it does, it would be AMAZING! I would be bringing a health program to over 50 communities in just the Cuenca area. This is not even including future volunteers using my program to train teachers in their communities. I REALLY hope this works out. I have been working a lot on getting the program together and will be working on it pretty extensively so I can apply for a grant this coming August (man it is coming up…) to get them printed and will be working this whole school year to train and educate teachers on how to administer a health program.

Well that is it for me now, but I will keep updating… and YOU BETTER check this blog in September because that is when I am doing the longest canoe race in the world through the Peruvian Amazon with a few friends, so I should definitely have some stories for when I get back .

Love you all and keep writing me.

So, we have a picture of Adosh and me sitting in a forest in the ridiculously beautiful Cajas. Next, we have me with a "dead" Coral snake. Stupid, i know, but at least i got a good picture of it. Next we have me WORKING on my radio show called "Your Health is in Your Hands." This segment was about a new rabbies vaccine that just came out. I know, very exciting. Next we have a picture of Matt, Becca, Courtney, Adosh, and Ryan, after having biked 45km in the rain from the cload forests next to the volcanoe Tuguraha down into the jungle next to Puyo. It was FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. Then we have the fiestas of Oña and our Founding with some clowns on stilts... enough said. And lastly just another picture of Adosh, Courtney, Matt, and me in another forest in cajas. Thanks for checking.

It has been a while since my last post. This one will be pretty short as I am using this Internet time to research law schools. If any of you know anyone on any board of any law school.... please let me know.

In any case, I had three friends from DC visit. Matt, Adosh, and Courtney. It was amazing to have them. We did a bike ride from the Volcanoe Tunguraha, down into the jungle a good 45 km. It was ridiculously beautiful. We hung out in my site a few days. Adosh and Courtney ate some Guinea Pig.

I am actually working as well. This is a picture from my radio show with my co host Luis Alvarado. I will write a longer post later about the program.

Thanks for checking in and I look forward to talking to you soon. Also, I have already beed here a year... it is nuts how time flys!

love

paul