Well, as most of you readers know, we are back in the states permenantly...

Currently we are in Wisconsin but are heading for Colorado Springs in a few days.

When it comes down to it, all we can say is that the Peace Corps was not for us.

Thats it....

Chow,

Levi

Some industrious PC volunteer found this website of the cartoon Garfield where the cat is missing. They are really funny in a depressing kind of way. They express feeling of many PC volunteers at times!

I'm sure many of you remember Nico from our wedding. Well it finally happened in Indonesia! They have been completing a dive instructors course & he asked her on the bottom of the ocean. Nice Move! Check out their "Arround the world in one year" blog: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Do-It-Like-The-Locals/

One of the things I wanted to do when I got down here was to look for guitars. I was told that Cuenca was the hot spot for hand made guitars. Truthfully, the hot spot is about a hour outside of Cuenca in a little town called San Bartolome. I was not able to visit the town, but I did check out a guitar that was made there. I understand San Bartolome has a factory as well as Master guitar makers who can make you a guitar however you like.

I was able to find two Master guitar makers in Cuenca. Check out our Flickr site for pics. The first was probably the best. We arrived at Hortegs workshop located near the bus stop in Cuenca. I walked in grinning. The guitars were beautiful and the sound was amazing! Guitars at Hortegs ranged from $300 to $400 dollars. They had ready to buy hand made guitars, of you could have one made exactly how you want it for the same price! Unheard of in the US!!! Sadly the Master left to find work in the US....

The second workshop was super small. I only found it by asking a shop owner next door where it was! The 3x5 card posted on the window let you know you had found the place! I called the number cause the shop was closed. I called the number, talked with the master and he came right over, opened the shop and began to show me his guitars! It was awesome. Yet when he dies none of his work will continue as his sons have chosen other work...

I continued my search when we arrived in Quito a few days ago. Three workshops I found. The first was unimpressive (on avenida de los americas). Apparently he makes guitars. But the quality of guitars in his shop left much to be desired. The second (near the corner of Ambato & Quijano) was even smaller than the shop in Cuenca! At least this Master had a sign out front! Super cool tiny shop, but not much quality. Again, when this 70 year old man dies, the guitar making dies with him.... The third and most impressive (in Quito) 'Guitarras Caverro' was quite impressive. Once again, one Master, but he had some helpers. They had Guitarrs from $150 to $2000. I was quite impressed with the $150 dollar models, they had great sound but were not fancy. Of course I was drawn to the guitars that were way beyond my price range. There is something amazing about walking into a workshop where a little ecuadorian is drying a layer of enamel by holding the guitar by it's neck and swinging it back and forth.

Me lavaba mi flash memory con mis pantalones.....

Yeah so that sucks, it's drying out right now, we'll see if it works.

The new internet is was up and running for two days, and then down for a week. It's just opened again. Life's pretty good down here... We got a computer in our office so I've been playing alot of FIFA 07 and Medal of Honor to pass the time. It hurts my tailbone if I play for more than 5 hours strait so I take a beak every now and again...

Hope all's well, we miss you state side folks a lot! Chow for now, Levi

This is the birthday cake Levi made for me for my big 30th!

This is the a photo of the second haircut I gave Levi, it´s not too bad...

This is the gift a woman in the campo tried to give me, I nicely declined the pair of puma feet she was offering.

This is how cute the baby goats are we hangout with in the campo!

This is Levi and his new found friend ¨eh-scott¨, the big golden retriever, swimming in the nice brown river.

Here it is, the long-awaited mailbox number for which we may receive anything sent in as little as two weeks! (instead of the month it is taking for us to get mail)

Levi and Mandy Wilner PCV

Casilla 11-01-211

Loja, Loja

Ecuador

So send us letters, photos, books (I still can´t understand why I can´t find many books written in English around here) or anything else that can fit in a padded envelope (these arrive the easiest), is under 4.4 pounds (under this weight and no one in the post office tends to open it up to see what it is), and that has no value declared. We love hearing from you all. Mandy & Levi

(this photo is from the sign that faces Peru so all the Peruvians will remember this land is Ecuador, there was a war of borders with Peru just 13 years ago)

It´s been awhile we know, sorry for those of you that keep coming back to check and see if anything has changed. Our excuse is a good one ¨No Hay Internet en Zapotillo¨! This will keep us updating the blog about once or twice a month but we will try our best to keep you posted.

We are surviving, and that is exactly how it feels for me (this is Mandy writing) somedays. The heat is still pretty intense but we are growing accustomed to it, we don´t even need a fan at night anymore! We are finding more things to cook, but we live on a lot of oatmeal, hard-boiled eggs, and almuerzos (the cheap lunch at a restuarant). We love the people and the people LOVE LEVI!!! The kids think he is a jungle gym (they love the attention he gives them) and the adults think he is a bit of a chistoso (joker). We have moved into a new home which is right on the river (which was Levi´s dream from the moment he found out Zapotillo was on a river)and it even has screens on the windows!!

Here are a few photos of our adventures in Zapoltillo...we really need to get better at taking pictures. We constantly don´t want to look like tourists so we leave our camera at home, the problem is: there are no tourists down here so we should be snapping away!

Love and Miss You All So Much!! Mandy

There is no internet in Zapotillo (I dont count 14.4megs/hour internet). Thats about it. No Internet. I never thought No internet. No seriously, No internet. I believe I´ve made myself clear. Needless to say Mandy is happy, and I .... am devastated. Ok not really but it kinda sucks.

Other than that Zap is hot. and muggy. and. thats about it. I´m told that when all the leaves fall off the trees and all is brown, the humidity will reduce as well. Good then it will be hot and brown.

Our first week in Zap was super tough. Had someone given us an out we may have taken it. Things are better now. We miss all of our friends an family in the US tremendously. One thing that has made our life much easier is our "own" home for a month. That is the couple we are living with generally head to Quito one week a month but this month they are taking 3 extra weeks cause of vacation time that has built up. Woo Hoo for us! we get to cook our own meals and have some private time!! One other thing that has made life easier here is a free schedule. We had a somewhat akward conversation with our counterpart where we told him we didnt want to work for 3 months so we could hang with the peeps. He said yes, so now we have a free schedule!

So on the up side we continue to be encouraged by little things, for example having a conversation with a new person, or hanging with kids. Were getting there but it´s a slow process.... We have a goal of meeting at least one new person a day. Most days we actually meet more than one!

Finally, we could use your encouragement. Since there isn´t really internet in Zap, texts would be great. I sent out an email a bit ago with our cell numbers. From what I understand a text to us here costs yall .50 per. If you text us we´ll respond if anything just to let you know you got the right number! P.S. be sure and add your name, otherwise we dont know who you are!!

It may be a month untill our next post. I´ll try and add some picts of Zap next time.

When this place sucks... Today is one of those days.

There are days when you get sick of looking down at the street to dodge the dog crap... Days when you just dont want to put up with stinky guy on the bus... When you just want people to stop staring at you just cause your skin is white or your 3 to 5 feet taller than anyone.... Days where you just want cars to watch out for you, not the other way around... Days where training is redundant, like the 4th time redundant...... When youve filled out your umpteenth evaluation of training & you just dont care anymore.....

We have 2 days of training left. I wonder if I am going to make it....

If I have counted correct we had to cross the street 3 times today due to ¨smells¨...

I have to count this as a blessing... When I am down, Mandy is up. And when Mandy is down, I am up... Go figure....

Love to you all! Know that we miss you terribly & think of you often.....

So we've been gone for 2 weeks... without internet connectivity, phones, cash, or... Wait did I just say cash? Yeah actually thats right! We have been on our 'tech trip' for the past 2 weeks. It was awesome, except for that we had to borrow money from just about everyone on the trip... Imagine for a minute that you have your atm card, you have money in your bank, but for some reason the atm's dont like your card (read they like everyone elses..) Lesson to be learned here: the things you take for granted in the US shouldn't be here.... Just one of the many lessons we have learned here in EC!

So where did we go? The first week was spent at a lower elevation, in what they call the 'cloud forest'. It's a transitional zone between the high sierra (Cayambe) and the coast. Imagine 'Gorillas in the Mist' and your pretty close! It's pretty much rain forest, not cold! Theres a few pics on Flicker that I will try to label. I learned a lot, like how to open a coconut with a machette to drink the juice; and how to pluck cacao (chocolate) seed pods from the trees to eat! They don't taste anything like chocolate but theyre super good anyway! During the days we learned stuff at the organic farm across the road, like how to build a worm bed, stream bank stabilization, tilapia farming, cacao processing, etc. After work most trainees enjoyed the pool but Mandy and I enjoyed the river. I managed to bruise my tailbone floating the rapids, it still hurts .... when not enjoying the water, we played volleyball, soccer, poker, and a game similar to Settlers... In reallity it was like some sort of sick paradise after the weeks of rain in Cayambe... It was only to get better....

The second week we split into 6 groups (or so) and headed to our respective areas of the country for training.Mandy and I's group went to the coast. Not knowing where we were going, when we saw that the beach was a block from our hotel and that our balcony overlooked the ocean we were excited! The town was called Perdenales. Generally a tourist town, it suffers from a very poor road from Quito which keeps people away. It used to be known for wild shrimp until a plague wiped them out some years ago... We spent two days there helping a current volunteer with his community. It was some tough sweaty work. I learned how to cut bamboo with a Machette. Evenings were spent boogie boarding in the waves and watching the sun set over the ocean with Pina Coladas...mmm. Most of us were thinking how much the Peace Corps stunk at this time ;)

Next thing I knew the bus dropped us off in front of a sign that said Lalo Loor Biological Reserve. 20 minuites later after hiking up a muddy trail in the failing light through tropical jungle conditions with full packs we happened upon the large bamboo house that we were to call home for the next two nights. Through a miscommunication between the Peace Corps and the local volunteer the only welcoming committee was a family of howler monkeys which live just behind the structure. Funny enough PC forgot to tell us that we needed lights as our jungle home was without electricity and potable water... The stream that ran next to our bamboo haven hid pieces of ancient pots and stone dolls from centuries before. I found several pieces of pots! We spent our two days building stairs in the reserve rebuilding a bamboo staircase on the 'Butterfly Trail'. I was pretty stoked to find a 'bird eater' tarantula of about 3.5 inches across. It's easily identified by it's bright purple hair! Oh yeah and the waterfall, that was cool too...

Finally we set off for Canoa, another coastal town. Just beyond Canoa is a mangrove reserve which we checked out because a few of our fellow trainees will work with other mangrove reserves. Canoa is known for it's excellent waves and annual international surf competition! So it was finally time for me to learn to surf; something I have wanted to do for a very long time! I was not very happy with the results. I stood up maybe 10 times, and have approximatley the same ammount of bruises, cuts, and scrapes to show for it.... It was freaking hard!! I'm totally jealous of my sister cause she can do it and I cant!

Saturday at 7am we hit the bus and didn't get off in Cayambe until 8pm. It was a gnarly day full of swerving, potholes, stinky people and close quarters. I guess it's culturally appropriate here to use someone elses back as a backrest... He started leaning on me so I started leaning on him... vuala! we both had backrests! (what are you gonna do, get pissed or just flow with it) The only part the really wierded me out was when he kept reaching in his back pocket and touching by bum......................

One more week in Cayambe. Next week in Quito and then we head to Zap! Que Chevere!!

When we signed up for the Peace Corps we signed up for "anything". "Anything" became finding out the day before we were to leave for our site visit (yep it would have been an 18 hour bus ride down to Zapotillo each way)that we were not going at all. In fact no one in our group is going because of all the mudslides that have closed many major roads. Big bummer, we were really excited to see where we are going to be living, working, and making a life for the next 2 years. So we continue to be safe in Cayambe (at Centro Mensaje: our training center pictured here) and continue to learn flexibility, patience and keeping a good attitude. Love you all and miss you,

Mandy

And it´s a town that rests upon the river separating Ecuador and Peru. It´s called Zapotillo and it´s an 18 hour busride south from Quito. I´ll be helping the goat farmers to organize and market their products of goat yogurt, cheese and manjar(it´s like carmel)! Mandy is going to learn how to tend bees and help the locals to put em in boxes instead of taking the log that they are living in and setting it on top of their roof!! All the joking aside we are quite excited!! It´s cool to know where our site is going to be. Only 7 more weeks of training!

More later when we know more!

It doesn´t quite translate but it´s supposed to say ¨sweet pics!¨anyway I have uploaded all of out photos on Flickr. You can watch the slideshow to the left or click on it and watch em bigger....

Enjoi!

So we live with gram Faviola. She is super cool, just like all gramas should be. Except she speaks a different language..... Faviola (Fav for short) is super fun. She cooks breakfast and dinner for us everyday. Fav has 4 children. One lives in Maryland while the other three live here in Cayumbe. One of the daughters lives in her house with us. The Fav´s house is pretty cool. You walk through the front door into an entryway. Beyond the entryway there is a couryard of sorts where stairs and doors go off in every direction to other rooms. One of here grandaughters, and one grandson live with us. We don´t see them much except for the Fav. I´ll try and get some pics up soon...

all for now-

Yo, so if you have been watching the news you probably know that the president of ecuador declaired a state of emergency in Ecuador two or so days ago. This is having no effect on us or our training. Well thats not entirely true.... It has been raining here for the past week and the forecast shows nothing but rain for the next week!! our spirits remain high but the rain is a bit of a drag. it´´s not like it rains all day, but for the most part we wake up to rain, it stops in the afternoon, and then starts agasin in the evening.... It´s the rain from up here in the Sierra that (combined with other rains) is causing the flooding the southern part of the country.

BTW all my ailments have cleared up and we´re solid.....

So as it turns out we are most likely going to have some good internet access until training is over. how often we can access it is another story....

Another cool note is that once we graduate from training we will have cell phones! The cell phones will be able to receive calls from the US! So if you just cant wait 2 years until we get back you can call us!

Thirdly, I have successfully talked to Jay and my mom over Skype! Skype is a program you download on your computer. With it you can make computer to computer calls for free. Also once you get skype you can look us up via the search function. just search for my name.

We miss you all and think of you all often. Thanks so much for posting comments!!!!!!!

Hasta Luego- Levi

So here we are. Real life Peace Corps Trainees. It is true, we are not yet “Volunteers”. We have 3 months of training before we are sworn in at the Embassy in Quito.

Training is: Amazingly intense. Being that Mandy and I were place in the Principo Bajo level (absolut lowest) level of spanish knowledge it seems evern harder. Every sentence of every day is a struggle. I am amazed at how much concentration it takes. Our typical day is taught in english half of the time and in Spanish the other half.

The Peace Corps Model states that it's the “toughest job youll ever love”. How true! I have never done anything this tough before. I cant even explain what it is like to have everything you know stripped away and start over... It's really nothing that can be explained, it has to be experienced. Just for instance, everything here is built out of concreate. Concreate has a lot of great properties, it doesn't mold or rot. It also has some other interesting characteristics. Sound reverberates off of concreate like nothing else. Therefor we can hear every word, ball crack and pool stick hitting the ground from the pool hall across the street. In fact I can hear it all right now....

They told us “you will get sick, it's only a matter of when”- We'll I got it, and I got it bad. The big D word. It's been 24 hours so far and were not expecting it to stop for another 24-48. In fact it's “normal to have loose stool at least once a day” the PC nurse told me today. Her comment did not help to quell my nervousness about being sick constantly for the next two years.....

Levi & Mandy Wilner, PCT

Cuerpo de Paz

Casilla 17-08-8624

Quito, Ecuador

South America

We finished up work this past Friday and have been sloggin through to-do lists ever since...

We are excited but feeling a sorrow for leaving what has become home here in Colorado Springs....

We have finally recieve our staging info. We will be leaving for D.C. on February 2nd. This will give us some time with My mom (levi) and George Madison (who married us)!

Our pre-training training (aka staging) starts on the 4th at noon. We leave @ 7am on the 6th for the airport. It's a flight to Miami and then on to Quito!

Our training in country will be in a town called Tabacundo about 1 hour north of Quito. In country training will take approximatly 10 weeks. We will learn the language, be immersed in cultural studies, medical training, and safety training. The end of training is a series of tests that we have to pass to actually become "Volunteers" up untill this point are "trainees" and can be sent home if we dont pass the tests.......

So we told our Colorado Springs friends by printing this wrapping it in an ecuadorian rug and made it a gift at our white elephant gift exchange at the Christmas party!

There you have it... A few facts about Ecuador:-one of the highest capital cities in the world-home of the Galapagos islands-four termperate areas: the galapagos islands, the coastal lowlands, the Andes mountains (run through the center of the mainland) and the Amazon rainforest basin.We currently do not know where we are going inside of ecuador yet....

We are going to ECUADOR!!

It's been over a year now that we first began actively pursuing Peace Corps service. WOW! Finally we know! It's Ecuador, and were leaving on the 4th of February!