These past three weeks have been stressful at times, but overall pretty good. I think the best thing that has come out of this time, is that I´ve finally settled into a routine, and feel very comfortable with my family and in my community.

A couple days after my last email, I was in Riobamba (the nearest big city) with some other volunteers picking out a mattress and got my cell phone stolen by some little kids. The Peace Corps security policy dictates that you have to have an official Peace Corps cellphone, so I had to make the very exausting trip to Quito to pick up a new one. This happens fairly often, but it does make me feel a little more protective over my stuff and a lot more paranoid. I was pretty upset, and my host family was super sweet about it. I think they were worried I would get bad ideas about Ecuador, but I told them it could happen anywhere. My host sister got robbed the very next day, so I guess robbers don´t just target gringos.

These past few weeks, I´ve also been very lucky to have gone to several special events. A couple weeks ago, I went to a baptism at a local pool. My host dad is a pastor, so he is involved in a lot of these events. Being a dirty (literally) Peace Corps volunteers, I didn´t have anything to wear, and my host mom was more than happy to dress me in the local outfit of a long skirt (anaku), blouse, jewelry, and a wrap. Pictures are attached. I figured that since I get stared at enough anyway, I might as well give them something to stare about. Sure enough, walking through my site, and Riobamba, I am happy to report that I turned heads. My host family and the people that I was with got such a kick out of it, and I think really appreciated the effort I had made. The number one question I get asked by people is "are you single?" When I put on the local outfit, people started telling me about available sons, brothers etc....Pretty funny.

Last weekend, I also got to go to a wedding which was pretty fun. Despite the fact that the ceremony was three hours long due to all these singing groups....the party had LOTS of food, and everyone tried to freak me out by telling me that the pig that I was eating was the one they killed yesterday. There were about 300 people there, and it was a nice way to get to know some more people in the community. The day before the wedding they had the big and cuye (guinea pig) slaying. On a side note, while slaying the pigs (they stab them in the heart), the woman missed the heart, and the big started running down the street. An exciting day...

I am also proud to tell you that I have finally eaten cuye. On Friday, I drove up to a community of around 280 people, who mostly speak Kichwa to give a health charla, and to help install a water filter with two of my counterparts. After the installation was complete, they gave me a huge plate of potatoes and half of a cuye. When I say, half of a cuye, I mean, the half with the head still on. Its rude not to eat, and so I dideat it, but not very happily. It didn´t actually taste to bad, I just couldn´t get over the fact that it was a guinea pig.

My days pretty much have a routine, although that can all pretty much change, for my counterpart likes to knock on my door late at night to tell me I have to do something tommorrow. I wake up every morning around 7, make breakfast (usually, scrambled eggs), and start heating water for my bucket bath. The whole bucket bath process takes about an hour, and then I usually start prepping for the charla (presentation). I have a charla scheduled every day at 11 at one of the local schools (either on nutrition with a pyramid, or hygene). The charla takes about an hour to an hour and a half, and I then head back to the house, where I help my host mom prep for the free lunch they give away to the local kids. The kids arrive about 12:30, and I help to serve and play games with them till about 2. The saddest thing I´ve seen with a lot of kids, is the lack of education they have...there reading level is really bad, and a lot of them act up as a consequence. After 2, I either give my english class, wander about the community, go to riobamba, give my host mom cooking lessons, hang out, read, or go to meetings. Usually, I go an visit a community once a week, go into riobamba once or twice a week, and have an event with my family. During my down time, I watch movies with my host sisters, play cards, or cook. I am kind of sad now, that one of my host sisters, Blanca is leaving for Quito to go to medical school. Its been great having her around, and I´ll miss her.

This weekend, I will be spending the night at the home of the missionaries that work with our foundation. They have an American girl staying with them, and it will be cool to speak English! I am also going to be heading up to another community this saturday to give a charla on hygene to an adult language class. It should be fun.

I'm finally writing as an official Peace Corps volunteer! Its been a while since I've written, so this is going to be an extra long email. The last three weeks have been so busy and full of change its kind of difficult to know where to begin, but here it goes. The last week of training was incredibly fun. It was one of our friends birthdays and so we had a big party for him in our community. Most of our omnibus showed up, and we had a fun time dancing and eating. Our community had also decided to make tshirts to celebrate and so we walked around all night with a giant picture of a cuye (guinea pig) on the front. My host mom thought we were pretty crazy. Also the day before we left we through a big party for all of our host families. I was a bit worried that mine wouldn´t show up, but they all did and everyone had a good time eating the whole pig that we had roasted and having a water balloon toss. Even though I was more than ready to leave training to go to Quito to my site, it was pretty sad to leave my host family. My host mom made a special dinner of trout and these delicious potato cakes, and I got pretty emotional as I left. Although we arnt allowed to travel outside of our sites for the first 3 months I promised to come back and visit them next year.

After leaving our sites we all traveled to Quito for a week of fun, and finally to be sworn in as volunteers. The week was also pretty amazing. We spent the day in sessions and at night we went out to the Mariscal (a fun touristy area with lots of restaurants and bars) to eat some non Ecuadorian food, and to go dancing. We also had a session with some US Marines on self defense and safety, which wasnt too helpful (sorry mom), but was still pretty fun. Sadly I got pretty sick two days in and spent a full day and a half in bed. Usually my amoebas and I get along pretty well, but in this case i feel they were angry with me because of all the food and drink I had been consuming and rebelled. However, I was well enough to go to the swearing in ceremony which was held at the US ambassadors residence. Let me tell you, the foreign service is not a bad way to go. Her house was gorgeous and she had catered bagels!!! and some delicious fruit salad. After stuffing myself silly, I returned to the hostel to take a long nap, and have my amoebas recover from all of those bagels. That night our Omnibus through a big party, and we spent the night dancing and drinking. People started leaving for their sites the next day, and it was so sad to see everyone go. The last 2.5 months we've spent pretty much together and it was really sad to say goodbye. Im going to see two volunteers every week, but for everyone else, it will be a few months.

This last week I've spent pretty much just hanging around my site. It's been boring and stressful at times, but overall pretty good. My Ecuadorian counterparts are pretty great, and I´m really going to love the community and people in it. Despite the fact that one or two tienda ladies still try to jack up the price of things ("No, as we discussed yesterday, the price of a banana is still $.05, not $.10") School doesn´t begin until next week, so I think that my main job won't start until then. The Peace Corps is all about readjusting expectations and I think thats what I had to do the first two days in. A lot of volunteers find that they don´t have a lot of structure, and sort of develop and structure their own projects. For me, it seems to be the complete opposite. I have a pretty well defined job description, and the Fundacion really wants me to work a lot within their structure. I think I´m pretty fine with this, although I am also going to look around for a more independent project to balance it out.

One of the main things that the Fundacion does is provide free lunches to local kids. I´ve spent a lot of my days helping to cook these lunches and then playing with the kids for a couple hours after lunch. I´m also going to be teaching two english classes to three of my counterparts, and to a group of indigenous men, in a town an hour away. A lot of Peace Corps volunteers refuse to teach english, but I think these groups will use it to help attract funding to their own organizations, and it won´t be my main project, so I´m pretty ok with it and looking forward to begin. I´ve also used this week, to sort of wander around the community and introduce myself to people. One day, I found myself walking into the local hospital to introduce myself and find out about local health projects. I was alone and to say I was nervous about my spanish was an understatement. However, I walked in and started talking to a random women. After 30 mins of "pass the gringa" I found myself talking to the director and he seemed pretty nice. I have an appointment next week to meet with them. In addition next, week I am giving my first charla (a kind of spanish lecture) on nutrition to a group of kids.

Peace Corps usually recommends waiting to start these sorts of things, but I´m kind of happy about jumping right into it. It will help me meet more people in the community and give me more to do. As time progresses I will start to travel to communities outside to work on health issues there. Life otherwise has been pretty good, I´ve been cooking a lot, which has been AMAZING! I made applesauce the other day, and my host family was all scared to try it, but its been so nice to be able to control what I eat. Í´m still living with the same family, and its been pretty good overall, I am taking bucket baths, but I hear hot water gets turned on next week (I´m not holding my breath), and they´ve been pretty great so far.

Thats pretty much it for me so far.

Thanks guys. Hope you are all doing well!

Thanks again for all the nice emails. You all have no idea how much it means to have news from the states. Sometimes life feels very disconnected here, and its great to stay in touch.

I swear in as a volunteer next week, and I am very excited about it. I am leaving my host community to travel to Quito for a week of administrative stuff, a swearing in ceremony at the US ambassadors residence and of course a big Peace Corps party. For those who don´t know what this means, I will basically no longer be a trainee, and finally will be a full fledged Peace Corps volunteer. Training has been fun, but grueling and I think we are all looking forward to the next step. Four members of our training class (originally 33) have gone home so far (one girl left yesterday), and I think its a big accomplishment. This is not to say, I´m not nervous about the move, but I think I´m ready for the next step.

I´m not going to write a long descriptive email of all I´ve been doing in the past few weeks but rather give you all some highlights from my week, as well as the top 5 reasons you know you are a PC Ecuador volunteer.

Top Highlights:

1. My entire day this past Sunday: A group of us decided to rent a camioneta (truck) to drive us about an hour north to these absolutely amazing lakes. Not only was no one there, but it was a gorgous day and we all had a great time, despite the 10 mile walk back to town. We also stepped it up a notch when we started shooting a zombee horror film. I was the innocent PC volunteer who was killed and had her brains eaten out. Really classic cinema.

2. Trip to Otavalo this a week ago, Saturday: I´ve already been there twice, but it was nice to purchase some scarves and have pie at this absolutely delicious pie place near the market. Otavalo is one of the most touristy parts of Ecuador, but for good reason. They have an enormous market filled with very cool handmade goods, and its a great way to appreciate indigenous culture.

3. Trip to Cuyecachi (sp?) to hike around another lake: This past wednesday the entire group headed to another lake in a national part to hike around it and have a bonding experience. I don´t know how much bonding occurred, but it was so beautiful and great to get outside. I am so lucky I was placed in Ecuador, as the whole country is just so freaking beautiful...I can´t wait to see more of it.

Top 5 reasons you know you are a PC Ecuador volunteer:

1. You eat everything with a spoon: No joke. I mean everything. If you can´t cut it with a spoon, you use your teeth. This got the most bizarre the time, we went out to eat sushi, and we were given spoons to eat it with. I´ve gotten quite used to it, and the other day when my host mom pulled out a knife and fork from a dusty box somewhere, I refused them. I think its a much more efficient way to shovel in rice.

2. As I a girl, you will get hit on all the time: Wherever I go men, either blow kisses or shout out the one phrase they know in English. I used to be mad about this, but now I kind of think its funny, considering there are times when I haven´t showered in three days, and am wearing the same outfit I have worn the two days before. I really don´t look good. However, it doesn´t seem to make any difference, and like the other women I just ignore it and keep on walking.

3. You get stared at all the time. I seriously know what it is to be a celebrity. I mostly get stared at by children and men, and I´ve learned to handle both of these in different ways. With kids I usually stare back, and start making silly faces. This either freaks them out or amuses them, and either way it stops the staring. With the men, I just ignore it, and pretend I don´t speak Spanish.

4. You get nervous about breaking a $20 bill. Sueltos (or change) is the most difficult thing to find here. If you try to use a $20 to pay for anything, the store owner will usually get pissed off, and then have to go rush off to find change for you. On a similar note, fake bills are really common here, and I´ve learned to check any bills higher then $!.

5. You talk about your digestional problems over dinner. As a PC volunteer everyone knows everyone elses business and this includes going to the bathroom. This along with what everyone wants to eat, are ironically the two major topics of conversation among us volunteers. I´ve had hour long conversations about how much I want to eat bagels, what the perfect bagel is and how I´m going to learn how to bake bagels in my site.

I¨ve posted pictures of my site at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2168251&l=a3fab&id=105579

Let me know what you think!

Hey all. Sorry this took so long to post, I´ve been getting a little lazy with internet...However, I did manage to upload pictures of the visit...Here they are...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2168251&l=a3fab&id=105579

This last week has been very busy and very intense so this might be a long email =)

First off, I just want to say that last week I was a little upset about my site placement. The weather and the fact that I would have to learn Kichwa didn´t seem all that fun to me. I´m happy to report that I absolutely love my site and the people I´m going to work with. Cajabamba may be cold, but it is beautiful and the people are super nice, especially my counterparts.

My week started off on Sunday when I met two other PC girls to go to visit another PC volunteer for 3 days. The bus ride took about 10 hours, with almost now stops, but the scenery was absolutely breathtaking and I didn´t really mind it that much. We arrived in a little semi tropical community with about 3000 that night to meet up with another health volunteer who has been living there for about a year. He was super nice and took us around his site. We had a great walk (but very hot) up to one of the schools that he works with to give a charla about self esteem and to play soccer with the kids. His site may be isolated but it is so beautiful. On the walk we could reach up to pick oranges from trees, and there was an amazing view. After making our way back, we had lunch with a family and then went swimming in the nearby river. Despite the fact that I got eaten alive by bugs (53 bites- I counted), it was really great to see a volunteer fully integrated into his community. Although, the main project he was working on fell through within the first few months, he really created a niche for himself in the community. He has a dog, and there were people constantly dropping by his house. It was a fun couple of days.

On tuesday, we got on another long bus ride (made longer by the fact that the driver decided to go to another city instead and didnt tell anyone) and I finally arrived at my site of Cajabamba to be greeted by my counterpart and his family. My counterpart and his family are absolutely fantastic- warm, friendly, and so enthusiastic about the work I´ll do and just being there. Im living with my main counterpart and his family. They are an indigenous family which means they speak Kichwa a lot, which also means I really have to learn it. My main counterpart is around 50, works as an agricultor on their farm in the campo, while also serving as director of the fundacion rescate ecuador- the organization I´ll be working with. I´ll also be working with his wife and she also runs a womens group. There son will be the main guy I´m working with and he is super smart. He´s going to boston in november to compete in an engineering competition and I offered to help him with his presentation. My secondary project is to teach him english. The fundacion provides assistence to a group of children who for various reasons (the father left, abuse, or just no money) don´t have money for lunches or medications. I´ll be doing a lot of charlas with these kids and their mothers about nutrition. I will also be trying to promote sexual rights and reproductive choices as many women here get pregnant and subsequently married as early as 13.

Since school was out, I couldn´t go meet the kids, so I spent wednesday up at my families farm harvesting habas (sp? they are some type of bean). It was so beautiful, but I came to the quick realization that manual labor is so not for me. I spent the rest of the week hanging out with the family and getting to know the community better.

For right now I will live with the same family starting in september for three months. They have an apartment over the central street in town and it is quite loud (on sat night, only got two hours of sleep bc of a local fiesta- more drunks then at columbia during orientation week ha ha), and they also have no hot water, so I´ve had to take my first few bucket baths (not as bad as it would seem), but I saw the house where I´ll be living for the next two years ($70 a month!) and it is pretty awesome. I´m going to try and see if I can move out earlier, but we will see. I think it will be nice and not as lonely to be with a family for the first month at least.

So now, I´m back for training in Cayambe for the next three weeks, and then after that Quito for a week.

Also, just saw the new batman on dvd, pretty awesome.

The bugbites still itch, but I tried putting onions and vinegar on them and that works amazingly. Cheap too.

Peace!

Rebecca

Sorry I haven´t sent an email in a while. Life has been super busy and I wanted to wait until I got my site assignment to tell all of you! Many of you (including myself) thought that I would be living in a hut in the middle of the jungle for the next two years, I am happy to report that this will not be the case. I have been assigned to the town of Cajabamba, located in the middle of the Andes, a mere 15 min bus ride from the big city of Riobamba. I´m located at 3200 meters, which means that I will be both pretty high up and cold, but there is internet in the town and it won´t be as cold as where I am right now. The population of Cajabama is both mestizo and idigenous, which means that I´ve started to learn Kichwa, a local language to help integration into the community. My primary focus will still be Spanish as everyone pretty much speaks it, but I will be learning some common phrases, and when I´ve been there a while, hopefully I can start to learn more of it. I might come back trilingual, which is kind of cool.

Riobamba is supposed to be amazingly beautiful, and is located in the middle of the country, which will make visiting other volunteers really easy. The area is pretty poor and my primary project will be to work with local kids on nutrition. For example, there is a free lunch program run by an evangelical organization in the town, and I will be making house visits to check up on their health. Í will also work with a local group of women on sexual and reproductive health, and as I grow more involved in the community, I´m hoping to start to deal with the domestic abuse problem, and give self esteem workshops. I´m also going to be traveling to smaller communities Four other members of my omnibus are in the same area, (all about an hour away in different directions- I like all of them which is fantastic!) and I know there are about 5 other volunteers already in the area- the closest about 15 mins away. I´m going to a site visit on Sunday, where I´ll meet the family I´m staying with and the groups that I´ll be working with. The projects all sound awesome, and I´m really excited to finally have the last ambiguity cleared up.

Life right now is pretty good. I had another oral spanish exam today and I moved up a level, which is really nice to know. Sometimes when you get frustrated with the language its difficult to realize how much you have progressed. I understand most of what´s said to me, and I´m pretty able to make myself understand, but I´m definitely no fluent yet. The food here has really grown on me. After eating at other peoples houses, I´ve realized what a good cook my host mom is and i´ve gotten to the point that if I don´t want to eat anymore rice, I just don´t. All my PCV corps friends where shocked when I said I wanted more rice at lunch. This weekend was pretty fantastic.

On Saturday, I returned with a group to Otavalo to witness another cuye beating (guinea pig), and then spent the rest of the day in the market shopping and talking with people. That night we went out for Chinese food to celebrate my friend Will´s birthday (we had thrown him a surprise party the previous weekend when the bull´s came to our community), and afterwards out for drinks.

Sunday was an absolute perfect day. Nine of us hired a camioneta to drive us to hot springs, about an hour from our town. The ride there was spectacularly beautiful. As we traveled from the Sierra down into the Oriente (jungle), the scenary was something out of lord of the rings- very pristine and untouched. Although it was raining and cold none of us minded because it was so great. The hot springs were fantastic. Apart from witnessing the most bizarre bathing suits I have ever seen (try neon pink with little ruffles), it was great to be too hot for the first time in a month. We followed the advice of the old man in the speedo and proceeded to dunk ourselves in the river before rushing back to the hot water. We had trout for lunch, and then went trout shopping, where we got to see an old women kill the fish- very fresh. On the ride back, we saw this amazing rainbow over the mountains- amazing. I´ll try to send pictures, but as I have to steal them from a friend, it may be a couple of weeks.

The rest of the week will pretty much be spent in classes and technical session until I leave on Sunday to stay with a volunteer near my site for a couple of days, and then to visit the family I will be staying with. Movies here are pretty cheap, so I may try to pick up a copy of the dark knight to see what all the fuss is about.

This past week has been so busy that I have a lot to cover. I posted photos on facebook...here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2157233&l=52af7&id=105579. Its hard to upload them, so I don´t have a lot, but there are a nice sampling.

Last weekend was very big in my small town of Cangahua due to the festivals of San Paulo and San Pedro. On that Saturday night I hurried back to Cangahua from Cayambe with my other companeros, we had a nice big plate of rice, and then the dancing started. The local tradition of dancing involves basically bopping up and down in a circle, until someone screams ´Vuelta´and everyone twirls in the opposite direction. Someone stands in the center of the circle with a crate of beer or other liquor and passes a cup around a circle. The beer was usually mixed with some coke or spirte (surprisingly good) and no one really gets drunk. It was fantastic to see all these gringos hopping up and down in a circle. We went to bed at the late hour of 10:30, and I slept in to the lovely hour of 8. I spent that Sunday with my family, and we had like 20 family members come to town for the fiestas. I danced with my family for like 5 hours and it was such a lot of fun. Everyone from the town is out celebrating- the men all wear these hairy pants, and the women wear these colorful skirts. It was also amazing because as we were dancing this enormous rainbow appeared in the sky above the plaza. One of my host aunts turned to me and said, ¨This is life!¨ And it really was.

The week was pretty much spent in language classes and technical sessions, and it was nice to get to know my group a lot better. We all learned how to build a compost heap, which was fun, and I would love to start a garden when i get to my site...I find out in two weeks! As all of you know, Friday was 4th of July and we celebrated with a party at another volunteers house. It was a lot of fun. We made hotdogs, hambergers, potato salad, brownies, and this remarkable mac and cheese with ricotta cheese. After we had eaten, we set off fireworks, and started dancing in a circle to hip hop...this soon turned into salsa dancing, and it was a lot of fun to let loose. We weren´t technically supposed to be off our site, but when our language facilitator showed up, she didn´t really care.

This past weekend was awesome! We went on a technical trip designed to allow us to see other volunteers sites, and to familiarize ourselves with the health needs of our country. We started off Saturday be going to see a traditional medicine clinic which is very popular with the indigenous people. We participated in to practices designed to determine what was wrong with us. This healer, passed an egg over my entire body (designed to draw out all the ill humors and to determine if I was sick), however she dropped it halfway through, and everyone gasped in shock...nothing was wrong with me thankfully. Another girl got to engage in another practice, where a live guinea pig (cuye) was thrown against her body until it died. After the woman was sure it was dead, she skinned it and inspected the carcus to see if there were any defects. Darci was found to have a little back pain and some stomach problems- both true. It was kind of crazy, but very interesting.

After, that visit we went to visit an Afro Ecuadorian community with another volunteer. They make up about 5% of the population and are heavily discriminated against...we presented a lecture on hygiene, and it went over pretty well, despite all our spanish mistakes. Afterwards, the little girls braided our hair into a million tiny little braids. We then returned to our awesome hostel where it was not only warm, but we had a pool. Sunday, was amazing as well. After visitng another Afro Ecuadorian community that makes these awesome masks (dad- expect of a present of one), we caught this camioneta to visit another volunteer. The camioneta is a truck, and we all stood on the back as we drove through these amazing valleys and hills, by a river, with the sky and a hawk overhead. It was awesome, any doubts or fears I had just blew away. The community also had afro-ecuatorians, and it was so interesting to see the problems and challenges that they face. Not only are they a discriminated against minority, but about the only job available is working with the sugar cane for $140 a month. The only way to get out is education, and since literacy is around 40% thats very hard to do. It was great to see how the volunteer handled his projects and the impact he did make. The rest of the weekend was spent in Otavalo- a very touristy area- but it was such a fun way to relax...overall, a really great weekend. However, it was nice to come back, and I had a nice chat with my host mom over the trip.

I like training, but I think I´m starting to get a little resentful with the enforced house arrest they have us on...I can not wait to get my site assignment! Two weeks! Miss you all, and you should all come visit! This is an amazing and beautiful country! This next week is more of the same language lessons, but next weekend we have bull fighting in my community...it should be fun.

As my previous post was all about the peace corps, this post is mostly going to be about Ecuador and my host family.

The information that I was send about my host family was mostly outdated. I basically live on a farm with an older couple (eva and eliot) and their 27 yo son, Milton. Eva is fantastic, the first thing she asked me is if I was a vegetarian. After I said no, we got on quite well. I live in a small community (a small town about 30 mins outside the bigger city). Four other volunteers (Sam, Alea, William, and Carlos- we all get on quite well, which is good since we spend A LOT of time with eachother) live in the community with me and we have language lessons and community interaction three days a week. The other two days, we travel 45 mins to a town called Ayora, where we have technical training in health with the bigger group of volunteers. Until recently we were the only gringos in town, and we stood out quite a bit. However, we all make a point of saying hi to absolutely everyone we meet (an ecuadorian thing) and i think people have gotten used to us.

On a random tangent, I was sitting with some friends in a restaurant today in a bigger town nearby, and a girl I know from Columbia (Morgan- elena and amelia know her) walked in. Apparently, she´s working on a archeological dig outside our town. What a small world. Literally.

I think the best way to describe how life is in Ecuador is to give you guys a day in the life- with lots of fun tangents.

I usually wake up around 6:45 (5:45 on the days we travel outside our community), stumble outside to the bathroom to take a shower. The house is organized like a compound with separate entrances to my room, the bathroom, the kitchen and family rooms upstairs. The family farms, so they have cows, chickens (who I hate as they wake me every morning at 4- everytime I eat them I feel very vindicated), pigs, and dogs. Having the separate entrances to the house is no so fun when I have to go to the bathroom at 4 in the morning and its freezing outside. I finally figured out how to use the hot water (its an electrical switch) and although water pressure is absolutely zero. However, I feel lucky since other volunteers don´t have any at all. I then go into the kitchen, where my host mom brings me breakfast. Breakfast varies, but I usually have a glass of jugo (absolutely delicious- i had pineapple this morning), a cup of Ecuadorian oatmeal (which is like milk with rice) and an empanada or a piece of bread. I then head over to Alea´s house, where we have spanish lessons or to catch the bus to Ayora.

A separate paragraph must be written about food since that´s what us volunteers spend most of our time talking about. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are virtually the same meal in the campo (i feel lucky my host mom has different ideas about breakfast). You have a bowl of soup, which usually has papas and boiled chicken (so sick of that right now), or other vegetables, followed by an enormous plate full of rice, cooked vegetables or beans, and some type of meat. It´s very rude to refuse food, so we´ve all had many problems with severe overeating. I talked with my host mom, and we´ve come to an agreement about the amount of rice on my plate, but lunch has proved tricky- as we go to other families for food (I´ve started telling people I have stomach pain and this usually works to reduce my portion size). My host mom is a fantastic cook (empanadas were so good!!), and I´ve had some great meals, but it´s still too much food. We´ve started going running (hard as the altitude is 3300 meters), and I´m thankful my house is farther away from the town center so I can burn some calories. On our last run, a lot of the local children followed us and we had a great time talking and walking with them.

Our spanish lessons are not really that formal. We either go around the town introducing ourselves to the community leaders, play games in spanish, or have more formal lessons. On Wednesday, we went to the local school, where we played a game about health practices with the kids and taught them heads, shoulders, knees and toes. We also had a run-in with the local police. We went to introduce ourselves to him, and he apparently took quite a liking to our facilitator, Carmen. Yesterday, as we were sitting talking in the towns plaza, he pulled up drunk (police are known to be corrupt here) and proceeded to hit on her, and tried to follow us back to our house. We started running as we turned the corner, and now the joke amongst ourselves is that we are ladrones (criminals).

After lessons, I usually hang out with the other volunteers for a bit and then go back to my house. My host mom is teaching me how to knit (I´m so bad at it, but she has skills), and we talk as she makes dinner. I´ve offered to help her a number of times, but apparently the last volunteer she housed cut himself with a knife, and I´m not allowed to. After dinner with the rest of the family, which includes various assorted cousins, we talk before I go to bed, usually around 9 or 9:30. Its super early, but I´m usually exausted by then.

My spanish is progressing rapidly, but I´m at the stage right now, where its hard to speak both English and Spanish. I pretty much am able to communicate anything I need, but its not with the best grammar. It also gets hard to speak spanish constantly, so I´m very thankful that I´m able to get away with my other volunteers. Right now, I´m sitting in an internet cafe, after a fantastic meal of pasta, and watching the local parade go past. Soon I will catch the bus back , where we will have a big festival with dancing, and a big parade there tomorrow. Next week, I have a routine medical meeting and then next weekend, we go on a technical skills trip to the coast. Its a great time to be here right now, as some of the most important fiestas are taking place right now.

Life is pretty full right now, and being here is great. I´m attaching some pictures my friend Alea posted on her blog, since I forgot my camera today.

This email again feels too long, and badly spelled, but it again doesn´t seem to show how much has happened. I can´t believe I´ve only been here a week and a half.

Love you all!

Rebecca

Hey everyone,

I´m sitting in a little internet cafe in a small village about 2 hours north of Quito (can´t say the name...a peace corps thing- and decided that I should finally start a blog. I know some people don´t read blogs and email is better, so I´m going to continue sending out emails. If you´d rather just read the blog I cand take you off the list.

Here is the email I sent out before just to make this blog continuous. Moved in with the host family yesterday. They are nice and the food is fantastic, but we eat everything with a spoon, and my host mom stares me down until I finish my enormous plate of rice. They answer a lot of the things I say with Mande? (what?) and constantly ask me to say things in english, which they laugh at. Living in the Peace Corps is an experience in learning how to deal with public ridicule, haha. However, it is absolutely beautiful here and when I learn how to post pictures I will show you all. I really love my language facilitator and the 4 other volunteers (sam, alea, will and carlos) who are posted with me...this experience really bonds you to one another.

love,

Rebecca

Its only been six days since I left on a plane for Miami but it seems like so much more has happened since then.

I arrived in Miami on Sunday for staging where all the volunteers in my group (called Omnibus 100) would meet up to sign paperwork, and go through many preperatory events about Peace Corps Life. I have to say that a lot of my fears about leaving diminished after meeting everyone in the group. Talking to all of you has been great, but to meet people who understand completely what I have been going through was really awesome. We initially had 33 people in the group, which was pretty small for a training class, but one girl early terminated after a couple of days because of a boyfriend back home. Early termination is a big deal and we were shocked but we all know that its going to happen to a lot of us for various reasons before the end of service (anything from riding on a motorcycle, not taking your maleria meds, or simply deciding the peace corps was not for you). Staging was stressful but fun, and we celebrated our last night in America with sushi and swimming in the outside pool as it rained.

Our training class is pretty typical of the normal peace corps breakdown- two married couples (both young and awesome), three women older then 50, 9 men, and the rest women in there twenties. Half the group is concentrated in Youth and Development and the other half is in health with me. Our flight to Quito (capital of Ecuador) was delayed but after being wisked through customs, we were meet by a large group of Peace Corps volunteers in Ecuadorian fashion with flowers, signs, and lots of pounding on our bus. We then had another typical Ecuadorian experience by being stuck in the parking lot for 40 mins as the bus tried to navigate out as we all thought we were going to get into an accident. I learned how to cuss in spanish.

After 5 hours of sleep we arrived at the Peace Corps office were we began in country orientation. This meant that we all received vaccinations to lots of diseases, meet the staff who were fantastic, and took our oral language exams. Everyone was pretty freaked out by the language tests were basicaly were 25 minute interviews by a language facilitator (who doesnt speak English) that was taped. I was pretty amazed about how much spanish I remembered and I was placed in Intermedio Medio, which is the required level to swear in as a volunteer. This means I dont have to worry about the language requirement, but I do have a lot of work to do. It really is amazing how much spanish Ive picked up since being here, and a lot of my worries about communicating are gone.

The last few days have pretty much been spent sitting through lectures about safety, culture shock, and integrating in to our host families. The way Peace Corps works is that for the next 10 weeks of training I will be living with a host family in a small village, as I take language classes and technical classes. There will be 4 other volunteers placed with families in the same community with similar language levels, and we will take technical classes together with a language facilitator- Carmen. My family has five people, a dad who is a farmer, a mom, and three children (one 24 year old women, a 23 yo man, and a 22 yo man- all students), I am very excited to meet them tommorrow. After about 5 weeks with them, I will find out what my permanent site is and I will move there in 10 weeks after being sworn in as a volunteer. Despite being incredibly busy, the past few days have been very fun however, last night I went to the Mariscol (a place full of gringos and bars) and shared a few beers with some friends. We have also gotten passionate about Va a pescar (go fish). From what Ive seen, Quito is very beautiful and hopefully I will be able to come back to explore at some point. Our CD (country director) is very relaxed and any travel in Ecuador doesnt count on our vacations days.

I think the thing I appreciated most about this training period is the level of support that is being offered (medical and emotional) and the honesty with which they treated the experience. I will get lonely and depressed at some point, I will get diarrhea and/or parasites (a lovely topic which we discussed for three hours today), but all of these emotions are expected and I will always have someone to talk to. On that note, the peace corps provides a cell phone which can receive international calls.

I know this post is super long, but it realy doesnt seem to cover barely anything of what has happened in the past few days. Coming here was a very tough decision, but so the right one.

I will probably be able to write again in a week or two (but I will try to call again mom and dad). The community Im moving to is having an enormous festival of the sun in the next month, which sounds awesome. Hopefully I will get to try the local delicacy of guinea pig, which I know my family raises.