Hello my loves,

So I´m in an internet cafe in Vilcabamba in the province of Loja where I decided to spend Semana Santa with my friend Kaitlyn. Let me just say, I´ve had an amazing time here in this semi-Sierra climate. We´ve spent our days hiking, reading, and I even got a pedicure (second ever) and a massage (first ever, although I don´t think I´ll be doing it again. It wasn´t bad... I just don´t feel that comfy with someone´s hands all over me...)

So, it´s obviously not the way I would have spent Easter in the States. Back home, I would´ve gone to church with my parents and spent the day at home, with maybe a little Cuban feasting thrown in. But seeing as how I have 4 months left of my Peace Corps experience (WOOOOOO) and seeing as how I needed the vacation like you wouldn´t believe (realized that after I had a breakdown when I couldn´t cook a pot of spaghetti because there was no propane left in the tank), I figure I deserve it, and... I´m not going to let myself feel guilty.

So anyway, much love to you on this Easter day. Although I´m having an amazing time here, I still love and miss you guys and can´t wait to come home to see you once again.

Much love from Loja!

So its almost the end of March and I feel terrible that I havent written to you all. But here I am, writing to you in an internet cafe in the town about an hour away from where I live.

Short posting... Im sorry. But Im in an internet cafe and Im waiting for a bus that still hasnt gotten here yet but should get here in minutes.

Anyway, Im alive and well, for the most part (!"#$%&/ parasites). Im looking at the last 4.5 months (WOW) of my service with a mixture of joy and sorrow, but sooooooo looking forward to coming home at the same time. And maybe it will be early August when I come home. Quiero ir a la boda de mi primito!

The time has flown and crawled. Lets see how the last stretch of my PC Ecuador service plays out.

I promise to write more on Saturday as Im planning to be back here. Much love from Ecuador... les quiero mucho :-D

Hello my Loves,

So, today is el Dia de Amor y Amistad, better known state-side as Valentine's Day. Today, I find myself waiting in the town hall, looking up Carnaval pictures and the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games (which I didn't even know were taking place until I got onto Google). I'm waiting to talk to my mom and dad, with whom I haven't talked in a while, and whom I seriously miss...

I think a lot of people think today is a very important day. But for me, this day is nice enough, but I am a practical thing and confetti romance, or should I say commercialized love, it's not really my thing. Maybe I'll feel differently about that one day, but I honestly hope it's not necessary to have a day set aside to let the person that I love know that I love them by giving them a teddy bear (gag) and a box a chocolates (I wouldn't say no to the chocolates, personally).

I think tomorrow's more important, but that's just me :-P.

Speaking of tomorrow, where did 23 go? It just kind of flew bye. The years are getting shorter and I'm getting panicky. Not that I'm scared of getting older (at 24 I'd be a fool to fear it), not to mention the fact that I'm planning to live to 120 years old where I die in a tragic sky-diving accident with all of my health, a functioning body, and a smile on my face, but dude, the years are going crazy fast.

It seems only yesterday I was that chubby girl on the Dutch Broadway School playground fighting with the other saxaphone players (all boys), or that seventh-grade communist arguing with her Cuban mother over the idea and ideals of equality (I will not attempt to explain further my own political evolution, as I have no idea how I became a die-hard Republican (shudder) after that and then later to what I am now...) or that still somewhat socially awkward freshman learning the UNC Chapel Hill campus and all the possible paths between her classes so she could arrive at least 30 minutes early to each lecture. And as I look back, and look at my life, I can't help thinking that in ten years I'm going to be looking back on that girl sitting in an empty building on a Valentine's Day in Ecuador, pondering on where she's been and wondering where she's going.

There's this song by a group called Avenged Sevenfold, which I would not recommend to just anyone as they are a hard rock group that would grate on many a person's nerves (unless you have a keen ear for musical genius, as I do :-P), and they have a song called Remenissions that says, "A good friend once told me, 'You are memories--without them we equal nothing'". If the past is gone forever the moment it stops being the present, the future is a tantalization just beyond the reach of the moment, and the present is a vapor, I guess we are just memories, actions, and aspirations. That being said, I think we should live every moment to the fullest, build a set of memories that will be stitched on the very fabric of human consciousness, memories created through actions of merit, all the while following good and meaningful aspirations.

The thoughts of an almost 24 year old. Tomorrow I'll never be 23 again.

Happy V Day everyone, and chew a Hershey's kiss for me while you're at it...

Okay, so... I wrote you all a blog from site, but seeing as how my access to the internet is rare, I hadn't posted it. Now, however, I'm in Quito, and I shall put up this new blog entry...

Hey you.

So, I made it back to Ecuador without problems, which seeing as how I had to spend a night in Guayaquil is definitely saying something. In Guayaquil, a city that I now consider much more dangerous than any we have in the United States, there are something called express kidnappings. What is that, you ask... Well, you get in a cab, and instead of the taxi driver taking you where you wanted to go, you get driven into the middle of nowhere, held at gunpoint, and robbed of everything you have with you. Some even take you to the ATM to clear out your checking account. And that's if you're lucky. After all, all which is gold will fade away eventually, as will laptop computers and passports. But being a woman, you risk so much more. Not going into details here.

Long story short, as I arrived in Guayaquil at 11:30 at night and had to catch a cab to drive me to one of the most dangerous slums in the city, where I would be spending the night with my host mother's family in a house that I think a tank would have a hard time taking down (a guy in Spain is having this amazing 3 story house built in the middle of shacks and cane houses--why? I don't have any idea either. His parents must not have been real estate agents, because I may not know much about realty, but I do know 3 things, and that's location, location, location)... I just realized what a long run-on sentence this is becoming, hence ABRUPT PERIOD. Haahaa. Anyway, as I was arriving with a bag I could barely carry for the weight, my laptop and passport and innocent eyes, I was praying and praying and praying. And God heard me, for my trip didn't just go smoothly--it was actually quite pleasant. Things just fell into place in very lucky ways. And knowing how wrong things could've gone, I'm extremely grateful.

That was weeks ago. Now, January's almost over, and I've spent these past days in site where we are in the midst of rainy season. Last year, despite everyone's cataclysmic warnings, the rainy season wasn't bad. It was even quite dry at times, which really hurt the crops. This year, however, it's been predicted that it will rain and much more than usual because el nino viene. As it is only January and we've seen the river that runs in front of my house grow and speed up with increased rains in places upstream, I think this year, they might be right.

In the rainy season, my work has kind of washed out. See, the schools in the coast are closed for the rainy season, much the same way the schools close for the summer in the US. They don't start up again until later March, April-ish. So, while schools are closed, I've devoted myself to working with my youth group and trying to get a recycling project of the ground, which has been difficult as the rest of my town is busy in planting rice crops. My town almost becomes a ghost town as everyone, man woman and child, go out to the fields to work. Hard to do roadside clean-ups and charlas on organic vs. inorganic waste when there's no one to talk to.

And yet, I've somehow managed to keep myself busy, but pleasantly. Seeing as how I'm looking at my August 2010 return and the duty of trying to pin down a career, I'm preparing myself for those awful tests you have to take to get into post-grad institutions and trying to learn a new language at the same time with Rosetta Stone. And when I'm not doing that, there's always something small worth doing, whether it's helping my host mother with the internet, swimming in the river or taking on more household chores.

But life is interesting enough, although it might sound boring as I've painted it thus far. I have a bat living in my room with me. And I haven't summoned up enough warm tender feelings toward it to give it a name or a gender, as every morning I wake up with the unpleasant duty of cleaning up after him. I've gotten into the habit of covering my desk and dresser with plastic bags before going to sleep because it makes clean up easier. Luckily I sleep with a mosquito net so its foul manners can't pelt me as I sleep. I used to like bats, but that was before my rabies scare when I spent days in Quito researching everything there was to know about rabies and found out how bats are very often carriers. Now, instead of being Bruce Wayne or Dracula's alter ego, they are filfthy, and rude roommates.

And speaking of Quito, did I mention I'm going to Quito again next week? Yeah, so I might just have another opportunity to write you all a lovely blog such as this. Won't that be nice? Why am I going? Medical reason. Again. But it's all good. I can use a vacation from vacation.

So why am I writing to you all right now? I have no idea. To tell you the truth, I woke up at 6:00 am with every intention of going back to sleep until a more reasonable hour, but then I decided to write a blog. So I am in bed, in my pajamas, typing to all of you. And I'm tired, but now it's 6:47 and what's the point of going back to sleep now?

I just want to say, I LOVE GOOGLE.

So right now, I am sitting in Miami International Airport, enjoying a lovely 9 hour layover between RDU and MIA, on my way back to Ecuador after an 18 day stint en los Estados Unidos. While I brought Mists of Avalon to keep me company, I now find that I might not have much use for it. As I was seeking a hot cafe con leche to warm me in this chilled Miami airport, I saw the Sign. And what did the Sign say, you ask. It said that until January 15, Google is providing free wifi to MIA. And, that means, I can be online. For free! How my stingy heartstrings are playing a merry jig right now! I mean, really, do you know how much WiFi in an airport costs? A lot. Ridiculous amounts of money. Picture cartoon villains with money-sign branded sacks of loot over their shoulders. And so, my Pretties, I blog to you.

Pero, c'mon guys. I wasn't going to be blogging while I was with family and friends in the States. I barely do it from Ecuador. You have to be patient with me, and forgive my long absences. But with this 9 (and did I mention that it was 9) hour layover, I can reconnect with all of you. Granted, I got to see most of the people who read this blog, but still! I'm blogging. I haven't blogged since last year (2009--get it? get it?)

So I'm heading back to Ecuador. I have 8 months left, mas o menos. And once this final stint is completed, I'll have finished my 2 year committment to the Peace Corps. From this point, January 2010 that is, 2 years doesn't seem like a lot. El tiempo se va volando, as they say. But, it's a significant chuck of time. I started June 2008--time has made a bit of a fool of me hasn't it? I still feel at times like a recent college graduate. Yet now most of my friends have jobs... some have even started families... we're not college kids anymore, and that's well, vaguely terrifying yet at the same time quite liberating.

I'm not going to continue down that line of thought, because the liberating feeling starts churning in my gut until it's not so liberating anymore. Because I start thinking about trying to find a job with a BA in Ancient/Medieval History in today's economy and I start vividly imagining myself in worn, dirty clothing huddled in front of a trash can fire with the Philosophy major, the Shakespearean scholar, and the guy that thought writing his doctoral thesis on Japanese Haiku poetry would really rack in the big bucks. You B.S.ers (that's Bachelor of Science, not... well, you know)... you made a good choice, and you computer science study-ers, you made a great choice. Other Ancient/Medieval History majors... what do you do when you don't want to be a teacher or professor? I don't know either.

... I think I'm going to go job window-shopping again. That's where you don't actually apply for anything, you just take stock of what's available. I've been doing that on and off these past almost 3 weeks. I guess after August I'll have quite a bit of time to apply, eh? Opportunities available...

... Alaskan King Crab Fisherwoman?

... Airplane Stewardess (sorry... flight attendant)?

... Rollercoaster tester?

... Corporate espionage?

... Mail Order bride? (or maybe just marry a very rich old man)...

... Telemarketer?

... International travel writer?

... One of those people that secretly rate hotels and restaurants? I don't even know what they're called...

... A professional mourner? (do people still hire those? If I lived in Jerusalem about 2 millenia ago, I think that would have been my calling)

... Stunt devil?

... Professional syncronized swimmer?

... Commercials?

... Superhero (I'd have to find a radioactive spider or obtain access to gamma radiation)?

... Sidekick (I'd have to find a superhero)?

... Bike messenger?

... Motivational speaker?

I'll figure it out... eventually...

Procrastinators of the world, UNITE! ... tomorrow...

Welcome to my lovely and probably last November blog posting.

So what's new?

Well, here in my town we've been in the fiestas patronales de la Virgen de Montserrat. That means there's been a lot of dancing, a lot of nights hanging out with my favorite Ecuadorians until oh, 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, going to church services and becoming a madrina again (4 new godchildren in the past two days), lots of good and unhealthy food (but with the aforementioned dancing, anything I eat gets burned away anyway and not to mention the fact that dancing kind of makes you forget about eating...), and just all around good times.

And, while todo el mundo is sleeping, I get a few precious moments to get online and chat with you all.

It's good times here in Manabi. It's kind of amazing the transformation after a year and a half of living and being in a foreign country. Instead of waiting for Thanksgiving Day, and the turkey, and the parade in NY, I've been waiting for these couple of days, the fiestas of my town. I've basically forgotten the pavo.

My favorite artist is now La Factoria. My favorite song... Te Amo Tanto. My favorite food is now an Ecuadorian dish, a vegetable-fish-and-platano-maduro chowder called biche. I have difficulty remembering English words and often find myself at a loss in conversations with English speakers. You may not realize it, but you do in fact have to practice conversation. In Spanish, I'm funny, witty, and outrageous. In English, I've kind of become a dull person. I'm dry like toast.

There's this movie that I watched yesterday, that's kind of awesome... it's called District 9, and I'm completely sure it's not to everyone's taste, but to me it was excellent. A Peter Jackson film, and all I've got to ask is where did this movie come from??? After the various disappointments in movies, I, a movie enthusiast, have had to face this year (what with movies like G.I.JOE coming out left and right), I have to ask why I haven't heard anything about this film? Anyway, something happens to the protagonist and I can definitely empathize. I feel like that is kind of happening to me living here in Ecuador. I won't tell you what exactly happens because, well, after my praise you might decide to go and watch the movie for yourself, and if there's one thing I hate, it's giving away anything.

Just in case you're wondering... other movie selections Britany is inclined to recommend to you include:

Julie and Julia (which just for Meryl Streep's performance as Julia Child makes the film worth watching, not to mention the delicious and beautiful food creations that make you wish you knew how to cook, and had the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking on hand).La Misma Luna (a completely touching and powerful look into the lives of a family separated by immigration)Up (all I've got to say, GO PIXAR! and if you haven't seen it, check out Meet the Robinsons as well)

And there's more, but lately I've kind of been doing the re-run bit. You can never see The Departed too many times.

Hmm... should I do movies I wouldn't recommend that I've had the misfortune of watching in my time in Ecuador?

Duplicity (starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen--should've been amazing, but let me assure you, it wasn't). Max Payne (terrible... Mark, what were you thinking?). Love in the Time of Cholera (this is the winner of the list... the acting was awful. Just awful.)... And that's all I've got for right now... Anyay, I know I kind of strayed from my life in Ecuador in this blog posting, but... no, this is about my life in Ecuador. Every time I go to the city capitol (about once or twice a month as it's about 3 hours and $2.25 away) I go to this little corner stand where I know a guy that sells great, and I mean GREAT, quality DVDs, and that's where I go to buy movies and get my little bit of a movie fix. And those cry-babies that are lamenting the bootlegging of movies while making enough money to finance million-dollar shopping trips can kiss my, well you know, if as a Peace Corps volunteer I watch a legally questionable DVD purchased with $1.25 out of my measly Peace Corps salary. Anyway, I love movies, and movies are still a part of my life, even here in my site... in the middle of nowhere, where you're more likely to get hit by a donkey crossing the street than you are to get hit by car... where the electricity goes out so often it almost feels unnatural when it comes back (ha, as if harnessed electricity is exactly natural)... where all the coffee is instant although your neighbor leaves about 2 months a year to go harvest the real deal and ship it off to an air-conditioned Starbucks in the States... where if the meal doesn't include rice, it is quite literally not considered real food... where birds making nests in your room doesn't surprise anyone... where iguanas falling out of hundred-plus foot trees doesn't interest anyone except you and the dogs that give chase immediately while the somewhat dazed iguana gets back up and scrambles back up the tree before the dogs make the catch... where you have to rely on a blog to let your friends and family know that you're still alive and well. Life is nothing if not interesting. Well, anyway, that's pretty much it for now. If you object, you can email, or comment, or fly down to Ecuador and tell me yourself. Alright my pretties. I'm done. Peace.

I have been waiting, somewhat patiently, for the New York Yankees to win the series since about, oh 2001... AND WHILE I'M IN ECUADOR, THEY FINALLY DO IT!

I miss my Dad. He and I always watched the series together. This year, we're clearly a bit away from each other. But he was probably watching the game from the couch at home in Spring Hope. I'll try to find out later today. Luckily, with my being stuck in Quito, and subsequently stuck in a hotel with cable television, I got to watch game 6 of the World Series 2009...

AND THE YANKEES WON THE SERIES!

WOOOOO!

In your face PHILLIES FANS!! My Yankees are on top yet again. WOOOOOOOOO!

...

Sorry, I'm on my last day of a 4 day trip to Quito, and I haven't really talked to anyone in a while. I may be kind of wired... And I need to go eat lunch... Maybe I should be kept away from my blog until I have some kind of social interaction...

:-D

Alrighty, so I'm in Quito, and with internet access, I write to all of you...

You may ask, well Britany, why are you in Quito?

Answer... Rabies.

Okay, so don't freak out. I just happened to be bit by a family pet... not my family's pet, but a friend's ornery dalmatian, and after receiving a rather terrifying call from my sister about rabies 5 days after the fact, I called Peace Corps and they said, well, can you come in tonight? I told them tomorrow... and so I'm here in Quito getting Rabies booster shots to prevent the spread of a virus that in all likelihood the dog doesn't have. But better safe than sorry, no?

Let me just say this. Living out in the world... and I'm not talking about Raleigh, North Carolina, New York or Los Angeles or Washington D.C. which are all still in the United States, but I mean THE WORLD... it can be pretty freakin' terrifying.

I've had a lot of scares out here. Malaise and dizzyness that I was experiencing a while back could've been anything, but it was anemia. I get bit by a dog, and I'm in the capitol city getting rabies vaccinations. It's just not your home-grown scares. The mosquitoes carry malaria and dengue. You've been vaccinated against typhoid, and yellow, and scarlet fevers. You cannot drink the water, or even brush your teeth with it, without first boiling it. There's bacteria in the water you bathe in, and the newest outbreak on your face is the result. Even childhood pasttimes are dangerous. Climbing trees? What are you doing?! Don't you know that there are worms that bite and give hives and fevers and comas and live in that tree? Also, did you know that more people die from falling out of trees in Ecuador than from rabies. I'm just saying.

The world is a pretty scary place. My eyes are definitely a lot more open to the dangers that living in a developing country present. Still, sometimes it just takes me aback, you know?

It makes me consider quitting. Just to not have to deal with the fear anymore... I was a germaphobe state-side. I do feel like I've matured through these 16 months of living in Ecuador, and yet, the smaller fears I had have now given way to bigger fears. I'm not a germaphobe, but I have to be careful of diseases that I would never have even considered in the States. Disease is something that has always scared me. It's what made me decide not to become a doctor, although I probably would've made a good one. It's had pretty big reprecussions in my life, this fear.

Anyway, back when I was in Ms. Hood's 7th grade writing class, she told us that our writing should have a purpose. Now, as a 23 year old rereading my blog entry to correct any grammatical errors I might find, I realize this blog entry might not have a point. Maybe it's just to tell you guys that I do get scared sometimes, living out here by myself. And maybe it's to say that I miss the safety and security of living in the United States of America. And it might just be to say that I miss you guys a lot and could really use a hug right now.

They say that the Peace Corps is the toughest job you'll ever love. They're right.

Keep me in your prayers, please.

Lots of love... B.

This is being transferred from my personal computer to the internet... so forgive the errors in the dates and times... forgive or I punch you in face. Hard I punch you.

Happy Halloween!

Okay, so I'm a terrible person. I know. I've left you all abandoned without any upates for months (or at least, I think it's been months--I'm writing this on my laptop to be passed over to my blog Saturday afternoon, so I'm not quite sure). I should be drawn and quartered (do you know where that expression comes from? It's actually a pretty gruesome ordeal that I won't go into right now, but if you're morbidly curious wikipedia it (side note to my side note: I love how websites names can now be used as verbs. "Oh, I have no idea what that mean.. I'll just google it." Classic)).

Anyway, I am here now with all of you, and I am going to take this time that I have, where nobody knows where I am because I'm hiding out inmy room, to let you know what's going on in Brit's life, let you know that she's alive and well, and give you a bit of info on a culture not your own at the same time. Multi-tasking.

So, I'll start with where I am. Right now, I'm laying in my unmade bed, under my mosquito net of course (even though it's the day--the mosquitoes that carry dengue fever bite in the day, malarial mosquitoes at night...). Outside, the roosters, as always, are crowing, and while I've stopped throwing shoes at them, I still despise and loathe them, and threaten to eat them if they don't shut up. It's funny--before I came to Ecuador, chicken was alright, but I could take it or leave it. It really just didn't do anything for me. But now, as my hatred of the poultrically-inclined grows with each crow, I crave eating chicken. Every mouthful is rich with the taste of my righteous vengeance. I don't even mind killing them. It's actually pretty funny to me now, looking at our culture in the United States and seeing how people lament the slaughter of the chickens but love going to KFC or Bojangles. In Ecuador, we're here for the entire process without shame or guilt or pity. We see them hatch, see them as these as these cute little fluff balls scurrying after a big fat hen, see them in their awkward adolescence, in their dawning adulthood, and we're the ones the use the knife, to change that once living creature into dinner. You may think, Britany, that's terrible! I think, no that's nature. It's not in the natural order to stroll into your local Harris Teeter and pick up the a cellophane wrapped slice of an animal you never knew. You have no idea whether that animal was sick, or dirty, or ate something foul (haahaa, foul... fowl). At least I know what I'm eating. So don't you judge me (unless you're a vegetarian like a close friend of mine... you're allowed to judge :-P).

Anyway back to where I am at the moment. So, from my bed Friday morning I am writing to all of you. This week has been an exam week, which means that school is closed this beautiful Friday morning and we are all free for vacations. While that might mean that the kids just sit around doing nothing, watching cartoons with fuzzy reception, or are out and about, playing in the park or even doing chores in the house, it is nonetheless a holiday. The children here are just as excited about their holidays as American children are with theirs. And so are the teachers. I'm completely stoked.

With no morning classes, I am free until this afternoon where I have to finish up the exams with the high school students. Thus (one of my favorite words in the English language) I am here for you. Maybe you don't understand what a feat this is. I'll explain simply. The door is closed, the curtain is drawn, and I'm not even playing music. People need to believe that I am not in the house. They need to believe this because if I'm visible, they find me and keep me away from blogging all of you. There's always something. Come to my house and take pictures of my four-year-old's birthday party. Can I borrow five bucks? Come and play in the park! Help me with this homework. There's a meeting in the town hall. There's mass in the church and the priest has shown up. There's a BINGO in the next town over. There's a dance two towns away. You're not doing anything, so let's go! There is no such thing as me-time here. So many things that we as Americans do in "me-time" would seem absolutely preposterous to my neighbors... sitting alone fore hours to read? Meditation, reflection, trying to calm down away from people? What are you doing? Just thinking. What are you thinking about? No, see, the reason I'm thinking and not talking is because this is a much more private conversation than you realize. Are you alright? I was alright. But seeing as I came out here to wade through my own meandering thoughts in a very solitary way and now you're distracting me, I'm quickly becoming not alright again. ...Do you have any new movies I can borrow? BAH!

So my life here does not appear to have changed much, but that's looking at things straight on. I still go teach in the schools. I'm still giving computer classes on Saturdays. My work is the same. My best friends are still sixteen and younger. The food is the same--more rice than nutritionists believe is healthy to consume, chicken, fish, the rare bits of steak, peanuts, corn, and platano. My anemia has been controlled by an iron supplement I take daily. The weather doesn't change from day to day but from season to season. Dry or wet. I still do my laundry by hand. My feet are still callused and torn from walking through dust in flip-flops. This is my life as a Peace Corps volunteer at a glance.

But something else is happening at the same time. I'm feeling more and more comfortable here. When a meeting starts at 2, I start getting ready at 2:30 (as in showering and primping) without a thought to being late or early or right on time. Now, I choose to wash my clothes by hands, and, dare I say it, I actually like it. I like the smell of the soap, and using my hands and arms to complete the repetitions that will result in a laundered item of clothing. I love the food, but even tripe I'm starting to crave. I enjoy the subtle shift from blindingly hot to cooler when a cloud floats into the sunlight. I wake up cold and shivering in my bed, and upon checking the thermometer on my shelf, the one I brought here from the States in July, I see that my shivering is justified at the insane 75 degrees. Napping at midday when the sun is at its strongest in not laziness; its survival.

I even see the difference in my language. I have so much more to say in Spanish than in English. Meeting the volunteer in the next town over, I'm often at a loss for words. But sit me next to a talkative stranger on a bus and we could start philosophizing.

In training, they told us we needed to integrate into our communities. But they never actually told us what it means to integrate. Does that mean we can give a presentation in perfect Spanish? Does it mean we know who's who in town? Does it mean that we know how to get around, and how to get what we need, and who to ask if we don't? Maybe that's what integration means to staff.

I think maybe I'm integrating too much. There have been incidences where scientists, anthropologists, have gone into the fielf to study a culture and have become so involved in said culture that other scientists and anthropologists study them and say they have "gone native". I think that's happening to me. Life is just starting to make so much sense now. Absurditites aren't absurd anymore, and what once made sense seems so much more obscured. And while that has made living here all the easier, I have to think about home.

It's October 3oth today, the end of October... We're started a new month in two days. I have this month, a month jam-packed with parties, fiestas, and celebrations that is sure to fly by. In December I come home to return here January, smack in the middle of the rainy season. I will be slipping and sliding into May, which is when I'll be off to Quito for my training group's Close of Service conference. June and July, then August I fly away. That is the rest of my time in Ecuador.

I can't believe that I have so little time left. And now, I've split myself in two like a schizophrenic, and these two parts o fme are battling and grappling and getting kind of exhausted in the process. There's Britany, the college graduate turned Peace Corps volunteer, who loves the United States and misses her family and friends and wants to go home to the place she spent her whole life becoming a part of and working toward. For her, there's the steady career, and the perfect house with accompanying mortgage, and the fuel-efficient car, and the All-American family--it's all waiting for her in the years to come.

But then there's Bri-ta-ny Maria. She was a stranger in a land not her own, but the people took her in and made her one of their own. For her, there are her students who love her most of all their teachers. There are her best friends and the people who have become like family to her looking at August with tears in their eyes. For her, there are the faces she might never see again. There's the life she's spent two years struggling to live, falling away before her eyes. How could she possibly leave when she's just won the war?

I see August on the horizon. I see myself making one of the hardest decision I'll ever be making in my life. I see the inevitability of my return to my homeland, and the goodbye to this life, this dream, I've lived for two years. I see all the pain, all the things I've suffered through, but have conquered and lived through, I see it all vanishing, like the foggy wisps of a dream lost upon the waking. What was it all for then? What was I trying to accomplish here? Why did I sacrifice this piece of myself?

Would I change my decision to join the Peace Corps. Never

Would I ever do it again? Well, how many times can the heart break and keep ticking? And it's going to break my heart to leave here. Yes, it is.

See this is the problem with me writing a blog. I start out on the upswing--we're all chitchatting, telling jokes at the backyard barbeque. By the end, the lady's singing the blues in the corner of a dark, smoke-filled club, and the waiter's gone for another round. Why can't I keep things light and simple? BAH!

Well... let's see.

I tell you a joke.

First in Spanish, then in English.

Habia una vez un borracho, bien borrachito, yiendo a su casa donde su esposa estaba enojada a ver su marido tan borrach asi. No iba a abrir la puerta por el borracho, pero el grito, "Tengo flores para la mujer mas bonita del todo el mundo!"

Alegrisima, ella corrio a abrir la puerta. Dijo, "Aver, y donde estan las flores?

El dijo, "Aver, donde esta la mujer mas bonita del mundo?"

Jaajaajaa.

Once there was a drunk guy, really really drunk, going home where his wife was waiting, furious to see her husband drunk like this. She wasn't going to go open the door for him, but he yelled, "I have flowers for the most beautiful woman in the world!"

Happily, she ran to open the door. Then she said, "Well, where are the flowers?"

He replied, "Well, where's the most beautiful woman in the world?"

Haahaa...

And I'm done. Peace, love, harmony, and to all a good night.

So I have about 19 minutes to go before the start of my Saturday computer class, so I thought I'd steal a few moments of my pre-class study time to update this poor excuse for a blog, seeing as how we've past the half-way mark through September and it's still not updated...

Well, what can I say. Things here are the same as usual. Still way too busy, which is a good thing as September is absolutely flying by, but I find myself scrambling for free times. Minutes at a time can get me only so far--you should see how much laundry awaits in my room, or the state of my room at that. I desperately need to go to the town store to buy toothpaste and the other kind of tp, but everytime I leave my house, I'm ambushed and asked to do something else. I have no idea where the hours of the day go.

Other than no free time, I've developed allergies here in Ecuador which had me believing that I had a cold for about a month and a half. Now that I'm taking allergy medicine, I can breathe easy again, and have allayed the fears of my town that I might have contracted swine flu in the States. Seriously, some women in my computer class didn't come because they thought better safe than sorry, risking their lives for a computer class led by the gringa.

Eck! 9 minutes, and two women have now shown up. What's up with that? The class starts at 1. Not 12, and it's 12:52 now. Have they changed one of their cultural norms to accomodate my North American sense of time? Possibly. But now they're behind me staring at Jarvis, and just generally creeping me out so I might be cutting this off right here to pay them some attention.

Well, m'loves. I'm off. Maybe I'll get back on after class to give you a better update... but probably not. Sorry in advance :-/. Chao.

So you all have had about two months without an update (although in all fairness, I spent 3 amazing weeks of that in the United States), but I'm on today, as it's Wednesday which is my day off from Colegio, leaving my afternoon free to chat with the folks and get online to update the blog for the rest of you. Right now, Mom's still at work and Dad's probably outside clearing out the woods or playing with the horses. So while I've got this bit of time, here's the latest:

I guess I should start with how home went, right? Well, I'll keep it simple--it was wonderful. I got to see everyone in my family except for my cousin Chris (congrats by the way!). I watched the 4th of July fireworks from the north deck of my house, surrounded by loved ones. I didn't do a lot of the stuff I had planned (like going to a theme park or a trip to the beach) but I did manage a trip to Jacksonville to see my brother's new house and meet his rottweiler Rocky, I saw Transformers 2 and Harry Potter 6 in theaters, spent hours in a bookstore with my sister, watched Smallville Season 7 and 8 (guilty pleasure--Season 8 was absolutely super haahaa). I slept in everyday, treated myself to foods like bagels and carrot cake, and just passed my time relaxing and unwinding. Not that I've been in a warzone or a stressful office in New York City, but you wouldn't believe how spending a year away from everything and everyone you've ever known, or learning and using a different language, can really just wear you out. America is my home, and it's my refuge. It's only now that I'm older I realize that my house can be my vacation destination.

I feel bad about not seeing the majority of my friends, because when you say it 3 weeks seems like a lot, but it really just flew by. Sorry to the bunch of you guys I didn't get to see, and I hope you won't hold it against me.

Well, back to Ecuador... So I arrived back in site after 3 weeks to children chanting my name, and about half the people I saw telling me that they thought I wouldn't be coming back. They told me that they had thought a few weeks in the homeland would be too tempting, and I would succumb to the idea of staying. I didn't tell them how they were almost right, but I did make sure that they know I only have one year left with them, and then I really am leaving.

Since my arrival, I've spent my time in the two schools and high school, and working with the two youth groups (to one of which I have been named Presidente). Basketball has fallen by the wayside a bit as I busted my basketball and the patch-job has a shelflife of a day (thank God I thought to buy an air pump that time at Wal-Mart), as well as the high school classes in the afternoon taking all of my playtime. And on Wednesdays, I'm here with Jarvis.

OH, I haven't explained Jarvis! So, Ol' Bessie, my wonderful computer of 5 years, did in fact die. The tech guy my mom brought the computer to said that the motherboard was fried. I'm not about to pretend that I know what that means, but I'm hoping that my cousin Tony can still take out the memory when I come home for Christmas. Well anyway, the thought of sending me back to Ecuador without a computer broke my poor sweet mother's heart, so she got me a new one. I have christened him Jarvis. Jarvis is the sleek and shiny, dark blue Dell Inspiron 15 that I met at BestBuy. I'm with him right now. He even has a built-in webcam. And did I mention all the American music that my sister uploaded too? I'm a happy girl. Last night, I stayed up late in bed with Jarvis, watching my boot-legged copy of Push and not worrying about the fact that I would have to wake up early for classes.

Other than Jarvis, I'm enjoying the afterglow of my 3 weeks in the States. And even though I've passed a month and a half here after coming back to Ecuador, I still sigh a sigh of contentment whenever I pull out a new tank top I bought in the States, or new underwear, or a perfect black ink pen.

Que mas? Well, I hate to cut this blog so short, but my darlings, that's pretty much my life right now. I'll try to get back into the swing of things later on. But for now, chao :-D.

I woke up this morning, and the absolute first thing I thought was,

"This time next week, I´ll be waking up in the United States."

And I´ll tell you that is a very happy thought to wake up to.

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, I´m now officially less than a week away from making the trip back to my native soil. I have now spent 1 year 8 days outside of my country, and 1 year 10 days outside of my home. It´s crazy to think about really. I keep thinking that I´m going to be heading back to Chapel Hill in the fall for another year of studying, or whenever anybody asks me my age I have to stop and remember if I´m 21 or 22, completely forgetting the fact that I´ve passed my 23rd birthday. I can´t believe I´ve spent a year in Ecuador. Not that time has flown like people said it would, for believe-you-me I´ve felt every second, but because my time here feels the dream (or sometimes, the nightmare). It´s like having stepped into a movie, or a book, and upon finishing you feel a little dazed and disoriented but in reality very little time has past. I´m feeling that, but after having spent a year doing this. Hard to explain, and so I guess I´ll stop at that. It´s too early for figurative philosophical meanderings...

Anyway, these last 6 days (and did I mention it before--WOOOOOT!), are basically going to be spent preparing and packing. That means, cleaning my room, packing my clothes, deciding what can come back with me from Ecuador, what needs to stay behind for another year of use, and what I can give away (which is generally the majority of the clothes that I brought with me in the beginning, or at least, what´s left of them, seeing as how hand washing on an cement slab and drying in the scorching Ecuadorian sun has taken its toll).

I feel kind of bad about taking stuff back. On my other trips, family and friends got really cool knick-knacks representing the country visited... here, I´m coming back after one year empty handed. I hope you all will understand--I used to make in a week part-time what I make here in a month, so I reluctantly had to cut the Souvenir budget, lay off the workers without severance pay, and close the plant. I´ll try to do better when I come home to stay...

People here keep trying to get me to try to sneak food back. One shop owner, a lady of 59 years and a mother of 6, who has become a good friend of mine over the course of the year, quite seriously told me that I had to bring some cheese back to the States, as our campo cheese is very very special and worth taking. She then explained that the way to sneak it into the country was to wrap it in a diaper, yes, a diaper, and then wrap the diaper with plastic bags and tape so that the drug-sniffing dogs wouldn´t detect it. Imagine, if you will, if I had a diaper wrapped in plastic stuffed deep into the confines of my suitcase, coming from Ecuador, the country that borders Colombia to the South, and customs singling me out to do their random bag checks (as they always seem to do for me... apparently I look like a criminal), and finding the contraband. I vehemently declined the offer of the free brand new diaper to wrap the cheese, explaining that they would probably cart me off to jail thinking my campo cheese was cocaine.

Other than cheese, people keep asking me to take maní, which is peanuts, telling me peanuts from my town aren´t like any other peanuts in the province, let alone the world. One person asked me if I could take platano back, seeing as how I´ve had to explain how expensive platano is in North Carolina. Have you ever seen platano? And I´m not talking the cute little banana bunches you find at Wal-Mart. No, I´m talking the whole rama, which is comprised of about 12 or so of those bunches. Needless to say, I declined. Rumpopoe has also been offered, which is the Ecuadorian equivalent to eggnog, that is always brought as a gift to family and friends during visits or found at fiestas. I don´t know what I´d say to the customs official if they found a 2 liter Pepsi bottle in my bag filled with some unidentifiable beige cream that smells vaguely alcoholic.

I´ve pretty much taken bringing food home off the table. What am I taking back then? Hard to explain to the people who live here, but I think I´m taking back the most important things, and that´s pictures and stories. Knowing my family like I do, I know that´ll be plenty, and worth a lot more than some cheesy figurine of a turtle found in the Galapagos (to which I´ve never been) that says "Ecuador".

Today, I have a free day off from classes which, thus far, I´ve used to update this blog. Still there´s laundry to be handwashed, a cement bathroom to be scrubbed, and 2 suitcases to be packed, with only 6 days remaining to me, 2 of which are free for personal use, and so, here I leave you.

Lots of lovin´from your friendly neighborhood Peace Corps volunteer...

Yeah, I´m keeping a daily countdown... what of it?

Hello my lovelies and welcome to another fun-filled wall posting...

So last night there was a huge dance in my town, but as it was hosted by a local political party, I couldn´t. Instead, I spent the night with my host mom´s family in the next town over, which, while fun, was bittersweet for me as I kept thinking about how much I miss my family, and it would be chatting and laughing with them into the wee hours of the morning instead. I know I´m so close to seeing them, but still... 3 weeks, then I´m gone for a year again (with the possible exception of a week and a half at Christmas?)...

Anyway, we (Celinda, Josue and I) came back home at around 7:00 in the morning, our biological clocks set to ring an internal alarm in our brains causing us to wake up every day at 6:00, whether a day of work or day of rest. Upon my return, everyone kept asking me where I was, why I didn´t come to the dance, how the dance fue bonita, fue linda, and other such things that made me a bit envious. To everyone, I had to explain that I couldn´t involve myself in politics, how I was prohibited, and even though the dance was just hosted by a political party, still couldn´t attend.

There´s another dance Thursday. Sigh. At least that´ll get us out classes Fridays (as teachers and students alike will assuredly be chuchaki).

Yesterday was a good day for a break though, I must admit. After having gone to church in the morning (Seventh Day Adventists believe the sabbath to be on Saturday), I spent the afternoon rereading Harry Potter 4 for the oh, 20th? time (and it´s still just as good). After that, I helped a friend with the internet, played in the park for a bit and then walked to the next town to Celi´s parents house. The walk was lovely, as it was evening, the moon was full and the night cool. I was going to wait for the bus, but there were already drunk guys in the park at 6:30, so I decided best to avoid having to beat un hombre borracho unconscious for annoying me, and set off.

Today is a chill day as well. My morning free, I´m here chatting with all of you in la casa communal, jamming out to the sound of the Orishas (Cuban rap group, for those of you who don´t know). This afternoon I´ve got a meeting with my youth group, after which it´s off to a basketball game in the school (as in, I and 9 other kids jump around, hurl a ball at a netless rim, without rules, without a leader, total anarchy). After than, it´s back to my house to shower, dinner, and planning my lessons for tomorrow.

The restful weekend is something I have missed since sophomore year in college, when I took a campus security job that had me working various shifts from Friday to Sunday (especially those exhausting night shifts--still don´t know how I did that). Here, I have regained a system that is more reminiscent of that high school schedule which I haven´t felt in years. Bed at 10/10:30 (with exception of those nights where I stay up reading into the night--yes, I am that guy), wake up 6:00, classes all day (although it´s a lot cooler from the teaching side, I admit), a sport in the afternoon, 3 square meals, and wonderful routine. I like knowing where I have to be, or even just having somewhere I need to be. Maybe my first few months were so hard because I was completely out of my element, as wandering around aimlessly reeks havoc on my organized mind.

I´m really getting into the swing of things here. I can´t help feeling normal. That being said, I wonder how I´ll react in my real home. I wonder how things have changed--new houses, new shops, new traffic lights and stop signs. I marveled at the changes coming back from a 5 month stint in Italy... one year will be insane. I wonder whether my mind will register my reality as this surreal dream state that held me for so long upon arrival in Ecuador. The dream state is extremely dangerous, even though it keeps the homesickness at bay, erases the sense of time, and dulls the sting of cultural shock. In the dream state, there are no rules, and the conscious surrealism lends itself to a false sense of invincibility. The line between right and wrong blurs, and you can lose yourself so completely that even other people can hardly recognize you. The dream state is the ultimate defense mechanism when cast into a new environment because life is just so much easier if you don´t believe it´s real.

I guess we´ll just have to wait and see...

Anyway my loves, I´m off as access to internet means access to world news, and I´m anxious to see what´s happening outside my 700 person town. Mucho amor y cariño del sur del ecuador. Un abrazo fuerte y un besito a su mejia. Chao.

Hello my Pretties.

Today... today officially begins my 1 month countdown. Yes, my dear friends, I will, after 1 year and 14 days in a foreign land, finally touch my native soil...

I'M COMING HOME! WOOT!

That's the biggest thing I've got to talk about, but I'll fill you in on the rest of my life...

I'm in Quito right now (yes, again). This time, thank God, it's not for a lost/stolen cell phone. No, I'm here for my med and dental check-ups. My teeth had some unpleasant surprises for me, causing me to have to stay in Quito an extra day. Note: dental work sans anesthesia... NOT FUN. But the trip has been good, forgetting dentistry.

Oh, and guess what... Ol' Bessie LIVES! Apparently, our UNC given computers only accept the special IBM adapters and scorn all others, regardless of whether they are universal with a special 16 volt adaption level... Ol' Bessie knew I was trying to fool her, but she is no fool. So what does this mean? Well, when I come home in a month (did I mention that I'm coming home in a month?!!) I'll just have to buy a new adapter. I might even buy Bessie a new battery. We'll have to wait and see :-D.

Have I mentioned that I broke my finger? Yeah, playing basketball. Being obstinant as I am, as well as thinking I just jammed it, I didn't splint it. It's for the most part healed now anyway, and who needs the left ring finger anyway? What does it matter if it's a wee bit skewed, or if I can't bend it all the way... not all that important :-/. In addition I'm covered in bruises and scrapes, because no matter what I play, I play hard. But I have gotten several questions about possibly abusive boyfriends.

Que mas? I'm going to be a madrina again (that's a godmother to you). One of my favorite little boys is getting baptised, and his parents asked me to be the godmother, and of course, I said yes. 4 other parents asked me too, but that's not until November. I'm becoming a pretty popular pick for madrina--maybe it's because my Madrina gift is usually a free photo shoot.

And um... I can't think of anything else of interest...

SEE YOU IN JULY!

Hello my intrepid readers,

Well, we´re nearing the end of May, only a couple of weeks until my one year anniversary with Ecuador (June 18) and a month away from my long awaited homecoming (on my side at least... I´ve been long a-waiting...). This month, as opposed to last month, has absolutely F-L-O-W-N by. Maybe it´s because I´m teaching 4 hours in the morning, 4-6 in the afternoon, followed by basketball games where I spend my time running around with kids of all ages (including some over 30). By the time I get back to my disaster of a room, it´s time for bed... under the mosquito net I crawl and have dreams or my recurrent nightmare where I forget the time my flight leaves for the Unites States.

Though I´m ridiculously excited to be coming home in July, and find myself fantasizing about it in my spare time, I have to admit... life is pretty freakin´sweet here. Now that I´m teaching in the two elementary schools here, not only do all the kids know my name, but I know their names too, and I´m learning to whom they belong, where the rivalries are, who has crushes on whom, who´s the teacher´s pet, who´s the outcast, the rebel, the class clown--it´s like an interesting book I can´t put down. I´m starting to have favorites too... like the little girl that´s a little fighter, who, if some little child happens to hurt me as they jump onto my back or almost cause me to fall because three are hanging onto my legs, will immediately rush to my side and start pulling them off, hitting them off, calling them names that little girls shouldn´t know... usually I wind up forgetting the other children to stop her and tickle her into submission. There´s the little boy that doesn´t care that the other boys are watching and comes over to shamelessly hug me, and be pulled up into my arms. There´s the little girl in the other school who knows that she´s misbehaving, and knows that I know she´s misbehaving, but puts on this innocent, bewildered expression that just makes me forget to punish her and gets me to laughing. There´s the little boy that follows me wherever I go in town.

In colegio, that´s high school, I have days where I´m Super Teacher, and all students love and adore me because I´m the cool one, and I´m much more popular than I ever was in highschool (where being a brainy know-it-all didn´t exactly lend itself to inclusion), and I have days where I´m pretty sure the kids are mocking me behind my back, where nobody understands a word of what I´m teaching, where kids look like they are going to sink into a boredom-induced coma. I have my favorites there too, but it´s based more on how well they do in class than how cutely they misbehave.

Then there´s basketball. I hated basketball when I was younger, and anyone who knows me can attest to how absolutely wonderfully I played (cough cough... NOT). But here, basketball, my loves, is a new sport, and I am all knowing and all powerful. I´m the woman with the Ball. I get picked first for the teams (something that never Ever would have happened in my childhood, not with basketball at least... I was a Dodgeball, Kickball, Soccer Reina, but basketball or volleyball--fuggedabout it). Here, I´m the point guard and the referee, the one yelling at members of both teams "Sola una mano!" (Dribble with only one hand!), "No empujes!" (Don´t push!), "No cojas!" (Don´t grab!). I keep the teams weighed evenly by picking the captains who then pick the teams. We play games up to 5, 7, or 10 depending on how many kids are waiting to play, with one basketball hoop, and the entire basketball court. At most I´ll let 5 on each team, and any others will just have to wait the next game. In the beginning, it was just me, hurling the ball at the hoop in frustration. The next day it was me and a little boy. The next, we were 3... and it just kept growing. Now we get anywhere from 10 to 15 kids and women wanting to play... Note to self: I really need to get the other rim fixed.

And that´s all I can write right now. Blast.

...Well, my Pretties. Duty calls. I had the morning free to update this darling blog, but alas, I have been summoned and must away. Until next time, adieu.

Hello my Pretties,

Well, it´s May, and that means I´m about a month and 3 weeks away from coming home to the United States of America, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave! I´m ridiculously excited to be coming home even though life is going pretty well for me here. I´m working every day of the week, with 2 schools and a high school, two youth groups, a basketball league, and I´m about to start up computer classes in a week. I´m blessed with work, especially after I spent the rainy season vagando because there wasn´t anything to be done.

SO, things, all in all, haven´t changed much since my last posting. I´m happily working (even have a uniform, and anyone that knows me from childhood know how much I like playing dress-up) and I go to bed every night completely exhausted. Life is good here.

I got online today, and missing hearing about the state of the world, I decided to visit the oh-so-fabulous NY Times online...

I think there is a regulation about making personal political statements on a Peace Corps Volunteer blog, but as it says somewhere above that everything said here is mine, I´m going to go ahead.

1. With the porcine virus running rampant throughout the world, you´d do better to wash your hands and cover your mouth when you sneeze than to give up all pork products under the sun. For the love of Mike, you don´t get the flu from eating barbeque. High temperatures kill viruses, and if you´re cooking pork (which you should always do before eating), you´re not going to get sick that way. But wash your hands! You may not get the porcine flu if you don´t, but you´ll certainly be acting the pig.

2. Job loss? Peace Corps is expanding it´s programs worldwide. Want to spend 2 years helping others, learning to live with the basic necessities of life, learning humility as you try to adjust to a new culture, learn a new language? Give volunteerism a shot. That being said, Peace Corps is not for everyone, so if you don´t think you can hack it, look for something else to do for humanity. PC is not for everyone, but volunteerism is. You don´t have to be in some obscure African village to make a difference in the world. Look around you where you live and act.

3. Raul Castro--we´ve made gestures that signal a thawing of our cold policy towards Cuba. How about a little sign of good faith that you´re going to start working for the Cuban people? Interesting that you´ve called the changes (such as allowing remittances from Cuban-Americans to reach relatives in Cuba, or allowing unlimited travel of Cuban-Americans to visit relatives) in the 50 year US policy toward Cuba "achieving only the minimum," when all you´ve done in your year and a half in office is let Cubans have cell phones and enter Cuban hotels. Start making some real changes! Your people are facing starvation--men and women forced into prostitution and the drug trade while you´re sitting limp in Fidel Castro´s old stolen throne. How about You get up off your ___ and start trying to fix this problem found between our countries. Why do you expect the US to do everything if your goverment is just as capable of reaching out? Once again, these views are mine and not the US government´s or The US Peace Corps´. As a Cuban American with free speech (that´s this amazing idea that people should be allowed to speak their minds without fear of persecution, incarcaration, torture, disappearance, and death--try it out sometime), I would like to say, Stop trying to act superior when your own failure to act is a crime against humanity.

4. North Korea. If you don´t loosen up and bend a bit, there´s nothing to do but break. Try to get along. You´re like a child with a gun. Put the gun down. Grow up.

5. Pope Benedict XVI: stop playing politics and focus on God. And as for the Catholic church, is it common policy for anyone, even poor rural Ecuadorian people that don´t even have money for shoes, to have to pay $10 to have a baby baptized, or is that some kind of corruption? Either way, shouldn´t someone be looking into it? On that note, why is it that there are 20 priest in any given square block in New York, yet people in my town have to wait a year for mass because the one priest can´t be bothered to get around to doing God´s work more than that.

Well, anyway, that´s 5 bits of my opinion, probably worth less than the ink with which they were written... If anyone has a problem with this, feel free to contact me. And probably the next time I get on, I´ll have erased this blog, but still, a humble opinion to read for a week or so...

Good morning Readers and welcome to another fun filled blog posting by your´s truly.

April is almost at a close (thank God--every month finished is me one month closer to coming home). Thus far, this month has been occupied with my youth group´s clases vacacionales (the equivalent of summer school classes in the states) that ended last Friday, as well as my English class, set to end in May. However this week, life is going to get a whole lot more interesting (and crazy, and busy, and I´m getting nervous) as I´m about to start teaching in 2 elementary schools and the local high school (English in an elementary school and the high school, and regular classes in the other elementary school as they only have 2 teachers). In addition to these, I´m still going to have to go some afternoons with the health promoter to give charlas or help hand out government funded foods in other communities. And on top of that, my weekends include working with my youth group and the women´s group I´m going to start working with. In June, I´m adding another English class to the list, one I´m thoroughly excited about, because instead of teaching students (which, yes, will help them once they enter high school or if they choose to pursue university, but little else), I´ll be teaching teachers. By teaching teachers, I´ll ensure a bit of sustainability in my work here.

Oh, I´m also starting a woman´s basketball league for women who want to get fit without the bruised legs from indor or fútbol. So, see, I am doing a bit of health related work (trying to stop feeling guilty about my being here as a "health organizational development volunteer" and all I´m doing is teaching English).

That´s work... and as it´s a lot of work, I´m seeing a downturn in my leisure time (which truly and honestly is fine by me--time moves faster when you´re working than when you are sitting around doing nada).

In my personal life, I find I´m being plagued by assorted animals, and I have no idea why. There are currently 5 dogs at my house, and any time I leave the door to my room open for even a minute, at least one of them will have made their way into my room to lay on my bed, under my bed, in my shower, or under my desk. Before I ever shut the door to leave, I have to do a thorough check to make sure I´m not locking anyone in. If the cat gets locked in, he can just escape through the bars on the windows, but the dogs are a different matter altogether.

Other than cats and dogs, there is the equivalent of a biblical plague of frogs here (probably not literally, but c´mon, there´s a LOT of them). I usually have to sweep 3 to 4 of them out of my room at night before I go to bed, and if I decide to go for an evening stroll, I have to walk slowly and carefully to make sure I don´t step on any of the dozens of sapos hopping into and out of my path.

With earplugs, I´ve managed to smother my hatred of the roosters in residence outside my window, but they, their wives, and their children all sneak into my room when I have the door open (when I´m, say, trying to let in a bit of fresh, cool air during the afternoon), looking for a bit of tasty grub to nibble on, but for crying out loud, THERE IS NO RICE IN MY ROOM! And then there´s the doves. Being a Peace Corps volunteer, it may be said that there is something poetic or symbolic about living in a room occupied by two pristine white doves, but, let me correct you--there´s nothing poetic about the pigeons crapping all over my DVDs and sink. They´ve made a nest between the roof and walls of my room, in the corners, where there tails stick out just far enough to hit a bullseye on top of my bootlegged version of Underworld. It´s getting ridiculous. I´m cleaning all the time.

Other than all this, I´m being followed everywhere, by dogs (usually, at least 3, but sometimes, all 5) and children (who, depending on the child, may be just as dogged). I literally cannot go anywhere without stirring up some other group of dogs stirred out of their lazy slumbers to protect their territorial integrity. My arrival in the park or casa comunal is trumpeted by barks, howls, and growls.

...but that´s enough animal planet for now. Besides, while I know dogs can´t read, Spaz is laying here in the office with me, looking offended...

Que mas? I miss you all, but I bet you get tired of hearing this... I can´t wait to come home, and I also can´t wait to know when exactly I´ll be getting there. At worst, August... but maybe we can bring that forward a month? Time will tell, but geez, I just want to go home already. I try not to see the bars on my window, the cement walls, my every step being followed, not being able to see my family and friends, and not having personal freedom as some type of prison sentence, but really folks... I´ve been in Ecuador for 10 months now... at least in prison you get visits. (I know this is a gross exaggeration, but I´m entitled to use literary license as the author of this short internet blog post, so bite me, and naa-naa-na-naa-naaa...)

Today is my last day of freedom, as classes start tomorrow. Luckily, I was able to get online for a bit... yesterday was spent doing a week and a half´s worth of laundry by hand (and do you have ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO WASH JEANS?!!). I don´t really know when the next time I´ll be getting online is, so I´ll be using the internet for as long as possible today, and hopefully will be able to send a few emails...

Anyway, until we meet again, Live Long and Prosper, May the Force be with you, and Vaya con Dios, bro.

Peace :-D

Oh! I just chose the title of my blog, and it made me remember, the rains have come back! Thanks for all the prayers--hopefully the rice can still be saved :-D-

Hello my Pretties,

So, I am completely disoriented at the moment. I have no idea what is today´s date, nor the actual time because I´m 79.7236% sure that the time on the computer is wrong, and my cell phone is currently being used by my 15 year old Ecuadorian best friend who is trying to salvage a long distance relationship via text messages. I know we´re in April, and that it´s Good Friday (but isn´t every Friday good? Haahaa, just kidding Mom). Okay, I just confirmed that it´s April 10, 2009. Still don´t know what time it is though, although judging by the empty feeling in my stomach I´m thinking it might be time to make lunch.

But for now, with these precious few moments with the Casa Communal´s computer at my mercy, I write to you, my voracious readers...

SO, not much new. Still in Ecuador. Still miss home.

So why am I writing a new blog post, you ask... EXCELLENT QUESTION.

...I don´t have an answer.

Okay, well I want this to be a wonderful blog post but it doesn´t seem to be going to plan, and please pardon me if you are not used to my insanity and neuroticism. And spazticity (don´t know if this is a word). This blog... pardon the vernacular... sucks.

Ya, yo no quiero escribir mas en ingles. Si no entiende el español, disculpame. Es que quiero escribir muchas palabras sin decir nada, y quiero que la mayoria de la gente no puede entender que yo digo. JAJAJA. Ingenio, no?

Bueno, mi vida aqui es tan chevere, como siempre. En Lunes y Martes yo fui en mi caballo a otro sitios para dar una charla sobre una enfermedad que se llama Chagas. Fue muy bien, y la gente aprendío, pero, porque por mucho tiempo yo no he ido en mi caballo, mis piernas me odian, y tambien, no puedo sentarme bien... En Miercoles iba a dar una clase de Ingles, pero se murio una chica aqui (de 24 años... que pena no?), y por esta razon yo no la di. Yo fui al funerario y afuera de la familia, yo era la unica persona que estaba llorando. Extrañaba mi gente. En serio, me hizo pensar sobre mi decision a estar en Ecuador. La vida es bien corta, y dos años es muy largo. Todavia no se que voy a hacer, pero siempre estoy pensando en estas cosas.

Bueno, yo se que esta blog es bien corto y bien malo. Me disculpa. Tengo hambre. Pienso que me voy. Les quiero mucho mucho mucho, y les extraño. Chao mis lindos.

I know I just wrote a blog entry this morning, and this has got to be some kind of record, but whatev. I have an obituary to write.

Ol' Bessie

May 2004-March 2009

We had some wonderful times together: surfing the web, looking at pictures, watching movies late into the night, playing music too loud, telling stories... but you had to leave this earthly plain and you will be sadly, sadly missed. You were the best computer I ever had, my friend in times of woe. Exams, essays, tax filing--you were always there for me, even when sometimes you would get sick or would run too slow and I would yell at you. Even that time when I accidentally spilled a glass of water on your keyboard, you always got back up again. I'll always remember you. And even though I am willing to see you go in Peace after 5 wonderful years together, I will give one last attempt to resurrect you by seeing the Great Magician Anthony, but for now, rest in peace dear friend.

This is being transferred from handwritten...

"So, it wasn't the best idea in the world to bring Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath with me to the bus terminal in Portoviejo, which is where I am now. I'm writing this blog entry into a $1.50 notebook I just bought on a whim, trying to find something constructive to do during my 5 hour wait. I'll transfer it to computer in Quito, which is where I'm headed tonight at 11:00 pm. Time now, 8:29 pm and counting...

"The reason why I'm headed to Quito is because I have lost my 2nd phone the Peace Corps has given me in 7 months. I had my phone in NC for 3 years (you know the one.... Stairway to Heaven ringtone, fliptop, scratched and silver...) I never lost that one. EVER. 7 months and 2 gone...

"But I have to say, maybe this day long trip to Quito will be a good thing. Lots of things can get accomplished in the capitol city of a third world country (although, province capitols like Portoviejo, not so much)... For example, I can get my taxes done online in the PC office. (NOTE: It totally bites that PCVs have to pay taxes on the crappy living allowance we earn. I'm just saying...) I can also pick up my much needed medical supplies (sunscreen, bugspray, dental floss...). And the best benefit (to me at least) is that I should be able to find an AC adapter for my computer as the other decided to end its life at 7 months. Let me just say, being without my computer as I have for 2 weeks, without being able to upload photos, listen to my music, or watch the boot-legged movies I bought in Portoviejo (Personal Note: what is the history behind the phrase "boot-legged"... I think that'd be a fascinating tale...), HOW DO PEOPLE LIVE LIKE THIS? Haahaa, I'm joking... (but only a little).

"I'm so bored..."

Yeah, it's the morning after now. I'm frozen solid all except for my fingers which are doing the typing. I'm sitting in the Peace Corps office in Quito where I have been for the last 3 hours, although I was just able to start using the internet about 30 minutes ago as the system was down. On that note, te cuento que I think I'm having a run of bad luck... I will fill you in.

1. My mirror broke. In some cultures, it is believed that this causes the bad luck. I however believe that it came included in the bad luck run and not as the precursor, especially because these cultures believe that if you break a mirror you will have bad luck for 7 years. Let's just say I'm not prepared to wait that long. Besides, I didn't break the thing... it was the wind, gravity and the floor conspiring together...

2. Got pick-pocketed and lost my cell phone. I think this explains itself.

3. Trying to avoid going to Quito (like the last time I lost my cell phone and wound up spending Christmas alone) went to the province capitol to try to recover the cell phone chip which is what holds all the mulah and phone plan. Ecuadorians can do this. I can't. They tell me nothing can be done until I get authorization from the Embassy of the United States of America (which, guess what?! Is in Quito.)

4. Friends of friends tell me they know who did it. Went to talk with the cat that took the phone. Swore that he didn't.

5. Oh yeah, my AC adapter. C-a-p-u-t.

6. I have this little music device Mom gave me for Christmas. Need a computer to charge it. See #5.

7. One of my best friends moved away this past week. (He'll be back to visit, but still... oh, and I also had his phone number saved in my other phone. See #2)

8. I'm in Quito right now. This is unlucky because 1.) Had to pay 11.25 to get here and 11.25 back, not to mention taxis and meals, and I make a pitiful living as it is. 2.) It's FREEZING. 3.) Internet didn't work this morning, so I spent hours doing absolutely nothing.

Let me say, there's more stuff that I don't particularly want to go into here. But whatev. With a little positivity (is this a word?), I'm sure I can kick this.

I'm safe, alive, and well in Quito. I'm warming up with the sunlight. I'm charging my music thing-a-ma-bob. I found the last 2 Harry Potter books in the PC library which I'm taking back to site with me without shame. (Oh, #9. Brought The Grapes of Wrath with me to not be bored. Ha.)

HAAHAA! Forgot, #10. Broke my key in the lock of my Peace Corps locker this morning. They'll probably be charging me for this.

You know, I'm going to leave this blog here and do something really fun, like my taxes. I think after that I'll get a root canal, and break a bone...

FUN TIMES!

Love you guys! (Just in case the bad luck gets worse...)

Hello my Pretties,

SO, still in March, but near the end of it. Anyway, had the chance to get online and I took it very graciously and thus you find me writing this darling blog to all of you :-P.

So, I do have some new news.... First, I´ve started an English class for adults, and it´s going fabulously! I have found that I absolutely love teaching. I think I´m seeing high school teacher in my future--we´ll have to wait and see. Second, I´ve started a "summer-school" class for kids, which has reaffirmed what my sister has said about me... I am the pied-piper... Kids love me, and whilst I´m not exactly sure I want to send little Britanys out into the world, it´s nice to know :-D.

I´m going rather quickly because I have my friend in here with me who just learned about the internet today in her computer class and has used such knowledge to find High School Musical 3´s trailer in Spanish. I can´t blame her seeing as how I´ve probably spent years on imdb.com. After that, I think I´ll be surfing NY times online for a wee bit as I have no idea what´s going on at home (hint hint, wink wink, where are all the emails...).

Yeah, I´m tired of this blog already. See? There´s a reason I only do one every 1-2 months... (or, it could be constant power outages or having to beg to use the blasted computers. On top of this, my computer, well not my computer but my ac adapter is on the fritz, so I have to use their computers and not just hook up ol´reliable, and I´ll tell you, I just don´t like to do it...)

Anyway. Yeah I´m done.

Random useless facts to make this blog more interesting.

1. Did you know a "jiffy" is actually a unit of time? It is 1/100 of a second.

2. There are 365 steps to Capitol Hill.

3. Napolean Bonaparte was scared of cats, but Sigmund Freud was deathly afraid of ferns.

4. There are no states that start with the letters B, E, J, Q, Y, and Z (yeah, I just did this in my head).

5. ...

I´m done.

CHAO!

So yeah...

I basically let February fly by without a blog post, but hey, it has 2 to 3 days less than all the other months, with stuff like my birthday to keep me way occupied, so deal. I'm making no apologies here :-P...

ANYWAY, March 2009.

Um... I've been here in Ecuador for 9 months, and while it feels crazy to wrap my head around that because the seasons and lengths of the days don't change here one degree South of the Equator, I still feel that sick feeling in my stomach when I think about how much time I have left here... (17 months until August 2010, but who's counting...). On top of that, I just turned 23, so the whole time-is-not-changing trick my mind played on me came to a crashing halt... I'm talking Mac-truck heading downhill without brakes and hitting a cinder block wall... that kind of a stop... suddenly I wanted nothing more than to leave here and go home to all of you. It passed though, about half a week after I got used to the fact that I'm 23...

And I also had decided before the fateful 15th of February that I would not be coming home in May like I had thought, but rather in August (there are a slew of reasons for this, so don't judge... the most important of which is that I'll be able to see my brother before he is deployed to Lord knows where, and I wouldn't be able to see him in May)...

So the last bit of February I spent severely homesick, making plans to forget the rest of my service and return to my homeland. Plans are still in the works now, but I'm trying to stick this thing out. But guys, this is hard! You don't realize it, but 2 years? That's a long LONG time...

Anyway, now we're in March... work wise things are moving along. This past week I've given charlas on Self Esteem and Measuring Values to my youth group, and I'm due to give another on Sunday. I'm also working on a trash management project with the volunteer in the next town over, where we'll be educating on the difference between organic and inorganic waste, doing mingas to clean up the roadways in our towns, and other assorted activities to get our towns litter-free (which is a real problem in this country). Other than this, I'm going to start teaching English classes for adults next Monday, and my youth group and I are starting to give literacy classes on Tuesday. I'm also supposed to be going with the health promoter to give charlas on Chagas Disease, which has begun to make a showing here in my province.

Outside of work, life is good. I've had family visiting (family of my host family, not my Cuban and Cuban-Italian lovies unfortunately--hey and by the way, to all my Tias and Tios and primos, you do realize you have an open invitation to come visit Ecuador, right?). The family visiting meant that I got to have sleep-overs like a teenager (which sometimes here, I really really do feel like a teenager), had the chance to swim in the river (which was moving really REALLY fast due to rainy season), and got to visit a waterfall... fun times all around. They're leaving next week :'( but it's just as well seeing as how I've got so much work-wise starting up.

Other than this, a bit of new stuff but not Earth-shattering... my host family has begun taking the cows to another property they have, which means that during the week I have the house to myself, and the weekends they come back. This has meant that I have had to fudge cooking and providing for myself. I've also given me responsibility of 3 dogs and about 10 chickens. And it just made me a wee bit lonely all around (don't despair... I can handle anything this country throws at me...). US tax season is also upon us, so I have the unsavory task of doing my taxes from here in Ecuador. Seeing as how the Presidente of the Junta Parroquial (the mayor, for all sakes and purposes) has really buckled down on my internet privileges, it should be very interesting to see how I manage to get those 1040s filled out... I might just have to hit him across the face with some bamboo cane, the big thick kind that the make houses out of, tie him down while he's unconscious, and then use the internet with him red-faced and yelling from the corner, helpless, powerless to stop me, muhaahaahaa... yeah, I'll probably just ask him really nicely :(...

Oh, new stuff at home though. My sister moved to Texas! Came as a shock to me too... (Mari, call me--I want to hear all about it)...

And yes, my pretties... I have nothing else to tell at the moment, and thus I take my leave of you and I bid you adieu. MUAH! Chao's.

That ending felt really abrupt. Whatev. We'll sum it up like they do in movies...

The End.

Hi.

Okay, so it's still January. It's the 30th, and I'm sitting in the Peace Corps office in Quito at 6:11 pm EST where I will spend the next few hours until my night bus leaves at the oh-so-fabulous hour of 11:00 pm. It's pretty sweet though, because, as you've probably guessed, I have internet access so I can write you this UBER-sweet blog posting... I have about 5 hours, so let's see if we can make this interesting, shall we?

So this last month, I practically did nothing work related, but you should know why if you're avid blog-reader or if you happen to be Mari who never read my blog until she was sitting in this office with me a week ago or Mama who was falling asleep on the couch behind us... anyway, confusion aside, Mom and Mari were visiting, and it rocked. We went to the beach and my ladies touched the Pacific for the first time. Mari and I took Kenobi (that's my horse by the way... short for Obi Wan Kenobi. I asked Santa for a pony, and Mom and Dad got me a horse...) to the river where we rode bareback as he swimmed. We went simply to wash him off and the next thing I know, Mom's got the camcorder, I'm holding on for dear life, and Mari 's waiting for her turn. We also got to see Quito, Guayaquil, my host family during training, and a bunch of weird random things for which Mom had the camcorder (such as roosters on the buses, piglets hanging out in the cab of a camioneta with us, to name some). My town also threw them 2 dances (a welcome and a despedida)... overall, Mari loved it, and Mom loved being with me, but missed the conveniences of life. SO good visit. Oooh and they brought me books! And Christmas lights! And Snickers! And a bunch of goodies. It was Christmas!

Okay, but I had to say goodbye in Guayaquil on Tuesday. That was tough, I'll be honest. I kept it together for the most part while we said goodbye in front of security, but then I cried. It was a good thing that my bus to Quito didn't leave for another hour so I was able to pull it together, and after the 10 hour bus ride, I was somewhat back to normal. So the rest of this week has been Peace Corps meetings. A lot of it was boring, learning how to do stuff that I already felt that I had accomplished, such as language learning (taxi drivers tell me that I'm a Manabita from the slang I use), integration (did I mention I have a horse, that my favorite food is seco de gallina, or that mis primos y amigitas siempre estan llamando me?), and how to get along with counterparts (I live with mine...). However, I have to admit, yesterday was pretty inspirational, And now to explain my title for this particular blog (see above):

Britany has decided to take on the Municipio Provincial de Manabi, and she's not going to stop fighting until she gets her way.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about some paved roads to increase accessibility to Sub Centros de Salud. I'm talking about bridges. I'm talking about trash pick-up.

I'm still in planning and contemplation phase, but with February coming in and my self-given vacation officially over, all I can say is, It's Clobbering Time. I'm planning on getting way busy. I might not be a caped crusader, but I can harrass government officials with the best of them :-P.

WOOO.

Okay, so good. Well I'm spent. Writing is done. Sorry. I'll be writing more at some other point in time, in the ambiguous future. I'll let you know how my nagging goes with future postings. Until then, Godspeed. Live long and prosper.

Yeah... this month... the blogging thing... not so much.

That's because I have my mother and sister with me, and I'M LOVING IT!!!

So we're doing crazy stuff like swimming with horses through rivers, being smuggled across the province in the back of a truck through a torrential rainstorm, being annoyed and harassed by adorable yet monstrous Ecuadorian children... the list goes on and on.

The only reason I'm online right now in fact is because we're waiting to see if Dad gets on Skype for a chat...

But we're going to have to leave soon... Adventure awaits, my darlings.

Updates should be recommencing in earnest in February though, so until then, Chaoito.

Well my lovelies, welcome to the last day of 2008. We will never see this year again. It´s gone, it´s over, it´s the past (this could be said for any other day, month, year, etc. of history, so lest we get too sad about this idea, we should probably attempt to put it in the context of not just our lives but all of human history, so while it may be important for us to remember this year as a year in our lives, in the great span of human history this year may only be as important as say the years 404 BC, 44 AD, 1066 AD, or 1492 AD... (hey, this should tease a smile out of history majors and enthusiasts).

I have a quote for today and for next year... the immortal genius and wisdom of the Chinese Confucius summed up in the simply stated, "And always remember, no matter where you go, there you are." I´m here, in Ecuador. I´m here, 22 years old. I´m here, a Cuban-American, able to speak Spanish for the first time in her life. I´m here, missing my family which is a testament to how much they mean to me. I´m here, a foreigner forging a new home. I´m here, listening to Hindi music while typing a blog in the casa comunal of my town in the coastal province of Manabí, in Ecuador, south of the equator.

And you´re there. And you know where you are. And no matter what has happened in the past, and no matter what will happen in the future, this moment in time is your´s. No one can take it away from you because you already have it. No matter where you are, there you are.

But, and as a history major I can attest to this, it´s important not to forget about the past, as it is part of our present, and if we live to see it, part of our future... Look forward, but reflect backward. As for me, I´ve gotten through a lot this year. I graduated from college. I joined the Peace Corps. I turned 22. I learned Spanish. I watched the sun set over Pacific Ocean for the first time. I moved to Ecuador. I´ve spent more than 6 months living in a foreign country.

But we always have to remember, even unto our dying day,

As another genius, Frank Sinatra (you know how I dig Frankie), said just this past century...

The best is yet to come. Hope and happiness to all for and in the New Year. Love you guys.

So... yeah, I really don't know how I've lived here in Ecuador for 6 months already, or how on January 1st (only what? A week and a half away) I will have spent 4 months in site, or that we'll be in the Year 2009. THIS is INSANITY!

It just doesn't feel like Christmas, although Christmas lights have been strung up on palm trees and in the glassless windows of bamboo houses for the past month I'll admit. Christmas means cold, means wind chills and pine trees, garlands, and people who aren't naturally nice all year long finally finding a heart in the oh-so-simple, "Well, it's the holidays." Christmas means going nuts trying to find the perfect gifts for people, and trying to drop subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) hints of what you would like to receive. Christmas carols over the loudspeakers of department stores. Santa stand-ins ringing bells on corners, in front of Wal-Marts, or scaring children in malls.

Here I am, still. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't happy here, but still, with Christmas looming right around the corner, I can't help but wonder how things would be different if I were at home. SO much has changed and I missed it. My brother bought a house and added a Rottweiler, my dad grew a beard, my sister graduated from college (Mom, you haven't changed anything have you?!)...

But all is wonderful here in Ecuador where I've been spending these last 6 months. I have a dorm-room-esque apartment that's attached to the house where I've been living, but it's a step toward greater independence nonetheless so I'm stoked. I have a cat (picked up an abandoned stray in the town park, much to the bewilderment and humor of the town's people. They get a kick out of the fact that this flea-ridden mongrel sleeps on my head every night. I am the crazy gringa, no doubt). Work is going well, but I can't really say what exactly I'm doing in a concise sentence because well, I'm doing a bit of everything. Random trips to distant towns to help vaccinate school children. Helping with English homework. Handing out government supplied food... it really is weird random stuff.

But all is good! Mom and Mari are coming to visit me in 2 weeks, and I am RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED!!!

And other than that, I don't feel like writing more... I'm tired... so there.

Hello my Lovelies... well, once again I´ve snuck into the town hall, and hopefully the mayor will stay far away... but I just realized that the last time I wrote you guys was Nov. 10th, and here we are 2 days away from my first solo Thanksgiving, and I haven´t updated you guys since... so wowser.

Okay, so...

All of the chickens of my town have died off/been-killed-as-to-not-infect-the-others due to a mysterious disease affecting the poultry-inclined. I have to confess that I am a wee bit scared that my beligerant hatred of the rooster crow somehow manifested itself into a plague of Biblical proportions, which has killed off the first born sons, and the rest, of the offensive cantantes. Beware the awesome power of the abruptly awakened Britany-monster.

Oh, I´m a Godmother. Yeah, a woman whom I was teaching literacy asked me two weeks ago, and I said yes. My Goddaughter is 4 months old and her name is Estefania. Godmothers though are very common here (not like the sacred guardians/benevolent fairies that we have in the States and Disney World), so I´m probably going to be a Godmother many times over. Ring a bell, I want my wings (yeah, Im mixing my movies... tiene un problema, ese?)

The potable water of my town (haahaa, Potent Potables... thank you SNL Jeopardy spoofs) is dañado which is to say that there are problems, and the whole town doesn´t have water. Luckily for us, however, we have a river. I have bathed in a river every night for the past 2 weeks, and while it is dark, my iridescent gringa-skin (my palid companions should be laughing right now) glows in the obscurity (haahaa... I really hope nobody saw me). I have washed my laundry in the river (this was actually a lot of fun... the fish go nuts for the soap, and while sometimes they get a wee bit brazen and take a nip out of your toe, they´re fun to watch most of the time) and I have gone swimming just because I can and no one will tell me differently (like, don´t go swimming in the water you´ll get gripe...they can´t say it because the bathe in it too) and life is good with my river.

Hmmm...

Que mas? Um... I´ve been playing soccer, and I had forgotten how much FUN the sport is. Granted, here, the girls play with painted nails, jewelry, and full makeup (as they are the quintessential Latinas), and everybody freaks out when they see my bruised/torn up legs due to falling on the concrete field, but it´s too much fun to stop, so there.

And I think that´s all I´ve got at the moment... should I write about work? Nah... things are in progress, I´ll give you an update when things are more solid.

As for you WONDERFUL PEOPLE (you know who you are) who have been emailing me (although, those of you who haven´t emailed me are wonderful people also... don´t get me wrong), I will be writing long happy emails to be sending your way. It´s just that I never know when the opportunity to sneak into the town hall will present itself, so I must come up with a new plan. Grrr. Stupid mayor.

Anyway my Pretties... I must be off. Much love from South of the Border... and another Border... and another... and another to the nth power... and the Equator... WHERE AM I???

I am online, right now... chatting on AIM. Get online people. RIGHT NOW! I've snuck into the town hall in the dark, and am illegally using the mayor's internet. Seize the moment, folks! I'm on an adrenaline overload and I have no one to share it with!! BAH!

Head rush...

I really hope I don't get caught.

... I'm listening to the soothing sounds of Hum Aapke Hain Koun... and I'm chatting with friends that happen to be online... this is amazing. I'm so happy I'm almost crying. Nothing else matters in this moment. I'm connected to my world right now. The mayor may come in and reek havoc, but I really couldn't care less right now. This is like, coming home. This is seeing my navy blue room, and all my postcards stuck to my wall. This is watching a North Carolina sunrise. This is a slice of NY pizza. This is my coffee.

I LOVE THIS!

Hello My Pretties,

So, it´s Monday morning, and I´m currently sitting in la casa comunal in my site in Ecuador, trying to download the newest version of Realplayer onto the computer here so I can listen to Hindi music while writing this here blog. I know it seems ridiculous but at times I feel like I´m going crazy and if I could just get a small taste of home it keeps me linked to my sanity. It is ironic though, I admit, that my small taste of home is Hindi music, but I´m not exactly normal run-of-the-mill American am I?

Anyway, here´s the latest from In Site:

My work has slowed down, and I don´t particularly like that as I feel a lot of my time is being wasted. I haven´t been going to the daycare anymore because when I go, the women that get paid to work there use it as an excuse to leave the 20 plus children with me and go into another room to chat. However, since I haven´t been going, there have been fights among the children in which one of them seriously bit another, drawing blood and scandal, and now I´ve been asked to come back and teach charlas on Ways to Treat Children Well. I know a lot of that seems straightforward, but you wouldn´t believe what I´ve had to deal with here. It´s not that the daycare workers don´t treat the children well; it´s that there is absolutely no discipline, and that could be as harmful to a child´s development as vicious words or beatings. So, anyway, that´s starting tomorrow. And the health promoter here and I are also going to give charlas on toy-making from natural resources and recyclable materials, so that will be awesome as well.

Teaching literacy has also fallen by the wayside as the other Ecuadorian volunteers (whom I found out were actually getting paid to go) are no longer going as the government who pays the bill hasn´t paid in 3 months. I would like to start going again, but it´s not exactly the safest thing for me to do sola and there are a lot of people who want to learn as well, so it´s just a wee bit problematic. I think what I´m going to try to do is enlist volunteers from the youth group to go with me and help out. I´ll keep you posted on that one.

I´m still teaching English in the school here, but as classes are out for the week, I´m not teaching. I have to plan my winter classes for adults, but I think I´m going to have to write a textbook-ish study guide and make copies for any and all who show up before hand. I´m basically going to have my work cut out for me. Why can´t English be a simple language to learn?!

Other than this, I am also starting a census, so the town can have a record of all of its citizens, and I´m making a map of the town with this information. Maybe I´ll also do street signs and addresses for people. Imagine your town without street signs or addresses, and now try to imagine simple things like deliveries or directions or postal service, and you will understand why this may in fact be an invaluable service here. Yay Geography major, and yay knowledge of the Roman census from Ancient History major! I actually can use my college education after all :-P.

So that's all new work news. Socially, life is still good. The people here are amazing, despite the penchant of a few to be rumor spreaders, but that's a small minority. I've made lots of friends, and while my love life is a wee bit on the fritz again, I'm taking comfort in the fact that I'm fully and undeniably free, and as my Tia Julia always told me, "Freedom--that is the most important thing for a woman," so who am I to complain?

Other than this, you guys already know that I'm missing home quite a bit, but that's normal. I'd have to be crazy not to miss the home I have with all of you, because you all are crazy awesome. There's simple stuff I'm missing of course, aside from the more profound family, friends, church etc. I sometimes laugh myself silly by writing a list of all the fabulous and frivolous things I miss from the states... stuff like Starbucks coffee (or any coffee that's not instant for that matter), Supermarkets (to which I don't have to take a 3 hour bus ride), driving (my car, not horses although I've found them to be really fun when they're going really fast, and I also tend to have less road rage on a horse), vegetables (never thought I would miss them, but I could go for a real salad right about now), my ceiling fan, screens, and anything else that saves me from mosquitoes...

And yet, there are also those things I'm going to miss when I leave here in September 2010 (omg, omg, omg... that's still a really long way off :-/). (Sticking to the frivolous here... if I start talking People I'll start crying and making a mess of myself, and I prefer not to do that) Stuff like... going swimming in my river fully clothed, 10 cent chocolate bread, going horseback riding through the jungle at night (usually when coming back from having given a charla), platano with every meal... e-v-e-r-y meal, throwing shoes at roosters (I've found this to be one of the best forms of Catharsis), Aventura everywhere (that's the music group, although I do also seem to have adventures everywhere), children staring and laughing at me in the park when I'm chatting with folks back home, never quite knowing what awaits me in the day...

2 years is a long time. As of November 1, I've had 2 months in site and have 22 months still left to go.

Dude, we're electing a new president tomorrow!!!

And I think that's all I have on the update side. How's life at home? Emails appreciated/desperately needed... I miss America.

Friends, something amazing and utterly unexpected has just happened in my town, for I am now currently... as I´m writing this... in the flesh... in my town, because my town just got... INTERNET! I am using the internet in the Casa Comunal, a block and across the river from my house where we still don´t have running water, but DUDE WE HAVE INTERNET!!! I am sooooo excited. Granted, I had to play with the computers for a while to get the internet started as nobody here knew what to do, but YES I´m online! Great day, friends. GREAT day!

I can´t really tell you how utterly stoked I am about internet without boring you senseless, so I´ll stop here. Wow.

SO, while I´ve got you here I guess I´ll update you. I´m a month and 20 days of month 2 in my site, and while there have been some recent problems, nothing I can´t handle. Personal Note: Chisme is really an awful, awful thing, but like I said, nothing I can´t handle. The day has been a wee bit slow, as I haven´t done any work other than the washing-the-laundry kind of work that could seriously bite into your morning, let me tell you. I also spent the morning listening to Reggaeton, cleaning dishes... you know? Maybe I shouldn´t tell you guys what I did today. As I type it I´m beginning to feel a wee bit lazy.

Whatever. ANYWAY, life is good for the most part, as usual. Still miss you guys though... I guess there really just isn´t anything to say...

Did I tell you we got internet?!

So, finally, after a month and then some in my site, I´ve finally found fast internet... SCORE! It doesn´t matter that it´s three hours away--it more than makes up for the fact in speediness. The computer gods are smiling upon me, and now, friends, you can see what my site looks like via pictures. Technology is a beautiful thing... it almost brings tears to my eyes (when you´ve been living without running water, fast internet seems nothing short of miraculous... so don´t judge too harshly).

While I would like to rhapsodize about the joys of internet surfing, I will spare you. So yeah, Manabí... my site is awesome, still. I´m loving my work, my 100 some adopted children, my quickly expanding circle of friends, my romantic interest (sans creepy guys proposing on buses or really old men trying to be suave while reaching an age close to that of my grandparents, happy to say), my host parents and host brothers, my river (which I go swimming in all the time... sure, parasites are imminent, but whatever, it´s amazing kinds of fun), bridge (my own personal walking suspension bridge--you could see it in the pictures), park (where I spend very happy evenings), and everything else that has come from me living here in Ecuacrazy. I´m really starting to feel at home here (Mom, don´t freak out! I´m coming home in 2 years--I´ve already said this.) It´s definitely helping to curb the sting of homesickness I feel from being away from all of you.

Still, there are some difficulties coming from living in a country and culture not your own. One day, I fould myself giving a charla on Ecuador´s free maternity law to an audience of teenage mothers, and instead of saying that mothers could get a free nutritional supplement drink for the baby and the mother, "suero", I wound up telling them all that they could all get a free mother-in-law, "suegra". They all kind of just sat there and stared at me in confusion, until my counterpart stepped in and told me what I just said. That´s just one example of the kind of shenanigans I get myself into here...

But embarrassing moments aside, I´m swimming in rivers, riding horses through the jungle, standing in the backs of pick-up trucks, using candles galore in the very common blackouts, throwing shoes at roosters (yeah, I just snapped... couldn´t help myself, and besides, the rooster lived...), and I´m very happy doing all of it. Can´t ask for more than that can I? (okay, well, I can ask for more... anyone want to buy me my own horse? They´re fairly cheap here. :-P)

That´s really all I have to say. Sorry... I´ll try the whole jumpdriving thing again, but I think my computer has a virus so it´s been a wee bit difficult to type up a fabulous memoir at home to relay to you all in the States. More to come though, prometo :-D.

Hello My Lovelies,

Well, I am one month into my Peace Corps service (only 23 more to go--wow). I´m falling in love with Ecuador a little bit more every day as we get to know each other better. As such, we´re also starting to notice each other´s flaws, but that´s only bringing us closer.

Ecuador notices my lack of heat tolerance, my neurotic penchant for hand-washing, and my ridiculously irrational fear of the dark, and I notice the roosters crowing every morning. Every.morning. I hate roosters (I´m just going to throw that out there again). My jefes de Cuerpo de Paz asked me what has been the hardest thing to get used to, and I burst into histerics as I thought that I would be adjusting perfectly if it wasn´t for the roosters...

But seriously, life is good. I miss you guys though. I miss my sister´s advice, my dad´s laugh, my mom´s arms, and my brother´s wit. I miss being able to call my Couto´s and Micciche´s. I miss my friends. I miss the United States, and I´m really trying to follow current events as closely as living abroad will allow me (God is blessing me with a subscription to Newsweek via the Peace Corps). Hopefully, the financial crisis in which we´re currently embroiled will be resolved with haste. Until then, ways to save money--ride a bike (Mommy and Daddy, I want a bike for Christmas :-P), grow a garden (I´ve got tomatoes and peppers to start with), turn off lights (blackouts work really well for that here), take the bus (only $0.50 to get to Olmedo, the next city over...), and carpool (20 people in a truck--this is my favorite way to travel, en serio). If I can do it, so can you :-P.

Other than the missing though, I couldn´t be happier. Now, I know this is short, and fairly uninformative, but I must be going as there is only one computer and my friend is currently waiting to get online to check email. But I love you guys dearly. Email me yeah? Or write to me here... I´ll post my mailing address on my blog for you all.

MUAH! Xoxox!

Hello Readers,

I have discovered the awesome power of jumpdriving, and so I am able to type up these blog postings on my computer at my site, and bring them to you with fairly regular frequency. Yay technology! So here goes:

Well, I find myself incredibly busy considering I’m still new here. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I spend my mornings working in a daycare made of bamboo, where anywhere from 16 to 24 children beg me to chase them, twirl them, throw them and the like until I’m absolutely exhausted. I get legos and pelotas thrown at me quite often to my dismay (or stop little fists from hitting either me or the other children). I usually catch the legos and assorted toys, and throw them to a high shelf where the kids can’t get to them as punishment, and to stop the hitting, I tell them I won’t play with them any more, and walk away when they start crying. Others just give in to the crying, which undoes the lesson I just gave. I’ll admit, it’s really frustrating watching a kid, who just threw a fairly large lego at me and hit a little girl, being handed back the lego by his mother. But what can I do? I feel as though I´m constantly putting out fires there, but these kids are absolute pyromaniacs (I´m of course speaking metaphorically, as the good Lord loves me enough not to allow these children any kind of access to fire or flammable substances). This aside though, I do love working there.

On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, my host mom, various teachers, and I give literacy classes further into the areas farther from the town center, after which I get to give health “charlas” or lessons. Last time, I gave a charla on Maternity without Risks, advising young mothers that as Ecuadorian citizens they can receive (and demand) any and all health care concerning their maternity free of charge according to the laws here. For women who can’t even pay for shoes, free government-paid medical care could mean the difference between a safe pregnancy and giving birth with a medical professional present, or giving birth at home with an uncertified midwife. Many women die this way, hence the law.

On Wednesdays and Fridays I give English classes in the school in town. This is also a learning process for me, because often times I have to describe whatever it is I’m trying to say in English in Spanish, and then the kids respond with the correct Spanish word.

On Sundays, I work with the town youth group. Here I’ll have the opportunity to teach health charlas to teenagers and young adults. Themes like sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and STI prevention, self esteem and body image, nutrition, anti-drug and alcohol abuse, and the like.

This is una mezcla of different jobs, but I still have more that I want to do, including starting a recreational soccer league in town (teach about fitness, wellness, the importance of good nutrition, sportmanship, etc), starting an organic garden (nutrition charlas), and environmental campaigns (malaria and dengue prevention, clean up water sources, etc). There’s more that the town wants me to do, including teaching computer classes, English classes for adults, swimming lessons, and more, so it looks like these next two years are going to be very busy indeed. I’m blessed with work.

So that’s work in a nutshell. Hmm… I guess I really didn’t have that much to say after all :-P.

Hello Readers,

So... this is actually probably going to be somewhat short of a message. The gist of it is that I´m alive and well, and still very much in Ecuador. I´m in a rush because my friend is currently waiting on me, and I don´t want her to have to wait too long.

Anyways, life in Manabi is great but busy, and next time I post a blog there will be pictures. However, all my pictures are on my comp back at my site right now so we´ll have to wait on that.

I live in the middle of nowhere in the coastal/jungle region of Manabi, 3 hours away from my mailbox and bank, and an hour away from dial-up internet. I´m being eaten alive by mosquitos, scared speechless by giant man-eating spiders, and share my bath stall with a toad that I´ve decided to name Bill for no reason in particular. I take bucket baths, ride horses, and sleep under a mosquito net...

AND I LOVE IT!

Dude, life here is amazing. Yeah, there are a bunch of things I´ve had to get used to (such as roosters crowing at 4:30 am, or the electricity randomly but regularly going out for the whole town, or the spontaneous bus schedule) but I´m dealing, and it´s getting better every day. I´m learning more and more Spanish, in particular getting used to the crazy coastal accent. All the children in my site now know me by name (although in truth, I have no idea what all of their names are). I give health charlas regularly, and I´m making new friends all the time.

So life is good, and I´m happy, but I do miss you all like crazy. I miss my family, my friends (congrats to Sher and Eric on the arrival of Little Annie, by the way :-D), my church, and my country. Go USA! Sorry, but I´m getting very patriotic as a temporary ex-patriate. I miss the little conveniences of life (even though I know I can manage without them). Lots of missing all around, but I´m not about to wax poetic as time is of the essence here.

Bah, I wish I had more time to write to you all. Next time I´m jump-driving it. Okay, I´ve got to go, but I love you all. Thanks for your comments, thoughts, and prayers--you guys rock!

Hey hey all!

So today, after 10 long weeks of training, I am now officially... a sworn-in Peace Corps volunteer! This morning I swore-in to service with the other 29 trainees of my training group at the Ambassador´s residence here in Quito. Thus, the two year countdown begins now...

I´m terrified. I´m terrified, and excited, and trying to reassure myself, and at times succeeding, other times failing. Can I do this? is the question that continues to chase itself around my head... just as it did 10 weeks ago when I was sitting in my bedroom in the states, surrounded by mountains of clothes and two unpacked suitcases at 1:00 in the morning, when I had to leave for the airport in 3 hours time. Now, I´m faced again with the prospect of two years. That´s 2 years of being away from my family and friends... 2 years of not knowing what´s going on in the outside world. When I come back, I´ll be 2 years older. A new president will be in the White House. My friends will be finishing grad schools, having toddlers in their homes, or out there, building their careers. Time will have moved on, regardless of the fact that I wasn´t there to help make the memories of those two years.

And yet, I am still here. I´m still happy, although panick-stricken at the moment. I love the friends that I´ve made here, both Ecuatorianos and Americans. I´m looking forward to going to my site, meeting and building friendships with the people of my community, working on health issues. I know that I´m not going to save the world here, but I can make a difference. So why the panic? Fear of change, fear of the unknown.

I´ll be okay. I just need to relax right now.

I´m a Peace Corps Volunteer. That´s some kind of amazing.

So, today is mi ultima día in P-town, and I have to say--these 9 weeks have absolutely flown by. I can´t believe I´ve been in country more than two months. And hey folks, the 2 year countdown begins this week, when we do our swearing-in ceremony at the ambassador´s residence in Quito. We had to learn the Ecuacrazy national anthem for it, and it´s pretty awesome. Very anthem-like. But, I´ll tell you what... I´ve never felt so patriotic as having to sing our Star Spangled Banner after being in a developing nation for 9 weeks. I have actually missed the United States--something that for all of my traveling, I have never experienced. Sure, I´ve missed my family, friends, church, home etc, but the country itself? This is something new for me.

Wow, so this is a really short post, and I wish I could write more, but I´m pretty tired after my exhausting weekend, and I have to head back to Pac-attack to pack (heehee, rhyming). Miss you guys. Miss the States (although I could hardly believe this). 9 weeks in, 2 years and 1 week to go. Ha, but seriously I love it here. No lie.

P.S. (Do you write post-scripts on blogs? Who knows...)

I absolutely loved my comments. Thanks Mamí, Mari, and Tia--it made my day. My sister, you´re freakin´hilarious. Geez, when I say it I miss you guys more so I´m going to stop writing. Love you guys!

Y entonces, you are here because you want some updates on your daughter (yeah mom, I know you´re looking), sister, strange little friend, or whatever as I live and work/play here in Ecuador (henceforth known as "Ecuacrazy", a name which has been given with the utmost sense of happiness and cheer and not to be taken as some sort of insult to this wonderful country).

ANYWAY, I´ll give you the first of these entries as a sort of summary of the time I´ve spent here so far, as I´m not exactly starting at the beginning of my service. Okay, so first, I´ve been in Ecuacrazy for 9 wonderful weeks during which time I´ve been doing my Peace Corps training. I´m currently sitting in an internet cafe, más or menos 2 horas north of Quito, in the highlands or "Sierra" region, and while no one told you the Equator is cold, let me assure you that in some places (such as these wonderful Andes) it is indeed COLD. I´ve been freakin´freezing here, Mr. Bigglesworth, but I have definitely fallen in love with these mountains and all of the people I´ve met. And while I´m almost done with my training and thus, this training site, I´m seriously going to miss my amazing host family with whom I´ve made a home away from home, these mountains, my small community, the view of Mt. Cayambe that I wake up to every morning, and all the little things that I´ve come to enjoy here.

So next Tuesday, I´m leaving here and heading for Quito for the final odds and ends of PC Training, and the our official swearing in. It´s during this time that strange and wonderful things like cell phones will be coming my way. Then on Sept. 1st (drum roll here--hey, I´m making sound effects as I write this, you should respond in kind), I should be arriving in my site, which is far far away from here. I´m going to be spending my two years of service in a small coastal town of 700 people en la provincia de Manabí. La gente es muy cariñosa, y ya me encantan. I had the opportunity to visit my site about 3 weeks ago, and I´m ridiculous kinds of excited about getting to spend 2 years in such a spot.

M´kay, so while I know I haven´t given any juicy details and this may be a wee bit of a dry read, that´s all I want to write at the moment, so lo siento, pero está así. I´m also just trying to get a feel for this blog which is why I´m trying to get away from the writing aspect and start making things look pretty. Hahaa, okay... shalom, salaam, namaste, paz, pace, pacum, peace!