Merry Christmas!!

Feliz Navidad de mi familia y amigos en Guaranda!!



Here are a few local traditions and how I've been celebrating the holidays this year ...


Teresa and Byanca filling bags with cookies, chocolate and candy for kids in the campo. This is a tradition for many families and organizations here in Guaranda. Most of the families in the campo don't celebrate Christmas with gifts and Santa Clause. For the very poor families in the campo, gifts are not an option - however it is a tradition for people to bring kids bags of candy, and in some cases clothes and small presents.


Teresa's nacimiento. Families put together small replicas of the baby Jesus's birth, adding small figures, houses and animals. This nacimiento includes several scenes - Noah's arc on the bottom left, next to it Guaranda, and up top the "white house neighborhood" and Colorado!! I told my host family how we have snow for the holidays, so they made a scene with all the snow-covered houses and now call it "Colorado".


Teaching the cousins how to make snowflakes.


Snowflakes around town. I missed snow for Christmas, so I helped several groups learn to make snowflakes from paper ... and we started decorating the town white.


With work, the schools I work at had school Christmas festivals. A school hosted 2-3 other surrounding schools to come and celebrate the day with traditional dances, activities, a lunch and, a few surprises. This photo is the School Christmas Festival in Gradas Central - Un Paso de Nino - the kids dress up like Mary, Joseph, the three wise men, angels and walked to the school to begin the festivities.


School Christmas Festival - "la vaca loca" - kids from one school dress up and try to rope the torro (the opposing school). The school which successfully ropes the torro in the least amount of time wins - 19 seconds was this year's winner!


School Christmas Festival - traditional dances.


The school kids standing in line for almuerzo (lunch) after receiving their bags of candy. The almuerzo was cooked by the community and everyone that came to the School Christmas Festival received a meal.



My New Years resolution is to post more frequently on my blog :)

A Travel Bracelet

November 15^th

I moved into my very own apartment this weekend! After looking at 20-some apartments (some turned down for personal reasons, others because of PC safety and security policy), and trying to explain to my host mother my reasons for wanting to move out, I found my perfect apartment. It's small – a studio apartment with a personal bathroom and kitchen. It has huge windows with an amazing view over the city and a shower with hot water. I looked all over the city, and had three in mind before Peace Corps came to approve my housing. However, at the end of the day, none of them felt right. I would not only be moving houses, but changing families. In Ecuador families are very very close. It's normal for children to live with their parents until they get married, and even then parents often have a hard time letting their children leave the house. The family is number one in Ecuador, and these traditional feelings shine through with my host family. My host mother lives on the same street as her parents, her husband's parents and five of her siblings/ siblings-in-law. In fact, my new apartment is across the street from my host family, it's in her mother's house. It feels great. I have family all around me, but I have my own space. I can leave my papers and books out, read till all hours of the night, and make my cafe and avena in my underwear :). While I still need a few things (a stove, a broom, some curtains), but I feel safe and happy here – it will be easy to start calling this my home.

I have been in Ecuador for five months now. It's longer than anytime I have spent away from my family and Colorado. There are days when I miss home, the US, my family, and all my amazing friends. There have been days when I call loved ones, and the sound of familiar voices makes me want to jump on a plane and head home. The worst is when things are wrong, and all I want to do is give someone a hug – but, I hug doesn't have the same sentiment when it occurs over the phone. But this travel has just begun. I'm starting to feel comfortable here, and would love to show some foreigners around (hint, hint, wink, wink).

Before I left the states, Ella and her sister Michelle gave me a travel bracelet from South-East Asia. It was hand-woven blue thread with bright beads and small seeds all the way around. The story goes … with this Travel Bracelet, put it on at the beginning of your travel. During this time, make wishes, hopes, dreams for the coming adventures. Eventually, once your travel dreams are ready to take form - the bracelet will fall off. At this time, all of your travel karma will be released into the Universe. During your travels, your good thoughts, hopes and dreams will come back to find you. I've worn my travel bracelet for the past 5 months, through training, my time living with my host family and the first three months of my work here. During this time, I thought often of the meaning of the bracelet and my reasons for traveling to Ecuador. Last night, I was moving my last load of stuff from my host family's house to my new apartment. I started looking around, to make sure I hadn't let anything. My host mother came to my door and told me she was going to miss me. We started talking about some of our plans for the coming years, how we were going to stay in touch and special days we wanted to spend together (yes, my new apartment is right across the street). I looked in all the drawers for left thing, and under the bed, where, I found my broken Travel Bracelet. I've found a place to call home and people to call family.

First solita-almuerzo!


The door on the left goes outside, the middle one goes to my kitchen, the one on the right the bathroom.



The view from the windows is over all of Guaranda :)

Mental Health Breaks

One of the great inventions of Peace Corps for us Volunteers are Mental Health Breaks ... they are 2 3-day periods during the month when we are able to visit other volunteers, see other areas of Ecuador, or for PCVs out in the campo - a chance to check mail, use the internet, and go to a market in town. They are an amazing opportunity for us to see other parts of Ecuador, get to know other volunteers and re-energize for the coming weeks.

This past weekend PCV Peyton came to visit me! Two Ecuadorians I work with took us on a bike ride from Chimborazo to Salinas. At first, we were told it was going to be an hour and a half bikeride, all downhill. That quickly became a joke as we went up into the clouds to start our 7.5 hour ride (with a modest 3 hours uphill). Words just won't do the photos justice ... PHOTOS

My work.

I know... two posts in one day! I've had both of these blogs started for at least a week, and today is Saturday and I'm working in the office, so I have time to update.

Three weeks ago (or maybe four...) I spent visiting 5 communities in the Sierra. This past week (or two) I spent visiting 6 communities in the Coast. My head is spinning from stimulation overload, but I love it!

My work operates in the “red zones” of the Provence Bolivar, or the poorest communities (of the poorest Provence in Ecuador). My work reaches out to them to better their living conditions through resources, knowledge and income generating opportunities. They focus heavily on organic agriculture, health, human rights, and woman's empowerment (I know, I know, how did I get so lucky!!?!). They have hundreds of projects going on, so learning the ins-and-outs will probably take me my two years alone!

The Provence Bolivar is considered half Sierra and half Coastal. The climates, geography, and cultures within these two areas are very very different. The Sierra consists of both indigenous campos and mountain communities. The Coastal is made up of coastal people, but not beach-coastal, mountain-coastal. I'm rambling, but I hope you start to get an idea of the diversity.

Just when I've started feeling comfortable with my Spanish around people, I go to the Sierra, where they speak Kichwa (Ecuador's most common indigenous language). A few of the schools I will be working in are bilingual – the majority of students speak Kichwa in their homes, and then learn Spanish at school. Each of the schools are very different – the students, the buildings, the teachers – each paints a small picture of their lives, the history of their families, and their stories of love and tragedy. I won't make you read all about all my visits … but here's just one …

7am Wednesday morning I meet Melania at a market in the center of town to leave for the two school visits we had planned for the day. Melania helps the schools build and maintain school huertos (gardens), at the first school we went to on Tuesday, the older kids in the school helped us plant seeds while we chatted and got to know each other – today, I remembered to wear more sunscreen to work in the sun. We walked for about 15minutes to a bridge where we met with the teachers of the school to take a camioneta to the community. A camioneta is a truck-taxi. Basically, as many people as possible pile into the bed of the truck to move from place A to place B. At times, more than 15 people are standing in the truck beds – I've seen as many as 20!! (Tina – I need to put pictures up for you!)

Once at the school, Melania introduced me to the teachers and spoke with them a little about who I was. Each of the teachers kept asking what I was going to do and if I was going to be there everyday. But, that's the funny thing about my work here – I don't know what I'm going to do until I see (1) the community needs, and (2) community interests. Also, since I'll be working in several schools, I'm unable to visit them all everyday. So, I really have no idea what I'll be doing/ who I'll be working with until I know more about the school and community – and this was my first visit ... after trying to explain that I was here to help with what they wanted me to help in, we walked over to a concrete court (In the US it would look like a basketball court, but here they play voli and soccer on the cement), where the entire school was lining up, in rows according to grade.

At attention, facing away from us towards the school director, they greeted him and at his command, made a half turn to face Melania and me. In unison, they greeted us and all 80-pairs of eyes looked timidly at us. I looked at Melania for her to begin speaking, but she was looking at me.

Introduce yourself she told me. So, in my broken Spanish I said hi to the kids and explained a little of where I came from and that I was going to be working with them for the school year. After a short explanation, I looked back at Melania for some direction so we could begin working on the huertos. I figured we would divide out the older kids, like we had done in the previous school and take them to work on the school huerto.

I was not expecting the words that followed – Play something with them.

My brain shut down – I knew we were coming to visit the schools, but I expected to simply help out with the huertos and to casually say hi to students around the school. Thank goodness I was a YMCA leader, and for PC's dynamicas we did everyday during training, I was able to “Simon dice” and “Cuando yo digo...” my way through the next 30 minutes.

Although it was completely not what I expected that day, while reflecting, I think – what else did you expect? Seize the day. Es la vida.

My coastal experiences have been very different. Traveling to the coast takes 2-3 hours, but is the most beautiful drive – descending thousands of meters into a sub-tropical paradise. My co-workers call me crazy for liking the drive – it's mainly dirt road, hot, at times very dusty and long – well, maybe this is still the honeymoon phase of cultural adaptation, or maybe I have my dad's love for 4-wheeling after all. Eitherway, I must say, some of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen.

The first time I went to the coast was to distribute food rations to communities. In one day we went to three communities and distributed around 80 rations of food. Each of the communities has a community contact who Promocion Humana contacts to let the community know when and why PHD is coming. One of the communities we went to was very well organized; when we arrived at the selected meeting place, all the families were present to receive their rations. At the other two, it took a little more time to distribute the rations to everyone - some of the communities appeared very unorganized, or it could have been lack of motivation to come get the food rations or simple that phone service cuts in and out at times and they didn't hear the news. Either way, working to unite the communities to work with PHD is a key to success. Without them working and interested in the projects, FPH does not succeed. Because FPH only visits each community once or twice every month, the communication and organization the community has within itself is crucial to the sustainability of the work we do.

In the coast, we received regalos (presents) of oranges, bananas, and various other delicious fruits! There have been days where they field promotors I'm working with don't stop for food -- these fruits have been a life saver for me!

In both the Sierra and the Coast my Foundation has worked with family organic huertos (vegetable gardens). While traveling, we visit the gardens. It's amazing to see some of them - with the three A's: Amor, Alimentacion and Agua, they grow like crazy! The majority of the farmers here in Eucador use chemicals to grow their veggies, so a large part of our projects are to educate and start oganic huertos for families and schools! Next just might be cooking classes.

A love story.

Last weekend I went to a wedding!

At 7pm we arrived at the Cathedral in downtown Guaranda for the mass. My host grandmother had invited the family to come (her niece was the bride-to-be). So, Nancy and I decided to tag along with the family. We came equipped with a juice-maker and pressure cooker as presents and rice to throw on the newly weds as they exited the church. When we got to the church, people outside told us the mass started at 8pm. It seemed a little strange, but it's Ecuador and everything starts late! We took the time to stop in at my favorite cafe downtown – Siete Santos - and order hot chocolate and cheese (Gemma – you have to try this!!), which is delicious and my new favorite treat. The cubed cheese turns soft and chewy in the hot chocolate. Just trust me, you have to try it!

When we returned to the Cathedral there was lots of commotion going on inside and outside. Inside, at the front near the alter, there were a group of people crowding around the groom. There was a rumor going around that someone didn't want to marry someone. (Pause for *gasp*) My host grandmother and aunts quickly took off to assess the evening's happenings. A few men came into the church and were directed (rather forcefully for being inside a Cathedral) to sit in the pews at the front. The news came back to us that the friend's of someone didn't want them to get married. (Another pause for *gasp*) A few short minutes later, the bride came in running and in what appeared a confused state. She was wearing her wedding gown, and rushed to the front of the church where the priest and groom were. Soon the couple was talking to the priest. People started to be shushed out of the Cathedral, and as we made our way to the back, the lights turned out and after the last person left, the large doors were closed. The couple and the priest still inside. (*Gasp*) Outside, everyone tried find an explanation for what was happening - we figured out it was the groom's friends who didn't want the couple to wed.

In Ecuador, it's tradition for both the groom's and bride's parents to give their blessings to the couple before they wed. When the couple came out and hopped into a camioneta, everyone said – to the party. The priest had married the couple alone in the church! So, off we went, to the mother of the bride's house.

Once we got to the house, the pain of the newly-weds was present. The importance of family and friends here in Ecuador was displayed strongly as the bride was consoled by all. However, soon, as well, the love of the fiesta shone threw, and all began to dance the night away.

The next morning, I learned more of the previous night from my host mother, in fact, it turned out to be more explosive and thought-provoking than I initially anticipated. (Pause for *Gasp*) It was the groom's friend's who were protesting the wedding. The reason - the groom comes from a lighter skinned family and his friend's didn't want him to marry a woman with dark skin. (*gasp*) They had gotten him wasted before the wedding and locked him in a room. (*gasp **gasp*) Finally he escaped and called his fiance and told her to meet him at the church, that he still wanted to marry her. (Hence why the wedding was delayed an hour.) At the Cathedral, the same friends came to protest the wedding. With too much confrontation and anger, the priest had hold everyone to leave while he privately married the desiring couple. *SIGH*

I send out my best wishes to the newly-weds. I can only imagine the difficulties of trying to start a new life together without the support of your friends. This degree of discrimination is not often seen in Ecuador. However, it is a county of extreme differences – cultures, geography, history, climate, and skin color. I find it respectable and amazing that a small country, the size of Colorado, is still uncovering these differences and learning how to live peacefully with them.

Alta Mira, Echeandia, Ecuador

I went to the jungle this past weekend ... well it really was the coast, but it felt like the jungle.

A few photos ...


My host sister and I went to help my mom cook for a local cooking competition. We cooked all day preparing for 100 peole to show-up, eat our food, and vote for their favorite. I guess the people organizing the event didn't publicize very well ... because, noone showed up! It was an unfortunate event, but we went exploring anyways...


Alta Mira.


A little haven in the jungle.


They had an ostrich, tiger, turtle, birds, fish and snakes!


There were 7 waterfalls on the property ... photo with Ide and Waterfall #2.


Waterfall #1 and the swimming pool.


Hiking to the top of the hill ... my host mother got some help from the horse.


Sunset over Echeandia, Ecuador. Our guide and his daughter.


Plus ... weekend live entertainment!

Ecualessons

1) Take days one at a time - planning the next day's activities is often a waste of time. No, I'm not saying we shouldn't have goals for the future, but micro-planning or micro-managing (at least in my 3 weeks of experience) has repeatedly failed me. It's the spontaneous people, conversations and visits that work the best.

At work, my first few weeks here have been a slow start. I'm getting to know my office at Foundacion Humana Diocesana (FHD) and the people here; but, according to Peace Corps, the office and Guaranda are not my community. These first months (until January) we are asked to complete CAT (Community Assessment Tools). Basically, we are supposed to go house to house, asking questions concerning the resources and needs of the people in our community. It appears to be a great way to diagnose sustainable development and project potential. At FHD I'll be working in the communities around Guaranda (the province of Bolivar has eight Cantons, FHD works in all of them) – so for CAT, I need to focus my analysis on these communities around Guaranda. This past week, I had my first two dates set to visit communities with promoters (the individuals who work for FHD in the field, or in the different Cantons). Tuesday I went to a town called Quesea with the promoter Melana to meet with the teachers and talk about what I could do at the school; in the sierra the children hadn't started school yet, they started yesterday. The week before I had been trying to speak with Melana about what we were or weren't going to do at the school, what the community was like, what kind of youth program we could implement (or what charlas we could give). All week I felt like I was failing, we talked, but I always left the conversation with the same questions I had started with. Last Tuesday, for our trip, we had a 25 minute ride out there, a 20 minute conversation with some workers about their cheese machinery, followed by meeting one teacher for 5 minutes, and then returned to the office. It was a good lesson - the visit to the school however short, helped me understand how important my relationship with the promoters in the Catons will be. During our 25 minute ride home, I had the best, unplanned conversation with Melana, and it came through our chofer, and basically we started talking about how I didn't know what I was doing. Not in the broad goal sense, but in the small detailed day to day stuff – I don't have a program of exactly what I want to do and who I want to do it with. He started explaining to Melana that we need to work closer together, that I might be nodding my head yes when she speaks to me, but that doesn't mean that I understand everything. Melana and I talked about how we needed to get to know each other better, and I expressed that I hope this is our project, not mine. These conversations are good to keep in mind – I need to learn to keep expressing myself over and over until I'm sure people understand me, and then say it once more.

My second visit on Wednesday was to the Canton Caluma to work with the promoter Melina at six schools which were all in session (it is a coastal Canton, and their school are in session). In previous conversations, Melina and I had connected and I was excited to go spend time with her because of her enthusiasm for me to be there and the common project ideas we had talked about. Because the kids were in session, it was going to be a little easier to get a feel for the communities, and we planned on starting some CAT and doing some work (a charla) with a class. Long story short – Tuesday night I ate some bad mani molido (peanut butter), went to bed at 8pm and didn't get out of bed for 24hours. So much for planning CAT and charlas!

2) I'm Sola - Everyone asks who your novio is and assures you that after two years you'll be married and wont leave Ecuador.

(too many stories, I don't know where to start...)

3) Just say “si” to every invite
Last Thursday, my actual birthday, I had a wonderful dinner with PCV Nancy. (She found queso frito – which looked and tasted enough like crunchy Cheetos to make me smile). Upon calling it a night and returning home, I encountered my aunt and cousins at my house who came to wish me Happy Birthday. Their personalities fill the room - they love to talk, act out stories and we laugh MUCHO! Thinking it was merely talk, I agreed to go running with the younger cousin, Angelo at 5AM the next morning. True to his word, at 4:58AM I heard my host mother calling for me -- "Angelo esta aqui. El gustaria correr. Va?" (“Angela is here. He want's to run. Are you going?”)-- Sure enough, he bounded into the room, ready to run. Upon seeing me in my PJs ... he declared he won (I guess we had made a beat the night before...). I started wondering if I was dreaming or not – I had just gone to bed 4.5 hours before and those queso frit/ crunchy Cheetos-wanna-be's were still lurking in my stomach, not happy with the thought of an early morning jog. But then the voice (and face) of my co-trainers from our 8 weeks of training in Cayambe popped into my head - “You're first months there, just do everything. Don't say no.” They'll be happy to know, I took their advice; and to my surprise, the night was beautiful - full moon, brisk weather, pleasant company. In fact, I think I found myself a running buddy (although I doubt he'll live up to Amy and Cole)!

4) Talk to everyone – you just might fall in love.

Honestly, I keep enjoying the random conversations I have with the Bon Ice kids, the man who makes carrot juice, the security personal at Tia ... but since I'm writing this blog in bed Monday night, I'll write about the person I met today … After lunch, I wondered down the the pizzaria to hang out/ find my cookbook I thought I had left there. I couldn't find my cookbook in my office, so after using the internet, I stuck around the pizzaria for a little with my friend Deanna (I know, cool, ha – I swear it's another person). The cook in the back came out and showed me the “Buen Provecho” cookbook I had been looking for, I had left it there the week before! We started talking about the English, PCV-written “cooking in the campo” cookbook, and although he couldn't understand it all, he really liked the book. He wants to learn to cook, wants to learn more about food and nutrition and wants to cook dishes in Ecuador that use more fruits and vegetables and give people a more balanced diet. We talked about traditional cooking here in Ecuador and how a lot of people don't want to try anything new; however, the market sells a plethora of local fruits and vegetables. Most Ecuadorians don't utilize fruits or vegetables into their cooking/diet. In Ecuador specifically, the almuerzo (lunch) is such an important family meal (its the largest meal of the day and children and parents alike usually return home around 1pm to eat), changing the way almuerzo is prepared in the home would help increase nutrition and health of Ecuadorians. There are Universities to become a chef in the larger cities, but none in Guaranda … so he's going to try cooking new dished with Buen Provecho; I offered to try everything he makes. To top off this conversation, he told me he would also love to take a class in Photography. He thinks it's a shame when Ecuadorians live in such a beautiful place but don't like to look at it. He said that people don't like to travel or see new places, and he wishes he always had a camera so he could show Ecuadorians how beautiful their land is … :)

5) Latin American host mothers ROCK
My host mother is the best. Tomorrow she is leaving for Echeandia to prep for this weekend. What's happening this weekend?? An Iron Chef type taller (another word for charla, although these are usually longer and more of a demonstration – I think), without the competition of Iron Chef, and she has more than an hour. She's going to prepare a 4 course meal for 100 people with three main ingredients -papacuna, yuca and platano. Additionally, she can only use ingredients that grown in Echeandia as well (apples don't grow there, so she can't use apples). All day today we invented new dishes incorporating traditional Ecuadorian dishes, made them and tasted them. GOOD LUCK!!

6) Estoy aqui

In the US, if someone asks you how you are, it's common to say “I'm good”, no matter your real situation. We work hard to appear happy, successful, wealthy, even if we are not. Often, happiness is a role we play to cover up pain; but if covered up for too long, depression, overreacting or breakdowns might quickly develop. In Ecuador, if you ask someone how they are, they usually respond with “estoy aqui” - I'm here. They are willing to talk about the pain of their lives and don't feel the need to pretend their day is great if it's not. At first when I got here this phrase kind of bothered me. I wondered why people wanted to go through their lives merely being, it appeared an easy out for not living and for not grasping their lives and living them to the fullest. It reminded me of conversations you have with people where all they want to do is complain and don't want to try and fix what they are complaining about. However, after spending sometime here with the people, I realize its good to be realistic – we are all just here, living.

I don't want to live everyday saying, “estoy aqui”, but I do want to think twice before saying “I'm good”. For me, there needs to be a balance between the two responses -- somewhere between the realist response “I'm here” and the optimistic response “I'm good”. That balance comes by realizing when and why you can't honestly say “I'm good”, and by learning to understand what makes you feel unhappy.

Birthday

My Birthday was this past week! Thanks for all the thoughts and messages, I missed being around close friends and family, it was great to hear from everyone.

This past weekend, the Ecuadorian family helped me celebrate with an Ecuadorian party. Being my first birthday in Ecuador - this was obviously my first experience being a host at an Ecuadorian party … How did I do? Um.... I flopped big time, and, possibly made the biggest rookie host-mistakes – not enough food, a HUGE no-no here in Ecuador. My aunt nicely assured me that I was forgiven since this was my first party, and everyone appeared to enjoy themselves throughout the night. But, here, a topic of conversation the day(s) after a party is about the sobras, or plate(s) of leftover food that the host gives you upon leaving a party to take home. From here on out, I will always cook double when preparing for guests in Ecuador.

One of my sweet PCV friends came into town for the weekend, but other than that, I hadn't made any plans to do anything for my birthday. That's where I got lucky to have such an awesome host mother/family- she gathered her family and everyone made sure I knew how to correctly celebrate a birthday (minus the lack-of-sobras). Around noon, my host mother, sister and cousin cooked me two cakes – one vanilla with chocolate frosting and the other chocolate with a white cream frosting, both had strawberry designs on top.

They made apple flavored gellitan, ham-pepper-pickled onion-olive on a stick appetizers, rice and soup. I was in charge of making burritos, so we made 25 tortillas, beans, guacamole, and aji and cut up cheese and tomatoes. I figured this would be more than enough, and shrugged off preparing a chicken as well.

After the family showed up, I got my face plastered into a cake ...

The burritos, cake, rice and gellitan were quickly demolished and we had a four hour dance party. The living room barely fit everyone, but no one seemed to notice. The kids started playing a lime-on-a-spoon dance competition. Everyone holds their spoon with a lime on top in their mouth while dancing, if you drop your lime you're out, the last person dancing wins! Then we played various balloon games, like: “dance with a balloon between two people”, “balloon hot potato”, and “hit the balloon back and forth”. Like a lot of Ecuadorian games I've experienced, these games consist of punishments for the losers. Let me explain in a little more detail, for “balloon hot potato, ” if the music stops and you are holding the balloon, you have to do a penatencia (penalty or punishment), which is anything the other people make up in the room that you have to do. This particular night, it usually included dancing in the middle of the circle or moving your body in some other funny manner in front of everyone. The rest of the night was filled with dance parties. I tried to but on some American music, but they kept wanting their beats ... I need to get YMCA and the electric slide for the next party ...

It was a fabulous party and everyone enjoyed themselves ... even though they went home empty handed :)

My first weekend in Guaranda ... visiting the family finca, roasting choclo and making corn-husk dolls.

My host mother is on the right, the other Peace Corps Volunteer next to her, and my host sister in the middle (the one that looks like she's about to fall over/ fighting with the boy in front of her).

Cousins.

A few photos

My memory cards are not working 100% ( I can't upload some of them)... but here goes a short visual trip of what I've been up to ...

The first picture is of my Family in Pesillo. We're taking a break between cooking 1,000 pieces of bread for a wedding.
Photo #2: During our tech-trip to La Entrada, we encountered a delicious pie/ coffee shop on the beach :)
Photo #3: Traditional fiesta in Pesillo.
Photo #4: Peace Corps Swearing-In Day
Photo #5: My house in Guaranda... my room is 2nd floor, most right window -- it's half way up a hill and has an amazing view of the entire valley!!

I've landed ...

... training's done - we've passed our language tests, our technical competencies, we've followed bazillions of rules, we've proven we can adapt to a new culture and have what it takes ... deep inside each of us ... to be a Peace Corps Volunteer.

... we've sworn in - after a beautiful morning at the Ambassador's home in Quito, 42 Americans were shipped off to various places all over Ecuador. For some it took merely a matter of hours to arrive at their new homes, others spent several (10+ hours) on the bus(es).

... my bags are unpacked - I've landed in a house filled with love and have been received with open arms. It's a short walk to work as well as to the center of town. There is another Peace Corps Volunteer in my site - a wonderful older volunteer who is from Minnesota! Her host family wasn't working out, among other discomforts, they wanted to double her rent to $100 because she was taking hot showers everyday; so my host family has adopted her, and she's looking at moving up the street from me into my host grandmother's house. My mother loves to cook and I have a big bed -- so come visit me!!

... I've started work - my first assignments are to complete a business assessment of the pizzeria and chocolate/cheese stores downstairs, and tomorrow I am giving a charla to the 30+ people at my office. "What's a charla?" you wonder; it's a term (in Ecuador) for workshops or lectures that (with a Peace Corps twist) usually consist of food, games and pre/post tests. Wish me luck!

My work is going to be busy – Promocion Humana has over a hundred and fifty groups through the province of Bolivar. The people at my office are dedicated and hard working. It's been quite a learning process to sit in long technical meetings in Spanish. Most of the time I find myself lost, but slowly and surely I'll make enough mistakes to start understanding the process of work here.

We're supposed to take it easy for the first three months and integrate into our communities. According to the casa blanca, we're all just those crazy gringos who look ridiculous doing whatever it is we do all day long. No matter how much we try and blend in, we will stick out. Picture this – someone dressed up in a chicken suit, running around and shouting “I'm here to help you! I'm here to help you!” in the middle of Times Square – this is what we look like in Ecuador. So, to minimize that however amusing visual, for the first three months PC asks us not to leave our sites; and to take the time to say “hola” to every person on the street, attend every community activity and get to know the local norms/ slang/ and dangerous places.

My first weekend here was my first chance to integrate with my family and community. Thursday, my first day here, I took off work to unpack my bags and spend the day with my mom and sister. My sister curiously sat in my room while I unpacked, asking what everything was. We talked about our families and school and hobbies. She knitted me a scarf and hat, because it gets cold in Guaranda. For lunch, the other Peace Corps Volunteer here in Guaranda joined us, and after we all headed to the weekly 3pm Thursday market trip. The entire trip took 2.5 hours and we came home with what I remember felt like 150lbs of fruit and veggies in three potato bags. At the market we joined up with 3-6 other women (I couldn't keep track of them sometimes) to purchase fruits and veggies in large amounts. The women bartered and hurried from seller to seller, quickly filling their bags and dividing their finds. The actual time we spent purchasing goods in the market was short, the meeting people and socializing between levels of the market is what we spent most of our time doing (yes, it is a two and a half story building filled with chicken, fish, eggs, pigs and more!).

The next day I went to work for my first official day. The day was unexpectedly filled with excited familiar faces (from my site visit) as well as several new faces to meet. That night we made guacamole and tortillas (thanks for the recipe mom!) and my host family loved them!! I had been running by myself the previous two days, and my little sister told me Friday night she wanted to join me, so, sure enough at 7am sharp she was waiting in the living room for me. We walked up a short hill to the Federacion de Deportes where there is an outdoor track to run around. I was so proud of her, and hope we can keep up the early morning workouts! Saturday is actually a work day for me here (until 2pm), so after running with my little sister, I headed to work. Saturday night was spent playing cuarenta (an Ecudorian card game) with the cousins. Sunday morning for breakfast I made french toast, although it really is just not the same without maple syrup … and then we set off for the family finca (ranch/ farm). We decided to walk the hour to the small, peaceful haven outside of the city. My host aunt and her family own the land and are building a new house on it. During my complete tour of the house-to-be, I fond my father's prized possession is a grill where they can cook pigs. :) We cooked corn over a fire, ate it with mayonnaise while making corn-husk dolls decorated with flowers and petals of every sort. That night the whole family returned to our house where we made chocolate chip cookie and played Frisbee.

These first few days showed me a glimpse into my new life, but there are still many many unknowns. It appears to be a very new experience filled with unexpected challenges everyday. The next few months will be spent making sense out of everything. I think PC has it right – spend the time now to integrate and learn what the people want; you'll spend less time redoing the projects you wanted to have and more time empowering the projects they want.

Talking to the other volunteers in Omnibus 102, its amazing to see how different each of our experiences have already been. We all are placed in very different places, and we all come from very different places. Someone recently asked me, “Where does your motivation to be here come from? How do you know you want to be here for the next two years?”. To this, I think the following begins to capture some of the internal/ unconscious motivation:

"Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment." - Toole

Guaranda, Ecuador

So, training has been crazy. Every second is filled with schedules and requirements. Free time is not a common phrase here.

My site visit went awesome! I will be living in a bigger city (the capital of the province Bolivar - Guaranda), and working in communities all over the province. For the first three months, I´m living with a host family. I have a mom and sister who live in teh house with me. The father works in another city for 45 days a week and is home for 2-3 days a week, and the oldest son of the famliy just graduated from colegio (high school) and is going to University (possibly in Quito). My mother loves having another hija in her house - sadly, she recently has lost her job and her son has left for school, so she loves cooking and cleaning for me. During my four day visit, I ate enough food to feed a small army. I´m going to have to work on slimming down my meals once I get there! My host mother and sister went walking around town with me every day I was there, they will be great support to have while adjusting to Ecuadorian language, culture and lifestyle. Both sets of host grandparents and 4-5 aunts and uncles (I haven´t figured out who lives there, and who was just visiting) also live on the same street - so I´ll have lots of Ecuadorian family around.

The Foundation I work for has an office in Guaranda. They work in cities all over the province, I´m going to start working in their Youth Program. They work with childre, mainly through after school programs, in organic agriculture. They philosophy is that if they teach the childre, they children will teach their parents. Additionally, the Foundation does work in community loans and small enterprise development. Under the office in Guaranda, they have a pizza restaurant and a store that sells cheese and chocolate; these stores support women-run businesses in Salinas. Once my Spanish gets better, I hope to do some work in these areas.

For the first three months on site, the Peace Corps asks us not to leave our sites, so we have time to adapt to the culture and to get to know the people at your site. However, I am also not supposed to ahve visitors and I´ll ahve to ask permission to leave for my birthday and Halloween. We are also supposed to complete community assessmens and present them in four months. My Foundation has been around for 30 years, and has doen some work with long-term goals and program/community assessments. However, it will be quite a challenge to get to know 6+ communities and build confianza with them. I will be the gringa who just shows up for awhile... I was talking to a current volunteer who also worked in surrounding communities during his service - he said you never quite adapt to the culture of all the pueblos, ¨Just make your charlas at each community as fun, outgoing and crazy as you can so they remember you and want to come next time. Then, find a few people at each pueblo you can relate to, and try to work through them.¨ A charla is a term here for workshops. Many Peace Corps Volunteers utilize charlas to reach out to and to educate their communities. They can be anythign from a 30 minute conversation about sexual education to a camp fire, s´mores and talking to kids about fears.

Another sweet find while at my site, was the Federacion de Deportes de Bolivar which is a 20 minute walk from my house. They are a government run program which offers all children in the province sports free of charge. When we were there, we saw karate, kung-fu, soccer and a rock climbing wall! The Federacion also has a soccer field, basketball courst, a track and an awesome staff. I hope I can find sometime to work here.

I´m heading to Guayas today for a technical trip. About half the Youth and Family Volunteers (about 12) are going. We will get to meet current Volunteers, practice charlas with kids and see the beach!! I´ll be back Friday, and then I only have a week before going to Quito for a few days and swearing in on August 19th!!

I know I´ve been promising photos - but I still can figure out how to upload them from these public computers to Blogger...

Site Assignment!

I got my site for the next two years.... DRUM ROLLL .... I´m going to Guaranda. It´s the capital of the provence Bolivar. At our sites, we have a counterpart (to get our primary projects organized and started) and a host family (to help us adapt to the area and learn the culture). My counterpart is the organizer of an foundation who caters to developing the city. They have outlined their needs in the community, which include, youth self-esteem development, agroculture micro-enterprise development, and working with women´s community banks.

When I was told my site, my first thoughts were, ¨AWESOME ... where´s that??¨ Infact, my site is on the map and I have been told it´s a large city with a small town feel. My town is 45 minutes away from Riobama and about 4 hours from Quayaquil. Guaranda is in the Sierra, in a valley in the Andes. The city is known for it´s week long Carnaval festivities and for Pajaro Azul. They also have cheese and yogurt factories, a chocolate factor and lots of agriculture in the surrounding towns. There is a park where people stroll in at night (a place to go running!), and rock climbing in the area (a sport I will be picking up down here!). Additionally, I have heard there is internet at my work and wireless internet is available in many restaurants. There is a delicious pizza restaurant and some international restaurants.

One of the programs through the Peace Corps is World Wise Schools, an exchange program between PCVs and teachers in the US. Peace Corps Volunteers get to write about their experiences and the local culture to a class back in the US, and in exchange can develop assignments and receive letters from the students.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/

I´m looking for a teacher in the US to connect with. Let me know if you or some one you know would be interested!!

Tomorrow at 6:45am I´m leaving to Guaranda for a four day visit! I´ll tell you all about it when I get back .... I love and miss you all!!!

OMNIBUS 102

My brain is a mesh of Spanglish right now. Thankfully, after three years of college spanish classes and 6 months of living in Spanish speaking countries, my Spanish is starting to improve!! Unluckily, sometimes this means I can´t speak or type English. My deepest appologies for my spelling and grammer on these pages ...

Over the past four weeks, I have been part of a motivated, diverse and very caring group of people. We are OMNIBUS 102. We are 45 individuals from around the US here in Ecuador to serve for two years in two programs - Youth & Families and Community Health. During training, we are divided into ten surrounding communities, based upon language level, to live with host families. I live in a small town, about a 40 minute bus ride from our training site. In my town, there is no internet (hense why it takes me so long to update my blog, and I have so much to say right now!!), one full service restaurant (under my bedroom), several small stores, kindergarden, a primary school, TWO fulbol fields, two milk companies, a mushroom factory and a volleyball court. Most families have cows, they milk twice a day, as well as a variety of other animals (popular ones include: pigs, sheep, dogs and roosters). I live here with three other Peace Corps aspirantes. We complete language, technical and cultural training everday until we swear in as PCVs on August 16th. Between now and then, we will complete charlas (workshops) with the youth and parents in our community, visit our sites (More on this to come!!) and go on a technical trip. During our taining, we get to work with and meet current volunteers, we are evaluated on several competencies, and we get to share our knowledge with OMNIBUS 102.

To back-track a little and update you on my whereabouts since my last post, we got to celebrate the 4th of July!! Now, we didn´t get fireworks, and there was a deffinate Ecuadorian twist to the American Independence Day. Peace Corps held a reiña contest, futbol games and a BBQ for us. For out futbol games, we were divided up by community and each team had a reiña of their community. The reiñas each competed to be the reiña of OMNIBUS 102. They were judged on appearance, team spirit, and by answering the question, ¨Why do you believe you will be a good volunteer for your community?¨ Additionally, the futbol teams competed in a bracket - my team was eliminated the first round 2-1, but the team we lost to won the championship (so we declared 2nd place for our team). For the BBQ, PCVs cooks us hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, fruit salad and guacamole!!

Two weekends ago, my friend John and I climbed on the hills by our houses. We trotted up pipline trenches and followed sheep paths up to a field of wet, long grass. The top was beautiful - we were able to see all the surrounding communities and farmland. Hiking made me miss home for one of the first times. But it also rejuvenated me and quenched my need for a small adventure. I don´t have any pictures to post right now, but I will get some up soon!! I think my photos from the first three weeks here got deleted off my camera :(

My family here has been very supportive and helpful. I have a mother and father (Maggie and Luis), two sisters (Ali, age 17 and Magily, age 12) and a little brother (Leonel, age 3). Right now, the two girls are on vacation until September. They spend their days helping their parents in the family store/ restaurant. Additionally, we have language classes at my house 2-3 times a week, and the family loves to watch us try to speak Spanish. We have Cuy at our house (guinea pig, a delicious delicacy here), chicken on the roof, and a pregnant pig down the street. Ali has one more year of school, and then is going to University. She is going to study law, and will either go into the police service or continue her education to become a lawyer. Her younger sister has an incredible amount of patience for me, will explain things 5 times over, and enjoys ¨taking care of me¨. Leonel enjoys being the boy of the house, he has endless amounts of energy and enjoys playing his guitar with his dad. I know when I´m learning a lot of Spanish, becuase I´m able to understand him. My family enjoys helping me with my Spanish vocabulary and like to learn English words - Leonel´s favorite word is ¨pig¨.

Last thoughts .... things I forgot in my 2 year bag (which is in Quito until August 16th), but I wish I had right now ... my computer charger, duct tape, my french press, bubbles, my Chacos ...

Safe in Ecuador!

Whew... the past two weeks have flown by! We´re in training right now and the week days (plus some weekend days) are packed with language, cultural, technical and security training. We are divided into communities based upon language level (about 4 or 5 per community) where we each have host families to live with until we are sworn in as PCVs and move to our sites for two years.

My host family is awesome! I have two younger sisters and a little brother. The family owns and runs a restaurant and store underneath their house. The first weekend I was here, the town was celebrating the festivels of San Juan. There were non-stop people moving in and out of the restaurant and tienda - I made myself useful by helping in the restaurant and getting to know some of the hungry visitors. For lunch, we serve soup, followed by either trout, chicken or carne with rice, potatoes with cheese sauce and a small salad (mainly just cabbage) and homemade juice. For dinner, trout, pollo, carne with rice, avocado, lentil and a small salad (carrots, tomatoe, and cabbage and mayonase), also with a soup and juice. During the festivales of San Juan in my town, there were two bands in the town center all weekend (half a short block from my bedroom window), in addition to a parade Sunday morning. My first night here, my sisters dressed me up in traditional skirt, blouse and hat, and took me around town singing and dancing for hours. Traditionally, the diablo huma is the important character of the night. The portrayer wears a mask with two faces and 12 horns, he also carries a whip. Other men wear pants made with animal fur and play the guitar. The men and women sing and dance in circles. The circles are traditionally symbolic of safety and the legend states that when a person strays from or breaks the circle, they are subject to a beating from the devil. Additionally, the groups move house to house; here we received gifts from the owners of bread, oranges, rice, meat and drink. The festivles will continue in different communities until August.

Training during the week has been intense, playful, empowering, draining, challenging, and has arrounsed many many other emotions. It has been the best training I have received prior to any job. As a PCV, you are supposed to keep your mind open to where your site will be, who you will be working with and even what you will be working on; you are also supposed to use training to prepare for what you will complete during the next two years. One of my collegues said it best, ¨I want to learn something new everyday.¨ So far, I´ve met this goal several times over, daily. My Spanish is improving, I´m no longer a vegetarian, I´ve started running with my little sister, I can understand my little brother when he talks (sometimes), I met the president of my community, I´m going to find a way to help my Papi in their tienda (bodega, viveres, store), I want to learn how to build a garden, and I take a bucket shower in an outside bathroom in 40 degree weather.

Last weekend we went on a cultural trip with half the aspirantes (this is what PCVs are called during training, before they swear-in) to an Afro-Ecuatoriano community. We experienced their food, made masks, took a walk in the ¨jungle¨, watched and danced the bomba, played futbol with the locles and heard about the discrimination against Afro-Ecuatorianos. It was an eye-opening experience as they openly talked about both the difficulties and pleasures of their lives. Again, my host mother here was the most welcoming person. She told us how at 4am every morning she climbs the mountians around her house to collect caracol (snails). The live ones are sold for food the the old shells are gathered and sold for jewelry or other artisanias. Additionally, she and a group of women make cards out of recycled paper and local flora. When we were leaving she asked repitedly when we were gonig to come back and visit and if we remembered how to get to her house so we could visit and stay with her. Infact, the entire community welcomed us and enthusiastically played futbol, played music in the streets and watched every move us ¨gringos¨made.

My community is small, but I like the personal feeling I have there. Most of the people work for two milk companies and own their own cows. There are lots of local dogs and pigs and chickens that roam the streets. Luckily, one of the neighbor dogs likes to go on runs and protects us. I don´t have internet in my community, but I hope to update my blog every other week or so.

Well, I have to go do my laundry before it gets dark out! Miss you all tons! Let me know how life is ...

Start of an Adventure

I'm in Miami right now! We start staging today.

On Wednesday, tomorrow, I will leave the US to live in Ecuador and serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer or PCV. I will be working specifically on Youth Entrepreneurship, and I can't wait. Like a lot of things in the PC, I won't know what that means until I start and give it meaning. But for right now, I know our mission is three fold:

1. Youth Stewardship to increase self-esteem and improve education; volunteers sponsored youth workshops to build leadership sills and self-esteem and train young people in HIV/AIDS prevention and sex education.
2. Community and Organizational Development to increase the capacity of communities to address the needs of youth and families.
3. Prevention to better equip youth and families to deal with life's challenges.

Once we get to Ecuador, we will spend three months in Cayambe, Ecuador (mountain town!!). I will live with a host family in the area, get immersed through the family and receive language, cultural and technical training. We swear-in as official PCVs on August 19th!

This blog is to keep in contact with the people who have impacted my life, to meet new people, and to hopefully inspire and share with those I don't know. Please read as often or little as you like and let me know what you think/ want to hear more about/ don't care about/ or give me inspiring words of wisdom and creative ideas.

Before leaving the states, I met several people connected to Ecuador. Among them, I would like to tell you about two who have already inspired me. Jorge, a salsa partner, is from Ecuador, came to the US and now owns his own carpet cleaning company. His sister and brother (among lots of other family) live in Quito and are entrepreneurs. His brother worked at Good Times in the US, and when he went back to Ecuador, started his own hamburger stand! Man, talk about having entrepreneurship in your blood, I wonder if this is a common characteristic! Penny, the stewardess on my flight to Miami, does non-profit work in Ecuador and now works building primary schools in Guatemala. We talked about the challenges in the area and PCVs opportunities and responsibilities.

I don't know what my internet situation will be in Ecuador, but I will try my best to post regularly. Thanks for all the kind words of wisdom, gifts and thoughts before I left!!

Goodbye and Hola

Hello. Thanks for visiting my blog!

I'm leaving for Miami for staging on Monday June 15th. From there, I'll leave for Quito, Ecuador on Wednesday!

Please check back in a few days and I'll of had time to make my first (well, second) post.