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...