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.