A week in my life...

MONDAY

7am Wake-up and feed Daisy

Prepare for Nutrition Charla; post-office visit and loop around town

*I'm not sure why I put this in, but this is the post office in Guaranda*

10am Nutrition Charla for Profesora Judith’s Class

11:30am ALMUERZO … made tortillas for week

12:30 visit with PCV Nancy – picked up movies, had coffee and chatted about current reads/ her son got engaged!

3pm – 5pm Planning with Maricela in CEMPOLAF for Friday’s Joven’s Class

5:30pm quick Internet check – gchatted with CO girls :)

6pm return home to feed Daisy

6:30pm chat with Maria, Teresa and Vicente in tienda – gossip about last weekend's weeding, up-coming week’s events.

7:30pm DINNER and a movie (August Rush)

9pm (can’t sleep … cleaned kitchen and bathroom; read The Age of Turbulece, journal)

11pm SLEEP

TUESDAY

6am Wake-up

6:30am Meet with Teresa, Don Hernan and Gilbert to go to Santo Domingo

8:30am Arrived in Santo Domingo to learn school was canceled and the teachers had a meeting in Simiatug. Luckily (and unexpectidely), the director gave the key to an INFA (day care for 0-5yrs old kids in Ecuador) teacher and organized for all the mother’s of students to meet with us. So, instead of helping the teachers organize the toy room and do child evaluations, Teresa and I ran a charla with 17 women and one man about sewing, child development, small business opportunities and we played the human knot. Three of the jovenes and a group of ninos also helped me put together some toys in the Toy Room – we put together a body of bones and the internal organs, and cut out clothes for two plastic kids. We talked about parts of the body – the 14 year old girls were learning what our heart and lungs are for. It’s amazing to watch people’s eyes light up with they understand something or ask a question because they crave more knowledge.

*I forgot to put the memory card in my camera, but these are photos from previous trips. The school is going to receive three "shipments" of toys. In between, we are organizing the toys, arranging activities and evaluating the kids at the school. The biggest challenge will be getting the community to "own" the project.*

3pm Arrived back at the office

5:30 Home, fed Daisy, colored with sidewalk chalk and the cousins - I was sure Maria (my land-lord) was going to kill me, until I ensured her the chalk washes away with the rain.

7:30pm Short/ slow run

8:30pm Read material for tomorrow’s charla

10pm SLEEP

WEDNESDAY

7am Feed Daisy

8am Work in office … accounting, informes, planning and email

3pm Meeting with San Vicente Grupo de Muejeres. A group of 17 women who have been working together for 17 years making Turron. They started out with a loan from Promocion Humana, and today function as their own Foundation. Only 5 women showed up to the meeting, but they are currently not making Turron. We talked about areas in which we can collaborate and where the Foundation wants to go. They are looking for a bigger market, some leadership skills and additional products to sell/ produce. For the business side of my work with the group, we are going to start with Market knowledge and analysis in May. For the integration side of my work, I’m going to teach English classes (oh…) starting next Tuesday.

5:30 Feed Daisy

6:30 Internet and Pizza with Salinerito Pizzaritos

11pm SLEEP

THURSDAY

6am Run

7am Feed Daisy

8:30 to Quindigwa with Don Hernan and Gilbert – meeting with women’s group. Don Hernan is starting an agriculture project with three of the women (very very cool - for one part of the planning, we had each of the women draw what their land looks like now, and on the other page, they had to draw what they wanted their property to look after the three year project) and we were going to present additional opportunities for the women through Soluciones Comunitarios. Upon arriving, the women’s group had some internal conflicts they need to work out; we addressed them as an outside institution and encouraged the women to resolve the issue among the group, and will save the additional business opportunities for the future. We worked with school’s garden, exchanged English for Kichwa lessons with the kids.

4pm return to Guaranda

5:30pm feed Daisy

8pm Novela “El Capo” and Chismea with Teresa, Monica and Maria in the tienda

11pm SLEEP

FRIDAY

6am Run

7am Feed Daisy

8am To Carbon Chimipamba with Melina and Melania – Charla with escuela kids in brushing teeth and washing hands. We sang songs, drew pictures, and handed out toothbrushes and tooth paste for each child.

2pm back in Guarnda

3pm Grupo de Jovenes with CEMOPLAF – I’m helping Maricela start up a Volunteer group of Youth Promoters to teach their peers sex-education. If the program gets off the ground, we’ll be able to educate the youth in AIDS/ HIV awareness, safe-sex, self-esteem, and sell condoms to the youth (it’s a form of income for the Youth Promoters). Today we watched Juno and talked about teen pregnancy – the pros and cons they see and the costs (monetary and otherwise). Watching Juno just reminded me of when I used to watch the sex scenes in movies with my parents or any other adult in the room … all of the kids tensed up, let out a few laughs, told the youngest kid in the room to “cover your eyes… don’t look”, and then kept watching. Haha.

5:30 Feed Daisy

6pm night walk with Teresa

*Guaranda at night -- the view from my roof*

8:30 Novela “El Capo”

SATURDAY

6am Run

7am Feed Daisy

8am Office Day – planning, market-day in PHDG, Organizing and Planning for next week.

9am break Market with Maria – bought food for Daisy and some for me too.

And now were up to present time … it’s Equinox on the equator, so I’m doing my skin a favor and staying inside today. Going home to clean, cook a late lunch (vegetarian spaghetti with Dora and Daniel) and read a book. Tonight my favorite local coffee shop has a live band, plans to go sip some Pilsner and chill to some tunes.

Tomorrow we’re going hiking in the campo. It will most likely be followed by a much-too-large meal and lots of laughs. We have to build a new door for the pigs, we now use their old one as a bed for them. An old PCV is coming to town tomorrow too - looking forward to a game of Scrabble and some good gringo talk.

So… that’s more or less a week in my life here. Do I love it? Yes. Do I miss home? Of course. I’m pulling myself out of a little hole I was in (I mean, after Carnaval, nothing is quite exciting anymore… jk). I’m learning lots about myself and loving every moment of everyday, learning that "This too will pass" - for t. We have officially been here for 7 months - so, I can officially tell all of you that being a tourist in a developing country is worlds different than living in a developing country. You begin to understand the lives of the people in a new way - their struggles, their systems, norms and customs. The great part about being a foreigner though, is that you can break some of their norms and systems.

My first visitors will be here soon -- MY GRANDPARENTS -- April 7th - April 27th. sooo excited!