It’s almost over.


I will soon have completed my 27 month United States Peace Corps service in Ecuador. Me falta 2 meses. I’ve had a fulfilling service. I mastered Spanish, started a community beekeeping group, and now have a greater appreciation for reggaeton and Michael Jackson. The time has truly flown. I’ve met and come to love many people here and I will never forget them. I’ve also met many who I don’t particularly care for, one being my next door neighbor. I feel that I’ve truly experienced small town Ecuador. And I’m ready to experience small town United States again. I won’t miss the busses or the misinformed president of the town, or the drunks every Saturday night and Sunday morning. I won’t miss waiting for a kid to finish his video game so I can check my email, or seeing all the stray and starving dogs. I will however miss the sunny days when everyone is harvesting their beans, the smell of corn husks in the air. I will miss the abundance of fruits and vegetables that were grown not only in country, but in town. And every morning, afternoon, and night while walking down the street while the Cahuasquirenos may be tired, in a bad mood, worried…, everyone still “saludars” you.

What will the future hold? Hopefully lots of rock climbing because I want my calluses back. Probably lots of knitting; put your orders in now! Go back to school to become a physician’s assistant? Go back to school to study entomology? John Harvard’s Brew House? Just kidding Mom. I’ll figure it out. As everyone tells me here: I’m still young; even though I should have a spouse and kids waiting for me back in the US at this age. They may be worried but I’m not. I am kind of concerned about what I’m going to do with all this stuff I have. Those pack rat genes have finally been manifested here in Ecuador. I’ve been collecting on average 1 a half books every month from my mom as Cow’s been collecting sweaters that I knit for him. I have an impressive collection of school papers of my cousins, calendars from Aunt Sling, cards from Melissa, and letters from Gma. I’ll even be bringing home 2 bobble heads! Some people back home might have been concerned about my collection of pets but I won’t be bringing them all with me, just Cow. “How are you going to bring that dirty dog with you and not bring me too?” Have to see if he has a problem learning the language when I get him back.


We’ll see you at the end of April!

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Big changes! I’ve moved! Its bitter sweet because now we’re down one gringo here in town however I also now have my own place. Its about half way organized right now. I moved down the 31^st of August and still have some painting left to do. It feels really weird to be here without Ryan around. Cuca seems to be adjusting alright. Now not only does she have a bed to loaf on, she also had a futon thing. And a patio all to herself free of other cats and dogs. Tomorrow I’m gonna paint the tables and the bathroom. I think it will be a great opportunity to introduce Cuca to my duck, Muco. Right now he’s still super tiny and living with Beva and German’s other little duckling. Muco and Pinky have become fast friends but I want to get him off the duck wavelength and onto the gringa and Cuca wavelength. I’ve decided that tomorrow while I’m painting I’m going to bring him over and keep him in whatever room I happen to be in. Let him see the house, the cat; listen to my music. We shall see how it goes.

Last weekend us gringos went to Otavalo, the big market with German and his family. It was Andy’s first time. He was so cute. I really hate Otavalo Saturdays though. There are just WAY too many people. And they’re from all parts of the world, and they all walk super slow. I think I’m just really paranoid about getting pick pocketed in an area like that. Everyone’s walking around with pockets full of money and completely oblivious to what’s going on around them. I did get Muco though so that was a bonus. I also bought a really tiny kitten. I had plans to just have this one cat but these kittens looked awful. They were all squished in a tiny cage, all piled in together, with a little bowl of cabbage soup. There was one smaller than the rest so I pulled him out to have a look at him. Poor little guy. His fur was all matted down, he smelled terrible, and was really thin. I lectured the woman about how you can’t give soup to little kittens like this and then bought him for $1.00. The duck went for $1.50. So anyways, the woman told me that he is 3 weeks old. Who knows where momma cat is. Oh and the best (worst) part is how she hands him to me in a paper bag. Like something you’d put your kid’s lunch in. just shows how they really value their animals down here. I made it my priority to get little Mugre (means grime, or gunk, and I now feel terrible for calling him this) some milk to drink. All I can find is strawberry milk in boxes to I’m feeding him with the straw of the carton. One of the other volunteers is holding Muco so that I can manage the kitten in the paper bag and carton of strawberry milk. I must have looked like a lunatic. Later we went to get pie and they gave me a bigger cardboard box to put both of them in. I was giving Muco some of the pie crust and Mugre some of the melted ice cream. Everyone wanted to know what I had in that box. I sent my new kids home with Beva because she had brought Pinky (a duck for Andy) as well. I wanted to have a little more time with Edu in the city before he left for England. I come back to the ‘ski about 9ish to see the ducks snuggling and Mugre still in the box. The fam told me that they gave him milk, yogurt, and some meat. I picked him up and have him the once over. He seemed alright and then started vomiting. He vomited so much for such a tiny cat! I decided he needed a bath so I took him up to the hostel. I put him in the warm water and he just sat there. That’s when I knew something was very wrong. Didn’t fight me at all. In fact, he was only calm in the warm water. When I changed the water he’d cry and cry and cry. He must have been so chilly. I wrapped him up in a towel and snuggled him for a bit. I decided to test his stomach out and feed him. We went back down to the kitchen and I heated up some milk in a saucer for him. I put him down on the ground and he fell into the saucer and couldn’t get up. So now he can’t walk. I thought I’d just let him rest a big. We did some more snuggling finally it was bed time. I kept him wrapped up in a bathrobe and under the sheets next to my body to keep him warm. Around 3am I feel his whiskers scratching me. We went back down to the kitchen to try and feel him a little more. Brought some warm milk upstairs with a tablespoon, the only instrument I could find to feed him. He was swallowing a little bit at a time but a lot was just coming out of the sides of his mouth. I decided it was a better idea to give him some rehydration salts. He kept stretching his head back; I figured that might be a nervous system effect of the dehydration. He was drinking those just as poorly as he was drinking the milk. At this point I felt super distraught and I had no idea what to do. He was just peeing on himself in the bathrobe, still wet, doing that weird neck flexion thing. I really thought he was going to die. I left him in the bathroom around 4am to get some sleep without worrying that I was going to roll over and squish him. My eyes banged open at 7am and I can’t explain how terrified I was to go in the bathroom and find a dead kitten. I finally got the nerve to open the door and I see him, in the robe, maybe dead but when I open up the robe to get a better look he starts wailing. What a fighter. At this point it’s time to turn to a vet. I can’t feed him with a tablespoon. I go to a man in the community who I know was a vet before. He told me that I’m really out of luck, he doesn’t have medicine but I should go to Urcuqui, there’s a vet there. So I get in the bus to go the 1.5 hours to Urcuqui. David’s son sits next to me. Thank goodness he was there for me to talk to and get my mind of the kitten. He was doing all he could to cheer me up, such a good 12 year old, telling me jokes, talking about his karate classes. David is lucky to have such a good kid. While on the bus Mugre started to have diarrhea. So he started to smell even worse. I kept opening up the towel to hear him cry, so I’d know that he was still vocal at least. Xavier was funny, he said, man that cat really does kind of stink. Even though he stunk Xavier still sat next to me, trying to cheer me up. Finally we got to Urcuqui and to the vets office to find out that the vet isn’t in the office today. He’s gone to Ibarra and I should go there. So I get back on the bus and go the next ½ hour to Ibarra. Get in a cab and go to the office where the vet gives him a shot to stop the diarrhea and then tells me that I need to keep giving him the rehydration salts every 3 hours. But he doesn’t even give him any fluids there in the office. It was super weird. He told me that the Mugre had parasites. Basically all of his diarrhea was parasites. Just more and more parasites; it was disgusting. So I left the office with pobre Mugre in a carton, wrapped in the bathrobe, to go to Edu’s house. I wanted to see him one more time before he left the country. I made it through the door and just had a total cry fest. It was awful. I just felt so guilty and helpless. I took this kitten away from his family and not even 24 hours later, in my hands, he can’t even walk. I’m talking to Edu, explaining my morning/night, crying, breaking down when I decide to show him the cat. I open up the box and unwrap the robe to reveal a dead kitten. But not dead, I picked him up and he gave this terrible gasp. I didn’t know what to do at that point. Edu suggested giving him some water with the syringe so I did and he would swallow a tiny bit and then gasp probably every 30 seconds. And that was it. No breathing. I got a light to check his pupils and they still got smaller in the light but really slowly. It was just a terrible, terrible day. I put him back in the box, all wrapped up and just lost it. This incident was probably the lowest point of my entire Peace Corps service. I haven’t cried that hard since I’ve been here. I got back into site later in the afternoon, just feeling cold all over and disgusted with myself. I took a shower and spent the afternoon in my room alone.

The night got a little better. We did Ryan’s despedida (goodbye party) up with the family. We ate a lot of meat- cow, chicken, pig, hot dog. Drank some beer, played some cards, and little by little I managed to temporarily forget about Mugre. The guilt started to subside. After dinner I felt a lot better and the family wanted to dance so I came to my senses and got my groove on. And of course we had to go to karaoke. Ryan’s big last night at karaoke…all English songs. After we sang all the regulars Jeff just went nuts and started putting on whatever song he could find in English. We had to keep telling him to skip songs because we had no idea how they went. It was quite the crowd. Started out with the family from up top but then they went home leaving the 2 owners of karaoke, Ryan, Ben, Jesus, and me. Jesus knows every song in English somehow so he had a blast. We stayed there singing and drinking copious amounts of beer until a little past midnight. There was a party going on in the Galapagos (the family looks like turtles I guess, or that’s what they say) so we were gonna head over there but Jesus thought it would be a better idea to get a java (12 big ol beers) to just drink at Ryan’s house. So that’s what we did. Between the 4 of us we drank 12 much-larger-than-normal beers. It only took us until 4am. I haven’t partied like that since that night in NYC with Burgos and Jason. Needless to say it got my mind off of the kitty. And then the hangover the next day also helped.

That took us to Monday. Ryan’s last full day in site. I decided to make the cake for him because I dropped the ball and forgot to buy one in Ibarra. I made a sick apple upside down cake. Then I had to make a frosting to put on it. Don’t come here for your birthday Megan, they always put the birthday girl/boy’s face in the cake. I really wanted to put Ryan’s face in a cake because he was going and frosting is so much better than apples to put a face in. We did a nice despedida with German and his family. Just the gringos and the Benavides’, and David. Beva killed 2 chickens for the occasion and a guinea pig all for Ryan. He said it was the best he’s had in site the entire 2 years he’s been here. Beva does cook some mean carne. It came cake time and Klever actually was the one to put his face in it. Surprise! And the cake came out alright. We all hung out after dinner, drank some rum and coke but after the previous night’s activities, no one really had ganas de chumarse all over again.

Ryan decided to go on the bus at 11:30 so that gave him the morning. Ben had taken off to Ibarra for the day so Ryan and I made banana chocolate chip pancakes with David and his son. They came out super good. But it was really sad. We were listening to musica de longos (Ecuadorian music) and just avoiding talking about how Ryan was really leaving later that day. I said my goodbyes earlier than he actually left. I didn’t want to be around everyone saying goodbye. I cried afterwards talking to German and Beva. Part of me was still sad over Mugre and another part of me realized that this is going to be me some day. I had read that its harder to leave the country you’re serving in than the US in the first place. You know that you’ll come back to the US. To the country you’re serving in, maybe not. And everyone here just loves you unconditionally. They’ll give you the shirt off their back if you ask. I feel like if I had to leave tomorrow it would be super difficult. I can’t imagine how hard it’s going to be in 2 years. I don’t even want to think about it. I know the time is going to fly and it’s scary! I was saying “it’s only 2 years” before I left and now I’m really feeling that. Already I’ve been here 4 months. Mid September will be 5 months. End of November I’m ¼ of the way done with my service. I feel like I’ve been here a month. It’s incredible.

In the up and coming is a charla on apicultura. The municipio in Urcuqui had money to spend in tourism and we were going to put rooms with private bathrooms in 3 or 4 of the socios houses from the tourism group but the municipio said they can’t built on land that they don’t own. Or they can’t put their money into it. So then there was the idea for the tourism hostel. But where are we going to get the land for that? So now I’m thinking of forming a community group of people that own bees and want to sell the honey. They can raise the bees, clean the honey, put it in containers and sell it to tourists, or even in town. Cahuasqui organic honey, delicious. We’ll see how it goes. With my luck no one will show up to the charla. I want to do it on a Sunday but that is the day that the men tend to drink themselves into comas. But all the other days they’re working in the fields. Better they’re there and drunk or just not there at all? Quite the conundrum. Also coming up is reconnect, the conference for Peace Corps where we go with our counterparts to Quito and present data about our communities. It’s a weeklong conference- so long! It will be super cool to see the kids from my group again but I really feel like I have more in common with the other volunteers that live around me. And the people in my community. I feel like I’d rather go out in Ibarra with the other volunteers around me or the kids from the tourism group instead of the kids in my group. Edu is going to be in Quito some of that week too so hopefully at least one night we can go out to dinner before he takes off again, this time for Argentina. The week after I come back from that conference in Quito I have another one to go to out near Mindo about tourism. It’s only a 3 day deal I think and should be really really helpful. And its only for the volunteers working in tourism. I think there are like 5 of 6 of us so that’s cool. I’d like to hear about what stage of tourism they’re at in their sites. We’re still in that motivation phase. We’re still in that, go-find-the guides-the-morning-of-your-paramo-trip-at-the-party-that-they’re-still-at-from-the-night-before-drunk-off-their-asses phase. They make me feel like I’ve really got my act together. To say the least it is certainly entertaining. So with these 2 conferences that will take me just about into October. This month is going to flyyyyy by. And then in the beginning of October I think I might to go to Guayaquil. It’s a super dangerous city but there’s a climbing competition there for a couple days. Just gotta stay out of the bad barrios. It will be my first time out of the sierras! I’m so excited! I heard some crazy talk about Buenos Aires, the community kind of close to mine but much more cut off, where my host mom grew up. Someone told me that it’s really dangerous there. That the people are really violent. I guess people have been stabbed in bars. When the men get drunk, instead of just talking it out, or even fist fighting it out, they just stab each other. And this is the community that wants a volunteer…I do feel like that probably is a pretty common problem in Ecuador though. Where people are stressed and drinking and they have machetes, bound to be bad news.

That’s really all that’s new here! I’ll be putting up pictures of the house on FB as I take them. We’re getting there bit by bit. To really see the full effect you really should just come visit me. I’m super excited for people to come visit. There’s just so much I want to show everyone from home. I’m really proud of myself for integrating into this community just because it’s so different from anything I ever thought I’d do in my life. I just want to show my new home, my surrogate families off to everyone from home. I want my worlds to collide. Also keep your eyes open for an album of my Ecua kids, Cuca and Muco. Cuca’s kind of the spoiled brat first born right now; I’ll get some more pictures of Muco in the near future. Hope everyone is well at home! I can’t believe that I’ve missed 2 seasons, soon to be 3 already!

As I sit here writing this I listen to music from Argentina and wonder if I’m on vacation, at summer camp, or in some weird social experiment that I don’t know when I’ll get out of. I spent the morning working on a little booklet of everything Cahuastours (the group I’m working with) has to offer. Typing in Spanish is so much tougher than in English! Gotta break that muscle memory to include a few more vowels. For lunch I moseyed back up to the hostel. I had plans of making zucchini pancakes because my family is never going to use the zucchinis in the fridge that Ryan brought up about 2 weeks ago. I am confronted in the driveway. They need someone to bring the asparagus up from the fields in order to process it after lunch. I go get it and make it back in time to make some pancakes. They came out alright. My host mom liked them. After lunch I decided to make some banana pudding. That came out spectacular. Now I’m just hanging out thinking about how much it seems like fall here today. That is if you’re sitting in a pile of dried bean husks, in the shade, while the wind is blowing. The temperature is right, a little chillier than normal. Right now the family is finishing up the asparagus harvest and starting on the frejol seco, or dry beans. They bring all the dried up pods back to the house and lay them out on the driveway. Then they take huge sticks and beat them. After beating for a bit they pick up all the dry cascaras (would that part be called the pod?) to reveal a driveway full of maroon colored beans. Those they sweep up and put in huge sacks to be cleaned later and then exported. My host sister has a little 2 year old and I’ve decided to start a “Jair collection” of pictures of him. I got a good one of him with the stick beating the beans. The smell of the pods just makes me think of the smell of drying out corn husks. In addition to the smells and temperature it has also been winder than normal. It’s really refreshing on a super hot sunny day but on days like today it just feels like fall. At this point in my service I’m still in limbo. I’m getting to the end of my interviews (or should be) and am not longer super new in town. I need to get cracking on my actual Peace Corps official project. I’m turning a corner now.

I’ve finally crossed the line. Before, leaving was always an option. How much could the people here really miss me? What have I done that’s really so spectacular? Now, I no longer fear the beginning of my days. I don’t dread making the switch to Spanish anymore. I always used to tell people that I didn’t like mornings because all night long I spoke English in my dreams and it was tough to start all over in a new language at the beginning of the day. Not a problem anymore. I remember when I first got here and talking was such a chore. I would always formulate my sentences in my head first and then wait for the opportunity to say them. Now there is less thought involved. I need to put a lot more thought into forming sentences in English now. I’m going to start talking like Morty. So the language is better. So much better. Also is my life in general. I’m really finally starting to feel like I’m at home now. Before I felt like I was still on vacation but now I’m really settling in. I started an aerobics class. I feel like these women need me. Already I have a group that is so faithful, always on time, always ready to sweat. The majority of the women are not that consistent but already there are about 4 or 5 who are super “pilas”. It’s hard to articulate how important this group is to me. Being the 3rd volunteer in Cahuasqui I do have large shoes to fill. And I’m being introduced to all of Nick and Ryan’s friends. All the men; who will then call me over for a cup of beer in the middle of the day. If I were a man this would be great, however I am not. But now with this aerobics group I’m integrating better into the group that I should be integrating into. More lady friends! And it’s a wonderful opportunity for the women to get out of their houses, away from their children, and in a group of other women, and EXERCISING! I bought a scale too so that we can weigh ourselves and see if we’re losing or not. I’m feeling the pressure already. Hopefully these women are losing weight. So much of it has to do with diet though. I want to start a cooking class once a week once the school year begins. Teach these women how to use vegetables. Hopefully they’re a little more open to new things than my host family is. So we’ve got the language barrier broken, an aerobics class, and finally CLIMBING! I signed up for a membership at the climbing wall in Ibarra in the beginning of July. It has been so necessary. I’ve come to realize that climbers are relatively the same regardless of what country they’re from. I love spending the morning climbing, even if it’s on a fake wall. I can’t explain how nice it is to be in the company of people who have the same passions that I do. I go from my site, where I seem to really confuse people, to Ibarra, to the wall, where I can just monkey around and work out bouldering problems.
Working with the tourism group has been alright. At times super frustrating, but overall a good experience. I’m seeing a lot of indifference from the members, who show up a half hour late if at all to the meetings every other week. Right now the big thing on my mind is getting the municipio to help us finish bedrooms and private bathrooms in a couple of the group members’ houses. The municipio has offered us money, but only 60% of what we’ll need. We have to find a counterpart to donate the last 40%. And the max that the municipio is going to give us is $4,000 so that means that we have a $6,000 project, and are left to find the last $2,000. Oh and this is all under the conditions that we’re a legalized group which we’re not. This could all work out really fortunately or we might just not be able to get the money. Why we want the rooms and private bathrooms is so that we can call ourselves a community tourism group as well as an ecotourism group. Tourists would have the option to live actually within the community, with a family and work with the family when arriving here. Now is just the issue of the legalization. We’re going to see if we can affiliate ourselves with Cahuascuy (the women’s group for the growth of cuyes, or guinea pigs) because we actually do a lot with them. If we can use their legalization then we can get the money!

I have recently come back from Cuenca, a city about 14 hours from my site. There was an Ecuador youth climbing competition so I went down with the coach, Eduardo, and the kids, Kathy, Isaac, and Estephania. I dropped Cuca off with Kate in Otovalo because she’s already got a cat. I figured it would be a small adjustment, just another mouth to feed, making a little bit more poop to scoop. I find out that Cuca does not like to travel in boxes. She is more of a llorona when inside a box, if possible. And she hates the return trip more than the initial drop off trip. Good news is that she made a new friend. Now she and Kate’s cat, Mauricio, are pals. Thank goodness for that. I actually went down to Cuenca before the kids to get in some additional climbing before the comp actually started. The day we arrived we met up with some of Edu’s friends and went out and did a multipitch route in a town about an hour from the city. We started a little too late and it ended up getting dark for the 3rd pitch. It was terrifying. Luckily one friend stayed with the car and was able to shine the headlights onto the wall to see some of the holds. It was a super fun experience though, looking back on it. The next day we went out to a different town to get our boulder on. We got a little lost finding the boulders but eventually we found some clean ones. Climbing is so different here. We arrived in the town and are asking everyone how we can get there and no one seems to know. And there really are boulders everywhere but there are clean ones out there somewhere that someone has already labored over for the finding. We found ourselves walking through pastures, climbing over barbwire fences, and stepping over cow shit to get to these boulders. I took all of the climbing spots in New England way for granted. Here very little is developed. We still had fun though. And I actually did step in cow poop. Gross. I only stayed for the first day of the climbing comp because I didn’t want to use all of my Peace Corps vacation days but it was pretty awesome. It was the speed day. I’m proud to say that both Kathy and Isaac got golds in speed. Isaac was incredible! I swear he climbs faster than I run. He climbed a wall probably between 40 and 50 feet in 6 seconds. I was waiting for him to fall just because of how dynamically he was moving but he never did. It’s amazing to see how powerful these kids are. And they’re so young too! I just look at everyone like they’re the same age now. 16 year olds look sometimes look like they’re 25. Men over 50 are asking me to marry them. Some of my best friends are 12 year old girls. Age ain’t nothing but a number. Don’t worry Peace Corps; I won’t get involved with anyone under the legal age. Anyways, after day 1 of the comp I headed back to Ibarra to get back to work. Picked Cuca up and she made the worst noises I’ve heard in my life on the bus. She was yowling like I was slowly pulling out her toenails or something. Everyone kept looking at me to see what I was going to do about it. She just wanted to be out of the carrier. I let her get out and she stuck her head out the window and was fine. She is certainly not a traveling cat.

So what else is new and exciting down here? We’re getting another volunteer. He seems pretty cool and is coming in a couple weeks. It feels really good not to be the “freshman” of PC anymore. Makes me more cognizant of how rapidly time is moving though. Already the next group of volunteers is here! So the new volunteer is coming mid/end of August and Ryan leaves at the end of August. All of my time spent in site will be spend with another volunteer. When I was home I would have loved the thought of that but now I have mixed feelings about it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have someone to speak English with and make American food with every so often. At the same time though I don’t know how good of a sharer I am. This site isn’t that big. He visited me for a week and already people were wondering if we’re married or cousins or siblings. I don’t know what’s more difficult: to be the first volunteer in your site where no one knows anything about PC; or to be the 2nd, 3rd, 4th volunteer and constantly be compared with the person who was there before you. Always a new challenge on the horizon. I think what will be most important is that this new volunteer and I both have our spheres of influence. We need to lead separate lives and have our separate activities. It shouldn’t be too hard hopefully. Only time will tell. At least he’s not a nutcase. That would be terrible.
Oh another wonderful improvement since the last blog: less flies! I don’t know what happened but I just noticed how few there were the other day. Never take for granted your fly free lives back in the US! There haven’t been any real significant climate changes here that could explain their absence. Who knows. Maybe they were migrating. Nope, they were definitely not migrating. Just wishful thinking.

We have some fiestas coming up this weekend. There are also fiestas in Buenos Aires (the Ecuador one) and some other neighboring town. Should be a good time! I’m going to stay in town after being away in Cuenca. This past weekend there were some fiestas as well. It was the Virgin de Transito so everyone was dancing in the streets around where the shrine is. There were supposed to be “Cintas”, this game that is usually done on horses. There are ribbons wrapped around a string that’s strung between 2 trees. The men on horses run at the string with a stick which they try to put through a tiny hole at the end of the ribbons. I guess there was a shortage of horses because I showed up and people were doing it on foot. I’ve heard that this is rare. Usually when they falta horses they switch to bicycles. Maybe there was a shortage of bicycles too? I’ve been assured that this Sunday there will be horses.

The other day we went to Chachimbiro, to the hot springs. Time was running out for Ryan’s friend Geoff. I think we ended up going his second to last day in Ecuador. It was a fun little despedida. Also in attendance were a member of the tourism group, Gavicho as well as his sister Analia and my friend/wanna-be-boyfriend Jesus. Somehow I kept ending up alone with Jesus when I just wanted to be with the group. A lot of days I feel like I’m on the Groundhog’s Day and my days are just repeating themselves. Here I think you have all of your conversations twice if not 3 times. I tell people that I’m off the market, not looking for a boyfriend and they tell me that I need to find someone closer, that Ibarra is too far away to have a boyfriend. Not to worry though, I can continue to date him; I just need to find an additional boyfriend in town. I tell them that I’m not that way, thanks but no thanks. 3 days after they accept the fact its right back to square one. All over again- he lives in Ibarra? That’s way too far away! Find someone here in town! I still haven’t gotten used to it. I’m living in the land of the optimists. My ego is going to be so crushed when I get back to the US and am no longer treated like the most beautiful person in the world.

This has gotten pretty long I realize. I’ll save some of the action for a later blog entry. Right now it’s off to learn how to knit better! Then off to aerobics and back for dinner. And after that, banana pudding time! Can’t believe I’ve been here almost 6 months now…it is incredible how time flies.

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Can you believe your eyes?

Finally I’ve put aside some time to commit to writing a new blog. That or enough seemingly significant things have happened this month to justify writing a blog.

You can´t see it but this little girl has a piece of pig skin in her hand that she´s been chewing on.

My boss came to visit me a couple weeks ago. He came about a month after I had got to my site. For the 3 month visit. He explained that he has to visit a lot of sites so he’s just doing them all over the course of 2 months. That’s Peace Corps! The visit went well. I told him about our plans to do the greenhouse and that I’ve been doing all kinds of interviews. I told him about my problems with the old men here. I know that they just need more time to get used to me. If its not this old man its that one. This one wants to feed me all the time and seems to think that he‘s my owner. He’s got his wheel chair bound nephew on the alert for him. Whenever the nephew spots me he calls his uncle’s name down the street to give him the heads up that I’m coming. That other old man on the corner wants to marry me. Following on with the joke I tell him sure, I’ll see him in the church. Then he tells me “en serio, en serio” that we should get married. I get worried and tell him that I’m much too young to marry, sorry old man. Bueno, he has a house a little bit lower on the island that we can go to and be alone in. Bottom line: can’t trust any guy here! Well maybe you can but my screening process just needs to be a little more rigorous. Can’t assume that men old enough to be my grandfather don’t want some serious alone time with me.

Some times its really depressing here. I feel like I have to say “no” to everyone all the time. No, I don’t want to teach you English. No, I don’t have any money to give you. No, I don’t want to go to Buenos Aires this weekend. Sometimes I feel that I’m being pulled in so many directions and I don’t know how to deal with it. At home I was always the really laid back girl that would go along with whatever anyone wanted to do. I worked in restaurants for 4 years where the customer is never wrong and it’s a sin to say no. Here I feel like I’m making a 180. “No” has to be my default answer. It does get me down though. Its especially hard when I think about what everyone is doing back home. Its June, no more classes, summer is starting. Here nothing has really changed. I’ve been here for a little bit longer and longer as the days progress but from day to day nothing really changes. Similar faces, similar climate, similar work. I really do miss everyone from home. Not enough to want to go back or anything but I do find myself wondering what everyone is up to from time to time. I guess that’s why we have Facebook, right?

My host dog, Pikachu, sleeping on a bag of corn.

So as I’m writing that nothing really changes I remember that now that its June we’re onto…..ASPARAGUS HARVEST!!! For 60 straight days (Sundays included) the people here are putting blood, sweat, and tears into harvesting fields and fields of asparagus. I have to say that’s a pretty cool process. You’d never know that a field is full of asparagus if you looked at it a week before harvest. Its full of these huge plants that look like little trees kind of. The plants are this vibrant green and all grow really close to each other. The branches are all really full and start to grow red berries. No where in this mess can you see anything that you might want to eat. If you happened to break one of the branches you could smell the faint odor of asparagus. Right before harvest the farmers go out into the fields to cut down all these branches. But wait, where are the vegetables?? They leave the asparagus standing in the fields. They look just like what you eat, they’re just dirty and stuck in the ground. Its pretty weird seeing all this refuse vegetation for just those few stalks of asparagus that remain. Its an interesting process alright. And what funny about the whole thing is that not many Ecuadorians like asparagus. More for us gringos. My family has made asparagus soup as well as an asparagus omelet and I just want more! Luckily its only mid June. We have until the end of July to enjoy the crop. In other news, there are new people making “papipollo” downtown. Papipollo is actually papas y pollo, or French fries and chicken. They lived in a neighboring town for 5 years and have now set up shop, have a little tienda and sell chicken and French fries. I ate there Sunday, had the meal with a coke all for less than $2.00. What a steal. Here it’s the little things that matter.

Here you can´t walk in fields of gold, just asparagus.

Work has been going. Still working in the plaza. It will consist someday of 4 parts: soccer field, 2 volleyball courts, a green space and basketball court. The goals are up in the soccer field and its seeded. The grass is coming up quite nicely. The volleyball courts are still being raked out (they’re just earth) and the bricks outlining them have been laid. There are still no nets up. The green space is more or less a little bit of a mess still. There are huge chunks of coagulated dirt. I don’t know how we’re going to break them up without some rain. We had a minga last Saturday which was actually really fruitful. The parents of the kids in the escuela (school/middle school) were asked to come help plant some trees. About 50 parents showed up and we planted trees for about 3 hours. The green space has got some color now. But also since its summer and not raining they need to be watered every day. That’s just for right now. Eventually they’ll really take root and won’t need so much care. There are also 3 huge mounds of dirt in the green space. The other volunteer here wants to leave them for the kids. Like little mountains. We might have to take one down and use the dirt to help level out the volleyball courts. Soon enough we’ll know. The basketball court is a whole different story. Its going to be of concrete obviously…concrete that we don’t have. So there’s that. And there’s the time issue. The other volunteer is finishing up and probably won’t have time to finish up the basketball court. Which means that everyone may just turn to me and expect me to finish it. Hopefully not. Another volunteer is coming up here soon enough, August I think. Maybe finishing up the plaza can be his or her first project. I’m sure the people here would appreciate it.

My counterpart and another member of the ecotourism group showing off some abono organico and a Bugambilla tree

So the best news for last: today I got a cat. Very exciting. She previously belonged to another volunteer. This girl is leaving at the end of July and was looking for a new home for her kitty, Cuca. I volunteered to take her. She’s still young, less than a year and looks surprisingly like Clawdia, one of the kitties at home. I picked her up in a neighboring town with all of her food and her litter box and everything. She was not a huge fan of the bus or walking through the town. Lots of dogs, yelling people, donkeys, I don’t blame here. I got her settled up in my room and she calmed down a bit. She took a nap while I watched some Seinfeld. Then tonight the other volunteer came up to make cookies and as we were talking I heard her crying. She was in my bathroom window, which has no glass or screen, just a hole in the wall kind of. She’s trying to gauge whether she can jump from the second story to come hang out with us. I ran up and brought her down and shut her in the kitchen with us. She hung out for a bit but was doing a lot of whining so I brought her back up to my room and shut the door. Later I’m walking up there and my host dad’s sister tells me that she’s been hanging out downstairs in the house with them. So I conclude that she must have jumped. Or can pass through closed doors. What a wild cat. I put her back upstairs but this time left the door open so that way she can get back in when she jumps out the window again. When I came up to go to bed she was sitting in the main area of the hostel outside of my room on the bench. She got up when she saw me and came into my room and plopped herself down on the bed. How good at adjusting! She’s soooo laid back I just can’t believe it. She’ll come right up to me and throw herself into my lap. Right now she’s sleeping at my feet. Hopefully no one poisons her. People do that to animals here if they’re a nuisance. Your neighbor might just slip your dog or cat a sausage with poison in it to get rid of them. Every country has their way of disposing of animals I guess. We just run all of ours over in cars in the US. Anyhow, she is a very cool looking girl. She’s petite with a tiger pattern and a huge circle on her side. She’s got really cool yellow eyes and a kind of pointy face. She actually really reminds me of the African Wildcat, Mooshka, that was semi tamed but still really very wild. Its weird how alike they are. This kitty is also very chatty too. She is always making some kind of noise, never really quite meowing but kind of grunting, just like another one of our cats, Kneader, used to do. She’s quite the girly. Hopefully things pan out alright. Her name, Cuca, actually is the feminine form of boogeyman. Cuco is boogeyman and this other volunteer named her Cuca because she wanted her to be a killer cat. She had mouse problems so she got the cat and hasn’t had problems since. The beginning of a new adventure! So its the day after I wrote this and things have started to unfold. She decided that 4 AM was a good time to start the day this morning. I´m in my bed and I hear a thunk because she has jumped out the bathroom window. About an hour later I hear something at the window. She´s on the roof and wants in. Then later my host sister takes it upon herself to carry the cat around the entire house and brings her into the kitchen where my host brother is holding the family´s cat. They want to put the cats face to face. I told them that they´re staying on the floor if they´re going to meet. So Cuca gets spooked of Nermal and takes off and then the dog Pikachu can´t help but chase her. Up a tree. Thanks for nothing host siblings. After I finally got her out of the tree I made it clear that no one is to pick her up unless she is in grave danger. Its been a rough first 24 hours.

Not Cuca...but looks a little like her right? This is Mooshka, the African Wild Cat.

Here she is: Cuca in all of her glory.

My birthday is this weekend. I’ve gotten invited to Buenos Aires and La Florida. My host family is going back to Buenos Aires and the whole ecotourism group is heading to La Florida for their festivals. I’m going to Ibarra. I’m going to go shake it on the dance floor with some fellow gringos. I’m pretty excited. Its so great to get together with people you hardly know and speak English. What’s cooler, speaking your native language with people you just met 3 months ago or trying to communicate with people that you see every single day of the week in a language that you don’t really know? Depends who you are I guess. My Spanish is improving. At the same time I also feel that my English is worsening. Not important. I’ll worry about that in 2 years. All in all I’m not that super excited for my birthday. I am excited about dancing and also cooking. I’ve decided that I’m going to make a tres leches cake to celebrate with Friday night. And then Sunday I’m going to make a oatmeal cake for my host dad for Father’s Day. He is one of the few members of my family that will still be here on Sunday. The rest will be over on the other side of the Paramo in Buenos Aires. So I think that’s about it that’s new and exciting here in Ecuador. Cat, old men, birthday, asparagus…yeah I think that covers the gamut. Hope everyone is enjoying the change of seasons back home!

Once again

As my luck with technology continues I´m still having problems getting pictures up on here. Some day luck is going to improve and I can put up the folders and folders of pictures I have...

Some observations thus far in Ecuador. Much easier to keep track of on paper when your computer is on the fritz.

1. A dish towel can double as a fly swatter

2. Nothing ever needs to be refrigerated

3. Men are surprised that women can work

4. Kids go to school when they want to

5. We keep our salt in a shaker while Ecuadorians have a dish and tablespoon for salt

6. Ecuadorians walk inconceivably slow in the street but put them on a mountain and its a race

7. If you’re walking in the Paramo and don’t have good boots you might as well wear roller skates

8. Avocados and popcorn are almost as much staples as potatoes and rice

9. Popcorn goes in soup

10. Salt can be added to salad

11. All gringos look the same. People keep calling me Emma, the name of the Swedish volunteer who was here quite some time ago

12. A regular lunch might consist of rice, pasta, beans, and potatoes

13. A fruit salad could be topped with ice cream, whipped cream, and shredded cheese

14. Sometimes barley flour is added to hot chocolate to make a kind of sweet soup

15. There is no other noise in the world that can compare to the chorus of 100 hungry guinea pigs
16. Wearing one earring is somewhat normal. There are much more important things to do than to look for the other one
17. You can get anyone to eat almost anything by just holding it up to their mouth
18. If you leave your window open at night you can expect a beetle the size of a small stunt plane to fly in and then fly into all the walls before it finally settles down on the floor somewhere in defeat

I'm making a new album on facebook about the most excellent things in Ecuador! Since I'm using my counterpart's modem I'm trying to limit my time on the internet so check it out!

Be warned: its going to be a long one.

I’m writing this the Saturday that we returned from our site visits. Since I wrote last we’ve celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, cooked for our Family Appreciation Day picnic, appreciated our families at the picnic, learned of our sites, and visited our sites for a week. So much to write about!

First of all St. Patrick’s Day is not a celebrated holiday down here. Are you surprised? In the spirit of bringing American culture to Ecuador Kendra and I still celebrated. I told my family I was heading over to Kendra’s for the evening. When I responded to their question inquiring what I was going to be doing with “I’m going over there to drink” I got some funny looks. Funny is an understatement. I actually got disappointed but I-can’t-tell-you-what-to-do-looks. The people down here are the definition of passive aggressive. They’ll never tell you not to do something verbally but will make sure you know they don’t approve in every other way. I told them about Dad’s wild friend Charlie and his festive annual parties, showed them the picture of Lucky wearing her leprechaun hat, told the tale of green beer and car bombs. I guess there are just some cultural bridges that will never be crossed. Come February when everyone celebrates Carnival I’m sure I’ll be just as confused and probably soaked with water and paint as per tradition. So Kendra and I had a blast as usual. Pilsner is not even close to Guinness but when its all you’ve got you have to deal. I might actually become a wine drinker down here just because of the terrible beer selection. The grocery stores carry Pilsner in cans, bottles, bottles with twist off caps, Pilsner light, Club, Heineken, Budweiser, oh and Pilsner. I can’t wait to have a real beer when I get home to the states. Maybe in Quito the week of swearing in we can find something a bit darker than Heineken. No, I’m not an alcoholic, just a beer snob. Poor Aaron the wine snob isn’t faring any better. Ecuador isn’t really known for its beer or wine. Oh the little things you take for granted when you’re in the states.

Those crazy gringas celebrating St. Patrick´s day in secrecy

Saturday the 20^th was our host family appreciation day. It was held in Ayora where a bunch of our classes have been held. We were informed that we would be given 2 chanchos but would ultimately be responsible for the rest of the food, drinks, decorating and entertainment. I thought I’d put a spin on the regular boiled potato dish and volunteer to make potato salad. Ecuador has tons of potatoes. You go to the open air market and there’s a whole row of people selling potatoes of all different varieties. You’d think with all the varieties of potatoes that maybe they’d cook them in an equally various fashion. Not so much. Potatoes here are in soups, or boiled and thrown on a plate. Oh, or fried and served with fried fish or fried chicken (which Kendra and I ate at a fútbol game, leading to a week of sickness for me). So potato salad; something the Clark/Javor Family does well. We were cooking for a bunch of people. All the families of all the 54 volunteers. We’re looking at maybe 250 people. They eat a lot of potatoes so 25 pounds of potatoes should allow everyone to have a little. 25 pounds of potatoes, 30 eggs, a large package of seasoning (vaguely labeled “sabor” meaning flavor), about 15 onions, 2 cloves of garlic, a tub of mayonnaise (gag me with a spoon) and a large package of mustard. Aaron also had his heart set on making hummus so he got some chochos, oil, garlic, chickpeas maybe, and fresh veggies to chop up and serve with it. We had a large cooking fest in my house Friday night in preparation for Saturday. My family was getting a little weird and I think it was because we kind of monopolized the kitchen (not without asking- I did ask if we could use the kitchen and got the go ahead). Soon they took the pot of soup upstairs to eat dinner on the floor of Mom and Dad’s bedroom. I told them that we didn’t need to be doing all the cutting of veggies in the kitchen and that they can have dinner in the kitchen like usual but they preferred to eat on the floor of the bedroom. To each their own. They weren’t keen on the fact that we were working on a bottle of wine while we were cooking either. Drinking down here is something you really need an occasion for. I got raised eyebrows like maybe I shouldn’t be drinking when I offered them glasses (which they politely declined). We as volunteers are intensely prepped for what we’re going to experience with our host families as far as customs and dietary changes. We’re constantly reminded to go with the flow as well as be polite and be flexible. When you’re eating chicken feet soup you’d better eat those chicken feet or risk offending someone. Something tells me that our host families aren’t given the same talk. At times I feel like we’re the ones that are bending to fit in. At the same time, to a society that we’ll never fit in with. We are always going to be looked at funny and judged and laughed at because of our Spanish. Sometimes it really gets to me. I’m trying to be so flexible and to not raise my eyebrows when my family disembowels a sheep in the driveway. But when a group of 5 people shares a bottle of wine while cooking I’m left feeling like I have done something really, very wrong. Those feelings will abate sooner or later. It might just be a reflection of the community I’m living in as well. They’re strict on girls here. We still had a good time cooking and ended up with a large pot of potato salad, 2 bowls of hummus, and 2 bags of carrots and broccoli to bring to the gathering the following day. A job well done if you ask me.

My group (sin Laurel) with the supplies for the picnic

Saturday was the day of the picnic. My family dropped off the food at the gathering which is great because I wasn’t too psyched on carrying a huge pot of potato salad a half hour down a dusty road. What, that doesn’t appeal to you? My family was on the way to a memorial mass. I was still unsure the day of the picnic, Saturday, whether they were planning on attending or not. I know I’m like their 8^th volunteer but there’s free food! Sounds good to me and probably every Ecuadorian! When I had told them about it early in the week I learned that Mom was going to be at the market until 2 so she couldn’t go, and Dad’s got some class on animal care (I think he might be the “vet” for my town based on the big fridge of bull semen we’ve got in the living room), and Liliana has some kind of class in Quito. Yeah it’s a Saturday. Who has classes on Saturday- who knows. Later in the week the stories changed to now there’s a memorial mass that they have to go to. Mom’s leaving the market early to go to the mass, and all of a sudden Dad and Liliana’s classes have been canceled. When they were dropping off the food I asked if they were planning on coming by after the mass. They told me that it was going to last a long time (until 1) and I explained that the celebration actually goes until 3:30 so they would still have time. At this they just laughed. I’m getting the impression that they don’t want to go…so be it. I’ll still have a good time. And I did! I danced with 17 other “aspirantes” or trainees doing a typical Sierran type dance, costume and all. Our hats looked like giant bowls. I could have used mine to carry the potato salad over. They would be super handy to wear when its raining. You could store a week’s worth of water in one of those babies.

Kendra and I before the du-rag and shawl piece

We were dressing for the big shin dig and its just one layer after the next. A 2 piece skirt, a blouse, the hat, the belt that holds the skirt up, then a sash thing over the shoulder, oh and a necklace and bracelet as well. And then we learn that there’s a pirate/du-rag head piece thing that goes underneath the silly hat (that does not actually fit to the shape of your head). Damn we were lookin’ fine. And the boys had pants, a shirt, and poncho. Lame. We had to get to the place early on Saturday so we could put all of this garb on. And then wear it the entire day until they had us do the dance after lunch. I guess when it takes so long to put on you have to make it worth the time and just wear it for a really long time too. The families seemed to enjoy the dance. Gringos in Ecuadorian vestimiente. Quite a sight. All in all it was a fun day. After we did our dance we each grabbed someone from the audience to dance with. Integrating! Fun fun. Oh and Mom did show up after all! She just wanted to grab her pot and bowls. Just swinging through. I told her that she had just missed the dance.

Participants from my pueblo, our facilitator Fernanda, and Eddie who just happened to be with us

She didn’t seem too bummed. Later all of my dreams came true. Andrew, the guy in charge of placing us with our families brought the mail and the package of peanut butter had finally arrived! Chunky, Creamy and peanut butter cups!! Sick dude! I also had a package from Aunt Sling. There was a nice pictures of cookies and milk and I opened it to find 4 individually wrapped oreos all of different varieties: peanut butter, golden double stuff, regular flavor spring colors, and mint. I’m going to eat them with the peanut butter. That was the cherry on top of my Saturday. Thanks family! I guess you really don’t realize what you have until its gone. Oreos and peanut butter just aren’t abundant enough here.

Me and my booty

And how have I forgotten to include the activities of Friday! We all headed to the casa de mujeres per usual. At last the fateful day that we find out our sites. I was really interested in seeing where everyone thought they were going to end up. I was almost sure I’d be in the Sierra because that’s the region that I really wasn’t too psyched on. I was ready for 2 years of sweating and malaria ridden mosquitoes. Kendra figured that she’d be close to Quito because of her eye problem. She figured the doctors would want her close for checkups and everything. Aaron had the feeling he was going to be in the Sierras as well because Eduardo leaked that he’d be making cheese and we all know Sierrans love their queso fresco. Once we got to Ayorra we had to sit outside for a little bit and sweat it out, talking to friends about the possibility of ending up on the other side of the country, 30 hours by bus apart, and never seeing each other again. Finally we were let inside to find a giant map of Ecuador with all of the provinces marked with tape and rose petals. We were sat down and given an idea of how the site presentation would begin. All of our names were in a hat. One gets pulled at a time. Your name is called and you’re led to your province. You’re given the paper which has your name, site name, and province. I was called in the last 1/3^rd of the group. There were a lot of people on the coast so I was feeling optimistic for the oriente. What up insects every day, all day? Finally my name is called and I see my future site, Imbabura. I’m thinking, yes Imbabura I know I’ve heard that before, where is it? Is it one of those really remote areas? Or really high in elevation? Why do I know it? Before I know it I’m being led up the center of Ecuador. Higher and higher. Maybe they’re placing me in Colombia? We part the crowd and I see Aaron, Jake, and Roxanne waiting in the province of Imbabura, northern Sierras. Surprise, surprise. I wasn’t super psyched. All I knew is that I was in the one part of the country I really didn’t want to be in. Reppin Imbabura! People were getting really into throwing rose petals: Aaron (why can´t I get away from this kid!?), Roxanne, Jake, and I

At least the kids heading to Imbabura are cool. Aaron’s great. Jake seems pretty cool. Roxanne I don’t really know all that well but she’s from California so she’s gotta be pretty go with the flow. Jake was equally as disappointed as I. We did a little commiserating together later. Lauren of course ended up on the coast because she had her heart set on the Sierras (she hates hot weather) and Kendra is about 7 hours away from Quito, inland coast region. Go figure. So morale was not super high on my part. No tears though. We had heard from other volunteers that usually there’s at least one person in every group that cries when they find out our sites. We have a group of tough cookies, I didn’t see any tears. We were ushered to sit back down again and divide up into Ag and Natural Resources for a more in depth site presentation. We were given folders on our sites and all I could think of after reading about this place is wow Mom’ll be relieved. I’ll have a bathroom, I’m not in a malaria zone, I’ll have cell service, there’s another volunteer currently there, and I have 1,700 people in my community compared to the 250 that Lauren has. So much for that roughin’ it Peace Corps experience. I was bumming a bit. Then I looked at the name of the volunteer already there and remembered talking to him at the picnic the previous week. Ok so at least there will be someone that I can speak in English with when I get there. And I know (or think I know) that he’s a pretty cool dude. Things are looking up. Lauren and I still agreed that we’d switch sites in a heartbeat. She’s off the beaten path, has a latrine, no cell service, and hotter than a snake weather. Sounds like paradise. Making the best of the situation I text Ryan, the volunteer already in my site. I’m starting to get amped. I see that I’ll be working with an ecotourism group (hey if they’ve got tourism its got to be beautiful) and I see that the elevation is lower than Cayambe and hopefully warmer. I really wasn’t totally sold on my site until I got there.

We found all of this out Friday. Friday night we cooked and talked about how we felt about our sites. Saturday was the picnic. I really got into the dance now knowing that I was possibly going to be doing it for the next 2 years. Sunday we leave for our sites. Bring everything you need for a week. You’re going and you have to make a community map, seasonal calendar, and 24 hour clock for the men, women, and children. And finish your work plan with your counterpart. And move in with your host family. We were warned that this upcoming week was possibly going to be the worst part of our PC experience. Bring it on. I received word that the other volunteers that are in Cotacachi (a little south of my site) wanted to meet us newbies for lunch. Sounds like fun. These volunteers are from Omnibus 99 and on their way out. Jake and Roxanne are actually replacing their volunteers, Shelley and Kenji. Before we know it we’re in Cotacachi. It really wasn’t a very long ride at all. Maybe 45 minutes to Otovalo for a bus change and then another 30 minutes to Cotacachi. Cotacachi is a pretty little town. It is a big retirement spot so the prices are kind of jacked up. I feel bad for volunteers in that area because the people are used to the retirees bearing gifts. That’s not what a PC volunteer is going to do but it doesn’t change that expectation. We had a nice little lunch/breakfast. Got some questions answered.

Then it was time for me to head up to my site where the whole tourism group is waiting and excited to meet me (or so Ryan says). I caught the bus to Ibarra and then switched busses. Its and hour and a half ride to my site from Ibarra. Really not too painful at all. At this point I was starting to get excited and nervous. We seemed to be on the bus forever and I was SO paranoid that I was going to miss the stop. Fernanda had told me that morning that I needed to make sure that I got a bus that was going to stop there because she said that some of them just pass right through it. I was soon to find out that these statements were far far far from the truth. In reality my site is the end of the line. The busses stop there and then park there for a while. There’s only one road in and its full of switchbacks and terrifying bridges that if you happened to fall off, you’d never been seen again because they might just be covering the great abyss. Finally we arrived, my blood pressure a bit higher than usual. At this point there were only 3 of us on the bus. Ryan was there to meet me. We headed over to the tourism agency were I got to see some SICK pictures of the Páramo, where they take extranjeros, foreigners, on guided trips. I met my counterpart, German, and some other members of the agency. A couple girls in high school walk in, some guys follow. Before I know it I’m sitting with about 8 other people. 16 eyes on me. Way better than the 30+ people I was expecting. This is a new organization and it isn’t quite legalized yet. The ministry of tourism still needs to come in and do a capacitación. They can still do tours and everything, no worries. So first things first, I learn a little bit about the organization, what they offer (bikes, horseback guided trips to the Páramo, garden tours) and then go on a tour of German‘s garden. It’s an incredibly impressive garden! He‘s got everything you could ever want, including avocado trees. I actually saw my first tarantula too. There aren’t many animals but they do have huge tarantulas. You don’t seem them every day but they look pretty out of place when you do seem them. I half expected to see a dragon fly overhead. I wish I had my camera with me. After the garden tour I headed up to the hostel to drop my stuff off. We are greeted by Pikachu, the dog. He’s wary of foreigners as all the dogs in Ecuador are. He even gets a little bravo, or fresh, with Ryan, whom he knows. I will later arreglar this problem by bringing him pancitos every time I come home. After a couple of days my problems are solved and I’m the cool blonde girl that always has bread. Mariana, Mom #2 isn’t home but her son Giovanni is so I got to meet him. He’s about 13 or 14 years old. A typical 13 or 14 year old boy. I dump my stuff in one of the rooms in the hostel. Very fancy. Its not quite the same setup as in Paquiestancia. I’ve got my own bathroom and everything. Tre cool. After we dropped everything off there we went to have some dinner at German’s house with his wife and son, Andy. They’re a very tranquilo family. Just my style.

After dinner I was informed that we’re heading to a birthday party. For whom? Oh, a 5 year old that goes to the school where the community garden is. So its been awhile since I’ve been to a 5 year old’s birthday party but it was pretty fun. We had headed over somewhat late, about 8:30 but the festivities were still going strong. Kids were running all over the place. It was Jordy’s birthday. At first he just seemed like another kid but he’s grown on me over the past week. He has absolutely no fears of strangers. He’s completely free of inhibitions and a scream to be around. The theme of the party was Ben 10. Yes in English Ben Ten. En español: Ben Diez. Not quite he same ring to it. I’ve never even heard of this guy. Oh well. Promptly after arriving we were served large plates of rice with large beers to go with them. Maybe eating right before coming over was not the best idea. The festivities continued and a piñata was brought out. Sooner or later most of the families with the other kids left. Grandpa was a little deep into the sauce at that point and the pressure was on for Ryan and I to get our drink on with him. Ryan and I are trying to make an escape but Grandpa’s got us cornered with 2 more full beers. I was instructed to just put it behind me, he’ll forget about it. And he did. He was much more concerned about starting the dance party. He finds a CD and throws it in the player. We have no option other than to get up and do the good old “campo shuffle” with Grandpa. Meanwhile Jordy is still whipping around doing who knows what. It was nice typical Ecuadorian music except the CD was probably old enough to vote. It kept skipping and I was torn between “campo shuffle” and break dancing. Very entertaining to say the least. Grandpa soon disappeared for awhile and we tried the escape route otra vez. No dice. Grandpa gets ahold of us once again, this time to go smoke some cigarettes. Ok Grandpa let’s go smoke some cigarettes. For this event we were downstairs in the house. One step closer to the door. The cigarettes are smoked, some more beer is drank and finally we are free! This site is totally different than where I have been living. Drinking (maybe it was just the occasion) seems to be a much more relaxed activity. As we were sitting at the table there’s another woman sitting there breast feeding her baby. Grandpa passes her a glass of beer which she downs. Where’s that health volunteer? I make my way back up to the hostel. At that point its 11 PM and I’m pretty tired. My room in the hostel is great. My one complaint: the bed is SO loud! The frame is just super creaky. Doesn’t make a difference whether you’re in the middle or on the edge. I’ve tried it all. Later in the week I was able to sleep through the night more or less without waking up every time I rolled over.

I wake up around 6:30 on day 2. Only a half hour after the first family member rises. No they don’t get up at 4 every day to milk the cows! I finally met the rest of the family. Mariana is a sweetheart. She knows some words in English and sounds like she has a mouth full of marbles every time she attempts them. I meet Nyeli, the youngest daughter. She’s about 9 years old and very shy. I try talking to her and either she doesn’t understand or just doesn’t want to talk to me because she just stares at the empty space next to me and then walks away. Dad would freak out if he was there. I think its ok here for kids to just ignore adults. She actually did some talking back to Mariana the rest of the week. I meet Ugo, Mariana’s husband. He’s something. He’s constantly smiling; everyone calls him the man with the frozen smile. He also has a very thick campo accent that I have a super tough time with. And he likes to say everything super fast all in one breath. So this is what its like communicating with me when you don’t speak English? Later on in the week I asked what the opposite of asleep was and he replies “cama” or bed. I gave him a funny look and luckily someone else at the table understood what I was asking and corrected him. He thought it was hilarious. I told him that we have a mutual non understanding of each other. Soon after breakfast of a pancito and café (which my family here is able to say that they must not work if they’re only eating pan for breakfast; yeah this family isn’t judgmental) I head off to work with German, Ryan, and David. They’re working in the plaza right now. Ryan was able to figure out (with his PACA tools!) that the kids in here have very little to do after school. They need something to keep them out of trouble so they have designed the plaza to be converted from a large open field to a field with a little soccer field, volibol courts, a basketball court, and green space with native trees and medicinal plants. I’ll help plant the trees and plants when the time comes. Until then they’re just building a retaining wall against one side of the plaza. Dad, if you could see me now. I’m lifting rocks. They’re mixing cement and we’re building a retaining wall.

Workin with the men (German on the left my counterpart, and David on the right), getting funny looks but providing the example. Sí se puede!

Its so nice to be out in the sun all day. Its about 70 degrees every day and its almost always sunny. We’re surrounded by large mountains that just offer a tremendous 360 degree view. No its not the coast, but its paradise. After we finish work for the day we head over to the Jardin de Infantes, or kindergarten. There’s a garden right next to the classroom that PCVs maintain so the kids can have salads with their lunches. Its harder to change the ideas of the parents and make them cook salads at home. Why not just give the kids salads when they’re at school? The parents of the kids are forced to put in one day every month of helping out in the garden. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of excitement amongst the people here. The parents are only coming because if they don’t they’re going to be fined $5 which is big here. It’s a very cute garden. I’m looking forward to greening my thumb a little in the next 2 years and really learning the basics of planting and transplanting. Some day I’ll have a garden of my own and I’m interested to see how well the organic gardening works here. We’re going to find out!

The whole week was fantastic. I interviewed my family about their schedules during the day and the big events for the year like holidays, months of planting and harvesting, and seasons. I rode a bike around with Brenda, one of the members of tourism agency for a tour one day. Later on I walked the streets inventorying where all of the tiendas and municipal buildings are. I met the head officials of the town, the teachers, and doctors at the Centro de Salud. Everyone is incredibly warm. They all want to know how I’m feeling about the town. Am I feeling at home? How does it seem to me? Do I know how to ride a horse? I’m very excited to go back in a month. Oh! And maybe the most important part: 2 heladerías! Ice cream stores! The ice cream isn’t made with milk, just fruit juice, sugar, and ice but its still wonderful especially when you’ve been out in the sun all day. This site really does seem like a perfect match for me. There’s even a karaoke bar. With some music in English. I’m psyched. And I tried cuy for the first time as well. Its alright. I’m sure it will grow on me. Its kind of like chicken. Not as much meat and a little greasier but the flavor is similar. There’s actually a woman’s group, a cooperative, who raise cuyes to sell in Ibarra. The cuyes here are larger than normal. Must be something in the water. Wednesday night we went up to San Francisco, one of the 4 neighboring communities. Its about a half hour ride in the back of a truck. The road is wonderful. We pass fields of cows, corn, artichokes. We get there and have to wait for a bit, I’m presuming because we came in the middle of dinner. We pass the time by visiting a garden of one of the residents. There are rows and rows of “moras”, generally berries, I’ve seen both blackberries and black raspberries being referred to as moras. Finally the other group members show up. The people in San Francisco aren’t a part of the group but they actually have their own agency (larger or smaller than our group I do not know). We’re asking them if they’d like to join in with us for the capacitacion with the Ministry of Tourism. That’s all I got. The further away you get from cities the thicker the accent gets. It was a good first example of a townish meeting. The meeting only lasted maybe 20 minutes and before I knew it we were back in the truck.

Some ladies pasando tiempo en San Francisco

While we were in the meeting the sun had gone down and man its cold up there without the sun! The altitude makes all of the difference. Here its probably low 60’s at night while up there it had to have been in the lower 50’s. I can’t say enough about. Right now we’re lacking rain but the sun is beautiful every day. Its like being in a frying pan at high elevation. The sun is always on you but its never more than 75 probably. I love it. I’ll be a bronzed beauty in no time. And its not really typical for the people to wear shorts but I’m going to start a trend. Some days it is just too hot to be wearing long pants. Overall there are some large differences between where I live now and my site for the next 2 years. My site is much larger and lower in elevation. Both improvements. Also the people are less formal; less by the book. Mariana has short hair that she can’t put in braids like almost everyone else in the Sierra! When I was telling my family in where I live now about the birthday party their reaction was “you didn’t drink did you” and then when I said that yes, someone brought me a beer to drink, so I drank it they were shocked. What, a woman drinking?! They’ve really got me on lock down here. I’m ready to leave for my site! I was doing my laundry in the evening and they told me that I should finish in the morning because if I don’t I’m going to get the flu because its too cold to be washing clothes at night. Being respectful, I went with the flow and will finish it in the morning. I’d love to drop these people in CT in the winter. You want cold? The kind that leads to the flu? Try out CT in January. I think they’re just maybe jaded from having so many gringos live with them and know that we gringos cannot do anything. Anything that we try to do to help out with they will somehow correct or do over again. After awhile you get used to it but at times it makes my blood boil. I was a responsible, healthy person before I got to Ecuador, not an invalid. Oh well, at this point I think the damage is done. Maybe they’ve had some invalid gringos in the past and now I’m left trying to prove myself.

Simon Bolivar, the main street inmy site. Jordy can be seen riding his bike. He made sure he was within shouting distance of me for my entire walk home.

Before I know it its Thursday and my week is coming to an end. There was a party planned for Friday in Ibarra to celebrate the volunteers from Omnibus 99 who are finishing up their service and all of us newbies from Omni 103 who are just beginning. Everyone from the Imbabura province was in attendance. There were maybe 15 of us. It was a blast. We had tacos (yes Mexican food!!!) and I brought a box of good ol Clos wine from Chile. Its the same wine we used to drink every night with dinner in Patagonia. Finally after the stores had closed and we couldn’t buy more beer or wine it was time to go out. I went to my first discoteca, or club, and it was so much fun! Yes we looked ridiculous dancing because we’re gringos but I haven’t gotten my dance on in full swing in a while. Not having those climber ragers to get my dance out resulted in a full on dance fest Friday night. We went to 2 discotecas and returned back to the apartment around 1:30 or 2 am, by far the latest I’ve stayed up in Ecuador. It was a blast. Unfortunately there were a few of us staying over at the apartment without a crazy amount of space. There were 6 of us staying and one futon mattress on the floor. 3 of us managed to squish together on the mattress while the other 3 (smarty pants kids) brought sleeping bags and roughed it on the floor. The next morning we had some leftover beans with eggs and bread and batidos (Ecuadorian style milkshakes with fruit and milk). From there Aaron and I walked with Alex to the consolidation hotel (if there’s an emergency there are consolidation points in every province, ours being in Ibarra). Some sweet digs. I wouldn’t mind getting consolidated and getting to hang out there. After we saw the hotel we walked over to the bus stop to catch the bus back to Otovalo and then back to Cayambe from there. After talking to Aaron about his site without cell service, cabinas, and any phones able to call cell phones I’m feeling pretty good. My site looks like a resort town compared to his. Ryan kept telling me that I had the best site in PC and I think that the more I talk to others about their sites the more I tend to agree. Sure I don’t have lush jungles or abundant insect life but I have a warm and safe community that is just the perfect size with plenty of work.

Upon arriving back I find out that only 4 of the baby pigs are alive. Momma chancha keeps stomping and killing them (it’s the ciiiiirrrcle of liiiiife). Hopefully the 4 that are left are nimble. The unnamed cat who is pregnant is just getting bigger and bigger. Here they don’t use the phrase “bun in the oven” when someone is pregnant. I told them that the cat has “galletas en el horno” or cookies in the oven. They’re still in there. She’s just getting a little bit bigger, hungrier, and whinier. I doubt that she’ll “dar la luz” before I leave unfortunately. Who knows though. Maybe she only has 1 or 2 galletas in her oven and will have them soon. We just realized that she was pregnant maybe two and a half weeks ago. When I asked how long the gestation period was I was informed that its maybe 6 weeks/2 months. And then Liliana told me right before I left that she was probably going to have them this past week. So its anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 months. I guess she’ll pop them out when its time.

Lazy Sunday morning activities

I’m also greeted by a new puppy who looks a little like Coyote. Good news, Aaron and Lauren: one more dog added to the neighborhood gang that chases you every time you venture into Kendra and my area of the world after dark. There are so fewer dogs in my future site. Its refreshing. No perro palo necessary there.

Coyote and I playing in our usual fashion...it looks worse than it is.

Neighbor kids playing in the dirt in their fancy clothes

We’re winding down in training! We have this last week with our families for Semana Santa and then we leave for 2 weeks of tech training. I think at least part of it is going to be down in Cuenca because I got a call from the office asking if I’d like to participate in a 15k race that our training group has the option of participating in. I graciously declined and assured that I would be much more useful on the sidelines cheering everyone on. After the 2 weeks of training we return to Quito for the last few days of preparation before swearing in. The actual ceremony is on the 22^nd and then we’ll leave for our sites from there. I’m only about 5 hours from Quito. So ideal. I think everything’s going to work out. 2 years might just fly by. My psych level is high!