Oh boy my first blog entry! All of the words are showing up with red underlining and I just realized its because I switched the spell check on my computer to Spanish….
Where to begin? Tomorrow is the beginning of week 3. I’m not counting the week that we arrived. We’ve been living with our host families for a little over a week now. Its been quite the experience. Let’s go back:
When we first got to Ecuador we were quickly shuttled off to hotels in Quito; the agriculture kids in one and the natural resources kids in another. We met the language facilitators and Jeanette, the training manager. This was all Thursday. Friday we took a trip to the Peace Corps headquarters, also in Quito. We had our language interviews, pictures taken, immunizations started, bank accounts applied for, host family forms filled out, and training allowances dispersed. And then lunch. And then a long talk from a couple guys from the embassy about “current events”. I could not keep my eyes open. I felt bad because I’m pretty sure no one could. Mornings start early here. They’re called madrugados (early mornings duh). And I was and I was feeling that they started early before I even came to live with the host family that wakes at 4 am to feed the cows….more on that later. After the talk on current events we had a talk about personal safety. The first of many as it turns out. Its totally ok, they’re completely necessary. Sometimes a little scary. Especially the ones about bus hijackings and kidnappings. Ecuador is not the United States. It is no more dangerous than the States but things are just different. So, personal safety talk number one. Afterwards we returned to the hostels for our second and last night. I made some friends and drank some cheap beers (which, by the way, do NOT compare to John Harvard’s).

Some studs...you know.

The following day we went to the Mitad del Mundo, or the meeting of the world. I didn’t realize it was going to be such an experience. I figured we’d go to some park and have lunch, coincidentally on the equator but no: we were brought to a museum with outdoor exhibits and an indoor setup with the different types of people and environments found in Ecuador. It was the MOST FRUSTRATING THING trying to go on these tours when they’re speaking in Spanish all the time, and not slowly like the facilitators, full speed ahead Spanish. I think now, 2 weeks later, I would be able to understand so much more but it was sort of a rude awakening language wise. I did learn many things and had a very enjoyable day. I got to see water drain straight down over the equator and then swirl clockwise and counter clockwise on either side of the line. I balanced an egg on a nail and got a certificate for it. Turns out that you can’t walk in a straight line with your eyes closed on the equator either. And the story is that you weigh 3 pounds less as well. Its quite the place! After leaving la Mitad del Mundo we headed north to Cayambe and el CAAP where we stayed for the next week.
This week was just a whirlwind of food and classes. We tried all kinds of Ecuadorian food like epanadas, queso fresca (which Cayambe is known for), and platanos fritos. We learned all about personal safety, personal health (including diarrhea and malaria, I know you’re jealous), transportation safety (sit on the right side of the bus over the tire or bust), PACA tools, training guidelines, and language. Every day began with breakfast at 7 and then class from 8 until a cafesito around 10:30. Followed by more class until lunch around 1. Followed by more classes and then another cafesito around 4 or 4:30. Finally we would get some more food around 7! It was very cool to be around plenty of other people as like minded as I am. Most of the other volunteers are young, I would say most are fresh out of college, some a couple years beyond college. I know of 2 volunteers doing the MI program. Despite my feelings of knowing these people forever, I still felt a little like I was back in 7th grade during meal time. We’d all be in line, get our food and turn to face the whole room of half full tables. Yeah! At this point I had made some very good friends. This is Omnibus 103! All 55 of us! I’m amazed at the number of kids from CT. Out of 55, 4 are from CT. Pretty spectacular. I guess CT is a pretty cool place, producing some pretty cool people. After 5 days of intense eating and classes we were sent out into the real world. My papa came with a truck, how cool. Or chevere. That’s cool in the Sierra region. Its probably the word in my vocabulary used most frequently after “OK”. Anyways, Friday afternoon a representative from our family arrived to escort us to our new “training sites.” During the previous week we were divided up into 10 different language groups. I must have really screwed up my initial interview because I was placed into the lowest group. The facilitator of that group realized that I knew a little bit more so I was relocated into the Intermediate Intermediate group. I was pleased with the level because that is exactly the bottom level necessary to be at by the end of training to be allowed to serve as a volunteer. So if I don’t improve my Spanish at all in the next 7 weeks I’ll still be able to serve as a volunteer. I’ll improve. I’ll knock some socks off. Our language group was destined for Paquiestancia. Our soon to be family members came to retrieve us. And spoke no English. And continue to speak no English. What up immersion

A balanced egg on the ecuator:

Full sized fork here...its like corn but on steroids, they call it choclo and yes, eat it with cheese:
The first weekend was a weekend to spend with our host families. When we got to the community Friday night I went with Papa to meet Mama and Liliana my new sis. They were getting the milking done for the afternoon. After milking we drove to a pasture where the earth was open exposing a broken pipe. And soon began the process of fitting a new pipe into the old one. There’s fire, there’s fitting, there’s more fire, maybe some sandpaper, and then maybe some glue to hold them all together. But wait! The fit isn’t right we need to start over! I’m sure they exchanged some words about the gringa but I was none the wiser. Once the pipes are fit into each other water needs to be poured over them to set them I guess. They rapidly called for water and having no containers everyone just used their hands. I got a big ol hand full but managed to lose it all on the way from the stream to the pipes. I told them that “mis manos tienen huecos” (my hands have holes) and that got some laughs. Maybe integration won’t be that difficult after all. Saturday morning I learned that they wake up at 4 am because they have 12 cows that need milking. And not only do they have 12 cows, they also have a pregnant chancha, a non pregnant chancho, several sheep, a dog (Coyote or Gigante), a tiny kitty, and maybe 60 cuyes. We haven’t eaten one yet and I’m ok with that. I can’t imagine that they have a whole lot of meat on them. Anyways, they wake up at 4 to milk the cows and this being Paquiestancia (when you look up “cow town”….selling milk provides about 80% of the town’s income) they have fancy machines that they stick on the cows to get the milking done with. Its all very fancy. Technology at its best. After the milking (I missed it, I was allowed the luxury of sleeping in until 6:30) we had breakfast and then the process of setting up at the Saturday market. My papa showed my the inside of the refrigerator when I first got there Friday night- chock full of sheep. And not sheep in a container, just a leg here in the door, some ribs on the bottom shelf, the shoulders on the top shelf….I figured this family must just really really love sheep meat. Turns out that they sell it at the market. I breathed a little sigh of relief, not that I have any thing against sheep meat. Its actually pretty tasty, a little sweeter than cow (and less duro according to Liliana). So Saturday morning is the time for the market. Fernanda (my language facilitator) had us (the group of 5 including me, Lauren, Kendra, Aaron, and Laurel) start interviewing people using the PACA tools: Community Map, 24 hour clock, Gender Matrix, and Seasonal Calendar. I took on the task of finding out aspects of the seasonal calendar. Everyone I asked looked at me like I was growing another head. They all kept telling me that they had just 2 season, the dry season and the wet season. Thank you, I know that. I somehow managed to get across that I was also interested in events throughout the year besides the seasons like when crops are planted and harvested, seasons of disease, school year, and holidays. After a little frustration I was able to get a pretty full calendar. I learned a very important word: deletrear. To spell. The accent in Paquiestancia is hard to understand at times although probably not as difficult as the accent on the coast. Here a lot of the words end in sh or psh. Perro is actually persh. Needless to say I got the job done. My group members likewise got the job done. That was the big event for the day. The rest of Saturday was spent settling in and trying to talk to my family.

The view of Cayambe (the volcano) from CAAP:

Sunday was an ugly day for the most part. I was starting to feel a little homesick. I broke down and pulled out the cry face for my family. I’m such a chatty person and its really tough to be in a situation where what you’re saying is reduced by at least 50%. I know that this will improve with time. In another week I’ll be heads and tails above where I started out. Time is just moving a little slow. I need to appreciate this time where I have 5 other volunteers living at most 15 minutes from me. I see them every day and speak English with them every day. In less than 2 months I’ll be at my site and surrounded by Spanish every day of the week. These are the days! Sunday I went into Cayambe with my family. They sold the skin of the sheep that they butchered 2 days earlier. It’s a weekly occurrence. Kill a sheep Friday, sell the meat Saturday, sell the skin Sunday. How’s that for a schedule? Writing this the second Sunday that I’m with the family I still feel like I’m on vacation. I’m starting to adjust. I’m getting the hang of asking people for directions when in Cayambe. I’m getting better at listening. I still find myself tuning people out when they’re speaking Spanish. Its really hard for me to seriously listen to people speaking in Spanish when they’re speaking to a large group of students (more on that later).
Monday began the week of cultural activities in our communities. My compañeros and I met with Fernanda every day of the week and reviewed parts of the language (ser/estar, present progressive, technical vocabulary, por/para) and culture (customs, ethnicities, typical dishes). Thursday we went into Aroya which is about a 30-45 minute walk depending on how long your legs are (according to Kendra’s family we can make it in 20 minutes because of how long our legs are). All 55 of us reunited again! Of course there were more vaccinations to be had as well as site presentations. In Spanish. Good practice for the charla (from the verb charlar: to chat) that we’re going to have to give on some aspect of the environment/agriculture to the local school in Paquiestancia. It was great to see everyone again and hear the stories of the difficulties with the language, food, and culture. After talking to some of my fellow trainees I feel like I have it easy. I’m the 8th (maybe 7th?) volunteer that my family has had in their house. They know that we don’t eat intestine soup in the States. They know that we don’t eat a whole lot of white rice with every meal. They know that we like our alone time every once in awhile. Some of these volunteers have some stories…

Some aspirantes cutting a rug in Nono:

We had una viaje cultural planned for Friday and Saturday. Grupo Paquiestancia went with two other groups to Nono (yes yes) a small town about an hour and a half south of Quito. It was a very pretty little town. It seemed a little bit bigger than Paquiestancia; at least the school did. We went to the school to talk to the kids about recycling. They matched one trainee with 5 kids. It feels good to have 5 blank stares at you all at the same time when you’re trying to conjugate the verbs in your head in a timely manner. The language will come with time. Until then all I can do is laugh at myself. Thanks Mom and Dad for the sense of humor. After we talked to the kids about recycling we went to check out this person’s garden. We ate some strawberries right off of the ground even though instructed not to. Its super hard to not eat strawberries right after picking them. We’re not supposed to eat raw fruits or vegetables that grow right on the ground or in it because of the possible amoeba content. I figure that we’re all going to get sick sooner or later. Might as well test the waters now while I’m under constant supervision by people in the PC instead of at my site…laying in a deathbed for days. They tasted even better. I love amoebas. Bring it on. The man who lived at the house with the garden was talking to the group after we finished harvesting. I realized that my head was not there. I’m daydreaming about home, the next meal, washing my clothes…you name it. This distractedness has become a terrible habit but when in the states whenever I hear Spanish I know that no one is talking to me so I don’t bother listening; its easy to tune out languages that you don‘t fully understand. I have to keep reminding myself that this is my new language! Time to start listening all the time! After the garden experience we divided into 3 different groups and went to visit elderly people. Nono is known for having a large population of elderly folk. It was the most terrible experience thus far for me in the Peace Corps. It was SO SAD. This woman was living in a “house” with one window, dirty clothes everywhere, and about 30 flies. The walls were moving (full of rats?) and this poor old woman is living in there by herself. When we first got there she broke down crying because she is predeceased by her entire family. She really has nothing. She’s been living in Nono in that little house for 50 years. I just couldn’t believe that there was no more effort by her community to provide her with a little bit more. Who knows where she cooked or went to the bathroom or anything. She lives in this one room house that’s smaller than an average sized bedroom. There was hardly enough room for the 5 of us to stand in there with her. So sad, I get a little teary right now thinking about it. I would not want to live to that age if I were going to end up like that. Makes nursing homes look like palaces.

Later that night after dinner we learned a game from some of the local kiddos. It wasn’t super fun but I guess its something to do. Shortly after, Nono had a little festival. It wasn’t something out of the ordinary, it just was at a different time of the year for them. A festival just out of place on the calendar. A band played and there were people with sacks over their heads with faces drawn on the front dancing. And PCT’s dancing. The band led the dancing PCT’s down the street to the park where there was a large fire (not really fire, just a lot of smoke because most of what was burning was live branches). Walking down the street one would think that the church was burning. The park was right next to the church and all one could see was billows of smoke wafting up from somewhere. And man those kids love smoke! Every little kid in town was racing through it. I thought my eyes were going to fall out of my head from all of the smoke but they couldn’t get enough! From that point on there was a lot of dancing and festivities. The band played for several hours. I don’t know how they did it. I guess they’re used to the altitude. There were even people on horses that had trained the horses to “dance”. It was terrifying. The horseshoes kept slipping on the concrete and creating sparks and the horse would get super close to everyone and they (the horses) were kicking up their legs and everything. Absolutely terrifying. I don’t think the horses wanted to be dancing. My moves were sweeter, sorry horses. Finally around 10 the festivities ended (so late!! Normal bedtime is around 9 here.) and we ended up going to bed around 11 after discussing how the evening had went/what we learned.

One of the sack people in the parade:

Saturday started at 6 where we learned how to milk some cows sin machinas. I actually got milk to come out! I’m glad I don’t live on a farm because I felt like I was invading the cow’s personal space. I felt a little perverted, like I was doing something I really shouldn’t be doing. I’m sure it just takes some getting used to. It was however quite the workout for the forearms…could keep me in shape for rock climbing. After milking we had some breakfast and then learned how to make cheese. Its not that difficult- all you need to do is heat the milk and put some coagulant in it, I’m not sure what its called… and then shape it and let the water drain out. I brought some home for my family in Paquiestancia. After cheese class we went on a hike to another garden. It is amazing the way they garden in Nono. The hills that they cultivate are so steep! You look out onto a hill and see crops. It should be forest but its cleared and planted with squash and tomate de arbol. I tried taking pictures but I don’t think they’re really going to accurately portray the slope of the hill. It blew my mind- CT is so flat! Soon we returned from the hills to eat a quick lunch and catch the bus back to Quito to catch a bus back to Cayambe to catch a bus back to Paquiestancia. All the while being conscious of our backpacks and who might be following us (thanks Julietta for the safety and security tips)!

MOO Fernanda working her magic!

The ride to the milking site in the back of a camonieta. The first of many rides I´m sure.

Steepest hill ever to plant crops on....

The other side of this hill is just as steep at this side you´re looking down at: AMAZING!

Careful vaca you´re close to the edge! Suitable pasture...? Questionable. Sweet view of Nono though behind the cow.
That brings me to Sunday, today. This morning I worked with Kendra on a huerto project. I guess originally we were actually going to plant a garden but we don’t have enough time (?) so we just had to write what we’d do and how much it would cost and the like. We headed into Cayambe to get our internet and ice cream fix. Internet and ice cream check. We met up with Lauren, Laurel, and Aaron and had some lunch at a cafeteria. I got some crepes with strawberries and chocolate. Wonderful break from the norm of potatoes and rice. And sheep. Later Kendra and I sought out in search of guantes and sacos. The guantes are a must for hand washing clothes (which I’ve done twice). Without them your knuckles are very likely going to be torn up on the piedra you’re washing your clothes on. I know from experience. Last night when I washed them there was blood. No mas! I’m prepared now. Hand washing my clothes has been an adventure. They’re definitely coming out clean but I’m having a hard time rinsing out all of the soap. Hand washing clothes wastes so much water! I took my clothes off the line today and had to shake them a little to get them loosened up. Originally my freshly dried, hand washed clothes made me think of reenacting and I think that’s because of how they seem “starched” when they’re dry. Some day I’ll master it. We searched high and low today for traditional sweaters, or sacos. Turns out they’re not in Cayambe. I told my papa that I was looking for a traditional sweater and he suggested Maxmax which might be the Ocean State Job Lot of Ecuador. He told me that they have everything, which for the most part is true. I think asking him for advice is somewhat like asking my grandpa for advice. Maxmax has everything! Yes, but nothing of quality that I’d like to buy. He’s just trying to be helpful. I think Otavalo is the happening destination for what I’m looking for. We’ll see if I ever get a chance to go there. Some other trainees in other towns have gone to Otavalo already; they tell me that its just a large market. My family insists that its just for tourists and very expensive. Maybe some day…

This was taken 2 days after the originial burn. Take note of the ankle bone underneath all the swelling.

About a week and a half later...peel time.

Another interesting, actually terrible, event that has happened thus far happened back at CAAP. I received the worst sunburn of my life. It was awful. Right on my shins. They were exposed for maybe a half hour. I didn’t realize they were so burned until later that night. I took a shower and experienced the usual sunburn pain but the next day walking was difficult. My legs had swollen. Where usually I have a dent in the front of my leg where you can feel my shin bone there was only fluid. I could not feel my ankle bone. I’ve never experienced something this awful. I took pictures. Its peeling now and looks disgusting. Its slow to peel because of how deep it is. My whole body is peeling. Every day is something new. Places I didn’t think I even burned! Today after taking a shower I was putting lotion on my arm and a whole bunch of skin started just coming off. I’m quite the snake here. I’ve gone through about 8 layers of skin on my nose thus far. Doesn’t matter how much sunscreen I put on it. Call me Rudolph. Some day this gringita will get a rockstar tan that lasts the next 2 years. I’m still waiting. Sitting here waiting…and peeling dead skin off of my legs.

Doo doo doo looking out my front door (3/11 morning)