(Monday, June 21, Day 5… Happy Summer Solstice, I think?)

“The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.”

Phrase of the day: Soy de Virginia, el estado mejor en Estados Unidos… I’m from Virginia, the best state in America

Fact. And that is exactly what I told my Spanish class today during our first session…

I confirmed today that I definitely lucked out house-wise. For part of class we traveled to meet each trainees’ host family. Some homes were very fancy and had dvd players, playstations, internet, and all, while others barely had electricity and running water. My house is definitely closer to the upper half. As you can see by my rooms, plural... don’t mind the mess, please… I need to buy hangers or something. (Too bad you can’t come and visit right now… my bed is bigger than Rajib’s, ha).

Yesterday my host family took me all over the place. I went to church in the morning with my “sister”. It was pretty much the same service as a Catholic church at home, except for the fact everything was in Spanish and they played a cd of people singing hymns, instead of having someone at the church sing. It was a good experience. I’ll go again if it makes them happy. Or else I’ll probably sleep in for once. (breakfast is at 7am on the weekdays before class… and these dogs bark all night long… good times).

After church we went to a 4 x 4 event in the neighboring town. Pretty much the exact opposite of church! Tons of people, filthy from the mud, and many drunk. My host father loved watching the SUVs plow through the mud, and my little “sister” seemed to enjoy it too. She couldn’t see, so naturally I put her on my shoulders, and now the family loves me. Score. Always the little things… I’ll probably get more vegetables tomorrow or something! (I told them I love vegetables to hopefully avoid eating guinea pig).

Oh! I found out today my host mother works on a flower plantation/factory. She said the main export of Cayambe is roses. So next time you get a rose, think of Cayambe, because these ones are definitely going to the U.S. And guess how much they cost here!?! $1 for 25. Yeah, 25 is a weird number, but still. Try and forget that detail in case I buy you some if you come here.

Sorry for the lack of pictures of my host family… this isn’t the safest place right now, so I’m not supposed to do a lot of things (take a backpack outside, talk on the phone outside, have a camera in public, walk outside when it’s dark… I should pretty much just stay indoors, haha) (and I figured pictures in the house wouldn’t be very exciting). But hope you enjoy the ones of Cayambe! They are mostly taken from the roof… which I totally just found this morning. I saw stairs to it, and imagined it was another home, but nope! Just a open roof where they hang their laundry to dry. Speaking of laundry, that needs to happen soon. First for everything, right? Just kidding!

Hope things are exciting back home! Crazy stories to come from here, for sure… Tomorrow we are going to a nearby town called Ayoro… we’ll see what comes from there… hasta luego!