"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:
Si, eso fue poco largo... Yeah, that was a bit long
Cayambe to Quito - 2 hours by bus
Quito to San Vicente - 10 hours by bus
San Vicente to San Isidro - 2 hours by Costa Norte (picture)
I'm not gonna lie, transportation here reminds me of the metro. Somewhat sporadic. Somehow our bus trip back to Quito only took 6 hours this morning, instead of the 9 hours last Tuesday. And the bus from Quito took only an hour this morning, instead of the 2 hours normally. Definitely no complaints here, but odd.
I got back to Cayambe this morning around 7am instead of 11am. Naturally I used it to sleep, haha. Speaking of, it's almost time for that... but a bit about my site visit now, and more to come later for sure.
San Isidro will be... interesting. The town is pretty tiny. I thought Cayambe was tiny when I first came, but this is really new. Surprisingly, one of the health trainees will be there as well. Her name is Kasie. She is interesting. She asks a lot of questions, but never likes to answer any.
San Isidro, the main street in town at least:
So I am going to be staying and working with a family that seems to pretty run the town. They are, from what I noticed, the most educated family in town. The father teaches math and physics at the high school, is the principal there, and teaches math and physics in the afternoon at the university (same building as the high school). This is during break for the high school kids:
He is very realistic and has tons of ideas (which we'll talk about later) for the town and me. He is very hardworking and seems to try to help everyone he can. Really, he is a lot like Bubs, which will help me acclimate a bit more. He has three children; Mario(25), Karen(23?), and Luis(22?).
Mario wanted to be a civil engineer, but took all sorts of others industrial engineering classes. He really wanted to start a water treatment business in town, so he saved up money for a few years and just started one 2 months ago. He bought all sorts of machines and set up the bedroom-sized plant in the backyard. Right now he is delivering about 45 bottles of water a day. And by bottles, I mean those 6 Liter deer park-type bottles. I told him we'd work on marketing when I get back to increase that.
Karen is Kasie's counterpart. She runs a foundation of some sort? I'll have to learn more about that.
Luis is ridiculous. All he does is crack jokes all day/try to introduce me to girls. He is home for vacation right now from his university in Spain. I think he is learning to be a pilot, or else he already is one and is lstudying to be an electrician. I know he said he's working as an electrician in Spain to pay for his classes.
The mother, Mitha, does everything at home. And yes, I ate some tuna or something, but thankfully it was shreaded.
She cooks, cleans, and takes care of a hostel that they have next to their home:
What is this, Swiss Family Robinson?... Ha, I wish! (There are two bedrooms, two bathrooms and then plenty of open beds upstairs):
And really all the pictures are because I have an actual room in there too:
And also a friend right outside (gross! its body is the size of my thumb):
Everyone loves hammocks out here in Manabi, the costal province I am in. This is in the hostel too:
Yeah, somehow I did not take any pictures of people besides my new host mom? I'll be there for forever and half though, so plenty to come.
It's nice to be back in my cold bed! Hope all is well back home!
"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:
Oso Sucio no lo hace... Dirty Bear didn't make it
But Angry Bear did; got 'em!
Today was the last day of arts and crafts (score!). It was a fun class overall, but it's time to have a bit more free time on the weekends. These cards are the invitations for our family appreciation day, which now that I think about it, may actually be next Saturday... grrreat. Some of the kids had to spice class up a bit, so they made some more comical cards, Dirty Bear, for one. Besides Angry Bear, they were all removed by the facilitator. She also took out the really ugly ones. Alisha and I did ours together because she didn't like to glue and I didn't mind not having to cut. Somehow ours made it??
Otavalo... my new favorite city in Ecuador (A few of us went after A&C; it's an hour and a half away by bus). Otavalo is known for it's market, one of the most important in the Andes. They sell everything from farm animals to jewelry. I know Rajib and Bubs are thinking I only like the place because I like to shop (which I really do not like to do!), but I actually like Otavalo because it feels safe. For once in the past four weeks I don't have to look over my shoulder every minute. It's a good feeling. There are tons of tourists here, which is very nice too. The Otavalenos are know for their weavings and small crafts. This market has been here for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Pie... they have pie in Otavalo too! And I mean real pie. Normally I wouldn't be so enthusiastic about finding pie, but desserts here are super weak. This though, was a nice taste of home.
They even had chocolate mereingue(? it wasn't cream, but the chocolate part was good)... I stuck to mora con helado because she said it was the best... blackberry with ice cream.
Oh, and no worries, I totally did do some shopping! HA!
Oddly enough, on Sunday my host family wanted to take me to Otavalo, Ibarra, and Cotacachi. Road trip here we come! It was very nice to not have to ride in a bus. Plus I realized that Otavalo is really only like 45 minutes away when you don't have to stop every few minutes, so that's good to know. Ibarra is the biggest city around here... roughly 150,000 people. I wasn't really impressed, but I'll try to go again before I leave here and look around more; supposedly it is a really fun city. Cotacachi on the other hand, once again, amazing. If you remember, I went here for a day trip a few weeks ago and worked in a local garden. My host family took me to a lake on the outskirts of town.
It was really pretty, and it was really good to see clean water again. The water was actually incredibly clear because it is a volcanic crater lake. So basically gas is emitted into the lake from the volcano (Volcano Cotacachi), which disallows much life besides algae. Sadly that meant my swimming shorts in my bag (always in my bag... just in case) stayed dry.
Oh, another thing I cannot wait to do when I get home... drive over 40mph on the highway, haha.
Off to San Isidro tomorrow for my site visit. Hopefully I will get this posted before I leave, but doubtful. Hope your week/end rocks!
"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:
San Isidro, Vendre!... San Isidro, here I come!
Yeah, definitely not a literal translation there, but I'm okay with that!
I've noticed many things here are dramatic. "Dramatic" isn't the right word, more like "hyped-up", but maybe you'll see what I mean. From the day we arrived, every step has been a huge event. On day two in country, we had language proficiency exams to determine which city we were going to be in for the three months of training. That was followed by a whole presentation of where each of us was headed. Then from that day on we were just anticipating where we would actually end up for our two years of service.
Oh, I won't even mention how hyped-up everything is regarding the reinas again, haha.
And, I am definitely not complaining by any means, just observing. It's similar to back home. We're always looking forward to the next gathering... or crucial night bike ride.
Today, we had a day long event to find out our country placements. San Isidro for me, in case you missed that ;)
Naturally, the day began with sitting, waiting, and anticipating when they would actually tell us where we were going. (No worries, I am still me; I wasn't thinking about it much). But finally, around 8:30 they took us outside to a field. It was lined with rose petals in the shape of Ecuador and its provinces.
One by one they called our names and told us our cities.
We stood accordingly on the flowery-map to see where we are all going to be. I will definitely be visiting them at some point!
After the excitement, we went inside to learn about our cities...
San Isidro is a tiny town in the Manabi province of Ecuador, so super west and a slight bit north of the center of the country. (Quito is in the northern half of the country, so I am about an hour south of Quito... and like 9 hours west). Yeah, a decent distance away.
I tried to look up the town on the internet, but only found websites about some ecological reserve somewhere near Quito with a similar name. I'm guessing no one has really written much about my town... yet.
The closest city is Bahia de Caraquez, a city of 15,000 people right on the coast. Just imagine me being about an hour and fifteen minutes inland.
I think I have internet and phone service in my town, but we shall see. Next week we are off to our towns for fur to five days... so pictures to come!
After learning about our cities, and getting mosquito nets/malaria medicine, the facilitators surprised us once again. They performed dances from the Sierra and Costal Regions. Oh, but not only did they dance, they also had prepared typical food for us... plantain empanadas from the coast, chu-chu from the sierra, and all sorts of other dishes which I do not know names for.
The facilitators/trainers were definitely way too nice today... yeah, i'll take the hype once in a while, I suppose...
Hope everyone enjoys his/her weekend!!
ps: it's still raining here
"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:
Llamas este el mes seco? Estaba lluviendo cada dia por dos semanas!... You call this the dry month? It's rained every day for two weeks!
Yup, my clothes have been hanging to dry for 3 days now. I may just pay and take it to the laundromat tomorrow. It's $6.50 for a large load to be washed, dried, and folded. (No idea about just drying though). Exciting, I know! I'll keep you posted.
Really, I only need it done asap because I am going to my city next week for four days. That's right! I find out tomorrow (Friday) where I will be living for the next two years, beginning in mid-August.
I am kind of hoping for the Sierra Region. (There are three regions: Highlands-Sierra, Coastal, Amazon-Oriente). Sierra is the only region that, for the most part, doesn't have to take malaria medicine. Plus, if I end up on the coast I'll have to eat seafood for sure!
But we shall see!
A picture from us playing soccer with some kids yesterday after class:
Tonight we had our second charla. This time it was for parents. We spoke about positive communication, and actually didn't have to speak too much. The parents, unlike the shy kids, seemed to take over the charla and discuss most things on their own.
We were just there to throw out ideas and bring up the topic. It went well...
Hope all is well back home!
"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:
Espera, tu dijiste que tienen shwarma!?!... Wait, did you say that they have shwarma!?!
Yeah, best find to date! But we'll talk more about that later...
On Friday, we had a day-long trainee soccer tournament here in town. It was a good/interesting time. In the morning there was a panel of current volunteers who answered a lot of questions for us, and that was helpful. But then we had to walk in our teams in front of the judges, who were the head trainers here in Ecuador. They were just checking out our uniforms to see who had the best uniform... it ended up being Los Pinguinitos de Cayambe:
That's right! That's my team. I didn't actually choose the outfit... I was all about pink with headbands... but this was good too. And naturally, because they love their reinas here so much, each team had to have one of it's own. So here are a few:
Finally soccer actually?... nope, haha. We then had to yell a cheer for the judges to hear. The winning team went all out and performed the haka... an ancient war dance that was started by the Maori tribew in New Zealand. The All-Blacks (New Zealand Rugby) have been performing it before matches for ages now, so if you'd like to see, just type it in Google or YouTube. They also ended up winning the tournament, so I guess their war dance worked:
Sadly no pictures of the matches; it was raining during the afternoon as always. But my team played really well and everyone tried really hard. We lost 2 games and won 1. I was happy. I ended up refereeing about 5 or 6 games too, so that was fun.
Now to more important things... shwarma! After arts and crafts (super boring... we made invitation cards for 3 hours for a host family appreciation day coming up), I ended up at a new food court. And they have shwarma and kabobs! Naturally I ate tons; One chicken shwarma and one lamb kabob. The owner is definitely not from the M.E., but he cooks pretty well nonetheless, and that's all that matters. You definitely cannot compare it to Northern Virginia (the classic Lebanese Taverna for Rajib/Cesar, Ravi Kabob for Karrar, Kabob Palace for Josh, Shamshiry, which I still have yet to try!, for Shereeny, and lets not forget about Lebanese Butcher for everyone!!), but it is good for sure. And finally no potatoes in a meal!! After my shwarma adventure, some of us ended up an Irish run restaurant/bar in town. I have no idea why or for how long the Irish have been in this small town, but I'll go back next weekend and find out. Their food is super expensive, but they are still in business, so someone must go. ($2 for a hot chocolate!... but then again, they actually serve hot chocolate!). We were there to watch Germany beat Uruguay. Hopefully you watched; it was exciting.
Sunday I got to sleep in to 7am! Yeah, I'll take what I can get for sure. After running some errands and doing who knows what, I went to see some motorcross event with the host family. It was just as you imagine... dirtbikes going up, down, and around a track. EXCEPT tons of spectators love standing pretty much on the track! Really, who thought that would be a good idea? Thankfully no one got hurt, but there were some close calls. I didn't take any pics because it was pretty dusty, but I did notice that all the police here are either in trucks, or on these:
Hopefully at least Willy liked that, haha.
Lunchtime... can anyone say round 2 of the shwarma spot? I only ate one today, but got ice cream afterwards. They even have tv's at this food court, so about 20 of us watched the World Cup final there. And no, ice cream really isn't as inexpensive as I had hoped! It's usually 50cents for one pansy scoop, so I get at least two.
And yup, don't forget, they use the US dollar here for currency. They do make/design their own coins though. OH! and if you were wondering where all the gold-colored Sacajawea dollar coins went... they've been found! Seriously, I see them more than one-dollar bills.
Hope everyone enjoyed his/her weekend! (Yeah, I still remember some grammar! Don't mind the spelling though, my Microsoft Word expired, so I don't have spell check in Notepad).
"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:
Te Dije que no puedo cocinar!... I told you that I can't cook!
No one ever listens... ha.
Classes are getting better. Less time in the class learning grammar, and more time out in the city doing things and talking to people.
Yesterday morning we met in the center of town and tried to think what dishes we could make for lunch... because apparently we were cooking! (Yeah, there's a center in every town, with a church normally, "thanks" to the Spanish, I imagine. I forget the word for it in English though?... my English is getting worse daily I've noticed).
Well, after thinking up a menu, we went to the market and tried our best to negotiate prices. It is rough enough for me to do that in English, so imagine in Spanish!
After buying tons of food, we headed to Alex's home to begin cooking. Alex made pudding with bananas and wafers. Katie used an ecuadorian recipe and made some sort of spiced chicken. Clint made mac and cheese (not Kraft, sadly. that was expensive at the store). Teresa, our facilitator, used one of her coastal recipes and made lemonade. Anglea and I washed, chopped, and peeled all the vegis. We just boiled the carrots and broccoli. To no surprise, they were lacking flavor, so Clint and I tried to "Yves dada" a dressing. We used mustard, fresh orange juice, salt, some weird soy sauce, flour, and a few other spices. Yeah, no dice(luck) there! I mean, me and Clint used it, but it wasn't exactly impressive.
Oh no worries, we didn't forget our usual does of potatoes; Teresa made papas fritas (french fries) too.
Today we hosted a "charla" in our community. Kind of like a session to discuss/teach any topic. We invited the children from our host families and gave a presentation about self-esteem. All in all, it went pretty well. I'm not sure how much the younger kids understood, but they enjoyed the juice and cookies we brought for refreshments at least.
A few names with the faces finally... from left to right... Kelsea, Alex, Katie, Clint, Angela, me:
I know!, sorry guys, no pool pictures this issue. But I did tuck in my shirt which was new! (look how intrigued the kid in the green looks; priceless):
In fact, it was surprising how impressed our technical trainers were with us. They commented on how me and Clint looked so professional. Of course, this is exactly what we wear normally; we just tucked in our shirts for once. We're hoping everyone is that easy to please here!
Yeah, I had to teach Katie's sister how to do a proper high-five. (which I learned from Rajib years and years ago). I'll make sure to test her skills the next time I see her.
A week from tomorrow we find out our sites for our 2 year service. Then a week or two after that we go by ourselves for a week-long visit. Meaning I have 2-3 weeks to learn spanish!!! I'll keep you posted, naturally.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! All I know for sure is that I'm going to have to watch the world cup final... and hopefully play some soccer with Katie and her sister's soccer team. Oh, and lets not forget arts and crafts class Saturday morning, ha.
ps: Oh, bubs, I didn't gain weight... techincally! (We had medical exams today). But I probably lost muscle and gained fat instead. Lame, I know. I'll blame it on the fact that each day we eat lots of rice, potatoes, and at least 3 big pieces of bread. And yes, I only wrote this here in case you were thinking the same, haha.
"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:
Que? Tu llamas este un hot spring? Tienes suerte que yo no hablo espanol!... What? You call this a hot spring? You're lucky I can't speak Spanish!
The weekend was packed, thankfully! On Saturday we had cultural classes from 7:30am until 12:30pm. I ended up in the arts & crafts class. To my surprise, it was fun. At first I thought it would only be lame things like making invitation cards, which I know for a fact we are doing at some point, but we actually did other things too. I made a scarf out of yarn using only my fingers (no needles or what not). Maybe not that impressive, but I'm not Rajib:
And don't be jealous of my blue/green/pink flowery bed cover either!
After class I somehow ended up going to some "hot springs" with some other kids... Oh wow, are the hot springs just around the bend?
Umm nope, not really, haha.
It was still a good time. I was just happy to not be studying in my room. (don't mind the expression on my face, I think the sun was just in my eyes... I did enjoy it for sure... and no, i wasn't flexing! or i'm always flexing? i didn't know the picture was being taken).
Oddly, in the evening, I ended up at the Mr. Cayambe body building competition. I'm not going to lie, I definitely could have taken one of two of those guys!
For the third Sunday in a row, I ended up watching people dance down the streets of Cayambe. This week it was for real dance groups. And This group was naturally my favorite:
Oh my, I can't believe I haven't mentioned this as yet. They love having Miss ________ here. Like there is a queen (Reina) for anything and everything. Last weekend there was the Miss Cayambe Paegant. Then last night at the Mr. Cayambe body building competition, there was some other Miss ___(Gold's Gym?)___. Yeah, who thought that would be a good idea?... Well, once again, there were Reinas on the floats yesterday:
And yup, she's looking at me...
How was your 4th of July!?! Man, I missed being home with everyone! I hope you all lived it up!
After the parade, we went to a park in a nearby town and had a bbq. There were about 30 of us who made the trip. I don't have pics because it was drizzling, but everyone definitely needed it. Kids blasted (english) music, ate hot dogs/hamburgers/grilled cheese sandwhiches/smores, and even played some kickball...
"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:
Oh my, estamos en Ecuador ahora?... Oh my, are we in Ecuador now?
On Friday we went to the town of Cotacachi for a cultural trip. It was amazing. Unesco deemed it the "City of Peace". Don't get me wrong, I love looking over my shoulder every two seconds in my current host city, but look at this:
It reminded me of Pesaro. It was super clean, the air was fresh, and most importantly, everyone smiled! Actually, a decent amount of Americans retire there as well.
Our day started off bright and early. We had an hour bus ride to Cotacachi beginning around 7:30am. When we reached, we were greeted by two current volunteers. Roxanne, who is in agriculture and lives in the town, and the other in health and lives within 20 minutes. From there we went to Roxanne's Ento-Botanical Garden and participated in a "minga". That's when a group/community gets together to perform some sort of task. It was nice. Honestly, we just helped out by putting up some poles and weeding some of the herb gardens. Yeah, I crushed it (only thanks to all the experience from back home, of course). And maybe a bit because it's definitely the kind of work I like.
The host of a "minga" is supposed to feed the guests/workers... so we headed to lunch next. It was good. We had the usual huge lunch with soup, rice, a few vegies, and meat. Somehow I ended up in the kitchen washing dishes with lady who was cooking for us for like 30minutes. But no surprise there really, I guess... I'm very ansy.
After lunch we walked around the town a bit, and then headed to see a show that was being put on for us. (And when I say "see a show", I totally mean in a basment of a community center, not in an audotorium or anything). First, 4 girls, who are part of a youth group that Roxanne works with, danced traditionally for us. They were very shy, but it was nice that they had the courage to dance for 30+ americans. After that a famous(?) indigenious band played music for us. They were great.
I think I may have to grow my hair out again... and rock a feather like their lead singer... beast. We danced while they played for about an hour. And nope, my dancing skills are still lacking. But it's only been a little more than 2 weeks!
Yeah, there's no way I'll end up there, but it was great to see. And if I ever need a break for a weekend, Cotacachi is on the list for sure!
"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: Puedo tomar una foto con Usted? No!... Can I take a photo with you? No!
Snap, two weeks! It feels like two months since I haven't seen you... haven't played outside... haven't eaten rice - totally kidding - that's at least twice a day here... haven't ridden a bike (I look for one every day when I'm walking around. Someone must have one that they hardly ride, right?)...
I guess having class 6 days a week now will help? priceless. (Yeah, we have "cultural" class on Saturdays begining this weekend. The choices were dancing, cooking, agriculture, something else, and arts and crafts. I was busy eating an empanada when everyone was signing up, so I'm in the arts and crafts group. Hopefully it's color pencils or else we may have some issues! Cross your fingers).
Finally a picture of my classroom:
Much better than some of you imagined, I'm guessing. It is a community center in one of the neighborhoods. Really it's just the room you see, a bit more seating in the same room, and two bathrooms. It doesn't have any wholes in the ceiling, so no complaints here! (Well one minor complaint by everyone else, it's freezing inside because it's all concrete... we wear jackets and even scarves some days... but it could be much much worse! Plus it makes our facilitator want to have class outside after lunch, which is great!!). Really, she's awesome and would probably let us have class outside if we just asked, but still.
Plus she hooks up tons of things for us. Today we went to see someone she met who is a "shamman" type lady, but really she was just into holistic healing methods, raki, and some other stuff. Who would have imagined here in Cayambe? She's actually the only one within a decent number of hours, but still. Her teacher is a Buddhist monk who lives somewhere in Quito she said. She had a statue of Buddha and pictures of Shiva and Hannuman in her house. And next monday we're going over there because she's making us some sort of pastry. See, always hooking things up!
I see a lady quite often with her street food...
totally reminds me of India. I won't dare try it though... my goal is to be sick less than everyone else here. (I think at least 10 people have had upset stomachs and the usual already... I'll pass for as long as I can at least!)
BUT I did eat here tonight for snack!
They were good. Definitely not the best empanadas I've ever eaten, but the lady lost 20 points when she didn't want to take a picture with me (imagine!). I had them right out of the boiling oil, so I should be fine. They were filled with a bit of cheese, and she put some sugar on top.
Speaking of sugar, people love it here. Like 3 tablespoons in their coffee and tea. And I mean tablespoons, not teaspoons. I also drink tea every night now. But not by choice really. I just need to get the most water in me as possible, you know?
Tonight I was home alone with Juan, the cousin who is living with the family for the summer. He is working at the Flower plantation in the kitchen with my host mother and he goes at like 4:30am. Anyway, this kid does so much around the house. I see him sweeping, washing dishes(he tries to wash mine but I don't let that slide), and he always warms up my food whenever no one else is home. So we went out for dessert. I asked him who had the best pastries/cakes, and he said he'd heard that some place on the other side of town was great. I think he just imagined he was showing me where the place was, but we definitely crushed it. He had some sort of cherry cake with orange juice (yeah, i thought it was odd too), and I had some cake that had fruit on it(surprise, surprise! ha).
All this sugar talk, I wish I had some ice cream! Make sure you eat lots this weekend and have a
Happy 4th of July!
I'm not gonna lie, transportation here reminds me of the metro. Somewhat sporadic. Somehow our bus trip back to Quito only took 6 hours this morning, instead of the 9 hours last Tuesday. And the bus from Quito took only an hour this morning, instead of the 2 hours normally. Definitely no complaints here, but odd.
So I am going to be staying and working with a family that seems to pretty run the town. They are, from what I noticed, the most educated family in town. The father teaches math and physics at the high school, is the principal there, and teaches math and physics in the afternoon at the university (same building as the high school). This is during break for the high school kids:
He is very realistic and has tons of ideas (which we'll talk about later) for the town and me. He is very hardworking and seems to try to help everyone he can. Really, he is a lot like Bubs, which will help me acclimate a bit more. He has three children; Mario(25), Karen(23?), and Luis(22?).
She cooks, cleans, and takes care of a hostel that they have next to their home:
What is this, Swiss Family Robinson?... Ha, I wish! (There are two bedrooms, two bathrooms and then plenty of open beds upstairs):
And really all the pictures are because I have an actual room in there too:
And also a friend right outside (gross! its body is the size of my thumb):
Everyone loves hammocks out here in Manabi, the costal province I am in. This is in the hostel too:
Yeah, somehow I did not take any pictures of people besides my new host mom? I'll be there for forever and half though, so plenty to come.
