(Friday, July 16, Day 30)

"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