(Sunday, July 25, Day 39)

"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!