No, I Don't Live In a Hut

When I went home over Christmas, my friends told me they thought I lived in a hut.  My parents said their friends made the same faulty assumption.  No, I do not live in a hut.  As a result of this Peace Corps stereotype, I took a day to take pictures while walking around town.  I actually felt kind of awkward doing this because I looked really touristy even though I'd been living there for about 7 months.  Anyway, some volunteers live in big cities, some live in towns of 200.  I live in a town between the two.  There is cell phone service, we have plenty of internet cafes, the majority of the roads are paved, and most days I can find a cold bottle of coca-cola light (Diet Coke).  However, there are chickens walking around everywhere, a lot of the buildings are not finished, I take cold showers, and I live next to a livestock market.  All together, Pedro Vicente Maldonado has a population of about 12,000 people.  That includes all of the small rural communities surrounding the town (communities up to an hour away).  In the cabecera cantonal (basically the concentrated part of the town where I live), only has about 4,000 people.  I work in the small rural communities.  Most of these communities do not have paved roads nor cell-phone service.  Most of the houses are made out of wood.  One of the schools I teach at has ~15 students.

I recently moved into my own apartment (actually it is just an open room with a kitchen area).  These pictures are were taken when I was living with my host family.  Soon (which has turned into "ya mismo" for me and thus really gives no real time reference) I will post pictures of my new place.  I just got back from traveling around with Brendan, David, and Laura.  We ended our trip in Otavalo where I was able to get a bunch of stuff to decorate my room, so I won't be adding pictures until all that stuff is up.

P.S. that is a new background picture (even though it looks very similar to the last, however, I actually took this one)

Host Family's Apartment Building

We live on the left haf of the second floor, my room was the first window on the left

Walking up to the center of town

 Subcentro

 A side street

 The back of the market -- during the week it is ecuavolley courts, on the weekends it has more stands extending the market (the big building in the background was built years ago to be the market, but the government ran out of money to finish it)

Weekend market usually made up of clothes

...and some food stands

Almuerzos

New building of classrooms just built for the biggest lower/middle school in town

 Mototaxi (about 50 cents to go almost anywhere in town)

Truck line (sort of like taxis but with trucks)

Don Camilo's truck (he takes us to the communities where we can't take a bus)

 Center of Town

Biggest store to do food shopping

A clothes market of sorts open everyday

This is what ice cream trucks look like here

Restaurant/Shops/Hotel

View of a side street from the center of town

hey pooch

A huge hardware/home goods store (I find this store completely out of place in town)

More of center of town

Another side street

The Office

Our office is at the end

The office is off the park, this is the park

 View of park from the office

Bus Stop

Coliseo

Some of the artwork on the coliseo

Soccer Stadium to the right of the Coliseo

Behind that wall is the soccer field

 No longer on the main street, looking back on the Coliseo

...further down the street

The Hospital (donated by a doctor from University of Notre Dame)

A view from the street on the walk home

Another side street

Host Family's Home

 Yard to the right of the apartment

Trucks store wood here

View from the stairs of the apartment

So what am I up to these days?  Who knows.  Keeping work consistent is difficult.  In December, I went around to a lot of the rural communities to meet with the principals of the schools, as well as the parents.  I told them how I wanted to work with the kids during the school day; working on a program we coined “Escuelas Saludables” or “Healthy Schools”.  We will be discussing the topics of hygiene, nutrition, recycling, self-esteem, and sex-ed in a few of the schools.  Then in the afternoon, I will work with the parents regarding some recycling crafts, cooking healthy recipes, exercise, etc.  I have 8 schools and visit each of them once a month.  Getting transportation out to these communities is tough.  Most often, if there is a bus going to the community, there is only one and it leaves the community in the morning to take the kids to the high schools and comes back to the town in the afternoon to bring the kids back.  Therefore, it is really tough to visit the schools more than once a month because we have to pay to get a driver to take us out there.  This past month, I started visiting the schools to actually implement the program.  It went well.  The kids were a lot of fun and the moms enjoyed learning how to make beads out of recycled magazine paper.  Some of the kids took really well to learning about nutrition.  In other classes, it was very difficult to maintain order because the kids walked all over me.  I feel terrible looking back at how I behaved with some of my teachers in school, particularly when we had substitutes.  When we wanted all hell to break loose, all hell broke loose.  This is basically what happened with some of the classes I worked with this past month.  When the teacher came in, they were all good and shaped up, got quiet.  The minute they walked out, it was like animals being let free from a zoo.  I’m hoping eventually I can learn some tricks to get the kids to calm down with me.  If you have ANY tips, I am alllll ears!  Unfortunately, for this reason, I often wasn’t able to take pictures.  I was too busy attempting to maintain some semblance of order.  I was able to capture some pictures in the school that only has about 15 students.  They were a little bit easier to manage.  Those pictures are included below.

Currently, there are two situations that kind of stink.  First, the schools start their three month vacation in February, so right when I start having an actual schedule, I go back to having no schedule for three months.  I will still be visiting the communities to work with the moms; I just won’t work with the kids until they come back in May.  Now the other situation.  There is a possibility that all of the schools that have less than a certain number of kids are going to be closed.  The government is thinking that it might be more worthwhile to spend the money on bussing the kids that attend these small schools into the main towns to attend the bigger schools, sort of like how it is for high schools.  To be honest, I am not entirely sure how I feel about this.  Some of the kids would probably get better off because they would get better education.  However, a lot of the schools function just fine as they are, while fostering a sense of community.  As well, a major issue here is the drop in attendance of high school.  At least here in Pedro Vicente, it is difficult for the children in the rural communities to get to the high schools in the main part of the town.  As a result, they don’t go and will work instead.  There is always a fear that a similar situation with the lower/middle school would cause a drop in attendance as well.

            My counterpart told me that this could all happen over the summer, but I just can’t imagine it happening that quickly.  Obviously it’d be a bit of a bummer because I’d have to reconstitute my plan for work, but again, obviously, that is not what matters the most.  I guess we will see what happens in the coming months.

            Anyway, I am hoping this past month was a good sort of pilot run and that when the kids get back into school, I will really be able to get going with the program.  Hopefully it is something that can be kept up.  During the summer, like I said before, I will go to the communities to work with the parents as well, I figure I will also help out with the basketball classes that are happening here in town.  They basketball coach is going to offer more classes during vacation, so I figure it is an opportunity for me to start helping out again.

            Speaking of basketball, I’m on a basketball team.  I actually think it is I was on a basketball team.  It was a league where we played about 8 games.  We lost all the games except for two.  One game we won outright, the other game we won because of a forfeit (the team didn’t show).  When the team didn’t show, we played against a team of women that were just around in the stadium.  That “team” beat us.  Yeah, we weren’t so good.  Actually I didn’t think we were so bad, but I guess we were.  It had a good time anyway.  Well except for the ref, who’s lack of knowledge of the rules often made me quite angry (I think most of you know how I feel about referees who don’t know the rules).  The playoffs start Monday; I think my team will be in the bleachers watching.

            That’s all for now for this post.  There are a few more posts after this one so click on older posts to see more.

Food Pyramid

Drawing a meal

Personally think this frog can camouflage, but the kids told me they are born this way