100 spf: Julia's Peace Corps Ecuador Blog: June 2012

Tech Trip, Quilotoa, Site Assignment, y Más

Too much has happened, so I'll just write about the important stuff. Six weeks in country this week! Since the last time I posted, we went on tech trip (which was actually a couple weeks ago). Tech trip was a five day trip, with our respective programs, traveling around Ecuador to visit volunteers in their sites to get a feel for what life is like as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). It was also a chance to start racking up our charla experiences. Charlas are technically "chats". Essentially they are little lectures/discussions we will be giving throughout our service. Since I am a health volunteer, I will be giving charlas regarding nutrion, hygiene (e.g. hand-washing and teeth brushing), and sexual health.

I would say I learned a lot about what PCV life will be like during the tech trip... even before we actually left. The group met bright and early on Monday morning at the Tumbaco park, where we then headed to the bus station. Well, the first bus station. We started buying tickets for one bus, but there were only a couple of seats on that bus. Then we started buying tickets for a later bus, but there were only a couple of seats on that bus, as well. Eventually, they told us we could buy 5 tickets on each of the later buses, but they didn't want to sell a group of tickets for the same bus because the bus would have to stop specifically for us. I'm not sure that makes sense. Actually, I know it doesn't make sense. I don't think it is just the manner in which I am explaining it because the whole situation didn't make any sense. Essentially, they wanted to separate us and make three buses stop, instead of just putting us all on the same bus and making one bus stop for us. We obviously didn't do that, so we headed to a different bus station. That bus station was a bust, so we waited there while our facilitators walked to a third station. We got the call that if we could make it to the third bus station in under 10 minutes, we could catch the bus. We made it just in time. Only two hours behind schedule, we were on our way to Santo Domingo to meet Ronald. "Welcome to Ecuador" as they say.

Ecuador is known for being extremely diverse. It contains three extremely different climates, the orient (jungle), the sierra, and the coast. We were headed from Quito, in the sierra, to Santo Domingo, in the coastal climate. I fell asleep on the bus and woke up drenched in sweat. That's when I knew we'd hit the coast. We immediately met up with Ronald, grabbed some lunch, and headed to Hombro a Hombro (the clinic where he works). We got to talk to some of the staff and we were given a tour of the clinic. Then, Ronald took us to meet a couple of locals he's befriended and worked with. They welcomed us into their home, even after we broke their bench, and allowed us to ask a few questions regarding the water filtration system Ronald has been working on. Once we finished up there, we went to an indigenous Tsáchila community. Their community leader spoke to us regarding their culture, then they provided us with a traditional meal. That was pretty cool because they cooked the fish wrapped in banana tree leaves. After dinner, they performed some local music for us while the children danced. It was Gabo's birthday, so we all took part in a dance to celebrate. Props to Gabo for coming up with original dance moves for a good five minutes while we danced in a circle around him. After a long day, we finally headed to our hotel where we were supposed to have time to prepare for our charlas the following morning. That definitely didn't happen, as it was already pretty late. We spent a few minutes, decided on educational hot potato and that was that. We had little experience giving charlas, but we were already having to learn how to think on our feet.

The next morning we made the ~3hr bus ride to Chibuleo, a small town near Ambato. The kids seemed excited to have us, which definitely felt good. We did our hand-washing charla, which could have gone better, but also could have gone much worse. The kids seemed to have fun with the different games we played and it was a great chance to practice our spanish. We then made the trek up the big hill to the KNH Foundation where they prepared us a most delicious lunch. It was one of the best meals I've had since I've been here. To start, they made us squash soup with potatoes and cheese. I wanted seconds of the soup, but I knew I should save room for the meal-to-come. After the soup, they brought us beef in a delightful sauce, rice, and garbanzo beans mmmm sooo good. Once we were stuffed full, we got a tour of the foundation and learned how to make tire gardens with the children. Flipping tires inside out is way harder than it looks! When the tire garden session was complete, we headed to Rio Bamba, which was only about 2hrs away. We met up with Orin, a PCV living in Rio Bamba. He took us on a walk around the city. It was so nice to be in a city and not have to worry about being robbed (e.g. wear backpack on front, keep phone, money, and camera stashed away at all times). It felt good to let my guard down a little. Not to mention it was absolutely gorgeous. The city is surrounded by beautifully snowcapped mountains (the most majestic of which is Chimborazo). I took advantage of the tranquility by taking soooo many pictures. All I've wanted to do since I've been here is photo-document, but it has rarely been safe enough.

The following morning, we set out for the University ESPOCH to learn about "Cuanto Sabes?". "Cuanto Sabes?" is a six-session program for teaching all about HIV/AIDS. We spent the whole day at the university learning how to run the program. For those that get placed in sites with a great need for HIV/Aids education, this program will be extremely beneficial. That night, we spent a brief amount of time prepping for the nutrition charlas we would give the next day.

If you're keeping track, it is now Thursday. Today, we split up into two groups. The HIV/AIDS group went to an HIV hospital, while we (the hygiene/nutrition group) made the long trek to the coastal city, San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo is a small, close-knit community of about 200 people, maybe 201 including the PCV Morgan. Once we arrived, we almost immediately walked to the school, as we had arrived a bit late (per usual). When we reached the school, the kids were all walking away to go home. Morgan told them to turn around because we were here to give our charlas! The response melted my heart. They all spun around, cheering as they ran back into the school. It was a moment I will never forget. They were so incredibly excited to have us and so eager to learn from us. As we were giving our charlas, they kept creeping closer and closer, to the point where they were right on top of us as we were presenting. It was awesome.

After the charlas, we headed to a local restaurant for another extremely delicious lunch. We were joined by a carnivorous parrot, which made the meal only that much better. After lunch, Morgan showed us her huge house. It had two bedrooms, and a large kitchen/living space area, as well as a spacious backyard with a garden and an orange tree. All this only costs $25/mo. Incredible, right? There isn't much you can purchase for that price in the U.S. nowadays. After some samplings of fresh fruit from Morgan's garden, we walked over to her neighbor's house/cacao farm (which was literally right next-door). Unfortunately, we didn't have much time because we had to catch the bus back to Rio Bamba, but we had a wonderful time meeting their animals, trying their cacao, and learning about the process of making chocolate. We had to leave by 3pm because the bus ride gets dangerous if you leave later than that. Despite leaving by three, it was still a bit scary. The ride is through the mountains, so all the clouds had settled in by that time. Looking out the window, it appeared as if there was no world beyond our bus. All you could see were dense, white clouds. That being said, we eventually made it back safely.

On Friday, the final day of our trip, we made a quick excursion to the indigenous town of Alausi. We each gave different charlas this time. The HIV group gave the nutrition charlas, while we gave the charlas on puberty. The only problem was, right before we walked into the classrooms, we found out we weren't allowed to refer to the anatomy of the vagina nor talk about anything else too in-depth regarding puberty. We were new to this community and the indigenous kids were very shy, so we didn't want to overstep any boundaries. In the end, we spent the 30-45 minutes going over the definition of VIH/Sida (HIV/AIDS). It was a wonderful learning experience. The juxtaposition of coastal children and indigenous sierra children was quite extreme. It was very difficult to get the indigenous children to speak and when they did speak, it was often too soft to be able to hear. It will definitely take a great deal of trust-building to work with an indigenous community, in the future. It was a very tough charla to give in that setting, but I was so pleased to have the eye-opening experience. After the charlas and lunch, it was time to head back to Tumbaco. Following the long bus ride (~5 hrs), we arrived back in Quito. As we got off the bus, we glanced over at the "luggage" being unpacked from the bottom of the bus. Does a sheep count as luggage? because two sheep were yanked out from underneath the bus. What? I must say I was surprised, as it was something I'd never seen before, however I was not entirely shocked as it wasn't entirely unexpected. As they say, "Welcome to Ecuador."

Friday evening I reunited with my host family. They reminded me that we'd be heading to Quilotoa Lagoon the following morning at 6am, ugh. After a 3.5-4 hour car/bus ride, I was a bit frustrated considering I had just traveled a great deal and was quite tired (plus, we thought it'd only take 2hrs). The expedition was so worth it. The view was spectacular. It's beauty was so incredibly refreshing. We made the hike down (me in my slip on shoes because my family wasn't aware it'd be much of a hike), had lunch at the bottom of the caldera, and then made the VERY tough hike back up. Man that was tiring, but once again, so worth it. Once we got to the top, we were waiting for others to finish the hike, when a storm came through. It started hailing extremely hard. It hailed so much the ground was covered in a layer of small ice pebbles. Once it stopped (you couldn't go out in the hail because it was too painful), we played in it for a little while. There was a bus of young men from the oriente. They also stopped to play in the snow/ice for a little while. It was quite a site. It was a lot of fun seeing them enjoying it so much. Supposedly this weather was quite abnormal. My host sister said she had only experienced this type of weather in Ecuador maybe one other time.

Earlier this week, we learned about indigenous medicine/medicinal gardens. A volunteer came to the training center and brought a shaman from her town with her. We have an herb garden growing in the back of the training center and they taught us the what's what. Then, we all got to take part in a ritual run by the shaman. The intent of the ritual was to rid ourselves of bad energy as a group. Definitely an experience like no other.

Yesterday, we got our site assignments and I couldn't be happier! I will be living in Pedro Vicente Maldonado, Pichincha, Ecuador. It is on the western side of the the Pichincha province, which is the same province as Quito. I am just over three hours away from Quito. About 12,000 people live in the town. It is a subtropical cloud forest region. It is in the transitional zone between the sierra and the coast. It has a warm, VERY humid climate. Looks like I will be a little lioness for the next two years. Who knows, maybe my hair will get used to it (I'm not even going to kid myself). I'm told the temperature ranges from 60-77 degrees fahrenheit with ~86% humidity, but looking at the weather for this week it is ~83 degrees (and the temperature doesn't vary much year round). I will have access to internet cafes, a bank, and the post office, as well as having cellphone service.

I will be working with the organization Federación Ecuatoriana del Noroccidental de Pichincha para el Desarrollo Comunitario (The Ecuadorian Federation of Northwest Pichincha for Community Development). It sounds like part of the job will be medical brigades. The organization travels around to small, rural communities in the area to provide different kinds of developmental support. My three primary activities/jobs that they requested me for are (I'm translating this from spanish so I apologize if it sounds a little funny) 1) Family Training Project - to work with the mother leaders of rural communities, focusing on the themes of nutrition for mothers and children, as well, to help in the implementation of organic gardens and to strengthen with charlas (lecture/discussion) and classes about food preparation. 2) Project of strengthening the capacity of the youth - support in the creation of youth groups and work with them in the themes of sexual education, HIV, school for parents, self-esteem, and motivation. 3) Learning Project with Children - suport in this project with relational activities and work with the youth and teachers about development of values, the importance of energy saving water (?), etc., the themes of environmental education and support the coverage of the medical health brigades.

I will be living with a six person afro-ecuadorian family (one mother, four kids, and one grandson). All of the kids are pretty young, I've heard that the oldest are teenagers. They live in an apartment that is three blocks from the center of town. There seem to be plenty of hotels for ALLLL you friends and family that plan to visit (right?!!). Supposedly, the town is "safe and tranquilo". I am about a two hour bus ride from the beach in Esmeraldas, which is cool. However, there aren't any volunteers too close by (the closest will be just over an hour away).

Next week, our counterparts (a person within the organization we will be working with) will be visiting us on Monday. On Tuesday, we will travel with them to our sites where we will visit for about six days (return the following Monday). I was pretty nervous about this visit the past couple of days. It occurred to me, "Oh yeah, we aren't going to be in Peace Corps Summer Camp forever. This isn't the reason you came here, remember?" BUUUT, now that I've finally got my site, heard about my counterpart, and host family, I am so excited to go and get started. I'm really looking forward to meeting all of the people I will be living and interacting with for the next two years.

Santo Domingo - Hombro a Hombro

Rural part of Santo Domingo

A well typically shared between two families

A view from a home in Santo Domingo where we were able to ask some questions after breaking their bench

Tsahchila Community

Fish and plantain patties (?) cooked in banana tree leaf in Tshachila Community

Right before this dog smashed into me. It was pitch black when we were walking. We only had the flash of cameras/the light from cell phones to light the way.

Musical dance performance

Celebrating Ngabo's Birthday

Charla in Chibuleo

View from the KNH Foundation

mmm good eats

Part of the view from the roof

Learning how to make tire gardens

Flipping the tires inside-out is really difficult

SUCCESS!!

Just like the good ol' days

Every day these people drive up Chimborazo to get ice from the mountain to make smoothies.

At a local market in Rio Bamba, where you could bring clothes to get fixed, they used all of these old Singer sewing machines. (This one's for you mom.)