I’ve
had about two months in site, so far.
I arrived here in the afternoon on Wednesday and the following day, Thursday, was my 24th
birthday. It was my first birthday
of three birthdays I will be celebrating here in Ecuador (God willing). This was my second year in a row having
a birthday abroad. Last year, my
brothers, Laura and I celebrated my birthday in a small town of rice terraces
in China. Having my birthday here
so early on was a bit awkward because I didn’t really tell anyone. Therefore, for the majority of the day,
it was a day like any other (well, besides the fact that I had just moved to my
new home of two years in Ecuador).
My host brother found out because he had my phone when Wyn (a fellow OMN
108-er) texted me saying, “happy birthday”. I must say my friends in OMN 108 as well as friends and
family from home did a wonderful job of making sure I received felicitaciones
on my birthday. For that, I thank
you all. So, since my host brother
found out, later that night they threw me a little party with cake, chips, etc. It was a good time and all I needed!
Since
then, things have been pretty laid back.
I guess I’ll go through a list of some things that I have done.
One of the first things that we did
was go to motocross. That was a
lot of fun. Motorcycles are really
popular here. The course was
really cool because of its setting.
It was essentially etched out of the forest. You can see pictures in the album.
Every Tuesday, there is a meeting
for the regional organization in the town over. Even though it is kind of boring for me because I don’t do
much, I enjoy these meetings because I really like my coworkers. They are a really good group of people
that truly I enjoy being around. For the
first couple of Tuesday meetings, we were taking a cooking class. That was pretty awesome because right
off the bat I was learning how to make some Ecuadorian dishes. Not to mention it, was an easy environment
to get to know the other people in the organization. We made all kinds of food, ceviche de palmito (hearts of
palm, empanadas de verde (unripe plantains), muchines de yuca, cazuela de
camarón y tilapia (shrimp and tilapia dish), chuleta de cerdo en salsa piña
(pork in a pineapple sauce), medallones de pollo rellenos de verduras (chicken
filled with vegetables), pineapple mousse, maracuya mousse, fruit crepes y
más. All good stuff. If you are interested in some recipes,
just let me know.
My counterpart (Erly) and his
family own a small farm. Each PCV
has a counterpart. Counterparts are coworkers that are a bit more than just
coworkers. They collaborate with
Peace Corps to help us integrate and form a work plan. So, Erly has a farm that he showed me
around one weekend. It was a lot
of fun because not only was it gorgeous, but as we would come across the
different foods he has on the farm, I would have a taste… fresh bananas,
blackberries, sugar cane, guayaba, limes, oranges, etc. All picked straight from the
tree/bush. Half the time we were
walking through dense rainforest, other times we were trekking through open
planes, other times crossing rivers.
The land on the small farm was so diverse.
Fairly frequently, we go to the
river. It is about a 10-minute
walk from the house. Typically, on
the weekends, my family and I will play some basketball (“basket”) or soccer
and then go swimming in the river to cool off. They like going to the river in the town over (about a
30-minute bus ride) because there are more people, cabañas (loud blasting music
and drink). We went there one
time, but I like the river by our house much more. It is much more relaxing and has a better area for swimming.
In the schools they have days of
“juegos”. Now juegos simply means
games. However the day of juegos
typically entails more than just playing soccer. The classes are broken up into teams and they all get
uniforms. Each team picks one girl
to participate to be the representing “madrina”. During the ceremony, the teams all line up and the madrinas
are each required to answer a question.
In the end, the judges vote on who had the best uniform, who is the
reining madrina, and who had the best cheers. After this ceremony, the games begin and typically there is
a winner(s) of the games. There is
a great deal of schools in the area, so it seems like juegos occur
frequently. One day, my
organization was invited to view the ceremony and participate in the
games. The organization had a
guy’s team and a girl’s team. We
both got absolutely rocked.
Our male team played a teacher team and we played a female student
team. Our team lost 5 or 6 to
0. How embarrassing.
This past Thursday, we went on an
organization retreat/bonding trip.
We went to Santo Domingo to visit a Tsachila community. It was kind of funny because we ended
up visiting the same Tsachila community that we had visited on tech three
months earlier. It was interesting
to get to visit with the two widely varying groups, one being my fellow OMN 108
community health volunteers and the other being my new coworkers. Traveling with my coworkers, I felt
like we were all closer to the same level because we were all tourists for a
day. We had more time to visit on
this trip, so the activities were a little more in-depth than the July
visit. First we went to a river to
view some “ruins”. From my
understanding, it is a very sacred place for Tsachilas. It is a place they come to worship and
meditate each month. All the way
up the river, there are rocks of similar form standing up. There is a large debate as to whether
it happened naturally or by hand.
Either way it was really cool to see. Prior to entering, we had to discard of all our metal
objects (we were allowed to take our cameras) and then we all joined hands in a
circle to ask for permission from the land and nature to enter. After the river, we went to a different
Tsachila community. There we had a
meal, danced to live music, took part in a indigenous religious ceremony, and
had our body and hair painted like the Tsachilas. The ceremony was my favorite part. We closed our eyes and bowed our heads while the head of the
community chanted in the indigenous language and showered us with fragrances
and herbs. That experience was
unlike anything I had ever taken part in.
As for the paint, we were unaware that it would not come off for EIGHT
days. This is paint that the
Tsachilas wear every day. They
have lines painted all over their body and the men have their hair painted
red. I thought (and still to
think) it would be pretty cool to take part, so I received lines on my arms and
face. As we were being painted, it
did not appear that anything was on our skin. Later, we found out that our energy brings out the
color. Two hours later, the paint showed
up black on our skin. It was a
little embarrassing walking to work on Friday and having people stare at me
more than normal. It has actually
been an interesting lesson to learn.
The chief of the community was telling us that the Tsachila culture is
diminishing because the kids born into the culture are leaving and are a bit
embarrassed of the native culture that visually sets them apart from their
peers. In a sense, my
coworkers and I got a little better understanding of this. We walked around with paint on our face
and arms and we were strongly cognizant of the perplexed looks and questioning
we received from others. The paint
on my skin has still yet to fade much.
Last weekend I went to visit a group of volunteers in Riobamba. It was a really wonderful time. It was great to see them, be able to relax, speak some english, and be in a big city. We ate a lot of delicious food, danced a couple nights away, and relaxed with some glasses of wine.
About an hour ago, I got back from Mindo. Mindo is a small town near my site that is well known for it's bird and butterfly watching as well as it's waterfalls. It is a beautiful town, but also full of tourists. We had our cluster meeting there. It was a chance to get to know the other volunteers who live nearby. Today we hiked down to a waterfall where we could jump off. Definitely very scary, but very cool. I never knew my stomach could go so far up into my throat.
I have finally started to get a bit of my own schedule. I have started giving charlas to some kids, to groups of parents, and a group of adults that have their own home gardens. As well, with the latter group, we are doing a bit of a cooking class. As of right now, I have about 8 groups, of ~20 people each, to give nutrition charlas to. I am glad to finally be having work, but there are definitely new stressors I am facing. I find myself spending a great deal of time preparing for the week's charlas. My spanish is continually improving, however at times, I still struggle to portray exactly what I mean, so I try to be prepared as possible. As well, I am often preoccupied with making sure I am sharing information in a manner that will make them want to keep coming back each week.
This sort of segways into the last section of my blog. I want to address some more of the
issues/struggles I have faced since I have been here. Some more peculiar than others.
1.
Coffee – Ecuador produces delicious coffee. The majority of it comes from Loja, which is the province
furthest south in Ecuador. While you
would think that fresh coffee would be abundant, considering it is a big
export, it is not frequently consumed here. At least not up north.
Instant coffee is extremely easy to come by. Most people, if they drink coffee, drink instant. Therefore, finding something to make
hot coffee and then finding freshly ground coffee has been a process. About a month ago, I found a woman in
the market who has a daughter that brings coffee from Loja. That was a great day! For the past month, I have been using this
thing (essentially a sock on a piece of wire) to strain coffee. This past week, my mother sent me a
French press. Now, every day I am
able to easily make absolutely delicious, fresh coffee.
2.
I really would like to learn to cook more while I am down here. However, my host mother is a very good
cook and I have been a bit nervous to cook for my family here. Not only do I have to measure up to my
host mother’s food, there are two other problems. Salt and sugar.
Whenever I make anything for myself, my family is always shocked that it
doesn’t have either more salt or more sugar. With some research (I may be wrong) it seems that your taste
buds can essentially build up tolerance to salt. Salt to me tastes different than salt to them. When I put a little bit of salt in my
eggs, I can taste it, but they can’t because they are used to using more. This is one of the reasons I have been
nervous to cook for them. It is
hard for me to know what tastes good for them in terms of salt.
3.
Keeping occupied work-wise.
Finding work has not been easy.
Actually, at this point I have found a great deal of things I would like
to do, the process of taking action is what is most difficult. For the past month or so, I have been
going to the small surrounding communities to visit the schools. There, I conduct a survey/interview
with the director or a teacher.
With these surveys, I am getting a sense of the state of nutrition, hygiene,
recycling, etc. in the schools.
With this survey, I am attempting to find the best way in which I can
provide support to each school. Unfortunately, reaching these smaller rural communities is not easy. The things I want to do there will probably have to be put on the back-burner while we try to figure out the most efficient way to reach the communities. Now that I have a lot of charlas to give, it is stressful to make sure they are engaging. I am dealing with three different types of groups that have different needs. Making it fun for kids is probably the easiest. I am currently working to figure out to best way to keep adults engaged.
4. My spanish. I wonder if/when this will no longer be on my struggles list. I understand MUCH more than I did before and I believe I am speaking more fluidly, but I still feel as though I have so much more improvement that needs to be made.
This is where I will end. Hopefully that wasn't too boring. I won't do that again (leave so much time in between posts). I promise I will be updating more frequently in smaller spurts. Stick with me! ...and check out my pictures (obviously not the exclamation points in what were the other pictures, but the facebook album here).
