Site visit

I don’t want to give a blow by blow of my week so I’m just going to highlight the great things about my site-

I’m right on the beach, claro. There are only a few buildings actually along the beach and then the town goes uphill from there. I can hear the waves from my room, which is what I consider sufficiently close to the ocean. The town is in sort of a cove next to the point and the water stays shallow for a long ways out and is very warm. At low tide I can walk along the beach to the point and there are rocks and tide pools along the way with some big crabs and other creatures. I saw an octopus out there the other day. I’m told that in the summer there are humpback whales in this area. Fishing is the main industry and I think there are 30-something boats, the main catch is dorado and tuna. There are 100 families living here, a few tiendas and restaurants, political offices, a health center, a school and a high school. My counterpart in town is the president of the Junta Parroquial, or town council. My other counterpart works at the USAID office near Atacames on the Sustainable Coasts and Forests project, and Reyes is working with him as well from another site. There are a few other PCVs in the area but I am the first volunteer at my site.

The people I’ve met so far have been very nice and after a couple days I felt like they were really taking me in. I’ve primarily met my counterpart and his family- his wife is great and 2 of her sisters and their families live here too. The secretary for the Junta Parroquial is also friendly. I’ve been spending a lot of time at one of the restaurants, an open air restaurant that’s on the beach, which has been a good way to talk to people and see what’s going on. The woman who runs the restaurant is super chevere and I found out that she is going to be my host sister when I move here in April. I’m not staying at the house this week because it’s not ready but I met my host mom and she seems nice. I’m staying at one of the sister’s places- she has a couple rooms on the first floor. Which is another reason I’ve been at the restaurant, because I’m eating all my meals there.

The marine reserve here is new- it was established in 2008. I am really excited to see what marine reserve management looks like for the fishing communities that live by the reserve, and from the beginning. I have read and written a lot about how it works, from Boston or DC, but seeing what happens on the ground is one of the experiences I was most hoping to gain in Peace Corps. [This is starting to sound like one of the 800 essays I wrote to get here.] There is a German guy living at my site who works with the reserve for Nazca. And there was a meeting here the other day (at the restaurant) of people involved with the park- a guard, fishermen, presidents of the councils from a couple towns. So I will hopefully be getting a firsthand look at how it develops- and figure out my role in working with the community.

Also, if you’re reading my blog, please become a follower! I want to know who’s reading it. Or if you’d rather remain anonymous, that’s fine too, stalker.

My site!

I´m at the beach!!! Start planning to visit :) I´m in the Esmeraldas province southwest of Atacames in a small town of about 500 people. And it´s near the Galera San Francisco Marine Reserve. (And I think of few hours north of Mompiche, for those of you who were there with me.) We leave tomorrow (Sunday) for week long site visits, so I´m going to wait until I actually go there to give any more detail. But I´m super happy with what I´ve heard so far. There are 4 other volunteers in Esmeraldas- April and Amber are inland and Steven and Reyes are also on the coast. Reyes´ site is close to mine and we have the same counterpart (boss). And there are some current volunteers in the area too. Our projects, as well as some other people along the coast in Esmeraldas, Manabi and Guayas, are broadly under USAID, which is exciting and I´ll talk about that more once I know how it works.

We found out our sites yesterday- the way they did it was they made a huge map of Ecuador and the provinces outlined in tape and then with rose petals. They called our name and sites one by one and then we walked down a rose petal path by all the staff and facilitators and then went and stood on the map at our sites, so we could see where everyone is and who will be near us. It was very well done and a lot of fun. Then they gave us some more info about our sites and projects and then cultural information about the part of the country we´ll be in- either the coast, sierra (mountains), or oriente (rainforest). The other 5 people from my community now are all far away, which is sad, but they´re spread throughout all 3 regions so I´ll have cool places to go visit :)

Also, my apologies for not posting any pictures yet, I´ve been having trouble getting it to work. Someday…

We’re number 3!

We had a bbq Friday with all of the trainees and staff plus a bunch of current volunteers. The bbq centered on a soccer tournament between the groups living in each community. Each group got tshirts made- ours say Azadon por supuesto on front and on the back have our names and Mucho gusto, which is another running joke in our group. My name on my shirt is Kiki because that’s what my family back home calls me (as well as anyone who has met Mollie, apparently) and I told my host family they can call me Kiki since Carrie is difficult for them to pronounce. So they call me Senorita Kiki, which I love. And my group calls me Kiki now too, which is even funnier because one of the dogs at Regan’s house is named Kiki after Kiki Perez who is a news celebrity here. But anyways, our team won our first 2 games in the tournament. In the third game Cara, who was playing goalie for the other team, got hit in the face and her nose was bleeding pretty badly but she recovered- she’s a rock star. We ended up losing that game but we came in 3rd place out of the 11 teams. Yay!


reinas


our reina Regan and Naim


Aaron Pablo and Lincoln warming up


Jess and me


me and Naim

Human

I mentioned before that my host brothers don’t usually talk to me much beyond hola, buenos dias, etc. So I was surprised the other day when Polo came into the kitchen and started asking me how I was doing. I told him that I’ve just been in Spanish class all day and he asked me if it was hard to learn and I said yes but much easier to learn it this way while I’m living here and have to practice all the time. He said he’s learning English in school and that it’s very hard, which I agreed with, and especially because you have to reform a sentence to make it a question instead of just changing your tone. (I forgot to mention that you can just say question mark? after anything.) So then he started playing me the English songs he likes from his phone. And the first song he played was Human by The Killers. Which was hilarious for me because that song is kind of an inside joke between me, my mom, and Mollie. So I got really excited and told him how I went to a Killers concert in August with my sister. He was saying that he likes the songs but he doesn’t know what they’re saying, so I listened to Human later and wrote out the lyrics for him. And I translated them roughly into Spanish with Pablo’s help. He seemed happy when I gave him the lyrics and this morning while he was sweeping the house I heard him singing Human.

Cultural trip

We went on a 2 day trip this weekend to Cotacachi. For those of you who were in Ecuador with me before, it’s the town where they make all the leather goods. We went to the organization that another PCV works with and learned about the area and the indigenous people and checked out a trade school where they make leather goods and listened/danced to a local band. We spent the night at the homes of families, which was fun, and in the morning we worked on their land- Jessica, Regan and I weeded out a plot of tomate de arbol and avocado trees. Then we went to Otovalo where there is a huge outdoor market on Saturdays where you can buy handmade clothes, jewelry, musical instruments, food and all kinds of other things.

The highlight of the trip for me was the first day when we went to a waterfall. It was gorgeous and fell into a fairly shallow pool of water so you could go and stand under it. Most of us didn’t know we were doing this so only a couple of the guys brought swim trunks, but a bunch of them went in. After watching them have fun Jessica and I and a couple other girls decided we could figure out stuff to wear to go in too, which for me was borrowing David’s shorts after he got out. It was definitely worth it.

I forgot to mention….

On our second night in Ecuador our hostel got robbed at gunpoint. We were in Quito and all the NRC people were staying at one hostel. And I didn’t really forget to mention this, I just thought I’d let some time go by before telling the story, for those of you prone to worrying. We were all in the dining room waiting for dinner and a couple men showed up at the lobby with guns to get the money from the register. There were only two people who worked there in the lobby and the dining room is separate so we didn’t know anything was going on. Except that one guy from our group went to make a phone call and walked in on the whole thing. The guys took his wallet and made him get on the ground with the employees and then they took the money and left. No one got hurt. Later when the PC security people came we found out that they had gone to several hostels in the area.

But the main thing that struck me about the whole incident was how calm everyone was. Especially the guy who walked in on it. No one seemed very upset or shaken up, which I think would have been reasonable for having just gotten into the country. We just went along and ate dinner a few hours late when things settled down. I was really proud of everyone. We’re a hardcore group.

I’m sorry Miss Bingly

I tried eating cuy, or guinea pig. Turns out no one else in my group had pet guinea pigs as a child, so when Pablo suggested we go try it for lunch one day everyone else thought it was a great idea. So I sucked it up and went along. And I tried a bite of it. And I didn’t like the taste. And I didn’t enjoy the experience at all. But I did it. The end.

Azadones

As part of our training we have a whole list of technical terms that we’re learning in Spanish. One of the words on the list is hoe, or azadon. So when we got to this word the first thing that occurred to Aaron was ho fo’ sho. (If you don’t get this please refer to 40-year-old Virgin, among others.) So then we had to try to explain this to Pablo and came up with “azadon por supuesto”. Which Pablo loves and it’s become a running joke in our group. We’re making tshirts.

Integration

The other day we met at Regan’s house after dinner to work on a project. And I realized it was the first time I was going out anywhere after dark. My community is safe but there are no lights at night and the dogs get super territorial. And there are a lot of dogs. When I told my family I was going out they were fine with it but my mom made me a stick to hit the dogs with (she wrapped some plastic and tape around one end of a long stick to hold on to), which did not make me feel better. So I took my headlamp and my stick and Yaji and Carmita walked me down to the corner where I met Aaron and we walked around to Regan’s, all fine. On the way back I had to walk from Aaron’s house to my house by myself. (Aaron offered to walk me but I decided I needed to get over it and go alone.) So all was fine at first and the dogs for the most part just barked at me from their yards. But then when I got close to my house there were suddenly many dogs barking- I hadn’t realized my neighbors had so many- and they were coming out into the street and my dog was barking from my yard and I was really nervous that he wouldn’t recognize me. He’s a big dog, a mutt but looks mostly like a German shepherd. So I hurried up and got into my yard and started talking to him and he stopped barking and came over for me to pet him. I was so relieved. And the first thing that ran through my head was, my host dog recognizes me, this must be a big step in integration.

My community

I live in a very small, very rural community of a few hundred people. The main road that goes through is cobblestone, which makes for a fun bus ride from Cayambe. Besides the main road there are only 4 other dirt roads- 3 that make a square off the main road and one that intersects the main road diagonally on the other side. The people who live here are generally friendly, and more so now that they’re starting to see us around all the time. We visited the school last week, one class for each grade K-7, so now the kids know us and say hi on the street.

My host family is great- they are super nice and I like spending time with them. I live with my host mom Sra Carmen, her 4 sons Walter (27), Felix (20), Polo (17) and Nelson (15), her daughter Yaji (23), and Yaji’s daughter Carmen, or Carmita (5). My host mom works milking cows and Walter and Yaji work at a flower plantation, which is a big industry around Cayambe. Felix is in college and Polo and Nelson are in high school. And Carmita is in kindergarten.

When they first came to meet me Carmen came with Carmita. When it was time to go Carmita took my hand and lead me out of the building and all the way to the bus. It was a great way to start out. I guess that was just over a week ago but I feel like I’ve been living here much longer. I am normally gone all day but when I come home in the evening I sit in the kitchen with Carmen and Yaji while they’re making dinner, and help out when they let me. Carmita follows me around all the time when I’m home, which is cute. She “helps” me help out in the kitchen by bringing me things and turning on the sink for me to wash my hands and instructing me on how to cut tomatoes haha. My host mom and Yaji are both very talkative and friendly. The boys are shy and don’t talk to me that much but they are nice. The other day when I was sitting in the kitchen Carmita wanted to sing a song for me and Polo played the guitar. She sang and danced and used a carrot for a microphone with Yaji and me watching. And I felt like part of the family.

The main industry here is milk production and most people grow vegetables and keep other animals besides cows. There are animals everywhere, when I walk down the road it’s common to see cows, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys, dogs, and cats. My family has a dog, a couple horses, a pig, chickens, guinea pigs, and cows, but the cows are in a field in the hills, like most families’ cows. But there are two calves in our back yard. There is one family, a rich man from Quito so I hear, who has ostriches that we can see from Naim’s house. There are 2 baby sheep, about a week old, at Regan’s grandma’s house. Some families, like mine, Jessica’s and Regan’s, also have small stores off their houses.

My house is simple but comfortable and we have electricity and running water. And a hot shower which is great, not everyone in my group has that. My family washes their clothes on a stone table out front, which I did for the first time today (probably wrong, but I’ll learn). My bedroom and another bedroom are off the store and then the kitchen, dining room, and more bedrooms are in the building next to it, and the bathroom is off of that. The weather here is warm or cool during the day, either tshirt or sweatshirt weather depending on if it’s sunny or cloudy, and it’s cold at night. Not as cold as in DC right now, but we don’t have heat. I have a sheet and 3 thick blankets doubled over on my bed and I’m warm, although sometimes I sleep in my fleece jacket. It has only rained a couple times since I’ve been here, and not all day- they are in a drought right now.

Regan’s house, where we have class, is behind mine so it’s much faster to cut through our fields than to walk around on the road. So to get to class every day I walk through our back field past the pig and the calves and sometimes a horse and then step over a wire fence through some taller grass and then climb over the “live fence” which is a mound with plants growing on it. Then I’m in Regan’s fields, first I walk across what I think is a potato field but is all dirt and then past a compost/manure pile, and then between the cornfield and garden on one side and the chicken coops and guinea pig house on the other and into the driveway to the classroom in a building next to her house.


my house

the church


my backyard towards the house

my sister on her birthday


with my mom and Carmita

Regan with her grandma´s lamb

So here I am in the Peace Corps

I’m not entirely comfortable with having a blog. But many of you have asked me to keep one, and for the sake of letting everyone know what I’m doing here in Ecuador I’m going to attempt it. If you’re reading this please comment or email me and let me know what you’re up to. Also, I have a cell phone now, so email me if you want the number.

So here I am in the Peace Corps, after all the decision making and paperwork :) I got to Ecuador on February 18th. [Carmita just typed a bunch in here, I’m writing this on my computer at home, she’s 5, loves to be tickled, and has a fantastic laugh. But more about her later.] I’m in a training group of 55 people between my program- Natural Resources Conservation- and the Agriculture program. Some info about the group: most of us are in our 20s with the exception of two women in their 40s. There is one married couple. There are two other people in NRC doing the Master’s International program, which will be nice for me. There are two guys who also graduated from BU- the most people from one college as far as I know :) And there are a few people who know people back home who I know- small world.

We spent one day in DC and then a couple days in Quito for orientation. Then we left for Cayambe and on the way stopped at la mitad del mundo. We are living in Cayambe and the surrounding area for training until the end of April. Cayambe is about an hour and a half from Quito and is also up in the mountains. We spent the first week living all together in kind of a hostel, which was a lot of fun. We had the beginning of language and technical training and sessions on safety, health, etc. And at night played futbol and hung around.

They separated us into groups of about 6 by our language level. I came in at intermedio-bajo which isn’t too bad since we’re supposed to get to at least intermedio-medio during training, one level up. Each group lives in a different community and everyone lives with a host family. The other people in my group are Jessica, Regan, Aaron, Naim, and Lincoln. They are all awesome and we get along really well, which is great since we’re together allllll the time. Our language facilitator is Pablo and he’s also a lot of fun. Most days for these few weeks we meet in our “classroom” at Regan’s house and learn Spanish all day. Mostly just conversation with some grammar thrown in. And we go out to talk to people in the community and ask them questions about various things like the local fiestas. Or go into Cayambe to learn how to use the bank, post office, etc. Needless to say my Spanish is getting better quickly. I can understand what people are saying most of the time, but my speaking skills are coming a little more slowly…

So I hope this first post has been sufficiently long and boring to change your mind about reading my blog :) Also, I had considered “Bob Loblaw Law Blog” as a good title. Couldn’t resist.


PC office in Quito

mitad del mundo

Pablo

the mountain

soccer with a view

Omnibus 103

church in Cayambe

main park

the crew