So I've been here in Ecuador a year now, and man, how the time's flown by... I feel like I've finally settled into life here and my house is finally my Ecuadorian home. With the (awesome) help of William I made a short video of my house so you guys back home can get a better idea of how I live. Its supposed to be a spoof of MTV Cribs,hence all the "hip" music. As you'll see, its not that bad of a place, albeit small. Excuse some of the filming, we only had a small point-and-shoot camera so some shots are rather blurry. So watch the video and if you have any questions, feel free to shoot them my way!
Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnh7km3ym6A
On another note, I'm would really like to come home this Christmas to visit, since I wasn't able to make it last year. However, on a Peace Corps Volunteer budget, a flight to the US is a little out of reach. Therefore, I've set up an online account for anyone who would be willing to make a small donation to my travel fund. Any help would be much appreciated!
Donation link:
https://www.smartypig.com/friends-goals/128030fc-ab4d-4f58-b1a8-e4e32656491e
As always, I miss all you back home!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Market Awesomeness!
*Disclaimer: This post is not for the weak hearted or PETA activists
As y’all know by now, some things in Ecuador are a little umm… different… by US standards. Well, this past week I took a trip to Ecuador’s largest indigenous market in Guamote and boy did that reinforce the differences between the two countries.
I’ve heard from other volunteers that the Guamote’s Thursday Market isn’t your typical food market, but I really didn’t know what to expect as I was climbing up the hill to see what it was all about. Upon arriving at the outskirts I knew something wasn’t right by the general disorder of the whole event. There were people walking around selling the weirdest variety of stuff i.e. one man was selling TV remote controls and blender parts. Now this kind of randomness isn’t too unusual, but after fighting our way through the crowd we finally made it to the livestock section.
So imagine a football field filled with pigs, sheep, cows and indigenous people. And I don’t mean spaced out like a state fair. The livestock section was packed from fence to fence with animals tied down to stakes, up to fences, around each other or bound at their feet. It was entirely too packed with people and beasts that I didn’t dare to try and make it to the center of the field. So with all this chaos, you might ask, “How do the vendors keep their animals separate?” Well the answer to that is simple: all you have to do is spray paint their heads and voila, no confusion! In this same area there were also baskets FULL of guinea pigs mixed with rabbits, ducks and in one there were 2 sad puppies. Yes, puppies mixed in with ducks and guinea pigs. Needless to say the ducks weren’t happy and spent the morning trying their hardest to eat the puppies (to no avail).
After leaving the animal section, I decided to see what becomes of those animals and made my way to the meat section of the market. The meat is kept in a separate building (thank goodness!) from the fruits and veggies. The gory stalls outside should have been enough to keep me from wanting to go in since roasted sheep heads, random innards and viscera littered the entrance to the building. However, curiosity got the best of me and I had to see what went on inside. It’s really hard to describe what the meat section looks like if you’ve never been to war, seen one of the Saw movies, or actually puked your guts out. I know what it looks like to kill a deer or pig, but this was an entirely different animal (no pun intended). There were guts, heads, legs, hearts, eyes (with lashes), lungs, and whatever other pulpy, bloody stuff comes out of disemboweled creatures strewn all over the floor. Literally, I had to watch my step or I would have tripped on animal parts. And notice I say “animal” because I don’t really know what animals they were from the way they were slaughtered. So with grisly body parts everywhere, and blood dripping down their counters, the vendors were happily sawing apart their carcasses shouting at us to “buy, buy, buy!”
The thing is, I really didn’t see one piece of meat that looked remotely edible… And that wasn’t because I’m a snob (see sheep soup post), but because they didn’t actually appear to be selling meat. All they had on their counters were random organs, like plates of brains, bowls of hoofs, or heads and spinal cords hanging from hooks on the ceiling. But actual parts of the animal that people eat didn’t seem to really exist there. So without purchasing anything, we left the market, leaving a trail of bloody footprints back home.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The Best Night EVER!
First, let me apologize to all my readers (although few you may be) about my hiatus from the blog! Life here has fallen into a rather dull pattern and I guess since nothing seems all that “exotic” to me anymore, it was hard to motivate myself to update you guys. However, a week ago, my life received a jolt (quite literally) so I took it as a sign to give you guys a shout-out!
Last Wednesday my work sent me to a three day course over risk assessment, planning and disaster preparation. Overall the course was terribly boring: they went go on and on about the same topics and read straight off of power-point slides because as everyone in Ecuador seems to know, that that’s the best method of teaching. Suffice to say, the workshop was a total bore, but things got a little more interesting on Thursday.
That day they taught about ‘emergency action plans’ and what to do in the event of a natural disaster. It was pretty basic stuff, but I have to say that I did learn a few things. And it seemed especially useful that night when I had the chance to put all my newly-learned info into practice. You might ask, put what into practice? The answer to that would be how to act during an earthquake.
Yes, we got struck by a little earthquake in Riobamba. They were actually just tremors, but to me, at 11:00 at night, it all felt the same. I was sleeping when my house started shaking back and forth (it was really only 4 shakes) which jolted me from sleep. I instantly grabbed my cell and ran to my kitchen doorway and huddled there for over an hour, calling my friends in the area and acting totally freaked out. Maybe people from California think that little tremors like that are not big deals, but I’m from Beaumont, Texas, where you only feel the ground shake at monster truck rallies. I had a really hard time getting back to sleep thanks to the adrenaline and the scared-out-of-my-mindness, but eventually dosed off again after making my peace with God.
The next day I found out that it really wasn’t that big of an event. All my coworkers and the people at the course didn’t seem to think it was that big of a problem since no one died and no buildings were knocked down. I’ve also finally accepted that I live in an earthquake zone and might have to deal with a few more tremors before I return to the States. At least now I know that my instant reaction is the right one!
Last Wednesday my work sent me to a three day course over risk assessment, planning and disaster preparation. Overall the course was terribly boring: they went go on and on about the same topics and read straight off of power-point slides because as everyone in Ecuador seems to know, that that’s the best method of teaching. Suffice to say, the workshop was a total bore, but things got a little more interesting on Thursday.
That day they taught about ‘emergency action plans’ and what to do in the event of a natural disaster. It was pretty basic stuff, but I have to say that I did learn a few things. And it seemed especially useful that night when I had the chance to put all my newly-learned info into practice. You might ask, put what into practice? The answer to that would be how to act during an earthquake.
Yes, we got struck by a little earthquake in Riobamba. They were actually just tremors, but to me, at 11:00 at night, it all felt the same. I was sleeping when my house started shaking back and forth (it was really only 4 shakes) which jolted me from sleep. I instantly grabbed my cell and ran to my kitchen doorway and huddled there for over an hour, calling my friends in the area and acting totally freaked out. Maybe people from California think that little tremors like that are not big deals, but I’m from Beaumont, Texas, where you only feel the ground shake at monster truck rallies. I had a really hard time getting back to sleep thanks to the adrenaline and the scared-out-of-my-mindness, but eventually dosed off again after making my peace with God.
The next day I found out that it really wasn’t that big of an event. All my coworkers and the people at the course didn’t seem to think it was that big of a problem since no one died and no buildings were knocked down. I’ve also finally accepted that I live in an earthquake zone and might have to deal with a few more tremors before I return to the States. At least now I know that my instant reaction is the right one!
Monday, January 25, 2010
What was I thinking?!?
Stomach issues are sort of a given in Peace Corps service, right? Well I have to say that I've had pretty good luck with that since I've been here... Until this past weekend...
It all started when I was SUPER hungry Friday afternoon as I was heading to Guamote for the weekend. When I got to the Guamote stop (which is dirt field and NOT at the terminal), I was ravenously looking for anything to hold me over for the hour long drive. Considering its location, there weren't many options: tripe with mote and ice-cream. Well, since I needed real food, I choose the tripe and mote - which was mistake number 1.
Mote is just boiled hominy, totally harmless. But tripe is animal stomach, and in this case grilled and chopped into bite sized pieces. I have to say it didn't taste too bad going down, but maybe it wasn't the best thing to buy from a street-vendor. Needless to say, that night wasn't too pleasant with the cramps and diarrhea.
The next day I was feeling crummy and hadn't had a thing to eat all morning when William and I decided to go out and find somewhere to get soup. After finally hunting down an almuerzo place, the cook told me all she had was sheep soup. Ecstatic, I ordered a bowl and sat ready for the delicious healing qualities of hot soup to flood me. What I got however, was a veggie stock with a giant sheep jaw sticking out of it. Now I've eaten some pretty 'interesting' things since I've been here but this jaw was definitely the topper. It still had the teeth (with grass) and chin (with whiskers) and was soaking there with little flaps of flesh flaking into the stock. Sounds appetizing huh?
Despite the appearance, I was SO hungry that I removed the carcass piece from the bowl and continued to eat as much of the stock as I could. Since jaws are apparently fatty and 'flavorful' every spoonful was tasted like sips meat juice. Halfway through, I was feeling even sicker than before and went back to William's place and spent the rest of the weekend between the bathroom and the bed.
I'm feeling better as of today, aside from the occasional cramp, and have learned some very valuable lessons such as Don't expect freshness from street-vendor stomach, Jaw juice is better left uneaten and ALWAYS choose the ice-cream option.
It all started when I was SUPER hungry Friday afternoon as I was heading to Guamote for the weekend. When I got to the Guamote stop (which is dirt field and NOT at the terminal), I was ravenously looking for anything to hold me over for the hour long drive. Considering its location, there weren't many options: tripe with mote and ice-cream. Well, since I needed real food, I choose the tripe and mote - which was mistake number 1.
Mote is just boiled hominy, totally harmless. But tripe is animal stomach, and in this case grilled and chopped into bite sized pieces. I have to say it didn't taste too bad going down, but maybe it wasn't the best thing to buy from a street-vendor. Needless to say, that night wasn't too pleasant with the cramps and diarrhea.
The next day I was feeling crummy and hadn't had a thing to eat all morning when William and I decided to go out and find somewhere to get soup. After finally hunting down an almuerzo place, the cook told me all she had was sheep soup. Ecstatic, I ordered a bowl and sat ready for the delicious healing qualities of hot soup to flood me. What I got however, was a veggie stock with a giant sheep jaw sticking out of it. Now I've eaten some pretty 'interesting' things since I've been here but this jaw was definitely the topper. It still had the teeth (with grass) and chin (with whiskers) and was soaking there with little flaps of flesh flaking into the stock. Sounds appetizing huh?
Despite the appearance, I was SO hungry that I removed the carcass piece from the bowl and continued to eat as much of the stock as I could. Since jaws are apparently fatty and 'flavorful' every spoonful was tasted like sips meat juice. Halfway through, I was feeling even sicker than before and went back to William's place and spent the rest of the weekend between the bathroom and the bed.
I'm feeling better as of today, aside from the occasional cramp, and have learned some very valuable lessons such as Don't expect freshness from street-vendor stomach, Jaw juice is better left uneaten and ALWAYS choose the ice-cream option.
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