Gobble Gobble!

Well that was one heck of a Thanksgiving dinner!

No offense meant family, but honestly, you have to admit you can’t really compete with crystal, servants and bourgeoisie to the max…

So for those of you who don’t know, I was invited to the Ambassador’s residence, in Quito, for Thanksgiving dinner. Residence is really an understatement; I would classify it more as a mansion or compound or algo así. At first I was a little hesitant about the whole affair- I had it in my mind that it would be overly formal and stuffy. But as it happens, the US Ambassador to Ecuador, Heather Hodges (to be referred to as Madam Ambassador) is a big fan of the Peace Corps and is a really cool person to talk with.

As luck would have it, Sam and I were the first to arrive at Eden the residence. The butler greeted us at the door and escorted us to the patio where the Ambassador was receiving her guests. It was nice to get to chat with her for a bit before the place filled up the late-runners. Once people started steadily filing in, a waiter began walking around with a tray of beverages: red or white wine, beer or orange juice. Basically we just stood around chit-chatting, drinking and playing with the First Dog, Rocky. (Great name for a dog!)

After the social hour, we were ushered into the dining room, which was set spectacularly. There were not assigned seats, but the Ambassador did ask that we sit by people we didn’t know. Then she had us go around the table, introducing ourselves to everyone. Of the 20+ people there, about half were PCVs, and the rest were a scattering of Army, and embassy employees. Grace was said and the feast arrived.

The meal was buffet style and can I say that it was the best all-you-can-eat buffet I’ve ever been to. It was the whole shebang: turkey, stuffing, gravy, green beans, yams, beets, rolls, pumpkin, pecan and apple pies and much, much more! While we ate, the waiters continually walked around filling our glasses with wine and water, clearing away our dirty plates, and serving us coffee or tea at the end of the meal. Can I just say that in true Thanksgiving fashion, I stuffed myself to the point of illness!

I’m proud of myself for only committing one faux pax. When we got up to serves ourselves, I didn’t know that other plates were at the buffet, so I grabbed my base plate to serve myself. Of course it was the Ambassador herself that noticed and told me to leave the base plate on the table and use the other ones. Looks like I might not get the invite next year…

Later that night I did get a little homesick, but the exceptional dinner helped assuage that. Hope you USAer had meals at least as half as good as mine!

Tomorrow I’m off to Joy’s site; we are having a going away party for a fellow Cangahüeno who is ETing on Monday. So now that a total of 2 from my training town who left the PC. Dare I say we’re cursed?

BTW, my own personal rebellion to avoid calling the hostess by name and thus never saying the overly pretentious title “Madam Ambassador”

Market Day

For those of you who don’t know, I finally found an apartment! I’m going to give everyone a moment to soak in this wonderful thing.

*5 minutes later*

I could go on and on about the wonders of not living with a host family anymore, but this post is actually about something else. Since we are technically not allowed to move out until later this month, I’ve been slowly but surely buying furniture and appliances for the place. Since the best deals are found in Riobamba’s markets, not stores, I headed off this past Saturday to see what I could find.

And what a shock that was.

The best place to buy house stuff is Mercado Oriental, which is a HUGE open air market that fills up every Saturday and overflows into the adjacent streets. The place was so crowded that street traffic had virtually ceased and I had to squeeze between people just to get around. The vendors spread their wears on blankets and shout at passerbyers to stop while the herds of people inch by. The nicer things were probably freshly stolen, but I know where to get my stuff back if I’m robbed.

So this particular market is loosely divided into sections and I started in the house wears part. It’s not at all unusual to see vendor after vendor selling the EXACT same products, so sometimes you just have to randomly pick one. My personal strategy is to go to one vendor and buy a bunch of stuff so that way I can haggle for a better price and maybe get a free little gift. After honing in on one lady, I picked out the stuff I wanted and then preceded to whine about how expensive her stuff was and gave her the best 3 year old pouty face I could muster. Child-like whining is somehow magical in Ecuador because I got 4 pots, a (nice) Oster blender, 2 blankets and a tupperwear set for $80. She even threw in a pitcher!

After winding through this place, I came upon a few, well, interesting goods. There was one lady sitting on a blanket selling, and I kid you not, random nuts and bolts, piles of keys and small sections of chain links. Another woman was selling old, dirty pots, a broken mirror, dull, used butcher knives and probably the child in her lap if I offered enough. In the animal section there was all the 'usual' stuff: chickens, geese, ducks, cows, goats, pigs... But you could also buy yourself a box of puppies or kittens. Literally, puppies and kittens by the boxful. Some of the boxes were mixed, meaning that 10 puppies and 10 cats are crammed into the same little box, some with just puppies, some just cats, some with all puppies and 1 kitten. So how much does one of these boxes run for? $1 per animal. As you can imagine, you can find anything you want at this place if you’re paying with cash.

So now I have all the basics I need for my pad, minus a $1 puppy. Oh well, I can pick that up when I go back to buy a pile of old keys…

The Birds and the Bugs

Would you believe that I haven't written in so long because I've been busy with work?!? That's right, I've been working!!! Mostly helping plan charlas (workshops), going to meetings, giving a health class in English (the easiest and my favorite) and helping organize Bienestar’s plans for next year. It's all really been a welcome change from doing tons of nothing all day!

Other than all that work, I've also managed to squeeze in a little vacationing as well! This past weekend I went to visit Joy in her site, Pedro Vicente Maldonado. Its WAY up north, in the transitional zone, and it took me 8 hours via bus to get there. It's funny how accustomed I’ve become to bus travel; I consider 2 hours a short trip now. It might have something to do with all my free time (or the free time I used to have). Anyways, the transitional zone is the area in between the sierra and the coast, and is also a cloud forest.

For those who are interested, refer to Wikipedia for the specifics on cloud forests.

It was such a magnificent place, and actually one of the best places in the world to bird watch. If I remember correctly, there are more species of birds in those forests than in all of the USA. Really nice, but it wasn't so nice at 4am when 3.675 million birds were singing outside my window. If you haven't gathered, its really kinda tropical, except that the temperature drops at night to make it quite comfortable- imagine the Crystal Beach weather in the winter.

Lucky for me, Joy happens to live 1 hour from a national reserve called Mindo, which is also the name of the quaint little tourist town in the reserve. Naturally, we for a night and I honestly had the time of my life. I would have been just as happy doing some nature walks, because this forest was FULL of butterflies, birds, awesome flora, rivers and mountains covered with trees. I kinda felt like I was walking through Jurassic Park and at any moment a T-Rex would come bounding after us. Of course we decided not to risk a dinosaur attack and did a canopy tour through the jungle. The tour consisted of 10 zip lines, strung throughout the forest, with pretty little walks between the platforms. Honestly, I was scared out of my mind at first because the lines were REALLY high and REALLY fast... But I got over that as soon as I realized that 1) I was strapped in pretty securely and 2) It would be a quick death if I fell. As it turns out, I survived and can't wait to go back and do that again! They also have bird watching tours, which I want to do next time I go.

After the Canopy Tour, we signed up to go to a "Frog Concert" that night, which was supposed to be 3/4 frog tour and 1/4 listening to frogs harmonize/sing/make noises in the jungle. It was a 30 minute hike up a mountain and through the forest to even get to this place. Needless to say it was remote, which raised my expectations for the whole event. I can say that they delivered on the concert part, because, yes, there were about a gillion frogs croaking. I can't say that they lived up to the whole seeing frogs deal though. In the course of 1 1/2 hours, we saw: 1 toad, 1 frog and 2 tadpoles. Whoopee! I think I'll stick to an aquarium next time I want to see frogs...

After we got back from Mindo, Joy and I visited another volunteer, Cindy, who lived way out in the middle of nowhere- the kind of place that's not on any map I've ever seen. She has her own little cabin in the woods, which was really cute. So we hung out there, drinking ghetto mojitos (rum, sprite and bottled mint extract) which tasted more like mouthwash than anything else. The point is, that while we were hanging out a gigantic cockroach flew in through the window. You have to see the picture on Facebook, because coming from Beaumont, I know what a big cockroach looks like. This monster was the largest roach I've ever seen in my life- like it would eat Beaumont roaches for a snack. Anyways, Cindy went on to tell us that they don't really bother her that much, and that this particular species is actually close to being put on the endangered species list. Given my irrational fear of roaches, I didn't care, and proceeded to murder the giant endangered roach anyway. It was freaky, because it took two direct hits with my flip-flop to kill it, and it still didn't look all that crushed. That's one species I wouldn't mind totally extinct!

I had a few problems getting back to Riobamba, but finally made it back here on Monday. I've been working all week and this weekend I'm going to Guaranda for a conference. Don't y'all worry, its in the sierra so there is no chance of monster, iron-plated roach attacks!

Lastly, the zoomobile finally sold! It feels bitter-sweet- I’m happy it actually got sold, but sad to see it go. Oh well, that’s funding for a trip to Peru next year!

¿Como se dice: I'm not a doctor?

These last few days have been pretty wild! On the upside, I've gotten to experience, up close and personal, a side of Ecuadorian culture not readily available to tourists.

It all started Wednesday morning at 3:50am, when my host mom and her daughter woke me up in a panic. Her mom had been sick since I've been here, and apparently that night she had taken a turn for the worse. So its really early in the morning, I'm disoriented, and they're both crying and asking me if I could give her mom an injection. In Ecuador, you don't need a prescription to buy a needle or IV medication, so she wanted me to go with her to her mom's house to put some random stuff in her vein. Like I said, it was early, I wasn't thinking clearly, so I panicked and agreed.

Bad idea, right?

We walked together to the house, where she led me to the room where her mother is laying, and sent her brother off to buy the supplies at a 24 hour pharmacy. I don't know if words could describe this scene... The room was really dark, only lit by those cylindrical religious candles, all with different saints on them. It also looked like the family had gathered every Catholic icon they could find to adorn the room: tons of Virgin Mary and saint statues, pictures of the Pope, a poster of The Last Supper, Bibles, a mug with 'Our Father' written on it, anything you can imagine. The mom, this little old lady, was hunched-up on the bed, completely covered with blankets so that only her face was exposed, and on the bed with her was another woman who was rubbing the her body with a baby Jesus figurine. The room couldn't have been larger than 10X10ft and was stuffed with family members, most of whom were kneeling around the bed praying the Rosary. The other family members were standing around holding Catholic icons and prayer cards either crying or muttering prayers. Needless to say, this unnerved me a tad bit, and I was awake enough by this point to realize I was in WAY over my head.

So when the brother finally gets back with the needle, they gave me the stuff and I started opening the packages and filling the syringe. Luckily someone suggested that we take her BP first, which was low, something like 70/40. The same person then asked if it was too low to give an injection in the vein, to which I said "YES!" I then invented this total BS reason about why it would be really bad to give a shot to someone with low BP, and successfully evaded giving the her shot. At this point it was like 5am so I hung around for a few more minutes, said a prayer with them, and got the hell out of there.

I then went home to go back to sleep and unfortunately she passed away later that morning.

Now the first thing that surprised me about her death was how quickly everything took place. The Wake was that same evening, which I didn't attend because I had gone to work and didn't even find out she had died until the next day, Thursday, which, surprisingly, was the same day as the funeral. So everything happened, literally, within 26 hours.

*A little aside, Mom, you would have been proud that I upheld your tradition. I made a big platter of tuna fish finger sandwiches and got them to the family before any other food had arrived.

Anyhow, I was able to attend the funeral, which I thought would be a typical Catholic funeral to which I was accustomed. HA! How naive! I should have known something was up when it wasn't even in a church. Here they have funerí as, which are basically small buildings specifically for the purpose of hosting funerals. It was a Mass, but I'll highlight the major differences I noticed:

~~> The music all came exclusively from an electric piano. Not that I have something against electric pianos, but instead of someone actually playing it, there was just a person who played the songs already programmed into the piano. It made it a little hard for the people to sing to, but no one seemed to mind. My favorite song was definitely a hymnal set to "Hey Jude."

~~> In the middle of Mass, the Priest asked for a show of hands of who wanted to take the Eucharist. Out of the 100 or so people there, only 15 put their hands up and took Communion. I'm assuming the Priest's reasoned waste not, want not?

~~> During the Homily, my host mom, wailing, left her chair (no in this place pews) and threw her self on the casket, crying. No one seemed to think anything of it, including the Priest, who kept on talking.

~~> After Mass, men carried the casket all the way to the cemetery, which was about 7 blocks
away. There wasn't a police escort either, and we walked through the streets, blocking cross-traffic, with three cars following us, waiting for us to get to the graveyard.

When we arrived at the cemetery, there wasn't an interment ceremony wither. Also, this cemetery wasn't green and pasture-like like ours in the USA, it was all cement structures that you place the caskets into. So the men just hauled the casket into the pre-assigned slot, and the cemetery workers immediately placed a tablet over the hole and mortared it closed. Although it was pretty dramatic, after talking to William, I think I got off fairly easy. One time he went to a funeral and when they arrived at the graveyard, they had to all wait around while the family members dug the hold in the ground. Overall, however, it was pretty traumatic.

So traumatic, in fact, that one of the deceased lady's daughters was crying so forcefully that she couldn't catch her breath and passed out. They called an ambulance and she's in the hospital right now.

All in all, I think I acted pretty cool throughout the whole thing, despite the fact that I had NO CLUE what the hell was going on. The only error I know I made was when I signed the guest book. I miss looked-up the word for pray (razcar) with prey (cazar) and wrote in there, "Sorry about your mother, I'm preying upon your family's loss."

Hopefully they wait a while before looking in there...

FOOD!

I think this week I'm gonna share with y'all a little about the food in Ecuador. For those of you who don't know, Ecuador is divided into three regions, the coast, the sierra (where I live) and the jungle. Each region has its own unique cuisine, and I'm only talking about the sierra, as that's all I have experience with.

Starting the day we have breakfast, which is really a sad event here. If there is one thing I miss about home, its the huge breakfast feasts we had at our house. I could kill for grits, eggs, sausage with biscuits. But oh no, not here! The normal thing to eat is 1 hard boiled egg or a piece of bread with little cheese. This is usually served with a delicious homemade juice and coffee. A common juice is tomate de arbol (tree tomato) which does not really taste like tomato at all, but it is red and thick. For me, the juice is the only saving grace at breakfast. But here comes the really tragic part about breakfast: always served with instant coffee. Although Ecuador produces some of the world's best coffee, they generally export it all the USA, and drink the horrible powdered stuff. Needless to say, one of my first purchases here was an espresso macchinetta (my French press didn't make it here all in one piece). So that's how we (unsatisfactorily) start the day.

Moving on to lunch and dinner. Both are generally the same, although there is a long lunch hour here and its generally the larger of the two meals. Lunch is always started with a soup of some sort, which for those of you who know me well, know how much I adore a good soup. They usually aren't too hardy and here are some of the best ones according to my taste:
*Creama of papa- basically cream of potato soup
*Encebollado- made with various fish flakes in a light veggie stock
*Sopa de locro- a heartier stew with meat, veggies and unknown yummy spices
*Sopa de quinoa- quinoa is an oat, smaller than Quaker oats, but with a stronger flavor
*Rebanado de verde- Very typical. Its made with large, green, non-sweet bananas

Then comes the second platter. Its always served with white rice, and usually some potato variety or yucca. I never really cared for plain white rice much, and now I can't stand the site of it. I have eaten more here, in these few months, than in my entire life! But I digress. There're usually limited vegetables served, although I do get carrots or beets every now and then. Lastly, here are some of the better main dishes:
*Guatita- bits of cow stomach in a potato, peanut sauce
*Fritada- fried pork served with boiled mote (similar to hominy)
*Bolones- the green banana smashed into balls, stuffed either with a bit of meat or cheese then fried
*Salchipapas- french fries served with deep-fried hotdogs

Unlike Mexican food though, Ecuadorian food is generally bland and not at all spicy. Luckily, however, every meal comes with aji. Now this is possibly my favorite thing of all Ecudorian food! Its a spicy sauce made from blended tomates de arboles, aji (the native hot pepper), and cilantro. I go through bowls of this stuff every meal!

As far as acquiring the ingredients to make these foods, most people do their fruit and veggie shopping on market day, so they are usually fresh, not canned or frozen.. Market day in Riobamba is Saturday, and its a crazy free-for-all; an attraction in its own right! There are vendors crowding the streets, shouting their prices and selections, trying to outdo their neighbors. Also, haggling is expected, something which I've gotten progressively better at. One of my favorite things is to buy everything from the same lady then ask for a yapa (gift) to guarantee I'll return to her next week. So far I've managed to get for free a tomato, avocado, bunch of cilantro, 5 ajis and a small bunch of bananas. Not too bad for a white boy!

And that's a day in the life of Ecua-food!

M.J. on my B-day

Update time!

So let me fill y'all in on what's been going on in my life these past few days (or has it been weeks?). I'll start with my last week in Cangahua and give you all the highlights up to my birthday for the sake of organization.

First off, I won the VAC election! I think that the rice crispy treats I made as a bribe is what really did it thought.

As for the last week in Cangahua, to show their/our appreciation, the PC threw all our host families a picnic on the last Friday we were in the Cayambe area. Some of the girls volunteered to do a traditional dance, then there was a group who played a native song, and then, most importantly, we ate! Every community was responsible for bringing a dish and the PC provided 2 pigs. Notice I said pig, not pork. That's because they didn't bother to de-head/de-leg/de-anything these pigs. However unappealing, it was actually the best pig meat I've ever had! But I digress... So my community brought deviled eggs, 200 deviled eggs to be exact. My kitchen smelled the entire weekend. And sadly enough, only the Americans ate them; my guess is that the Ecuadorians were scared by the literally-translated name, huevos de diablo. Regardless, The Family Appreciation Day was a major success, evidenced by my host mom crying, saying, and I quote: "voy a extranarte, come todos" (I'll miss you, you eat everything). Not quite sure how to take that, but it seems like a compliment...

So then the next day we all packed up and went to Quito for the last days before swearing in. It basically involved a bunch of paperwork, coffee breaks, and different (fun) drinks every night. Then came swearing in. It was a pretty cool ceremony, hosted by the ambassador, at her fabulous house... I mean mansion. We all took the oath, signed the paper and ate bagels with salmon? cream cheese (actually delicious).

After the ceremony, we were all whisked away by the PC to our respective sites. So here I am.

Then came my birthday. I woke up, read my cards (tell g-ma I got her's please), and then William came into town, and to make a long story short we hung out pretty much all day long. Highlights included: a great mixed CD, michaladas/wine, guacamole and taking a picture with Michael Jackson himself, live, in-person, no joke.

Then on Monday, yesterday, I kinda began my job. The university is still on vacation so I'm going to the Minesterio de Inclusion Economico Social (MIES for short, and I refuse to translate cognates for y'all) this week. However, today the lady didn't show up, in true Ecuadorian fashion. Off to see William instead!

And now you know the rest of the story!

OH!!! My address changed. Please spread the word. Now its:

Jason Holliday

Casilla 06-01-692

Riobamba, Chimborazo

Ecuador, South America

Planet Earth

(maybe you can leave the last part off)

I also put some more pics on flikr. They are in no order whatsoever, but check them out anyway!

Bones, Boiling water and camera Banging!

Overall I´ve been having a great time since my last post. To start things off, I dropped my camera, which I previously thought was broken and viola, it started working again! Okay, maybe I didn't drop it, but smacked it on the floor out of anger. Either way, I have a camera again!

We finally got back from our tech trip to Riobamba, and we have been so balls-to-the-walls busy that I really haven´t had time to update! Highlights from the trip included seeing the oldest church in Ecuador and going to creepy catatombs (not catacombs). We took really hot showers, and ate in restaurants so nice they cost up to $6 a meal. Also, I met up and had a wonderful time with X (name obscured to protect the innocent), and my heart is still aflutter! So yes, good ole times in Riobamba!

The Saturday after we returned Joy and I went on an adventure with my host brother. We rode in the back of a truck for around and hour WAY up into the Andes (pics coming soon); it was so far up that on my map of Ecuador we crossed two altitude lines, landing somewhere above 4000 meters. He took us to these really nice hot springs called Oyacachi, which can only be described as magical. The water was quite hot and the pools were extremely clean. Also, unlike the rest of the Andes, this part was super-lush; I kinda felt like I was in a jungle. Needless to say, it was exactly what we needed after a long week of travel and work.

When Joy and I got home from that we decided to cook a traditional American dinner for my host mom. The menu was meatloaf with cole slaw and potato salad. Unfortunately when we returned from the store, we discovered that my lady´s oven is purely decorative… So in the spirit of improvision I made meat loaf patties, which were a bit hit (she´ll never know the difference regardless)! We also sent plates of to Joy´s family and the neighbors, who all seemed to like it. It really made me realize how much I miss cooking!

I'm a little nervous because tomorrow we´re having elections for the Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC). Basically one representative from each program in each ómnibus picks a volunteer to represent them in tri-annual meetings, akin to student council. If you didn't figure it out, I´m running and want to win. I'm expecting prayers from all y'all ;)

Speaking of nerves, we move out of Cangahua this weekend, and swear-in early next week… eek! I cant believe that training is so close to being over!

Riobamba!!!

I finally made it back from my site visit, and all I can say is WOW!!! As it turns out my PC adventure is not going to be quite as rustic as I thought...

The city itself is much bigger than Beaumont, which I know isn't saying too much. However, its crammed in a much smaller area, giving it the feel of a much larger city. It has all the conveniences that I could possibly want: shopping mall, 'super' grocery stores, HUGE daily fruit/veggie/meat market, Internet cafes galore, regular cafes, stadium, restaurants, movie theatre, night clubs, etc... Riobamba is also the old capital of Ecuador and is pretty old to boot, so it has an abundance of colonial government buildings and cathedrals. Nicely enough, most of these buildings are situated around quaint, landscaped parks with fountains and statues. Honestly, I kinda felt like I was somewhere in Europe! So the city is not exactly gonna be the 'living in a mud hut' experience I was prepared for.

And it gets even better!

I finally discovered what I would be doing for my job. I'm going to work at Escuela Superior Politecnica de Chimborazo (ESPOCH or Politecnica or Poli), in the Bienestar department. Basically this department is charged with the wellbeing of the students, of which there are 15,000. Hence, my job is health promotion for college students... I don't have to go out in the field, explain basic hygiene, or deal with children. Instead I work out of an office, give lectures to university students, help with studies and update Bienestar's website. How cool is that?!?

So, yea, my life pretty much rocks!

Except for the fact that tomorrow I have to give a charla over swine flu to the trainees. Apparently I have experience with contagious diseases (hospital work?), so I was pegged to give the talk. Its really not that bad, but I need to make some fun posters or something today so people don't fall asleep, given the inherent boredom factor of the subject. I pride myself on having captive audiences regardless of the topic! Silly games also go a long way.

We have classes all this week and then we leave on Sunday for our tech trip. We're going back to Riobamba for a week to do God-knows-what. So pretty much that's my life in a nutshell!


ps I finally uploaded pictures on flikr, so check it out!




Attention HSLC members: READ! The book is not that long! It would be nice to have the meeting when I get back from the tech trip.

Triste

Ok guys, this is gonna be a short one because I don't like to dwell on sad things... So what am I sad about? Well many things- this has not exactly been the best week for me.

First off, my friends and I did a little clothes shopping on Sunday and I discovered that I've gained weight. Not that I had a scale, but I could see a pooch in my belly.

Then, on Monday we had our second LPI (language test) and I bombed it! They do an interview, and they asked about my old job. As it turns out I didn't know any of the vocab for the lab i.e. agar plates, bacterial cultures, syringe, plasma, centrifuge etc... So of all the people in Cangahua, I was the only one who didn't advance a level.

Monday the ambassador visited and gave a little speech (which is actually a positive point). However, when I was getting ready that morning I found out my camera was broken. So now I'm trying to plot a way to get a new one, but that bummed me out.

Then today my best friend that I've made in Cangahua (Alex) early terminated because she missed her family and friends too much. So that really sucks because I spent most of my free time with her... Also, it got me to thinking of how much I miss y'all back home!

Sooooo, to make myself feel better I'm writing this and listening to sad music. For some strange reason feeling worse seems like the best way to feel better...
ps there was a little riot in Cayambe yesterday; everyone is okay except a few people who were exposed to tear gas.

3rd of July

The super-nice PC Ecuador administration decided to throw us lowly Americans a Forth of July party this past Friday (instead of having classes). Everyone met in Cayambe at the same complex where we spent our first days in Ecuador. I have to say, that my 3rd of July was one of the best days I've had here so far!

A per Ecuadorian tradition, events like this start off with a reina (queen) contest. Each town had to pick a girl to represent them, and she basically competed in a beauty contest. My town, Cangahua (khan-gog-wha), went all out for the occasion. Our reina borrowed indigenous clothes from her family, and the rest of us dressed alike (with crazy hairdos) and chanted while our queen competed. Joy, our queen, had to parade in front of the 3 judges, then answer a silly question. Today, the country director for Ecuador told our language instructor that she was impressed by our team spirit. Needless to say, out of the 9 communities, Joy came in 3rd place!

After the reina competition, there was a soccer tournament between the different cities. Although I (the only male in Cangahua) haven't played in years, one of our players got violently ill and two of our players were over 50, we kicked BUTT! Ok, maybe not that good, but we did make it to the second elimination round! YAY CANGAHUA!!!

When the tournament ended we were treated to a traditional US BBQ, consisting of hamburgers, hotdogs, all the dressings, potato salad, fruit salad, regular salad (VERY hard to get here), chips, guacamole, veggie kabobs, different cokes, sweet tea and a flag cake. We totally pigged out since everyone was getting tired of Ecuadorian food. Everyone except me because my mom is 1) a GREAT cook, and 2) not hosting me just for the money. After the feast, we played more games, hung out, and then a few of us went into town to get some beers. Its really cool because everyone in Omnibus 102 really gets along quite well.

The actual 4th was not quite as eventful. The Cangahuans we into the city (Cayambe) and had a very nice lunch (which cost $4!). Later that night when we returned, there was a big fiesta de san pedro in the park/city center. I met my host family and their friends there and danced my feet off. At around 10pm, there was a really neat fireworks display which was quite dangerous by US standards. Literally some of the rockets shot into the crowd! By this time we were tired and my fellow PCVs retired to my house and watched 'Sense and Sensibility': good movie! When everyone left and I could barely sleep because the band in the park played until 6am, and I live two houses from the park... I slept in the next day (Sunday) and missed the First Communions at church, for which I feel really bad because I told a girl I would be to see her :(

On a positive note, my mom's daughter opened a seafood restaurant close to my house. Apparently what this means is that when my mom doesn't feel like cooking, I get to eat there for free! So far I've had ceviche, shrimp in a creole-like sauce and two different fish soups (they are much better than they sound). Also, on the weekends, when they don't have to feed me lunch, the regular price is $2 per meal! Hooray for cheap food!

I think I'm gonna be pretty busy this week. We have a lot of integration homework which basically consists of us interviewing tons of people in the community to practice for when we get to our sites. I can't wait because on the 16th we finally get our assignments! I care more about working with HIV/AIDS than my location. However, I am getting a little tired of being cold all the time... Whatever, it doesn't really matter because I don't have a say in anything as with all PC operations ;)

Las Indiginas

To stress the importance of cultural integration, the PC sent us to various indigenous communities these last two days. I was picked to go to Carabuela, a small little town whose economy relies heavily on handicraft sales. And so the adventure begins!

We arrived early Friday morning and spent the better part of the morning learning the entire process of making knitted clothing. It was pretty interesting because they allowed us to participate in all the steps. First, they cut the wool from the sheep, then washed it in the river and hung it up to dry. After a couple hours, we took the clean wool and teased it with big combs until it was in long fluffy tubes. We then spun the wool tubes into yarn, which was used to crochet or knit the goods. So in theory I could make my own sweater with a sheep, scissors and a crochet needle!

After the yarn making, we walked around the town observing various other trades. We made bread in a traditional wood oven, watched a man make shoes from twine and saw a woman making pottery from clay she literally dug up from the ground.

That night, we all gathered at the shaman's house, and he did a 'cleaning ritual' on us to banish bad spirits. The process is quite simple if you would like to try this at home:

1) Make an alter out of stones
2) Spit chicha (fermented banana liquor) on foot-long plants
3) Smoke a cigarette
4) Smack the cleansing recipient's body from head to toe with the plants (linger on those who are especially full of bad spirits)
5) Spit more chicha on their feet

He didn't spend too much time on me, so I guess my soul was relatively clean.

After the shaman, we were herded to the community center for dinner and general festivities. As guests of honor, we were served an Ecuadorian delicacy: guinea pig (cuy). I was quite disappointed with my portion because I received a piece of the back which doesn't offer much meat... After the meal, we danced to bands that played native music and watched a group of locals perform a traditional dance- all the while we passed around a big bottle of chicha for shots.

The party ended around midnight, and here is where the night took a turn for the worst. Apparently the planning committee didn't think too hard on sleeping arrangements, as we slept on concrete floors. Combine that with arctic weather, a general lack of blankets, a homeless handicapped man blowing a whistle outside the house till 4am, a girl banging on the door in search of her mother, a man loudly vomiting downstairs and frequent dog barking-- one might have problems sleeping... I really wished I braved a few more shots of chicha. Naturally I woke up a little pissy, only to discover they don't drink coffee. Let’s just say I was quite happy to leave after we ate lunch...

All-in-all, the trip was a successful; I came back with a couple hand-made hats, a bag and added a few Quichua words to my vocab. Fun times in Carabuela!

When I woke up this morning at 8am (which is very late given my new sleep schedule), I was taught how to do laundry. But don´t you already know how to wash your clothes Jason?!? Yes, I do know how to operate a washing machine, however that´s not an option here… Washing clothes by hand is really not as time consuming as it seems though; It takes about as much time as a machine. Granted, its more labor intensive, but the clothes get cleaner in my opinion. This is just one in a series of things that never crossed my mind when thinking about life in the PC :P

After the laundry fun, I went to mass, which is different than in the States. The order is the same (although it’s in Spanish) but the people literally talk throughout the entire mass… Literally, during the Homily I had trouble hearing the priest for all the noise. Another difference was that relatively few people took communion. I would guess that only 30% of the participants partook. Also, instead of offering the blood separately, the priest dips the host in the wine and will only put it in your mouth. I plan to go weekly, so hopefully that assuages Mom and Grandma´s worries.

Now I´m off to the fiesta! Today is one of the bigger fiestas for San Pedro. Hooray for dancing!!!

Banishment

Its official, I´m not to go in the kitchen. Okay, maybe banishment is too strong a word, but my sweet little viajita (78 y/o!) insists on waiting on me hand and foot. I´ve finally convinced her that I am capable of washing my coffee cup in the morning, but that took some time because she insists that "the water is too cold" for me to wash. At first I thought it wouldn´t bother me, but I just feel really bad that she cooks and cleans for me, which are things I´m more than capable of doing.

With that, let me tell you a little about my host family. I live alone with my mom, who is a widow. She has 6 sons and 1 daughter, all of which are grown and gone. The daughter comes by the house every so often, and is a rose cultivator in Cayambe (the nearest large town). I have a couple of observations so far about family dynamics, that are markedly different than the US. First, as I have already stated, I am not really required to do chores. Also, even though it is just me and my señora, she waits until I finish eating before she serves herself. However, tonight the daughter came for dinner and ate with me... I can´t quite put my finger on how exactly these gender/age roles all fit together. I have a private room with a queen size bed, all of which are red! The bathroom is also private with running water, but there is no hot water heater. The shower head is connected to an electric heater with warms the water as it comes out. Therefore there´s an inverse relationship between water pressure and temperature. Obviously there is no central heat, but I have 4 wool blankets on my bed with keep me more than warm at night. My amenities are pretty uptown compared to other volunteers.

Enough with the culture though! I´ve not been doing too much outside of class lately. We have to go to classes in another town which is about an hour commute via bus. So by the time I get out of class and make it back to my pueblo, the internet cafes (we are graced with two in my town) are closing :(

I´m not allowed to say exactly where I am because of PC safety and security rules, but I can tell you a little about my town. What the PC did was give us all homestays in the surrounding area, with 4-5 volunteers per community. I really like the people in my town, which is good since we will go through training the next 2 months together. My town is a small little farming community WAY up in the Andes with a little problem with that thing called poverty. Although its pretty poor, the people here really keep the city in great condition. It has a nice town park/square where the people hang, and regular bus service to Cayambe, which is more than I can say for other volunteers. I am really pleased with my placement, except for one thing: altitude. I literally have problems breathing when I go on the smallest walks. Everyone says that I´ll get used to it, but that has yet to materalize... I don´t think most people understand that going from 0ft to around 1600ft will actually affect you.

I went to the fiestas in the street this last weekend, which was a blast! The Ecuadorian tradition for drinking is a little different. Everyone shares the same cup, which one person fills and then chooses the person who he wants to drink. So I partook of this tradition and then proceeded to dance in the street. And no, I wasn´t drunk. The band literally plays in the park, and everyone gathers around and dances outside. I got quite the workout since there were way more women than men. Literally the girls just grab your arm and drag you into the dance. The fast paced dancing combined with my breathing problems, made me leave after one hour. Am I gonna do it all over again this Sunday for the fiesta grande? You bet!

So I don´t really have that much to say since I´ve been in training pretty much all day every day. Also, since its still the first week we´ve yet to get to the juicy stuff; its all pretty much been orientation type stuff. So I´ve yet to learn exactly how to safe the world... More to come later!

ps sorry I dont have time to edit/reread, the cafe is closing!

Escape Successful!

First, I want whoever reads this to take a second to thank their Internet connection just for being there. You dont know what you have until its not there anymore...

So, I made it to Quito alright and even had a little of that money left over thanks to a dive bar in Miami! When we arrived, we went straight to a little hostel in Quito for the night, then headed to Cayambe the next morning. We stayed in a complex there for two nights, alternating between being bored to death by classes, eating YUMMY food, and hanging out at night (I´m addicted to mafia now btw). The last day (today) they assigned us our host families with who we will be living with for the next 8 weeks. Im in a quaint little mountain town, and am staying with a sweet little old lady.

A little aside on the food: Every meal that I´ve had here has had at least three starches, and in no small quantity for that matter. Usually its rice, potatoes, and bread/pasta.

Well today my host mom cooked a large meal for my first lunch here. It was a bowl of potato soup (prob about 2 1/2 cups), white rice (at least 1 1/2 cup), fried potato (a whole potato), a chicken breast and a salad. Everything was DELICIOUS! However, my mom stood next to me and watched me eat the entire meal (as it turns out she was nervous of whether or not I would like it). This obviously made me nervous, so I cleared my entire plate even though I felt ill with fullness half way through. Big mistake. She intrepreted this as me being hungry and ran to the kitchen to bring me another plate of plain white rice. I wanted to cry as I shoveled it into my mouth, but decided to suck it up for the sake of cultural sensitivity. So now I´m sitting in an Internet cafe, wanting to puke, and reading on the Internet how one should not finish their plate in Ecuador for this very reason.

At least I´m prepared for breakfast tomorrow!

Other fun things that have happened: I got bit by a dog, got 3 vaccines, rode in the bed of a truck through the Andes to my site, discovered I WAY overpacked and finished 5 corsswords.

This month is the fiesta de san pedro, so I´m sure I have more stories to come!

Escaping the USA

So I finally made it to Miami, albeit it involved waking up at 4am and lugging 100+ pounds of luggage around the airport. But whatever, I've never been one to complain...

So basically today we went through a little orientation/ice-breaker thing with all the volunteers (which is close to 50!). And now I am about to go to dinner with some of the people I met and plan on blowing the $120 they gave us to "cover expenses for tonight." Everyone is really nice, so far, and I'm really looking forward to finally making it to Ecuador tomorrow!

That's really all that happened, more to come later!