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!