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!