Babaco

I went to el Mitad del Mundo. It’s basically just a line drawn down the middle of the park that claims it’s the equator.  Really the equator is located somewhere else close by.  We went to a museum/park/place that looked like a putt-putt golf course where we watched water drain different ways from a sink and attempted to balance eggs on a nail.  The best part of the day was that I got to see a real shrunken head.  Our tour guide pulled out this wooden box, told us we couldn’t take pictures, then unveils this awesome shrunken head and walks around with showing us.  I guess it was the head of a shaman.  Super cool.

I went for my first run in the Andes on Tuesday.  It was absolutely amazing!  Well the run itself was kind of hard with the altitude and all, but the view was breath taking.  There is this trail right next the training center that goes into Tumbaco but also goes the other way into this national forest.  Within a 5 minute jog, the trail is on a huge cliff overlooking a meandering river with the mountains in the background… awesome!  The second time I ran on the trail I thought it would be cool to ‘off-road’ it a bit and take a random trail down the cliff to the river.  A couple tumbles and a ton of cactus scratches and bug bites later, I made it as close to the river as I could get and back up again.

We visited a school near the training center on Wednesday to witness some formal classroom learning for people that may end up working with kids teaching stuff.  The class I visited was learning about the different states of water.  It was pretty interesting to see how classes are run here rather than in the states.  Afterwards, the kids had recess and we played some intense soccer.  Also, we found out that we’ll be giving a charla (talk/demonstration) at the end of March to a class.  My language group decided to talk about plants (all the things needed to grow them like soil, water, sun, seeds, etc) and they’ll make their own little chia pet, cool right?

PLANT GRAFTING IS THE COOLEST THING EVER!  We went to a fruit nursery in Tumbaco and I learned all about grafting plants.  I never knew such a thing existed and now that I do I cannot wait to start my own garden and make all kinds of crazy plants.  For those of you who don’t know, grafting is essentially putting a root system together with a leaf/fruit system.  For example, you could have a tomato plant with three or more different types of tomatoes growing on it because you grafted different buds onto the plant.  The genetic makeup of the plant doesn’t change at all; you just add a branch here and a branch there.  The purpose of grafting here is Ecuador is that a lot of the native fruits/trees have root systems that can deal with the fungi, pests, and climate of the country but the fruit they produce is not the best or not what sells well.  So, for example in this nursery, they graft native avocado trees with a variety that is better for exportation.  And you can do it will all kinds of other things, like potatoes and tomatoes…by the time the tomatoes are out of season the potatoes will be ready to dig up.  I’m super excited to experiment with all kinds of plants/trees!

I learned how to make wine from local Ecuadorian fruit and how to make other value-added products.  Also, my language group and I made Colada Morada, a drink for Day of the Dead.  I wasn’t a huge fan but other people liked it.  Each language group made a different food, so we had a little feast Saturday morning.  Afterwards, some people broke out their guitars and we alternated playing/singing Spanish and English songs.

I went to my host-cousin’s wedding on Saturday night.  The ceremony/mass was held in the Catholic Church that is in the main square of Tumbaco.  When we arrived, another wedding was just ending, and when we left another one was filing in.  Judging by the amount of rice and rose petals already on the ground, I’d say there were quite a few more during the day; I guess they just keep rolling through them on Saturdays.  The mass was kind of strange because there weren’t that many people there and the people that were there weren’t super invested in the ceremony.  After the mass, our car got in line with a parade of cars headed to the reception.  They even rented a ‘party bus’ equipped with loud sirens that they blasted the whole way to the reception.  The reception was like any other wedding.  They rented out the yard of a house/complex and had tents put up with tables and flowers and decorations.  After a half hour or so, the bride and groom came in and there were a bunch of champagne toasts.  The wedding was bittersweet because the father of the bride passed away a couple months ago so there were a lot of toasts to him as well.  After all the toasts, they called all the single women up to what I thought would be the bouquet toss.  Of course I remained sitting to watch it, but the bride herself came to my table and dragged me by the hand up to the front.  Instead of a bouquet toss we had to answer questions about the bride’s/groom’s favorite things and the ones who got them correct stayed up there and the others got to sit down, luckily I got my question wrong and got to sit.  Then, all the single men were called up to do the same thing.  In the end there were four men and four women up front.  The paired up and then, couple by couple, the women had to stand on a chair and balance on one foot while holding two champagne glasses.  Then the man had to put garters on the woman’s leg in the air.  It was quite humorous but a little strange.  They repeated the whole process with all the married women and their husbands.  After that the dancing began, and once again I was dragged up on the stage to dance.  It was actually pretty fun because we just formed a dance circle and people broke out moves in the middle.  Everyone loved my American ‘moves.’  The music stopped and everyone sat down to be served dinner, by this point it was already 10 pm.  While we were waiting, I found out that there was some drama between my family and the bride/groom.  I guess my host brothers and their families were not invited to the wedding but every other relative was, so Sylvia was upset that they were the only ones not there.  So we ate, and then snuck out the back without even saying goodbye/thank you to the bride and groom…it was a little awkward. 

Random Thoughts:

·         While walking home one afternoon, a man in the bed of a moving truck chucked a water balloon at me.  Apparently this is the beginning of Carnaval.

·         People can window shop for coffins here.

·         Lately for breakfast I’ve been getting what I guess is a soft-boiled egg.  Basically it’s just a soup of yolk with semi-firm white stuff.

·         On March 21 at noon I will have no shadow for approximately three minutes.

·         I taught Julian how to stick out his tongue.  He now does this when he doesn’t want to eat…whoops, my bad.

·         Nobody in my host family wears seatbelts.  Julian (the 1 year old) sits on Fausto’s lap while he is driving or he climbs over the seats to sit on his plastic car on the floor of the car.

·         Nobody was home one night and I was hungry for dinner so I made myself some scrambled eggs.  When Sylvia got home, she was super impressed that I could scramble my own eggs.  Apparently because I said I don’t really cook they thought I was a complete moron in the kitchen. 

·         Men pee where ever they want.  Normally against a building in the main square.

·         Nobody obeys traffic signs/lights.  Fausto turned left on a red light over 6 lanes of traffic the other day.

·         I washed my own clothes on a rock.  Most are hanging to dry with soap suds on them because it was far too difficult/a lot of effort to get all the soap off.  Also, I think most of my clothes will have holes in them by the third or fourth washing because the rock it pretty brutal. 

Ya Mismo

We planted gardens in the back of our training center.  We made raised rows and planted all kinds of vegetables, including carrots, tomatoes, beets, radishes, onions, lettuce, broccoli, etc.  And we learned how to construct a compost thing with worms in it.  Most of my technical training has been in Spanishso I’m not quite sure what some English words are, but I think this thing might be called a worm bed.  We also got a quick tutorial about making organic liquid fertilizer.  I’m learning all kinds of things I never had any clue about before which is pretty cool.  Oh and I got to use a machete for the first time here wootwoot.

We went to the Quito PC office to check it out and get a tour.  It’s a two building complex that is really nice and has some crazy security: metal detector, cameras everywhere, and an armed guard (we have an armed guard at the training center too which is pretty cool).  We took public buses to get there.  One took us from Tumbaco to the outskirts of Quito.  We crossed a street and paid to get through gates to another bus terminal.  It was kind of chaotic as all the locals are pushing and running to catch buses.  We had to pass by police to get on the last bus, not sure why, I guess they were just keeping the ‘peace’.  After we saw the office, met a lot of people, and had a security class, we were free to eat where we pleased.  I was with my language group and my teacher took us to a huge mall with a huge food court.  The mall had every American apparel store you could think of plus a lot more, again I’m super amazed by how Americanized everything is.  After lunch we crossed about 9 lanes of speeding, crazy traffic to get a taxi to take us to the bus terminal.  I’m sure everyone was thinking what a bunch of crazy gringos.

We installed a drip-irrigation system for our gardens.  It was super, super easy to install and doesn’t require any energy since it is gravity fed.  Right now it’s hooked up to a tank that we fill up with the ‘ag’ water we get twice a week from the city, but soon we’ll hook it up to the rainwater catchment system!  Oh and I found out that there is a volunteer in the jungle that’s building lots of compost toilets, so doing something sanitation related at my site is still a possibility.

We got chickens!  They’re a few weeks old and are still pretty cute right now.  They are the kind that doesn’t grow hair on their necks so pretty soon they’ll be getting pretty ugly (I guess they’ll just be easier to kill).  There was an old shed/coop behind where our gardens are at the center where we put all 80 little chicks.  We made a few renovations and now it is chicken/predator proof. 

I got a few people to play three-on-three Frisbee one afternoon.  This was the first time I’ve actually exerted a lot of energy since I’ve been here, and man the altitude is tough.  There’s a group that will go running three times a week though and a group that will play Frisbee a couple times a week too, so hopefully I’ll be getting accustomed to the altitude soon.

Sylvia is teaching me some of her easy recipes so I can cook when I’m on my own.  We also cooked a few vegetarian things at the center, including some super delicious granola.  And we were taught some tactics for teaching people in the communities about good nutrition since malnourishment is an issue here, especially in the highlands. 

We went and visited the neighbor’s pigs, guinea pigs, and rabbits.  The whole raising pigs for meat/reproduction thing is actually quite complicated and I would never want to it.  It was interesting learning all about it, but pigs are gross and fat and smell bad. 

Johana and I went to Quito to an artesian market today.  There was lots of indigenous stuff and lots of jewelry, and we both left with an arm full of things.

Random thoughts:

·         I brought Oso an ice cream cone home one day to try and befriend him.  He ate the thing and then barked at me some more.

·         Sylvia sweeps her carpet with a broom.

·         Dogs hang out on roofs here so while walking down the sidewalk I think that a barking dog may jump on my head.

·         There is a huge difference in the levels of income here.  There are super nice gated communities with huge houses and there are dirt floor shacks just around the corner. 

·         They have Drivers Ed here.

·         I experienced my first earthquake on 2/16/11.  Julian and I were sitting on my bed coloring when the whole house shook.  It only lasted a couple seconds but I was sure it was an earthquake.  Sweet.

·         I’m currently taking crazy pills.  We have a tech trip in a couple weeks so I need to take malaria medication.  The side effects read, “Nausea, difficulty sleeping, bad dreams, severe anxiety, feelings that people are against them, hallucinations, depression, unusual behavior, or feeling disoriented.”

·         If I take the bus home around 6:15, the bus driver will usually stop and eat his dinner along the route, leaving all the passengers to sit and wait for him on the bus.

·         There are two ‘orphan’ dogs at the center, Zach and Mina…I think I may steal Mina and take her to my site to live with me and my goats, chickens, and cat.

·         I bought a ‘brick’ cell phone.  Some things never change.

·         I drink coffee every morning now; it’s mainly just hot milk with a dash of instant coffee.

·         Sylvia insisted on washing my clothes because she said it’s too cold for me to wash them when I get home at night.  The next night I came out of the shower to perfectly folded clothes sitting on my bed, I mean PERFECTLY folded clothes.  Somehow my socks were paired but still flat and my underwear perfectly creased.  Also, I think she ironed everything, including my scrubs.

·         Johana told me at dinner the other day that she wants to get liposuction and put the fat from her stomach into her boobs (chiches).

Sigue No Más

Sorry I¨ve been horrible at updating this...I promise they will be more frequent and not nearly as long...good luck it´s a super long one.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

I didn’t sleep last night.  By the time I was ready to go to bed it was already around 2 so I figured I might as well just stay up until I needed to go down to the lobby to check out.  I arrived in the lobby at 3 am sharp only to find out we didn’t need to be there until 3:30…whoops.  All 40ish of us boarded buses to the airport, checked in with minimal problems, and waited about 3 hours to board our plane to Miami.  I guess there was some pretty bad turbulence the whole time, but I was sleeping and didn’t notice.  I did, however, have some dreams about LOST so I guess subconsciously I thought our plane might go down.  We arrived in Miami, waited for about 4 hours and boarded our plane to Quito, ECUADOR!  I slept/tried to sleep/attempted to study Spanish/watched some Office/stared off into space for the 4 hour plane ride.  We were above the clouds the whole way and couldn’t see much until our descent into Quito, we were then greeted by the Andes!  We flew past a volcano that I guess is still pretty active right next to Quito and then landed with no problems.  As we walked toward customs, a PC worker welcomed us and told us where to go.  I guess since we were there for the government or for volunteering or something, they didn’t give us any problems; I wasn’t even asked any questions.  I collected my bags, sent them through security again, and walked outside to our bus.  I was welcomed with WARM air! But thin air, my heart was definitely pumping from the high altitude.  We drove about 40 minutes to our ‘hotel,’ San Patricio, where more PC workers introduced themselves.  We ate some dinner (tomato soup with popcorn is a great combo) and I was out cold by 10:30. 

Friday, February 04, 2011

We got up early (6:30 am wake-up calls will take a little getting used to), ate breakfast, and boarded a bus to the PC training center.  The center is beautiful!  It’s located in the town of Tumbaco (a suburb of Quito) and it’s the first time that the PC has had volunteers here for about ten years.  The building is bright yellow/red and has courtyards and open air hallways and lots of flowers.  We’re going to be building greenhouses in the backyard and we’re even getting some chickens! (Except we’ll be eating those chickens at the end of training, I’ll have to try not and name them). 

We started the day with some more introductions, a medical questionnaire/intro to the medical staff, and then were given tons of papers to fill out (as if I haven’t filled out enough already).  We filled out stuff about what we wanted in a host family, about our technical skills, we wrote a brief personal bio/aspiration statement, and we took a language test (not my finest work).  After that we received some great immunizations (my typhoid arm feels like someone really jacked me), a medical kit, a portion of our training allowance (in cash…I have so many random places in my suitcases that I’ve hidden cash that I’ll be finding it for weeks), we took pictures for our ID cards, and we opened an Ecuador bank account.  We then had a catered welcome lunch with the PC staff outside...great food so far. 

After lunch this embassy guy strolls in and pretty much freaks us all out.  First, he goes on and on about how he’s some macho special agent for the government/CIA something like that and then he starts telling us horror stories about what has happened to Americans that have come to Ecuador, one story occurring only last Friday.  The stories were fine, as they were meant to scare us/make us more aware of our surroundings while here, but he didn’t really give us any real solutions.  I guess that’s what all of our safety/security classes are for throughout training.  After he left, or maybe it was before lunch, we met our PC Country Director, Parmer.  He seems like a really cool down to earth guy that is very willing to help.  Actually, the whole PC staff is really willing to help/make our time here well worth it/enjoyable/safe and all that jazz, which is great.  We had a break after all that and ate a really good cake-ish thing that was cooked inside a banana leaf; Quinbolitos is what I think they were called.  After the break we split into our two groups: natural resources and sustainable agriculture.  I am of course with the Ag group and was really blown away with what they had to say we’ll be learning about/training for.  I guess they’re changing the Ag program to move more away from just sustainable farming but focus more on food security.  So we’ll not only learn the typical Ag practices but also about nutrition and community mapping so that we can go into our communities and try to tackle the malnourishment aspect as well as the agriculture aspect.  This is really exciting for me, and no worries I’ll still be able to do irrigation, and some water conservation stuff like rainwater harvesting.  We left the training center, went back to our hotel for dinner, walked around/explored the area a bit (it’s super lush and green!), and then went to bed.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

We arrived at the training center bright and early again today.  We went over what was in our medical kit and how to use it, etc.  After that we watched the PC staff perform some skits exaggerating certain scenarios we may encounter with our host families, some were pretty hilarious.  We ate some lunch and then were briefed on the host family selection process, and then we were thrown out into the courtyard with a notecard that had our first name on it and had to find the family that had our last name.  I was greeted by Sylvia (host Mom), Johana (host sister, 21), and Julian (host nephew, he’s Johana’s kid and is one year old).  We grabbed all my bags and I think they were a little blown away by how much I had, but I insisted I’m here for two years so it’s not that bad.  We got into a friend’s taxi and drove to their house.  We arrived at this rusty gate on a dirt alley and I didn’t know what to expect at all.  But they opened the gate and there in front of me stands this huge house, manicured lawn with flowers and lemon trees.  Looks like I won’t be roughing it for the first three months.  They showed me to my room; it’s perfect and I have a great view into the neighbor’s yard with their avocado and lemon trees.  Sylvia told me to start unpacking all my stuff and to get settled in.  She kept coming into my room to chat though during the process.  It was actually really nice, she talks slow enough for me to understand almost everything and she’s patient with me trying to get my point across.  After I unpacked my stuff I played with Julian and his Legos and then was told to go rest (man, I love the Spanish culture…it’s all about resting).  Well I ended up taking a two hour nap…the same as the one-year-old.  I got some grief about that.  And then the three of us headed out to the supermarket.  There are tons of little shops nearby where they live and the supermarket is only about a ten minute walk (it’s located right behind a KFC.  Ecuador is a lot more Americanized than I imagined, but it’s probably due mostly to the fact that I’m right outside their second biggest city).  Sylvia seems super concerned about what I want to eat and really wants to make sure that she cooks things I’ll like, so she kept asking me what I wanted at the market.  I had to keep insisting that I’ll eat whatever and that I want to learn how to cook typical dishes.  I regretted saying this as we walked up to the meat counter and was greeted by at least twenty cow tongues, about 5 cow feet, some hearts, livers, kidneys, etc.  Luckily, she saw my face and only got chicken.  On the walk home I got to talk with Johana a bit more and think that we’ll get along pretty well.  (Sylvia had told me earlier that they specifically requested a female volunteer so that Johana could have an American to bond with).  We got back to the house, I helped make some salad and found some more out about the family.  The dad (Fausto) works in the Oriente (Amazon) on a farm during the week and comes home on weekends (they said they’ll take me out there and I can drive in the tractors and milk the cows and lots of other fun stuff), there are also two older sons (Edison and Javier) that live down the street that are married with two kids a piece, and Johana is going to Cosmetology and Massage Therapy School in Quito.  Johana got a call and left to hang out with her boyfriend (I think) and I was left to ‘babysit’ Julian.  I don’t really mind it so far because the kid is pretty cute and easy going.  I just feel bad for him because I’m probably confusing him a lot with my awful Spanish grammar…whoops.  I ate dinner with Sylvia; it was tasty again and she told me how to cook everything.  Then she showed me around upstairs (on their third floor) where they wash their clothes on a cement rock thing.  She’s very intent on me learning how to do this.  Then my host dad’s sister showed up and we chatted a bit and watched the Ecuador version of Deal or No Deal.  It’s basically the same, except the women wear shorter skirts, have more cleavage, and all the suitcases advertise some brand of food.  Then my host dad got back from the farm and one of my host brothers came over.  They were all super nice and I could understand them for the most part!  And I even was able to get across my reason for being here in regards to water, organic farming, and all that.  It was great to be able to express myself so much on the first day!

Sunday, February 06, 2011

I set my alarm for 8 am this morning thinking that that was plenty early enough to make it to breakfast…alas I was wrong.  Sylvia came knocking at my door at 7:30, amazed that I was still sleeping.  The whole family and I ate breakfast…lots of fruit, yogurt, eggs, and bread.  I found out that my host Dad worked at a local brewery (Club Premium…I guess a lot is exported but I’m not sure to where) for thirty years before he bought his farm.  He said he’ll take me there some day and show me around.  I went upstairs for awhile to study some vocab.  I got a call from a fellow volunteer later on to go out and explore.  I invited Johana and Julian along and we went out to find some boots for the fieldwork I’ll be doing and other random things we needed.  It started raining so we went back and played with Julian.  Johana then out of the blue asks if I want to watch Julian’s birthing video.  Not wanting to be rude I said yes and proceeded to watch her attempt a water birth and when that failed saw Julian come out via C-section…interesting.  Right after that, we ate.  Then it started to rain more so I took a nice little nap.  I woke up to Sylvia coming in my room to greet me (she and Fausto left for Quito earlier in the morning because someone had broken into his sister’s house and stole a lot of electronics), she and Johana looked over the vocab I had to learn and I think they will be quizzing me throughout my time here.  She already asks me the names of all the food she cooks (lentejas are my favorite so far…lentils and veggies in like a stew/mash thing).  We ate dinner later and Fausto started asking me all kinds of questions about the US.  He was most surprised by the fact that it doesn’t rain during the winter and that when it’s 70 degree outside it’s actually not that hot because the sun isn’t as strong as it is here.  Oh and he thought it was crazy that kids move out of their homes after college and live on their own.   After dinner/chatting they told me to go rest yet again because I have to get up early tomorrow morning…love me some rest!

Monday, February 07, 2011

Today was the first day of ‘classes.’  I ate breakfast with the fam and then Sylvia walked me to where I had to catch the super crowded bus that takes me to the PC center (el centro).  Parmer the Country Director was back and gave us a long speech about all the PC policies and what can get us kicked out immediately, what we can/can’t do, where we can/can’t go, and lots of other rules.  It’s weird having so many rules but in the long run it all makes sense.  For lunch we walked down the street a little ways to a lady’s house where she had set up tables and cooked us all a three course meal for a whopping $2….awesome!  After lunch we split into groups and we talked more about the Ag program…equivalent to syllabus week.  I caught a bus back into Tumbaco and walked back to my house.  At dinner we discussed the upcoming weekend and how we’re going to a family reunion of sorts on Saturday and that it’s Johana’s birthday so I guess we’re going dancing….it will be fun to meet all of her friends.  Dinner was actually really fun tonight because I’m realizing the family is pretty open and sarcastic and makes a lot of jokes and I’m able to make some back so it’s been fun conversing somewhat normally.  After dinner Sylvia, Johana, Julian, and I went to my host brother Edison’s house to meet more family.  I met his wife, his wife’s sister, his two kids, and the wife’s sister’s two kids.  Edison’s oldest is a 6 year old girl and she kept asking me to say things in English and then would rattle on and on super-fast in Spanish and I kept getting confused and she kept asking ridiculous things and it was just a fun time.  She then danced for us to some good old Reggaeton. 

Tues-Sun:

I’m probably not going to be writing specific days anymore because it’s too time consuming and I don’t really have that much to say…and let’s be honest you probably don’t want to read that much.  The past couple of days we’ve had more policy lectures, intro classes, and we’ve had interviews.  I had a thirty minute long Spanish interview where I had to talk lots and was tape recorded.  It was a little nerve wrecking but apparently I did pretty well because between that and my written test I got placed in the high intermediate class, and we only need to be at middle intermediate in order to pass the language portion of training, so it looks like I already passed…woohoo!  We also had interviews with our program directors, so I met with a bunch of the Ag folk.  They asked me what experience I had, what I like to do, and stuff like that.  I basically said put me where ever you want but just give me some water stuff.  They could tell I was really interested in water and suggested that I design/build a rainwater harvesting system at the training center in order to teach the others/get some practice in…so I’m super excited about that and I have some other trainees on board too.  We also bought our cell phones.  You all can call me from the states, I think someone said something about Gmail or Skype being cheap and having the ability to call international cell phones (my number is 08-360-8731 if anyone wants to try, I think there needs to be a country number, I think it is 593, in there somewhere too, not quite sure).We’ve had free time after lunches so I’ve been able to break out the Frisbee and got some people to toss with me.  A group of us decided to walk home from the training center rather than take the super crowded, super bumpy, long bus ride (it’s only 20 cents though).  It took a little over an hour but most of the walk is on this dirt path that has an awesome view of all the mountains, so it was totally worth it and might become a regular routine. 

We went to an entirely organic farm in the campo one day.  The guy that runs the place was a tad radical but he definitely knew all about plants and all the different nutrients needed for a good output and how to put those nutrients in the soil.  He stressed and stressed the importance of microorganisms in the soil and talked all about how to naturally get them in the soil even without fertilizer or compost.  We learned how to compost, plant seedbeds, and harvest algae from a pond to use for fertilizer/compost.  All in all it was a pretty interesting and informative day, except the guy was a tad bit preachy.  Oh, and we had the best lunch ever.  The owner’s wife cooked it all…we had the best quinoa soup ever, a wonderful veggie lasagna (sorry Mom this one might trump yours), fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella, salad, and a really good coconut flan thing.

We all went out as a group for the first time this week; it was a fellow trainees’ birthday so we found a super gringo bar that had some good ole eighties music playing, including none other than Pat Bennetare, to sample the local brew.  It gets pretty dangerous here at night to walk/take a taxi home, so we all were home between the hours of 7-9.

I got my second round of rabies shots on the same day I almost/did get attacked by a dog.  Apparently whenever you see a garage door or big metal gate open you aren’t supposed to walk past it but wait until it closes.  Well I didn’t know this and started to walk past my neighbor’s gate when returning from training one night.  A huge Rottweiler comes out from the driveway and stares me down.  I start to walk past him but he inches toward me so I bend over to pretend to get a rock to throw at him, as this is a typical way of getting stray dogs to leave you alone.  I guess it’s not true for guard dogs.  As soon as I pretended to throw something at him he lunged at me and got ahold of my ankle. I got loose and tried to keep walking and he lunged again barking, at this point thankfully his owner came out and called him off.  So I raced over to my house and went through the gate only to be barked at and chased by my stupid dog, Oso (Bear in Spanish).  I do not like the guard dogs here.  Luckily, I was wearing jeans and some thick socks so I only got a large bruise where the teeth tried to break the skin.  I will now pay much closer attention to garage/gate doors.

I had a pretty interesting Saturday this weekend.  We had classes in the morning and then I went back to my house to meet up with Johana so she and I could take a taxi to go to her grandparents’ house where there was a huge lunch/gathering.  We get to the house and I’m bombarded with people.  There must have been at least 10 different aunts and uncles, 20 cousins, and a ton of little kids running around.  We then go find Sylvia in a shed/garage cooking some random meat over a stove.  I look up and realize the meat must be pig because there is a huge pig head hanging from the ceiling.  I guess they had butchered it earlier in the day; luckily I had class and missed that ordeal.  The pig must have been huge because they had big plastic containers, like recycling bins, filled with hunks of meat just chilling on the floor.  The first thing they had me try was smoked pig skin.  It was super tough and kind of made me want to throw up because it was so greasy.  They had other foods too like toasted corn (tostadas), boiled corn (Mote), grilled bananas with cheese inside, and frittata (essentially every hunk of meat from the pig fried in a frying pan).  The meat was actually really good it tasted like bacon on the outside and really greasy pork on the inside.  Everything was rico…basically the Ecuadorian way of saying something is really rich or in other words greasy.  They also boiled all of the insides of the pig and made a soup out of them called Menudo.  I couldn’t make myself try it but I did have a hunk of kidney or heart, not quite sure what they were giving me.  Can’t say I enjoyed that hunk of meat.  After eating everyone mingled and I tried my best to listen/understand conversations, basically I just sat around for a long while.  We played Celebrity later though and it was fun to try and guess the Spanish equivalents of a lot of movies/famous people.  We had cake to celebrate Johana’s birthday and they shoved her head in the cake, classic.  After that we went home and then I went out with Johana for her birthday to the local bar in Tumbaco, Sharma Kings, with her friend.  When we got home her dad still hadn’t gotten back from the grandparents’ house because I guess all the men just hung out drinking whiskey until early in the morning.  Fausto was surprised I didn’t wake up when he got home because he had blasted music and had his own little dance party in the living room.

I got to visit the mall of Tumbaco for the first time when Johana, Julian, and I headed out for a nice Sunday lunch at the food court.  The walk there wouldn’t have been more than ten minutes but she insisted we get on the bus for about a minute instead to get there, and then take a taxi home.  While we were waiting for the bus I saw a clown juggling in the street.  It was crazy dangerous because people drive like maniacs, but he wasn’t a bit phased.  The mall is super nice and equivalent to any American mall, the only difference is this mall has everything.  A drugstore, pet store (explained all the animals I saw in children’s arms), a store called the Japan Store which had a ton of electronics, beauty salons, music studios, shoe stores, outfitters, and lots of other stuff.  The food court had all kinds of foods and will be a good place to go if I start getting sick of rice and potatoes.  That night we ate dinner with Space Jam on in the background…a Spanish dubbed Michael Jordan is pretty funny.

Random Thoughts:

• ·        I am not allowed to flush toilet paper down the toilet…I am doing a better job of remembering lately.
• ·         Breastfeeding in the middle of a sidewalk while talking to people is acceptable.
• ·         I hear so many dogs barking outside my window at night I think that I’m in 101 Dalmatians when they start the dog SOS chain.  There is one dog, in particular, that sounds like he’s the size of a horse but when he howls he sounds like a dying cow or at least what I think a dying cow would sound like.
• ·         There are some roosters around me that like to squawk during the day, not just at dawn.  One of them starts with the normal cock-a-doodle-do thing but then drags it on so that it sounds like an old man crying for help…reminds me of the ‘help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up’ commercial.
• ·         I probably shouldn’t have told my family I lived in Peru for two months.
• ·         As soon as I told my host dad that my real dad is retired, he exclaimed ‘Oh, so now the government pays him a lot!’
• ·         There’s a circus in town, so there is also a car with a megaphone that constantly drives around the neighborhood blasting a creepy voice giving details about the circus.
• ·         I’m regretting not bringing my John Deere Hat because Fausto has a John Deere Trucker hat, we could have been twins.
• ·         I can’t figure out how to take a hot shower, mine have been ice cold.  I do know that hot ones exist though because when my host sister comes out of the shower the bathroom is steamy.
• ·         They all kinds of juice here.  They just pick a fruit, throw a few chunks of it in a blender with a lot of water and some sugar, blend it, and then strain it.  I’ve had cantaloupe, star fruit, papaya, watermelon, Quaker Oats, guanabana, baboca, tree tomato, and pineapple juice so far.
• ·         The old-man crying rooster is making me have some pretty weird dreams.
• ·         We got the diarrhea talk from our PC nurse.  She basically said we’ll all get some sort of worm, amoebae, or Giardia here; something to be greatly excited about.  She even gave us our very own stool sample kit.
• ·         There are quite a few fancy cars here; I see BMWs regularly.
• ·         Every type of dip is called salsa, even if it’s guacamole.
• ·         There are no choking hazard concerns here; Julian is given all kinds of small foods like toasted corn and popcorn.  He is normally coughing up or spitting out hunks of food a while after eating.
• ·         Every cream based soup is accompanied with popcorn.  It’s the Ecuador equivalent of oyster crackers and actually really good.

Sanford Mr. Sketch Scented Markers

Today was staging.  We turned in all of our applications and went from being PC invitees to being PC trainees…exciting.  The whole day consisted of a lot of ice breakers…you know the stuff you did back in grade school, like go around the room and find someone who is a vegetarian, an only child, or who has been a camp counselor and have them sign your sheet as an introduction.  And we even had smelly markers at our tables.  It was definitely not what I was expecting for our first day ‘on the job.’  I mean here we are, a bunch of twenty-something year olds dressed in business casual attire, walking around the ballroom of a hotel with smelly markers asking one another who has packed a musical instrument with them or who has tutored kids before.  The day continued with some small group activities, including skits and drawings.  As juvenile as the whole day was, it got across most of the issues/points the PC wanted to drive home before we left.  Most of the talks were safety issues, anxieties, aspirations, logistics, and stuff like that.  The day ended by us forming a circle around the room, holding hands, and singing Kumbayah.  Just kidding, we did form a circle though and to do one more little activity, no singing though…at least not yet.  We leave the hotel at 3:30 am tomorrow morning and fly from DC to Miami and arrive in Quito around 7 pm.  Next time I talk to you all I’ll be in Ecuador!

Farewell

I’m currently sitting in the Holiday Inn in DC and thought what better time to update my blog.  The past couple of weeks really flew by.  I’m not really sure how because I feel like I had a lot of days where I didn’t really do much of anything…surprise, surprise.

Anyways, I went to visit the good ole IC one more time before I left.  I was there almost a week and managed to say goodbye to most all the friends, family, and places that I wanted to say goodbye to.  I went to my last country night and mug night for a long time.  I ate my last Oasis falafel, Short’s burger, Oyama sushi, and Hot’ n’ Ready that I’ll have in a while.  And I spent my last afternoon in the Seaman’s Center…I seriously will miss that building and my fellow enginerds.  And to top the week, my friends threw me a lovely surprise going away party!  It was a blast and I thank you all so much.  I will miss late night engineering parties in the computer lab, Saucy practices, spraying Fritter with a spray bottle, lounging on the purple couch, and so many other things….Iowa City you have been good to me!

I was back in the burbs for a few more days and then traveled to Ohio to say bye to my grandparents and a few other relatives on my mom’s side.  It was great to see all those relatives that I don’t get to see very often!  When we got back, I ran and lot of errands, got some more last minute things, turned 23, and before I knew it, it was my last weekend in the States.  On Saturday I thought that I was going to dinner with a few friends from home and then going out in downtown Chicago…but I was surprised again with an awesome going away party!  It was great seeing everyone and a special shout out goes to the people that drove hours to be home for it….thanks Lauren, Eric, Erika, and Jeremy!  And thank you so much Kallen for putting the whole thing together, I have a great time and it was a great send off!

I packed up most of my stuff on Monday…a large ordeal.  And, I definitely over packed.  Monday night a few friends came over to say their final goodbyes and a little bit after they left I received a call from United saying that my Wednesday morning flight was canceled because Chicago was going to get hit by the Snowpocolypse/Snowmageddon/Flurricane/a TON of snow.  United automatically re-booked my flight to 8 am on Thursday morning to arrive in DC at 1030ish…two hours after my flight to Ecuador was supposed to leave.  I called SATO (the travel agency) early in the morning to see what they wanted me to do.  The lady I talked to apparently had no idea of the Flurricane that was brewing and did not believe that O’Hare would be closed all day Wednesday.  She told me she had to talk to some other people to figure out what to do and that she’d call me back.  Well, after a two hour nap I still hadn’t heard from her so I called again at 11:30 am.  She told me that I needed to get on a flight that left at 3:05 pm.  Hmm, a three and a half hour warning…and there I was unshowered in my pjs...ah!  I rushed around for the next hour and got everything ready and was at the airport by 1 pm.  I checked my two bags (50.5 lbs woo just at the limit, and 35 lbs) and headed to security where I experienced my first full body scan…awkward.  The airport boards flashed mostly canceled flights and the airport was virtually empty, but there my flight was...still on that board.  I was literally one of the last flights to leave O’Hare.  I boarded the plane with about 25 other passengers (capacity of 120) and anxiously waited to see if we’d still be able to leave.  After a thorough de-icing with lots of orange and green goop we were ready to take off.  The take-off and flight wasn’t actually too bad despite the windy blizzard outside and I made it to DC safe and sound.  And here I am sitting in my hotel room waiting for tomorrow and my staging to begin.

I’m not sure when I’ll be able to update again/when I’ll have internet again but I’ll try to as frequently as possible.  Until then….enjoy all the snow!