Buenos Aires

An update on the past week or so, AND my site assignment!

We gave tech trip presentations last week.  In a small group we had to design our own integrated farm and figure out a ten-year plan in regards to crops, animals, and money.  We presented our design to a panel of PC staff in Spanish.  The presentation itself was actually quite technical, so it reminded me of the engineering project days.

I awoke Friday to Sylvia repeatedly saying Japón, Japón to me.  As it was early in the morning, I was super confused and thought she was referring to soap (jabón).  I soon realized that she was talking about Japan and she told me all about the earthquake.  We watched the news during breakfast and found out that Correa (the Pres) declared a state emergency and was evacuating people from the coast because of the fear of a tsunami.  This meant that PC put us all on ‘Standfast.’  Meaning all volunteers not being evacuated had to stay in their sites until further notice.  So all the trainees were stuck in Tumbaco and couldn’t leave until Saturday afternoon when they called it off.  It was interesting to watch Ecuador’s news broadcast of the potential tsunami because it was basically just video of Correa watching a TV monitor that was showing a harbor in the Galapagos waiting for the waves to hit.  Luckily, there wasn’t much damage.

We had an extra hour for lunch one day so a group of us decided to head into town to run some errands.  Well the bus was just passing by the center as we were walking out the gate so I literally ran alongside the bus and hopped on as it was moving.  We switch buses on the way back to town and there is a little store at this bus stop.  Naturally we all go in to get some ice cream (they sell really good hand-made drumsticks).  As we’re all picking out our ice cream we hear the bus coming.  Everyone quickly tosses their ice cream back into the case and runs out the door.  I look at the cone that is already in my hand, look back at the ice cream case, look at the store owner who is waiting to see what I do, and think that it’s not sanitary to put the cone that I’ve already handled back in the case, so I fumble in my wallet, throw some coins at the owner, and sprint out the door and onto the moving bus, ice cream in hand.  All the Ecuadorians on the bus thought I was crazy, and all the volunteers on the bus were super jealous of my ice cream.  That was probably the best laugh that I’ve had since I’ve been here, and the best ice cream. 

I went to a market on Saturday and saw lots of fruits, veggies, and raw meat/animal carcasses, including a cow fetus hanging from a booth.  That afternoon a group of us cooked up some ground beef from the market and made delicious burgers with avocado, pineapple, bacon, jalapenos, and cheese.  Delicious.  And we had another barbeque the next day.  

The US ambassador visited the training center on Tuesday.  PC made a pretty big deal about it and made us sing a song for her and some people had to perform a dance.  She gave a little speech and then ‘answered’ some questions.  Nothing special.  We did get some tasty kabobs out of it though.

We finally found out our sites today!!  I’m headed to the transitional zone between the mountains and the coast to a town called Buenos Aires.  It´s located in the province of Chimborazo but it´s really considered part of the province Guayas because it´s so close. Our site assignments were based on two different interviews, which we have had since being here, and on our skill sets.  Most of the trainers have had sites in mind for certain people for the past couple of weeks, but met as a group last Friday to decide for sure.  Then the trainers had to go to the Quito office on Monday to OK the sites with the head honchos there.  On Tuesday I found out that my site was changed last minute (on Monday) by the people in Quito that don’t know me at all, so this had me worried.  But I´m excited about the work I´ll be doing.  I´m going to be working with ACDI/VOCA an Ag program working with cacao.  There is also potential for an irrigation system.  The town is super small about 200 people and is about 2 hours east of Guayaquil.  In total my travel time from Quito will be about 10-11 hours.

Bright and early tomorrow morning I’m headed out to my site for a weeklong visit where I will meet my new host-family, meet my community, do some exploring, and scope out the work I’ll be doing for the next two years!

Random Thoughts:

·         Carnaval is over, but the streets remain littered with water balloon pieces, egg shells, flour, and silly string cans.

·         When I told Sylvia and Johana that I might be headed to the coast they immediately told me to watch out for the ‘monos’ (literally monkeys, but they were referring to men) and make sure I don’t become ‘cachuda’ (basically don’t get cheated on).

·         Johana broke out the dictionary one night to give me definitions of swear words in Spanish so I could tell her the equivalent in English.

·         Sylvia thinks I’m crazy for walking around the house barefoot.  So I complimented her and said that I only do it because the floor is so clean.

·         Within the first three months of being in site I have to conduct what are called CAT tools (Community Assessment Tool tools, redundant I know), basically I ask the people in my town lots of questions about what they want done, what is already in place, etc.  Anyways, I received the CAT handbook and of course it’s full of LOL cat pictures.  Love.

·         I now have an Ecuadorian bank account and ATM card.

·         I found out it was Sylvia’s birthday (March 14) when Edison and Tatiana showed up with pizza late at night…she let me go the whole day without knowing it was her birthday.  Her parents and her sister showed up even later around 10 with more pizza and candles.  I had three dinners that night.

·         Julian has been throwing up pretty regularly in order to dislodge whatever piece of food he has choked on