Media Naranja

After swearing in, I finished packing and said goodbye to my Tumbaco family (I’ll be visiting them a lot), and then picked up some things to make one last dinner at the training center (pesto…mmm).  I left that evening and took a night bus to Guayaquil (most uncomfortable, awful thing ever).  I then hung out in the food court at the bus terminal until I decided I couldn’t procrastinate anymore so I got on a bus to Cumanda where Jefferson met up with me.  One of the first things he talked about was me moving out of my host family’s house (keep in mind that I hadn’t even moved in yet).  Turns out my host family is the outcast of the community and Jefferson thinks I’ll be more successful if I move out (he already has three different places lined up where I could move).  Well I already signed an agreement with my family so I’ll have to wait at least three months.

I met the mayor and vice mayor of Cumandá the other day.  I went with Leonor to the municipality so she could complain about the conditions of the school.  She definitely dragged me along to get some leverage, but I was ok with it because that meant I got an in with the mayor from the start.  He told me that they have an irrigation canal project in the works to bring water from the municipality out to the towns near me.  They told me I’m welcome to come into town anytime and work with them….awesome.  Also, I guess there was a civil engineer PCV in Cumanda about 10 years ago that did some pretty awesome things and basically started their sewage system, so they were super excited that I am a civil engineer too. 

That evening I was playing with some kids on the soccer field when I was summoned by some random lady to come to their woman’s group meeting.  I was completely caught off-guard and they bombarded me with questions about how can I get them money to increase the lump sum of loan money in their community bank.  Basically they were asking me to give them money.  I explained that I couldn’t do this but I could help them start an income generating business but they didn’t seem to want to work much, they just wanted money.  They did seem interested in community gardens, but when it came to buying the seeds, again they just assumed that I would be buying them.  I tried to explain that they need to invest in things themselves so that they value it and take better care of it, but they didn’t really listen.  The meeting ended with them basically deciding that I’ll just teach them English….ugh.  The next morning, after I finished making a compost pile at my house, two men showed up to talk to me about the irrigation canal project.  Again one of the first things they asked me was how can I get them money to continue with the project.  They have a study of the need of the irrigation canal done, but no plans of how or where they are going to construct the thing.  I told them that I could help them with the design of the canal, and possibly with writing a grant.  They were only interested in the grant writing/money part of my help….another ugh.  I met with Jefferson that night and told him about the money issues and he was actually super cool and understanding about it. He told me that people are used to getting hand-outs and just assume I’m here to do the same thing, but that he’ll straighten things out in the next town meeting.

I met with ACDI/VOCA the other day and they basically said that they ran out of money and are pulling all of the tech people out of our area.  This means that I am now the sole person in charge of Buenos Aires.  Since the people of the community know a ton more about cacao than me, this basically means that I’m there to facilitate and make sure that the group doesn’t fall apart.

I started my CAT tools; basically I just walk around and ask each family a bunch of personal questions.  Normally it would be awkward, but people here don’t seem to care at all.

Random Thoughts:

·         I have not come across any regulations regarding pets.  A fellow volunteer bought a cat right before swear-in and brought it with to her new site.  This meant a kitten on my lap during the bus ride to Guayaquil.  It also meant the ornamental tree in the bus terminal was a litter box.

·         BYOTP is a must, as most bathrooms lack toilet paper.  Or you have to pay 15 cents for a couple of squares.

·         On Good Friday, Leonor made Fanesca (I’ll have to admit I liked this version better because it wasn’t as thick).  A procession of people dragging crosses came up to our porch and sang and preached a bit.  We then joined in the procession and walked around town for a bit.

·         My host-brother, Danny, moved back to Buenos Aires from Quito.  They built him a new room in the back of the house so it looks like he’s here to stay.  My family claims he moved back because he didn’t like his job in Quito, but in reality they are trying marry-me-off.  I always have to sit super close to him at the table, and they occasionally leave us alone to eat by ourselves.  My little host sister, Lizbeth, consistently asks what I think about him and she calls me sister-in-law.  Patricia’s kids call me aunt.  There is even gossip in Cumanda about how my host-mom is crazy and trying to hook the poor Gringa up with her son.

·         The first time that I hitch-hiked by myself into town I was squished in the cab of a rickety old truck with two old men that only exchanged a few words about the thunderstorm the night before.  Classic.

·         The kids in my family are really into my Frisbee.  In a few weeks, they’ll be pros.  The dogs are absolutely terrified of the thing though.

·         Apparently it’s dangerous to walk from town back to Buenos Aires, whoops.

·         We haven’t had running water or electricity lately.  Although bucket baths are fun, I smell an engineering project.

·         My host mom’s ‘compost pile’ consists of soaked kitchen scraps infested with cockroaches.

·         My family let me ‘cook’ dinner one night.  I made salad with hard-boiled eggs and lemon juice as the dressing.  Pepito asked where the meat was, Angie tried to pour vegetable oil over the salad, and Leonor was surprised I used lettuce.  However, they said they liked it and everyone ate most all of it, but they also scraped the rice pot from lunch empty.  I guess I should have included something else with the salad.

·         A guy was murdered during a house robbery a couple towns down from mine, actually super close to the APROCAI building.

·         My host sisters are constantly criticizing me for not wearing my hair down or wearing makeup or wearing short shorts.  First of all it’s too hot to have my hair anywhere near my neck or have any makeup stay on my face longer than 10 minutes without sweating off.  And second of all I get enough cat-calls already since I’m the only white person, so I think I’ll steer away from short shorts.

·         I am a GIANT in Buenos Aires.

·         Everyone thinks I’m crazy for running.  They don’t get how I can keep running for longer than ten minutes at a time.

·         I was asked one day while eating lunch if I wanted to see a snake.  Thinking it was just outside I said yes.  I go outside and am shoved in a car, we drive down the road, then we get in the back of a truck and drive into the brush, we get out and trudge through the banana forest (I’m in flip-flops) and yucca fields, we finally arrive in a random field where Pepito points under a log at a sleeping venomous snake.  At this point the random man that is with Pepito, Danny, and I jabs a stick with a hook on the end at the snake to pick it up.  He then runs over to a clearing, lets the snake go, then grabs it bare-handed and holds it up like a prize fish.  Keep in mind this is an extremely poisonous snake that is about 5 feet long.  He then puts it in a bag, ties it up and we head back to the truck.  Turns out the guy harvests snake venom to make serums.  Pretty cool.

·         As the previous thought shows, most of the time I am dragged places without knowing where or why I’m going where I’m going.  Most of the time it’s ok, except one day I was dragged into town to watch Angie go on Facebook for an hour.

·         We ate the annoying rooster for Lizbeth’s birthday dinner.

·         People who I’ve never seen before and who don’t even live in Buenos Aires know who I am and why I’m here…pretty cool.

·         One of my neighbors owns a baby tiger.

·         There’s this old guy in town named Remberto that actually seems concerned about the well-being of the environment and about the condition of the river…I’m going to become good friends with him.

·         Leonor is always screaming at someone in the house.  She has a really shrill scream.

Will it Blend?

This last week and a half has been a random assortment of activities and a lot of downtime as we prepare to leave for our sites.  Some tech highlights from the week include, making biol, making biochar, learning how to save seeds, felling a tree (by machete), and giving my presentation of a cost analysis of the different states of cacao (I hope to use the same presentation with APROCAI in the future).  Other highlights include a bonfire with s’mores, wrangling the ugly, less fit half of our chickens and putting them in boxes to be sent away and killed (PC decided we didn’t have the infrastructure to kill and cook 45 chickens ourselves), and making paper Mache piñatas out of the papelote (big sheets of paper that we had to use for every pointless activity…this was equivalent to burning all your papers at the end of a school semester).  Also, a guy from the Embassy came to talk about the current events in Ecuador…aka the Ambassador issues and a guy from USAID came to talk about projects they have going on.  And we basically just wrapped up training with some final tests, and meetings.    

Saturday was the family appreciation lunch.  All of the families came to the training center and we played some games (including a sack race that Sylvia failed miserably and three-legged race that Johana and I failed miserably).  We watched a few volunteers perform a folk dance…hilarious.  And we ate all of the food that we had prepared and the chickens.  My family and I left early so that we could get home and change in time to go to Joaquin’s baptism (Edison’s, my host bro, kid).  Well, Julian needed to take a nap so Johana and I missed the actual baptism but went to the party after.  The set-up was basically like a wedding reception.  There were bottles of whiskey on every table and they were passing around plates of cigarettes.  There was great food, lots of dancing, including lots of old men and a crazy lady.  Ecuadorians know how to party.  I left early because all the trainees were having a going away party.  I walked in a few hours after everyone had got there and it was absolute chaos, apparently trainees know how to party as well.  I had a great time dancing to some American music.  The next morning I found out that my host brother and host uncle showed up at our house at about 3am with a guitar serenading us, but sadly everyone was passed out and they didn’t have a key to get in and wake us up.  My host brother showed up for lunch that day and said he hadn’t slept at all that night and I’m pretty sure he was still drunk.

We had our swearing in ceremony today.  It started with a breakfast at the training center and lots of photos.  After breakfast and some more photos we had the swearing ceremony where everyone raised their right hands and took the oath…a little strange to be working for ´the man.´ Afterwards, two fellow trainees gave speeches and then we all received our diplomas.  A group of people that live closer to Quito were sent off in buses and now I´m waiting until my night bus leaves.  I´m officially a volunteer and in 24 hours will be starting my two years in Buenos Aires. 

 

Random Thoughts:

• I was telling Sylvia how I’m doing a project on cacao and was explaining the difference in value between wet and dry cacao.  She starts laughing hysterically and I have no idea why until she catches her breath enough to say that she thought I was saying caca (poop…she thought I was talking about wet and dry poop).  Since then, she has found many ways to incorporate dry poop into the conversation and she thinks she is real funny each time.
• Sylvia fed me sheep intestine soup one afternoon.  She also placed a plate in front of me with an avocado and what looked like chocolate chunks on it.  Turns out it was sheep blood that I had to mix in with the soup.
• After spending a week in my hot site, Tumbaco feels freezing to me.  I can’t imagine what it will be like returning to a Chicago winter after two years.
• I went to the town in between Tumbaco and Quito the day after I got back from my tech trip.  It is called Cumbaya and is basically Little America.  I ate sushi and it was amazing.   
• All buses are stick-shift and it depends on the driver whether or not you’ll have a very jerky ride or a smooth one.  I got on the bus one morning and had myself posted up against the edge of a seat, as I always do when standing on the bus.  I wasn’t holding on because the bus was stopped for a long period of time, but then out of nowhere the driver guns it and switches gears really fast.  This led to a slow-timber type fall by me onto a man sitting in the seat in front of where I was leaning.  It was a complete off my feet fall, to the extent that some Ecuadorians had to yank me back up.  Not only was I the only Gringa on the bus, but almost everyone on the bus witnessed it and a few ladies even yelped, ‘Oooohhh,’ as I was going down.  Probably the most embarrassing moment I’ve had since being here.  I made sure to get the bus at a different time the next day.
•  We had our first trainee go back to the States this week.  His site was super secluded and PC wouldn’t do a site change for him, so he thought the best choice was to go home, and hopefully come back to pursue some other opportunities that opened up for him in Ecuador.  We’ll miss you Chin.
• I’m starting to realize what 2 years of isolation can do to you.  It seems as though lots of volunteers go a little crazy during their service.  They get so involved in their work that they start straining biol (liquid manure fertilizer) with the same strainer they use to make their juices, or they are convinced that you can ferment and blend up any pest in your garden and re-apply it to deter the pests from coming back because they won’t like the smell of their fallen comrades.  It will be interesting to see when/how the crazy is going to affect me.
• A lot of the chickens resembled Donald Trump; they had no feathers on their necks, just a strange mop of feathers on their heads, very Trump-like.
• Sylvia helped me pack to go to my site.  It was super nice and almost like packing with my real mom when leaving the states, except more stressful because I had to speak in Spanish this time.
•  I wanted to make my host family brownies as a going away thank you.  I think something to do with the altitude made them fail miserably (I spent a good amount of time chipping rock hard brownie out of the pan).  I then snooped around in the Center’s kitchen for ingredients to make something else; I found everything for banana bread except normal flour.  I used plantain flour thinking it would work for banana bread…wrong.  The bread was super dry and kind of tasted like pumpkins. 
• My family made me a soup called Fanesca on Sunday.  It’s the traditional Easter dish that they eat here.  It has 12 different types of grains and some cheese, milk, and eggs in it.  It was pretty good and super nice of them to make it for me since they knew that I would be gone when they normally prepare it.

No Me Hagas Asi

Sorry I haven’t updated lately.  Over the past couple weeks I have had more classes and my second tech trip.  There is nothing super exciting to tell about the classes except one day we had a ‘sports day’.  We split into 6 teams, came up with sweet team names, and ordered/designed uniforms.  My team was The Skeletons so we went with a Day of the Dead theme.  Thus, everyone on my team painted their faces like those of the candy heads they have for the holiday.  The day started out with a procession onto the soccer field by all the teams.  Then each presented the cheer that they had come up with.  There was also a beauty queen contest (apparently there is always a queen of each sport event) and they had to dance and then answer a question.  The queen was sashed, and then the games began.  We played soccer literally all day.  I forgot how much I like the sport; it will be fun to play in my town.  My team came in third (not too shabby).  Later than night we all met up and cooked some delicious burritos.  All in all a good day, but the next day I could barely move because I was so sore.

I had my second tech trip this past week.  This trip was devoted entirely to cacao and everything there is to know about it.  All the ACDI/VOCA people went on the trip and we stayed at the hostel in my town.  After a long morning of traveling we got to BA Monday afternoon and had an introductory charla by the ACDI/VOCA folks.  The next day we went out to a farm about 40 minutes down the road to learn how to prune cacao trees, about the different diseases the tree can get, about the different fertilizers, etc.  In the afternoon we went to the APROCAI complex (the local cacao organization that members of my town, including Jefferson, and a few others nearby started) to graft some trees.  It’s a skill that will take some time to perfect.  Wednesday morning we traveled about a half hour east of Bucay to see a town/organization that really has it together in regards to cacao.  Many groups/organizations don’t succeed in Ecuador because of corruption, lack of motivation, or lack of resources/knowledge.  This group was so far from that and an excellent example of what can be accomplished.  We visited a few different farms and it was amazing to see how well the cacao was producing.   The main reason for going was to learn about the irrigation system that they are currently installing on the farms.  It was refreshing to see actual AutoCAD plans on plotter paper.  In the afternoon we had a charla about communication and how to communicate on the same level as the farmers.  On Thursday we harvested cacao (lots of machete use…woohoo), learned the fermentation process, and the drying process.  In the afternoon we talked about registers and bookkeeping stuff.  Currently only about 30% of cacao farmers actually keep records of how much they harvest, sell, the market price, etc.  I also met with my group for my tech trip presentation.  We’ll be doing a feasibility study/cost analysis on value added cacao.  It should be super helpful for my future work with APROCAI since they want to eventually process chocolate at their facility.  On Friday we got a bus back to Tumbaco.  There are only two more weeks until I’m officially sworn in as a volunteer.

Random Thoughts:

·         Everyone that went on my tech trip was super jealous of how pretty my site is (hint, hint visitors).

·         I will soon be buying my very own machete.

·         My host family said they are going to breed my dog, Dana, with the Rottweiler down the road and that I can have one of the puppies.

·         My town had an interesting change in politics while I was gone.  Don Bolivar was ousted as the President and a new guy (who is friends with Jefferson) was voted in.  Now Jefferson is the Treasurer.  This may have made my life a lot less complicated for the next two years.

·         The APROCAI organization will be changing their leaders soon too.  This whole organization should be interesting to watch because they haven’t really invested any of their own money, but got outside grants from MAGAP (Ecuadorian Ag Ministry).  Thus, I feel like there might be some corruption in the future.

·         I decided I’m going to build a composting toilet in my site.

·         I was supposed to be sworn in at the US ambassador’s house, but since Correa kicked her out earlier this week, I’m not sure what we’ll be doing for the ceremony.

·         I’m starting to enjoy the long bus rides across Ecuador.  They are always amusing since there is at least one little old lady with a chicken on her lap, one man selling Ginseng or shiny rocks in the front, one stop to let guys pee on the side of the road or to let women find a random public restroom, tons of food vendors, and tons of bad action movies.

Site Visit

This past week was an adventure to say the least.  It started off by spending the night in the training center so I could get a super early start the next morning for my travels.  Well, we left at 5:30 in the morning but turns out my bus didn’t leave until 8 am so I spent some time just chilling in the Quito bus terminal (which is actually a lot like an airport).  I arrived in Guayaquil around 4:30 and our group of 4 ACDI/VOCA folks met up with a volunteer that used to live near my site, but now is working with ACDI/VOCA in the Guayaquil office.  We took a bus to Milagro and then met with Julio (my ACDI/VOCA support guy) who took us in his truck to all of our sites.  I was the last stop, so it was cool to meet everyone else’s family and see all of their towns.  I got to my town around 10 that night and was exhausted after the super long day, and was definitely not ready for my super loud and fast talking Costal family.  I didn’t really say much, they showed me my room, and I passed out under my mosquito net. 

I awoke the next morning bright and early (prob 430 am) to the most loud and obnoxious rooster ever (this rooster is literally the size of a small/medium dog…I do not want to cross paths with it).  I tried to go back to sleep but my host mom started making breakfast.  The walls of our house are only about 6-7 ft tall and the rest is open air until the metal roof, so I can hear everything that goes on inside the house, and whenever one light is on, the whole house is lit up.  When I finally mustered up the courage to leave my room and attempt to speak Costal Spanish (everybody sounds like they are speaking with marbles in their mouths) with my family, I was greeted with a huge plate full of rice and chicken for breakfast at 7 am.  I chatted with my family a little and learned all about the large family.  The dad, Pepito, works out in the fields growing corn and cacao.  The mom, Leonor, is quite eccentric.  I have 16 and 9 year old sisters (Angie and Lizbeth), and 13-year-old brother, Vito.  Another sister, Patricia (30) lives down the street with her two kids (both older than Lizbeth).  They also have a son and daughter living in Quito, a son in Germany, and another son in Switzerland.  It’s really hard to keep all the names straight when they are talking about them.  In addition to the people in the family, there is a super cute dog (Dana), some pigs and piglets, and chickens.  Leonor told me I’ll be killing chickens pretty regularly.  Patricia is building a house behind mine so we went and checked out the beginning of construction in the morning.  Basically men cut some rebar and wire, tie the rebar and wire together to form columns, put the columns in some holes, and pour concrete on the outside of the columns, not on the inside…interesting.  In the holes we found a super cool neon green iguana and some bright frogs.  At one point during the morning an old lady neighbor walks by us dragging a string tied around the neck of a four-foot long extremely poisonous snake.  Apparently there are a lot of poisonous snakes in the area, Pepito can’t bend one of his pointer fingers because he got bit and had to get the anti-venom shot (He also got bit on the ankle and has a slight limp). 

The rest of the day I just walked around the tiny, tiny town.  There are two little stores that only sell dry goods, there is an Evangelical church, a half-built Catholic church (they are slowing raising money by hosting bingo-bailes every now and then), a large soccer field, a small black-top soccer field, an old rusted park, a small elementary school, and a small community meeting house.  There is also a hostel in the town, don’t ask me why, with a public pool.  There is a fairly large river (Chimbo) that runs parallel to my town/road.  The scenery is super pretty because I am at the foot of the Andes so I can see the foothills in the distance, but still have a ton of tropical plants.  To get fresh food everybody goes into the two bigger towns that are about 5 km away, Cumandá and Bucay.  The two towns are separated by the river; the river also separates the provinces Chimborazo and Guayas.  Some fresh food comes to us though, as the President of the town owns a dairy farm and drives around selling milk every morning.  Also, a large man on a little motorcycle drives around selling fish and shrimp from the cooler strapped to the back of his bike (Keep in mind that I am at least 3 hours from the sea).

Later that night my counterpart, Jefferson, showed up at my house and he basically told me that he didn’t want the responsibility of being my counterpart; and asked why I even needed one since I was only going to be teaching English.  I was quite taken aback and didn’t really know how to respond so I just told him I’d talk to him later.  The next day I went into the bigger towns to explore with Angie.  In the afternoon we walked around my family’s land and picked some limes to make a mojito-like drink, which everyone including the 9-year-old drank.  On Sunday morning, after yet another breakfast of rice, the president of the community called inviting me to lunch.  I accepted thinking that this would be a good way to get in with the town since my counterpart was being a jerk.  Before lunch I went into Bucay to the Sunday market.  There were tons and tons of fresh fruits, fresh veggies, freshly butchered hanging meat, live chickens, and all kinds of other stuff.  After exploring the market I made my way over to the President’s (Bolivar) house.  He doesn’t actually live in Buenos Aires but in Cumandá, which was my first clue to many shady politics/gossip in my little town.  Lunch was a little intimidating as I was sat at the head of a table of about ten other people.  It turned out to be pretty low key and he just asked me about where I was from, how I liked Ecuador, etc.  Everything was going fine until he asked about my degree and found out my interest in water.  At this point he comes up with a long list of pricey water things that he wants me to accomplish in my two years.  He also says he wants bleachers for the soccer field.  As my Spanish is still not the best and I didn’t want to be rude to the Pres I just smiled and said yes if I can find the money I’ll be happy to help with all those things.  Later that night, Jefferson showed up at my house and asked what I did that day.  I told him I had had lunch with the Pres and that I was invited to the town meeting on Tuesday.  He immediately freaked out and asked why I went to lunch with him and that I shouldn’t have been invited to that meeting because it was exclusively for the Community Council.  He then went on to say that since he’s my counterpart now he has to go to the meeting and that he is in an awkward position because he wasn’t invited.  I’m pretty annoyed with him at this point so I just shrug and say whoops, sorry, I’m going to the meeting anyways.  He then tells me that there is a cacao meeting the next afternoon where a guy is going to come and give a charla about organic fertilizer.

So on Monday I awake after having a crazy-pill dream about killing the stupid rooster outside my window, and read in the hammock for most of the morning.  Jefferson comes and gets me around 1 to go to the cacao meeting.  The meeting was held at his organization’s (APROCAI) building.  The building is new and they will use it to dry the cacao and hopefully in the future to make value added products, like chocolate.  They also have a really nice little nursery with cacao grafts.  Before the meeting they had what they call a minga, basically where people gather together to help accomplish a task.  This minga was to clear brush from behind the building so they could construct a drying area.  Jefferson would not let me participate and told me to sit and wait for them to be done…frustrating.  The meeting was interesting but super long.  An Ecuadorian dude came in and talked all about the different macro/microorganisms you need in soil and how his products help with that, and he talked about organic pesticides and other stuff like that.  It was super interesting because I’ll be giving charlas like that in the future so it was nice to see how an Ecuadorian does it  (Mine will definitely be more organized and you’ll be able to make my fertilizers not buy them).  After the meeting Jefferson pulled me aside and sat me down and said we had to talk.  I was expecting another pointless, frustrating conversation.  But I think he had called and talked with PC so he was much calmer and more accepting to the fact that he was my counterpart in this conversation.  He was also more accepting to the fact that I was there for agriculture and not for English classes.  He basically asked what I could feasibly do as a volunteer and how much money I could get because he said he needed to introduce me at the town meeting and wanted to make sure the community council got the right impression from the get go.  It was nice to know that he was on my side now.  When I got back from the meeting some ACDI/VOCA guys were hanging out on my front porch waiting to chat with me.  They basically just wanted to know how everything was going and to give me some materials.  That night Leonor asked me if I wanted to go listen to the ‘cult.’  She was referring to the Evangelical church.  She said that the priest talked about a lot of world issues and not just religion and that they liked to go just to listen.  So we went down to the church, got there a little late, got singled out and asked where I was from.  The priest then gave me a copy of the New Testament, and then proceeded to give a sermon and said Amen after every other sentence, and people did the whole reach out/hands up gig.  It was definitely a pretty radical service.  On the walk home a large feed truck came barreling down the road and knocked down some electrical wires right in front of us.  There were lots of sparks but everybody was fine. 

On Tuesday afternoon, Angie and Lizbeth came into my room asking if I wanted to go to the pool.  There was still time before the town meeting so I agreed and went with them.  Most people here swim in shorts and a t-shirt so I did this but then my family realized I had a bathing suit on underneath so they forced me to strip down so that not only was I the only one in a bathing suit at the pool but I also was the only pale, pasty white one.  After swimming for a while I turn to Leonor and tell her I have to leave for the meeting.  At this point everybody looks at each other with the look of ‘oh no, she remembered.’  I ask why they don’t want me to go and they just keep telling me it’s not a big deal and that I don’t need to go.  Well I insist that I should go because I told the Pres and my counterpart that I was going.  So then my family turns it around saying, ‘Oh ok so you DO want to go.’  I am so confused but keep insisting and finally Leonor gives in.  At the meeting there were two municipal government guys, one for trash pick-up and one for a farm census dealing with taxes.  Currently the town has no trash pick-up everybody either burns their trash or just throws it where ever they please.  Someone in the town took the initiative to call up the municipality and say hey, bring us some trash cans and drive a truck through our town every week to pick up our trash.  So that’s promising.  After the two government guys gave their talks, the Pres and my counterpart introduced me.  Bolivar then proceeded to talk about all the large money projects he wanted to accomplish and we came up with an initial work plan, and that was pretty much the meeting.  Afterwards, Jefferson pulls me aside introduces me to another man, Manuel (my co-counterpart), and says that we need to re-do the work plan and write down feasible projects.  After we do this he tells me that I have to hide it and can’t show my family.  I’m confused and ask why and he says that Leonor and Bolivar are in cahoots with each other and if she sees it she’ll tell Bolivar.  This makes no sense to me as she has been complaining about him all week and she didn’t want me to come to the meeting.  Jefferson then went on to say that I need to remain neutral, but that I need to call him before I accept any invitation anywhere (e.g. lunch with the Pres).  I’m not sure how I’m supposed to remain neutral when I have to ok everything through him?  And apparently now I can’t tell my host-family anything?  Within a couple of days at site I’m already wrapped up in small town drama.  The next two years will be interesting.

The next morning I awoke to a breakfast of fried shrimp at 6:30 am, I got on a bus in Bucay, drove through Riobamba, and back to Quito.  A group of us met up that afternoon and exchanged all of our crazy stories/experiences; quite entertaining.   The next day we had to present our site and work plan to the PC trainers; it was cool to hear about everybody’s site and what they’ll be doing.  Since being back we’ve had more classes, celebrated some birthdays, made some compost (12 people piled in the back of a pickup truck full of organic waste from the Sunday market), and enjoyed the fresh vegetables that my Tumbaco family actually cooks with.  

Random Thoughts:

·        I ate rice or some type of fried starch at every meal during my site visit.  I told Sylvia this and she told me that I’m going to get really fat.  She also said that she’ll only give me vegetables for the rest of my time in Tumbaco so I can lose weight before I gain it back.

·        Sylvia bleaches my socks because she thinks they need to be super white.  The only problem is that half my socks were grey, but apparently she didn’t notice.  So she shows me my now white socks with grey stains and is really perplexed about why the ‘stains’ won’t come out.  I tried to explain to her that the socks were originally grey but she just wouldn’t believe me, so I gave up and just acted perplexed about the stains as well.

·        Most of my family in Buenos Aires doesn’t like to eat vegetables.  I tried to convince them that they need to and that they’re healthy for you.  Angie’s response was, well I’m skinny already so it doesn’t matter.  I tried to explain that one day all the fried dough, cheese, and rice was going to catch up with her, but I think it just got lost in translation.

·        I really enjoy the fact that I can walk around in my town and just pick tangerines, bananas, zapote, papaya, or other fruit to eat.

·        One night Angie points up to a group of lights in the Andes and says, ‘I’ve never been there but I know that people live up there because I can see the lights.’  It was one of those cool moments that give you Goosebumps.

·        I basically have to hitch-hike my way into town.  Any car that comes down the street will stop and let people get in the backseat or into the bed of the pickup truck and take them to town for 50¢.  To get back to BA I have to wait on a corner in Cumandá until a car someone recognizes drives along…I sat for a little over an hour one day waiting.

·        Everyone walks around with machetes.

·        People don’t wear all that much clothing here.  Most of the time Pepito walks around barefoot in just jeans.  The lady who owns the store across the street will sell goods in her towel.  A neighbor walked outside one day in his whitie-tighties and a soccer jersey to buy shrimp from the motorcycle man.  Leonor ‘gardens’ in her skimpy nightgown with no bra.

·        We have mice in the house, which means mice poop in the shower regularly.  Also, my family just stomps them to death to deal with the problem.

·        I was instructed to only walk in the middle of the street at night because the snakes will come out of the brush and bite my ankles.