Wednesday, November 21, 2007
1:ya viene la ola / 2:dons of the barrio
Part 1
dear family and friends,
in the future, when warning neighbors about possible tsunamis, take this advice:
1) do not throw open large metal gates apocalypse style- BOOM!
2) do not yell, "¡ya viene la ola!" (the wave is coming!) while waving arms frantically in the air.
these 2 actions put together, at 5am, send people into panic. also take note that at 5am, after being awaken rudely by someone banging on the door, it is quite difficult to process different languages. if you do not speak clearly, a foreigner might only hear, "¡blah blah blah tsunami, vamos Sarita!". finally, when said foreigner manages to mumble "huh?", do not point out the window to the hundreds of people running barefoot up the street carrying their babies and old people as proof.
yes, these are things NOT to do amid rumors of a tsunami. if you find yourself in this situation, look around to see if there are any officials in the streets directing the people- firefighters, police, marines, etc. if not, then you are probably a Peace Corps volunteer in a third world country on the coast and you have no idea what the hell is going on or why the stupidest things keep happening to you.
Part 2
all these people keep asking me when i´m coming back, so i can visit family, visit san antonio. and the people here ask me when i´m going home for christmas, for new year´s. i´m like, do you not listen to anything i say? i´m in ECUADOR; i am poooor, loan me $800 and i will fly 2000 miles home. love you, miss you! p.s. not all gringos are rich, thanks
last night i talked to my dueña, she said the sub is still mine. my boss comes tues!!! if my boss doesn´t approve it then i´m going to show her the one behind the sergeant´s store. it has really high ceilings and a nice courtyard. plus, it would be extra safe and extra cool to live with the sergeant and his wife.
they are like the dons of the barrio. you don´t mess with the sergeant and you don´t make fun of his fluffy little dog. the sergeant demands respect. even the sergeant´s 1 yr old grandson knows how to cobrar.
doña clarita is the little don of the barrio. she seems all nice and sweet, but she´ll sell you pintones without blinking twice. pintones are the verde that are on the verge of ripening, then they are maduros. fernanda bought $.25 of verde and the next morning it was all yellow. sometimes, if you´re not paying attention, doña clarita will "forget" to give you the cheese you just paid for.
yesterday we made friends with the ice cream lady, doña ella. she´s real brava, she has to be. her ice cream store is the biggest in esmeraldas, she´s right on the main street. people hustle outside, sell bootleg dvds, and the crazy people pass twice every hour. she sat at our table and said "don´t worry i don´t speak any english". jessi was having man problems and so doña ella helped out. she said that you cannot go after any "cualquier hombre". "no puedes andar con unos cualquieres" (you can´t hang around with riff-raff). it is my new second favorite esmeraldas saying. it replaces "diga" and comes second to "¡vé!".
diga is used as an affirmation.
ex. "ya le dije eso, ¿diga Fernanda? pero ella no me hizo caso"
"i told her that, didn´t i Fernanda? but she didn´t listen"
"hizo mucho calor ayer, diga" "it was hot yesterday, wasn´t it"
¡vé! is the best ever expression in the history of the world.
it has multiple uses. it is pronounced "beh" very quickly
ex. a little kid drops his cup of water "¡vé!"
someone unexpectedly shows up "¡vé!"
efréns daughter describes how once she had to eat iguana and it still had the green skin "¡vé!"
when someone tells you something stupid "vé vé vé vé vé"
a taxi honks for no reason "¡vé!"
someone tells you "ya mismo" "¡vé!"
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
neighbor ladies
woot! sorry i haven´t updated in so long. it´s because i was actually out and about in this fantastic country and not in the internet cafe.
To start, we went on a fun family paseo with all of our scholarship kids. We packed 54 people and a dog (there´s always a dog) on a really tiny bus and sang reggaeton songs all the way to the river. The kids had a riot jumping off of things, playing soccer, and "learning to swim". Really they were walking on the bottom with their hands, but I tried. The moms all sat on the beach gossiping and making me eat. The kids wouldn´t come out of the water for lunch and so someone had to eat the food. It was so humbling to be there with them. They offered me everything that they had, which I know is not much at all. We had a wonderful time, and it was like nobody was poor for the day. We were just families and friends at the river, all half-naked and happy.
For Halloween I went to CUENCA!!! Cuenca is the most beautiful, lovely city in all of Ecuador. It was fiesta time too, so we got to see it all dressed up. There are huge churches, parks with GRASS, rivers, coffee shops, art markets, and all kinds of cheeses- gouda cheese, baked brie, mozzarella. Yes, I am desperate for the cheese section at Central Market. I miss going with Lauren to pick out a new cheese, some wine, and olives to eat while we watch "Moonstruck". Fernanda and Efrén say that there are lots of cheese here in Ecuador. There´s campo cheese, soft cheese, hard cheese, table cheese, cheese for soup, cream cheese. But really (besides the cream cheese) it´s all just campo cheese and they are torturing me!
The best part of being in Cuenca was seeing Día de los muertos! We went to the cemetery at midnight. There were people everywhere with flowers, candles, and singing. The cemetery was enormous, like a small city. The real riot was out on the street though with all the vendors. It´s solemn on the inside, and a party in the street with all kinds of food and drink. It´s a 2 day festival so I got to see it here in Ese too. We got a beer at 11am and went to visit Fernanda´s sister´s grave. The street kids were all painting graves to make a buck and the food vendors were out in full force. We ate dead bread and colada morada, a special fruit drink only for Day of the Dead. It was fantastic to see it here in Latin America. It is my favorite holiday by far.
Enough with that though, now we get to the exciting stuff. The same weekend as Day of the Dead (because of course it would be the best weekend ever) I found this great apartment. We´re calling it "the sub", because it´s like a little bubble over all the madness of the city. It´s got windows on all sides and is on the very, very top of an apartment building down the street from where I´m living now. You can even see where the river hits the ocean.
Well, there are these little old women across the street that sit outside all the time. 3 little old afro-ecuadorian gorditas that sit in a semi-circle on their porch and stare at everybody passing by. I walk past them every single day at least twice. And every single day at least twice for the past two months I have said hello to them. They would not answer me!!! Every single day: "hola!", "buenas!", "buenos!", y nada. I even tried screaming it, in case they were just hard of hearing. No, they were just not answering me. Fernanda said they don´t answer her either so she just stopped. Damnit, I said to myself, if I have to saludar them for 2 years I´m going to do it until they answer me.
Finally, this past week, la viejita, the oldest one with white hair and glasses, finally started responding. "Hola niña," she says, and smiles. But the brava one and the really gordita one just kept staring at me. Then, yesterday, when I was walking with Jessi the most fantastic thing happened- they talked to me! We were across the street when I heard la brava yell,
"¡Oye! ¿Y usted va a arrendar esa casa o no?" (are you going to rent that house or not?)
"Si, ojalá." (yes, i hope)
To Jessi I said, "quick! let´s go over there, they´re actually talking to me!" grabbed her arm and ran across the street.
Only the brava one was talking to me, the little old one just kept smiling at me.
"¿y porque todavía no lo ha hecho?" (why haven´t you done it yet?)
"es que no puedo alquilarme hasta diciembre" (i can´t move until december)
"pero, ya pues, arriendalo ahora" (just rent it now)
"si, lo voy hacer" (yes, ok i will)
"¿y es allá, tan arriba?" (and it´s the one way up there? she points)
"si"
"¿y porque no eso de abajo?" (why dont´you rent this one downstairs?)
"porque es demasiado caro, no puedo" (it´s too expensive, I can´t)
"¿cuanto cuesta?" (how much?)
"$150"
"¿y lo de arriba?" (and the one on top?)
"$120"
"a, ya. ¿y de donde es?" (and where are you from?)
"estados unidos"
"¿que haces aquí?" (what are you doing here?)
"soy voluntaria" (i´m a volunteer)
"¿y porque estás aquí?" (and why are you here?)
"em..." ([i didn´t understand if this was a different question or not])
"¿te gusta aquí?" (do you like it here?)
"si, me encanta esmeraldas" (yes, i love esmeraldas!)
"¿y vas a arrendar alla arriba?" (and you´re going to rent up there?)
"si, vamos a ser vecinas" (yes, we´re going to be neighbors [big smile])
She looked at me for a little while...and then she laughed! She laughed, and said "yes, yes we are going to be neighbors"! Oh, and her smile made my world. She´s missing a front tooth.
La viejita told me that I should pass by more often then and talk.
Don´t worry, I thought, twice a day every day.
To start, we went on a fun family paseo with all of our scholarship kids. We packed 54 people and a dog (there´s always a dog) on a really tiny bus and sang reggaeton songs all the way to the river. The kids had a riot jumping off of things, playing soccer, and "learning to swim". Really they were walking on the bottom with their hands, but I tried. The moms all sat on the beach gossiping and making me eat. The kids wouldn´t come out of the water for lunch and so someone had to eat the food. It was so humbling to be there with them. They offered me everything that they had, which I know is not much at all. We had a wonderful time, and it was like nobody was poor for the day. We were just families and friends at the river, all half-naked and happy.
For Halloween I went to CUENCA!!! Cuenca is the most beautiful, lovely city in all of Ecuador. It was fiesta time too, so we got to see it all dressed up. There are huge churches, parks with GRASS, rivers, coffee shops, art markets, and all kinds of cheeses- gouda cheese, baked brie, mozzarella. Yes, I am desperate for the cheese section at Central Market. I miss going with Lauren to pick out a new cheese, some wine, and olives to eat while we watch "Moonstruck". Fernanda and Efrén say that there are lots of cheese here in Ecuador. There´s campo cheese, soft cheese, hard cheese, table cheese, cheese for soup, cream cheese. But really (besides the cream cheese) it´s all just campo cheese and they are torturing me!
The best part of being in Cuenca was seeing Día de los muertos! We went to the cemetery at midnight. There were people everywhere with flowers, candles, and singing. The cemetery was enormous, like a small city. The real riot was out on the street though with all the vendors. It´s solemn on the inside, and a party in the street with all kinds of food and drink. It´s a 2 day festival so I got to see it here in Ese too. We got a beer at 11am and went to visit Fernanda´s sister´s grave. The street kids were all painting graves to make a buck and the food vendors were out in full force. We ate dead bread and colada morada, a special fruit drink only for Day of the Dead. It was fantastic to see it here in Latin America. It is my favorite holiday by far.
Enough with that though, now we get to the exciting stuff. The same weekend as Day of the Dead (because of course it would be the best weekend ever) I found this great apartment. We´re calling it "the sub", because it´s like a little bubble over all the madness of the city. It´s got windows on all sides and is on the very, very top of an apartment building down the street from where I´m living now. You can even see where the river hits the ocean.
Well, there are these little old women across the street that sit outside all the time. 3 little old afro-ecuadorian gorditas that sit in a semi-circle on their porch and stare at everybody passing by. I walk past them every single day at least twice. And every single day at least twice for the past two months I have said hello to them. They would not answer me!!! Every single day: "hola!", "buenas!", "buenos!", y nada. I even tried screaming it, in case they were just hard of hearing. No, they were just not answering me. Fernanda said they don´t answer her either so she just stopped. Damnit, I said to myself, if I have to saludar them for 2 years I´m going to do it until they answer me.
Finally, this past week, la viejita, the oldest one with white hair and glasses, finally started responding. "Hola niña," she says, and smiles. But the brava one and the really gordita one just kept staring at me. Then, yesterday, when I was walking with Jessi the most fantastic thing happened- they talked to me! We were across the street when I heard la brava yell,
"¡Oye! ¿Y usted va a arrendar esa casa o no?" (are you going to rent that house or not?)
"Si, ojalá." (yes, i hope)
To Jessi I said, "quick! let´s go over there, they´re actually talking to me!" grabbed her arm and ran across the street.
Only the brava one was talking to me, the little old one just kept smiling at me.
"¿y porque todavía no lo ha hecho?" (why haven´t you done it yet?)
"es que no puedo alquilarme hasta diciembre" (i can´t move until december)
"pero, ya pues, arriendalo ahora" (just rent it now)
"si, lo voy hacer" (yes, ok i will)
"¿y es allá, tan arriba?" (and it´s the one way up there? she points)
"si"
"¿y porque no eso de abajo?" (why dont´you rent this one downstairs?)
"porque es demasiado caro, no puedo" (it´s too expensive, I can´t)
"¿cuanto cuesta?" (how much?)
"$150"
"¿y lo de arriba?" (and the one on top?)
"$120"
"a, ya. ¿y de donde es?" (and where are you from?)
"estados unidos"
"¿que haces aquí?" (what are you doing here?)
"soy voluntaria" (i´m a volunteer)
"¿y porque estás aquí?" (and why are you here?)
"em..." ([i didn´t understand if this was a different question or not])
"¿te gusta aquí?" (do you like it here?)
"si, me encanta esmeraldas" (yes, i love esmeraldas!)
"¿y vas a arrendar alla arriba?" (and you´re going to rent up there?)
"si, vamos a ser vecinas" (yes, we´re going to be neighbors [big smile])
She looked at me for a little while...and then she laughed! She laughed, and said "yes, yes we are going to be neighbors"! Oh, and her smile made my world. She´s missing a front tooth.
La viejita told me that I should pass by more often then and talk.
Don´t worry, I thought, twice a day every day.
Friday, October 12, 2007
finally in the peace corps
howdy howdy howdy! I´m sitting in the internet cafe with my hair braided, a cheap purse, and a fluffy skirt. Finally, I am blending into Ecuador.
This weekend we went to the river with Efrén´s cousin Roxeanne and her family. We piled 15 people into quite a small little truck- plus one dog and lots of food- and headed to the campo. It is beautiful country here in Esmeraldas: rolling hills covered in beautiful tropical vegatation. We arrived at the finca, parked the car, and then hiked an hour to the house. I immediately searched out the river...which was but a trickling stream with some plain ducks in it. Damnit! Get back to the house and am told to be careful because there are deer ticks here. Right, why would I want to put on repellant BEFORE hiking an hour into the jungle?
The women wasted no time and started cooking. How they managed to make a fire so quickly, or fit so much into that pot, amazed me. Efrén got the ganas to be a jungle man and so we marched into the jungle following what I think was his uncle. He was quite authentic, decked out in rubber boots and wielding a machete. When we arrived we found him lounging in the hammock in the front room. About half way I realized that I did not want a coconut so badly (more I value my life), and so I turned back. The bathroom was a shack on stilts, with a little hole, hovering over...well, I can´t describe it, but it was moving. Then I went to marvel at the women who proceeded to make me eat everything that they felt I should try while in Ecuador. "Ladies, ladies, I´ve got two years", I thought, after finishing my second type of roasted banana and being handed a piece of carne asada. Here, try the food we´re cooking for lunch, eat this mango, drink this juice, taste this cheese, have you ever eaten cacao before?
Now, I must pause here because cacao is the most fantastic fruit that I have ever eaten in my life. Forget the chocolate that they make with the seeds, I want the fruit. It´s juicy, soft, and SOOOO sweet.
We ate lunch around a little table. The pot, it turns out, contained tapado with chancho, chicken, sausage, and verde. We also got plates of rice ("bring another one, this will never be enough!") and watered down coke. Thoroughly fattened with Ecuador goodness we went to lay in hammocks under the house. Everybody took turns jumping on the horse, we picked flowers, and played soccer. Mid-afternoon we took off for the real river, because everybody wanted to swim and get the ticks off of themselves. There were people bathing, washing clothes, swimming. There were cows running wild. It was fantastic. And somewhere in between the jungle trekking with a machete, palm leaf awning over the fire, hammocks under the house with the chickens, and sharing the river with cattle and laundry detergent, I realized...I´m in the PEACE CORPS...
...then I got sick the next day.
Work this week was a riot. Monday and Tuesday it wasn´t, Wednesday and Thursday I thought I was going to die. We walked all over the barrios talking to parents about taking the kids to the river in two weeks, having a Christmas party, starting a community bank, and letting the gringa (that´s me) teach their kids about sexuality and self-esteem. Then, we got the great idea to use the kids´drawings and make calendars to sell so we can have resources. How did this come about? I want the kids to be on time for tutoring from now on. Maybe if we give the kids stickers for being on time they´ll have incentive. When they earn so many stickers they can trade them in for school supplies (i.e. 10 stickers= a pen). INNFA doesn´t give money for that though. So now we´re making calendars to sell so that we can buy school supplies and stickers so that the kids will be on time. Honestly, I doubt it will work. I mean the kids being on time. I´m sure we can make calendars, sell them, and buy school supplies. The monsters have their own will.
The best part of the week was when we sat in the house for an hour gossiping with Gaby´s mom. I was holding a baby and swatting bugs from my face, the sweat dripping down my back, when again I realized...I´m in the PEACE CORPS.
It´s so ridiculously fantastic.
p.s. if you so desire to send me stickers in the mail, I will love receiving them. just think, my kids get stickers and I get mail- two birds with one stone. help a Peace Corps Volunteer out...
p.p.s. the internet is sucking, i´ll put up photos later
This weekend we went to the river with Efrén´s cousin Roxeanne and her family. We piled 15 people into quite a small little truck- plus one dog and lots of food- and headed to the campo. It is beautiful country here in Esmeraldas: rolling hills covered in beautiful tropical vegatation. We arrived at the finca, parked the car, and then hiked an hour to the house. I immediately searched out the river...which was but a trickling stream with some plain ducks in it. Damnit! Get back to the house and am told to be careful because there are deer ticks here. Right, why would I want to put on repellant BEFORE hiking an hour into the jungle?
The women wasted no time and started cooking. How they managed to make a fire so quickly, or fit so much into that pot, amazed me. Efrén got the ganas to be a jungle man and so we marched into the jungle following what I think was his uncle. He was quite authentic, decked out in rubber boots and wielding a machete. When we arrived we found him lounging in the hammock in the front room. About half way I realized that I did not want a coconut so badly (more I value my life), and so I turned back. The bathroom was a shack on stilts, with a little hole, hovering over...well, I can´t describe it, but it was moving. Then I went to marvel at the women who proceeded to make me eat everything that they felt I should try while in Ecuador. "Ladies, ladies, I´ve got two years", I thought, after finishing my second type of roasted banana and being handed a piece of carne asada. Here, try the food we´re cooking for lunch, eat this mango, drink this juice, taste this cheese, have you ever eaten cacao before?
Now, I must pause here because cacao is the most fantastic fruit that I have ever eaten in my life. Forget the chocolate that they make with the seeds, I want the fruit. It´s juicy, soft, and SOOOO sweet.
We ate lunch around a little table. The pot, it turns out, contained tapado with chancho, chicken, sausage, and verde. We also got plates of rice ("bring another one, this will never be enough!") and watered down coke. Thoroughly fattened with Ecuador goodness we went to lay in hammocks under the house. Everybody took turns jumping on the horse, we picked flowers, and played soccer. Mid-afternoon we took off for the real river, because everybody wanted to swim and get the ticks off of themselves. There were people bathing, washing clothes, swimming. There were cows running wild. It was fantastic. And somewhere in between the jungle trekking with a machete, palm leaf awning over the fire, hammocks under the house with the chickens, and sharing the river with cattle and laundry detergent, I realized...I´m in the PEACE CORPS...
...then I got sick the next day.
Work this week was a riot. Monday and Tuesday it wasn´t, Wednesday and Thursday I thought I was going to die. We walked all over the barrios talking to parents about taking the kids to the river in two weeks, having a Christmas party, starting a community bank, and letting the gringa (that´s me) teach their kids about sexuality and self-esteem. Then, we got the great idea to use the kids´drawings and make calendars to sell so we can have resources. How did this come about? I want the kids to be on time for tutoring from now on. Maybe if we give the kids stickers for being on time they´ll have incentive. When they earn so many stickers they can trade them in for school supplies (i.e. 10 stickers= a pen). INNFA doesn´t give money for that though. So now we´re making calendars to sell so that we can buy school supplies and stickers so that the kids will be on time. Honestly, I doubt it will work. I mean the kids being on time. I´m sure we can make calendars, sell them, and buy school supplies. The monsters have their own will.
The best part of the week was when we sat in the house for an hour gossiping with Gaby´s mom. I was holding a baby and swatting bugs from my face, the sweat dripping down my back, when again I realized...I´m in the PEACE CORPS.
It´s so ridiculously fantastic.
p.s. if you so desire to send me stickers in the mail, I will love receiving them. just think, my kids get stickers and I get mail- two birds with one stone. help a Peace Corps Volunteer out...
p.p.s. the internet is sucking, i´ll put up photos later
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Is that your fanny pack or are you happy to see me?
Muahaha, shout out to all the Ecuas still rockin´ their fanny packs like it´s 1985!
Ese is going strong and I´m starting to make a little space for myself here. It´s only taken me a month, pfft! After my little fritz last week, I´ve changed my mentality to that of a Peace Corps volunteer, and now I am doing most excellently. Of course work is going to get cancelled, but unofficial work is even more fun! My Spanish has hit a plateau, so get that book out and start studying! Efrén is not going to stop bugging you about English until he learns it, so buy a book and lessons are at 5p sharp! (or after lunch if it´s better, 6?, how about at breakfast, you just let me know).
My counterpart is excited about ideas I´ve got and we´re finally going for them. We had a big meeting for the parents yesterday at 3p. 7 out of 59 parents showed up at 4 o´clock on the dot. We gossipped and discussed all the different kids, then finally got down to business. For Christmas, INNFA distributes gifts and candies, but do they want to have a party? And Sat, Oct. 20 we´re going to take the kids to the river. If you give them permission, we´ll get all the details. Ha! OMG, we had a whole meeting with no details or anything. It was just an interest poll. The only thing certain was that the volunteer from the states wants to teach your kids about sexuality and self esteem, would a group on Saturdays be OK? Everyone nodded their heads warily. At least Maria Jose´s mom was excited.
We visited schools last week and there is tons of opportunity everywhere. It´s too much really, and there´s no time! Well, there is time, it´s just not utilized properly and I´ve yet to grasp how to do it here. At Maria Jose´s school they sell the grossest snack foods to the kids. Empanadas, chifles w/ cheese, ice cream, chips, even corviche!!! (Corviche is this amazingly delicious fried concoction. It´s masa made with verde (unripened plantain) and filled with tuna and peanut sauce. But I´m talking DEEP FRIED, and only for very special occasions. NOT something you give to kids every day!) Just think, parents give their kids $.25 a day to eat junk food. In a week that would be $1.25! A month, $5.00! 5% of their monthly income goes to crap that does nothing for their already malnourished kids. Ah! At the same time, if you could convince schools to not let the vendors in, to have healthy snack bars, or for the parents to send their kids with snacks from home, you´d put so many people out of work! One of our moms sells ice cream at a school, another sells obos on the street. Vicious, vicious cycle you are poverty.
At another school, the kids throw their trash everywhere...except for the garbage cans that are abundant on the campus? When we went at recess there was not a teacher in sight. The kids were all ganged up, some playing little made up games, others trying to start fights, others already recovering from fights. It´s a school that takes kids from one of the rougher areas of town. The bell rang and all the teachers came in from outside, like they had gone to take their own recess! Shit, even the teachers do not want to be with these kids!
It´s all so overwhelming, which sent me into the opposite direction of depression. At first there was no work, now I realize there is just so much work and I´m only one little very underqualified person. Head up! We are not here to change the world. We are here so that Maria Jose´s little sister will come to after school tutoring just because she thinks it´s fun. We´re here so that Gilson, out of nowhere, will actually sit down and read a whole paragraph on a day when we were supposed to cancel class! We are here to answer the million, billion questions that people have about the U.S. We are here with the priviledge of sharing languages. We´re here to ride dirty public buses, eat great food, meet wonderful peoples, and go dancing! It´s all so exciting.
(I say "we" because I´m really depending on you my family and friends. So consider yourselves here with me.)
Social life has been picking up and so I feel connected here too, finally. Things with Efrén and Fernanda are pretty wonderful. We´ve had some really rough spots, but things have been worked out. We all understand each other´s limits and needs. Fernanda has been letting me in the kitchen lately, and that just makes me feel so normal. I made tuna Grandma Ann style the other day and shocked them. Tuna with mayo, apples, and hardboiled egg? Then yesterday I made like 2 lbs of hummus! (I just got so excited!) Nobody understood what I was doing, or how it was going to turn out edible. We made veggie chicken hummus wraps and they gobbled it all up. I´ve never seen Efrén eat so many raw veggies before, maybe he hasn´t. We had some tortillas still left over, so I made ghetto buñuelos. They gobbled those too. I sent tupperwares of hummus to some other volunteers. The kitchen makes me happy.
The gym makes me happy too. Rachel, another PCV, goes too and is teaching me some bikhram yoga techniques. It really is like a sauna in that gym, it´s so hot and humid here. The instructor and his big friend are pretty cute, they make it fun. We went out last night for the first time. Jessi, Rachel, me, and Reggaeton boy with his cousin and friends. Turns out the gym instructors are also bouncers at club Climax! ...so we got in for free. We danced the night away- salsa, reggaeton, trance, hip-hop. My boss, Nelson, was actually there celebrating his 15yrs with INNFA. He was still in his suit and tie from the ceremony we went to that morning! A really cute guy asked me to dance. I said yes because after the first time I said no he looked at me with this pleading face and held out his hand so nicely. Most guys wouldn´t have even asked, they would have just grabbed. Turns out he´s an Ecuadorian marine from Guayaquil, stationed in Ese until next week and they had their first free night out in months. We tried to dance bachata, but neither of us knew how! That´s when I knew he was a nice guy. Who asks someone to dance and doesn´t really know how? Pfft! He said he thought I was from Quito, and so he assumed that I would know how to dance. I´ve been getting that a lot lately: people think I´m from the sierra on vacation, then the states on vacation..."oh, you´re living here and you´re mexican?" That´s how we usually end up.
But yesterday, Peter, FANNY PACK GUY! actually said, " you´re mexican? you are chicana! raza man!" And even though he was babbling nonsense and drunk off his a*, I got so excited that someone recognized chicanismo here. I held up my fist and said "raza!" in the middle of the street.
The people next to me in the internet cafe are making out. So I´m going to end here folks.
Happy happy happy, no worries, God is good. Love!
p.s. to my best friend lauren in senegal (because I recognize that Africa is NOT one country), I explained to Jessi how it´s more fun to make up names for people secretly, and she has agreed! Hence, reggaeton boy (Jair), fanny pack guy (Peter)...I miss you!
Ese is going strong and I´m starting to make a little space for myself here. It´s only taken me a month, pfft! After my little fritz last week, I´ve changed my mentality to that of a Peace Corps volunteer, and now I am doing most excellently. Of course work is going to get cancelled, but unofficial work is even more fun! My Spanish has hit a plateau, so get that book out and start studying! Efrén is not going to stop bugging you about English until he learns it, so buy a book and lessons are at 5p sharp! (or after lunch if it´s better, 6?, how about at breakfast, you just let me know).
My counterpart is excited about ideas I´ve got and we´re finally going for them. We had a big meeting for the parents yesterday at 3p. 7 out of 59 parents showed up at 4 o´clock on the dot. We gossipped and discussed all the different kids, then finally got down to business. For Christmas, INNFA distributes gifts and candies, but do they want to have a party? And Sat, Oct. 20 we´re going to take the kids to the river. If you give them permission, we´ll get all the details. Ha! OMG, we had a whole meeting with no details or anything. It was just an interest poll. The only thing certain was that the volunteer from the states wants to teach your kids about sexuality and self esteem, would a group on Saturdays be OK? Everyone nodded their heads warily. At least Maria Jose´s mom was excited.
We visited schools last week and there is tons of opportunity everywhere. It´s too much really, and there´s no time! Well, there is time, it´s just not utilized properly and I´ve yet to grasp how to do it here. At Maria Jose´s school they sell the grossest snack foods to the kids. Empanadas, chifles w/ cheese, ice cream, chips, even corviche!!! (Corviche is this amazingly delicious fried concoction. It´s masa made with verde (unripened plantain) and filled with tuna and peanut sauce. But I´m talking DEEP FRIED, and only for very special occasions. NOT something you give to kids every day!) Just think, parents give their kids $.25 a day to eat junk food. In a week that would be $1.25! A month, $5.00! 5% of their monthly income goes to crap that does nothing for their already malnourished kids. Ah! At the same time, if you could convince schools to not let the vendors in, to have healthy snack bars, or for the parents to send their kids with snacks from home, you´d put so many people out of work! One of our moms sells ice cream at a school, another sells obos on the street. Vicious, vicious cycle you are poverty.
At another school, the kids throw their trash everywhere...except for the garbage cans that are abundant on the campus? When we went at recess there was not a teacher in sight. The kids were all ganged up, some playing little made up games, others trying to start fights, others already recovering from fights. It´s a school that takes kids from one of the rougher areas of town. The bell rang and all the teachers came in from outside, like they had gone to take their own recess! Shit, even the teachers do not want to be with these kids!
It´s all so overwhelming, which sent me into the opposite direction of depression. At first there was no work, now I realize there is just so much work and I´m only one little very underqualified person. Head up! We are not here to change the world. We are here so that Maria Jose´s little sister will come to after school tutoring just because she thinks it´s fun. We´re here so that Gilson, out of nowhere, will actually sit down and read a whole paragraph on a day when we were supposed to cancel class! We are here to answer the million, billion questions that people have about the U.S. We are here with the priviledge of sharing languages. We´re here to ride dirty public buses, eat great food, meet wonderful peoples, and go dancing! It´s all so exciting.
(I say "we" because I´m really depending on you my family and friends. So consider yourselves here with me.)
Social life has been picking up and so I feel connected here too, finally. Things with Efrén and Fernanda are pretty wonderful. We´ve had some really rough spots, but things have been worked out. We all understand each other´s limits and needs. Fernanda has been letting me in the kitchen lately, and that just makes me feel so normal. I made tuna Grandma Ann style the other day and shocked them. Tuna with mayo, apples, and hardboiled egg? Then yesterday I made like 2 lbs of hummus! (I just got so excited!) Nobody understood what I was doing, or how it was going to turn out edible. We made veggie chicken hummus wraps and they gobbled it all up. I´ve never seen Efrén eat so many raw veggies before, maybe he hasn´t. We had some tortillas still left over, so I made ghetto buñuelos. They gobbled those too. I sent tupperwares of hummus to some other volunteers. The kitchen makes me happy.
The gym makes me happy too. Rachel, another PCV, goes too and is teaching me some bikhram yoga techniques. It really is like a sauna in that gym, it´s so hot and humid here. The instructor and his big friend are pretty cute, they make it fun. We went out last night for the first time. Jessi, Rachel, me, and Reggaeton boy with his cousin and friends. Turns out the gym instructors are also bouncers at club Climax! ...so we got in for free. We danced the night away- salsa, reggaeton, trance, hip-hop. My boss, Nelson, was actually there celebrating his 15yrs with INNFA. He was still in his suit and tie from the ceremony we went to that morning! A really cute guy asked me to dance. I said yes because after the first time I said no he looked at me with this pleading face and held out his hand so nicely. Most guys wouldn´t have even asked, they would have just grabbed. Turns out he´s an Ecuadorian marine from Guayaquil, stationed in Ese until next week and they had their first free night out in months. We tried to dance bachata, but neither of us knew how! That´s when I knew he was a nice guy. Who asks someone to dance and doesn´t really know how? Pfft! He said he thought I was from Quito, and so he assumed that I would know how to dance. I´ve been getting that a lot lately: people think I´m from the sierra on vacation, then the states on vacation..."oh, you´re living here and you´re mexican?" That´s how we usually end up.
But yesterday, Peter, FANNY PACK GUY! actually said, " you´re mexican? you are chicana! raza man!" And even though he was babbling nonsense and drunk off his a*, I got so excited that someone recognized chicanismo here. I held up my fist and said "raza!" in the middle of the street.
The people next to me in the internet cafe are making out. So I´m going to end here folks.
Happy happy happy, no worries, God is good. Love!
p.s. to my best friend lauren in senegal (because I recognize that Africa is NOT one country), I explained to Jessi how it´s more fun to make up names for people secretly, and she has agreed! Hence, reggaeton boy (Jair), fanny pack guy (Peter)...I miss you!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
"la chica come grande"/ Romans 5:3-5
Recently, I met up with my familia to eat encebollado in the park. As we sat down the woman began to joke with Carlos. Amidst the discussion she noticed that I too had showed up and yelled merrily to her husband, "la chica come grande". "No, no!" I tried to interject. "I want a small today, I just came from the gym." Too late.
Part of me was excellently happy that the encebollado lady in the park knows who I am. The other part of me wishes that I weren´t reknowned at a food establishment.
Such is my life as of late.
During tutoring the other day, Iscara reached out and grabbed my stomach. She said, "la señorita tiene guatita!" What upset me more: that she said I had a pansa and reached out to grab it, or that I have so much pansa really was able to grab it? You decide.
Either way, I´ve discovered the gym down the street and am loving it! The aerobics class is pretty fun. It´s not really intense, but I enjoy listening to trance music for an hour and hopping around following the instructions of possibly the most attractive man in Ecuador.
Fernanda has joined my support group and is now allowing me to serve myself at meals. Instead of 3 heaping spoons of rice, I get a spoon and a half, one piece of meat, a lot of salad, thank you very much.
Yesterday I taught her how to make cereal...yes, cereal. "How much do I put?" "a cup" "and then what?" "you put milk" "how much" "depends on how much you want, i´d put half a cup" "and?" "well, you could put fruit, I like raisins and bananas, here use some of my raisins" "how many do I put?" (as she begins to pick them out one by one and count) "just put a handful" "how about 6? just so he can try it"
Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that the cereal was not for herself, but for Efrén. He´s got high cholesterol and it´s making him dizzy (???). He´s been drinking disgusting mixtures of cucumber and garlic, oatmeal and lime, and now he´s eating cereal. Whatever makes you feel better I guess.
I´m not fond of writing when I´m down because I can notice it in my tone. So I´m sure that you all notice it too. Really it´s only been the past week and a half. I could tell you a million stories about all the bad things, but what good would that do? Part of me feels bad for having a rough spot, much more for admitting it. But another part of me feels human. Would it be normal to go live in a 3rd world country for 2 yrs with the intent of living "poor" while striving to serve others that live in dire poverty and not get bummed out at first? I´ve had a few good crys, and talked to my parents, boss, aunt, ha! everybody.
Don´t worry about me though, I´ve got hope. I have a better understanding of why I feel the way I do, and how I can cope with it. Those of you who really know me though know that even when I´m down, down, down, I´m still a positive and happy person. Good thing God blessed me with eternal optimism.
I just can´t not be excited. :)
Plus, I think about Romans 5:3-5. Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not dissapoint!
The good? Well, there´s lots of that too:
I bought a kitchen table for the house I don´t have yet. There was a sale at Tía, the Target of Ecuador, on a little table and 4 chairs. It´s really cute and pretty large, plus it fit right into my Peace Corps budget. I´m excited to have my own place. I´ve never lived solo before- but, oh, I am so ready. Just the thought of waking up in the morning and doing what I want, when I want, without having to worry about anybody else or their habits...it makes me so happy. Plus, the thought of having people over at my house makes me excited. Especially if my new and wonderful Peace Corps friends come to visit me.
That is something worth writing about, the lovely people here with me. Theresa, Allison, Alli, Kentucky, Jessi, Cynthia, Kat, Damon, etc.- I could name you at least 30 people. They are wonderful and beautiful. They remind me of why I´m here: because we believe in something common. I believe that maybe by my being here I can influence one person, one change. Or, even better, I can let one person affect me. Something good, something great will come out of this experience and so that makes it worth sticking it out. Worst comes to worst, I´ll be fluent in Spanish, finally, ha!
Got lots of mail this week. My family loves me. :)
Hopefully, reading JFK´s "Profiles in Courage" will help inspire me. My mommy mailed me a pretty pink skirt that I´m wearing today with a green tank top. It´s a law: you can´t wear pink and green and not be happy.
Promise next time I´ll have more animo for writing.
Love!
Part of me was excellently happy that the encebollado lady in the park knows who I am. The other part of me wishes that I weren´t reknowned at a food establishment.
Such is my life as of late.
During tutoring the other day, Iscara reached out and grabbed my stomach. She said, "la señorita tiene guatita!" What upset me more: that she said I had a pansa and reached out to grab it, or that I have so much pansa really was able to grab it? You decide.
Either way, I´ve discovered the gym down the street and am loving it! The aerobics class is pretty fun. It´s not really intense, but I enjoy listening to trance music for an hour and hopping around following the instructions of possibly the most attractive man in Ecuador.
Fernanda has joined my support group and is now allowing me to serve myself at meals. Instead of 3 heaping spoons of rice, I get a spoon and a half, one piece of meat, a lot of salad, thank you very much.
Yesterday I taught her how to make cereal...yes, cereal. "How much do I put?" "a cup" "and then what?" "you put milk" "how much" "depends on how much you want, i´d put half a cup" "and?" "well, you could put fruit, I like raisins and bananas, here use some of my raisins" "how many do I put?" (as she begins to pick them out one by one and count) "just put a handful" "how about 6? just so he can try it"
Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that the cereal was not for herself, but for Efrén. He´s got high cholesterol and it´s making him dizzy (???). He´s been drinking disgusting mixtures of cucumber and garlic, oatmeal and lime, and now he´s eating cereal. Whatever makes you feel better I guess.
I´m not fond of writing when I´m down because I can notice it in my tone. So I´m sure that you all notice it too. Really it´s only been the past week and a half. I could tell you a million stories about all the bad things, but what good would that do? Part of me feels bad for having a rough spot, much more for admitting it. But another part of me feels human. Would it be normal to go live in a 3rd world country for 2 yrs with the intent of living "poor" while striving to serve others that live in dire poverty and not get bummed out at first? I´ve had a few good crys, and talked to my parents, boss, aunt, ha! everybody.
Don´t worry about me though, I´ve got hope. I have a better understanding of why I feel the way I do, and how I can cope with it. Those of you who really know me though know that even when I´m down, down, down, I´m still a positive and happy person. Good thing God blessed me with eternal optimism.
I just can´t not be excited. :)
Plus, I think about Romans 5:3-5. Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not dissapoint!
The good? Well, there´s lots of that too:
I bought a kitchen table for the house I don´t have yet. There was a sale at Tía, the Target of Ecuador, on a little table and 4 chairs. It´s really cute and pretty large, plus it fit right into my Peace Corps budget. I´m excited to have my own place. I´ve never lived solo before- but, oh, I am so ready. Just the thought of waking up in the morning and doing what I want, when I want, without having to worry about anybody else or their habits...it makes me so happy. Plus, the thought of having people over at my house makes me excited. Especially if my new and wonderful Peace Corps friends come to visit me.
That is something worth writing about, the lovely people here with me. Theresa, Allison, Alli, Kentucky, Jessi, Cynthia, Kat, Damon, etc.- I could name you at least 30 people. They are wonderful and beautiful. They remind me of why I´m here: because we believe in something common. I believe that maybe by my being here I can influence one person, one change. Or, even better, I can let one person affect me. Something good, something great will come out of this experience and so that makes it worth sticking it out. Worst comes to worst, I´ll be fluent in Spanish, finally, ha!
Got lots of mail this week. My family loves me. :)
Hopefully, reading JFK´s "Profiles in Courage" will help inspire me. My mommy mailed me a pretty pink skirt that I´m wearing today with a green tank top. It´s a law: you can´t wear pink and green and not be happy.
Promise next time I´ll have more animo for writing.
Love!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
earthquakes and chickens
Howdy howdy howdy!
Yes, it´s true. It is 1040am and I have free from work until 3pm- technically, it´s lunch time. So being the stress driven estadounidense that I am, I´m going to try to pack the next few hours with as much as possible so as not to feel completely worthless. After blogging, I´m going to head over to the museum, then maybe head to the park to buy a newspaper, which I can read before lunch, after which I will work on my portfolio until it´s time to go. Then at 4pm I´m going to meet up with Jesse and go to Plaza Civica to watch a marimba show, woot! Just trying to stay sane.
Things have been crazy the past few days, and I´m loving it! Sunday night we had a little bitty tremor. I was laying in bed listening to Lila Downs. "Entra copa y copa se acabó me vida, llorando borracha tu perfido amor!!!!!" My bed only shook two or three times. I got up to go to the door and Fernanda burst in with a towel on her head: "SARAH! come stand in the doorway!" "Ok, ok! Just let me put on some pants, first." Tremors are so rare here on the coast that they scare everybody. All the neighbors came out of their houses and the kids kept screaming, "¡temblor! ¡temblor!" Efrén told me that once Fernanda crawled under the table while he wasn´t looking. She started to shake the table and he freaked out. Ha! Just the thought of her one-upping him makes me content with life.
Yesterday morning I woke up to go running on the beach. It is so beautiful. The coast is lined by huge hills covered in flowing grass taller than I am. They plummet down onto the sandy beach strewn with ancient old tree logs. Sitting in my room staring at my map on the wall it hit me. ECUADOR. I LIVE IN ECUADOR. When I wake up in the mornings, I´m on a different continent, a fantastic continent. I can hop a very reliable public bus filled with astonishing characters and ride to the most beautiful beach, just because I feel like it. So I do.
Lately, in an ironic twist that only Mom could appreciate, I´ve been waking up at 445am to the little rooster across the street who can´t quite give us a rousing "cock-a-doodle-doo". He gives me more of a "gak-eh-ga-duh". It´s the most heart wrenching sound. He starts earlier than all of the other roosters, I think in an attempt to compensate for his speech impedement. Hopefully someone will eat him soon.
My kids are wonderful little monsters who I love more each day. Yesterday, my counterpart showed up an hour and a half late. It was me and them, one-on-one. There´s this one kid, Nasli, talk about a peleona! And Gabi is the definition of brava. We all sat around for a little, got gossiping/fighting out of our systems, made fun of the gringa a little (oh wait, that´s me...), and then played some fútbol.
Here is where I pause, because my parental units brought it to my attention that I never explained the title of my last blog. The significance of my dirty soccer ball is that I have put myself in a terribly uncomfortable situation in order to better integrate into my community. Instead of Sarah sitting around quietly and being scared of the kids around her- or, worse, sitting alone in her room- I am outside, running around giving myself over to the free will of these mini human beings that jabber in a language I don´t quite understand but seem to like me, so, hey, I´ll go with it.
After about 40 minutes, I realized that it was probably my responsibility to the U.S. tax payer to start a more productive activity with these kids. It was a reading day, so my fear of them not really respecting my authority took a backseat, because everybody knows I LOVE reading. And, by some miracle of God, they all got out their stuff and sat in little rows ready to go. Ok, ok, it was more like they were grouped around and we ended up using Nasli´s book (by use I mean tore out pages and handed them to everybody- well, fought over them until we got the one we wanted). Everybody took turns reading, and we even had a little show at the end by Iscara who stood in front of everyone and read a song. She was promptly booed off stage for not singing the song and replaced by Maria Jose. Really nobody could hear anything over Gabi´s rant, reminiscent more of a soccer game than an after-school tutoring session. Then they all wanted me to read. Yes, yes, let´s hear the gringa read, this should be an entertaining mess. When I finished, they all just stared at me. Reading with voices and exclamation, I think, is totally new to them. I asked them if they wanted to read more for fun, novelas instead of school assignments. They said yes. I asked them if maybe they wanted to read a play together. We could put on our own little theatre show. Only two of them even knew what theatre is; one had seen it, the other had heard of it. So that´s the plan. We´re going to read fun things and then act them out. I´m so excited again!!!
At one point in our little ruckus, Gabi started playing with my hair. Their jabbering didn´t stop, Maria Jose wouldn´t sit down, Miguel cracked the taxi´s window with the soccer ball- but Gabi´s little hands on my back, touching me for no reason, completely distracted me from it all. I could only think of how much I loved those kids right then and there. I love being here in Ecuador with them. I love living in their city that the tour books label a red zone and advise to stay away from. I love that there are these beautiful children hiding here, and I´ve been lucky enough to find them. Even if yesterday was the only good day we´ll have had, and even if Gabi was really just wiping something dirty on me, I could care less. Tomorrow could be shit all over again with them, but I will love it.
And so I remember why I came to Peace Corps in the first place...
because waking up to impotent chickens, running on beautiful beaches, living with adorable people, and working with kids who demand patience and understanding leaves me with a complete and utter happiness at the end of the day.
Mr. Chicken awaits the dawn.
Yes, it´s true. It is 1040am and I have free from work until 3pm- technically, it´s lunch time. So being the stress driven estadounidense that I am, I´m going to try to pack the next few hours with as much as possible so as not to feel completely worthless. After blogging, I´m going to head over to the museum, then maybe head to the park to buy a newspaper, which I can read before lunch, after which I will work on my portfolio until it´s time to go. Then at 4pm I´m going to meet up with Jesse and go to Plaza Civica to watch a marimba show, woot! Just trying to stay sane.
Things have been crazy the past few days, and I´m loving it! Sunday night we had a little bitty tremor. I was laying in bed listening to Lila Downs. "Entra copa y copa se acabó me vida, llorando borracha tu perfido amor!!!!!" My bed only shook two or three times. I got up to go to the door and Fernanda burst in with a towel on her head: "SARAH! come stand in the doorway!" "Ok, ok! Just let me put on some pants, first." Tremors are so rare here on the coast that they scare everybody. All the neighbors came out of their houses and the kids kept screaming, "¡temblor! ¡temblor!" Efrén told me that once Fernanda crawled under the table while he wasn´t looking. She started to shake the table and he freaked out. Ha! Just the thought of her one-upping him makes me content with life.
Yesterday morning I woke up to go running on the beach. It is so beautiful. The coast is lined by huge hills covered in flowing grass taller than I am. They plummet down onto the sandy beach strewn with ancient old tree logs. Sitting in my room staring at my map on the wall it hit me. ECUADOR. I LIVE IN ECUADOR. When I wake up in the mornings, I´m on a different continent, a fantastic continent. I can hop a very reliable public bus filled with astonishing characters and ride to the most beautiful beach, just because I feel like it. So I do.
Lately, in an ironic twist that only Mom could appreciate, I´ve been waking up at 445am to the little rooster across the street who can´t quite give us a rousing "cock-a-doodle-doo". He gives me more of a "gak-eh-ga-duh". It´s the most heart wrenching sound. He starts earlier than all of the other roosters, I think in an attempt to compensate for his speech impedement. Hopefully someone will eat him soon.
My kids are wonderful little monsters who I love more each day. Yesterday, my counterpart showed up an hour and a half late. It was me and them, one-on-one. There´s this one kid, Nasli, talk about a peleona! And Gabi is the definition of brava. We all sat around for a little, got gossiping/fighting out of our systems, made fun of the gringa a little (oh wait, that´s me...), and then played some fútbol.
Here is where I pause, because my parental units brought it to my attention that I never explained the title of my last blog. The significance of my dirty soccer ball is that I have put myself in a terribly uncomfortable situation in order to better integrate into my community. Instead of Sarah sitting around quietly and being scared of the kids around her- or, worse, sitting alone in her room- I am outside, running around giving myself over to the free will of these mini human beings that jabber in a language I don´t quite understand but seem to like me, so, hey, I´ll go with it.
After about 40 minutes, I realized that it was probably my responsibility to the U.S. tax payer to start a more productive activity with these kids. It was a reading day, so my fear of them not really respecting my authority took a backseat, because everybody knows I LOVE reading. And, by some miracle of God, they all got out their stuff and sat in little rows ready to go. Ok, ok, it was more like they were grouped around and we ended up using Nasli´s book (by use I mean tore out pages and handed them to everybody- well, fought over them until we got the one we wanted). Everybody took turns reading, and we even had a little show at the end by Iscara who stood in front of everyone and read a song. She was promptly booed off stage for not singing the song and replaced by Maria Jose. Really nobody could hear anything over Gabi´s rant, reminiscent more of a soccer game than an after-school tutoring session. Then they all wanted me to read. Yes, yes, let´s hear the gringa read, this should be an entertaining mess. When I finished, they all just stared at me. Reading with voices and exclamation, I think, is totally new to them. I asked them if they wanted to read more for fun, novelas instead of school assignments. They said yes. I asked them if maybe they wanted to read a play together. We could put on our own little theatre show. Only two of them even knew what theatre is; one had seen it, the other had heard of it. So that´s the plan. We´re going to read fun things and then act them out. I´m so excited again!!!
At one point in our little ruckus, Gabi started playing with my hair. Their jabbering didn´t stop, Maria Jose wouldn´t sit down, Miguel cracked the taxi´s window with the soccer ball- but Gabi´s little hands on my back, touching me for no reason, completely distracted me from it all. I could only think of how much I loved those kids right then and there. I love being here in Ecuador with them. I love living in their city that the tour books label a red zone and advise to stay away from. I love that there are these beautiful children hiding here, and I´ve been lucky enough to find them. Even if yesterday was the only good day we´ll have had, and even if Gabi was really just wiping something dirty on me, I could care less. Tomorrow could be shit all over again with them, but I will love it.
And so I remember why I came to Peace Corps in the first place...
because waking up to impotent chickens, running on beautiful beaches, living with adorable people, and working with kids who demand patience and understanding leaves me with a complete and utter happiness at the end of the day.
Mr. Chicken awaits the dawn.
Friday, September 7, 2007
I´ve got a parasite and a dirty soccer ball
Peace Corps is so AWESOME!!!
Well, here I am friends in lovely Esmeraldas, Ecuador. It´s everything I could have ever imagined. My group of kids is wild, I got a parasite on day 2, it just keeps getting hotter, and I still can´t make it back to my house in a direct route. Woot! I did, however, manage to find an internet cafe with A/C, muaha! It´s also pretty fantastic the quantity and quality of fruits that I am eating every day. Yesterday I had a banana, an apple, and a juicy juicy orange. People sit on street corners with these carts of brilliant fruits piled 20 high- apples, pears, oranges, starfruit, passionfruit, papayas, pineapples, watermelons, tree tomatoes, mandarins, etc.!
My host family is pretty great. Fernanda and I have been home alone all week (Efren is at a conference in Atacames). We watch "Dame chocolate", the best novela ever, and paint our fingernails pink. Sometimes the neighbor, Clarita, 11, comes over and eats dinner with us. It took some convincing, but Fernanda has finally accepted that I HAPPILY eat cereal with fruit EVERY morning and it doesn´t leave me hungry. We´ve agreed though that on weekends she can make me something bigger or we can go out for encebollado.
And it happened, just like I told Gumby- he´s getting a PhD and I´m getting my first parasites. Lucky Parasite #1 was Mr. "giardia". I would describe the symptoms, but y´all don´t want to hear about foamy yellow diarrhea. Nurse Kelly told me what to get at the pharmacy and the bugger is gone! Now, if I can just get my mosquito net up this weekend I can rest in peace. The neighbor´s salsa music and screaming child bother me not.
Work has been OK so far. My hours are 9ish-1200ish and then 300ish-500ish. Wed and Thurs we have afterschool tutoring with about 15 little monsters. They are all really behind on their reading levels and math too. Big goals right now are for Leidi to start reading her numbers and for the boys to actually start showing up for sessions. I would just like for them to stop throwing rocks at each others heads. Gira is terribly patient with them. It makes me cherish our schooling system in the states. Everything here is based on memorization; teacher dictates, students copy. Hopefully, with time, we can start doing fun things with our kiddos. Maybe get them to read a play, instead of boring texts. That would be fun. Either way, I can see now that work is going to be tough. When I get back maybe I´ll go into teaching but at a younger level that I had originally wanted to. I´d love to get kids when they´re this age and give them the chance to explore and create. Discovery as a teaching method is just fantastic.
My town rumbles and bumbles from dawn till dusk and all in between. There are just people everywhere! So far my favorite activities are riding the public bus and buying watermelon slices on the street. Yeah, I know, "watermelon slices on the street? no wonder you have parasites". Humbug! I also enjoy running across the Bon-Ice man in the park and getting 10cent icecream sticks from him. Yesterday, I went to mail a bunch of stuff and not one person could tell me where the post office was. They just don´t have an extensive postal system here. It´s because no one uses it really! I told Fernanda about how in the States, mail comes to your door every single day, rain, sun, snow, hurricane. She gasped. "And what about packages?" I told her they come too. If they´re small enough, they leave them on the porch, and if not, then they come back the next day. She sat there with her mouth agape. Whether it was the concept of no one stealing the package immediately or the postman charging himself with the responsibility of returning until delivery is complete...she just couldn´t believe it. And so I heart the U.S. of A. for delivering mail in a timely and so very professional and courteous manner.
p.s. If you want to send me maaail, then email me and I´ll send you my address. I think I specifically remember them telling us something about not putting our address on our blog.
´Till next time amigos.
Well, here I am friends in lovely Esmeraldas, Ecuador. It´s everything I could have ever imagined. My group of kids is wild, I got a parasite on day 2, it just keeps getting hotter, and I still can´t make it back to my house in a direct route. Woot! I did, however, manage to find an internet cafe with A/C, muaha! It´s also pretty fantastic the quantity and quality of fruits that I am eating every day. Yesterday I had a banana, an apple, and a juicy juicy orange. People sit on street corners with these carts of brilliant fruits piled 20 high- apples, pears, oranges, starfruit, passionfruit, papayas, pineapples, watermelons, tree tomatoes, mandarins, etc.!
My host family is pretty great. Fernanda and I have been home alone all week (Efren is at a conference in Atacames). We watch "Dame chocolate", the best novela ever, and paint our fingernails pink. Sometimes the neighbor, Clarita, 11, comes over and eats dinner with us. It took some convincing, but Fernanda has finally accepted that I HAPPILY eat cereal with fruit EVERY morning and it doesn´t leave me hungry. We´ve agreed though that on weekends she can make me something bigger or we can go out for encebollado.
And it happened, just like I told Gumby- he´s getting a PhD and I´m getting my first parasites. Lucky Parasite #1 was Mr. "giardia". I would describe the symptoms, but y´all don´t want to hear about foamy yellow diarrhea. Nurse Kelly told me what to get at the pharmacy and the bugger is gone! Now, if I can just get my mosquito net up this weekend I can rest in peace. The neighbor´s salsa music and screaming child bother me not.
Work has been OK so far. My hours are 9ish-1200ish and then 300ish-500ish. Wed and Thurs we have afterschool tutoring with about 15 little monsters. They are all really behind on their reading levels and math too. Big goals right now are for Leidi to start reading her numbers and for the boys to actually start showing up for sessions. I would just like for them to stop throwing rocks at each others heads. Gira is terribly patient with them. It makes me cherish our schooling system in the states. Everything here is based on memorization; teacher dictates, students copy. Hopefully, with time, we can start doing fun things with our kiddos. Maybe get them to read a play, instead of boring texts. That would be fun. Either way, I can see now that work is going to be tough. When I get back maybe I´ll go into teaching but at a younger level that I had originally wanted to. I´d love to get kids when they´re this age and give them the chance to explore and create. Discovery as a teaching method is just fantastic.
My town rumbles and bumbles from dawn till dusk and all in between. There are just people everywhere! So far my favorite activities are riding the public bus and buying watermelon slices on the street. Yeah, I know, "watermelon slices on the street? no wonder you have parasites". Humbug! I also enjoy running across the Bon-Ice man in the park and getting 10cent icecream sticks from him. Yesterday, I went to mail a bunch of stuff and not one person could tell me where the post office was. They just don´t have an extensive postal system here. It´s because no one uses it really! I told Fernanda about how in the States, mail comes to your door every single day, rain, sun, snow, hurricane. She gasped. "And what about packages?" I told her they come too. If they´re small enough, they leave them on the porch, and if not, then they come back the next day. She sat there with her mouth agape. Whether it was the concept of no one stealing the package immediately or the postman charging himself with the responsibility of returning until delivery is complete...she just couldn´t believe it. And so I heart the U.S. of A. for delivering mail in a timely and so very professional and courteous manner.
p.s. If you want to send me maaail, then email me and I´ll send you my address. I think I specifically remember them telling us something about not putting our address on our blog.
´Till next time amigos.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
My first bucket bath...
Sunday, the water tank in Tabacundo ruptured (or so said the vecina, how does she know?). Come Monday night we still had no water, and I wasn´t about to get on a bus for Quito dirty (because, let´s be honest friends, we all know that I don´t even bathe every day in the U.S. if I don´t have to). So host mom offered to boil me some water and lend me a tupperware. I hauled my bucket upstairs and got to work. Something about the whole experience was quite humiliating. Standing in a tile shower that is cold and empty is terribly awkward. And then you´re standing there dumping tupperwares full of water on yourself. It´s too quiet- water hits the floor and echoes. I felt like I was scared people would hear me, as if I was doing it incorrectly. How is a bucket bath supposed to sound? How long is a bucket bath supposed to take? Was I supposed to use all the water?
So my advice to you, Lauren, before you go to Africa is...PRACTICE. Because it´s no joke, the bucket bath will happen to you in Peace Corps. Just when you thought your city was developed enough...
We visited Guayaquil about a week ago. It was mucho mucho fun. Guayaquil is a big, fast city. None of us got robbed and we ate ice cream every single day.
Anyway, today I am in QUITO! Lovely Quito with all of its amenities, none of which fit into my $10/day Peace Corps budget. We´re getting cell phones tomorrow, yay! And then Friday we will swear in. Swearing in is a really big deal with the ambassador and everything. I´ll head off to my site on Sat night, get there Sun morning. Really the only thing that makes me nervous at this point is getting all my luggage to site.
Saying goodbye to host family was horrible. We ate dinner last night together, all 15 of us. Host mom made a really good soup that had peanut in it, and then papipollo (chicken, rice, french fries, salad). It´s my favorite- probably because it´s the most normal thing I can get my hands on. Host brother, Pepe, burned me some music for my new house, which has significantly less people in it. It´s going to be sad living so quietly for the next 2 years.
Harry Potter went Disney with that epilogue and I am quite disillusioned.
Ok friends, until I get to my site!!! I´ll post new pictures then.
Love you all mucho!
p.s. Thank you for all the birthday wishes and mail!
So my advice to you, Lauren, before you go to Africa is...PRACTICE. Because it´s no joke, the bucket bath will happen to you in Peace Corps. Just when you thought your city was developed enough...
We visited Guayaquil about a week ago. It was mucho mucho fun. Guayaquil is a big, fast city. None of us got robbed and we ate ice cream every single day.
Anyway, today I am in QUITO! Lovely Quito with all of its amenities, none of which fit into my $10/day Peace Corps budget. We´re getting cell phones tomorrow, yay! And then Friday we will swear in. Swearing in is a really big deal with the ambassador and everything. I´ll head off to my site on Sat night, get there Sun morning. Really the only thing that makes me nervous at this point is getting all my luggage to site.
Saying goodbye to host family was horrible. We ate dinner last night together, all 15 of us. Host mom made a really good soup that had peanut in it, and then papipollo (chicken, rice, french fries, salad). It´s my favorite- probably because it´s the most normal thing I can get my hands on. Host brother, Pepe, burned me some music for my new house, which has significantly less people in it. It´s going to be sad living so quietly for the next 2 years.
Harry Potter went Disney with that epilogue and I am quite disillusioned.
Ok friends, until I get to my site!!! I´ll post new pictures then.
Love you all mucho!
p.s. Thank you for all the birthday wishes and mail!
Friday, August 10, 2007
Check it out, I´m blogging!
Per requests (from RobHuesca and Griffin), I´ve started a blog!
It takes me lots of time, and $$$, so I´ll only update it once in awhile, but better than you all wondering if I´m alive or not.
First, I would like to say that I miss you all dearly and I heart you!
Second, I heart Peace Corps Ecuador!!! This is the most fantastic place on earth and I thank God I decided to do this. For the time being I´m living in Tabacundo, pop. 25,000, about 2 hrs outside of Quito. It´s really cold here (I sleep with 4 blankets and a sweatshirt) even though it´s ¨summer¨, and we are surrounded by rose plantations. Most of my family works in the rose ¨fincas¨, either in the office or making food for the workers. My sister Cumanda cooks for 220 people daily, breakfast and lunch! Mami Diose runs a clean house, granted there are 13 people in it. Well, really there are 2 in the apartment in front, 4 in the house in back, and then 7 in my part of the house. But she washes the clothes and cooks for everyone. I usually wake up around 6am when the sun hits my window and chickens start, eat breakfast (usually rice and an egg, sometimes fish or spaghetti), and head off to work. Lunches here are MASSIVE, dinner is light.
I did eat the guinea pig 2 days ago. Here they call it ¨cuy¨, because that´s the sound they make! It was awful and when my host mom asked me if I´d eat it again I said, ¨jamás¨. It was actually pretty rude of me, but I had to put my foot down somewhere.
Tabacundo is famous for the Fiestas of San Pedro, which my family dressed me up for. The people wander through the streets dancing and singing to San Pedrinos, beautiful songs of confused lovers. The kids light fires in the streets to open the gates of heaven. They throw in offerings for San Pedro- everything from chocolate to old banana boxes. :)
Peace Corps training is pretty intense. We have a lot of tech training to prepare us for the various charlas we´ll be giving in our communities (HIV/AIDS, leadership, parenting, etc.), how to enter our communities, and how to be an effective development volunteer. They really emphasize bottom-up development, and so I´m absolutely in love with our program.
¨Nothing we have done matters if it is not SUSTAINABLE!¨
I recently got my site assignment and I am sooo excited!
For the next 2 years I´ll be living in Esmeraldas and working with INNFA, Instituto Nacional del Niño y la Familia. My barrio, San Martin de Porres Alto, is on a huge hill right outside of the centro. The population in Esmeraldas is predominantly Afroecuatorian, and the people are poor. Most of my familes live in wooden shacks with tin roofs. The chickens, ducks, and dogs come and go throughout the house which usually consists of a kitchen area and a sleeping area. INNFA provides scholarships for kids to go to school, after-school tutoring, and other supportive services. Many of the kids don´t go to school because they can´t even afford a notebook; others, because they have to work to supplement family income. I´ll be working with Gira, an INNFA promoter, to keep up with families, provide charlas for the kids, help with tutoring, and hopefully start some community banks and youth groups. Work is completely undefined in the Peace Corps which means... OPPORTUNITY for EVERYTHING!
Esmeraldas has a reputation for being one of Ecuador´s most dangerous cities; but I would like to also add that it is fantastically vibrant, absolutely lovely, and full of personality. For breakfast, the traditional dish is encebollado, a fish and red onion soup. People usually eat it with crushed up chifles, or fried bananas. My family is Esmeraldas, which we affectionately call ¨Ese¨ (eh-zee), is really different from Tabacundo. I live with a young couple, Efrén, 41, and Fernanda, 26. They have tons of friends and family, so I feel like my network will grow rapidly. I´m living with them because Efrén´s son, Gorky, 22, is my co-worker at INNFA. I went to visit them last week and we had a blast! We ran all over the city, ate every traditional dish they could think of, partied on the beach, attended a traditional running of the bulls, and mostly sat around on the balcony. Needless to say, between working with INNFA and living on the coast, I think I´m going to love the Peace Corps lifestyle.
WORK HARD, PLAY HARD
It takes me lots of time, and $$$, so I´ll only update it once in awhile, but better than you all wondering if I´m alive or not.
First, I would like to say that I miss you all dearly and I heart you!
Second, I heart Peace Corps Ecuador!!! This is the most fantastic place on earth and I thank God I decided to do this. For the time being I´m living in Tabacundo, pop. 25,000, about 2 hrs outside of Quito. It´s really cold here (I sleep with 4 blankets and a sweatshirt) even though it´s ¨summer¨, and we are surrounded by rose plantations. Most of my family works in the rose ¨fincas¨, either in the office or making food for the workers. My sister Cumanda cooks for 220 people daily, breakfast and lunch! Mami Diose runs a clean house, granted there are 13 people in it. Well, really there are 2 in the apartment in front, 4 in the house in back, and then 7 in my part of the house. But she washes the clothes and cooks for everyone. I usually wake up around 6am when the sun hits my window and chickens start, eat breakfast (usually rice and an egg, sometimes fish or spaghetti), and head off to work. Lunches here are MASSIVE, dinner is light.
I did eat the guinea pig 2 days ago. Here they call it ¨cuy¨, because that´s the sound they make! It was awful and when my host mom asked me if I´d eat it again I said, ¨jamás¨. It was actually pretty rude of me, but I had to put my foot down somewhere.
Tabacundo is famous for the Fiestas of San Pedro, which my family dressed me up for. The people wander through the streets dancing and singing to San Pedrinos, beautiful songs of confused lovers. The kids light fires in the streets to open the gates of heaven. They throw in offerings for San Pedro- everything from chocolate to old banana boxes. :)
Peace Corps training is pretty intense. We have a lot of tech training to prepare us for the various charlas we´ll be giving in our communities (HIV/AIDS, leadership, parenting, etc.), how to enter our communities, and how to be an effective development volunteer. They really emphasize bottom-up development, and so I´m absolutely in love with our program.
¨Nothing we have done matters if it is not SUSTAINABLE!¨
I recently got my site assignment and I am sooo excited!
For the next 2 years I´ll be living in Esmeraldas and working with INNFA, Instituto Nacional del Niño y la Familia. My barrio, San Martin de Porres Alto, is on a huge hill right outside of the centro. The population in Esmeraldas is predominantly Afroecuatorian, and the people are poor. Most of my familes live in wooden shacks with tin roofs. The chickens, ducks, and dogs come and go throughout the house which usually consists of a kitchen area and a sleeping area. INNFA provides scholarships for kids to go to school, after-school tutoring, and other supportive services. Many of the kids don´t go to school because they can´t even afford a notebook; others, because they have to work to supplement family income. I´ll be working with Gira, an INNFA promoter, to keep up with families, provide charlas for the kids, help with tutoring, and hopefully start some community banks and youth groups. Work is completely undefined in the Peace Corps which means... OPPORTUNITY for EVERYTHING!
Esmeraldas has a reputation for being one of Ecuador´s most dangerous cities; but I would like to also add that it is fantastically vibrant, absolutely lovely, and full of personality. For breakfast, the traditional dish is encebollado, a fish and red onion soup. People usually eat it with crushed up chifles, or fried bananas. My family is Esmeraldas, which we affectionately call ¨Ese¨ (eh-zee), is really different from Tabacundo. I live with a young couple, Efrén, 41, and Fernanda, 26. They have tons of friends and family, so I feel like my network will grow rapidly. I´m living with them because Efrén´s son, Gorky, 22, is my co-worker at INNFA. I went to visit them last week and we had a blast! We ran all over the city, ate every traditional dish they could think of, partied on the beach, attended a traditional running of the bulls, and mostly sat around on the balcony. Needless to say, between working with INNFA and living on the coast, I think I´m going to love the Peace Corps lifestyle.
WORK HARD, PLAY HARD
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