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