Monday, March 18, 2013

ahh the joys of washing laundry, BY HAND!!!

So Annie will be arriving in two days, wow TWO DAYS!!! Like always I left my laundry for the last minute and had this ginormous pile in my bedroom.  Instead of sending it all to the laundry lady I decided to sort out things that I could wash by hand and that would dry fast enough for wednesday morning.

I ended up washing 12 shirts, 2 pairs of jeans, 5 sports bras and 7 pairs of socks. Now I know in comparison to my fellow PCV friends who live in the boonies this is nothing because some have to do ALL of their laundry by hand (I def respect you for it), but I was quite happy with myself having washed so much in about an hour and a half.  I found out that someone who washes peoples laundry by hand (la lavandera) gets a dollar for each 15 pieces that they wash.  ONE DOLLAR PER 15 PIECES.  I was half dead after doing just that little bit, and imagine I would´ve only earned about $2.00!!!

I hung everything except the jeans inside because the dog lives outside and I don´t like having dog hair or smell to my freshly HAND WASHED clothes...After hanging everything up there was just no room for the jeans so they were sent outside on the line.   I tried to wring out as much water as I could but since my bathroom is like 95% tile I didn´t mind having everything drip-dry.  I then went to drop off my laundry and do some errands and when I got back home I realized that all of these clothes were not going to dry in this tiny bathroom and that I needed to hang stuff out around the whole apartment.  The only problem was that everything was STILL dripping. (clearly I never do laundry by hand and therefore don´t have proper wringing strategies....)

So I did what anyone would do who doesn´t have a clothes dryer...I got out the hair dryer.  I remember my dad used to use the hair dryer to get damp clothes to dry quicker, and would even warm up my clothes on those frigid winter mornings by running the hair dryer over them.  It´s like a hand held clothes dryer (that uses a lot of energy and heats up really quick :-/ ..) And as I stood there drying the ends of my shirts so that they wouldn't drip as much I thought about what had happened yesterday evening.

Mayra (Chino´s sister) had an internship with her mom these past couple months and would be returning to regular classes on monday.  Her mom had put ALL of her school socks (yes there are specific ones that she has to wear to class) to wash and they wouldn´t be dry by the next morning.    They realized this at about 6 pm and decided that the next best plan would be to go out and look for a pair to buy, after all socks only cost about .80 cents/pair.  Seeing as it was 6 pm on a Sunday everything was closing or didn´t sell the socks that she needed.  So when we went to the Aunts house I mentioned how she should just use a hair dryer.  She only needed one pair of socks, and with a hair dryer it would take 10 minutes max to get them dry.  She acknowledged my advice but didn´t seem convinced, lol.  Instead she ended up asking Mayra´s aunt if any of the cousins had white socks that Mayra could use for class the next morning.  Sure enough they found a pair and the problem was solved.

It´s interesting how something so simple ends up being different among cultures and who knows maybe it´s not necessarily a culture thing but more a question of personal choice.  At home, we would´ve just thrown the socks in the clothes dryer.  Here I would have just gotten the hair dryer.  Instead they turned to family members to share a pair of socks.  :) :)

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

a new etapa

So after two months I figured it was time to dust off the blog and write a new entry!  I believe that I have reached a new "etapa" (stage) in my PC life.  I believe that my PC is not just an experience anymore, obviously it's my life and most importantly another home.  This is all very hard to explain, but I think that as I hit my 5 month marker (as in 5 months left till end of service) I realize that the idea of going "home" kind of scares me.  Where is home?  I struggled with this question as my parents divorced and I began to live in two different places with each parent.  I have now come to accept that home is where you have loved ones around you, where you are supported and are able to grow.  I feel so lucky to have created another/different type of home here in Ecuador and will be very very sad to leave it. That said I have only 5 MONTHS!!!  The emotions running through me are all over the place.

"Work":  I have stepped back some from the University and decided to dedicate more time to job hunting and the school where we have the girls group.  Sharon and I are going to start a focus group and try to get a better idea of who the students are and what they have/dont get from their school.  Our idea is to start a mentor program, and perhaps english club. Sadly we only have about 3 months and we hope that a new volunteer will be coming into the area so that they can keep working on what we started but I believe those chances are low.

At the University I am on a final project that is a continuation of the World Aids Day event we did back in December.  After three months (which I guess for Ecua time would be right on time) we are doing our follow up with sex-ed trainings in the classrooms.  Fernanda and I are in charge of coordinating and organizing the schedule for not only the sex ed trainings, but also, dental hygiene and prevention for breast and cervical cancer for the doctors to give to the whole University (18.000 students).  We are about half way done and I will be so relieved when the schedules are approved.  We are supposed to start going into the classrooms by the end of April, lets hope everything goes as planned.

For our girls group we are starting to work on our final presentation which will be the "Little Red Hen" (in english) and then some contra dancing along with some songs in english.  Our hope is that the girls can memorize the script (it's really REALLY repetitive) but we'll see.  We have a great group this semester.  About 8 of the girls from last semester and 10 new girls are part of the group.  I am having a blast working with them and doing the planning for each week.

Dad and Tracy came to visit in February.  It was a great time.  This was their first trip outside of the States and I think they enjoyed themselves.  I had a great time showing them around.  We were in Quito, the jungle, Cuenca and Ambato!

Alright I think that's good enough for a short update. I'll be writing more frequently.  After all, these are the final months to write about this amazing life changing experience ;)