Mother´s day here in Ecuador was indeed different than any other Mother´s day that I´ve had in my life. Granted I haven´t been with my mother for every single Mother´s day but I have been in the same country as her (well except for mexico). Because I live in the land of the flowers and fruit there were people selling flowers EVERYWHERE!!! Im sure they jacked up the prices for the holiday but compared to the states it was still relatively cheap. I have always AT LEAST bought a card for my mother on Mother´s day and call her to say hi. When I have the opportunity to be in her presence and spend time with her we usualy do things that she enjoys-family games, walking in the praire etc, etc...In Ecuador the tradition is that you go out to eat, buy flowers, everything is pretty much the same. Something different that they sometimes practice is serenading at midnight. Groups of friends, usually guys will get together and drive around to the different mother´s houses and serenade them at midnight, how sweet! I asked Chino if his friends and him ever did this...he said no.
Because we are in Ecuador and you can do everything pretty much last minute, I went with Mayra and Chino at about, oh 10:30 the night before Mother´s day to pick out flowers. There was still quite a selection and they ended up picking out a really nice arrangement for 25 dollars, it consisted of all red roses and white lilies, something that would def be wayyy more than 25 dollars in the states!
On Mother´s day we were supposed to go to Patate and eat but ended up changing plans and going somewhere in Ambato. We went with all the aunts, cousins, grandmas, etc...Of all 12 of us chino and his dad were the only males, lol. Then we went back to the Aunts house and slept till Chino had his basketball game. By this time I was really sick, I had been sick the previous days as well. We came back and I drank agua de oregano like no other! A pretty relaxed day, no family games (like we would´ve done in the states with my mom), and no walks around the neighborhood (like we woud´ve done in the states with my mom). I was very grateful to be with a "family" and do "family things" but have to admit it wasn´t as fun as it would´ve been with my family back in the states, oh well.
So as most of you know that when my parents came some of my stuff was stolen, including ALL of my makeup. Im not a huge make up person so it wasn´t like life or death when I didn´t have make up. I did end up picking up a few things at the mega-maxi which was dissappointing because they had the worst selection. I also lost my eye-lash curler with my make up. Like I said, NOT a huge deal. There were no eyelash curlers to be found in the Megamaxi....and then I remembered that my coutnerpart for example, uses a lid of a lip balm container to curl her eye lashes...and that I´d seen one of Chino´s cousins uses a SPOON to curl her eyelashes...talk about resourceful. Then I got to thinking. They probably have never used an eye lash curler or don´t really see the necessity for one. So I grabbed a small spoon from the drawer and gave it a try. I´m not gonna lie I did almost poke my eye ball out once or twice but besides that I´ve pretty much become a professional at eyelash curling with a spoon! Who would have ever thought. I think that these little experiences are just what Peace Corps told us about in training. You aren´t always going to have the materials available that you are accustomed to and so what do you do? You use what you have around you to make things work.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
work stuff...cont..
So as much as it sounds like the brigade is taking up a ton fo work time it really isn´t. I mean there are days during the week where I will commit to just doing stuff for it but in general it hasn´t been super time consuming. Let see what other semi-exciting thing is happening here. The other week I went to a workshop that Peace Corps was giving to some health promotor students. I gues it´s one of only TWO Universities in the whole country that has this career- "Health promotor". So they asked Peace Corps to come in and give a talk on HIV-Aids and Sexuality to the students. Peace Corps invited me because I am a volunteer working at a University setting as well and they thought that the information would be useful. So I went to Riobamba and assisted the two day workshop. It was pretty well done and I think the students enjoyed it a lot. Turns out they need to have community practice and replicate the taller that we did to other students. So those of us that were there pretty much had to offer our sites as a place to practice giving these talks. Which is awesome because I haven´t been doing a lot with HIV-Aids yet...saying yet because my goal within this next year is to do more work with it. I had several students that were interested and have already communicated with them about coming into Ambato the 17th of May to do some work with our students. We´ll see if they actually follow up and come!
Speaking of HIV-Aids one of my good volunteer friends is going to be working part time at the University in Riobamba. He contacted me a couple days ago to say that there were some people living with HIV-Aids that come to Riobamba to get their tests and meds (there isn´t a place here in Ambato to do that-probably because of the close proximity to Quito). He suggusted that we try to put a type of support group together, apparently several are students here from the University! I have had the idea in my mind for awhile now but not received the best support because my counterpart is not directly related with this subject, and does not get along too well with the lady that is. But now that I have some support from some people in Riobamba I am going to make the move to talk to our doctors here and the Social Worker that works on HIV-Aids to see if I can get information on the known cases of people living with HIV-Aids here, we´ll see, but keep your fingers crossed that we can create some type of support network!
The other work that is always constant here is the work that I´m doing with my counterpart Eulalia. The stuff that we are focusing on now is the Addicions and Mental health program. We are going around to the different colleges reporting the results of the survey that we did last semester on drug use and abuse and then promoting differnt Bienestar (the department that I work in-"well-being" of the students) services that we have. That is kinda an ongoing thing until we get around to all of the facultades. We´ve done four I think, and have six left. Along with this we have the help of students from a college that do open house, theatre, music and dance, promoting an "UTA SALUDABLE" a healthy University. More of an interactive way to talk about alternatives to drinking, drugs, etc. Today we have an open house. Everyone is setting up and it looks like it´s gonna be big. My counterpart is worried, because the last one we did kinda fell apart so hopefully this one goes better!
On top of that we are working with the Ministero to try to start(which Im sure will take TONS of oficios and time) a tobaco free campus...It´s probably a long shot but we have some good resources and I think it could happen, that is IF the rector approves it.
My other project that I tried to start was the world map. It´s not completely dead, just put on hold for the moment. We presented that idea to the Dean of one of the colleges and he o.k.´d it. Then the coordinator of the career was told and he came to us saying that he was sure that the Dean had no idea that our intentions were to paint on the walls of the building, and he was sure the Dean would not allow it.
So this morning we had a conversation with the Dean. Turns out he didn´t realize that we were going to be painting but did like the idea. The only problem is, the building where we have the club (English club with tourism students is where we want to do the world map)is not done being built. Yes Im sure some of you are wondering, how is it that they are allowing classes to go on, while they keep building other floors, it´s Ecuador, and things like that do happen, lol. Anyway because the building is not done, technically it has not been "turned in" to the Dean, therefore it is not his building and he can´t let us paint. So the idea is going to be put on hold till next semester and then it can be carried out! The waiting game is soooooo frustrating!!
Besides that there are other little things that my counterpart is working on and is trying to get me to help out in. But I am trying to stay focused on things that interest me and have to do with Peace Corps. Because this is an office setting and my counterpart has various things to work on, it is easy to go astray and work on things that in the end really don´t interest me.
It´s amazing though how things come and go, ideas, projects, etc. I think in the U.S. we have this mentalitly that if there is an idea, project etc it will be carried out and complete. That is most definetly not the case here. I don´t want to sound pessimistic or anything but it´s so true-you kind of have to be prepared for everything to fall apart or not turn out how you had planned. That way when things do turn out the way you wanted, it feels like such an accomplishment!!
Speaking of HIV-Aids one of my good volunteer friends is going to be working part time at the University in Riobamba. He contacted me a couple days ago to say that there were some people living with HIV-Aids that come to Riobamba to get their tests and meds (there isn´t a place here in Ambato to do that-probably because of the close proximity to Quito). He suggusted that we try to put a type of support group together, apparently several are students here from the University! I have had the idea in my mind for awhile now but not received the best support because my counterpart is not directly related with this subject, and does not get along too well with the lady that is. But now that I have some support from some people in Riobamba I am going to make the move to talk to our doctors here and the Social Worker that works on HIV-Aids to see if I can get information on the known cases of people living with HIV-Aids here, we´ll see, but keep your fingers crossed that we can create some type of support network!
The other work that is always constant here is the work that I´m doing with my counterpart Eulalia. The stuff that we are focusing on now is the Addicions and Mental health program. We are going around to the different colleges reporting the results of the survey that we did last semester on drug use and abuse and then promoting differnt Bienestar (the department that I work in-"well-being" of the students) services that we have. That is kinda an ongoing thing until we get around to all of the facultades. We´ve done four I think, and have six left. Along with this we have the help of students from a college that do open house, theatre, music and dance, promoting an "UTA SALUDABLE" a healthy University. More of an interactive way to talk about alternatives to drinking, drugs, etc. Today we have an open house. Everyone is setting up and it looks like it´s gonna be big. My counterpart is worried, because the last one we did kinda fell apart so hopefully this one goes better!
On top of that we are working with the Ministero to try to start(which Im sure will take TONS of oficios and time) a tobaco free campus...It´s probably a long shot but we have some good resources and I think it could happen, that is IF the rector approves it.
My other project that I tried to start was the world map. It´s not completely dead, just put on hold for the moment. We presented that idea to the Dean of one of the colleges and he o.k.´d it. Then the coordinator of the career was told and he came to us saying that he was sure that the Dean had no idea that our intentions were to paint on the walls of the building, and he was sure the Dean would not allow it.
So this morning we had a conversation with the Dean. Turns out he didn´t realize that we were going to be painting but did like the idea. The only problem is, the building where we have the club (English club with tourism students is where we want to do the world map)is not done being built. Yes Im sure some of you are wondering, how is it that they are allowing classes to go on, while they keep building other floors, it´s Ecuador, and things like that do happen, lol. Anyway because the building is not done, technically it has not been "turned in" to the Dean, therefore it is not his building and he can´t let us paint. So the idea is going to be put on hold till next semester and then it can be carried out! The waiting game is soooooo frustrating!!
Besides that there are other little things that my counterpart is working on and is trying to get me to help out in. But I am trying to stay focused on things that interest me and have to do with Peace Corps. Because this is an office setting and my counterpart has various things to work on, it is easy to go astray and work on things that in the end really don´t interest me.
It´s amazing though how things come and go, ideas, projects, etc. I think in the U.S. we have this mentalitly that if there is an idea, project etc it will be carried out and complete. That is most definetly not the case here. I don´t want to sound pessimistic or anything but it´s so true-you kind of have to be prepared for everything to fall apart or not turn out how you had planned. That way when things do turn out the way you wanted, it feels like such an accomplishment!!
Well it´s May
Well it´s may...At least I got out three posts in April..that´s an improvement right? I know I have said this several times but seriously time is just flying here. I mean yeah there are definetly those days where things seem to just drag on and I feel pretty useless, believe it or not, YES that still happenes...lol but in general the weeks literally are going by sooo fast!!! Im coming up to my one year anniversary here in Ecuador, and almost my half-way point of my service...although I still have a couple months for that (August). But if I think about it in semesters. I´ve already been working here at the University for practically two semesters. By August I will have only TWO LEFT! This obviously makes me reflect on what I am doing, what I plan on doing and all of the stuff in between.
In this post I would like to focus on work because there is a lot of stuff going on. Frist, a medical brigade is coming to Salasaka-an indiginous community close to Ambato, and I have been assigned, well really volunteered to help coordinate (¿how hard can coordinating a ONE-DAY brigade really be?). The Brigade will be in Santo Domingo for the majority of the time (May 19th-23rd) and then travel to the Sierra for the 25th. So my job was to go and talk to the president of the community and coordinate (really remind- because the brigade had already talked to him about where and when , etc..) with him the logistics, then talk quickly with the director of the hospital in Pelileo to let him know as well about the brigade.
I have only been to Salasaka once, when the coordinator of the brigade was here doing water samples. I only knew of the small sub-centro, so thought I would go there and ask where I could find the president . The nurse was super helpful and showed me where to go to talk to the presidente. I walked the few blocks that she indicated to me and arrived at the building that appeared to be municiple...strangely enough all the doors were closed and I heard children inside. I knocked a couple times and tried to look into the windows...nothing. Ugh...I knew this was going to happen, nothing can be as easy as it appears, ESPECIALLY here in Ecuador. A guy walked by and I asked him where exactly the Offices were, turns out I needed to walk around the building to ANOTHER building where they were doing construction. I tip toed through the mud and concrete piles, and crouched under the scaffolding to get to the door (none of this would fly in the states) and proceeded into the office of the presidente. FINALLY! He looked at me kinda weird at first- remember this is an indiginous community so Americans obviously look like complete FOREIGNERS! I explained the purpose for my visit and he welcomed me to sit down. I had all the information that the brigade had given me-places, times, etc... We started talking about the places and he began to make a list of what communities the brigade had visited and where they had not. Little did I know, the brigade has been coming to Salasaka for the past 5 YEARS! So the communities that I had written down apparently had already been seen by the brigade and the president thought it would be a good idea to be in two new communities. I told him the date and the time and that they would need space, etc. Everything seemed to be in place.
After this I needed to go talk to the director of the hospital in Pelileo just to give them the heads up that the brigade was coming etc. So I went to the internet cafe to print the oficio and e-mail the coordinator of the brigade letting her know that we changed the communities. Come to find out the brigade was planning on going to the two new communities in August and didn´t want to change plans...great.... After several e-mails were exchanged we came to the agreement that if this is what the community needed the brigade would make the changes necessary to go to these new two communities. I printed out the oficio and was on my way to Pelileo.
The hunt for the hospital took about a half an hour. Ecuadorians here don´t like to admit that they don´t know directions, so they will normally tell you to go a couple blocks and turn left...or right...pretty much making up whatever they can to make it look like they know where you need to go. I finally found the hospital and asked for the director. He was in a meeting, typical. I had some time so I decided to wait. Luckily the wait was only about 20 minutes. I went in to see him and chatted for awhile about he brigade and handed him the oficio. He had heard of the brigade and was interested in it but said that he would need authorization from the Dirección Provincial de Salud de Tungurahua, pretty much the boss of the area. This place was located in Ambato. All I had to do was change the words asking permission for this director to help facilitate the brigade. Didn´t seem too complicated...WRONG.
So I changed the oficio and went on my way to the Dirección Provincial. Here the secretary greeted me saying that the director was not in and that she could receive the oficio. She read it over and said that in fact it would have to be turned into another lady who had to look over the brigade and what not to see if they could have permission. I was getting frustrated and agreed to have her turn it in. She said there would be a response on tuesday morning, that I could come in then to see the response. I left the oficio with her and was determined to come on tuesday with results from the Dirección.
Tuesday morning I got up and went to the Dirección....the secretary looked through the list of oficios and said that there was no answer. But if I wanted I could call this lady in the afternoon, when she was in her office to see what the result was. I explained to the secretary that the brigade already had the permission, we just needed to inform the director about what was going on and get permission for the doctor in Pelileo. She asked where the permission came from and that I needed to have it in writing!!! Ahhhhh how frustrating!!! This whole affair was getting complicated by the minute. The brigade never gave me any permission number and I had no documentation. I told her that I would call the lady in the afternoon. So at around 2:30 I called this mysterious lady that was making my life wayyyy more complicated that it needed to be. She said that she had not looked over any oficios and that maybe in the next two days would have an answer.
At this point I already had a car lined up from the University to take me to the hospital in Pelileo, because supposedly I was going to have an answer by then to tell the doctor..not the case. I took the opportunity to go anyway, dropped off the oficio-the doc wasn´t in..surprise surprise...and then on the way back stopped into the municipio to talk to the presidente reminding him about everything. He remembered but said that I should call him a couple days before the brigade, just in case...ay yai yai..Ecuadorians...
Today is Wednesday. I need to go back to Pelileo and talk to the doctor but it´s practically impossible to know when he is in the office and when he is not. I do not know when they are going to have an answer for me at the Dirección Provincial but the fact is the brigade is coming regardless....I think my best options now are to go in and talk directly with the director of the dirección Provincial and explain to him, and then talk to the doctor in Pelileo...
Wow so I went into way more detail than I though I would...I´ll write another blog talking about the other work!
In this post I would like to focus on work because there is a lot of stuff going on. Frist, a medical brigade is coming to Salasaka-an indiginous community close to Ambato, and I have been assigned, well really volunteered to help coordinate (¿how hard can coordinating a ONE-DAY brigade really be?). The Brigade will be in Santo Domingo for the majority of the time (May 19th-23rd) and then travel to the Sierra for the 25th. So my job was to go and talk to the president of the community and coordinate (really remind- because the brigade had already talked to him about where and when , etc..) with him the logistics, then talk quickly with the director of the hospital in Pelileo to let him know as well about the brigade.
I have only been to Salasaka once, when the coordinator of the brigade was here doing water samples. I only knew of the small sub-centro, so thought I would go there and ask where I could find the president . The nurse was super helpful and showed me where to go to talk to the presidente. I walked the few blocks that she indicated to me and arrived at the building that appeared to be municiple...strangely enough all the doors were closed and I heard children inside. I knocked a couple times and tried to look into the windows...nothing. Ugh...I knew this was going to happen, nothing can be as easy as it appears, ESPECIALLY here in Ecuador. A guy walked by and I asked him where exactly the Offices were, turns out I needed to walk around the building to ANOTHER building where they were doing construction. I tip toed through the mud and concrete piles, and crouched under the scaffolding to get to the door (none of this would fly in the states) and proceeded into the office of the presidente. FINALLY! He looked at me kinda weird at first- remember this is an indiginous community so Americans obviously look like complete FOREIGNERS! I explained the purpose for my visit and he welcomed me to sit down. I had all the information that the brigade had given me-places, times, etc... We started talking about the places and he began to make a list of what communities the brigade had visited and where they had not. Little did I know, the brigade has been coming to Salasaka for the past 5 YEARS! So the communities that I had written down apparently had already been seen by the brigade and the president thought it would be a good idea to be in two new communities. I told him the date and the time and that they would need space, etc. Everything seemed to be in place.
After this I needed to go talk to the director of the hospital in Pelileo just to give them the heads up that the brigade was coming etc. So I went to the internet cafe to print the oficio and e-mail the coordinator of the brigade letting her know that we changed the communities. Come to find out the brigade was planning on going to the two new communities in August and didn´t want to change plans...great.... After several e-mails were exchanged we came to the agreement that if this is what the community needed the brigade would make the changes necessary to go to these new two communities. I printed out the oficio and was on my way to Pelileo.
The hunt for the hospital took about a half an hour. Ecuadorians here don´t like to admit that they don´t know directions, so they will normally tell you to go a couple blocks and turn left...or right...pretty much making up whatever they can to make it look like they know where you need to go. I finally found the hospital and asked for the director. He was in a meeting, typical. I had some time so I decided to wait. Luckily the wait was only about 20 minutes. I went in to see him and chatted for awhile about he brigade and handed him the oficio. He had heard of the brigade and was interested in it but said that he would need authorization from the Dirección Provincial de Salud de Tungurahua, pretty much the boss of the area. This place was located in Ambato. All I had to do was change the words asking permission for this director to help facilitate the brigade. Didn´t seem too complicated...WRONG.
So I changed the oficio and went on my way to the Dirección Provincial. Here the secretary greeted me saying that the director was not in and that she could receive the oficio. She read it over and said that in fact it would have to be turned into another lady who had to look over the brigade and what not to see if they could have permission. I was getting frustrated and agreed to have her turn it in. She said there would be a response on tuesday morning, that I could come in then to see the response. I left the oficio with her and was determined to come on tuesday with results from the Dirección.
Tuesday morning I got up and went to the Dirección....the secretary looked through the list of oficios and said that there was no answer. But if I wanted I could call this lady in the afternoon, when she was in her office to see what the result was. I explained to the secretary that the brigade already had the permission, we just needed to inform the director about what was going on and get permission for the doctor in Pelileo. She asked where the permission came from and that I needed to have it in writing!!! Ahhhhh how frustrating!!! This whole affair was getting complicated by the minute. The brigade never gave me any permission number and I had no documentation. I told her that I would call the lady in the afternoon. So at around 2:30 I called this mysterious lady that was making my life wayyyy more complicated that it needed to be. She said that she had not looked over any oficios and that maybe in the next two days would have an answer.
At this point I already had a car lined up from the University to take me to the hospital in Pelileo, because supposedly I was going to have an answer by then to tell the doctor..not the case. I took the opportunity to go anyway, dropped off the oficio-the doc wasn´t in..surprise surprise...and then on the way back stopped into the municipio to talk to the presidente reminding him about everything. He remembered but said that I should call him a couple days before the brigade, just in case...ay yai yai..Ecuadorians...
Today is Wednesday. I need to go back to Pelileo and talk to the doctor but it´s practically impossible to know when he is in the office and when he is not. I do not know when they are going to have an answer for me at the Dirección Provincial but the fact is the brigade is coming regardless....I think my best options now are to go in and talk directly with the director of the dirección Provincial and explain to him, and then talk to the doctor in Pelileo...
Wow so I went into way more detail than I though I would...I´ll write another blog talking about the other work!
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