So it's been over a week since I've posted anything on the blog. Im not really sure what why, I guess you could say I've had somewhat of 'writers block'. The daily routine seems as though it's become too much of a repeat and I in no way intend on boring my readers! I feel as though my life here in Peace Corps as hit a sort of plateau. The hype of everything being new and scary has slowly come to a halt. Not that this is a bad thing. Im becoming more comfortable in my work place, have established a great group of ecuadorian friends, and well, am learning to survive the host family situation (while counting down the days till I can move out).
I often get this feeling of needing to start projects of my own or be more proactive with reaching out to the community. But then I take a step back and take into consideration what Peace Corps told us at the end of orientation; the first three months we are really supposed to sit back and do more observing, just getting to know the people, living the life, etc..Im not sure if that's exactly what I've been doing. I think my situation is a little different because of my work situation. The fact that I am in an institution that has regular work hours and projects that are already started makes it hard for me to just "sit back and watch". But it's very clear that I am in a Latin American country where things happen at their own pace. I've embraced the laid back culture and have actually learned to appreciate it.
About a week ago was my one month anniversary here at my site, Ambato. I was walking home from work the other day and felt as though I needed to pinch myself. Im actually living and working/volunteering in a Latin American country. How long has this been my dream...hmm since I was 16! This month literally flew by, so many new people to meet and new places see. I want to keep growing and keep learning and seeing new things. I don't want to get into any certain routine of 'just living life'. Im not sure if that even makes sense, I mean routine is great and I think I need it in a sense to stay sane. But I want to keep pushing myself.
Im at the point with my spanish where I can communicate just fine, but I want to take it further, with vocab..etc..I want to be able to REALLY express myself. It feels weird saying Im bilingual because I feel like that's a huge accomplishment that I haven't quite achieved. The second language will never be quite like the first but I hope that in these two years I can keep expanding my language. I was with the director of our program the other day and I told him how in college I took portuguese classes. He offered to take me to the dept. of languages and talk to the director to see if I could audit a portuguese class, SCORE! It would be awesome to start up that language again.
So I've got a meeting to go to in about 15 minutes and theres no way that I can update all of the things that have been going on. So I'll summarize real quick. As I said work is going well. We are so close to actually starting trainings for the project with Prevention and Attention of Emergencies! We have a space to start the Addictions and mental health program. The money got cleared to do Survey Monkey and upload our survey. Eulalia and I will actually be giving up our office and moving into a new one (needs to be "built") next to the director. So there are many exciting things going on there.
Family is doing fine. I've gotten into a routine with them where I eat breakfast with them, then when I get done at the gym I go and have some sort of dinner. And that's really about it for family interaction. They do their own thing, I do mine and it seems to work out well. It's such a different family life than I've been used to, probably the worst that I've had in all of my host family experiences, kinda sucks to have to end on this type of note, pero bueno, asi es la vida.
Surprisingly enough I've been watching way more basketball than I have soccer. Basketball is really popular here and the group of friends that I have are on different club teams play a couple times every weekend. It's really fun to learn the different tec. terms in spanish and see what they consider "professional" basketball, lol.
This past weekend I went to Guaranda, a small town where a couple other volunteers are. Rebekah met up with us and we had a good time. Nice to be with Americans but felt weird speaking so much english. Clearly my english going down hill and I apologize for this, my grammar was not the best to begin with and will get progressively worse within these next two years...just a heads up.
Alright enough for now. I'll try to update again soon!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Thursday thursday thursday
Almost the weekend! Today was a good day, well after the morning. So Eulalia and I were going to go to this simulation at Gestion de Riesgos. It was a big deal because the police, firemen, Red Cross and even the governor were there. They were doing a mock test of how they would handle a volcanic eruption with an earthquake. I arrived at 9 o´clock on the dot, waited for Eulalia...She called me at 9:02 to say that I should come up to the University to help finish up this document that had to be turned into the boss. Someone had called her to say the simulation wouldn´t be starting until 10..well good to know...
So I walked up to the University to find out that the boss wasn´t even there and Eulalia was doing interviews with the guards..Long story short we didn´t leave the University until about 10:15 and arrived late to a mad chaos of people..It was so awkward at first because everyone was running around trying to do work and we were just standing there, supposed to be observers but it was really hard to observe when people were all over the place, sounds going off, it was quite the site. So much planning had to of gone on with it. We met some important people, made some contacts and had scrumptious kimbolitos! they are officially one of my favorite foods here. I could probably live off of kimbolitos and llapingachos, lol
I then went to lunch at Kims. She made a great salad and I had curry chicken, HEAVEN!!! I went back to the office in the afternoon and Eulalia and I worked on printing out this huge document..I don´t know how it became so complicated but it took us over 3 hours to get everything just right and in order..lol
I went to the restaurant to have dinner and then back home to shower befor the basketball game. The "professional" team was playing a team from santo domingo and the game ended up being really good! Worth the whole $4 this time, lol
So I walked up to the University to find out that the boss wasn´t even there and Eulalia was doing interviews with the guards..Long story short we didn´t leave the University until about 10:15 and arrived late to a mad chaos of people..It was so awkward at first because everyone was running around trying to do work and we were just standing there, supposed to be observers but it was really hard to observe when people were all over the place, sounds going off, it was quite the site. So much planning had to of gone on with it. We met some important people, made some contacts and had scrumptious kimbolitos! they are officially one of my favorite foods here. I could probably live off of kimbolitos and llapingachos, lol
I then went to lunch at Kims. She made a great salad and I had curry chicken, HEAVEN!!! I went back to the office in the afternoon and Eulalia and I worked on printing out this huge document..I don´t know how it became so complicated but it took us over 3 hours to get everything just right and in order..lol
I went to the restaurant to have dinner and then back home to shower befor the basketball game. The "professional" team was playing a team from santo domingo and the game ended up being really good! Worth the whole $4 this time, lol
Wednesday-back at work
Went back to work today. Doc still doesnt want me doing a lot of exercise so I have to take a taxi to the University which just seems ridiculous because it´s like a 20 min walk but whatever, doctors have their orders for a reason, right? We had a meeting right away in the morning with Jurisprudencias y derechos humanos about the plan de emergencias. Marcelo from gestion came in to talk and then Alexandra talked about the University plan with the brigades and committee and all the trainings that we have to do. Faculty and students came and seemed really interested and movitvated to start. At the end of the meeting the cooridantor designated professors for each of the brigades and the students that were there signed up for which group they wanted to be trained in. They seemed to be the most motivated to get things started which is really exciting!
I went to the restaurant close by campus to eat, good food! I then came back to the office and did some work until about 4 when I went to the post office to pick up the infamous package my father had sent me...well it wasn´t his package, but a package from Anne!! With tons and tons of chocolate! Yay! Although Im not really sure where dad´s package is. I decided not to go to the meeting in the evening because I knew it was going to go really late. Instead Chino and I met up with Hannah and Pepe and then went to Kims to have some cookies she made, absolutely amazing! Came home and went to bed.
I went to the restaurant close by campus to eat, good food! I then came back to the office and did some work until about 4 when I went to the post office to pick up the infamous package my father had sent me...well it wasn´t his package, but a package from Anne!! With tons and tons of chocolate! Yay! Although Im not really sure where dad´s package is. I decided not to go to the meeting in the evening because I knew it was going to go really late. Instead Chino and I met up with Hannah and Pepe and then went to Kims to have some cookies she made, absolutely amazing! Came home and went to bed.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Well on day number two of rest...Im glad I can go back to work tomorrow, lol. Although it was nice to rest. Today I slept in till 8 am which was amazing! It was a gorgeous day outside so I decided to go downtown to the park and write some letters to people. Of course the sun didnt last too long but it was still warm. There I was, sitting on the bench minding my own business when this lady sits down next to me. She asks me what time it is and then pulls the whole "Are you from here", no I am not, is always the response...lol.
We got to talking about the states, people here love to hear about prices and how much things cost back in the U.S. We then started talking about how much it would cost to travel to the states to live. She said that she had some family to stay with but wasn´t really sure about the job situation because the economy is bad. I told her what I thought the range airplane tickets would be depending on the season; between $700-1200, she seemed to disagree, bueno...Then as we kept conversing I realized she was talking about entering the states ilegally; how much would it cost to enter the states without papers. That, I told her I really did not have experience in. By then it was noon and she said she had to go, thank god, because the convo could´ve become even more awkward. I´ll have to say that is the frist time that I´ve been confronted with the actual "issue" of an ecuadorian at the end of options (according to her), that she had to consider to entering the states illegally...
At about 1 I met up with Chino and Kim to eat llapingachos and juice at the market, probably one of my favorite places to go because there are always a variety of interesting people to watch, lol. I came back home and watched many episodes of Entourage, good times, lol.
We got to talking about the states, people here love to hear about prices and how much things cost back in the U.S. We then started talking about how much it would cost to travel to the states to live. She said that she had some family to stay with but wasn´t really sure about the job situation because the economy is bad. I told her what I thought the range airplane tickets would be depending on the season; between $700-1200, she seemed to disagree, bueno...Then as we kept conversing I realized she was talking about entering the states ilegally; how much would it cost to enter the states without papers. That, I told her I really did not have experience in. By then it was noon and she said she had to go, thank god, because the convo could´ve become even more awkward. I´ll have to say that is the frist time that I´ve been confronted with the actual "issue" of an ecuadorian at the end of options (according to her), that she had to consider to entering the states illegally...
At about 1 I met up with Chino and Kim to eat llapingachos and juice at the market, probably one of my favorite places to go because there are always a variety of interesting people to watch, lol. I came back home and watched many episodes of Entourage, good times, lol.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Woke up in the middle of the night to go pee and found out this morning that there was blood in my urine. The PCMO was called and I had to do a urine test. Kind of a pain in the butt here because you have to go to a pharmacy and buy your own cup, lol. And of course it took me forever to have enough urine to fill it up haha. I then had to take a taxi downtown to find the lab. Taxi driver definitely told me the wrong direction. I paid four dollars for the test! Super cheap right? They said to come back at 5 for the results.
On my way back up I stopped at Kim's to grab some movies and tv shows to watch for the rest of the day. I also picked up some bread and fruit that I would be eating the rest of the day because surprise surprise there is no food at our house and there was no way that I was going to walk to the restaurant every time that I wanted to eat something. I got home and set up a nice nest in the living room with a 7 liter jug of water (oh yeah our water was cut off so I had to go buy water...) food, movies, etc..Around 2 pm I took a nap and then at 5 went to get the test results.
Nothing serious just a UTI that probably turned into a slight kidney infection. I then called the PCMO with the results and she instructed me on what meds to buy. I then had to go to an ATM to get money and then to a pharmacy..all of this was done in the rain, ugh.. I hopped on a bus to the mega maxi because I wanted to get some juice. All of the juice requires refrigeration after opening and we don't have a fridge so I had to stock up on juice boxes, lol came home and watched a movie, then skyped with mom and howard. Family was home around 9 and I went to bed by ten. I actually felt a lot better by the end of the night and I don't think there is anymore blood, lets at least hope not. Im going to be on meds for the next week and then have to go back for another test to make sure everthing's good. Im also restricted from doing any type of exercise till wed, which means no work till then. I called my counterpart and she was pretty nice about it. Just sucks because there are some really important meetings that Im going to miss...oh well.
On my way back up I stopped at Kim's to grab some movies and tv shows to watch for the rest of the day. I also picked up some bread and fruit that I would be eating the rest of the day because surprise surprise there is no food at our house and there was no way that I was going to walk to the restaurant every time that I wanted to eat something. I got home and set up a nice nest in the living room with a 7 liter jug of water (oh yeah our water was cut off so I had to go buy water...) food, movies, etc..Around 2 pm I took a nap and then at 5 went to get the test results.
Nothing serious just a UTI that probably turned into a slight kidney infection. I then called the PCMO with the results and she instructed me on what meds to buy. I then had to go to an ATM to get money and then to a pharmacy..all of this was done in the rain, ugh.. I hopped on a bus to the mega maxi because I wanted to get some juice. All of the juice requires refrigeration after opening and we don't have a fridge so I had to stock up on juice boxes, lol came home and watched a movie, then skyped with mom and howard. Family was home around 9 and I went to bed by ten. I actually felt a lot better by the end of the night and I don't think there is anymore blood, lets at least hope not. Im going to be on meds for the next week and then have to go back for another test to make sure everthing's good. Im also restricted from doing any type of exercise till wed, which means no work till then. I called my counterpart and she was pretty nice about it. Just sucks because there are some really important meetings that Im going to miss...oh well.
Sunday Sept, 11 2011
Today wasn't the most productive day. Pretty much just hung around home, was pretty sick all day. I won't entertain you with details....I went on a hunt for saldo and of course like every store around my house was closed because it was sunday I guess. I talked to Ruth and Dad which was nice then the fam came home and I explained to them that I couldn't eat because I felt really sick. They thought it was something I ate..I hope so. If Im not better by tomorrow I will be calling the Peace Corps medical officers.
Saturday, Sept 10, 2011
Had to wake up early again because I was off to Riobamba for the day. It's a really easy trip to make, just about an hour in bus. I met up with Shannon, Orrin and Lauren. We walked around a bit, went to a couple markets and then ran into Sylvia and Anne! A while later Chloe and Nick showed up. Talk about a gringo fest, lol. We went to eat at this really good Mexican restaurant. At this point I wasn't feeling so hot. Lack of sleep ad not having eaten the greatest was most likely the cause of it.. After lunch we went to this cafe and people got beers, I had chamomile tea, haha. Some other volunteers from other omnibuses stopped by, it was nice to meet and chat with them.
Shannon and I headed back around 4 to Ambato. Riobamba's a pretty neat city. Much more flat than Ambato. They have a nice market and some neat old buildings but I don't know, by the end of the day I was ready to go back. Ambato is really starting to feel like a place that I belong to, now that I have friends and a good work environment. The bus ride was quite interesting. When we arrived to the terminal they said there were seats on this one bus, so we got on and clearly it was packed with NO seats. I told them I wasn't going to stand so they were like, oh here you guys can sit behind the driver. Four of us squished on this bench type thing. By this time I was really feeling sick. Stomach cramps, nauseous, just really crappy. I couldn't even sleep because of the lack of space. We arrived in Ambato and I took a cab to my house. Shannon took the bus. I was trying to get to Kim's to catch a ride with Pepe to go to the economistas house. The economista is the basketball coach for the group of guys that Im friends with. He was having a little get together at his house. I didn't quite make it to Kim's on time but it worked out that Chino was just getting out of class so we could take a taxi together.
So I get to his house at 6:45, he's still getting ready, lol. By 7:30 his dad was supposed to be back so we could take the car...he wasn't... Chino's mom made me oregano tea for my stomach, which actually did help. His dad never showed up so we eventually just took a cab and finally arrived at the economistas around 8. Good thing we hadn't gotten there earlier because they weren't doing much, lol. I had a hot dog because I figured I needed to eat something. Then there was dancing for like the rest of the night. Poor Kim was really sick and wanted to go home but couldn't so she slept till everyone was ready to leave, which wasn't till around 2 am.
Shannon and I headed back around 4 to Ambato. Riobamba's a pretty neat city. Much more flat than Ambato. They have a nice market and some neat old buildings but I don't know, by the end of the day I was ready to go back. Ambato is really starting to feel like a place that I belong to, now that I have friends and a good work environment. The bus ride was quite interesting. When we arrived to the terminal they said there were seats on this one bus, so we got on and clearly it was packed with NO seats. I told them I wasn't going to stand so they were like, oh here you guys can sit behind the driver. Four of us squished on this bench type thing. By this time I was really feeling sick. Stomach cramps, nauseous, just really crappy. I couldn't even sleep because of the lack of space. We arrived in Ambato and I took a cab to my house. Shannon took the bus. I was trying to get to Kim's to catch a ride with Pepe to go to the economistas house. The economista is the basketball coach for the group of guys that Im friends with. He was having a little get together at his house. I didn't quite make it to Kim's on time but it worked out that Chino was just getting out of class so we could take a taxi together.
So I get to his house at 6:45, he's still getting ready, lol. By 7:30 his dad was supposed to be back so we could take the car...he wasn't... Chino's mom made me oregano tea for my stomach, which actually did help. His dad never showed up so we eventually just took a cab and finally arrived at the economistas around 8. Good thing we hadn't gotten there earlier because they weren't doing much, lol. I had a hot dog because I figured I needed to eat something. Then there was dancing for like the rest of the night. Poor Kim was really sick and wanted to go home but couldn't so she slept till everyone was ready to leave, which wasn't till around 2 am.
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