Ecua-weekend

So this past weekend was full of two events, one very ecuadorian and the other semi ecuadorian.  The first was the Fiesta de la Quinceaños of a cousin of Chino.  They don´t lie when they say that 15 is a big deal here.  The party was quite fancy and I have yet to figure out if everyone does 15 yr old birthday parties or just those who have money.  The party took place in one of the nicest hotels here in Ambato.  We arrived around 7:30 and at about 8 the birthday girl entered.  Before her entered 6 girls and then 6 guys.  She then entered with her boyfriend....kinda like a wedding to be honest.  She wore this huge, fancy, very girly, pink dress.  She entered, there were a few words said and then there was like a father, daughter dance.  During the dance each of the friends that entered had a candle and as she danced she blew out the candles one by one.  

The father sang a song and then each table was asked to come up and congratulate the parents and the daughter for turning 15....We were FINALLY served dinner at like 10 p.m. She went around and they gave out the table decorations to one person at the table.  Then there was desert and dancing till like 2 in the morning.

I was really at aw at the whole thing.  Back in the day they did these fiestas to present the daughters to the community as women ready to be married!!! To be honest I thought a lot of it was a little ridiculous but at the same time it was a nice time to have everyone together and celebrate this girls birthday.  It´s kinda like the importance of turning 16 in the states.  I just couldn´t believe at how much money was probably spent on a girl that was turning 15....Interesting though that the tradition from years and years ago is still present in the Ecuadorian culture.

So the day after, Sunday, (yesterday) was the 65th anniversary of the the grandparents of the girl that turned 15 the night before!!!  The couple is 96 and 99 and have 6 children, tons of grandchildren and several great grand children.  We traveled out of the city to the countryside where one of the son-in-laws has a house.  It was a beautiful but simple house, with lovely gardens (of flowers and fruits).  We ate and then sat around for over an hour, listening to jokes.   How these men think of and remember all these jokes I have no idea, but it was a fun time getting to know more of Chino´s family.  Then we walked around the grounds a bit to take photos. (I´ll try to post them later) and walked in the house because it was getting cold.  

After a bit the Karaokee started, oh how ecuadorians love their Karaokee, haha...then we were served "cafe and pan", which was really te/coffee, bread, cheese and cake, along with other nuts and stuff.  We sat at the table and conversed for awhile.  It was a really great time to be with extended family, reminded me of the family gatherings that I used to have back at the states.  Nothing too out of the ordinary, just a whole bunch of family together to celebrate the 65 years of marriage of the parents (grand parents, great grand parents).  It´s amazing to see how well the husband gets around at his old age of 99!!

Back in Ambato

Well Im back in Ambato after a nice week away in warm Tumbaco.  I was super excited to get back to work and start some of the new things that I have in mind for the University and start my secondary project!! When I first arrived back at UTA I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to be doing...but as always those perspectives change....Turns out there is a student here from another Univ. in Riobamba doing an internship helping us implement the program of Educación Sexual (Sex education).  They had a very successful program started in their University and the Director wanted to implement something similiar here at the UTA.  So we will be doing yet another survey and then from there create and program and start trainings.  Im really excited to work with this girl because, one, she is my age, young and smart, lol and two, I can count on the fact that she is actually going to follow through with what she needs to do..

I brought back some material to work with the parents of the kids of the Day Care Center here on campus too! So my counterpart, the clinical psychologist sat down and made up a project to talk to the parents once a month on a different topic.  Im excited to be a part of that too!  The other project that is kinda in the making is working on nutrition with the kids in the Day Care Center...I still have to do some planning for that because I was really given no guidance on what is needed or anything, haha but we´ll see what I can do there...

Now onto the secondary project!  Sharon (the TEFL volunteer here in Ambato) and I are starting a girls group at one of the schools in Ambato.  I am very impressed with how fast we have put it all together.  In a week we were able to talk to the girls (we are doing seventh level), talk to the parents, and get a list of interested parents/girls...Now the only problem is that we have wayyy too many for the amount that we want to work with...we are trying to figure out exactly how to address this issue...It´s obvious that a lot want to do it but all won´t be able to.  We might end up picking half and leaving the other half for the next semester.

The goup is going to be working on self-esteem and leadership skills through art and theatre.  After mid service we were able to get several ideas of arts and crafts to do with the girls and I hope we can have some of those volunteers come and actually show the girls how to do it!

Im really excited about this project because it is something completely apart from the University, which is exactly what a secondary project should be.  We´ve already put a lot of work into it and I hope that we get some positive results with the girls!!

Mid Service

Well it´s been about a month.  I do apologize!  This second year has started out with a bang!  Two weeks ago (which for some reason feels like forever), we had our mid service with our 106 group.  It was so much fun to see everyone and get to chat with several about how their last year has been.  It was also surreal to be back at the training center after almost a year!

The week was also so much better planned out than our PST (pre-service training) and our Re-Connect.  The administration has changed and so the lady that is in charge of trainings and what not is actually an American who served in Ecuador as a PCV awhile back, her name is Bibi, and she worked with us as a health group back at PST, she´s awesome and did a really great job and organizing the events for mid service!

The first day we did a lot of reflecting.  We did an exercise on perspectives..What were our perspectives now that we are one year into our service, what were our projected perspectives for the end of next year.  There were several perspectives all over the room, from very negative to very positive.  So the first round was to sit under the perspective that you had at that moment, after the first year, and converse with the other people that chose that perspective.  I chose the perspective of "Im looking forward to the next year...what comes, comes." I chose this perspective because one, I am looking forward to the next year, and being here in Ecuador for a year, knowing that so many things change daily, Im ready for whatever comes!

Next we had to choose where it is that we want to be in the next year.  For this one I chose "What a great opportunity".  I chose this because in the end, my two years will come to a close and I really just want to leave knowing that I learned all that I could and that the people I worked with learned what they could learn from me, and that overall it was a great opportunity!

The second day in the morning we had presentations of all of the volunteers on their work for this last year. It was kinda like a science fair where everyone set up little tables to show off their work.  There were various ways of presenting..most either did a print out of pictures, or a powerpoint.  I think this activity was the most beneficial because we could see the work that others had done and could get ideas for this next year.  And not only get ideas but know who to contact if we wanted to do a "tech exchange". The rest of the day was health and security workshops...

The third day we did a training on body maps and prevention of HIV-Aids.  It was a really awesome activity and Im hoping to train the staff here at DIBESAU on the activity some time this week (keep your fingers crossed)

The fourth day we had meetings within our own programs.  We talked a lot about our work and the peace corps goals.  I think everyone agreed on the fact that the first year (like most americans do) we were so worried about getting results, completing the health goals, and not really paying attention to the other general PC goals which mainly have to focus on cultural integration.  Now looking back on the year we see that most of us have gone above and beyond those two goals that are really just as important as the first goal.  Everyone was excited to get back at site to start their projects, now that we felt well integrated into the community.

We then received our letters that we wrote to ourselves in Philidelphia before even arriving to Ecuador!  Many had put money in the envelopes!  I put 20 bucks and was so happy to see that crisp 20 dollar bill.  The letter wasn´t that interesting, I was mainly really excited but at the same time really nervous!  We then wrote another letter to open at COS....Im so interested to see the answers to the questions that I wrote a year from now...

Friday was the last day and believe it or not Joshua, who is the financial guy of  Peace Corps came to talk to us about COS (Close of Service).  Mainly logistical stuff, our re-adjustment allowance, and if necessary the earliest we can leave without having to ET (early terminate).

It´s crazy to thing that already in March/April we have to be doing write ups about our work, our site, etc, etc.. and then in May we will have COS because Im sure people will be leaving in July to go back home....


All in all it was a great experience.  It def. gave me "ganas" to come back to Ambato and start work for the new year!

We don't have thunderstorms in Ambato

So as I lay in my bed this morning I heard the rumbling of what I thought would be a thunderstorm.  Indeed it was not the onset of a storm, but the activation of the volcano Tungurahua.  Apparently the volcano can be quite noisy when it wants to.  As I heard this noise and realized it was the volcano it made me a bit nervous.  I had never heard "volcano thunder" before...what does this mean???  Then I got to thinking, of all the rain we get here in Ambato there are NEVER thunderstorms, no lightening, no thunder, just rain...hmm  I can't believe it took me a year to realize this.  Just thought I'd share that tid bit on my blog :)  Something to look forward to when I go back home....THUNDERSTORMS!!!

VACATION!!!!!

So for the first time in about a year I have vacation from work! Vacation started last week friday and that saturday I headed out to Santo Domingo to help out with the medical brigade that I helped out with in May.  I went with two other PCV's and about 5 UTA students.  We arrived later than the brigade group from Kentucky so missed out on introductions meaning that it was slow going getting to know everyone. The brigade was bigger than last time, about 40 people.  All of them were from various medical fields (gen. med, pediatrics, neurology, physical therapy, and dentistry).  We had a great time, very long days but by then end Im pretty sure they helped out over 800 people! I also got to meet the new PCV that will be replacing Ronald ( the PCV that works at the clinic that the Univ. of Kentucky started).  Her name is Maggie and she's awesome!

I arrived really late wednesday night and was able to finally sleep in on Thursday!  That afternoon I went with Chino and the basketball team to Quito to watch a basketball game (UTE vs IMPORTADORA)  We got back late friday night and then got up early saturday morning to go on a little day trip to Tena.

We went with Chino's whole family (aunts, cousins and even his grandma!)  We arrived in Tena around 11 and had lunch, from there we visited a zoo.  About 10 minutes into the zoo tour it started to DOWNPOUR.  Everyone got completely soaked.  Everyone in the family had brought an extra pair of clothes (apparently knowing that we would get wet...lol) but I had to air-dry for the next couple hours.  Luckily the weather in the rainforest changes drastically-it rained for about 30 minutes and then right after the sun came out, so I dried pretty quickly.

From there we headed to Misahualli, this lovely tourist town with monkeys!  There were TONS of people because friday was Ecuador's independence day (which they do practically nothing for) and so everyone was traveling that weekend, many to Misahualli.  We walked around on the beach and watched the monkeys, ate ice cream and then around 5 pm headed back to Ambato.  We stopped in Puyo to have dinner and arrived in Ambato around midnight!

Sunday Chino and his friends had a basketball game at 9 AM so we had to get up early once again.  They won and have qualified for the semi-finals.  We went back to watch the men's basketball game in the Olympics YAY USA!!  Chino's parents had gone to Quito that morning to pick up the new car.  Yeah that's right, last week some guy offered to buy one of their cars and so they sold it and then like 5 days later bought another car...weird right?  I guess Im not used to people buying and selling their cars...I always thought that people buy their car and keep it till it doesn't work and then look for a new one.  But I guess it's something that Fausto (chino's dad) and actually his grandpa like to do.  The new car is just like the one his dad has and is a lot better than the other one he had.  We hung out at the aunt's house most of sunday afternoon and then at 10:40 pm went to go see the Batman movie....  It was dubbed...so i'll have to see it again..but it was still good.

Today, monday I pretty much just hung out, read.  Im FINALLY finishing the Stieg Larsson books.  Tomorrow I'll head to Ibarra with the basketball team to see them play tomorrow night and then head back wednesday.

Thursday Im hoping to go on the hunt for jeans...POR FIN!! Cross your fingers that I can find some that are nice and cheap.  Otherwise the rest of my vacations will consist of hanging out here in Ambato and then going to Quito next week for our mid-service Medical check-up, Im getting my teeth cleaned, SO EXCITED!!  Thursday of next week I'll head back to work and start the countdown until HANNAH COMES !!!!

Alright that's all for now :)

23rd birthday in Ecuador

Well, two birthday´s down, one to go here in this lovely country on the Equator.  My birthday ended up being just perfect!  I went to work in the morning, nothing really too eventful.  Because we had celebrated the two birthdays on Thursday I don´t think anyone really realized that my birthday was Friday, but of course Eulalia remembered and gave me some chocolates :)

I went to get lunch with Eulalia after work.  We went to this "Fruits Only" restaurant.  It´s like a buffet of fruits, yogurts, granola and they charge you by the weight.  It was super good!!  After that I met up with Chino at his house to talk with my mom and sister.  He bought me this wonderful arrangement of flowers with a card, so beautiful!!  I talked to Ruth and mom for a bit and then Chino and I headed downtown to meet up with a volunteer form Salcedo and her boyfriend.  We had ice cream and they brought me a piece of cake with a candle!  We chatted for awhile and watched the Olympics ceremony.

After ice cream we were going to go to Sharon´s house to eat, so I had to go to order pizza and then run over to Kim´s house to get some stuff that she needed to take over to Sharon.  Between getting the pizza and bringing over stuff from Kim´s it ended up being too late for Chino to come eat with us.  Comunikt had a basketball game that night at 8 and for some reason he had to be with the team at 6:30.   So he dropped me off and I had a nice dinner and dessert with Kim and Sharon.

Kim and I were going to go to the game but at about 8 pm her family called her saying that her flight had changed for THAT NIGHT!  She was to be in Quito at like 10 pm which definitely wasn´t going to happen, so she stayed at Sharon´s and I went to the game by myself.  I ended up getting to the game later and because it was the two Ambato teams playing the Coliseo was packed.  I had to go all the way up in the nose bleed section!  Thankfully they won though.

After the game Chino went to eat with the team and then once he arrived home we had ANOTHER dinner and cake and ice cream!  So in total I'm pretty sure I made four wishes for my birthday!  His mom had went to get the cake done and told them to put "Rachel".  Well of course Rachel isn´t that common and they must have heard something different because the name was Chachi!! lol!  Oh well, it was still good cake.

We ate cake and had tea so by that time I was completely full.  We left the house at about midnight to meet up with the team and celebrate the win.  All in all it was a good night.  Even though there weren´t many people in town, I ended up spending it with really good friends that were in town, and we had a good time.  I´ve got to admit I think it´s the first time in my life that I´ve been able to blow out FOUR candles.  Let´s hope all those wishes come true ;)

This is our last week till VACATION!!!! So excited!! I haven´t really taken any vacation (only when my parents came in march) so I'm really ready to have more free time, although I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do..This coming weekend I will be traveling to Santo Domingo to help out with the brigade (the same one that came in may).  I'm hoping to bring some students from the UTA and other PCV´s to help because it sounds like they are going to need it!

Other than that I hope to visit other volunteers, catch up, and just relax!  Then start the countdown for when Hannah comes!!!!!

And so the celebrations begin!

A day before my birthday and I'm already celebrating!  So at work we always celebrate everyone´s birthday. Lately with the new director we´ve been having little breakfasts, with fruit, bread, coffee, tea, the whole shabang!  Turns out the secretary has her birthday a day before mine and so they decided to do a joint birthday today.  Not really a problem for me, a celebration is a celebration and I really don´t mind sharing the occasion.

The only problem is that on Thursday´s I normally go to the Childcare center to work with the kids on English.  So we figured out that I would give English classes and then run to the office to be part of the party. I planned out this really fun activity for today about learning colors, with a song, making their own color book and everything.  I hurried to get to the daycare center, because I was running late, and get there only to find that the kids are on vacation...thanks for letting me know....this country...ugh...so I guess it turned out better that I didn´t have classes because the party ended up starting a little bit earlier.

It was quite a feast!  Everyone had fruit salad, peaches, empanadas, coffee/tea and then they had THREE cakes!  We ate one for all of us and then they gave each of us a log like cake!  So I already have a whole cake for myself a day before my birthday, which I guess is alright because I can use it for tomorrow when I get together with the only three people that will be in town to celebrate, lol....

So far the birthday celebrations have started off well.  I'm interested to see how tomorrow turns out but I'm staying positive!  I so wish I could be with my family and friends in the states but in turn I will be with family and friends here in Ecuador.

:) :) :)