Reconnect and a mountain

Hello from the house of my training host family in Tumbaco, Ecuador. We're back in town four months after swear-in for our first in-service training called Reconnect. The idea of the workshop is to learn how to better work with our counterparts (the leaders in our communities) and get some other work done like making fun recycled art (I'm excited to do what I learned even just on my own!) and receiving immunizations and such.

It was very strange coming back to Tumbaco, very much like coming home. I left Monday morning on the 6 a.m. bus to Riobamba, hardly sleeping a wink the night before because I always get a little neurotic when I travel nowadays. I had to do laundry the day before despite the rain, and of course my clothes didn't dry so I had them draped all over my room. They still didn't dry and ended up bringing a backpack of wet clothes to drape around my room in Tumbaco. I piled a bowl of rabbit chow in Moo's cage and stuffed it full of fresh grass... hopefully my host will feed her, but I'm really worried she's not going to be ok.

The trip was easy and fluid but very long. Two hours to Riobamba, four to Quito, one or two hours riding the trolley buses to the right terminal, and 45 minutes to Tumbaco. My counterpart arrived just after me. We took the bus back but in the morning, my little mini cluster of volunteers met on our old street corner, stopped by the bakery we always visited each morning during training, and walked the hour journey to the training center on the bike trail. I thought we'd never get to walk that trail together again...it was just like "old times."

This week of training has flown by and already tomorrow, Friday, is the last day. After lunch, volunteers go back to their sites or on to vacations.

As for me...


I'm climbing COTOPAXI!!!!!

Cotopaxi is Ecuador's most frequently climbed mountain, an active volcano 19,347 feet high. We'll be staying at the refuge (which is located just over 15,000 feet) Saturday night and getting an alpine start on Sunday morning. If we feel good and have cooperating weather, we should be on the summit at dawn. I'm ridiculously excited, but also sanely nervous. Should be fun!

One day

I couldn't sleep because of swear-in excitement (or anxiety), and at about 12:30 a.m. I got an email from my dad saying that my mom's going into surgery in the morning for a hernia. It turns out she's had it for a while but kept it a secret from me so I wouldn't worry. I'm not a fan of this approach.

The surgery went fine and she's resting now, but it was a tense morning for me. I dealt with an angry stomach all day because of this and the impending swear-in event. Peace Corps Ecuador took us on a cultural trip to the historical center of Quito, which felt just like Europe for obvious reasons. I think one of my favorite parts of the trip was discovering a tiny cafe where they actually pull real espresso shots.

Our final stop was the Basilica del Voto Nacional, an enormous structure (the largest basilica in the New World) that permits you to climb to the top of the towers after paying a fee of $2. It was wildly fun - especially climbing up thin metal rungs with vast vacancies below.

Indigenous women were outside selling scarves, 2 for $5. I wanted to try out my Quichua so I tried and they actually understood me and responded. I spoke Quichua!

Training ended early today, for good. I mailed a letter to the U.S. ($2) and went home to pack. It's taken me hours, too, including cleaning. I can't stay up any longer.

Tomorrow's the day. We'll be sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers and depart for our sites. I'm on the 10:30 a.m. bus, so there's no rest or mingling for me. It's all rush, rush rush. Quite nervous now.

If not now, when?

At dinner today with my training host family, I realized when tomorrow comes I can say "Tomorrow I'm moving to my permanent site. For two years. THIS IS IT." I can't believe the time has come and after a year of applications, interviews, travel and training, Omnibus 105 Ecuador will be sworn in as United States Peace Corps Volunteers.

In honor and memory of our training time together, I put together a little video:

It's tough to describe how I really feel. I'm excited, but daunted. The job is indeed tougher than I thought it would be, and whatever is before me is a lot more difficult than I imagined. And I face something else I didn't expect - leaving what has become my family. My training host family is home. I love where I live, I love the comfort and privacy, I love that I can be a vegetarian with no problems, I love how patient my host mom is and how entertaining and...well... brotherly my host brothers are. I never had siblings so for three months it was really fun to have teenage brothers even though we didn't get to hang out much.

So it's hard to leave. After we've established the only home we know in Ecuador, we have to move on. And it's not even a smooth transition - because it's Semana Santa (Easter week), travel is an unbelievable mess so Peace Corps is making us leave the same day as swear-in. For some of us (me), that means right after the ceremony, at 10:30 a.m., we board a bus for Quito to catch rides to our permanent sites. No after party, no celebration.

And as usual, I'm not packed yet.

Carnaval waterfights and tech trip

Back in Tumbaco, gnawing on a chunk of panela (the proper way to eat sugar).

Our training class of 42 split into four groups last week to embark on tech trips. My Natural Resources Conservation group went to Cotacachi, a sierra town northwest of Tumbaco...something like a fourish hour bus ride away.

28 February 2011: Day 1
Left at the obscene hour of 5:50 a.m. for the park to meet up with other trainees. Took a minibus to Quito, another bus to Otavalo, and another to Cotacachi. Definitely sat on the wrong side of the bus for the best views, but along the way during that crystal clear morning we could see these nevados: volcan Cotopaxi, Antisana, Cayambe, Imbabura, and Cotacachi. At least. Probably am missing some.

When we got to Cotacachi, we dropped off our stuff at a hostel and immediately went to work interviewing residents about their knowledge of the local reserve. The first two people I asked immediately said no, not interested in helping. So I took to the tiendas along the park and, one by one, found success. First a shy woman in a bakery from whom I bought a chocolate bread afterwards, another man completely happy to help as a break from sweeping a furniture store, and a family who scolded me for not introducing myself properly - lesson learned, quickly. The family was incredibly warm and helpful though, and half way through the interview the wife stood up and drew me a cone of soft serve on the house. I finished way early and spent another hour, hour and a half sitting on the plaza church's steps people watching and enjoying the sun.

After lunch, we were given a charla (a talk) from an organization that buys uvillas (like gooseberries, Chinese lanterns, and tomatillos) from local farmers and dries them out to sell. We loaded up taxis for a farm further up the mountain where we helped picked some uvillas and deshelled them. Normally a job for the kids, the liberated children spent their free time chucking rotten uvillas at us from a rooftop, mostly at Paige.




Our dinners were special. That night we went to a pretty fancy place down the street from our hostel where we were actually given many choices - unless you're a vegetarian, like me, who's only option on the menu is grilled cheese. So be it! When our NRC coordinator found out I'm a vegetarian, he asked the waitress if there were more vegetarian options. Super respectful! So I modified grilled cheese with some tomato and mote on the side.

The first time Paige and I stepped back into our room that night, a huge WHOMP made us nearly jump back out - the decorative flag outside was right by our window, and it was storming outside. The rest of the night: whomp, whomp, whomp...our room fully illuminated by street lamps, and at what had to have been 4:30 a.m. or maybe 5, the sounds of the city waking back up. Bad sleep for the rest of the week.

1 March 2011: Day 2
Met at UNORCAC (Union de Organizaciones Campesinas e Indigenas de Cotacachi) for a few charlas about the organization itself.

We were taken by taxi to an ethnobotanical garden where an indigenous woman took us on a tour of all the medicinal plants. Got to smell all the amazing scents (yerba buena, chamomile, etc!) and taste-tested some aji (pepper, yum) and mora (blackberries). Of course, then, we worked. My job was to shovel in gravel in the wheelbarrows while the wheelers dumped it along a path in the garden. Others hoed hand for planting corn.

I'm getting way more comfortable asking before meals for a vegetarian plate - so far, I've run into no issues. So at this farm I asked for one, and received a massive plate of beans and rice. By far my favorite meal in Ecuador. I'll acknowledge that the beans may be cooked in meat juice, but I'm trying at least, and it makes me feel better. It was there that the group discovered the wall of honey wine and, after cracking one open and passing it around, a good number of us (myself included) decided to buy a bottle for $4.

A German volunteer gave us a charla on beekeeping and production on the same farm. Their bees are Africanized, so the beekeeper has to take extra precautions like fumagating them.

Dinner, again, was special: a couple from New York served us a gormet-type menu, all organic and locally produced. And even more special: they had a fully vegetarian option that included a rice-type soup, *falafel*, ratatouille, and more.

2 March 2011: Day 3
Great day for a geologist, especially one who loves volcanoes.


We went to Cuicocha, a small caldera lake south of Cotacachi peak, to help with trail maintenance and to learn about tourism/park management.

Cuicocha (guinea pig lagoon) was formed about 3100-2900 years ago and erupted about 5 km^3 DRE (dense rock equivalent) - VEI 5. For comparison's sake, St. Helens erupted 1 km^3 DRE in 1980. So the ash settled about 20 cm thick surrounding the caldera. Calderas form when material in the magma chamber is ejected enough so that the roof is unsupported and collapses. After the caldera-forming event, four dacitic resurgent domes formed, and two of them are subaerial. A lake occupies the 3-km-diameter caldera with no outlet or inlet.

ahem. sorry.


We took to the trail with palas, picos, and machetes to remove ... rocks... yes, I know, strange things those rocks are. Totally out of place. Happily my job was macheteier, walking along ahead of the group and chopping away plants encroaching on the trail. Not so happy when a volunteer hacked away a century plant, though. We walked about halfway around the caldera where we had lunch, and returned down a trailblaze that connected with a maintenance road.

Five of us stuffed into a truck to get back to Cotacachi, and a kid chucked a waterballoon at us aiming for the open window... partially successful too. Carnaval is coming...

Most of the group went for lasagna ($6?!!) at a hipster-looking little restaurant but a few of us went in search of cheaper pizza. Pizza place was closed, so sketchy empanada joint it was. Ate something like five cheese empanadas and could have had so many more.

Per usual, we hung around the hostel after dinner until our coordinator came in to tell us he had a surprise - not a great one though. So all of us, beers in hand at something like 9 or 9:30 p.m., left the hostel to invade the apartment of a Cotacachi volunteer for a safety talk, which was more like an hour and a half round table discussion of life in Ecuador for a Peace Corps volunteer. While it was truly interesting and helpful, I would have rather it be during the day when I'm not groggy with a beer in hand, ready to relax.

3 March 2011: Day 4
Slept in for 15 minutes longer! We packed everything up and headed for a community called La Calera near Cotacachi.

The morning was kicked off with a couple charlas about the ecotourism organization in the community that invites tourists to become involved with the people and learn more about their way of life and why it matters. Because I hadn't been getting much sleep, I have to admit I had a very hard time staying awake.

So as 'tourists' we were brought to a home where indigenous women were making beaded jewelry, and we were invited to help. We each made a bracelet, and some of us made earrings and partial necklaces. Some trainees bought their bracelets for $3 (usually $5) but I wasn't that interested...

Next up on the tourist agenda: checking out some sacred pools and a small waterfall. Our guide led us through the dense veg for just a quick visit, and on the way back for some reason or other I was laughing at Heather as I followed her around a iron-stained small pool. Laughing so hard that I slipped and fell in, of course. And to top it off, a few minutes later, I brushed by ortiga (stinging nettle) with my sunburned shoulder. Can't help but laugh at all that.

After lunch, our group was split in two. The other group went to another community, and my group stayed in La Calera. We were further split in pairs to homestay in the community. Our host family lived just a stone's throw from the community center and school. The mother and her son greeted us at the door and we met her son who was eating, while her youngest was asleep upstairs. While she did laundry on the piedra, Kristin and I opened bean pods for dinner and breakfast. She has an incredible garden full of medicinal plants for all kinds of purposes, and in the back she keeps a pig, cuyes (guinea pigs), and chickens. Her husband works in tourism escorting visitors by horse and such around the countryside. On the side of their house is a fantastic internet cafe.

Dinner was a soup of potatoes and beans, and bits of beef that I very carefully avoided but ended up chewing on anyway to my displeasure. Our host also presented us with a sweetened warm milk that I couldn't drink...and this was only the second of a few culinary faux pas I had at this house.

Our room was right in the front of the house with two big beds and a bathroom. Felt right at home because our room's decor was old climbing gear - two ice screws, a rope and gaiters hung above my bed, and boots and crampons hung on the other side of the room. The beds didn't have mattresses so my sunburned shoulders ached all night, but I really slept hard anyway. Until we were woken up at 5:30 a.m. by speakers blaring on about some meeting that day.

4 March 2011: Day 5

Breakfast was a plate of scrambled eggs, beans, and corn, with tea, pineapple juice, and toast with strawberry jam. Dreaded eggs. I gave them a good try, but couldn't nearly finish them...just glad my host didn't say anything about how I obviously avoided them.

That morning we had to give charlas (lessons/talks) to children in the school around the corner. Kristin, Paige and I waited for a half hour while the other groups began because we didn't have a facilitator. We ended up with fourth grade. These kids were talented, but they really attacked our patience. I'm not really a kid person to begin with, so when suddenly during class I was surrounded, almost literally buried, by kids, I was stuck not knowing what I should do. Ok, game! Yes. Outside.


Our final visit was to another campo farm, almost totally sustainable with composting toilets, canning, an off-the-grid house, greenhouse, cuy manure, composting pile, and a bike-powered laundry machine.

It took us ages to get home by bus (one to Otavalo, another to Quito, another to the Rio Coca terminal, another to Tumbaco...) but we made it. And oddly enough, my host mom and grandmother were walking home too so I met up with them, happy to be back. And even better: they gave me a key to the outer gate, so now I have the complete set of three keys to go in and out as I please. So finally, over a month into homestay, I went out to meet up with friends for the first time until *midnight*. Can't wait to do it again.

5 March 2011: today!

My mission was to check out that new vegetarian restaurant down the street, so Morgan, Mandy and I went for lunch. Closed, of course. It looks great though. We decided to try for the veg joint in Cumbaya so, on the way to Interoceania avenue, we got foamed by some guys on the street. Carnaval, is it over yet?

We found out this place is actually just Asian, so I went for a few spring rolls and bubble tea (in Ecuador?! yes!). They hit the spot, aside from their incredibly greasiness.

On our short walk home, we were waterballooned pretty hard by a passing card... and then less than a minute later, watergunned by the same car passing by a second time. And when I finally made it home, my middle bro was waiting on the other side of the door with a watergun...but at least he was merciful and spared me. A couple hours later, I got a phone call from my host mom asking if I wanted to play Carnaval. Hmm... ok. Downstairs, my host bros and their friends were loading up waterballoons and guns for this major battle with some neighbor kids. Revenge, finally! It was something like 10 on 2. And the battle resumes tomorrow and Monday. I'll be going up Ilalo again tomorrow but I'm game for Monday's waterfight.

A good day

Picture this:

Three gringas running down a steep cobblestone road that descends from a mountain. One is in shorts, another has a headlamp, and the other (yours truly) is galloping in sandals. The bus back to town arrived and apparently we wouldn't miss it for anything.

The day was gorgeous - our first day without rain, and one of the more cloudless days we've had in three weeks. I've been walking to and from class each day (about an hour one way) and that's been a real mood lifter. I love it. Especially today with such spectacular views, though yesterday we did spot nearby mountains with snow on them.

Saturdays, though, are big days for the local outdoors scene. Tons of people descended on the trail with mountain bikes. We had no problem with them, until one spot in the trail where we have to go single file through a few poles. This time, while we were going through, I heard a 'Permiso' but it was too late - behind me was Mandy, who couldn't move out of the way in time before the biker hit her in the leg. What seemed like a split second later, a man on a bike directly behind hit her and fell over. Because he was clipped in, he fell comically sideways, cursing the way down. Bikers were coming from the other direction. So Mandy and I were stuck in the middle, wanting to disappear from this bicycling disaster and at the same time trying so hard not to laugh at the ridiculous situation. I feel pretty sure it wasn't our fault at all, but I do hope not to run into them again. Or them into us...

Anyway, it was so clear, we finally spotted some major glaciated peaks nearby - Cotopaxi, I'm pretty sure? We've even seen Antisana. There are just too many to count...

We worked in our small language/culture groups for a short while before breaking up and presenting our Ecuadorian feast. Each group had a dish to prepare, and ours was corviches. Unfortunately when we went to the local grocery store, they had none for sale. So while I waited outside, my group came out with ice cream. I'm happy to say our facilitator just laughed when he heard the story...

A small group formed to go up the local mountain Ilalo, and we even walked all the way from training to approach it. When we got to town, we decided to hop on a bus to take us part way up the mountain...but it was more complex than just hopping on. It passed us going around the corner so we thought we'd missed it. But there it was - and Abby chased that sucker down like a pro and caught it for us. Took us way up for quite a great start, though it feels a little like cheating. Cobblestone road melted into footpath, into cobblestone road, into dirt road, and finally to footpaths among high altitude farmland.

We kept taking wrong paths but wrong isn't all that bad - these trails wrapped tantalizingly across Ilalo neither descending or ascending, just going straight across with the valley below and sweeping views of the green mountain buttress ahead. For another time, I hope?

Eventually we worked our way to the first cross which we noticed had just been graffito tagged the same day. And then the best reward of them all: getting to ridgewalk. Nothing better. Our tentative plan was to get to the top and descend down the other side to another town where apparently there's some kind of wood...bar...or something. But it was getting late (this is all after class, remember) we decided that no matter how unbelievable the views were on the other side, we had to go down the way we came.

So after walking down leisurely, we spotted that bus.

It was only 6ish, so we celebrated with beer (the guy working there had a White Sox cap and, unrelated to my praise on that or not, he gave us a free bottle...).

Wrapped the day up with my host family who cracked me up. I didn't understand most of the rapid talk but it was still funny.

Yeeah! Good day.

Been a while

A lot happened between then and now.

-Host mom was in the hospital for four days (recovering now, she'll be fine I think).

-Went to the circus. I already have reservations about using animals for entertaining (or anything, really) so I was reluctant but caved in. The only animal was an acting dog dressed as a small tiger. We also saw a clown teach little children typical Michael Jackson dances (yikes), and someone dressed in a stereotypical Asian costume climbed around in suspended hoops.

-Went to La Mitad del Mundo for a cultural experience last Monday and have lots of video to process. Went to the 'real' equator where the guide had us do a bunch of 'experiments' demonstrating the remarkable physical differences you experience on opposing sides of the line representing the Equator. They were gimmicks.

-Just wrote up my first charla: a quick intro to the erosion of rocks and creation of soil, tied to the overuse and misuse of land by humans that causes extremely rapid erosion. All in Spanish. Writing in Spanish is way easy for me now that I've settled in, but my impromptu speaking skills have sort of plummeted. Reading aloud something already written: again, way easy. It's in my head, I just have to make use of it.

-I love these tiny potatoes (about an inch in diameter) with homemade cheese sauce (queso de campo pureed with onion and milk). Fun fact: "There are about five thousand potato varieties worldwide. Three thousand of them are found in the Andes alone, mainly in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia."

-The bag my host family gave me has ripped two times. But it's easy to get fixed - for $1, a repair shop will fix it for good.

-Today I bought a piece of cake from the bakery near our bus stop and managed to safely transport it by bus to the training center. Maybe someday I'll get a quick video of the bus to show you what an enormous feat that was.

-I've been fighting an awful mood all this week, and all last week. And the week before, I was sick. Just have an overall feeling of discouragement.

Anyway, here's a super quick video update with nothing of real substance:

Claimjumping aspirantes

Hmm... the last few days. We: 1) started our organic gardens, 2) learned about dengue, malaria, fever, TB, and 3) went to Quito for a Peace Corps office tour.

Starting our jardines gardins gardens last Monday was by far the most engaging activity I've participated in during training so far. We cycled through several work stations, including: tilling and fertilizing the plots, worm beds, seed beds, seedling care and transplant. When we cycled through them all in small groups, the field was ready for planting and all us aspirantes lined up on one side. On of the count of three, we all ran out as language groups claimjumper-style to nab our preferred plot of land because this is, after all, a competition. Our group got our first pick:

I'll let you use your imaginations about the malaria/dengue/etc. talk, but we got our anti-malarial medications (in cute paper bags with our names on them like prizes). My medication: the one that makes some people go crackers and have insane dreams. I get to start it any day and can't WAIT! sarcasm. I already started having crazy lucid dreams ever since I was feverish last week, so I don't believe they need any help. But it's way better than getting a fatal form of malaria.

Next! Today we all migrated west to Quito to visit the Peace Corps office. The journey involves a bus to Quito, a bus to a bus station, another bus somewhere else...etc. We made it with the help of our language group facilitators and went on a grand tour of the place. The best part was visiting the NRC director's office, where there is a map of pins designating previous omnibus volunteer locations, and pink pins that designate sites where our omnibus will go - it was here that I suddenly got a revelation that I knew where I wanted to go. A pink pin sat right near the slopes of the perpetually erupting Sangay volcano in the Oriente/Sierra border. Another pink pin was nearby. I know, I'm flexible and will go wherever they send me because that's what I originally agreed to when I came here. But having a site right on Ecuador's most active volcano? Yes, please! I'm so eager to find out where I'm going, but I'm trying to wait without reservations or expectations.

It took a long time to get back to Tumbaco, and when we finally made it, our language group only had a little time to start thinking about making a community map from the town center to my host family's house. I randomly ran into Paola yesterday while walking through the town center (which is bustling and active in the afternoon), so she took me around on a paseo to point out important places like health centers, schools, churches, a *vegetarian restaurant*, etc.

Speaking of vegetarian...I feel really lucky to be with my Ecuadorian host family. They completely understand and respect my decision to be a vegetarian, and all my meals have been problem-free. They're always great meals, but sometimes they're spectacular. The other day, Paola made me a tofu dinner (from a bag of dried tofu). I had to ask three times, tofu?! No way! This morning, I had toast with a slice of queso and tomato on top. I had two and wanted so many more! Yuuuum. They also tolerate my completely random homework questions like, "What are three Ecuadorian words for 'friend'?" or "What is the name of the municipio administrator?" (no one seems to know).

Slacking is my favorite.

Sounds like I mostly got rid of the fever but a lot of other aspirantes are getting it. For those in my group who feel sick, hope you all feel better soon. You will, it's just really lousy for a little while.

For me, though, the world is a much happier, more beautiful place now that it's not an icebox of nausea.

I tried to take Friday easy because I still had a little bit of a very low grade fever going on, but thankfully it never came back. Most of our morning was spent talking about general safety, and to demonstrate the lessons, we performed skits showing bad and good behavior (PC here is huge on skits). We talked about the EAP, the evacuation plan in Ecuador, and several aspirantes performed a puppet show about what to do and what not to do when PC goes through the stages of EAP in an emergency.


And then the fun really began.

Kelley, a PCMO, arrived to talk to us about diarrhea.

First, though, a funny story. Later that night, having dinner with the host family, my host dad asks what we did today. So, very timidly, I said we talked about diarrhea. He thought I said we talked about theories. Theories about what? he asked. Ohhh, no. Not theories. Diarrhea. He seemed disappointed.

Anyway, Kelley gave a humorous talk on poo and related illnesses. And the worst part - worms. I'm hoping I can avoid them completely. Maybe that wasn't the worst part. The worst part might have been that the talk was right before lunchtime.

A large group of volunteers around Ecuador came to talk with us privately, without PC staff, so we could ask them our personal questions without fear of repercussions. I think it was time well spent and I got a lot out of it.

Now the best part, where the title of this entry comes from - a couple aspirantes brought their slackline kits with them, so two were set up in the very large walled-in yard of the training center. While a bunch of people played soccer, I and others slacklined. And it felt SO AMAZING to get back on the rope. It's regrettably been over a year since I last did it, but I'm happy to say it's like riding a bike - it comes right back. My balance is a shaky and my muscles are way weak so I can't do an on-line start, but it'll come.

Today was Saturday, and yes we had class at 8:30 a.m., which means I got up at 6 a.m. Class on Saturdays is culture and language, so we worked in our small language groups on grammar and the history of Ecuador. During break, I laid in the sun and soaked in the warmth, fully appreciating what a beautiful day it was. Finally, I can feel it!

Morgan & I & others had plans to wander around Tumbaco afterwards to 1) find food (apparently there's a vegetarian restaurant around here somewhere?!), 2) find a champa (a waterproof jacket, I think?), 3) find sandals and sneakers. We lost the other interested people and couldn't exactly find the restaurant, but we ran into Ricky and a bread/ice cream store at the same time so things were great. We were having little other success, though, so we tried the mall which is a loooong walk in the direction of Quito. I think we spent about an hour looking through all the books in Spanish. One, a Neruda poetry book, I almost bought. I wanted to buy Latitudes Piratas (the posthumous Crichton book) but it was $23. Ouch! No.

Once more, no luck. But we did buy some ridiculously amazing spaghetti alfredo with a salad for $4. It was the definition of ginormous, and we probably should have shared.

I wandered home around 6ish, no problems with the host family. All is well.

Tomorrow: wash clothes 'on the rock' as they say.

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! It's also my half birthday. Weird.

All is well. I think... I hope.

That low grade fever in my last post went down right after I wrote about it, but I still held a warm metal bottle of tea in my down sleeping bag when I went to sleep. THAT is bliss when you feel like the world is an ice bath. Hot spots to hold a hot thermos - on your neck, under your arms...and yes, between your legs.

So I woke up mostly fine. Just still a little achy and a little tired but nothing like yesterday. Still no appetite so that bowl of fruit that's normally very strange to me was extra difficult to finish (I didn't, it was my first meal at home when I couldn't eat everything). Out the door, and my host mom walked me to the bus again but I was on my own after that.

Training is much, much easier when you actually feel ok. We had many more sessions on rules and organization like money distribution, banking, student loans and the like, and again drew out on posters what we felt was needed to become functional volunteers. Throughout the day we had more interviews to get a baseline on our progress through training. My first interview was with a language proficiency facilitator who asked me a series of questions in Spanish. Eh, it didn't go so well. I expect to be placed in one of the novice levels because everything I said was pretty choppy. I snuck in a subjunctive verb and that's about it. I'm disappointed with how I did, but I'm ok with starting out in a lower level so I can erase 'blunders' and start sort of fresh.

After lunch (soup with many noodles, a bit of cheese, and potatoes, rice, lentils, some kind of meat, strawberries and cream and some kind of amazing juice - again, all for $2) we returned to split ourselves in groups according to our perceived level of Spanish proficiency. Beeline to the novice section! And it seemed like a good choice. I feel like I could keep up in the class, enjoyed the company of the other students, and actually learned quite a bit. I was the last person to be called away to have my Natural Resources Conservation interview with the coordinators, and they just asked me more about my skills. It was a lot like a short job interview.

Then I was told my host mom called and would meet me at the bus stop in town where I'd be dropped off. I just missed the bus, so I hopped in a taxi van that costs $.05 more. And my host mom wasn't at the stop. So I walked home the way she showed me yesterday, and had no problems - except I didn't encounter her all the way to the casa. And no one answered the bell! So I walked back to the stop (it's about 15-20 minutes away) and still nothing. So then I walked the main street to the bus stop where I go in the morning, and nothing... and walked back to the casa. By that time I was totally drenched from the rain, but at least Greta was there to open the door!

Dinner was phenomenal. In the States, I never really gave quinoa a chance. The taste didn't jump out at me, it was just... eh. But here, I almost feel out of my chair with glee when Paula said that was what I was having for dinner. For vegetarians and vegans and even omnis, it's the ultimate grain with a complete set of amino acids...basically it wins the prize for healthy food. So Paula made me a quinoa and potato soup, YUM. Carlos was around for a little while, and helped with some questions on my five-something-page homework on safety in Ecuador and Tumbaco. But then Paula took over, and then thankfully Mateo showed interest and helped me with most of it. Such a patient bro! He not only helped me fill it out, but helped me understand what some of the questions were asking (and sometimes what he would say).

Think it's time for sleep... 10 p.m. has been a normal bedtime for me the past week.

Manzanilla tea vs. 100.2 degrees

I was perfectly fine yesterday until I took a shower. It wasn't a cold shower, not a hot shower, somewhere in between. Somehow after the shower, I felt terrible. I was freezing cold, and curled up in bed to shiver for an hour before finally falling asleep. And it's not that cold in my room - like 64* at night which isn't terrible at all. I spent a winter in New Mexico in a room that went down to 42* and lower at night... this is nothing.

When I woke up, my throat hurt and I coughed some drip out, popped one of those throat numbing tablets in my med kit (haha, am I the first to use my kit??), and went to breakfast. I tried to explain my symptoms as best I could to my host mom, and I'm happy to say my family seems to totally get me. I had one fried disc of platano verde (YUM YUM YUM) and would have had more if I didn't feel so lousy. And then, as seems the fashion around here, we were rushing out the door. My host mom Paula led me to the bus stop many blocks east from here, and we waited for probably 20ish minutes before it finally showed up. $.20 will get you anywhere in Tumbaco. The ride to Campo Alegro (our training center) is easy, but the way back is harder...

So we arrived at "school" and I thanked Paula. We had a full schedule today about policies and the like, and I'm heartbroken to say PCT/PCVs have been prohibited from going to Banos, or anywhere near the volcano Tungurahua. It being one of the reasons I was beyond happy to accept my invitation, I was less than pleased today.

At lunch, we wandered up the dirt road to a casa where, in the back, the family had a cozy restaurant set up. Lunch is just $2, and included a soup, a salad, rice, a chicken leg, pina juice, and a watermelon slice. Unfortunately, the soup had a chunk of beef in it and I think it was chicken broth. But Chloe nabbed my chicken leg so all was well with that.

More meetings and more of me trying very hard to pay attention to the speakers and our activities and not to how cold I was or how achy my head and body were. I'll admit it was a bad day for my Spanish, I felt annoyed and just wanted to speak English. With any kind of illness, it's no fun to expend energy other than taking care of oneself. Finally, it was 4:30 and we waited for the bus outside. The first one to pass didn't have Paula, but the one 40ish minutes later did. She showed me how to get home, so I sure hope I can manage my way there and back tomorrow. She asked me if she should come with and I said... no... I'll try alone!

Greta, my host abuela, immediately asked if I wanted something hot to drink. Yes, I said, hot is good. She presented a cup of manzanilla and lemon and ordered me to drink it all while it was hot, and when I slowed down, Paula took her place. It took a while, and Paula and I made small talk... I realized mid-conversation that *I was speaking Spanish and understanding most of it*. Sweet relief, I thought, this is possible! And then we even had an argument in Spanish! She asked if I wanted to put more tea in my metal bottle, and I said no, it's only for cold water. She then told me yes, I need to drink warm liquids. And I bowed my head in defeat and said OK. Con dulce? No, sin dulce. I laughed.

So out of curiosity I busted out the med kid again and took out a disposable thermometer. Ugh, 100.2*F, a low grade fever. Best remedy - rest, liquids, stay warm. I'm keeping an eye on it, but I must say, I'm really excited to see the PC medical team tomorrow. I don't know why I'm ill, but maybe it's a reaction to the vaccines we had a couple days ago?

Host family, day1

I've started a photo blog here: https://picasaweb.google.com/govolcano/PeaceCorpsEcuador so please feel free to check that often, as I hope to update it often!

We left San Patricio for good after a meal heavy on yogurt. Some kind of fruity yogurt smoothie, and fruit totally covered in purple yogurt. I'm not used to eating yogurt so... that's a bit tricky.

Kelley, a PC medical officer, gave us a crash course on using the giant medical kit we all received. I'm actually really impressed with the kit and I totally appreciate having it. And whenever we run out or come close to doing so, they send us supplies totally free of charge. I like this.

Next the staff performed a series of culturally overexaggerated skits that included a few trainees to demonstrate some situations we might encounter, but I think it was more efficient at loosening us up and getting us to relax a little about our pending encounters with our new families. The skits were hilarious though - definitely thought the one of the 'kids' digging through Paige's bag (sorry Paige!) was the funniest.

They fed us again: a chicken or cheese (yo) sandwich with ridiculously amazing tomate de arbol juice. My favorite drink so far. Now suddenly I realize why a month before Ecuador, I started CRAVING orange juice. It was preparation because I was never really a fruit person before.

We were led to a new room where Andrew gave us a sort of pep talk about meeting our families, and handed out a map so we knew where we were. And then we picked up cards with our names, and were released to the foyer to find our families! It took a lot of looking and confusion for my host mom and me to be united, but it happened...dragged my luggage to the street, and into a taxi we went. My home is way, way far from the training center. I wonder who else is nearby? PC said we were put into clusters. Farther and farther the taxi drove, until we reached a locked gate, entered that, and came across another locked gate. Home!

Home is three houses, all the same family. Paula, my host mom, introduced me to her mother Greta, a lovely woman who speaks clear Spanish and flashes smiles at me all the time. Paula's young son Mateo was home, as was Matias who immediately shared with me his favorite music videos on YouTube, and asked to see mine. And there's Mario. M-M-M.

My personal space is enormous. Way bigger and nicer than I ever had a right to expect. I live in one of the three houses on the second floor. There's a large living/study room, a kitchenette (without cooking abilities), a bathroom and shower, my room, an extra room - all to myself. Totally private.

My host family is not obligated to make me lunch and I have to pay them for this in addition to what the Peace Corps gives us to pay them for breakfast and dinner, but even still they invited me to lunch. Another great soup with potatoes, carrots, onions and pasta (I'm loving the soup thing), a salad (tomatoes, broccoli, and a little lettuce with olive oil), rice, and a type of lentil cake (torta de lenteja?). I took a bite of the lentil cake and freaked a little - the texture reminded me exactly of meat. I asked again what was in it: Paula assured me it was just lentils and eggs. Oh, eggs? I'm not used to those either. More adjustment.

Peace Corps also told us not to have the cheese or milk until our stomachs settle in a week or so, but Matias offered me some to put in my soup. And it was that familiar white semi-soft salty cheese like queso de campo in El Salvador, so I accepted it. Eight hours later, I still feel fantastic.

Carlos (?), Paula's husband, arrived after work (he teaches English), and tried to get me connected to the wireless internet. We tried for what seemed like hours, and many people filtered in to help - that's another strange thing to me here, all the people around all the time! Finally they were successful and I was able to get on and Skype my parents.

Paula called me back for dinner, which was a quiet meal between herself, Carlos, and me of the same salad, rice, and a grilled cheese sandwich of the white queso. They finished way before me, so they drilled me with questions and, maybe it was nerves or tiredness, but my Spanish went down the drain. I think I disappointed my host dad, because I can speak Spanish when I'm 100% focused, but if I loose concentration, away it goes. Paula asked me tough questions like why I'm a vegetarian, and how the economic situation is in the U.S. Yikes. I excused myself at 8:30 due to exhaustion, but here I am at 11 still trying to get settled. I hope I can sleep in. Tomorrow, from what I understand, they're taking me to Quito to a market where people sell local crafts like textiles and hats. Hmmm...we'll see! I wish I could take pictures but from everything I've heard, I don't feel comfortable doing that just yet.

Ecuador staging and day 1 of training

Just a couple days have passed and I have so much to write about!

On Wednesday, staging day, I slept in to the glorious hour of 9:30 a.m. in a heavenly, cozy hotel bed. Got one final meal of avocado/carrot/cucumber sushi for breakfast from the Whole Foods right down the way. Registration started at 12 and then, with the turning in of a pile of paperwork, we became official Peace Corps trainees.

Staging lasted from 1 to 7 and started off with one of those icebreakers where you have a list of skills, experiences, random facts, and you have to find someone in the room to match one. I may have scoffed a little at it, but I'll admit - it helped me learn names. Most of the day was spent discussing commitment (Are we really ready for this?), a broad safety overview, a reminder of Peace Corps' Core Expectations, all reinforced by small group skits and by drawing pictoral interpretations of our anxieties and aspirations.

Almost all 42 of us made it. Well... it seemed like a lot of us were there. Maybe in the 30s? Our last meal was waaaaay way far from the hotel at J Paul's where I had a pretty miserable veggie burger. I'll try and forget it and just remember the fries and salad for my last American meal.

I didn't bother going to sleep. I got some more Denali work done (submitting a pile of brand-new EarthCaches tonight!!), got the video above finished, got re-packed to see if I could get things a little more organized for arrival, and tried so hard to catch one final episode of It's Always Sunny. I don't even like TV, but I do enjoy seeing that once a week. But I totally ran out of time. Suddenly it was 3 a.m., and time to congregate downstairs in the hotel lobby.

And then sleepiness REALLY hit me. I was zombified. We piled into a coach bus to head for the airport and I don't even really remember the ride. Our mass of PC people and luggage blocked the entrance and caused some kind of security problem, so we continued on to checking and inudated them. But luckily our flight was hours away...

Yet the weather continued to plague us. Apparently the turbulence was so bad on the same earlier flight to Miami that a couple flight attendants were injured enough to be hospitalized - so instead of flying over the ocean, our flight went overland. Fun!

In the Miami airport, we all sought out our very last meal in the United States but it seemed a lot of us were disappointed. After walking for ages with Lindsay, another trainee, we gave up finding food and returned near our gate for a cheese pizza from Pizza Hut. Got my very last soy latte, and I'm happy to say it was pretty good!

On the flight to Quito, I came in and out of drowsy conciousness. I tried reviewing some Spanish but I literally couldn't focus my eyes. Those 3 hours and something minutes seemed like days. And then came our descent! Our very rapid descent. The very first thing I spotted was Guagua Pichincha, an active volcano located right on the edge of Quito. And the airport is right next to it.

Entering the country was a piece of cake and a lot faster than other entries I've had. There was no whooping or cheering when we arrived like I've seen in some other PC videos, but a group of support staff was there to help us check in and gather back our Peace Corps passports. Pink ribbon tied to all our bags to help us grab each others' luggage (a Peace Corps tradition, I guess). And onto a coach bus for a long ride through the city to our temporary home at San Patricio.

I didn't feel shock being here. The streets look familiar, the language barrier doesn't put me off because it's not that huge for me. I have this huge sense of familiarity already, and I feel like this is right, like being here is what I was supposed to do and it just took so long to do it.

San Patricio is a spacious building like a community center where our two-bed and one bath dorms are located upstairs. Up many flights of stairs. We remembered our altitude (like 9000 feet I guess?) immediately climbing them for the first time. I now have to throw toliet paper in the garbage instead of flushing it because of the plumbing and treatment system, and when I turned the shower on, a great fountain of water gushed from the top of the head and showered the entire bathroom.

During dinner, a lot of the Ecuadorean staff stopped by to introduce themselves. We ate a tomato soup, popcorn (apparently quite popular?) and rice (there was meat and veggies too but I skipped this). One massive game of bananagrams followed, probably 14 or more people joined in. At least three of us brought a set.

The NEXT day, today, we had a breakfast of rolls, eggs (I passed), and Nescafe (Firefly Cafe, if you're reading this, please rescue me after I graduate from training!!!). We loaded up the same coach bus and headed our bumpy way to Peace Corps' new training center in Tumbaco. It's a really nice property with an open area in the center and bunches of classrooms inside. We had a seminar on safety and met the Country Director. It was a day filled with paperwork - they set us free to complete six tasks.

1. Forms! A form to tell them our host family preferences (please be receptive to me being a vegetarian, please!), a skills inventory to see if we have any other skills not in our application, a short bio with yet another aspiration statement (I think it's my third and each time it's getting more and more robotic), a form for personal data, and the third time I saw the authorization of use of material (our bios and photos can be released to anyone).

2. Allowances! An envelope of cash to pay our host families for the first two weeks to reimburse them for lodging and food.

3. Photos! I didn't know about this and I definitely don't want to see my photo.

4. Immunizations! I'm almost getting used to being poked by needles. I got a typhoid, yellow fever, and heptatits A shot in two arms. Ouch. The typhoid began to ache in a lot of our right arms.

5. Language Test! An 80+ question Spanish exam to gauge our abilities. I think I did decently well on it. The oral exam is on Tuesday...

6. Open a bank account! I had to sign five times for my bank account. They had to be totally identical to my passport signature.

A federal officer from the U.S. Embassy came by to give us a presentation on safety. While it was helpful, he had a lot of stories about crimes committed in Ecuador (not necessarily against PCVs though). It's not meant for us to be paranoid, but just totally aware of what's going on and to avoid putting ourselves in the same position as those victims.

We had these amazing humitas for an after-lunch snack. They're basically sweet cornbread baked in banana leaves with a few giant raisins inside. I'm looking forward to more of those!!

For our last activity, we split into our two program groups - Natural Resource Conservation and Agriculture. I'm in NRC doing Environmental Education. We introduced each other, and I'm happy to say I took a small leap and did mine in Spanish. The worst part of the day: when the program leader said we're not allowed to go to Banos, which is the major town at the base of Tungurahua volcano that is currently erupting. Because I'm in communication with the Geophysical Institute and it would be with them that I go anywhere near the location, and I have experience around erupting volcanoes, I'm hoping to work out a dialogue between the two organizations. It would be a huge shame to not be able to volunteer my free time at the observatory.

Anyway, tomorrow at 11 a.m. we leave with our host families. I'm nervous! Excited, but so nervous. I hope they like me...

ECUADOR

This entry is a brief overview of my host country and what I'll be doing there as a member of Omnibus 105, the 105th group to arrive in Ecuador.

From Volunteer Work in Ecuador

Ecuador! Bordered by Peru and Colombia and situated on the Pacific Ocean, Ecuador is about the size of Colorado. For its size, the country is an ecologically diverse wonderland divided into four main zones: 1) the Galapagos Islands, 2) the coast (light yellow/tan), 3) the sierra (goldenrod), and 4) jungle/Amazon. Running north to south down the center of Ecuador is the Andes mountain chain spotted with some very active volcanoes.

What I'll be doing in Ecuador:
I'm in Environmental Education and Awareness which is part of the Natural Resources Conservation program. Major tasks will be:

• Assess existing community knowledge of the local environment and socio-economic situation.
• Identify and select local organizations, leaders, park guards, teachers, youth, and children that may be interested in participating in non-formal environmental education activities.
• Identify and promote the formation of groups for non-formal environmental education activities.
• Develop a plan and implement non-formal environmental education activities, including goals, objectives, activities, teaching materials, and evaluation tools.
  

Where we'll be during pre-service training:
Tumbaco, about 40 minutes east of Quito (red dot on the map above). During this time, each of us will be living with a host family.

What will pre-service training be like:
11 weeks of intensive language and technical training. I have a feeling I'll be posting a lot on that.

My job location:
Unknown until after pre-service training. While many Natural Resources Conservation volunteers are placed in rural communities, it could be in the Andean highlands, the Amazon Basin, the coastal lowlands, a city - who knows? Not me! Most sites have basic infrastructure (water, electricity) and bus transportation. Peace Corps has changed our baggage allowance from 80 pounds to 100 because some of us will be living in the cooler sierra. Like pre-service training, we have to live with a family in our community for at least three months.

Swearing in:
If we make it through training, we will swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers at the Ambassador's Residence on 20 April 2011.

Other members of Omnibus 105:
Better than Middle Earth
Ecuador: La Sierra, Cuy, y Quichua
Ecuador: My Moveable Feast...
Heather's Life in a Different America!
Hokie Hokie Hokie... Hola!
Peace Corps Adventure
Peace Corps Strix
Sometimes in This Country
The Peace Corps Extravaganza