A mad dash across the country

I formed a plan for moving all my stuff plus my cat Misi and my rabbit Moo from point A (Alao Llactapamba, Chimborazo) to point B (Pucará, Imbabura).  It was complicated figuring it all out but in the end not a thing went wrong.

Step one:  Pack up all the stuff and bus it to a volunteer's place in Riobamba.

Step two:  Next day, bring up animals plus their stuff.  Spend night at volunteer's place, but...

Step three:  Wake up at 2 a.m. Drag stuff downstairs for a taxi.  Take a 3 a.m. bus to Quito, get a porter to move stuff around, get bus to Otavalo at 6 a.m.

Step four:  Pile into the hostal, eat pie.

And that's how it went.

Today was just loooong though.  It was rush, rush, rush.  Out of one vehicle into another.  Misi cried the whole time but there wasn't anything I could do.  Moo was perfectly fine.

I was relieved to finally get to the hostal, relax, and investigate the many things I've heard about Otavalo, except then Misi began crying nonstop.  It was pretty bad too - to the point where I thought maybe my gracious hostal hosts might retract their offer to let me keep them in the courtyard and kick us all out.

So I went to the vet just down the street to ask for help, and they had me bring Misi in.  They checked her out and there seemed to be nothing wrong with her - just, as I emphasized, she was scared and stressed about moving.  So they gave her an oral injection and a pill to calm her.

An hour later, she was still howling.  But sort of...blinky.  Droopy.  Aha!  It kicked in.  I went off for dinner and came back to find her waking up yowling, passing out, then waking up again crying.  I feel terrible but hopefully soon she'll be settled with me in our new home.

So we pack up again and head out tomorrow morning.  Finally!  I'm still so happy I made the decision to change sites.  It was definitely the way to go.

And finally, I got all the talent show videos up from our last training (Midservice).  Some acts are amazing.  Some are hilarious.  Some are...well, they are.  Enjoy!

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Waiting!

Wow, another post??

I´m here in Quito enjoying nearly boiling hot, skin-beating showers and delicious American-style bagels. 

The day was not totally perfect like that.

Yesterday was the breaking point.  I paid my host half a month´s rent ($35) because I was fairly sure I would move soon.  She at first smiled and said thanks and then...counted.  She asked where the other half was, and I explained why it was so.  She argued I had to pay for the previous month, and suddenly things got pretty ugly.  So ugly that I had to call my program manager to have her explain that I pay for the month in advance - always had.  So my host agreed but hasn´t talked to me at all since.

I went upstairs and immediately began packing.  That was it.  I´m DEFINITELY moving to Pucará!

This morning woke up super early to drag my heaviest bag (the one loaded with Peace Corps books and climbing magazines...of course...) and my travel bag downstairs to catch the 7 a.m. bus, but the 7 a.m. bus didn´t come.  Another one about 7:30 got me to Riobamba.  Took a taxi to the terminal (who was using a meter!  shocking.  Fares are always $1 wherever you go, so he raced to get me there when the meter struck $1 on the dot) and got a bus to Quito. 

That´s where we leave the ´good day´ part to return to later.

Going from south Quito to north Quito is not fun.  It usually requires using trolebuses which are often packed.  Thankfully, mine were not so bad.  Except I got on the wrong one, pretty much three times.  Ecuador PCVs out there, don´t laugh.  I´m terrible at cities.  Two mess ups were easy.  One not so much.  That was the one when I realized I needed to be on the blue line, not the green line.  So I thought I could get off at one closely-located stop and walk to the other line.  Hah!  Apparently I still have much learning to do about Ecuador.  I did, however, find that stop and get on the right bus, sweaty, tired, annoyed.

And back to ´good day´!

I dumped my ton of books at the hostal and walked to the Peace Corps office.  Had a great talk with my program manager about changing sites and all the details, got some paperwork signed, saw the doctors about the previously mentioned disease, and left feeling pretty good.  And it was 5 p.m. which means... BAGELS!  Mister Bagel, that wonderful RPCV-owned joint near Parque Carolina.  I was told it would close at 6 so I took a taxi that overcharged me and didn´t even go the whole way.  Horray!  But I got my bagels.  Lots of delicious bagels.  And walked back.

So... until next week!  It´s a busy next few days...

Back in site

I flew home to Ecuador feeling optimistic though apprehensive about a lot of things. I felt good in the car ride to Riobamba. Then... I got on a bus to my site.

Of course, the first familiar face I encountered is the bus driver... my least favorite bus driver... who is one of the most unfriendly people I've met here. His automatic unfriendliness towards me and no one else is baffling but I ignore it. Then the pan man boarded - that 30-year-old vender who bothers me at every chance to go with him on trips in Ecuador, to marry him, to answer his endless questions about the glory of America (but his mind is set that food is cheap and jobs are plentiful there). Less in the mood for this than I usually am, he probably sensed some extra hostility and went on his way.

I passed out cold on the bus in short cat naps.

And was awakened when a screaming girl got on the bus passing the road to the other side of the river. Suddenly she was ripping the hair out of the woman in front of me, beating her with fists and slapping her face. A man got on too that seemed to be on her side, but unwilling to join the fight. Everyone began screaming in Quichua, so I didn't have a single clue why this was happening. Another woman got on who appeared to be the girl's mother and began beating the woman as well. The whole time I was sitting there wide-eyed and totally confused and terrified. Everyone else on the bus seemed irritated but didn't interrupt the attackers. The bus driver demanded in Spanish that they take their fight off the bus. And I moved to get out of the way, totally unsure of what I should actually be doing if anything. The bus continued to my site as the beating continued, the victim's little boy screaming shrilly in the front for his mom. Soon the attacking woman was dragged off with the young girl, but another woman on the bus ran to the front and began beating the woman... which led to the other woman off the bus and the girl to charge back on and help. Soon the victim's face was gushing blood, and everyone was dragged back off and the door slammed shut on someone else trying to get on.

(note: I felt safe more or less because this was obviously a personal issue)

The woman called the police and I couldn't get off that bus soon enough. Welcome back to Ecuador! I dragged my bags up to my room shaking and thinking how I'd always seen the people in my site to be generally peaceful... not resorting to mob violence for revenge, and certainly not starting a fight on a bus.

Suddenly less than excited to be back, I spent the night alone organizing my new bounty, watching movies, and doing the miniature puzzle from home to see if I'm missing any pieces (the box burst and all the teeny pieces went all over the bag... I'm missing 1 piece).

I was planning to go to Riobamba the next to search for a few things - a tank for boiled water, shelving for my books, and paint for my room - but woke up the next morning feeling exhausted. I kept setting back the alarm until I finally just turned it off, and thanks to the last few days of almost zero sleep, I rested until about 1 p.m. in bed.

Absurd packing list and waiting for the plane back to Ecuador

Hello from Panama!

Ok, well, I'm not THAT thrilled to be here. The Panama airport hasn't been too kind to me. While I wait in travelers' limbo, I decided to share a list of the massive pile of stuff I'm moving from the U.S. to Ecuador. Way, way more stuff than I planned or wanted to carry back. But I guess it all just added up. And oh is it random. These are all the things I wished I had brought with me the first time around!

Books: Geology Terms in English and Spanish; Russian; Indonesian; Minus 148; How to Crochet; The Anatomy of Fascism; Alive; Looking for Alaska; Fire Mountains of the West; Frozen Earth; Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land; GRE Premier; Mountaineers

Candles + candle wicks + oil scents
Games: Bunch of Sudoku books; pack of cards; puzzles
Cards for sending
Alaska 2012 calendar
Pile of yarn
Spices: paprika; tumeric; coriander; chipotle; New Mexican chile (noooo I forgot this!!)
Nutritional yeast
Clif bars (for giving to guides)
Vegan marshmallows
Chai tea
Cat treats and toys; rabbit treats
Preserve toothbrushes
Painting supplies (roller, refills, color swatches, tape, trim brush)
Mounting putty
Earplugs
External DVD/CD player
Gaiters (already had)
Tent stakes (already had)
Carabiners + ATC (already had)
Climbing boots (already had)
Flat water bottle
Ice ax leash (already had)
Gloves (already had)
Pile of photo prints
Helmet (already had)
Harness (already had)
Peanut butter
Black olives
Candy (candy corn; Smarties; misc)
Rainproof/windproof lightweight jacket
Prayer flags
Pile of DVDs
Compact digital camera + batteries + cards
Glacier glasses

And here's Day 3 of my 365 project! This about it for on-time photos.

Flying over the gulf from Chicago to Panama

So blue...so pretty

The world is just awesome.

Wait, where am I?

On Monday I hopped in a taxi, went to the Quito airport, hung around for a while with another PCV, flew to Panama, and flew to Chicago to visit the family for the holidays. It was a trip I'd been looking forward to since August.

But right from the start, things were not quite as I expected them to be. Some things haven't changed, like the super awesome and friendly welcome my small group of people received from a TSA woman, my very first American in America in more than 10 months. Oh wait, this is Chicago. And it's the TSA. And it was nighttime, which must have some influence on peoples' moods. Anyway, her welcome was less than cordial...in fact, it was sort of scary how she snapped at us all and made us walk backwards through the maze of empty aisles we'd just wandered through the wrong way...and gave me a bad taste for what was to come. "How long were you in Ecuador?" "Hmm...since February." [flicked eyes up at me with face still down] "Why exactly were you there so long?" [explained] "Welcome to the United States," with a monotone voice as she waved the next person down.

Things weren't obviously strange for me, except all the signs were subconsciously easy to read and overhearing conversations is a lot easier without even thinking about it. There's a lot of food and a lot of things very easily accessible. But suddenly now that I had my enormous list of exciting food possibilities at my fingertips, I hardly wanted anything.

We've been to a few stores now for various errands... one of my top chores was to get a replacement digital camera, meaning some giant store like Best Buy or Target. But for this time of year, they were empty. The streets are kind of quiet - the only real interaction I've had so far with Americans outside of the house has been with a couple waiters. The sky is gray with clouds high above us, not floating around the mountaintops like where I live to at least give a sense of depth and dynamism. All the trees are dormant and the grass is dead, no bright snow to cover anything up. In all, it feels very, very strange. Driving along today, I realized that now I feel more isolated than I ever have realized. American life is isolated. And so I felt kind of sad about it all, suddenly, and wondered if I would ever adjust back to how it was before. In Ecuador I felt stifled sometimes by how seemingly intrusive Ecuadorians are, but here I feel so alone.

So...what is it I want? What is best?

Also, I got sick again with a really bad cough and a fever. Horray! Sick during vacation. Leave it to me.

A random update

It's been a while, huh? Not much has happened since my last update, though. So I suppose this will be a random entry...

The same day we in Omnibus 105 were celebrating our 6 months of service (1/4 done!), someone stole my journal...the book that covered every day between August 12 and October 20. I'd made it a goal to write every day of my service so it's hardly covering how I feel when I say it was devastating to me that something I cared so much about was suddenly gone. Apparently a guy on the street had spotted me in an internet cafe and came in to watch and wait for me to neglect my bag. He told the cafe attendant that he was just waiting for someone and didn't need a computer. So he snatched it. On the only bright side, he didn't earn a penny I'm sure. My bag was beaten and dirty and had nothing of monetary value in it - no phone, cash, or cards. But it had my chewed up journal (damaged by Moo the rabbit), my old notebook with all my little random notes and scribbles from the past 6 months (including some pretty important notes), my letter from a PCV in Uganda (I at least skimmed it before it was taken), and two Sudoku books my folks had just sent me. So by now I'm guessing it all made it to a landfill somewhere.

I made a quick trip to visit my PCV friend near Bucay because I've wanted to see her site and it was the perfect time to avoid a party in my site. It was incredibly hot and humid and lush with plantlife. People were laid back and very friendly. I felt like I was in a totally different country than the Ecuador that I live in. And when I left, her host mom gave me a gigantic bag of guineos (small bananas) and oranges. Plus a cacao to try the fruit and maybe to make some very bitter chocolate out of the seeds. Plus some passionfruit and of course some red paint-like achiote seeds. The massive bag of fruit just barely made it back to my site, but I had to carry it with two arms when it began ripping. In the morning, I cut up the oranges and juiced them...the result was incredible, and now I'm back to being addicted to them. They're 10 for $1 in Riobamba, an amazing price when you compare to the U.S. prices, except I keep thinking about all the free oranges my coastal colleagues get all the time from their backyards.

Misi the kitten is doing very well. It also turns out he is a she and she is about twice as big as when I got her a month ago. She's now flea-free and getting fat (her pelvis stuck out badly when I got her and she walked with a wobble). Her favorite activities are batting my face at 5 a.m., sticking her head in my mouth when I yawn, putting her cold nose in my ear and purring when I'm sleeping, and jumping out at me from around corners with all four paws.

My garden is now no more. The kids ripped up all the radishes and left them to rot, then tore up the carrots, then all the beets. At one point they moved all my cabbage plants to their own gardens. At least they left the peas alone for the most part, until one day when the trelises were knocked over and the stems all broke. Which was yet another disappointment because the plants had plenty of pods and flowers yet to grow. I took home all the nearly mature pods to dry for seeds but I'm not sure if any of them will be able to germinate...it was all I could do. Of all the tomato seeds I planted in little bottle greenhouses, only two germinated but the plants are doing really well. It's taking them ages to grow though, and every night I bring them indoors so they don't freeze...and every morning if it's not raining or freezing still, they get taken outside. Six inches tall so far!

The weather has been slightly better than the previous 6 months. A few days of the week, mornings sometimes begin with sunshine. But usually in the afternoon the skies cloud up instantly, wind begins, and sometimes it drizzles. It's been so dry, the Rio Alao is often just a trickle by the time it leaves town when usually it's got uncrossable rapids.

I've become slightly obsessed with Ecuadorian mountaineering: reading all about the mountains on Summit Post and updating my own list of mountains visited, collecting the incredible magazine Montana ($6 each but they are very worth it for the pictures alone), training on my own hills, and planning each next trip. At the end of November, if hopefully we're approved by Peace Corps, another PCV Caroline and I will be heading to El Corazon and (hopefully...guide-willing) Illiniza Norte.

Oh, and I´m sick. Again.

Love my car

Since I didn't get to go to Anchorage this last weekend, I've been totally and completely out of groceries. I had to use a hamburger bun for PB&J, and that was the last of my peanut butter.

So I headed to Healy, just north of the Park entrance, for a couple groceries. It's a 30-minute-ish round trip. Every time I get in the car in Alaska, I think about how great my car is. Where it's been, how it hasn't really been that much of a pain at all. I love the freedom of being able to move wherever I want to go. At the gas pump in Healy, an Alaskan commented on what a nice rig it is. I get that a lot up here, oddly.

The weather's been rainy and cold the past few days. This afternoon, the clouds have started to let in a little sun. I'm hoping for fantastic weather the next few days.

Thursday I go to the Tek field station again to meet up with a group of high school kids. I'll be going on my first up-close visit with an Alaskan glacier, the Muldrow. Friday, I hitch a ride to Wonder Lake, the furthest I have ever been on the Park road. On Saturday, I take off on the Denali Highway (a 130+ mile gravel road) for Paxson, and head south on the Glenn Highway for Anchorage to meet geocachers at a potluck. Sunday, I explore the south-central glaciers and hopefully I will have a place to stay at Kenai. Monday, I come home to Denali.

I'm just about done with my application for the Peace Corps. I've wanted to volunteer with them for a long while...now, I think, is the right time to apply.

Exciting stuff.