SO. MUCH. STUFF. IN. MY. BRAIN. RIGHT. NOW.
First day of class. It was just like kindergarten. The staff babied us, but we needed it, and we did our best to take in more than our brains had room for. We got about 5 hours of sleep and woke up to hard boiled eggs, bread, homemade cheese, coffee, and fresh juice. There's a lot of pulp in the juice here, which normally I would spit out, but I'm doing my best to eat everything without bias and it's not that bad. (I even ate melon! yuck!)
We started with the Peace Corps Medical Office, which basically means "let's talk about diarrhea and then we're going to shoot you with needles". Needless to say, they are not my favorite people on staff. Luckily, I only had to get the first of the rabies series (yeah, stray dogs. 'nuff said). Then we had a snack break and it was Ecuadorian pizza! With real Coca-Cola! Holy geez- this was to die for. Then we got a talk from Special Agent, Chris from the US Embassy. I'm pretty sure this guy's title comes from his specialization in scaring the diarrhea out of you! (sorry, gross, but if I had to hear it all day, you do too) He told us pretty much every worst case scenario and gave us suggestions on how to get out of it, and then advised that all efforts were probably futile. So now I'm suspicious of the housekeeper, sweet little Anita, and the security guard, whose job is to protect us.
Lunch was rice, some kind of beef strips, some sorta pasta with no flavor, and really yummy veggies. We had flan for dessert and more pulpypoopy orange juice. Everything was really good but I decided to be brave and add "aji" which is a hot sauce offered with all meals. IT WAS HOT. I will not be eating it again. But I ate everything and my belly was happy. Then we had language and culture class. I signed myself up for the beginner class because I haven't been keeping up with the little Spanish we've heard, but I did well. Learned a lot. We had a snack break which consisted of coffee and banana splits... I said NO, GRACIAS.
We were done studying at 5:00pm so we had free time until dinner at 7. Some people played soccer, some played basketball, and a few of us explored the grounds. This place is a huge compound and it is absolutely breathtaking. We have chickens in the back and 4 little dogs and an orange cat. (I took a lot of pictures of the cat, but didn't pet him since I only have 1 of my rabies shots :) There are sprawling fields of grass and jungle gyms (including a fort you can climb up to in a tree!) The weather has been perfect, sunny (the sun feels hotter here) a few clouds, breezy, but cold at night. There are flowers everywhere and you can hear birds singing ALL the time! Especially in the morning. It's like paradise. Though I am excited to move to a host family's house in 2 days so I can practice more Spanish and make Ecuadorian friends, I'm tempted to never want to leave the beauty and safety of the training center.
A few of us have a plan to walk into town tomorrow night after class to use the internet cafe, so I'll post these blogs and try to call home, or at least email. Wishing all my favorite people could be here to experience this with me.
As always, thank you for reading. Thank you for caring.
xoxo
Chels
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