Saturday, July 27, 2013

Stuff


I’m in the newspaper! J

I accidentally got bleach on my Chive sweatshirt! L

Never in my life have I felt this strong of character and this weak of body. Everything in the world here has a physical impact on me. I spent 4 days in Tumbaco where the climate is much warmer and very dry and then I had a sore throat for a week and all I wanted to do was sleep for 2 days when I got back. Just went on a beach trip (blog post to come) and thought I was actually going to DIE of a hangover. What a terrible cause of death.
That´s all. You can now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Abuelita-isms


Things I have learned from my host grandmother:

1.      You should not eat avocados while menstruating or else you will have to have surgery to remove liquids from your stomach.

2.      It’s bad luck to sweep the floor after the sun has gone down.

3.      You should drink parsley tea every morning to lose weight.

4.      You should drink oregano tea when you have gas.

5.      You should not eat more than one egg each day. (I don’t follow this one.)

6.      The first milk from a cow after it has given birth is very healthy. (I physically could not drink it, it had chunks similar to cheese.)

7.      Cats, dogs, and bunnies are born with their eyes closed. Guinea pigs are born with their eyes open.

A Few Everyday Things that Are Different


Doors and locks- it is very rare to see a wooden door with a metal doorknob and a deadbolt.

Houses- instead of 1 house complete with front door, yard, and fence, it is much more common to see a sort of compound with a few houses and a huge metal gate in front, surrounded by a brick wall.

Showers/Faucets in general- the shower is generally the only place you’ll find hot water. The water in the shower is heated with electricity or a ‘calefon’ which is like a hot water heater, but these are not connected to any other faucets. Hands and dishes are washed in frigid water. Some sinks have 2 handles but you will only get cold from both, even if it has a C for caliente (which is also confusing for the gringa whose subconscious says C is for cold). 

Traffic signs/lights/street signs- are generally ignored. Instead of stopping at a red light or a stop sign, you will see the driver just honk the horn and plow right through the intersection. Thus, everywhere you go, you will hear tons of horns. This means, pedestrians beware! You do not have the right of way. Also, because Ecuador and much of South America has a cultural history of being very orally-based, street signs are often ignored and landmarks are recognized much more than street names. If I ask for directions, I will more than likely hear that some streets don’t even have a name and instead, you should look for the bakery on the right or the tienda on the corner.

Transportation- tons of people ride in the back of trucks. I saw a commercial once that it’s illegal but it’s apparently not enforced because they have truck taxis that carry up to 10 people standing in the back. Also, motorcycles usually carry more than 1 person, I’ve seen 5 on one moto! Public transportation is pretty good though. Apparently the current president has improved all the roads and highways so you can get pretty much anywhere by bus. Oh also! Animals are welcome to use public transportation. I have seen dogs, live chickens, and even sheep! The sheep go on top of the bus, not tied down or anything, just surfing up there, it is awesome!

Washing and drying clothes- virtually no one has a clothes dryer. So everywhere you go, you will see underpants flapping in the wind. And some people don’t have a washing machine, or don’t trust it with certain items, in which case they use “la piedra”, which means, the rock/stone.

Meals- Desayuno (breakfast) is pretty much the same. Almuerzo (lunch), however, must consist of soup, potatoes, rice, meat, and juice. It’s a lot of food and a lot of carbs. Then, around 4 o’clock we have cafecito. Usually people drink coffee, but I usually have hot chocolate because coffee keeps me up at night. And we eat bread or humitas (which are kind of like tamales but sweet, tastes like cornbread and has raisins). Then, la merienda (dinner) is around 7 o’clock and we usually have a smaller version of lunch. This is followed by aguita (literally translates to ‘a little water’ but it’s kind of like herbal tea) and more bread. I’m working on adjusting this diet a bit to include less carbs and more protein and veggies/fruits.

Going it alone- not acceptable. I think the main reason for this is because there’s safety in numbers and some places can be a little dangerous, especially at night, but I think this is also due to this being a much more communal culture. Everything is done in groups and there is much less individualism like there is in the US.

Meat – all kinds and all parts. It’s very common to eat guinea pig and rabbit and I’ve also heard of dishes made of pigeon. And with the other animals, common in the US (like cows, pigs, and chickens), what is uncommon from my perspective, is eating EVERY part. Tongues, stomachs, intestines, ears, etc. (Chicken neck is delectable.)

Sizes- I searched everywhere for some new boots, I even went to a huge clothing market in a city 2 hours away and apparently, I’m a freak of nature. Now, when I walk into a store, the first thing I ask is “do you carry shoes in size 40?” and the answer, 9 times out of 10, is “no”.

Hello and Goodbye- It is not acceptable to just say hello to someone you know when you walk into a room or just say goodbye when you leave. You must go and give them a kiss on the cheek, say hello, and ask how they’re doing (for men, a handshake is acceptable). And this rule applies regardless of how many people are in that room. When I walk into the teachers lounge in the morning, there are usually about 20 teachers in the 2 small rooms and I have to walk around in a large circle kissing everyone on the cheek, which leaves me smelling like cologne for the rest of the day. If I were to run into my neighbor on the street, even if we were in a rush to get somewhere, it would be considered rude if I didn’t stop, give her a kiss on the cheek, ask her how she’s doing, she asks me how I’m doing, then we kiss again to say goodbye and go our separate ways. 
Those are just a few of the thousands of things that I am adjusting to. In summation, if you ask me “what’s new?” You may receive a snarky response because the answer is “everything!”


 
This is the door to my room. Confusing.

this is la piedra, otherwise known as the backup washing machine.

my shower

like I mentioned before- dogs hang out on roofs. WOOF.
 

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Clausura, Independencia, y Mucho Trabajo


July 11th, 2013. I be bloggin’ like it’s goin’ out of style. Just realized my blog has added up to 70 Microsoft Word pages in 6 months. I’m on page 71 on 7-11-2013. Weird.

Haven’t updated in a while and instead of the reason being that I have nothing to talk about, this time, for a much better reason, I’m actually really busy. It’s kind of awesome. 

I’ll start from today and move backwards and then to the future. It was our last English class today and we had a big “clausura” which is like a closing ceremony. I was just going to say thank you and give the students a big hug, but my host mom informed me that we needed a clausura and proceeded to plan everything, gracias a dios, because I had no idea what this entailed. She told me to make a convocacion (invitation) for the students to give to their parents and she came to class and told them that they had better show up to the last class dressed nice and looking pretty. She solicited goods from the community and they generously donated 50 chicken salad sandwiches, a few 3 liters of Coke, and candy. My host mom got the town councilman to come and the reporter of the town newspaper! What the famous! My super nice program manager from the Peace Corps gave me some cute little certificates to fill out for the kids and we had such a lovely little program for them. I had 25 little graduates of the first session of my English course. One of the fathers gave a beautiful speech in which he said (in Spanish) “I want to extend a formal welcome to a town which is already yours. In just these few months, you have made an impact which will live on in these walls and in the hearts of these children just as Pujili will be a part of you”. I don’t know how much the kids will remember me, but I couldn’t agree with that last part more. 

In our second to last class, I planned a few games to review everything we had covered in the last couple months and I was SO proud and happy that the kids really retained a lot! I asked them to memorize a short welcome in English to say to their parents for the clausura and as they recited, “Good afternoon. We are students. We are intelligent. We love English! Thank you for coming.” I almost cried.

We’ve got a biiiiig project to do for Peace Corps that I’ve been working on too. I’ve known about it since I got to my site 3 months ago but of course, put it off until now and I’m getting down to the wire. We have to interview students, teachers and administration at the high school as well as members of the general community in order to assess their needs and desires and then report our findings to the Peace Corps at a conference in August. To be honest, I started out thinking this was just a BS project that the org was giving us to keep us busy and hold us accountable for our work for the first few months on our own. But after being here for a couple months, I’m realizing just how useful this project can be. First of all, although the people here are very nice and extremely generous, because it’s a very small town, they tend to be very closed off to “desconocidos” or strangers. Although my host mom knows a lot of people in the community, I’m realizing that it is a specific population, and it’s very difficult to get to know anyone outside of that circle. These interviews could help me in getting to know more people as I’ll be conducting the interviews alongside my English teachers, which will make the community (and me) feel a lot more comfortable. Also, I love being a part of the school community, but I’d also really like to feel like a productive part of the larger community. If I could start some more projects and reach out a little, I think I can make that happen. So that’s what I’ll be working on in the next couple weeks.

We had a 4th of July BBQ at the park near my house and I invited some volunteer friends and Ecuadorian friends as well as my host family. We had grilled hot dogs, potato chips with ranch dip, watermelon, chocolate chip cookies, soda, and a little beer. We explained our Independence Day traditions and then taught them how to play Ultimate Frisbee. It was pretty fun but it started raining and we had to go home early.

This weekend I’m heading back to Cumbaya to attend a graduation party for the daughter of the really nice family with the gorgeous house that we visited a couple months ago. Then on Monday and Tuesday I’ve got a training in Tumbaco (15 minutes away) so I’ll be staying in the area for 4 days! I’m hoping to visit Sonia and family on Sunday and get me some good eats. The training in Tumbaco is for a summer camp in August that the Embassy is organizing in a city called Santo Domingo. Although I feel like I’m too busy to be volunteering for more projects, I just couldn’t pass this opportunity up. A chance to see a new city (on the government’s dime), make new friends, teach some kids, get out of town for a couple days, and … if I’m working for the Embassy, don’t I get to call myself a diplomat? That’s pretty rad.

AND I am working hard on organizing a summer camp for “my kids”, (the kids from my English class) and lots of other kids in town. It has definitely been a struggle but I think it’s finally coming together. If all goes as planned, we’re going to have a 2 week summer camp at the beginning of August for 60 kids with art class, music, English classes, sports, a program on self-esteem and values, and even juggling! If this works, I might just retire and consider my professional life a success. (Just kidding.)
Finally, the best part. Trying to make sure I have enough time to tag along on my volunteer friend, Todd’s trip to the beach. He’s got visitors coming from the US and they’ll be heading to the coast for 3 days. I GOTTA GO. I miss the ocean so much. 

Speaking of missing stuff… I miss YOU! Yeah, you! You, reading this, with the hair.

Here are a couple pictures of the ceremony. Yeah, I was wearing a cardigan AND nylons. Almost like a real teacher.
I think we shoulda used stronger tape on our low budget decorations

A couple of my favorite students (don´t tell the others) and my host mom

4th of July BBQ. We toasted to independence

Chaquiñan and Chuchaqui


July 17th, 2013. Phew. Just got back from Cumbaya/Tumbaco. The graduation ceremony/party on Saturday was beautiful and fun and I admire the graduate very much. She is very intelligent and mature and has a lot of very open-minded ideas that she’s not afraid to express. She’s only seventeen and she’s leaving in 2 weeks to live in the United States for 6 months in order to perfect her English (which is already really good!) She’s going to stay with a host family in Long Beach, CA so I was trying to give her my best advice on SoCal. I already know she’s going to have such an amazing, life-changing experience, I’m really excited for her. And of course, the family treated us like one of their own and fed us delicious fancy food. The appetizer was a shrimp salad in a papaya! SO yummy.
After the party, we stayed the night in the training center in Tumbaco since we were in the area and had the summer camp training on Monday. It was kind of eerie but really cool to be back there. As soon as I walked into the dormitory, I could feel all the emotions I felt on my first night in Ecuador. But this time I was a lot more tranquila. 

On Sunday Todd and I hiked on the Chaquiñan (a bike path that leads to a beautiful canyon and river) and then headed over to Sonia’s house for lunch and a visit. I always leave their house with such a full heart (and stomach). Visiting with them makes me feel so much less homesick. I can’t even describe how good it feels to know that someone in this country truly cares about me. A few other Peace Corps volunteers headed into town that night also and we met at the mall and ate brownie sundaes and caught up and reminisced, which was really nice. 

Monday, we started the training and completely went in blind. This happens quite often here, communication is much more indirect, so there have been countless times that I walk into a room and have absolutely no clue what to expect. I knew that it was a summer camp being run by the US Embassy in August, and I was under the impression that we were just going to be doing a few English classes during the camp. Wrong. Turns out it’s an English Immersion Camp and we would be spending the 2 days of training planning, scheduling, organizing, and creating all of the activities for the camp alongside Ecuadorian college students who are studying to be English teachers. This is something that I have zero experience in, but by the end of the 2 days, I decided that this camp is probably going to be the coolest thing I’ll do this year. All the activities sound so fun and productive and the college students we were working with were SO nice! Some of the nicest people I’ve met here. We created a friendship in such a quick time and I’m really looking forward to seeing them again in August. To be continued.

Monday night I went back to Sonia’s house for dinner and hot chocolate, it was amazing, of course. And then Tuesday night we were finished with training so we decided to get a couple drinks and dinner in Cumbaya (fancy town). I don’t get out too much here and apparently the other volunteers are in the same boat, so we got a little crazy, but it was well deserved and not out of control. But I felt so crappy Wednesday morning when I had to travel back to my site. I was extra nauseous on the bus with all the curvy roads and I was super sleepy from not getting much sleep the last couple days. Plus I have to admit it was a little hard to come back knowing I’ve got a lot to do here and leaving a fun couple days of new friends and good work. I get on my last of 3 buses and one of my really good students was sitting in the front row and greeted me with a big smile and “CHELSEA!” as soon as I got on. Then, she paid for my bus fare without me knowing and then bought me a bag of mani (sweet peanuts) and had the vendor bring them over to me. It was the sweetest thing and made coming back to normal life a lot happier.

Those are my novedades. No complaints here. Life is pretty rad.
Felicidades, Domi!

Chaquiñan

´In a van! Down by the river!´