Coming to a close

As one of my friends pointed out (ahem…Jake Smith), I haven’t posted in a while.  In fact, I haven’t posted since I went to the US for Christmas (which was wonderful, by the way).  It was an interesting experience to be back.  It made me realize not only how much life back home has changed, but also how much I have as well…all mostly for the better I think.  

Work has been going well.  I am still very much involved with my kids in the community.  Right now we are doing a project I like to call “Somos parte de un Mundo para la Prevencion de VIH/SIDA” (We are part of a world for HIV/AIDS prevention).  I really wanted to do the World Map Project—a project that many PCVs will be familiar with.  Basically, you paint a map of the world on the wall.  An important project, I think, since many of my kids have asked me what part of the US Spain is in and what planet the US is on.  But everyone kept asking me, “What does that have to do with health? Don’t you work in health?”  I thought they had a point, so in addition to learning geography, I bring in pictures of what other PCVs are doing world wide with their youth groups (PC sends us regular updates) in HIV/AIDS prevention.  We also talk about people as citizens of the world and how we are all here on this earth together; therefore we should take care of our neighbors and fight negative stereotypes about people living with HIV/AIDS and help friends and family to protect themselves.  

Some of my kids with Dr. Pachacama

My youth group in Alausi is also doing well.  In fact, we are about to wrap up everything this month since they have end of school activities and finals coming up.  It’s been great working with the kids here.

The Whole Group

We made colorful fish out of recycled bottles

I also have been working with a community elementary school.  We’ve been doing recycling and hand washing stuff.  The kids are adorable, but have SO MUCH ENERGY!  I leave the community exhausted and then have to walk 3 hours to get to the nearest bus stop.  

My mom and her friend came last week to visit.  They went to the Galapagos for a week while I worked then we went to the amazon and to Mindo.  It was a great trip.  We played with monkeys, ate delicious food, stayed in a tree-house, played with butterflies and I even made them try tubing down the rapids.  Overall, a great trip.

Sunset on the Rio Napo

Our ride

I can’t believe that it is already May.  Time has flown by.  Since most of my projects will be ending at the end of the school year in June, I have put my official Close of Service date as July 27^th 2012.  I won’t be coming home, though.  As one adventure comes to a close, another one begins.  I’m setting off on a journey through South America.  I plan to spend 6 months traveling to Colombia, passing through Ecuador to Peru on to Chile, Argentina and Uruguay then eventually arriving in Brazil to visit a family friend for a bit.  I plan to mostly stay in my tent and have all the supplies I need to cook for myself.  I already have a list of mountains I want to climb and backpacking circuits I want to explore.  From there, who knows where the wind will take me!  Perhaps grad school, perhaps a job, perhaps elsewhere.  All I know is that I am excited for the journey.

¡Que Viva Alausi!

Happy November!!  I can’t believe Thanksgiving is NEXT week…and then only 3 weeks until I come to the states! I’m actually really excited to visit.

These past several weeks have flown by.  I thought I’d give you an update of how my projects are going.

Community Youth Group

A quick side trip to the Lakes in Atillo after a workshop

This is the group I’ve been working with basically since the beginning.  They are still really eager to keep working in the communities even though they have no budget.  I’ve been working a lot with them individually teaching them how to use excel to set up budgets and also helping them write formal letters to organizations like UNFPA, the Consejo Provincial (which would be the equivalent of a state level organization), the Ministry of Economic and Social inclusion and the town government.  They are learning a lot about how much work actually goes into planning an event that only lasts a few hours.  Our first big event will hopefully be some kind of coordination with the Hospital in Alausí for World Aids Day.

Youth Group in Alausí

Since World Vision is pulling out of this area, and starting this fiscal year (which began October 1) has practically no functioning budget, there hasn’t been as much work for me.  I had spoken to the director of UNFPA a while ago about starting a youth group in the town of Alausí, and that is finally starting to get underway.  I’ve started working with one of the doctors at the hospital, Dr. Nancy Pachacama.  We are now in the process of collaborating with ALL of the colegios in Alausí to get some youth leaders and to get them school credit for their work with us (a little incentive for them to participate).  I’m really excited about it and Dr. Nancy is really helpful and motivated—albeit SUPER busy…which is almost kind of nice because she doesn’t really have time to do a lot of the organizing so I get to plan EVERYTHING the way I want to.

Colegio Classes

At the river near the colegio

I am still working in Huanca Pallaguchi (pronounced Wonka Payaguchy just FYI).  I go every Thursday this year.  So far this year it’s been mas o menos. The kids are now really comfortable with me, which is great.  When I have their attention, I feel they learn and we have a lot of fun.  However, that also means that they treat me like every other teacher, not a special guest.  That is to say, they are no longer always on their best behavior with me.  Recently we’ve had some discipline and class cutting issues.  The problem is that the director and the other teachers don’t care.  When the kids don’t show up to class, great! That means a free hour of not having to work for them.  There is no kind of accountability by either the teachers or the students.  If they learn, they learn; if they don’t, oh well.  This attitude is really hard to fight.  I almost understand where the teachers are coming from.  They travel 6 hours everyday to and from work.  It’s freezing cold and rainy.  The road to get to the school makes everyone car sick (including me) it’s so curvy—worse when it’s covered in mud and landslides.  The students don’t care and really don’t have the foundation of education from their infancy to be stellar students, so teaching and getting them to understand is often a struggle.  No doubt, working in a community colegio is hard work, but it’s not impossible.  These kids deserve a quality education and they deserve someone to inspire them to finish school.  I just did an activity with them asking them about their dreams in life.  The kids who had worked with World Vision basically just regurgitated what World Vision tells them to dream, but when I asked them what that meant they had no idea.  The kids who have never worked with World Vision, however, didn’t even understand.  Even when I made it as simple as “What’s one cool thing you want to do in your life?” They just stared blankly.  No one has ever taught these kids how to dream.  No wonder they get pregnant at 14 or 15.  They are taught that life just happens and you take it as it comes, not that they have the power to choose the path they follow.  I’m hoping that poco a poco I can change maybe a few ideas about this, especially with the girls. There are a few girls that I’ve gotten really close with, so hopefully they will take some of what I teach to heart.  Only time will tell though.

I am also still working with the Colegio Alausi.  I go once a week and work with different groups of around 20 kids at a time.  So far, we have just talked about stereotypes and breaking social constructs of what certain types of people should and should not do…which again is hard.  The sex ed stuff is easy.  It’s basically straight biology.  The self-esteem building and behavior change work is an entirely different game.  But I am enjoying it.  And like I said, there is no possible way that every single student is going to change their ideas and behaviors, but maybe a few will and hopefully even more will at least be able to step up and start protecting themselves against unplanned pregnancies and STIs.  Again, only time will tell.

Anita was a pro at rolling balls of dough

English Classes

Pati learning to make dough

I talked about this a while ago, but I’ve been giving English lessons at the VP of COCACH’s house on Monday evenings.  It’s a group of about seven 11 and 12 year olds (and some little ones who really just come to be with their older siblings).  I basically just make up English lessons as I go and sometimes I help them with their homework.  Although, they’ve realized that I won’t just do their homework for them, so sometimes they don’t ask anymore.  It’s fun. We sing and play around a lot more than we learn, but the kids keep coming and are excited about it, so I keep teaching.  I really wasn’t sure how much the kids were actually learning, but then the other day when we had class, quarterly grades were out.  All the kids told me that they were failing English before they started class with me, but now they have the equivalent of what would be a C on our grading scale.  Not great, but still an improvement!  They also really want to try American food, so a couple weeks ago we made tacos (which I know is technically not American food, but it’s a foreign concept to them).  They LOVED it.  Even the boys were cooking.  At first one of the boys said that they boys couldn’t help because only girls cook, but I told him that the boys couldn’t eat unless they helped cooked, so that attitude quickly changed.  They were tortilla making machines!  They also couldn’t believe that you could make an entire meal without using a boat load of oil and lard (a major part of Ecuadorian cuisine and a huge contributing factor to the malnutrition here).  So not only did we have a delicious meal, we did some English stuff (i.e. “Gladys, What are you doing?”  “I am mixing flour and sugar”) and we also fit in a little gender equality and nutrition lesson. 

Daniel, Enrique and Trancito rolling tortillas with empty vodka bottles--we didn't have a rolling pin

Fiestas!

This is also fiesta time in Ecuador.  The first week of November is All Saints Day, All Souls Day and the fiestas of Cuenca, which are celebrated on a national level.  So basically, 5 day weekend!  For All Saints Day and All Souls Day, they make this drink called colada morada which is basically a think juice type drink made from blackberries and the Ecuadorian version of blueberries with chunks of pineapple and cinnamon in it.  It’s delicious.  Last year I helped make it, this year I just helped drink it—and a lot of it.  You eat it with bread in the shape of babies, called guaguas de pan, also incredibly delicious.  The point of this tradition is to share it with loved ones (past and present, you even go to the cemeteries to remember the dead with your colada).  Before leaving for the long weekend, I shared this delicious drink and bread with a couple of different friends in the communities, with the people I work with and with my good friend at the hotel.  I didn’t know she had it, but when I showed up to hang out (aka catch up on the town gossip) she had some waiting for me.  It’s such a nice tradition and I’m really glad she thought of me when she was sharing her colada.   

For the long weekend a couple of friends and I went backpacking in Cajas National Park which is just outside of Cuenca.  The ride down was…interesting to say the least.  Since basically the whole country wants to go to the fiestas in Cuenca (they are pretty awesome I do have to say), the buses are packed…not even standing room.  Several buses passed me by because there was no more room to even stand.  I ended up getting a ride in the back of a truck with about 5 other women who were headed to the town of Chunchi.  In the back of the truck we were chatting and it came out that I work in Sexual and Reproductive Health.  They instantly had so many questions for me.  We spent the next 45 min. having a makeshift sex ed lesson.  It was pretty cool.  I’ve actually since run into a few of the women who continue to ask me questions when we see each other.  In Chuchi I had to beg my way onto a bus.  In Ecuador, if you really want something, you have to get this whiny voice and suck up hard core.  It’s incredibly annoying and I generally don’t do it (hence why I usually get ripped off). The begging and whining I did to get onto this bus would have made any Ecuadorian proud. “No sea mailto.  Porfis, solo soy unita.  Tenga la buendad.  Haga el favorcito. No sea mala gente.” Finally, someone let me on their bus.  There was barely enough room for me to even stand for the next 3 hours.

Trail across the river next to an beautiful lake

From Cuenca, Kellie and I set out early to get to the park.  We started on the far end of the park—at about 4500m in altitude.  It was pretty cold, but we had good weather (for once!!).  Supposedly, it even snows in Cajas, so we were prepared for the worst.  The sun was shining, making the views of the lakes that kept popping up over the hills absolutely breathtaking.  We were still pretty high when we set up camp that night.  We had been hoping to meet up with some friends who had set out a day earlier, but we didn’t quite make it.  The next morning we set out early and found our friends around 9 am.  We spent the entire day hiking.  We had to trek through some pretty intense mud, brush and trees for a while, then dropped about 1000m or so very quickly from the high paramo (moors) down into the valley below.  The trail was pretty steep and involved some shimmying down trees (which is Needless to say, I’m glad we hiked DOWN the mountain, not up.  We ended up in the most gorgeous valley I’ve ever seen, complete with a river running through it and a quiet lake at the end with a dock.  Probably one of the most perfect views there is.

The group--I'm the tiny one in the lime green jacket

Camp in the valley next to the river

Me and Kellie standing in paja--by far our favorite type of terrain*

*That is a joke.  Paja is AWFUL to walk through, but we always manage to find it on every hike we do.

This last weekend was also fiestas in Alausí.  191 years of independence (here they celebrate the independence of individual cities, not the country as a whole). I spent the weekend dancing the night away with friends here, eating delicious foods, watching the bulls (because no fiesta is complete without a bunch of drunk guys playing with angry bulls) and catching up with people I haven’t seen in a while.  Saturday night, there was a meeting for all of the indigenous churches in the area.  I’ve never seen so many indigenous people together in one coliseum before.  Their bright colored ponchos and baetas (the traditional clothing) filled the stadium.  I saw a lot of people I knew there and some of my kids from the youth groups sang for everyone.  It was really cool.  After that, my site mate (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it or not, but a new PCV just came to Alausí so we hang out sometimes) and I went to a reggaeton festival at the chauffeur’s union.  Quite a contrast from the indigenous event we had just been at, but still fun. This year my organization wasn’t in the parade, so I just watched.  But it was great to see a lot the people I know from Alausí in the parade. 

I’m not quite sure what my Thanksgiving plans are, but I’m really hoping Turkey is involved.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

And so it goes...

I realize it’s been a while since I’ve written an update.  There are two reasons for that: 1. I’ve been studying for the GRE (which I'm taking this Saturday). And 2. I really don’t know what to say.  I got to Alausi last August.  So this was my second august here, my second september and my second october.  That feeling of everything being new and surprising is gone.  I've settled into the natural cycle of things.  This is my everyday life now.  I’ve been here long enough now that everything has transitioned from being an adventurous hiatus from real life to actually being my real life. I guess before I used to think about what people were doing at home or what I might be doing if I were there.  But it’s been long enough now that I can’t even tell you what I would be doing if I were in the States and I’ve forgotten the daily things I used to do.  Or perhaps not “forgotten”, but I’ve become so far removed from them that they are no longer relevant.  Ecuador is my life now.  Climbing into the back of a pick-up with 12 other people to get to work at 6 am, darting off to climb some mountain or find some remote beach, visiting friends I’ve made here, committee meetings, long walks in the evening watching the sunset over the mountains and working with my kids and the different supporting institutions have all become my new daily routine.  The things I used to see as strange or inspiring or surprising have become the ordinary. And thus I really don’t feel like I have much to say.  Don’t get me wrong, I am still having a blast and everyday is an adventure.  It’s just that this adventure has become the norm—and I can’t tell you how awesome that is.  

So I decided for this post that I would show you a bunch of pictures.

 Working with 9th graders in La Silveria

Girls from my community youth group

"It's time to live your youth.  Prevent teenage pregnancy."

Balloon from an event for teenage pregnancy prevention 

Workshop with younger kids about getting to know our bodies.  You can't see it well in this picture, but in case you didn't know, your head is for doing headers.

Community youth group

 I gave this kid his first haircut. The first haircut is a big deal and I was honored to help.  As you can tell, he was not nearly as thrilled about it as I was.

Parade for International Youth Day

Work Buddies

 Making Tamales...they were so good!

Gorgeous secluded beach called Estero de Platano.  Also, they make the best ceviche ever there.

The view from my evening walk

My bff.  I can always count on her to help me clean my room and rat me out for not eating my soup.

 Medical controls checking kids for malnutrition and anemia

 

Health Fair.  We presented on HIV prevention.

 Learning how to play nutrition bingo to remember which foods are best for children under 5.

This is what I've been up to lately.  I think the remaining 9 months of my service will fly by (even faster than the first 15 months) just because I'm fully in the swing of things now.  

On an unrelated note, I'll be visiting Phoenix (and most likely Tucson) in December.  I think it will be nice to have a break and see everyone I haven't seen in forever.

Hope all is well!

School's Out!

Classes in the high schools ended in the middle of June and thus did a lot of my work with the jovenes—that does not mean, however, that I have had nothing to do.

At the end of June, Alausí celebrated the “Fiestas de San Pedro.” San Pedro is the patron saint of Alausí, and the end of June is when you celebrate him. Though the festivities go on for about 2 weeks, the big weekend of celebrating was the very first weekend of July. People from all over Ecuador came to Alausí to celebrate—including my extended host family. During the day, they have what they call “Torros de Pueblo”. On the big dirt lot where they usually have the Sunday market, they construct a giant stadium. Using wooden beams, they construct boxes to fit about 10 people each stacked 4 high and about 20 long on each side of the stadium. We rented one of these boxes for the weekend (and our box was on the 4^th level). My host family and I climbed in and watched as the Beauty Queen pranced around center stage to start the event. Then the men who are going to torrear (bull fight) enter the ring with their capes. These men are not professionals, but rather just the men of the town. Some of the bull fighters where just crazy drunks who had no idea what they were doing, but some where actually pretty good at handling the bull with their capes. In these bull fights, they do not kill the bull. The men just tease and play with them until they are sufficiently angry, then they change bulls. In the 3 days of bull fights only 4 men were seriously injured. I went to 2 days of bull fighting (Saturday and Sunday, by Monday I had to head back to work). My host family and I just spent the day cheering on the fighters and eating delicious food (like empanadas and Ecuadorian candy). Every evening of San Pedro there was a concert. The main event was Saturday night. Me and my whole host family (not to mention the entire town of Alausí) had a blast dancing in the main plaza until 4 o’clock in the morning. The next day (Sunday) was the big parade through town. Considering that COCACH is an Alausian institution, they had prepared a comparsa (a group of dancers) and all the authorities and the technical team (myself included) were invited participate in the parade. So at 9 am (after having danced until 4am) I was lining up with some of the kids from the communities and the other authorities to parade through the streets of Alausí. It was a lot of fun and since the whole town came to watch, I got to say hi to a bunch of people that I had wanted to see during the fiestas but hadn’t had the opportunity to. That night there was also a dance. We went for a little while, but were still exhausted from the night before, plus I had to work the next day. Overall, I had such a great time dancing through the streets, parading and celebrating with all the people I’ve come to know and love here in Ecuador.

In the middle of the bull fighting ring--don't worry, I didn't fight any bulls

Not too long after the fiestas in Alausi, my friend Kellie and I tried to summit Cotopaxi, a volcano measuring 19,344 ft. Because the sun is so strong here, you actually have to do most of the climb at night. We set off around 1 am with our wonderful guide Diego (a friend of a friend) and his brother hoping to arrive at the summit around 7 am to watch the sun rise and be off the snow by 8 am (the sun melts the snow and makes it very dangerous to climb down). Sadly, however, the weather wasn’t on our side. By 6 am we were at about 18,000 ft and in total whiteout conditions. We could barely see 10 feet in front of us and it was difficult to stay standing in the blowing ice and snow. We decided it wasn’t safe to continue and headed back down the mountain. It was disappointing not to be able to reach the summit, but before my time here in Ecuador is up, I am determined to make it to the top, perhaps in December when the weather is a little better.

Cotopaxi from afar


Kellie and I getting ready to climb

Frozen at 18,000 ft

The following week, my friend from college, Emily, came to visit me. We spent a day in Quito seeing the sites there then headed to the Galapagos. We arrived to the Island of Baltra, but there is literally nothing there except the airport so we immediately were ferried to the main island of Santa Cruz. We spent the night on this island for the first 3 days, doing tours to other islands during the day. Food was very expensive on the islands, but loding wasn’t that bad (about $15 a night, which by Ecuadorian standards is more expensive than the mainland, but cheap by American tourist standards).

After finding a place to stay and organizing our trips to the other islands, we went the Charles Darwin Research Station. This is the home to several different species of Galapagos tortoises (each island has its own species) including Lonesome George, the only remaining member of his species. The areas where they keep the tortoises are open and you can walk right up next to them, but not touch them—they bite. We walked back to town along the board walk. We came upon a sea lion lying in the middle of the walkway. The animals have become so used to humans that they just chill out anywhere they want without paying any attention to who is around or where they are. This particular sea lion decided that the middle of the boardwalk would be were he took his afternoon nap and wasn’t going to let anyone disturb him.

At the research center with a giant tortoise

The next day went to the island of Isabela. It is the largest island and is known for its wildlife and volcanos. Sadly, we couldn’t go to the volcanos because it’s cloudy this time of year. Not a problem on the coast, but as soon as you go up in elevation all you see are clouds and fog. So we stayed on the coast. We went to the turtle breeding ground where they are trying to rehabilitate the native population of turtles to the island. We also saw some Galapagos flamingos. Then we went to this gorgeous white sand beach for lunch. There were iguanas all over the place just sitting on a rock sun bathing. After lunch we went on a boat tour to see blue footed boobies and Galapagos penguins. We could also see sharks swimming in the waters nearby. We also went snorkeling (where there weren’t any sharks—I like to think I’m an adventurous person, but I draw the line at swimming with sharks). We saw all sorts of cool creatures floating around like sea cucumbers, all sorts of fish, and rays. The water was really clear too so we could see everything. That night we returned to Santa Cruz.

The next day we went to the island of Floreana, a much smaller island and the first island with human inhabitants (a German dentist and his wife). We hiked up to where they lived and saw some of the remains of forts that pirates had built on the way. After that, we went snorkeling, swimming with sea lions and sea turtles. We also saw some more penguins and some really cool rock formations. We got back to Santa Cruz around 4 pm and decided to go to the highlands of Santa Cruz. We saw to volcano craters, some more tortoises and walked through a lava tube.

Riding on the bow after a great day of snorkeling
More turtles
More sea lions
Cool rocks

The next morning we walked to Tortuga Bay—one of the most beautiful places on earth. There are two beaches: a white sand beach with crystal clear blue waters and rough waves (too rough for swimming) and a calm cove that is completely protected from the rough waves of the ocean. It was gorgeous. Emily and I went with a German tourist we met the day before. The three of us girls spent the morning napping on the beach and wading in the water. It was heaven.

Even tortoises are bigger than me--I can fit very comfortably in their shell

That afternoon we took a ferry to the island of San Cristobal, passing by the island of Santa Fe on the way. We got to the island around 4, found a hostal and then went exploring. The sea lions were everywhere on this island—on the beaches, on the park benches, on the docks, on the boats…EVERYWHERE! The next day we rented bikes and rode over the highlands (hoping to see a lake but sadly it was very cloudy so all we saw was fog) and ending up at a little secluded beach called Puerto Chino. It was absolutely gorgeous. We stayed there until about midday when we decided to head to the other side of the island. There we could see one of the most famous Galapagos rock formations in Spanish Leon Dormido and in English “Kicker Rock” (I don´t know where that translation came from because leon dormido means sleeping lion). You can take snorkeling tours there, but the main site to see is sharks, and I have already expressed my feelings on swimming with sharks.

Puerto Chino

View from the highlands

The next day we sadly had to leave the Galapagos. The experience was great and it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I really hope that someday I can make it back to see the volcanoes and to visit other islands.

Instead of flying back to Quito, we flew to Guayaquil (the largest city in Eucador which is on the coast). From there we went to the beach. Unfortunately, it was raining, foggy and cold the whole time so we really didn’t get to see much or play in the water. Oh well, better luck next time.

After that, Emily had to head back to the states and I had to head back to Alausí and back to work. But it was great to get a vacation and get to know more of the beautiful country that is Ecuador.

I miss everyone back home! And just fyi, if you come visit me in Ecuador I'll take you on an awesome adventure. Anyone want to go kayaking in the amazon with me? My couch is always open to visitors :)