Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Quito ARG ARG

It´s Day 3 of my week long seminar in Quito and wow... am I tired! This altitude is getting to all of us I think. But we are here for our 4 month ¨Reconnect¨ and everyone came with their counterparts from their sites to share our progess and results from interviews.

The counterparts left yesterday and today, tomorrow and Friday we are in sessions about continuing with our projects, ideas for objectives, etc. It´s been really interesting to see everyone and hear about their stories, how we are all doing, and how life is like in our various sites. We were like family for the first two months here and now we are all starting to go our separate ways. Some travel a lot and visit other volunteers, others have become ¨site rats¨as we say, and stay in our sites all the time (like me more or less...but I am one of the furthest from everyone besides Chris!)

But it was really interesting to meet all the counterparts and see what they are like. A lot of them have dealt with volunteers in the past; for others, we are some of the first. It was awesome sharing ideas and experiences, too. The last session we had with them we broke up, the volunteers and the counterparts, and we had to talk about what our experiences have been like and how we have adjusted (or not) to working and living in these communities.

The girls I was with are all living on the Coast and it was fascinating because our lives and schedules are really different. I never realized how different the regions are in this country, and how different the people are. For example, the girls talked about how their coutnerparts are very social and don´t get down to business as much. I somewhat agreed with that, but one girl Erin was telling me how she would go to her counterpart´s house at 11 am, sit there all day, and not talk about work until 4 pm....

Different from me, but other cultural quirks were noticeably different from my region. Not to mention the coastal accent is different...very fast and they drop their ¨s¨ at the end of words. It takes some getting used to.

The counterparts shared their observations of us, however. How they notice how we have trouble getting used to some cultural things (like we are very punctual...), how socializing is more important than work, etc. But it made me feel a lot better to see a lot of the other volunteers are having similar problems. At times I feel really stretched thin between my three sites, and I feel guilty a lot for not being able to be in all places all the time. But they have helped me feel better with the guilt thing, making me realize that I am just a volunteer, I´m not getting paid...I can´t please everyone and I need to have time for myself for my own sanity.

Anyway, it´s been a good learning experience. I´m going to be glad when Friday comes around...it´s tiring and sitting in sessions all day has made me appreciate my on-the-go work and what I am doing in Yantzaza. I miss Yantzaza!

Friday I am going to visit my host family in Cayambe, where I was during training. I am really excited to see them and they have been calling me all week to find out when I am coming! It´s great knowing I have ¨family¨in Ecuador.

Gotta go grab some Indian food (YEA! NO ECUA FOOD!!!), buy some illegal movies and eat some soft serve ice cream. HALA!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Carrie,

I'm an RPCV 2003-05 whose site was in Chicana, just up the road from Yantzaza. I'm going to be in Chicana the last two weeks of February and would love to have lunch with you. Do you have email? Mine is andrerv@hotmail.com

P.S. If you think I'm some weird stalker, go the the Municipio de Yantzaza and ask Orlando Cobos at the Unidad de Desarrollo Sostenible who I am. And of course you could always go to Chicana and everyone there knows me.

Anonymous said...

Corrie-
It sounds like you're interacting very well with other Peace Corpians (if that's a word!?. I hope you're having as much fun as you ever have. And on the 'illegal movies'.....I think the very best ones you can buy are in foreign countries and (of course!) Chinatown in NYC!
Smile every minute for me por favor,
Anna