Thursday, June 3, 2010

Sharing the Love

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind of events and I am absolutely pooped (literally....will divulge more on that later).

My friend, Miriam, had asked me to come up to her site to do a technical exchange and teach cooking classes to a few groups of mothers. She lives in possibly the coldest site in Ecuador, in Salinas de Guaranda. It is at an elevation of over 3500 meters, looking out onto the biggest mountain in Ecuador, Chimborazo. It's beautiful there. Very indigenous and very different from where I live, but it was fun to see.

We gave two cooking sessions to mothers of the FODI daycare centers, the same organization I used to work for in Zumbi a while back. Miriam, Nancy (a volunteer nearby) and I taught the women how to make quinoa salad, fried zucchini, and Spanish omlettes. These communities grow a lot of vegetables, but never use them so we tried to teach them how to use these vegetables without using a lot of oil or salt. It was a lot of fun because we mostly went to Indigenous Kichwa communities. The second community we went to was wayyy up in the mountains, 4000 meters. In the Sierra, people are generally more reserved and shy and aren't nearly as open as the people where I live. It must be the cold...

But the women in this community were hilarious. I would ask them to cut up tomatoes or onions and they would all whisper to each other like " how do I cut this? what did she ask us? we have to cut the tomatoes!" But in strong whispers. I couldn't really understand, but they all seemed to understand each other and the room was loud, but with the sound of them whispering to each other.

They really enjoyed the recipes and it was fun teaching them new things with the products they already had. My Spanish omlette was a huge success (pretty much one of three things I've mastered while being down here).

After that Miriam and I snuck off to the beach for a few days. It was great and super relaxing. We met some boys and danced AMAZING salsa until 4 in the morning. These guys told us they were the salsa champions of the coast....I was like whatever you just want us to go with you. But they were absolutely INCREDIBLE dancers. I never even knew one could spin in so many different ways.

While at the beach we got a call that Tungurahua, the active volcano, had erupted. Apparently there was just ash everywhere, but we had to modify our plans a little since the roads were closed in that area. WEIRD!

We managed to get out safely and arrive in Quito for our COS (close of service) conference. I was kind of dreading it, just because Peace Corps training sessions have been pretty lame in the past. But it has been a blast. This is the last time we are all going to see each other together and it's been great sharing stories and seeing how much we've all grown.

There's a TON of paperwork we have to do, but a necessary evil in order to leave. Tuesday night the staff took us all to a really nice, fancy dinner. I definitely cried during a toast a fellow volunteer made. It's been very emotional, but I think it's a good thing because it shows how much I've come to love this country and my community.

Then last night we all went out for wine and tapas and it was so much fun. Everyone gave a little speech about each other, sharing funny stories or thanking people for support. Chris and I had a little "Jungle Babies" moment...admitting we wouldn't have been able to do it without each other. Everyone was just a full with love. We then went dancing and it was just so great to be all together one last time.

Just finishing up some medical stuff (have had to give three poop samples...eww). Good news: I don't have parasites!

After a crazy two weeks, I'm getting ready to go back to site and finish up with a bang. However, I have a feeling this is going to be the hardest part of my two years of service...

5 comments:

Charlie Thompson said...

Kichwa... Do you mean Quechua?

CVA said...

It is Kichwa in Ecuador. Quechua is spoken in Peru...there is a difference, however.

Robert said...

Hi there... its amazing what youre doing in Ecuador... my name is rob and i live in Quito... mi family is from chile though...

Ill be great to become friends if you want to... its great to meet so cool people with so big heart...

mail me if you want to...
rob_rtprr@hotmail.com

Scott said...

C'mon Corrie...girls don't poop.

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