Bye Bye FODI

Well the date has finally arrived, and FODI is no longer the FODI I met a mere year ago. As some of you may know, the organization I worked with in Zumbi, the child care project, has now ended thanks to the new municipal administration. Apparently, that is how politics are here; when one guy leaves, all of his current team leaves with him too. For me, this is has been a very surprising and confusing process. I can understand changing some of the higher up positions, however firing ALL mid-to low-level positions does not make much sense to me. With FODI, the organization and process of everything is very complex. There is a TON of paperwork, not to mention the years of relationships these people have built with the communities, now the new group of FODI has to start from square one.

Everyone did not seemed surprised to know that they were all losing their jobs (not a single person was asked to come back). However, upon this notice none seemed to pressed to find other jobs, either. Most of the personnel are going to stay at home, finish their degrees, or find other avenues within Zumbi. Yeni, the director, did apply for the same position but in Guaysimi, where Chris lives, however was not able to accept it because the new mayor of Zumbi would not let her leave a WEEK EARLY!....needless to say, I think you know how my feelings are towards the new Zumbi administration...

However, despite the tristeza they all found it within themselves to celebrate the end of a great career with the community members they have grown to love. Monday night we trekked up to Natenza, a small community about an hour away, and danced until the wee hours in the centro. It was funny because there were about 15 people in the playroom of this centro, and we were dancing so hard, the CD player kept skipping. If you stopped and listened, you could hear the steady beat of everyone´s feet pounding on the wooden slats that is the floor. It was great seeing everyone celebrate their past years, sad at the same time, too.

Last night was their last official day, so I joined them as they finished their last reports, scrambling to print out pages and pages of statistics and numbers on god knows what. Then the centro in Zumbi invited us for ´the last supper´ of chicken soup. The president, Julia, gave me my bowl and said with great pride, ´es criollo´, which means it´s criollo chicken. It´s a different type of chicken, I´m not too fond of it, but apparently it´s a big deal when they serve you criollo, mostly because it´s more expensive.

Overall, this was a blast to spend the past year with these people. I will never forget them nor what I have learned from them. I am definitely going to miss going into the campo and visiting families, just talking to the moms and learning about Ecuadorian life. Now, it is time for me to pursue other avenues. I am planning on working more with the school and more in Zamora. With wet eyes, it was hard saying goodbye to everyone.

But life must go on.

On an upnote, I leave for Peru tomorrow! My Dad and I are going down to Lima and Cuzco to explore Machu Pichu! Can´t wait! Get excited for some AMAZING pictures!!!

I´m sorry....here are some pictures, though!

I´ve noticed that throughout the past year, my entries have gotten to be less frequent. Sorry if this is somewhat boring for some of you, but lately things have been pretty normal, so the weird stories are just everyday life now. Also, I want to clear something up. I realize that the majority of my entries talk about me going out, partying, drinking, etc. However, I want to stress that this is NOT that frequent. There are more parties than ever in the US, but they are completely social and they don´t get out of hand. This is a very ¨fiesta-oriented¨ culture, and that´s where most of my ¨culture watching¨ happens. It´s where I learn the most about people and hence why I write so much about them. I apologize if I offended anyone or caused any unnecessary worry...this is not something that should cause grief.

Anyway, on that note. I have some pictures. They are a random bunch, but better than nothin´ right?



Here Chris and I are giving a charla in Vilcabamba on Swine Flu. I am SO SICK OF SWINE FLU....but apparently they can´t get enough info on it down here. Which is good I guess. We are demonstrating how easily germs can be spread, if you are on a bus, for example. Chris ¨sneezed¨ then threw the balloons at everyone, representing the germs that can get ya.



Brown Sugar and his neice Bélen. I teach her classes at the school, one of my favorite girls. She also helps out with the Tortilla every now and then.



La Tortilla...yapping at me before I left for work. She´s a chatter box!



Last night was the FODI graduation for 4 girls that have ¨grown up¨ and now have to go to ¨Kinder¨. They all dressed in the blue dresses and then draped the cloak and red hat....each girl got to wear it. It was really cute. The cape and hat is typical graduation wear here--from kinder to medical school all wear the capes.



Here are Grigs and I at the graduation. It would be TOTALLY framable if it weren´t for my killer sweaty pits, but hey...it was hot. Eh...it´s nothing a little photoshop can´t handle.



Me with the lovely educators of San Pablo. In addition to the graduation, it was also like a despedida, or farewell party. All of the FODI workers did not get their contracts renewed, so they are all done September 15. They had a little baile for them to celebrate their work. It was ended by a heartbreaking speech by the community president. It´s really sad to watch all these people go, considering how much they have done for these communities. This was an amazing organization, aside from some flaws, I would totally want to work with them again. We shall see how it goes with the new Mayor...talk is that he might not even continue FODI, but I´m not counting on anything at this point. Oh, and the lady to my left, Doña Rosa, is my Avon lady....

Well that´s about it. I´ll be missing most of the farewell parties because next week I have to go to Cayambe up near Quito for our Mid-Service conference. It will be great to see everyone from my Omnibus again...I´m anxious to see how everyone is holding up!

Colombian Billards

Ahh the Colombians...the black (literally) sheep of Ecuador. They are loved yet feared and loathed at the same time (sound like a minority population in the US?)

Yantzaza´s Colombian population, however, is probably the biggest in the area. With the allure of mining in Zamora Chinchipe, and a large number of foreign companies setting up shop in this little nook of Ecuador, a bunch of Colombians have come to live here. They mostly stay for a week or so, leave for the mines for a month, and then come back to rest up for a week before leaving again.

There are a lot of Colombians in my neighborhood, so I´ve gotten to know some of them. Two dashing young lads happen to live in the apartment above me. Duber and Diner, no joke....they are cousins, are really cool little Colombians that have been here about 3 years. After hanging out on the front bench the last few days, they invited me for Duber´s birthday celebration. I was a little nervous because they said they were going to the Billars, which is the Colombian Billard hall hangout.

Now, I have no beef with the Colombians...they have all been really nice to me. Here, people are just really skeptical of their actions, whether or not they are dangerous, etc. Colombia is a lot more dangerous than the comparative comatose Ecuador, but that doesn´t always mean the country breeds bad people. Ecuadorians tend to give a second look when the two minority groups of the town are hanging out together, especially because we are both so noticable.

So I get a little dolled up and we walk, the three of us, down to the pool hall. I was nervous because I didn´t want a lot of people saying stuff about me...like oh the gringa is with the colombians, etc. We reached the swinging doors, and I coyly stepped in, wondering what these dark faces were going to think about the whitest face in Yantzaza stepping onto their turf. No one said anything, it was like those movies where you hear background music, one sole pool ball hitting the table, and everyone just looking up at the one foreign object that entered the door. I was like AY DIOS, and my stomach did 10 flips. Duber and Diner were leading me in with big smiles, telling me it´s ok...I guess they could tell I was nervous. And then this girl Lydia came over and started talking to me, the owner of the bar. She was really cool and I was able to whip out my ¨Cori¨ Spanish personality (as most say I act differently in Spanish...). She was super cool and chatted me up.

Felt a little looser as some came over and shook my hand, wanting to get to know me. Duber and Diner taught me how to play their pool (shooting the number 7-15 in order). But it was funny because as we were playing Diner turns to me and is like, wow look at this, this is the ¨extranjero bar¨ or bar for foreigners. Once he said that I chuckled to myself and thought, wow he´s really right. In a sense, I felt a lot more comfortable because we were all away from our homelands, here in Ecuador on a mission.

As the night went on, more Colombianos trickled in and out. It was the first time in a while I have felt really out of my element. I feel more and more local everyday, yet this time I had to stretch myself again, just like I would have a year ago. But I was glad for this experience, another wake up call for me, and another way for me to appreciate how integrated I have become.

I am now accepted into the Colombian way; just add that one to the list...

You want my quimbolito instead of bus fare?

Yesterday I had such a good day. It was my first real day back at work since being on vacation, and I have been getting antsy lately, so I was really excited to do something constructive. I´ve also been a little down about work, since the whole entire staff of FODI is pretty much getting fired in a month due to the new mayoral administration, so I have been in limbo as to what I want to do when September 1 rolls around. I took the toro by the horns and just decided to do more work with the school and my girls at Paulina Solis, as well as go to Zamora twice a week. However, when and if FODI needs me, they will let me know but I won´t be doing things for them on a daily basis (at least this is the tentative plan...).

Anyway, Grigs asked me to help out at one of the FODI centers yesterday so I hopped on a ranchera to get over there in the morning. The rancheras are the buses without doors or windows, just a truck with seats in it. I hopped in front with the driver since it looked like it was going to downpour (I´m good at calculating rain clouds now...) and we started chatting. Once I got to the center at San Pablo, I told him I got off here and handed him my 40 cent fare. He shook his head and said ¨Que te vaya bien¨ (May things go well with you). I was like HALA! Then I knew it was going to be a good day.

San Pablo, however, is one of my favorite centers. The moms are great, the educators are awesome, and the kids are a blast to play with. After picking up some Avon that I bought from the center´s cook (she´s an Avon Reina in these parts), I went out back and helped Grigs and the moms plant some seeds for this garden they´ve tried to revive. We both kinda didn´t know what we were doing, as far as what seeds should grow near each other, etc. But I think we estimated well enough. No one seemed to contest our guessing, so we figured it was good enough. We only planted seeds in two beds, if it doesn´t work out...meh. Hopefully it will, because I need to get in some green thumb practice.

Afterwards, Grigs and I played a little with the kids. Being bigger and considered Big Foot here, they tend to think I´m a jungle gym so they climbed on me for a little bit and then played Hide-N-Go Seek....my favorite. It mostly involves us just running around and yelling the whole time. And then, as my mom always used to (and still does) tell us, ¨laughter soon turns to tears¨ and wouldn´t ya know, two kids slam right into each other while turning a corner and the game stops. :-(

One of the best games though, involved a kid being ¨San Antonio¨ and the others sit on a bench, waiting for San Antonio to save them from ¨a demon¨ (yours truly). But the way San Antonio gets rid of this demon is by whacking them with a towel....it took me a bunch of tries to understand what they were doing, and I still don´t seem to get it. More than anything it was funny watching kids beat me with a towel...at least the educators got a real kick out of it.

Grigs and I gave a little charla to the moms later on on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, which was good. And of course, afterwards, the infamous ¨refrigerio¨ or snack. They labored all afternoon to make these Quimbolitos, or floury cupcakes with raisins and they are baked in banana leaves. They were pretty good. But of course had to send me home with a bunch. After catching the bus with my quimbolitos, I got off to pay the driver and he rushed over to me asking for one. I handed him my 40 cents, but he was like no I want a Quimbolito. Ok Señor! So I didn´t have to pay for any transportation yesterday!

Once again, the little things are making me appreciate my days here. Who would have thought free bus rides and tag with a towel could brighten up one´s day?

Honk if you like Ecuador PARTE DOS

Now that Dan Weitz has experienced ¨The Ecua¨life that I live, he was nice enough to record his experiences and give his ¨dos centavos.¨ So let´s hear it for my first guest blogger!

Transportation: Local busses never come to a complete stop, people literally jump on and off the bus while it is still moving, and bathrooms on busses are for women only. Every car is at least 15 years old and honks about 3 to 5 times per minute. It’s also popular to ride in the back of pick-up trucks (the “Click It Or Ticket” rule clearly isn’t enforced here). There are no trains, no metro, no BMWs, no limos.

Vendors: You can buy everything from machetes to electric chords from people on the streets. One guy was walking around with a 3 liter bottle (yes, 3 liter) of Coke and selling little plastic cups of soda straight from the bottle. Also, there are legitimate stores with security guards that sell bootleg video games and DVDs for $1.50 (the quality is surprisingly good, too). There are little bodegas everywhere you turn, and if you need some bananas, no matter where you live, it will be at most a 15 second walk.

Cost of living: A three course meal with a chicken soup appetizer, grilled meat with rice, beans, and plantains, a small dessert, and delicious fruit drink costs $2 (includes tax, and you don’t tip here). For 6 tomatoes, 3 green peppers, a sack of potatoes, 3 limes, 1 pineapple, 2 avocados, 2 large carrots, 1 large head of broccoli, and cilantro is cost us $4.50. Monthly rent is $70. A 10 minute taxi ride or 1 hour bus ride each cost $1. Ice cream bars are 25 cents. A jumbo sized beer at a restaurant is $1. Nuff said.

Lifestyle: If you want someone’s attention, such as a waitress at a restaurant or a girl at a bar, you hiss at them. Every day is laundry day, there are always clothes hanging end to end on clotheslines. There’s no such thing as eggs and bacon for breakfast, instead it’s chicken and beans. At bars there are no gin and tonics or rum and cokes, but just beer that comes in half liter sized bottles with small plastic cups to pour in and share with everyone around you. Bugs like to bite you in the most random places such as your index finger knuckle or pinky toe. No matter how many times you take cold showers, it’s just as cold today as it was yesterday.

Walking the streets: Roads don’t have dotted white or double yellow lines (after all it’s pretty difficult to paint rocks and dirt). There are stray cats and dogs everywhere, and it’s common to be woken up by roosters in the morning (though something just doesn’t sound right with the way they cockle doodle do down here). There are beautiful mountains in the distance everywhere you look and the view just never gets old. People are very friendly and talkative and it is common to say Good Afternoon to just about every person you pass on the streets. Many buildings are only half finished and appear to be abandoned projects.

As poor as this country is, the people here seem very happy with their lives. While they may never watch the Super Bowl on a 50” plasma TV or talk to friends on their brand new iPhone, they are perfectly happy sitting outside their small cement apartments on plastic chairs watching cars drive by on a Saturday afternoon. Corrie loves it here and her Spanish is incredible. She was a great host and this was definitely a worthwhile experience that made me appreciate a new culture and admire even more Corrie’s devotion to this country.

Honk if you like Ecuador!

I have been fortunate enough this week to receive my THIRD American visitor....Señor Daniel Brian Weitz. After our adventures together at Maryland, Dan decided he wanted to continue the good times and come on down South of the Border.

Last Sunday night he arrived late in to Guayaquil, which was nice as I had the day to rest up after the exhausting night bus. Guayaquil was in fiestas that weekend, surprise surprise, and I went out with my friend Kristin the night before to experience the sights. Tons of fireworks, open flames on the streets, and probably the most amount of people I have ever seen. Being the largest city in Ecuador, with almost 3 million people, Guayaquil grows even larger during fiestas.

Anyway, I managed to find this really cute, artsy hostel on the Malécon, or riverwalk, in Guayaquil. We stayed in the ¨Green Room¨ and now Dan remembers what verde means (he is slowly but surely picking up Spanish phrases....his favorite is chuchaki which is hungover, but never seems to get it right....)

We explored Guayaquil on Monday, the riverwalk, climbed 500 steps to a lighthouse that overlooks the whole city, and had a great grilled steak dinner. Guayaquil turned out to be quite delightful despite its somewhat notorious reputation.

Then we took a three hour bus ride to a sleepy beach town on the coast. It was cute, but unfortunately the weather really sucked so it was cold and cloudy the whole time. They did have a ton of restaurants and bars so we got to experience some nightlife.

Wednesday night we took a night bus to Loja and then took a bus to Vilcabamba. Vilca turned out to have really nice weather, with its rolling mountainsides and hippy mountain feel, Dan surely got a taste for the different lifestyles on the Coast and the Sierra. We decided to go for a hike up this mountain, Mondango. In order to get up, we had to pay a buck fifty to get into the property, yet no one was answering the bell. A neighbor was like just go on in, so we hopped the barbwire fence and hiked up this mountain. It was an incredible view, 1950 meters!

Staying at Izchalyuma, this sweet hostel, we got amazing massages and had a wunderbar dinner (it vas very german...) After Vilcabamba, we met up my friend Jason in Loja for lunch and then took a bus back to Yantzaza. When we got here, we met up with Chris and his girlfriend Emily, had some street meat with them and Grigs joined us later. It was a great little gringo get together, and we were definitely attracting attention. The highlight for Dan that night was hoping in the back of a pick-up and taking a spin around the block to this disco we went to. The disco was afull of screaming girls, waiting for Jhonatan Luna, some cover singer. The girls were screaming like when I saw Ricky Martin for the first time, but this chico was merely singing cover songs. Dan is now deaf in his right ear. But I got to show off some of my merengue moves :-)

Now we are just hanging out; took him to some local bars, we ate frog yesterday, and went to the pool and waterslide in Zumbi today. He is here until Wednesday and then we are heading back to Guayaquil so he can fly back to BORING USA. Hahahaha. So far, I think he likes it, says it is nothing like what he expected, but I said you really cannot expect anything when coming down here.

So far the things he has noticed:
1. Massive amounts of honking...everyone honks for no reason, but I say, why not?
2. Cold showers....I say, whats the big deal?
3. Tsss tsss tsss....the totally effective and PC way of calling to a hot girl...

Now I am hoping Dan will provide some insightful observations of his own that we can all reflect on. Slash...I hope more of you will decide to come visit now.

Whoa...sorry for the delay....

I´ve been a really bad blogger lately....sorry about that. Things have been coming up lately, so I haven´t had time to sit down and write, also I was waiting to post pictures that I have!!!

So the wedding, which was July 4th, was really cool. It was a great experience and I am really grateful to my friend Yesenia for inviting me. Here is a little summary of the weekend, as it was full of fiestas and gringo-ness, and wedding excitement.

I went to Vilcabamba with everyone Saturday, ate lunch there, then sped back up to Loja to get all dolled up for the wedding. It was the wedding of my friend from Zamora, who´s a dentist. She and her roommate threw me a birthday party, I´ve crashed at her house a couple of times...BUENA GENTE. Anyway, I was really excited to go to a wedding of a good friend. I took Little Brown Sugarwith me, he met up with me in Loja.

I got my hair done...like prom style (it cost $4!!!) and then my nails done. I got a pedicure too...thought why not. And it was great...my feet were disgusting though...with all the campo hiking and sandals; the poor woman was scrubbing away and cleaning my feet for almost an hour and a half! Pobrecita.Then I did my makeup (yea...I did it!) and we went to the wedding. My friend Lorena was there with her BF (Lorena is Yesenia´s roommate). I´m really glad she was there because I didn´t know anyone...i thought my friends from Zamora would go but they didn´t show up. The church was gorgeous...got to take a lot of pictures with them.Then they had the reception in this GORGEOUS building. It was like brand new, at the Civil Engineers Professional Association. Incredible...served an amazing dinner. Super fancy....I was glad I got my hair done and dressed up; the women were totally decked out. They all looked like Beauty Pagent contestants. But Brown Sugar and I danced (he was a little agua fiestas though...didn´t want to dance as much as I wanted too :-( I went to Chris´s house just the other night to visit him, and I was telling his family about him and the wedding. Then Chris´s host sister, Maria, pipes up and says Cori, hay más que un burro en la loma (lit: There is more than one donkey on the hill. HAHAH! I was laughing so hard, their version of ¨there are more fish in the sea¨ type of deal...)

At times, I felt a little awkward, but I´m getting more and more used to feeling that way. They called me up to get in line for the presentation of the garter...each girl single girl had to give a number, and they gave out three garters. I unfortunately didn´t get one. Oh well...I´m in no rush to get married.

Here are some pictures! I am also posting some of the infamous Tortilla. She is a great cat...I feel bad leaving her by herself during the day, but she is really starting to get to know me and recognizes me over strangers. So my little mija is becoming my own!

Oh, PS: I just got a bike! I found one in the back of my building and I asked the landlady if I could borrow it. It was missing a pedal and needed a new chain and seat and a new tire. So I took it down the street and a guy fixed it up for me for $37! So I got a bike for less than $40!! It´s great, especially at night when I don´t want to walk up to my apartment by myself.

The church, San Jose. It´s a little dark, but this place was gorgeous, very similar to an American church.

Lorena, Yesenia, Mario and Me. I did have heels on...big mistake. Brown Sugar was not happy since I was towering over him, but whatever. Fashion overrides all here!

Las damas or bridesmaids. They all have to be single in order to be in the bridal party, hence the fact they all look/are 16-year-old. Orange (or the Ecua-orange as I like to call it) was her bridal color, in case you hadn´t noticed...

Me and Panelita....man, I am WHITE...or is he just really BROWN sugar???

The reception, with the same Ecua-orange. It was absolutely amazing this venue (and this picture is just about a quarter of the space it was in). I seriously felt like I was in the US. They had this fancy-shmancy dinner, nice white wine. And then for the after dinner drink: scotch.

My hair. Held up nicely for two days...I think she put enough hairspray...enough to make the movie ¨Hairspray¨ embarassed. Which does not equal the gel the guys use in their hair (Brown Sugar being one of them). It´s called Moco de Gorilla or Gorilla Snot...no joke. And the guys LOVE that stuff.

My little Tortilla! She´s about two months old, I think.

Me and the Tortilla. She loves to play fútbol.

Last but not least, Tommy the Weiner Dog. This little guy is always running around Zamora and finally I got to take a picture of him. He cracks me up, this pobrecito got his name painted to him! Well, at least we know which one is Tommy! (Tommy Scott, thought you might appreciate this one)