Gracias por las camisetas! Fotos

When I came back from the States, I brought a bunch of t-shirts that my Aunt Sharon donated for my little rascals. Here are some of the pictures I promised. Thank you so much, Aunt Sheshie! The kids love them and they were really excited to get ¨EHigh Eschool Musical¨ wear!


My buddy Andy. He won second place in the Michael Jackson dance-off the night before.


La Estefany. One of my favorite girls. She is so cool. Her and Delia always come over to my house to play. The girls are just starting to get ¨novios¨ so they have been busy writing and passing secret notes back and forth to each other´s brothers. It´s hilarious. And EVERYONE knows who they are writing to, so it´s not like a huge secret anymore. Takes me back to my days when I´d stick in a note in a guy´s locker and wait for him to circle yes or no. They do that here too..Indica: Si o No.


My niñas before playing in their first basketball game. They are in the county tournament. We won 20-6 on Friday! I told them it was because I was wearing my lucky Superman calzones...


Heaven forbid there be a tournament or ocasion without a parade. I marched along the road...very awkward because we just did a vuelta. I think a total of 10 people saw us marching around. At least I got to snack on some mango (30 cents!!)


The famous Iglesia of Los Encuentros. This is the last stop before leaving the cantón of Yantzaza.

Suspicious boys, what are you up to??

It has started.

Carnaval season has arrived. Which means the random corners crowded with 8-13 year-old-boys, looking as suspicious as Tom and Jerry, are now popping up all over Yantzaza. Carnaval is not until February 14-17 but that doesn´t stop the youth from dousing every person walking down the street with water balloons. Especially hitting targets well known or easily visible (me meeting BOTH of those requirements...)

I was walking with a group of school girls the other day and there were about 10 boys huddled behind a pile of bricks at a construction site. I thought, how cute, they are waiting for their little novias! And then BAM! About 10 water balloons came shooting at us. Kind of reminds me of my American Girl Doll days, in the book about Molly and she wore a Hawaiian grass skirt to a Halloween party and her brother and friends soaked her with a hose. Her grass skirt ran green all over her legs....poor Molly. Poor niñas from Paulína Solís!

That´s ok. We´ll get those Rumiñauhui boys back soon (the all-boys school).

Last week my friend Diego, a dentist who lives next door, invited his other doctor friends over for dinner. He invited me and Grigs, as well. Diego and the other doctors are in their rural year here in Zamora Chinchipe. After graduating from medical school, every doctor has to serve a rural year in ¨the campo¨. These doctors are all from Cuenca (or Loja) so this is really out in the boonies for them. It was fascinating to listen to them talk about Yantzaza and Guaysimi, very much like how us volunteers talk about where we are living. What´s funnier is how much they gripe about things, and this is their own country! They should be used to the water and power outages, and the way things ¨run¨ down here. It´s kind of like a Peace Corps for Ecuadorians.

Went to Vilcabamba this weekend to hang out and watch some football. We were lucky to watch the Jets-Colts game and got half of the Saints-Vikings game when there was a lightning storm that knocked out the satellite. Looks like a good Super Bowl!

Gotta get back to super soaking...

Oh Ecuador...

Random moments throughout the past couple of week have given me reason to just shake my head and mumble Oh Ecuador...

1) I went running the other day, past a construction site. Now that a lot of families from Spain are coming back, houses and businesses are springing up like crazy all over Yantzaza. On the second floor of a house someone was building were a group of construction workers, I didn´t really pay too much attention to them. But then as I looked up, one guy just strips down to his tighty whities! Like wasn´t trying to hide it at all! And then he saw me, so I tried to run away faster...I looked back and he started waving at me, like trying to get me to come back! I was like No gracias, señor! Just because I saw you in your drawers doesn´t mean I want to strike up a conversation with you.

2) Grr. My bed bugs have come back. I really missed not having them in the US. It was so nice to sleep through the night without scratching. Ay dios. But this time they have come back and BAD. I have one on my buttock and I can´t sit down! My little cohorts in crime, Delia and Estefany, say they are these bugs called Tepas or something and they bite and leave giant bites. After 7 times of biting you they never bite you again. I have no idea if this is true but they said it with such authority I figured why not trust the 10 year olds? So we spent a good half hour last night trying to soak my bite in hot water and salt...it was hilarious. Hopefully it´ll pop soon....

3) Running in the rain. It never gets old. And I love the smell of the rain on the hot asphalt. This was and always is a great moment.

Everything else has been super tranquilo, have a great weekend!

OMG I have turned into a cat lady

Happy 2010 everyone! I think this is going to be a great year and I am so excited to get things started. My finish date with Peace Corps is in August of this year, and it is sort of looking like I will be returning to the US...but I am still not sure. Anyway, knowing that the end is somewhat near, I have a lot I want to get done before I leave Ecuador- Mi País.

Christmas at home was amazing. I had so much fun! It was great seeing everyone, the cold was the only thing I didn´t enjoy. But it´s definitely hot down here, so it feels great to be back.

After I landed in Quito at midnight on the 30th, I went directly to the bus station to try and catch a bus to the beach. Sidenote: I switched seats with this one man so he could be with his wife, not realizing that her seat was THE LAST SEAT on the plane next to two very hefty girls...so I was hoping that Karma would be on my side and I could have an easy travel to the beach.

Yea right.

I get to the bus terminal and it is FREEZING and the bus never showed up at 3 am so I had to wait until 7 am. Long story short, I finall got a bus without my karma (maybe it will kick in some day...I feel like I´ve been banking up on it the past year and a half). It took FOR EV ER to get to Canoa, the beach town but I finally made it, even making a new friend along the way. And it was totally worth it. All my friends were there, even some PCVs that left and came back to visit, so it was great. We dined on some great fish, drank some wine out of a box, and then proceeded to dance around paper mache dolls on fire (the New Year´s tradition down here). It was great.

We nursed our hangovers on the beach all day Friday and then Chris and I ventured back to Zamora Chinchipe. Efficiency and quick trips are two things I very quickly adjusted to in the US, and realized how much I hate the lack of them here in Ecuador.

Finally getting to my house, like 20 hours later, I was reunited with Tortilla and her four kittens. I really missed her, and the kittens have sprouted up! They are so big! I can´t believe how quickly they grew because now they are walking around, eating food. I swear I feel like a cat lady because my apartment is pretty small and these cats just surround me wherever I walk. I got a glimpse of my future in like 30 years....single, with a bunch of cats and in a third world country. Oh well...I´ll take whatever comes my way!

It has also been great seeing my fellow Yantzazenses (people from Yantzaza). I have been getting really hardy, warm welcomes and people seem genuinely happy to see me! I have been handing out presents to a bunch of people, who all love their American knick knacks and toys. I even brought pictures of snow and they all are like ¨ayyyyyyy!!¨, not believing that I was the one shoveling out the car or up to my shins in snow. It´s hilarious. But retelling all the stories and spending time with everyone has made me appreciate more my trip home and even more so, my return. I had really missed Yantzaza and am so glad to be back. I almost feel a different air about it here. Kinda like when you come back to campus after a summer of being home from college, there is a different feeling, almost as if you are more seasoned, know more of what is going on. I am a ¨junior¨ in the sense that pretty soon I´ll be ¨graduating¨ from Peace Corps. All the more reason for me to make my mark and really do what I came to do in the first place.

Culture Shizzock

Well, being home has been quite the experience. I have eaten so much delicious food (including TWO visits to Chipotle mmmm), seen so many family members (holla to all the aunts and cousins and grandma!), and walked through some REALLY REALLY cold snow(Many asked if I was experiencing culture shock...more shock because of the cold temperatures, not the culture necessarily). But it was all worth the two day travel to humble little Cincinnati, Ohio.

I feel so blessed and thankful for all of my incredibly supportive family members. Thanks to Aunt Sheshie for the awesome clothes you donated to those in my town, they will be so excited to get those cool Disney shirts! My mom bought me a ton of fun little prizes and crafts for my girls; and my parents were nice enough to give me a gift card to Target to get all kinds of cool " American stuff" to give to my friends and family back in Yantzaza.

Seeing Greg and Gracie was a blast, I missed goofing around with them.

The hot showers were INCREDIBLE, the Diet Coke with ice was AMAZING, and the home cooked meals were even better than how I remembered them.

Now I feel energized and ready to get back to Yanzatza to finish up all my projects I have started. I can't WAIT to see my girls and of course my Tortilla and kittens. Also, the hot weather is going to be a very nice change to this cold, dry, snowy season.

I am flying back to Quito and then heading straight to the beach for a New Year's celebration with the other PCVs! Have a great, happy, safe new year! See you in 2010!!

Cock Fight!

Once again (however it seems like ALWAYS down here), fiestas are in full swing for the holidays. This weekend my barrio, Jesus del Gran Poder, was in fiestas and I was able to witness a full baile and hoochie dancing...TWO DAYS IN A ROW! More on that later...

Yesterday, Grigs and I managed to finaggle (although it wasn´t hard...) Brown Sugar in to taking us to these cock fights the next town over. They were held at this huge arena, meant for cock fighting, which is owned by a Spanish couple. They came here 5 years ago and built this ¨Wal Mart¨ looking facility, with amazing food, a dirt bike race track, ponies, everything. But their real claim to fame is their cock fighting arena. It is a circular arena that goes into the ground, probably 5-6 layers of seating with the cock fighting ring at the bottom of this cone. It was quite amazing and I have never seen anything like it.

For as much traveling as I have done through South America, I have never witnessed a cock fight. But this was probably the best way to `pop my cherry.´

Brown Sugar´s dad used to raise cocks, so he was familiar with the betting system, how to call out bets and pick cocks. In the end, it´s pure luck as to which gallo is going to win. So we got some beers and Grigs was all ready to go. He had saved up some money this week, so he whipped out some crisp bills out of his fanny pack (true ecua style) to place his bet. Brown Sugar knew one of the guys fighting and said his gallos were the best, so Grigs bet $10. Brown Sugar yelled out some names, held up 10 fingers and basically made our bet.

The two roosters were carried down to the center of the arena, red tape on one, green on the other. The tape was holding in needles that help stab the other rooster as the fight goes on. Each fight is about 12 minutes, and it is possible for a tie, where neither one goes down. They spit liquor on the roosters to get them all riled up and then a man with a whistle starts the fight. This guy with the whistle reminded me a lot of the wrestling judges back in the day when my brother used to wrestle chunky middle schoolers on stinky, ringworm infested mats. But this is Ecuador, so it was a LOT more hygienic...

Grigs lost the first fight.

But then we bet on the next rooster, which was white (like us) so we thought he might have a chance. And he won! It was very exhilarating. There were about 20-30 minutes in between each fight, because they have to weigh and measure them so they are equal.

At times it was kind of sad because these roosters are just pecking the shit out of each other, all for sport. The drunken cheers, money exchanged, cigarettes hanging loosely out of mouths...I kinda felt like I was in Snatch, but I was with Ecuas and not Pikeys.

We stayed until about 9 pm (after I won $5 off of Grigs!) and then we headed back because I needed to dance at my barrio´s baile! It was a lot of fun because I knew so many more people in comparison to last year. At 11 pm, no one had started dancing. The soccer court was full of people, at least 300, and not a soul was dancing. So I got up and danced with the neighborhood´s crazy lady...still no one danced. Oh well, after the hoochie girls came on to sing in their thigh high skirts and overdone makeup, people started to shake their groove thing.

They even did a fireworks show, where they set fireworks off of a giant bamboo tower; sparks fly WAY too close, but what do you expect from a country with no fire codes?! Good fiestas, in my book.

In other news, I´m HOME THIS WEEK!! I might do a Peace Corrie America post, but if not, have an extremely Merry Christmas/Happy Hannukah and Happy New Year!!

I got my first real rap shout out!

I might have mentioned a few entries ago that I was helping a young aspiring Yantzazense how to speak English so that he can continue with his dreams of being the next Daddy Yankee. Well, last night was his first concert.

Well I was told that is started at 4 pm yesterday. Being Ecuador, I showed up early at 4:15 and they were still putting together the stage...I was like wow this is SUPER late...even for Ecuador! Marco (the rapero) told me to come back at 5:30....came back then and it wasn´t ready. Went home to take a shower....still wasn´t playing. Then I went and did some rounds around the neighborhood, come back at 8:30 and they are playing. With 6 people in the audience. Marco was so excited to see me though, that he have me a shout out! He was like I´d like to thank my gringa friend for coming, you are great blah blah blah. He kept throwing around ¨baby girl¨, one of the phrases he picked up from 50 cent, it was great entertainment. It was sad though because he kept counting the number of people in the audience...it stayed the same 6 people, but he rapped on like it wasn´t a big deal. I was really happy for him though, that he didn´t seem to care about how little people showed up, he was up there doing his thang and that´s all he cared about. AY dios.

On another note, this week I had a tech exchange with a girl from my group, Kawshy. She lives near Ambato, which is in the north, very cold. She came down to help teach me and my girls how to make piggy banks out of recycled items. It was a lot of fun and the girls really loved her. Kawshy is from California, originally from Sri Lanka, so actually looks Ecuadorian. However they knew she wasn´t from here when she started speaking Spanish (didn´t have the accent...) It was hilarious though, people kept asking if she was my sister....one little boy asked if she was my daughter! I was like, do we even look REMOTELY alike??? Oh Ecuadorians...

Tortilla and the kittens are good by the way. They opened their eyes a few days ago and are starting to learn how to play.

But the best news so far: I COME HOME IN 11 DAYS!!! I will be home for Christmas, I am so excited to see everyone, to see my family, sleep in a clean bed withouth roosters crowing, drink DIET COKE WITH ICE CUBES, drink out of water fountains, hot showers, CHIPOTLE, possbily snow???, but best of all it will be great to see everyone!