Adios, Ecuador

Woo. Deep breath, Corrie.

Well everyone, it's been a magical two years. I am in Quito right now, doing all the paperwork and running around to get my shit finalized. It's been like a scavenger hunt: one signature means I can advance to another person's signature, etc. Today Darci and I took four different taxis to just find the right bank to close our bank accounts...it's been wild.

Last week was ridiculous. Probably the hardest week of my entire life. It started off slow but towards the end, everyone wanted me over for dinner or a beer or to come visit my empty apartment. It was so overwhelming. Saturday I left mid-morning, with tears streaming down my face as I said goodbye to a blazing hot Yantzaza. My heart was so heavy, I never really thought the day would come.

I got in to Loja and visited with Sindy and my goddaughter, Madgy, since they are now living in Loja. It was so nice to see them and play and hang out. My last meal was cow foot soup (ew) but the company trumped the meal. We took pictures in this wacky park, Parque Jipiro, in Loja and then I said my goodbyes, yet again. This time it wasn't as hard, I think I'm just really tired of saying adios to people...the first time I've really had to use adios (it's permanent).

Then Jason, my best buddy in Loja, made me pizzas with a bunch of other volunteers and I hopped on the 9:30 bus to Quito. Made it in actually 11 and a half hours, a record compared to the original 17-hour trip Chris and I made when we first got to Loja and the bus trip ended with us crashing into a hill just outside of the city.

Quito's been decent though. Just trying to get this all done! I can't believe tomorrow I will be in the US of A. My stomach has butterflies! All sorts of emotions are flying through me.

Thanks a TON to all of those who have supported me in my last two years. I really couldn't have done it without you guys. It's been so much fun writing this blog and I'm glad I got to share my adventures with all of you. I might do some Post-PC response blogs...so stay tuned.

VIVA ECUADOR! Gracias por compartir su belleza conmigo, nunca te voy a olvidar!

Goodbye Jungle and Guayzimi Fotos

Last weekend a bunch of the volunteers from the cluster came down to have a despedida with us in Guayzimi. We did a great jungle hike up a waterfall and through the jungle to a tire swing and see some awesome trees and wildlife.


We had to cross this river to get to the Pailas waterfall, or pails. It was cool because there were two pools up on the waterfall and the water would come rushing down, like pails full of water.


I made the 10 km walk to Zumbi the other day to visit Grigs and snapped this sepia photo on the way. Man, I will miss these mountains.


This is Mario, Chris´s CRAZY host brother. This kid has made me laugh more than anybody here. Here he is bathing himself with the hose, acting like a wildthing. Last night we made S´mores after the AMAZING cookout they made for us, as a final dinner. Mario ate practically the whole bag of marshmallows (or besos de novia kisses of the bride) and was so hyper. He was acting ridiculous. Chris is definitely going to be down a sidekick when he goes to the States. Those two were like long lost brothers.


Here is Chris with the amazing Castillo family. You can see the little grill they set up in front. Such amazing food...it was criollo chicken (organic chicken) but this tasted way better than the criollos I´ve normally had. Lip smacking good. We also made shish kabobs with pork and veggies. Those were amazing and Mercy, his sister, was gobbling those up.


Me with Chris and Mario and then Joey, the volunteer that is replacing Chris. He was here this week for a site visit and then comes back in the middle of August. It was cool to meet him and show him around...crazy that he is replacing Chris! Time has seriously flown by. (sorry about the laundry lines in the faces)

Well I am hoping to put up at least one more post before I leave. As always, thanks for reading guys...it´s been so much fun doing this blog!

Despedidas Galore

Well now that I have more or less Quince Días left in Ecuador, I have started to go into Despedida Mode. Despedidas, or goodbye parties, are a big deal here, especially since I´ve made so many friends and worked with so many people.

The last day of school is tomorrow, however today was the last day of classes. Last week the girls went on paseos or end of the year field trips, and I accompanied three classes.


Friday I went with one of my favorite classes, 5to A, to the pool in Zumbi. They have a great slide and I even called up Grigs to come swim with us. It´s been super hot these past few days and it was a perfect day to spend at the pool.


Me and the girls. They love my big sunglasses....


Saturday I had a paseo with the girls of 6to A and we went to the pools in Yantzaza. Here´s a dad making fritada, or fried pork, and sippin´ a beer. It was hot hot hot that day.


Me and two girls, Dani and Linsy, and the Profesora Teresa.


One of my favorite girls here, Belén, the chica with the short hair, threw me a goodbye party that same afternoon. She invited all the neighborhood kids and they all did a dance for me, made a lunch and served me cake (pronounced kay-e). It was so adorable and really made me feel loved. Passing out of a candy while waiting is tradition (as shown by Banesa).


One of the games was dancing with a tomato on the forehead. Here one of the moms is showing us youngsters how to do it. And did that Mama dance!


Amazing way to end the day! That rainbow was awesome! I told the kids to dance Waka Waka under it while I took the picture.


These are the girls from 7to B and we went to Gualaquiza yesterday. It´s about 2 hours north of Yantzaza. They hired a bus to take us to the military base in Gualaquiza. They gave us a tour, let us swim in the army pool (best pool in Ecuador! SO CLEAN!) and then they served us lunch.


Army boys cutting up yuca for our lunch...


We then went to this tourist spot where two rivers meet. They wouldn´t let the girls swim there but they had a bunch of jungle gym (literally JUNGLE) stuff to play on. Me and a niña.

It was quite an eventful weekend and I´m so grateful for all the niñas and their families for their appreciation and kindness they have shown to me. Today the despedidas at school involved two classes. The first class gave me a set of juice glasses (not sure how I´m going to take those home...) and a very ¨breathtaking¨ statuette. Overall, it´s awesome but very bittersweet. VIVA YANTZAZA!

Yantzaza Nightz

Now that I have officially reached my last month in Yantzaza, I am starting to relish more and more of what has made this jungle town my home, one that I will miss greatly.

Walking around during the day, you notice taxis running around, dust flying, giant dump trucks filled with mud, kids yelling, a man selling 50 brooms on his back, a woman on a bench with her left breast hanging out as a hungry child suckles it and plays with her long black hair...everything is going on. It´s a sort of Amazon chaos... a steady movement.

However when night time reaches, it´s like a plug is pulled. Things move just a tad slower. There is no dust flying in the air, the streets are quite silent, high school kids hide in the dark corners making out with just their cell phones playing bachatas as an indication that they are there. The stars literally twinkle, as if Dios sneezed glitter on the midnight blue sky. The air is crisp and fresh. I take deep breaths and get a sort of high off the tranquilidad. It is so damn refreshing.

In the park, the only lights are those of the stores still open for business and an occasionally street lamp. One side of the park is lined with food trucks, selling their typical dishes of chicken, meat, or guata, cow intenstines made with potatoes in a peanut sauce. I´m sick of seeing rice, totally knowing what it´s going to taste like. I want a surprise!

But then I remember, my surprise is that my two years have flown by faster than those taxis and it´s time for me to start saying goodbye.

Today I went to visit my good friend Rosario and her three sons. They used to be my next door neighbors but a year ago they moved to another part of town. Rosario is a great friend and has an amazing spirit. She is nine months pregnant, looks like she´s going to pop any minute. But she still moves around as if she weren´t pregnant. She was giving her youngest, two-years-old, a bath of chamomille tea because he has a cold. But the way she moved around, I was stunned. This woman is pilas. She then proceeded to make dinner for five and make me my favorite empanadas that she makes, all in an hour. She is incredible. I did help peel the yuca...after she explained to me how to do it of course. It took me about three times longer than she probably could have done it, but I was glad to help just the same.

I gave the boys my DVD player and some books and cards. Rosario started to cry. When I saw her, the strongest woman I have ever met in my life, do that, I knew that I had made an impact on somebody. And it made me realize how special and amazing this experience has been and I wouldn´t change anything I´ve done.

Leaving her house, I am walking back in the night, breathing the fresh air and feeling the rush of my jungle town like never before.

World Map Pictures...HUZZAH!

So I guess I made the grand mistake of loaning my camera to my friend, Marco. He borrowed it for a cumpleaños or soemthing and DELETED ALL OF MY PHOTOS! OMG I was pissed. This is the second time this has happened to me (the first being my Macchu Picchu pictures...thanks a lot, Brown Sugar). With the deletion went all my world map pictures and baptism photos. I feel worse for the family because the only other picture was taken by a cousin from his cell phone. Anyway...here are some replacement photos. Yesterday we finished painting the map! And tomorrow, since we don´t have classes...surprise surprise, I´m going to finish labeling and touch-ups. Way to go niñas!


More or less finished...


Painting...and painting...and painting. It actually didn´t take as long as I thought it would to paint. The most time consuming was sanding the wall (three days) and then making the grid system was a whole afternoon, followed by a day of drawing a three afternoons of painting. There were about 4 girls who consistently came and then the periodic drifters who would come in, paint a country, and then peace out. I was really impressed with their dedication and determination, however.


¨La Gata¨ or cat girl (what they refer to all light-eyed people as) in front of Africa. This has been a huge thing for me, actually starting and SEEING the finish of a project. it may not seem like a big deal, but I was super excited to do this and I think little by little people are appreciating what we´ve done.


Ah El Elastico. Ecuador´s version of Skip-It...kind of. It was popular but is now back by popular demand. All it is is a long piece of elastic (like what you put in the waistband of your 7th grade home ec pajama pants) and you have to do a series of jumps. It´s kind of silly but the girls at my school ARE CRAZY for it. Any spare moment, you see then jumping elastico. Today I had to take away three elasticos because they wouldn´t stop playing in class. Here´s my attempt at it last night in my pajamas...can´t see the elastic but the idea is there.

Madrina....again

Sorry it´s been a coon´s age since I wrote....a lot of ¨not¨ going on. Mostly people pestering me about my stuff, like what I´m going to sell, give away, etc. Surprisingly enough, EVERYONE wants my gas tank! Like I´ve had literally 8 people ask to buy my tank (I guess when their gas in the kitchen runs out they like to have another since the gas truck doesn´t come around everyday...they are $60 new!). But I hav pretty much have all accounted for except for my stove....anyone? anyone? (kinda hard to sell since I don´t have the gas tank to go with it...)

In addition to hawking my stuff, I´ve been super busy with the World Map my girls and I are doing at school. I decided to do this as a big sendoff project, a physical memory of ¨La Cori.¨ It´s been more than I expected but a lot of fun. I had to measure it out (3 meters x 3 meters) and then paint the ocean. Then Grigs came over and helped me draw out the grid system (thank god because I was off like 20 centimeters on one side and it was all crooked....oy). I chose two girls from each classroom to help draw and paint the map. We drew it in one afternoon and we should finish painting tomorrow, making it three afternoons of painting. It´s been a lot of fun....Western Europe and the Middle East have been a pain in the butt to map out, however. Damn you, Turkey!! I can´t seem to get it right...they might be a little off but in the end, it´ll look great. World Map is a famous Peace Corps project and almost every volunteer does it. It´s easy and a great way to teach people about the world (like how BIG Russia is or how small Ecuador is in comparison to the rest of Latin America!) Pictures to come...

Then last but not least, I got the privelige of being a Madrina...again. There is this one mother I know from the school, I teach two of her daughters, and she has been bugging me the past few months to be the madrina for her seven-year-old Keiko Cyan (as in the whale from Sea World I told her...)I kept delaying it because I don´t really know the family and the girl I had seen once before. Finally we figured it out and I had to go to a meeting at the church about it...ugh. But Saturday we had the baptism here in Yantzaza, I wore my multi-purpose dress good for Funerals/Bapitsms/Weddings/Swearing-In Ceremonies at the US Embassy. But Keiko looked cute and all done up.

There were about 7 other kids getting baptized, I guess they do baptisms every 15 days (cada 15 días....the magical number here in Ecuador) simply because there are so many children they gotta pop ´em out fast enough or the baptisms would take forever.

Afterwards we went back to their abuelita´s house and had an apple cake I made (kids even took seconds!) and then chicken and rice. It was fun talking with the mom and her seven kids (I think she asked me because she is running out of madrinas and padrinos...they are all under the age of 17). But it´s a nice family and the girls danced....very low key. So now I´m double Madrina. I think I need a cape...

Actually my friend Miriam up north is madrina to six kids so she´s got me beat.

Next weekend cock fights in Guaysimi!

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...