Full Circle

Peace Corps decided it was a good idea to send volunteers from three clusters (the Loja, Cuenca and Riobamba clusters) to a Resiliency conference in Cuenca for three days. The idea was to get volunteers together to talk about this, and as I have been working on PCV Resiliency as a side project the other months, I was interested to see what they had to say. However, on the other hand, I was not so anxious as many of these conferences result in me doing many a crossword puzzle...

It was a good trip, in the end. We had two days, when all was said and done, of sessions on how to manage stress, deal with problems in your community, talk to other volunteers, etc. There have been three new groups come in since ours, so A LOT of faces were new to me. And when I introduced myself and said I was from Omnibus 100, almost all the responses were ¨ Wow! You´re almost out of here...¨. It was weird to have people look on us as the veterans, because I remember like it was yesterday getting to site and thinking, wow these people have been here for TWO WHOLE YEARS?! And now I´m that person.

But the groups have a whole new gammet of characters, some mid-career volunteers, Masters International vols, even a transgender volunteer who I got to chat up with. Although I didn´t learn anything, really, about resiliency...I mean, come on...I´ve made it this far, I think I kinda know what I´m doing now. But I did learn a lot about myself and my service which really made me reflect on my past two years. For example, everyone pretty much reaches the same highs and lows throughout their service, but learning how to talk about them and deal with the situations is a real key to resiliency. I was also feeling bad about getting out of here; like maybe I should have signed up for that third year. Every volunteer from my group said they are getting out ASAP so that was reassuring, and interesting because it seems that no one from out group is extending a third year.

After relaxing a little and getting some stuff done in Cuenca (the second hand on my watch fell off and got it fixed for free! along with a zipper on my favorite wallet...I love this country!) I took the bus back through Gualaquiza to get home. Normally I take the bus through Loja, but I decided to go east this time. I wanted to see the drive and there is a new volunteer, Peggy, in Gualaquiza and figured I´d give her some company.

We got to Gualaquiza at 10:30 (only six and a half hour trip) and found out I had just missed the Yantzaza bus by half an hour and the next was at 2 am. So Peggy let me crash on her floor at her host family´s house. We trekked up this hill and as soon as we walked inside, this smell hit me. It was the same smell of the house I had lived in when I first got to Yantzaza, with Dra. Monica. I was instantly flooded with meories and sounds...it honestly gave me the chills. The light of a forgotten TV flooded the living room as we stumbled over toys and cups and clothes to Peggy´s room. She had a room pretty much the same size as I did; and there was just a bed and armoire. I said she had to blog about her experience with her family...there was just WAY too much material, especially after having been in the bathroom. Inside they had about 7 pairs of ladies underwear hanging alongside the toilet, with baby socks scattered throughout the bathroom. One was on the shower head, so as to prevent the water from going everywhere, one on the sink keeping the bar of soap from flying all over the place. There was even a sign on the back of the door with a list of things you should do to be polite: say good morning, smile, always thank people, etc.

Being at Peggy´s house was a total full circle experience for me. The humidity made it hard for me to sleep, reminding me of those stifling nights below the Barbie-pink mosquito net in Barrio Gran Colombia. The family Peggy lives with owns the building, but on the third floor is one of the local radio stations. So at 3 am last night, I was up to BUENOS DIAS GUALAQUIZA! in the typical latino announcer voice, loud and confident. They also play a song and play/pause it while they are talking, hard to describe but it is extremely annoying and I can never imagine a US radio station doing this. Anyway, that was going on all night. Peggy said she´s getting used to it, but is having family send her earplugs from the States. This is very much like the guy who always decided to sing karaoke at 5 am every Saturday at my old house. But I think she wins me with the radio.

Her host family was nice enough to let me catch a ride with them back to Yantzaza, again making me appreciate how kind and welcoming people are in this country.

Sunday I am departing for Salinas de Guaranda for a tech exchange with my friend Miriam and then we go to our Close of Service conference in Quito! Only two months left!

RIP Chanchitos

WOOO WEEE! It´s FUNKY in Yantzaza! No, we aren´t jamming beats here in the jungle. We are now running on Day 3 of Life Sin Agua. No water. It has been raining like cats and dogs down here...

Friday night the Rain from Above started. I have never seen so much rain in my life. It continued until last night. Four. Days. Straight. The lack of rain has become an ¨event¨ in the sense that it´s a new reason to sit outside and watch people, gossip about what´s happening, tell people what the should do to catch water, etc.

As we learn in ECUA 101, heavy rains always lead to landslides. We got pegged and now there is no pass to Loja. Three people died yesterday trying to cross. They went by foot since the buses and cars couldn´t pass and got stuck. It´s pretty serious, but today the rain finally ceased and this is the first time in a while I´ve seen the sky. The only major casualties here are three piggies trying to cross a landslide. RIP Chanchitos.

There have been little derrumbos all around the area. Our water got knocked out the mountain above me, and we have been living in Funkytown for three days. Which means no shower, no food, no washing dishes, no flushing toilets. Ughhh. There is a lot I have accustomated to but, sorry, I hate not having water. Waa waa. (The school was rank today because they haven´t been able to clean the bathrooms...)

Anyway, people are walking all over the place today carrying buckets of water. And mud is EVERYWHERE.

I´m not sure if I´ve mentioned Adrian a lot and he´s definitely a character worthwhile mentioning. In the house I live in and across the street, there´s about 6-8 kids that always hang out and play. Delia and Estefany are the ringleaders (the oldest...) and the other kids just run around all the time. Adrian is the son of my landlady. He is a Shuar; his mom left him with her teenage sisters who didn´t take care of him. So Doña Anita took him in, adding to their comfortable family of 4. And what a task he is!

He used to be absolutely horrible. He would run into my apartment, take my stuff, torture Tortilla. Doña Anita started wacking him with a reed, so he got better. But he´s older and isn´t quite as troublesome now.

However these past few months he and I have come to understand each other and I no longer want to catapult him to the other side of Yantzaza. With no water, the kids came over to play and they were all ridiculous. I think cabin fever was really starting to get everybody.

And then Andrian decided to join the party. Woooo...that boy was flipping off of my stump chairs, running and sliding on the floor, rolling all over the ground. Kid was crazy. He´s like a little Mighty Mouse but not so much a doo-gooder.

I accidentally conditioned him to ask for a candy so he´ll leave. He now knows when I don´t want him in my house and asks me for a chocolate and leaves automatically. It´s awesome...but at the same time I have to give him candy now. Little devil.

Don´t mind the crack!

Ah I´ve been lazy with posting, sorry guys. It´s just nothing is happening around here. Literally nothing.

It´s been raining the past three days straight. I thought about going to Zamora, but opted not to due to the rain. Hey, if kids don´t go to school because it´s raining too hard, then why can´t I? They´ve also built a new bus terminal (FYI for Andres...) and it´s all the way at the end of Yantzaza. You can´t hop on wherever like you used to. They want people to use the new terminal, so when the buses leave, they put a sticker on the door and about 5 km out, the police take the sticker off. If it´s broken, because the door was opened, it´s a $50 fine. So I have to walk 30 minutes or take a taxi or local bus. Just a hassle.

This morning, as I was brushing my teeth, I was refreshed with water dripping on my head. I looked up and there was a GIANT crack running from one wall to the other. I was really surprised as I had never noted it before, and there was water dripping down my walls in my kitchen area as well. I told Doña Anita, thinking it of great importance, but she said not to pay any mind to it, that that always happens when it rains a lot. She laughed at me, do you think it´s going to crack open and collapse? Um...yea...that´s why I told you, Doña Anita. Ah silly girl, she said to me.

I´m still learnin´, people!

Birthday Post

Easter Egg dying! Thanks Mom for the dying kit...the kids loved them! They had no idea that we did this, or why we would color eggs...but they had a blast! We boiled a few, but then I realized we didn´t need to boil all of the eggs, because they could eat them the next day anyway (why do we always boil the eggs? for refrigeration or just good egg salads the next day??)


My landlady, Doña Anita, and her daughter, Magaly. They invited Grigs and I to Magaly´s 16th birthday, just upstairs. It was quite the party with blacklights, a big dinner, little shots...they even had cigarettes in candy dishes! The teenage boys were smoking away the whole night...just ridiculous. The dad got up and made a big speech on how it was a bittersweet day since he was saying goodbye to her 15 years, as now she is a ¨full fledged woman.¨


Birthday tradition: Shoving your face in the cake. We then proceeded to dance until 4 am...luckily I just had to hop downstairs to go to bed and they kindly turned down the music....a little.


Ah the infamous ¨dance pictures¨. These are from when the teachers did their little baile in front of, um, the whole town. It was incredibly embarassing and no one remembered their steps except for yours truly. We had to wear wigs and ridiculously high cut skirts...ughh. Which leads to the group photo.....


TADA! Omg this is so embarassing. I refuse to show close-ups to anyone...simply for the fact that I look like a taller Dolly Parton reincarnate. And everyone noticed how my ¨top¨ was more or less made poorly and didn´t support anything the good Lord gave me. Oh well...that´s show business!


Earth Day! I took my girls to the park and we drew Earth Day salutations and facts with chalk. It was awesome because everyone was stopping to look at what we were writing.


This was the area we basically covered. Unfortunately, three hours later there was a horendous downpour and it all got washed away. But as my mom always says, it´s the thought that counts.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and packages! You guys are amazing...still remembering me from so far away! It feels great to be 24...I´m in my mid-twenties now!

Shake it señor!

Just realized, my last post was my 100th post! Thanks to everyone for your comments and support on this blog, by the way. It´s been quite a journey and even more enjoyable with you guys reading about it and joining in on my ridiculous stories.

Some might have heard, pretty much just my parents since I´ve been complaining about it, but the school garden I was in the process of building was bulldozed this week. I get to school, already with a brand new shovel and a bag full of seeds, and I see a GINORMOUS MOUND OF MUD in the exact spot where Grigs and I had been digging last week. Like it seriously came out of nowhere. The Directora of the school claims she had no idea that the municipio decided to dump all their mud there, but they did. Thanks, Señor Alcalde. Just adds to icing on the cake. After some talks with my program director, I might proceed but in the form of a tire garden....less possibility of bulldoze-ment, and if they are going to plow over it, at least they might stop and look at it first...maybe.

Four more months guys....America´s so close I can almost taste it.

So instead of people being worried about, oh I don´t know, girls not passing their grades, or attendance issues, or general school issues...the teachers are worried about what they are going to perform for Día del Maestro, or Teacher´s Day. As if there weren´t enough days we need to celebrate here. Classes ended early the other day solely to discuss our ¨game plan¨ for Tuesday. Thursday is the big performance day and we need to do a dance in front of the other teachers from the other schools. I´m included since I´m a teacher, fair enough. However, I like my anonymity and ¨half-time¨ status at the school. Not participating in some of these things (which gets real old, real fast) is nice and I get to use the Gringa Card as an excuse.

But this time, since it´s my last Teacher´s Day, I figured I´d participate. Last night was our first ¨practice¨ and I showed up with the English teacher (my next door neighbor), and three other teachers. The English teacher, Deysi, was Reina of her parish and Vice Reina of Zamora Chinchipe...and she still acts/dances/poses as if she still were the Reina.

The Directora was glad I was there, so I felt like I earned some Brownie Points on that one. Then we meet Chivo/Ochiv/Chito I don´t remember his name, but he was the cutest little dance instructor. Clad in camo cargo pants, a white wife beater and white Nike hat, our little man was ready to rock and roll! He put on traditional Ecuadorian music and we just danced away. This guy was incredible...he was shaking his butt like he was an Ecuadorian Beyonce, none of us could keep up with him. I was shvitzing like crazy and he just kept moving that booty like nobody´s biz-nass. I seriously thought he was a 17-year-old girl trapped into a 30-year-olds body. And he wasn´t gay, no offense, which I totally thought he was. Especially since he´s trained almost all of the reinas in the province, not to mention is organizing the biggest Quinciñera in the province (which I want to try to get a ticket to but looks doubtful...). When he bust out his Michael Jackson moves (which they want an installment of in our ¨number¨) I almost died. Not only because he was good at it, but also because people still can´t get over the fact that Michael Jackson is dead and so maybe we should stop dancing as if he were still alive (let´s just tone it down a little, hmm?).

Definitely an amusing night. I just hope I don´t make a fool out of myself come Thursday. Why we have to dance, I don´t know. But this country is all about the dancing.

Fanesca Friday

A very Happy Easter (and/or Passover) to all! Here the Easter season is very different, as Easter isn´t really celebrated whereas Good Friday is the major holiday.

We were off from work Thursday and Friday. Grigs and I started digging a garden I am making for the school on Thursday and Friday I got an inviation for the traditional lunch. Sindy and Madgy invited me to join them and both sides of the family (the same Baptism crew I chummied with last weekend). We got there around 10, helped them prepare a salad (you´re gringa! you know how to make salad then!) and then helped them fry the fish. As with all Ecuadorian lunches, there is a soup to start. On Good Friday, they eat Fanesca, a soup made of pumpkin, 12 grains (for the 12 disciples I´m just told), and fish. It´s ok....a LOT of soup, but a big deal to make and eat down here. We then had fried tilapia and rice...that was really, really good.

Afterwards, we just sat, rubbing our bellies. The men of course lifted their shirts over their potbellies and complained of the heat. It was super hot that day...they invited me to go to the river, but I didn´t want to risk a possible horrible sunburn. Even in the shade I could feel my skin bubble.

Yesterday there was mass, but no special dinners or lunches. Everyone was surprised when I told them we don´t eat Fanesca....what do you mean you don´t have fanesca? It´s still surprising to them that people have other traditions in other parts of the world. I told them how that even in America, not all Easters are celebrated the same. For example, what I always remember from our Polish Easters is the butter lamb...Ecuadorians didn´t seem to think that was as cool as I do. That was the highlight of Easter, not to mention Easter egg hunts! Eggs and the butter lamb. I also explained that Greeks celebrate Easter at a different time from Catholics, because they use a different calendar...it made for quite an interesting discussion.

But I am also learning too that not all ¨Catholic nations¨ celebrate the same way. When I was studying in Mexico, I noticed that it was a much more religious country than Ecuador. And Spain celebrated their religion in a totally different manner. For them, Catholicism was more of a tradition, something they had to do since they had been practicing it for so long. Whereas in Mexico, Catholicism was a way of life, a way of being. Here, it´s half and half of the two. For some it´s the most important thing in one´s life, God is everything. However, at the same time, they only go to mass when it´s required. They do mention ¨God¨ in a lot of their sayings: Dios le pague--may God repay you; Si Dios quiere--If God wills it. I feel that most here are god-fearing people, but the actually practice of a truly catholic life (i.e. sex before marriage, adultery) is non-existent. Once again, I am learning it is hard to generalize over one culture (Latinos) as the intricacies that make up that culture, really separate it from the rest.

I´m a Madrina!

This weekend really proved to me my integration into this little world I am living in. My absolute favorite person here, my 7-year-old best friend Madynley, asked me to be her godmother or madrina. So on Saturday a baptism was held for Madgy and her two younger sisters, María Angelica and Camila. It was in Loja, since the family of Fabricio (the father of the two youngest girls)is from Loja. We had the baptism in the afternoon, followed by a dance and dinner at their house. It was just lovely meeting both families and I really felt welcomed in their hearts and home.


Me with the little ones before the bautizo. Camila is on the left, a cousin Miriam in the middle and Angelica on the end. I had to get my hair did and was not too happy with the outcome...I looked like My Pretty Pony...and you all know how I feel about horses....


Camila, Angelica and Madgy after the ceremony. It´s common to have older children baptized here, not everyone baptizes at birth. It´s a big deal, people like to get really dressed up and have a party afterwards, so in a way most have to save up for a baptism.


Angelica during mass.


Me with my hijada (goddaughter) and her padrino, Fernando. He is Sindy´s (Madgy´s mom) brother.


Proud Papa Fabricio.

It was an amazing weekend. I had so much fun with them and it was beautiful to see this ceremony and the love this family has for each other.

While I´ve got the camera up and running, here are some photos from the medical brigade.


This is the center of the first town we stayed at, Valladolid.


Chris atop a house in the village Chito. The mornings there were so nice and cool...how I miss those.


Mountainside. These mountains were a lot bigger than where I live, it was really impressive seeing them almost like the Sierra mountains but with rainforest vegetation.


Coffee is the major crop in Zumba, as its warm but not too hot. (We only harvest cacao and bananas, it´s too hot for coffee where I live). All over the place you would see coffee laying out on the street, drying out in the sun.