Quito and my first hospital visit!

I realize that title may sound a bit alarming but rest assured I am in decent health. Today we went to Quito for a visit to the Ecuador Peace Corps office. We had two meetings in the morning over safety and security and general health. In the afternoon we were slated to go with our small language and culture groups to various parts of the city to interact with the real people of Quito.

I, on the other hand, spent my morning in the hospital. In order to explain why I need to explain what happened the day before. I hate to reinforce a Peace Corps stereotype, but my injury occurred while playing Ultimate Frisbee…

In hot pursuit of the Frisbee near the end zone, I collided with two fellow PCTs. My shoulder rolled far back behind me and I heard a nasty tearing sound. I sat out of the game for a few minutes assessing my injuries. Assuring myself and others that I was fine I hopped back in the game being careful not to extend my left arm. We went on to win the game which made me forget about the pain. Last night I had a difficult time sleeping and decided it was best to call in medical help this morning. Let me say that the Peace Corps Medical staff and care are the absolute best. Even a Frisbee related injury is covered. They inspected my shoulder and sent me in for x-rays. I had not ventured out alone very much and especially not in a city of 1.7 million people. I had to navigate to the hospital alone and explain to the hospital that not only did I need x-rays, but I wasn’t going to pay for them. 

Long story short, I got my x-rays taken and then off to the “old town” of Quito with my language and culture group. I would later find out that I had not broken anything, simply sprained my shoulder. My small group went to Old Town to speak with the people. This turned into the three of us getting a sit down interview with the Secretary of the Municipality. Long title meaning he worked for the mayor of Quito and thus, the people of Quito. We learned a lot from him but the best part of the day was spent in a church built in the 1500s. Many of the buildings in the Old Town are from this same time period. A few are the oldest churches in Latin America, the Compania in particular. We didn’t get to spend as much time there as I would have hoped but there will be many more trips in the future.

For lunch we decided on a small traditional Ecuadorian restaurant. A full cooked pig was in front of the restaurant and as you walked in a small waitress would hand you a piece of meat freshly picked from the pig on display. I thought I might have a hard time eating something that I had just seen torn from the body of it’s owner but the meat was delicious. When we ordered our food the waitress stacked out plates with fresh pig meat. To top it off she torn a small piece of pork rind from the pigs hide and placed it on top. So long as I didn’t look at Porky the Pig in front of the place I could eat the succulent meal with delight.

New experiences every day keep my life interesting. My hope for my service here and even my life is to learn something, eat something or do something that I have never done before. New experiences lead to knowledge, knowledge leads to understanding and understanding is the only method to eradicate ignorance within myself. 

Moral of the this post, we won the game of Ultimate.

Market day!

                We have officially been placed into our individual Spanish classes consisting of three or four people. I was told by my new facilitator, Edwin, to meet in the central park of Tumbaco at 7:50 the next morning. Little did I know that we would be responsible for making it into Quito and to a large wholesale market. We took three buses to get there and it was very confusing at times. At one point a small bus dropped us off on the side of the highway and I assumed the driver just decided he wanted the white people off his bus. I was a bit shell shocked but then another bus pulled up about two minutes later (on the side of the highway) and picked us up. After an hour and a half of travel we made it to the market. Our job was to ask as many questions about products that we wanted to know about. This open air market was eye opening experience, especially for the cow that had his eyes and brains for sale on a table next to the rest of his uncommonly eaten organs.

                The market had every available food known to man. Fresh fruits, veggies, fish, cow meat, pig meat, guinea pigs, geese, chickens, ducks, and all their available organs. The market is open to wholesale farmers and “ranchers”. A few of my companions asked about the broccoli, lettuce, and avocados. Not me, I went straight for the cow hearts, tongues, and pig heads. What an experience it was. The indigenous venders love to hear questions about their goods but not so happy after I says thanks and slip away with notebook full of info in hand.

                At one point I bargained with a small indigenous woman for avocados. I will tell you that my Spanish is still developing before I finish this story. She told me she wanted a dollar for an avocado. I told her that was way too high and need it cheaper. She wouldn’t budge. I thanked her and walked away. My facilitator was watching from afar and approached me to let me know that the dollar was actually for a plato of avocados (5). I walked away knowing I need to work on my listening skills.

                My favorite part of the market was the meat section. There they slaughter the cow outside a large building and then are immediately put up for sale. I do mean to say that ALL parts of the cow are put on display. The two other Peace Corps trainees that were with me felt queasy as I did when you see the freshly slaughtered chickens, cows, geese and pigs that were on display along with their respective entrails. It doesn’t get much fresher than that.

                We made it back to the training center by one o’clock and had many stories to tell. All in all it was a great experience. Seeing the livelihood of the indigenous farmers as well as outlying areas of Quito that are extremely poor certainly had an impact on me. In this very short trip I saw multimillion dollar houses right next to slums, and people wearing designer clothing next to beggars. The need for us here is great and I am excited to see what we all are capable of.

               

My Ecuadorian Family

I would like to preface this post with a response to one of my friends that said I have used “..too many big words” in my prior posts. 

Chase, I am in Ecuador and it is cool dude. 

Now that I have that taken care of, let me give everyone an update.

For the first three months I will train in country with other Peace Corps Trainees. I will live with a family here in Tumbaco. Tumbaco is a small city about 25 minutes from Quito. I was rather anxious to meet my host family. We had a ceremony last Saturday at the training compound where the PC handed us off to them. I was not sure if my family would like me, accept a relatively tall white guy, or speak any English. I was wrong on two of those accounts. They have taken me in as one of their own and taken me to seemingly every member of their extended family so they could meet the new “gringo” in the family. It is great meeting so many family members and to be so warmly greeted and welcomed. They continually ask what my religious beliefs are and are curious about many things in my life. I attended my first Mass here in Tumbaco on Sunday. It was very interesting and intriguing. That evening we went to the “Super Maxi”, an Ecuadorean equivalent to WaI-Mart and the “Padre” of the church stopped me and told me he was glad I came to church earlier that day. I had not met him before that evening but I suppose my skin color and stature stands out here. My host family is doing everything they can to make me feel welcomed and comfortable despite not having all the modern amenities.

The house that I live in is small three bedroom, two bath casita. It is quaint but very vibrant with life and coming and goings of family members. I was given my keys and was instructed to try and get into the house. This was much more difficult than I initially thought. I had to make it through three gates and the front door. The house is very “seguro y traquilo” as Luis, the father of the family let me know. The yard is overflowing with fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers, and vegetation. I only recognized two of the plants off hand. There is an avocado tree in most yards and most people grow tomatoes. The tomatoes are not for salads though. They grow on a very tall vine and are for making one type of the many fresh juices here. Some of the fruit trees and bushes were planted, others are natural. The family has “pollitos”, chickens, in the back of the house. I asked Daniela, 10, what their names were. This was a typical Gringo mistake. She instructed me that they have no names because we are about to eat them. This is one of many transitions I will have to make, seeing my food walk around before it reaches my plate. I have tried more fresh fruits and juices here that I could have named mere weeks ago. Many Ecuadorians have told me how great the fruits and meats are because they contain no preservatives and are not processed in way. I actually introduced the word organic to their vocabulary. It was foreign to them because all things in Ecuador are organic and thus need not be labeled. The house I am in is surrounded by mountains as the training center was. I have been promised that the eldest son, Paul, will take me up to the top of the inactive volcano and have a look. He said that we can take a taxi to the top. There are so many taxis here and they are very inexpensive. The largest fare I have paid or even seen paid is 2 dollars which makes transportation very easy and cheap. The bus fare is 25 cents if the bus driver’s friend feels like collecting it. I took the bus today to the local market where I purchased many fresh fruits. The people in the market will let you try anything in hope that you will spend 50 cents on an enormous amount of fresh veggies and fruits.

I would say one thing that I am learning is that people are people all over the world. Little kids here love to play and fight. Adults speak about many of the same familial issues and children quarrel over the same little issues. Parents worry about their children and children think their parents are overbearing. I have not been here a week and I am only beginning to understand the people of Ecuador. However, what I have learned so far is immense and cannot merely be said in a simply blog post. Today on a board that has posted information for our training sessions was a quote that I feel sums up some of my first experiences here. “True learning and personal development begin only at the end of one’s comfort zone.”

¡Estoy aquí y Estoy bien!

I have made it to Ecuador! I will start by saying that this country is absolutely beautiful. I had read the travel books but never imagined how truly magnificent the countryside would be.

We departed our hotel in NYC at 4 in the morning to catch a flight at 9 am. The Peace Corps wants to prepare us for what they call “Ecuador Time”. We flew out at 9 and arrived in Miami in the afternoon and caught a flight to Quito at 4 pm. When we landed it was dark and about 7:30 in the evening. As the very rudimentary luggage belt turned we all noticed that none of our bags, marked conspicuously with red yarn, had arrived. Some of us began to have a slight panic attack. We had prepared for just this however by packing 3 days of provisions with us. After much confusion and 2 hours, we found out that half of our bags would be in that evening around 10:45 and the other half in the morning. We spoke with the Peace Corps staff that was picking us up and we were advised to leave our bags and head to the compound. We did just that.

I could not see much on the hour drive but instead bombarded our Training Master with questions. He got to know Todd the Texan pretty quick, as all the staff now has. We are in a three day training here and will soon meet our host family that we will live with for the remainder of the 3 month training period. I have been inundated with information and paperwork and shots, too much to document in the quick post. We do not have internet at our compound thus blogging and communicating is very difficult. I will be posting this from an internet café nearby.

One more note about the scenery. The city of Quito is very high in the mountains, roughly 9,500 feet. The mountains surrounding us are beautiful. The weather is about 40 degrees in the morning and 75 in the evening. This weather and the magnificent views of the surrounding mountains is breathtaking. Couldn’t asl for a better place to train for my service in the Cuerpo De Paz (Peace Corps).

More to come soon from a content and excited friend.

Application to Lift-off

It has been nearly a year and a half since I made the decision that I should apply to join the Peace Corps. I had seen their recruiters on Texas Tech campus in the past and decided maybe I should shoot them an application. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do post college but I knew it wasn't going to be behind a desk. On a whim I went to their website and explored the possibilities. The more research I did the more I realized this was not a simple Summer camp job. The requirements were much more than I had expected but I figured the worst they could do was tell me no. To make a long story short the application process was long, arduous, and trying. I have been pricked with more needles than an acupuncture addict and my blood taken from me like it was a hot commodity for the Peace Corps. I was discouraged more times than I care to reminisce. The initial application was only the first baby step of many to come. Interviews, background checks, more interviews, work experience evaluations, and my personal favorite, medical work ups, were all part of the prerequisites to even be applicable for the Peace Corps. If one thing were found to be wrong I could kiss the dream of helping others on an international scale goodbye. (More on my motivation to apply in a following post).

To make a long story short, after a year of the application process I was extended an invitation to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. My position will be a TEFL Teacher Trainer. TEFL is both a certification and an acronym that stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I will work with High school teachers that are new to teaching English. I am to help integrate English teaching methodology into their high school classrooms. I have been told to expect between 40 and 55 students in one classroom. This is a far cry from my much smaller classes in the States.

I will leave for a "Staging Event" in NYC on Monday the 14th at 6 am. The Peace Corps has an apparent desire to see if I can get up on time. I will spend two days in NYC where we will learn more on the goals and values expected of us during our service.

After two days in NYC we will depart the hotel at 4 am in order to make it through customs and board our plane for Quito, Ecuador at 9 am. We fly all day, stopping in Miami and are scheduled to arrive in Ecuador at 9 pm. The day promises to be a long one. We will arrive in Quito and be whisked off to Tumbaco, a smaller city near Quito where we will have another quick training for the remainder of the week.

The following three months will consist of in-country training. I will be near the other Peace Corps Trainees as we progress towards our posts throughout the country. During this time I will live with a host family. This will most certainly help me integrate into their society and understand the culture far better than if I were simply to live with other Americans. At the terminus of my training I will be sent to my specific post in the country where I will carry out my work for my remaining 2 years of service.

As I reread this post I get the sense that I am speaking from a point of omniscience. I assure you, I really have no idea what my life will be like over the next 2 years and 3 months. The Peace Corps has done a phenomenal job of informing me that I may have wildly different experiences than other TEFLs. I go into this next chapter of my life being open and ready for any experience that comes my way. One of the qualities that the Peace Corps states they need in a successful Volunteer is to have a sense of humor. During my extensive interview in Dallas last Summer I made sure that they knew I was overqualified in this area! I said this in jest but meant it to an extent.

I will end this post with a musing of mine. I was given a blank leather journal by my boss at my "retirement party" recently. I feel that I am much like this journal. I am blank now but ready to be filled with memories for a lifetime.

T-minus 48 hours

I woke up this morning to the realization that I have but 48 hours until I leave to begin my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the South American country of Ecuador. One of the many things racing through my brain today is that I need to finally create a blog. I have put off many things in my preparation to leave the country and the blog is paramount on that list. As anyone who knows me well would tell you, I am a "last minute" person, so it is only fitting that I begin this blog two days before I depart and I still have not packed the necessities for my trip.
 

I have always felt blogs were a bit self-serving and rather pretentious. However, I have been advised by many a friend, relative, and returned Peace Corps Volunteer that it is a great way to chronicle what is happening in my life and share with others that might care to hear. So pardon my self-absorption and I hope you enjoy my meandering thoughts.