Tech Week Prep and Family Lessons

We have completed 4 weeks of training in the small(ish) town of Tumbaco. We have taken more classes, sat through more sessions, and completed more assignments in preparation for our service which will officially begin April 4^th. On that date we will be sent to our sites around the country. At this point our future sites are a mystery to all of us. The Peace Corps has done a great job of keeping us in the dark on many things and this is yet another example. However, many volunteers that are currently serving have come during our training and hinted they know our perspective locations.

The PC takes into consideration many things when placing a volunteer in particular sites including: skill set, adaptability, desire of the site for a certain type of volunteer, compatibility of medical needs, and overall volunteer suitability. There are three regions in the Ecuador. The Coast is very hot and the people are more laid back. The Sierra is the mountainous region high in the Andes and the region that we currently live in. I love the climate here. It is cool bordering on cold in the mornings and reaches a nice 70 degrees in the afternoon. The views are also incredible. The last region is the Oriente. This is the Amazon rainforest. As you can imagine it is very hot, humid, and rainy. They say that mold is a constant problem in this region. I would love to visit both the rainforest and the coast. That being said, I hope that I will be placed high in the mountains somewhere. I do realize that this may not be a possibility but I would be elated to live in a similar climate to the one we live in now.

Next week will are dividing into smaller groups and headed out to do some observation of high schools and their teachers around the country. We will be gone for the entire week and will stay in hotels as we see what the country has to offer. Each time I feel somewhat accustomed to my living situation it changes, at least temporarily. It seems that the Peace Corps realizes the necessity to continually push us out of our comfort zone. I know the cities that I will be visiting and after I showed them to my host mother I was informed that this trip should be magnificent and full of scenery. I am excited to get out and explore the country. Another objective for us on this trip is for us to give a lecture to the teachers at the “School of the Millennium”. This is to hopefully make us more comfortable teaching educators and to make us less intimidated. The “School of the Millenium” is a school that was created by the Ministry of Education to show off the best and the brightest of what Ecuador has to offer. While we do not work directly for the Ministry of Education, we will work very closely with them. For better or worse, the TEFL program is the area of the Peace Corps that works closest with the government here in Ecuador. I am beginning to think that maybe this lecture and trip to the “School of the Millennium” is less for us to see what Ecuador has and maybe more to show off some Gringos that they have working for them. Either way I am excited to see what happens.

 I will end this post with one quick story about my host family. I will say that they have been great to me if not a bit overprotective. I was immediately taken in as one of their own and it has been great. With that said, late last night I was awoken up by my ten year old host sister asking for help on her English homework. I told her to bring it to my room and I would help. Turns out, she fully neglected her project until the night before it was due. I stayed up with her and we cut, pasted, translated, and wrote late into the night. She was grateful for the help I gave her and I bet her project will knock her teacher’s socks off. I was initially upset about having to get up and help. I was exhausted from a long day of training and Ultimate. However, I quickly reminded myself of two truths that I was neglecting. First, I was taken in by this family and thus, it was my duty to do my share. This meant getting up just as an older brother would to help a younger sibling. Next, and most importantly, this is exactly what I signed up for. Help others that want the help. It was always difficult to find students that wanted help in the States and now I finally see the opportunity ahead of me. Seizing the opportunity in front of me.

Carnaval Weekend

We have just come off of a 4 day weekend here in Ecuador. This holiday is celebrated all across South America with much enthusiasm. As a way of celebrating people throw water balloons, buckets of water, and spray one another with sticky foam. Despite the calendar saying that Carnaval was only one weekend, people have been celebrating since the second week we were here. A friend of mine got blind sided with a frozen balloon while walking home from the training center. Ecuadorian kids have a great sense of humor.

While I did not get “celebrated on”, as many unsuspecting bystanders did, I was involved in a foam fight. The women in our training group thought they would pull a fast one and attack us on Friday after classes. Luckily, I caught wind of this a day in advance and came prepared. We were all gathered for a picture after classes and were quickly ambushed. I tossed out the bottles of foam to fellow male volunteers and the fight was on. At the conclusion of the fight we were all sticky and smelly. It is good to regress to a childlike state of mentality ever so often. 

This was the beginning of a great weekend. Initially, my family had planned to go to a province in the South of Ecuador, Loja. This area is 16 hours away by bus. I was excited to get to visit this area of the country. As plans were becoming solidified, I spoke with the Peace Corps about my weekend travel plans. They had reservations about the distance that I would be traveling over such a short period of time. Long story short, I was not allowed to travel this far off province. After informing my family that I could not join them they quickly decided we would all do something different. They had no reservations about completely changing their plans because I was unable to go. I insisted they go on their vacation. I told them it was unfair to the family. They repeatedly told me that I was a part of the family and they would never go on vacation if one of their own kids were unable to go. It was another lesson on how close families are here in Ecuador. It is pretty incredible how they do not view me as a guest but simply another one of the kids. This is also apparent when you look at my chore list.

The new plans for our weekend were to go to thermal baths (hot springs) in a neighboring province. We went for a day trip and took my host dad’s semi. The hot springs, Papallacta, are situated right at the beginning of the Amazon rainforest. As we climbed higher and higher into the mountains and closer to the Amazon the views became more and more incredible. We went early in the morning in hopes that the clouds would be clear and we would be able to swim without any rain. This is exactly what happened. We dipped in the four or five pools for several hours. The views from the pools were great. Mountains shot up all around us with several small waterfalls hidden in the dense forest. The pools were busy but not packed as they would be as we left.

I was not quite ready to leave but my family told me that we had other plans. I was not sure what they were, but then again, I never know what we are doing next. I have heard this same observation from many other volunteers. One minute the family will be sitting around chatting, and the next we are loading into a car and headed to a relative’s house for an unexpected visit. I have begun to get used to these impromptu trips. 

We left the springs and drove for about an hour along the windy road through the mountains. We arrived at a medium sized cabin that had a small pond in the front yard. As it turns out, this was a trout fishing business. We went inside and my host dad prepaid for 10 fish. We were then escorted outside where we were given bamboo fishing poles and a young girl put bait on our hooks. We dropped hooks and quickly started reeling in trout. As soon as four were caught, the cook took them inside the cabin to clean them and begin cooking them. We continued to fish until lunch was prepared. I will say that I usually do not like fishy food but these trout were great!

After lunch my host dad told us that we still had two to catch. My little sister, Daniela, and I were told to go back to the pond and catch them. Being high in the mountains it was very chilly. Also, it had begun to rain while we ate. At this point it was a full on downpour. We reluctantly went outside to round up the last two. We stood there for probably 20 minutes soaked all the way through until finally we finished our task. We took the extra fish home and ate them the following day. 

 On my last day of my vacation I went into Quito with a friend to check out the Centro Historico. This area is full of buildings and plazas built in the 16^th and 17^th century. We explored much of the area and toured many different churches and historic places. We had little trouble getting around the city. The country virtually closes down during Carnaval and thus there was very little traffic and transportation was less congested than usual. Despite being only 25 km from my house, it takes about an hour to make it into the city. To make it into Quito we take three buses and do a decent amount of walking. The Peace Corps has taken us into Quito many times so that we might learn the transportation system. I feel that this has helped a lot. Our trip into Quito was nice. I really enjoyed seeing the history and people of Quito.

 

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Musings about culture and my first earthquake

I thought that this weekend I would write a bit about the new culture of which I am becoming accustomed.

To put it simply, Ecuador’s culture is full of complexities and intricacies that I was not expecting. I will begin with the family unit. Here in the mountain region, sierra, the people are conservative and somewhat reserved. 

The typical Ecuadorian familial roles are as follows:

Father: Worker, leader of family, and at times, distant.

Mother: Takes care of all things within the house. Cooks, cleans, organizes, serves, and loves. In my family, my mother also works 2 jobs.

Kids: Taken care of by mother. Have chores but nothing in comparison to mother.

My family here in Ecuador bucks the stereotypical family in a few ways. My mother works two jobs. She is an elementary school teacher as well as a secretary at the church that my family attends. She cooks dinner when she returns home from the very long day of work. In regards to chores, the family divides the chores amongst themselves. After meals we wash our own dishes and pitch in with anything else that is needed. Every weekend we have a deep cleaning session. We all wash clothes, clean our rooms, sweep and mop the floors, garden, weed, feed animals, and other random household chores that come up. Personally, I like this type of environment. It feels similar to my life in the States. Many other volunteers have a host mother that waits on the men and the volunteers hand and foot and I think I would be uncomfortable in the role.

My host dad is a truck driver. He drives to Guayquil and other cities of export during the week. The family only sees him one or two days a week. This does not take away from their relationship however. The family is very tight knit and keeps in contact constantly. My host family has two kids that live in the house. They go to a private school in Quito nearly an hour away. They get on a bus around 6:00 am and return around 2:00 pm. When I return from training they are usually hanging out watching the Simpsons after completing their chores.

 

Meals are a whole story to themselves. Fresh juice is served with every meal. I do not think I have had the exact same juice twice. The family eats all meals together. It is considered taboo, at least in my family, to eat alone. This has been a major adjustment for me. For breakfast we typically eat bread, coffee, juice and maybe some fruit. Rice is never out of the question. Our breakfast is small because my host mother is on the go to get to her job. Lunch is the largest meal of the day. A usual lunch a combination of the following: potatoes, juice, chicken, beans, fresh fruit, and as with every meal, rice. Dinner is much smaller, consisting of soup, rice, and potatoes. It is also served near bedtime. I have learned the hard way that one should overeat at lunch to last until dinner time. The food overall is very bland. If you know me well, you know how important to me this is. I can barley handle salsa in a TexMex restaurant so I was delighted to hear that my host country’s food would be without spice. This is not to say that you cannot make your food spicy. A salsa, Aji, is served alongside every meal. I tried this one time, and spent the rest of the evening coughing, drinking milk, and overall feeling rough. For the most part, I enjoy the food. The diet is much healthier here than in the States. There are no preservatives put in any of the food bought at normal stores. Of course, you can find typical American food but it is much more expensive and at times past the expiration date.

Now on to my first earthquake... This morning I was working on an assignment and began to feel a strange rocking in my room. At first I thought it was someone running on the roof and shaking the house. After it did not stop for 30 seconds I put everything down and held the bed. It was moving along with the other things in my room. It was not violent at all. It simply felt like I was on a boat with small waves rocking the house. My host brother asked if I felt that and I responded that I did. Soon after the “temblor” I got several texts from the Peace Corps about it and checking if I was alright. It was a different experience but I was never really in danger. My family took the opportunity to explain what to do in case of a large quake that hit close to home which I appreciated. It turns out the earthquake was very strong, 7.0 magnitude, but it was very deep in the earth so the effects were not as severe.

http://firstpost.com/topic/place/colombia-m-70-earthquake-colombia-02-09-13-video-KWe41UcDTtw-922-1.html

 I feel this would be on my mind for a long time if this occurred to me in the States, but here it is just another new experience.

Climbing Ilalo

Quick post about my adventure.

This morning I woke a bit earlier than I normally would on a Sunday. My host family made plans along with another family to climb the volcano, Ilalo, that overlooks our city. It would be a 3,000 foot ascent to the top. I was eager to go and explore the natural surroundings that I see from afar everyday. My host mom ended up being the only one from my family that went. She is a reserved individual but very strong. I admire her greatly for attempting it today. A married Peace Corps couple that I have become good friends with went with us along with their host mom.

We began the hike from the middle of our town, it did not take long for the asphalt to turn into a stone road, the stone into a dirt road, and the dirt to become a trail. After two hours of hiking we took a break at very  large metal cross. This was one of three on the mountain. We ate a small lunch there. It was very different than the backpacking meals that I am accustomed to. The women brought Pepsi, Ruffles, Chocho (delicious), homemade lemonade, and popcorn. I tried to explain that I only wanted my water because it was difficult to climb with such a lunch on my stomach. I did however, eat some tuna that was brought and a banana. The mothers wanted to return at this point but a very eager man that we met today pushed them on. I need to mention that a dog followed us from near the base of the climb all the way to the top. I had to help him a few times but I was impressed with his tenacity. After another hour of climbing high into the clouds, I departed with the man from Tumbaco that I had met along with his son and a German volunteer not associated with the Peace Corps. The rest of the group stayed back to watch our ascent.

Probably 30 minutes later we made it to the top. The views of our small city and all the area between us Quito was breathtaking. It was a beautiful 360° view. Every time I am in a position such as that I normally feel like I truly conquered something, a "king of the world" feeling. This time was similar but I also had the feeling of being foreign. Seeing all of the tiny houses and villages all around me really made me think about how small I really am. I am going to try and keep this in mind throughout my service. Even though I may feel like the king of the hill, I need to realize I can only do so much. I guess what I mean by this is that I will celebrate the small stuff and worry too much about changing the world. All that is not to say that I was not ecstatic to be there. It was a great trip. I hope to have many more!