I have Internet...at least I know where it is now!

June 17 2009, Wednesday

Okay..so I think I figured out how I am going to go about doing this blog thing. It is called I will pre-write blog entries onto my computer as I go along and then when I get the time to go to an internet café I will load them up off of my flash drive and post them J Or at least that is my plan at the moment.

So I have made it folks!!! I am here in Quito Ecuador, the country’s capital. The flight over wasn’t that bad at all as it was only about four hours from Miami. However, the American Airlines at the Miami airport wasn’t the most consistent or polite for that matter. I guess you could say that some of them there weren’t exactly in love with their job and you could kind of tell (some were nice too, don’t get me wrong). So after everyone made it through with checking bags and security, some bags had to be rearranged, some carry-on bags checked, certain liquids making it through while other’s did not, we all made it to the gate and awaited our flight out of the country.

The landing into Quito was absolutely B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. The Andes Mountains here are like none in the states and you feel like you are landing on top of them when you land because well…you basically do land on top of a mountain when you get here. As you come down you can see the snow capped mountains out on the side of the plane and it was amazing. The temperature was around 65 degrees or so when we arrived and it felt really nice after being in the hot Miami heat. At night it did get a little chilly, but nothing really too bad. The altitude does mess with your head a little as well but a lot of us couldn’t decide if that was because of the lack of sleep of just the altitude change. I decided for myself personally, that it was a little of both.

The customs was customs…not really too much more to say about that besides the fact that everyone made it through just fine. They had a medical check point though where they had a camera type thing that would read something off of our body while we stood on the X spot. Some people thought it was reading our body heat/temperature while others thought it had something to do with the swine flu epidemic at the moment. Either way, everyone made it through just fine.

We then had a whole group of PC people to greet us and instruct us on where to go and what to do. Our luggage got labeled and taken off to either Quito, for the two months or storage, or Cayambe, for the two months of training. Then we all loaded up into shuttle buses which took us to our Hostel, which in my book, is a really nice Hostel. More PC people where at the hostel to great us and gave each of us a red of white rose with a tip attached to it for a greeting (I got a white one). My tip was to know the difference between estoy emocionado y estoy exitado…I’ll give you a hint, one means you r are excited while the other means your aroused.

We then all went off to our rooms which hold two to four people. I ended up in a room with just one roommate. There is a big courtyard in the middle and it is all very open and beautiful. Next we had a welcoming dinner where we meet some of our key PC people that I am sure we will get to know very well over the next two years. They has reminded up to not put the toilet paper down the toilet and to not drink the tap water as it has parasites in it that we are not used to and that will get us sick. I think as far as illness goes, I have just accepted that I am going to get sick and I will deal with it when it happens! Basically, what it comes down to is that our immune systems just haven’t been exposed to the common illnesses down here and therefore we are not immune to them yet like the locals. I guess we will see how many times I end up ill and then I’ll tell you if I still have this same mentality as I do right now.

Tomorrow our day starts at 7am with breakfast and we then head off to the PC headquarters here in Quito. There are rumors going around that we are going to Cayambe tomorrow to stay at a Hostel there until we move in with our host families this upcoming Saturday. They are also rumors that tomorrow will be the vaccination day and that we will be assessed on our Spanish skills and get placed into groups accordingly. We have not officially been told any of this as of yet, but we all have pretty good reason to believe so from what we have heard unofficially. The only official announcement was that we are to bring all of our stuff with us to the PC headquarters tomorrow. I guess you’ll just have to wait until the next blog to find out!


June 18 2009, Thursday

So the rumors were correct. Today we went to the PC headquarters in Quito, which was so pretty and homey, where we had our official welcome to the Peace Corps. Following the introductions, we filled out some more paper work, received our immunizations, had our language proficiency interviews (LPI), received our PCTs allowance for the next fourteen days in cash, and finished off paper work to open a bank account here in Ecuador. Then we had lunch, got to hear from some current PCV’s here and ask them our questions with an Ecuadorian current event lecture following by a couple of US Embassy representatives. By the time that lecture came around everyone was so exhausted that we were all struggling to stay awake. After that we all loaded up on a bus to come to where I am currently at, Cayambe.

The immunizations really where too bad, but I guess I should really wait to see how my arms feel tomorrow for the final verdict. I received vaccines for Yellow Fever, Rabies 1, and Hepatitis A. The Hepatitis A was in the right arm with the other two in the left. We also were given our med kits and the doctor gave us all mask and informed up that we would have quick access to the medication for the swine flu in case any of us encounter that issue.

The LPI I was definitely lot enthusiastic about. There are a couple people here who speak fluent Spanish…I do not. I could understand everything the guy was saying to me, but I really struggled on know how to response with what vocabulary and in what tense. I guess I will find out tomorrow, or at least soon enough, how I did since I believe that they split us all up into the three groups of beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

The drive over to Cayambe took about an hour and forty-five minutes. And it was a gorgeous ride…a little bumpy, but worth it to see the Andes Mountains. Cayambe is a little higher up than Quito and not as large of a city. This is where our two months of training will take place. For tonight and tomorrow we will be staying all together at a hostel here and then on Saturday we will meet our host families for the next eight or nine weeks and go to live with them. We are still not sure if each of us will have our own host family or if we will have a four people all living together with one host family (the rumor that is going around). Either way, I am sure it will be really exciting!

Now though it is 9pm and I am exhausted. The altitude is definitely messing with my head a little and the food is going to take some getting used to like it would in any different culture. There is a lot of rice, potatoes, noodles, and chicken. And the tap water is still off limits and I think it will be the whole time I am here. I will have to learn to boil water before I use it, use a filter before use, or just break down and buy it in the bottles.

Tomorrow starts at 7am again and last all day until 7pm. The lectures for tomorrow are PC training policies, personal safety, computers/cell phones/blogs, language, program meetings, and Community Based Training (CBT) orientation. Then Saturday we go and meet our host families. Can’t wait!!!


June 20 2009, Saturday

So this time the rumors weren’t true. We are all living by ourselves with a host familia. The reasoning behind this is one that I agree with and yet at the same time is probably the hardest thing I have face this far – language. So to make a long story short, our host families only speak Spanish. And therefore, we are forced to use it and often look like a complete idiota for not knowing how to finish a sentence. Although, I do wonder at times just how ridiculous I do sound when I speak. I know I don’t use the correct verb tenses probably about 75% of the time and every once and a while I find myself not being about to finish a sentence because I don’t know the word I want to say.

So before we get to where I am now I guess I should just make a quick comment about yesterday. It was a lot of lectures. You know the good old stuff that you hear with any job that you take on. It was all necessary information though, that is for sure. And we got a phone so that we could all stay in touch with one another once we went off to our sights. My phone is a pay as you go phone, just like almost all of the phones here in Ecuador, and I am able to make international text messages for $0.25 a piece. The kicker is that I have no idea how much it cost you guys back home to receive them (my bad)! As for international phone calls, I cannot call on my phone, but I can receive them. And the best part, everything that I receive doesn’t cost me a thing. So long story short, if you really want to or need to talk to me, you can. Just depends on how much you are willing to spend. The main reason for the phone is for security and PC information though. I have my cell phone number but for security reasons we are not supposed to put them up on the blogs. So if you would like my cell phone number, just email me at lparker2008@yahoo.com and I will tell you it.

After a long day of lectures, and knowing that it was our last night all together in the hostel, we decided to have some drinks and play games that night (we were locked in the hostel at night too, so we knew we would be safe). During the day we went out to one of the more modern stores, which was like a minnie Wal-Mart, and we ended up having quite an array of alcohol at the hostel that night including whisky, tequila, scotch, red wine, and my favorite, white wine (from the box of course) combined with playing Mafia and Catch Phrase in English. It was all very good and made for a very enjoyable last night together. The phrase for the night: arriba, abajo, el centro, el dentro!

Today…in one word has been overwhelming. In a couple more words, it has been overwhelming and incredible at the same time. We met with our host families this morning in Cayambe at our hostel. After a few more lectures addressed to both the volunteers and families, we finally got to meet. My family is the Estella Lechon family from the La Chimba community. Now going back to what I said at the start of this post…they all only speak Spanish and frankly, my Spanish needs a lot of practice and help. Therefore, the following information I am going to tell you is what I tried to interpret and understand from today.

The community that I am in is way up in the Andes Mountains (an hour and a half bus ride from Cayambe where you are constantly hitting pot holes…if you don’t like those simulation rides at parks, which I do, then you would have hated it). And in case I didn’t make that clear, it is WAY up. So much to the point, that I walked for a little bit today and actually got winded from the altitude. If you can put two and two together, this also means that it is FREEZING here with a lot of wind, and yes, this does mean I am going to be buying more sweaters. There is no snow, but I swear it feels like there could be (houses here aren’t insulated at all). Now the amazing part about this area is that those things are not the first that you will realize. The first thing that you will realize is that it is absolutely B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. The mountains are everywhere you look and that view is completely awe striking. I could try to describe them, but it wouldn’t do the area justice. So I will get around to taking and posting some of those pictures.

As for mi casa y mi familia, they are very nice and their house is very cozy as well. Senora Estella is definitely the mother of the house in every sense. Sadly, she told me that her husband died about year ago from a losing fight to cancer that he fought for a year and a half. She has three children I believe…it’s hard to tell right now because there were a lot of people coming in and out of the house all day. I know that she has one son who is 22 and still lives here because I spoke with him. He works in Cayambe during the week. There is another boy who is 14 and lives here as well and I believe that is her son too. She also has a daughter, 23, who is married and actually lives right next door with her husband and child. There are also some aunts and uncles that live in the community as well, pretty much the whole family lives in the area from my understanding. Basically…I really need to learn more Spanish so that I can be sure of her answers!

Then of course there are the animals. I am in el campo, or simply put, the country. And I’m not talking about what we consider the "country", this my friend is real country. The family has three dogs that all live outside of the house and one is a puppy. Then there are a lot of chickens that live in coups outside of the house and she has a batch of babies with the chickens as well. There is also a garden in the back of the house and the front of the house is actually a store where she sells things to make money. Estella has 14 cows and one cafe as well, but they live about a five minute drive further up the mountain. She has to go twice a day up there to milk them. And let me tell you, because I went with her and her family today, it is SUPER windy and cold up there and milking those cows looks like anything but easy. Her brother also has a horse which occasionally seems to end up here.

I also got to wash some of my cloths today. How one might ask? On a rock pedestal type thing that is make for laundry by dunking my cloths into water and then rubbing a bar of soap on them and scrubbing away. Then you get to turn your clothes inside out and repeat the process. You also have to keep dumping water on the cloths so that it can rise. The pedestal is tilted so all of the water runs down and into a drain. It is actually probably one of the coolest things I have seen and I will definitely get a picture up at some point. Then you simply rinse the cloths by pouring more water on them and hanging them to dry out on the cloths line. So I washed my cloths while she did today as well. And as I was sitting there scrubbing and running out of breath because of the altitude, I asked her, is this easy for you or do you consider it hard? Her response, it is hard at first, but it becomes easy once you learn. I don’t know if I will ever really learn to do it correctly, but I do know that I have T-shirts and socks that I cleaned today out the cloths line so I must have done something right!

As for my living quarters I have my own little room that is attached to the back side of the house if you will. When I open up my door I am outside with the kitchen right across from me and the living room to my right (the crossway is outside but covered by the roof). My bathroom is kind of like an outhouse type thing that is actually right by the laundry pedestal as the laundry pedestal is what I use for my sink. The outhouse type thing has a shower and a toilet that flushes. The shower is solar powered to get the water warm so we will have to wait and see how that works for another day. But I was pretty excited to hear that I might actually get a hot shower since the last two that I have taken here have been…well…ice water. It’s called the jump in jump out method for when that happens.

I think that is all I’ve got for now…I am sure that I am leaving things out, but oh well. For the rest of training I have training 7am to 5pm Monday through Friday with the weekends for myself (tomorrow I am going to a fiesta with my family for San Jose in a nearby community). I doubt that I will write as many blogs at that point as the days will by the normal frustrations and joys of learning a new language and culture. And now…es tiempo para dormir y tener sueños en español

P.S. I had my first guinea pig meal today too…first thing right when I got here. Not as bad as what I thought it was going to be, but definitely very different. At least the head and toes were cut off though!


June 21 2009, Sunday

So just a quick little note for today, why is learning a language SO dang hard. I think today I had my first almost break down and it is completely because of the language barrier. I am starting to believe that being here thus far has actually made my Spanish worse. The people in La Chimba definitely seem to have a little of their own dialect. And my madre I do believe is like the mother of the house and town in a lot of ways. She tries to speak clearly to me, but when she actually just speaks to her family or friends there is a definite slang to it that I don’t get at all. You can also pretty much take half of what you learned in your Spanish language class and forget it because who knows what type of Spanish you actually got taught – Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, different regions, extra. Long story short, I went to a futbol game today and got sunburned because I’m a dork and forgot sunscreen and I got laughed at for my pretty much none existent Spanish at this point in time. So that pretty much killed any confidence I had for the day so I’m just kind of sat here for the rest of time…I really need those Spanish lessons to start. It is so crazy to because I actually do know more than what it seems like I do…I just can’t get it across in the correct way (I know enough that I had two people today say that she doesn’t know anything and then stop talking to me). There was a little girl though who kept at it with me. I know that this is just a part of the process, but I really wish it would speed up. Hopefully those Spanish lessons, eight hours a day Monday to Friday, will give me the confidence to talk more. Yo espero!!!

Last Night in the States for a While

So I am currently in Miami Florida for my two day staging event. I started my day today at 3:45am in Nashville TN to be able to make a 6:15am flight to Miami that arrived at about 9:30. I then ran in to two other PC volunteers that were checking in at the same time as I was to the Hotel so we all met up and went out to eat across the way where we picked up some sandwiches. We ate them outside the brilliant Miami sun and heat. After that we all went back to our rooms to cool off for a little while and get changed for the PC meeting which started at 1:30pm up on the 20th floor of the hotel in a conference room.

The meeting was turning in the final paper work and all of that fun jazz...although I have this suspicion that there will still be more paper work yet to come as I believe I have come to the realization that it is truly never ending. There are about 45 of us all together. Two married couples, about three ladies 35-50, about four single guys, and the rest all girls (the norm is 40% male to 60% female). Today was pretty much just an introduction the PC and to each other. We ended the day by a meal out at the Cheese Cake Factory where everyone was too full to have any Cheese Cake by the time we were all done although one girl ordered a piece to go.

We leave tomorrow at 10:30 am from the hotel to get to the airport for a 3:25 flight out to Quito Ecuador. Quito is currently on Central time but goes to Eastern time later in the year because they do not do daylight savings from my understanding thus far...I do believe. We should get into Quito at about 6:30 about a four hour flight (eastern to central time).

That's about as much of an update as I have for now...so I guess that means my next post will be from Ecuador itself! Wish me luck folks!!!

P.S. I'm a little sleep deprived at the moment...so if something didn't make sense or I forgot something, I'm sorry!

What have I gotten myself in to!

In just about two weeks I will be starting a major adventure in my life. I am joining the Peace Corps Ecuador and I start my 26 month service on June 16th 2009. I will be working as a Youth Entrepreneurship leader by working with youth and families. My role will be to train and advise youth, service providers, and community members in basic business concepts such as feasibility, studies, record keeping, cost analysis, book keeping, marketing, proposal writing, team building, leadership, and so on. What all of this is really going to entail...God himself only knows!

My orientation dates are June 16-17, 2009 down in Miami Florida, which basically includes finishing up paperwork before I leave the States and the first of many security lectures from the Government from what I have heard. I get the privileged of flying out of Nashville, TN at 6:15am on the 16th...thank you American Government for only using U.S companies for everything...then I will have Pre-service Training in Ecuador from June 17th - August 20th, 2009 where I will encounter intensive language training and training for my on site job in Ecuador (yes folks...I will actually put my Spanish training to use...who'd have thunk it). From June 17th to June 20th I will be staying in a Hostel with 40-50 other people in my program that will be close by to the Peace Corps Office in Quito, Ecuador's Capital. I also get the privileged of numerous final vaccinations when I first arrive into Quito. On June 20th I will move to live with my Ecuadorian host family located in the Cayambe area, about an hour and a half from Quito, until I am sworn in as an official volunteer on August 19th at 9 a.m. at the Ambassador's Residence. Finally, my actually service will begin from August 21st, 2009 - August 21st 2011.

I should have most of the basic amenities such as running water and electricity while I am there, but that all depends on where my ultimate destination will be for the two year time period. I will not know that until I am already over there after my pre-serive time period ends. Until I have my own address, I will receive mail at the Peace Corps/Ecuador's post office box:

Lesley Parker, PCV (for Volunteer, 8-20-09 to 8-20-11) or PCT (for Trainee, 6-17-09 to 8-19-09)
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla 17-08-8624
Quito, Ecuador
South America

If you want to learn more about what I will be doing, simply visit this website which tells you all about it - http://www.peacecorps.gov/welcomebooks/ecwb518.pdf Life is a crazy thing which takes each and every one of us in different directions. And for some reason or another, my life is calling me to Peace Corps Ecuador for the next two years of my life. Now I can not promise how well I will do with this Blog thing or even how much access I will really have to the Internet, but I can definitely tell you that I will try to keep it as up-to-date as possible. I welcome any words of encouragement, prayers, or thoughts and there are some of you out there that better not lose touch with me while I am gone or else I will have to come back and hunt you down! You know who you are ;)

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Ralph Waldo Emerson