First things first, I have gotten all of my pictures up on facebook which equals four new photo albums. This way you can get a better idea of what I am trying to describe down here. Not to mention pictures are always fun to look at anyhow.
So now that I am an official PCV you might be wondering what my life is like. And in all honest, I am still wondering myself that as well. Basically our job is just about the vaguest one in the book. I think that half of the battle here for me is that our "job" is far from anything that you could ever do in the states. The Peace Corps has three main goals as follows (I am paraphrasing here):
1 - To promote the understanding of Americans in a different culture outside of the United States.
2 - To promote the understanding of that other culture outside of the United States back to the people in the USA.
3 - Teach technical skills that are needed in that developing country.
Now the thing here is that two out of the three goals is basically just socializing; socializing with the people here in Ecuador and then with the people back at home. Only one of the three goals is actually what we would consider to be results oriented which is teaching technical skills. That in itself no matter what country you are in is hard to really measure as well. And in all honesty, you really have to work on the first two goals first before you can work on the third one because if you don't understand the culture, how can you teach?
So I guess long story short, my main job is really just to let people stare at me...which they do all of the time...and try to speak my broken Spanish to them and share our cultures and their differences. Now for someone who is used to working Monday through Friday 8 to 5 (using the analogy here) this can be kind of hard to accept and get used to really. I have a lot of what I consider to be "free" time everyday and there is no set in stone schedule that I will ever have to follow over the next two years.
Now don't get me wrong here. With time I will establish regular classes where I will be teach about the topics of self-esteem, sex education, parenting skills, and so on. Hopefully I will be able to facilitate a community bank as well which would have meetings weekly. But that probably won't become a routine for another six months or so. The first three months of service our job is just to survey the community and see what they need and want to see happen in their community.
It is amazing to me how different the cultures define a "job". Not to mention that when you are brought up thinking that you have to be clocked in to be considered working that changes your view point on everything. Here, there isn't really so much a clock to punch in on (some people do, don't get me wrong). And even without having a clock to punch in on, people can tell if you are doing the work that is needed for your job or not. I guess it really goes back to the point that in the States people "live to work" where as a lot of other people "work to live". And the Peace Corps Experience definitely is a one of a kind "job" that seems to fall somewhere between those two thoughts.
P.S. I have also decided that Peace Corps secret goal number four is to give the host country a constant source of entertainment for them, because no matter what you do, where you go, or what you say...they are going to laugh at you and hit on you.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Pictures
I have a load of pictures to upload onto Facebook...just been having issues with that so you will have to wait for those to show up. Hopefully in the next week here I will get around to it!
My Address
All is still going along here in El Oro Ecuador. I have gotten my mail address...and since all PCVs love getting mail from home, feel free to send whatever you would like. It is just basically a PO box though so if you send something larger than a normal padded envelope let me know so I can try to avoid all of the custom costs and pick it up as soon as possible:
Lesley Parker
Casilla 07-01-477
Machala - El Oro
Ecuador
Everything else is just going along as I am trying to get an idea of what my job here is going to be like. So far it has been a lot of down time and getting to know the area, which is normal, and letting all of the people in my town stair at me all of the time I go out anywhere or do anything. I think half of our purpose here is to be entertainment sometimes!
Lesley Parker
Casilla 07-01-477
Machala - El Oro
Ecuador
Everything else is just going along as I am trying to get an idea of what my job here is going to be like. So far it has been a lot of down time and getting to know the area, which is normal, and letting all of the people in my town stair at me all of the time I go out anywhere or do anything. I think half of our purpose here is to be entertainment sometimes!
Finally at my Site where I will be for the next two years
August 21 2009, Friday
So to be honest right now…I cannot even really remember the last blog entry that I wrote. And since I am writing this blog entry right now in my bed where I do not actually have the internet, I will try my best to pick up where I think I left off in the blog last time.
First things first, I am an actual sworn in PCV now!!! That is right folks. No more Peace Corps Trainee; I am a fully fledged Peace Corps Volunteer. Finishing up training was a very busy time that was filled with a lot of paper work and a lot of sad goodbyes. Not only to the host family members that we lived with over the past two months, but also to each other as we are now all at our own sites by ourselves.
Finishing up training though went pretty well really. We had a family appreciation day as well the last Saturday that we were there. All of the family members were invited to the Ayora training center where we had lunch and some cultural activities that included a dance and singing. I actually joined the dance group somehow…by accident I think really one day after classes. I thought we were just learning some of the traditional dances for fun; it wasn’t until later that I realized I had actually signed up to dance in front of some 200 people. It actually ended up being kind of fun even though I am sure my dancing was far from perfect.
All of the dances, the ten of us girls in total, dressed up in the traditional dance and then did a little dance to the traditional Sierra song. One of the PCTs told me that her parents got a kick out of the dance just because of Joy and me (the two girls that are about six foot that danced) for the pure fact that we were able to dance in the clothes and look really funny doing it I think. Either way, people seemed to enjoy the “entertainment” and we enjoyed learning how to do it the best we could as well. I did not actually get any pictures of the dance, but I am sure with time that pictures will show up on Facebook. I only got pictures of myself before the dance in the traditional dress which will be up on Facebook at some point. We also had two huge roasted pigs for the lunch meal which was a big hit with everyone. All in all, it was a good day.
That pretty much wrapped up training as the next day we left for Quito with all of our stuff at 8am from Cayambe. It was definitely a bitter-sweet feeling leaving the freezing cold of La Chimba. I will not at all miss the cold weather but I will definitely miss the amazing view; one of the best I have ever seen in my life. Hopefully one day I will revisit that area if for nothing else but to see that view again.
So off we went to Quito where we dropped off our stuff all together in the hostel and then went off to the Mitad Del Mundo (the middle of the world). First we ate at a really nice restaurant on the PC dime which was really good. Then we went to the wrong Mitad Del Mundo as there are actually two in Quito (one I think that is supposed to be the “real” one and the other one is more touristy…and then I also heard someone say that they thought the real zero zero point was up in one of the mountains…long story short, who really knows???) for about ten minutes. Next we went to the one we actually had tickets for which was the touristier one. So I got pictures of me at both of them which I will also put up on Facebook. It was nice and weird at the same time to be doing something that was touristy. Either way, I have now officially been to the middle of the world…both of them in Quito.
The time at the hostel went by rather quickly really. We would all go to the PC office during the day and have our final lectures and sign our final papers…of training only though, I am sure there are plenty more papers to follow over the next two years. During the night we would all hang out at the hostel which was a lot of fun actually as it was a nice time to relax. There was a Papa John’s right down the street as well which had a two for one deal on Tuesday. So we all ditched the hostel food for the night and went and got pizza which was amazing, let me tell you. Definitely worth the whole 4 dollars I had to spend on pizza and breadsticks once all was said and done.
Then came the swear in day, Wednesday August 19th, where we all got to get dressed up, my first time of putting on mascara in two months might I say, and actually feel pretty again. For swearing in we went to the Ambassador’s house in Quito where we had the ceremony. The ceremony was just like any other for the most part except that it was in Spanish and English and of course we were at the Ambassador of the United States house and she gave a speech to us as well. Once the speeches were all done, one from our Trainer Facilitator, one from our Country Director, one from the Ambassador, and two of the PCTs in my group, we then all got to come up one by one and shake the hand of the Ambassador and our Country Director as we got our certificates…and these pictures will also be up on Facebook book. After the ceremony, there were bagels, fruit, coffee, and tea with of course many pictures. We then all went back to the PC office where we waiting for our time to head off to our sites (some people left right after, some left that night, others were leaving the next day). My group actually left at 8pm so we had some time just to relax in Quito. Then the three of us, Sarah, Dana, and me, got on our 10 hours overnight bus trip to head down to El Oro.
Thankfully, everything on our trip went relatively well. I say this because we were a group of three Gringos with lots of luggage…this equals a big target for theft around here. But as I said, thankfully everything went well in that sense. As for actually getting from point A directly to point B I had some issues. The bus that we take goes down to Machala and then keeps heading south. My barrio, El Retiro, is further south on the Pan-American Highway. So I thought that the bus would just go right by my barrio. In reality, it took a different side road so it didn’t go by my barrio but straight to Santa Rosa on the Pan-American. Now thankfully again, we had actually made this same type of mistake last time and therefore I knew that there was a bus that went back towards Machala which would for sure go by El Retiro.
Now the sad/bad part of this story is that the drivers of the Panamericana line decided to drop me off at the roundabout with two suite cases, my backpack, and my purse instead of actually going a little out of their way to drop me off in town. So I was left at the roundabout with all of my luggage not really 100% sure which way to go. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it was raining slightly…thankfully, not a whole lot, but enough to make it count. So after I forced myself not to cry because I knew all that would do would be attracted any one that might want to rob me, I began collecting all of my stuff and myself together and started the trek towards Santa Rosa where I knew there was a bus.
Besides sweating a lot and getting really muddy while avoid catcalls from the males in the street, I did pretty well. I only had to go about a half mile in towards town and then I found a bus that was heading to Machala and thankfully they put my luggage in the actually bus with me so that I knew it would be safe. Once on that bus, I recognized where El Retiro was pretty easily and got off there. There it was just about another half of a mile walk to my house where I will be staying for the next three months. So I arrived to the house, all sweaty and muddy where my host family asked me what happened and I just told them it was okay, it was good exercise for me. Really, I am just really proud of myself for not breaking down and crying when I got left at the roundabout!
So yesterday, Thursday, was my first official day as a Peace Corps Volunteer at my site and man oh man did it all hit me. Between the language, the culture, and my purpose for being here, the next two years are definitely going to be challenging. I have settled in though into my room with all of my stuff and the fact that my host family has the restaurant next door is really nice and it is something that I am going to really enjoy. Today was another relaxing day where I just stayed in the house and the restaurant really and “talked” with the kids and the customers. I say “talked” because my language still has a ways to go. However, they do have two TVs here; one in the house and one in the restaurant which I am sure will help out my Spanish as well.
I still have yet to met up with my counterpart as he has been busy these past couple of days. I am sure though once I talk with him I will get a better feel of what I am going to be doing here as he is really my support system here in the barrio. I think that for the first month or so I am just going to follow him around with INFA and see how things work. Once I get a better feel, I then get to do surveys around the barrio to see what people think of their barrio and the things that they want changed. It’s called the CAT tools that I have to use to assess the neighborhood and see where I can help. And of course it is for my own knowledge as well. We have to complete these tools with in the first three or four months here and have a full report down up for our Reconnect session in Spanish. Yes…the PC does give you assignments to complete. It should be a good thing though, just something that I have yet to figure out completely how I am going to go about doing.
My first “real” assignment here though is just to introduce myself to the community as well as the Peace Corps as I am the first volunteer. This in itself will be something that will take time. All in all, everything right now is just a lot. That I guess is the easiest way to put it. It is a lot to be on your own in a society that you do not understand, or fit into at all, with a language that you cannot really speak. Not to mention that you want to help develop this place, but you know that is something that takes a lot of time and it is something that you might never see the results of anyhow, if people even accept you at all. All in all, it is just a lot for a person to take it. And I am sure that over the next two years, I will encounter a lot of different things that will include many ups and downs. I mean heck, I think that I have ups and downs hourly at this point! The PC experience is definitely a one of a kind thing that is going to push me to limits I never knew I had and teach me things that I could never imagine; both in good ways and bad ways. Hopefully I will just be able to keep my sanity along the way…even if I only had a little to start with
So to be honest right now…I cannot even really remember the last blog entry that I wrote. And since I am writing this blog entry right now in my bed where I do not actually have the internet, I will try my best to pick up where I think I left off in the blog last time.
First things first, I am an actual sworn in PCV now!!! That is right folks. No more Peace Corps Trainee; I am a fully fledged Peace Corps Volunteer. Finishing up training was a very busy time that was filled with a lot of paper work and a lot of sad goodbyes. Not only to the host family members that we lived with over the past two months, but also to each other as we are now all at our own sites by ourselves.
Finishing up training though went pretty well really. We had a family appreciation day as well the last Saturday that we were there. All of the family members were invited to the Ayora training center where we had lunch and some cultural activities that included a dance and singing. I actually joined the dance group somehow…by accident I think really one day after classes. I thought we were just learning some of the traditional dances for fun; it wasn’t until later that I realized I had actually signed up to dance in front of some 200 people. It actually ended up being kind of fun even though I am sure my dancing was far from perfect.
All of the dances, the ten of us girls in total, dressed up in the traditional dance and then did a little dance to the traditional Sierra song. One of the PCTs told me that her parents got a kick out of the dance just because of Joy and me (the two girls that are about six foot that danced) for the pure fact that we were able to dance in the clothes and look really funny doing it I think. Either way, people seemed to enjoy the “entertainment” and we enjoyed learning how to do it the best we could as well. I did not actually get any pictures of the dance, but I am sure with time that pictures will show up on Facebook. I only got pictures of myself before the dance in the traditional dress which will be up on Facebook at some point. We also had two huge roasted pigs for the lunch meal which was a big hit with everyone. All in all, it was a good day.
That pretty much wrapped up training as the next day we left for Quito with all of our stuff at 8am from Cayambe. It was definitely a bitter-sweet feeling leaving the freezing cold of La Chimba. I will not at all miss the cold weather but I will definitely miss the amazing view; one of the best I have ever seen in my life. Hopefully one day I will revisit that area if for nothing else but to see that view again.
So off we went to Quito where we dropped off our stuff all together in the hostel and then went off to the Mitad Del Mundo (the middle of the world). First we ate at a really nice restaurant on the PC dime which was really good. Then we went to the wrong Mitad Del Mundo as there are actually two in Quito (one I think that is supposed to be the “real” one and the other one is more touristy…and then I also heard someone say that they thought the real zero zero point was up in one of the mountains…long story short, who really knows???) for about ten minutes. Next we went to the one we actually had tickets for which was the touristier one. So I got pictures of me at both of them which I will also put up on Facebook. It was nice and weird at the same time to be doing something that was touristy. Either way, I have now officially been to the middle of the world…both of them in Quito.
The time at the hostel went by rather quickly really. We would all go to the PC office during the day and have our final lectures and sign our final papers…of training only though, I am sure there are plenty more papers to follow over the next two years. During the night we would all hang out at the hostel which was a lot of fun actually as it was a nice time to relax. There was a Papa John’s right down the street as well which had a two for one deal on Tuesday. So we all ditched the hostel food for the night and went and got pizza which was amazing, let me tell you. Definitely worth the whole 4 dollars I had to spend on pizza and breadsticks once all was said and done.
Then came the swear in day, Wednesday August 19th, where we all got to get dressed up, my first time of putting on mascara in two months might I say, and actually feel pretty again. For swearing in we went to the Ambassador’s house in Quito where we had the ceremony. The ceremony was just like any other for the most part except that it was in Spanish and English and of course we were at the Ambassador of the United States house and she gave a speech to us as well. Once the speeches were all done, one from our Trainer Facilitator, one from our Country Director, one from the Ambassador, and two of the PCTs in my group, we then all got to come up one by one and shake the hand of the Ambassador and our Country Director as we got our certificates…and these pictures will also be up on Facebook book. After the ceremony, there were bagels, fruit, coffee, and tea with of course many pictures. We then all went back to the PC office where we waiting for our time to head off to our sites (some people left right after, some left that night, others were leaving the next day). My group actually left at 8pm so we had some time just to relax in Quito. Then the three of us, Sarah, Dana, and me, got on our 10 hours overnight bus trip to head down to El Oro.
Thankfully, everything on our trip went relatively well. I say this because we were a group of three Gringos with lots of luggage…this equals a big target for theft around here. But as I said, thankfully everything went well in that sense. As for actually getting from point A directly to point B I had some issues. The bus that we take goes down to Machala and then keeps heading south. My barrio, El Retiro, is further south on the Pan-American Highway. So I thought that the bus would just go right by my barrio. In reality, it took a different side road so it didn’t go by my barrio but straight to Santa Rosa on the Pan-American. Now thankfully again, we had actually made this same type of mistake last time and therefore I knew that there was a bus that went back towards Machala which would for sure go by El Retiro.
Now the sad/bad part of this story is that the drivers of the Panamericana line decided to drop me off at the roundabout with two suite cases, my backpack, and my purse instead of actually going a little out of their way to drop me off in town. So I was left at the roundabout with all of my luggage not really 100% sure which way to go. Oh yeah, and did I mention that it was raining slightly…thankfully, not a whole lot, but enough to make it count. So after I forced myself not to cry because I knew all that would do would be attracted any one that might want to rob me, I began collecting all of my stuff and myself together and started the trek towards Santa Rosa where I knew there was a bus.
Besides sweating a lot and getting really muddy while avoid catcalls from the males in the street, I did pretty well. I only had to go about a half mile in towards town and then I found a bus that was heading to Machala and thankfully they put my luggage in the actually bus with me so that I knew it would be safe. Once on that bus, I recognized where El Retiro was pretty easily and got off there. There it was just about another half of a mile walk to my house where I will be staying for the next three months. So I arrived to the house, all sweaty and muddy where my host family asked me what happened and I just told them it was okay, it was good exercise for me. Really, I am just really proud of myself for not breaking down and crying when I got left at the roundabout!
So yesterday, Thursday, was my first official day as a Peace Corps Volunteer at my site and man oh man did it all hit me. Between the language, the culture, and my purpose for being here, the next two years are definitely going to be challenging. I have settled in though into my room with all of my stuff and the fact that my host family has the restaurant next door is really nice and it is something that I am going to really enjoy. Today was another relaxing day where I just stayed in the house and the restaurant really and “talked” with the kids and the customers. I say “talked” because my language still has a ways to go. However, they do have two TVs here; one in the house and one in the restaurant which I am sure will help out my Spanish as well.
I still have yet to met up with my counterpart as he has been busy these past couple of days. I am sure though once I talk with him I will get a better feel of what I am going to be doing here as he is really my support system here in the barrio. I think that for the first month or so I am just going to follow him around with INFA and see how things work. Once I get a better feel, I then get to do surveys around the barrio to see what people think of their barrio and the things that they want changed. It’s called the CAT tools that I have to use to assess the neighborhood and see where I can help. And of course it is for my own knowledge as well. We have to complete these tools with in the first three or four months here and have a full report down up for our Reconnect session in Spanish. Yes…the PC does give you assignments to complete. It should be a good thing though, just something that I have yet to figure out completely how I am going to go about doing.
My first “real” assignment here though is just to introduce myself to the community as well as the Peace Corps as I am the first volunteer. This in itself will be something that will take time. All in all, everything right now is just a lot. That I guess is the easiest way to put it. It is a lot to be on your own in a society that you do not understand, or fit into at all, with a language that you cannot really speak. Not to mention that you want to help develop this place, but you know that is something that takes a lot of time and it is something that you might never see the results of anyhow, if people even accept you at all. All in all, it is just a lot for a person to take it. And I am sure that over the next two years, I will encounter a lot of different things that will include many ups and downs. I mean heck, I think that I have ups and downs hourly at this point! The PC experience is definitely a one of a kind thing that is going to push me to limits I never knew I had and teach me things that I could never imagine; both in good ways and bad ways. Hopefully I will just be able to keep my sanity along the way…even if I only had a little to start with
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
The Presidents in La Chimba
So the presidents did come into La Chimba this past Sunday and it was actually really really interesting. However, it was just President Correa and the President of Bolivar along with a really famous indigenous women. The presidents came to support the indigenous group here in Ecuador. La Chimba had a really famous indigenous women who lived there and died there in May 2009, her name was Transito Amayana (not sure how to spell her last name there...). So the Presidents came to honor her and the indigenous race here in Ecuador. It was also to support President Correa because he just was reelected for the next four years right before we all got here. I was about 10 yards though from the President of Ecuador and the President of Bolivar which is pretty cool to be able to say (The President of Venezuela did not make it for some reason). All in all, it was really interesting and I will be sure to put up some pictures of it at some point and give a more detailed post of it at some point.
Right now everything has just been really crazy as we are finishing up our last week of training here in Cayambe. Therefore we have been really busy doing a lot of nothing more or less. I say this, because it is a lot of ¨tests¨ and paperwork that we are having to make sure gets done. Not to mention everyone getting ready to leave one another here in a week and go off by ourselves to our sites for the next two years! Long story short, it is and has been really busy. We go to Quito this Sunday and then swear in for our two years of service next Wednesday, August 19th. So the next few days will be packed full with moving and goodbyes...this includes lots of drinking of course! But I will be sure to update everyone with everything once I have the time to. Wish me luck over this next week for a smooth transition!!!
Right now everything has just been really crazy as we are finishing up our last week of training here in Cayambe. Therefore we have been really busy doing a lot of nothing more or less. I say this, because it is a lot of ¨tests¨ and paperwork that we are having to make sure gets done. Not to mention everyone getting ready to leave one another here in a week and go off by ourselves to our sites for the next two years! Long story short, it is and has been really busy. We go to Quito this Sunday and then swear in for our two years of service next Wednesday, August 19th. So the next few days will be packed full with moving and goodbyes...this includes lots of drinking of course! But I will be sure to update everyone with everything once I have the time to. Wish me luck over this next week for a smooth transition!!!
Tech Trip Post
August 8 2009, Saturday
So I just got back from my technical trip today which was a trip that included a couple of different locations in the Guayas and Santa Elena Providence (really we just went through Guayaquil in Guayas for a day and the rest was in the Santa Elena region). The point of this trip was to get a better technical feel for the type of work that we will be doing over the next two years by seeing some of the Peace Corps current projects in these areas and giving Charlas (educational talks) to certain groups along the way. Really though…it was kind of like a vacation time for my group with a lot of ocean and beach! Don’t get me wrong here folks, we definitely worked as well.
We left for our trip last Sunday night and we went through Quito, like you always do to get anywhere in this country really…either Quito or Guayaquil you go to for transportation more or less…so we got to eat dinner in a nice modern mall in Quito where I had Pizza Hut with a side salad. Good stuff let me tell you. Then we got on to our six hour or so overnight bus to Guayaquil where we got in at around four a.m. Now for those of you who do not really know Guayaquil…if you are a foreigner, you do not go out when there is no sunlight; it is just pretty much a rule of thumb there unless for some reason you have an urge to get robbed. So we stayed at the one bus terminal in Guayaquil until the sun came up around six a.m. This was just the one bus terminal, not the main one where we were going to eat breakfast with some of the current PVCs there. So once the sun came up, off we went to the three story bus terminal of Guayaquil where we all ate breakfast together.
Next was another bus to La Libertad in Santa Elena which took about 2 hours give or take (so we settled from travel Monday about at lunch time). La Libertad is a town on the coast line and can be a little touristy as well I believe. This town is the site of one of the girls in our group so we got to meet her counterpart and see the school and what not where she will be working. However, we actually stayed at a hostel right on the coast in a town called Salinas; La Libertad isn’t right on the coast line as it is a little in land but it was only like a five minute bus ride out. Anyways, Salinas was beach number one and we stayed at that hostel for Monday and Tuesday night. Monday was just a travel day and a day on the beach front in Salinas. On Tuesday morning we went to the school of the PCV which I thought was pretty nice (this site has had a few PCVs in the past…I think this might be the last one there…so a lot is already set up for them) and listened to presentations and then gave a charla as well of our own to the kids. Tuesday afternoon after lunch we went to a women’s group meeting and gave a charla there and then went to visit a medical center facility as well that they have. Now with our down time we were forced to eat sea food (which was a little overpriced because of the tourism factor) and relax on the beach.
For Wednesday we left beach number one of Salinas and went to visit a town about an hour and a half or so further north on the coast line (this bus ride was full of amazing views as it was all along the coast the whole way) named Palmer. Now this is also a site of one of our PCVs and it has also seen its share of PCVs over the years; I think both the girl at La Libertad and Palmer have a pretty good chance of closing these sites. In Palmer, the past PCVs there have helped organize a big youth group called “Neo Juventud”. Over the years this group has accomplished a lot such as a gym, a computer/Internet café, and an actual bakery that is completely run by the Youth. All in all it was pretty impressive, and of course, right on a beach front (the PCVs house is literally on the beach…her back yard is the beach). And Palmer was not a tourist town at all so that was a nice change too. We were just there for the day though, and then we drove to Manglaralto for Wednesday and Thursday night (we left there Friday afternoon).
Manglaralto is nearby one of the towns that we are prohibited to visit during service as well which I thought was interesting. The town is called Montanita and is about a twenty minute walk along the beach north from Manglaralto. The reason it is prohibited for us is because Montanita is a really touristy town and there is a lot of theft there with foreigners…and since we are technically the government’s responsibility while we are working here, there are certain sites we cannot go to for security reasons; we can drive through them, but we cannot visit them. Anyways, I just thought that was kind of interesting because you could literally see Montanita from Manglaralto…and really, the beaches in both towns are the same beach and just as nice, just that Manglaralto is safer for us and there is a current agriculture volunteer there working.
So when we first got to Manglaralto Wednesday night we actually went inland…even though it has an amazing and my favorite beach there that we will call number three…to one of her communities that the current PCV works with. She actually works with a group of women who make Panama Hats, and purses, out of a type of tree branch that then get exported all over the world really for a crazy profit. Long story short, I bought a purse for $4 dollars that probably would have ended up getting shipped off and bought for around $80. After seeing that we went on a little nature walk around their community where we got to see all of the natural resources really that they have and use to make a profit. Their main problem is that they don’t know how to run a business and cost things out correctly and that causes a lot of problems. Then we returned back to Manglaralto for the night at our hostel which was literally a two minute walk from the ocean…and they had hammocks out front.
Thursday we went to another one of our PCVs future sites called La Entrada. The main thing that this town does is fish; as once again, it was right on the beach…this one will be beach number four. It was a really nice facility as well and we got to learn about oyster farming. We also went down to the beach front where people were busy at work. A man on a motorcycle with a crate full of fish and a bag full of crabs…all half alive I would say…people pulling in a boat out of the ocean and up onto the shore the old fashion way with logs, and my personally favorite, a man that had just finished snorkeling the shores for octopus. We help the people with the activities that we could for fun. One of our facilitators actually bought one of the freshly caught octopuses for a dollar that we ate at lunch in a mixture as well. We then went back to the facility…which did I mention…is on the coast line, for real…and gave our Charla to a group of youth about planning for your future. We ended the day with some of the best Cheese Cake I think I have ever had (I guess a four star desert chef that use to work in Guayaquil had enough there so he retired out to La Entrada where he has a desert place that everyone knows about) where I got Oreo Cheese Cake, and headed back to our beach front number three in Manglaralto to watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.
The last day, Friday, was spent in Manglaralto where we went across to the High School and gave our last Charla in the morning. We then visited the current PCVs garden that she is starting and were then able to spend the rest of the time relaxing on the beach (from about 11 to 3 with lunch on the beach front as well). We then got on the bus to head back to La Libertad, about two hours or so, and then had to wait in La Libertad at the mall until our bus at 8:30 that took us back to Quito…this bus was actually about ten hours though because coming to the coast we stopped in Guayaquil, this bus was just direct. Therefore, here I am back in La Chimba for Saturday night.
All in all, the trip was a really good success and a lot of fun with great sites that I will be sure to post up on Facebook, so take a look! Today was just the recovery from the bus rides really…although the one from last night was not the worst I have been on which was a plus…but at the same time, my ankles still blow up with the altitude changes. We did take some time to put on some finishing touches to a moral painting though that we are doing in the town hall area…which hopefully we will get done with one more meeting.
Now for the fun upcoming news event briefing…dun dun dun…the President of Ecuador is coming to La Chimba tomorrow. That is right people, you read that correctly. President Correa will be here in La Chimba tomorrow along with…get ready for this…the President of Bolivar and the President of Argentina I do believe. We are not really sure why…as there are many rumors going around for the possible why. I think though it is a mixture of reasons. One is that there is a native woman who passed at the start of 2009 who was a spokes women for the indigenous group here in Ecuador (comparable to our Martin Luther King we are been told in importance) and she was from here in La Chimba. Also I think it is in part of President Correa celebrating some political win. I asked my host brothers tonight, and they were just kind of like, yeah…we know he will be here tomorrow. They said it was normal and even my fourteen year old brother said he could remember other times that the President of Ecuador has come to La Chimba for some type of celebration or reason. But neither one could really tell me why he was coming tomorrow…but I think the main reason has to do with that native woman, Transito A…something…I can’t remember her last name right now!
So the funny thing is while we are in training all the PCTs cannot be in groups of more than five in a public place and throughout the entire PC we cannot attend political rallies or gatherings as we are politically neutral while we are a part of the PC. But since the five current PCTs live here in La Chimba, we got the okay to watch tomorrow…but from afar. I know that the other PCTs are bummed about this because they have been informed that they cannot come up to La Chimba at all. I have also heard that a lot of the facilitators are planning on coming up because they are Ecuadoreans and the same rules that apply to us do not apply to them. Long story short…tomorrow will be interesting and will start at 8 a.m. as we are going to sit on one of our houses roofs and try to see the helicopters fly into La Chimba at about 10,000 feet above sea level and hope that there are no riots of any type. Go La Chimba!
So I just got back from my technical trip today which was a trip that included a couple of different locations in the Guayas and Santa Elena Providence (really we just went through Guayaquil in Guayas for a day and the rest was in the Santa Elena region). The point of this trip was to get a better technical feel for the type of work that we will be doing over the next two years by seeing some of the Peace Corps current projects in these areas and giving Charlas (educational talks) to certain groups along the way. Really though…it was kind of like a vacation time for my group with a lot of ocean and beach! Don’t get me wrong here folks, we definitely worked as well.
We left for our trip last Sunday night and we went through Quito, like you always do to get anywhere in this country really…either Quito or Guayaquil you go to for transportation more or less…so we got to eat dinner in a nice modern mall in Quito where I had Pizza Hut with a side salad. Good stuff let me tell you. Then we got on to our six hour or so overnight bus to Guayaquil where we got in at around four a.m. Now for those of you who do not really know Guayaquil…if you are a foreigner, you do not go out when there is no sunlight; it is just pretty much a rule of thumb there unless for some reason you have an urge to get robbed. So we stayed at the one bus terminal in Guayaquil until the sun came up around six a.m. This was just the one bus terminal, not the main one where we were going to eat breakfast with some of the current PVCs there. So once the sun came up, off we went to the three story bus terminal of Guayaquil where we all ate breakfast together.
Next was another bus to La Libertad in Santa Elena which took about 2 hours give or take (so we settled from travel Monday about at lunch time). La Libertad is a town on the coast line and can be a little touristy as well I believe. This town is the site of one of the girls in our group so we got to meet her counterpart and see the school and what not where she will be working. However, we actually stayed at a hostel right on the coast in a town called Salinas; La Libertad isn’t right on the coast line as it is a little in land but it was only like a five minute bus ride out. Anyways, Salinas was beach number one and we stayed at that hostel for Monday and Tuesday night. Monday was just a travel day and a day on the beach front in Salinas. On Tuesday morning we went to the school of the PCV which I thought was pretty nice (this site has had a few PCVs in the past…I think this might be the last one there…so a lot is already set up for them) and listened to presentations and then gave a charla as well of our own to the kids. Tuesday afternoon after lunch we went to a women’s group meeting and gave a charla there and then went to visit a medical center facility as well that they have. Now with our down time we were forced to eat sea food (which was a little overpriced because of the tourism factor) and relax on the beach.
For Wednesday we left beach number one of Salinas and went to visit a town about an hour and a half or so further north on the coast line (this bus ride was full of amazing views as it was all along the coast the whole way) named Palmer. Now this is also a site of one of our PCVs and it has also seen its share of PCVs over the years; I think both the girl at La Libertad and Palmer have a pretty good chance of closing these sites. In Palmer, the past PCVs there have helped organize a big youth group called “Neo Juventud”. Over the years this group has accomplished a lot such as a gym, a computer/Internet café, and an actual bakery that is completely run by the Youth. All in all it was pretty impressive, and of course, right on a beach front (the PCVs house is literally on the beach…her back yard is the beach). And Palmer was not a tourist town at all so that was a nice change too. We were just there for the day though, and then we drove to Manglaralto for Wednesday and Thursday night (we left there Friday afternoon).
Manglaralto is nearby one of the towns that we are prohibited to visit during service as well which I thought was interesting. The town is called Montanita and is about a twenty minute walk along the beach north from Manglaralto. The reason it is prohibited for us is because Montanita is a really touristy town and there is a lot of theft there with foreigners…and since we are technically the government’s responsibility while we are working here, there are certain sites we cannot go to for security reasons; we can drive through them, but we cannot visit them. Anyways, I just thought that was kind of interesting because you could literally see Montanita from Manglaralto…and really, the beaches in both towns are the same beach and just as nice, just that Manglaralto is safer for us and there is a current agriculture volunteer there working.
So when we first got to Manglaralto Wednesday night we actually went inland…even though it has an amazing and my favorite beach there that we will call number three…to one of her communities that the current PCV works with. She actually works with a group of women who make Panama Hats, and purses, out of a type of tree branch that then get exported all over the world really for a crazy profit. Long story short, I bought a purse for $4 dollars that probably would have ended up getting shipped off and bought for around $80. After seeing that we went on a little nature walk around their community where we got to see all of the natural resources really that they have and use to make a profit. Their main problem is that they don’t know how to run a business and cost things out correctly and that causes a lot of problems. Then we returned back to Manglaralto for the night at our hostel which was literally a two minute walk from the ocean…and they had hammocks out front.
Thursday we went to another one of our PCVs future sites called La Entrada. The main thing that this town does is fish; as once again, it was right on the beach…this one will be beach number four. It was a really nice facility as well and we got to learn about oyster farming. We also went down to the beach front where people were busy at work. A man on a motorcycle with a crate full of fish and a bag full of crabs…all half alive I would say…people pulling in a boat out of the ocean and up onto the shore the old fashion way with logs, and my personally favorite, a man that had just finished snorkeling the shores for octopus. We help the people with the activities that we could for fun. One of our facilitators actually bought one of the freshly caught octopuses for a dollar that we ate at lunch in a mixture as well. We then went back to the facility…which did I mention…is on the coast line, for real…and gave our Charla to a group of youth about planning for your future. We ended the day with some of the best Cheese Cake I think I have ever had (I guess a four star desert chef that use to work in Guayaquil had enough there so he retired out to La Entrada where he has a desert place that everyone knows about) where I got Oreo Cheese Cake, and headed back to our beach front number three in Manglaralto to watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.
The last day, Friday, was spent in Manglaralto where we went across to the High School and gave our last Charla in the morning. We then visited the current PCVs garden that she is starting and were then able to spend the rest of the time relaxing on the beach (from about 11 to 3 with lunch on the beach front as well). We then got on the bus to head back to La Libertad, about two hours or so, and then had to wait in La Libertad at the mall until our bus at 8:30 that took us back to Quito…this bus was actually about ten hours though because coming to the coast we stopped in Guayaquil, this bus was just direct. Therefore, here I am back in La Chimba for Saturday night.
All in all, the trip was a really good success and a lot of fun with great sites that I will be sure to post up on Facebook, so take a look! Today was just the recovery from the bus rides really…although the one from last night was not the worst I have been on which was a plus…but at the same time, my ankles still blow up with the altitude changes. We did take some time to put on some finishing touches to a moral painting though that we are doing in the town hall area…which hopefully we will get done with one more meeting.
Now for the fun upcoming news event briefing…dun dun dun…the President of Ecuador is coming to La Chimba tomorrow. That is right people, you read that correctly. President Correa will be here in La Chimba tomorrow along with…get ready for this…the President of Bolivar and the President of Argentina I do believe. We are not really sure why…as there are many rumors going around for the possible why. I think though it is a mixture of reasons. One is that there is a native woman who passed at the start of 2009 who was a spokes women for the indigenous group here in Ecuador (comparable to our Martin Luther King we are been told in importance) and she was from here in La Chimba. Also I think it is in part of President Correa celebrating some political win. I asked my host brothers tonight, and they were just kind of like, yeah…we know he will be here tomorrow. They said it was normal and even my fourteen year old brother said he could remember other times that the President of Ecuador has come to La Chimba for some type of celebration or reason. But neither one could really tell me why he was coming tomorrow…but I think the main reason has to do with that native woman, Transito A…something…I can’t remember her last name right now!
So the funny thing is while we are in training all the PCTs cannot be in groups of more than five in a public place and throughout the entire PC we cannot attend political rallies or gatherings as we are politically neutral while we are a part of the PC. But since the five current PCTs live here in La Chimba, we got the okay to watch tomorrow…but from afar. I know that the other PCTs are bummed about this because they have been informed that they cannot come up to La Chimba at all. I have also heard that a lot of the facilitators are planning on coming up because they are Ecuadoreans and the same rules that apply to us do not apply to them. Long story short…tomorrow will be interesting and will start at 8 a.m. as we are going to sit on one of our houses roofs and try to see the helicopters fly into La Chimba at about 10,000 feet above sea level and hope that there are no riots of any type. Go La Chimba!
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