Wednesday, September 23
So once again I find myself writing a blog entry after so much time has passed I can’t remember the last blog entry of mine…and since I write these entries from my computer at home most of the time, where I don’t have internet, I can’t read my last entry either. Long story short, we are starting fresh here!
I have been at my site now for a month and three days…yes, I do know down to the day…and man oh man has that month ever seemed like a long time and at the same point it seems to have gone by relatively quickly. It is really hard to explain it, just one of those weird things I guess that time does! In all honesty, I haven’t done that much in the past month, but I am slowly starting learn that is half of the battle of the Peace Corps experience. You don’t feel like you are doing anything, but in reality, just by doing the daily things that need to get done and talking with the community that you live in you are doing “work”.
The Peace Corps experience is definitely one that I knew would be hard, but I never could have imagined that it would be this hard. And the funny thing is that you spend most of your time not really doing a whole lot which is partly what makes it so darn hard to do. And when you don’t have much that you have to do, it is even harder to find the motivation for things that you should do or might want to do.
I am currently working with INFA, an Ecuadorean group that helps children afford to go to school. We do put on educational talks every now and then, but as with most things here in Ecuador, when you say something is going to happen, it sometimes does and other times does not. And for the first couple of months here, I really do need to just work with INFA until I can start up some of my own projects once I have the right contacts.
Describing my job is a hard thing to do in itself because the job is so vague. I have no office, I have no real coworkers (besides other PCVs none of which are at my site), and my boss is a ten hours bus ride away. However, I will describe my job for you. I am going to be working with the youth in my community by teaching the themes of self-esteem, values, goals, communication, relationships, sexuality, and so on. How I am going to accomplish this task is still up in the air somewhat.
I will be using the community house to give some of these “lectures” but they will be done in a way to try and attract the youth such as forming a youth group. I also spoke with the local school and they are open to letting me teach some of these life skills there which I will start in about a month after exams and a week of vacation. As you can see, it is a pretty vague description because I am basically working on my own to try and find and utilize the resources that the community has to teach life skills to the youth. I also want to facilitate a community bank at some point and some type of trash project especially for the “indoor” soccer field (it is just like soccer and it is outside, but with a smaller field and a smaller ball…they call it indoor).
Sometimes when I start to think about all of the projects and ideas that I have for the community I get really excited. And then I realize that a lot of my ideas will probably fail because there is no current structure here to support them. With the Peace Corps, it isn’t good enough just to come up with a great idea of something that the community that you live in needs. You need to figure out some type of support structure to make that idea a living idea. And when you are the foreigner, who doesn’t speak their language really well and doesn’t know all of the customs or norms, that can be really difficult to do.
So I guess what I have to say is, I definitely have my up days and down days…and I would even go as far as to say I have my up hours and my down hours at times. However, I think at the heart of the Peace Corps experience you have a volunteer who is putting themselves into a foreign, literally and figuratively, situation where they will grow as a person and hopefully in the process help develop something at their site that will last once they leave. At the least, that volunteer will have touched someone’s life just by being their friend. And with all of the cultural barriers that are out there in the world today, having that understanding between two people of different cultures is something in itself. I would have to say that at this point, I think a successful Peace Corps volunteer is someone who has made it through the experience; that in itself is one heck of an accomplishment.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
My host family in El Oro
Wednesday, September 23th
So I thought I would post a blog just about my host family here in El Retiro as it is rather large. However, everyone is also really nice. My host mom and dad are 59 and they have eight kids…yes that is right, eight kids. Thankfully for me they are all grown up, but then this of course means grandkids. However, three of the eight kids live abroad in Spain right now so that leaves five here, all but one of which are married. Now before I continue, let me just say that I know some of the daughters better than others and therefore I know more about some than others.
The oldest daughter, Carmon, lives next door to my house and has at least two kids that I know of one of which is 16, a boy, and the other which is 2, a girl…but in all honesty, I don’t really know too much about them and I have never seen the husband…that is if there is one too. The next oldest daughter, Betty, lives down the road and has two kids, one son, Mario, who is 8 and one daughter, Shirley, who is 11. The father is a part of the military though so he is out of town most of the time. The next daughter, Joana, lives here in El Retiro but a little further out of town with her husband and daughter of about 4, Valoria, who is a handful. Joana goes to University all day Saturday and the husband works with the Bananas all week around more or less, so that leaves Valoria at our house all day Saturday. Then there is Diana who is 23 years old who is not married but has a son, Kenneth, who is two years old and they live in Machala. However, they tend to spend the night here plenty which leads to many nights of no sleep for me as the two year old doesn’t go to sleep until midnight, he naps a lot during the day, and well…he is two. There is also the brother of my host dad who tends to be babysitting Kenneth. So where ever Kenneth is, the Uncle is as well. And last but not least, the son…who’s name I can’t remember…is married to Lydia with two sons, one who is 5 I believe, Michael, and one who is just about a month old. But I do believe that their marriage is far from great as I never really see the two of them together and he ends up sleeping over here every now and then as I don’t think she lets him into the house when he has been drinking.
So in case you are trying to keep track, the host family is my host mom and dad – Milda and Larry, with eight children – Carmon, Betty, Joana, Diana, the son who’s name I can’t remember, and three children abroad in Spain (I am not sure what order..I only know that Carom is the oldest followed by Betty and that Diana is the same age as me) – and eight grandkids that I know of – The two of Carmon, Mario and Shirley, Valoria, Kenneth, Michael and the new baby. All in all, it is a lot to try and keep track of!
Everyone though is very nice and they try their best to talk with me when they can. However, after living with my host family for the past month, I definitely know that I will want to get my own place for a few reasons. One would be Kenneth, the 2 year old basically because he is two and has a voice that you can hear all the time. Normally screaming something like, mommy mommy mommy, or I want I want I want, with other loud banging noises on whatever he can bang on, at nine to midnight without anyone telling him to hush up. What can I say though; he is two and a very cute kid.
Another one to mention would be Valoria who will enter into my room anytime it is not locked…and when it is locked she just figures that means you pound on the door for five minutes. She is always running around and full of energy though, that is for sure.
And last but not least with the kids you have Michael and Jeffery, who is 7 I believe. Jeffery isn’t a part of the family by blood, but he works at the house sweeping up the bird poop and whatnot just about every day. They enjoy listening to Michael Jackson way too many times and singing and dancing along to it. Not to mention that when I lock myself in the room when Jeffery is around, he just takes it up to himself to climb my wall and say hello to me from there (the ceilings are open at the top).
Then you have the hammer that puts the nail in the coffin, my host Dad snores. And not just a little here, we are talking a lot and loud. All of this combined, just reminds me why I enjoy living by myself so much even when the people are really nice!
Okay…so I think that is enough on my host family. All in all, they are really nice but I can’t help the fact that I still really enjoy living by myself and am looking forward to being able to again in two more months. The down side of this is that my host family won’t understand why I want to move out, so that will be another hurdle that I will have to deal with when it comes. In Ecuador, people don’t move out of the house unless they are married, that is just pretty much how it goes. And even then, it isn’t uncommon to have young mothers/families live with their parents. The family life here is very different from the states; from how you raise your children to who has what responsibilities. But I guess that is one of those things that I will just have to deal with when it gets here.
So I thought I would post a blog just about my host family here in El Retiro as it is rather large. However, everyone is also really nice. My host mom and dad are 59 and they have eight kids…yes that is right, eight kids. Thankfully for me they are all grown up, but then this of course means grandkids. However, three of the eight kids live abroad in Spain right now so that leaves five here, all but one of which are married. Now before I continue, let me just say that I know some of the daughters better than others and therefore I know more about some than others.
The oldest daughter, Carmon, lives next door to my house and has at least two kids that I know of one of which is 16, a boy, and the other which is 2, a girl…but in all honesty, I don’t really know too much about them and I have never seen the husband…that is if there is one too. The next oldest daughter, Betty, lives down the road and has two kids, one son, Mario, who is 8 and one daughter, Shirley, who is 11. The father is a part of the military though so he is out of town most of the time. The next daughter, Joana, lives here in El Retiro but a little further out of town with her husband and daughter of about 4, Valoria, who is a handful. Joana goes to University all day Saturday and the husband works with the Bananas all week around more or less, so that leaves Valoria at our house all day Saturday. Then there is Diana who is 23 years old who is not married but has a son, Kenneth, who is two years old and they live in Machala. However, they tend to spend the night here plenty which leads to many nights of no sleep for me as the two year old doesn’t go to sleep until midnight, he naps a lot during the day, and well…he is two. There is also the brother of my host dad who tends to be babysitting Kenneth. So where ever Kenneth is, the Uncle is as well. And last but not least, the son…who’s name I can’t remember…is married to Lydia with two sons, one who is 5 I believe, Michael, and one who is just about a month old. But I do believe that their marriage is far from great as I never really see the two of them together and he ends up sleeping over here every now and then as I don’t think she lets him into the house when he has been drinking.
So in case you are trying to keep track, the host family is my host mom and dad – Milda and Larry, with eight children – Carmon, Betty, Joana, Diana, the son who’s name I can’t remember, and three children abroad in Spain (I am not sure what order..I only know that Carom is the oldest followed by Betty and that Diana is the same age as me) – and eight grandkids that I know of – The two of Carmon, Mario and Shirley, Valoria, Kenneth, Michael and the new baby. All in all, it is a lot to try and keep track of!
Everyone though is very nice and they try their best to talk with me when they can. However, after living with my host family for the past month, I definitely know that I will want to get my own place for a few reasons. One would be Kenneth, the 2 year old basically because he is two and has a voice that you can hear all the time. Normally screaming something like, mommy mommy mommy, or I want I want I want, with other loud banging noises on whatever he can bang on, at nine to midnight without anyone telling him to hush up. What can I say though; he is two and a very cute kid.
Another one to mention would be Valoria who will enter into my room anytime it is not locked…and when it is locked she just figures that means you pound on the door for five minutes. She is always running around and full of energy though, that is for sure.
And last but not least with the kids you have Michael and Jeffery, who is 7 I believe. Jeffery isn’t a part of the family by blood, but he works at the house sweeping up the bird poop and whatnot just about every day. They enjoy listening to Michael Jackson way too many times and singing and dancing along to it. Not to mention that when I lock myself in the room when Jeffery is around, he just takes it up to himself to climb my wall and say hello to me from there (the ceilings are open at the top).
Then you have the hammer that puts the nail in the coffin, my host Dad snores. And not just a little here, we are talking a lot and loud. All of this combined, just reminds me why I enjoy living by myself so much even when the people are really nice!
Okay…so I think that is enough on my host family. All in all, they are really nice but I can’t help the fact that I still really enjoy living by myself and am looking forward to being able to again in two more months. The down side of this is that my host family won’t understand why I want to move out, so that will be another hurdle that I will have to deal with when it comes. In Ecuador, people don’t move out of the house unless they are married, that is just pretty much how it goes. And even then, it isn’t uncommon to have young mothers/families live with their parents. The family life here is very different from the states; from how you raise your children to who has what responsibilities. But I guess that is one of those things that I will just have to deal with when it gets here.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Missing Labor Day
So I have officially had my first real holiday in the States which I am missing. Good old Labor Day with the football games on with the start of college football season...yes, I have to admit I even missed the football games. But I guess this is just the first of many holidays which I will be missing in my PCV service. On the brighter side, Ecuador had a soccer game on Sunday...which they lost to Columbia...but it was still a really fun time. Not quite Labor Day with the burgers and beer, but we made do with what we have here. Moral of the story here, the next two years are going to be very interesting.
I still haven't really "done" that much with my job, but I am slowly starting to accept that is one of the main aspects of my "job". Just living in a third world country where you don't speak the language or know the culturally accepted ways of doing things is a job in itself. I did meet up with my counterpart though, so I am doing a little more with INNFA now helping here and there. I have also attending some of the local meetings in my town and was apart of the Dia De Deportes (Day of Sports) this past Sunday where, of course, I got sunburned.
My first three months here my main job (being the one that I actually have to write a report for and turn into the PC) is a survey of my neighborhood and find out about the area and the things that they want to see changed. This really just involves a lot of observing and socializing. Development really does start with the people in the community, and not yourself. I am pretty proud of myself though that I have written up a couple of surveys that I can hopefully put to use sometime starting next week after I have my counterpart give his opinion on them as well.
All in all...my mood changes all of the time if not almost hourly here. But I really think that is one of the many joys of the PC experience. There is definitely a reason it is called an experience instead of just a job. The things that I am doing here don't really fit a regular job description at all and I don't think that they need to. I guess in some ways it goes back to the good old saying you'd be surprised by how far a smiple smile goes.
Living in El Retiro for the next two years of my life is going to be by far the most challenging thing I have done in my life and the most rewarding. And even though I have days where I don't know what I am doing here, I know that when the time comes to leave this area and return back to the States, that in itself will be hard as well.
I still haven't really "done" that much with my job, but I am slowly starting to accept that is one of the main aspects of my "job". Just living in a third world country where you don't speak the language or know the culturally accepted ways of doing things is a job in itself. I did meet up with my counterpart though, so I am doing a little more with INNFA now helping here and there. I have also attending some of the local meetings in my town and was apart of the Dia De Deportes (Day of Sports) this past Sunday where, of course, I got sunburned.
My first three months here my main job (being the one that I actually have to write a report for and turn into the PC) is a survey of my neighborhood and find out about the area and the things that they want to see changed. This really just involves a lot of observing and socializing. Development really does start with the people in the community, and not yourself. I am pretty proud of myself though that I have written up a couple of surveys that I can hopefully put to use sometime starting next week after I have my counterpart give his opinion on them as well.
All in all...my mood changes all of the time if not almost hourly here. But I really think that is one of the many joys of the PC experience. There is definitely a reason it is called an experience instead of just a job. The things that I am doing here don't really fit a regular job description at all and I don't think that they need to. I guess in some ways it goes back to the good old saying you'd be surprised by how far a smiple smile goes.
Living in El Retiro for the next two years of my life is going to be by far the most challenging thing I have done in my life and the most rewarding. And even though I have days where I don't know what I am doing here, I know that when the time comes to leave this area and return back to the States, that in itself will be hard as well.
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