Way overdue...I know :)

August 16, 2010

August…wow does that ever seem hard to believe at times. It was a year ago this month when I swore in as a PCV and moved to my little town in the middle of the banana fields that I now know as my home. Time really does play tricks on you to say the least.

I have to say though, as I approach my one year mark of being in site (August 20, 2010 is my actual one year mark in El Retiro with one year two months in country), it is amazing to think how far I have come and how much I have learned. And yet at the same time it is amazing to think how much more I have yet to go through! My Omnibus started with 45 people and are now down to 34 due to many different reasons ranging from just not being able to happy here, health problems or issues, and deciding from a site relocation or early terminating. Our group has now graduated to being “Juniors” as well as the new group of PCVs swear-in this week.

So what am I up to with my one year mark quickly approaching you might ask? Well in all honesty, not much has changed since my last blog update. My work is my work which I have happy with, as I love working with the kids and youth, but I tend to be frustrated with as sustainable development is a very difficult thing to achieve. I am still teaching at my local school with three classes a week for 7th, 8th, and 9th grade as well as doing after school English review classes for those same grades once a week.

INFA fired my counterpart but his replacement is a 26 year old female, Yomaira, who I believe will be a good replacement. So with INFA I am helping out with an after school math and language course once a week as well as a program called “Aventura de la Vida” (self-esteem and what not) once a week. The last thing of work that I have recently picked up is teaching at the equivalent of an elementary school, in the neighboring town of Recreo, once a week for grades kindergarten to 6th grade where we are doing a project called “Mi Propio Album” (my personal album) for the kids to have and look back at when they get older. My final project to update you all on is one with the parents actually. “Escuela para Padres” (school for parents) I do with the school Psychologist, where we try to hold a meeting once a month give or take, to help teach parents how to help their children grow and develop.

So that would be my work in a nutshell. Definitely keeping myself busy, but sometimes struggling with the real importance of what I am doing and how successful I am truly being. However, when I do take a step back I realize that in a given week I am working with about 150 to 175 kids and youth and about 20 adults/teachers not counting the new program of “Escuela para Padres” where we probably get about 40 parents each meeting once a month. So you can’t fault me for trying, that’s for sure!

Other than work, my main update is that I now have a kitten named Tito. My host mother sent over her errand boy to my house one day last week with a rice bag. And inside that rice bag was a poor little kitten scared to death. He told me that if I did not take the kitten they were going to kill it…and they would have, not a doubt in my mind. So I decided to take him and I have already fallen in love with the silly thing. He pounces on everything, scratches my hands, chews on the electric cords when I am not looking, thinks my legs are climbing posts, wants to play all the time while only sleeping for periods of two or three hours at a time, and meows at the smell of shrimp and chicken like he is starving although he is nowhere near it; but he is all mine.

Other highlights in my life would include what I like to think of as an all new low. A got wolf-whistled at…what’s new you might say…but it was by a parrot. Which then proceeded to say “corre corre, hola” (run run, hello) after he whistled at me. I actually had to take a double look at the parrot to make sure I was really seeing what I thought I was.

Another wonder of Ecuadorean life would be the way they give complements. I guess I should also mention that here saying, he’s the little fat guy over there, or she is the little thin girl over there, is completely acceptable and really expected. As for me, I have lost some weight since when I first came to my town. To which people say to me, “What happened to you”! To which I reply, “What do you mean”. “You are so thin”, they say (which leaving it at that would be fine and good). But they continue with, “When you first got here you were so fat”! End of conversation and out goes the feel good feeling that you started with.

Health wise I am still doing pretty well. Right now is our “winter” if you will with it being cold (to which I realized I now think the low 70s are cold…I know I am in trouble when I get back home!) and I did manage to get a bit of the Flu. I am almost completely over it though, thank goodness, as it lasted for almost a week and a half where I spent a lot of time close to a toilet. Other than that though, I am still doing pretty well in regards to health. My electronics though are struggling with the heat, humidity, and dust. My IPOD dock has managed to die and my computer is struggling at times. As my Dad will you tell, it is the Ecuadorean dengue, dust, mosquitoes, heat, pollution, kill your electronic illness. Oh well, such is life; could be MUCH worse.

A big part of the second year is vacation time as well. Most PCVs start feeling at ease with their projects and have more time to travel in their second year than their first. For me, upcoming vacations include a trip to the Galapagos Islands, with my Uncle Andy and Auntie Alex, at the end of October into the beginning of November, a trip in May of 2011 to hike the INCA trail in Peru with another PCV Sarah, and my favorite, a trip back to the States December 22nd to January 12th (ticket has been bought and everything). So mark your calendars at home! I am sure that there will be other small trips here and there in-between all of that, but those are the main ones.

There are probably a million and one other little things and stories that I could tell. But in all honesty, life is just life here. It is hard sometimes, but not in the ways that you necessarily think it would be. You miss the little things mainly, which are not even the little things that you think you would miss. You begin to realize what life is really about and what is important to you. It still amazes me how much you can learn about yourself and life when you remove yourself from your culture, your language, your friends, and your family.

This next year I am sure will be very challenging in many different ways than my first year was. And although I do not believe that I will learn as much from my second year as I did from my first, I think that it might prove to be even harder to get through. If there is one thing that I have learned while being here, it is that I love my culture and my language and that I miss them both. Although I have learned to appreciate the Ecuadorean culture and the differences between our two cultures, I would have to pick the American culture over the Ecuadorean just about every time.

I know that this experience is once in a life time and one that I will cherish forever. For that, I cannot be anything but grateful for every day that I have here. However, at the same time I cannot help but dream about being home in the States with my culture, my language, my friends, and my family.