Walk Like an Ecuadorian….

Looking back, I honestly cannot believe that we only have one more week of training left and then a few days in the capital city, Quito, and then we will officially swear-in as Peace Corps Volunteers! I can truly say that, at times, it has felt like two years instead of two months, but to actually have made it this far, I believe is an accomplishment in itself. I have heard from almost every volunteer that training is the most difficult part of service, which has definitely been a relief for me. While I really enjoy some aspects of training, it is pretty intense. We work a ton, sleep a little and occasionally have down time, but I believe it has seriously been a rewarding experience and I feel that I am as prepared as I can be to move to my site and begin my service.

This past week we traveled to the province of Manabi on the Coast for our technical trip. Manabi is one province closer to the Coast from Guyas, where I will be living. It is pretty hot there, but it is beautiful and there are fewer mosquitoes than in my site, but they are definitely still there! Basically, tech trip is an opportunity for us to practice giving charlas, or presentations, practice our Spanish, and learn more about what other volunteers around Ecuador are doing. There were four different tech trips, two for the health group and two for the youth and families group. It appears that our trip was the most intense, considering we were up every morning at the latest by 6:00 a.m, but usually 5:30 a.m. to take a bus at least an hour and a half away to give our charlas. Which means we also had to travel back to our hotel and prepare for the next day. One day we traveled six hours to give a charla, and therefore it was our worst. In total we gave 18 charlas… which is pretty impressive considering the highest number of charlas given besides for our group was four. Essentially, we had pleanty of practice!

The theme of our first charla on Monday was HIV/AIDS and we presented it to three groups of high school students. Our first charla was a bit rough, but by the end of it we were rolling. The next day we did a charla for a group of kids in middle school about recycling. It was pretty funny, and definitely reminded me of my friend Hannah, the recycling queen! Yet, I also realized that I am not very informed about recycling, so I definitely need to brush up on that before going to my site.

On Wednesday, we helped out a volunteer with a health event at which all of the women from her town and neighboring towns were offered free pap smears, which is obviously a huge deal in Ecuador. Some of the women there had never had a pap smear and already had numerous children or were older. It was so weird to think of something so simple that most women do every year as something that some women had never even heard of. We had two tables where we gave a quick charla about how to do a self-exam for breasts, which most of the women had never even heard of. The other group did a charla about la Ley Maternidad, or Maternal Law, which provides free healthcare to children under the age of five and for a major part of services related to pregnancy. Many women in this country are not informed that they and their children are eligible for free medical services and it really is an awesome thing. I definitely plan on working with this theme a lot in my site.

Friday, we had the privilege of joining an former Peace Corps language facilitator and counterpart to see what he is working on now and we also gave charlas to two groups of jovenes, or teenagers, about the importance to plan pregnancies and pretty much any other major decision of this sort. Needless to say, this was a bit of a touchy topic, and I can honestly say that this was the most awkward of all of our charlas. First, I felt that we did not have adequate Spanish to discuss a topic that is pretty intense in Ecuador, and I also felt that we needed to have more confianza, or trust, with the group before we just basically began criticizing their way of life. It was definitely pretty intense, but I believe the groups still enjoyed themselves.

On Thursday night, we finally had a break and we had a BBQ and a little fiesta, or party, at a place called La Finca. It was overall pretty awesome. One of the volunteers is a friend of the owner and he hooked up with amazing seafood and pretty much anything else we wanted. It was definitely nice to have a little break after working muy duro (really hard) all week.

Overall, I learned during out tech trip that my Spanish needs to improve… drastically, which I think will make giving charlas less intimidating and easier. I also learned that being prepared counts much more here. It is much more difficult to swing a presentation in another language. I am not really sure how I did not figure this out during college, but I am definitely aware of this now!

We returned from our tech trip on Friday extremely exhausted, but I had to rest up for Saturday since I had the privilege to dance in the fiestas with my family again. This time it was even more fun because my entire family was there, including the in-laws who were hosting the majority of it. We left the house to begin dancing a 5:00 p.m. and we danced until 5:00 a.m. in the morning… no lie. It was definitely an experience. We danced and partied so hard that by the morning, everyone had cried at least once. It was honestly amazing, and I can say I have pretty much never felt so welcomed. I even had a fan club of 4 jovenes, which were really cute and fun. I am really excited to see how the fiestas in the Coast are different, and fortunately they start the weekend I arrive, so I will get to experience them first thing!

Basically, the past week has been extremely intense but definitely a great experience! I am ready to knock out this last week of training and enjoy some down time with my favorite people before we all head to our sites! I cannot believe that swear in is so close! I would be lying if I said that I have not had a single doubt throughout training, but I believe just making it through this week has reinforced why I joined the Peace Corps and why I wanted to come here. I think this will honestly be one of the best experiences of my life… the good, the bad, and the occasional ugly. I absolutely feel like I am becoming a little more Ecuadorian everyday…

The news we have all been waiting for...

So, today was the big day! We finally had our sites revealed to us and I am headed to the Coast of Ecuador! I am so incredibly excited! I am about a 85 KM from the largest city in Ecuador, Guayaquil, and about two hours away from the playa (the beach!)! I am so excited! Wait, I believe I may have already said that… ha

My site is located in Colimes, which is a fairly large town (for the Peace Corps anyhow) of a total population of about 21,490 people. I will be working in Public Health with a concentration on nutrition, tropical diseases and parasites, teen pregnancy and sex education. All things that I have a great interest in and am very excited to learn more about and get my hands dirty, so to speak. For all you who are interested, there is running water, phone service, and internet in my town, so everyone should be delighted to hear that! Especially those of you who will be coming to visit *Hint Hint*

Saturday is the big day that we are leaving to go visit our sites! Some of us will be leaving Saturday; while others who have closer sites will be leaving on Sunday. In total, I have 13 hour overnight bus ride... so, that is going to be pretty intense! But we will be traveling through Quito and Guayaquil so maybe we will have the chance to hit up some nice food locations!

The agencies that I will be working with are Plan Ecuador Santa Lucia and NUTRINNFA. With these organizations and my counterpart, who is an Ecuadorian who the Peace Corps has assigned to me, I will be giving presentations about nutrition with high school teachers and also giving presentations regarding themes like sexual and reproductive health to youths in three high schools. I will also be working with the promoters from Plan International/Plan Ecuador in sexual and reproductive health. My secondary projects are to work in technology and communication, which we all know how much I love technology, in high schools and work to create new business ventures. So, basically I have my hands pretty full for the next two years! Needless to say, all of this can change whenever I actually get to my site, even my counterpart and the agencies that I am working with. Overall, I am ecstatic, but I am obviously pretty nervous as we are going through two of the largest bus terminals in Ecuador this weekend in one trip! Also, of course this is my first time to visit my site, so obviously all of this is new and exciting, but also a bit nerve racking.

There is apparently one volunteer that is already there that is pretty close to me that was actually a volunteer in Bolivia before they were evacuated. I hear he is pretty cool, so I am definitely excited to meet him! Also, I am very excited to meet my counterpart and I hope we get along very well, or at least professionally! I believe my host family has four members, but I cannot be sure until I arrive this weekend. My host mom will be meeting me at the bus terminal, so that is a pretty sweet setup. I will be living with her for the first three months at my site, and I will be staying with her for the five day visit at my site this coming week. I am so excited to get some fresh seafood and fruit, and I guess I will have to begin my long journey to love bananas this week as well!

Other than site visits, which have obviously been the major highlight of this week, there was a small disturbance in Cayambe, which is the town we travel through at least twice a week to get to our technical training and general meetings. Here in Ecuador there is a large Indigenous population and they are known to take justice into their own hands when someone from their community commits a crime. Earlier this week three Indigenous teenagers were accused of murdering a camioneta driver (camionetas are like taxis, except they are trucks) and the community wanted the one captured teenager back in order to execute their own form of justice and locate the others who were accused. Obviously, the police did not want to give the suspect back because he has not formally been proven guilty. So, various members of the Indigenous community rioted in the streets of Cayambe yesterday and there was tear gas thrown and other things that were definitely a first experience for me. It was a little scary, but it was also a reality check for many of us who, up until this point, had not really considered that things of this nature happen in Ecuador. Obviously the Peace Corps has an amazing emergency action plan and they were able to get all of us out of harms way without any problems.

This week we have a day and half of language classes left before we head to our sites! Everyone is very excited and ready to visit our sites! I will update everyone on my adventures as soon as I return!

Peace, Love, and Ecuador

Ciao

Tiffany :D