Holllllla!

Peace Corps has been reviewing trainees’ blogs so excuse the time lapse. Here’s an update since my arrival in country….


Omnibus 98, my training class, arrived to Ecuador last week ready to take on any challenge thrown at us. Granted I’ve never seen another training class, but it seems like 98 is so excited to get started in our training and eventual service as Peace Corps Volunteers. There is not one person that I know of at least that at the point isn’t super excited to be here. Sure we miss the comforts of the US and the like, but Peace Corps Ecuador is not to be missed.

We spent a night in Quito when we first arrived and then went to a smaller town about an hour north. After a couple long days of orientation, we set off to meet our host families. I was happy to find out that I would be living in a community about 2 ½ hours north of Quito with a family that includes 4 children. My papa has a dairy farm and I can’t wait to go to work with him some day. My madre spends her days at home doing all that needs to be done and let me tell you, she works hard. My new brothers and sisters range from 7 years to 8 months. This is such a change for me. Being the 3rd of 4 girls, with Abbie being 18 now, I didn’t know what it would be like to have such small kids in the house. All I can say is that I have a greater respect for parents now (not that I didn’t before). A couple instances stick out in my mind. One is the tickle war I had with the 3 oldest kids. No joke, for about 2 hours we just tickled each other. Mostly it was the 3 of them against me, but overall it was a lot of fun. The other instance is when mis padres were helping the kids with their homework. It was so refreshing to see parents investing such an interest in their kids homework. Especially after working at Bancroft for 2 years and wishing the parents were able to spend more time with their kids and help them with their homework, it was great to see a parent explaining the different parts of speech. The 3 year old is very shy with new people (and I was no exception)… but after just a couple of days, he opened up and now we’re friends. The other day when I woke up and opened my door to go to the bathroom, he came running down the hallway to give me a hug. So Cute.

Its colder here in Ecuador than I imagined it would be. I’m okay in a sweatshirt or a light jacket… but its not the hot country that one may imagine. This did not, however, prevent me from getting sunburnt the first weekend. I’m now nursing a sunburnt nose like no other. I imagine it is how skin cancer feels and looks. Okay, maybe a bit of exaggerating, but it by no means feels normal. The temperature also doesn’t affect how beautiful this country is. Everywhere you look there are more mountains, some snow capped, some behind fog, some with crop fields and houses on the side.

Speaking Spanish all day every day is exhausting! I’m finally learning to understand my family’s accent, which makes communication so much easier. Spanish lessons are going well also. My community group is a great group of people and they make our sessions enjoyable. When I arrived, I tested into the intermediate-medium level which is higher than I expected but I was very happy with. I really am putting in a lot of effort into learning the language in hopes that when I arrive to my site I’ll be able to work without too many problems with my counterpart. My host brother is really helping me, as he is willing to repeat things and rephrase things for me. Just being exposed to the language and being forced to communicate in it is so beneficial. I’m not going to lie, its so much easier to speak Spanish with other English speakers, as they understand some of the made up words and the random English words that are thrown into conversations.

Tuesday, July 3

Today was quite a day. I (finally) learned how to wash my own clothes by hand. We’re talking bar of soap, an ourdoor sink, water out of a faucet, and a clothes line. Let me tell you, I have a large respect for clean clothes and the people that wash them. I will never abuse a washing machine again. Washing clothes by hand is hard on your back and your hands and your body in general. And I’m slow at it. Mi mama could wash 2.5 shirts in the time it took me to do one. And then came the pants. Oy vey. But now I have clean clothes, and hopefully by sometime tomorrow they will be dry. With the wind we’ve been having, it should be no problem to dry them. Either way, I won’t be wearing dirty clothes for the next 2 years.

I also learned how to pick choclo (it resembles corn on the cob) with my family. And turns out, you can eat the stem (or whatever it’s called) that grows out of the ground that the corn branches off of. This is probably common knowledge to others, but to me, its something new. I also got to meet the family cuyes (cuy = guinea pig). But I’m sure most of you know by now that cuyes aren’t family pets here… they’re dinner. Who knows when its going to happen, but its coming. I’ll be sure to report.