Trips, charlas, and sickness

This last week has been full of excitement. From Saturday until Tuesday we divided into 5 groups and went on a cultural trip. My group went a couple of hours north of where we live. We visited a couple of Afro-Ecuadorian communities that are home/were the home/will be the home to Peace Corps volunteers. We were able to visit one volunteer, we’ll call him Jack, in his community. He has been there for about a year and is extremely integrated into his community. He has a great family, and his abuelita made us lunch when we were there. We were able to play with a group of kids from Jack’s community and let me tell you, they were adorable! As we were playing, more kids came to join us and by the time we were done there were dozens of kids running around having fun. I think most of the trainees had fun too. After we got the kids hooked on the new gringos in town, we got them together to give a small charla, or talk, about hygiene. This was the first charla for most of us, we were a little nervous, especially as this charla wasn’t in our native language and was for a group of kids we had never met before. Overall, however, it went really well. The talk was about this girl Ana and how she learned the importance of washing her hands at various parts during the day. To top the charla off, I sang! I know, I know… me, sing? But it was a simple song and I had a great group of backup singers. We were able to tour a hospital the next day and ask a local doctor a bunch of questions about the Ecuadorian health system, health in general, and about his hospital. It was really informative. Thus far in my training I have learned a lot about health and have been surprised to learn a lot of facts. The last day of our trip we were able to spend a couple hours shopping at an open-air market. Bargaining is a way of life here… and I have fully embraced it. I came away from the experience with a new poncho and bag. However, by this point in the trip approximately 8 of the 12 people I was with had gotten violently ill. We’re not sure what exactly caused it, but trainee, facilitator, North American, Ecuadorian….everyone was subjected to it, including yours truly. I’m not sure I have ever felt that sick in my life… but I am sure that I never want to feel that way again. It wasn’t until three days later that I was able to eat food and not get sick and my appetite is slowly coming back day by day. But such is the life of a Peace Corps Trainee/Volunteer.

Post-trip we jumped right back into our lives during training. Everyday includes a collection of new Spanish words to learn and the constant struggle to understand what the people around me are saying. It really is amazing how much you can learn of a language when you are completely emerged in it. Although I’ve only been here for just over three weeks, my Spanish has improved dramatically.

My training group gave a charla this week, this time about nutrition, at the community health center. There were about 10 people there waiting to see the doctor, and thus were subjected to hearing us talk. It went really well… we even had audience participation! This charla explained how the body is like a house… that the body needs foods from each food group to function properly; that meals need to be more balanced than just rice and potatoes. We played a hot potato-type game after the charla which was a lot of fun.

The most significant part of the week was probably the fact that I helped to milk a cow. I never considered the fact that I would be doing things like that when I joined the Peace Corps… but really, it’s the life for my family… and I’m going to participate. It really is hard work. My parents milk the cows (our family has 10ish) twice a day… at 3:30am and again around 5pm. I’m not sure I would be able to do it each day…. I have such respect for them for doing so. Speaking of the family…I can’t even begin to explain how great my host family is. I truly feel like I am just another one of the kids… that it isn’t extremely awkward for me to have showed up and joined their family. Compared to the not-so-wonderful study abroad host family experience… this family is approximately 434 thousand times better. While I am a part of the family… they also respect that I am an adult. If I can’t finish my food at dinner there is no pressure to do so. I can close the door to my room to study without being distracted. At the same time however, part of living with a family includes living by their schedule. I am usually in bed by 9 or 9:30pm…. But by that point I’m exhausted enough that I want to go to bed. The nights that I stay up to finish my work for training, to study vocabulary, or to write emails or blog entries (like this one)… I’m struggling the next day. I have to admit though, although my parents get up at 3am and the kids at 5am… I don’t typically get up until about 6:30am. You can only integrate so much.


Overall, the week was good and I’m starting to feel at home here.