And it´s all ending... and beginning at the same time.

This week has been pretty typical of Peace Corps training. We spent most of our time in our training community in Spanish classes. We were studying the subjunctive and even worse: the imperfect subjunctive. The English language does not utilize this form very often and I sure don’t remember learning it in any English class that I took in all my years of school. This makes it even more difficult to study in another language because there isn’t a simple translation to clarify things. Regardless… slowly but surely the concept is making sense. Now if only I could use it without great difficulties in daily conversation. We also watched a Mexican movie, “Cicatrices” (“Scars”). This movie discusses domestic violence. Essentially, the man beats the woman, the woman uses self defense, files for divorce, the couple’s child rides his bike off the house’s roof, cracks his head open and dies, the couple gets divorced, the man turns to god and changes himself, the couple gets back together, and the movie ends with the woman getting pregnant. The reaction of my training group to this movie was overall negative. The issue of domestic violence is real here in Ecuador, as it is in the US and all parts of the world. The message this movie gives is that even though a man beats his wife, over time he can change and everything will be fine. While that would be nice, and ideal, it’s not reality. Most abusive relationships do not end like this. 800 million women lose their lives as a result of abusive relationships, often at the hands of their spouse/boyfriend/whoever. The worst part is that this movie is shown in schools to young kids to discuss domestic violence.

Friday was our last day of our technical training. We learned about Community Assessment Tools (CAT tools). For once in my life… it seems like part of my $200,000 GW education is going to be put into practical use. Essentially I will be observing and conducting interviews in my community in order to gather data about the community both for their information and also to assist the work that I will be doing over the years. As we were discussing the tools, all I could think about was sitting in PSC 104, Research Methods, thinking how useless it was to learn most of the techniques for collecting data and the like. Now I’m actually really excited to collect this information, produce a report, and then present about it when the omnibus gets together again in January. It will also be nice, 2 years from now, to be able to show potential employers that in addition to the direct work I did in my community, I learned a skill that can legitimately be transferred to work in the political sector.

The highlight of my week quite possibly could be the fact I received a care package from my mom. In addition to the practical stuff that I had requested, she sent me pictures of home (some from graduation… but also literally of our house, so I won’t forget what home looks like J). Best of all though were the Swedish Fish and Reese’s Pieces. It’s not that the candy here isn’t good… it is… but there is nothing like the comfort foods from home. It took me hours to even consider opening a package of candy… because it is so special I don’t want to waste them. Oh how priorities have changed over the months.

So here we are… the week that we’ve been working so hard for. Week 10. Tuesday we leave for Quito. Friday is swearing-in. Sunday I leave for my site in order to get there by Monday afternoon. And then I’ll finally be settled. In addition to my work in the community, providing technical assistance in the area of health, there are two other sections of the Peace Corps mission. One includes improving the understanding of other people and cultures on the part of Americans and the other includes improving the understanding of American culture on the part of other people. These are the part of the mission that people often don’t know or forget about, but the part that I am excited to perform the most. Not many people can discount the fact that the image of the US on the part of the world as a whole is not the best. People often get the wrong idea about the US as a result of our government’s foreign policy over the years. As a result, it is important to inform and educate the world that the people of the US are not necessarily representative of the government in all aspects. But in addition to that, I believe that the people of the US (as a generalization, not everyone) are ignorant to the people and cultures of the rest of the world. By me sharing my experience and other volunteers sharing their experiences, we can only hope to educated the people of the US of the huge world we live in and how (in my opinion) all people and all cultures have something to share to the world as a whole.

So there’s that. The next update will probably be coming from Quito, after I’m officially a volunteer. Keep an eye out for an email from me this week with my new contact information. If you don’t get it, shoot me an email and I’ll make sure to forward it to you.