A picture and The Site Visit

First.... the picture I promised you all last entry... of me milking a cow. Hot, no?



On Sunday I arrived back in my training community after an 8 day trip to the south of the country. My opinion on the beauty of this country hasn’t changed. It is incredible. From my training community to Quito is about 2 ½ hours in bus. From there we got on another bus for 12 hours and traveled to Loja. The scenery is pretty much the same outside of Quito as it is outside of Loja. From Loja I left the other 4 girls I was traveling with and headed out on my own to go meet a current volunteer that has been here for about a year. That was another 3 ½ hours. In total, to meet up with this volunteer (we’ll call him Paul) it was 18 hours. By this time the scenery had changed dramatically and now I was clearly in the jungle. I can’t even explain how beautiful it is. If you haven’t been to a jungle/rainforest region… its definitely worth a visit (can I suggest the Amazon region of Ecuador… perhaps the southern region? ;)) The climate also changed dramatically from my training community to the jungle. I was hot and I loved every minute of it.

Paul and I hung out for 2 days in his community and I learned more of what it is like to be a PCV… the information you can’t learn in a training session. The second day I was there we went for a hike to see a waterfall that he had found on a random hike he went on. I was definitely not prepared for what I experienced. We were hiking up and down and alongside hills covered in trees, alongside the river… amazing. It was a difficult hike… I was definitely feeling the fact that I haven’t been to a gym since I left the states. Regardless, we finally made it to this waterfall and… wow. Its amazing that waterfalls are natural… that this is what mother earth makes for itself. I have pictures and as soon as I figure out how I can upload them without too much difficulty… I’ll post them for all to enjoy. After relaxing near the waterfall for a short while, we headed back. In total the hike was 4 hours long and by the time I got back… I was covered in mud. Let me tell you, a cold shower never felt so good.

The next day my counterpart (let’s call him Juan) came to pick me up from Paul’s community. We drove about 2 hours and arrived in the community I’ll be living in for the next two years. (I’ll refer to my community as Santa Ana.) I love this community already. A nice small community that definitely has the small town feel that I love. When we arrived, I went to my host family’s house. I stayed with the mayor, his wife, and son. Their daughter attends university in the city and was unable to come home for the week. This family is extremely nice, especially the mom. She brought me in as if I was long lost family. We went to the muncipal (like city hall) to meet the mayor. The three of us went to see the house that I’m going to be living in during my service. It is incredible. I can’t believe that I’m going to have the house all to myself. It is a legitimate house… living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. I even have a refrigerator (a rare commodity for PCVs)! Needless to say, you’ll be well taken care of if you make your way to visit me. I’m really excited to get settled and make the house my home… with my special touch. Any suggestions for decorating are more than welcome.

One story that is noteworthy was the trip Juan and I took so I could get to know a couple of the communities that we will be working with. To get to some of the communities we work with is easy… we get in a vehicle and go. Others are not so easy. Most of the communities we work with are located along a river. Juan and I drove for about an hour where we got in a boat to travel along this river. These boats are not the recreational boats that are common in the States. I’m talking a motorized, large fishing boat type boat. We traveled about 20-25 minutes when we arrived at our first community. What I didn’t know at this point was that it would be almost another hour walking to get to the community. While the walk was more or less easy… it was not a Sunday afternoon walk. Again, I was covered in mud. I have never had any balance, so walking on a log over a mud hole was not that easy for me. Juan knew better and wore his boots… but I didn’t have mine along with. By the time we got to this community I was covered in mud and overall out of it. We visited with the kids in the FODI center (I’ll explain in a bit)… and then were on our way back to the boat. My counterpart told me that there was a shorter path to get to the river, but it involved going over the large hill instead of around it. I was game so we went this way. Boy was I questioning that decision after a while. The path had been well developed… but still was made of soil and thus mud. There were various points that Juan was holding my hand as we made our way down the other side of the hill. At one point I was walking on my own.. thought I was doing well…. When I slipped down the hill and fell on my butt. Juan was so worried I was hurt, but I assured him that I was fine.. just even more dirty. Finally we made it to the river and I was able to wash my hands I have a great picture of just how dirty my shoes/legs/pants were by the end. Friday night, my last night in Santa Ana until I return in September, Juan, his wife, sister-in-law, and on of my other coworkers and I went out to the Karaoke in town. It was a lot of fun to get to know them out of the work setting. I even got to dance a bit of salsa and realized how rusty my dancing abilities actually are. I definitely need to practice before I go back out.

During my service, I’m going to be working with the Patronato, a branch of the local government. They provide various services including (but not limited to) a daily lunch for the elderly in the community and a painting class for students that are on vacations. In addition, there are 4 health promoters as well as a team that provides services to the communities around Santa Ana. This is the FODI program, which in English is something like the Fund/Foundation for the development of children. As part of FODI, there are two programs. The first includes visits to the homes with children under 2.5 years. I’m still learning about this aspect and have many manuals to assist in this. The other aspect are centers where children from 2.5 to 5 years come to spend their days. The center provides meals to these children and educates them. The idea behind this is that in many of these communities the parents go off to work and leave small children under the guardenship of other children (for example a 5 year old in charge of a 3 and 2 year old). This is clearly not in the best interests of any of the children. For this, these centers give these children a place to spend their days. In addition, these children are at the prime age of their bodies growing and overall development, for this their nutrition is extremely important. My job in all of this will be to give talks on various health issues, including nutrition, hygiene, alcoholism and interfamiliar violence. I will be assisting communities to develop and sustain community gardens. Because these communities are so isolated, they do not have access to markets to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. In addition, I’ll be traveling with the health promoters to these communities and providing whatever assistance they may need. Oh, and everyone wants me to teach them how to speak English.

I’m really excited to finish training, swear-in as a volunteer (August 31, 24 days!) and then get to my site and get settled. I hope everything is going well in the States (or wherever you may be reading this from). Thanks for the emails and messages I’ve received from some of you. I hope they keep coming!

Hasta la proxima vez,
--Stacie