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.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
El Terremoto
It recently came to my attention that people were concerned about my well-being after the earthquake in Peru this past week. Rest assured that everything is fine here in Ecuador. The worst we had were a few tsunami warnings for the beach areas. I´m alive and doing well. Thank you for the concern!
Until next week,
Stacie
Until next week,
Stacie
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Photos
They are slow to be posted... but my photos are starting to be uploaded here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11733792@N07/
2 down: 25 to go
Friday was the 2-month mark since I arrived in Miami for our pre-departure training. Tomorrow is the 2-month mark since I arrived in Ecuador. (For those keeping track, with two months down I have 25 more to go) It really doesn’t seem like it has been that long, yet at the same time it seems like I’ve been here for a long time. Having been two months means that it is almost that special moment: when I (along with the rest of Omnibus 98) am sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This coming week I’ll still be in my training community living with my host family but the week after I’ll travel back to Quito for a couple of days of meetings. After swear-in, I’ll travel all 20 hours and officially move into the community in which I’ll be living and working for the next 2 years. I am more excited than I am able to express in words. It will be nice to settle. As a result of moving to my site… the mailing address I gave you back in June will no longer be valid. If you have already sent something to me, great. If you haven’t but plan to, please hold off until I get my new address. Once I have this new information, I’m going to be sending a mass email with my address, my new phone number, and other more personal information I can’t post in the blog. If you didn’t get my first mass email and want to make sure you receive future emails (they are definitely not frequent, only when there is information that I can’t post online), please leave me a comment with your email address and I’ll be sure to add you.
Okay, enough with that. This last week I went on another technical trip. We headed back to the jungle (excuse me: tropical rainforest). Despite the fact I have mosquito bites all over my ankle area, the trip was pretty good. The first day our final destination was Archidona in the Napo province. However, our bus broke down along the side of the highway about an hour outside of Quito and we spent two hours entertaining ourselves in everyway possible. Finally a new bus came to pick us up and we continued on our way. Instead of transferring buses to Archidona, we decided to spend the night about 2 hours away in a really cute town in an amazing hostel.
This is when I have to break off onto a little tangent. The hotel we stayed in had an amenity like no other: hot water. I had forgotten how amazing it is to take a shower with hot water. The electric shower that heats up water as it is coming through the spout does take the intense coldness off the water and sometimes does get pretty hot… but it will never compare to a legitimate hot shower. Over the last two months I have mastered the art of short showers. However this one particular morning I spent an entire half-hour showering in hot water. It was amazing. I have never felt so clean. When you live in a country like the US you take for granted simple things like hot showers. My life here is really not that hard, but do remember me when you’re taking your hot shower every morning. Remember that for some of us it is a very rare commodity.
Anyway, back to the trip. We essentially spend the week learning about tropical diseases, particularly malaria, dengue, and chagas. The place we spent the rest of the week functions as a health center for expectant mothers, often indigenous women. A group of midwives run the center and provide traditional pre- and post- natal care as well as perform births. It was really interesting to learn the traditions of these women and their work as midwives. We also visited various health centers and branches of the health ministry to learn more about the tropical disease situation here in Ecuador. With the likelihood for a return of El Nino this year, the probability of working directly with these diseases is high, so it was interesting to hear what the federal and provincial governments are doing to help the situation.
Overall, the trip was good but I´m glad to be back ¨home¨. I´ll be even happier when I´m settled into my community and I can start living my life here in Ecuador.
That´s all for now. If you´re on facebook--check out the pictures I posted last week. Hopefully I´ll be able to upload some from my recent trips.
--Stacie
Okay, enough with that. This last week I went on another technical trip. We headed back to the jungle (excuse me: tropical rainforest). Despite the fact I have mosquito bites all over my ankle area, the trip was pretty good. The first day our final destination was Archidona in the Napo province. However, our bus broke down along the side of the highway about an hour outside of Quito and we spent two hours entertaining ourselves in everyway possible. Finally a new bus came to pick us up and we continued on our way. Instead of transferring buses to Archidona, we decided to spend the night about 2 hours away in a really cute town in an amazing hostel.
This is when I have to break off onto a little tangent. The hotel we stayed in had an amenity like no other: hot water. I had forgotten how amazing it is to take a shower with hot water. The electric shower that heats up water as it is coming through the spout does take the intense coldness off the water and sometimes does get pretty hot… but it will never compare to a legitimate hot shower. Over the last two months I have mastered the art of short showers. However this one particular morning I spent an entire half-hour showering in hot water. It was amazing. I have never felt so clean. When you live in a country like the US you take for granted simple things like hot showers. My life here is really not that hard, but do remember me when you’re taking your hot shower every morning. Remember that for some of us it is a very rare commodity.
Anyway, back to the trip. We essentially spend the week learning about tropical diseases, particularly malaria, dengue, and chagas. The place we spent the rest of the week functions as a health center for expectant mothers, often indigenous women. A group of midwives run the center and provide traditional pre- and post- natal care as well as perform births. It was really interesting to learn the traditions of these women and their work as midwives. We also visited various health centers and branches of the health ministry to learn more about the tropical disease situation here in Ecuador. With the likelihood for a return of El Nino this year, the probability of working directly with these diseases is high, so it was interesting to hear what the federal and provincial governments are doing to help the situation.
Overall, the trip was good but I´m glad to be back ¨home¨. I´ll be even happier when I´m settled into my community and I can start living my life here in Ecuador.
That´s all for now. If you´re on facebook--check out the pictures I posted last week. Hopefully I´ll be able to upload some from my recent trips.
--Stacie
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
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
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
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