Still Alive!

Hi all,

I made it through the first week without getting killed! It was good to meet the other 42 people in my group at the staging event in DC – all of whom are environmental conservation or agriculture volunteers. Everyone’s extremely friendly with a good sense of humor, and even though it’s only been a few days we all feel like we’ve known each other for weeks. There are a bunch of folks fresh out of school, and also a good number in their later 20’s and early 30’s. Our group also has 5 married couples, 2 of which are in their 50’s/60’s. People come from all over the country which is pretty neat. The staging event consisted of lots of icebreakers, skits, cross-cultural case studies, and role-playing. There was a bunch of time in the evenings to hang out in Georgetown where everyone got to know each other better.

We arrived in Quito Wednesday night and checked into a hostel located a couple of blocks away from the Peace Corps Office. We were all pretty exhausted and headed to bed soon after we arrived, only to be awoken by an incessant banging noise followed by “reggaeton” drum beats for the next 2 hours. Hooray for ear plugs. In the morning, we had some breakfast and headed to the Peace Corps office where we were introduced to all the staff members, language facilitators, and the Country Director, “Cisco”. We had some presentations and then filled out a ton of paperwork and got some vaccinations. Luckily I only needed the rabies vaccine so my arm was in much better condition than the people that had to get 4 or 5 shots with the “highly energetic” medical officers. I also had my language competency interview, and although I thought I bombed the thing since I was staring blankly at the woman for half of it, I ended up getting placed in the intermedio medio (mid-intermediate) level class. This is the minimum level everyone needs to achieve to get sworn is as a volunteer at the end of training, so unless I somehow get worse I should be good to go as far as the language requirement. After lunch some current volunteers had a panel discussion about everything from only having electricity three days out of the month at their site and having to take an hour bus ride to get water, to intestinal parasites and all the goodness that follows… Whoa! At the end of the day we all got on a bus and headed to Tabacundo where we stayed at the Hostal Centro Mensaje and had a whole bunch of orientation classes for the rest of the week. The food has been pretty good so far. Breakfast is usually some kind of bread, yogurt, an unidentifiable cheese that tastes similar to mozzarella, hard boiled or fried eggs, and some kind of crazy fruit juice that nobody has ever heard of before (i.e. tree tomato). Lunch and dinner always start with some kind of soup and then we have chicken or beef, rice, potatoes, and some kind of vegetable. There’s always a sauce called ají on the table as well which has hot pepper, cilantro, garlic, and citrus in it. At night, there’s a little bar across the street where you can get a wine bottle sized bottle of “Pilsener” (the national beer) for $1.20.

On Friday, we found out who our host families are. I’m staying with the Liseth Atiaga family in Cayambe. The husband (William – pronounced weeyem) is some type of “vendedor” (seller) and the wife (Linseth) is an “ama de la casa” (literally lover of the house, or housewife). They have three kids – a 12 year old girl (Kelley), an 8 year old boy (Jordan) and a 2 year old boy (Ronny). Before heading to the house, we had a final little treasure hunt/language practice where we had to ask random people on the street where the post office/police station/etc. is, and once at the location ask the workers a bunch of other questions. We also had to take a city bus to the open-air market (22 cents for a 20 minute ride), and each of us was responsible for buying certain items and not getting ripped off! The bus gets insanely packed and some people are literally hanging out the doors when the bus is moving down the street. People will also get on and off the bus while it’s still moving! At the market, my little group was able to buy 2 amazing pineapples and a guaba (a 2-foot long bean pod with white furry seeds inside that taste like a cross between a banana and a mild pineapple) for $1.00! The prices of fruits and vegetables are insane (i.e. 20 oranges for a buck). “Luxury items” like a bottle of Herbal Essences shampoo or a TV, however, are the same price or even more expensive than in the States.

Finally, on Saturday we all made it to our host family houses. Everyone is super nice so far and the house is pretty nice. When I got there, they gave me a big hunk of watermelon and an orange Tang-like drink. Then I helped William and Linseth out in the front yard with a rowboat that they were fixing. After that, the whole family and I piled into the car and went to some unknown destination with vicious barking dogs to hang up a “Se Vende” (for sale) sign. Una abuelita (a little granny) was milking a cow next to the property and I got the impression that the “for sale” property belonged to William’s sister, but he speaks so fast that I have no idea what he’s staying. I’m getting very good at smiling-and-nodding! Pet dogs are totally different here than in the States. They all mostly live outside and it’s common for people to throw rocks and poke them with sticks if they’re not behaving (which is most of the time). The PC trainers recommended that we carry a rock with us in case a dog attacks! After escaping from the barking dogs, we went to the “supermarket” to pick up some items. It felt good to be a few inches taller than nearly everyone in the store! Back at the casa we had some dinner (soup, chicken, rice, veggies and hot chocolate) and then we sat around and I showed them some pictures of the States which I attempted to describe in mangled Spanish. Kelley is my savior since she can always sense when I have no clue what’s going on, and she tries to explain it to me in other words! After looking through a bunch of their family photos, I headed to bed. On Sunday, we left the house at 7:30AM and headed to one of the churches in town. I think I picked up about 5% of what they were saying. The service ended with a rousing rock ballad of “No hay nadie como tu” (There’s nobody like you (Jesus)). After that we hung out on the roof of the house for a while and had some more watermelon. Then we all piled into the car and went to Otavallo to check out the crafts there. We had lunch at a restaurant in town (soup, a hamburger without the bun, rice, and peas, with lovely yellow Jello for dessert and a glass of guabana? juice). Then we headed back to the house and I watched Narnia in Spanish with the kids and ate some kind of extremely hard bean/nut that they gave me and some chocolate wafer cookies. Jordon was awesome during the movie and taught me about 20 new words. Ronny is like a little jumping bean and is continually throwing himself onto the couch, climbing onto my lap and crumbling cookies on my shirt! That´s it for now! Hope you enjoy some of the pictures at the link below!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jkreiselman/PCWeek1