Greetings all. So to catch up on the past couple weeks...still in Olmedo with Doña Edita and still not terribly ill. This Friday (4 more days) we find out our sites! Everyone is speculating and voicing their hopes but in the end it´s all out of our hands. If I had to choose, I would want to live in the rainforest or the highlands. Everyone just talks about how miserably hot the coast and rainforest are but at least the rainforest has all the rare stuff (plants and animals) that you would never get to see anywhere else. Look at me speculating and hoping...to continue with the story now.
2 weekends ago my group took a cultural trip to Cotacachi and Otavalo. Both have a high population of indigenous people most of whom speak Quichua in addition to Spanish. In Cotacachi we went to a waterfall called Cascada de Peguche which was amazing. The water was freezing and it felt amazing to stand under the fall although a bit painful. It was quite a comedic site for the Ecuadorians seeing a crazy group of gringos screaming and laughing in the water. I cut my foot in two places which was a bit of a bummer but I´m all healed up now and I still got to play in the volunteer soccer tourney. That night in Cotacachi we did homestays with indigenous families. I stayed with Jacob with a family of three. Milton, Mercedes, and I can´t remember the name of the 5 year old daughter. They were nice people and we had radishes, lentils, and rice for dinner. The next morning Jacob and I went with Mercedes to harvest corn and beans in their farm with her 3 year old niece. At first the little girl was really shy but then as I was bending over to picks some beans she jumped on my back and whispered in a develish voice in my ear "MATA." Of course in Spanish this means "kill" and it´s hilarious because after she said it she it would switch back to a cute little girl laughing in your face. This continued for the rest of the morning and now "mata" is quite the joke with our group.
Later that afternoon we went to Otavalo which is home to the biggest flea/crafts market in all of South America. The main area is called Plaza de Ponchos and is full of all kinds of cloths, trinkets, and all sorts of random stuff. I really wanted to buy some alpaca clothing but I should wait because if I get placed in the coast of rainforest they will not serve me well at all. I did however buy a sweet cowboy hat, a white buttonup shirt with indigenous designs, and a charango which is a very small guitar-like intrument. It has 10 strings and sounds awesome when played correctly. The problem is that it´s tuned totally different than a guitar so I have to relearn all the chords and finger positions. I will be a charango shredder after 2 years. We ate some fried tilapia with yucca and rice from a street vendor in the market and it completely rocked my world for $1.20. God I love it! The market was great and once I find out my site I may be making a trip back to get alpaca clothes. We shall see.
Aside from that, training has pretty much been....well...training. Mucho trabajo and mucho español. We had a fun medical session last week about dangerous insects and wierd skin diseases (pictures included). Tomorrow we have a medical session on STD´s and pregnancy (pictures included I assume. Should be fun. Last friday we had mañana deportiva where each town of trainees, and the staff had a soccer team. There were 12 teams in all and after a long day Olmedo finishd 2nd and yes we did get silver medals!!! Not to mention we beat the staff 2-1 to make the finals. Needless to say they were not happy. Amyway I have to go now but I promise I will put pictures up this week and hopefully a video of me killing a guinea pig which happened yesterday. Tommorow I will post that story because it deserves a post of it´s own. Love to all and thanks for reading. Drop me an email every now and then and keep me updated on life back home. Ciao.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Olmedo
Well it´s now been 2 weeks in Ecuador and almost one week with my new host family in my CBT (community based training) site. I´m living in a very small pueblo of a couple thousand people called Olmedo. It´s higher elevation than Cayambe and we have an even better view of the volcano which is awesome. I´m here with the rest of the Avanzado language group which consists of Miguel, Jacobo, Jack, David, Katy, and myself. It´s a good group and we´re all having a blast during and after our Spanish classes. I live with a lady, Doña Edita, and her daughter Mariella in a house in the back of a little clothing/shoe tienda. Doña Edita´s parents live next door to us and I pretty much see them most of the day. We have a kitchen, a good sized dining room (where our group has Spanish classes), and my room which is really quite big. I have 2 beds, a couch, and 2 big comfy seats. We´ve had a couple movie nights in my room but really by 9:30 we´re all ready to go to sleep because the days are so full. Dinner, a beer, and about an hour and a half of free time and it´s time to sleep! Behind the house we have a little personal farm where coliflor, brocoli, lettuce, potatoes, beets, beans, and much more are all grown. We also have about 20 chickens and about the same amount of guinea pigs, which I am ashamed to say I still haven´t eaten. I still have time though!
Before more on Olmedo, I want to back track a bit to the trip we took as a group to La Mitad del Mundo (The middle of the world) at the beginning of training. The is a park where the equator passes through the earth (clearly marked) and there are all kinds of wierd things there to see and do. For example, when standing directly on the equator, it´s possible to balance an egg on a nail standing straight up. Yes I did it and yes I got a certificate for doing it. Who wants some?! My next favorite thing was when our tour guide demonstrated the difference in water revolving on each side of the line. He took a small tub on a stand and filled it with water on one side no more than 6 inches away from the equator and when he pulled the plug the water spun clockwise. He did the same thing 6 inches away from the other side and it spun counter clockwise. Here´s the kicker though: He put the tub directly on the line and when he drained the water it didn´t spin at all but just fell straight out. The next trick is a bit harder to explain but I will do my best. The guide told me to hold the tips of my thumb and index fingers together as hard as I could so that he could not pull them apart. I did it and he couldn´t pull them apart. Then he had me stand directly on the equator and do the same thing. When he pulled this time, I had no strength and could do nothing but watch my fingers come apart without a fight. I almost cried I was laughing so hard. By far my least favorite part of La Mitad del Mundo was the intense sunburn I got that lasted for 3 days! Overall a great time though.
OK FASTFORWARD TO OLMEDO.....
So we´ve been spending our days in Spanish/Culture classes from 8am-4pm and then we are free to hang out with each other, our host families or just walk around the town (which takes no time at all). Today I went with Doña Edita to her other farm to feed her calves, pigs, and guinea pigs. She also has 5 tiny puppies there and a little boy named William came with us and bought one today for 2 dollars! I want one so bad but PC did specifically tell us not to get a dog during training so I should comply. Some days we go to the field and play soccer or do these ridiculous excersises that Miguel taught us (not fun at this altitude at all). I can barely run for 3 minutes yet withough feeling like I´m dying. Most of the time I just hang out at home and talk to Edita and try to improve my comprehension and speaking skills. I´m her 6th PCV so she knows the deal and is really cool about everything. She keeps me well fed (too well fed) and jokes with me when I help her in the kitchen because men DO NOT cook in the homes here.
Last Sunday I helped Doña Edita, her family, and neighbors move stones to a path where they are building a new road. This sort of thing happens one day every weekend and is called La Minga. La Minga is basically a weekly communal work day where everyone in all the towns gets out to work on public projects that benefit everyone without getting paid. It´s a tradition that goes back a few hundred years I have learned. Everyday is fun and everyday is a challenge. No one here speaks a word of English and everyone has lots of questions to ask of the ¨gringitos.¨ It´s a fun curse to be the center of attention.
Tommorow we go to Ayora to meet with the rest of the PCT´s and share information on our respective CBT sites. Should be interesting to hear what everyone else´s sites are like. I know ours is the best and we wrote a song to sing to the rest of the group to describe how badass we and Olmedo really are. Anyway that´s enough for know. Love to all and thanks for reading. I´ll post pics soon. Ciao!
Before more on Olmedo, I want to back track a bit to the trip we took as a group to La Mitad del Mundo (The middle of the world) at the beginning of training. The is a park where the equator passes through the earth (clearly marked) and there are all kinds of wierd things there to see and do. For example, when standing directly on the equator, it´s possible to balance an egg on a nail standing straight up. Yes I did it and yes I got a certificate for doing it. Who wants some?! My next favorite thing was when our tour guide demonstrated the difference in water revolving on each side of the line. He took a small tub on a stand and filled it with water on one side no more than 6 inches away from the equator and when he pulled the plug the water spun clockwise. He did the same thing 6 inches away from the other side and it spun counter clockwise. Here´s the kicker though: He put the tub directly on the line and when he drained the water it didn´t spin at all but just fell straight out. The next trick is a bit harder to explain but I will do my best. The guide told me to hold the tips of my thumb and index fingers together as hard as I could so that he could not pull them apart. I did it and he couldn´t pull them apart. Then he had me stand directly on the equator and do the same thing. When he pulled this time, I had no strength and could do nothing but watch my fingers come apart without a fight. I almost cried I was laughing so hard. By far my least favorite part of La Mitad del Mundo was the intense sunburn I got that lasted for 3 days! Overall a great time though.
OK FASTFORWARD TO OLMEDO.....
So we´ve been spending our days in Spanish/Culture classes from 8am-4pm and then we are free to hang out with each other, our host families or just walk around the town (which takes no time at all). Today I went with Doña Edita to her other farm to feed her calves, pigs, and guinea pigs. She also has 5 tiny puppies there and a little boy named William came with us and bought one today for 2 dollars! I want one so bad but PC did specifically tell us not to get a dog during training so I should comply. Some days we go to the field and play soccer or do these ridiculous excersises that Miguel taught us (not fun at this altitude at all). I can barely run for 3 minutes yet withough feeling like I´m dying. Most of the time I just hang out at home and talk to Edita and try to improve my comprehension and speaking skills. I´m her 6th PCV so she knows the deal and is really cool about everything. She keeps me well fed (too well fed) and jokes with me when I help her in the kitchen because men DO NOT cook in the homes here.
Last Sunday I helped Doña Edita, her family, and neighbors move stones to a path where they are building a new road. This sort of thing happens one day every weekend and is called La Minga. La Minga is basically a weekly communal work day where everyone in all the towns gets out to work on public projects that benefit everyone without getting paid. It´s a tradition that goes back a few hundred years I have learned. Everyday is fun and everyday is a challenge. No one here speaks a word of English and everyone has lots of questions to ask of the ¨gringitos.¨ It´s a fun curse to be the center of attention.
Tommorow we go to Ayora to meet with the rest of the PCT´s and share information on our respective CBT sites. Should be interesting to hear what everyone else´s sites are like. I know ours is the best and we wrote a song to sing to the rest of the group to describe how badass we and Olmedo really are. Anyway that´s enough for know. Love to all and thanks for reading. I´ll post pics soon. Ciao!
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