Days of Craziness: Site Placement

Speed recap of my week in no particular order: hiked Ilalo with friends (mountain behind my house in Tumbaco), learned about intercultural health and participated in a Shamanic Kichwa cleansing ceremony, planted a medicinal herb garden, had my second language interview, met the stand-in U.S. ambassador (there isn't an ambassador right now...), had a bonfire with the other trainees, got showered in rose petals, danced around the training center with the language facilitators, harvested beans and corn, made humitas (see one of my first blog posts--essentially sweet cornbread cooked like a tamale), and, most importantly, I learned where I will be living for the next 2 YEARS. It's been quite the week. Below are some pictures from the aforementioned events, but all I can really think about right now is my site placement, so that's what this blog post is really about!

Ilalo hiking crew. (Photo by Marisa C.)

View from the top(ish) of Ilalo.

Limpia (cleansing) ceremony with shamans from Cuenca (Photo by Mathilde)

Language facilitators enacting a dance from the Amazon.

Humitas: pick choclo (type of corn here), save husks, remove kernals, grind choclo, mix with eggs and sugar, wrap in corn husks, steam, fry, eat. About 8 hours of work for these little treats.

Besides the craziness of the week in general, the main feeling of the week was definitely that of nail-biting anticipation. The Peace Corps staff has kept us trainees in the dark about our site placements, mainly because sites can often change at the last minute. Site reveal was on Thursday afternoon, meaning the days went by extraordinarily slowly this week. I won't keep you waiting though--I'll fast forward to Thursday!

Thursday at lunch we were all kicked out of the Training Center, and weren't allowed to return until 1:30. When were finally allowed back through the gate, we found a map of Ecuador made out of rose petals on the soccer field with a sign for each province. They called us out one-by-one with the name of our province and site name for the next two years. In reality, some of us were slightly confused as to where our sites were, but a staff member ran with us to our spot on the map. I was one of the last people called, which was slightly nerve-wracking. While I did not really hear my site name, I definitely understood when our training manager called out my province--NAPO! I'm going to the AMAZON for the next two years!

Map of Ecuador made of rose petals. Staff getting ready to call out our sites!

Jungle girls! Four of us are in the Napo province.

Lots of excitement and happiness about site placements.

My provincial flag. 

Emily and I with our language facilitator.

After finding out our sites and getting copious amounts of rose petals dumped on us, we headed back into the training center to learn more about our assignments. I received a packet about my community and the projects I'll be working on. My friend Emily has been placed in a similar community to mine; after receiving our packets, we both had minor panic attacks, but now I'm really excited and/or nervous. I'll be living in an indigenous Kichwa community near a national park. There are a lot of people in major cities, and my site is definitely one of the more remote sites out of my training group.

A couple of fantastic facts...

• Population: 700 in the community, but 1,100 in the general area
• Location: in the buffer zone of the Sumaco-Napo-Galeras National Park
• Languages: Kichwa and Spanish
• Closest city: Tena (2.5 hours away by car...)
• House material: Wood
• Electricity: Yes
• Internet: No
• Cell phone service: If you stand in some spots in the village (?)
• Shower: Erm, no (they are supposed to build me a shower "cabin" to take bucket baths in)
• Refrigerator: No
• Rent: $25/month

Also, I've gotten a lot of questions about what I'll be doing for the two years. I'm the first volunteer at this site, so I really will be working on building relationships and creating a sense of trust more than anything else. But, this is a list of the primary activities that the community has identified that it needs assistance with:

• Foster organizational development & leadership
• Promote natural resources conservation and environmental education
• Support organic "naranjilla" production
• Help organize a women's group
• Help start micro enterprises with youth (cheese-making?)
• Environmental education at school and creating a school garden

I'm going to visit my site next week from this coming Tuesday to the following Monday, so I'll know a lot more about my community soon. My mosquito net and I will be taking the 6-hour bus ride with my counterpart (who also happens to be my new host mother...) down the mountain to the jungle. For most people in my community, Spanish is their second language and Kichwa is their first, so I may be communicating with hand signals and eyebrow-raising for the next 8 days. I won't be posting next weekend, as I'll be in my internet-less community, but I'll post that week sometime! This adventure is about to get a lot more interesting...

Napo--my province! 

Prestiños: Fried Magic

There are no stories about monkeys or jungles in this post. In reality, this post is about doughnuts. 


Carnaval was this past weekend, so I had Monday and Tuesday off from training for the holiday. One could compare Carnaval in some parts of Ecuador to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, I suppose. However, here in Tumbaco, there aren't street parties, there are small children armed with espuma (essentially colored, scented shaving cream), water balloons, eggs, flour, and buckets of water. They target everyone, but they especially like to target unsuspecting gringos. For instance, on Tuesday, I was walking out of my house, turned left down the street while marveling at what a beautiful day it was, and suddenly several water balloons burst on the pavement in front of my feet. I looked over and several kids were giggling from the second story window of the house across the street. Overall, I made it through fairly unharmed--I didn't get any espuma to the face like many other trainees did.


So, if children with copious amounts of water were the worst part of Carnaval, then prestiños dipped in cinnamon syrup were the best part. Most of my posts seem to at least have one section about food, and I swear it's not just me. Food is a big deal down here; the weekends and holidays revolve around eating. Anyways, back to prestiños. You may be asking what is a prestiño? It's like the Paczki of Ecuador. Or an elephant ear. Or Native American fry bread. Eggs, butter, flour, yeast, salt, sugar. Mix. Knead. Let rise 1 hour. Make rings out of the dough. Deep fry in oil. Dip in cinnamon cane-sugar syrup. Eat. 


My host family and I made over 100 of these little delicacies. They took about 30 pictures of la gringa (I found out that this is sort of an endearing term in Ecuador) making prestiños. Apparently it was entertaining. Everyone was not satisfied that I had actually "tried" prestiños until I ate at least 10 in one sitting. Then, we proceeded to eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next two days. I'm not sure if these fit into Peace Corps nutrition planning. Nonetheless, I love them. 

Rosa and me rolling, cutting, and folding the dough. 

Yum!

Lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast.

During my four-day weekend, I also went to the town of Mindo with some other trainees for the day. Mindo is a fairly touristy town about two hours from Quito in the cloud forest. The journey in itself was quite an adventure, as public transportation always seems to be down here. We took three buses (one was extra as a result of bad directions) to get to the station to catch the bus to Mindo. Once on the bus, we waited as they checked our ticket once, twice, three, four, five, SIX times. It turns out the women in the office had accidentally written the same seat number on two tickets, so, after an hour of sitting on the bus, we finally left for Mindo. Time doesn't work quite the same way here as in the States--long waits are fairly common. While the traveling was a lot for only a couple of hours in the town, it was worth the trouble. The cloud forests are really beautiful: rolling hills, lush vegetation, waterfalls, raging rivers. We had lunch and then went horseback riding for a bit through the forest. Not a bad way to spend a day.

Emily, Saira, and Me in Mindo

Muddy muddy ride to get to the horses.

The tamest horse of all time.

Just a little waterfall, there are many more--I'll have to go back and hike soon!

Not much more to report. During this short week of training, my NRC training group had presentations about our technical trips and we went to a beautiful research center and tree nursery owned by the government. On Thursday of next week, I find our where I'm going to be living for the next two years! Keep your fingers and toes crossed that it's a good site!

Monkeys, Jungle Feasts, and Humidity

Alli punhca. Good day (in Kichwa). 

Super chevere. Super cool. (Yes, super is actually used here.) Anyways, those words barely begin to describe how incredible this past week has been. I had a technical training trip to Tena (in the jungle, el oriente, region of Ecuador) with 10 other Natural Resources Conservation trainees and some of our facilitators. Monkeys, jungle treks, cacao plants, medicinal trees, snakes, more monkeys, maitos, and the list continues.

Tena is about a four-hour bus ride from Tumbaco, but the change in landscape, elevation, and climate along the way is absolutely amazing. Needless to say, the bus ride was an experience in itself: curving roads combined with queasiness from my malaria medicine. Good times. But, in all honesty, the views were worth a little sickness. Snow-capped volcanoes and lush rolling hills leading down through a layer of clouds and finally into the innumerable shades of green in the jungle. After the mild weather of the Sierra, I couldn’t believe the wave of heat and humidity that hit me when I stepped off the bus in Tena.

The first day was mostly just hot, but I also got a chance to eat the best chocolate I’ve ever had from cacao grown in the area. Delicious.

Emily and I in the town center in Tena.

The river running through town.

On day two, we went to work with a community tourism project in a Kichwa community. Kichwas are one of the many indigenous groups that live in the Sierra and the Oriente. The community we went to has started a tourism project where they have several small cabanas where tourists are able to stay for several days at a time. The project is not only economically beneficial for the community, but also is a way for them to share their rich cultural history and traditions. In order to preserve their culture, they only have guides who speak Kichwa and Spanish, as opposed foreign languages. We helped with a minga, a group work day, with the community members and our group of trainees. When we arrived, they had papaya, bread fruit, and chicha (traditional Kichwa drink, made of fermented fruit) waiting for us. We moved rocks from the river that flows next to the property to create the border for a path leading down to the river. After that, we were treated to one of the highlights of the entire week—a hike in the jungle. 

Let’s go on a hike. With machetes in hand, we begin following a guide along well-trodden paths behind the cabanas, and abruptly turn into the jungle along no pathway. The guide begins talks about the different types of plants, such as yucca and plantains, as we pass by, and then he pulls guaba fruit off a tree. It’s a long brown pod that doesn’t look particularly appetizing. I twist it open to find seeds covered in fuzzy white flesh. I try a piece. Que rico! We continue walking while munching on guaba. Then, we reach the cacao plants—bushes with red fruits. The guides use their machetes—the tool of choice for all things from digging holes to building trails—to cut open the cacao. Cacao fruit reminds me of the guaba and is also delicious; it’s white, fuzzy, and surrounds a purplish seed. The seed is the part that eventually becomes chocolate. As I’m contentedly munching on cacao, spitting out and saving the seeds as per request of the guides (think about that next time you're enjoying a bit of chocolate), I realize that the guides are using machetes to hack down a spike-covered palm tree. Why? To let it begin to rot in order to attract grub worms, which are, of course, delicacies. After several minutes, the tree falls, and they go to the top of the tree and cut out the soft, white center. Fresh hearts of palm. The knowledge they have of the jungle is astounding. After our appetizer hike through the jungle, we return to the community to find a table set with giant banana leaves for a lunch of rice, lentils, plantains, yucca, and soup. Initially, we were supposed to pay for lunch, but they were so grateful for our rock carrying capacity that they treated us. They are incredibly kind people. 

Kichwa community tourism site: Wasila.

Banana leaf table cloths.

Lunch: verde soup (made with ground plantains), rice, lentils, plantains, and yucca.

One of many beautiful butterflies.

Our stone path leading to the river.

The following day, we went to another community tourism project with a Kichwa community on the Napo River. At this site, they had animals, gardens, a museum, cabanas, and a restaurant. We learned about traditional hunting and fishing methods, shamanistic rituals, and medicinal plants. They also had a monkey, Lucas, who was very precocious, as well as a boa constrictor, oscillate cats, and a slew of other animals. More monkeys were to be seen in the afternoon, as we went to a preserve on an island near Tena with several monkeys, native plants, and other animals. There used to be a bridge to get to the island, but a flood last year took it out, so we had to take a wobbly canoe. As we took the tour of the ecological reserve, one of the monkeys would jump from shoulder to shoulder; at one point, our little friend took a daring 5-foot leap to get from my shoulder to our language facilitator’s shoulder. I guess he had had enough of me. 

Caged--only so they don't eat the other smaller animals.

Playing with monkeys.

Lucas the monkey sneaking some yucca.

The River Napo.

Boa Constrictor. Draped him around my shoulders as well--not so pleasant.

This blog post is becoming quite lengthy. Do you need an intermission? Feel free to go grab a snack—maybe some grub worms.

Crossing the river to get to the reserve.

More monkeys.

Pink pine cones?

View of Tena from the observation tower.

Wobbly tower.

Thursday, we went to a very rural community about an hour bus ride away from Tena. We went to do an environmental education lesson for the kids and youth of the community about deforestation. I was quite shocked by how rural the community was. I’ll know where my site is in about 10 days, but, as of now, I do know that it will likely be very rural. Seeing a small community was a good experience to shape my expectations. It turned out the kids went on vacation a day early for the Carnaval holiday. Pretty standard. We did end up giving a presentation to some of the students though. The kids were amazingly sweet. Many of the families have 7-8 children, so the young girls (10 and younger) often care for the babies all day while the parents work in the fields. It was an eye-opening experience.

We ate a traditional meal of maitos for lunch (fish, chicken, or beef cooked in leaves, served with yucca). And, some of the more adventurous tried chonta cudo, cooked grub worms. No gracias. Finally, we went to the organization RUNA to learn about the business they have created selling guayusa, which is a plant that is made into a tea that indigenous peoples have been drinking for thousands of years. I was really impressed with the business—check it out www.runa.org.

Teaching at a community.

Town center.

Traditional Amazonian meal.

Now, I’m back in the chilly Sierra hand-washing my muddy clothes, and I’m so grateful for the amazing experiences I had this week. I have Monday and Tuesday off for Carnaval. I’ll be dodging the children spraying foam, throwing water balloons, and dumping buckets of water on unsuspecting people. 

A Cultural Difference (Roasted with Spices)

Okay, I'm starting this post with a forewarning. If you don't want to see a cooked guinea pig, then do not go to the bottom of this post. Have you scrolled down already?!? The third goal of the Peace Corps is for volunteers (and trainees!) to share about host country culture. Guinea pig, cuy, is a very traditional Ecuadorian dish, so I'm just trying to share a little piece of Ecuador with you. More on this in a bit!

So, I've been in Ecuador three weeks. No time at all really, but the days of training seem to pass at a snails pace. Oddly, the weeks have been going by quickly though. It has certainly been another seven days full of enlightening experiences. As I'm typing this, I already feel as though my English skills are failing me. I catch myself mixing Spanish and English more and more; unfortunately, my Spanish doesn't seem to be getting any better. Compared to three weeks ago, I understand much more, but I still am a bit mute when it comes to speaking. Poco a poco. 

This week began with my first presentation in Spanish. My group and I went to a colegio, high school, and an escuela, elementary school, to teach students about water conservation. I've done a lot of environmental education about fresh water in the U.S., and, now, that seems extremely easy compared to getting up in front of a room full of 17-year-old students while trying to speak a language I'm not even close to being fluent in. Oh well, so goes training. Overall, the presentations were actually quite fun. The students definitely laughed at our gringo Spanish, but they seemed to learn at least a couple of facts from our activities. At the elementary school, the students were already quite knowledgeable about environmental issues; they had a huge vegetable garden on the property and all of the students in the class I taught had bunches of freshly picked cilantro on their desks. Hopefully, I'll be able to start some school gardens when I get to my site! Speaking of gardens, on Thursday I had a gardening training facilitated by some current volunteers. We created raised beds in the backyard of the training center and planted lettuce, broccoli, radishes, carrots, and cilantro. It was really nice to get out of the classroom for a little bit, as we have been having a slew of sessions (as always) about security, health, culture, technical info, and Spanish.

Teaching about fresh water availability, while wondering if the
children understand a word of my Spanish.

Teaching sixth graders about water conservation...in Spanish.

Besides teaching on Monday, the week was relatively uneventful. The weather has been beautiful. Rain comes and goes, but there has been a lot of sun this past week. Some days, I walk home with other volunteers. The walk takes about an hour on the beautiful bike path that runs between the training center and Tumbaco. Dodging mountain bikers, dogs, cows, motorcycles, and whatever else comes our way always makes the walk more entertaining, as if the spectacular views weren't entertainment enough. I'm heading to el oriente, the jungle, next week for a week-long technical trip to do presentations and to speak with representatives from NGOs, national parks, and other protected areas. I'm so excited to see another part of the country. However, since I'm heading to a part of the country with malaria-infested mosquitoes, I had to start taking anti-malaria medication last week. Side effect: crazy dreams. As if my life wasn't odd enough right now, I get to add ridiculously vivid, slightly twisted dreams to the mix. 

One of the many views on the walk home from the training center.

Here's the part you've been waiting for. It's difficult for me to even begin to describe the surreal experience of eating lunch while being surrounded by five people munching on guinea pig legs. Actually, I still feel a bit queasy when I think about it. Cuyes are reserved for special occasions, as they are expensive to raise (they eat a lot of alfalfa). Today was my host brother's birthday, meaning special occasion, meaning time to eat cuy. During training, we've been learning about cultural perspectives and how people see other cultures based on their own preconceived notions. As much as I would have liked to see this experience from an unbiased perspective, I could only grasp my United States upbringing in seeing fried pets. And, it's not as though people eat a piece of guinea pig on their plate; they are served an entire guinea pig--from buck teeth to head to claws. Of course, I was sitting at the table eating potatoes and broccoli, while they all poked fun at me (jokingly, I think!). Rosa thought it was very funny to face her guinea pig at me to pretend that it was watching me. Hysterical. That is, until she chopped the head off with a knife and started eating it. Oh Ecuador, you are a continual source of amazement. I promise--no more photos of fried guinea pigs; I just had to share this experience with a photo because words couldn't do it justice! Next week: pictures of the Amazon! And, no fried or roasted animals, hopefully.

My host mom's guinea pigs.

My host mom's guinea pigs--roasted and spiced. Buen provecho!

Is this real life?

Not as much to report this week—training is pretty intense between multiple group projects, Spanish lessons for 4 hours a day, and an array of security, regulation, and health sessions. This week, I did get the chance to leave the training center to go to Quito twice. On Wednesday, my group and I traveled to see the Peace Corps office in the city; it’s quite the trek, three bus rides, to get over there. The office is really nice, as are all of the staff. Of course, while at the office, we had yet another safety talk with our head of security. She discussed robberies and theft on transportation in Ecuador, which is quite the problem, especially if you are a gringo. Unfortunately, on the bus ride back to the training center, one of my fellow trainees experienced this first hand when she got off the bus and realized her jacket had been slashed. She’s fine—just short a cheap cell phone and five dollars. Sneaky, sneaky thieves.

The weather has been extremely beautiful this past week with lots of sunshine. Several of us decided to walk to the neighboring town of Cumbaya (yup, that’s the name of the town) during the day on Saturday to enjoy the lovely scenery. There is a bike bath, the ciclovia, which runs for miles through and between towns in the area. Lots of mountain bikers, runners, and walkers take advantage of the path, especially in the mornings. I’ve only driven through Cumbaya on the bus on the way to Quito, and I can’t believe how nice the town is. The town square is beautiful with a fountain and palm trees. After our walk, we all decided to opt out of eating at a restaurant serving white rice (two weeks in of eating white rice for two meals a day, and I’m already trying to avoid it!), so we found an Italian restaurant and enjoyed delicious pizza. It was such a relaxing day after a super stressful week!

A view from the ciclovia on the way to Cumbaya

More nice views from the ciclovia

Town square in Cumbaya

Fellow trainees and me!

About to enjoy pizza and beer (sin arroz--without rice!)

However, Saturday didn’t end with lunch in Cumbaya. The entertainment always continues when I get back home. I need to preface this story by saying that my host family always says that I eat “como un gato” (like a cat). Meaning: I don’t eat much. I’ll let you decide if you know any cats that eat the sheer quantity of food that I was given on Saturday.

I walk in my house in late afternoon after my outing to Cumbaya. I’m greeted with hugs and a rapid flood of words that I sort of half know. Rosa asks what I did with my friends. I tell her we had a huge lunch, and I’m very full (take note of this). Next, my host brother asks if we’re going to make cookies. I remember my promise about making chocolate chip cookies, so I say yes. Rosa watches over the whole process to ensure that I do in fact know how to use a spoon to mix ingredients. (Side note: same goes for sweeping, dusting, making my bed, and ironing—all of which I now know how to properly do.) I make the dough, I put the cookies in the oven, and I am about to walk out of the kitchen. But, Rosa calls my name from the dining room and tells me that my soup is waiting for me on the table. I reiterate that I just ate lunch. Nope, doesn’t matter, I have to try a little soup. A heaping bowl of soup later, I’m nearing food coma status. Next thing I know, I’m sitting in my room studying and my other host brother, who is a truck driver that drives to the coast every week, comes in with a mango and hands it to me. I don’t really know the protocol when you are handed a piece of tropical fruit in your bedroom, so I say thank you and try to continue studying. He is still standing in my room next to my bed, so I realize the protocol is to follow him into the kitchen. My two host brothers and I split open mangoes and laugh as bright orange mango juice drips down our arms onto the ceramic floor. I eat one mango. Do I want another? Oh my god, no. I sneak back to my room. Ten minutes later—I hear the bells chime six from the church in the center of town, and in comes Rosa. She wants me to make a salad for dinner. You’re kidding, right? I’m back in the kitchen. Salad, rice, eggs, and beans. For situations like this, the training staff taught us how to say, “Ya no avanzo.” (I can’t continue.) It never works.

One final note: My host family loves my chocolate chip cookies, and the word vender, to sell, got thrown around a couple of times. I hope they were talking about the cookies. Either way, I’m glad I could add something to the food fest.

A Week of Firsts

Whew, it has been a crazy week (wonderful, but so busy)! Peace Corps has every Monday through Friday planned out from 8-5, then I spend about an hour and fifteen minutes walking home, and, sometimes, I have homework to do afterwards. On weekends, I have host family obligations--more on that in a bit. So, I've decided during PST (Pre-Service Training, there are a million acronyms in the Peace Corps) I'll try to update my blog every Sunday.


So here's the update...


This week has been a blur of training and absorbing Ecuadorian culture. I've been spending most of my time at the Peace Corps training center. Each day begins with a chaotic bus ride at 7:20 in the morning; when I say chaotic, I mean no maximum capacity, landscapes rushing by, a serious core and forearm workout in order to remain upright, and continued movement while trying to get off the bus. It's definitely an experience in itself. After the enthralling bus ride, the rest of the day seems rather dull. I've been attending lectures about culture, health, safety, Spanish, and technical training about environmental education and natural resources management. The two most interesting training sessions: the security briefing by a special agent from the U.S. Embassy and the intestinal illnesses talk from the extremely enthusiastic Peace Corps nurse. I'll let your imaginations dream up the contents of those chats.

My second home: the Peace Corps Training Center.

Besides training, I've been spending a lot of time with my host family. And by spending time, I basically mean eating copious amounts of food. And, I have to say, the food here is so good! I could write paragraphs about the food, but I'll limit it to just one for the first week. My favorite dish so far has been humitas--ground choclo (the type of corn here) mixed with butter, sugar and egg wrapped in a corn husk and steamed. Then, wait for it, fried in butter. Think: fried, sweet tamale. Delicious. My host mom, Rosa, and I go to the market every Sunday and stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables. The markets are incredible here! For breakfast, I have fresh juice (pineapple, melon, naranjilla, mandarin, or tomate de arbol), a roll, and tea. Lunch and dinner usually consist of a combination of white rice, fried eggs, soup, vegetables, beans, lentils, and/or noodles. There's definitely an abundance of starch. On weekends, the day is basically centered around food, with lunch being the main meal of the day. Yesterday, my host family and I ate a huge lunch of soup, rice, vegetables, and beans. So, for dinner, we had tea and chocolate cake. Chocolate cake for dinner!

A fruit stand at the central market in town=delicious!

Yesterday, I had to tackle the task of washing my clothes on la piedra. (La piedra is the stone that people wash their clothes on here.) Basically, you take one piece of clothing at a time, lather it with soap and water, scrub it on the rock, let it sit for half an hour, then take that piece of clothing, douse it with water, and squeeze it until all of the water comes up. So, Rosa taught me how to wash my clothes, and two and a half hours later, I finished washing 6 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, one skirt, a handful of underwear, and a set of sheets. Where's the washing machine at? No, not really, it was actually kind of pleasant washing my clothes in the morning sunlight. I think the best part though was that my bright purple underwear was splayed out on the clothesline in front of the dining room window while we ate lunch. Not embarrassing at all, nope.

La Piedra

Success!

My host family has a garden, actually more like a small farm, in a neighboring town. Rosa and I went to see the farm and to feed the pigs yesterday. She goes to the farm everyday in the mornings. The garden is very beautiful; there's corn, potatoes, lettuce, beets, beans, and three pigs! Los chancos, pigs, are gigantic and crazy. There's also a ton of alfalfa that Rosa grows to bring back to the house to feed the cuy, guinea pigs, several of which will be eaten in a couple of weeks for her son's birthday. I've tried lots of new things this week--food and experiences--I can't wait to try more, but maybe not any cuy!

Rosa and her chanchos!

The view from my host family's garden

One of the many beautiful flowers blooming here!