My site

So after 6 months of knowing what country I am going to in the peace corps (Ecuador, duh...), I finally know where I will be spending the next two years. My site is a small town about 6 hours south of Quito (by bus) in the Sierra called San Lorenzo, in the province of Bolivar. It is a town of about 800 people with a surrounding community of 2,000, sort of like Pesillo. The neareast city is Guaranda, which I will be going to for supplies and Riobamba (which I heard was really nice as well). One of the 4 co-trainers that we have right now worked and lived at that site so I get to pick her brain about everything. My official job description is a bit open-ended but here are the highlights:

1. I will be working with an agricultural cooperative that is interested in promoting small value-added projects and also work with the community to improve record-keeping and collection mechanisms.

2. Improve irrigation use and water management, especially field level irrigation

3. Crop diversification, school, and family gardens. (also help with solid waste management using worm composting)

It sounds like a lot and I guess it is, but I will be working in an unstructured environment and need to ¨self-motivated¨. We´ll see how it goes...very excited about the whole thing. I will be doing a site visit on sunday through thursday of next week in San Lorenzo to check it out and get to know my counterpart, the person who I will be working with the closest (she happens to be my host mother for the first 3 months so that is cool). From the map, San Lorenzo is sort of in the middle of Ecuador, maybe a little south...but I like it because I am in the mountains and can get to the coast or oriente (jungle) within a day, so I can visit other volunteers as well.
It is great knowing where I will be going to...finally, now I can prepare myself for the next stage of Peace Corps life.

Til´ next time

10,000 ft and feeling good

Here is the thing about living your whole life at sea level...living in a city that is 10,000ft above sea level is kind of hard to do at first. When I arrived in Quito...walking uphill on a street was like running a marathon, I felt exhausted. Everyone says that you need a few weeks to adjust to the altitude and they were not kidding, it takes a while. This is entering my fourth week in Ecuador and I finally feel like I am back to where I was before I left. I went for a hike in these hills outside of Pesillo with a few other PCTs (that is what we are called...Peace Corps Trainees) and actually felt really good, it felt great to actually do physical activities again and it is good to have people around me who share that passion. Also, the other thing I am getting used to is being at such as high elevation right on the equator...I got burned even though it was cloudy that day and I already put on sunscreen in the morning. So, I am putting on sunscreen even if it is snowing around here.
My birthday was last thursday and I, along with other sustainable ag volunteers got to go to this town called Puembo and spend a day learning organic agriculture practices on a farm. It was a beautiful day and the food was excellent (it all came from the farm!). WHen I got home, my ¨parents¨surprised me with red roses and a delicacy in Ecuador...Cuy! Cuy (guinea pig) is only eaten during special fiestas and days. I had been wanting to try it forever and I got to...pretty good I must say. It tastes like a gamey chicken with a duck-like crust. I enjoyed it a lot (and a good change of pace from the rice!). Things are going by pretty quickly down here, next tuesday (24th i think) I will find out where I will be spending the next two years of my life...very excited, think I will be happy wherever I go...Ecuador is a very beautiful and ecologically diverse country. Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!

Ashta Cama

Cuy Shit

I guess the one thing to make you stick out in a town of 1,000 Ecuadorians if you aren´t already an over 6 feet gringo is to go around town with your peace corps buddy and pick up animal shit with a shovel and a wheelburrow. Sounds like good times on a saturday afternoon, huh? We actually had a good reason for this besides the pure entertainment we caused the onlookers. Our group that lives in Pesillo officially started a garden project (which everyone does) and it is currently taking place at mi casa. Our garden should have the best compost pile because A) we have cuy (guinea pigs for the gringos) shit, which has the most nutrients in it B) we have egg shells, C) because during a field trip everyone else was giving us their wasted food scraps, indirectly helping our cause, and D) because we are badasses, duh.
We spent all day saturday working as group with the help of a few neighborhood kids (mi hermanito, Paul, is a great worker by the way) and tilled the soil with hoes and raised the beds. It is amazing what one day of working can do when everyone is working together. I am really excited about this garden. I will post pictures of that and my house and the nieghborhoood where I live in next time...if I remember. Other than that, things are moving along. I should find out where I am living for the next two years in a couple of weeks, I am really excited about that. Some of the meeting that the Peace Corps have are very thorough...if you catch my drift, but it is in our best interest I guess. I am learning more than I ever wanted to know manure and compost, but it should help me in the long term with whatever my project calls for.

Ciao

D.C to Pesillo

It has been a busy last 7 days, flying to D.C., meeting up with the volunteers, there are 46 of us! We flew down to Miami, then arrived in Quito with no problems, where we took buses to the hostel where trainers and other peace corps volunteers were there greeting us, it was nice. In Quito, we spent 3 days doing orientation stuff, like getting shots, taking a language interview test (I tested at intermediate, which surpised me) and letting us know what we could and could not do while we are peace corps volunteers...the list is pretty long. Anyways, we really didn´t have time to explore Quito since we were so busy but from the parts I did see, it seemed pretty nice. During our three days, we go to do a tourist thing but taking a bus up to the mitad del mundo (middle of the earth, equator) which was pretty kids, they had some scientific experiements that blew my mind.
As far as the host family siuation goes, we were put into groups of five based on our undertsanding of spanish. So since I tested out as an intermediate, I am with a group who all speak spanish at a similar level to me, which is nice. Our group got assigned in a small town called Pesillo, which is about 40 minute bus ride from Cayambe. This sounds a lot, but we only have to go into Cayambe two days a week for a technical training (for me, that is learning how to deal with donkey poop) and the buses go about 25 miles per hour since the roads are far from straight. Pesillo is a cool little town, most of the people farm and have pigs, chickens, dogs, or donkeys in the backyard. My place is a little nicer than I thought it would be, but you definitely know that you are in the third world, but I find the life down here refreshing and simple, which is a nice change of pace from the states. My family owns a little store in front of their house and have about 10 diary cows in a location about 5 miles from their house. I am now milking cows everyday in the afternoon! My forearms are getting a workout. My family is really nice, they have a son, 20, that works in Quito, a dughter, 13 and a another son, 7. I am getting along with them really well. I don´t think I have embarrassed myself too much...I think.
I am enjoying my time so far, relearning spanish quickly and looking forward to our agriculture sessions in the upcoming weeks and am safe as can be!

Hasta luego