tech trip

A lot has happend in the last two weeks as I have not had time to update this thing. It was cool spending Semana Santa in Pesillo with my host family and have some down time with them. One of the days my host mother made us fanesca, which is a typical ecuadorian dish, consisting of soup and other vegetables (supposedly it has 12 grains in it). It was really good...served with this drink that tasted like a cross between oatmeal and horchata. During that weekend, I got to experience something rather incredible. One of the PCTs, Ian, who is jewish, hosted a sader at the restaurant in Pesillo, where one other PCT, Mike, lives. Mike´s host family was there and so was every other PCT in Pesillo. It was interesting to say the least because first I didn´t know what a sader is and second, it was mostly in Spanish. You really have to love the cross-cultural immersion of Jewish and the Catholic religions together. My contribution to the whole thing was helping Mike´s host family paint their restaurant, pretty random but they were doing it and I offered to help.
After that, our entire group headed to Porto-Quito to start our 8 day cultural/technical trip. Porto-Quito is located about 2 hours west of Quito in what is known as a transitional zone. It was extremely hot and the conditions were almost jungle like...very humid. It was fun hanging out by the pool, playing soccer, and just relaxing for a few days. Even the cold showers felt nice! Anyways, we did do some organic gardening sessions, mixed in with a ¨leadership¨ session, which was actually very informational and not boring. I have tons of bug bites on my calfs to prove that I went there, the itching has just started to subside. After that, the sierra group (all the volunteers heading to work in sierra region, about 16 of us) headed to Riobamba, which is about 4 hours south of Quito. One of the larger cities in Ecuador, it was a good change of pace to actually experience a larger city in Ecuador. The agricultural group headed to an organic farm just outside of Riobamba and visited a farm with its own microclimate that can grow fruit (such as oranges, blackberries, and limes) that normally cannot be grown in the sierra because of its climate. Fascinating stuff and something to aspire to at my site. After Riombamba, the group headed to Salinas, which is about 2 hours west of Riobamba and 1 1/2 hours north of my site in San Lorenzo. Salinas is known for its cheese, chocolate and other value added products like soccer balls. Spending time there (along with some breathtaking hiking) showed me what could be done with local resources if used properly, definitely something to aspire to.
Really tired from traveling all day...10 more days until my projects begin!

Ashta Cama