One of the first projects we are supose to do as PCVs is called CAT, which is basically a community needs assessment project. I am suppose to interview 50 or so families and find out what sort of long term porojects I can develop over the next two years. We give a presentation at our reconnect conference in a few months with our counterpart and then give the presentation again to our community. Anyways, during my interviews with the families (the ones that actually agree to talk to me...I think most people think I am a missionary or something), I inevitably talk about what I am doing in the community. I give the whole thing about community gardens, working on the irrigation canal, small businesses, and then I mention casually that I am willing to help out with english classes, or atleast tutor people who want help.
Usually people just smile and nod until I tell them that I am willing to help their son, daughter and themselves with english, then they perk up like it is christmas morning. ¨clases de ingles, en serio?¨ is usually the typical response. And word has gotten around town that the gringo is willing to help out with english, so this has given me something to do on top of the other stuff i am working on. I have to remind my fellow san lorenzons (i am sure that is what they are called) that i willing to help and tutor but that I am NOT an english teacher. It certainly has been a learning experience for me as one day I am helping a 10 year old kid who basically knows nothing to a 29 year old woman who can read and write but needs help speaking. I am trying not to make this my number one goal here but it has helped fill out the schedule and hopefully some of the kids will use it later in the their lives.
As far as the other projects go, i have my own demonstration garden going and have had a few workdays getting the community garden going at the local health center. Also, we have had a few mingas (workdays) on the canal outside of san lorenzo, avalanches of dirt get into the canal as must be cleaned out with many of the following combination: shovel, pick, hoe, 35 to 40 ecuadorians, one tall gringo. Any of these combinations will suffice to cleaning out a canal. Make sure that it is really hot while you´re at it.
Other than that, I am just trying to intergrate with my community, really try to get to know the locals, it has been fun at times, awkward at others and plain hilarious when you see people who are afraid to talk to you sober but when they are drunk (usually sundays), they absolutely love slurring their spanish to the new gringo.
Till next time
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The U Curve
During our training, the peace corps does a session on your state of mind once you get to your site. It is said that volunteers go through a U curve of some sorts. First you arrive in Ecuador or at your site, and you are in the honeymoon period. Everything is so exciting to you, the food, the culture, learning spanish, getting to know your fellow PCVs, etc. Then reality starts to set in, you start missing your family, friends from back home, miss having all the creature comforts that you had back in the states. It is said that you enter a depressed period. Then with time, you either stay depressed and truly start to dislike this country or you start heading back up the U curve, into the humor/ acceptance stage of your perios of service. Well, apparently, this weekend I went through the whole damn U curve...
So for the first time last weekend, I really got sick. Not the ¨oh, I have diarrhia, i just need to drink some water and I´ll be alright¨, that happens all the time...or atleast to me. Not only did I have diarrhia, but I had these sulfur type burps, which are not fun and they taste absolutely disgusting. I would of thrown up too had I actually been able to eat some food. The reason I got sick...maybe it was playing with animal shit all day trying to get a compost pile going while later cooking that night with meat that was probably better left untouched. This was sunday...monday and tuesday really didn´t feel that great. Everything little thing that bothers you about a place becomes compounded when you are sick. The cold showers, eating plates of white rice after white rice, the bumpy bus rides that take twice as long as they should, that fact that in most houses, I can´t stand up straight because the walls are made for 6ft gringos and that you have lost weight from being sick. All those things, and then you realize ¨why am I here right now...what am I doing here?¨
Yet then you wake up one day (i.e. today) and you feel better. The air smells cleaner, you can actually eat breakfast, the spanish just seems to flow out of you, you don´t have to think about it. You realize that life here doesn´t suck, it would of sucked if I was sick in the states too. And you´re heading back up that U curve...
So for the first time last weekend, I really got sick. Not the ¨oh, I have diarrhia, i just need to drink some water and I´ll be alright¨, that happens all the time...or atleast to me. Not only did I have diarrhia, but I had these sulfur type burps, which are not fun and they taste absolutely disgusting. I would of thrown up too had I actually been able to eat some food. The reason I got sick...maybe it was playing with animal shit all day trying to get a compost pile going while later cooking that night with meat that was probably better left untouched. This was sunday...monday and tuesday really didn´t feel that great. Everything little thing that bothers you about a place becomes compounded when you are sick. The cold showers, eating plates of white rice after white rice, the bumpy bus rides that take twice as long as they should, that fact that in most houses, I can´t stand up straight because the walls are made for 6ft gringos and that you have lost weight from being sick. All those things, and then you realize ¨why am I here right now...what am I doing here?¨
Yet then you wake up one day (i.e. today) and you feel better. The air smells cleaner, you can actually eat breakfast, the spanish just seems to flow out of you, you don´t have to think about it. You realize that life here doesn´t suck, it would of sucked if I was sick in the states too. And you´re heading back up that U curve...
Saturday, May 2, 2009
The next step
After nearly a 10 month application process (how many times did I have to go to the dentist?), then a 5 month wait after learning that I would be going to Ecuador and 9 weeks of training, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! It is...finally...here. Omnibus 101 swore in last wednesday at the ambassador´s office in Quito in the lawn in front of the building. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I am exciting about getting to my site, integrating into the community and continuing some projects however I will miss my fellow volunteers from 101 that I have gotten to know pretty well over the last 9 weeks. Anyways, I guess all good things must come to an end as I get ready to the real Peace Corps experience. I got into San Lorenzo on Thursday, a day after the swear-in celebration...I´m not going to lie...the 6 hour bus ride wasn´t the greateast experience I have had ;-). Anyways, I am excited to be here and glad that training is over (another safety and security session and I don´t know what I would have done...)
We spent three days in Quito before heading out, it was kind of crazy because Ecuador just had its presidential elections and Rafael Correa got re-elected, which is apparently the first time that has happend in the last 40 years. There have been 8 presidents in the last 10 years...so stability might be a good thing. I don´t know too much about Correa so I won´t comment on it, but it seems opinions are mixed. The interesting thing is that when we were in Quito, we were all standing on a street corner and a guy told us that ¨Correa was coming around the corner and we couldn´t cross the street¨. Not 30 seconds later, a caravan rolls by and Correa passes us by with his window down not 5 feet away. I was dissapointed I didn´t get a pic but I did wave as us and ask us where we were from. Ahhh, the glamarous life of a peace corps volunteer!
Anyways, I got an address at my site, if you want to send me something (letters, paperbacks, non perishable food would be appreciated). Just don´t declare anything and limit it to under 4.4 pounds (4 pounds to be safe), I don´t want to go to customs to pick it up.
Josh Raser
Casilla 02-01-32
Guaranda, Ecuador
South America
till next time...
We spent three days in Quito before heading out, it was kind of crazy because Ecuador just had its presidential elections and Rafael Correa got re-elected, which is apparently the first time that has happend in the last 40 years. There have been 8 presidents in the last 10 years...so stability might be a good thing. I don´t know too much about Correa so I won´t comment on it, but it seems opinions are mixed. The interesting thing is that when we were in Quito, we were all standing on a street corner and a guy told us that ¨Correa was coming around the corner and we couldn´t cross the street¨. Not 30 seconds later, a caravan rolls by and Correa passes us by with his window down not 5 feet away. I was dissapointed I didn´t get a pic but I did wave as us and ask us where we were from. Ahhh, the glamarous life of a peace corps volunteer!
Anyways, I got an address at my site, if you want to send me something (letters, paperbacks, non perishable food would be appreciated). Just don´t declare anything and limit it to under 4.4 pounds (4 pounds to be safe), I don´t want to go to customs to pick it up.
Josh Raser
Casilla 02-01-32
Guaranda, Ecuador
South America
till next time...
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