chao Ecuador

I guess I am getting senioritis with my blog entries, I was pumping out one a month but now with my time winding down in San Lorenzo I have gotten too lazy or just forgot to blog. That´s a shame for the 10 people who may have had an interest in reading about the goings on in a town of 300 people in the middle of the Ecuadorian Andes. Anyways, for my faithful reader(s) (i.e. HI MOM!) I think I should do a despedida (goodbye) just for shits and giggles.

The standard clichés of the Peace Corps Volunteer right when he or she is leaving their site is usually always the same. ¨The two years just flew by¨ or ¨It was rough at first but I really grew to love my community, host family or my projects¨ or my personal favorite ¨I wouldn´t trade this experience for anything¨. For me personally, all of those clichés have some truth in them…that´s why there are clichés in the first place. From day one in San Lorenzo, I felt comfortable with my host family and the people in general. I never felt alone (well as much as a tall gringo in the middle of a tiny Ecuadorian town in the highlands can feel) and always had a support system if I needed it. However, the truth is that I never really needed that said support system because I mentally prepared myself of life in Ecuador before I came down here. If I had 3 meals a day, running water and wasn´t cold at night, I considered it a success. Anyways, from a social standpoint, I never felt I needed to escape my site every weekend like some other PCVS tend to do.
From a work standpoint, I could either take a glass half empty or a glass half full approach. I will just say that the glass was filled 50% full. Maybe I could of done more if I came in more aggressive and forced some work, but then I wouldn´t of integrated with the community like how one should when being a gringo in a small town of 300. I always felt you needed to earn people´s trust and find out how they work and go about things instead of saying ¨okay, so here is what I need to do and you should just do what I say¨. So it´s a nice way of of saying that I slacked off the first year and didn´t do anything until the second year haha. All smart ass comments aside, I always went to bed saying that I didn´t do anything of substance that day or week, but looking back, you realize that you did more than originally thought.
Also one needs to realize that coming in as a young gringo still learning the language in a community that is not really receptive to change, that doing (or trying at least) what I did is an accomplish in and of itself. You realize that helping out building an irrigation canal or an organic family garden or teaching someone who to prepare organic fertilizers…yeah those were fine, but most people are going to remember the conversations with the gringo and learning about Los Estados Unidos and its culture. It was fun playing ambassador because I may be the only foreigner that they truly will get to know in their lives and with that comes a sense of responsibility to educate them about the good ol´ US of A.

With that, I bid you all chao…I hope all of you have enjoyed reading about my 27 month journey in Ecuador. I will be travelling for a few weeks after I leave Ecuador but this blog is called my life in Ecuador, not my life in Peru, Chile and Argentina. Plus, I will probably not feel like blogging as I am not a big writer in the first place. So with that being said, this has truly been an experience of a lifetime living and working in this beautiful and tiny South American country. The people that I have met are truly some of the most generous and happy people that I have ever met. I will remember them for the rest of my life and I wish that you all have a chance to come down and visit my home away from home sometime, mi lindo Ecuador.


Hasta luego