December 15, 2008
So its been 6 months to date (June 15) since I left the states and began my 2 year adventure in Ecuador. I was supposed to start a blog and I’ve had a few saved on my computer but in usual Jessica fashion forgot the password I put for the document and am now unable to open them, and therefore unable to post them. So now, I‘ve gotten the blogging bug and am going to try and be consistent on these things to keep anyone whose interested in my journeys up to date.
So I guess I will start with a quick background of these past 6 months: training, site selection, El Guabo, and now my own apartment. My journey started in Cayambe, an extremely cold town in the highland sierras of Ecuador. There are three temperate zones of Ecuador: the sierras, the oriente or amazon, and the coast. Each all Ecuadorian with many of the same customs, but each very much distinct from the other. The Sierra where I was, for one, is freezing, even in the summer. Its more like a California winter. There are many indigenous women, dressed in traditional wear, the Spanish is a lot slower and therefore easier to understand, and the fiestas usually involve dancing around in a circle from one town to the next while drinking beer and chicha out of a vaso that is passed around from person to person! My time in the Sierra was wonderful, and while I do miss it very much I am happy to be in the hot, muggy, beachy coast: where the people are crazy, the dogs are abundant, there are patacones eaten every day, and where my winter ( right now) consists of 80 and 90 degree weather. My host mother whom I lived with in Cayambe was a typical Ecuadorian old fashioned woman. This was a woman who when asked if she could go any where in the world without limitations, responded by saying Quito. Quito is the capitol of Ecuador, about two hours away from Cayambe. I made many great friends in Cayambe, many whom are also peace corps volunteers, but many who are host nationals. My PC bestee Chrissy is my life saver here in Ecuador—we keep each other sane and have many good times. We were hoping to be no more than a three hour bus ride away from eachother once we were assigned our sites, but by dumb luck, were given sites that are no more than twenty minutes away from eachother by bus. I also made some really great Ecuadorian friends, all whom I haven’t seen in a few months. It’s actually funny, and I guess all a part of travelling, but right when I was about to leave Cayambe for my new home on the Coast, I was just starting to feel at home. I had many friends, my family was great, and I was just starting to feel settled. For this reason it was hard to leave, but im hoping to visit them again soon—msot likely in June for the three month long festivals of drinking and dancing for hours in the streets!
The coty im now living in is very different from this however. My peace corps group or Omnibus ( don’t ask me why the heck its called that) is about 30—each of us in different parts of Ecuador. In total, there are about 150 peace corps volunteers throughout the country--each one having their own, separate community that they work in. I am in the southern coast of Ecuador in a small city called El Guabo. I am in the banana capitol of the world, so am surrounded by miles and miles of banana plantations. My city is not very big, but is still a city. There is a larger city, called Machala, about a twenty minute bus ride from me, and it is there where five of my peace corps friends live and work. Ill go ahead an introduce them to you since they will probably be in all of my blogs: there is Crissy who is my bestee here in Ecualand. Katlyn, Nathalie, edith, and steph. It is really nice to have my friends so close to me, especially when there are some volunteers who are hours away from the closest volunteer. The city itself, where I live, is pretty ugly. The center of town, where my new apartment is, is lined with one and two story concrete buildings, the streets are usually filled with dogs that chase each other and passing motorcycles, local tiendas that sell everything—my favorite being the tienda that sells meat and has it hanging out on hooks all day long to display to passerby’s. Then you have the fruit carts that sell my favorite: mango slices with salt, the carts that sell French fries and fried chicken, and the carts that sell cooked plantains (like bananas) stuffed with cheese. I haven’t tried them yet, because I’m not a huge fan of the cheese that they have here, but maybe one day I will work up the courage! One of the greatest things about Ecuador, is the $1.50 almuerzos you can buy that come with soup, the Segundo (which usually is some sort of meat, rice, and ensaladita), and a drink!
Now for the exciting part: My apartment. Its beautiful. Its pretty posh and if there was a peace corps Cribs mtv show, mine would definitely be on it. I have two bedrooms, a living room, a large ass kitchen, amd an indoor bathroom with running water. Granted its cold water, but its not that bad especially since its pretty warm here. I spent about a month going from place to place, asking in my best Spanish if the building above was vacant or even an apartment for rent. Most of the time I was turned down cuz it either wasn’t an apartment, or because they found out I was living “solita”---as if it was a crime to live alone. (Although I wouldn’t be surprised since everyone usually lives in the same family unit FOREVER) Anyways I spent about a month looking for a place and was beginning to feel like I would be left to live in a shanty mud hut. Not really, but I was getting very discouraged. The ones that I had found had either one or all of these: windows with only bars to cover the openings, cement floors, dirty walls, water only until 6pm—in which after that time you were shit out of luck. None of these, though, are that bad compared to some of the living situations you find people and families living in—they are simply inconveniences. It makes me realize how lucky and blessed I am. And sometimes it makes me feel guilty. I live here above their means; working, yes, but knowing that I will never have to work to keep food on the table or have a place to stay; that I will never have to worry about my lack of education or lack of opportunity—always knowing that with a simple phone call my privileged origin grants me the option to return to the states. That while, yes, Ecuador has become my home, the realities of these people and the hardships that they face, will never be my realities. I don’t want to make it sound like all of Ecuador, or all of my city where I live, is poor and in a desolate situation. That would be a lie and a stereotype of Latin America that I don’t want to over-exaggerate. At the same time, though, it’s not to say that Ecuador isn’t really poor. There are definitely your haves and your have nots, especially where I am. You have those that have all the modern conveniences we are used to: cars, running water, electricity, private schools, vacations, etc, etc. But then you have those families that live in cane and bamboo constructed houses, with showers and kitchens outside, and a family of six or more living in two rooms. The barrio that I work in is mostly constructed of these types of homes. Most families don’t have running water or a potable system to discard waste. Actually they are now, as I write this blog, putting in a potable system, so the entire Barrio has ditches and dirt holes everywhere as they construct it. The kids continue to play soccer on the local canchas, though, and run around on the dirt roads in front of their homes using their imaginations to think of new games to occupy their time. The dogs continue to chase around the little kids and passing motorcycles and you can usually find groups of women talking and sharing stories with their neighbors before getting ready to make dinner. I guess that is one of the things I have learned since I have been here. That in the end we are all just people. No matter how different your culture is, no matter where you come from or what country you live in, no matter how much money you have or don’t have, we are all just people with the same worries, the same wants, and the same necessities.
Ive had some very interesting experiences since I’ve been here. The best one that coems to mind, which will give you a picture of what life in Ecuador is like is the day we made tamales in my barrio. There is a local group of Madres here who wanted to do a fundraiser to throw a Christmas party for the local kids. The day before, me, my counterpart, and the president of the women’s group went shopping for all the stuff we would need to make the tamales. We bought a lot of stuff for about 30 bucks, and decided to meet at 11 am the next morning to start making them. Of course 11, here in Ecuador, always means two hours later. I thought we were bad! So I arrived at about 2, thinking I was going to be late. Of course I wasn’t and was the first to show up. Anyways, by the time the other mothers started to show up we started to clean and cut up the mote—homony. This took about an hour because it was a huge, huge bucket. Then we had to grain it all by hand. It was times like these when I missed the local Marias where we could buy the masa already hecho (made). While we grinded that, one of the madres put a chicken and veggies on the fire. Yes—literally a fire. (There was no gas tank to use on the outdoor kitchen because that Thursday—the day when everyone restocks on butane—the city ran out of gas tanks) So picture us cooking tamales over a camp fire! It was a great experience and I enjoyed talking with the women, exchanging stories about the states and my family. They look out for me, and it makes me feel accepted and apart of something bigger than myself when I work with them. I always enjoy the questions that I get from Ecuadorians though. Of course I always get the usual if I’m married, or have a boyfriend—which is always followed by the “don’t worry hunny, we will find you an Ecuadorian husband”. How do you say, no thank you in spanish! Lol. Then I usually get the question “It’s really beautiful over in america right” and ‘”everyone is fat and has blonde hair and blue eyes over there right”. Of course, I try to explain to them that every state, every city, every family, and every person is different. I explain that there are poor people in the states just like in Ecuador and not everything is easy. That in fact, the people in the states usually work a lot, and while, yes, we make more money, we also pay a lot more. AND that NO, not everyone is blonde haired and blue eyes. Sometimes I’m surprised by this question—I mean I’m not exactly blonde and I’m far from white. I may be gringa, per say, but I’m definitely not white. One time, I also got asked if Spain was close to Los Angeles. This is one of my favorite things to do here though—trying to overturn all of the stereotypes and misconceptions they have about American culture and people. I never really know what I’m going to be asked next!
As for my Spanish, since I know you are probably wondering, it is coming along. I am more confident in speaking and can carry a conversation and am understanding more and more everyday. I have made a lot of friends within the community—all of whom speak Spanish—so my Spanish cant be that bad. I really have no choice but to learn, because no one here speaks English. NO ONE! One of the hardest things though, is the accent that the people have here. I am on the coast of Ecuador where people tend to speak faster and cut the words up, so it takes some getting used to. I still am unable to understand the words that come out of my host-fathers mouth. I usually just nod my head and pretend I understand him, because I would probably be there forever trying to understand his accent. But anyways, my Spanish is better and I’m pretty confident that by the time I return I will be fluent! I’ve actually gotten into some of the soap operas that they have here. My good friend just gave me a tv the other day, and now can watch the novellas at any given time of the day.
As for my work: things are progressing, slowly, but they are progressing. As some background about Peace Corps—every volunteer has their own community that they work in with a community counterpart or organization. Usually there are three volunteers over a six year period, each serving for two years. The first volunteers job is usually to get to know the community and inform the community about what peace corps is, and to start some sort of program within the community.) So this is my job. I am the first and only volunteer in my site. That being said, my main focus right now is getting to know the community and informing the community about Peace Corps and why I am here. I basically do this through interviews within my community. Sometimes it can be tough, but I’m getting the hang of it. Through these interviews I am able to learn more about my community and about the problems that need to be addressed, and most importantly about the wants and needs of the people within the community. As for some of the things that I’ve learned: there are a lot of young kids here who quit school to help support their family and go to work in the banana plantations. You see a lot of kids working as shoe shiners or as workers on the buses collecting money from passengers. When you don’t see kids doing this, you can usually find them playing soccer on the canchas or in the streets. Overall, my work here is good. I would like to put together an afterschool program to keep kids off the street and in school. But like I said, poco a poco!
I have visited some pretty cool places since ive been here in Ecuador as well. I have been to the local beaches here in my site. They aren’t to great since we are basically a port town, and are surrounded by mangroves. There is a nice beach here, though, called Bajo Alto, with the most amazing shrimp, and small waves to boogie board. On days when there is nothing to do, we usually head over there to relax, eat shrimp, boogieboard, and lay out. It’s a very gringa thing to do, since no one goes to the beach to lay out and NO ONE wears a bathing suit. No they aren’t naked, they just wear normal clothes: jeans and t-Shirts! For Haloween though, we went into the Amazon area and did a rafting trip against twenty teams. We were each a team of 6 people, and we won third. By default I suppose you can say, since the rest of the teams we races against got caught in horrible rapids and all fell out. Either way, we won a hundred bucks ( 15 bucks each), and a t-shirt!!! For new years we are heading to one of the beaches up north which is great for surfing and I believe has a great reggae and hippie culture. Im hoping to take a trip once a month to one of the coastal beaches to lean how to surf and just relax. But we shall see. For the most part though, my time here has been absolutely wonderful. Ive met some really awesome people, but still cant wait to see all you guys in march once I return. Im going to be on an eating binge so we can all set up breakfast, lunch, and dinner dates so I can eat all the foods that I am now having withdrawals for: sushi, tacos, IN N OUT, Lupes…..ahhhhh!!!! Cant wait!
To sum it all up, it is different and there are a lot of things to get used to here, but that is what makes the experience so great! The first time I saw an entire family: as in mom, dad, two kids, and a baby on ONE motorcycle, I almost screamed. You would never see that in the states. The abundance of ants that no amount of Raid or chalk can kill, and the giant cockroaches the size of small dogs that follow you on the streets and fly, also took a lot of getting used to. It all eventually just becomes another normal day in Ecuador. I will say that I am still not used to the cold showers, and love to travel into the bigger cities because I know that a hot shower awaits me. They actually aren’t that bad because it’s usually pretty warm here, but on cold days (yes 80 degrees is cold for me), cold showers are simply horrible! Simply put, life here is different. There is no way I could possibly explain all of the differences. For one because there are so many, and two because I have become so used to them that they are now my realities of every day life: my home away from home.
Anywho, I hope you are all doing wonderful back in the states! YAY FOR OBAMA!!! I know its old news, but im still excited about it!! Until later,
Peace and Chicken Grease!
Jess