Disclaimer: The opinions and beliefs expressed in this blog are my personal thoughts and do not reflect any position of the Peace Corps or the U.S. government.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Convos about religion

9.17.10


Today is the final day of cultural week at the high school, so I went with Alba and watched some people sing, awards, typical stuff, food, prizes, kinda boring. I was able to talk to one of the Doctors from Peace Corps because I'm still sick with a bad cough. She told me of a few things that I should go to buy at the pharmacy for my cough/cold/infection, whatever it is. After lunch Alba went with me to San Vicente to get the meds.


From there we went to the church in San Vicente and visited her two friends who are nuns there, both from Brazil; one’s name is Maria, the other Christiana or something. Maria was trying to convince Alba to buy a lot of bingo tables for a bingo event at the church on Oct. 31. She was making us laugh how excited she was about it and all the people in Alba’s family she said should buy one, including me haha.


On the way back, Alba was asking me how I knew that she was once a nun, cuz she thought that someone must have told me about it or something. A few days ago I had asked her if she wanted to be a nun just because of the way she was talking. We were having a conversation about religion at the time and she talked about all these classes that she's taken. I guess I’m the first person that’s asked her without previously knowing. She told me she was a nun at one point in time for 4 months, but then her parents put the stop to it. She would come home on weekends and they would give her money to go back on the bus, and one weekend they wouldn't give her money so she couldn't go back, and she said she got back into her old lifestyle where she didn't have such a structured schedule as when she was a nun. I explained to her that I could kinda tell by the way talks about God and religion, I was just curious because it seems like a big part of her life. I also told her about my experiences where I was pretty religious in high school and beginning of college, but my views or thoughts changed when I met people in college who are really good people but don’t believe in God. In a previous conversation I had said something like, sometimes God lets bad things happen to good people, and she thought I was referring to myself and wanted to know an example of that kind of situation. We didn’t talk much more about it because I didn’t really know how to explain how my views had changed or why, and the reasons I did know I didn’t want to share with her at this point.


So Embarrassing!!

9.16.10

Today I went to San Vicente to Cleo's office and do random things like use the internet and such. To get home, I took a new bus called the Flavio Alfaro Abierta. It's a bus I've never taken before, and basically there are no windows or anything, it's almost a trailer with benches and then a roof, so the sides are open.


As we were getting close to Salinas I started getting nervous about how I was gonna get down because getting up was a little hard, the step is really high. As I turned around to get off, I just stretched my right leg to find the ground and kind of half-jumped to get off when I heard a ripping noise. I SPLIT MY PANTS GETTING OFF THE BUS! They are my nicest pair of jeans and my favorite! As I started walking down the street I realized that my pants had ripped, and I started freaking out that people would be able to see the rip and my but! The rip was more in between my legs and up to the back pocket, but I wasn't sure what it looked like from behind. I ended up taking a detour to avoid the park where there were a lot of people, and made it home without anyone saying anything. I was so irritated at the time because I feel like I've been gaining weight, and I tried to make myself "experience" something new by taking that bus, and this happens! After I calmed down I told my friend Ang who called later, and it was pretty funny in retrospect.

School differences

9.14.10


I helped Alba teach a class for a teacher that couldn't come to the school today. When we arrived it was recess and some kids were climbing up on the soccer goals and it seemed pretty dangerous, there wasn’t much supervision. Then a group of students were gathered in a big room to prepare for a drama that they are going to put on this Friday at the high school. This week is cultural week and Friday is the end with lots of ceremonies and presentations. It was interesting to see how the two teachers tried to organize the students because it seemed like the kids were very much in control, and the teachers were not organized in the way they wanted to teach the kids a dance, so there was a lot of down time which caused the students to be very loud and ancy, something normal for their age. The teacher was asking them to be quiet for 5 minutes and then they could start but that didn’t happen. She tried organizing a group and started the song that they were gonna dance to, but eventually it seemed like everyone got tired of trying and all the kids left and the teacher unplugged the tv that was playing the song. The kids were also distracted because there was a little boy who got hurt on the playground (I thought they were supposed to be in class but there were some students still playing unsupervised), and he had fallen from the soccer goal and busted up his nose or something. His mother came to complain but I couldn’t hear the conversation, she was obviously frustrated and said she was mad that no one was supervising the kids. Alba said that each teacher rotates for playground duty each week, but there are 140 students and only one person to supervise? That’s not fair to the teacher and definitely not to the students. I asked why 2 people don't supervise together at least, and Alba just said they have their system already.


We went to the 3rd grade classroom to teach and she taught some math, adding and subtracting. Many children in the classroom said they didn’t have a pencil to write with, and so they didn’t do their work. There was a lack of supplies in the classroom and I thought it was really sad that a child would suffer due to not having something to write with, something that one would think a school would provide for its students. However there is a lack of funding and support it seems for many schools. The class went alright, but a lot of times students are out of their seats and yelling, stealing each others stuff. many needed more individual attention and I wondered if the material they were being taught was over their heads or something. Afterwards a lot of the kids were asking me to say something in english but I said I wouldn’t for the students that didn’t do their work in class! It was a frustrating experience at the lack of organization and discipline, but also the expectation for some of the kids to sit still and just write, instead of doing more interactive activities.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

RAR I'm a sick monster!

9.12.10

The past few days or week I think I've been sick with a bad cough. Today I felt more sick and everyone fussed over the reasons, mostly they said because I drank beer yesterday and this is terrible for you when you are sick. Supposedly I got sick in the first place from waking up early and going running when it's dusty outside and the air is cold. My host mom says that I should stop running, because getting up and running in shorts and a t-shirt when I'm not used to the cold air is bad for me, and then I come back and take a cold shower when my body heat is up. I don't feel any cold air at this point, I'm always warm! It makes me laugh when I hear all these random reasons why I'm sick and what I shouldn't do so I can recover. In our culture when someone is sick, you're sick. We still go to work unless we're dying, pound the cough meds and Tylenol, and even will keep going to the gym for the chance we'll "sweat it out". Anyways, today I stayed in my pjs like all day and thought I had a slight fever, so I relaxed did basically nothing. Alba came over and she said i scared her cuz I looked terrible and I popped out from the window when she walked up.


Festival de Chame en La Segua


9.11.10

Today is the Festival de Chame. Chame is a type of fish, I honestly don't know what the comparison would be to fish in the States, but supposedly it's an international festival in honor o this world-known fish! So I went to the festival with Alba, Adriana, Milena, and Armando. It was pretty basic, felt like a County Fair setting with dancers and singers, clowns, food, booze, and souvenirs, but on a smaller scale. For the most part we sat around and talked, drank beer, and ate tongas. I explained what this is in an earlier blog post, but they're big tamales or burrito-type things, with fish, rise, peanut butter sauce, and banana wrapped up in a big tree leaf. Obviously for the festival there was Chame in the tonga, not a big fan to be honest. It was pretty hot outside so it was nice to be in the shade. Usually there's a lot of dancing but we stayed for the afternoon and left before things really got going I think.

Above is a picture of us at the festival, from left it's Adriana, Milena, me, Armando, and you can see the tonga open on the table. Doesn't look the greatest but they are usually pretty good, I just didn't like the Chame. Sorry festival!

Life of Camaroneras/Pescadores



9.9.10

So the title means the Life of Fishermen and the people who raise Shrimp, not sure if "raise" is the correct term, but you get it. They help the little guys grow and then sell 'em! The picture above is the shrimp pool behind my host families house. The guy in the boat in the background is Aurelio, my host dad's son, who works for his dad feeding the shrimp and basically doing everything to raise them.


Ok their life=NOT EASY. It’s actually very dangerous. Salinas is a big fishing town and also big for shrimp production, or seafood in general. One day while I was on the bus, I saw a fishing boat on the water and there were tons of birds swarming, waiting for fish to steal from the fishermen, obviously they need the fish too so there’s some competition. And risk of being bit by the birds. Also, Adriana told me that a lot of times people are killed because they try to rob the fisherman or shrimp pools to make money. So the Camaroneras are very protective, and if you cross their land at night it’s risky because they will most likely assume you’re trying to rob them. On the other hand, there are others who have their fisherman’s license and are still killed as being assumed as theives. She told me a story of a couple men who were fishing and some camaroneras killed them. First they tied them up, and then stuffed live fish down their throats, and then tied rocks to their legs and arms, and dumped them into the water. Intense, and they were innocent men who had their licenses and had a right to be fishing at the time.

Other risks again are the birds; in most camaron (shrimp) pools, there are nets that will trap birds who fly down and try to eat the shrimp. Birds may eat 15-20 shrimp per day, and over a period of 3 months which is the harvesting period, that’s a lot of shrimp and a lot of money that can be lost. Also, not every harvest turns out 100% perfect of course. Some months a family could make $1500 if all the shrimp are healthy and a good size; other times they may lose that amount of money because all the shrimp die for some reason.


According to Chinese medicine I have a loooot of problems!

9.7.10

Today after Alba and I finished doing the census for the day, we went to her cousin Milena's house because she wanted to do this health test on me. Ummmm ok what does that mean!?! Milena works for Tiens, a Chinese herbal store or something. She hooked me up to this machine and then someone else uses a pencil-looking thing to poke different areas of your left hand which correspond to different illnesses. It sends out an electric wave or something, and if the shock hurts there’s something wrong, but if not then you’re healthy. There's a corresponding sheet of paper with numbers on it, and the numbers signify a different illness or ailment. I was pretty jumpy throughout the test, the shock did not feel good!! Supposedly I have gastritis, collitis, high blood pressure!, leg pain, bad lungs (cuz i’m currently sick), and some other stuff. I said my stomach problems must be from the food, and I’ve never had high blood pressure so if that’s true I also attribute it to the food!


Impressions of American Girls

9.2.10

Today we ran again, got a little farther than the days before, and after had breakfast at Adriana’s house and we talked about some cultural things, like how I say I don’t know a lot. I've said it a lot all my life! But, I will admit it's more frequent here because sometimes I just don’t understand what’s going on and I’m embarrassed, or I really don’t know, or I don’t know how to say NO. They told me it’s better to say NO with somewhat of a reason, and if you don’t want to give a reason for not going somewhere or accepting an invitation, you can say you have another commitment.


We were also talking about Ecuadorians views of American girls, and both Alba and Adriana told me that in Canoa (a tourist beachy town about an hour away) there are always a lot of girls who are drunk and hanging out with terrible and ugly men, and ruin the reputation of American girls. Basically they get the impression that American girls are into drugs and are promiscuous. I explained that it's difficult to generalize the whole culture based on what they've seen on a few occasions, but I understand what they were saying. However, it also confuses me because in Salinas alone there are a lot of girls who are young, single moms, and not married. Ecuadorian parents become very upset if their daughters have a boyfriend and have relations before they’re married or “rejuntadas”, like in a committed relationship.



Ruuuuunnn Forest, ooorrrr not


8.31.10

Today was the first “running” day with Alba and Adriana, Alba's cousin. We woke up early to run before it would get to hot. We walked to the highway, I was wearing shorts and they were wearing pants, maybe should opt for pants from now on. We started running but they didn’t last long, so we walked after a while, then ran again and walked back after we turned around. At least it’s something, I hope I would work up to feeling comfortable/safe running alone in the mornings or something, we’ll see. Afterwards I wanted to hurry up and get to San Vicente but we stopped to talk to a few people of course and then Alba invited us for breakfast at her house, I don’t know why I thought I could work out “fast”. Then Alba drove all of us to SV which was nice and I was stressed about getting a lot done. In the end I did accomplish a lot of my list and it turned out ok.


After dinner I played “bolley” with Maikol (12), Daniel or "Gordo" (6), and Gaston (Mirtha’s brother who is about 22) inside the house. It was fun, actually somewhat of a workout, it's like volleyball. After that they came into my room with Jerry (14, Maikol and Daniel's sister) to hang out. They made me read some stuff from a book in English and also sing a song in English. Then Maikol sang a few songs. They told me that it’s “normal” for boys to be taken to a Chongo (brothel) at the age of 12 or 13 to have their first sexual experience. They asked me if Jon, my boyfriend, goes to brothels and thought it was normal that he would, but when I said no they thought it was a little odd that he doesn't. It was a very random conversation topic, but a big part of the culture that men usually cheat on their wives or girlfriends, but it is expected that the girls are virgins until they get married. The picture is of Gaston (left), Jerry, Maikol and I in my room with my beautiful mosquito net (toldo) behind us!


Monthly Incomes

8.30.10

This morning I went to the Elementary School with Alba and met with the directora/principal Haydee; I gave her a letter that I wrote to explain my role and to talk about what I could offer to the classes like self-esteem, communication, values, etc. She talked about teaching English once a week and then I can also incorporate those things. She expressed interest in having seminars or charlas for the parents, as the children seem to have lost their values and also some things are evident that are not being taught at home. We will talk more in a few weeks when I have materials to teach English and also have supplies for other activities.


After lunch Alba and I did more of the census from 2-6:30 ish, it was so tiring! It’s interesting to hear people’s answers to the question about how much they make per month. Many say they don’t know, because the flow of work, or the success of fishermen and those who catch shrimp is pretty inconsistent. However, it was also interesting that the people don’t know how much they make but somehow are still surviving. Some of the results were as little as $10 a month, or people receive money from family who live abroad, or receive government assistance which is called the Bono. It's basically equivalent to welfare, but unlike the States, it's a set amount each month of $35. It doesn't matter if the family has 1 child or 5, if the people applying are disabled or retired. I thought that was interesting.


We are going to start running tomorrow morning because Alba wants to lose weight and so do I because I’ve gained about 5 pounds since I got here. Everyone laughs about the weight thing because normally the people here don’t work out, so I’m glad to have Alba with me so I don’t look completely ridiculous. I mean most men play soccer, some women do too, but it’s not like “workout” is on people’s list of things to do during the day. But who knows, maybe it will catch on. A lot of people have diabetes here as well as high/low blood pressure; Ecuadorian cuisine tends to carry a lot of salt, in addition to sugar and oil. People don’t generally drink a lot of water, just juice or coffee/tea.


Sunday on the farm

8.29.10


We spent the day in San Antonio (near Chone) at one of Pastorita’s daughter’s house, I think her name is Mariana. It's about 45 minutes away from the house, more inland, and the house is pretty isolated and at a higher altitude, it's a big farm. There are tons of flies, and you can smell the pigs, they have soooo many! There are lots of cows and chickens, pretty typical farm. We went for lunch, and I tried to be part of the cooking clan of women in the kitchen, but at first they wouldn’t let me do anything really, just told me to eat the papaya they had cut. Then I was allowed to help make tongas, like tomales where you use these big tree leaves and put some rice, chicken, peanut butter sauce, and a platano maduro in the middle and then wrap it all up.


Parts of the day were frustrating because everyone talks really fast and asks me questions that I don’t always follow, so I feel stupid. Then they say stuff like “She doesn’t understand some words”, I’m thinking that I would understand better if I could make out what they’re saying, and OF COURSE I don’t understand everything because I’m still learning! Then people continued to ask if I cook, what I cook, if I wash clothes, etc, always surprised that I know how to do certain things. It just gets me irritated sometimes even though I know they just want to talk and have good intentions. I have to look at it as my chance to correct misunderstandings or stereotypes of American girls. One of the teenage girls in the family asked if I had servants in my house, because I had told her I could wash my plate when she was trying to do it for me. I told her that might be true in some households but the majority of families teach children to help out and they have to do chores to do their part to keep the house clean, and to learn the value of hard work and responsibilities.


Funny thing: I told my host mom that I love platano maduro, it tastes the best, kinda sweet, and I just like it. It looks like a banana, but you can't eat it raw. It has to be fried or boiled I think. Of course now I eat maduro pretty much daily, and I think if she doesn’t have anything to give me or doesn’t know what to feed me, she just picks maduro as a safe option. It’s also easy to make and cheap, but hopefully I still like it after a few weeks!


WATER IS LIFE!



8.28.10

This morning I had a great surprise, that I was able to shower with running water! It has been confusing because I know the water runs, not sure if it does every day though. But, I’ve seen my host mom fill up the receptacles with water almost everyday, but I’ve tried to turn on the “bomba” to make the water run, and it doesn’t. The bomba is something that pumps water from the river into the plumbing in the house, or that is my understanding. Anyways, it was AMAZING to shower without a bucket to dump over my head and such, it felt great. The picture shown is of the bathroom, it's difficult to see but the green things are the receptacles where water is held when there is no running water.


This morning I started the census of Salinas with Alllllbbbbaaaa! I say her name that way because it reminds me of the Flinstones when Fred says, "WIIIIILLLMMAAAA!". She is my neighbor and I was introduced to her by Chalo (an employee at the San Vicente Town Hall). She doesn't have a job right now and agreed to help me do a census since she knows everyone in Salinas. We talked to 33 different families and it took us from about 9-2pm, a really long day of repeating questions. Most of the questions include people's names, ages, level of education, occupation, income, and the types of health problems they've had, from asthma to malaria or dengue, a sickness from mosquitoes.


Tonight there was a mass at the Catholic Church for the Virgen Cisne, not sure what role she plays in the church, sorry! Alba came to pick me up for church, so we went to mass a Brazilian nun who gave mass. Salinas doesn't have a pries that consistenly comes to hold mass because there aren't enough priests, so usually one of the nuns comes from San Vicente every couple of weeks. Of course at mass they had me jump right in and do a reading. Today is the mass for the Virgen de Cisne, so there was a procession afterwards up to where they had set up for a baile, or dance. Everyone has been asking if I like to dance or if I can dance. I didn’t want to stay at the baile because I don’t feel comfortable yet with the ppl, and didn’t want to be embarrassed. Alba and I hung out outside the baile while ppl were starting to come and talked to her uncle. Afterwards we went to the Evangelical church just to check it out. We were standing outside for a while and people kept offering for us to come inside but I was comfortable just watching and was almost ready to leave. This church was worshipping, loud music, lots of people with their hands up in the air, and people crying. One woman approached us and pretty much dragged us into the church to sit down. It was just a little uncomfortable because I don’t know the people that well and I don’t usually see tons of people balling with their arms in the air. Then towards the end of the mass the pastor started asking people to come forward to pray and “ receive the word of God” etc. Eventually, he called Alba and I up to join the group of people, and everyone continued to cry and scream out etc. It was fine for me to stand there, but THEN, the pastor called me out and and tried to get me to come forward again with a man to give myself to Jesus. I then felt more uncomfortable and didn’t really respond/stood still, and according to Alba, turned fire red! Then he asked, “You don’t beleive?” I pretended like I didn’t understand what he was saying to me and eventually he moved on. It was frustrating because I didn’t even want to come into the church, and it was my first time going there. I don't know a lot about Evangelism, but I respect other religions and the way they want to worship. However, I don't appreciate being accused that I don't believe in God by someone I don't know and who has never seen me before. I talked to Alba after about it that I don’t go to the same kind of services as the evangelical church, but i respect what they do and how they practice their faith, I just don’t share the same style as they do.


I talked to Pastorita (my host mom) when I got home about it and she said she was baptized Catholic but really likes the Evangelical services. She told me a story about how she was having trouble with her pregnancy with one of her kids and needed to have a C-section. During the process at the hospital and after, she said she was feeling like she might die, because everything felt so far away and she had lost a lot of blood or something. She said that she had told God if he let her live that she would come back to church and find him at the Evangelical church. She said she is still working on it to get back to the church but we didn’t really go farther into the reasons why she hasn’t been.


First Contacts with the High School

8.27.10

This morning I went to a meeting at the high school/colegio with my neighbor, Alba and Zeneida (my counterpart in Salinas). We spoke at length with the professors there about why I'm in Salinas and offering help to come and give charlas/workshops to the kids on topics from sexual education to values and communication. A bunch of other issues came out while we were there that made me really confused because I have no idea how the school runs. A more delicate problem now is there is a girl who is the only one in her class and she has to study in a room by herself. This is the same space that teachers use to meet when the don't have class and talk about their problems with the children, which is not appropriate for her to hear, and also causes some great distraction for her in terms of getting her work done. Zeneida wants to come back next week to see if the school has resolved the problem, in which she suggested that the teachers meet in the office to discuss issues and leave the girl alone with her teacher so she can focus and learn. I felt awkward that Zeneida was bringing me into the situation during the first time I'm meeting the staff and the principal of the school, and they all talk so fast it was hard to keep track of what everyone was saying!!


In the afternoon Zeneida and I went to the microempresa (mini-business area at the entrance to Salinas) to talk with police about a marcha, or protest that many leaders of the town want to carry out against some youth. Lately they say that Salinas is becoming more dangerous and the youth are starting to use more drugs and drink, and also engage in delinquent behaviors. The marcha would be a demonstration that the town has had enough, but also to offer the youth help to start a group or to look for jobs, something to support them to stop doing these things. I also feel awkward about participating in a marcha when I just recently got to my site. I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression that I'm just here to criticize what people are doing. I especially don't want to push away the youth when I haven't had a chance to get to know them or them to know me. In the end the marcha wasn't ever carried out because of a lack of interest.


Thursday, January 6, 2011

history of Salinas

8.26.10

The main highlight of the day was that I read a lot which felt good, good for the soul ya know? talked to Zeneida’s mom about the history of Salinas. It used to be a salt mining town, where the people filtered the land and used the salt (i’m terrible at remembering/understanding/explaining these things so bear with me). So the salt brought the people to Salinas and also it has access to the water where people can catch shrimp and fish as well. Zeneida’s mom talked about her parents living here and this is where she was born and raised her kids. She had 12 kids total, but a couple of them died, and she also semi-adopted a couple as well because there was a woman she knew who didn’t have the means to raise her kids, so the family took them in. It was a great conversation because I don’t know her very well but it was cool that she shared a little bit of her family’s history with me. Then there was a meeting at the school that I went to with Zeneida and there was another man there from ERA (Escuela Revolucion Agraria), a school with the Department of Agriculture or something. He’ll be coming her twice a week, Weds and Thurs for a few hours to give seminars and help the people learn how to cultivate the land to improve the look of the town and increase production of agriculture. I was also reintroduced to the people at the meeting and talked about the census and evaluation of the town over the next few months. Afterwards a few of us stayed and there is a growing concern that the jovenes/youth are involved in delinquent behaviors, drugs, theft, etc. In the end the adults want to organize a marcha against this behavior and present the jovenes with an opportunity to work together to find other solutions to working or getting involved in something else more positive.

strategizing

8.25.10

Chalo (Cleo's boss/city worker in San Vicente) called to have a meeting later in the afternoon. He is pretty much the mayor's right-hand man, that's the impression I get anyways. He came to Salinas and we met in the church's hall. He said that the mayor was impressed with me! And he wants to come to Salinas next week to meet with the people, awesome! We kind of talked “strategy”, he wanted to know when I would start the census and I told him that I would talk to Zeneida but for sure we would start next week. We looked through the CAT (Community Assessment Tool) book to get an idea of what questions we would ask, and then talked about going back to visit the homes after the census to do more interviews or the assessment in terms of project ideas and what the people are looking for. I met Alba, another community leader who works with the Catholic Church in Salinas and also with some of the young people (jovenes). We organized that I will join her on Friday morning for a meeting with the parents at the High School, but before I will meet the professors to talk about my work and offer ideas about after school programs or groups if they are interested/needed.

Chalo and I walked around the side streets of Salinas and he introduced me to some more people and we talked about the census so they are aware. It was great to meet them and also spread the word so next week isn’t awkward showing up to people’s houses, but Zeneida will come with me as well so that will help.


getting settled

8.24.10

Went to the meeting at Municipio de San Vicente (town hall), met Humberto Garcia, the mayor/alcalde. I went with Zeneida and Miriam (community member involved in asking for volunteer). It was a good meeting, just talked about my role and what the town of Salinas needs, and the mayor offered to help us in whatever way possible, he also talked about coming to Salinas to meet the people. We discussed working on getting a census taken of the town and from there interviewing the people to see where we should focus our efforts and such. From there we spent some more time in San Vicente and I met Fabricio, one of the city employees, we talked about soccer and also different after school programs I could put together, in addition to teaching english. Not something I'm crazy about doing (teaching english), but I will do it to get to know the people and the kids. The rest of the day I spent resting and unpacking my stuff and feeling a bit more organized. Also learned some card games that are similar to what we play in the States, like 31 instead of Black Jack, War, etc. I played with my host mom and Mirtha, they are pretty funny, really good people. My host mom is so loving right off the bat, willing to help and kind of the motherly/grandmotherly worry wart.


THE ARRIVAL

8.23.10

I spent day at Cleo's office and caught up on the internet met Miriam, a community leader in San Vicente and talked with her and Cleo about the CAT Tools= very overwhelming at first to read everything, but it does offer a lot of options and flexibility to make things my own in a sense. CAT Tools is a book that Peace Corps gave us to do an assessment of our communities to see where the needs are and what projects might be appropriate to fulfill the needs. Organized a meeting with the mayor in the morning for tomorrow at 8 and to have Zeneida come too to get his support and input on the situation in Salinas. At 5 pm, Zeneida’s cousin, Eduardo, and his wife Betty, drove me to Salinas, they live in Portovelo which is a small town on the way to Salinas. I finally arrived and met Zeneida’s mother (I’m staying at her mother’s house), her name is Pastora. Mirtha was there as well and when we drove up a few people said that they were excited that I was back and that they have been waiting for me to arrive, so that definitely helped to calm my nerves. The people are so sweet! And the fact that I wasn’t shocked like I was for my site visit also helped that I had been there before and had met some people. I pretty much ate dinner and went to bed after a while. Met Mirtha’s dad, Juan, who reminds me a lot of my uncle Tom back home, he kind of has the same build, look, and body movements I guess. Talked to Zeneida about the meeting and she will come along, we also talked about what had happened over the weekend and it all worked out fine, I don’t think she was mad or anything. I was nervous she was going to think that I didn't want to come to site and stayed in San Vicente to put it off for the weekend. I was definitely anxious to get settled and organized in the house, but it worked out for the best to talk with Eik and have a couple days to calm down and mentally prepare.


Blah blah

8.21.10

Woke up at Jennifer's/Eik's houseand made eggs with peppers and onions for breakfast, walked around, stopped at the beach but it was cloudy and a little cold/windy, so we didn’t stay long. We went to the market and bought some fruit and chicken, veggies, pasta, to make for dinner. Had some fruit and granola for lunch, and then took a nap for a couple of hours. Then we went out again to get olive oil and some wine to bring back to her house and start dinner. We started cooking at about 7ish and finally ate at 10 haha. Eik's stove only has one burner, so it took awhile to boil the water and make pasta, then soak the tomatoes for marinara sauce, and then sautay all the other veggies for the sauce, and cook the chicken. We talked a lot about where everyone’s sites are, random stuff. The whole weekend we listened to a lot of Carrie Underwood, love her! Eik hadn't heard her latest album which is so good, so I'm taking credit for getting her hooked. Then her friend paula came over to borrow Eik’s bike to go to a meeting. When she came back we were still cooking haha so she stayed to have a glass of wine and ate a little bit with us. We finished dinner and went to bed by about 12 am, the wine definitely helped me fall asleep pretty fast!


Off to an interesting start...

8.20.10

I arrived in San Vicente at 7 something in the am, and sat at the market for about an hour because it was too early to call anyone I thought. The past couple of days I had been calling my counterparts, Cleo and Zeneida, to coordinate when I would get into town and how I could get to the house with all of my stuff, but didn't connect with either of them. Eventually I took a motorcycle-taxi thing to Cleo’s office and we still couldn’t get a hold of Zeneida in salinas. Hung out there for a while, cleo called Jennifer (PCV in SV) who came over. We went to lunch across the bay in Bahia with PCV Whitney, had rice and shrimp, yummmm. Talked about projects and what not. Cleo called Jennifer and said that Zeneida’s brother was going to come and pick me up from the office at 5 pm after work. We left Bahia and came back to the office, then went with Jennifer to one of her after school projects to help kids in the neighborhood with their homework and then afterwards they get to play games and stuff. About 5 or 6 showed up, one really did some homework and the rest were hanging out and playing. The building has a lot of donated toys so the kids enjoy going there to play since they don’t have a lot of toys at home.

We came back to the office around 5 and no one was there to pick me up! Zeneida was not answering my calls, so Cleo told me to stay at Jennifer’s for the weekend and we would figure stuff out on Monday, and she had to be in Bahia for another commitment right away. I wasn’t opposed to staying with Jennifer, except that all my stuff was with me and I wanted to get to Salinas to unpack and just get settled. I also didn’t want to make a poor impression on the people that I wasn’t there. Cleo left and said she would call us if she heard from Zeneida’s brother, but supposedly it was difficult to call him because there wasn’t a signal.

Went to Jennifer’s and felt bad about imposing on her weekend, played a pick up game of basketball with the kids in the neighborhood. The kids get really into it and sometimes are pretty hilarious, but it went well and there were a decent amount of them too that were excited to play. We went to a burger place for dinner and had burgers with oreo shakes, soooo good. Then hung out at her house listening to music and looking at pics on my comp, talked about different experiences of hers in her site and how the past year has gone. To be honest, I was glad after a while because I started to get really nervous to go to my site and be "all alone"!