Swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer

8.18.10

“I Corey Margaret Klein, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge my duties in the Peace Corps. So help me God.”

Today we we officially sworn in as volunteers! Crazy that we completed two months of training and in a few days will head to our sites and start our service. The ceremony was held at the American Ambassador's house in Quito; it's a big, beautiful home with an enormous yard and a great view of the mountain Cayambe. After the ceremony we had breakfast and were able to hang out for a while, take pictures, the whole deal.

That night we all got together and had a party at one of the hostals- lots of dancing, celebrating, woop woop!

Pics: Youth and Families Program, then me with the American Ambassador Heather Hodges, and Country Director for Peace Corps Ecuador, Parmer Heacox.

Happy 56th Anniversary to my G-rents!

8.7.10

Today is my grandparents 56th wedding anniversary, so happy for them!! Love you Lois and Phil hehe!

This past week we were separated into groups based on programs and went on what is called a technical trip. It's pretty much going to other sites of current volunteers and giving charlas/workshops on various topics, talking to them about their projects, and kind of getting a sense of what other people do on a daily basis.

Overall it was a great week. My group and I had a really good time, gave a lot of Sex Ed. charlas to teenagers, and we traveled mostly in Guayaquil and surrounding areas, so we had nice warm weather! I personally loved the Sex Ed. charlas, because the kids are more interested for the most part, they like to show us what they know, and like to ask questions. At first it was frustrating to try and control a group of loud and talkative adolescents, but after a while we realized that they were so talkative because they were interested in the subject and were eager to talk about what they knew about sexual activity and HIV/AIDS/STDs, etc. However, we also talked about how it’s so important to have a good relationship with the youth and to have their trust because of the nature of the subject, and so they have the confidence to ask questions and speak openly about their experiences in order to provide them with the information. Some cultural beliefs revolving around sex and sexuality come from religious beliefs. An example of this might be that masturbating can cause mental damage, because if it is done too often, one could become addicted and this is not a healthy activity to engage in.

We were charla-ed out by the end of the week but definitely gained some good experience from it all. Our group was more for youth entreprenuership and adolescent learning combined, but not a whole lot of the charlas helped us in this regard. It was awesome to spend time with a specific group of volunteers too and get to know each other better. It was an exhausting week but very energizing, and we had a TON of ice cream, cakes, sweets, you name it, we ate it, multiple times of day, and WE LOVED IT!

The picture above is our group taking a tour of a mangrove, pretty sweet.

Site Visit After thoughts

7.24.10

This morning I got back to Cayambe/Tabacundo from the site visit, and there were a lot of thoughts going through my head. Mostly like I said before, a lot of nerves and feeling pressure to do so many things as my community has many needs. I was very shy throughout the week and know that it's going to be more difficult for me to go out into the community by myself, but little by little and with help from my counterparts it will work out. I also felt confident in the beginning of the week with my Spanish, and how I've improved a little bit in training. But the coastal way of talking is soooo much faster than the sierra, and I know it's frustrating for people to have to constantly repeat or explain what they are saying. That will take some more practice for sure to adjust to their accent and speed of speaking. Last thought= SO many MOSQUITO BITES!!! I will head back to Salinas in August with as much powerful bug spray as possible!

The picture is of me, Zeneida, and her cousin, they call her "la loca", or "the crazy one", and they are right, she is pretty crazy. All she wanted to do was teach me really bad words in Spanish, haha. She was a refreshing part of the week.

Site Visit in Salinas

7.20.10

I arrived in San Vicente in the morning and met Cleopatra, who is one of my counterparts, or people who I will work with to come up with projects for my community. She works in La Oficina de La Mujer, Niñez y Adolescencia, basically an office for women and children who need support and advice during situations where they are abused and would like to file a report.

Pretty soon after I met her, Cleo left to go get someone and left me alone in the office but said I could use her computer and should answer the phone if it rang. I was a little overwhelmed and shocked she left me there alone without really knowing me, but it was fine! She came back and we started talking; she has lots of energy and good ideas, is really interested in getting the Town Hall in San Vicente on board with being more active in Salinas as it pertains to that office. Salinas is about 20 minutes away from San Vicente but it takes longer because of the road conditions.

When she came back a woman came in about her bf hitting her and she was thinking of going to Guayaquil with her two kids to live with her mother. Cleo has met with her before and explained to her a few options of leaving, or filing a report against him. Basically her role is to give advice to mistreated women and what their options are; she also accompanies them to file a petition against the abusers. After the woman left, Cleo explained that many woman come in more than once and say they’re gonna leave but change their minds. Some are worried about housing and finances, abuse is also a cycle. There is now a new law that no one can be put out of the house.

Then I met Cleo’s boyfriend from Germany, Ully, he’s a somewhat retired business consultant and came to Ecuador tohang out, coach some soccer, possibly flip houses. At lunch time, Cleo, Ully, Chalo (Cleo's boss), and a previous mayor of San Vicente drove me to Salinas. It was different from what I had somehow pictured in my mind. It's better to have no expectations so there isn't such a shock value at times. Salinas is a very small, very poor and rural, underdeveloped town. A lot of people live in houses made out of caña (sugar cane), some houses are abandoned, half built, there is one main dirt road that runs through the town.

When we arrived, I met Zeneida at the town's Microempresa (Small business) with her friend Nelly, and they were making peach yogurt in addition to rompope ( a eggnog-like licor drink/shake-yumm but thick, for sipping, like a thicker Baileys). Zeneida will be my counterpart in Salinas, so I will work with her and Cleo to develop positive projects for the community. Zeneida is the president of the Women's Group in Salinas and also has a lot of leadership responsibilities in Salinas.

We walked through the town to meet various people, especially those involved in the current youth groups. I met the President of the town, Wilson, the police, and saw an old daycare building that's currently closed, and the clinic, or subcentro de salud (not very clean).

After that we went to Zeneida's parent's house where I will live for the first three months I am in Salinas. In the house I will live with Zeneida’s parents and their granddaughter, Mirtha, and her son Josemi (3 year old terror).We sat down and talked about different ideas of what the community needs. Ully has lot of ideas for projects or ways to improve the town’s overall appearance or business opportunities, such as planting a tree for every new baby, hiring a cleaning staff for subcentro, growing grapes to make wine if the climate is right, sports to reduce crime and involvement with drugs. He would also like to help the Women's Group with creating more business opportunities in addition to the yogurt and rompope that they currently are making.

Chalo, Cleo and Ully left, and I went to a small meeting with Zeneida by the school with mostly mother's of the students. The purpose was more to introduce myself and explain my role. Everyone was really nice and very receptive, seemed excited about possible things we could do to help the kids with their self esteem, etc.

Later that night a meeting was organized with the town so I could be introduced to everyone. President Wilson led the meeting and people seemed ancy for me to get started and for me to work with the youth. I explained the goal of the week to hang out and get to know the town, then come back in August to start the two years. First 3 months will be interviewing people, they want a census done, and still getting to know everyone and integrating into the community. If I want to go into the schools I have to write an official letter explaining why and what I would do.

Overall it was a good day, but overwhelming thinking about the poverty/pressure of the amount of work that can be done/is desired, etc. I felt good about the support from the community though.

And your site iiiiiiissssss.....SALINAS!

7.16.10

Today we found out where our sites are for our 2 years of service!! It was pretty cool, the staff created the map of the country that's in the pic above. It had all of the provinces labeled and the map was made out of rose petals, sweet! They pretty much had all of our names on little pieces of paper with the names of our sites on them, and one by one drew the names. Then a facilitator (the people in the picture) would escort each of us to the province where our site is located. I was picked towards the end of the group, so it was cool to see where everyone was placed throughout the country and how people were grouped together by province. On Sunday night this week we will all travel to our sites for a week so we can get to know the people we will work with and start to get acquainted with our new homes!

Laundry the Sierran way

7.11.10

This morning I woke up and got my clothes together to learn how to wash my clothes by hand with my madre. Yes, it's a process in which the people use a rock, dry detergent and also a bar of soap with a brush. First we soaked my clothes in water and dry detergent for at least an hour. Then, you use water, the brush, soap, and rock, to wash the clothing. It felt a little bit like a Disney movie or something, where all the women get together with their wooden racks and scrub away! I learned with a pair of jeans, using the brush to get rid of dirt stains and what not. It’s exhausting work. My madre told me that on the coast, the people use as little water as possible because it’s expensive to use the water. I can imagine washing jeans to be very difficult there, and since it’s so hot it might be necessary to shower more often and thus wash clothes a lot more as well. I like spending time with her because she has so many stories about her life and her family, it’s great practice for my Spanish and I learn a lot about the family history, and about how strong and resilient my madre is.

After my laundry lesson, I went to meet up with the girls from Tabacundo, and we went to cayambe for the World Cup championship game. Before I left my madre told me to meet her at her mother’s house to kill some Cuy, or guinea pig, because we would have that for dinner on Monday night. There's gonna be mass held at her mother’s house for Alejandra’s birthday (my madre’s daughter).

Once i arrived at abuelita’s house, some people from the family were there but they weren’t killing cuy. Instead they were making some cookies called alfajores. It’s two small sugar cookies with some caramel in the middle, then the outside is coated with caramel and coated with coconut shreds=delicious! My madre’s nephew, David, was playing the guitar and singing some songs. He’s a very talented musician, and it was a great, relaxing evening spent with some of the family.