You wanna be in Manabi

One week I am snuggled up in my sleeping bag wearing fleece pants and a fleece coat, while the next week I am sleeping under a mosquito net wearing a tank top and shorts. Ecuador offers such a wide range of climates. I visited my permanent site in Emaus last week, which is in the Manabi Province

Location: Manabi is along the central part of Ecuador’s Pacific Coast

Capital of Manabi Province: Portoviejo, which is only an hour away from my site and has a giant mall and a movie theatre!

Manabí Provinence: Known for its beautiful beaches, quaint fishing villages, commercial centers such as Manta. It is also known for the Machalilla National Park with its rich vegetation and varied species of fauna. It also produces many handicrafts and is known worldwide for its pottery and panama hats. (Panama hats are actually made in Ecuador and then shipped to Panama…odd but true!) Manabí’s resorts offer peace and quiet as well as delicious, uniquely coastal cuisine.

Climate: Dry to humid subtropical, with an average temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit. There are two domestic airports-one in Manta and one in Portoviejo.

Cuisine: Made of fish, shrimp, or shellfish, ceviche is one of Manabí’s most delectable specialties. In general, all types of seafood are very popular. Also, there are scrumptious fruit smoothies and “pan de yucca” stands situated on every street corner.

Overall, my site visit went really well, and it was nice to see where I will be living for the next two years. The people are great, and I live next to a river and beautiful lake, which are both swimmable! (no snakes in the water either..I had to ask) The town is very small and fairly rural, but I think it is fitting. Just in one week alone, I felt like my host family was adopting me into their family and neighbors were inviting me over to dinner.

The Spanish is a little different on the coast. The people speak much quicker, and it was rather intimidating in the beginning. By the end of the week, however, I was getting the hang of things.
Good news is that I may be getting Internet in my site by the time I move there in September! More importantly, I will have running water and electricity in my site too! The water situation is not as reliable, and I have had to take a few bucket baths but it really isn’t that bad. I know I will be missing the hot showers though.

I will be living with Cecilia, the president of the community, and her 11-year-old son Jose Abel. Cecilia is my counterpart and is very motivated to get started on projects in the community. Jose Abel, on the other hand, is not too excited to have me living in the house because he is use to being the only child…I brought the movie Ratatouille and invited him to watch it with me the first night, which helped him warm up to me a little.

There was a previous PC volunteer that lived in my site in 2007, but she early terminated (ended her service) after one month of being in site. It is going to take some time to gain trust from the community, and to convince them that I will be staying for the full two years. I am not planning on leaving anytime soon.

Plan Internacional is the main organization I will be working with in my community doing health education and working with youth groups. There are five other communities that I will be working with that are situated around the near-by lake (Posa Honda), which means I will be taking a canoe across the river to travel to the other villages every week.

According to my site description, my primary projects are to…
· Provide nutrition education to children
· Help in the prevention of teen pregnancy
· Work with maternal health and breastfeeding promotion
· Promote prevention strategies for tropical diseases
· Help develop income generation opportunities for women’s groups.
Secondary projects for my service include
· Working in diabetes prevention
· Environmental health education

I have a full plate of projects for the next two years and am going to be staying busy!