Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I just made it into Quito after taking a 10 hour overnight bus. Now I am headed to the jungle for our Peace Corps Halloween Party where I will be reuniting with all my friends from my training group. I can't wait to see everyone! My friend and I will be going as the Ecuadorian food staple...rice and potatos. I will make sure to post pictures soon!

Trekking through the Jungle

I went with the mayor and his staff for a hike through this beautiful jungle scenery. We spotted monkeys, frogs, tropical fish and luckily no snakes. Our wise tour guide Antonio taught us the ins and outs about the tropical plants and the history of the ancient caves hidden deep in the jungle. Pictures can hardly do justice but here is a mini photo essays of the hike.

We also had an artist in our group from Quito who was sketching the increible screnery that surrounded us.

We snacked on rich flavored papaya and mococha. There was no need to pack snacks because the trail was lined with fruit trees. We also cooled off and swam in the gorgeous waterfalls, which was refreshing after our 5 hour hike. It was a adventure I am sure to never forget.

Clown trouble

A mini-circus just arrived in my community, and my friends and I decided to go on the opening night. The small tent was lit up with neon lights and had small homemade signs that welcomed everyone to the big attraction. The show consisted of belly dancing, tight rope performances, clown acts, a 4-year-old contortionist, acrobats and some interesting balancing performances.

The clown acts were where the show took a turn from being slightly funny to slightly obnoxious. The clown eventually spotted the Gringa in the audience and insisted on making lame stereotypical jokes about Americans. He climbed up the stands to talk with me and proceeded to draw unwanted attention to me by calling me his new girlfriend and repeating the only 2 English phrases he knew.,“Hello baby” and “What’s happened to you.” I played along trying to be a good sport considering the community’s eyes were fixed upon me and judging my every move. The clown finally stopped using me as the butt of all his jokes, and the show continued. I was a little annoyed but the audience got a kick out of it.

The final act, the clown came back out and explained how he wanted to reenact a scene from a Tela Novela (Soap Opera). He announced that he needed to girl volunteers. Immediately the clown turned to me and pressured me and my friend to join him on stage. With the audience annoyingly cheering me on, I apathetically made my way to the stage. He explained how Delia, my friend, would play his wife, and I would play his mistress because I was the Gringa. (I can’t tell you how thrilled I was about my role)

Then, he was describing the scene in front of the crowd saying how we were suppose to fight over him, and how he would choose who he would stay with by giving them a kiss. Then he approached me and said “like this…” and started leaning for the kiss. (Who, signed me up for this?!)

I knew how bad this scene must have looked with the Gringa about to smooch the clown, so I quickly gave him my check instead. He kept attempting to kiss me on the lips, and I continued to put up a fight. Even if it was just a joke, I didn’t want his sweaty clown painted cynical lips near me. I could tell he was getting frustrated with me, but in my opinion he could consider focusing his jokes on his circus crew vs. centering his jokes on the audience members who paid to see the show (not be a part of the act). I was then told to go back stage to wait for further instructions. So, there I was back stage trying to figure out a way to get out of making out with this disturbing clown in a respectable manner.

Here I have been working this past month getting to know community members and gaining their respect while breaking negative stereotypes they have about Americans. Now, in front of the entire town, I could lose that respect in a matter of minutes due to this ridiculous clown performance.

I was pushed back on stage, and the soap opera continued. When my part came up, the clown tried several times again to plant a kiss on my lips, and I kept resisting. (Maybe it really wouldn’t have been so bad had he not set up the scene before hand by making rude jokes insinuating that American women are promiscuous.) Anyways, I of course never let him kiss me, and when the awkward performance was finally over, he presented me with a free ticket to see the following night’s show. (Yay! I couldn´t wait to go back...)

Latest News from Ecuador

Me, my neighbors Aura, Jennifer, my host mom Cecilia and my host aunt Monce. This picture makes us all look the same height but I am standing two stairs below everyone. We are at the Night of Art/music concert in a near by community, which turned into a big dance party. I am really not a fan of dancing in front of big groups and having everyone stare at me, but it is seems to be a normal occurrence here. (Please someone give the Gringa a dance lesson!) Mi Duvi is a government organization that is working in my community and is helping families improve the construction of their houses. Currently, the houses are made of cana bark, and Mi Duvi is tearing them down to replace them with cement houses. I am happy for the families who are getting a house upgrade but I am going to miss the character that the cana houses gave the community. Big trucks filled with housing materials come by the communities and drop off the supplies to make the new houses. The families are responsible for transferring the heavy materials to their land, which for some families happens to be down a steep flight of steps and across a narrow bridge. (The families don’t have the equipment to move the materials, so they make several trips back and forth carrying everything by hand.) The entire family helps out. These girls made numerous trips with buckets full of rocks to the top of a hill where they live.
Harvesting oranges!

One worker stands at the bottom of the tree catching all the oranges that are being tossed down from the person situated high up in the tree.

While I was helping harvest oranges, the workers showed me a “culebra” they had recently killed near where we were working. I have to admit I just about died when I saw it how big it was. My community kept telling me that these types of snakes only live way up in the mountains….and now they are living less than 5 houses away from me!

I can handle the spiders, but I just hope I never have to see another one of these beasts slithering around in my community.

On a less daunting note, I have a new little gecko friend living in my house

So, I am excited because my host family and I have been fixing up the first floor of the house for me as my new apartment. We just finished painting the bedroom, the “office,” the kitchen and the bathroom. (I will give you a virtual tour when it´s all complete!) We went to run some errands after we were done to let the paint dry, and when we returned, my host brother had decided to use some of the remaining paint to remodel the front of the house. He painted the bottom part of the house and the patio benches a burnt brown caramel color. When my host mom saw the new revisions, she literally screamed, and then from the phrases that followed the shriek, I learned some new bad words in Spanish. Who knew we had an artist in the family?!

Other random news:

• I have been making homemade yogurt! So far I have made blackberry, peach and strawberry flavored yogurt. I want to try pineapple and mango too, so I will let you know how those turn out.
• With the youth groups, I am conducting diagnostic exams/census in each community to evaluate the needs of the families and what sustainable projects I will be able to facilitate in the communities.
• I got a bike! My host brother fixed up an old bicycle he had lying around, which has become my new form of transportation. It is stuck in the highest gear, and the chain randomly falls off but normally it gets me to where I am going so I am happy!
• Got another care package (Thanks mom!) and some great letters! They mean the world to me! Thank you! Thank you!

Nature is a Symphony

The difference between me and a tree
Is the information and the energy.
Stay committed to your goal passionately,
Maintain unshakable serenity.

Nature is a symphony,
Flowing into infinity.
We can be this symphony,
By obeying the laws of nature.

The universe is my extended body
and my thoughts can cause all things to be.
Whatever you put your attention on
Will grow stronger every day.

Nature is a symphony,
Flowing into infinity.
We can be this symphony,
By obeying the laws of nature.
Take attention away from whatever seems wrong
and you will be singing a happier song.
Intention transforms the energy
So you can manifest your desires.

Nature is a symphony,
Flowing into infinity.
We can be this symphony,
By obeying the laws of nature.
Center yourself silently,
Take your intentions and set them free.
Stay connected with your spirit and eventually
The details are handled automatically.

Nature is a symphony,
Flowing into infinity.
We can be this symphony,
By obeying the laws of nature.

by Suzzy Parker

Sounds of my Ecuadorian life

I feel like I am starting to become less of a stranger in this originally foreign land. The sounds, the movement, the tranquility of everyday life, I am taking in and learning to adapt to. Although I do not understand some of the cultural differences and am still being challenged to live outside of my comfort zone, I am finding a way to manage the discomfort and opening the doors for peace to hopefully settle in.

Silence. It doesn not exist here, and to escape that endless drumming of noise took a while. It took a bit of stubbornness and lessons learned, and now I am finally starting to appreciate its uniqueness.

Sounds of my Ecuadorian life:

• the constant low hum of crickets
• tropical birds chirping
• the chopping of a machete as the workers cut down caña bark to use for constructing houses.
• my host brother, Jose Abel, sprinting down the stairs every morning trying to make the bus for school
• bzzzzzzzzzz…the flapping of wings zipping by my ear as some sort of tropical bug zips around my head.
• chickens crowing in the morning…and at other random hours of the night. (I swear sometimes it sounds like these chickens are ill or going through pubrity) You can close your eyes, but you can’t close your ears.
• big exhaust blowing busses charging down the single road in my community sounding their horns as they pass. (The busses run every 15 minutes)
• loud high pitch motorcycles zipping by. (I essentially live next to what they consider to be their mini-highway) I must say, I am getting good at identifying what type of automobile is approaching just by the sound of the engine.
• GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLL! Stomping, clapping and cheering rush the air as Ecuador scores the first goal in a crucial league game against Chile. (I use to never really like soccer, but it is starting to grow on me.)
• alien sounding chants as Jose Abel tries to speak English. He then proceeds to ask.. “What does that mean? What did I just say?” and I respond with a puzzled look. (*Side note: he just came up behind me and gave me a “noogie” on my head…I seriously don’t know when the last time was that I got a noogie from someone. I imagine it was when I was still sporting side ponytails, oversized t-shirts and jelly shoes...Oh, what a fond experience it is to get to see what it is like to have a younger brother. End of side note*)
• clamoring of pots and pans as I walk past houses around noon and mothers are preparing lunch for their families are gathering to have lunch together.
• old grandpa like men whistling as they leisurely ride their bicycles to work in the morning
• salsa, cumbia and meringue music playing while the Latin women tidy up their houses and execute a mini concert to Tranza (a famous Latin band) with their brooms as their microphones.
• some noises I can not identify nor find the animals and bugs that are making the sounds

The diverse sounds of Ecuador remind me of one of those relaxing jungle sounds CD that people like to fall asleep to. The unusual harmony of the high tenored bird calls accompanied by the bass of the car engines, a percussion of pots and pans and a rhythmic rustling of leaves make up the rich sounds of this Latin symphony.

Veggies, martians and beauty queens

Health Fair for my community:

I partnered up with Alimenta Ecuador, which is an organization that promotes healthy diets and distributes food to the poorer communities. The idea of the organization is good, but they tend to only visit the communities every 4 months or so to pass out food, so it is not very consistent but I guess every little bit helps. I gave my first nutrition charlas(workshops) at the health fair, and I taught about healthy fats, saturated fats, how to introduce more fruits and vegetables into their diets, etc. People here tend to use too much aceite (oil) when preparing their food. One woman told me she uses close to 2 bottles of aceite a week for her family of 5. (The recommended amount of aceite is 1 bottle per month for a family of 5) I am going to start giving cooking classes soon to try and offer some healthy alternative recipes.

My friend Delia and I teaching about the effects of saturated fat on a person´s heart.

I helped teach a gender equality conference this past weekend to a group of youth who will go back to their prospective communities, and teach what they learned. This particular lesson focused on the difference between sex and gender. One of the facilitators was pretending to be a martian from a different planet where there was no such thing as females and males. The youth had to describe the differenes and eventually realized that there are differences defined by society (which equals gender) and differences that are genetic (which equals sex).
I love working with the youth groups...can you find the gringa?! (acutally there are two gringas)
Waterfalls that we hiked to after the youth group workshops, which ended up being a 4 hour hike. If you look closely, you can see someone standing in the waterfalls. This picture makes the falls look smaller than they really were. The min-lake at the base of the falls is actually really deep, and is where I was dared to jump in to. (which of course I ended up doing, and then had to trekk back for two hours in soaking wet clothes. I was a mess when I got back but I would do it again.)

The youth I work with on our bus ride after our long hike. They wanted to have a mini dance party to have me teach them how we dance in the United States. (I seem to be the form of entertainment for them in many of these situations) Queso!

(Jose Abel, my host brother, is on the far right with the striped shirt)

My friend Jennifer and I on our way to a Beauty Queen Election...boy was that an experience. They are similar to a mini-Miss America pageant. The girls get all dressed up and wear different gowns, give speeches (which almost every girl forgot her speech, I felt for them) and dance on stage in front of everyone. The ceremony didn’t even start until midnight, and in between dress changes, everyone crowds the dance floor to bust out their best cumbia or salsa move. (They never just let the gringa sit and watch so I have been making my best attempt to dance cumbia.)

Reasons to visit your favorite PC volunteer in Ecuador

• You don’t have to worry about currency change
• Experience big lizards and giant tortoises up close and personal
• You can see for yourself (discover the mystery) where your favorite PC volunteers lives
• Beautiful snowcapped volcanoes
• Incredible hot baths/hot springs at the bases of the volcanoes
• Become familiar with delicious costal food! Mention food from Manabi (the provenance where I live) to any Ecuadorian, and they will say that it has the best food in all of Ecuador. (shrimp, crab, corviche/banana dumplings, ceviche/seafood soup and rich fruits just to name a few)
• You can buy a tasty complete meal for under $2
• The tropical fresh squeezed juices and smoothies are simply delightful.
• We can “banarse”(bathe/swim) in the river that trails through my community. The water temperature is perfect!
• You can hand deliver Salsa Verde Doritos chips (and other only found in the USA items) to your favorite PC Ecuador volunteer
• Beach trip (perfect honeymoon spot for friends who are soon to be newly weds)
• You can experience the breathtaking views of Ecuador from the back of a camioneta (truck), which is a popular form of transportation. (optional, but highly recommended)
• Horseback riding up to the waterfalls near my house and then trekking back through the river on horseback.
• You can say you stood on the equator at “La Mitad del Mundo.”
• Whale watching May through October
• You can bargain for colorful jewelry, ornate rugs and indigenous artwork in the largest outdoor market in South America, Otavlo. (bring back a colorful hammock, a must have for afternoon naps)
• Take a cruise to the Galapagos Islands and see the Blue Footed Booby
• World renowned snorkeling on the coast
• We can go canoeing across the lake near my house
• Gorgeous biking trails into the jungle
• Me!