Masks, guinea pigs and fireworks

pLas Mascarillas was another Afro-Ecuadorian village we visited and they made these beautiful clay masks.

The ¨Limpieza de Cuyi¨
(Guinea pig cleansing...you can read more about this in the previous blog post)

We all had to give it a try...the Ecuadorian woman could do a push-up with the
bottle on her head but I wasn´t about to attempt that move.

The traditional dance called ¨Bomba,¨ Please notice the glass bottle on top of the woman´s head. (The saying is that if you can balance and dance Bomba with the bottle on top of your head, you are ready for marriage...this woman was an expert and ready for a husband)

Loved these girls!

Our children´s play on hygeine...I played la doctora

Before I knew it, there was a swarm of girls wanting to braid my hair. One of the villages we visited called Juncal. It was an Afro-Ecuadorian culture, and I loved their community! After our health workshop, a few girls started braiding my hair....

We even had sparklers! (Me, Rebecca, Sonya, Sam--Garrick and Ryan in the background)We had such a great 4th of July party!! I was sad to be away from home but getting together with all my friends here and having our own celebration was a blast!

Ecuador and their guinea pigs...

These have been an exciting past couple of weeks for me….very busy but lots of good times!

• Hiked in the Andes Mountains
• Star gazed on the top of my pueblo’s rolling hills (10,000ft. high). The stars are so bright and feel so close, as if you could reach out and touch them.
• Got sick on a bus…
• …drank a gallon of my Madre’s Ecuadorian concoction when I wasn’t feeling well, which is suppose to be a remedy for stomach problems (some sort of hot tea with strong Oregano spices)
• Got locked in my own room by my friends. When I was sick, my friends came to check on me, bring me some water and hang out with me for a short while. After tucking me into bed, they left, and I fell asleep. Because I had downed all my Madre’s special tea before hand, I got up a few hours later to use the bathroom only to find out I was locked inside my room. Fantastico! My friends had unknowingly put the latch over my door when they left. I had to holler for my host family several times before they came to my rescue. When they finally released me from my room, we all got a good laugh out of it!
• Danced in the streets with my host sisters for the three days of fiestas celebrating San Pedro, the Sun God. The park was packed with people dressed in colorful costumes dancing in circles, singing and passing around drinks until early hours of the morning. The Ecuadorians gave fiestas a new meaning...they danced for over seven hours straight each day. ( I couldn’t keep up)
• Celebrated 4^th of July at Ryan’s (PC volunteer) host family’s house…awesome! His amazing family grilled us hamburgers and hot dogs to help us celebrate our national holiday American style with some Ecuadorian flare…music and lots of dancing. We also made some other American side dishes to go with the great food (Mac n’ Cheese, cookies, potato salad). We even had fireworks!
• Learned how to dance Bomba, which originates from the Afro-Ecuadorian culture in Mascarillas where they rhythmically dance moving their hips and balance a glass bottle on top of their heads at the same time!
• Visited a Traditional Medicine facility:
• First demonstration, we watched as an old witch doctor lady cleansed Rebecca’s (PC volunteer) body with an egg. The idea is to pass the egg over the entire body to pick up any bad energy, and then cracking it into a glass half full of water to observe how the egg separates thus determining what kind of problems the person is having and eliminating the bad energy. As the lady was finishing up the passing of the egg, Rebecca’s face went white as the lady mistakenly dropped the egg on the floor…we were all afraid that it meant something bad. I turns out that the doctor was able to analyze the egg on the floor…Rebecca is fine and is now cleansed of any bad energy that may have existed.
  

• The second demonstration made my stomach turn but was fascinating to witness. The witch doctor performed a “Limpieza de Cuyi,” a medical practice that requires passing a live guinea pig over a patient’s body and then dissecting the guinea pig (I’ll spare you the gut wrenching details) to determine where the problem areas are on the animal, thus linking to the problem areas of the patient (my friend Darci was the “lucky” volunteer for the demonstration).
• Helped my host sister with her business idea to open up her own restaurant in our town. She has been taking cooking classes and would like to start up an Italian cuisine restaurant. ( I told her it also wouldn’t hurt for her to practice making pizza for us some time for dinner J)
• Gave a health workshop to a group of young kids about personal hygiene, (Song we taught them about washing their hands---“Lavo los manos asi, lavo los manos asi, lavo los manos con jabon y el agua, lavo los manos asi.” We also put on a play with Germ Monster fighting Super Jabon (the soap superhero). I played the doctor in our mini-theater production..it was a good time!
  

These are only some of the highlights from my past weeks. Lots more has been going on, but I feel I may have already traumatized you with the guinea pig story so I’ll save some stories for later.
Missing everyone at home! Sending all my love!

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4^th of July weekend!!

Taking advantage of this computer that can upload pictures really fast!

Mis amigos Carlitos and Sam

Carlitos y Me in our plaza ( I live in my fleece jacket)

Nice Ecuadorian graffiti...haha

Our Peace Corps gang symbol

So, I want to sign off by apoligizing for my spelling. It must be horrendous...at this point I can no longer speak English nor Spanish, just Spanglish which is doing some serious damage on my spelling abilities.

Mas fotos!

Pictures just don´t do justice but my little town is so pretty. Beautiful countryside! I love it!We found an Italian restaurant (owned by Germans) that serves the best spaghetti and gelato...we may just have to become regulars. Apparently all the gringos/ gringas go here but no pasa nada!

Some of the festivites celebrating San Pedro! Lots of fun costumes and tons of dancing! Tonight/the rest of this weekend will be filled with loud music and people dancing in the streets!

My awesome Peace Corps group and facilitor! We all live in the same community and like to hang out in the plaza when the sun decides to come out! (not very often)


However, when the sun does come out, it is much stronger and doesnt take long to get sunburned. This is Sam and I sporting our mild sunburns. (Don´t worry Mom we put sun screen on everday now just to be safe.)

We went to the local elementary school and gave a mini session on health related topics...we basically played some fun games with the kids and taught them the song ¨Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.¨ It was one of my favorite days here so far!

My room, which is gianormous! (not too much furniture though, which has been perfect for my friend Samantha and I´s workout sessions!)

photos!

Erica, 3 year old that I live with and is my new amiga!

Host family

Hello everyone!
I am in a small small town in Ecuador somewhat near Quito. It is very HIGH in elevation and despite what I thought I would be wearing living on the equator, I have had to wear my winter coat, gloves and warm clothes here. The nights are very cold. I bundle up and sleep in my sleeping bag under my covers in my bed and everything works out.
My host family is really nice...un madre, two daughters who are in their 30s and one has a 3 year old little girl (Erica) and a 5 month old baby boy! The dad and older son work in the military in Quito and will be visiting the weekend. I love playing with Erica and reading to her. She was shy at first, but now she spends all her time in my room.
I also live with quite a few animales....chickens, roosters, turkies, 2 cows (one of which is pregnant), guinea pigs, rabbits, one cat and a dog, completely new experience for me!
Today we had our language class, which meets at my families house in a little room next to my bedroom. It´s nice that I can roll out of bed and into my early morning class. We walked around town introducing ourselves to different community members such as el presidente of the town, the police officers and the school director. Wednesday we are returning to the elementary school to teach the kids a game and some songs about health...should be interesting. (There are 5 Peace Corps volunteers in my group)
The other volunteers are living in other towns....but I have a feeling that our town is the most rural and cold of them all. The pampering from Miami and in Quito is now over, and I can tell that the real Peace Corps experience has begun!
For the next 3 months there are festivites going on in my town and in the main city of Cayambe celebrating San Pedro. In other words, there will be lots of dancing in the streets and different events going on until 2am for 3 months straight. When in Ecuador, do as the Ecuadorians do!
I have been taking some pictures but it is hard to upload them onto this computer. I will work on that and will hopefully be able to post some soon!

I bought a cell phone! With a calling card you can call me at (011593)84577182

My address during training is
Alea Richmond
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla 17-08-8624
Quito, Ecuador
South America

We can only receive small packages (letters) during training but I would love to hear from you!

Thank you also to everyone who came to my farewell party! I loved seeing you all before I left!

I miss you all very much and hope everything is going well!

Hasta luego!

Arrival in Ecuador

Hello!
I have made it to Ecuador safely. We are currently in Quito until Sunday and will be traveling to Cayambe for our 3 month training. I am exicted becuase we will be living with host families during this time. My training group is really great, and I am already starting to make some good close friends. So far, we have been spoiled with electricity and hot water...I am trying to enjoy it while it lasts.
Today was a long day of info sessions and vaccinations luckily I only had to get one shot, a rabbies shot. My body is still adjusting to the high elevation, but things have been really good so far. I haven´t had to eat anything too unusual yet, but the fruit juices are muy deliciosa! Bus rides around here are nuts. We spent 30 minutes trying to get out of the airport parking lot on Wednesday. People park their cars every where and the streets are very narrow.
My rusty Spanish is improving, but I know it will come back with time. Love my group and am very happy with my experience thus far. All of us are trying to contact our family and friends while we can, so a lot of people are waiting for the one computer that we have in our hostel. So, I better give someone else a chance to let their families know they are okay.
I will write again when I can, which there may be a little bit of time before I get that chance again. Miss you tons and sending my love! Hope all is well in beautiful Colorado!

Abrazos de Ecuador!