peace corps 101

A week ago, I left Quito with Nathalie, the girl I know in the peace corps for a place called San Pedro Vicente Maldonado, where her friend Nate is living. The town was basically just one main street with not too much going on, but the people were all really nice and everyone knew Nate, obviously, as he was the only gringo in town. On Monday we went to the school where Nate teaches health education and helped him teach some classes to the 8th, 9th, and 10th graders on STDs. We talked about symptoms, the importance of safe sex, etc, ect. but it was cool because Nathalie and I got to be up at the front of the room teaching with him. The kids were all very receptive and asked lots of questions and it was really fun. Plus, often times the peace corps seems like a very untouchable organization, but teaching this class I realized that I have done lots of the same things these volunteers have done!

On Tuesday we went to visit a different peace corps volunteer in a town called Mindo about an hour away. She is also doing health education, but since she was giving a test the day we visited we didnt go to class with her. Instead we went ziplining through the jungle which was really really cool. We only stayed one day and night in Mindo before going back to Pedro Vicente with Nate where we stayed one more night.

Nathalie and Nate had been talking about a friend of theirs working on a tourism project with an indigenous commity, the Tsachalas, outside of a city called Santo Domingo a few hours away. They were telling me he lives basically in a hut, without running water really far removed from civilization. They thought it might be interesting for me to see the other side of the spectrum of how a peace corps volunteer lives and a different type of work. I only spent a day and a night with this guy, Clay, but it was really interesting meeting the family he lives with and seeing thier lives. The project is still really grass roots and the family still dresses in thier colorful skirts and the men have a particular haircut where the top is longer and dyed red with the juice of a local fruit. What this family is trying to do is very cool and its interesting becasue it is so grass roots, but they have a lot of work to do, I think, before tourists will come. They live very modestly- the entire 2 room house had about 6 peices of furniture in total- 3 beds, a table with a bench, and a stove. Plus, they still ahve no running water (we had to bathe in the river) and there are chickens running all around- meaning there is also chicken poop all around. But all this being said, Clay has made lots of progress working with the family, teaching them aspects of hygene they never knew before, as well as helping them set up the things that tourists would want to see and participate in if htey came to visit the Tsachula community.

After I left Santo Domingo and the Tsachula's, I went to a town called Montañita on the coast. It is like party central and full of tourists from all over ecuador, south america, and the world. The town has a rastafarian/hippie vibe like leave your inhibitions behind and enjoy life. It was fun, but seriously the partying was out of control- like music blaring all over town until 7am.. After one night i was like omg I have to get out of here!!!! Now I am in Cuenca, which is the 3rd biggest city in Ecuador, in the south in the mountains. It is very colonial and gorgeous. I am planning to stay a few days before going anywhere else. Thats all!!!!

bye!

galapagos, ecuador

well it has been an extremely long time since I updated this thing, so here goes...

Since I got back from Esmereldas, I spent about a week in Quito looking for volunteer work or possibly a permanent job here after the mission trip in October... but to no avail.

Then last week my cousin Andrea came and we went to the Galapagos for 8 days. It was amazing! We spent the week on a boat sailing from island to island. We probably went to about 10 or 12 different islands and saw all kinds of crazy animals- everything from sea lions and seals to birds with blue feet, to huge iguanas and turtles (both land and sea). I even got to snorkle with the sea lions, turtles, and one day even some sting rays and a shark! The islands themselves were really interesting, all made out of volcanic rock and filled with (mostly dormant) volcanos. Some of them were filled with vegetation while others were totally bare and looked like the moon. The whole experience was really amazing.

I have spent the weekend back in Quito with Andrea, who just left last night and today I am going with my friend Adrienne´s friend who is in the peace corps to visit some of her friends who are doing health work in some smaller towns a few hours outside of Quito for 4 or 5 days. It should be very interesting. Thats all for now.

Hope everyone is doing well with new jobs and school and all. Its crazy how fast time is going by. I will be home in only 5 more weeks!
xo