Things have been pretty much the same here this week. Class went well even though I told the kids that there were 50 stars on the American flag because there were 50 places to play soccer in the US (I used estadios instead of Estados). Things at the High School were good too. We harvested some lettuce/beets and got a bunch of land ready to plant next week. The funny thing was that on Thursday I showed up at 7:30 AM and the Teacher wasn´t there. The Principal told me the class (15 boys) was mine. I had no idea what they were supposed to be doing, so we just weeded the garden for an hour and a half and then played some soccer.
The teachers at the High School have been very nice, so I invited them to lunch at my house on Tuesday. Only three showed up (four couldn´t make it). but that turned out to be a good thing because I barely had enough food for them. I made tuna fish sandwiches (which they liked) and had apples and peanut butter (which they hated) on the side. I also made pancakes on Saturday for the family I live with. The previous PCV had made pancakes for them and they wanted me to do the same. I had a recipe for buttermilk pancakes (Did You Know: You can make buttermilk by putting 1 TBS vinegar into 1 Cup of milk and letting it sit?!) They turned out OK, but the family immediately said, "That´s not how Mike made them" and shook their heads. I can´t win.
The weather has been on a roller coaster this week. Wed - Fri it was bad (violent storms on Thursday and Friday knocked out the power all day) and when I woke up on Saturday, we didn´t have running water (this lasted until 7:00PM).
At the beginning of the week though, it was beautiful. During the day, I was able to see farther than I had before. I was able to get my first good view of Cotopaxi. This spurred me to do some research. Here are the interesting facts that I found out. From my backyard, I can see...the Volcano Cotopaxi (19,350 feet) [Note:Depending on your source, this is the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd tallest "active" volcano in the world. The last time it erupted was in the late 17th century and it destroyed the city of Latacunga, which is a lot farter away than I am. Let´s hope Cotopaxi stays inactively active.], the Volcano Iliniza Sur (17,217 ft), the Volcano Iliniza Norte (16,800 ft), Sincholagua (16,069 fy), El Corazon (15,708 fy), and the Volcano Rumiñahui (15,406 ft). There are probably a couple of other Mountains/Volcanoes that I can see that are this high, but those are all pretty far away. The interesting thing is that all these are taller than any mountain in the Continental US. Mt. Whitney in California is the tallest at 14,494 feet. The smallest of my mountains has this beat by 1,000 feet. Mt Hood in Oregon at 11,200 feet is right about at the elevation my HOUSE is (no wonder I can´t breath). To give a little more perspective, if you took Pike´s Peak (14,110 feet) and added 8 1/2 Gateway Arches on top, you would just about be as tall as Cotopaxi. Also, Cotopaxi is taller than any mountain in Africa, Europe, Antarctica, and Australia/Oceania. The beauty, the majesty, the grandeur of one of the World´s tallest volcanoes and I can see it all from my bathroom window (site of some other large eruptions).
At night since there were no clouds I also got the chance to see the Constellation of the Southern Hemispheres. Being at the Equator, I can see pretty much the whole sky. Look to the North and I can see the Big Dipper and the Belt of Orion. look to the South and I can see the Southern Cross (This is the most famous Southern Hemisphere Constellation and can be found on the flags of New Zealand http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagen:Flag_of_New_Zealand.svg, Australia http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagen:Flag_of_Australia.svg, and Brazil http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagen:Flag_of_Brazil.svg ). It was a beautiful night, so I sat outside and looked at the stars and though how crazy it was that most historical figures had never been this far south. When you are in the States, you are looking at the same sky the Julius Caesar saw, but down here I get to see things that Moses and George Washington never had the chance to. Kind of nuts.
Also, this week I looked out my window and saw some stray doge alternately humping and fighting in my yard and a seven year old girl peeing in the street (twice!). This is definitely an interesting country.
Jay
P.S. - As I finished writing this outside my house, I looked up and saw a circular rainbow around the sun. I´ve seen this before in San Diego, but I think they are pretty rare. Just add that to the list.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Books Food and iPods
They say, "You don´t know what you´ve got ´till it´s gone". After what happenend this week with my iPod, I believe them. Last Tuesday after studying and listening to some Jazz for a while, I was going to bed and plugged the iPod in to let it charge (there wasn´t much battery left), but nothing happened. The normal "Charging" screen didn´t pop up. I tried my back-up cable and different outlets, but to no avail. I tried to think of what else to do, but my only hope was that the brand new power converter I have was broke. This seemed unlikely since it was only three months old. I was worried that something was wrong inside the iPod and that I wouldn´t be able to get it replaced, or even then that I wouldn´t have all the music. I know that I´m a worrier by nature, but sadly, I didn´t really sleep much that night beacuse I was thinking about what I would do if I had to go without it. I didn´t realize til then how reliant I had gotten to this little piece of plastic. I listen to it every day to relax and feel "at home". The next day,I tried a couple of things, but nothing worked. Luckly, I was already planning on heading to Quito on Friady (more about the trip later), so at least I could go to the MacWorld and get a new converter. I did this and thankfully, that was the problem. Everything is back to normal, but I much more grateful to everyone who chipped in to get me that present.
The last 2 weeks in L.L. have been OK. I´ve had class at the school (they´ve even asked me already to teach more classes next year). Hopefully I´ll be to busy with other projects to help them out as much as they want. This week I made a list of all the sounds the different letters in English make (ex. Apple, Angel, etc.). They really didn´t like this and it was hard getting them to pay attention. I think they are starting to loose interest and I´m going to have to figure out a way to make class more fun, but I don´t know how. Maybe next week I´ll wear a clown suit.
I also started helping out at the High School. Class starts at 7:30 AM, so I´ve had to get up earlier than normal. On the way to the first day of class, I passed a couple of people and they all said hello and then, "Madrugado". I didn´t know what this meant, but since three people said it, I looked it up right after class. It means, "Early Riser". No wonder I haven´t heard that before. In the High School , I´m going to help with Ag classes and on a project to start animal production on an integrated farm. Hopefully I´ll be able to do some construction/design/strategic planning.
I went last week to watch some local teams play a couple of soccer games. It was fun to watch and I even got to see my first South American soccer fight (therse guys take it seriously). I think my reguloar Sunday will be to go to the nearest town and use the internet (which I´m doing right now), grab lunch at the place that serves roast pork on Sundays, and then hit the Farmer´s Market. After that it is back to L.L. to watch soccer and go to mass. A nice little Sunday.
On the food front, I have been cooking my own meals. Nothing fancy yet, but I have made some tuna fish sandwiches for the first time (I actually liked them). Also, I had Caldo de Pata for the first time. This would translate to "Foot Broth". It is basically cow foot boiled with onions and corn. The broth wasn´t too bad, but I had trouble with the foot meat. The family that served it to me was nice and told me I didn´t have to finish it all. I got three bites down and had to stop. It was the same texture as raw calamari. I guess it just needed marinara sauce and fried jalapeño slices.
I got the chance to talk with my family back in St. Louis the day before Mother´s Day (by the way, happy late Mother´s Day to all the Mom´s reading!). It was nice to hear their voices and kind of funny when Steph said something that I couldn´t hear, I said, "Mande", which is like "I didn´t get that" in Spanish. That was the first time I´ve said something in Spanish when I ment to say it in English.
So, the trip to Quito went well. I first went to the mall, but it wasn´t open yet, so I went next door to the Pancake House (I had Pancakes and Bacon...it was great). Then when the mall opened I got some books ("Don Quixote" and "El amor en los tiempos del cólera" [This one in Spanish]) It cost a lot for the books, but they should keep me busy at night. I also went to the grocery store, SuperMaxi, and got spices, Jiff peanut butter, ranch dressing, and Tobasco habañero hot sauce. Now I´m set for cooking. Then I went to the PCoffice to get my mail. I got some cards and letters from Mom and Dad and two more baseball gloves from Steph and Matt to play catch withthe local kids (I already tried them açout,and the kids are going to need some work. All hand/foot and no had/eye coordination) THANKS!!! I also got my copy of "Ulysses" from Mom. I ran out of books last week and was frantically looking for something to read. I actually was searching the neighbors house for a copy of a Nancy Drew book in English that I saw one o the kids with. Quite a difference...going from looking for a kids mystery book to having one of the most complicated books in English, a 1000 page novel, and a book in Spanish. I don´t think I´ll need Nancy just yet.
I also, talked to my bass at the office about a trip the rest of my training group and I were planning. We wanted to go back to our CBT site,Cangahua, for the big festival, San Pedro. I wanted to see the bull fight, but my boss said no. There is a policy against taking trips in the first three months of service, so the bull fight will have to wait. Lastly at the offfice I paiacked up a space heater. Hopefully this will kepp me a little warmer at night.
Ater the office I went to the MacWorld and got the converter and grabbed a burger and a beer (a Budweieser, my first cold beer and only second beer in a month). Then it was on the bus for the two hour ride to La Libertad.
Jay
The last 2 weeks in L.L. have been OK. I´ve had class at the school (they´ve even asked me already to teach more classes next year). Hopefully I´ll be to busy with other projects to help them out as much as they want. This week I made a list of all the sounds the different letters in English make (ex. Apple, Angel, etc.). They really didn´t like this and it was hard getting them to pay attention. I think they are starting to loose interest and I´m going to have to figure out a way to make class more fun, but I don´t know how. Maybe next week I´ll wear a clown suit.
I also started helping out at the High School. Class starts at 7:30 AM, so I´ve had to get up earlier than normal. On the way to the first day of class, I passed a couple of people and they all said hello and then, "Madrugado". I didn´t know what this meant, but since three people said it, I looked it up right after class. It means, "Early Riser". No wonder I haven´t heard that before. In the High School , I´m going to help with Ag classes and on a project to start animal production on an integrated farm. Hopefully I´ll be able to do some construction/design/strategic planning.
I went last week to watch some local teams play a couple of soccer games. It was fun to watch and I even got to see my first South American soccer fight (therse guys take it seriously). I think my reguloar Sunday will be to go to the nearest town and use the internet (which I´m doing right now), grab lunch at the place that serves roast pork on Sundays, and then hit the Farmer´s Market. After that it is back to L.L. to watch soccer and go to mass. A nice little Sunday.
On the food front, I have been cooking my own meals. Nothing fancy yet, but I have made some tuna fish sandwiches for the first time (I actually liked them). Also, I had Caldo de Pata for the first time. This would translate to "Foot Broth". It is basically cow foot boiled with onions and corn. The broth wasn´t too bad, but I had trouble with the foot meat. The family that served it to me was nice and told me I didn´t have to finish it all. I got three bites down and had to stop. It was the same texture as raw calamari. I guess it just needed marinara sauce and fried jalapeño slices.
I got the chance to talk with my family back in St. Louis the day before Mother´s Day (by the way, happy late Mother´s Day to all the Mom´s reading!). It was nice to hear their voices and kind of funny when Steph said something that I couldn´t hear, I said, "Mande", which is like "I didn´t get that" in Spanish. That was the first time I´ve said something in Spanish when I ment to say it in English.
So, the trip to Quito went well. I first went to the mall, but it wasn´t open yet, so I went next door to the Pancake House (I had Pancakes and Bacon...it was great). Then when the mall opened I got some books ("Don Quixote" and "El amor en los tiempos del cólera" [This one in Spanish]) It cost a lot for the books, but they should keep me busy at night. I also went to the grocery store, SuperMaxi, and got spices, Jiff peanut butter, ranch dressing, and Tobasco habañero hot sauce. Now I´m set for cooking. Then I went to the PCoffice to get my mail. I got some cards and letters from Mom and Dad and two more baseball gloves from Steph and Matt to play catch withthe local kids (I already tried them açout,and the kids are going to need some work. All hand/foot and no had/eye coordination) THANKS!!! I also got my copy of "Ulysses" from Mom. I ran out of books last week and was frantically looking for something to read. I actually was searching the neighbors house for a copy of a Nancy Drew book in English that I saw one o the kids with. Quite a difference...going from looking for a kids mystery book to having one of the most complicated books in English, a 1000 page novel, and a book in Spanish. I don´t think I´ll need Nancy just yet.
I also, talked to my bass at the office about a trip the rest of my training group and I were planning. We wanted to go back to our CBT site,Cangahua, for the big festival, San Pedro. I wanted to see the bull fight, but my boss said no. There is a policy against taking trips in the first three months of service, so the bull fight will have to wait. Lastly at the offfice I paiacked up a space heater. Hopefully this will kepp me a little warmer at night.
Ater the office I went to the MacWorld and got the converter and grabbed a burger and a beer (a Budweieser, my first cold beer and only second beer in a month). Then it was on the bus for the two hour ride to La Libertad.
Jay
Sunday, May 6, 2007
2 Weeks Down 102 To Go
So it has been a week since I´ve showered. La Libertad has been out of water for six days because they needed to drain and clean the water holding tank that supplies the town. I´m starting to have a not so nice odor and my 500 o´clock shadow looks great (about what Nate W. looks like 10 minutes after he shaves). I´ve been buying water to drink, but my family has been using collected rainwater to cook with. I´ve been skipping these meals as much as possible. Hopefully we will get water soon. (NOTE: I wrote this yesterday and we actually got water for about three hours last night. Enough to take a shower. I feel better now, but the water is out again.)
For the first two weeks, things have been going OK. I´m really just "Hanging-Out" with my family and Counterpart (both have been awesome) and practicing my Spanish. The one project I started is that I´m teaching English at the Grade School. 5th, 6th, and 7th grades for an hour a day three days a week. The kids are great and really seem excited to learn, but we´ll see how much they study. My first classes were over the English Alphabet. I made up a chart of the Alphabet with phonetic pronunciation in Spanish (Example; C= Si). This was a lot harder to make than I thought it would be. I´m an Engineer damn it, not an English Major! Anyway, I´ll be doing this until my real projects start up. Also, the High School wants me to help out with Chemistry and Physics classes in the Fall. Anyone know how to say "Moment of Inertia" in Spanish?
I did try to help the Ladies at the Community Bank the other day. They were having problems balancing their accounts. Finally we discovered that one woman´s account wasn´t showing up on their reports. Long story short, I figured that there was an internal problem in the system and her info got deleted off one file. I tried to explain this, but gave up after a few minutes. Oh well, more vocab to learn...database management.
I haven't been able to cook my own food yet. The water shortage is one thing, but there also seems to to be a lack of gas. There are no gas mains here. You buy your gas in tanks and hook them up to your appliances. I have one for hot water (when there is water), but I need one for my stove. After two weeks, no luck in buying one. So, for the first time in my life, I´m suffering from a want of gas.
As rough as things sound, I actually have it pretty good. I´ve heard from other PCV´s in my group who don´t have electricity, share one toilet with the entire town, have to take a canoe ride up a river to get to town, and my one friend´s site is so hot that after showering he lays in bed naked to cool off every night (although he did catch a bunch of people the other day staring at him through a crack in his wall. Great first impression!). It was so bad for one of my good friends that she has gone home. After 10 days of not sleeping and being constantly on edge, she left.
Other Quick Notes
For the first two weeks, things have been going OK. I´m really just "Hanging-Out" with my family and Counterpart (both have been awesome) and practicing my Spanish. The one project I started is that I´m teaching English at the Grade School. 5th, 6th, and 7th grades for an hour a day three days a week. The kids are great and really seem excited to learn, but we´ll see how much they study. My first classes were over the English Alphabet. I made up a chart of the Alphabet with phonetic pronunciation in Spanish (Example; C= Si). This was a lot harder to make than I thought it would be. I´m an Engineer damn it, not an English Major! Anyway, I´ll be doing this until my real projects start up. Also, the High School wants me to help out with Chemistry and Physics classes in the Fall. Anyone know how to say "Moment of Inertia" in Spanish?
I did try to help the Ladies at the Community Bank the other day. They were having problems balancing their accounts. Finally we discovered that one woman´s account wasn´t showing up on their reports. Long story short, I figured that there was an internal problem in the system and her info got deleted off one file. I tried to explain this, but gave up after a few minutes. Oh well, more vocab to learn...database management.
I haven't been able to cook my own food yet. The water shortage is one thing, but there also seems to to be a lack of gas. There are no gas mains here. You buy your gas in tanks and hook them up to your appliances. I have one for hot water (when there is water), but I need one for my stove. After two weeks, no luck in buying one. So, for the first time in my life, I´m suffering from a want of gas.
As rough as things sound, I actually have it pretty good. I´ve heard from other PCV´s in my group who don´t have electricity, share one toilet with the entire town, have to take a canoe ride up a river to get to town, and my one friend´s site is so hot that after showering he lays in bed naked to cool off every night (although he did catch a bunch of people the other day staring at him through a crack in his wall. Great first impression!). It was so bad for one of my good friends that she has gone home. After 10 days of not sleeping and being constantly on edge, she left.
Other Quick Notes
- Because it was the name of the old PCV here, everyone in the town calls me Miguel (except for the two year old daughter of the family that lives by me)
- I was wearing my dirty old "Pike" hat and the family asked me why I don´t wash it. I can´t get away from people giving me crap about that hat.
- I did laundry last week and because it rains so much, it took over five days to dry.
- I got to milk a cow for the first time. I don´t think I did a good job, because the next time I helped, they just had me hold the bucket to catch the milk.
- I watched a pregnant cuy (guinea pig) get killed by our neighbor. She grabbed it by the neck and pushed the head in until we heard a couple of loud pops. Then she drained the blood out, dumped it in a pot of boiling water, and started ripping the fur off. Oh, forgot to mention that this all happened in our kitchen while I was sitting there drinking hot chocolate. Also, the pot of boiling water was the same one they make tea in. Very old school!
- Thank you Megan M. for correcting me on my misspelling of "poo". I really though there was an "h" at the end. That is why it is good to have nurse friends.
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