Hey all,
Last week, four friends from the US came down for a visit. We had a great time, and I want to thank Susan, Kari, Scott, and Nate for everything. I get so caught up with my work and the frustrations of living in a foreign country that I often forget how lucky I am to be here. Showing them around and seeing how they reacted to what has become a "normal life" for me was a fun and needed refresher. Anyway, enough with my babble. The rest of this post was written by my friend Kari...
I knew the minute Jay was accepted to the Peace Corps, Scott and I would definitely pay him a visit wherever he was going to be placed (apparently also assuming we would be invited :) When we found out he was going to be in Ecuador, I had no idea what to expect. This was probably a good thing as visiting a Peace Corps volunteer and visiting a country are definitely two different adventures. I would love to say Nate, Susan, Scott and I saw Ecuador through Jay’s eyes, but even that would be a stretch—a glimpse is what we got—a tiny, miniscule glimpse of life in this beautiful country.
We saw a market full of unfamiliar fruits and veggies, a sampling Jay would prepare for us in the morning which served as the catalyst for Nate’s incessant quest for Tomate De Arbol juice for the rest of the trip. “Fresh” was also newly defined for me as Susan nudged me at the market and pointed to a man walking by carrying his dinner (whatever it was, it was already skinned and waiting to be fried). We saw fifteen Ecuadorian women lined up to sell fried plantains and we listened to Jay as he told us of the time he tried to buy two potatoes. Apparently, one cannot purchase anything less than the 25 lb bag—no matter what the price. If the market doesn’t have what one is looking for, Jay showed us what his recourse was—planting everything himself. In fact, the entire salad that Jay made for dinner that evening was pulled right from his own garden!
We ate some wonderful dishes including fresh seafood on the coast. Excited to try some of the fish, I ordered the fresh tilapia only to find it presented to me in its entirety—from the head to the tail. Before I could faint, scream or fall into a state of shock, Scott quickly removed it from my plate only to have Jay reach over, grab it and suck everything out of it—eyes and all! Nothing is wasted in this country and I admire them for that (not enough though to begin eating fish heads.)
Along with the fresh fish, the Ecuadorian coast greeted us with plenty of pineapple drinks, fresh roasted coffee and a secret path to a black sand beach (about a 10 minute walk :). The scenery was as breathtaking as the waves were refreshing.
We traveled throughout the country by bus. Climbing through the mountains and descending toward the coast, we were kept on alert by a cacophony of Spanish discotheque tunes. There was no need to worry about finding a place to eat while on the road because the townspeople would jump on the bus as it slowed in order to sell fresh pastries, chocolates and chips. Sales were not impeded by a crowded bus either—somehow salesmen found a way to squeeze through the aisle. It was as if that one yogurt-pop sale was the most important of the day—talk about dedication to one’s work.
The five of us lived in very close quarters for the duration of our trip and adjusting to the shared bathrooms and cold showers really reminded us how much we take modern conveniences for granted. Even the preparations for the trip taught me this as I trekked down to the travel clinic for Typhoid Fever and Hep A shots. Those along with the malaria pills and mosquito nets we slept under made me nervous—nervous about diseases that I don’t even think twice about now—diseases that kill over one million people each year. According to the World Health Organization a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds. I couldn’t get over thinking about how sheltered and disconnected from the world I am.
The Ecuadorian people were wonderful and from the little time I spent here, I thought they seemed genuinely happy. They were kind, the children were full of hope and they truly seemed to be living life in the moment. Jay is doing some incredible work down there with the Ag program and community gardens, but I think the most impressive thing about him is that his goal isn’t just to “help” but to effect change by creating something sustainable. Since this can only be measured over the long term, I imagine the day to day tasks can be quite daunting; however, Jay does them successfully and was able to share many of his insights with us; for this I’m grateful.
Someone told me once that “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” I’m not sure who originally said this, but it was an eye-opening trip full of firsts and I am so glad I was able to see Jay and this miniscule glimpse of his life.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Hail, Proust, Cows, and other things that can ruin your day
Unfortunately, this week has consisted of one small annoyance after another (sprinkled with good news). First, classes were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday of the week because of an Ecuadorian holiday, so I had some time to get caught up on some chores on Monday. Monday night, my friend John called me up and asked if I wanted to climb El Corazón (15,700 feet) on Tuesday since we were free. It seemed like a good time to finally do it, so I left my house at 8:00AM on Tuesday, met up with John in El Chaupi, and we started to climb. Most of the way we followed a road, but then we had to follow a ridgeline covered with tall grass and spongy mounds of high Andean plants. The “real” climb started around 1:00PM when we left the grassy part of the mountain and started to climb the bare-rock trail. The weather was cloudy, but we were determined to get to the top. After seven hours of climbing, we made it to the top. The view was….of nothing but clouds. We couldn’t see anything, and to top it off, it started to hail. We hightailed it back down about 100 meters, and the miraculously the clouds blew away and we got a great view of Machachi, El Chaupi, La Libertad, and the valley around my house. Then the clouds rolled back in and we had to walk another four hours soaked and pelted by sleet, but it was worth it. 
I think I’ve reached Critical Mass on the amount of damage I’ve done to all my worldly possessions, because everything is starting to just fall apart. My backpack, sleeping bag, jeans, all my shoes, camera, radio, CD player, cell phone, and every one of my embarrassingly “holy” socks are all in some state of disrepair (if not completely broken). I guess that shows that I’m really living the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer. The latest thing to go was my new iPod. I’ve been using it as an external hard drive and I think that hooking it up to my neighbor’s computer filled it with viruses. I grabbed some stuff of a friend’s computer the other day, and his anti-virus software deleted a bunch of infected files before I could stop it. It looks like some of the deleted files are necessary for it to run, because I can only get one song to play…ABBA’s Dancing Queen. Talk about worthless. This shouldn’t be a long-term problem because on Thanksgiving I’ll see a friend of mine who said he’d let me download a new copy of iTunes and all his music. Keep your fingers crossed!
Nine months ago I had planted some Broccoli by my house. Normally it takes about 3-4 months to harvest, but the cold really stunts growth up here, so the first ones weren’t ready until after seven months. I harvested all but two of them which were still very small and I didn’t think would produce. To help these two, I fertilized them a lot, and they started to form heads. They were almost ready this week and I had planned to serve them to my friends who are coming to visit (more on them later). After NINE months, FOUR days before I was going to harvest them, my old neighbor tied up her cow next to the broccolis and it ate them. I’d be upset, but stuff like that happens so often that you just have to throw up your hands.
The good news this week was that I went to check out one of the school gardens that we planted in October. Everything was growing well and they had already harvested most of the radishes for the kids’ lunches. We set up a date for the parents to come back and then we’ll show them how to transplant the plants into different beds at the school and also give them plants to take home. This is where the real goal of the gardens is accomplished. If the parents can see that they can grow more than corn/potatoes/ onions, it will make them more likely to continue with the gardens in their own houses after I’m gone. Any extra vitamins in their kids’ diet will make a huge improvement. If this first garden is an indication, I’ll be busy setting-up work dates, transplanting, and showing the parents how to do the whole process on their own land for the next month. Hopefully it works out like this and the time before I start working on training will fly by (and be the most productive period of my service).
Also, my neighbors just bought a pick-up truck. It is a 2001 and has over 100,000 miles on it, but they are proud. Sara doesn’t know how to drive a stick, so I told her I’d show her how…this should be interesting.
This week I finished the longest book I’ve ever read, Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. Where to begin? Remembrance of Things Past is over 2,200 pages, and nothing really interesting happens. It basically consists of a guy talking about French society of the late 19th and early 20th century. It has been called the “Major novel of the 20th century”, and Steve Carrell’s character in Little Miss Sunshine calls Proust the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Maybe, but I thought it was wretched. At least I read the whole thing, so I can say that with authority. The funny thing is that the copy I had was signed on the cover “Marjorie Harden – 1941”. As I was reading the second volume, I started to have to separate many of the pages in order to read them. They weren’t stuck together with gum or jelly. When the book was printed, the bottoms of those pages were never cut apart. Therefore, in the 67 years since Ms. Harden signed it, NOBODY had read the book!!! I don’t care how smart a critic you are, great literature has one requirement…people must read it.
Finally, I mentioned that I was going to have visitors. My friends Kari, Susan, Nate, and Scott are coming down from Chicago for a week. It is going to be fun showing them around. The next post will hopefully detail their trip in their own words.
I think I’ve reached Critical Mass on the amount of damage I’ve done to all my worldly possessions, because everything is starting to just fall apart. My backpack, sleeping bag, jeans, all my shoes, camera, radio, CD player, cell phone, and every one of my embarrassingly “holy” socks are all in some state of disrepair (if not completely broken). I guess that shows that I’m really living the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer. The latest thing to go was my new iPod. I’ve been using it as an external hard drive and I think that hooking it up to my neighbor’s computer filled it with viruses. I grabbed some stuff of a friend’s computer the other day, and his anti-virus software deleted a bunch of infected files before I could stop it. It looks like some of the deleted files are necessary for it to run, because I can only get one song to play…ABBA’s Dancing Queen. Talk about worthless. This shouldn’t be a long-term problem because on Thanksgiving I’ll see a friend of mine who said he’d let me download a new copy of iTunes and all his music. Keep your fingers crossed!
Nine months ago I had planted some Broccoli by my house. Normally it takes about 3-4 months to harvest, but the cold really stunts growth up here, so the first ones weren’t ready until after seven months. I harvested all but two of them which were still very small and I didn’t think would produce. To help these two, I fertilized them a lot, and they started to form heads. They were almost ready this week and I had planned to serve them to my friends who are coming to visit (more on them later). After NINE months, FOUR days before I was going to harvest them, my old neighbor tied up her cow next to the broccolis and it ate them. I’d be upset, but stuff like that happens so often that you just have to throw up your hands.
The good news this week was that I went to check out one of the school gardens that we planted in October. Everything was growing well and they had already harvested most of the radishes for the kids’ lunches. We set up a date for the parents to come back and then we’ll show them how to transplant the plants into different beds at the school and also give them plants to take home. This is where the real goal of the gardens is accomplished. If the parents can see that they can grow more than corn/potatoes/ onions, it will make them more likely to continue with the gardens in their own houses after I’m gone. Any extra vitamins in their kids’ diet will make a huge improvement. If this first garden is an indication, I’ll be busy setting-up work dates, transplanting, and showing the parents how to do the whole process on their own land for the next month. Hopefully it works out like this and the time before I start working on training will fly by (and be the most productive period of my service).
Also, my neighbors just bought a pick-up truck. It is a 2001 and has over 100,000 miles on it, but they are proud. Sara doesn’t know how to drive a stick, so I told her I’d show her how…this should be interesting.
This week I finished the longest book I’ve ever read, Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. Where to begin? Remembrance of Things Past is over 2,200 pages, and nothing really interesting happens. It basically consists of a guy talking about French society of the late 19th and early 20th century. It has been called the “Major novel of the 20th century”, and Steve Carrell’s character in Little Miss Sunshine calls Proust the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Maybe, but I thought it was wretched. At least I read the whole thing, so I can say that with authority. The funny thing is that the copy I had was signed on the cover “Marjorie Harden – 1941”. As I was reading the second volume, I started to have to separate many of the pages in order to read them. They weren’t stuck together with gum or jelly. When the book was printed, the bottoms of those pages were never cut apart. Therefore, in the 67 years since Ms. Harden signed it, NOBODY had read the book!!! I don’t care how smart a critic you are, great literature has one requirement…people must read it.
Finally, I mentioned that I was going to have visitors. My friends Kari, Susan, Nate, and Scott are coming down from Chicago for a week. It is going to be fun showing them around. The next post will hopefully detail their trip in their own words.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Change is Good?
First off, congratulations to everyone who voted last week. It’s good to see Democracy at work. Although I didn’t vote for Obama, it has been interesting to observe the reaction from Ecuadorian citizens and the Press. The day after the election, everyone I know was asking me about the first “Presidente Negro”. I told them that I didn’t vote for him, and they asked why. I told them that I thought he would raise taxes and that I always voted for Republicans. I think they just thought that I didn’t want a black President. This country is about as racist as you can get (they refer to people from the coast, where most Afro-Ecuatorianos live, as Monos, or monkeys), so I think that they feel that we should be the same. The Press talked a lot about how “historic” our election was and that a lot of things will change. They never elaborated on what would change though…I guess they bought into the hype as well.
I was with a friend the other day and we ate lunch at a restaurant run by an Afro-Ecuatoriano. We asked him how he felt about a black President. He just said that he thought that Obama would help poor people in Ecuador. I know that all Presidents have a tough job, but putting Ecuador’s problems on his shoulders as well, may be a bit too much.
My boss came to visit La Libertad this week. The purpose of his visit was to confirm that we would be getting a new PCV after I left. I had told him already that I didn’t think that they really needed a new volunteer here. I’ve had to leave L.L. to find a lot of my work, and the people haven’t been very receptive to some of the changes I thought they should make if they wanted to improve, so I was worried about what a new PCV would do. The people here wanted another volunteer here very badly though, mostly I think that they want a new PCV because they have had one for so long. They’re not receptive to change, so they want to keep their PCV status quo.
My boss wanted to put another PCV here because (this is just speculation on my part) he needs to find sites for 21 new PCVs before the end of April. Putting another PCV here in L.L. makes his job that much easier. Since my boss and the whole community wanted to put a volunteer here, I kept my mouth shut. In the back of my mind, I thought that maybe the problem was more with me than the community. Maybe a new PCV would find all kinds of work that I never got involved in. Then I remembered that Mike, the PCV before me, had similar problems.
It’s going to be hard training the new group of volunteers and then telling one of them that they are going to live here. Hopefully I’ll be able to make sure that the new PCV likes to work with children because there are a ton of opportunities here to work with kids and adolescents.
The Halloween party last week was a blast. One interesting thing was that like last year there appeared to be an unplanned general theme among the costumes. Last year, there were about 10 guys in drag (I was not one of them). This year there was a very religious feeling. There were two guys dressed like Jesus, one dressed like Biff, Jesus´ best friend (To get the reference, you have to read the book Lamb), some Mormon and Evangelical missionaries, a couple witches, an angel, a devil, a nun, the Virgin Mary, and one very handsome Priest.
Finally, Mama Negra, the biggest parade and party of the year in Latacunga was scheduled on the 8th of November. Unfortunately, two nights before the parade a 13 year old was killed at one of the pre-parties. It is still unknown exactly what happened. What is known is that a firework exploded and hit the kid in the head. Some say it was an accident and others say it was done on purpose by a rival high school. Either way, the parade and party were cancelled by the head of the Province for the next three years because of security concerns. The people in Latacunga were upset about the decision, and I can’t blame them. A lot of people had bought food and beer to sell to the thousands of tourists who would come to the party. This has to be a big income generator for the town and surrounding communities, not to mention a great time. It would be like cancelling the 4th of July on July 3rd.
(NOTE: As I write this, I was just informed that the party has been rescheduled for November 29th)
I was with a friend the other day and we ate lunch at a restaurant run by an Afro-Ecuatoriano. We asked him how he felt about a black President. He just said that he thought that Obama would help poor people in Ecuador. I know that all Presidents have a tough job, but putting Ecuador’s problems on his shoulders as well, may be a bit too much.
My boss came to visit La Libertad this week. The purpose of his visit was to confirm that we would be getting a new PCV after I left. I had told him already that I didn’t think that they really needed a new volunteer here. I’ve had to leave L.L. to find a lot of my work, and the people haven’t been very receptive to some of the changes I thought they should make if they wanted to improve, so I was worried about what a new PCV would do. The people here wanted another volunteer here very badly though, mostly I think that they want a new PCV because they have had one for so long. They’re not receptive to change, so they want to keep their PCV status quo.
My boss wanted to put another PCV here because (this is just speculation on my part) he needs to find sites for 21 new PCVs before the end of April. Putting another PCV here in L.L. makes his job that much easier. Since my boss and the whole community wanted to put a volunteer here, I kept my mouth shut. In the back of my mind, I thought that maybe the problem was more with me than the community. Maybe a new PCV would find all kinds of work that I never got involved in. Then I remembered that Mike, the PCV before me, had similar problems.
It’s going to be hard training the new group of volunteers and then telling one of them that they are going to live here. Hopefully I’ll be able to make sure that the new PCV likes to work with children because there are a ton of opportunities here to work with kids and adolescents.
The Halloween party last week was a blast. One interesting thing was that like last year there appeared to be an unplanned general theme among the costumes. Last year, there were about 10 guys in drag (I was not one of them). This year there was a very religious feeling. There were two guys dressed like Jesus, one dressed like Biff, Jesus´ best friend (To get the reference, you have to read the book Lamb), some Mormon and Evangelical missionaries, a couple witches, an angel, a devil, a nun, the Virgin Mary, and one very handsome Priest.
Finally, Mama Negra, the biggest parade and party of the year in Latacunga was scheduled on the 8th of November. Unfortunately, two nights before the parade a 13 year old was killed at one of the pre-parties. It is still unknown exactly what happened. What is known is that a firework exploded and hit the kid in the head. Some say it was an accident and others say it was done on purpose by a rival high school. Either way, the parade and party were cancelled by the head of the Province for the next three years because of security concerns. The people in Latacunga were upset about the decision, and I can’t blame them. A lot of people had bought food and beer to sell to the thousands of tourists who would come to the party. This has to be a big income generator for the town and surrounding communities, not to mention a great time. It would be like cancelling the 4th of July on July 3rd.
(NOTE: As I write this, I was just informed that the party has been rescheduled for November 29th)
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