The day that Susan, Kari, Nate, and Scott left Quito, I ran the Mitad del Mundo Media Marathon (Middle of the World Half Marathon) in Quito. The race started near the Peace Corps office and ended at the Equator. That combined with the fact that the race´s starting line was over 9,500 feet in elevation made it an interesting race. (You may notice that I didn´t mention my finishing time...there is a reason for that)
Thanksgiving was at a friend´s house in El Chaco (the same place we had the Halloween party). There were ten of us and the food was great.
I went to the rescheduled Mama Negra after Thanksgiving. It wasn´t as fun as last year, but at least I successfully avoided getting pulled out into the parade while a group of men danced around spitting booze on me (see post: Mama Negra).
St. Nick came again to my neighbors´ kids. They remembered the tradition from last year, but I still couldn´t convince them that it wasn´t me putting candy in their shoes.
Last week I went out with six other PCVs to another Volunteer´s site in the Transisitional Zone (the area between the Sierra and the Coast). We were celebrating two of my friends´ birthdays, so we had a little party on Sunday night. On Monday we got up at 5:45 AM to help out with a census the government is taking. We spent the morning and afternoon sorting papers and then filling them out with the information from individuals in a community called El Paraíso, The Paradise.
It was interesting to see how another community lives, but I had a small problem that day. I had slept on the floor the night before and when I went to put on my jeans in the morning, I noticed a bunch of bug bites on my legs. My body not being used to bug bites, went crazy. Three of the bites looked bad, and one formed a huge blister. PCVs are pretty used to seeing gross stuff, so I got a little concerned when everyone saw the blisters and said, "Wow!!". Fortunately, some Hydrocortisone and Antibiotic creams helped. Although I still have some red splotches on my legs, the blisters are gone.
Enough of my fun, I´ve been working too. We´ve been transplanting the gardens that we planted in October and its been going well. I´ve been able to show the parents what to do, and since the plants are growing well, they believe now that I actually know what I´m talking about.
Since we usually have a ton of plants, we are able to transplant a lot at the schools and still have a bunch to give to the parents to take home. They can transplant near their houses to start gardens to feed their families. We surpassed our goal of gardens planted (14) and have given away thousands of plants to the parents that we´ve trained. I feel like I accomplished something (albeit something very small) with this project. With the schools being on vacation from December 19th to Jaunuary 5th, I only have two weeks left to work on the gardens. 
I´m pretty sure we´ll get it all done, but if not, John will be able to get the rest. Also, I´m going to pass along the project to the next PCV in La Libertad to continue if they want to.
