That´s A Wrap !

It is all finishin´ up here in La Libertad pretty rapidly. A couple of weeks ago I talked with my counterpart and neighbors about having my despidida or going away party. We decided that the best day for everyone was Sunday the 11th. Unfortunately, this was also the first day of my Omnibus´ C.O.S. (Close Of Service) conference in Quito. I told my neighbors that we could have the party, but that I´d need to leave by noon. They said that wouldn´t be a problem and that we´d start at 10:ooAM. Of course on the day of the party, I showed up at 10:00 at the community bank, and they hadn´t even started cooking. I played with the kids a bit (my 17 year old neighbor´s kid like me a lot) until we were ready to eat at 12:30. The food was good and they actually made me potato tortillas and roasted pork instead of the traditional boiled potatoes and cuy. That was very nice and thoughtful of them to make something special just for me. We ate, made some toasts, and the broke of a couple cases of beer. I kept insisting, "One more, then I have to go!", but of course that didn´t work. At 4:00 and half drunk, I had to catch the bus. As I walked out of the bank, all the old ladies were telling me not to go. I think some of them thought that I was leaving for good. It was sad, funny, frustrating, heart-touching, and a bit ridiculous all at the same time...just like the rest of my time there.

The COS conference was short and sweet. We went over transitioning back to the US, reverse culture shock, health stuff, receiving our "Readjustment Allowance", finding a job (Good luck, right!!), and also got to meet the new Country Director. If was very quick, and packed with info. After the meeting we went out to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner and then back to the hotel to hang out together as a group for the last time. we tried to make our last night special by buying a keg from a Micro-Brewery near the hotel. I went up to the pub called Santa Espuma or Holy Foam with a couple friends. The beer was good, but the price for a keg was pretty high. We talked them down a bit, got the quantity and style of beer figured out with the people back in the hotel, and the figured out how we were going to pay of it all. After all this negotiating, one of the guys went up to place our order and then came back shaking his head...apparently they needed a days advance notice to fill the kegs. We ended up going to a corner store and bought a couple cases of cheap beer instead.

Since I´ll be in or around Quito for the next couple of months, I´ll get to see almost everyone again, but after the meetings, some people had to say their final goodbyes. That was sad.

When I went up to COS, I brought a couple bags of my crap to leave in the office. Since I´m moving all my stuff via bus/public transportation, it has been a bit frustrating. I figure it will take four trips to get it all moved, so I´m going to come up on Saturday and then finally bring one last bag on Sunday.

More exciting news from Ecuador. It seems that a large percentage of Indigenous are going to protest the government´s new Mining Law. They feel that the law will effect them negatively, so in order to rectify the situation, they are going to protest on January 20th. Their protest will consist of them shutting down the major roads in the entire country. This used to be a more common practice, but my group has been luck and they haven´t had any since we´ve been here. For more information, look at http://www.newsocialist.org/index.php?id=1797 Because of the strike and possible violence, the Peace Corps has ordered us all to stay in our sites starting on the 19th. For me this is no big deal since I´ll be in Quito. You don´t have to tell me twice to stay there!

Finally, you may have noticed in my last pictures that I had grown out a beard again. Here are the pictures of me shaving it off. Enjoy!!