Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Overdue Update
















I’ve done an awful job of keeping up with my blog because the truth is that life is incredible and trying to convey thoughts and actions is difficult and almost useless in this empty cyber space. I am having an amazing time working and living in a completely new world, not only the world of a Peace Corps Volunteer but also a world of self-discovery and internal peace. Over the last few months I’ve been asking questions about life and joy and purpose and spirit. Of course this leads to deep thinking, reading, meditating, focusing, and going with the flow. This all may sound a little loopy but everyone chooses their own opinions and my opinion is that life is good and this is exactly what is right for me, right now. Although I don’t feel it is necessary to explain gaps in communication, I just wanted to reassure you (my family and friends) that if I take breaks it is only because I am out there living in the moment just experiencing all the life around me.

Now, I’ll briefly recap the last few months of integrating and building relationships in my community, Macas- Amazon Jungle. (Doesn’t that just sound awesome, AMAZON… JUNGLE.)

October 2009

October was my second month as a PCV in Macas. During this month, I was working as a life skills teacher at the special needs school. Like I said in the last post, I was not very content with my position at the school but we were all a little confused about my role as a volunteer. I ended up really bonding with the children in my classroom and was sad when the month ended and we finally found a replacement teacher. My counterpart returned from maternity leave and I found myself observing the pre-K room leading into November.

Aside from my job, I was starting to build a niche in Macas and the surrounding area. I joined a women’s group in a small community outside of the city and learned how to knit on the first day! I also traveled to Paute, a small town outside of Cuenca, for Día de los Muertos. It is a holiday celebrated around our Halloween but it doesn’t involve trick-or-treating or jack-o-lanterns. On this holiday, Ecuadorians visit the graves of their loved ones and celebrate their lives with colada morada (a thick purple fruity juice) and pan de wawa (sweet bread baked in the shape of little dolls, think: soft gingerbread cookies). I also traveled to Ingapirca which is an ancient Indigenous ruins site north of Cuenca.

November 2009


I continued observing the pre-K class throughout the month. I learned several valuable methods of working with young children with disabilities and exchanged ideas with the teacher about classroom management techniques and curriculum. Also, I joined forces with an Agriculture volunteer to begin teaching charlas (mini lessons) on environmental education, self-esteem, and reproductive health (Sex ed) in a 7th grade class outside of Macas.

During the Thanksgiving break I traveled to Quito to meet up with some friends from my Omnibus. We were split into small groups and assigned a family from the US Embassy to eat with. I was selected to eat with the Deputy Chief of Mission and his family. If you aren’t up to date on politics like me, the DCM is the 2nd in command, the person who takes over when the Ambassador is out. I can’t even explain how wonderful he and his family were. They knew it was hard for us to be away from our family on Thanksgiving so they went out of their way to make it like home. We had all the turkey and fixings, homemade chocolate chip cookies, real beer, football, and they even gave me a bowl of Cheerios! That doesn’t sound like anything special but when all you see is multicolored, super sugary, puffed wheat at the store you’ll appreciate a good bowl of Cheerios!

December 2009

December was a busy month. Not only were the
re festivals going on all around, but there were also Christmas programs left and right. Now let me explain the way festivals work in Ecuador. Each provincia (state), canton (county), city, and community has an individual festival along with all the national festivals throughout the year. Each festival is 2 weeks long and consists of a feria (fair or large market), dancing, drinking, reina pageant, and sometimes a rodeo. So it’s pretty safe to assume that on any given day there are festivals being celebrated somewhere. (For example, today Jan. 26, my students traveled 2 hours to participate in the Fiestas de Huamboya). After surviving all the Christmas festivities and town festivals, I had a much needed two week break from class.

I spent Christmas with a volunteer nearby whose family was visiting from the States. We made TONS of traditional food of the Oriente (the jungle) such as mochines, ayampaco, humitas, and of course roasted cuy, better known as guinea pig! I also whipped up a cheese ball and a “Nikki pie” to share my Arkansas roots with everyone. It was an amazing way to spend the holidays away from home. Then after a few days of rest, I headed on a bus to the beach for New Years! I met up with a few friends and we celebrated the chance to burn our past mistakes and begin from scratch, literally. The tradition here is to make a life-sized doll of a friend and burn it at midnight to get rid of their past grievances and wipe the slate clean. So our group stuffed a paper-mache guinea pig with things we wanted to leave in the old year, lit it on fire, and then jumped over it into the new year and new start. I said I would like to leave negative thoughts in the old year. And with that, I swam in the ocean and enjoyed my time in the sun while it lasted.

January 2010

Wow, 2010. After returning from the coast, I had one week to prepare for Omnibus 102 Reconnect. This is a week long conference with the staff, volunteers, and counterparts to review community diagnostics and design projects. I brought a lady from the women’s group and had a great, relaxing time. I presented information about my school, community, problems, and ideas for improvement. We then designed projects from this information and I returned to Macas with a renewed enthusiasm for getting things done.

It’s been two weeks since Reconnect and I’m starting to get the ball rolling. I visited a special needs school outside of Macas and will be working with them every Monday. I also have planned a meeting with the teachers at my main school to begin project design and implementation. Who knows what tomorrow will bring but as long as I am living in this very moment nothing can be too bad.