Wow – I have been in Ecuador for over a year now; pretty much exactly half-way done with my service. I have “enseñada” or gotten used to it as everyone still asks me almost every day, and I really feel at home now in Cebadas. Another volunteer told me that the second year is way better than the first, and I can already see that that is going to be true in my case too. Since January I´ve just kind of been organizing activities all on my own, going to do sex-ed at the high school or doing a lesson about nutrition and the food groups at random events, but just recently I changed my counterpart and am now working with the Junta Parroquial, kind of like the town hall. I am the “técnica de salud” working with 6 other people here in the office. I am pretty much the only person in the health area, but now since I´ve been here for a year I feel prepared to take on this position. I already have lots of other community contacts and I´m still doing some activities on my own but now I have the Junta to back me up too. I am excited about my new job here and I know the second year will be better than the first. I could reflect on this even more, but I think that would just be boring so instead I´m going to write about a recent trip I made with another volunteer to attempt to summit Cotopaxi.

We met our guide Diego and his brother in the town of Machachi, just near the base or Cotopaxi volcano. They totally looked like mountain climbers, with their indigenous facial features and long black ponytails. They were close to our age, and have pretty much grown up on the enormous mountains in Ecuador, having climbed Cotopaxi more times than they can remember at only 25 years old. They did some shopping for food and stuff while Krista and I got lunch in anticipation of our climb later that day, then we headed off to the park entrance all stuffed inside the truck because it was starting to rain. Arriving to the parking lot, we got into the back of the truck and put on almost all of our layers, including our rented boots that were almost like ski boots. We only had a shirt hike up to the refuge where we would stop to fully prepare, but with the wind and blowing snow it was so cold. About an hour later we arrived to the refuge to drop off our sleeping bags and rest a little bit. Even though we were inside we didn´t take off any layers because it was still freezing. We grabbed our cramp-ons and ice picks and headed up the hill a little bit with Diego while his brother stated cooking dinner. We walked up to where there was snow, trudging through sandy soil and gravel that looked like the surface of Mars to get there. He taught us how to put on the cramp-ons and how to use the ice pick in case we were going to fall. We sat there just talking for a while about the plan for the next morning and how everything was going to work. Watching the sunset, it started to get a lot colder, so we went back down to the refuge and put on even more layers of clothes.

Dinner was ready when we got back: soup with rice and noodles, and then spaghetti noodles with ground beef and veggies. Lots of carbs to last us through all the next day. There were lots of other people in the refuge that night, mostly other foreigners except for the guides. We only counted 3 or 4 other women, who were in groups that had men too – we were the only group of just women, and some of the guides were giving Diego a hard time about it, which just motivated us even more to make it up to the top. About 8 or 8:30 we went to lay down in our sleeping bags to sleep for a little bit, wearing almost all of our clothes for the next day – 2 pairs of long underwear, one pair of sweat pants, 3 pairs of socks, a t-shirt, long underwear shirt, and fleece jacket. Even with all these clothes and inside the sleeping bag inside the refuge, it was still the coldest I have ever been in my life. The cold temperatures plus the anticipation of our adventure in the morning made it really hard to fall asleep, and I kept waking up all night but finally I think I slept a total of 3 hours or less. Around midnight we woke up from hearing people walk around, and made our selves get out of the sleeping bag to get ready. Got our hats, scarves, gloves head lamps, and boots and grabbed our backpacks with our equipment, a lunch they had packed for us and lots of water. Headed down to have breakfast – bread with jelly, yogurt and granola, and hot chocolate. Put on our outer layers, waterproof pants and a jacket, our harnesses, and about 1:30 AM headed out.

It was completely dark, and we had no idea how they even knew where they were going. We just trusted them and followed along behind. At first it was just the sandy gravel, and every step I took I just slid down a little bit. It was really windy and cold, but we were walking so steep uphill that it kinda warmed me up. We caught up with another group of about 5 or 6 climbers with only one guide, zigzagging up the mountain who we followed for a little bit. They were going a lot slower than we had been, so it was a nice break to follow them, and made us feel good about ourselves that we could go faster than them, but it also made me feel colder again. Finally, we passed the others, and got to the snow line where we sat down to put on our cramp-ons, and they connected all 4 of us together with a rope. We sat for a minute resting and we could see the lights of Machachi below us, and all the stars above us. Also you could see lines of lights on the mountains, the head lamps of the other teams who were climbing that day. Starting off after that first break was when the real climb started for me. I was right behind Diego, with about 8 feet of rope separating us. He obviously is in better shape than I am and more used to the extreme altitude, so most of the time the tension was pretty tight on the rope because he was pulling me up the mountain. It was actually good though, because if I was not connected to him I probably would have gone slower, but by him pulling me at his pace it made me realize that I could do it and I was stronger than I thought. We kept on hiking at a decent pace, taking short breaks every once and a while. It started to get really windy and snowy as we made our way crisscrossing up the mountain. I looked forward to a break from the wind every time we turned away facing so the wind was more at our backs. Everything began to be covered in ice; the hood of my jacket was more like a hood of ice, and sometimes I couldn´t open my backpack to get out water because the zippers had frozen shut. The ends of my hair sticking out from my hat looked like noodles made of ice crystals, but we just kept walking. There was a really steep part that we pretty much climbed straight up and I almost thought I couldn´t make it. I was using my ice pick as a walking stick to support myself, and every time I stuck it in the ground I thought it was going to be the last step I would take. But that rope kept getting tighter from Diego trying to pull me behind him, and I felt like I couldn´t let him down, or myself or Krista, so I kept going.

At the top of the steep part, we stopped and rested and talked with the guides, although we could hardly hear them because of the wind. It was just starting to get light, probably about 6 in the morning. Diego said that now that the weather had been like this for a few hours, it would not improve, so we probably should not keep going. It wouldn´t have been impossible to summit, but with the wind and snow it would have not been very enjoyable, and once we got to the top we wouldn´t be able to see anything anyways. We were at about 5400 meters above sea level and decided that we wouldn´t go any further. However, we still had about 2 hours before we had to start heading down, and we were at a really cool place where there were lots of crevices and icicles, so we hung out there for a while exploring. They set up a little rope system so we could jump over the crevices, and we walked around this place that looked like nothing else I had ever seen. We climbed up a little wall that we had to use our ice picks, and then at the top sat and rested behind a snowdrift out of the wind. We drank some water, but I wasn´t really hungry. It got cold pretty fast just sitting still so we started heading down after not too long.

Going down was definitely faster than going up, but it was still pretty difficult. After a while your thighs start to burn and you have to sit just to rest your legs. The hillside didn´t seem as steep going down than climbing up. We were still all connected with the rope, but now I felt like I was being pulled both directions – we had just turned around so now Krista was in front of my and Diego was behind me. My cramp-ons kept falling off and Krista´s harness as well, so every once in a while we had to stop to fix them. Luckily the guides usually did it for us because it was so cold once you took off your gloves.

We finally arrived back to the refuge, where we just took off our backpacks and jackets and set them by the door to thaw out for a little bit while we ate some Oreos and Doritos. We packed up our sleeping bags and got everything ready and hiked down back to the parking lot. It was so cold that Diego´s dad´s old truck that we had borrowed didn´t start. He was looking under the hood while his brother was trying to give it some gas and turn the key. A few minutes Diego was pretty much sitting under the hood trying to heat up some tubes or something, and finally the car started, scaring him and ripping the sleeve of his jacket that got stuck in something. He hopped in the car with us, all four of us squished in there. Slowly made our way down the mountain, stopping a few times to check something out in the car, and to take off layers of clothes. We finally made it to the highway where they dropped me off to catch a bus home, and at this point it was only about 10:30 AM, but it felt like it should have been almost sunset since we had already done such a long hike that day. I finally got home at about 4 with a backpack full of wet clothes and empty water bottles, took a shower, and went to sleep. I was not as sore the next day as I expected, but just tired. Makes me feel like I could have exerted myself harder, and next time we attempt we are going to make it!

Since that Cotopaxi trip I´ve just been hanging out in Cebadas, sometimes just sitting in the office reading my book, washing my clothes by hand on sunny afternoons, but also doing some really cool work too. One workshop that was particularly successful was in the community of Puka Totoras on the topic of gender equality. This community is the farthest away, way up high in the mountains, and with very traditional, indigenous habitants. I had Dr. Silva and his secretary go with me to help me out. At first I just was thinking of asking the secretary because she is an indigenous woman with a successful job, so she´s a great example of the things we would be talking about, and she speaks Kichwa so she could help me translate sometimes because especially some of the older women don´t understand Spanish too well. We asked Dr. Silva too so that he could ask for transportation to be provided by the Ministry of Public Health, so the three of us headed out early in the morning to get there. I was especially tired because I had told them I would bring snacks and was up till 11:30 the night before making multiple batches of banana bread muffins in my one muffin tray, and then I had to leave at 5 AM just because it’s so far away. We had almost arrived, just one more big curve of the road when we found that there had been a landslide. Since we knew we were close we just left the driver there with the car, and started walking towards the center of the community, arriving about 30 minutes later and warmed up from walking in the cold and windy weather. The past president saw us walking and came and joined us for the last part of the walk, then he opened up one of the classrooms of the school because there is not a meeting house or anything else in the community. Luckily the kids are on “summer” break now, so it wasn´t an interruption. We waited for a while before people started showing up, and then finally started the workshop with almost the whole population of the community – about 9 male participants and 20 or so women. After the obligatory words of “bienvenido” and short introduction, I explained the first activity that was called Differences and Similarities of the Genders. We separated the group into men and women, Dr. Silva with the men and Anita the secretary with the women, leaving me to just roam around observing and take pictures. Each group had a poster where they had to answer 3 questions: What do I like about being a woman (or man)? What would I like about being a man (or woman)? and What should men (or women) know about being a woman (or man)? Anita and Dr. Silva wrote down what they were saying as the participants discussed the questions, and then after about 20 or 30 minutes one person from each group had to present what they had discussed. The women said they liked spinning yarn and knitting, being leaders in the community and helping with the education of their children. They would like having more freedom, more education, and the opportunity to work in the city if they were men, and they wish that the men understood all the responsibilities that the women had in the home. The men said they liked being men because they had more freedom, education and opportunities to work. If they were women they would like cooking and cleaning and washing clothes. They wish that the women understood that they are working for the benefit of the whole family. After each group presented, Dr. Silva and I each talked for a few minutes, pointing out a few key points that each group had said. He talked about the fact that the men all leave to work in the cities or even in other countries, and asked why the women don´t go as well. They responded that they have to stay there taking care of the animals and the plots of land they have for grazing (because at this high elevation nothing else really grows except for grasses). He asked the women if they got married to spend time with their husband, or to spend time with their animals. Obviously not to just stay with the animals, so he offered the idea that both the man and women could go work in a different city when they first get married to make twice the money and then come back to the land their parents have left them to buy animals and raise the children they have in the future in their own community. They seemed receptive of the idea, but the fact is that men leave and women stay, proven by the participants in attendance (9 men and 25 women). That is something that will just take time to change their perspective, if they want to of course, but the fact is that the more developed countries and areas are those where women have more power in the society. I talked after him and pointed out some similarities I saw in the two presentations, for example that men like their freedom and education, and women wish they had more freedom and education. We talked about the fact that starting with their kids, girls and boys both should be sent to study in high school and to university too if possible. I explained to the men that if there is something that I like, I´m not just going to keep it to myself, but I´m going to want to share it with others. One suggestion I made was maybe they could send the woman to do the shopping in the city for the day while they stay at home with the kids. This all started some great conversations because in this reserved culture they never really talk about things like that; they just get married when they´re pretty young, have kids, and live their lives like all the other families in the community. It was cool too because it wasn´t me saying that women should have the same rights as men to study, or these other things we talked about, but the women of the community were the ones who said those things and it was a great way for me to strengthen and explain a little more the ideas that they themselves came up with. For the second activity I had taped papers on the wall on each side of the room saying “I agree” and “I don´t agree”, and “???” in the middle. I read statements, and if they agreed or disagreed, they were supposed to move to stand on that side of the room. I got this idea from a manual Peace Corps had sent me, and it had statements on the list like “sometimes women should pay for movie tickets of dinner on a date”, but no one in this community even knows that movie theatres exist, so I changed it to things like “women cannot cut their hair” and “only men can drink alcohol”. This one didn´t go as well as the first activity; I think the men were a little offended and kind of just stood at the back of the room not really participating, and the women all just moved together, saying they all agreed or all disagreed, no one wanted to be by themselves. Overall though it went really well, giving the community an opportunity to talk about these things that affect their everyday lives but they never really talks about. A week later I went with another volunteer to talk to the newest group of trainees and we repeated these exact same activities with them, so they can see how they work and possibly repeat them in their communities after they’re been there for a while. I think if I had done this activity right away it wouldn’t have been successful, but now that they know me and feel more comfortable with me, they were able to be more honest knowing that I was someone they could trust.

Well, that’s a little update of my life here lately. I’m still loving it here, although sometimes I do miss things like washing machines, Target, milk and cereal, and of course my friends and family!