We are now done with the first official week of CBT (community based training). We’ve had sessions on Safety and Security and Health which were surprising – they make it seem like you WILL get robbed and you WILL get amoebas, both of which are very likely, but hopefully with our training we will know what to look out for and how to avoid certain dangerous situations. We also had a little more language and technical training, but the first week I think moves a little slower than the others; they finally gave us a schedule for training and told us about the tests and interviews that we had to pass in order to officially become a volunteer. It was a little overwhelming, but I’m sure that if we just take it one day at a time we will get everything done. We have some homework to do a community analysis and then present it to the other groups next week in a creative way so tomorrow we have to talk to the president of the community and interview people on the streets to find out more information about the town and get their opinion on certain topics.
The other day my little sister Rubi got kicked in the face by a horse. She was riding her bike and it scared the horse. She apparently lost consciousness and her brother who got kicked in the shoulder brought her back to the house. She had a popsicle thing on it to keep down swelling, but then the mom put some herb on it that is supposed to help with swelling, so we’ll see what it looks like tomorrow. I am really interested in the traditional medicine and apparently the current minister of health is trying to promote collaboration of traditional and western medicine so it is possible that my placement could be in this area.
Yesterday I helped my mom and sisters make “humitas” which are basically tamales. We took the corn off the cob and ground it ourselves so everything was from scratch. We cooked them over a fire because my mom thinks its faster, and she also wanted to warm up the cuyes (guinea pigs) so we put a fire in the little room where they live. I gave them some chocolate chips as a gift because they are really expensive here ($10/bag) so we made some sweet ones and put the chocolate chips in them. The salty ones had cheese ad onion.
Today we went to Cayame like we do every Sunday, but this weekend there are fiestas in Cayambe so I got to see part of a parade. They are for Dia de San Pedro and to celebrate the end of the harvest so its kind of a combination of catholic and indigenous beliefs. People dress up in traditional clothing, do traditional dances, and I’m not really sure what else. It all lasts for a while; I think it started on Thursday and then on Tuesday people from the communities surrounding Cayambe will dance/walk down into town, then on either Thursday or Friday the party is here in Paquiestancia and apparently there will be a castle built out of fireworks that will be lit. I’m excited to take pictures of that!

I put some pictures up on my Facebook page, you can go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2369300&id=19227721&l=556e35d7f4 to see them!