Tis the season for company Christmas parties and other holiday traditions, and here in Cebadas that is one thing that is the same…and yet so different. Dec 15 we went to a community about an hour and a half outside of Cebadas with all the staff of the Subcentro and the shaman to do a ritual called Kapak Raymi (raymi means fiesta but I still don’t know what Kapak means). I am still not positive, but I think it has something to do with the winter solstice maybe; I think it is supposed to bring harmony. Anyways, I didn’t really understand the meaning behind it obviously, but it was pretty cool. There were about 5 local people from the community as well – the others were watching the bulls that they had for Christmas I guess (meaning drunk people trying to fight bulls, not like professional matadors) and probably no one from the subcentro told them we were coming anyways. There was a blanket set in the middle of everyone standing in a circle with fruits and medicinal plants and musical instruments and other stuff on it, and each person put an object on there as well – I put my cell phone to get blessed. Each person was given a stick of incense, and there was also a little bowl of burning wood setting next to the blanket. The shaman went through the whole process of recognizing each of the four directions, so we had to do that too and repeat what he was saying – in Kichwa. Then each person took a handful of sawdust or something and walked around the blanket putting it on the fire when they returned. Then we all walked in a circle around the blanket together while one woman, a midwife, handed out the fruit to everyone to eat. It was cool to get to see that, and the doctor actually gave everyone a DVD copy of what we filmed on that day for a little Christmas present. I’m not sure what the patients thought who came to the Subcentro that day just to find that it was closed because everyone was at the ritual, but honestly the people are kind of lazy and just unorganized and also really busy with lots of activities the public health ministry makes them do, so the people are kind of used to the Subcentro being closed. It was also cool to get to see the community where we did it because it is the farthest one and is where the trail starts to climb one of the nearby volcanoes, Sangay, however its about a 7 day hike to get there. There are some cool little cabins where tourists can stay before or after climbing, or just to spend a weekend or whatever. The only problem is that there’s not really regular transportation for normal people to just go there, and the road isn’t in the best of condition so if you don’t have a truck or if it rains hard no one would be able to get there.
Dec 16 we had a little get together in Riobamba at one of the nurses houses to eat a Christmas dinner with the staff. They bought a turkey that we ate with a prune sauce and there was rice and potatoes and salad, and I made sugar cookies and gingerbread with cream cheese frosting to bring for dessert. Everyone had to do a little toast and then we ate and sat around talking. The food was different, but it was kind of like a Christmas dinner in the US. I ended up spending the night at the nurses house because they said they were going to do it at like 2 in the afternoon and didn’t end up meeting until about 6 and the last bus leaves at 8 – I didn’t have anything with me, but I’ve kind of gotten used to just sleeping wherever even when I’m not prepared for it.
Dec 17 was the Christmas program at the hospital for all the Ministry of Public Health employees – about 118 were invited but not everyone showed up. I went in the same clothes I wore the day before since I had spent the night, and they were all dressed up, but they think I’m weird usually anyways just because I’m a gringa so they probably don’t expect me to wear nice clothes. This party was very different than a normal company Christmas party in the US. It took place at the hospital on a Friday, they just put a sign up that said they would only attend emergencies and everyone came in to the little auditorium/meeting room. This year the farmacy and dentistry personel were in charge of planning everything. It started at 9 with a mass – a pastor came in from a church I guess. It was only like the 3rd mass I’ve ever been to in my life, and the first one in Spanish! After that there was a parade with a group of doctors and nurses dressed in traditional clothes dancing around in the streets followed by people dressed like Mary and Joseph carrying a little doll and then all the rest of the employees walking all around town. Then we came back into the auditorium to eat mote (hominy-ish corn stuff) with potatoes and pork at about 11:30. Then they did a toast few door prizes and then started dancing. The dancing lasted for about 20 minutes, then they took a break to do more door prizes and hand out more drinks (whiskey mixed with sparkling water). This cycle of dancing and drinking and gift continued all afternoon. Everyone got a little bag of candy and animal crackers, and then they just kept dancing. Around 2:30 we ate again – rice with potatoes, chicken, beef, salad, pop, and blackberry mousse for dessert. Then more drinking and dancing…we left at 4, but we were supposed to stay till 4:30 because that is the normal work hours and the party just replaced a normal work day. I’m guessing it went until after 4:30 though because everyone seemed to be having a good time, and at this point they were pretty tipsy with a few drunk people falling down while they were dancing crazily.
I’m glad everyone here has been sharing their Christmas traditions with me, because without winter weather and seeing friends and family and having a break or finals it doesn’t really seem like Christmas. Some people have put up lights and in Riobamba there’s sales and stuff in the stores and they are all decorated, but it still just doesn’t seem right. I still don’t know what my plans are for Christmas Eve and Christmas – maybe do a white elephant with some other volunteers or see if my host family is doing anything (but I asked and they said they don’t really do anything special). Christmas day I have to go to the airport to get Shannon and Sarah, and everyone has told me that tons of people travel on Christmas so I should leave early because all the busses will be full. I’m excited to see them though, and for them to see where I live, and everyone here is excited to meet them too!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Lack of coordination = FRUSTRATION
Today I was supposed to go to this community with the nutritionist from World Vision to help give a nutrition workshop, but then we just ended up talking about the fact that they aren't gonna work there because the government is already doing a nutrition program there. I feel like this is the story of my life in Ecuador for so many reasons.
First - we were planning on leaving at 9 to get there, but the nutritionist went and to go to talk to the doctor really quick, but he just wanted to talk for ever (instead of attending to his patients) so then we were late getting to the community. However, once we got there we just ended up waiting for like an hour and a half until we talked to the people. I know everything here runs on "Ecuadorian time", but a lot of times it feels like everyone is always so busy and in such a hurry just to sit around and wait. Another example of this is when you are getting on or off the bus, lots of times they don't even stop all the way for people to get on or off, but then the bus is always running late anyways.
Second - so many times people plan meetings or other activities, then just completely forget about it and make other plans. When we got there the parents were all in another meeting planning the activities for Christmas and almost left right when we got there to do the nutrition thing even though we told them a long time ago we were coming today. This has happened so many other times too, which was frustrating but now I've kind of gotten used to it. It just doesn't make sense how everyone says they want to work on this or that project, but then when we actually are gonna do it they don't show up.
Third - there were 3 organizations that were going to work in this same community all pretty much on the same topic, but they weren't coordinating at all and didn't realize until today that there are other communities where no one is working. Between the large number of programs run by the basically socialist government, and all the NGO's and other organizations here, you'd think there would be more progress than there has been, but with the lack of coordination it's just not gonna happen.
A while ago I remember someone asked me "why are the people there so poor?" I thought about it, and I couldn't really come up with an answer. However, now after situations like the one that happened today and after learning more about how things work here I think there are lots of different reasons why there is so much poverty here. First (and most basically), there are not many jobs that pay well (hence why so many people go to the cities or emigrate to other countries leaving their families behind) and also the land isn't as good as it used to be so they can't even depend on agriculture. Also though, I think all the bureaucracy in the different ministries of the government is a factor because they all have good objectives of helping the lower class, but there are just too many and they don't coordinate with each other like they should. Again with the NGO's and stuff too, the people have gotten used to having stuff given to them and a lot of times they don't even seem to care about improving their own quality of life because they think other people should do it for them. When they show up late to meetings or don't show up at all, that doesn't show me that they are actually interested in whatever type of assistance they were going to receive. I also think the poverty has a lot to do with the lack of education. You can set up as many meetings as you want to give out information on nutrition or whatever, but when the parents can't read and didn't go to school and can't really even understand new concepts like that, its hard to teach them new things. I think the people realize that, but they still don't put much importance on their own education. (For example - classes at the high school were cancelled today so the band could rehearse for the parade we are going to do for World AIDS Day later this week. It's important for them to practice, but I don't know why they can't do it after school so everyone doesn't have to miss out on classes. There have also been so many times where the teachers just don't show up so classes are cancelled, but usually no one seems to do anything about it.)
I've kind of just now gotten a hold of the reality here that as much as I want to change something, if the people don't want to change it they are not going to. I haven't lost motivation and I still hope to do something in these two years that means something to the people here, but it's not going to be as easy as I thought. Not that I was expecting it to be easy - otherwise it would have already happened and I wouldn't be here at all. I'm just starting to realize that there are so many people involved in development work, but the most important people are the ones "being developed" and how important it is that it all starts with them - but often they don't even know how to start which brings us back to where we started. Such a difficult cycle to break.
In happier news, it's been a rainy afternoon here today so I have just been sitting in my room in my new bean bag chair watching movies and drinking hot cocoa. It's been a good day overall.
First - we were planning on leaving at 9 to get there, but the nutritionist went and to go to talk to the doctor really quick, but he just wanted to talk for ever (instead of attending to his patients) so then we were late getting to the community. However, once we got there we just ended up waiting for like an hour and a half until we talked to the people. I know everything here runs on "Ecuadorian time", but a lot of times it feels like everyone is always so busy and in such a hurry just to sit around and wait. Another example of this is when you are getting on or off the bus, lots of times they don't even stop all the way for people to get on or off, but then the bus is always running late anyways.
Second - so many times people plan meetings or other activities, then just completely forget about it and make other plans. When we got there the parents were all in another meeting planning the activities for Christmas and almost left right when we got there to do the nutrition thing even though we told them a long time ago we were coming today. This has happened so many other times too, which was frustrating but now I've kind of gotten used to it. It just doesn't make sense how everyone says they want to work on this or that project, but then when we actually are gonna do it they don't show up.
Third - there were 3 organizations that were going to work in this same community all pretty much on the same topic, but they weren't coordinating at all and didn't realize until today that there are other communities where no one is working. Between the large number of programs run by the basically socialist government, and all the NGO's and other organizations here, you'd think there would be more progress than there has been, but with the lack of coordination it's just not gonna happen.
A while ago I remember someone asked me "why are the people there so poor?" I thought about it, and I couldn't really come up with an answer. However, now after situations like the one that happened today and after learning more about how things work here I think there are lots of different reasons why there is so much poverty here. First (and most basically), there are not many jobs that pay well (hence why so many people go to the cities or emigrate to other countries leaving their families behind) and also the land isn't as good as it used to be so they can't even depend on agriculture. Also though, I think all the bureaucracy in the different ministries of the government is a factor because they all have good objectives of helping the lower class, but there are just too many and they don't coordinate with each other like they should. Again with the NGO's and stuff too, the people have gotten used to having stuff given to them and a lot of times they don't even seem to care about improving their own quality of life because they think other people should do it for them. When they show up late to meetings or don't show up at all, that doesn't show me that they are actually interested in whatever type of assistance they were going to receive. I also think the poverty has a lot to do with the lack of education. You can set up as many meetings as you want to give out information on nutrition or whatever, but when the parents can't read and didn't go to school and can't really even understand new concepts like that, its hard to teach them new things. I think the people realize that, but they still don't put much importance on their own education. (For example - classes at the high school were cancelled today so the band could rehearse for the parade we are going to do for World AIDS Day later this week. It's important for them to practice, but I don't know why they can't do it after school so everyone doesn't have to miss out on classes. There have also been so many times where the teachers just don't show up so classes are cancelled, but usually no one seems to do anything about it.)
I've kind of just now gotten a hold of the reality here that as much as I want to change something, if the people don't want to change it they are not going to. I haven't lost motivation and I still hope to do something in these two years that means something to the people here, but it's not going to be as easy as I thought. Not that I was expecting it to be easy - otherwise it would have already happened and I wouldn't be here at all. I'm just starting to realize that there are so many people involved in development work, but the most important people are the ones "being developed" and how important it is that it all starts with them - but often they don't even know how to start which brings us back to where we started. Such a difficult cycle to break.
In happier news, it's been a rainy afternoon here today so I have just been sitting in my room in my new bean bag chair watching movies and drinking hot cocoa. It's been a good day overall.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Reconnect, etc
Quick note about the toothbrush stuff - we are going to have to go through customs with official forms and stuff, so I have set the date of Dec 31 to be the last day of collection because then we have to fill out a form with exactly how much stuff is being donated. If you would like to participate, again let me know by email at kknthomp@gmail.com and you can send anything in the mail to my parents: Scott and Karen Thompson, PO Box 4294, Estes Park, CO 80517. Make sure it´s not UPS because they won´t deliver to PO Boxes. You can send UPS to Scott Thompson at Coldwell Banker, 320 E Elkhorn Avenue, Estes Park, CO 80517
Last week we had a Peace Corps conference called Reconnect in the town of Cumbaya – how typical to meet with a bunch of hippies in Cumbaya right? Everyone had to do a presentation of the results of the surveys we all did. It was supposed to be practice for when we present it to our organizations, which I did on Tuesday when I came back. Anyways, we had the conference in a convent so we were kind of all trapped in there, but I thought it was actually pretty fun because we played some games in the evenings and it was raining all week so I didn’t really want to leave anyways – I would just have spent money unnecessarily. On Friday afternoon after the conference finished a bunch of volunteers went to see the new Harry Potter movie in Quito. We spent the night there and with 6 other volunteers I went on a little weekend trip to Mindo. The trip didn’t start off well because I got robbed on the bus on the way there. Someone cut my bag open and took all the money out of my wallet. It was the first incident that I ever had, and at least they didn’t take my phone or camera or any important documents. The rest of the trip was really fun though. Mindo is pretty much halfway to the coast, so it was hotter there and more green and humid. There are lots of touristy things, like zip lines, hiking to waterfalls, rafting, stuff like that. We just spent about one full day there before going back to our sites. I got back to Cebadas on Monday afternoon, then Tuesday got back to work. I helped with a demonstration on first aid for the 5th and 6th graders in a school in one of the communities – we did triage with the example that there was a bus accident. If there were injuries we treated them with stuff like pieces of cardboard and scarves because honestly a lot of emergency medicine is just learning how to use the equipment but if you can improvise you can do a lot. Tuesday afternoon I presented my Diagnostico Comunitario to the Subcentro staff – I made a pesto chicken casserole too. After eating I started the slide show but I said I wanted it to be more like a conversation and there was a lot of good dialogue that came out of it. We decided to prioritize nutrition as my main project – but I don’t really know where to start. They want to focus on teenagers because then they get pregnant and without good nutrition they will have malnourished kids with congenital problems. First I think we need to find the baseline data because in reality no one has correct data on the prevalence of malnutrition. I guess I will first start working on that and then hopefully we will think of some way to start the classes or whatever. I still feel like I haven’t really found my niche in the Subcentro or in the community in general but I think presenting my survey results helped me get started. I still want to coordinate with other organizations as well, including Rotary, World Vision, and the local government so that will fill up my time when I don’t have nutrition stuff to do. Also on Tuesday afternoon a woman gave birth in the traditional birthing room in the Subcentro! I got there just right after it happened, which sucked cuz I have never seen a live birth before. The couple and the grandma were there, and they decided just to spend the night in the Subcentro. Since everyone else lives in Riobamba they asked if I could help out, so I stayed there hanging out with them till like 8:30 then came back early in the morning just to make sure everything was ok. Wednesday I finally got to move into my new room! Right now I just have a bed and a table and everything else is on the floor, so this weekend and next week I’ll have to do some shopping for other furniture and stuff. It is weird to think that I will live in this room for more time than I ever lived in the same place during college – stuff like that makes it seem like time is going slowly, but other days it seems to pass by so fast. Today is Thanksgiving so I’m going to spend the night in Riobamba and have a potluck dinner with the other volunteers. That’s all for now!
Last week we had a Peace Corps conference called Reconnect in the town of Cumbaya – how typical to meet with a bunch of hippies in Cumbaya right? Everyone had to do a presentation of the results of the surveys we all did. It was supposed to be practice for when we present it to our organizations, which I did on Tuesday when I came back. Anyways, we had the conference in a convent so we were kind of all trapped in there, but I thought it was actually pretty fun because we played some games in the evenings and it was raining all week so I didn’t really want to leave anyways – I would just have spent money unnecessarily. On Friday afternoon after the conference finished a bunch of volunteers went to see the new Harry Potter movie in Quito. We spent the night there and with 6 other volunteers I went on a little weekend trip to Mindo. The trip didn’t start off well because I got robbed on the bus on the way there. Someone cut my bag open and took all the money out of my wallet. It was the first incident that I ever had, and at least they didn’t take my phone or camera or any important documents. The rest of the trip was really fun though. Mindo is pretty much halfway to the coast, so it was hotter there and more green and humid. There are lots of touristy things, like zip lines, hiking to waterfalls, rafting, stuff like that. We just spent about one full day there before going back to our sites. I got back to Cebadas on Monday afternoon, then Tuesday got back to work. I helped with a demonstration on first aid for the 5th and 6th graders in a school in one of the communities – we did triage with the example that there was a bus accident. If there were injuries we treated them with stuff like pieces of cardboard and scarves because honestly a lot of emergency medicine is just learning how to use the equipment but if you can improvise you can do a lot. Tuesday afternoon I presented my Diagnostico Comunitario to the Subcentro staff – I made a pesto chicken casserole too. After eating I started the slide show but I said I wanted it to be more like a conversation and there was a lot of good dialogue that came out of it. We decided to prioritize nutrition as my main project – but I don’t really know where to start. They want to focus on teenagers because then they get pregnant and without good nutrition they will have malnourished kids with congenital problems. First I think we need to find the baseline data because in reality no one has correct data on the prevalence of malnutrition. I guess I will first start working on that and then hopefully we will think of some way to start the classes or whatever. I still feel like I haven’t really found my niche in the Subcentro or in the community in general but I think presenting my survey results helped me get started. I still want to coordinate with other organizations as well, including Rotary, World Vision, and the local government so that will fill up my time when I don’t have nutrition stuff to do. Also on Tuesday afternoon a woman gave birth in the traditional birthing room in the Subcentro! I got there just right after it happened, which sucked cuz I have never seen a live birth before. The couple and the grandma were there, and they decided just to spend the night in the Subcentro. Since everyone else lives in Riobamba they asked if I could help out, so I stayed there hanging out with them till like 8:30 then came back early in the morning just to make sure everything was ok. Wednesday I finally got to move into my new room! Right now I just have a bed and a table and everything else is on the floor, so this weekend and next week I’ll have to do some shopping for other furniture and stuff. It is weird to think that I will live in this room for more time than I ever lived in the same place during college – stuff like that makes it seem like time is going slowly, but other days it seems to pass by so fast. Today is Thanksgiving so I’m going to spend the night in Riobamba and have a potluck dinner with the other volunteers. That’s all for now!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Toothbrush request...
Recently I had an idea that would greatly benefit the Subcentro where I work, but it requires the help of all of my friends at home as well. We have one dentist who works in the Subcentro, because of the poor dental hygiene most of her work consists of pulling teeth with a few fillings in between more pulling teeth – pretty much no preventative cleanings or checkups. She always tells people to brush their teeth 3 times a day in the hopes that they will at least do it once a day, but there’s also the fact that some of the people really are so poor that they can’t afford toothpaste. I went to a dentist at home right before coming here and was talking to her about my upcoming plans, and she said if I came back for a visit to come in and she could donate some toothbrushes and toothpaste. Thinking of that gave me the idea to donate toothbrushes and toothpaste to the dentist in the Subcentro to give to all the patients who come in just like in the US, and possibly in the schools too if I can find enough. My request of all of you is to talk to your personal dentist and ask for any donation that they can possibly give for the people of my community. My sister Shannon is coming to visit at the end of December and has agreed to bring down any donations, but my hope is that there are too many that you have to send them to me in the mail! I know it’s kind of short notice with less than 2 months to look for donations, but if each person goes to just one dentist it won’t be too time consuming.
If you are interested in helping me with this little project, email me at kknthomp@gmail.com and I can answer any questions and help arrange to get the donations down here. Please pass this simple idea on to any friends who might also be willing to participate. Hopefully soon I will be able to post pictures of smiling kids with their new toothbrushes, and share statistics of decreased dental problems!
If you are interested in helping me with this little project, email me at kknthomp@gmail.com and I can answer any questions and help arrange to get the donations down here. Please pass this simple idea on to any friends who might also be willing to participate. Hopefully soon I will be able to post pictures of smiling kids with their new toothbrushes, and share statistics of decreased dental problems!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
This weekend I went to Cuenca for a Halloween volunteer reunion. Cuenca is the 3rd biggest city in Ecuador, and the city with the most Americans/foreigners in general living there – it’s a big retirement spot. It was really surreal that I was still in Ecuador because it could have been Europe or something, its just so different from my site and even from Riobamba. There are 2 malls with movie theatres, cafés that serve real coffee, hookah bars, and pretty much everything you would find in the US except maybe Starbucks or Taco Bell. It was fun to see all the other volunteers again and do something American.
Monday I went to my host-aunt’s house to make bread to celebrate Dia de los Difuntos – I’m not actually even sure what the translation is for Difuntos, but it is the day when they go visit the graves of dead family members and stuff, like Dia de los Muertos in Mexico. That is actually on Tuesday, but on Monday all the family got together to make bread in the shape of babies, and we also made empanadas filled with cheese, rolls, croissants, and I made some cinnamon rolls. We made a ton of dough in a big trough kind of thing, and then just made bread in lots of shapes until there was no more. We also ate guinea pig, grilled chicken, and potatoes, and drank colada morada which is a drink made of blackberries and pineapple and other fruits with cinnamon and cloves. It is kind of like Ecuadorian Thanksgiving because the whole family got together, the kids were playing outside while the adults were cooking, I sat for a while talking to my grandpa, and then we all ate together. Kind of makes me a little homesick, but I’m excited for Shannon and Sarah to come visit me on Christmas so I can look forward to that.
I thought I would now tell a story of my bus ride back from Cuenca, which to me is not that abnormal, but it is probably a good way to describe my everyday life here. I got on the bus and sat down in a seat by the window just waiting for it to leave, and then a man sat in front of me and leaned his seat all the way back so it was touching my knees and shut the little curtain on the window. I kind of pushed it forward but he didn’t do anything, so I moved seats. I’m guessing the person who ended up sitting behind him said something to him but I didn’t want to have to deal with it. (This is a cultural thing I have noticed that people are just kind of rude sometimes, but here its just considered normal) So we started on our trip up the Panamerican Highway which is currently under construction so we had to stop quite a few times to wait for traffic to be let through from the other direction on the one-lane road. The times we were moving were quite bumpy and I was sitting in the second to last row because people had made me move from my other seats, so it was not the smoothest ride. Then this guy who was also a passenger got up in the front of the bus to talk to us all. This is not uncommon for people to sell things like fruit, drinks, ice cream, potato chips, and stuff like that, and there’s also people who come on to beg, and others who are pretty much begging but they are selling cookies or candy. First they make a little speech, thanking the bus driver for letting them on and thanking the passengers for their attention, then they will give every person a candy or whatever, and talk some more saying for just “50 centavitos” you can keep the cookies then go around and collect the money or the product that the people don’t want. So anyways on this particular bus ride I thought this guy was gonna do that, but he actually started explaining how he was an art student in a university and then he started asking questions about what he had said and gave out prizes to people who participated. Turns out he was selling these gemstone necklaces that he and his art classmates had made, which was the most interesting thing I had ever seen sold on a bus. Of course I had to buy one, and it was only $1 anyways. So then I was just sitting listening to my music and being really bored, when the bus stopped and turned off. I thought it was because of the construction again, but then the driver came running back to the back of the bus, and opened up a little thing in the floor that allowed access to the engine or whatever. He did some stuff with some wrenches and we were sitting for a while with the fumes of gasoline coming up into the bus, but eventually he closed it up and we were on our bumpy way again. We went over speed bumps so fast that we all bounced out of our seats. There was a woman sitting next to me with her baby, not really crying but just making loud baby noises. There were also people leaning on the side of my seat because they had to stand in the aisle since there were no more seats left – some of them were going to be travelling about 10 hours total and just had to wait until other people got off and there were seats available. About 4 hours into the ride, they started playing some movie with Sylvester Stallone – the menu and stuff were written in Russian but then they put on the Spanish translation, but I couldn’t really understand it because the bus speakers kept going out, but also because they just record the translation and its not always matched up to the picture or of very good quality. I just tried to sleep some more, then finally arrived in Riobamba where I went to a store to buy a drink and break a $20, but they had to run over to the gas station next door to get me change (another typical thing in Ecuador is that no one ever has change, so sometimes even $5 bills are pretty much worthless). I took a taxi for about 15 minutes to get to where the bus for my site leaves, and then got on another bus for an hour to get home. That 6 hour ride was the longest I have done by myself. Some other volunteers have to travel 15 hours in bus to get to their sites, which is hard to believe because it’s the size of Colorado and there’s no way it would take that long to drive across half the state. So there’s a story of my everyday life in Ecuador…might be boring but maybe it will be interesting.
Monday I went to my host-aunt’s house to make bread to celebrate Dia de los Difuntos – I’m not actually even sure what the translation is for Difuntos, but it is the day when they go visit the graves of dead family members and stuff, like Dia de los Muertos in Mexico. That is actually on Tuesday, but on Monday all the family got together to make bread in the shape of babies, and we also made empanadas filled with cheese, rolls, croissants, and I made some cinnamon rolls. We made a ton of dough in a big trough kind of thing, and then just made bread in lots of shapes until there was no more. We also ate guinea pig, grilled chicken, and potatoes, and drank colada morada which is a drink made of blackberries and pineapple and other fruits with cinnamon and cloves. It is kind of like Ecuadorian Thanksgiving because the whole family got together, the kids were playing outside while the adults were cooking, I sat for a while talking to my grandpa, and then we all ate together. Kind of makes me a little homesick, but I’m excited for Shannon and Sarah to come visit me on Christmas so I can look forward to that.
I thought I would now tell a story of my bus ride back from Cuenca, which to me is not that abnormal, but it is probably a good way to describe my everyday life here. I got on the bus and sat down in a seat by the window just waiting for it to leave, and then a man sat in front of me and leaned his seat all the way back so it was touching my knees and shut the little curtain on the window. I kind of pushed it forward but he didn’t do anything, so I moved seats. I’m guessing the person who ended up sitting behind him said something to him but I didn’t want to have to deal with it. (This is a cultural thing I have noticed that people are just kind of rude sometimes, but here its just considered normal) So we started on our trip up the Panamerican Highway which is currently under construction so we had to stop quite a few times to wait for traffic to be let through from the other direction on the one-lane road. The times we were moving were quite bumpy and I was sitting in the second to last row because people had made me move from my other seats, so it was not the smoothest ride. Then this guy who was also a passenger got up in the front of the bus to talk to us all. This is not uncommon for people to sell things like fruit, drinks, ice cream, potato chips, and stuff like that, and there’s also people who come on to beg, and others who are pretty much begging but they are selling cookies or candy. First they make a little speech, thanking the bus driver for letting them on and thanking the passengers for their attention, then they will give every person a candy or whatever, and talk some more saying for just “50 centavitos” you can keep the cookies then go around and collect the money or the product that the people don’t want. So anyways on this particular bus ride I thought this guy was gonna do that, but he actually started explaining how he was an art student in a university and then he started asking questions about what he had said and gave out prizes to people who participated. Turns out he was selling these gemstone necklaces that he and his art classmates had made, which was the most interesting thing I had ever seen sold on a bus. Of course I had to buy one, and it was only $1 anyways. So then I was just sitting listening to my music and being really bored, when the bus stopped and turned off. I thought it was because of the construction again, but then the driver came running back to the back of the bus, and opened up a little thing in the floor that allowed access to the engine or whatever. He did some stuff with some wrenches and we were sitting for a while with the fumes of gasoline coming up into the bus, but eventually he closed it up and we were on our bumpy way again. We went over speed bumps so fast that we all bounced out of our seats. There was a woman sitting next to me with her baby, not really crying but just making loud baby noises. There were also people leaning on the side of my seat because they had to stand in the aisle since there were no more seats left – some of them were going to be travelling about 10 hours total and just had to wait until other people got off and there were seats available. About 4 hours into the ride, they started playing some movie with Sylvester Stallone – the menu and stuff were written in Russian but then they put on the Spanish translation, but I couldn’t really understand it because the bus speakers kept going out, but also because they just record the translation and its not always matched up to the picture or of very good quality. I just tried to sleep some more, then finally arrived in Riobamba where I went to a store to buy a drink and break a $20, but they had to run over to the gas station next door to get me change (another typical thing in Ecuador is that no one ever has change, so sometimes even $5 bills are pretty much worthless). I took a taxi for about 15 minutes to get to where the bus for my site leaves, and then got on another bus for an hour to get home. That 6 hour ride was the longest I have done by myself. Some other volunteers have to travel 15 hours in bus to get to their sites, which is hard to believe because it’s the size of Colorado and there’s no way it would take that long to drive across half the state. So there’s a story of my everyday life in Ecuador…might be boring but maybe it will be interesting.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Protest
Last Thursday there was a big protest/attempted assasination/nobody knows exactly what happened in Quito. Here´s what I can gather from my understanding of technical words in Spanish that they´ve been talking about on the news.
The police are angry because I think the President cut their pay but not the pay of the Army. They attacked him, and were attacking people on the streets and just causing lots of problems. A bullet flew like 50 cm from the President´s head. They gassed him and he almost passed out, so they took him to the hospital, but he was taken to the hospital of the police – he was kind of held hostage there, but they claim that he wasn´t, but he was in custody of the police doctors. About 9 at night the Army went in and escorted him out while under fire and one soldier died during the process (4 other people died earlier in the day). They took the President back to the Palace where there were a gajillion people waiting and cheering, and he gave a speech about that he has helped the police more than any other government in the past, and that they are being hypocrites but attacking people when they are supposed to be providing security. Now they´re saying in the news that the previous president was behind this. In Cebadas, school was cancelled the day after on Friday, but other than that nothing was really different, seeing as we don´t have police here anyways. I went to Riobamba for an afternoon to do some shopping and everything seemed normal there too, however I think that the day it all happened there were some small protests in Riobamba too.
My schedule continues to fill up – next week we have the inauguration of the kitchen/nutritional education room, and we´re celebrating global handwashing day and global nutrition day on October 15. Later in October there is another meeting with the midwives, and I´m trying to get all 28 of them to come because I´ve only met about 12. The day after that meeting we´re doing a workshop on organic compost for some women who are interested in it, and then November 6 I´m doing a nutrition workshop for 12 women who work in daycare centers in the communities, and November 8 or 9 I´m doing a little 2-hour sex-ed talk to some high schoolers in another community! Then pretty soon after that I have to go to Quito on Nov 14 for Reconnect, a conference with Peace Corps and all the other volunteers and their counterparts to talk about how the first 3 months have gone and our plans for the rest of the time. Hopefully this will help my counterpart understand better what is the Peace Corps and what I´m capable of doing because sometimes he still mentions things like making this juice called chicha and selling it in the US, or writing a letter to Colorado and asking them for and ambulance. I´m glad he has all these ideas, I just want him to be more focused, and hopefully Peace Corps can help me explain it to him during the conference.
The police are angry because I think the President cut their pay but not the pay of the Army. They attacked him, and were attacking people on the streets and just causing lots of problems. A bullet flew like 50 cm from the President´s head. They gassed him and he almost passed out, so they took him to the hospital, but he was taken to the hospital of the police – he was kind of held hostage there, but they claim that he wasn´t, but he was in custody of the police doctors. About 9 at night the Army went in and escorted him out while under fire and one soldier died during the process (4 other people died earlier in the day). They took the President back to the Palace where there were a gajillion people waiting and cheering, and he gave a speech about that he has helped the police more than any other government in the past, and that they are being hypocrites but attacking people when they are supposed to be providing security. Now they´re saying in the news that the previous president was behind this. In Cebadas, school was cancelled the day after on Friday, but other than that nothing was really different, seeing as we don´t have police here anyways. I went to Riobamba for an afternoon to do some shopping and everything seemed normal there too, however I think that the day it all happened there were some small protests in Riobamba too.
My schedule continues to fill up – next week we have the inauguration of the kitchen/nutritional education room, and we´re celebrating global handwashing day and global nutrition day on October 15. Later in October there is another meeting with the midwives, and I´m trying to get all 28 of them to come because I´ve only met about 12. The day after that meeting we´re doing a workshop on organic compost for some women who are interested in it, and then November 6 I´m doing a nutrition workshop for 12 women who work in daycare centers in the communities, and November 8 or 9 I´m doing a little 2-hour sex-ed talk to some high schoolers in another community! Then pretty soon after that I have to go to Quito on Nov 14 for Reconnect, a conference with Peace Corps and all the other volunteers and their counterparts to talk about how the first 3 months have gone and our plans for the rest of the time. Hopefully this will help my counterpart understand better what is the Peace Corps and what I´m capable of doing because sometimes he still mentions things like making this juice called chicha and selling it in the US, or writing a letter to Colorado and asking them for and ambulance. I´m glad he has all these ideas, I just want him to be more focused, and hopefully Peace Corps can help me explain it to him during the conference.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
On TV lately there have been two beauty pageants, The Worldwide Queen of Bananas (with participants from North, South and Central America, and Germany) and the Queen of Guayaquil. People are actually interested in watching them, but I don’t know why. I watched part of one for a little bit and it consisted of the women walking on stage in their bathing suits, the announcer announcing their measurements and hair/eye color, and then they announced the winner. Not very profound, but its entertaining to the locals. Another reason why I’m excited to move into my own little apartment so I can get a TV and watch the news.
Sunday for the adolescent pregnancy prevention thing, not many adolescents actually showed up but lots of adults were actually interested in the birth control methods too. We had some keychains that everyone wanted, so I made them demonstrate how to use a condom in order to win one. They are interested in the pills and injections and stuff as well, but HIV is an increasing issue nationwide, and although there have not been any cases in my town, it’s still important to educate them about it. The majority of new cases of HIV being detected are in housewives who have most likely never even heard of HIV before. The government provides anti-retroviral treatment for free, and there is a group of 16 volunteers that are working just with HIV to promote testing and treatment and break stereotypes of people living with HIV (people think you can get it by mosquitoes or if someone coughs on you). In my community I just want them to know first what it is and how to prevent it. I’ll teach more in depth about it in the high school, but every chance I get I try to briefly explain it to people, especially the women who have husbands working in other cities which is pretty common here.
I hung out with some teenagers on the street this afternoon and ate some chicken organs that they were cooking. They always have weird questions about the US that I wouldn’t even think of, but because of things they’ve seen in movies or on TV they think that’s what it is like. For example, they asked what is a tornado and why does it occur, or why do I only have one sister. A few people have asked me about the Twin Towers too or if everyone is really tall in the US.
Sunday for the adolescent pregnancy prevention thing, not many adolescents actually showed up but lots of adults were actually interested in the birth control methods too. We had some keychains that everyone wanted, so I made them demonstrate how to use a condom in order to win one. They are interested in the pills and injections and stuff as well, but HIV is an increasing issue nationwide, and although there have not been any cases in my town, it’s still important to educate them about it. The majority of new cases of HIV being detected are in housewives who have most likely never even heard of HIV before. The government provides anti-retroviral treatment for free, and there is a group of 16 volunteers that are working just with HIV to promote testing and treatment and break stereotypes of people living with HIV (people think you can get it by mosquitoes or if someone coughs on you). In my community I just want them to know first what it is and how to prevent it. I’ll teach more in depth about it in the high school, but every chance I get I try to briefly explain it to people, especially the women who have husbands working in other cities which is pretty common here.
I hung out with some teenagers on the street this afternoon and ate some chicken organs that they were cooking. They always have weird questions about the US that I wouldn’t even think of, but because of things they’ve seen in movies or on TV they think that’s what it is like. For example, they asked what is a tornado and why does it occur, or why do I only have one sister. A few people have asked me about the Twin Towers too or if everyone is really tall in the US.
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