A step in the Right Direction

6.14.11

So compared to my last blog, this one is gonna be a dud, but I’m still going to update you on this past week anyways because there were a couple things that happened worth blogging about…. And I’m trying to make it a point to blog at least once a week.

I’ve been having a difficult time with my counterpart. A counterpart is a person of your village/community/town/organization with whom Peace Corps “assigns” to you to help you integrate into the community and start work. Basiclly, this person is your work partner. Well, my counterpart hasn’t tried contacting me since I’ve gotten to Cuenca. She shows up to La Red (the organization I work with) every once in awhile. And when she does she likes to tell me I’m going to help one of my fellow PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteer) with her Spanish, which is definitely not my job, or I’m going to go on a 5 day trip that will cost me $50, which is a huge chunk out of my monthly living allowance. Those are just a couple of examples.

I’m not trying to bash on my counterpart because she is a very good person at heart, just VERY tough to work with.

So PC assigns you a person to work with, but at any time if it is not working out with this person you are free to find a different counterpart who is more motivated, easier to work with, etc. And that’s exactly what I did on Wednesday. There is this girl, Angie, who is in the office every single day without fail. She runs the organization and is very good at her job. Without her, I’m not sure what my other coworkers would do… or if the place would even run. We even call her “Mama Grande” since she knows the answers to everything.

And on top of her being the “Mama Grande” of the office, she is my age and we get along great. So Wednesday I decided to talk to her about becoming my counterpart and the “job duties” of a counterpart, what I expect of her, what she should expect of me, things like that. She was very interested, which made my day! And now she is my counterpart, woohoo!

During our conversation I asked her if she could explain the structure of the organization and the projects La Red was working on. So I FINALLY know what my organization does and the external projects we are working on. It only took 7 weeks…. But it's a step in the right direction J

One of the awesome projects I’m helping them work on right now is the first national community tourism conference in Ecuador. Up to 750 can come. We are doing marketing right now to the Universities in town. Tourism is a popular subject of study and many of the Universities are even interested in helping us run the 3 day conference. Pretty cool. But I will save my organization and what it does for another post. On to the rest of the week.

Thursday. Thursday was an exciting day. I went to work, ate lunch, then Marcia, Daniel and I went to a town called Gualaceo, about 45 minutes away to buy shoes. This town is known for their cheap shoes, boots, heels, etc. I was soooo excited to be going and buying new shoes. I’m SO TIRED of wearing tennis shoes every day, while the rest of the girls and women dress up.

At first I was disappointed because all the heels were adorable, but too expensive for my PC budget, and the boots I came across were ugly... Until the very last store, go figure. The last store we came too had all kind of sales going on and a super cute pair of boots I liked! So guess what? I bought 2 pairs of heels, 1 pair of casual light yellow tennis shoes, and 1 pair of black boots all for $58. SCORE! I have been such a cheap ass the whole time I’ve been here and have hardly bought anything. It felt so good to spend money! And now I get to look cute, wear heels and not look like a dude when I go to meetings or out on the weekends.

Friday was real low key. I worked, went to the gym, and sat in on a meeting that Marcia had at the house with the Spa girls.

Saturday, Hannah and Kristin from my omnibus (aka-my PC training class, we were omnibus 105) came to Cuenca to celebrate Kristin’s bday. After getting ready Hannah and I met up with Kristin and another girl at a restaurant to have a drink and dinner. Later on, Kristin had some bracelets for us girls to get in free at this one bar/dance club so we used them and went dancing. It was a fun night! I even wore my super cute, new black boots! J

 Us girls at the restaurant :-)

The Bday girl!

Sunday. Hannah left and I went to the store with Marcia to get a plastic container to put all the manicure and pedicure tools in at the Spa. Well….. we ended up buying 44 small aluminum bottles, 2 small plastic containers, 2 medium containers, 2 locks, a role of plastic, 1 laundry basket (for my dirty clothes since I didn’t have one), and masking tape. I should have known that would happen… I should have known.

Later in the evening I started feeling yucky. My stomach hurt, I had a headache, my body ached, the whole works… then came the diarrhea. Fudge. I had diarrhea all day Monday and all day today, Tuesday, I’ve had it. Thank goodness it’s not accompanied by stomach pains, so I don’t feel all that bad, just pretty tired. I ate the tiniest bit of some nata Sunday evening, which is the stuff that hardens at the top of the pot after you boil milk… I think. They eat is by dipping bread in it bc it’s a little watery with cottage cheese like chunks in it. I think that might be the cause of this. My stomach isn’t used to unpasteurized milk. But then again, you never know if that’s it or not.

So the past couple of days I’ve been going to work, coming home and eating lunch, and then laying down and napping on and off in the afternoons. I hope this passes soon, like right now, and my bowels get back to their normal schedule soon.

As always, questions and comments are welcome! As well as updates on everyone's life in the States! My email is Siegmund.Heather@gmail.com.

Heather