HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!

Dear Mom,

Happy 50th Birthday!!!!!! Sending you lots of love from Ecuador!!!! Hope you had a great birthday! Although I couldn't be there, I was definitely thinking about you today!!! :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Love,
Heather

Otavalo!

2.20.11 Otavalo, Baby!

***This post has a link with pictures at the bottom!!!***

Oh where to start…. Today was definitely the best day I’ve had in Ecuador yet!!! My family took me to Otavalo, the largest market in Ecuador! But on the way we pit stopped at the Equator!!!! So freaking awesome! I took lots of pics! Then we pit stopped at the San Pablo lake lookout. There I took pictures of the lake from the mountains, but that wasn’t the best part…. There was a llama there, I’m guessing it was the store/land owners pet. My mom was petting it so I took a picture of her, then my host brother in law went to stand by it to get a pic with it and it SPIT grass on him, it was hilarious!! That stupid thing looked right at him and spit the grass right out of his mouth onto him. It was really funny. Then they wanted me to get in a picture with the llama. I said no, but they insisted. So I tiptoed over to it and what do you know, that darn this spit on me as well. Again, it was hysterical! We were all laughing really hard!

We then moved on… I thought we were then heading to Otavalo, but we stopped at a waterfall! Cascada de Peguche to be exact! It was sooo beautiful! It was packed… with locals, tourists, and people who were there to bathe themselves. Before getting back into the car we all shared a large beer. It was my first couple drinks of beer I’ve had since being in Ecuador. We had Pilsener, it was pretty good!

We then drove to have lunch at Fritado, which mean fried pig. The place was huge and we got family style food. The meat was delicious, it looked like chunks of pork, but tasted wayyyy better!

I thought we were going to the actual Otavalo market, but we just went to where the stores were. But it was still really fun. My 2 host sisters were trying on lots of clothes. They each bought a couple of things. They said they like to shop in Otavalo because the clothing there is much cheaper than Tumbaco and Quito. I didn’t get anything L I really like this cardigan sweater for $10, but I didn’t get it. I have to pick and choose what I want to spend my small earnings on!

On the way home we stopped for bizcoches. Bizcoches are a traditional food in Quinche (I think that is where it was, but I’m not positive!). It is hot chocolate with a shortbread like cookie and cheese. You dip your shortbread like cookie into the hot chocolate, it’s sooo delicious!

And that was my Sunday! It was a blast! I took tons of photos!! The link is below!

Heather

Pictures of The Equator, Peguche, and lunch!:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2610233&id=15920138&saved#!/album.php?aid=2610233&id=15920138

Saturday Class and The Mall

2.19.11 Saturday Class and The Mall

This morning we had language and culture class. Then the PCVLs (PCV leaders: Volunteers who have completed their service and extended one year to help train us) made an appointment with the neighbor next to the training center to tour her property. It’s huge. She raises guinea pigs, rabbits, and LOTS of pigs. The pigs were the best part. There were baby pigs, pregnant pigs ready to give birth any day, pigs for breeding, and pigs for selling. Pretty cool.

The Agriculture group then finished up the irrigation system they were putting in for our gardens and the rest of us hung out, helped out, and checked out the 80 baby chickens we just received at the PC training center. The ag group is going to raise all of them and then when family appreciation day comes around we are going to have to kill them and cook them so we have something to eat. That should be interesting!

Tonight, my host sister, host mom, 2 host nephews, and I went to the Central Comercial, aka the mall, in Quito. It is HUGE! All kind of stores: NorthFace, Lacoste, and Nike just to name a few. We got ice cream while we were there, it was delicious!!! I got 1 scoop chocolate and 1 scoop brownie in a waffle cone, yuuummmmaaay! Then on the way home we stopped and got McDonalds, ha, I got a cheeseburger!

Heather

Again, pics to come soon! Hopefully....

Tree Farm

2.18.11 Tree Farm

For class today the NRC group went to a Tree Farm for the whole morning. The place was beautiful!!! They grow tons of different trees. There were 5 stations set up… Station #1: Learn how they store seeds until they are ready to be planted. Station #2: Composting. Station #3: Dead heading and replanting. Station #4: Mix soils, put in small bags, and place tree stick in it. Station #5: Seed Beds and transplanting.

The rest of the afternoon the Police Captain came and gave us a speech over safety and security while in the Peace Corps.

I went to the supermarket for the first time tonight with my host mother, sister, other sister, and her spouse. It’s just like any other grocery store basically. I bought some animal crackers and a 6 pack of oreos. Haha.

Heather

Pics to come... it takes forever to upload them!

My first Ligo Game

2.17.11

We started today off with Medical Policies & Procedures, fun stuff, ha. The rest of the morning we had Tech Training. Topic: Environmental Education-Basic concepts and Resources for PCVs. Nothing that exciting. Then we spent the rest of the day on our first class of “Community Banks.” A community bank is where people in a community can make money without having to rely on outside resources. For example: This community bank consists of 30 community members. As a whole group they make rules (you must pay back a loan in 60 days or after missing 2 meeting you have to pay an extra $1) and appoint exec positions. The community bank group of 30 people meets once a week. At every meeting everyone has to pay $1. As money builds up people who participate in the community bank can take loans out using the money from the pot for whatever it may be that they need. They then have to pay the loan back plus interest in X amount of days. This is how they make money. This goes on for 1 year and at the 1 year mark the money is split 30 different ways. So they pay $52 throughout the year, but get back $75. There are many other details, but I will spare you. To put this into practice our training group is doing a community bank amongst ourselves for the 11 weeks of training so we can get used to how meetings run and whatnot. We haven’t made rules yet, but we have appointed exec positions. Yours truly was nominated and voted President. Ha, it’s not that big of a deal, really.

                There is some kind of Soccer Cup going on right now, and tonight Liga (the Ecuadorian team from Quito) played Argentina. My family ordered pizza and we watched the game downstairs at my host sisters house. I couldn’t make it through all of it because I was way too tired, but they ended up losing L The pizza here is really good, but unlike pizza in the U.S. there is no tomato sauce on it! Crazy, huh? It’s still really good! I love the dough!

***I forgot to tell you that Tuesday there was a small earthquake, I’m not sure where, but I felt the tremors while I was sitting at the kitchen table doing my Spanish homework at about 7pm. Pretty crazy. It was def the talk of the town on Wednesday, haha!***

Oh and to finish my package story, I ended up getting my package on Thursday because PC went and picked it up for me! How nice was that??? It ended up being a Valentines card from my parents with some heart candies in it!!!! Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Heather

Best Valentine's Day EVER!!! :-)

Today is 2.16.11, It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. It’s been a busy few days for me, but I will try to start from where I left off…

2.14.11 Monday

This was a rough day for me. I had a rough morning dealing with my emotions, but I had great support from my PC friends, which made it a lot easierJ I was pretty good during the day because I was busy with training, but as the evening approached all I could think about was my family at the funeral parlor and how I wasn’t there.  Class ended at 5, I went to the internet café for a short while then moseyed on home. To be honest, all I wanted to do was go straight to my room and relax, but when I got home some of my family was over to hang out for Valentine’s Day so I sat down at the table and chatted with them… and this is when my day went from being rough to having an amazing ending. Normally when my family is talking amongst themselves I understand about 40% of it… not this night, I understood like 95% of what everyone was saying, whether they were talking to me or amongst themselves I understood it. It was unbelievable!!!! I understood so much that I could actually crack jokes with them. I had a total break through moment with my Spanish. It was at this time that I knew my grandma was with me telling me everything would be okay J But wait, it gets better!

So a little while later I broke out my computer because my family wanted to hear some of the music I had on my computer. While my computer was loading up they asked me, “Do you have the internet on your computer?” I said, “No, in order to get on the internet you have to have it in the house. I’ve tried to connect to the signals within range, but they are all password protected.” I then showed them the different connections within range and how they needed a password. Normally, there are only 2 that pop up, but this time there were 3. I told them I haven’t seen this one before and that I probably needed a password as well, but I tried anyway…. And what do you know…. IT CONNECTED!!!!!!!!!! I freaked out, I mean REALLY freaked out. I got soooo excited. I was so excited that my host family was laughing at me. (and I don’t mean that in a bad way!) I immediately got on gmail and emailed my boyfriend to see if he was home from the funeral parlor yet. He was. So I signed onto Skype and we got to talk for like an hour. It was incredible!! I asked him how my family was holding up and how the funeral parlor was. Again, another sign from my grandma telling me everything was going to be okay. I went to sleep with a smile on my face.

You may be thinking, “Heather, what’s the big deal? So you understood Spanish and got to use the internet tonight. Big deal.” Well, it is a big deal. Those 2 things turned my terrible day into an incredible day. It’s really hard for me to put on paper just how much Monday night meant to me. Between understating most of the conversations that night and getting to talk to someone close to me, relieved a TON of stress and emotions that were building up. It’s hard being away from my entire family during this hard time, especially with no real means of communication. But my grandma was with me the entire night J It was unbelievable. Love you, grandma!

So it was a PHENOMENAL Valentine’s Day after all J

<3 I also want to thank my friends, family, and neighbors back in the States for their kind messages of support: Katie, Lauren, Amanda, Julia, Aunt Debbie, Kovach, and many more. You have no idea how much it meant to me when I signed on to Facebook and saw those sweet messages or emails. Although there are many miles between us, those messages touched very close to my heart! Thank you! And for those of you who supported my family at the funeral parlor, I thank you for that as well. <3

2.15.11 Tuesday

Today was a normal day. I went to the supermarket for the first time with my family and I ended up buying some animal crackers and a mini pack of oreos J

I then got to Skype with my sister and parents. It was so nice to see and talk to them without having to rush through conversation. It relieved a lot of stress and definitely made my day!!! Love you guys!

2.16.11

Instead of going to the training center for class today, we traveled to Quito and got to see the Peace Corps office in the capitol! After getting a tour of the office and listening to a safety and transportation presentation we broke off into our language groups to travel back to Tumbaco. We ate lunch at an Indian place in Quito. It was gross.

When we got back to Tumbaco a girl in my training group, whose name is also Heather, told me I had a package waiting for me at the Post Office in Quito!!!!!!!!!!!! I asked her how she knew that and she said she had to pick something up there and when she told the post office guy her name they brought 2 different packages out to her and one had my last name on it. How exciting is that!!!!!! I don’t know why it didn’t make it to the correct address, which is the PC office, but whatev, I have a package waiting for me!!!!! AHHH!!!! I’m so excited!!! The only bummer is that I can’t go get it until Monday, when I’m back in Quito. The suspense is killing me!!! I’m so excited to go pick it up and open it!! Great ending to my day J

My evening was normal… I had some dinner, talked with my family, did some homework, and now I’m blogging and about to go to bed.

Much love,

Heather

Needing Prayers!

2.13.11

Keep my Family in your Prayers, please

Well, today started off awesome, but ended terribly. I will give you the bad news first…. I was able to Skype my parents tonight, but unfortunately, they had bad news… my grandma passed away yesterday morning at 3:30am. I knew this was a possibility when I left for the Peace Corps, but I definitely wasn’t expecting this news a week into my service.  But now she is in heaven with God and painfree. It’s going to be difficult for me not being able to be with my family during this hard time.

I went to church with my host parents this morning in Quito, except this time we were to a different church. It was just as beautiful. We got there a little early so I got to take pictures of the president’s house, Plaza Grande, the church, and a statue I can’t remember the name of right now. I will post those soon. After mass we stopped to have lunch at the same place as last Sunday. Don’t ask me the name of it because I have no idea.

When we were on the way home, my dad was telling me he was going to take me to the houses of my host mom and Danillo (my host brother), it was a joke, obviously, but I had no idea what he meant. So eventually we got there and he said it was a surpresa (aka surprise). He actually wanted to show me a house they had bought and are going to sell. The house was super nice! It had 5 bedrooms, a living room, dining room, and 3 or 4 bathrooms. Their son bought the house that was attached to it, but it isn’t done being built yet. He and his family are actually going to move into it in a few months when it is complete. Then we got ice cream after we got off of the bus. It was delicious!!!!

I got home and was going to go to the internet café, but my host sister and her husband came over and I ended up talking to them instead. My host sisters husband is 50 and lived in the United States for 33 years of his life. So I chatted with him a bit in English and he translated questions that I didn’t understand. He explained to me that he and his parents built the first 6 story building here in Tumbaco about 10 years ago. The building is really pretty! It’s just a couple blocks from my house. I then asked him if he knew where an internet café with good cameras was, he said no, but let’s go look around. Just as we were about to do that his wife suggested we go to their house and could just use the internet there. So that we did. I got to Skype my parents for the first time since being here! It was fantastic!!!! Guess what we ordered for dinner?? Papa Johns! Haha. It was nice taste of home after just receiving some bad news! It was delicious!

I am now getting ready to do Chapter 2 in my Spanish workbook. Fun stuff.

My host brother is taking my blackberry to his friend tomorrow to have it unlocked so I can use that instead of buying a whole new phone. Very nice of him! So once I have my Ecuador cell number I will pass it along so you all can call me whenever you want!! J

Well, that was my day in a nutshell. Off to do some Spanish homework.

Buenos Noches,

Heather

Laundry.... By Hand!!

2.12.11

I walked to school with a couple of friends instead of taking the bus this morning. It saves me 20 cents and gets me some exercise! J It’s such a pretty trail!

Not much to talk about this evening. Spanish class was fine. We ended around 12:30. I walked home with a couple friends! We stopped to have lunch at a small restaurant. It was your typical Ecuadorian meal… soup, rice, chicken or fish, plantains, potato salad, and juice. I ordered fish, but she must have miss heard me because I got chicken. The people who got fish, received a WHOLE fish on their plates, eyes and all. I took pictures don’t worry. Soon enough, all this will become normal to me! Haha. The lunch was very good!!

*Side Note: there was shrimp in the soup. It was delicious! But we had to de-shell them ourselves. I immediate thought of my mom (my mom from the States) because she would have been so grossed out if it was her! Haha. Love you, mom!*

I still needed to buy a chip for my cell phone and get my cell phone unlocked so the chip will work, so my friend came with me to help me out since her Spanish is better than mine! While we were in the middle of talking to the guy about this her host mother called asking where she was and told her they were heading to Quito, so I didn’t end up buying anything today. I’m hoping my host brother will help me out tomorrow and go with me!

Guess what I did when I got back to the house????? My host mother taught me how to wash my clothes by hand! It’s actually pretty easy and it was good bonding time! It only took us about 30 minutes to do a basket of my dirty clothes, not too shabby. We then hung them on the lines to dry out. Keep your fingers crossed it doesn’t rain so they dry!! It turns out she does have a wash machine! So since I know how to do my clothes by hand now, I will probably use the wash machine from time to time…… or all the time. Haha. Juuuust kidding!

It’s about 6pm now, and I don’t believe anything is going on tonight. I think I’m just going to lay low and study some Spanish verbs/words. It’s nice to be able to relax and not have anything today since I’m always on the go between training and family things! J

Another great day in Ecuador!

Heather

Viernes!

2.11.11

Hoy es Viernes! (Today is Friday!) Except not my Friday because I have class tomorrow. But tomorrow is all Spanish and culture class the whole time and; therefore, I’m excited about it! We have class from 8-12:30 every Saturday, except the weeks we come back from our site visit of a technical trip.

Training was awesome today! We had our first of ten Safety and Security (S&S) presentations. Today’s topic was regarding our EAP (Emergency Action Plan) so we know what to do if there is an emergency/problem in the country and we need to take action.

After S&S we had our 1^st of a lot of health talks. Today’s topic…. DIARRHEA! Haha. Our PC Medical Officer (PCMO) gave us a 1 ½ hour presentation on diarrhea, parasites, and some other diseases that cause diarrhea. This is really disgusting, but depending on what our diarrhea looks like, she is able to narrow our symptoms down what we may be sick with She also told us how to send her a poop sample if it comes down to that. Gross, I know, but diarrhea is a reality in the Peace Corps. Actually, almost all of my group has it or had it already, including myself. The PCMO informed us that it is normal to have diarrhea for 5-7 when your body is adjusting to a new diet. Awwweesssooommmeeee!! I’m going on day 4 now, so I’m hoping my stomach gets better soon. Anyhoo, enough about diarrhea. We got our second rabies shot today after lunch. I’m not sure how many there are in the sequence.

The rest of the afternoon was run by current PC volunteers with no staff members around, only volunteers and us trainees. We broke off into small groups and had an open forum. We could ask the volunteers anything we wanted, nothing was off limits. This was really nice because the volunteers were open and honest with us about all the questions everyone is embarrassed to ask a PC employee. That lasted for a couple hours then we reunited as one group. The last part of the day was interesting… They said if anyone had anymore burning questions in the back of their mind, to write them down anonymously and the PCVs would take turns answering them. Oh man, were there some hilarious questions!!! Haha.

Some people stayed after class to play soccer on the small field we have on the training grounds. I stayed after, but didn’t play soccer; I must have missed the memo to bring my tennis shoes. Oh well, there will be plenty more opportunities to play. I did get to chat with some of the current volunteers who were here to help out for the day. They are all very nice. One girl is in her 3^rd year bc she loves her site so much! Pretty awesome, huh?

When I got home, my host mother told me it was her daughter-in-laws birthday. So when her and my host brother got home from work we celebrated with cake! (Yes, I had cake even though my stomach was telling me otherwise, I just couldn’t resist!) It was delicious! Then my brother Danilo and his wife Paulina asked me if I wanted to come over and meet Paulina’s family. So of course I went! They were all very nice! Paulina’s dad actually lived in New York for 15 years so he knew English and was able to translate all the questions everyone was asking me, it was great!

Paulina’s parents own a Lodge in the Oriente/Amazon near some hotsprings (if you don’t know what a hotspring is, look them up!!) for tourists to stay at when they our vacationing. Paulina’s parents want to take me there one weekend during training. I’m soooo excited!!!!! I hope it actually happens!! J

That was pretty much my day. Oh no, I did have to come home and do Chapter 1 in my Spanish workbook for class tomorrow. But it was pretty easy.

Hasta manana,

Heather

Diarrhea

2.10.11

Ohhh diarrhea, how I’ve met you WAY too soon… You may go away anytime you wish, seriously. So you read it, I have it. No wonder I was having stomach pains the past 4 days. I figured it was coming. I started out having minor pains in my stomach and as the days went on they got worse and worse. At first the pains would come and go and then they became more consistent. And then it came… 5 times today. I took some pepto tablets and my pains have subsided, but not the wonderful diarrhea. Hopefully tomorrow I will start feeling better and I will be able to eat again. I basically haven’t eaten in 30 hours. The last time I really ate was lunch yesterday. I had a tiny bit of eggs this morning and some juice, but nothing since then. And to be honest, I don’t even feel hungry at all, and it’s not just because of my stomach. I believe it’s because I eat so many carbs and I don’t exercise; therefore, I don’t burn any energy to get hungry. I am starting to walk to and/or from school if it isn’t raining, so I am getting to burn some calories!

Let’s see, so the NRC program had class in the park near by this morning. We went around in pairs interviewing youth (youth here is considered 17-25, but we didn’t find that out until we were back at the training center) and asking them a few questions. Some of them are as follows:

Do you go to school? Do most people who start school finish it? Do you work? If so, does some of the income go to your family or is it just for yourself? Do you know how to take care of the environment? Are you interested in learning more? Would you like to join an eco-club? How many times a week?

That’s not all of them, but you get the point. We did that for about 1 ½ hours then headed back to the training center. Felipe, our program manager, gave a presentation on how to go about starting up a youth group. Then Gabi, the community development manager, gave a presentation on some of the statistics regarding suicide in males, % of women who have kids at certain ages, and many more. Some of the stats were devastating.

We then broke for lunch, but I didn’t eat lunch because my stomach was hurting sooo bad and I just wasn’t hungry. So while everyone ate, a couple friends and I walked down to the internet café. The connection was SOOOOOO slow, I was so annoyed, so I only stayed about 20 minutes, then went back to the center. I made a good decision to leave when I did because when I was just about to the training center, it started raining. (I guess I should tell you that the normal place we eat lunch at was closed today because Andrew, our family program manager, told them everyone would be gone all day on a field trip and would not be eating lunch, so everyone walked about 25 to a different place) And then when I got inside, it POURED, and I mean POURED! It was crazy because about 15 minutes before that it was 70ish and sunny! Needless to say, a lot of my friends had to walk back in the rain and didn’t have their rain coats with them, they were soakin wet! From head to toe! They were all laughing about it, I mean what else can you do but laugh, right? Oh man, they were sopping wet! It was great!

The rest of the afternoon we broke off into groups and planned a charla on a certain topic regarding NRC as if we were going to present it to school children. We planned for about an hour and then we presented them. They were all really good. We did this activity because we are going to be doing this exact same thing for real in about 2 weeks.

After class I dropped my book bag off at home and then headed to the internet café to Skype my parents since I hadn’t talked to them since I’ve been here. Well, that didn’t go so well because there were no headphones at the computer I was assigned to. Awesome, right? NOT! Oh well, life goes on. I did get to connect with them, but we couldn’t talk, so we instant messaged for a while instead. It was better than nothing! At least we could still see each other J At the same time I got to chat through Skype IM with my sister, which was great as well, because I hadn’t spoken to her since I left the States a week ago!!! Not only did I get to chat with my sister and parents, but also my boyfriend and 2 of my friends!! It was a crazy hour at the internet café! But oh so worth it!

Today was my friend’s birthday so we all (when I saw ‘we all’ I mean my training group, Omnibus 105!) had plans to meet at a bar near all of our houses after class. About 25 people showed up, it was great! Well, besides that they all got to have a beer and I only had water L Stupid stomach!!!!! Maybe next time! There are good number of us who have birthdays throughout training, so there will be more times to celebrate. Also, the only married couple in our group has their one year wedding anniversary coming up in about a week, so we get to celebrate for that as well!!

So over all, a great day!! I can’t believe, as of today, I have been in Ecuador for a week!! It seems like I’ve been here for way longer, yet the time has FLOWN by! I love it here! Tomorrow is Friday, I don’t have any plans, but after school on Saturday my training group is going to stay after and play some soccer! I can’t wait! We have a soccer field, basketball court, and volleyball court at the training center! What what!!!

To my friends in the States: take lots of pictures when you are out this weekend and send them to me!!! I can live my American life vicariously through you guys! Love you and miss you all!

Buenos Noches,

Heather

P.S.- It is impossible for me to write a short blog post. I apologize…. But not really. I always have so much to say. Ha!