Week 2 Stories

***These 2 updates are for you, Mandi...... smarty pants!***

5.5.11

                Let’s see… I actually have things to talk about this time…they aren’t that exciting, but I’m still going to tell you about them anyways…. Ha.ha.

So when I was packing up all my stuff and moving to Cuenca I didn’t have any room in my suitcases for the 2349293479237 books I acquired during training…. Not to mention they weigh like over 20lbs, no joke. So a PCVL (Peace Corps Volunteer Leader) offered to bring them to me when her and her mother came to visit Cuenca within the first couple weeks of me being here. How sweet, right?!? She sent me a Facebook message saying she was in Cuenca and would leave my books at the front desk on Tuesday as she was leaving to do touristy things early in the morning. So Tuesday I left work to go pick them up…. My books were 10 blocks down and a couple blocks over at a hotel, and all downhill. I finally found the hotel, grab my books, and put some in my book bag and the rest I left in the bag to carry. At this point the rain clouds are coming in, I have like a billion pounds of books I’m carrying, and the way back is ALL up hill… awesome… it starts to sprinkling so I start hauling ass because I don’t want all my books ruined. I get about 7 blocks away from work and the sprinkle turns into a decent drizzle…. Greaaaatttt, start walking even faster.

Now I’m about 3 blocks away from work and I hear someone say my name. At first I don’t look around because who the hell knows me in this city? No one. Then I hear it again, so I look around. It’s my host brother, in the car, stuck at a traffic light!! PERFEECCCTTTT, I say hello and immediately throw, and by throw I mean hastily give them to him, all the books in my hand at him and say, “take these!” (In English, oops, but I was in a hurry and not thinking) He was like “what are all these books?” (in Spanish) ***ha, he thought those were a lot??? Haha, sucka!*** I then take off my book bag and give him the other 10 that were in there. His eyes were as big as quarters, but he didn’t say anything, he just took them and put them in the passenger seat. Oh and I also gave him the head of lettuce I had bought at the market on the way to pick up my books. Then light turned green, he wanted to go but was sitting there waiting for me to throw more stuff at him, I told him that was all and off he went. As he was driving away I yelled thank you! BTW(by the way)- this all happened in a matter of about 15 seconds.

                Oh man, did I mention that the look on his face was priceless as he drove off??? Hahaha. He totally had the “’What the hell just happened’ look on his face”, it was great! How lucky was that encounter??? Now I didn’t have to haul all of those books on the walk back to the house for lunch, SCORE!

                When I returned for lunch he was at the table telling Marcia (my host mother) this story. They were laughing pretty hard… as was I. And that’s that story. Next.

                My host mother had a plastic surgeon over for lunch yesterday for a marketing thing. She is hoping he will refer patients to her after they get surgery (She does something along the lines of “after plastic surgery” massages). She went berserk over him coming over… both with food and cleaning the house. Actually, it was more like she barked orders (in a nice way, of course!) to the lady that cooks and cleans for us to do all these things… put this away, take that to her room, put more cucumbers on the salad, sweep the floor 5 minutes before he arrives, is the dressing ready?, did you put ONLY salt on the meat and nothing else?, how do the beans look?, is the fire pit ready?... the list goes on. Oh and she did all of this while in her cute little outfit and heels. She’s so cute! (**Sidenote** the other day we went walking after lunch because we were so full and she wore her heels then too. Too funny**) She goes to pick him up at 2, they return, we all eat, chat, and be merry. Lunch turned out great. All the food was delicious!! Except the chicken stuffed artichokes that we forgot about in the oven. The oven was off, no worries, we just forgot to put them on the table. We had them with our lunch today, they were sooo good. I actually think they were jalapeños, but I could be wrong.

                Hmmm…. What next? Oh, I can tell you about the 80-100 person meeting that we didn’t go to today. Haha. Sooo for the last week everyone in the org was talking about this meeting we had in a community about 2 hours away on this upcoming Thursday. Well, we didn’t go to this “important” meeting. I was totally bummed. End of story. I will spare you the details. But I did get to lay out in the sun since we didn’t go to the meeting J Next story.

                Yesterday evening, my host mom gets home around 7:30pm, yells “Heeeeettthhhheerrrrreeee” from the kitchen like she always does when she gets home from somewhere and see that I’m in my room. But this time she actually comes into my room and starts talking so freaking fast!! I have no idea what she is saying, but I can tell she wants me to come into the kitchen, so I put some shoes on and into the kitchen I go. There is an edible arrangement sitting on the table made of fruit and chocolate covered strawberries.

                Turns out there was a “Mother’s Day” party at the TV station where she advertises her juices every week. They threw a party for all the mothers. There was cake, wine, and coffee at the party. And they all got edible arrangements as a thank you for coming. So we all sat around the table eating it, taking pictures, and laughing. She was soo excited about this gift, it was so cute! I asked her if edible arrangements were common here and she said no. That explains her excitement. And before we ate, she took a picture of me pretending to eat the fruit bouquet, she thought it was hilarious that I was pretending to eat it. After we were all done eating it, she spread all the empty sticks on the kitchen table and one of her sons took a picture of us acting like we were so tired and full. Pretty funny. I’m so mad I didn’t break my camera out, oh well, I have 2 years to snap memories J

                Then we went walking like we do most evenings, but this evening she was walking way faster than her normal turtle speed of a pace, haha. After we’ve been talking for awhile I mention how much faster she is walking tonight compared to every other night. She comes back with, “I think it’s the 4 glasses of wine I drank today.” Hahaha. I then told her she should drink wine every day before we go walking. Haha.

Until next time,

Heather

Not Much Happenin 'Round Here

4.29.11

I’m not really sure what to talk about. Nothing crazy exciting has happened this week. It’s been pretty easy going and relaxing. I get up at 7am to run/walk if it isn’t raining. I go to work from 9:30-1. At work I’ve just been trying to listen in and observe what’s going on. So far, I haven’t caught on to any conversation unless I ask questions and someone explains to me what they are talking about. Sometimes after their explanation I still don’t get it. Oh well, little by little I will start to catch on.

At 1 I walk home for lunch. After lunch I run errands, exercise, walk around town, go to the Spa with my host mother and hang out, relax, do laundry, go use the internet, etc. until the evening when host mother gets home and we eat a little dinner and then go walking if it isn’t raining. If it’s raining, I relax, watch a movie, or hang out with my host family. Then I repeat this routine the next day. Pretty simple, eh? For now.

Heather

40 RANDOM thoughts...

4.26.11

I enjoyed writing these. These are things that randomly pop up into my head and i, but aren´t worth a full story... so here ya go! Enjoy!

1.       I had REAL chicken feet in the soup I ate on Easter… wish the nails/claws still on it!!

2.       Women here wear a TON of perfume

3.       I never in a million years would have bought the shoes I have on right now in the States. Just not my style. But here I love them. Probably because they were only $6 (And that was still the Gringa price)

4.       There isn’t “snack” food here, really.

5.       My host mother in Cuena owns a Spa (hair salon, manicures, corsets, massages, nutrition store, all in one location)

6.       There is a Panaderia (bread bakery) on almost every block. In case you were wondering, the smell of fresh bread never gets old

7.       I will not be getting a tan while here, sorry to disappoint (unless I go to the beach for vacation)

8.       I’ve gained weight since being here, blahhhh

9.       I still can’t believe I’m serving in the Peace Corps and in the 3^rd largest, most beautiful city, in Ecuador. How did I get so lucky?

10.   I work with a community tourism organization as my primary project

11.   Someone today told me my Spanish was really good. I accidently laughed first and said thank you second

12.   My Spanish REALLY needs to get better!

13.   I really like my new host family

14.   I REALLY love the Granola Thins that my friend Lauren sent me. Everyone, feel free to put those in the next package you send me

15.   Women/girls dress up on a daily basis

16.   This country is so amazingly beautiful, I can’t wait to travel!

17.   I can’t wait for Josh to get here in August

18.   I am really sick of potatoes. Thank goodness I haven’t had them since being in Cuenca… 5 days only.

19.   Nuts are really expensive here. I really miss almonds, but reuse to pay $5 for a VERY small container.

20.   I love being in this country

21.   When I showed my host mother in Tumbaco my pictures from home… they didn’t know which one I was in the pictures, so I pointed myself out.  And then they said, “you’re so pretty in these pictures!” haha, I guess that was a hint for me to start wearing make-up

22.   I killed my first rather LARGE spider yesterday

23.   My host mother in Cuenca likes to go walking with me

24.   I have 3 host brothers… its definitely a change from only having 1 sister in the States, but they are super nice

25.   Ecuadorians don’t use measuring cups or teaspoons here. It’s spoons or pinches

26.   I’ve, thankfully, only been sick once since being here and that was the first full week I was here. My body was adjusting to the new diet

27.   Shampoo/conditioner/lotion is REALLY expensive here (especially on my PC budget)

28.   Ecuadorians don’t eat peanut butter

29.   I REALLY miss my family and friends back home

30.   I get sad when I hear about all the fun things my friends are doing in the States, then quickly remember I put myself in this situation and should not be sad.  “After all, Heather, you did put yourself in this situation! It’s ONLY for 2 years. Only….. “

31.   My host mother’s Spa got robbed on Good Friday L

32.   I miss Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Peanut M&Ms, along with MANY other snacks and foods

33.   I drink 2 cups of coffee a day here. One with breakfast, the other with lunch sometimes. In the States I never drank it.

34.   I have gas frequently. Sick, I know

35.   I walked into a restaurant/hotel where I use the internet yesterday and a guy goes, “Is that a Mizzou shirt?”

“Yes.”

“Are you from Missouri?”

 “Yeah, I am and I went to school at Mizzou!”

“Wow, small world, I’m originally from there. What part are you from?”

“I’m from Saint Louis, and yourself?”

“Same here! Lived in West County. What part are you from?”

“I’m from South County.”

They were here on vacation. Pretty crazy! It was fun running into them, they were leaving for Peru in the evening.

36.   My host mother gets a HUGE bag full of fresh shrimp from the coast shipped in every 2 weeks. Yes, they are delicious and yes, you should be jealous.

37.   I miss the gym

38.   There are a lot of things I left at home that I wish I would have brought with me instead of some of the things I did pack. Like, my boots, skinny jeans, and jewelry.

39.   I could come up with a million more random thoughts, but I’m only going to go to 40

40.   I’m impressed if you read this whole thing. I hope you enjoyed it because I really liked writing it.

Two Random Stories

4.22.11

I’m not really sure how I forgot to tell you this when I wrote about Dia de Familias, but I did. Remember how I told you we did a traditional Ecuadorian dance for the families? Well, if you don’t remember, now you do. I guess before I go on with the story I should tell you about the outfits. The women wear 2 long, heavy skirts, a long blouse tucked into those skirts, a belt, jewelry, hat, and scarf. The facilitators had to help us put on the outfits because we were clueless, unfortunately.

                Okay, so we’re dressed and ready to dance. We enter the “stage” aka basketball court, and start dancing…. My top skirt falls off during the beginning of the dance, I tried holding it up, but that was impossible while still trying to dance, so I let it go and wasn’t too worried because I had another skirt on. Cool, problem solved, I keep dancing. Then comes the part when the women take each end of their top skirt and hold it up to their sides for a short time… I did this not even realizing I had just lifted up the ONLY skirt I had on…. Yeah, you know where I’m going with this. My whole backside is showing!!!!!!! Luckily the shirt was covering up my ass, but still, HOW EMBARRASSING!!! And the worst part about it was that I didn’t realize I did this until one of the girls in the dance told me!! Ahhhhh, hahahahahaa, laugh it up if you aren’t already. Luckily, only the dancers saw this, and it could have been even more humiliating if all the families saw it, but they didn’t, thank goodness!

                So that’s my first humiliation story! Hope you enjoyed it as much as my friends and I did. Hahahahahahaa.

Onto my 1st cooking experience:

                I decided to cook peanut butter brownies for my whole host family as a thank you for their hospitality the past 3 months. I chose peanut butter brownies because they don’t eat peanut butter down here too much and are always asking me why I eat so much of it, nor do they cook brownies very often, if ever. And as a cultural exchange, I thought I would make this oh so popular dish in the States for them.

                I bought the ingredients, got all the supplies together I needed, and started going at it. The batter is ready, the oven is heated up, in go the brownies. Cook time 20-25 minutes.

 At about 10 minutes I check them: doing good, but need lots more time to cook.

 At 15 minutes: doing good, still really really gooey, not getting very solid, but rising a little.

At 20 minutes: gooey and rising a little more.

At 25 minutes: rising even more… I start to worry because they are as high as the glass pan. *I think to myself, they are going to be thick, that’s great, but I hope they stop rising*

At 30 minutes: batter is HIGHER than the sides of the glass pan

At 33 minutes: batter starts to flow over so I carefully spoon the overflow back to the middle.

At 37 minutes: some batter has overflowed and fallen to the bottom of the oven, no biggie. I open up the oven to scoop the brownie overflow back to the middle of the pan. When I open the oven, the brownies go back down to like ¾ inch thick!! Wtf!!! Whatever, I got over it. I was just annoyed that it didn’t go down before it overflowed.

Go upstairs for lunch with family. During the middle of lunch I come back down to check on the brownies… As I’m coming down the stairs, I smell burning. I open the oven and the brownie overflow on the bottom of the oven is black and burnt and then I realize it is ON FIRE!!!! And it’s on fire because I’m using a gas oven, and then brownie batter fell right next to the opening where the flame comes into the oven. I don’t panic, I just turn the oven off and blow out the brownie fire. Good to go, but wait, the brownies STILL are not done cooking. So I go upstairs to tell my host sister, who’s oven I am using, what just happened. Her husband and I go down stairs, pull out the oven racks, I scrape the roasted brownie overflow off of the bottom of the oven, we put the oven racks back in, turn on the oven, and put the brownies back in to cook a little longer.

At 1 hour: the brownies are ready.

A couple hours later when we came home from driving to a mountain and eating empanadas everyone comes over to eat the brownies. Surprisingly, they tasted awesome. There was a semi-crunchy, but not burnt bottom to them. They were really good. I served everyone a piece. Then I realized only a couple of people ate their brownie L To this moment I still don’t know if it’s because they didn’t like them or they were just full from dinner. Oh well, I tried my best and thought it was a good idea to share with them a dish from the States. After all, I have been trying new things since day 1 when I got here. Haha. Oh well, I had fun making them and I’m just going to say they were full from dinner! Haha.

Hopefully cooking experience #2 goes more smoothly AND everyone eats it! J

Heather

First Day of my PC Life

4.21.11

I arrived in Cuenca at 7am from the overnight bus. I took a taxi to my house, said hi Maria, the lady who cooks and cleans for the family, and then drug all my stuff to my room. I began unpacking my things until Marcia, my host mother, woke up. We then had breakfast together J After we were done eating she told me she was going to go lay back down because she got in late last night from traveling; I couldn’t have been happier because I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was sleep, so that’s exactly what I did for the next 3 hours until Noon. Great nap! After my nap I finished unpacking my suitcases. Marcia came in and laughed and said, “Wow, you have so much stuff!” haha.

As I was finishing up unpacking Marcia went to work for the afternoon. I piddled around for a couple hours then went to the internet café to let my family and Josh know I arrived safe and sound to Cuenca, as well as, update my blog! Other than that, I didn’t do much the rest of the afternoon. In the evening I started a movie on my computer then Marcia came in and asked me if I wanted to go walking, clearly I jumped at the opportunity (I, unfortunately, have gained weight like every other girl when they get to this country)! We walked for about an hour then I finished my movie and went to bed around 10:30pm.

Great first day in Cuenca!

Heather

I’M A PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER!!!!!!

April 20^th, 2011

It’s official, I have my “diploma” in my hands, “Heather Siegmund, Voluntaria en El Cuerpo de Paz de los Estados Unidos en el Ecuador” Translation: “Heather Siegmund, Volunteer of the United States Peace Corps in Ecuador” That’s not exactly what the certificate says, but that’s the gist of it J Wow, a dream come true. I’ve been waiting 2 years for this day!!!!!!!!!!!!! No words can explain my excitement!

Receiving my "diploma"

Before I go on to tell you about the whole ceremony I want to thank EVERYONE who has supported me throughout this journey: First and foremost, my mom, dad, sister, and Josh! Without your support I never could have done this. Thanks for all you did to support me! Also, a HUGE thank you to my extended family, my best friends, acquaintances, co-workers, family friends, fellow trainees, PC staff, etc. I’m sorry if I forgot anyone!

Today started off with tons of picture taking! Then, a delicious catered breakfast of croissants, fresh fruit, kishe (no idea how to spell this), juice, and coffee.  The ceremony started at 9 with some opening words from the Training Director and Country Director, then, we were sworn in by a member of the US Embassy, a few remarks from 2 members of my group, and ended with us receiving our “diplomas”. It reminded me of a mini graduation. We even got our picture taken with the country director and member of the US Embassy with our “diplomas” in front of a few flags after we walked across stage, just like college. The ceremony was very nice. Short and sweet. When the ceremony was over we hurried up and took some pics of our whole group. I say hurried because half of us were leaving to go to our sites at 10:30am. Nothing like kicking us out into the Peace Corps real world right away. Haha.

Girls before the Ceremony

 Guys before the Ceremony

Aaaannnnddddd, we're official! OMNIBUS 105!!!

The rest of the day I just went home, finished packing, ate lunch one last time with my family, chatted
with my mom and Josh for a few minutes, then headed to the training center to make dinner with my friends before the bus picked us up at 6. We made salad, pasta with pesto sauce, and had watermelon for dessert. Awesome last meal!

Oh man was the bus terminal crowded. We were traveling on the eve of the busiest travel day of the year with ALL of our belongings… 21 white people (aka gringos), 3 luggage bags each…we weren’t screaming “GRINGOS are here, rob us!” now were we? Haha, but we found a corner stacked all of our stuff, bought our bus tickets, and then sat and waited for a couple hours until our buses left. My bus was set to leave at 9:45pm. We all got out without any hassles or robberies, you can breathe again.

To my surprise, I didn’t shed a single tear yesterday… I could not believe. That is unusual for me. People who claimed they never cry were even crying when we were saying our last goodbyes both to our friends and host families. I honestly can’t believe it I didn’t break down. I think it was because I knew I was going to see all my friends again and I was just that excited to embark on the journey I had both worked so hard towards and waited so patiently for!

Thanks again to everyone for all the support, couldn’t have done it without you all!

Heather
US Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador(Sounds official, doesn't it? haha)

Historic District of Quito and the Movie Theatre

4.19.11

This morning our language facilitators took us to the Historical District of Quito. It was a lot of fun! They gave us some of the history on all the beautiful churches and Cathedrals and took us to Plaza Grande where the government and municipality are located and the President lives. It was nice to get out of the training center for a few hours J

Pics os a couple churches in Quito, Ecuador

So my host sister took me to the movies tonight for my last night. So sweet of her! We saw “Just go with it” with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler. It’s a pretty good comedy, but has a totally predictable ending. We also got ice cream beforehand! I’m really going to miss her! She is the one I’ve became the closest with in my family. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to her L But life goes on and I can come visit her when I’m back in September for our 5 month Re-Connect Conference! She gave me really cute grey, what I call a “going out” shirt as a going away gift! Thanks, Claudia, for everything and making me feel so welcomed into your family! As well as my whole host family for their wonderful hospitality!

Update on packing…. HOLY CRAP do I have SOOOOOOOOOOO much stuff! What was I thinking when I was packing to come here?? I took all of my stuff out of all the drawers and it’s all on my bed and desk, looks like a tornado came through here! (I’m actually writing this blog post a couple days later, but I really wish I would have taken a picture of the chaos my room was in, but that was the last thing on my mind at 11pm the night before swearing in, unfortunately) So I’ve got my duffel bag packed and ready to go. 1 down, 2 more to go, and about 5,000 more nic nac (spelling?) things to fit into those 2 suitcases. I don’t leave for Cuenca until tomorrow evening so I have some time after our Swearing-in Ceremony to come back and finish packing…. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do because I’m exhausted and ready for bed.

Less than 24 hours until I’m a Volunteer!!!!!!!!!!! Heather Siegmund, Peace Corps Volunteer…. I like that title! Haha. So I’m a little giddy, big deal. But you would be too if you waited 2 years for this moment!!!!

Next time I update this blog I will be a Volunteer, what what!

Heather

P.S.- I didn´t proof read this so excuse the errors that I´m sure I made!

Packing up my Life

4.18.11

I’ve begun packing….. and it’s a total joke. There is absolutely NO WAY! that everything I came with is getting back into my 2 suitcases and carry-on. No way. Plus, I’ve acquired some rubber work boots, fantastic gifts from the packages my awesome friends and family have sent me, 4 beautifully handmade scarves I bought today, and the 23947239429 books I’ve acquired from Peace Corps Training (which probably weigh, no joke, like 25 lbs. Wish I had a scale so I could weigh them). I should add that the clothes I brought with me to Ecuador were in a vacuumed air tight bag when I came here, now they’re not. On top off all that I had ZERO space left in my suitcases on the way here. So….. with no space left in my suitcases on the way to Ecuador, my clothes NOT being in a vacuumed airtight bag this time around, and all the stuff I’ve acquired….I’m thinking there’s no way. I thought I was stressed trying to pack in the States to come to Ecuador… HA! Where’s my sister when I need her? Maaaannnnddddiiiiiii, I need you to help me pack and repack my bags 4 and 5 times again! Haha

I’m not really sure why I’m so stressed out over PACKING! I mean shouldn’t I be worrying more about not being able to communicate with my new host family and the people I’m going to be working with? Leaving behind all of my new friends? Not knowing what my future work holds for me?  Not having the convenience of the English language around me 8 hours a day? I mean, these seem like more legit things to be worrying about, but that’s not the case. Haha. If everything doesn’t fit I have an option of renting out a locker in the PC office, which is great! I guess I just don’t want to have to leave anything behind. I feel like I’ve left enough “things” behind in the States, that I don’t want to leave even more of my belonging behind while in Ecuador.

So these are my stresses right now. And although I’m stressing over stupid packing, I’m even more excited that I will be a VOLUNTEER in TWO DAYS!!!!!!! I almost can’t even believe it. I’ve been in this country for 3 months already, feels like I just got here, yet it feels like I’ve been here for so long. I remember thinking when I was finishing my application thinking, “Wow, I’ve have so many more steps to go through  before I even think about being a Volunteer.” Now the day is almost here… CanNOT believe it!! So exciting!!!!

Heather

Dia de Familias

4.16.11 (Family Appreciation Day)

As a thank you to all the host families we put together a day of food and activities for them. We cooked 40 of our 80 chickens, prepared tons of fruits and veggies, salad, rice krispie treats, chocolate chip and sugar cookies, brownies, rice, french fries, and we made watermelon juice, lemonade, tea, and of course our friends Coke and Sprite were present. All of that and we still could have had more food. Don’t get me wrong everyone ate, but there could have been more. Oh well, it all turned out really delicious!

On to activities, we had eggs races on a spoon. We had the little ones hold the spoon, the adults carry the spoon in their mouth while walking forwards and backwards, and when we volunteers went we had to grab a partner and put the egg between our heads and walk sideways. Fun times! We had sack races, piñatas, soccer games, basketball, face painting, and funny host family story time! My little host nephew got a whale painted on his cheek, so cute!

That really about all I have to say about the day, nothing out of the ordinary happened, but it was a fun filled day! I am truly going to miss my caring and amazing host family! Thanks for all you did for me! J Until September…

My host sister Claudia and I at Dia de Familias! I'm going to miss you!!!

Oh shoot, how could I forget the unforgettable traditional dancing we did for everyone. Yours truly was part of the show!  See below!

Tech Trip #2

First of all, I apologize on the lack of updates. Things have been busy and I've been feeling lazy when I get home from class. But here is an update of how my 2nd technical trip went:

4.9.11 Tech Trip #2: Bahia, Manabi, Ecuador

I just got back last night from being in Crucita and Bahia, Ecuador this past week for our second tech trip. Bahia is on the west coast of Ecuador and is a very small beach town. It is gorgeous there!!! I got to see some beautiful sunsets in the evenings. I also took over 130 pictures throughout the week, most of the being of the sunsets…. Haha, oops. But we did do lots of work while we were there so let me tell you all about it:

One of the beautiful pics of the sunset I took!

Monday 4.4.11

Monday we visited my friend Bevons site to do some work with his counterpart. When we arrived there he introduced himself and then they gave us all a pre-mature coconut to drink called a pipa in Spanish. Inside was coconut flavored water, it was delicious, but there was a TON of water in them, they were huge. As we got done drinking them the Ecuadorians would cut open the coconut so we could eat the thin layer of coconut that was inside. I didn’t eat all of it because I was so full from the coco water, but it was pretty tasty. And to be honest I didn’t even finish my water so they didn’t cut mine open, but I did try some bites of coco from other peoples.

After we drank the coconuts we had a “minga” to clean up the beach. A minga is when the community comes together to do an activity. We filled a truck full of trash in less than an hour. Craziness. After that we worked in a mangrove. Don’t know what a mangrove is? Well, here is a picture. I’m feeling way to lazy to explain it right now. I’m currently writing this to procrastinate from preparing for a presentation I have to give tomorrow. Blahhh… Anyhoo, so in this mangrove we cut some branches with machetes to create a space so they can build a wooden path through the mangrove. There wasn’t any water in the mangrove so we were walking through with rubber boots and were sinking up to our knees in thighs in mud as we walked through it. Pretty cool. I saw HUNDREDS of crabs, it was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I don’t have pics of being inside the mangrove because I was too afraid I might ruin my camera. Pretty awesome first day on tech trip.

Truck full of trash

 Ricky giving a thumbs up on a job well done!

Tuesday 4.5.11

Tuesday we traveled to Bahia in the morning. We taught in a school for a couple hours. Each group taught a class of elementary kids and high school students. My groups topic was water conservation. We first did the apple demonstration showing how much water on the Earth is actually potable. Which is barely anything, honestly. Then we broke up into groups and had them come up with ways they can conserve water in the house and ways to NOT contaminate the fresh water that we do have available to us. Then we had each group present on what they came up with. Pretty successful! Until…. We got to the elementary students ages 9-12ish. We did the same thing with them except the presentation part was a little bit of a disaster.

Wednesday.. okay the days are starting to blur together so I’m just going to recap what we did.  We walked with a guide through a dry forest, which was pretty cool. We did another beach cleanup one day and got to play in the ocean afterwards.

Group pic in front of the HUGE tree in the "Bosque Seco"

All Thursday morning we went to another one of my friends sites and worked with his counterpart and organization. We went to Isla Corazón (Heart Island in English) And yes, the island is shaped like a heart, pretty cool. Isla Corazón is actually a protected mangrove. We took a boat tour around the whole island. There were TONSSSSS of birds that were in the trees of the island because they were in migration, pretty awesome sight to see. After the boat tour we took a tour inside the mangrove. They built a wooden walkway through the mangrove, which was convenient and none of us were covered in mud this time. Haha. We then had an awesome lunch of fish! Yummay! When we were done eating we helped finish painting a mural they had started on one of the building walls. Turns out I can paint a little… paint by numbers that is! Haha. The professional drew the outline of the birds, and we painted them in and added some shading. I, surprisingly, did pretty well!

Birds EVERYWHERE!!!

Beautiful bird I painted!

Well that pretty much sums up my trip! It was really fun! Worked, played on the beach, and ate great food. Doesn’t get much better than that!

For all the pics of my trip click on the link below!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10100218555494990.2622715.15920138

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Birthday card Count: 25+!!!!! Also, 3 of my packages have arrived and I will have them on Monday!!!! Just have to pay $15 to receive them! Haha, RIP.OFF! Oh well, so worth it though!

Also, I swear –in as a Volunteer on Wednesday the 20^th… that’s in 4 days….I cannot believe the time has come. I’ve only been waiting for this for TWO years!!!  I won’t be called a Trainee anymore!! Hoory! Where did 3 months of training go? I feel like I just got here. I’m a little nervous to move to my new site and start my work, but can’t wait to get started and actually figure out what work I want/am going  to do!

Tomorrow is Dia de Familias (Family Appreciation Day!) Should be fun. We are cooking 40 of our 80 chickens to feed everyone and have lots of games planned for the little ones!

Heather