Our Peace Corps Training

In the past week, I've moved to Quito, met my fellow volunteers, moved in with my family and began our in-country training.  For the next 11 weeks, I will be living with my family in Quito and attending classes Monday - Friday on various subjects including Peace Corps policies, Spanish language, Ecuadorian Culture, safety and security, and teaching English as a foreign language.  I really love my Spanish classes the most, as I'm so eager to finally be able to understand, and be understood, in this beautiful language.  I also really love the cultural classes as the staff is very creative in presenting information to help us learn the do's and don'ts in this country.  Last week they taught us through a series of skits, what to expect from a typical dinner with our family, or workday with our teachers.  These skits were very helpful in getting us comfortably settled for the first week.

Today, they put us into groups and gave us an assignment.  We had four hours to walk around the streets of Quito and accomplish a list of tasks.  First, my group had to find a specific police station.  Easier said than done.  Apparently, each neighborhood has their own police station, and anyone we asked on the street might not have been familiar with the exact location of the police station in that neighborhood.  But since Ecuadorians are very helpful, they would send us in a direction. Then the next person we asked, sent us in another direction.  We walked around for a long time before deciding to get on a bus, which of course took us way out of the way, and then we had to find our way back.  Finally we found the station but it was closed.  Then we had to wait for it to open, so we could present ourselves to the officer and ask him some questions about safe and not-so-safe areas of the city.  After this, we had to find a bank with a secure ATM and talk to a taxi driver about how to call for a safe taxi.  Obviously, we learned a lot about how to travel safely in the city, and how to get help if we need it.  It was a great adventure!  I really enjoyed practicing my Spanish with vendors and people on the streets.

Other training topics have included how to avoid getting Express Kidnapped, or mugged or drugged. We've learned all about skin infections, biting monkeys and how to avoid gastro-intestinal illnesses, and diarrhea - something we all expect to have at some point during our stay.  The Peace Corps gave us a huge medical kit to help us take care of ourselves, but there's a 24 hour doctor (and a security officer) a phone call away if we need more help.  They really are taking good care of us!







37 Volunteers from all corners of the United States represent the 119th group of Peace Corps Volunteers in Ecuador.  After our language, cultural, safety and health training, we will be placed in schools throughout the country to help build capacity and improve English Language instruction.  I'm the second oldest in the group, but I'm so proud to know and serve with these primarily 20-something volunteers. Each day they impress me with their intelligence, positive energy, political and world knowledge, critical thinking skills, creativity and willingness to give themselves to others. We have a great time together and I have been learning so much from them.  Que suerte para mi y nuestra mundo!

Sunday Afternoon...

 A lazy Sunday afternoon.  I found the roof and the mountains in the distance.

A view of the street out front in this large pueblo.  

No room between houses!

I made a new friend today.  This is Thiago, one of the kids I live with and his dog Horacio.  We had an awesome Nerf Gun game in the courtyard and he's teaching me Spanish words.  Thank goodness!

First Impressions

I have arrived in Ecuador!

After two days of "get-to-know-the-Peace Corps", I met and moved in with my new family. They are a fairly well-off family living in a compound of two houses with three generations, 2 dogs, 2 rabbits and some fish.  The doors are always open and although I spend time with the grandmother mostly, her daughter, husband and two kids (9 and 14) all come and go in each others lives minute by minute.  I will refer to them throughout this Blog as my Mama, my siblings or the kids.

Here are some of my first impressions:

Our Daily Bread

It’s a wonderful life when you can walk across the street to buy your fruit, and go next door for some rolls at the bakery.  Your aunt owns the store next to you and she sells all that you might need for groceries and beer, and your cousin is running the store next to that to update your cell phone.  One block down, we bought a piece of glass to repair a coffee table.  Mi Mama needed supplies for breakfast, lunch and then later, supplies for me.  We went shopping three times on my first day here, and never left the block.

For almuerzo (lunch), we crossed the street to buy a chicken.  The heads were cut off, but the bodies hung from the store ceiling by their feet.  Upon returning home, I watched intently as mi Madre made quick work of the chicken. First she cut off the feet and reserved them, and the innards, for a soup later in the week.  Then she cut the rest of the chicken into parts on this tiny cutting board.  As she created each piece, she laid them in a bowl in her sink. Chicken juice was running all over the counter and down the cabinets onto the floor.  When she finished cutting the parts, she took the pieces from the bowl in the sink and put them in a cook pot and proceeded to add warm water and soap to the chicken juice remaining in the bowl.  Then she rinsed the knife and cutting board in this water.  The germaphobe in me was sounding off all kinds of alarms, but when your chicken is probably only a few hours old, raw chicken juice might not be such a problem after all.  Let's hope. 

Chicken Recipe

Blend onion, garlic, chile pepper, cilantro, salt and water, then add to a pot with chicken. 

Simmer for 40 minutes until chicken is done.  Que rico!  (Delicious!)

Fresh Juice Every Meal, Every Day

The kitchen counter is full of fruit! Pineapples, oranges, lemons, mangoes, bananas, kiwis, and many others I can't name yet including a tomato that grows on a tree.  Mi Mama processes this fruit into fresh juice with every meal.  It's really amazing.  

Birthday Party

3:00pm -  Mi Mama tells me we’re going to a birthday party tonight for a relative by marriage

5:30pm -  My sister arrives and asks if we’re ready.  Mi mama says we can’t leave yet because the carpenter is still working on the house. I decide that I should get ready to go. 

6:00pm -  The carpenter finished the project and left.

8:00pm -  We finally leave for the party, which is good because when we arrive, they are just setting up. There is nothing to eat or drink until dinner. We sit at a table and chat over background music, but since I can only hear and understand about 5% of what they are saying, I smile and nod. 

10:30pm -  The hosts serve dinner.  Afterwards, everyone is sitting around chatting and yawning.  I’m wondering when we can go home.  Suddenly, everyone stands up and starts putting their chairs to the side.  I’m thinking we’re cleaning up, and I turn around to find that some people are moving the dining room table and others are rolling up the carpet.  The music gets radically louder and within about 30 seconds, the house has turned into a major dance party with all the guests on the floor. This family of cousins and sibling spent the next few hours laughing and making up silly dances together.  I didn't participate much, but it was fun to watch.

 

Mi Madre y nuestra casa

Equator Bound!

My bags are packed, really crammed full and bursting, but I’m finally in Miami 

and ready to meet up with my cohort and then on to the Equator!

As I stand on the threshold of this new adventure, in 4 inches of fresh snow, I want to pause a moment to reflect on the long and twisting path that I took to finally fulfill my dreams of joining the Peace Corps.

Although I've been traveling this path for many years, in the last year of my life:  I lost my friend of 27 years,  I lost my brother, my favorite aunt, my house, and my mom.  Then, I chose to leave behind my cats (I miss them everyday!), my beloved staff and students at my school, and my 89 year old dad.

Some of you are storing boxes of my memoirs, quilts of my ancestors, or enjoying my art on your walls.
One of you has my grandfathers' buffet; another, a cedar chest made by my dad.
One of you has my skis, another my bike, and another my camping equipment.
Many of you bought my furniture.
Some of you adopted my plants.
One of you bought my car.
All of you provided the love, support and encouragement that got me to this moment today.

Thank you, my friends.  Thank you.


I named this blog "On the Wing Adventures" because I've always been the type of person who "wears myself on my sleeve".  Although, as I've come to realize, this character trait opens me up to the possibility of getting "bitten" from time to time, I'm happy that I am open to all the beauty, love and light the world, and it's people, have to offer.  I wear myself on my wing intentionally, and boldly.

The title "On the Wing", of course, also refers to the incredible metamorphosis that a butterfly experiences in their transformation from the goo of their chrysalis.  I feel my wings forming!  I'm emerging from my goo and am taking flight.  So, "On the Wing" will be a little off the cuff: incorporating my personal journey, my adventure stories, and all my new experiences I will encounter along the way.

Thanks for coming along on my journey.