Work and Play

Well folks, now more than ever it feels like I am working. First lets back on up to where we left off. I was feeling like there was no hope for my project and just kind of seeing other options in my community. Then, all of a sudden, a very respected person in the community asked me to show him what I had been working on and seemed to like what he was seeing. The very next week I was out on the river in a boat using GPS to determine the rivers length. This may seem all fine and dandy, but I was on the river with guys that had never really been in a boat. It took a little getting used too, not to mention that the river was cascaded in brush and fallen over trees. We had to use the machetes. Oh, and don't worry Peace Corps, I had my life jacket and helmet on. During our adventure we saw a butt load of wild life. I saw giant snakes, a sloth, and iguanas just to name a few. It took us about a week to travel the entire 20km río. We would embark from a random bridges leading to the campo and travel to the next bridge leading to the campo. Every time we saw a bridge, we would stop and get a ride back into town for some lunch. Everything was going somewhat fine, but on the 4th day tragedy struck. We were stuck with a new experienced boat navigator that we had not used yet. I really doubt he had ever manned a boat in his life, because after about 100 meters on the water he ran the boat into a tree and the entire the turned over on its side. So picture this, me and a bunch of Ecuadorians that cannot really swim are stuck in the middle of the river while the boat is flipped upside down. I handed off my life jacket to one of them and started swimming away. I was mostly ticked off that this had happened. I get out and am standing on the other side of the river and watching them struggle to maintain composure. They were going to be ok, they were only like a foot away from the shore. They get out and immediately start to blame me, which is usually how things go around here. The gringo did it, its his fault. Of course, none of them can take the blame. It was all good though. I fired back and pointed out that I was the last one in the boat trying to keep it from flipping. We eventually all laughed about it and got the boat out of the water.

Now, we are standing in the middle of nowhere in someones pasture and have to get a boat and a boat motor to the nearest road, which is about a half a km away. Everyone is fighting about who is going to carry the boat motor because none of them really could carry a motor by themselves and that was going to be the only way to carry it considering our terrain. Well, you guessed it, I did it. I put it on my shoulders and began to walk. It was easy at first, but then two guys that were about a foot shorter than me wanted to help. One got in front of me and one got behind me. They pretty much pulled the motor down towards them and caused me to lift more weight and walk slower. I eventually made it to the truck, but I still had to go carry one half of a boat back, while they 4 people on the other side. It was a sight I can tell you. We made it back to civilization and there were no hard feelings. Mostly laughter and sighs of relief. I am still a little irritated about it, but what can you do. We did finish this part of the project and celebrated doing so, by toasting our progress with beers. These pictures are backwards, so sorry.

El Río

El crew

Juan relaxing while the motor was broken

We did fix it

Some guys posing for a pick and then asking me to help out. haha.

After this long week I took time off and went to the beach. I went fishing and ate delicious food. It was a much needed vacation.
I even caught a pretty big fish.

Now for more work. We now needed to go out to every persons house along the river and explain that we would be around clearing brush and planting new trees. Every seemed ok with this, so that was easy. Every house wasn't so easy to get to.

Work truck

A very sturdy bridge

Work eventually led into carnival and carnival has led into now. Carnival was somewhat crazy, people spraying foam on other and throwing water balloons. It was really fun. As for now, we are clearing the buffer zone of the river of brush and invasive species. This is going to be quite the long process, but we got a team of people helping out. Until next time, I help all is well in the states and I miss everyone. Sorry for such a long post, I am sure there are many spelling errors and sentences that just don't make sense, but thanks for reading.

What?

Yes, I am still here. I have been doing some stuff lately, but with the holidays and everything it has been very difficult to get much done. My day to day is either really boring or jam packed with stuff. I will start off in December.

After Thanksgiving, I was trying to get as much stuff done at the Municipio as possible. I finished making the last corrections to the plan and presented it to the head of the department. He said it looked great. I then had about a week before I was going home to Texas for the Christmas holidays. I asked him what I needed to do until then, and he said find grants. I thought to myself, geeze, I asked yall about seven months ago if yall needed grants to fund this project and I was told no. Oh, well, I gave it a shot. The magnitude of this project could never get done with any grant that I could get from the sources that had been presented to me. So I told them and waited for their counter argument. Well, I never received one and then went home. I figured everything would be the same when I got back.

So I flew out of Quito on the 13th of Dec. at like 7 am. This meant I had to be at the airport at like 5 am. It was a long day. When I left the Quito Airport there were no people speaking any Spanish. This was the most English I had heard in about ten months. The people saying to board the plane, the ticket counter people, the people in gift shops were all speaking English. So I figured this was my first taste of the states. Well, I got to Miami at about 11am and noticed that there were no people speaking English at all. Everything was back to Spanish. Talk about a shock. So I get I almost get through customs ok, but then I was chosen to be searched of course. When I got to the counter the officer kept insisting I was a student and not a Peace Corps volunteer. He kept saying how Peace Corps was part of school. I was confused cause it seemed like he was trying to confuse me or was just confused himself. He then asked if I could speak Spanish, and when I said more or less, he said ok cool. We then continued the rest of the convo in Spanish and I was done with him in about two minutes. Lunch time came around and I decided to get a bit to eat. When I got to the restaurant, the lady taking my order could not speak English and when I spoke Spanish to her, she looked even more confused than the guy in front of my trying to tell her what to leave off of his pizza. She understood me, but I don’t think she was ready to hear a guy who looks more like a lumberjack than a Spanish speaker to give her my order in her native language. Regardless, I got my first bite of America. It was only ehhhh, because I could only afford the cheapest restaurant that I could find. I then took off to Houston.

I arrived at the IAH at about 5 and was greeted by not only my rents, but baby bro too. We then went and got coffee and I visited my bros house to see how the dog, Catcher, was doing. Everything seemed to be good, but I was dying for my Tex-Mex fix. We had to go all out, so we hit up Papasitos. It was probably in my top 5 favorite meals of last year. I got the fajitas of course and a michalada made with a tecate to wash it down. It was a night to be remembered.

While home, I got to see many friends and family. I didn’t see everyone, but there were many to say whatsup to. I think the number question asked to me was “describe your typical day as a volunteer.” Since there is no typical volunteer day, I usual told a short story or something. So there was good talks, video games, music, and beer throughout the holidays. Oh, the beer was magnificent. I just wish someone in this country made a beer other than Pilsener. Don’t get me wrong it is a good beer at a great value, but I long for more. The weather while home was erratic as usual and I even got to visit Austin for a bit. All and all it was a good trip and can’t wait to do it again. Well I got back to Ecuador and a friend of mine, Afton, flew back w me.

I was excited to show someone else my site, and I think she was excited to visit me before she headed to the Galapagos. We had a good time. We spent time at the beach on new years before she headed out to those islands that seem pretty cool.

Now that I am back in the full swing of things, I am not really sure what is happening. The director of my department was gone when I got here and replaced with somebody else. I was told he is only on vacation, but the new guy has told me to not work on what I was working on before. Now, I am just getting the straightened out and trying to figure out what needs to be done. I hope everything turns out well. We will see. Regardless though, I am still very happy to be here and having a good time, no matter what is thrown at me.

Mansgiving

Just wanted to make a real quick update. I wanted to share my thanksgiving experience with friends and family. It is humorous, sickening, and awesome all at the same time. Enjoy.

It all started on a bus to the beach. I was loading up on bus carbs, you know the usual, pan de yucca, empanadas, tortillas, and random candy bars. From there I ended up at the entrance of a beach community with some friends. I was told to wait for a bus because the long walk to the beach could be dangerous. So I waited for about two seconds and started walking cause I am real real hardcore. 4 seconds later, a bus showed up, so I didn’t make it to far. When I got on the bus I noticed that some other friends were actually on this bus. We got to the beach and found a cabin that we had rented and bought some really big beers to break the place in.

For the next couple of days we ate a lot of empanadas, went swimming, made fires big enough to be illegal in some states, hiked, and played some American football. It was a beautiful scenario and it was spent with some cool people. We cooked all the food on a campfire and some people even caught some food from the Pacific.
From the time we got there we did not think that we were going to be having a normal thanksgiving, but then we noticed that the owner of the cabin had a turkey walking around. This is the first turkey I have seen in Ecuador and it is walking around the beach in the middle of nowhere on Thanksgiving. Talk about lucky. Well what happened next is expected. We asked the lady to part with her turkey friend. She did, but you could tell she was a lover and not an eater.

So now we have this live turkey and we have instructions on how to kill it that we looked up on the Internet. The turkey was then laid upon some wood to prepare for the kill. With one chop of a machete, the turkey’s head was done. The turkey seemed pretty calm before he was beheaded, but after that head came off it went crazy for a good five minutes. Oh, a bunch of blood came out too. Some guys then drained the blood, plucked the feathers, and proceeded to butcher the turkey. Remember all we had was a campfire, so that is what we were going to be cooking the turkey on.
After the butchering we put pieces of the turkey on the fire and started to grill it up. I was a bit iffy, but the turkey was actually really good. After a hefty lunch we knew what had to happen next. Thanksgiving Football Game. We played and we had the tallest player on our team, so we won. Then we went swimming and came back in to tend the fire that had been burning for quite some time. I was drinking a victory cerveza when I noticed that my stomach was starting to knot up. I set me beer down and went inside and laid down for what I thought would be a few minutes. I ended up falling asleep.

I woke up about 2 hours later and knew that I had to get out of bed, I just didn’t know what for. It turns out that Mr. Turkey had made me a little sick and my thanksgiving lunch needed to make an emergency evacuating out of my face. So that ended my thanksgiving evening and I headed home the next day.

It may not sound like it ended up very well, but this will be one of the most memorable thanksgivings I have ever had. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It doesn´t rain in november here

Hey yall. I am currently sitting in my office with not much to do and thinking about something to use my time on……well, why not the blog. It has been a while since my last post, but that doesn’t mean nothing has been going on. My life here at my site has been a little slow lately, but that is mostly because we are waiting for the raining season to kickoff our reforestation project. I think it is actually going to happen now. I gave my plan to my counterpart and he actually hugged me. I think that is a good sign. So hopefully, we will be kicking it off pretty soon.

I have been enjoying myself this last month. I hung out with some friends on Halloween and even dressed up. I actually found costume blood in a store here and kind of just covered myself in it. I was a zombie. I think I may have had the scariest costume out of everyone. I say this, because some of my friends would not even talk to me too much because of the way I looked. I got to watch some football games. My Dallas Cowboys are pretty piss poor right now and I don’t see them turning anything around. I think they should bench the starters for the rest of the season and play some rookies and practice squad guys. I mean, that would be kind of exciting, you know watching someone play with some heart. Now on to college football. I haven’t seen one college game this year and that is fine with me. UT looks like it is barely doing a better job than the cowboys. Yuck.

Now on to some sad news……I had my Ipod stolen. It isn’t so bad, but I had some pretty awesome headphones that I used everyday. Oh headphones how I miss you.

Ok, I think I have like 34 days or something until I am returning home for what will be known as the great 25-pound weight gain and good beer trip. It will be precious…I mean cool. I can’t wait to see everyone. My family, friends, and kitty cat have been missed. Maybe I will post something between now and then, but until next post, take it easy.

Good Luck

So I am betting most people in this world are asking themselves right now, “How is Ross doing?” Well just to make everything clear, I am doing pretty good. I have accomplished some stuff over the past few weeks, but I think these last few weeks have been more of ultimate integration/figuring out things to do to stray boredom. I guess let’s start at the beginning.

Back at the end of September/early October something happened here in Ecuador. Everybody is mostly ok, but it involved me not being able to leave my site. This seems fine and dandy, but it happened to be my birthday and I was stuck at my site. So 26 came and went while I couldn’t do anything. All good though, I am 26 and who cares about that age right. What else?

Oh, so my counterpart has been on vacation for pretty much the last month. He deserves it. He spent sometime in the hospital and was looking pretty bad for a while, but now he seems like he is back in full swing. The other day he invited me to his family reunion. We took some grills, food, soda, and a bunch of people down to the river and had an Ecuadorian barbecue. I was designated as photo taker, but then I was designated as cook, but then I was designated as babysitter, but then I ended up being the token gringo. It was a good day. I spent all day getting dirty and cooking food.

These were the two main things that happened this month. I also have had a few awesome observations. Just a few days ago a guy walked in my office and there was something different about him. I was trying to figure it out when I noticed that he had a Hitler mustache. I guess that style is coming back in here. It didn’t look bad, but it was kind of funny. Also, if you pet a dog that is charging you and barking he will be confused and continue barking, but will also not leave you alone because you are the only person on this planet who has made any kind of positive physical contact with it. Onto another area of observation, sometimes people here hiss at others to either get their attention or pretty much whistle at them to hit on them. The other day this was happening to girl I was walking next too, so I figured what if I turn around and hiss at this guy? I did and he just looked confused and stood in the same spot for a minute or two. Those are all the observations for now.

Texas will be experiencing Ross from December 13th to the 29th. Trips planned and its gonna happen for sure.

Sippin on some syzurp

Hey friends and family. Ross here. Have you ever felt like you were a tourist for about 8 months straight? That is what I am starting to feel like. I know I am not really a tourist and that I live here, but whenever I visit other places, people always tell me welcome to Ecuador and then try to speak to me in broken English. At first, I would get a little upset and try to explain to the person that I am living here and that I have a job in this country. Now, I kind of play along. I have found out it is more fun to replying to there statements in English. They either think it is really funny or just look really confused. I mean they are yelling at me in another language and I am returning thoughts to them in my native language. All of a sudden, they are bilingual. I don’t know if this is mean or nice, but it helps me pass the time.

Also, I have been returning all the “hey you” and “gringo comments” by just simply saying “hey you” back. It is pretty awesome and most of the people in my community find it comical. Sometimes it seems to like a game to Ecuadorians. They are all trying to see if they can say something to me and have me understand. The best thing I have seen/heard was about two weeks ago when I was on a bus back to my site from Quito a random dude ran on the bus I was riding looked at me and shouted good morning pollo. He then smiled and darted away from the bus. He simply said good morning chicken to me, but he had forgotten to translate the pollo part into English.

So what has been happening lately in the Ecuador world you might be asking? Well, about a month ago I went to what I would like to call I minor freak out when my counterpart was put into the hospital in Guayaquil. All of a sudden I could not understand Spanish and people were just telling me the worst things about his conditions. Don’t worry though, it was just a minor freak out. Today, he rode his bike to work. He is doing much better even though he claims he is only mas o menos.
After the freak out, I went to reconnect. It is like a conference/reunion thingy. All I know is it was the GREATEST week of my life. You get my drift right. What else? I have been back in the Municipio for some time now and they will give me the dinero for my project, but they want me to change my project. Instead of making a tree nursery, they want me to buy 18,000 trees from another tree nursery and then teach people in the community how to plant them. I am gonna try and talk them back into the nursery idea, but hey, at least there is money to do something. I think the next project that I will work on will be a garbage separation project. I want to teach the people in this city how to separate organic and inorganic garbage and then have the Municipio pick up each type on separate trips. This way, we can make compost in a large scale next to the landfill. This will greatly effect the amount of garbage in the landfill because right now about 80% of it is organic. We would also then have good dirt to give away. I have basically been in a brainstorming coma for the past two weeks. I got plans and it is just a matter of translating these English thoughts into Spanish activities. I think I can.

So I am planning on coming home for Christmas still, I am gonna try and buy a plane ticket this week. Lets hope it is reasonable. I will let yall know exact dates asap. I hope everyone is doing good and again, I miss most of you…ok all of you.

I´m so cold

The life of a volunteer is a tough one. I would compare myself to those little kids that worked in the coalmines back in the day. I am developing black lung and there is not much hope for survival……..yeah that’s another lie. I would compare my life to a mix of the movies lost in translation and that airport movie with tom hanks, oh and animal house.

So now you know that I have it pretty good. I have been keeping somewhat busy lately. I am not really sure what is keeping me busy, but I have not been bored. I kind of have a routine now, but I should probably switch it up some. I get up go to work, eat, relax, and sleep. It varies somewhat day to day, but I usually find the time do to all that. Tough, I know. I am getting good at water cooler talk at work. We seriously sometimes just hang out around a water cooler and talk. They are usually trying to get me to be inappropriate, and I usually try to do something stupid without them knowing that I know that I am doing it. It brings a good laugh.

As for the future, I have been preparing a presentation for my community for the past few months. The presentation is about what I have learned just by living here and potential projects that are possible for the future. My counterpart and I will be presenting this information to Peace Corps in a couple of weeks at a giant meeting/training/get together. It should be fun. Also, next week is the fiestas of my city, dun dun dun. I am imaging music blaring for 3 days straight along with people drinking in the street for 3 days straight. I will probably hang pretty low. I might go out one night and see what the big deal is, but hanging low seems to be the plan. Other than that, everything is just happening and I am taking as much in as possible. I really do have the best life ever right now. I like it, even though sometimes things get tough. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has to bring. Party.

Fire, water, burn

Well, well, well. Some things have been going on since my last post, not much. It has been very hectic since my last post. Let me see. The bank in town was robbed and someone got away with $150,000. That’s like a bagillion dollars here in Ecuador. Something very sad did happen, one of the people that I am working with passed away from a car accident. I went to the funeral and stood by everyone, it was very unexpected and sad. He will be missed by the community. The funeral was different than the states, but I really don’t want to get into it. It was a weird time.

I did go to Quito to take care of some business. Nothing too much there, but last weekend I went to Puerto Lopez for a day and a half. It was very beautiful. I had the opportunity to go fishing and caught like 8 fish. I don’t want to brag but I did catch the biggest fish. Some other people that were there did catch some giant sea turtles on accident, but don’t worry they were released unscathed. They were not even pulled out of the water. I then saw some whales and did a little snorkel action. There is an island that is close to Puerto Lopez, which is supposedly like a baby Galapagos. I did not have the time or money to check that place out, but I do think I will be regresandoing, that’s Spanglish for returning. The island is definitely in my future. I really liked it and kind of wish I was a little closer to the actual coast. I mean I live in the coastal region, but the actual coast is so far away. It’s all good though.

I am really not sure what to do right now. The man who passed away was going to help me with presenting my project to the mayor, but now I got to figure something out. I think I am going to bring in a new idea about putting trashcans all over the city. I don’t have enough time right now to get the tree nursery started before the wet season. I think two types of trashcans would be a good idea, organic and inorganic. After we have some of the garbage separated, we can maybe start a giant composting project near the landfill. These are just ideas, I don’t know, I just don’t know. Haha. Anyway, mom and dad if you are reading this, you need to by your tickets to come visit me and let me know the exact dates. Also, since I am somewhat bored I will finish this post with a list of things I want yall to bring me.

1. My playstation 2 with all the games they can find. You can take the games out of the cases and put them in a cd folder. A giant cd folder could be great considering I buy dvd’s like a mad man. Oh, and a sharpee.
2. Beef jerky or some means of making jerky. My counterpart will be impressed with this. I gave him beef jerky a couple months ago and he freaked out. Since then, every time he meets a new American, he asks them for beef jerky. It’s strange, but funny.
3. A book on how to make beer and some freeze-dried hops. I understand if you do not want to bring this, I will just buy it when I return. But seriously, buy this. I need to make an IPA.
4. Books, books, and books. I look books about baseball, zombies, super heroes, biographies, etc. I will read pretty much anything. Don’t bring a bible mom, cause I already got one.
5. I need a new external hard drive. Mine has bit the dust. Just get one that is cheap and mac compatible. Also, the smaller the size of the actual hard drive, the better it will be for me.
6. Shoes – I wear size 12.
7. Any hobby that seems like it could be time consuming.
8. A textbook about reforestation would be great. You could probably go on amazon.com and buy a used one for really cheap.
9. A sense of humor and the ability to deal with patience.
10. Camo hat
11. A bunch of peanut butter, like a crap load of it.
12. Jalapeños??????? Maybe just jalapeño seeds.
13. Socks, I love new socks.
14. Old magazines. Seriously this would be awesome. Like sports magazines. Yeah sports magazines. Good idea ross.
15. I am sure there will be other things I want, and I am pretty sure that I am a spoiled brat. Hopefully this brat gets all he wants.

Hiyo

What up? So it has been a while since I last posted, but I assure things are going good. I have been typing my butt off and trying to get my reforestation project started. It is all about presentation here at the municipio. I am still learning of course. Lately, I have either thought my Spanish is awesome or the worst ever. Never in the middle it is weird. I either no exactly what to say or what is being said, or I don’t. It is all good though, I am not that awkward about anything anymore. I have come to accept that I am that token foreign guy and there is nothing I can do about that. I will never really fit into Ecuadorian culture; no matter how many soccer jerseys I buy. I mean I have a giant red beard, I am 6’1, and did I mention that I was white. I still love it though.

This past weekend I got to go to Guayaquil (the biggest city in Ecuador) to look for a bike. I did find some awesome bikes, but left empty handed. I was able to buy some Lacoste tshirts for 5 dollars and every episode of Entourage and Planet Earth. I also attended my first soccer game ever. Barcelona vs. Olmedo. It was really awesome. The stadium was like the biggest ever of course I was the only white person there. It was normal and awesome. I also had the opportunity this past weekend to eat at not only taco bell, but also dunkin donuts. I love America.

These next few weeks should be filled with something, I just don’t know what yet. Oh, I forgot to mention, they are putting another volunteer at my site in the middle of August. I met her on her site visit here, and sure enough she is from Austin. That makes 3 people in the area from Austin. That means there are only two other people in the area that are not from Austin. Qué mas? Nothing more really. Everything is the same here and I hope everyone back in the states is doing good. Ok, later.

So what has been the craziest thing you have seen at you site

As of late I am starting to regret this whole Peace Corps thing. I am very dipressed and I want to go home??.yeah I am just joking. Everything is going great. My managers from Peace Corps came to my site yesterday for a site visit. I am supposed to have two site visits while I am here. I didn?t get much feedback but I think I am on somewhat of the right track. I introduced them to the people I work with here at the Municipio. So I am all good on that front. My parents are in Canada or Alaska or something right now and I hope they are having a great time. I received a package from them yesterday. It only took like a month to get it. It had beef jerky in it, I was very impressed.

In the next few weeks I hope to get underway on my cities tree nursery. After many talks with different people, I think I am going to give in and allow them to use bamboo in our reforestation project. It may be invasive, but they need a fast growing plant right along the edge of the river. One of the Peace Corps managers said that bamboo would be great for that. This should be a pretty big project and I am looking forward to getting started on it. I have to write a proposal for the Municipio and get it approved by the higher-ups. Wish me luck.

On a bit of a different not, the 4th of July is coming up and I am in a different country. It is ok though, I plan on celebrating by playing with fire, drinking Budweiser, and eating Mexican Food. It will be different, but I still think I am having more fun than yall. Just kidding, I hope yall are having just as good a time as me. Ok, take it easy, and don?t party too hard this weekend. Later.

Yeah it´s Thursday

Hey dudes. Lately has either been really in your face or a lot of watching movies. By this I mean, I have either been super busy or doing nothing at all. For example, Last Saturday I had to give a charla (lecture) to a group of about 50 adults on the different types of basura (trash). It was my first charla and therefore, kinda scary. In the middle of the question and answers portion, I had to sit down. I was a little nervous/dehydrated. It was all good though, the group I gave the talk to asked me to come back and give them more information on environmental stuff. It is pretty tight. They even said that they would make me some ceviche. That Saturday night was a reina competition. This is basically a beauty pageant to pick the queen of Emplame. I don?t really know what was going on during the whole thing. From what I gathered, the reason they have this event is so people can sell food and beer. I was forced into drinking beer with some dudes til around 1:30 in the morning. The competition wasn?t over, but I was so tired and scared of what might happen if I kept hanging out. It turns out the competition didn?t end until around 4am. Crazy I know.

The next day I went to a town called La Mana that has some cascadas (waterfalls) nearby. I saw 7 waterfalls that day with two of my friends that live close by. It was really sweet. One of the waterfalls was like 100 meters high. I jumped off of it?..just kidding mom. The waterfall I jumped off of was only like 30 feet high. Don?t worry though the water doesn?t have a bottom. I am convinced that it is actually an abyss. Another highlight from this day is that we made sandwiches with cheese that kinda tasted like cheddar. The meat tasted like deli chicken, but was called Jamon de Pollo, which translates to Ham of Chicken. I don?t know really what it is supposed to mean.

Since then I have mostly been watching movies. I finished a bunch of work plans for my counterpart. Oh and I put some dirt in some bags. It was a highlight. Next week is probably going to be crazy. It is my town?s citywide dance. I am not sure, but I think it is going to trump the reina competition. This is going to be tough to do considering the reina competition had a stage similar to a stage you would see at say?.. The Austin City Limits Festival equipped with two giant tv screens on each side, an extremely loud sound system, and a water fountain in the middle of the stage for the contestants to walk around. It is gonna be dope I am sure. The city even made the next day a holiday. They gave the holiday some significance for some famous person, but my counterpart told me it is the day of the hangover. Don?t worry I wont participate in that part mom.

Oh, the fourth of July is coming up. I think me and some of my friends are gonna get together and drink some budweisers. That seems pretty American. Alright, well yall stay cool and I will say wutsup later.

I have been showering lately. Well when I feel dirty.

These past weeks have been full of stuff. I am not sure if it has been productive stuff, but at least its stuff. I don?t know if I let yall know, but I finished all of my interviews in my community like 2 weeks ago. It is kind of crazy because everyone else I have talked to is not even close to being done. Oh well, my counterpart was really eager to get these out of the way.
I have been watching a lot of movies and tv shows lately. I recently went on a spending spree and spent about 30 dollars on media. This may not seem like a lot to most of you, but here in Ecuador this is 30 dvds. It is pretty awesome. I even bought Iron Man 2 like the day after it was released in theatres. So I guess my habits are about the same here as they were in the states. I still watch movies and play video games in my spare time. I am still waiting to get a bicycle and guitar and then things will be almost back to normal.
Also for the past two weeks I have waited for what seemed forever to use the internet here at the municipio (municipality). It turns out I wasn?t waiting on anything. We were just given wrong information and asked the wrong people to use the internet. Anyway, I finally got to use the internet yesterday. I got mucho information about reforestation and have almost finished my general plan for the project. I say general plan, because I know for a fact that I will run into many problems and have to change some of the stuff quite a bit. I hope it?s a sustainable project though. I hope my community isn?t just depending on my to do the project, but they also take an interest and participate in it.

I have been at my site for like a month and a half almost. That means, in another month and a half I will be done with host families. I can get my own apartment. This will be great. I will be able to cook for myself and take care of everything on my own again. I can start eating dinner when I want to eat it. Right now I eat dinner around like 9pm because that?s when my family likes to eat dinner. I won?t have to share my living quarters with an office. It will be nice freedom. I can?t wait.

My parents are planning on coming in October. This should also be awesome. I get to plan what we are going to do. I am also planning on making a trip back to Texas for like a week in December around Christmas. Oh, the thought of eating Mexican Food and drinking Lone Star and Shiner. I will try to keep everyone posted on when I make my return and want to try to see as many people as possible. Also, if anyone wants to come to Ecuador, it is not a problem. Everything here is super cheap. A 10 hour bus ride is like 10 bucks. A hotel room is like 7 bucks a person. It is all good. Meals are between $1.50 and $3.00. There is tons of hiking and awesome stuff to do. Anyway let me know. I miss everyone and will post soon. Luego.

I wrote this like two days ago. I have since had one shower.

Hey yall. So things have been alright lately. Since I last posted I have seen a bullfight. That was pretty intense. The first fight involved three clowns stabbing a bull with long swords. But, they didn?t kill him. The next fight involved a bull that wasn?t too big, but there was a good long while where I was convinced it wouldn?t die. Then they stabbed him in the head. It was gruesome. The last fight was some guy on a horse fighting a pretty big bull. It lasted a good long while, he even had to switch horses cause the first one got too winded. Eventually after a very bloody gruesome fight to the death, the bull died. Then, he came back to life, but then they stabbed him in the head. It was pretty crazy. I don?t know if it was worth 7 bucks. I will probably go again though, cause for some reason I had a pretty good time. Oh, you could also buy beers in really big glasses like at sports events in the states. It was sweet.

Since then, not much has been going on. I finished all 50 of my interviews that Peace Corps said I had to do. All I have to do know is type it up in a report. Yay. On a much grosser note, I have not showered in like seven days. For some reason my family turns the water off to the house. It?s awesome and smelly. I feel really dirty, but I guess I am getting used to that feeling. Lets hope that it turns on today. My video game addiction has kicked back in. I play video games for like an hour or two a day. I know, I have a problem. Whatever. I think I am gonna try to buy a new bike pretty soon and after that I am going to get a guitar. Woo. Well, I hope everyone at home is doing awesome. I am doing fine even though I don?t shower anymore. I sometimes take baths in a dirty bucket, so it?s all good. Alright later.

Lately

Ok everyone. So I havn´t been posting much lately and I have never even posted a picture. So here are a few in no particular order.


This is the view from my office window.

This is me and Mohammed at a hot spring.

This is Jose "aka Tio" and Mohammed at the same hot spring.

This is a crappy view of the sierra. Man it sucks here.

This is me doing my interviews in my community.

Cayambe.

Cayambe from my bedroom window during training.

The Beach.
Yeah, so everything has been pretty awesome lately. I go to work everyday and talk in spanish to people. Some days are better than others, but everday is memorable. Lately I have been interviewing people in my town about environmental education. Peace Corps rocks and makes us interview the community. In most cases this is a good integration tool, but my city hast about 35,000 people in it. So The people I get to know real well are the people at the office. Anyway, I have been living in an old monestary that has been converted into an office with a host family. It is very interesting, but I am enjoying the experience. ¿Que mas? Oh, I can eat fried shrimp dinners in my town for $3.50. Expensive, i know. It is pretty sweet. I think I am about to go to the community landfill. This should also be interesting, because I have no idea what to expect. Wow, I worked in an office in the states and dealt with waste management issues. Now I work in an office in Ecuador and will undoubtedly be working in waste management. haha. Funny how things work out. I am also gonna be doing a reforestation project near the river in my community in efforts to help with their potable agua project. Well I gotta go, I will update soon. I miss everyone and hope that everything is ok. Luego.

ps. the spellcheck isn´t working, so ignore all errors.

It´s over

Hey, so it has been a super long time since i have posted anything on here. Don´t worry I have excuses for doing so. I went on a two week tech trip on the coast and didn´t have any access to the internet and then i spent a week in Quito being super busy. So, my tech trip was pretty awesome. First, we went to Cotacachi to see a botanical garden. The garden was cool, but what was even cooler. We saw three ecuadorian kids playing with a cross in the park. It seemed harmless at first, but then they tied one of the kids to the cross and tried to lift him up in the air. I know it sounds pretty awful, but they were just kids and I couldn´t stop laughing. It was by far the funniest thing I have ever seen. We spent the first two nights with the entire Natural Resources Conservation group in a monestary just outside of Quito. It was pretty weird, but I think we made the best of it. We learned about an environmental education program called esculas verdes. This would not have been so bad, but we went over about an hours worth of info stretched into 2 days. It was so repetetive i wanted to strangle a small animal. After two days of being there the sierra and oriente groups (I am in the coastal group) went to Quenca to do god knows what. My group was lucky enough to spend an extra night in the monestary and we were supposed to board a bus to San Vicente at 7am.

Well we got up early even though we stayed up until about 2 and headed to the bus station. Guess what, our bus was delayed for 3 hours and we could not leave until 10am. Talk about bummer. We screwed around quito and did about as much stuff you can do early in the morning and went back to our bus. As soon as I got on the bus I passed out. I woke up about an hour later to the sounds of the movie Human Trafficing. We got to witness the trilogy of this movie on the bus ride and we finally arrived in San Vicente around 6 am. Finally, the beach. Immediately we did what any gringo would do in this situation, we bought a jaba (12 pack of giant beers). We spent the next two days going on hikes and chilling by the pool and going on a canoe trip through mangroves.

Next, we went to a small town near Pedernales. We stayed in a giant hippy house in the middle of a dry forest. We even had composting toilets fully equipped with giant spiders. It was quite the treat to see these spiders on a late night trip to the bathroom. Here we learned about permaculture and socio-bosques. Every night we were there around 4am we would here the craziest howling noises in the middle of the night. It was just howler monkeys, you know, the usual. It was so hot at this site and thought I was going to melt. I sweated for 2 full days.

Finally, we went to Same, Esmereldas. This is a beach resort near Atacames. I spent four days chilling at the beach and eating fried shrimp dinners for 4 dollars. Talk about an awesome time. The waves were strong and were constantly knocking me around. This was by far my favorite part of the trip. We learned alot about conservation and different types of schools. It was a real awesome time.

We came back to Quito after our tech trip and spent 4 days doing paperwork and last minute lectures. Then came the best part, we got to swear in. I am finally a volunteer. We had swear in at the ambassadors house. It was pretty formal, at first, then I was supposed to give a speach. I kinda changed the course of things for about 5 minutes. Luckily another volunteer prepared a much more serious speech for the Ag program. After swear in we went back to the Peace Corps office and ate giant American Cheeseburgers. Oh, we also through ourselves a little party that night.

Now, I am at my site in the northern part of Guayas. It is a little weird being the only American around. I feel somewhat lost. As soon as I got to my site I called my counterpart and he came and met me. He took my to my house, I live at a center for youths and adolescents. We walked into my room and realized that it lacked everything. There was no bed, no nothing. Well they took me to a store and bought me a bed. We took it back to my room and realized that nothing fit together. In the states I would have taken the bed back to the store. Here, they just pulled out a hack saw and started cutting things until it sort of fit. Well I mostly unpacked and sat around for the remainer of the evening. My new family made me dinner and then I slept for like 10 hours. The next few weeks, months, years are going to be interesting. I look forward to sharing everything with the readers of my blog. Anyway, talk to everyone later. Chao chao.

Holy Canoli its Holy Thursday

So I have the next four days off until I go on a technical trip. I was at my Site last week. It was pretty awesome. There are a few Volunteers close to me and its really hot. Everyday is like houston during the summer. I am gonna be working on a reforestation project near a river in town. It should be very interesting. Not much has been going on since I got back. One cool thing, guns n roses are playing in quito tonight. It would be really sweet to go. I won´t have internet for like 2 weeks because of my trip, so there will be some hiatus from this blog. I gotta go though. Later.

Site Visit!!!

Ok, so whats the deal. Last week was pretty awesome I think. Let me see if I can recap it. Oh now I remember. I got my site assignment. I got assigned to the province of Guayas in a small town about 3 hours northwest of Guayaquil. I can´t write my city on my blog due to some awesome Peace Corps policies. If you want to know what it is you can either ask my mom or hit me up on facebook. Last week I went to a farm with my language group and one other and we spent six hours making some special kind of soup that you are only allowed to eat one time a year according to Ecuadorian culture. The soup had every type of vegetable you can think of and a hardboiled egg and fish. It was served with apple boxed wine. Before we ate this meal, however, i had the opportunity to feast on some fresh organic peaches. Well me and another volunteer, Tio Jose, decided we were gonna see who could eat the most. We each ate ten and were sick for about two days. It was awesome. Even though I was sick I got to drink a few beers for St. Patricks day and watch some Karaoke. On Friday we got our site assignments and on Saturday we had a fiesta for all the host families. Somehow I got tricked into participating in some native dance as entertainment. We had to practice for two afternoons before the actual event. There was about 14 of us that participated. It was quite funny. Immediately following the native dance, I was then tricked into dancing with my host mom. Funny, I know. After the fiesta we went to our favorite bar....ok its not a bar. It is a bakery that has outside seating that occasionaly will serve you a beer. It was fun anyway. I spent all day Sunday getting to my site. I had to use like 6 busses. It was awesome. As soon as my bus got to the coastal atmosphere, the lifestyle was completely different. Everything on the coast is more awesome. People wear shorts and cutoff t-shirts with sandals. I like it. Everyone also listens to regaton. Today was my first day at my new job. I am working for the Department of the Environment in my city. I live in one of the larger sites and I think they are expecting a lot out of me. Today they told me that they were going to get me a bike so I could ride 8 kilometers to the river everyday. This is pretty awesome. It is hot as crap here, but I don´t care. I am helping with reforestation and water quality. It is kind of like a dream come true. I work with 3 engineers and they all think I am an engineer even though I have told them that I am not. It is funny when they give me the water treatment plant plans, that are in spanish, and think that I know what is going on. I also currently don´t have a host family and am staying in a hotel. Cool, I know. There is also another volunteer that is about 40 minutes from my site. I met her today. This is cool because some volunteers don´t have anyone around them for 3 or so hours. I think I am going to the river tomorrow, but I will have to wait and see. This week is going to be interesting. I will return to my host family in the mountains this weekend for my last week with them. Then, I am off on my tech trip.

Over and over

This past week has been pretty cool. We have had the usual spanish/security/health/technical classes everyday. The highlight was definitely on Sunday. 4 companeros y yo went to a hot spring in a town called Oyacachi. I probably buchered the spelling of that town. It was really awesome. The setting of the town was similar to Jurrasic Park and we happened to be the only gringos in sight. The bus ride there and back was scary because there is no guard rail and we were about 4 inches from a 100 foot drop. I am alive, so all is good. Oh, last week on Friday we had a futbol tournament. My team was called Equipo Superchevre. We lost the only game we played 1-0. It is all good though because i played goalie and lost the game for my team. I tried to score from goalie, but it is real tough to do so. On Saturday we were on a mission to eat as much food as possible. I spent about 3 bucks at a chinese restaurant and got two plates piled with food. I had to make my beef and peppers hotter with hot sauce. It was really hot, i sweated like i was in Texas heat. Other than all that awesome stuff, everything has been pretty normal. I don´t think I have had to eat anything to weird. Tomorrow my group has to give a presentation on transplanting to a bunch of little kids. We will see how my spanish holds up. Well, I have to go check US sports scores, so I will talk to yall later. Peace.

Palabra

Ok, so wutsup. I have been living with a host family for almost two weeks now. I can´t tell anyone the town I live in on a blog post because of awesome Peace Corps policies, but if you want to know, just email me or hit me up on facebook. My days have been consisting of waking up super early and eating either a massive breakfast or a peice of bread and then heading to class. Class can range from spanish class, to security class, to technical class, and if we are lucking we all just wait in line and get vaccinations. I honestly have no idea what I have been vaccinated for anymore. I have a cell phone number now, so if anyone wants to call me, they should give me a shout. Here is the number, dial 0059394405185. 593 is my country code. I think that is all you have to do to call me. So here are some awesome things that have happened so far. I have been shocked by my electric showerhead only once. I ate bloody chicken on accident for dinner one night. The next day was real fun. I found a mouse in my room. I found a beatle in my beard. I accidently ate a chicken intestine. I saw a dog get milked. Yeah, a dog it was hilarious. I was in a parade full of gringos in a town called Nono and everyone in the town was there, but they just watched us act crazy. On one awesome night, I had to help my host brother pull a bunch of sheep out of the back of a truck and then pull them into the back yard. Well, I think I pulled to hard and one of the sheep passed out. All in all, Ecuador has been awesome so far. I find out where my site will be next week. It seems really soon, but it is also exciting. Anyway, I hope all is good and I wil update everyone soon.

Work Work Work

Hola everyone. I feel like all I do is go to class and play soccer. Oh, we eat like 5 meals a day. Breakfast, a snack an hour later, lunch, a snack an hour later, and then dinner. At every meal we have a different juice that I have never once had in my entire life. Some are pretty awesome and some are pretty iffy. So I think I am one of the tallest people in ecuador and that makes some people afraid of me. Maybe it is just the fact that I am a gringo, because everytime I say hi, they just look really nervous. My dorm room window looks at this awesome volcano that is covered in snow. I will post a picture once I get one on a clear day and once i figure out how to use these crazy computers. Well, I gotta go and will post again soon. hasta luego.