More entries

June 21, 2006
Hola Family and Friends!
I am super excited! I got to Washington, D.C. on Monday, June 19 for staging. Today, Wednesday, June 21, me and 49 other Ecuador Peace Corps Trainees are getting on the plane to Quito, Ecuador.
The main thing we did in staging is go over the common sense things that people forget when they are excited and in a new country. You know: don't hang out with drug dealers, don't ride on motorcycles, don't go places for a few days without letting someone know, etc. The ones I just mentioned are all frounds from being termintaed from the program early.
Once we get to Quito, we will be getting shots and filling out paperwork until Thursday afternoon. Then we will be traveling the hour and half North to Cayambe to get settled. There we will start our language and technical training while living with families. We will be grouped with about 3 or 4 people at our own current level of Spanish language.
After 3 months of this training, I will be sworn in on Friday, August 21 and then I will be sent to my community.
So far, I love everyone in my training group. Everyone is super nice. I know I'm going to have the most fun time ever!
Hasta luego!
Manisha



June 25, 2006
Buenos Dias Everyone!
I got to Quito just fine. We got the best welcome ever. There were current Peace Corps volunteers who were jumping up and down and screaming at the airport.
Then we stayed the night in a hostel. After that, the next day, we went to Peace Corps Headquarters in Quito to learn some more rules, get our cell phones, and meet everyone who will be helping us during our time in Ecuador.
That afternoon, we went to EL CAAP, a hostel of sorts in Cayambe to get more detailed classes about what is going on. We were there for two days. Then yesterday, we went to our perspective families in satellite pueblos around Cayambe.
My pueblo is Paquiestancia. Guacan Farinango is the last of the family I´m staying with. The parents are Miguel and Carmen and the kids are Marta (13), Angel (11), Flor (8), Rubi (3.5). This morning I woke up at 5 am to go across town to the property behind Miguel´s mother´s house to milk the three cows that Miguel and Carmen own: Luci, Rosa, and Manuela. Then we came back to a breakfast of hot milk and empanadas. Now we are in town to buy eggs, and a few vegetables (chochos, which are a type of bean indigenous to this area).
I will be here for 9 more weeks doing my training. Starting tomorrow, Monday, I am going to have language and culture classes with my teacher, Javier, and the other Trainees here in Paquiestancia: Becca, Jesse, Jeff, and Paul.

My new pictures will be up pretty soon on http://photos.yahoo.com/msdevast

Hasta luego!
Manisha





July 2, 2006
Well my first day with my host family has actually become something of a legend here in Peace Corps. Well, at least in Omnibus 96. I actually did not tell you all about this in my first email. That first day that I milked the cows was the only day. The thing is, we could not milk Manuela because she is pregnant, I could not milk Luci because she is bad tempered, and when I was allowed to milk Rosa, Rosa was not at all cool with me milking her. So, even though her back two legs were tied together, she tried to kick me and ended up kicking the full bucket of milk instead. It was happening all slo= mo, too. But I was not putting my head back in danger to save the two or three dollars worth of milk that was starting to spill into the grass. So then later that day, when we were in Cayambe to go grocery shopping, I decided to help by carrying the plastic bag full of eggs. Thirty eggs to be exact. But, alas, the bag broke because there was way too many eggs in it. And we went home with only 14. And speaking of home, I was carrying all of the vegetables down the path to the house when I tripped and fell and bruised all of our carefully chosen produce. Since then, I haven't really been allowed to do much around the house. But today I did all of the dishes. So I guess they are starting to trust me again.

In other news, we have compentacies that we must complete during training. The first ones we have completed have been (1) teaching school age children about health, (2) get to know the health system of the area, and (3) draw a map of your community. For the first one, we went to the elementary school in Paquiestancia and had a game in which each child was in charge of presenting one vocabulary word to the class, and they essentially taught themselves. For the second one, we went to the dispensary in Paquiestancia and talked to the nurse there and then we talked to the director of the hospital in Cayambe. Basically, the population of about 92, 000 people in this area are covered by 30 doctors and the hospital only has 30 beds. The good thing that is sometimes manipulated is that women get prenatal, natal, and postnatal care and their children up to 5 years old all get free health care anywhere in Ecuador. The only problem is that there are not enough beds and they are charged for everything else: needles, IVs, tubes, food, sheets, etc. And the third was done by using other maps we already had. But we also asked our "parents" about things in the community that we either had not learned about yet, or were not sure about.

Tomorrow a bunch of us are getting together for another competancy: huertos. Huertos are gardens in which only plants for nutritional or economic use are planted. And Trainees from several surrounding communities are coming to Paquiestancia to my house to create a huerto. The day after, July 4, we are all getting together to learn recipies and nutrition, but we are actually going to be having a cook out. But Happy Independence Day to everyone back in the States! Then we will be going on technical trips around Ecuador on Saturday until Wednesday. In my group, Health, there are four different tech trips. They are going to the Jungle, Coast, North, or South. I am going to the South with three other Trainees: Maggie, Elizabeth, and Matt.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Me, Jesse, Paul, and Becca got dressed up in traditional Ecuadorian clothes on Thursday to dance from Paquiestancia to Cayambe to celebrate Cayambe's patron saint, San Pedro. I don't have pictures up yet, but I will sometime!

Please let me know how you are doing back home! And this is my address for the next two years.
Manisha Devasthali
Cuerpo de Paz, Avenida Granda Centeno, OE4-250 y Baron de Carondelet, Quito, Ecuador, South America
And this is where you can find my newest pictures http://photos.yahoo.com/msdevast

love, Manisha