Awky Times

Don´t say something scary about your community unless you want to be shipped out in a hurry

So I called my APCD to see what he would say about my family taking things from my house every single time I left. I was leaving the key with them so that they could fix stuff even while I was out. So the APCD seemed pretty understanding, but wasn´t letting me know what was going on. I was getting frustrated. So I pulled a wild card that I knew would get a reaction, I just did not know how severe. I told my APCD that there was a possible rapist in my community. It was just a rumor. But it was a rumor that kept me from living in a pretty nice house up the street. So there had to be some truth behind it. Because the deed was not completed, just attempted, there was nothing reported to the police. So when I dropped the rapist bomb on my APCD, he got the director of safety and security, Julieta, and the Country Director, Cisco, to come down to visit me and see my site. I was scared shitless that they were all coming. But it turned out ok. We sort of just hung out and discussed what was bothering me. Oh, and we ate a lot. When they got into town, we went to eat lunch. Then we went to the police station to see if there was a rape reported in Mercedes Cadena. Then we went to my site for a total of 15 minutes. After interrogating the arthritic grandmother in a not very sneaky way about the rapist, my APCD told her that I might be removed for health reasons. Then we checked to records at the police station in Guamote. Nothing there either, as I told them. So my APCD decided that I should be moved to another site. It is further south, in the province of Azuay. It is called Delegsol. It is exactly like my current site, except they have never had a volunteer and there is no cell service. But I am going to visit it first, just to make sure it is what I am going to be okay with. So I´ll let you all know how it goes. And I have some new pictures up at photos.yahoo.com/msdevast check ém out!

Hard Times

I love Ecuador. I love the community I´m living in. I love the peole I am with in my community and the Peace Corps Volunteers in this area. But I have had some problems recently. Because my bathroom has been under construction, I have had a hard time having some privacy. The family that owns my house actually lives in the house behind my house. The grandfather, Tio Gregorio and his son-in-law, Tio José, are albaníls. I tried to look this word up on Babel Fish, but Babel Fish didn´t know the word. It is kind of like a construction worker, except maybe a bit more skilled. Anyway, Tio Gregorio and Tio José are adding another room to my one room house. This way, I can let kids into the kitchen/livingroom area, without worrying that they are going to go into my personal things. The volunteer before me had two cell phones and a total of $70 stolen from her house. As well as the extra room being constructed, I bought a hot water heater for the shower. And as you read in the last entry, I now have a deliciously hot water shower, but no toilet or sink. And because the family keeps on coming over to fix stuff, I leave the key for them when I am gone to the city or on errands so that they can continue working whenever they get a chance. But as well as this, the family has been consuming a lot of my food, using my plates and silverware, and moving my stuff around. I wouldn´t mind them eating my food if it was easier to buy and bring back to my house, but it is really kind of hard. I have to walk 30 min to the bus stop, ride a bus for an hour, walk twenty more minutes to the local grocery chain, Akí, buy the food, stuff as much of it as possible in my back pack, walk back to the bus stop (20 min), ride the bus (60 min), and walk back to my community (30min). This is entirely too much time and effort to just have someone else eat it. And I can tell they have used my plates because they don´t wash them properly. They are covered with dirty wipe marks, like whoever cleaned them, forgot to rinse them off. And so when I asked the landlady, Tia María Virginia, Tio José´s wife, about the missing food and dishes, she said she didn´t know. That maybe the cat, the one I asked them not to let into the house, might have eaten it and made the mess on the plates. She said that she had only used one of the plates. All these things together are really frustrating me. I want to live in the city and commute to my community. I think that would make my life much easier. That way I could have a private and personal time and space. I feel violated. I have talked to the director of the Health volunteers here in Ecuador, and hopefully he will let me stay in the city of Riobamba and I can commute, or he will change my site altogether. I´ll keep you posted on the progress.
Manisha

Wow, that was a disaster!

So my mom came to visit. She arrived late on Sunday, September 17 and we stayed at the Marriott for that night and the next night. She was in heaven. She said that it was just the vacation she needed. Then we went to visit a friend of mine at her site in Pacto. It was in the middle of a lush cloud forest. My friend even had her walls painted, tiles on her floor, and a nice refrigerator that made ice. The only real inconvenience was that the water stopped working from 8 pm to 6 am every day. My mom and I only stayed with her one night. The yard was a bit of a mess, but my mom was already feeling uncomfortable. Then my mom and I rode on three buses for a grand total of 7 hours. Here in Ecuador, a day of bus riding is not too bad if it is only 7 hours, you get to walk a bit in between, and you have someone to accompany you. But my mom was starting to get upset. I hoped against hope that she was just exaggerating how she felt. Then we got to my community and at my house, we found that my host family had not only installed the hot water heater that I bought, but decided to put tiles in as well. But by the time we got there, my whole house was covered in dust from the door being left open all day, and they had just finished removing the sink and the toilet from the bathroom and covered the bathroom with cement to glue on the tiles. So my mom and I put down our stuff and decided to go for a walk through my community. My community, Mercedes Cadena, is having a festival all week this week. The grand finale is on Sunday. So as we were walking through the MC, a lot of people were walking about and there were many who were watching the soccer tournament going on. All of them were saying hello to me and asking me who I was with. My mom was so upset by the poverty that she began to cry. I couldn't explain to them why she was crying either. So she decided that she needed to leave. So after spending a restless night in my bed, we went back to Quito and stayed the night at the Marriott again and this morning at 4 am I took her to the airport. She was supposed to stay until Wednesday morning. But I am glad she came to visit. Hopefully I will improve my entire house. And I am thinking about changing my site. I had asked for structure. I feel like when I am teaching I am talking to a brick wall. I will try to be a good volunteer in the next few months. But if it isn't working, I may try to get a more urban and structured site.

Is this legit?

So it has been my first two weeks living in my site. We are told not to leave our sites during the first three months of living in our sites. That was really tough. I know, two weeks is nothing compared to three months. And three months is nothing compared to the two years I still have to spend here. Like many of the volunteers told us during training, the first few months are the most hellish. And while they have not been hellish in a way that can warrant me changing sites, I am lonely, feel awkward, and cannot communicate what I want to say as clearly as I would like.

I left my site after being here for a week. My friend from Paquestancia, Jeff, works with Plan International in Guaranda. He actually has the job I wanted the most. It is very organized and structured. His apartment looks like it is in a retirement community in Florida. Jeff invited me and Eva, another good friend of mine from training, to accompany him to a conference on the coast in the province of Manabi. Plan International was sending him to learn about the different methods of teaching HIV/AIDS, sexual health and rights, and alcoholism to children that already exist in Ecuador. A conference on the coast could not possibly be fun alone. So Eva and I met in Quito, rode the bus to Guaranda, and stayed the night with Jeff. Then we took a 4 hour bus to Guayaquil and then another one to Portoviejo. The closest beach to Portoviejo was Manta. Peace Corps Volunteers are banned from going to Manta because there is a US military base there. I suppose they think we are going to go hang around the barracks to pick up military guys. Not my cup of tea. I just wanted to go to swim and lie on the sand. But we learned of another beach close by: Crucita. So for the conference we visited 6 different elementary schools and got to meet the child facilitators. These children we met were elected by their teachers and peers to go to a month long conference in which all the children learned about HIV/AIDS, sexual health and rights, alcoholism, and love as well. Love is something that is never really talked about in Latin American culture. So I thought it was interesting that the fact was noticed and Plan shed some light upon it for the kids. I am thinking of starting such a program in my area. Not only in Mercedes Cadena, but also in the surrounding villages. I already have some contacts that may be able to help me make it happen.

So I got back to Riobamba on Sunday night. Since it was late, I stayed the night with my friend, Maggie. Luckily, I asked her host family where I could get a camioneta (truck) to take stuff bought in Riobamba to my site. The host dad had a camioneta connection and offered to drive me and all the stuff I was planning on buying. So all day Monday I went shopping. I bought a vegetable basket, a desk, a chest of drawers, a refrigerator, and a mattress all for only $250!

And yesterday I taught my first class of English and Health. It was supposed to be for 2 hours. I ended 45 minutes early. I taught the kids about the spreading of diseases through fecal matter, flies, water, and not washing hands. And when I reviewed the material with them, all they could say was that they should wash their hands, clip their nails, and wash their faces. And the English part was just as hard. Some kids just did not want to use their voice boxes. And tomorrow I will be doing the same lesson for the 4th graders. Yesterday I was teaching 5th and 6th graders.If you have any suggestions on how to teach kids effectively, please let me know.

Today I am in Riobamba doing some shopping, since I can now store food in a fridge. Milk! Cheese! Oooooo! Mac and Cheese!

And this Sunday, my mom is coming to visit me here in Ecuador. I am so excited! She actually wanted to come at the end of August, while I was swearing in. Now I can take off from my site for another week. My mom and I are going to hang out in Quito, visit Eva in her site, and see the cloud forest before we celebrate the Mercedes Cadena festival with my community on the 24th. So I won’t be writing again until the beginning of October.

Ciao! Ciao!
Manisha

My REAL Permanent Address

Manisha Devasthali
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla 06-01-202
Riobamba, Chimborazo
Ecuador
South America

Living in the Campo

I am sorry to all for not writing since my site visit. I have been busy with classes and trips, moving from Paquiestancia, swearing in, celebrating swearing in, and spending time with friends who are now living many many hours away from me.

So after my site visit to Mercedes Cadena, I went to Ambato to visit a clinic that concentrates on Tuberculosis. Though TB has been eradicated in first world countries like the U, it is not the case here in Ecuador. And worse than that, it is really hard to tell if someone has TB or not. But we had some lectures on how to tell and how to test. I even got to go into a lab and see TB growing in a tube. It looked like yellow bubbles growing on a green stick. And I enjoyed how the sign on the door out side the lab said that you must wear gloves, mask, lab coat, and googles and I somehow did not see abyone at all wearing googles. Well, it has been about two weeks since that, and I have not had a consistent cough, so I guess I don't have TB.

Then, the weekend we got back from Ambato, we set up a Family Day party to thank all of the families for giving us a place to stay and food to eat everyday for the past eight weeks. We catered food from a restaurant and had a whole pig to plus a whole lot of potatoes to feed 300 people.

The following week, we all packed up and moved to a hostel in Quito. Everyday we had to sit through different lectures. Some seemed important, and others useless. But there were couple that were quite interesting. There are times during my volunteering that I will want to visit other volunteers. If I can teach something while I am there, Peace Corps will pay for my bus rides there and back. Sounds good to me! And the other one that I liked was when we were taught a little bit of self defense. We were all throwing each other and punching a lot. There was even a helmet you could put on to have someone slam you in the face. I got some bruises, but I had a great time.

Then, on Friday, August 25, we all got dressed up and rode in a bus to the Ambassador's House. Her name is Linda Jewel. She swore us in after we had some speeches and my friend, Paul sang a funny song about our time in training. After that, there was a delicious BBQ at the Country Director's house. His name "Cisco" Ruybal. It was fun and the food was delicious. Real hamburgers and hot dogs! And then me and my friends Eva, Brian, and Jeff went to the Marriott to swim in the clear blue heated pool. It was so nice to not be too cold and be able to see to the bottom! Later on that night there was a huge dance party that everyone went to. That was a good night!

Then, on Monday, I went out to Mercedes Cadena. I had so many bags that I put some under the bus and I still had so much stuff on the seat next to me that I bought two seat tickets. When I got to Riobamba, Kristy, the volunteer I am replacing met me to help me. And since moving into her little house, I have tried cuy for the first time. Cuy is what Ecuadorians call Guinea Pig. Cuy is actually an animal native to the Andes. Because of the diffrent indigenous religions here, some Ecuadorians even say that cuyes have magical healing powers. They are not pets here. They are used for medicinal puposes and also are eaten as a delicacy. Cuyes are always roasted over a spit when they are cooked. And, actually they are pretty tasty!

So all week I have been letting kids into my house to color and making appointments with children to bake cakes. I feel like a traitor to being a health volunteer if I am continuously loading kids up on sugar. But it is hard to say "no" here in the campo. You should have seen how angry some kids got when I told then that they had not made an appointment with me to make a cake and should therefore make an appointment and come back at tht time. Also, it seems like a crime to wake up any later than 7am. Since living in Paquiestancia, I have grown accustomed to sleeping 11 or 12 hours a night. Now there is a cat that Kristy owned and I now own (any ideas for a name? something original, please) that starts pouncing on me at 5 in the morning and then Tia Virginia (the lady that owns the house I'm living in) starts pounding on the door for some reason or another at 6:30am.

I don't really have any schedule yet. I plan on teaching health and English in the school to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. And I am supposed to do a census with the help of my community contact, but he doesn't seem very interested in it. And when campo people aren't interested, believe me, it will not get done.

This week, I am going to the coast for a conference on different methods on how to teach young adults about safe sex, HIV/AIDS, and sexual rights. I hopw to learn a lot, because the group, PLAN International is holding the conference and then in late September, having a meeting with the youth in Mercedes Cadena.

Well, that's all I have for now.

Ratocama!
Manisha