Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!

Christmas is already here – it seems to have snuck up. It has been a difficult week leading up to Christmas because I miss home much more than I thought I would, but luckily there are a lot of great things happening here in Zhoray to help keep my mind off of it!

The biggest news is that I have a new furry friend, Cora Cavanaugh. The volunteer nearest me, Brittney, gifted me a puppy for Christmas. She is an adorable little thing and so much fun to have around. As much as my family here questions why I didn’t get an expensive purebred, I saved Cora from being poisoned in the home she was in, and I couldn’t have hoped for a cuter pup! She is very young, probably 7 weeks old now, but seems to be doing well.  Her name Cora comes from the Spanish word for Corazon (heart) because she has a black, heart-shaped spot on one side. It has been an exhausting first week with her because she’s still a little baby and cries a lot at night, but she is definitely getting better. It is nice that she’s young because she sleeps a lot right now, so I can leave her in my room to go to work or hang out with the family for little periods at a time and she just sleeps in her bed. In another month she will be able to stay outside more, but she is still missing two rounds of vaccines, so I don’t want her near too many dogs because I know that the dogs here have not had their vaccines. While Suca doesn’t like her and Zoila pretends to not like her, Nayelli is in love with her. Whenever I’m not working, Nayelli is in my room playing with us or taking her to run around in the park with me. She was just the friend I needed to keep me company during the lonely times.

Work here picked up a tad bit, but everything seems to have stopped now for the holidays. I had a meeting with the health volunteers and 7 actually showed up, the most yet. We talked a lot about reorganizing the group and beginning anew with me in charge instead of the doctor. There were many ill-feelings towards the group because it has been poorly organized in the past, but I think they are slowly understanding that I am fully committed and they shared a lot of ideas about things they want to work on and learn. We are only going to meet once a month for now because some of them have to travel so far to get to meetings that it isn’t possible to come more often. Once projects begin, though, hopefully some of them from the center will want to work more. My group with the girls didn’t have quite as much success because not a single girl showed up to the first week of meetings. I knew it was not good timing because it was the week before the holidays, so I’m not too discouraged and will just try to start again when they are back in school. The garden is progressing slowly, but we should be ready to plant within a few weeks!

As far as the holidays go, a lot has been happening. Last weekend was the Christmas program organized by the Cooperativa. I was selected as one of the judges for the Princesita contest there, which is basically a beauty contest. It was an interesting experience seeing these tiny girls dressed up like dolls, but they all won prizes and seemed to have fun. After the Princesita election, we had mass outside at the Cooperativa, then there were sports competitions for the men all day, so people just hung out a lot in the market. I want to mass again that night for the first night of Novena, the series of services leading up to Christmas. We had a little procession up to a house near the subcentro where mass was held. In the last week, I have been to mass 4 times with much more coming tonight, tomorrow and Christmas. The new priest in town is really great and I like his sermons, and the services and music are really pretty in Spanish, so I have been choosing to most of the times when Suca and Nayelli go.

On Wednesday we had the big Christmas fiesta for the entire parroquia (county). The kids from all the schools dressed up as Christmas characters from the nativity and there was a huge procession from where the virgin is to the church. Hundreds of people were in the parade and the outfits were great! There were a lot of “Mary’s” on horseback with babies, live donkeys and sheep, and my favorite were the little kids dressed as sheep! While most people were in church, I helped the subcentro decorate and organize the stage for the Princesita contest (yes, another). The contest was for girls 6-8 years old from the whole parroquia. The contest took a few hours because we hired clowns to come out during “judging” to entertain everyone. The clowns were a huge hit and stayed for a long time. After the Princesita contest, there were tons and tons of little games and contests for the kids. All of the authorities had organized to buy toys, so all the kids who were there received at least 1 Christmas present, which is the only one many of them will get. It was a really fun day and I’m glad that I chose to stay in town for Christmas and see it.

I had a nice Secret Santa exchange and dinner in Azogues with the subcentro staff last night, and we have holiday party for the whole Azogues area next Friday, which should be fun. Not much else has been happening here, just holiday preparations and celebrations.

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays and sending my love from Ecuador!

Kerry

 Baby Cora :)

A Few More Pics

Tis the Season

Hola a todos!

It seems to be a theme now, but wow, time is really, really flying by here! During the month of November I spent a total of 5 days in Zhoray, the rest of the time travelling for Thanksgiving and conferences. I have now been in Ecuador for over 6 months, which is still hard to believe, but I am still loving my time here!

Thanksgiving was incredible. I went to a town called Guaranda, about 10 hours from Zhoray, where two volunteers from Omnibus live. There were about 15 of us from the Omnibus there, which would have made a nice, big Thanksgiving dinner, but then of course an additional 10 Ecuadorians came, so we had a huge, loud, fun feast! We cooked all day on Thanksgiving to end with a dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, apple pie, carrot pie, banana pudding and brownies. It was all the great, traditional food from home with a whole new Peace Corps family! It was also nice to have Wifi in the house, so I was able to Skype with my actually family throughout the day and weekend! Even after suffering from bad food poisoning Wednesday night before Thanksgiving (my own fault – poor choice of street meat…), I was able to enjoy a little of the delicious dinner. Luckily, I also had a repeat Thanksgiving the next day J.

From Guaranda, I went and spent 2 days in Rio Bamba with Orrin and a few other volunteers. We had another Thanksgiving dinner in Rio Bamba on Friday (which was a little more tranquila), then we explored some of Rio Bamba on Saturday. We left early Sunday to go to Quito for the day before heading to Tumbaco for the food security workshop. In Quito we ate some good Indian food, went and enjoyed the Basilica again, and just hung out with some other PC friends.

The Food Security workshop in Tumbaco was excellent. It was only for the Community Health volunteers in my Omnibus and the Agriculture volunteers from the Omnibus before us. There were about 35 of us total, with a lot of different stories and advice to share. We learned all about nutrition in Ecuador, activities we can work on in nutrition, and food security and sovereignty. We learned a lot from the “aggies” about starting gardens, harvesting seeds, etc. Overall, there was a lot of great shared knowledge and new ideas and advice. It was a terrific workshop and everyone left feeling more inspired about projects that can be done in our sites!

My work situation has since been approving and I have been working more independently, building relationships with more community leaders outside of the subcentro. I am currently working on a family garden with my host family on some of the land they have up the mountain. We measured out a 16x30 meter plot (huge!) that we are going to work in and starting digging holes for the posts. Up-coming work includes buying the “maya” or fencing to put around the posts to keep the pesky hens out, getting abono to enrich the soil, building the beds, and planting! I have a great collection of seeds from the Food Security workshop and from packages my mom has sent, so we will be planting lettuce, spinach, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, green peppers, radishes, beets, and some zucchini, along with a few medicinal type plants. Hopefully there will be some success with the garden, and my family has already said that I can bring other people up to the land to show it off once it’s going, so I can give charlas about the garden and give other people ideas for gardens they can start themselves.

I had another meeting with the health volunteers through the subcentro. Four volunteers showed up to the meeting and it took a while for anything to get going because they are not happy about the organization of the group. Finally I was able to get the point across that I am going to be helping with the group and that I am excited and committed to working with them. I showed them some of the nutrition posters I’ve made and gave a brief little charla, which I think convinced them a little more that I’m serious about working with them. They then agreed to help prepare food for the Feria de Salud (health fair) that we had yesterday in the market. Come January, we will be holding a meeting to reorganize the group, refocus the goals, and start working together. I am still hopeful that there is promise for the group and that we can get a lot accomplished once there is a little more commitment!

The health fair went well. The subcentro staff gave medical attention to everyone down in the market under big tents for the Friday morning Mercado. I helped set up a table with the women volunteers where we put out the food and my nutrition charla display. The food wasn’t entirely nutritious, but it was tasty and went very quickly. Free food must be a universal draw to get people to events! I gave a few little charlas on nutrition, but people mostly just passed by, stopped to read a little bit, and continued on. I got some good ideas for little posters from Chloe and Katrina during Food Security, so even though not a lot of people stopped at the health fair, I think it will be successful for setting up future health charlas.

One of the girls in the community approached me the other weekend to say that she wanted me to teach them “artesenales,” or crafts, so we are starting a group for the girls in the high school. After writing oficios to the director of the high school and president of the Junta Parroquial, we have their support and a meeting space. I held an introductory meeting this week to explain more about the group and see what kind of interest there is among the girls. A total of 16 showed up and they all seemed very excited!  I had planned to have a meeting once a week, but they all begged to meet twice a week, so hopefully their enthusiasm continues! I am going to be giving workshops from a manual called “Como Planear mi Vida,” or “How to Plan my Life,” which includes the themes of communication, self-esteem, decision making, family planning and sex ed, personal values, and dreams for the future. The manual is really neat with a lot of interactive activities, so hopefully the girls like it. Half or our meetings will be the talleres to discuss these themes, and the other half will to be work on the crafts. The crafts I have planned are all from recycled materials found in the community, so there will be a little environmental education thrown in as well. We’ll be making bracelets and necklaces with beads made from magazines, purses crocheted from plastic bags, and wallets made from bottle wrappers, chip bags, etc. I think the group will be a lot of fun and hopefully will offer the girls a safe space to have fun and talk about things they have nowhere else to discuss.

Rebecca, the program manager for the entire Community Health program, came for my site visit on Wednesday. We have annual visits from Peace Corps to check in, see how we’re doing, what we’re doing, etc. It was fun to be able to show here a little snippet of my life in Zhoray, have some projects to talk about, and just have some time to talk with her. She is Ecuadorian, but has never been to this part of the country, so she was blown-away by the natural beauty here in Zhoray, so there was also a lot of photo taking! Unfortunately she is very busy trying to visit all of the volunteers in the country, so she could only stay for a couple of hours, but it was still a great visit!

I am still spending a lot of time with my host family and extended-family in Zhoray, which is a lot of fun. Nayelli, Jerry and I made gingerbread men this week. Nayelli and I also made some banana-oatmeal muffins, and we have carrot cake plans for Sunday. Zoila is helping me with the garden a lot, even though she says it’s mine, but it is nice to have someone to work beside. I’m getting better at helping Suca in the store, so I hang out down there when I’m not doing anything else.

There are a lot of things to look forward to in the coming weeks and months. Christmas is approaching fast and while I won’t have a white Christmas, I’m doing what I can to make it feel like home. Zoila and I put up fun, blinking lights on the stairwell the other day and we think we have found the perfect tree to put up. Nayelli loves the advent calendar that my parents sent for us, so she opens her chocolate every day. I have a cookie cutter from home that I’ll use to make all my favorite Christmas cookies, and the family is planning a big Christmas dinner. There is of course the fiesta before Christmas to crown the Christmas “princesita” from one of the communities, which should be interesting. Then there’s New Year’s, where we burn the dolls of things from the past to prepare for the coming new year. Early January are the semi-annual fiestas in Zhoray, and I think one of my good Peace Corps friends Katrina is going to come for a visit. Then, Mom and Dad visit at the end of January! There is now a good combination of work and play and things are really picking up for me here.

I miss everyone at home and hope you are all enjoying the prep for the holiday season. Enjoy all the snow, it is certainly something I miss here! I miss you all and think about you often.

All my love,

Kerry

A few Pics to Share!

Water meeting in Zhoray

Dam near Zhoray

Subcentro in Zhoray from the town

Carrot pie :)

Friday crowd in the subcentro

New sheep friend on the walk to the subcentro

*** Note the picture that is missing: the white chicken. That is because he is no longer with us, but he did appear on my dinner plate last week :)

Busy, busy, busy!

Hola a todos!

Wow, I can’t believe how time is flying by and I didn’t realize how long it has been since I last blogged! I haven´t been near internet in a while, so I haven´t been able to blog, so here is a novel for you! The last few weeks have been good and relaxing, settling into my new routine as the only gringa in Zhoray, but also crazy and hectic with tons of fiestas and Halloween.

My new life has been going much better than I ever imagined and I am loving my life here in Zhoray. My family has accepted that I am the one living here for the next two years and they have been unbelievably nice to me. I spend all of my time with them now, which is great for my Spanish, my integration, and my adjustment, although it definitely is exhausting because I have very little down time (other than the 10-12 hours of sleep I get each night J…). I was very concerned about how the living situation would be without MacKenzie, what I would do about a kitchen, how I would be accepted, etc. While she is missed very much (proven by how they still cry for her), everything else has worked itself out well.

I wasn’t sure what I would do about getting new kitchen supplies, etc, but that is now a non-issue because my family has invited me to eat with them. I now split groceries at the Friday market and eat all my meals with them, except when they’re gone and I still have access to MacKenzie’s kitchen to cook for myself. My host mom is a good cook and besides the occasional questionable meat (or non-meat intestines), I am happy to eat with them. I am learning how to cook Ecuadorian food and they are learning more about American food. Meal times are also one of the more important social times of the day, so it has been very helpful for getting to know them better and spending more time together.  The only down side to this is that I don’t bake nearly as much as I did when I had my own kitchen, but I am still doing a little bit. I have also realized that I am now eating like an Ecuadorian, even when left to my own devices. When I make my own meals, I find myself still eating the same carbs as with the family – at least on my own I can use brown rice and whole wheat pasta!

My last baking endeavor with Nayelli was more pies. We make miniature pies because those are the only tins I have, so within two days we made 13 pies!! We made peach, apple, pear, and CARROT pies. I am practicing for Thanksgiving, but there aren’t any pumpkins or sweet potatoes available where I live. There are a few random squashes, but I decided to see what would happen with carrots. The pies turned out wonderfully and were a big hit with everyone. They tasted almost exactly like pumpkin pie! This new discovery, combined with the spices my mom just mailed me, and I am now ready for Thanksgiving.

I am still teaching at the school on Mondays, but I am now also helping with English homework for the high school students in the library each day. I go at about 4:30 when I finish at the subcentro, and usually stay until 5:30 or 6. While it was originally for homework help, there is now quite the gathering who are there for general classes. It is mostly high school students, but the librarian also sits with us, the police came the other day, and other random adults sometimes show up. Again, teaching English was not originally part of what I wanted to do here, but it continues to prove to be one of the best tools for integrating into the community and getting to meet and know new people.

My daily routine has now become waking up around 7:30 (earlier on Mondays for class), going downstairs for coffee and bread, going to work for a few hours, coming home for lunch, working for a few more hours, going to the library, then coming home to spend time with the family. In the evenings I usually go on carerra runs with Zoila (she drives people in her truck as a type of taxi service), which is usually busiest when the 6 pm bus arrives. After all the carerra runs, we go home and eat dinner with Suca and Nayelli, hang around and talk in the living room, then go and watch the novela in Zoila’s room. She has an extra bed in there, so I occasionally fall asleep or choose to sleep in there if we are talking late, or I’ll go upstairs after the novela. The family has asked me to move downstairs into their part of the house, either into Zoila’s room or the spare room. While I am not sure yet what I’m going to do, I think I will probably move into the spare room in December if they are still pushing for it. The only downside is losing my own bathroom, but if it makes them that much happier, it is a sacrifice I can make.

Thursday nights I get to talk to my parents, which is great. The family lets me use the landline phone, so my parents can call the phone and I can talk in the warmth and comfort of my own bedroom, rather than on the cold, noisy roof with cuyes, chickens and roosters. They let me keep the phone in my room for the night, so I can talk as long as I want, even if it’s raining, because the landline always has clear signal! It is quite the upgrade.

While I really enjoy my new routine and schedule, it has been and will continue to be crazy for the next few months (or years?) as it seems like I have tons of travelling that I both want and have to do. Last weekend we had a Halloween party and I got to see some friends both from my own omnibus and others I have met from different groups. It was SO great to see my friends, who I hadn’t seen in almost 3 months, and I had a lot of fun with them! I stayed Saturday night, then came back to Zhoray for Monday classes and Tuesday work.  There was only work for those two days before the whole country was in ferriado (vacations) for Dia de los Disfuntos, and the independence days of Cuenca and Azogues. I left Tuesday afternoon with the subcentro staff and went into Cuenca to meet up with friends from my omnibus who were there. I stayed for two nights, hanging out with lots of Peace Corps volunteers and joining in the festivities. There were a lot of street vendors and art, music events, and fireworks. It was a fun, crazy time, but I was ready to get back home to Zhoray by the end of it.

It is very odd being in Cuenca because there are so many Americans there. It is one of the top ex-pat destinations in the world and supposed to be one the most beautiful cities in Ecuador, so there are always travellers passing through. It is really strange going from the heart of the campo where nobody speaks English for hours, life is calm and slow paced and simple, then, heading into Cuenca into the historic district that is like a mini America. It is sometimes a welcome break, but often times overwhelming and stressful. Each day I am happier and happier with where I live!

I spent all of Friday just hanging out in the market and going on carerra runs with Zoila because the subcentro was closed for vacations. My whole family and extended family went into Azogues on Saturday, which I said I couldn’t because I had too much work to do. That turned out to be a good choice because I had “la gripe” and woke up Saturday with a little fever and not feeling well at all. It was great to be alone in the house and be able to just relax, get work done, and sleep and rest to feel better.

Work has been very up and down lately. I got a lot of help in the last two weeks with completing my household surveys, which was great. I ended up completing 60 surveys, so not as many as I wanted, but still a decent amount. I have since been working on the presentation I have to give at reconnect in Quito next week, which I have been working on alone since Lucy has been on vacation since the Ferriado. I was left in charge of the women health volunteers at the subcentro, so we’ve had three meetings lately. The first meeting had 3 of the 20 show up. They decided that they want to meet more with me, learn new recipes, etc. Since they were enthusiastic, we had a meeting the next week to make cucumber salad. Only 2 showed up to this, but it was still fun and I think they really enjoyed it. I then scheduled another meeting for Thursday because we have to plan for the health fair that is being held in Zhoray on December 9^th. Unfortunately, nobody showed up for the meeting. This came at the same time that I learned Lucy will not be accompanying me to present in Quito, so it was a stressful, disappointing end of the week as far as work is concerned. My family is supportive of me, so when I get done with all the crazy travel in the next two weeks, we will be starting a family garden. We are planting the spinach and kale seeds my mom sent, peach trees, granadilla plants, and whatever else we decide on. They said we can use their land to plant, but invite other people from the community to learn, so I think this might be my first real project there.

On Wednesday, I got up at 3am and left with my family at 3:30am to go to the market in Cuenca. Wednesday is the huge open-air market day there and Suca goes occasionally to buy clothes to sell in her store. Zoila dropped us at the bus in Azogues just before 5am, we got to the market before 6am, and shopped for 4.5 hours straight. It was exhausting, but fun to see the ENORMOUS market. I saw the clothing, shoe, food and animal markets, and I’m not sure if there was more than that. The animal market was funny, right inside the food market, and there were tons of chickens, cuyes, goats, kittens and puppies being sold. We got home at 4pm to Zhoray and I was completely exhausted. It had been a great day with Suca, and I stopped at the post office on the way home and got two packages from my parents, a wonderful letter from my grandparents, and more great cards from friends! Communication is fairly limited, especially when I stay in my site over a weekend, so it is great to hear things from home! Rumor has it that we are getting cell phone service sometime this month in Zhoray, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.

That’s the novel of updates for now. I’m in Azogues doing laundry and checking email today before I bus to Quito for the reconnect meeting tomorrow. It should be an interesting week there. I have Thanksgiving to look forward to with friends, another meeting in Quito, then some quiet time at home in Zhoray until my parents come at the end of January. The great news is I talked to Zoila again yesterday and she said that it’s completely fine if I want to get a dog!! Puppy shopping is a top priority come early December J.

I hope all is well in the States – I miss you all!

Love from Ecuador,

Kerry

Time to Adjust...Again....

The last few weeks have been busy and slow all at once. I spent almost a full week out of my site because of a memorial service and meeting presentation in Azogues, a weekend getaway to the beach J, and then another trip back to the pharmacy in Azogues to get medicine for my pink eye.

The trip to the coast was actually more travel than time there, and the weather was awful. I spent the majority of my time inside with MacKenzie and Meaghan and only touched the sand once, but it was still nice to get away for two days. I took the early (5:30 am) bus back into Azogues on Monday morning in order to give classes in the school.

I really enjoy working in the school and spending time with the kids, but it is also disheartening to be at the school and see the lack of structure and discipline the kids have. Most of them run around, coming and going from class as they please, hitting others, talking back, and outright refusing to complete work. I have very little influence since I am only with each class for 40 minutes each week, so I try and focus on being upbeat and positive with them, encouraging them all to participate as much as possible. From what I have seen, there is also limited discipline at home. People are afraid of making kids mad or upset because the worst thing would be for them to cry. To avoid having them cry, they are given most anything they want. While I know I got many things as a kid, I also had some discipline, rules and structure, which I appreciate more and more each day (even if I didn’t like it at the time) J.

Another tough aspect of working in the school is seeing the special needs children and how they don’t receive any special attention. This is an area I think I can work in, so eventually I hope to talk to the director of the school about it. The special needs children are often called the “dumb ones,” and I’m told not to bother with them because they won’t understand anyways. They are sort of left off to the side to do their own thing (or nothing at all), and usually end up causing trouble with other students because they are not in a proper environment to cater to their needs.

I woke up on Tuesday with pink eye, which I knew because of my past experience and the pink eye rapidly spreading around the school. The kids don’t really understand that it is contagious, so they are touching each other’s eyes, then touching other people, etc, so it was just a matter of time until I got it. I called Quito and got the name of the medicine I needed form the Peace Corps doctor, but this of course meant a full day of travelling to be able to get into Azogues and back. After this, I was tired of travelling and decided I would stay in my site, so I spent 12 days straight in site, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is one of the longest times I’ve been here in a row.

Things I realized during my days here:

-          I receive about 10% of phone calls and text messages that I should be getting, and often receive them much later when the wind blows a burst of signal in.

-          I can get cellphone service in two places on the roof, but I have to brave the guinea pigs and chickens, plus hear the conversation over the crowing rooster. I’ve decided it is much better during daylight when I can at least keep an eye on them.

-          While they may look the same, the guinea pigs here do not have the same cute personality of those in the US and I don’t enjoy having them run loose in my hallway.

-          Sharing baked goods with the family and extended family is still the way to go, and they are no reciprocating by sending various foods into my kitchen for me!

-          It really does get warmer here, and the days have been sunny and seemingly hot after the past few cold months. My room never gets warm, however, because it doesn’t get sunlight and the 2 inch spaces around the windows lets all the cold air and wind in at night.

-          The healthsystem allows children to receive care without parental permission. If they’re old enough to come into the subcentro alone, they’re old enough to get treated (the youngest injection I saw was 11 years old). Also, the doctors can go into the schools and vaccinate anyone they need to at any point

I am now spending the weekend in Cuenca to have my laundry done, complete all the Peace Corps work I have via e-mail, and just explore the city. The family is in Guayaquil to bring MacKenzie to the airport, so when I go back I will be the only gringa for hours. It is almost starting over again, so it will be another tough while adjusting to life without the support and friendship of MacKenzie. I think the family has finally accepted that I am the one who will be here for the next two years, however, so things are going very well in that regard.

Work in the subcentro has picked up and I am getting much more support with the Peace Corps work I have to complete and with doing things there. We had a meeting with the health volunteers (finally…) and while only 3 of them showed up, Lucy told them that she doesn’t have much time, so I will be in charge of running the meetings and working with them. We are starting this week with making a cucumber salad so they can learn new, healthy recipes. They are really excited about learning more recipes, and hopefully they will also become excited about working in the gardens because nutrition is a large area of concern here.

There is a lot of change here and a lot of new things happening, so I’m excited to see how it all plays out. I hope everyone is doing well in the Sates – I miss you all!

Besos,

Kerry

Always more to do!

Hola a todos!

It has been yet another week here in Zhoray and wow does it feel like time is flying by! Before I know it, it is the weekend again and I am travelling into Azogues for my Saturday outing.

I am starting to fall into a routine, which the Peace Corps discouraged during our first few months, but I think it’s a healthy routine that still allows me to integrate into the community. Sunday is my day around the house, Monday my day in the school, and the rest of the week work at the subcentro. The evenings are still spent baking and cooking, but more importantly just hanging out with people in the family. I am happy with routine and the predictability, so this is a welcome new weekly schedule!

Sunday reaffirmed my long-held knowledge that I would not make a good, old-fashioned housewife. From 8:30am-7:00pm I was baking, cleaning, washing clothes and bathing without a second of rest. I washed clothes for 4 hours, but I got about half of my dirty clothes done and we had some sun late Sunday and all of Monday, so my clothes dried in a day! Also, I learned that I’m not that bad at it (slow, but thorough) and it is not soap stains in my clothes, it is just the discoloration that comes from washing on a stone and drying in the sun. Super. So it is a toss-up about whether light or dark colored clothes are better – the light colors get stains from everyday living, but the dark are as good as stained with the discoloration from washing. Hmmmm, I guess I will just have to get used to having stained clothing!

From there, Nayeli and I made more carrot cake. It is quite a process to wash, peel and chop the carrots for the cake, and that is only the first step. It took us all afternoon to make the cake and cream-cheese frosting, but both turned out well! We made a lot this time, so we sent cakes to all the relatives and still had some to enjoy ourselves J. The whole process is slowed by frequently having to wash dishes (on the laundry stone where there is a water valve) in order to complete the next step. Also, only one pan will fit in the toaster oven at a time, so there is a lot of waiting involved for the cakes to bake.

After baking, I was finally able to shower because we had running water! Not having water is something that I am still not very used to. There is supposedly a water key in the subcentro that controls the water flow. If it is open, then we get water in the house but people on the other side of the street and up the hill don’t get water. When it’s closed, the other people get water. So it is a fine balance of sharing the water and also who wants to go up the hill to open or close the valve without making everyone on the other side angry. Then there are the times when there just isn’t any water for anyone! Usually we have water for a few random hours a day, and the rest of the time there isn’t any. MacKenzie and I try to keep the 3 pots on the stove full to have water for cooking and drinking when there isn’t any more, but even then there are times when we don’t have any. Of course when it does come on, everyone wants to do all their water-chores and bathing, so it quickly runs out. Es si es, just another thing that I try to accept, ignore, and not dwell on!

Classes went well at the school again on Monday, but I was worn out afterwards (as always). The kids are all high energy, needing constant attention in rapid Spanish, so it really takes my energy, but it’s a lot of fun! After class I went to make my own lunch, but they saw that I was toasting bread to make a sandwich and I was immediately sent downstairs to “eat a real meal that will fill my stomach and keep out the ‘mal-aire,’ or bad air, that made me sick last time.” So, I went downstairs and ate another scrumptious mystery plate, this time of intestines and stomach (and who knows of what…). Mmmmm, that will certainly keep me from getting sick!

I’ve started entering patient names and file numbers into an electronic Excel document at the subcentro – my first idea that they’ve liked and let me work on! How it is now, the ficha (file) numbers can be found by looking up a person’s two last names that are filed in “alphabetical order.” The reality is that the names are not filed well, the drawers are disorganized, and it takes up to 15+ minutes to find a single patient’s file number. Then comes the actual finding of the ficha, which often takes even longer. While there isn’t much I can do about organizing the fichas right now, I can put the names on the computer to easily search for the patients. It is a really slow process because there are about 4,000 names to enter and the handwriting in the books they are kept in is usually illegible, so I do the best I can and then the subcentro staff will help me fill in the gaps with what I can’t read. It is tedious, but keeps me busy and will be very helpful when it’s done!

I left Zhoray with the staff on Wednesday to go to Azogues with Lucy. I stayed with her because the monthly area meeting was earlier today. Brittney and I did a little presentation to all the doctors and directors of the area to present us, Cuerpo de Paz, our work here, etc. I think they were amused by our Spanish more than anything, but at least they were awake for our presentation, unlike most of the others. I am now spending the weekend out with Lucy and her sister and a few friends – another little vacation in case I’ve been working too hard J.

Happy birthday, Grandma! Hello to everyone at home, I miss you all!

Kerry

The slow process of integration

Hola a todos!

It certainly is always an adventure traveling to and from Azogues. On the way home last Saturday, the bus broke down about 30 minutes from Azogues, so the usual 2 hour ride quickly turned into a 3 ½ hour bus ride as we sat for an hour trying to repair it and then another 30 minutes waiting for a new bus to get us and bring us into Zhoray. I decided to take an earlier bus instead of the last bus to try and get home before the rain and dark, but we ended up pulling into Zhoray about 45 seconds in front of the later bus!

I woke up Sunday to Nayeli knocking on the door asking when we were going to start baking (apparently the set time we had decided on the day before wasn’t really understood). So I got up and we made banana and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, then we started the carrot cake adventure. The carrot cake itself turned out well, but Nayeli insisted on using small, silicon, star-shaped cup-cake holders, so it took us hours to bake all of them. The campo-style cream-cheese frosting turned out horribly, so it went straight into the pig bucket and we just ate the carrot cake plain. The cake was a huge hit with the whole extended family, including Suca (host mom), so I have plans to make more with her sometime soon, in a big tin and in the real oven in her kitchen. I’ve decided that if nothing else, I can try to win over the community through baked goods. So far, it’s working well!

Sunday was great because Nayeli and I hung out together all day, along with the various other kids who would appear for an hour at a time, but I also got to spend more time with Suca. I sat down in the store with her for a few hours, then helped tend to the cows. I’m putting in my time with the cows now in hopes that I’ll get to help milk them once they give birth – there are two that are both pregnant, so I’m sure there will be plenty more work to do once the milking begins.

The rest of the week passed smoothly. I am not doing too much workwise right now, but I’m ever hopeful that something will start soon. I really need to get working on my community diagnostic surveys, but I don’t have any support with it and it’s hard to make myself go ask people alone if I can ask them a lot of personal questions. I only have a month left to get them done, so I guess that’s what is going to have to happen, so we’ll see how it goes. Otherwise I am still sitting in the subcentro most of the time, which is great for socializing and practicing Spanish, but not quite what I want to be doing for an extended amount of time. I’m trying to be patient, realizing I haven’t been here that long. As I get more and more comfortable, I can also become more proactive and make my own work, it’s just going to take a little time.

My Spanish continues to improve – I am definitely understanding much more than I was and I am beginning to be able to speak a little more at a time. I think spending time with the kids is really helping because they just laugh at my mistakes, then correct them for me, so I learn what it is supposed to be. Trying to be polite, the adults frequently won’t correct me, so I have no way of knowing when I’m saying things correctly or not. Aside from Nayeli, I spend time with Erika, the other girl living at our house to be able to go to school. She, Nayeli and I hang out in the evenings, their newest interest being to learn how to type quickly, so they practice on my computer each night. Little Sebitas (Sebastian, the 2-year-old whose dad owns the house I live in) frequently comes around to see what I’m doing in the kitchen and hang out for a while. As much as my Spanish is improving, I understand about ¼ of what he says, but he’s cute and hilarious, so he’ll just keep talking regardless of whether anyone knows what he’s rambling about, then he’ll break into song and dance!

MacKenzie has begun cleaning out her room and she gave me a bunch of books, so I have finally started the reading I had hoped to do during my time in the Peace Corps. I am currently on “Love in the Time of Cholera,” and I am looking for any and all suggestions, so please send them to me!

A little more on the food: the most interesting thing I ate this week was cow udder. Suca has begun feeding me dinner again, so I was lucky enough to have cow udder early in the week. I knew it was a mystery meat and nervously asked MacKenzie, who reluctantly revealed it to me. As much as the thought of it weirded me out a bit, the overall dish wasn’t bad. The rice and veggie flavorings covered everything else. As for my own cooking, I have been making my own lunches and loving the mole sauce that my mom sent me from Mexico – a little shake of it in most of the dishes adds some much needed spice and flavor! The last baking adventure of the week was apple pie. I decided to start practicing early to get ready for the holidays - it certainly wasn’t Grandma’s apple pie, but it turned out well! Next on Nayeli’s list is peach pie, which should require about 30 peaches because they are the size of golf balls here, but delicious none-the-less. Here are few more pictures of the baking adventures and my life in Zhoray.

Happy birthday to Darcy and Jamie, happy block break to the girls at CC, and hello to everyone at home!

Love,

Kerry

The cat is gone but the chickens are here to stay.

This week started off fantastic! Cuenca was so much fun – I got to meet about 10 other volunteers from the area and we hung out all night. They are really cool and a tight-knit bunch, so I definitely have more people I can hang out with in Cuenca, which will especially be nice when MacKenzie leaves for the States in October. I also got to do a lot of shopping on Saturday at the SuperMaxi in Cuenca before going home to Azogues. The SuperMaxi is more expensive than a regular grocery store, but has all sorts of American favorites! It will be dangerous to go there too much, so I’m going to try to limit myself to every few months, but it is a nice treat.

I got home Saturday night to find out that MacKenzie had made me a functioning copy of the house key, so I won’t get locked out anymore! Also, the family had discovered the cat’s habit of eating their guinea pigs, so the devil cat is now gone and we are living in peace upstairs (aside from the frequent chicken visitors that we are still battling with). The family was also very chatty with me, so it was a great return from an even better outing in Cuenca!

I’m still working on the cookbook. This week I made cinnamon-raisin and oat bagels! I had planned ahead and bought cream cheese in Cuenca, so I am loving it right now. I know I’ll be able to survive here with my new bagel making skills, so things are looking bright! Well, things are looking bright metaphorically, but the weather is still awful. I’m starting to think this is going to be the weather for the next few years – I guess it’s like having moved to the Northeast? Permanent overcast and frequent rain. I don’t mind it too much, but it still gets cold and the rain is keeping the landslides coming, which makes me hesitant to travel. Even though it is still gloomy and rainy, I am either getting more accustomed to the cold or it’s actually starting to warm up! I no longer shiver 24/7 and the nights aren’t as bad as they were in the beginning. I think summer is on it’s way!

Another baking endeavor that turned out to be a huge hit was the oatmeal-raisin cookies. Nayeli (the 8-year-old girl in my family) loves to bake things with me, so we spend a lot of time together at night baking and hanging out. She is adorable and very helpful with my Spanish because she doesn’t give up easily on me understanding a word or idea. The baking has proven to be the perfect way to share some of my culture with her and give her something to do after school. We have plans to try a carrot cake with campo cream-cheese frosting and an apple pie this upcoming week, so we’ll see how it goes!

Classes in the school went really well on Monday. I actually taught 1^st-7^th this time, which was completely exhausting, but also really fun! In 4^th-7^th grades we went over body parts, then played Simon Says, which was a huge hit. The little kids are crazy and energetic, so we did some quick learning of colors enough to get us outside and have them running for Red Light, Green Light. I think games are going to be the way to go, so if anyone has easy suggestions, please send them this way!

Work in the subcentro was very infrequent this week, so I dared to try more laundry on Wednesday when I had a free afternoon. After last week’s painful and poor laundry job, I was a bit hesitant, but it has to happen. Last week’s clothing all had soap left in it, so I decided to wash a smaller amount and have a new rinsing technique – if it is ever sunny enough to dry the clothes, I’ll be able to see how it went! At least I provide good entertainment for the family with my lacking laundry skills. I’m also not convinced it will ever get any easier because laundry is frequently the biggest complaint of the women living here who have been doing it their whole lives. Hmm.

On Thursday I gave the subcentro staff their first English class. We hang out in the kitchen, so we just learned kitchen vocab and phrases, etc. They are very excited about it and wanted to learn everything, so we did a 2.5 hour class! I never thought I would want to teach English classes here, but people are genuinely excited about it, so it’s a lot of fun.

Lucy and Pablo walked me down because it was dark out by the time we finished (at 6pm…). Zoila, from my host family, was outside and still using my headlamp that she borrowed, so I stopped to see what she was doing. Turns out she owns a house across the street from where we live that she is fixing up. She is currently replacing all the old electrical wire in the house, so I hung out for a while to watch. She couldn’t understand why I was nervous about her getting electrocuted…it might have been the live, bare wires hanging everywhere that did it, but they didn’t seem to bother her. She seems to know all about fixing things – houses, cars, locks, etc, - so I think I’ll be able to learn a lot from her!

I actually started my community surveys on Friday, which means I completed 1 of the 100+ I need to finish in the next month. Zoila agreed to do it with me during lunch, which ended up taking a few hours, but I got a better idea of how to conduct them, the important and feasible questions, etc, so I’m getting ready to actually go out in the community and conduct them. I’m supposed to go with someone from the subcentro for safety and credibility reasons, but they don’t have a lot of time, so I am planning to start with the extended family that I already know, then working outward to the other communities who I’ve already started forming relationships with. Hopefully by then the subcentro will understand what I’m trying to do and will make some more time to help!

The family situation is going to be tough for the next few months. MacKenzie leaves in 1 month and the dread has set in with them, so I’m bracing for the next 2 months or so – first until she leaves, then the month after she leaves. After that I think I’ll have a better idea of how I really fit in with the family and will be able to better evaluate how it might go for the next two years. Until then, I’m trying to give them as much or little space as they seem to want at any given second and continue working on things on my own. Nayeli and I have big plans for carrot cake, apple pie and banana pancakes this week J.

Here are some pics for you – I will try to take some more soon of the people here, the subcentro, my work, etc, but until then, this is a little slice of the most consuming parts of my life in Zhoray:

Market day in Zhoray!

 The actual view from my bedroom window - I get to look at the Andes all day, everyday :)

 More of the market

 My hallway during times of peace

 Here comes trouble....

Annnd my archnemisis. We are in a constant battle over the use and cleanliness of the hallway...