Week 8

Well, we have finished 8 weeks of training! Time seems to be flying by and we only have 2.5 weeks left until we swear in as Peace Corps volunteers and move to our sites.

This past week was much of the same routine we´ve had at the training center. We have been taking a lot more Spanish classes, tech classes, and of course the security classes and health classes. We focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights this week in tech in preparation for our tech trip to Guayaquil on Monday where we will be giving 4 different charlas over HIV/AIDS and various sexual health topics.

Last Saturday, a group of us went to Puembo, a nearby town, to watch the fiestas. The fiestas in most towns include bullfighting, which we watched for a few hours. The goal is not to kill the bull, just to aggitate it and then run away if it starts chasing you. There were anywhere from 15-30 boys and men in the arena at a given time, all trying to touch the bull without getting speared. I´ve decided it´s not really the sport for me, and not something that I enjoy watching, so hopefully I won´t have to witness any more!

A bunch of us went to see Harry Potter on Saturday night at the mall in Tumbaco, which was quite the treat! That was probably the biggest excitement for the week and it was great!!

The rest of the week passed without much excitement. I have been feeling sick since Thursday, so mostly just hanging out, sleeping a lot when I´m not in training. Tomorrow we are planning a quick trip into Quito to go to a bagel shop where we were told they have bagels AND real cream cheese...it´s the small things that we get really excited about :)  - after that we are going to go by the artisan market in Quito before coming back to Tumbaco to plan charlas for the upcoming trip.

We leave bright and early Monday morning to go to Guayaquil, then come home Friday night for a weekend with our host families. We finished the work in our vegetable gardens yesterday, and everything is starting to wrap-up in preparation for swearing in and moving to our communities! I´m sure I will have more to share next week after our trip to Guayaquil!

Hi to everyone in the States- it was great to talk to people throughout my family´s trip to the East Coast!

Besos,

Kerry