Real Life as a PCV

It hasn´t been that long since I last posted, but so much has happened that I don´t even know where to begin!

Swearing in was last Wednesday and a really nice ceremony. The training center was decorated nicely, everyone dressed up and was looking sharp, the US Charge d´affairs led the ceremony, and it was an all round great time! It was in the morning with speeches from the training manager, country director and charge d´affairs, along with a representative from each program. From there we all had to stand, raise our right hand, and take the official Peace Corps oath. Well, there was a lot of confusion about what was supposed to happen, etc, so our oath ended up being ´´I, Kerry Cavanaugh, so help me God.´´ It was quite hilarious, and a large group of us took the full oath together in town during lunch so that we actually felt like we were sworn in...

Wednesday was a day of goodbyes to the great new friends I´ve made and to the host family who was so kind to me during the first 11 weeks in country. We all hung out in town together, then I went home for some more pics with the host family, a banana cake they had made, and a few promises to visit in November. I then packed all of my stuff up (I somehow managed to gain a full other bag from when I first arrived, and still had to leave behind a few things...) and I left early Thursday morning. I got to ride with Orrin to Riobamba as we made a few last plans for visits and staying in touch, then he got off and I was on my own!

I spent Thursday night in Azogues with the volunteer Britney who is near me. We stayed in a hotel, but ended up hanging out with Lucy and her friends until late at night. We drove into Zhoray with Lucy on Friday, so I was able to drop off all my bags, see the Friday market, spend a few hours with the host family, etc before leaving with Lucy for the weekend. There had been confusion about whether my host family would be home then or not, so Lucy had already made plans for me.

We hung out with Lucy´s friends again on Friday night, sitting around with them singing and playing guitar with all the American songs they know. We then slept at Lucy´s house that night and left Saturday morning to go to La Troncal, a coastal town about 3.5 hours from Azogues that was in fiestas. There were 9 of us on the trip, the 4 guys in a band that competed at the huge battle of the bands competition in La Troncal that night. We hung out during the day, then went and listened to the bands from 9pm-3am. The band we were with won 2nd place, which was really excited, so we stayed up until about 4:30am hanging out and celebrating.

I was a little tired from there, so we spent Sunday travelling back and just relaxing at Lucy´s house in Azogues, then I went into Zhoray on Monday morning to actually start my life there. Everything has been going really well so far. It is SO nice to have MacKenzie, the current volunteer, still around because she is able to show me the ropes and tell me what is really going on in the town. I´ve been spending days at the subcentro, but there´s not a lot for me to do for now, so just hanging around and observing. I´ll try and start on the medicinal garden next week to keep a little more busy! I met with the director of the school and classes are starting soon, so I think I´ll be teaching English and helping in the school one morning a week, which will hopefully be fun! Other than that I´m just adjusting to my new life as best I can.

There is so much more that has happened, but the only other bus that goes into Zhoray is leaving in a few minutes and I still need to buy some fruit, some fabric to make curtains in my room, and then find the bus terminal. I´m going to try to keep a blog on my computer now so that I can share all the great new stories and just upload them when I get to internet, but it is probably not going to be too often - every 10 to 15 days or so because it is quite the trip in. Cell phone service is VERY limited, although it does exist in one windowsill in my house, the only place in 2.5 hrs from Azogues to have service (and only when it isn´t raining...). It is still there though, so that´s comforting and it was great to talk to dad last night!

I´m travelling again this weekend with my family to Santo Domingo, but hopefully after this it will settle down a little more and I´ll get more integrated into the tranquila life of Zhoray. I hope all is well in the states and that I hear from you all soon - I love getting all the notes and messages!

Besos,

Kerry

My last week as a trainee

Hello All!

It has been a fun, crazy week, and I am now just 4 days away from being an OFFICIAL Peace Corps Volunteer :)
There are tons of emotions among the trainees as we get ready to leave each other and leave our Tumbaco bubble for the bigger world of Ecuador, but I am mostly just excited! It will be weird to leave the friends I am with every day, but I'm ready to make new friends in my site and begin working!

Last Sunday I went to meet Mercy and Helena in Quito. We went to the Panecillo, which is a giant statue of a winged virgen that overlooks the city of Quito and is an absolutely gorgeous view! We spent a little time up on the hill there, even trying out our kite flying skills! From there we went to eat a traditional Ecuadorian lunch, searched for flowerpots in Cumbaya, then I went back home to Tumbaco. It has been so nice spending the last few weekends with them!

This week of training mostly consisted of final tests in safety and security, health, tech and language. I think I passed them all, so there should be no issues with getting sworn in! We gave a final presentation to the Community Health program on Monday, which went really well and I am now actually feeling prepared to go out on my own. It isn't going to be easy, but I think I have the training that I need to at least give it a shot!

We harvested our gardens this week, which was really fun! After about 8 weeks of growing, we had tons of lettuce, spinach, beets, radishes and 1 microscopic carrot! We made a salad for lunch to enjoy all of our hard work. I'm really excited at the prospect of growing some veggies of my own when I get to Zhoray - maybe some tire gardens, hanging gardens, or huertos familiares...I'll have plenty of time to try them all and figure out what I want to do!

Here's some of our harvest!! I finally figured out how to add some pictures to the blog, but you can also see a lot more pictures at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150264141968017.327447.527858016&l=bb9cdfe649&type=1  

Let me know if the link doesn't work, but if it does then that will be the best place to see pics!

I have spent a little more time with my host family this week, which has also been nice! Thursday we had a party at the training center as an appreciation for the host families and all they're done for us for the last two months. There were a lot of people there, some great theatrical and dance performances by some of the trainees, and just a good time hanging out! My 13-year-old host sister Cristy was able to go, so we spent a few hours there together. From there we went to the grocery store for some baking ingredients, and we made a delicious banana bread/cake from a recipe that another trainee gave me. It was devoured before I had more than a taste, so we're making some more tomorrow!

This is a picture of my host family here in Tumbaco - my host mom Mariana, her grandaughter Cristy and her daughter Anita!

Friday was Ecuador's Independence Day, so we had time off from training. I went to Quito again with my friend Shannon and we met up with Mercy and Helena for lunch, then we went to QuitoFest, a free music festival in Quito for the weekend. Friday happened to be the death metal day at the festival - we didn't quite fit in, but it was really interested/fun/funny to see! And the park where the festival is being held had the most gorgeous view of Quito that I've seen yet! We just hung out in the grass for a while, a nice and relaxing Friday afternoon!

There isn't a whole lot else going on. We've finished all of our training sessions, so now are mostly just hanging out in training, learning "cultural integration" tips, ie playing Ecuadorian card games and just spending time together, which is really, really nice! I'm going to start the process of repacking everything to try and get it to my site on Thursday. Based on how it went the first time to get to Ecuador, this could take a while.

I miss everyone at home, especially as all the girls get ready to head back to CC for a great senior year. At the same time, I'm loving everything about Ecuador and know that I'm in exactly the right place! I love hearing from everyone, and know that I will even more once I move away from all my PC friends here. Communication is going to be harder, so this will be the last time I'll be able to blog for a few weeks. It is a 2.5 bus hour ride into town for me to get access to internet, mail, etc, so I think I'll be trying to make the trip about every 2 weeks (but we'll see, maybe I'll decide I want to go more often...).

Until next time, all my love from Ecuador!

Kerry

Tech Trip 2

28 hours in bus, 5 days, 4 charlas, and 2 mosquito bites later, and we’re back to Tumbaco! It was a quick, busy trip to Guayaquil, but it turned out to be great!

First, before we left, I got to spend Sunday evening with Mercy at a lovely dinner in Cumbaya. It was nice to see her again, and I'm excited to meet up with her tomorrow in Quito for a day in the city with her and Elena!

Health Group #1 (my group) left early Monday morning (5:50am, yuck) from Tumbaco. I took a taxi to the bus stop in Tumbaco, a bus from Tumbaco to Quito, the trolley from the bus terminal to the bus station, a bus from there to Guayaquil, then another taxi from the bus terminal in Guayaquil to the hotel. It was a long day of travelling, but everything went smoothly! The second health group arrived to the hotel an hour after us, we split up for dinner, then everyone went to bed early, exhausted from travelling.

On Tuesday we went to the office of the Program Manager of the health program from Peace Corps. There were several volunteers there throughout the day and we got a shortened, intense training in Cuanto Sabes?, a Peace Corps program that capacitates groups of jovenes (teenagers) to teach HIV/AIDS prevention in their schools. The training we received was a 3-day training condensed into 4 hours, giving us a crash course about information on HIV/AIDS in Spanish, as well as skills for how to teach the topic, give charlas, and capacitate youth to teach it themselves. We had a late lunch, then went right back to work in our small groups to prepare and practice presenting our charlas on HIV/AIDS, which my group had to give on Wednesday. The practice didn’t go so well, and everyone left feeling nervous and discouraged. We knew that we had to give charlas in high schools the next day, and nobody felt prepared. We broke for dinner, then went back to the hotel and did a few more hours of preparation and practice with the facilitators, working through some of the glitches. 

The extra preparation paid off because the charlas went great! We presented at an all boys high school in classes of about 40 students, but they were well behaved for the most part (the first class got a little rowdy...), and I think we actually taught them some new things! It's amazing the misconceptions about HIV/AIDS here, as well as the lacking sexual education, so these are areas that we can make a real difference.

On Thursday we went to Colimes, a town 2 hours from Guayaquil, and gave 2 more charlas. My group presented to mixed groups of girls and boys on the differences between sex and gender, as well as gender roles and equality. It was fun working with the groups of jovenes in a country where machismo is so prevalent, but the girls also seem very strong. Thursday night we went back to Guayaquil and ate dinner on the Malecon 2000, the boardwalk along the river Guayas. 

We then left early Friday morning for the trip back to Quito, which ended up taking 12 hours because of bus logistics and general slowness. It was a long day, but great to be back in the dry, cool Sierra! We actually lucked out with the weather and bugs on the coast because it was not too hot and the were surprisingly few bugs, so that was great!

Now I'm using wireless internet in a cafe in Cumbaya with Shannon, where we are loving the internet and frozen coffees! We are making the most of our last 2 weeks in the poshy Tumbaco area before heading for isolation. We swear in on August 17, then head to our sites on the 18th, so everyone is getting anxious and excited for the big days ahead. Until then, we're just loving our time together!

Hello to everyone back home, and all my love from Ecuador!

Kerry