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