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