And So THIS is the Peace Corps!

Hola a Todos!

I have now officially been in Chibuleo for two weeks, although it doesn’t feel all that new with how comfortable things are and how much work there is! It is hard to believe that I have now been in Ecuador for 10 months and have finished over a third of my service. Time is truly flying, even more so here in Chibuleo. When I got here, I jumped right into work, so I haven’t even had any time to worry about adjusting to life here, it all just happened!

Work is still in the process of starting, but so far it is great! My first week I helped a lot with paperwork at the foundation, which made for some long 12-hour days, but I was happy to help get things organized. I gave one hygiene charla to the group of little kids, which went well and they were excited to learn to do the “mariposa” and “serpiente” when washing their hands. I went out to watch them before lunch the next day, and sure enough they were all washing their hands how we had practiced the day before, which was encouraging. I will be giving the charla to the older kids this week as well, so pretty soon their should be lots of clean hands around the foundation!

I talked with the two educators about the groups I want to work with at the foundation and they sounded both excited and supportive. I have to talk with my counterpart this week to propose them to her, but I think she will also approve. If all goes according to plan, I will be meeting with three groups a week. The groups will include environmental awareness, handicrafts, tire gardens, cooking and dance. The last three will all be able to focus on food security, nutrition and healthy lifestyles, so will all work towards my Peace Corps goals, but be fun for the kids! My counterpart was really excited about the tire gardens (the only one I have proposed to her so far…), so we should be ready to go with that by the end of this week. There is always the issue of getting consistent attendance, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to find a small group of kids really interested in the activity they’re part of, so they’ll actually come to the meetings. We’ll see, of course, how it actually works out, but I’m very optimistic.

Very, very exciting work has turned up to occupy my mornings. Lila, a third-year volunteer who works in the Quito office comes to the community near me once a month to give a taller (workshop) to a group of teenagers at the high school. The goal is that she will give the taller to the group of 20, then they will replicate the session in all of the classrooms at the large high school. So far she has given them two talleres, but they have yet to replicate any. Since Lila lives in Quito, she can’t come more than once a month, so she isn’t able to support them with the replications. Luckily, that’s where I come in! I am now working with the group to help them prepare and replicate the tallers in their high school and two other nearby high schools. So far I have had several meetings with the sub-director of the high school, he is very supportive of the program and working with me to make it happen. I had one organizational meeting with the group of jovenes and they all seemed dedicated and ready to work. This Tuesday, the sub-director blocked out two hours in the morning for me to work with them and hopefully have the first taller fully prepared, so they may be able to start replications by the end of this week! If not, they will definitely complete them the week after Semana Santa. I wasn’t at Lila’s first two tallers, but she gave me the outlines and the activities are from the same manual I was working on with the girls in Zhoray, so I’m familiar with them. The themes so far include self-esteem, values, culture, and goals for the future. This is what I had been trying to start for a long time, so I’m excited to be working with a group that is interested in putting in the time and effort to work with me. It will be challenging for them to start, but it’s great leadership and public speaking practice, which will only improve over time. I can’t wait to see how our first few sessions together go!

While the work at the subcentro isn’t necessarily working towards my Peace Corps goals of starting projects, it is interesting at times and I will continue in the mornings when I’m not at the high school. One of the nurses let’s me help with all the patients, so last week I got to take height, weight, temperature, pulse and respiration and she is teaching me how to take blood pressure. I also got to go on a house visit last week with another one of the doctors, which was very sad. We went to see an old woman with terminal cancer and a tumor on her lower-leg that more than doubled the size of her leg. While it is awful that she has terminal cancer, equally (or more) disheartening are the conditions she’s living in during her final time. The house is in complete disrepair and the roof does nothing to keep the wind out, so it is very cold. Her family abandoned her when they found out about the cancer, and the woman has no money, so she usually only eats when the doctors bring her food they make in the subcentro. The good thing that came from it was to see what a committed, caring staff there is at the subcentro!

In other news, a little more about my community! Lila came to do my housing approval last week and the GPS coordinates taken from my house gave an elevation of 11,260 ft – that’s why it’s so cold here! I knew I was high up, but didn’t know it was quite that high. Other than the cold, however, I haven’t had any issues with adjusting to the elevation. I’m not quite sure what the population of my community is, but it’s not very big. Most of the houses are along the one main road that runs up from the highway. My house is right on the plaza, so it surrounded by the school and the soccer/basketball court is five steps out the front door. The high school and subcentro are both in the next community over, down the mountain from me. It is 4 kilometers to them from my house, so I get to walk it twice a day. It is nice for a little exercise, enjoying the fresh air and some quiet time to myself and think and plan. After work I play a lot of soccer and basketball with Flavio and Pauli (host brother and sister), two little cousins, and whoever else from the neighborhood comes out. I usually either play sports outside or hang out with my host mom, Dalila, and whoever else in the family is around and watching TV in the afternoons/evenings.

My host family continues to be incredible and I can feel what a difference it makes for me. I feel much, much stronger and it is so nice to know that however work may go on any given day, I have this wonderful family to go home to. I frequent the kitchen at the foundation as much as I can during the day, so I get to talk with my host mom a lot, help with the cooking, and stay warm! It is easy to talk with anyone in the family, and it’s always a fun, lively atmosphere in the house. Cora is equally as happy with the host family and has made two best friends/partners in crime: Precioso, the family’s dog, and the family duck. Cora and Precioso are almost always together, only fighting when it comes to food (although they are getting better, and there aren’t any issues when they each have a plate!). The wrestle around the backyard and schoolyard together, follow the grandpa out to the fields, and nap together. Precioso is Cora’s favorite new pillow, so she always tries to sleep fully on top of him, which he usually humors her for a bit before shaking her off. The duck also benefits from Cora’s food dish and water, eating the dog food and drinking/stepping in her water. This evening, the two rascals both broke into the house. Cora is sneaky, but unfortunately for her the duck’s quacking gave them both away. They got chase out once, but someone left the door open so they had to be chased out twice in one night. She loves her freedom and comes and goes as she pleases, but always manages to be around during meal time. She has only been to the foundation with me once more (even though the kids ask for her everyday!) because she is off playing with the kids in the school, wrestling with Precioso, or exploring who-knows-where on her own and doesn’t want to come to the foundation!

That’s about it for now. I am so very, very happy here in Chibuleo and am living the Peace Corps experience I always dreamed about. I am living and working with unbelievably kind and dedicated people, I am working towards increasing health education and improving the health of the people here in Chibuleo, and I am strengthening lifelong friendships with other PCVs now that I can communicate with them more regularly. I am excited to get up and work each day, and I can’t wait to continue discovering everything that will be my life for the next 1.5 years here in Chibuleo!

Abrazos,

Kerry