Good Times, Great Friends, and Fun Adventures!

Hola a todos!

Things continue to be wonderful here in Chibuleo.  Semana Santa was a lot of fun, with only one day of work and the rest of the time to hang out and relax. I took a two-day trip to Otavalo and Ibarra with Shannon, one of the volunteers who I now live near and was great friends with during training. It is so much fun being around so many volunteers, and really makes for a different Peace Corps experience. Shannon and I went and visited 4 other volunteers on the trip and we all had a great time together! We did some shopping in the market at Otavalo and then made the journey back home, which it was! The 4.5 hour bus trip quickly turned into a 9.5 hour trip with Easter traffic, road work, and who knows why else. Overall, however, the trip was a lot of fun!

Easter was very tranquila here. I got home Saturday night, but got sick and stayed in while the rest of the family went to a baptism and after-party. The party lasted until 6am, so the whole family slept until late morning. We had a nice and relaxed brunch, then I headed to the soccer game with Amparo, Pauli and Dalila to cheer on their dad. The community and surrounding area sure are the soccer fans I always imagined in Latin America!

I didn’t work much at the foundation last week because I was still sick on Monday, then my counterpart called me into Riobamba on Wednesday. I went and stayed with her for a few nights so that we could get some work done there for the trimester report that is due next week. It was nice staying with her, and it was a lot of fun because I had plenty of free time to spend with Orrin and his parents who were visiting from the U.S.! I didn’t have any work to do on Friday, so I got to go to Chimborazo with Orrin, his parents, and my host sister Pauli, which was absolutely incredible! We got so lucky on the day we went because Chimborazo was entirely clear and breathtaking. We hitched a ride up to the first refugio, then hiked the trail up to the second refugio, which was at an elevation of 15,000 ft. I got to be in the snow for the first time since arriving in Ecuador, so it was great fun! We made snow angels, wrote our names in the snow, had a mini snowball fight, and ate some of the pure snow of Chimborazo. It was an amazing morning getaway and I am really excited to be near so many volcanoes, great hiking spots, and volunteers who love to see all the natural wonders of Ecuador, so there should be more adventures in the near future!

I came back to Chibuleo on Saturday to hang out with the family and get ready for the big opening day of the soccer league. My host sister, Alba, made all of the soccer uniforms for both the men and women’s teams for Club Caprice. I spent all of Saturday evening in the sewing room watching them work and it is quite something. I’m hoping someday she’ll be able to teach me some basics in making clothing, but for now she is always swamped with different huge orders. The jerseys turned out well, and we were looking sharp for our Sunday debut.

Sunday we went to Juan Benigno Vela, the biggest town of the parroquia, for the big opening ceremonies. All the teams in the leagues were there in uniform and we paraded from the center park to the soccer stadium. There were probably 300 players parading, plus all the family and fans. At the stadium, we stood in formation for about 2 hours as the judges went around looking at the uniforms, mascots, signs, players, etc. There was also the crowning of the Senorita de los Deportes, or the sports princess. My host sister Pauli was our representative, and while she didn’t win, so looked gorgeous. I almost had to be the candidate, but luckily there was a rule saying foreigners were not allowed to participate in the crowning competition. The ceremony was fun and I got to know different people who I’ll be playing with. After the ceremony, the championship game was played for the 40+ league, so we stayed to watch because it was Pauli’s dad playing. His team won, which was exciting, so overall it was a fun and successful day at the soccer field! Our games start next week (I think, or at least soon), which I’m also really looking forward too.

Cora continues to be a cute and fun little troublemaker, hanging out with Precioso and Mr. Pato whenever she can. I am taking her to get spayed this weekend, which I’m sure will go well, but am still nervous about because of horror stories I’ve heard about vets here. I’m taking her to Riobamba to my counterpart’s vet, then staying with her at my counterparts to recover for a few days, so it will be a nice, quiet place for her before coming back to the campo.

This week I will be working with Lila at the high school to finish replicating all of the first taller, receive the third taller, and brainstorm the best way to continue. The vacations of Semana Santa and then my being sick/going to Riobamba put us a little behind schedule, but hopefully the students are still excited to work and we can just pick up where we left off! At the foundation I will be starting my scheduled work with my different groups, including my garden group, environmental group and dance group. I am also planning an Earth Day celebration for the following week, so there is lots to do in very little time, which is wonderful! It is so nice being busy all the time, with work, friends, adventures and play! Life is exciting, fulfilling, and always interesting here and I could not be happier.

Hello to everyone at home – I miss you all and love to hear all the different updates from the States. Happy final block break to all the girls at CC  - I hope it is the best yet!

Abrazos,

Kerry

A Photo Update

Here are some photo updates from my new life in Chibuleo!

                   With my host sister, Pauli, climbing to the 2nd refugio of the volcano Chimborazo

                           The view facing away from Chimborazo with PCV friend, Orrin

                                                  I was so excited to see/play in the snow!!

                                                                   Snow Angels!

                                                 Eating the fresh snow on Chimborazo

                                        View of Chimborazo from my community of Chibuleo

                                       My 1.5 year-old host niece, Dalila, making her tiger face!

                                                   My new arch-nemesis, the family duck

                                      KNH, the foundation I work at, from the community over

                                       Cora with her new best friend #1, Precioso, the family dog

                               Double Trouble: Cora with her new best friend #2, the evil duck

I will have some more updates soon, but things are fantastic and these are just a few glimpses into Cora and my new life!

Kerry

There is One in Every Community...

Hola a todos!

The past week has been full of work, excitement and success! I continue to love my life here in Chibuleo, including the people and the work. I know I continue to say it, but my host family is so wonderful. This past weekend, the two brothers who don’t live in the house came to visit, along with one’s wife, one’s girlfriend, and an adorable 2-month-old. The brothers are both in the military, so had the same weekend off to come visit. It was a lot of fun and a lot going on, always people around, babies crying, and sports being played! It’s great because I feel comfortable with anyone in the family, so can hang out with whoever is around at any given time.

On Sunday we went to the father’s soccer game at a neighboring community. Apparently Sundays are for soccer, so every Sunday someone in the family is playing and others are watching. I may be joining my host-sister Amparo’s team once the league starts up, so it should be fun! Most of the rest of the days we are out on the cement cancha in front of the house playing, so there is always something soccer happening.

Last week the jovenes at the high school replicated the first taller of the series, including the themes of culture, goals for the future, and self-esteem. They were all nervous, but did a great job for the first taller! It was fun to see how much more confidence they had in themselves once the tallers were over and how it helped motivate them to begin working on the next replication! There were of course some difficulties and some things to work on, but I think we were all relieved to get the first one done to know where everyone stands, how they can improve, and how successful they can be with their peers! I’m excited to get back to work with them next week, after Samana Santa!

At KNH, I had sign-up lists for the groups that I’ll be working with and starting. To begin, we will have an environmental group, handicraft group, garden group and dance group. I received a package of awesome science materials to teach the environmental group about the Earth, global warming, etc. from the GLOBE program at UCAR, so it will be fun for the kids to have neat material to work with. With the gardening group, we flipped our first 5 tires to start the gardens. It took us an entire afternoon to cut and turn inside-out the tires, and a lot of kids helping, but we were finally able to succeed! This happened right before vacation, so next week we will go hunting for sticks to give the tires support, line them with the bags, fill them with earth, and begin planting! Once they are planted, I hope to have more nutrition charlas and hands-on meetings with composting, worm beds and more. The kids were really into the tires and my counterpart has already asked if we can flip more before moving to the next step, so I think it will also be a very successful activity!

Last week we had a German madrina visit the foundation to meet her sponsored daughter. It was a short, but nice visit where she went to the family’s home, then we had lunch at the foundation. The final activity was a dance performance for her that the dance group had worked on for the week. I was part of the performance, so I got to dress in the traditional indigenous clothing from the Chibuleo communities and perform with one of my co-workers. It was a ton of fun and the kids were really excited that I danced with them and wore the traditional clothing!

I only had one day of work this week because it is Samana Santa. The kids are all vacation from school, so there aren’t any classes at KNH. We had a Tuesday full of paperwork, but got it all done (hopefully correctly!) and are now enjoying our vacations too! Tomorrow I’m headed to Ibarra with Shannon to visit a few other volunteers for a few days, which should be a lot of fun. I will be back on Saturday in time for the baptism and big party for one of the family’s cousins, then Pauli’s birthday on Sunday.

It is great being so close to Ambato because I can go into the city for just a few hours on any given day, but still get to live the tranquil campo life. Cora is even happier here than I thought – today I went out to feed her and Precioso breakfast and the grandpa who lives in the house behind said that he already fed them both breakfast. He then went on to tell me how great of company the dogs are for him, how he feeds them leftover food whenever he can, and, much to my surprise, how he loves that Cora sleeps so nicely beside him at night! Here I was feeling sorry for her having to be outside at night, but it turns out she is snuggled in bed with the grandpa because he doesn’t mind if the dogs are in his house! The lucky little Cora is living quite the campo life! I feed her and Precioso dog food whenever I go out back, but the other night I was also told that, “no, don’t feed them that, they eat soup for dinner to cut the cold!” My family feeds her soup every night, so she goes to sleep in a warm bed with a tummy fool of hot, tastey soup. Not a bad life!

Cora continues to be friends with my new arch-nemesis. While it was an evil white chicken in my old community, it’s a bitter, mean, white duck here in Chibuleo! I now have to strategize how I enter and leave the house because the duck is always waiting outside for me and just loveees to chase and bite me. Last week I left and it chased me for a solid 20 feet with my pants in it’s quacky little beak. I of course (unsuccessfully) tried to shake it off and run, but it’s surprisingly quick. At least I could provide great amounts of entertainment for the neighbors! They have maybe never seen anything funnier. The next day, I was on the lookout for it and sure enough it was out front, but it was playing with Cora, so I made a safe getaway. At least Cora made a friend out of it…

I am getting more used to the cold, but there are still just some nasty days. We had to take an extra long lunch at work yesterday and just sit in front of the industrial-sized stove to de-thaw before we could continue. It was been very rainy and windy, which doesn’t help an already cold climate! Hopefully my package arrives from home soon – at work in the foundation my fingers are usually stiff from typing in the freezing, so the fingertip-less mittens my mom sent should help. I still can’t imagine what it’s going to be like during the cold season – I may have to plan some vacations then. Luckily, Ambato is also significantly warmer, so I can always escape there to de-thaw a bit.

That’s a quick update for now. I miss everyone at home, but could not be happier with my life here. I hope all is well there, everyone survived the snowstorm, and that warmer weather comes soon for all of us!

Abrazos,

Kerry