Where oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?

To Riobamba is the answer…Cora got spayed in Riobamba 2 weeks ago and is still there ¨recovering¨ (vacationing…) at my counterpart´s house. My counterpart and her husband were fantastic about helping with getting her spayed and really did all of it: they scheduled the appointment at the cheapest but most trusted vet they could find, they brought me and Cora from Chibuleo to Riobamba in their car, they took Cora to the actual operation while I was at a workshop, and when I got home she was sleeping on a sheet bandaged in pantyhose so she couldn´t get at the stitches, fully medicated and fed. They told me they want to keep her at the house where it is a cleaner and more controlled environment until the stitches are out, which is another week or two. I miss having her around, but I know she is in good hands with lots of company from their husky pup. All I hear is how well behaved she is, how much she likes it there, how much they like having her there, etc, so I ´m a little worried that they want to keep her now, but I know they´ll bring her back when she´s healthy. In the meantime, she is very missed here in Chibuleo with the kids asking daily where she is and when she´s coming back. Even the grandpa was asking me about her the other day, so I think he misses his snuggly little pal too. Peace Corps should consider contracting Cora to teach the trainees about community integration because she seems to be a rock star at it!

In other news, things are still going incredibly well here in Chibuleo! We are finishing up the final preparations for our Mother´s Day celebration on Friday where all of the mothers of the project will come for lunch with their kids, then we are doing some poetry reading, presenting our dance again, and giving them the gifts that we have been working hard on over the last few weeks. The gifts are little homemade boxes with a pair of earrings inside made from the paper beads I taught the kids to do. We made over 100 pairs of earrings in 1.5 weeks…whew, glad it´s done! I think they turned out well though, and the mothers will hopefully like them!

I am finished with my work at the high school for the school year, so all we have left to do is have a little ending party. The kids have been great and I had a lot of fun with it, so hopefully I will do more with them again next year. Since I´m done there, I am going to start going to the subcentro again in a few weeks and probably work there more in the mornings. Once the kids are out of school here, however, our schedule changes at the foundation. The kids will only come Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but they will be able to come at 10am onwards, so full days with them.

I just heard from Peace Corps and they want to bring the new group of trainees to my site during one of their tech trips, which I´m really excited about! They will be able to help us with tire gardens and practice giving charlas to the kids at the foundation. I will also be able to just meet the new health group and hopefully some of the people who will be moving to communities around Ambato and Riobamba!

That´s about it for now. I´m going on a little vacation next week to see some friends and am really excited to escape the cold of Chibuleo for a bit because it has been horrible lately! The combination of rain, fog, and falling ash from the erupting Tungurahua is not pretty. My computer is broken, which is why I haven´t blogged lately, but hopefully in the next few weeks that will be fixed. Until then, I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the sunshine and warm weather in the States!

Abrazos,

Kerry

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

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

A New Beginning

Hola a Todos!

Well, here I am in my new community of Chibuleo, about 30 minutes outside the large city of Ambato and 45 minutes from Riobamba. While I didn’t think it could happen, it is MUCH colder here than it was in Zhoray…ay chai chai! What’s really scary is that we’re in summer, so come July I might be an icicle.

The best news about the move is that little Cora came with me! It was stressful for a while because she was at the vet in Cuenca and I didn’t think I could bring her, so I tried to find a home among other PCV’s, looked into leaving her at the vet for long-term boarding, and looked into finding her a home in Cuenca. When the driver came to get my stuff with me, he asked about her because Rebecca, the health Program Manager, had told him I had a dog at the vet. He said I should just call my counterpart and see what she thought, so I did. My new counterpart, Teresita, was very kind and told me to absolutely bring the dog. She said my host family had a back yard she could stay in with another dog, and that she could go to the foundation with me. Miguel (the driver) and I went and picked her up last-minute from the vet in Cuenca Saturday night and she came to Chibuleo with me on Sunday!

I think the host family was a bit hesitant at first, but now have no problem with her, and seem to like her a lot! They always ask if she’s had enough food, if she’s too cold, etc. Similarly, she instantly became a star at the project. There is a lot of room for her to run around and she was very good on her first day about not running away (even though the door was open!). She is an energetic, but very sweet puppy, so when the kids came in the afternoon she played and played and played with them. By the time classes came around, I went up to one of the classrooms and peeked down on her and she was sound asleep among the pile of backpacks strewn across the playground.

At home, I was nervous to let her loose, but there really is no option because I can’t keep her leashed all the time. I think she knows well where she lives and there is hardly any traffic around here, so I’m not too worried about her. Tuesday I went to give her some breakfast and she had left the yard, but one of my host sisters came out to say she had gone out the front to the school, which is the next building over. I went to the front porch and called her and she came running in for food.She walked with me and my host mom and sister to the foundation, but then continued on with my host sister up to the sheep.  I ended up working until late that night and hadn’t seen her at all during the day, but she was asleep with the family’s dog waiting for me at home! I think she is going to live a very nice, free life here in the campo of Chibuleo, and she seems to be very, very happy here, like me!

My host family is incredible. I already feel so welcomed into the family and they are both sweet and fun. My host mom is absolutely adorable. She is the cook at the foundation, so she makes lunch for 100 kids each day. I went with her my first two days and helped around the kitchen a bit, but mostly just hung out with her. It’s nice because she’s a very good cook, and there is also a nutritionist who decides the lunch menu at the foundation, so I am eating well. There are 3 girls in my host family, probably between the ages of 18-25, so it is a lot of fun to be around girls my age! One of them has a 1.5 year-old daughter, Dalila, who is absolutely adorable and very loved by all, so she is the focus of most of our time together, which is great! There is also a teenage son who is very nice and they are a very kind family who loves spending time together. My room is right in the middle of it all, so I feel like I am part of the household.  While it has only been a few days, I love being here in the house and spending time with the family. It is also nice because when I am in my room, I can still here the family and it’s nice knowing there are others nearby. I also love the surprise visits from Dalila, although she usually just opens the door, looks in, and toddles away. She isn’t too sure about me yet, but I’m definitely growing on her, indicated by the two pats she gave me on the leg yesterday! I think we’ll be very good friends.

The foundation I’m working for is called Kinder Not Hilfer (KNH), a German foundation. My counterpart is the directora of the foundation, and only 5 women work there – my counterpart, the accountant, the two educators and my host mom. It is basically an after-school program for kids where they come for a nutritional lunch, then do their homework and can get help with it. There is a huge playground for those who don’t want to work, as well as a computer lab (WITH INTERNET!), and a few classrooms. I’m going to get my own classroom to be able to continue and start new groups with different kids, as well as give all my charlas. I will be starting with hygiene charlas and charlas about personal values, splitting the kids to work with 3 different age groups. The kids at the foundation rage in age from 4-17 years old, so there is a wide range to work with, which will be great! I will also be working with some nutrition charlas leading into my tire gardens, which should be a lot of fun. The foundation doesn’t have space for me to start a regular garden, but they have a ton of old tires on the roof, so I’m going to use those to begin tire gardens and identify the kids most interested in them. From there I hope to work with those kids and their parents in starting family gardens on their own plots of land. It is nice to work with the foundation because they have some funding for different things, which will help with projects I want to do! Aside from the foundation, I’ll go to the subcentro in the mornings (at least that’s the plan for now…) to help there and maybe start some projects with them too. I’m not sure they have anything for me to do, so I’ll see how that goes.

The community is very indigenous where I live and the majority speakKichwa, so I’m hoping to learn some too. I was talking to Martha, one of the two educators at the foundation, about it today and she said that the adults almost all speak Kichwa and the kids understand, although some can’t speak it. I am around it enough because both Martha and Maria Eugenio speak Kichwa, so that is their natural language when they’re together. My host mom also understands it, although I’ve only heard her respond in Spanish. While I’m sure I won’t be able to get great at it, I should be able to learn at least some of the basics!

That’s about it for now. It is only 8:30pm, but I have to go to bed to shake the cold. I’m sitting here on the computer and can see my breath (yes, inside my bedroom) and my fingers can hardly function anymore. Luckily I have sheets, 6 wool blankets and a big comforter, so nighttime is the only time I feel like I can actually get warm! Things are all very new here still, but the transition has been smooth and I’m excited to see how things play at. I came into this community with many more skills and ideas about how to enter a community than when I was in Zhoray, so things are coming much more easily. While I know there will still be plenty of roadblocks and hard times, I have a wonderful feeling about my new life her in Chibuleo J

I miss you all very much and am happy that I will now be able to be in closer contact with many of you! I will be sure to share my new mailing address once I get it assigned from Peace Corps. While it’s the heart of winter there, I at least hope you are all able to stay warmer than me here!

All my love,

Kerry

A New Beginning

Hola a Todos!

It has been a long time since I have posted a blog, but so much has happened that I haven't had much time. Things are still very rushed, so I am not able to write much now, but I just wanted to check in and give a quick update!

Early this week, Peace Corps decided that I was to leave my community and begin working in another community in Ecuador. Everything happened very quickly, so I had less than 24 hours to pack up all of my things in Zhoray, say a few quick goodbyes, and get on the road to Riobamba. There was a big rush because a march/protest began in Ecuador on Thursday, so beginning Wednesday we have been in standfast mode, which means no volunteer is allowed to leave their site. In my case, it meant that I had to get to Riobamba by Tuesday night to "standfast" here.

I made it into Riobamba late Tuesday and have been staying with a Peace Corps friend, relaxing, talking with people at home and with my bosses in Peace Corps, and just taking a little break. I was lucky that my Program Manager happened to be in Riobamba at the time, so I was able to have lunch with her on Wednesday and figure things out in person. She presented me my new site information, but was not able to give me any details about when I would be moving because of the standfast.

Everything has gone smoothly with the protests so far, and there have not been any violent clashes as Peace Corps feared. Since things have gone well, I got a call today saying that I would be going to collect my things tomorrow from Brittney's house and leaving on Sunday for my new site. A Peace Corps car will come get me in the morning, bring me to Azogues to pick up my things, and bring up to Ambato on Sunday.

I got a call today from my new counterpart who is very, very excited to meet me on Sunday and bring me from Ambato to my new site, which I have heard is about 45 minutes outside of Ambato. Ambato is the 4th largest city in the country, so I will be near a big city. It is also close to Riobamba and close to a lot of Peace Corps volunteers! There are a lot of projects already started and waiting for me in the new town, so I'm excited to get there and get working.

I have been told a little about the new site. It sounds like it is even higher and colder - somewhere between 9,000-12,500 feet at any given point. It is a small, Indigenous community of about 2,500 and I will be working primarily with a foundation that does after school programs for the kids. I will be working a lot on hygiene and nutrition charlas, sex ed programs in the high school, nutrition and gardens with the mothers, and recycling crafts with the "green brigades" and little kids who are in recycling teams :). It will be a challenge to start again, but I'm looking forward to all the potential work and what sounds to be an incredible community.

That's all for now - I'm still exhausted and overwhelmed with all that's happening, so I'm just taking it day by day. I will try to write again in about a week to let you know how everything is going in the new site :)

Happy Spring Break to all the girls at CC, and I hope everyone is doing well in the States. I miss you all, but am excited to continue sharing my adventures here!

All my love,

Kerry