Viva Zhoray!

The last few weeks have been very busy, fun and exciting! The fiestas in Zhoray to celebrate the parroquialization were even more fun than I hoped for. They lasted from a Saturday evening through that Tuesday afternoon and included many sports tournaments between communities within the parroquia and teams from other parroquias, a horse race, a singing competition, live music, lots of dancing, and of course the crowning of the Queen of Zhoray from the high school. Everyone was out in the streets all day and night for the few days, and there was a festive atmosphere in the whole town, helped by the streamers flying everywhere and constant music. Sunday and Monday nights had live artists down in the market, performing well into the night. I spent Sunday hanging out in Suca’s store (which is right on the market), helping with sales and avoiding a few bothersome drunk men. On Monday, the subcentro staff stayed and came down into town for the fiestas, so I hung out with them and the family and we danced until about 2am, having a great time!

After the fiestas, everyone was worn out and there were a few days of downtime before life began to get back to normal. Last week I gave charlas in the school – handwashing to the little kids and sex ed to the older kids. The charlas went really well overall, helped by the fact that all the teachers stayed in the room to help maintain order, answer questions, and be a support in general. The 8-hour training of how to wash your hands during reconnect came in handy because the kids had a lot of fun with the different activities during the charla. The older kids learned from the puberty charla, but had a lot of questions about where babies come from, etc, so there is definitely a need for continued sex ed charlas. It was a good start for my charlas, and next week I have 3 more in the schools in other communities where we will be doing hand washing again.

Nobody showed up for the nutrition charla that I had planned with the women health volunteers, which was a little disappointing, but there is another meeting scheduled for next Thursday with the Ministry of Agriculture, so hopefully they all come to prepare for our garden. The girls group had much more success. About 10 girls came to the first taller, which was about effective communication, and had a great time. The next meeting was with Katrina to teach them how to make wallets out of bottle wrappers and other recycled materials, which most of them came to. Last Thursday wasn’t as successful, but I think the group will continue to be successful now that we will be meeting only on Tuesdays – many of the girls have to help their families get ready for the Friday market, so Thursdays are not a very realistic day for them to meet.  Many of the women are growing interested in the crafts I’m teaching, so I’ve been spending a lot of time sharing with them. The paper beads have been a huge hit, and there is still a lot of interest in the wallets, so I think that will be something I work on a lot in the next few weeks.

It is still very difficult getting much else started, but I’m continuing to try. I think I might try to start a group with kids from the school to meet once a week, and I will be talking with the woman who is in charge of CNH for the kids under 5-yrs-old to see if I can work on health topics with her and the kids during their classes. The garden is a lot of work, especially since the women have yet to show up and Zoila and I are doing everything. There is still a lot to be done before we’re even ready to plant, and we got the bad news from the Ministry of Agriculture that they can’t give us the fencing we need to keep stray chickens out, so we are still looking around for other sources for the fencing. Little by little, however, it’s coming along, and I think it will be great once it’s ready!

Katrina, a Peace Corps friend, came for a tech-exchange visit for a few days this past week, which went really well! We spent a lot of time just sharing ideas and projects, teaching each other various crafts for our youth groups, and just hanging out. She loved the gorgeous view here (hard not to…), and the town loved having her visit, especially my family! They were chattier than I’ve ever seen when she was here and devastated when she left, after just 2 days of knowing her. They are still talking about her, when she’ll be back, if we can go visit her on the coast, etc, so I’d say it was a successful visit. The only part she wasn’t psyched about was the heaping plate of intestines that we got served for both lunch and dinner one day. By now I have learned to eat pretty much anything set in front of me, so I even let her sneak a little bit of extra intestine on my plate when the family wasn’t looking…mmmmm, mmmm, mmmmm. I also got to have the leche colostro from the cow this week because she gave birth to a darling little calf named Catalina. The milk was the first milk from the cow, but then left for 5 days before cooked and sweetened. It was…interesting. Not too bad, but I’m glad that it’s only immediately after the cow gives birth because I won’t be having more any time soon.

Cora is growing quickly, but is still adorable and I am so happy having her. I try to only go to town on Saturdays because Nayeli doesn’t have class and can watch her so she isn’t stuck in the room alone all day. Last time I went and came back Cora barely got up to greet me, so I’d say she had a great time playing with Nayeli and will hopefully be the same way today! I found out that a large company is coming into town soon – potentially this week – to do some sort of electric work. That means that all the workers will be staying in town, and my house is highly sought after. Since they will be renting out the other rooms in my hallway, I will be moving out of my room in Napo’s house and down into another room in Zoila and Suca’s house. The move didn’t happen earlier because the dog isn’t too welcome in the other room, but Zoila has assured me that it will be fine. The new arrangements will have Cora tied out on the terrace during the day when I’m not home, and she can still sleep in my room with me at night. It will probably end up better for her because she’ll have more time outside where she can see what’s happening and have more company from passing kids. I’m happy to move down into their house, the only downside being that I’ll lose my own bathroom, but I’ll be able to deal with that.

Everything is going really well with the family. I work in the garden with Zoila whenever I can, and we recently made a fenced enclosure for all her chickens and our new ducks. I have two little ducklings, a little yellow one and a little grey one. Zoila is very, very handy and can construct almost anything, so the enclosure is really neat and has a perfect little concrete pool she made for our ducklings. If I have a lot of work to do for Peace Corps or the subcentro, I still try to go up to the land with her in the mornings and do my work up there, keeping her company and letting Cora run free. I spend a lot of time in the later afternoons and evenings with Suca and Nayeli chatting, playing Uno, helping with the store and cooking, and just generally hanging out. I really enjoy spending time with them and rarely lock myself in my room anymore – I still laugh when I think of what a big change it has been in the 5 months since I first got here to Zhoray. While I like spending time with my family here, they certainly aren’t my family from home and I can’t wait for my parents to visit! Just 9 days now (not that I’m counting…) before I meet them in Cuenca and get to share my new life with them!  This week will be full of charlas, Peace Corps reports, and everyone’s growing excitement for their visit J.

I hope everyone at home is doing well. Thanks for all the continued support – I love hearing from everyone! I miss you all and hope you’re doing well.

All my love,

Kerry

CUYES roasting on an open fire....

Christmas came and went, rather uneventful. There were many events leading up to Christmas Day, but Christmas Day itself was very tranquila. Most of the day was spent preparing the food, which we then ate at separate times because eating together is not something important in Zhoray. The menu included roasted cuy (guinea pigs) and potatoes with a side of chicken innards soup. Mmmm, mmmm, MMMM! I have gotten pretty good at eating most things, and luckily Suca tends to give me normal pieces of meat, so my soup had a chicken wing instead of feet. I ate alone, but the grandma felt bad for me, so she sat at the table with me and forced some skin and intestines into me.

Nayelli and I baked a ton of Christmas cookies, which were a big hit with everyone. We made the traditional cookies with the star and gingerbread man cookie cutters we had, then we also made peanut butter cookies with a chocolate center and gingersnaps. They all turned out well based on the ingredient improvisation! I now have some more cookie cutters (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!), so we already have plans for another round of cookies.

With Christmas passed, things have been more back to normal. I still don’t have a lot of work right now because the high school is on vacation and the doctor isn’t in the subcentro. I have been working on preparing for upcoming charlas on nutrition and sex ed, so have been working mostly on my own.

Since the schools are on vacation, the kids are all hanging in town during the day, so I’ve been spending a lot of time with them. They all adore Cora, which is great for all of us because they wear her out running around with her in the park whenever we leave the house. Nayelli continues to love Cora and we are both working on her training. She is now very good at sitting and sits whenever she wants anything (so you know she wants something when she’s just sitting and staring). She has also gotten pretty good at shaking hands on command, so she will be quite the polite pup! It is the more important and difficult ones we’re still working on: come, stay, and no biting! Luckily she plays really well with the kids and doesn’t gnaw on them, but my hands are a different story…we’re working on it.

At night I have been playing with the regular group of kids in the park. We play a lot of tag, hide and seek, and the other night I got to play their version of truth and dare/spin the bottle. They are a much more reserved culture here than in the U.S., so the only dares included giving kisses on the cheek, which is their greeting here, so nothing out of the ordinary. They love that I’m out there playing with them, and it’s fun for me and gives me something to do at night.

New Year’s was much more exciting here than Christmas. The preparations all started right after Christmas, which included building structures and putting together dolls. My family built a replica dump truck from wood and paper and dolls of all the brothers in the family. The dolls are like scarecrows, made from clothes stuffed with cardboard and paper. The dolls all have masks that are similar to paper mache and are usually goofy. There was a big party on New Year’s Eve in the market, which included music, dancing, games, contests, skits, etc. At midnight, the structures and dolls (now doused in gasoline) were all set on fire and there were big bonfires all around. Burning dolls of a specific person is believed to bring them luck for the new year. It was a fun night!

With all the vacations, I have been working more on the land with Zoila. The other day we put up fencing for the ducks-to-be. We are just waiting to pour cement for their pool, then we will each be getting two ducklings to accompany all the chickens up on the land. The machine that was supposed to till the plot for my garden just broke down, so we’ll see if it will be fixed soon or if it will become a project to do by hand. I have sent out some oficios asking for a few more supplies for the garden before we’re ready to plant. Luckily there is no critical timeline because planting season is year-round here!

Today is the first of four days of fiestas in Zhoray to celebrate 102 years of parroquialization. The fiestas include crowning of the “Reina de Zhoray,” or the queen of Zhoray from the high school, sports tournaments, a parade, and who knows what else! There has been a little carnival set up for a few days now outside in the market with two little rides and games for the kids, but I’m not sure what else is coming. It should be a lot of fun!

In the upcoming week, I have a hygiene and sex ed charla in the central school, a nutrition charla with the group of volunteers, and hopefully a successful meeting with the girls from the high school. A good Peace Corps friend, Katrina, is coming to visit next weekend and do a tech exchange to teach us how to make the wallets out of coke bottle wrappers and to learn a bit about the gardening here. It will be a lot of fun to have her here and share my life in Zhoray! The countdown until Mom and Dad get here is getting smaller – they will be here in just 3 weeks! I can’t wait, and luckily there is a lot going on between now and then to help pass the time.

That’s about all for now – I’ve got to run because little Cora stayed home in Zhoray today with Nayelli, so I have to get home to her! I miss you all had wonderful holidays and everything is going well in the States!

Kerry

Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!

Christmas is already here – it seems to have snuck up. It has been a difficult week leading up to Christmas because I miss home much more than I thought I would, but luckily there are a lot of great things happening here in Zhoray to help keep my mind off of it!

The biggest news is that I have a new furry friend, Cora Cavanaugh. The volunteer nearest me, Brittney, gifted me a puppy for Christmas. She is an adorable little thing and so much fun to have around. As much as my family here questions why I didn’t get an expensive purebred, I saved Cora from being poisoned in the home she was in, and I couldn’t have hoped for a cuter pup! She is very young, probably 7 weeks old now, but seems to be doing well.  Her name Cora comes from the Spanish word for Corazon (heart) because she has a black, heart-shaped spot on one side. It has been an exhausting first week with her because she’s still a little baby and cries a lot at night, but she is definitely getting better. It is nice that she’s young because she sleeps a lot right now, so I can leave her in my room to go to work or hang out with the family for little periods at a time and she just sleeps in her bed. In another month she will be able to stay outside more, but she is still missing two rounds of vaccines, so I don’t want her near too many dogs because I know that the dogs here have not had their vaccines. While Suca doesn’t like her and Zoila pretends to not like her, Nayelli is in love with her. Whenever I’m not working, Nayelli is in my room playing with us or taking her to run around in the park with me. She was just the friend I needed to keep me company during the lonely times.

Work here picked up a tad bit, but everything seems to have stopped now for the holidays. I had a meeting with the health volunteers and 7 actually showed up, the most yet. We talked a lot about reorganizing the group and beginning anew with me in charge instead of the doctor. There were many ill-feelings towards the group because it has been poorly organized in the past, but I think they are slowly understanding that I am fully committed and they shared a lot of ideas about things they want to work on and learn. We are only going to meet once a month for now because some of them have to travel so far to get to meetings that it isn’t possible to come more often. Once projects begin, though, hopefully some of them from the center will want to work more. My group with the girls didn’t have quite as much success because not a single girl showed up to the first week of meetings. I knew it was not good timing because it was the week before the holidays, so I’m not too discouraged and will just try to start again when they are back in school. The garden is progressing slowly, but we should be ready to plant within a few weeks!

As far as the holidays go, a lot has been happening. Last weekend was the Christmas program organized by the Cooperativa. I was selected as one of the judges for the Princesita contest there, which is basically a beauty contest. It was an interesting experience seeing these tiny girls dressed up like dolls, but they all won prizes and seemed to have fun. After the Princesita election, we had mass outside at the Cooperativa, then there were sports competitions for the men all day, so people just hung out a lot in the market. I want to mass again that night for the first night of Novena, the series of services leading up to Christmas. We had a little procession up to a house near the subcentro where mass was held. In the last week, I have been to mass 4 times with much more coming tonight, tomorrow and Christmas. The new priest in town is really great and I like his sermons, and the services and music are really pretty in Spanish, so I have been choosing to most of the times when Suca and Nayelli go.

On Wednesday we had the big Christmas fiesta for the entire parroquia (county). The kids from all the schools dressed up as Christmas characters from the nativity and there was a huge procession from where the virgin is to the church. Hundreds of people were in the parade and the outfits were great! There were a lot of “Mary’s” on horseback with babies, live donkeys and sheep, and my favorite were the little kids dressed as sheep! While most people were in church, I helped the subcentro decorate and organize the stage for the Princesita contest (yes, another). The contest was for girls 6-8 years old from the whole parroquia. The contest took a few hours because we hired clowns to come out during “judging” to entertain everyone. The clowns were a huge hit and stayed for a long time. After the Princesita contest, there were tons and tons of little games and contests for the kids. All of the authorities had organized to buy toys, so all the kids who were there received at least 1 Christmas present, which is the only one many of them will get. It was a really fun day and I’m glad that I chose to stay in town for Christmas and see it.

I had a nice Secret Santa exchange and dinner in Azogues with the subcentro staff last night, and we have holiday party for the whole Azogues area next Friday, which should be fun. Not much else has been happening here, just holiday preparations and celebrations.

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays and sending my love from Ecuador!

Kerry

 Baby Cora :)

A Few More Pics

Tis the Season

Hola a todos!

It seems to be a theme now, but wow, time is really, really flying by here! During the month of November I spent a total of 5 days in Zhoray, the rest of the time travelling for Thanksgiving and conferences. I have now been in Ecuador for over 6 months, which is still hard to believe, but I am still loving my time here!

Thanksgiving was incredible. I went to a town called Guaranda, about 10 hours from Zhoray, where two volunteers from Omnibus live. There were about 15 of us from the Omnibus there, which would have made a nice, big Thanksgiving dinner, but then of course an additional 10 Ecuadorians came, so we had a huge, loud, fun feast! We cooked all day on Thanksgiving to end with a dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, apple pie, carrot pie, banana pudding and brownies. It was all the great, traditional food from home with a whole new Peace Corps family! It was also nice to have Wifi in the house, so I was able to Skype with my actually family throughout the day and weekend! Even after suffering from bad food poisoning Wednesday night before Thanksgiving (my own fault – poor choice of street meat…), I was able to enjoy a little of the delicious dinner. Luckily, I also had a repeat Thanksgiving the next day J.

From Guaranda, I went and spent 2 days in Rio Bamba with Orrin and a few other volunteers. We had another Thanksgiving dinner in Rio Bamba on Friday (which was a little more tranquila), then we explored some of Rio Bamba on Saturday. We left early Sunday to go to Quito for the day before heading to Tumbaco for the food security workshop. In Quito we ate some good Indian food, went and enjoyed the Basilica again, and just hung out with some other PC friends.

The Food Security workshop in Tumbaco was excellent. It was only for the Community Health volunteers in my Omnibus and the Agriculture volunteers from the Omnibus before us. There were about 35 of us total, with a lot of different stories and advice to share. We learned all about nutrition in Ecuador, activities we can work on in nutrition, and food security and sovereignty. We learned a lot from the “aggies” about starting gardens, harvesting seeds, etc. Overall, there was a lot of great shared knowledge and new ideas and advice. It was a terrific workshop and everyone left feeling more inspired about projects that can be done in our sites!

My work situation has since been approving and I have been working more independently, building relationships with more community leaders outside of the subcentro. I am currently working on a family garden with my host family on some of the land they have up the mountain. We measured out a 16x30 meter plot (huge!) that we are going to work in and starting digging holes for the posts. Up-coming work includes buying the “maya” or fencing to put around the posts to keep the pesky hens out, getting abono to enrich the soil, building the beds, and planting! I have a great collection of seeds from the Food Security workshop and from packages my mom has sent, so we will be planting lettuce, spinach, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, green peppers, radishes, beets, and some zucchini, along with a few medicinal type plants. Hopefully there will be some success with the garden, and my family has already said that I can bring other people up to the land to show it off once it’s going, so I can give charlas about the garden and give other people ideas for gardens they can start themselves.

I had another meeting with the health volunteers through the subcentro. Four volunteers showed up to the meeting and it took a while for anything to get going because they are not happy about the organization of the group. Finally I was able to get the point across that I am going to be helping with the group and that I am excited and committed to working with them. I showed them some of the nutrition posters I’ve made and gave a brief little charla, which I think convinced them a little more that I’m serious about working with them. They then agreed to help prepare food for the Feria de Salud (health fair) that we had yesterday in the market. Come January, we will be holding a meeting to reorganize the group, refocus the goals, and start working together. I am still hopeful that there is promise for the group and that we can get a lot accomplished once there is a little more commitment!

The health fair went well. The subcentro staff gave medical attention to everyone down in the market under big tents for the Friday morning Mercado. I helped set up a table with the women volunteers where we put out the food and my nutrition charla display. The food wasn’t entirely nutritious, but it was tasty and went very quickly. Free food must be a universal draw to get people to events! I gave a few little charlas on nutrition, but people mostly just passed by, stopped to read a little bit, and continued on. I got some good ideas for little posters from Chloe and Katrina during Food Security, so even though not a lot of people stopped at the health fair, I think it will be successful for setting up future health charlas.

One of the girls in the community approached me the other weekend to say that she wanted me to teach them “artesenales,” or crafts, so we are starting a group for the girls in the high school. After writing oficios to the director of the high school and president of the Junta Parroquial, we have their support and a meeting space. I held an introductory meeting this week to explain more about the group and see what kind of interest there is among the girls. A total of 16 showed up and they all seemed very excited!  I had planned to have a meeting once a week, but they all begged to meet twice a week, so hopefully their enthusiasm continues! I am going to be giving workshops from a manual called “Como Planear mi Vida,” or “How to Plan my Life,” which includes the themes of communication, self-esteem, decision making, family planning and sex ed, personal values, and dreams for the future. The manual is really neat with a lot of interactive activities, so hopefully the girls like it. Half or our meetings will be the talleres to discuss these themes, and the other half will to be work on the crafts. The crafts I have planned are all from recycled materials found in the community, so there will be a little environmental education thrown in as well. We’ll be making bracelets and necklaces with beads made from magazines, purses crocheted from plastic bags, and wallets made from bottle wrappers, chip bags, etc. I think the group will be a lot of fun and hopefully will offer the girls a safe space to have fun and talk about things they have nowhere else to discuss.

Rebecca, the program manager for the entire Community Health program, came for my site visit on Wednesday. We have annual visits from Peace Corps to check in, see how we’re doing, what we’re doing, etc. It was fun to be able to show here a little snippet of my life in Zhoray, have some projects to talk about, and just have some time to talk with her. She is Ecuadorian, but has never been to this part of the country, so she was blown-away by the natural beauty here in Zhoray, so there was also a lot of photo taking! Unfortunately she is very busy trying to visit all of the volunteers in the country, so she could only stay for a couple of hours, but it was still a great visit!

I am still spending a lot of time with my host family and extended-family in Zhoray, which is a lot of fun. Nayelli, Jerry and I made gingerbread men this week. Nayelli and I also made some banana-oatmeal muffins, and we have carrot cake plans for Sunday. Zoila is helping me with the garden a lot, even though she says it’s mine, but it is nice to have someone to work beside. I’m getting better at helping Suca in the store, so I hang out down there when I’m not doing anything else.

There are a lot of things to look forward to in the coming weeks and months. Christmas is approaching fast and while I won’t have a white Christmas, I’m doing what I can to make it feel like home. Zoila and I put up fun, blinking lights on the stairwell the other day and we think we have found the perfect tree to put up. Nayelli loves the advent calendar that my parents sent for us, so she opens her chocolate every day. I have a cookie cutter from home that I’ll use to make all my favorite Christmas cookies, and the family is planning a big Christmas dinner. There is of course the fiesta before Christmas to crown the Christmas “princesita” from one of the communities, which should be interesting. Then there’s New Year’s, where we burn the dolls of things from the past to prepare for the coming new year. Early January are the semi-annual fiestas in Zhoray, and I think one of my good Peace Corps friends Katrina is going to come for a visit. Then, Mom and Dad visit at the end of January! There is now a good combination of work and play and things are really picking up for me here.

I miss everyone at home and hope you are all enjoying the prep for the holiday season. Enjoy all the snow, it is certainly something I miss here! I miss you all and think about you often.

All my love,

Kerry

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