After our arrival Thursday night, we had a busy day of training and orientation on Friday. We were introduced to the medical staff, took a safety and security quiz, were introduced to our programs by our program managers and then had to get vaccines (just 2 today, but 1 more later), open bank accounts, receive our first allowance, and take official Peace Corps pictures (which I wish they would have mentioned ahead of time, seeing as how I was sharing a bathroom with 13 people and therefore took about 45 seconds with the mirror). The beginning of the day was fairly miserable for me, I had an awful headache and was SO tired (thanks, high altitude!!) but luckily I perked up after lunch. We also met our Country Director today, who is basically in charge of all things PC-Ecuador. He is super nice, and was a volunteer in Ecuador back in the 80s. He is also really honest, which I appreciate, because some of the staff tend to candy coat things a little. Example- Staff says: “Oh your host families are great, you will love them, don’t worry, etc.” Country Director: “Yeah, your host family experience might be really awkward and at times uncomfortable, so just expect it and go with it.” Excellent.
The most exciting part of the day was meeting our program managers, in my case the manager for all Natural Resource Conservation volunteers in the country. She gave us a little background on the program in Ecuador, a little of what’s expected, what we might be doing, and most importantly where our sites might be! She said there are 7 available on the coast in the provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas, plus 8 in the Amazon and 2 in the Sierras, like where we are now. I REALLY hope I end up on the coast, not only because duh-it’s the coast, but also because that’s where all my experience is. I’m sure reforesting the Amazon and learning Kechua on top of Spanish to communicate with the community would be fun, but I would have no idea what I’m doing there. I guess that’s what the next 11 weeks are all about! I have an interview with the program manager sometime this week to talk about experience, preference, etc. so I can plead my case for coastal placement then.
On Tuesday, I have my language placement test. I thought I would be in the intermediate Spanish speaking group, but several people in my group are already fluent in Spanish, either growing up speaking it, majoring/minoring in it in college, living abroad, or even teaching beginning Spanish. There are still people with weaker Spanish than me, but it’s not nearly as many as I thought. Dear parents out there: Make sure your kids are bilingual in something! It can only help later!!
Today was not all work, though. We had some free time this afternoon, so I wandered around town a little bit with some other volunteers and we found very large beers for under $1 (which you can drink on the street) and an internet café- extremely slow connection and the screen had a pink tint to it- so I didn’t post blogs at the time. We got caught in the rain coming back, so my clothes are soaking, but we played a few lively games of Bananagrams (in English and Spanish!) after dinner, so I’d say it was a pretty successful day overall!
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