Exchanging Tech, Part 1

One nice thing that Peace Corps does for its volunteers is supporting what are called technical exchanges.  It’s a way for us to share our knowledge, experience, and expertise with other volunteers while Peace Corps pays for our travel.  It’s also a great way to see the country without using vacation days, a motive which I’m sure is not lost on Peace Corps.  I did my first tech exchange last week, and am calling this entry “Exchanging Tech, Part 1” because even though I don’t have any other tech exchanges planned at the moment, I have a feeling there will be more in the future.  So stay tuned for Parts 2, 3, 4, and hopefully more!

Some of the fantastic scenery  in Chimborazo province!

So for my first tech exchange, I went to visit a fellow NRC volunteer, Jhonny, in Riobamba (Chimborazo Province).  Jhonny works with a non-profit group that does a number of things from water monitoring and waste management, environmental education, and after-school eco-clubs in several communities around Riobamba, which is located in the Sierra- basically in the middle of the country- and only 8 hours away by bus!  While I was there, I attended an eco-fair at a school in a rural community nearby, discussed logistics of running an eco-club with an Ecuadorian who runs several successful brigadas in the area, and attended a talk that Jhonny gave for university students about the current state of water and other envrionmental issues in the province.

Water conservation according to 1st graders

At the school fair, we attended different sessions put on by kids of all grades about topics like water conservation, recycling, nutrition, waste management, and even got to sample some veggies from their organic school garden.  The kids were adorable, even if you couldn't hear or understand anything they were saying.  For the most part, they had clearly memorized lines to recite in front of their teachers and peers.  This is an unfortunately common but not-so-surprising reality in the Ecua-education system: rote memorization above real comprehension.  They were cute and informative nonetheless!

Cooking with veggies from the garden!

I got to see a very successful environmental education program in a rural community, and got some great ideas of things to do with the kids up here in Esmeraldas, although we do not have the funding that Jhonny's organization provides to these programs.  I know that will still be a major challenge, as well as getting kids interested enough to show up to activities and meetings. But as they say here, poco a poco.

The garden

One of many uses for plastic bottles

Kids with pointers are cute!

The next day I watched Jhonny give his talk, then we explored the town of Guano nearby and hiked to the top of town for an amazing view of the valley below and the mountains/volcanoes beyond.  

View from above Guano

Hikin'

That marked the end of real tech exchanging, but the following day we were able to squeeze in a hike up in the nearby cloud forest.  Everything was so green, the air was clean, and there were gorgeous waterfalls all around.  Despite the fact that I am no longer acclimated to living at high altitude, my lungs survived the day! As did my feet- I had left any decent hiking shoes at home and had to wear Jhonny's running shoes for the hike.  A little tough on the downhill, but it was worth it!

One of many gorgeous waterfalls

And of course, I took advantage of being in a real city! I dragged Jhonny around so that I could eat pizza, pasta, and a cheeseburger- we went to a Chili's and ordered off of American menus! A real treat for us both.. and there was no rice to be found! I also went to a yoga class, took advantage of Jhonny's oven by whipping up some banana bread (rather, watching while he whipped it up), and used hisWiFi to check my email multiple days IN A ROW and also skype with fellow volunteers around the country.  Needless to say, it was hard to leave the modern world and head back out to the campo, but in a way I also missed my cement house and my toldo and knowing everyone I pass on the street (literally, Galera has one paved road..) And of course I missed the warm weather! When I returned to my site, I got off the bus and a bunch of kids playing soccer out on the cancha starting yelling "Daniela! ¿Dónde estaba?" and asked me if I would be back up at the school on Monday.  I love my site, and I'm happy to be back, but it's also good to know that my friends (and civilization) will be there when I need it! Now... to find someone to "exchange tech" with out in the Amazon...

Independence Day

This year, July 4^th has a new meaning.  True, it has always been Independence Day in my mind, but it is especially important to me this year.  Although it won’t be celebrated here in Ecuador, July 4, 2012 marks exactly 3 months since I swore in as a volunteer and I will be allowed to have a few more “PCV freedoms”.  In the first three months, you can’t have visitors (like from the US), you can’t take vacation days even though they are accumulating, can’t leave the country, and a lot of other random things.  Peace Corps has arbitrarily set the 3 month mark as the end of your settling-in period, an end to the days where you can sit around and do nothing all day and legitimately say “But PC wants me to be adjusting! I don’t have to be doing anything except acclimating!”  And while I am happy for a little extra freedom (and knowing that maybe PC won’t be keeping such a close eye on me!) I guess this also means I have to start doing some real work!  Although I finished my 18^th book yesterday (only my 11^th since I arrived in site.. looking to finish at least 1 more before the 3 month mark!), I also am itching to get some projects started.

I have been going to the colegio here in Galera three times a week to help with English classes, but this hardly constitutes a full schedule.  Classes end at 12:30 every day, so I still have most of the day to myself to read, watch movies, hunt octopus with my host mom at the beach, or take an “internet day” in Atacames.  When I am at the colegio, I mostly just sit in on English classes until the teacher (who speaks very little English herself) asks me to pronounce something, or I have the kids repeat the alphabet or phrases like “What is your name?”   Lately, I have been trying to do more with the kids.  On Monday, I played 7 very successful rounds of hangman with the octavo (eighth grade) class.  Tomorrow, I am planning some sort of team competition with the decimo (tenth grade) class that involves reviewing the body parts… Simon says, perhaps?  The colegio here only has octavo, noveno, and decimo grades which is equivalent to seventh, eighth, and ninth grades in the US.  It’s technically more like a junior high school, but the kids’ ages range so much that there are 11-14 year olds in octavo, and 13-16 year olds in decimo.  The highest grade has the fewest number of students and the highest male to female ratio- only 4 girls and 14 boys!  These are things to keep in mind when planning activities, as the boys in decimo are too old (and therefore, too cool) to participate in many games.

Fighting with barbed wire to release some trash!

Machete-ing the weeds

The Brigada de Medioambiente

My other regular activity has been going to the colegio in Tonchigue with a fellow PCV to help out with their Brigada de Medioambiente, which is their eco-club.  These kids are in their last three years of high school (called bachillerato), or like 11^th-13^th grades.  Most of them are in it to get their required community service hours to graduate from high school, but I’d like to think a few of them actually enjoy it too.  So far, they have worked very hard to clean up the area behind their school- weeding the yard by hand or machete, cleaning up trash, etc.  The hope is to eventually plant some trees and possibly a garden back there.  Last week, we took a survey to see what other activities the kids would be interested in doing and after running a quick rank-sum test (thanks, grad stats!) it appears that cleaning the beach and planting trees are a priority.  They also want to learn about water conservation, deforestation, and pollution among other things.  Hopefully, even when things become “busy” for me here (whatever that looks like!) I will still have time to come to the Brigada every week.  My ultimate goal is to start a similar club at the colegio here in Galera.