Our pets' heads are falling off!

Remember in Dumb and Dumber, when everything seems to be going wrong and their pet parakeet loses its cabeza,  Jim Carrey exclaims to Jeff Daniels: “We got no food, no jobs...  our PETS' HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!"?  Yeah, that’s sometimes how I feel about my Peace Corps experience.

For example, a few weeks ago, our water went out.  This isn’t unusual, in fact it goes out almost every day for a few hours.  But this time it went out for over a week.  We have a few back up tanks in the side yard that we keep full for such occasions, but within 48 hours those were also completely dry and we are NOT in the rainy season.  And hey, I enjoy a good bucket bath as much as the next PCV, but when there is nothing to put in your bucket… I start to get grumpy when I can’t shower every few days.  And then our power went out.  Sometimes I like it when the power goes out, because the town is quiet- nobody is blaring reggatone at full volume.  It just sucks that the fridge stops working.. If you could only buy groceries once a week and had to go an hour each way, you would feel my pain!  Ok, so power is off, water is off.. and I’m sick.  Fever, aches, chills, sore throat, throbbing headache..  I was just praying I didn’t have Dengue.  But what can you do except lay in the dark, ration your filtered water, and wait it out?  The power came back first, the then water several days later.  I know I shouldn’t complain since some of my friends here in country bathe in a river with dirty diapers floating past, or use a hose on the side of the road and have to shower fully clothed.. but sometimes you just hit the trifecta of power, lights, and sickness and then yeah, your pets’ heads might as well be falling off.  Most days are not like this (although I am currently 4 days into a different water outage), but then again some days are.  And then what can you do? Like I said, lay in bed with a book and a headlamp (or in my case, your kindle with a light in the case!) and wait it out.  As I wrote this, no joke, a worm fell from the rafters onto my arm… A very slimy one. Yep, it’s gonna be one of those days.  Book #27, here I come!

There's a chicken in my kitchen!

Here are a few ways I feel that I am integrating to Ecuadorian culture:

1. When I hear music, I get the urge to dance.

2. I don’t move for people on the ranchera.  I make them climb over me with their bags and kids and whatever else so that I can maintain my highly coveted outside seat.

3. After a hard day’s work at a minga, I want to roll up my shirt and walk around with my belly exposed like every coastal man (and some women) you will meet.

4.  The presence of chickens no longer surprises me… Anywhere.

The idea for this blog came to me one day when I was at a local soccer tournament with my friend Sarah, and a handful of hens and chicks wandered through the field.  It didn’t really register to either of us, and of course the teams just continued to play around them, at which point I realized that in the last 5 months, it has become completely normal to see chickens running wild and unattended.

I admit I was a little alarmed when I first arrived at site to see the number of chickens in and around our house.  My host mom has about 22 (mas o menos) chickens and roosters, but new chicks are constantly appearing.  The first time a fellow PCV (one of the city-folk) came to visit, after stumbling down to the bathroom in the dark one night, he mentioned over breakfast that he thinks he may have stepped on a chicken on his way to the sink.  Affirmative, I said, there is always at least one chicken that sneaks into the kitchen overnight.  In fact, there is one that always lives in a box next to our washing machine and just lays and warms eggs ‘round the clock.

My favorite chicky-anecdote is from the night that I was making some huevos duros to grab the next morning before a long and early bus ride.  After they had boiled, I walked them over to the fridge when I noticed there was a large rooster tied up by his foot in the corner.  He was definitely giving me the stink eye, and I realized that I may have just hard-boiled some of his kin.  I thought to myself “Oh, well this is a little awkward..” and the next morning I had every intention of avoiding eye contact when I went to retrieve them.  To my surprise, when I flipped the light on in the kitchen, a different chicken started squawking and revealed herself from her sleeping place behind the refrigerator and subsequently scared the mierda out of me.   I thought to myself “Well, well… looks like this rooster snuck in a little chick for a conjugal visit..” and then I realized that I need to stop personifying animals that may be dinner tomorrow (or whose offspring may be breakfast today).*

*Note: when I returned from this trip, there was no longer a rooster tied up in the corner… I will leave it to your imagination what might have become of him.

Exchanging Tech, Part 2

One of the few things I actually have been able to do here in Galera since I arrived is to help with English classes.  Unfortunately, the English teacher thinks that because I am a native English speaker, I must know how to teach foreign language acquisition at the high school level… Nope.  Luckily, PC Ecuador has a TEFL program with people equipped to do just that.  So, I asked a TEFL volunteer, Peter, to come help me out for a week.  We tried to coordinate with the English teacher about how she can plan and do some co-teaching with me in the future, but she is still somewhat resistant to put in the extra work to become a more effective teacher.  So Peter took over the class.  He worked on personal presentations (my name is…, I live in…, I am… years old, etc.), then reviewed colors in English using a tic-tac-toe game, and played hangman with the kids to review the alphabet.   Because listening is not emphasized in the classroom, Peter used songs to work on the kids’ listening skills.   For example, he provided the kids with the lyrics with some words omitted from Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star with an accompanying wordbank then had them fill in the blanks to the best of their abilities.  We did a similar activity with Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA, followed by teaching them a little dance for the chorus that we stole from a TEFL activity done by some other PCVs during training.  After they listened to the song a few times and attempted to fill in the blanks, they all got up and danced it out.  This is where Ecua kids and American kids differ:  Ask a group of 9^th grade Americans- 8 girls and 15 boys- to dance, in front of their peers, to a Miley Cyrus song.. They probably won’t.  Ask a group of 9^th grade Ecuas to do the same thing…  They absolutely will.  A number of the boys really seemed to enjoy “moving their hips like, yeah;” they could show Ms. Mi-Cy a thing or two.

The 9vo class being unusually attentive

"Profe Peter" in action

The tech exchange was a success, or at least the kids had fun and learned some new words.  I saw a few of the octavo girls at the town fiesta the following weekend, and when I quizzed them on their colors in English, they seemed to remember a lot.  Peter was a hit with the kids too, since he was actually able to show them that there are fun ways to learn a language besides repeating phrases from a book that is beyond their skill level.  I joked that the kids would have preferred for him to stay and me to leave.  Sure enough, when I returned to the colegio alone the following week, all the kids were asking where “Profe Peter” was and if he was coming back.  Following the tech exchange, the kids had exams and now vacation, but hopefully when their schedule is back to normal I can start going again regularly to plan activities and who knows, maybe have a follow-up Miley Cyrus dance party.

7 month superblog!

Ok, so I realize it’s been awhile since my last update.. Deep apologies to the 5 people who aren't related to me that are following my blog.. This isn’t necessarily because nothing blogworthy has been happening, but more because I have been under the illusion that time is moving slower than it really is.  And then I realize that I have been in Ecuador for over 7 months, and at site for almost 5.  I feel like I have been living here such a long time, but at the same time, feel like I don’t have many accomplishments to show.  Here are a few things I have been up to:

 

Mompiche, Esmeraldas

1.  Beach bumming.  Well, not really bumming. But I have checked out several local beaches here in Esmeraldas- Mompiche, Súa, Same, and of course those I am already familiar with- Galera, Atacames, Tonchigue, Caimito, and Estero de Plátano.  All are unique- rocks or sand, big waves or calm, surfers or fishermen, and the tourists/backpackers that they attract.  According to Ecuadorians, Esmeraldas province has the best beaches in the country (just in case this helps sway any potential visitors).  I think I’ll come up with a rating system (scientific and objective of course!) and publish in a future blog.  I’ll have to see if this can fall under the “secondary project: tourism” umbrella…

2.  Tech exchange!  I lured a TEFL volunteer with the promise of beautiful beaches (see above) to come help me with English classes for a week.  For details, see “exchanging tech, part 2”.

Feliz cumple a mi!

3.  I turned 25!  I can now rent a car.. too bad I likely won’t be driving a car for another year and a half or so…   I celebrated with my host family, who made me a cake on the stove (we don’t have an oven) and sang to me.  I also got to celebrate with friends from training, which brings me to #4…



Celebrating July Birthdays!



 4.  Seeing friends!  A few friends got to come up to Esmeraldas to celebrate the July birthdays of myself and three other volunteers.  We stayed in Súa right on the beach, did a fair amount of beach bumming and hanging out in hammocks, and got up close and personal with a pod of whales and a colony of blue-footed boobies.  The majority of the group hadn’t seen the coast yet, so it was nice to show off our beach and the coastal food.

 

 

Blue-footed boobies!



Humpback whale of the coast of Súa







 


5.  Celebrated the Virgen Carmen with the town of Galera.  Carmen’s a pretty big deal around here, as she is the protector of fisherman and I live in a fishing village.  Her feast day is July 16^th, so just after celebrating my own big day, I continued celebrating the Virgin in typical Ecua-style: All-night music, dancing, libations, and fireworks followed the next day by the election of a new Niña de 16 de Julio, the child queen of the festival (think “toddlers in tiaras: Ecuador).  Then games, more music, dancing, and libations.  

Fireworks in Galera



  

The little reinas





Some tough Tefleros



6.  Saw more friends!  I am the alternative representative from my program to the Volunteer Advisory Council, or VAC which is kind of like student council for Peace Corps Ecuador.  Our actual rep, Sarah, is a fellow esmeraldeña and when she was invited to participate in a panel for the newest training group in Tumbaco, I latched on for a weekend in Quito and a chance to see old PCV friends and meet new ones too.  We were there for mañana deportiva for the new group, and one the teams from our training group was invited back to play soccer, so I got to see a handful of people I haven’t seen since we swore in 4 months ago.  While in Quito, I got to eat good food and drink good coffee, almost got to see Batman (alas, it was sold out), and even caught some of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics from a Scottish pub.  Even though I am really not used to Sierra weather anymore, it was still a definite morale boost to get out of site for a few days and see everyone. 

7.  I explored one of South America’s largest open-air markets.  While in Quito, we made a quick detour up to Otavalo (province of Imbabura).  Although we missed the market’s biggest day, Saturday, we went to the crafts market and bargained for scarves, jewelry, alpaca blankets, and other recuerdos of Ecuador.  There were plenty of Gringos there, including some fellow PCVs we ran into, which is why the local vendors ask ridiculous prices for some of their goods.  Not to say I am an excellent bargainer, but I am proud of a few deals I got.  After our wallets had been exhausted, we ate pie at a local pie shop and went to nearby Peguche to see some waterfalls and get a good spray.



Eating pie in Otavalo



Visiting cascadas at Peguche

8.  I continued work with the brigada del medioambiente at a local high school.  Sarah and I are trying to help out with different projects and activities, and I think we might be on a roll.  We are starting a recycling program and talked to a guy about buying plastic bottles from the school.  The kids built wire receptacles to collect bottles and next week we are making a little presentation to the school about using the new bins.  Hopefully, we can use some of the recycling money to buy seeds for a garden and/or reusuable dishes for the school so they don’t use (and subsequently, discard) thousands of plastic cups and Styrofoam plates.  We also built a compostera, or a place to make a compost pile and we’re hoping the kids will start to discard their organic waste from the kitchen here and reduce what they throw into landfills, or on the ground, or at each other, or wherever.  ¡Poco a poco!



The Brigada



Our recylcing can

Our newly built compostera