It’s the end of October and I have less than 7 weeks left in the Peace Corps… wow. I can remember getting to Ecuador and while it seems like such a short time ago, but I also feel that it was so long ago because of how much I have changed and adapted since then. So here I am trying to start processing that I’m leaving in a relatively short time. Right now it seems hard to imagine leaving my life here – my work, friends, my host family, and even my house with all the plantain and mango trees I have planted. Of course I’m excited for many things, including seeing long-lost friends and family, hot water, considerably fewer bugs, having my own means of transportation, etc. but it will definitely be a big adjustment. I am planning to take Dali with me now though, so at least I won’t have to deal with leaving her behind. I still have mixed emotions about it, as I think it will be an adjustment for her as she’s never been in weather cooler than 70 degrees and we’ll be arriving in December. And I know she will miss my host family and their dogs. But I also think that she will be happier with me, and if I leave her she will be sad at least for a long time. Plus I worry about her getting hit by a car and not getting the type of care she’s accustomed to (I pamper her a lot). So I don’t know what’s best for her, or if it’s responsible of me to take her with me when I don’t know what I’ll be doing a year from now or where I’ll be (hopefully in grad school somewhere!) …
Well to catch you up on what I’ve been up to since I last posted… I’ve been back in Ecuador since the end of August and have been doing better medically. My stomach has either adjusted more or I’m being more careful (I do think twice about buying just anything off the street now, though I refuse to give up some of my favorite foods) but I haven’t really had stomach problems. I did however cut my hand last week and had to get stitches. I was making dinner for my host brother Joao, as a “thank you” for always helping me and being a good friend, and I made spicy enchiladas. Well, since the host parents were gone that day, the host sister came over too, but she doesn’t like spicy food so I decided to heat up some lasagna for her that I had frozen. The lasagna wasn’t very good because it was dry and lacking sauce, but I had a container of frozen sauce too, so I was just going to add some sauce to make it better. I heated some up and we ate, then Najabi wanted more, so I went to get more lasagna and more sauce out. The way I got the sauce out was using my kitchen knife to scrape it out, like putting the point in the center and twisting it. Well, I had just sharpened my knife that day and the knife slipped and cut through the sauce, the side of the container, and into my palm. I know, pretty stupid and avoidable, and no, I was not drinking (though I had made a Gin and Tonic for me and Joao so he could try it)… It was pretty deep and bleeding a lot, and I ran to the kitchen and washed it off and let the blood drip down the sink. I called for Joao and he came in and told me I was definitely going to need stitches (I was just staring at it at the time) and I told him to bring me my medical kit and cell phone. I used an antiseptic wash to clean it, and then put gauze on it and called the Peace Corps doctor. She told me to go to the ER at the health center in my site, and Joao and I hopped in a moto-taxi and went. There they looked at it, cleaned it, and stitched it up. I almost passed out when they were injecting the anesthetic, as they stick the needle in the wound then poke around inside in about 8 directions injecting the anesthetic. I started sweating profusely, felt nauseous, then very dizzy, and thought it was a reaction to the anesthetic so then panicked more, but I told them I didn’t feel good and they had me lay down and after a few minutes it passed. They put me on a vigorous antibiotic regimen and I had a lot of nausea from the antibiotics for the week I was on them, and they likely killed off whatever natural antibiotics my stomach had regrown, but I’m off them now! Yesterday I went to Guayaquil because the Peace Corps doctor was there doing checkups and stuff, and she took out the stitches. I once again felt sick/dizzy/etc. but it wasn’t as bad as the first time and I didn’t have to lie down. She had a bit of a hard time getting them out because the scissors were big, so my hand is really sore today again. The cut is still pretty open, but dad said not to worry about the scarring and that the important stuff underneath is probably healed. But still I’m trying to immobilize it and have had it wrapped with an ace bandage since last night. So another week and hopefully I’ll be as good as new :) and I’m definitely going to be careful with my knife, and not try to cut through frozen stuff anymore!
I have spent most of my time in the last month and a half studying for the GREs. I had the psychology one the 15th in Quito, so I did all of my medical evaluations then. I got a clean bill of health – no cavities, no parasites, etc. The psychology GRE took me a little by surprise, which is bad considering I did 6 practice tests in preparation. I did a practice test the day before the exam and did pretty well and got a score I would certainly be satisfied with. Then the real test had more lengthy and complex questions and I don’t feel very confident in my score. But I was glad it was over and was completely exhausted. Then the 22nd I had the Revised General GRE test. I’ve focused more on the Psychology GRE than the General one, as the Psychology one clearly requires more specific and detailed knowledge, but spent the last weeks splitting time equally between the two materials. And the night before the exam I stayed at a friend’s house in Guayaquil, who was also taking the test, so we spent the whole day reviewing math and cramming the “top GRE words” list. I feel like the test went okay, except I did very poorly on the writing part. The paper test is more difficult for the writing section because you can’t go back and add things or change order, and also I am much quicker at typing than hand-writing. But I do prefer the paper version of the math and verbal sections, so I guess that balances it out. Anyway, I felt good about the math, ok about the verbal, and bad about the writing. I’ll find out when I get my score in 6 weeks! At least it’s over :)
As far as work goes, I’ve been doing less than usual. The new volunteer has started taking over several of the programs, and I’ve been doing some side projects outside of the high school. I finally found use for all of the children’s books I brought from the states – I started a literacy program in a very small elementary school about 35 minutes outside of my town. A friend is a teacher there, and since I only have a few books I wanted to go to a small school (all of the schools in my town are pretty big). I also have the environmental educational club up and running and they are planning a big event in the colegio to raise awareness and educate their peers. We are going to do a recycling competition between all of the classes and the winner will get their classroom repainted with an environmental mural. They also want to do a used clothing drive to donate to a small town for Christmas. First is the competition, then in December we’ll do the other project. Before I leave I still want to do an Ecuador map in the colegio too, but I’m hoping that will be done in the next few weeks. We’re also planning a big event for World AIDS Day with the health center. I went today and talked to a friend that works there, and she introduced me to the chair of the committee that’s planning the event (or, will be planning the event ya mismo!). We talked about the event and I’m going to participate with the kids from the colegio again this year. We’ll be part of the parade and have an informative stand in the open house in the park, and I’ll probably get the students to dress up like clowns or something fun again. I hope I can get the same youth as last year to participate again – I had a great time with it last year! Then on Friday Dec 2 we’re going to do another event in the high school since the students can’t attend the public event on Thursday. We’re going to have music and little skits and an informational booth. The Centro de salud is going to have several informational booths and also a clinic to do the rapid HIV tests for those that want to. I’m not sure how it will go over with the students, but I’m hoping it will be well received. We’re also going to do an HIV awareness mural either before or the day of the event in the colegio. Then after World AIDS day on Dec 1, I’ll only have another week before I head to Quito to sign my paperwork. After I do my Close of Service I’ll be returning to my site to get Dali, my bags, etc. and flying out of Guayaquil on the 18th. Hard to believe it! I’m excited that I’ll be here for World AIDS Day, as that’s been one of my favorite events over the last 2 years.
Okay, I’m gonna get off here because my hand is really hurting now. And I should do some work stuff or grad school stuff :) I’ll try to write again soon about how the final projects are going and what I’m doing to finish things up here.
Friday, August 26, 2011
So it’s been a really long time since I wrote, and a lot has happened since then. In june I went home for one of my best friends (from college) wedding. I ended up getting stuck in Chicago overnight, but really was only a 8 hr delay and by the time I got to the hotel (an hr from the airport!) and slept 3 hrs I was headed back. I got to Cincy on one of the early morning business flights, completely exhausted but happy to be home. First we went to get breakfast, and then did the dress fitting, then I picked up another one of my best college friends and sorority sisters from the airport, who flew in from Maine for the wedding. She came a few days early to hang out with me :) When we got back to the house it was naptime, then I set about getting my life organized. Luckily I was able to take 2 weeks of home vacation instead of 1 (since I extended my service an extra 4 months). On Friday, the day before the wedding, we drove up to northern Ohio (roadtrip!) stopping by Wittenberg on the way. There I had Mike & Rosy’s (the restaurant I worked at in college) and met up with a couple college friends that are now working at Witt. From Witt to Norwalk it was all country roads but it was great getting to catch up with Natty on the drive. Two years since we’ve seen each other and so much has changed, but when we are together it’s like old times. When we finally got to the hotel, we dropped our stuff off and met up with another sorority sister who had arrived as well, and we all headed to the reception hall to help decorate and hang out. Then we went to bed to rest up for the big day! Since my hair was really short and I was trying to save money (Peace Corps volunteer = broke) I didn’t get my hair and nails done with the other bridesmaids but instead just met up with them to get dressed. Kelsey looked so beautiful in her dress! When the time finally came we loaded up and headed to the wedding, which was by a lake on a college campus. It was so funny we were trying to hide the bride running around outside ducking behind walls until we found a “safe” place to wait for the wedding to start. When the moment came we all walked to the lake and it was soo beautiful. Since I hadn’t been there the day before for the rehearsal the order got a little messed up up front, but it was okay because everyone was looking at Kelsey and Jack, the bride and groom. It was so picturesque and a beautiful sunny, clear skies day for the wedding. It was over pretty fast and we stuck around for pictures, then we headed to the reception. It was very casual and fun, and I couldn’t believe they were finally married (they had been together since high school and I had never known them when they were single). I was so happy I was able to come home for the wedding and be part of their special day. And it was so exciting to get to see so many people from college! Who knows when the next time we’ll all be together will be – who’s getting married next? Haha
The next day we all pretty much just got up and headed home. Natty and I met up with another sorority sister in Cincy that night for pizza, so they could see each other before she flew out the next morning. I had a dull headache that evening but figured it was from not sleeping much the night before. The next morning I dropped her at the airport then went home and went back to sleep. When I woke up I had a terrible headache and later that night, a fever developed. So I figured I’d picked up something at the wedding, and just rested. Well that whole week the fever and headache continued, and I spent most of the week in bed or laying around the house resting. I was still trying to get ready to leave the next Tuesday, so I did some errands and visiting in that time, but the headache at times was so strong that I couldn’t stand up. On Thursday my dad called a doctor friend and he agreed to see me, so I called the Peace Corps Office of Medical Services and got permission to go see him. They did a flu test which came back negative, but the doc said based on the symptoms it probably was the flu (since the tests are only about 70% accurate) and that they couldn’t give me Tamiflu at that point so I’d just have to wait it out. They offered to do more complete testing but I decided to wait and see if I got better. On Saturday I was worse and decided to get some testing done, so PC office approved and they sent in for a full workup (Malaria, Dengue, flu, blood panels, various stool tests, etc.) and I got that done Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon the doc called and said I was positive for giardia, a protozoa in stool, so I did the treatment for that. Then Sunday he called again and said I was positive for Epstein-Barr virus, aka mononucleosis, which is likely what had been causing the fever, headache, etc. So I checked with Peace Corps and they decided to put me on Medical Hold, which basically means that I’m in the states until further notice (maximum of 45 days) without terminating me status as a Volunteer and without having to use more vacation days. Later that week the doc called again to say I was also positive for E. Coli, and put me on antibiotics for that. Though I originally didn’t present with swollen tonsils or sore throat, by Thursday I hadn’t slept in 2 days, could no longer swallow without excruciating pain, and my tonsils were so swollen and puss-covered it was unbearable to even talk, so I was writing to communicate. Unfortunately I still had to take antibiotics for the E.Coli treatment. But since I wasn’t able to eat anything but small quantities of broth and ice, both of which were painful, the antibiotics were making me very nauseated. So it was a nasty cycle, and by Friday morning I was dehydrated and felt like I couldn’t take the pain and nausea anymore. So we got an appointment with another doctor in the same practice (the other was on vacation) and went to see her. After checking me over, she decided to admit me to the hospital, so we headed over and checked in. They ran the IV for rehydrating and to give me the antibiotics, steroids, and pain meds. I was pretty miserable for the first day but the pain meds helped and allowed me to sleep, which helped my mental health at least. At home I felt bad calling for my mom in the middle of the night for ice or pain meds but at the hospital that’s what the nurses were there for so I didn’t feel guilty. The steroids helped the swelling and not having to take the antibiotics orally made me feel better, and little by little I got better. Once I was doing a little better, a few friends came to visit, as well as a couple of people from church and of course my parents, and I was lucky to have my best friend from high school working nights (she’s a RN) on the floor below mine so I got to see her lots! Then finally 4 days in the hospital (and on July 4th!) the doctor decided to send me home to finish the recovery. I spent a few days in bed recovering, sleeping pretty much 14-16 hrs a day. That was the most tired I have been I think, but then by that weekend I was feeling a little better and got back to sleeping more like 10 hrs. Mom went to Germany for a couple days, though she wanted to stay I made her go :) Then when she got back, I was there a few more days before I got the medical clearance and came back to Ecuador June 21st.
After I got back to site, I ate something bad and was sick with a 104 fever and diarrhea 4 days after arriving in Ecuador. I was worried about my spleen and/or the mono coming back in full force so I called the Peace Corps doctors and had tests done. They put me on antibiotics and the fever and stomach issues went away pretty much right after I started the antibiotics. The next Monday I went to Quito to help the trainees do a World Map project in the training center in tumbaco. We nearly finished the world map the first day (Tuesday) and I was going to be there until Thursday evening, so we used the leftover supplies to do the first Ecuador map, and one of the trainees had an idea for a mural that we started as well. It was a lot of fun getting to paint for 3 days, getting to know the trainees and see staff. On the last day, Thursday, the trainees had a lunch for their host families, and I ate the food there. Turns out they don’t quite know how to prepare foods yet, and by the time I got back to Quito (I was staying in a hotel overnight) I was feeling really sick and had a lot of diarrhea. I tried eating a little, but after eating nd drinking a Sprite I threw up. Then I threw up again, and when I wasn’t throwing up I had diarrhea. The problem with being sick was that I was flying out at 7am to get back to Guayaquil, then had to take a bus to my site, and had a big event Friday that I needed to be feeling ok for. So I got a couple hrs of sleep, ate some pepto, and went to the airport. It was dangerous – I had to go to the bathroom about every 15 mins even though I hadn’t eaten or drunken anything since about 4pm the night before. But I just went to the bathroom a lot, got to Guayaquil, and used the bathroom then got on a bus, hoping I could make it back to my site. Thankfully at that point I had virtually nothing left in me and made it to my site without having to get off the bus.
Friday we had a big youth concert that I’ve been planning with a youth group for the last 4 months, so I went to sleep for 2 hours then got up and had to get to work. I just drank Pedialyte and thankfully it seemed that the food poisoning had all been cleared out so I made it through the event without problems. The event was really fun, and though of course not everything worked out to plan, we had a great turnout and the bands that performed did really well. We had a break-dance/hip-hip group and a theater from Guayaquil, a dance group from Pedro Carbo, a folkloric music group, and a fairly well-known Christian group from Pedro Carbo (my host brother Jair’s group). We also had invited 3 other groups but they didn’t end up performing, but it worked out just fine in the end. I was very happy with the event, especially considering I hadn’t been here to do anything for the last 2 months haha.
Though I had just been home, I ended up going home last Friday for my grandpa’s funeral. He had been sick and doing very poorly for the last few weeks, and passed away August 17th in the morning. It was very hard for me to be here while it was all happening back home, especially when my parents called to tell me that he wasn’t going to recover and likely would be passing within a couple days. I wrote him a letter the day before he died, and thanks to my parents was able to go home for the funeral. The visitation, church service and burial were all packed with friends, family, and loved ones. His sisters all came, some from as far as California, Chicago, and Florida. And though Kevin had just gotten to Texas (for grad school in Austin) he also flew home. Ryan and Jenn and Ang all drove up too, so it was great getting to be all together again. And I know having everyone together made it easier. But these things are never easy, and I know it would have been much harder if I couldn’t have gone home. Grandpa was a great, loving, strong man and he will be missed by all.
Now I’m back in my site again, and have to get work “restarted”. The new volunteer who is replacing me is here now, so after 2 years as the only American, that will be an adjustment for me. And since I’ve basically been gone since June I’m going to have to restart all of my work – boo! Dali was very happy to see me again, and after giving her a bath today I got some pictures of her. She’s so cute :) Ok well I’m gonna sign off – hasta luego!
Friday, May 20, 2011
So it’s been an embarrassingly long time since I posted anything on here.. Sorry. To be fair, I checked on here a few times and no one had commented about my absence, so I figured maybe no one was reading it anyway. Also, I’ve been journaling by hand every couple days, so that makes me feel like I don’t want to post on here… But alas, I’m back to talk about what I’ve been up to the last… 3 months :)
Soooo since February, I had a stressful time off work, in which I was bored, thinking about home, and getting increasingly frustrated with things here. But since I started back to work in April I’ve been feeling pretty good.
So, catch you up on work really quick. I’m doing 2 afterschool English courses, one with the kids from last year and one with new kids. The new kids are in their last year or 2 of high school (so juniors/seniors) and this year they’re from a very diverse range of classes. I have kids from all of the specialties (chemistry, mechanics, accounting, social sciences, etc.) and they were selected based on their interest in learning English (hopefully making the class more stable as far as week to week attendance). Then my Tuesday students are the same from last year, which I combined into 1 class since we only had 18ish that consistently showed last year (plus the seniors who graduated already). And I’ve allowed about 5 of them to bring friends to join the class. They seem like a pretty good group. They did fairly well on the pre-test (an English exam that will be re-administered at the end of the year), so I guess they learned something last year haha.
And in the colegio we’re doing another set of Cuanto Sabes de VIH y SIDA, the HIV education program. This year two of the previous participants (who entered the course as problem youth) are helping us run the course as youth educators since two of last year’s youth educators didn’t have time for the program this year.
Also on Saturday mornings I’m working with the group of “problem” youth from last year, who participated in Cuanto Sabes. We’re doing a youth group, and I selected each of them to help me plan activities for one meeting, and themes for each meeting, such as “leadership” “teamwork” “sexual education” “family planning” “communication” etc. I think we’re going to go to the town’s pool one day too, as that was their request. I guess I’ll find a way to work that into our curriculum :) And since there’s only about 10 of them in the group, they’re supposed to invite one other participant to come to our meeting on Saturday, so we’ll see how that goes! I’m looking forward to working with them – they’re a really fun group.
Other than that, I’m trying to get a couple more programs running in the colegio. One is a escuela para padres (school for parents) in which I’d do workshops with groups of parents to help improve communication with their youth, or educate them on various themes. I’m hoping to have that up and going in June. The psychologists also asked me to help them work with “problem” students during classtime, so I’m not sure what exactly I’m gonna do with that. After seeing the progress and positive change in the youth I worked with last year, they apparently think I can fix any problematic student ha. Also, after doing a big event for Earth Day (see below), one of the teachers presented a project idea to me about doing an environmental education program. After discussing it, I think we’re going to train youth on environmental education and use them as peer educators within the school. And if that goes well, we are planning to expand the program to the other schools in town. In addition to workshops, we’re gonna paint murals and make materials for future workshops. So funding of course is always a question, but after talking to my program manager last week, it looks like that won’t be much of an issue :) So in the next couple days I need to sit down with the teacher and we can start making real plans and apply for the funding.
So the Earth Day event in April was something I thought of on a whim, then wrote it up and went to the high school to talk to them about it. Then of course everything fell into place, more or less ha. It was all art-related, with different activities. First, we went around and announced that we were having a school wide art competition and that the 5 winning designs would be used in a mural, matted and hung in the rectors office, and the winners would receive a secret surprise (yes, it was a secret even to me until the week of the event ha!). So the Wednesday before Earth Day I had to prime the wall so we could do the mural Thursday, then went to collect the designs and we ended up with 264, which was a huge surprise. Granted, there are nearly 2000 students, so statistically it wasn’t a huge percentage, but I was just hoping for 100! That night I stayed up until 3am going through the designs and finally selected the 5 winners. Then I and created a unified design incorporating the 5 designs. The next day was the planned assembly, where we would talk about the meaning behind Earth Day, explain what Global Youth Service Day is, and present the 5 winning designs. Buuut as is my luck, it rained the whole night and whole morning. So we postponed that. But by 10 the sun was up so we started doing the mural. I and the art teacher drew the design on the wall and started getting kids out of her class in small groups to paint. We painted all the way through 5pm that day, and some of the kids wanted to come back the next day, so we headed back Friday morning at 8am to start again (the school was on holiday that day for something). After another full day, we had more or less finished. The only thing left was doing some outlining and touching up the details (which I decided I was just gonna do myself to ensure good results…). I planned on going in on Saturday or Sunday, but after working the whole morning Saturday in the Cuanto Sabes and youth group programs, decided to rest and instead went in Monday. Finally, it was clear skies in the morning so we had the assembly and presented the winners. It was cool because the winners ended up being from different grades, so we had a diverse group. We gave them certificates and took photos with their matted designs, and planned when to have the pizza party (what I had finally decided would be the prize!). Finally, Thursday we had the pizza party. I made another huuuuuge pizza – enough for 20-25 people (had it cooked in a bakery), a big pan of brownies, soft drinks, chips, etc. We invited the English department (since they’d helped me with so much), the teachers and psychologists that were involved in the planning, the secretaries, and the rector of the colegio. And finally, after nearly 2 weeks of nothing but doing the project, the Earth Day event was over :) I still have to paint on the protective varnish though – oops :) I really enjoyed the event and seeing so many youth involved in the design and painting process, and received a lot of requests from the students for another art competition/mural painting. I told them “ya mismo” ha
Last week I was in Quito for our Close of Service conference, where Peace Corps starts to prepare us for closing our service, finishing projects, telling people goodbye, as well as the possibility very difficult transition back to the states. Back to the high cost of living, back to not having jobs, back to the real life. Most of us will undergo “reverse” culture shock trying to readjust to what used to be our normal lives. It was interesting thinking through all of it and trying to mentally prepare ourselves. However, for me and several of my fellow 102ers (102 was our training group number, so I refer to ourselves as 102ers), that transition will be delayed. I received official news last week that I received my request for an extension of service, meaning I will be staying in Ecuador until December 21, 2011! I will be using that extra time to continue my work with the schools and transition the new volunteer that will be arriving to replace me in August. I see is almost as a second opportunity to do everything I’ve thought about, or wanted to do during my time in Ecuador. For example, I haven’t really done a lot with environmental education and this project idea fell into my lap in April, but that wouldn’t have been a possibility with my extension. It will also make my time back home a little shorter before grad school (hopefully going August 2012). So my new plan is this: get home in December, spend about a month at home getting reacclimated, then start traveling. I want to go see my brother and sister-in-law in Tennessee, spend some time with my sister in Lexington, visit old college friends anywhere from Maine to Baltimore, and spend a month or so in Texas visiting my brother who is moving out there for grad school. And that’s just in the U.S…. I realized recently that my dream to go to India may never happen if I don’t do it before I go to grad school. Sooo, I’m thinking India in April of 2012. Anyone want to join me??? I’m hoping to find some sort of short-term work (volunteer or whatever) so I have some structure, but still able to travel around the country and see the culture, eat the food, who know whatever else. And another volunteer will be in Bangladesh next year, so I may head there to visit her too. I know what you’re thinking. 1, I haven’t even gotten back to the states yet why am I planning to leave already! And 2, isn’t Ecuador enough as far as adventure and exotic life. Well, number one, I’ll likely be spending the rest of my life back in the states. And number two, my answer is that I don’t want to put off this dream and I guess I’m trying to check this off my bucket list. And I figure if I go to grad school, I’m either gonna get funding (crossing my fingers for that one!) or will be tens of thousands of dollars in debt, which I’ll spend the next 5-10 years paying off… so why not go blow my money traveling to Asia and just go MORE into debt when I go to grad school, because let’s be honest, what’s another few thousand dollars of debt to pay back… anyway, I guess my mind can change any moment, but I really feel like this is what I want to do. Ask me in a year and we’ll see ha. Oh, also at the conference we did another oral language proficiency test (like the same we did during training) and I received Advanced High level of Spanish, which I’m very happy with :)
During our trip to Quito we also got to attend the event for the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps (and 49 years in Ecuador). It was a very classy event, and I was glad I brought back my little black cocktail dress when I went home for Christmas! And the highlight of the event for me was that 2 weeks before the event I received a call from the PTO at the office asking me to speak at the event! They wanted me to talk about Ecuadorian youth and touch on some of my experiences working in my site. It was a great honor to be selected, and honestly a huge surprise to me. I told her that had she asked me 2 years ago my answer would have been “definitely not” but after 2 years working and growing in Ecuador, I was happy to do it. And after she had my interest she said “oh, it’s in Spanish in front of approximately 270 guests” – YIKES! But I knew I’d be upset with myself if I turned it down, so I wrote the speech, sent it in, had it edited, etc, and “practiced” (yeah, I only read through it maybe 10 times…). I was really nervous once we got to the event and couldn’t really focus on what everyone before me was saying (I was at the end of the event), but finally it was my turn. I was so nervous I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to walk up to the podium. When I got up there I was shaking but I put my speech in front of me, grabbed ahold of the podium with both hands, and started. I apparently spoke really fast at the beginning, but at some point I looked at my fellow 102ers, and just relaxed. And once I reached the part where I talked about a funny experience working with the “problem” youth in the Cuanto Sabes program, I stopped reading the speech and started telling the story. I’m not sure how Peace Corps felt about me going off of the written speech, but I jumped back in a couple of times to throw in the phrases they had made better from my original speech. And then I finished. It was over before I knew it, and I walked away happy with how it had gone. I’m completely satisfied with it and so glad I put myself out there and accepted the invitation. Then of course we had free wine, so I celebrated :) My host brother Joao also was invited to the event and came up for the evening, so we walked around greeting people and presenting him to the Peace Corps staff. I also was interviewed by a radio program, but she just asked more personal questions (what’s your favorite thing about Ecuador, what brought you here, what foods do you like, what work do you love doing, do you have an Ecuadorian boyfriend, do you want one, etc). Overall the event was really really nice (sushi for appetizer!) and it was so nice that Peace Corps invited my group to attend as part of our Close of Service Conference.
Alright, I’m gonna sign out, but I’ll try to keep this stuff updated more frequently… and if not I’ll be back to the states in June for a week so maybe then!
Soooo since February, I had a stressful time off work, in which I was bored, thinking about home, and getting increasingly frustrated with things here. But since I started back to work in April I’ve been feeling pretty good.
So, catch you up on work really quick. I’m doing 2 afterschool English courses, one with the kids from last year and one with new kids. The new kids are in their last year or 2 of high school (so juniors/seniors) and this year they’re from a very diverse range of classes. I have kids from all of the specialties (chemistry, mechanics, accounting, social sciences, etc.) and they were selected based on their interest in learning English (hopefully making the class more stable as far as week to week attendance). Then my Tuesday students are the same from last year, which I combined into 1 class since we only had 18ish that consistently showed last year (plus the seniors who graduated already). And I’ve allowed about 5 of them to bring friends to join the class. They seem like a pretty good group. They did fairly well on the pre-test (an English exam that will be re-administered at the end of the year), so I guess they learned something last year haha.
And in the colegio we’re doing another set of Cuanto Sabes de VIH y SIDA, the HIV education program. This year two of the previous participants (who entered the course as problem youth) are helping us run the course as youth educators since two of last year’s youth educators didn’t have time for the program this year.
Also on Saturday mornings I’m working with the group of “problem” youth from last year, who participated in Cuanto Sabes. We’re doing a youth group, and I selected each of them to help me plan activities for one meeting, and themes for each meeting, such as “leadership” “teamwork” “sexual education” “family planning” “communication” etc. I think we’re going to go to the town’s pool one day too, as that was their request. I guess I’ll find a way to work that into our curriculum :) And since there’s only about 10 of them in the group, they’re supposed to invite one other participant to come to our meeting on Saturday, so we’ll see how that goes! I’m looking forward to working with them – they’re a really fun group.
Other than that, I’m trying to get a couple more programs running in the colegio. One is a escuela para padres (school for parents) in which I’d do workshops with groups of parents to help improve communication with their youth, or educate them on various themes. I’m hoping to have that up and going in June. The psychologists also asked me to help them work with “problem” students during classtime, so I’m not sure what exactly I’m gonna do with that. After seeing the progress and positive change in the youth I worked with last year, they apparently think I can fix any problematic student ha. Also, after doing a big event for Earth Day (see below), one of the teachers presented a project idea to me about doing an environmental education program. After discussing it, I think we’re going to train youth on environmental education and use them as peer educators within the school. And if that goes well, we are planning to expand the program to the other schools in town. In addition to workshops, we’re gonna paint murals and make materials for future workshops. So funding of course is always a question, but after talking to my program manager last week, it looks like that won’t be much of an issue :) So in the next couple days I need to sit down with the teacher and we can start making real plans and apply for the funding.
So the Earth Day event in April was something I thought of on a whim, then wrote it up and went to the high school to talk to them about it. Then of course everything fell into place, more or less ha. It was all art-related, with different activities. First, we went around and announced that we were having a school wide art competition and that the 5 winning designs would be used in a mural, matted and hung in the rectors office, and the winners would receive a secret surprise (yes, it was a secret even to me until the week of the event ha!). So the Wednesday before Earth Day I had to prime the wall so we could do the mural Thursday, then went to collect the designs and we ended up with 264, which was a huge surprise. Granted, there are nearly 2000 students, so statistically it wasn’t a huge percentage, but I was just hoping for 100! That night I stayed up until 3am going through the designs and finally selected the 5 winners. Then I and created a unified design incorporating the 5 designs. The next day was the planned assembly, where we would talk about the meaning behind Earth Day, explain what Global Youth Service Day is, and present the 5 winning designs. Buuut as is my luck, it rained the whole night and whole morning. So we postponed that. But by 10 the sun was up so we started doing the mural. I and the art teacher drew the design on the wall and started getting kids out of her class in small groups to paint. We painted all the way through 5pm that day, and some of the kids wanted to come back the next day, so we headed back Friday morning at 8am to start again (the school was on holiday that day for something). After another full day, we had more or less finished. The only thing left was doing some outlining and touching up the details (which I decided I was just gonna do myself to ensure good results…). I planned on going in on Saturday or Sunday, but after working the whole morning Saturday in the Cuanto Sabes and youth group programs, decided to rest and instead went in Monday. Finally, it was clear skies in the morning so we had the assembly and presented the winners. It was cool because the winners ended up being from different grades, so we had a diverse group. We gave them certificates and took photos with their matted designs, and planned when to have the pizza party (what I had finally decided would be the prize!). Finally, Thursday we had the pizza party. I made another huuuuuge pizza – enough for 20-25 people (had it cooked in a bakery), a big pan of brownies, soft drinks, chips, etc. We invited the English department (since they’d helped me with so much), the teachers and psychologists that were involved in the planning, the secretaries, and the rector of the colegio. And finally, after nearly 2 weeks of nothing but doing the project, the Earth Day event was over :) I still have to paint on the protective varnish though – oops :) I really enjoyed the event and seeing so many youth involved in the design and painting process, and received a lot of requests from the students for another art competition/mural painting. I told them “ya mismo” ha
Last week I was in Quito for our Close of Service conference, where Peace Corps starts to prepare us for closing our service, finishing projects, telling people goodbye, as well as the possibility very difficult transition back to the states. Back to the high cost of living, back to not having jobs, back to the real life. Most of us will undergo “reverse” culture shock trying to readjust to what used to be our normal lives. It was interesting thinking through all of it and trying to mentally prepare ourselves. However, for me and several of my fellow 102ers (102 was our training group number, so I refer to ourselves as 102ers), that transition will be delayed. I received official news last week that I received my request for an extension of service, meaning I will be staying in Ecuador until December 21, 2011! I will be using that extra time to continue my work with the schools and transition the new volunteer that will be arriving to replace me in August. I see is almost as a second opportunity to do everything I’ve thought about, or wanted to do during my time in Ecuador. For example, I haven’t really done a lot with environmental education and this project idea fell into my lap in April, but that wouldn’t have been a possibility with my extension. It will also make my time back home a little shorter before grad school (hopefully going August 2012). So my new plan is this: get home in December, spend about a month at home getting reacclimated, then start traveling. I want to go see my brother and sister-in-law in Tennessee, spend some time with my sister in Lexington, visit old college friends anywhere from Maine to Baltimore, and spend a month or so in Texas visiting my brother who is moving out there for grad school. And that’s just in the U.S…. I realized recently that my dream to go to India may never happen if I don’t do it before I go to grad school. Sooo, I’m thinking India in April of 2012. Anyone want to join me??? I’m hoping to find some sort of short-term work (volunteer or whatever) so I have some structure, but still able to travel around the country and see the culture, eat the food, who know whatever else. And another volunteer will be in Bangladesh next year, so I may head there to visit her too. I know what you’re thinking. 1, I haven’t even gotten back to the states yet why am I planning to leave already! And 2, isn’t Ecuador enough as far as adventure and exotic life. Well, number one, I’ll likely be spending the rest of my life back in the states. And number two, my answer is that I don’t want to put off this dream and I guess I’m trying to check this off my bucket list. And I figure if I go to grad school, I’m either gonna get funding (crossing my fingers for that one!) or will be tens of thousands of dollars in debt, which I’ll spend the next 5-10 years paying off… so why not go blow my money traveling to Asia and just go MORE into debt when I go to grad school, because let’s be honest, what’s another few thousand dollars of debt to pay back… anyway, I guess my mind can change any moment, but I really feel like this is what I want to do. Ask me in a year and we’ll see ha. Oh, also at the conference we did another oral language proficiency test (like the same we did during training) and I received Advanced High level of Spanish, which I’m very happy with :)
During our trip to Quito we also got to attend the event for the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps (and 49 years in Ecuador). It was a very classy event, and I was glad I brought back my little black cocktail dress when I went home for Christmas! And the highlight of the event for me was that 2 weeks before the event I received a call from the PTO at the office asking me to speak at the event! They wanted me to talk about Ecuadorian youth and touch on some of my experiences working in my site. It was a great honor to be selected, and honestly a huge surprise to me. I told her that had she asked me 2 years ago my answer would have been “definitely not” but after 2 years working and growing in Ecuador, I was happy to do it. And after she had my interest she said “oh, it’s in Spanish in front of approximately 270 guests” – YIKES! But I knew I’d be upset with myself if I turned it down, so I wrote the speech, sent it in, had it edited, etc, and “practiced” (yeah, I only read through it maybe 10 times…). I was really nervous once we got to the event and couldn’t really focus on what everyone before me was saying (I was at the end of the event), but finally it was my turn. I was so nervous I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to walk up to the podium. When I got up there I was shaking but I put my speech in front of me, grabbed ahold of the podium with both hands, and started. I apparently spoke really fast at the beginning, but at some point I looked at my fellow 102ers, and just relaxed. And once I reached the part where I talked about a funny experience working with the “problem” youth in the Cuanto Sabes program, I stopped reading the speech and started telling the story. I’m not sure how Peace Corps felt about me going off of the written speech, but I jumped back in a couple of times to throw in the phrases they had made better from my original speech. And then I finished. It was over before I knew it, and I walked away happy with how it had gone. I’m completely satisfied with it and so glad I put myself out there and accepted the invitation. Then of course we had free wine, so I celebrated :) My host brother Joao also was invited to the event and came up for the evening, so we walked around greeting people and presenting him to the Peace Corps staff. I also was interviewed by a radio program, but she just asked more personal questions (what’s your favorite thing about Ecuador, what brought you here, what foods do you like, what work do you love doing, do you have an Ecuadorian boyfriend, do you want one, etc). Overall the event was really really nice (sushi for appetizer!) and it was so nice that Peace Corps invited my group to attend as part of our Close of Service Conference.
Alright, I’m gonna sign out, but I’ll try to keep this stuff updated more frequently… and if not I’ll be back to the states in June for a week so maybe then!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
So lately I’ve had a lot of downtime from work since we’re still in vacations from school, but I guess in 2 weeks we will start doing the planning for the entire next school year so I’ll be doing some prep in the next few weeks. I want to literally plan out what I’m going to be doing in ever session for each program that I’m going to be doing. I’m also starting planning to do another concert this year like we did for Global Youth Service Days last year. We’re looking at doing it in August for International Youth Day instead of Global Youth Service Days since the concert was rained out last time. And in August we would be safe from the rain… Since the youth group that planned the concert last time is no longer together, I’ve approached a group of youth that are currently in the process of getting started up in Pedro Carbo. The couple people I’ve talked to seem to be excited, and the best part is that they have done several fundraising events and have had a lot of success, which will be essential to having a concert without external funding sources. I’m also going help them with some project ideas they have, including doing some youth development workshops and leadership activities. Plus they’ve had a lot of trouble making contacts in the colegio (high school) that I work with so I think I can help some with that. We’re trying to get things planned really early so that we can have a successful event in the end.
Speaking of our event for Global Youth Service Days, we’ve been getting some late results from our concert etc. I got a call from my program manager a few weeks ago that the agency Youth Service America, who founded GYSD, included us in their “toolkit” for planning the event in 2011, as an example for a successful event. We’re in the following document:
http://tools.ysa.org/downloads/gysd/toolkits/introduction.pdf
on page eight of the “Introduction” document if you wanna check it out :) It’s just a short description but it’s pretty awesome that we got international recognition for the event! Also, we had a page and a half description of the event on the Peace Corps Ecuador annual report, which is sent to all volunteers and their Ecuadorian counterparts. Finally, the office of press relations from the embassy came and interviewed me, my host brother (who coordinated the youth group and did most of the planning for the concert), and one of the youth promoters I work with in the HIV/AIDS prevention program in the high school. We have a possibility of being selected to be part of the Peace Corps 50th anniversary/49th anniversary in Ecuador video that Peace Corps Ecuador is putting together and will be showing at a celebration in August. I hope we get selected :) All of this was great for not only my town but for the youth that were involved, and I was pleasantly surprised for the sudden spotlight since it has been almost a year since the event. It also has lit a fire under my butt to get something planned for GYSD (something INDOOR) and also doing another concert here in my site.
The other side project that has occupied a lot of my time for the last few months is a supplemental manual in spanish that I was writing to accompany the World Map Project. The idea is that volunteers can either use the ready-to-use activities in the manual or give the manual directly to the receiving school/agency, with the hope that the maps will be more frequently used and create a sustainable project. Well, after sitting on the idea since September, I started working on it 3 or 4 times a week starting in January, and fiiinally got it finished last week. It turned out to be 64 pages, and though a lot of the content is maps or pictures, I also edited all of the photos and maps so that was a big consumer of my time. I was so glad to have it done! Now I’m just waiting on my program manager to edit it (definitely check my Spanish!) and get it back to me. She seems happy with it from what I’ve heard so far, so I’m hoping it will work well in practice with other volunteers!
Well I don’t have a whole lot more going on. I recently went to a friend’s site near here to visit with her and some other volunteers, and that was a really fun overnight trip! And on Friday I’m going to meet with my program manager to discuss some things and decided to stay with my friend in the city for the night and hang out. I’m taking advantage of having a light work-load and travelling a little. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to travel for Carnaval this year since I have Dali. I don’t think my host family will be staying here in my site so they won’t be able to watch her, so I think I’ll be staying home with her. I’m pretty bummed about that since Carnaval was so much fun last year, but what can I do :)
I’ve been taking Dali to jog pretty much every day, for a short distance but I’m feeling healthier and happier. I saw an unflattering picture of myself and decided I want to lose some weight and get back into better shape – I’ve been slacking for too many months! And the exercise keeps Dali sane and me from killing her haha. Plus I gotta get fit for Kelsey’s wedding in June :)
Hope you are all doing well, and I’ll hopefully be updating again soon with more interesting content! hehe
Speaking of our event for Global Youth Service Days, we’ve been getting some late results from our concert etc. I got a call from my program manager a few weeks ago that the agency Youth Service America, who founded GYSD, included us in their “toolkit” for planning the event in 2011, as an example for a successful event. We’re in the following document:
http://tools.ysa.org/downloads/gysd/toolkits/introduction.pdf
on page eight of the “Introduction” document if you wanna check it out :) It’s just a short description but it’s pretty awesome that we got international recognition for the event! Also, we had a page and a half description of the event on the Peace Corps Ecuador annual report, which is sent to all volunteers and their Ecuadorian counterparts. Finally, the office of press relations from the embassy came and interviewed me, my host brother (who coordinated the youth group and did most of the planning for the concert), and one of the youth promoters I work with in the HIV/AIDS prevention program in the high school. We have a possibility of being selected to be part of the Peace Corps 50th anniversary/49th anniversary in Ecuador video that Peace Corps Ecuador is putting together and will be showing at a celebration in August. I hope we get selected :) All of this was great for not only my town but for the youth that were involved, and I was pleasantly surprised for the sudden spotlight since it has been almost a year since the event. It also has lit a fire under my butt to get something planned for GYSD (something INDOOR) and also doing another concert here in my site.
The other side project that has occupied a lot of my time for the last few months is a supplemental manual in spanish that I was writing to accompany the World Map Project. The idea is that volunteers can either use the ready-to-use activities in the manual or give the manual directly to the receiving school/agency, with the hope that the maps will be more frequently used and create a sustainable project. Well, after sitting on the idea since September, I started working on it 3 or 4 times a week starting in January, and fiiinally got it finished last week. It turned out to be 64 pages, and though a lot of the content is maps or pictures, I also edited all of the photos and maps so that was a big consumer of my time. I was so glad to have it done! Now I’m just waiting on my program manager to edit it (definitely check my Spanish!) and get it back to me. She seems happy with it from what I’ve heard so far, so I’m hoping it will work well in practice with other volunteers!
Well I don’t have a whole lot more going on. I recently went to a friend’s site near here to visit with her and some other volunteers, and that was a really fun overnight trip! And on Friday I’m going to meet with my program manager to discuss some things and decided to stay with my friend in the city for the night and hang out. I’m taking advantage of having a light work-load and travelling a little. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to travel for Carnaval this year since I have Dali. I don’t think my host family will be staying here in my site so they won’t be able to watch her, so I think I’ll be staying home with her. I’m pretty bummed about that since Carnaval was so much fun last year, but what can I do :)
I’ve been taking Dali to jog pretty much every day, for a short distance but I’m feeling healthier and happier. I saw an unflattering picture of myself and decided I want to lose some weight and get back into better shape – I’ve been slacking for too many months! And the exercise keeps Dali sane and me from killing her haha. Plus I gotta get fit for Kelsey’s wedding in June :)
Hope you are all doing well, and I’ll hopefully be updating again soon with more interesting content! hehe
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Long Due Update #3: Christmas in Kentucky
Ok I’m going to do several updates as different blog posts to keep the length down, so read back to the previous posts if you want to know what I’ve been doing for the last 3 months :)
Well in December I got to take my first trip back to the U.S. for 3 weeks for Christmas, so I was pretty excited the weeks leading up to my visit. Since I had just gotten my puppy, I was also feeling some mixed emotions as I didn’t really want to leave her. But I knew she would be my motivation to return after 3 weeks :)
So I was set to fly out the 8th of Dec in the morning and arrive at home around 11:30pm the same day. Since I had to leave Guayaquil pretty early in the morning I planned to stay in a hotel in Guayaquil. I also found out another volunteer would be leaving on the same flight to Miami so I invited her to stay at the hotel too. And a couple of Guayaquil volunteers also joined us since the hotel is so nice :) Well my host family decided they would drive me to Guayaquil on the 7th so we set out with the host parents, the host sister, the host dog (Max) and my puppy Dali. The plan was to leave Dali at the host grandmas house in Guayaquil but turns out those dogs didn’t like Dali, so we ended up taking her in the car to go to the hotel. But we took a detour because my host family wanted to buy a few things for my family, so we went to the artisanal market. And I found out Dali gets carsick, as she vomited all over the towel I had brought for her. So when we got to the hotel I felt even worse because not only was I telling my puppy goodbye for 3 weeks, but she was feeling really crappy from the car ride. But alas I told her and my host family goodbye for now anyway. That evening we went to a mall and hung out with my host brother for awhile before heading to the hotel and getting to bed.
The next day we headed for the airport in time for our flight, but I was having some stomach trouble so I spent much of the airport time in the bathroom haha. Our flight was late but finally we boarded and took off. 4 hours and some intense turbulence later, we landed in Miami on US soil. It was pretty surreal! We had arrived in Miami about 45 minutes late, and my connection was pretty tight, but I thought I could still make it. Of course we had to go through customs still though, and for some reason our baggage got caught up and didn’t come out for almost an hour, so I assumed I wasn’t making my connection. I ran through customs and talke to the lady in charge but she told me my flight was closed so I would have to reschedule. I was pretty upset, as were many other passengers, but I got into the rebooking line trying not to cry that I might not get home until the next day. To my luck, the lady said there was a direct flight to Cincinnati (I was supposed to go through Chicago) that would get me in 30 minutes later than my original flight :) So I found a pay phone (did you know it costs $1.00 to make a 5 minute phone call on a pay phone?? WOW) and called my mom to tell her about the flight change. After several hours in Miami, I finally boarded to Cincinnati, and though the flight was a little late taking off, arrived around midnight. I was so happy to see my parents waiting for me at the airport! We said our hellos and hugged then loaded up the car and headed home.
It was so nice to be home, and sooo comfortable. I was impressed by having climate control, hot water, good ethnic foods, toilets you can throw the TP in, a comfy bed, carpet in the house, etc. etc. etc. There are too many things to name really. Then there was seeing my friends, family, pets, etc. I’m just going to give a rundown of more or less what I did, because since the people who read my blog are from the U.S., and I saw a lot of you, I don’t feel like writing too much hehe
I hung out with my best friend from high school before anyone else, and we went to Panera for lunch (yumm!) then out to target, where I promptly bought all of the Glee CDs hehe. It was great to see her and amazing to see how much she’s grown up since I left :) Then the first weekend back was my roommate from college’s wedding, and even though we were expecting a huge snow storm, one of my BFFs from college decided to come to Cincinnati anyway. She got to my house the night before the wedding so we got to talk and catch up. Saturday we went and got skyline (actually Gold Star because the Skyline had closed) and drove to the wedding, where we got to see other friends from college. The wedding was pretty and it was great seeing people I hadn’t seen in years! Then we checked into the hotel and got ready for the reception, which thankfully a shuttle was taking us to and from. The reception was really pretty and I was soooo excited to have GOOD beer available. I enjoyed several different types of beer with the company of my old friends and it was overall a great night. Plus my old roomie looked amazing! After the reception we went back to the hotel and hung out at the hotel bar before heading to bed. The next day we all went our separate ways
During my trip home I had a few doctors appointments, went to the school that we have a pen pal program with and talked to them about Ecuador/Peace Corps, went out to eat with my family, and visited with friends and family a lot. Plus for Christmas Eve I was able to see the extended family and have Christmas morning with my family at my parents house. There were lots of dogs there this year, which was pretty intense but fun/funny. Dali would have fit right in! Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday and I really enjoyed being home. I got everything I wanted for Christmas this year :)
I haven’t written a blog post that does justice to my trip back home, but I think I’m done writing for today. All you really need to know is that I had a great time seeing friends and family, and will be excited to go back when I finish my service. I miss everyone a lot but am glad I was able to see people. :) And for now, I'm back in Ecuador, but have great memories of home to look back on for the next months as I finish my Peace Corps service.
Well in December I got to take my first trip back to the U.S. for 3 weeks for Christmas, so I was pretty excited the weeks leading up to my visit. Since I had just gotten my puppy, I was also feeling some mixed emotions as I didn’t really want to leave her. But I knew she would be my motivation to return after 3 weeks :)
So I was set to fly out the 8th of Dec in the morning and arrive at home around 11:30pm the same day. Since I had to leave Guayaquil pretty early in the morning I planned to stay in a hotel in Guayaquil. I also found out another volunteer would be leaving on the same flight to Miami so I invited her to stay at the hotel too. And a couple of Guayaquil volunteers also joined us since the hotel is so nice :) Well my host family decided they would drive me to Guayaquil on the 7th so we set out with the host parents, the host sister, the host dog (Max) and my puppy Dali. The plan was to leave Dali at the host grandmas house in Guayaquil but turns out those dogs didn’t like Dali, so we ended up taking her in the car to go to the hotel. But we took a detour because my host family wanted to buy a few things for my family, so we went to the artisanal market. And I found out Dali gets carsick, as she vomited all over the towel I had brought for her. So when we got to the hotel I felt even worse because not only was I telling my puppy goodbye for 3 weeks, but she was feeling really crappy from the car ride. But alas I told her and my host family goodbye for now anyway. That evening we went to a mall and hung out with my host brother for awhile before heading to the hotel and getting to bed.
The next day we headed for the airport in time for our flight, but I was having some stomach trouble so I spent much of the airport time in the bathroom haha. Our flight was late but finally we boarded and took off. 4 hours and some intense turbulence later, we landed in Miami on US soil. It was pretty surreal! We had arrived in Miami about 45 minutes late, and my connection was pretty tight, but I thought I could still make it. Of course we had to go through customs still though, and for some reason our baggage got caught up and didn’t come out for almost an hour, so I assumed I wasn’t making my connection. I ran through customs and talke to the lady in charge but she told me my flight was closed so I would have to reschedule. I was pretty upset, as were many other passengers, but I got into the rebooking line trying not to cry that I might not get home until the next day. To my luck, the lady said there was a direct flight to Cincinnati (I was supposed to go through Chicago) that would get me in 30 minutes later than my original flight :) So I found a pay phone (did you know it costs $1.00 to make a 5 minute phone call on a pay phone?? WOW) and called my mom to tell her about the flight change. After several hours in Miami, I finally boarded to Cincinnati, and though the flight was a little late taking off, arrived around midnight. I was so happy to see my parents waiting for me at the airport! We said our hellos and hugged then loaded up the car and headed home.
It was so nice to be home, and sooo comfortable. I was impressed by having climate control, hot water, good ethnic foods, toilets you can throw the TP in, a comfy bed, carpet in the house, etc. etc. etc. There are too many things to name really. Then there was seeing my friends, family, pets, etc. I’m just going to give a rundown of more or less what I did, because since the people who read my blog are from the U.S., and I saw a lot of you, I don’t feel like writing too much hehe
I hung out with my best friend from high school before anyone else, and we went to Panera for lunch (yumm!) then out to target, where I promptly bought all of the Glee CDs hehe. It was great to see her and amazing to see how much she’s grown up since I left :) Then the first weekend back was my roommate from college’s wedding, and even though we were expecting a huge snow storm, one of my BFFs from college decided to come to Cincinnati anyway. She got to my house the night before the wedding so we got to talk and catch up. Saturday we went and got skyline (actually Gold Star because the Skyline had closed) and drove to the wedding, where we got to see other friends from college. The wedding was pretty and it was great seeing people I hadn’t seen in years! Then we checked into the hotel and got ready for the reception, which thankfully a shuttle was taking us to and from. The reception was really pretty and I was soooo excited to have GOOD beer available. I enjoyed several different types of beer with the company of my old friends and it was overall a great night. Plus my old roomie looked amazing! After the reception we went back to the hotel and hung out at the hotel bar before heading to bed. The next day we all went our separate ways
During my trip home I had a few doctors appointments, went to the school that we have a pen pal program with and talked to them about Ecuador/Peace Corps, went out to eat with my family, and visited with friends and family a lot. Plus for Christmas Eve I was able to see the extended family and have Christmas morning with my family at my parents house. There were lots of dogs there this year, which was pretty intense but fun/funny. Dali would have fit right in! Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday and I really enjoyed being home. I got everything I wanted for Christmas this year :)
I haven’t written a blog post that does justice to my trip back home, but I think I’m done writing for today. All you really need to know is that I had a great time seeing friends and family, and will be excited to go back when I finish my service. I miss everyone a lot but am glad I was able to see people. :) And for now, I'm back in Ecuador, but have great memories of home to look back on for the next months as I finish my Peace Corps service.
Long Due Update #2: World AIDS Day
Ok I’m going to do several updates as different blog posts to keep the length down, so read back to the previous posts if you want to know what I’ve been doing for the last 3 months :)
So my big final event before heading back to the states in December for Christmas was organizing World AIDS Day within the high school that I work with. The Cuanto Sabes youth HIV education program lasted through the end of November, with the graduation celebration the first weekend of December. Sidetrack for a moment: The program was such a great experience for me. The youth that taught their peers about HIV/AIDS demonstrated a great change throughout the duration of the program, from being very timid the first day to pulling of pretty complicated activities with confidence by the end. And the “indisciplined” youth that participated in the program were nightmares at the beginning but by the end they were so great. In reality we only planned to have 6 sessions but the last week they argued with me, claiming I told them we would have one more week. I was so impressed by their desire to continue (giving up their Saturdays by the way) that I agreed we could meet one more week. We ended up using that week to have a graduation celebration. I know these kids usually don’t get the opportunity to show their talents and be reinforced for good positive behaviors, so I decided to make a really big deal out of it. I made invitations and told the kids they had to invite their parents, and could invite friends or other relatives if they wanted. With the youth promoters, we planned who would bring what refreshments, and I promised them I’d make American style sweets, like chocolate chip cookies and brownies. The day of the event came and some of the kids showed up alone, but many brought a friend, a boyfriend/girlfriend, a parents, or a sibling. We played musical chairs then the teacher that helped organize the program said a few words. I also noticed the principal was there that day so I asked him if he would say a few words. Finally, I told the kids and parents how proud I was of the accomplishments the group had achieved, and gave each of them certificates for completing the program. The youth told me they want to do a program with me again the next year, which I intend to do. Finally we took a group picture and sent them home. Overall I feel like I learned a lot about these kids and how youth here think, and think I was able to reach and teach them through the duration of the program. I would say it has been one of my best experiences thusfar in Peace Corps.
(Photo of the Cuanto Sabes Graduation group)
For World AIDS Day (Dec 1) myself and my Cuanto Sabes group participated in the community-wide events, from the parade to the open house in the park. During our Cuanto Sabes program when we were talking about goals and the future, one of the boys mentioned that he was a professional clown for a couple years with his father, who is also a clown. He talked about decided to go back to school instead of pursuing clowning long-term, but that he liked entertaining people and making them laugh. So when I was thinking about what we should do for World AIDS Day, I realized I had some great talent available. I selected 8 of the youth who had regularly attended and participated in the Cuanto Sabes program and asked them to help out for World AIDS Day. With the high school I coordinated our participation and got permission for the youth to miss class that day. As far as our participation, I asked 4 of the boys to dress up as clowns, so we could present our message in a more fun way. During the parade they were hilarious! They were doing all sorts of clown stuff, from making human pyramids to doing the clown motorcycle skit, etc. I made a roulette board for community members to play a game and receive one of 3 prizes: condom, candy, or toy. I also had balloons to make balloon animals, and taught all of the youth how to make giraffes, dogs, and a couple other easy animals (which I myself learned how to make the night before via internet – thank you youtube!). So the clowns ran around being goofy, handing out balloon animals to the kids, and getting the adults and youth to play the World AIDS Day roulette.
The parade ended in the central park, where we were going to have an open house with other organizations from the community, including the maternity clinic, health center, etc. I had asked the health center for condoms to give away at our stand, so we had about 400 condoms to give to community member. I had asked the youth promoters to come and help by doing condom demonstrations and talk about the important topics like transmission of HIV. So they were doing a great job with that. And the clowns surprised me by also doing some condom demonstrations (correctly!) with some of their friends and other youth they knew. They did an excellent job! And 2 of the youth promoters even went on stage and demonstrated how to use a condom in front of the entire crowd – I couldn’t believe that these were the same youth who could barely speak in front of their peers the first day of the workshops! At the end of the event we were out of everything – condoms, candy, toys, and balloon animals. The balloon animals were a huge hit, as most people had never seen anything like it before.
The end results of World AIDS Day were that the youth demonstrated to their peers that being informed and preventative can save your life, which is ultimately the most effective way of youth education; that these “indisciplined” youth got to have an opportunity to shine and gain self-confidence in a positive manner; the high school saw that these kids aren’t lost causes, that they had a great amount of potential even though they require some extra effort; and I saw that even though I had worked with these youth for 6 weeks, I was still underestimating them and their abilities. It was an amazing, albeit stressful for me, day. And so that each and every one of the youth remembers that day and the potential they have, I printed copies of our group photo for each of them.
Photos of the World AIDS Day Activities
So my big final event before heading back to the states in December for Christmas was organizing World AIDS Day within the high school that I work with. The Cuanto Sabes youth HIV education program lasted through the end of November, with the graduation celebration the first weekend of December. Sidetrack for a moment: The program was such a great experience for me. The youth that taught their peers about HIV/AIDS demonstrated a great change throughout the duration of the program, from being very timid the first day to pulling of pretty complicated activities with confidence by the end. And the “indisciplined” youth that participated in the program were nightmares at the beginning but by the end they were so great. In reality we only planned to have 6 sessions but the last week they argued with me, claiming I told them we would have one more week. I was so impressed by their desire to continue (giving up their Saturdays by the way) that I agreed we could meet one more week. We ended up using that week to have a graduation celebration. I know these kids usually don’t get the opportunity to show their talents and be reinforced for good positive behaviors, so I decided to make a really big deal out of it. I made invitations and told the kids they had to invite their parents, and could invite friends or other relatives if they wanted. With the youth promoters, we planned who would bring what refreshments, and I promised them I’d make American style sweets, like chocolate chip cookies and brownies. The day of the event came and some of the kids showed up alone, but many brought a friend, a boyfriend/girlfriend, a parents, or a sibling. We played musical chairs then the teacher that helped organize the program said a few words. I also noticed the principal was there that day so I asked him if he would say a few words. Finally, I told the kids and parents how proud I was of the accomplishments the group had achieved, and gave each of them certificates for completing the program. The youth told me they want to do a program with me again the next year, which I intend to do. Finally we took a group picture and sent them home. Overall I feel like I learned a lot about these kids and how youth here think, and think I was able to reach and teach them through the duration of the program. I would say it has been one of my best experiences thusfar in Peace Corps.
(Photo of the Cuanto Sabes Graduation group)
For World AIDS Day (Dec 1) myself and my Cuanto Sabes group participated in the community-wide events, from the parade to the open house in the park. During our Cuanto Sabes program when we were talking about goals and the future, one of the boys mentioned that he was a professional clown for a couple years with his father, who is also a clown. He talked about decided to go back to school instead of pursuing clowning long-term, but that he liked entertaining people and making them laugh. So when I was thinking about what we should do for World AIDS Day, I realized I had some great talent available. I selected 8 of the youth who had regularly attended and participated in the Cuanto Sabes program and asked them to help out for World AIDS Day. With the high school I coordinated our participation and got permission for the youth to miss class that day. As far as our participation, I asked 4 of the boys to dress up as clowns, so we could present our message in a more fun way. During the parade they were hilarious! They were doing all sorts of clown stuff, from making human pyramids to doing the clown motorcycle skit, etc. I made a roulette board for community members to play a game and receive one of 3 prizes: condom, candy, or toy. I also had balloons to make balloon animals, and taught all of the youth how to make giraffes, dogs, and a couple other easy animals (which I myself learned how to make the night before via internet – thank you youtube!). So the clowns ran around being goofy, handing out balloon animals to the kids, and getting the adults and youth to play the World AIDS Day roulette.
The parade ended in the central park, where we were going to have an open house with other organizations from the community, including the maternity clinic, health center, etc. I had asked the health center for condoms to give away at our stand, so we had about 400 condoms to give to community member. I had asked the youth promoters to come and help by doing condom demonstrations and talk about the important topics like transmission of HIV. So they were doing a great job with that. And the clowns surprised me by also doing some condom demonstrations (correctly!) with some of their friends and other youth they knew. They did an excellent job! And 2 of the youth promoters even went on stage and demonstrated how to use a condom in front of the entire crowd – I couldn’t believe that these were the same youth who could barely speak in front of their peers the first day of the workshops! At the end of the event we were out of everything – condoms, candy, toys, and balloon animals. The balloon animals were a huge hit, as most people had never seen anything like it before.
The end results of World AIDS Day were that the youth demonstrated to their peers that being informed and preventative can save your life, which is ultimately the most effective way of youth education; that these “indisciplined” youth got to have an opportunity to shine and gain self-confidence in a positive manner; the high school saw that these kids aren’t lost causes, that they had a great amount of potential even though they require some extra effort; and I saw that even though I had worked with these youth for 6 weeks, I was still underestimating them and their abilities. It was an amazing, albeit stressful for me, day. And so that each and every one of the youth remembers that day and the potential they have, I printed copies of our group photo for each of them.
Photos of the World AIDS Day Activities
Long Due Update #1: My Puppy!
Ok I’m going to do several updates as different blog posts to keep the length down, so read back to the previous posts if you want to know what I’ve been doing for the last 3 months :)
Well it’s been a looong time since I updated my blog (sorry!) but I’m getting to it now finally :) So the last time I update was… November, right after I got my puppy. Yikes! Weelll my puppy is much bigger now than when I first got her. We went to a *real* vet about 5 weeks ago and had her checked over, and she’s in good health, and today we have to go get another round of puppy vaccines, and I’m excited to see how much she weighs now. She weighed 15.7 pounds before and I’m betting she’s around 20 now. I got her better dog food (Pedigree) since the last vet visit and she loves it, plus it supposedly is much healthier for her, so she’s gotten bigger without getting fatter. She’s definitely bigger than max now, has lots of energy and is very happy.
Last weekend we went to Puerto Lopez, a nearby beach, with another volunteer, and I decided to take Dali to see what she thought of the beach. She loooooved it! The getting there part was pretty difficult and she vomited (again!) in my host family’s car, but did okay in the buses. Once we got to the beach she was just so relaxed and happy! She really enjoys digging in sand now (there’s some sand outside my house and she’s always making holes), so she loved having so much sand to play with. And at one point I took her on a little jog along the beach and made her run into the water a little. She was surprised and she doesn’t like getting wet, but in the end she was running into the water by herself some :) There weren’t a lot of dogs so I let her run free some, and the dogs she did encounter were very playful. She also played some fetch and just enjoyed lying round and exploring. After awhile I decided to get into the water all the way to swim some, and she came to the water’s edge with me. She started to follow me but didn’t want to get too wet so she would run in and when the waves came in she ran back out. But she started getting very distressed as I went further out and decided to follow me, so she started jumping high above the waves and following me in. Then a big wave came and knocked her down, rolling her over, so I ran over and picked her up – she was pretty panicked haha. But that didn’t keep her away from the water, so I think she really did enjoy it :) The next day she again got in the water and ran along the surf, just so happy and free. It was hard taking her away from the beach since I could tell how happy she was there!
Since we’ve been back she’s back to her normal self – a lot of attention seeking behaviors, lots of barking, etc. but we’ve had several “playdates” with a neighbor dog that have kept her entertained. There’s a puppy about 3 months older than her that lives a few houses down, and previously said puppy was always tied up in the front of their house, but now the owners decided it’s big enough to run on its own, so they’ve let it loose. It always wanted to play with Dali before and I usually stopped to pet it, so one day it came to my house and I decided to let it into the yard to play with Dali. At first Dali wasn’t happy with another dog coming into her territory but it didn’t take long for her to be excited and play. The puppy stayed for about 3 hours that day, they chased and wrestled until they were both exhausted. Then it came back a couple days later and only stayed a short time (they were getting on my nerves). Dali is the dominant one, even though the older puppy is significantly bigger than her, and the other puppy is afraid of her. So when Dali got too aggressive in their playing, the other puppy would run and get under my legs, no matter if I was cooking or working or whatever, so I got annoyed and decided I’d had enough for the day. But it’s a sweet puppy and Dali loves having another dog to play with since Max doesn’t play at all.
Here’s a newer picture of my baby for you all to see how much bigger she is!
Well it’s been a looong time since I updated my blog (sorry!) but I’m getting to it now finally :) So the last time I update was… November, right after I got my puppy. Yikes! Weelll my puppy is much bigger now than when I first got her. We went to a *real* vet about 5 weeks ago and had her checked over, and she’s in good health, and today we have to go get another round of puppy vaccines, and I’m excited to see how much she weighs now. She weighed 15.7 pounds before and I’m betting she’s around 20 now. I got her better dog food (Pedigree) since the last vet visit and she loves it, plus it supposedly is much healthier for her, so she’s gotten bigger without getting fatter. She’s definitely bigger than max now, has lots of energy and is very happy.
Last weekend we went to Puerto Lopez, a nearby beach, with another volunteer, and I decided to take Dali to see what she thought of the beach. She loooooved it! The getting there part was pretty difficult and she vomited (again!) in my host family’s car, but did okay in the buses. Once we got to the beach she was just so relaxed and happy! She really enjoys digging in sand now (there’s some sand outside my house and she’s always making holes), so she loved having so much sand to play with. And at one point I took her on a little jog along the beach and made her run into the water a little. She was surprised and she doesn’t like getting wet, but in the end she was running into the water by herself some :) There weren’t a lot of dogs so I let her run free some, and the dogs she did encounter were very playful. She also played some fetch and just enjoyed lying round and exploring. After awhile I decided to get into the water all the way to swim some, and she came to the water’s edge with me. She started to follow me but didn’t want to get too wet so she would run in and when the waves came in she ran back out. But she started getting very distressed as I went further out and decided to follow me, so she started jumping high above the waves and following me in. Then a big wave came and knocked her down, rolling her over, so I ran over and picked her up – she was pretty panicked haha. But that didn’t keep her away from the water, so I think she really did enjoy it :) The next day she again got in the water and ran along the surf, just so happy and free. It was hard taking her away from the beach since I could tell how happy she was there!
Since we’ve been back she’s back to her normal self – a lot of attention seeking behaviors, lots of barking, etc. but we’ve had several “playdates” with a neighbor dog that have kept her entertained. There’s a puppy about 3 months older than her that lives a few houses down, and previously said puppy was always tied up in the front of their house, but now the owners decided it’s big enough to run on its own, so they’ve let it loose. It always wanted to play with Dali before and I usually stopped to pet it, so one day it came to my house and I decided to let it into the yard to play with Dali. At first Dali wasn’t happy with another dog coming into her territory but it didn’t take long for her to be excited and play. The puppy stayed for about 3 hours that day, they chased and wrestled until they were both exhausted. Then it came back a couple days later and only stayed a short time (they were getting on my nerves). Dali is the dominant one, even though the older puppy is significantly bigger than her, and the other puppy is afraid of her. So when Dali got too aggressive in their playing, the other puppy would run and get under my legs, no matter if I was cooking or working or whatever, so I got annoyed and decided I’d had enough for the day. But it’s a sweet puppy and Dali loves having another dog to play with since Max doesn’t play at all.
Here’s a newer picture of my baby for you all to see how much bigger she is!
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