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.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
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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