Reflection Time

Here we are at the end of the year, the end of 2011. What a year, huh? Tsunamis and earthquakes and occupations and oil spills. Ridiculous. And also probably the most important event of the year: I LIVE IN ECUADOR NOW. How weird is that? It's been an overwhelming transition, but I'm so glad that it happened. I'm happy to be doing this. Of course there are days where I ask myself, "What in the hell was I thinking?!" But you know, those moments pass and then I avoid assessing major life decisions until the next unexpectedly sunny morning. It might not work, but it's my system.

I suppose starting the Peace Corps and all that is my big news of the year, but I also lived in Portland for the first 6 months of 2011, which was pretty fantastic. January through May was mostly filled with work (catering), more work (youth sheltering) and the occasional east-side karaoke excursion, but I also squeezed in trips to Wenatchee, Santa Barbara and New Orleans.

Anyway, to reflect upon 2011, I thought I'd make a list of things I learned or accomplished or things that are just sort of cool. Here are 20:

1. My Spanish is so much better than when I got here!!! Most of this has to do with confidence... and also not caring that I sound like a fool. This numero uno on the list because I have been learning/struggling with Spanish more or less since I was 9, so it really feels fantastic to be able to form sentences and have actual conversations.

2. I'm learning little bits of Kichwa. The indigenous people I use it with occasionally think its funny and endearing (I think). Ashi tutamanta! Good morning!

3. I've learned SO MUCH about maternal health and breastfeeding and baby foods and child development in the first 4 months here its ridiculous... and I just keep reading more and more. I never expected to pick up so much technical information on the job.

4. My first trip to the real south (New Orleans, not Florida) was surprisingly lovely and I look forward to spending more time there in the future.

5. I spent about two weeks volunteering with the Portland Housing Authority in February helping out with the biannual Homeless Street Count, which was many hours of data entry. That was fine with me though, because although I wanted to volunteer with the count, I wasn't super excited about doing the actual surveys. Win win!

6. On a related note, I got a decent amount of experience working at a homeless shelter which provided me with many strange, funny and terrifying stories. I'm not sure if I'd ever consider working at a similar program full-time, but I'm grateful for the experience.

7. My other job catering for McMenamins was ridiculous as always. Particularly Easter and Mother's Day brunches. Yikes! I'm not sure if I'll ever dine out for brunch on those days again, knowing what I know now. The good news is that after those experiences, everything else was a walk in the park.

8. I got my wisdom teeth out! And all I needed was ibuprofen and a couple days of rest. I had a prescription for a stronger pain med, but when you have crappy health insurance and have to pay out of pocket for prescriptions, you think twice about indulging in unecessarily expensive drugs.

9. I learned how to make tamales (yesterday).

10. I learned how to wash clothes by hand on "the rock". I hate it.

11. I ate alligator sausage in New Orleans.

12. I saw Kermit Ruffins perform in NOLA. There was a surprising amount of Black Eyes Peas, which was annoying. I have a couple videos of it somewhere...

13. I participated in a traditional Ecuadorian beauty contest... and lost.

14. I did several 30 minute radio shows about nutrition in Spanish SOLITA! (alone) And survived to tell the tale.

15. I learned how to eat crab out of the shell.

16. I went on a pirate ship booze cruise.

17. I did a 3 day, 2 night backpacking trips through Cajas National Park in Ecuador, which was easily the most difficult and surprising hike of my life.

18. I moved into my first apartment all by myself. So far, so good... although the urge to stay home by myself and do nothing is incredibly strong... And thats not just because I'm in another country.

19. Sang Wilson Phillips "Hold On" with McMenamins coworkers at karaoke. That might be one of the proudest moments of my life. Seriously.

20. I'm thrilled that I have neither suffered from a major parasitic or amoebic infection or been bitten by a dog, both of which are daily possibilities. Knock on wood I'm not jinxing myself for the next 12 months!

Well I suppose thats about it. Not in any way an exhaustive list or summary of the past year, but it will have to do. I hope everyone has a lovely New Year's Eve and I wish you lots of health and happiness and funtivities in 2012.

Six Months = Half a Year

Forgive me, this post is about 3 weeks old, but its got a lot of info, so I didn't want to just delete it. Just imagine what you were doing 3 weeks ago, and insert this information into your nightly blog browsing... 

Hello again! I'm comin' atcha with another update from my exciting, confusing and often weird life. Many things have happened in the last month since my last update, and I'll do my best to summarize it all here.

1. Reconnect
As I mentioned in the last post, after the first 3 months at site, everyone participates in a conference called Reconnect. At this conference, we shared the results of our community interviews and presented a plan for our activities for the first year. Of course, this "plan" is subject to change because after 3 months I think it's impossible to fully know the opportunities and where our time will be best spent. Since Reconnect, I've already learned about two possible projects that I would much rather work on than the stupid things I mentioned. So we'll just have to see what happens.

For the conference, we were back at the training center in Tumbaco, which is not my favorite place in Ecuador. Maybe bottom 5 so far. We also stayed with our host families from training, which I was dreading beforehand but which actually turned out pretty great. I was able to relax more and head to Quito a couple times, which I definitely would not have been able to do if we were all staying together at the training center.

2. Thanksgiving
Nothing too exciting for my favorite holiday this year... on the actual day, I worked and then went home and made a sort of tuna casserole for my host family. I took the next day, Friday, off from work and headed to Riobamba, where I helped make a big Thanksgiving meal with a few PCVs in the area. At the last minute, a few others also showed up to eat, so we ended up with 13 people, which was 5 more than we'd planned I think. Fortunately, there was plenty of food to go around and everyone was way too full and sleepy by the end of the evening.

The feast! From left clockwise; mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, zucchini casserole, green bean casserole, camote (sweet purple potato) with marshmallows. Hiding: turkey.  Not pictured: chicken noodle soup.

3. Food security conference
I headed back to Tumbaco a couple days after Thanksgiving for a 3 day conference on food security. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, food security refers to people's access and utilization of food in their daily lives. For me, food security is a huge issue in the communities of Tixan on a pretty basic level. For example, I've mentioned before that most families eat meat once or twice a week because of a lack of economic access ("no hay plata", there's no money) and physical access (there aren't markets in the communities to purchase meat, fruits, veggies and other products). However, for people that have access to foods, there are issues with utilization, which is to say even people that eat meat every day can be considered food insecure if they only know how to cook it in lard and eat it with rice and potatoes. A diet like that is going to produce a lot of obesity, diabetes, heart problems, etc.

Anyway, the conference was pretty awesome. There was lots and lots of good information and we shared the training center with the last group (ever!) of agriculture volunteers, who got here about 4 months before us. It was really great to meet the Ag volunteers that are sort of in my area because I will DEFINITELY be calling them for advice or to do a tech exchange in the future. Also, it was exciting because they're cool.

On a side note, this group of agriculture volunteers is the last because Peace Corps does in fact continuously evaluate the necessity and usefulness of volunteers in Ecuador. In recent years, the Ecuadorian government has taken strides to improve support of small farmers in the country (supposedly) and instead of more volunteers helping out in the area of agriculture, the government decided that they wanted English teachers. So! PC Ecuador switched out Agriculture for TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), and the Health program incorporated Food Security and Nutrition as one of our 3 program goals. For the record, the other two goals are Water Safety and Hygiene, and Sexual and Reproductive Health.

At the conference, I got the chance to talk for a bit about the work that I'm doing at the clinic in Tixan, during a Maternal and Child Health session. One of the Health program trainers, Bibi, and I did a little skit demonstrating a typical conversation I have with a mom at the clinic, which was weird to do in English, but went really well. Then we talked a bit with the group about nutrition and pregnancy and breastfeeding and kids under 5 years old. I'm not an expert in these areas by any means, but I've learned a lot in the these first few months and it was really exciting to impart my knowledge with my fellow volunteers. After the session, I got a lot of great feedback from people, which was validating. It was also apparent that even though lots of people like to talk about what they're doing in site, it's hard to tell how much is actually getting done and how much is embellishment. For my part, I'm grateful to now have a small role in my clinic, even though its been difficult to navigate and I've experienced a lot of uncertainty and frustration. I think that as my Spanish improves, I'll be able to do even more!

Well, that's all for now. I hope this finds everyone doing well and getting ready to enjoy the holidays!

Thoughts at Month 3

Cooking class in La Merced with Lucita (right)

It's half-way through November! How did that happen? Time is flying by, just like everyone said it would. Our Reconnect conference starts on Monday, which signals the end of our first three months at site. This conference felt so far away a few weeks ago, and now... it's here!

Also on Monday I'll turn 27 years old. I've been trying not to reflect on this fact too much because quite frankly it freaks me out. TWENTY-SEVEN. It's the magic age at which Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix met their demise. And more recently Amy Winehouse! One of the host brothers has a hat that says  "American Legend" on the front and then on the side lists the names of Kurt, Janis and Jimi. Once I explained what the names had in common, which essentially is a cautionary tale about the perils of fame and drugs. I also tried to throw in the mysterious detail of the white Bic lighter found in each of their pockets, but it's unclear if that actually translated or was just me babbling for a few minutes about conspiracy theories.

Anyway, 27. Old, right? Three years to 30. Which is the age at which you die. Just kidding. Theres really nothing to do about aging and the passage of time except accept it. So... ok I just did. Let's move on.

These first three months have been a roller coaster. So much has happened! From paralyzing fear to profound boredom, life here is not easy. You know, they told us that it wouldn't be easy (I believe the slogan goes "The hardest job you'll ever love.") but I could never have prepared for the depth and breadth of the difficulties. It's hard to describe the experience succinctly because life is hard in so many myriad ways, many of which I've never even considered before. Something as simple as peeing is often a much more complicated endeavor. At home, I share a bathroom with 5 people, 3 of them men, so when the bathroom is available, its usually disgusting. Additionally, more often then not there is no toilet paper, and occasionally theres no water. Admittedly, a lack of cleanliness, TP and running water doesn't affect my ability to use the toilet, but it does make the experience somewhat traumatic.

At work, (yes I'm still talking about peeing) theres some problem with the water and so you can only flush the toilets after filling up a bucket in the sink and dumping it into the tank. How many buckets are there? One. How many toilets are there? Three. How many sinks are big enough to put a huge bucket it? One. And that sink takes approximately 58 minutes to fill up the bucket because theres no water pressure. Ok, I'm lying, it's not 58 minutes, but its still a good 5-8 minutes. Which is a really long time if you're watching it fill up. Also, you better not have to go #2 because there is no toilet paper or bathroom garbage in which to dispose of that toilet paper. It's a wonder I haven't developed a UTI yet. *KNOCK ON WOOD*

Anyway, thats maybe gross to talk about, but peeing is on my mind a lot. Or at least, it used to be before I stopped drinking water. Seriously! Whats the point of drinking water if I just pee all the time? I'll have a swig once in a while if I'm parched, but its not worth the ordeal. Trust me. Guys have it a lot easier here because men literally just pee wherever whenever. It's disgusting and it makes me jealous.

In other ways, life has gotten much easier. My Spanish and confidence speaking Spanish has increased a lot, so I'm able to communicate more and with less distress. I can tell stories now! Simple stories, but still. They make sense. I'm getting to know my coworkers at the hospital and the clinic better, which makes navigating the workplace much, much easier. Few people are very friendly or outgoing, so getting to know people is more difficult than it should be. I think most people know who I am, but beyond the blue eyes and blonde hair, there are lots of misconceptions. I've had some good conversations recently which is exciting.

Work is also getting more interesting. The nutrition counseling I'm doing is getting easier and more productive. This week I talked to lots of pregnant moms and there were many nice conversations. Life in the campo is idyllic but incredibly hard and for most women, no one acknowledges the struggle to take care of the kids and the cows and the sheep and the cooking and the cleaning and the husband. I've started talking more about how difficult pregnancy is on the body and how eating well can really help out with the work, which seems to be logic they like and can follow. I'm also starting to recognize women and their kids who come every month for the "controls" so we're able to have more of an ongoing dialogue, which is good. A few moms have even mentioned what they're doing to eat better! It's really encouraging.

This week, I also found a really good apartment prospect. It's a little place in a sort of complex owned by some friends of the other volunteer at my site, Krista. It's a bit out of my budget, but my budget is pitiful and life here is pretty inexpensive, so I think it'll be ok. Fingers crossed it works out!

Well thats about it for now. What a rambling post, huh? My apologies. Thematic posts are overrated :)

Dreams Come True in Ecuador

Last week I had the honor of being "madrina" for the Hospital Civil Alausi's sports teams during a province-wide tournament of hospitals.

Team Madrina: Lucita, Me, Dra. Ximena, Kati, posing solemnly after my loss. Actually, just kidding... thats just how everyone here takes pictures.

What the heck is a madrina? Why am I wearing an incredibly tight dress and sash? I'm glad you asked.

Ecuador, like many other Latin American countries, loves to objectify women. LOVES. And what better way to objectify mujeres than seemingly random beauty contests? For every occasion there is a beauty contest. Each community has an annual contest corresponding with their particular founder's day, and those are like the most important contests, but they also have madrinas for less critical events like this province-wide, health institution sports tournament.

Madrina, which means "godmother" in Spanish, is a woman that gets chosen to represent the team/institution/community during the contest, which typically opens every multi-day event (and every event is multi-day). The process by which the hospital chose me as madrina is completely unclear to me; all I know is that one day I received an official written request (an "oficio") from the director of the hospital asking me to be madrina. After I asked many, many questions, I agreed to do it... because this is a once in a lifetime deal. I'm 26, soon to be 27! I'm probably at like my beauty peak! If other people think I can win a very low-stakes beauty contest against other provincial hospital employees, I obviously have to embrace this opportunity.

So I was a madrina. I got a sash. I wore a very tight, short, strapless dress for about an hour in a gym. I had to walk around the gym several times in heels and smile for countless pictures. I introduced myself into the microphone in front of 200-odd people. Then I had to stand with the 5 other madrinas, while a panel of judges sitting at a card table assessed our qualifications. What those qualifications are exactly is a mystery for the ages.

While they were judging, a woman asked each one of us our name and wrote it down. When she got to me I said, slowly, "Ch-l-o-e." The woman stared at me blankly. I repeated my name and then started to spell it. The woman began scribbling "S-A-L-Y." I looked at the paper and said, "No, no, it starts with C." She glanced up at me and said, "It doesn't matter" and then moved on to the next madrina. It was at that moment that I knew I wouldn't be chosen as Reina, or Queen, of the tournament.

Instead, two women from Riobamba were chosen as Reina and Runner Up or 2nd Best or Princesa or something. The 2nd Best teetered around the gym in her 3 inch heels and the Reina never smiled. Not once. After I lost, everyone on my team (well, all the women at least) said, "What the heck! OMG you are so much prettier than her!" Which I guess is what you say to someone who has just lost a beauty contest. It's the only consolation there is really.

Fortunately, my self-image was not shattered and a couple hours later, our basketball team went on to win 45 to 9. The next day I played soccer too! And I wasn't the worst on our team! If only the madrina contest included athletic ability in their evaluations, I'd surely have won.

Some Things Chloe is Doing (Sometimes Titles are Unnecessary)

Well hello there! I guess it's about time for another update from the field.

It's been an interesting month and a half so far. I feel like I'm starting to get things figured out, and the more I do, the more excited and overwhelmed I get. There are so many people to meet and things to do and problems to solve and a thousand potential projects that should have been started 5 years ago.

To start, work is good, or at least it's getting good. I've been giving lots of nutrition advice to moms and pregnant ladies at the health clinic in Tixan, which has been going pretty well since my Spanish is getting a lot better. My little spiel about malnutrition is pretty solid and I just tweak it depending on who I'm talking to and how the conversation is going. The clinic has been overwhelmed by patients the last few weeks because the fiscal year (or whatever) for one of the welfare-type programs in Ecuador ended in September, or rather, it was supposed to end in September. The way the program works is that parents with kids under 5 can get $35 a month for an entire year, but they have to document that they're keeping up with vaccines and checkups. Unfortunately, a lot of people haven't kept up with either of those things over the last 12 months and now they're scrambling to get an appointment and get their paperwork signed so they can get the money. The program extended it's fiscal year for an additional week in a lot of rural areas (including Tixan), and I wouldn't be surprised if a second extra week is added. Last Monday morning, there were probably close to 300 people trying to get an appointment at my little clinic! That is a lot.

When I got here, my counterpart told me that malnutrition was a big issue, but never having witnessed this kind of poverty before, it was pretty shocking just how big of an issue it is. I don't know statistics, but just based on the number of kids under 5 that I see every day who are very short and/or underweight (based on national growth charts), I can tell you that malnutrition is rampant. The type of malnutrition we're talking about is protein-calorie deficiency which basically means they don't get enough food overall, but particularly protein-rich foods.

I mentioned in my last post that during my interviews a high percentage of people reported eating meat two times a week or less, and thats pretty typical. Also, when they do eat meat, its not like every person in the family gets a boneless, skinless chicken breast. Most often it'll be a chicken neck or foot or other random animal part that has more fat, skin and gristle than meat (I know this from experience... I'm convinced all chicken breasts are sent to the United States). Lots of people (but not an overwhelming majority) have a milk cow so they have access to milk several times a week if not every day, but not everyone boils the milk and they often let it sit out for long periods of time because they don't have refrigerators. About a third of families own chickens, so they probably eat eggs several days a week, but those that don't have chickens at their disposal eat eggs a couple times a week. Most people eat vegetables almost every day and many have a family garden. Fruits (besides blackberries) don't grow here, so everyone has to buy them if they want them. The things that do grow here are grains and beans: barley, corn, quinoa, wheat, peas and quite a few other types of beans that I had never heard of before I got here.

So what do I say to the moms with malnourished kids? First, I explain what malnutrition is and why its bad, namely kids don't develop properly and they are sick more often. I once read that the brains of malnourished kids develop 30% less. I tell the moms that if they want to have strong, tall, smart kids, they have to feed them properly.

Second, we chat for a bit about how often they eat meat, eggs, milk products, whole grains and beans so I can get an idea of how to advise them. Then we talk about how they can add more of these things to their kids' diets. Sometimes this is the hardest part. People can't buy more meat. Sometimes they can buy an extra egg or two at 10 cents a pop, but most people are pretty strapped for cash and live way in the hell up in the mountains and only come down to the market once or twice a week. (And everything they buy they have to carry back up the mountainside, so it can't be an outrageous amount.) I usually encourage them to eat more "menestra", a traditional dish that basically consists of lentils or beans in sauce with rice. And quinoa, the miracle grain! And also milk and eggs if they can manage it. The important thing is that they demonstrate the intention to increase the protein in their kid's diet, and don't just nod and say "Si, doctorita" after everything I say.

Lastly, if I've still got their attention, I explain that there are actually 3 things that factor in to malnutrition and nutrition is just one. The other two are hygiene and water. Both are possible sources of parasites, amoebas and other bad things that want to live in the guts of children and make them very sick. We talk about the importance of handwashing and drinking boiled water, which are two things that don't seem to happen much. I had a few interview questions about handwashing and drinking water, but it seemed like those were more sensitive questions than the others and I'm not sure how honestly people answered.

Obviously, I'm not a professional dietician and I'm sure some people reading this are cringing. But to do this job, you don't have to be a professional. About half of the people I talk to say they weren't aware that their kids needed to eat things other than rice and coladas (drinks mixing water and various grains in flour form). The information just isn't well known. Plus, if you think about it, how many of these parents were malnourished children themselves? If thats the case, did they make it through school? Is there even a nutrition class in school if they happened to make it that far? Probably not. In the US, we're obsessed with talking about food and what the latest scientific studies say about it. People here talk about food as well (where in the world do people not talk about food?) but there is no science. There is only tradition and myth. And lots of poverty.

Anyway, there is obviously a lot of work to do. This is just the tip of the ice berg. The interviews illuminated a few other things in the realm of water safety and hygiene, but I'm not exactly sure how to tackle that just yet. Right now, I'd love to do some health classes at the local schools and work with the day care centers on hygiene as well. Get 'em while they're young! A new nutrition intern just started her six months working with me in the communities so we're in the process of making an action plan. She is super excited to go out and start mom's clubs, which sounds great to me.

We also have a radio show! It's sort of bizarre how easy it was to get on the radio and how little oversight there is. But it seems to be going alright. I'm pretty sure I'm terrible to listen to, but I'm hoping that the information is interesting enough that people can listen beyond my stumbling in Spanish. I stutter enough as it is without being broadcast to potentially thousands of people. We get 30 minutes Wednesday mornings from 7:30-8am and we are assisted by the lovely Esther, who translates the information into Kichwa. Its a pretty awesome gig!

Socially, I'm doing alright. I don't have any friends in town yet, besides the other volunteer that lives just up the road from me. I'm starting to think about looking for a place of my own because family living is just a bit too difficult for me. I like the family quite a bit and I'd be happy to hang out with them, but I want my own space, and specifically my own kitchen to eat things other than rice and fried meat. Did I mentioned my pants are on the verge of not fitting anymore? Yeah, I'm pretty sure thats rice weight. Sometimes they put lard in the rice. I wish I were kidding.

Oh, but you know, things are pretty good. I feel lucky to be where I am because it's gorgeous. The dramatic valley and mountain thing going on here is just unbelievable. Jugo de mora (blackberry juice) is delicious and yesterday I discovered that the bakery in town that I frequent for my whole wheat rolls also makes these popover things on Sunday afternoons that are filled with blackberry jam. YUM. People are pretty friendly, I just continue to be as awkward about small talk in Spanish as I am in English. I am really praying that I get better at it.

As always, I'd love to hear from you and I promise to send a personalized email response! Or if you feel so bold as to send me a letter or package by post, I will do my best to respond in the next few months. Hope all is well in the Great U. S. of A!

One Month at Site!

Hello friends! I've been at my site in Alausi for exactly one month today. Yay! In honor of this anniversary, this morning I baked a Carrot Cake to share with my family. They wanted to save it for dessert tonight, so I haven't tried it yet, but it smelled delish coming out of the oven.

Instead of boring you with my thoughts and feelings, I've prepared some facts and figures to capture my first 31 days of work and play in Alausi and Tixan. Enjoy!

Altitude of Alausi in meters: 2,347
Altitude of Alausi in feet: 7,700
Altitude of Tixan in meters: 2,940
Altitude of Tixan in feet: 9,645
Number of communities the clinic in Tixan serves: 44
Total population of the parroquia of Tixan: 10,619
Population of Tixan under 15: 6,695
Previous cost of 30 minute bus ride from Alausi to Tixan: 40 cents
Current cost of same bus ride after price hikes: 50 cents
Number of times bus guy has said "Texas?" after I said "Tixan" when asked where I'm going: 3
Cost of lunch in Tixan (soup, rice, meat, salad, juice): $1.50

Number of nutrition/hygiene surveys I've done at the clinic: 82
Number of women who have walked out of survey because they couldn't understand me: 1

Percent of interviewees who traveled one hour or more to clinic from home: 54
Percent of interviewees who walked to clinic: 41
Percent of interviewees who report eating meat 2 times a week or less: 81
Percent of interviewees who own a milk cow: 58
Percent of interviewees who own chickens: 30
Percent of interviewees who report always boiling drinking water for their kids: 35
Percent of interviewees who report always boiling drinking water for themselves: 30
Percent of interviewees who have a family vegetable garden: 53
Percent of interviewees who report eating vegetables every day: 50
Top three vegetables that interviewees report consuming frequently: Chard, carrot, cabbage
Percent of interviewees who report eating fruit every day: 15
Top three fruits that interviewees report consuming frequently: Apple, banana, orange/mandarin

Typical hours of running water at host house: 4:30 am to 9:00 pm
Number of pounds I've gained since I got to Ecuador: 13
Pairs of pants that will fit me if I gain any more weight: 0
Number of books I've read since June 1: 3
Number of pictures I've taken since June 1: 852

Alausi, Week Three

Hello from Alausi! This is where I live now.

ALAUSÍ

I've been here 3 weeks now. Here's a recap:

Day 1: Host mom tells me the family is moving September 1. Is that a problem? Uh, yeah.

Days 2-4: I spent these days getting to know the town, limping through some truly horrible Spanish, and wondering what I'm doing with my life. Also, I made Banana Bread.

And also wondering what the heck I´m eating. This is fruit?

Day 5: First day of work. Surprise! My counterpart got back a week early from vacation. We visited a couple rural clinics and I stood around awkwardly while my counterpart (a nutritionist) and the doctors discussed paperwork.

Day 6: Visited some more health clinics. This video shows a part of the road to a particularly remote clinic in Sevilla. Consider taking a Dramamine before watching this if you have a tendency to get car sick.

Day 7: First day at the clinic in Tixan. It was PACKED. One of the nurses introduced me to the entire waiting room (40ish people), I said a few stuttering sentences in Spanish, and started giving nutrition counseling. Later I went with the host family to pre-approve the new house. It has 5 bedrooms and a regular size kitchen!

Subcentro, aka clinic, in Tixán

Day 8: Hung out at the clinic in Tixan.

Day 9: Day tripped to Riobamba with a few of my fellow Omnibus 106ers. Ate a delicious cheeseburger. Later I screwed up 

the bus schedule and arrived 2 hours late to an extended family's baptism party. No one seemed concerned. I ate cuy at 11pm, danced with very old man around 12am, and drank watered down whiskey until 1:30am.

Day 10: Bought an oregano seedling for 25 cents... Let the herb garden begin! Made Oatmeal Cookies with 10 year old host nephew.

Day 11: Peace Corps came and approved new house. Yay, I have a place to live!

Day 12-15: Hung out at the clinic in Tixán, occasionally giving sensible nutrition advice, mostly reading health manuals, staring into space or Super Jewel Questing. Went with Vivi to day care center to set up possible cooking class with parents.

Kids under 5 in the Centro de Buen Vivir

Day 16: Are we ever going to move? Oh yes of course, why don't we start at 4pm Saturday afternoon? Also, Nick visited for dinner.

Day 17: More moving, mostly avoided by lunching with Meredith for many hours. (Don't judge; you would've done the same thing.)

Day 18: Met nutrition intern Viviana in Tixan and observed her giving informed counseling in intelligible Spanish. Took copious notes. Introduced myself to people at the PDA, or Plan del Desarollo del Área or Plan for Area Development. Talked about coordinating efforts to work in communities surrounding Tixán.

Vivi the nutrition intern gives a charla to the ladies in waiting.

Day 19: More observing in Tixán. Also started testing an abbreviated interview about nutrition and hygiene habits. Baked about 5 dozen Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Cookies (with Quinoa flour!).

Day 20: Handed out cookies to interview participants and their kids at the clinic in Tixan. Great reception! Note to self: No one will refuse to be interviewed in exchange for a cookie. 

Day 21: Tixán all day! Did lots more mini-interviews, which are are turning out to be extremely helpful. Ate an entire deep fried fish at lunch.

Alright, hope everyone is doing well! Send me an email or a letter or something. I would be delighted to hear from home!

Acting Intentionally

"Daily Reminder," a typographic woodburn plaque by Becky Murphy

On the eve of our Swearing In, I've got a lot on my mind. I don't feel thoughtful enough to elaborate much at the moment, because its the first free one I've had in 11 weeks! Almost. What I can say is that I'm not taking this experience lightly and I feel truly determined to make the most of my time here in Ecuador. We've discussed the Role of the Volunteer in Development ad naseum during training, but the truth is I'm just beginning to grasp the enormity of my job and the potential difficulties I'm going to face in the months ahead. And I really think it's going to be an awesome challenge.

I saw the piece above on Design is Mine (a delightful design blog by a fellow Portlander) and thought that it really captured the importance of acting intentionally, which is a crucial part of being a PCV. Why do we do what we do? What's the end game? We've talked a lot about sustainability in terms of project design and implementation and I think that asking "Will I be proud of this in a year?" could be a really useful question to analyze not only the validity of a project, but your personal motivations for doing it. I don't think that the answer always always need to be "yes"... but having some foresight, or at least attempting to have some, is important.

I swear in as a Peace Corps Volunteer Wednesday morning! I move to Alausi for reals on Thursday! Let the games being.

Also, my new address is:
Chloe Pete
Correo Central
Alausi-Chimborazo
ECUADOR

Send me a letter and I will send you a kiss! Plus, I just uploaded a bunch of pictures to my Flickr. Yes, everything is as beautiful as it looks.

Week 10

Hello! I really thought I'd be better at posting updates more consistently since I've got an embarrassing amount of blogging experience, but it turns out that I don't really like writing about daily events. Its boring. I prefer to write about Ideas and Things. Maybe one day I will do that.

So I've got just 6 days left of training! Its very weird to think that in 2 weeks I will be moved into my new host family's house in Alausi. For many weeks it has felt like training would never end. Ever. And yet here we are, in week 10, and the passage of time shocks me once again.

Anyway, last week was our second technical trip so I was in Ecuador's biggest city, Guayaquil, for a couple days with the health program. The trip from Quito is 10 hours by bus so Monday and Friday were traveling days and we only had 3 days to work. I gave a couple charlas (talks/presentations) on HIV/AIDS and STIs to teenagers in high school. One class had 45 kids. Ridiculous! The charlas didn't go all that bad, but there were plenty of awkward moments considering my Spanish is not totally capable of facilitating sex discussions just yet. Especially when you throw in the coastal accent, which is faster and less anunciated. I had little to no idea what the students were saying. The good thing about these experiences is that so many funny and weird things happen during the charlas that could never happen if we were more prepared. You just have to laugh when a fellow volunteer says "huevos" in reference to female eggs leaving the ovaries, when in fact that translates to "balls" in Spanish.

In other news, I have some intestinal problems again, which is always fun. I ate well in Guayaquil, lots of fish and shrimp, but I guess it was too much. Or maybe it was the fried fish I had for lunch on Friday at the bus stop in the middle of nowhere on the way home. Personally, I think it was the combination of many, many hours of traveling with little sleep and several stressful days of work. My host family sort of hates the coast (because they live in the Sierra and its like some kind of regional rule or something) so they think its the seafood and people that made me sick. Probably.

Well, I suppose thats all for now. I will try to get inspired to write more soon! Let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to know.

Alausi!

45 First look at Alausi, a photo by chelopate on Flickr.

Hey everyone! I got my site assignment last week and I am delighted to report that I will be spending the next two years in Alausi!

Located in the central province of Chimborazo, Alausi is the beautiful home to 6500 residents (a number which I have yet to confirm, so please do not hold me to it) and an enormous statute of Saint Peter.

You all must visit. It is so lovely you will cry. Promise!

More to come very soon.

Tech Trip!

Our group!, a photo by chelopate on Flickr.

Here´s a pic from our first tech trip. This is immediately post-banana harvest. Yep, we cut down all those bunches from the trees! Pretty awesome.

The tech trips are a chance for us to visit different parts of Ecuador and practice some of the skills we´ll be using at our sites. This trip we went to Santo Domingo, Pedro Vicente and Puerto Quito, which are about 3.5-4 hours west of Quito. We gave 4 charlas, or talks, about nutrition and hygiene to school children, mothers and young people at an evening high school. The trip ended at a finca, or farm, which is where we did the banana thing. I swam in the lovely, clean river and got attacked by a variety of strange bugs and mosquitoes. I didn´t want to leave!

Next week we´ll be finding out where we´re going to be stationed in Ecuador for the next 2 years. Wednesday we´ll know our sites and Thursday we´ll take off on our own for a week-long site visit. I´m so anxious to find out where I´ll be!

More stories to come, ya mismo.

Siga, no mas :)

Week Three

I've been here for 3 weeks! Wow. I'm finally getting used the training schedule which feels fantastic because I thought it would never happen. It felt like I'd be in a perpetual state of exhaustion and confusion and emotional instability forever. I'm delighted to be proven wrong!

To be sure, I haven't mastered the art of keeping a good attitude during PC training, but I've stopped keeping a list of the crazy and/or frustrating things that happen and I'm trying my darndest to go with the flow. Since I last wrote, several exciting things have happened that have made training rather delightful:

1. Huertos = Gardens! One of the three main goals of the PC Community Health program in Ecuador is Food Security and Nutrition. (The other two goals are Hygiene/Water Sanitation and Sexual/Reprodutive Health.) We're focusing on small home plots and tire planters so people can grow a few extra veggies to add nutrition and variety to their diets... and maybe even sell any extra bounty for profit. Ecuadorian staples are white rice, white bread and potatoes (a small mountain of each for both lunch and dinner) none of which are particularly nutritious, so at my site I'll be trying to convince people to add more vegetables and whole grains to their meals.

We planted a small test garden of spinach, lettuce, carrots, radishes, beets, cilantro and camomile. It was fantastic! I really enjoy digging and planting and hoeing around in the garden :) Fingers crossed, we should be able to harvest the radishes and lettuce before we take off for our sites in mid-August. Yum!

2. Cultural trip to Zuleta! A tiny indigenous community in the Imababura province near Cayambe, Zuleta has stunning views of the now extinct Volcan Cayambe, lovely hand-embroidered goods, and a rich tradition. (Fun fact: At 5790m, Mount Cayambe is Ecuador's 3rd highest peak and is the highest point in the world through with the equator passes directly.) It was an action packed 2 days with lots of hiking, plowing, planting, making bread, eating, dancing, and saying "I could live here for 2 years." Nice little vacation to break up the monotony of training. I posted a few pictures on my Flickr, if you're interested!

3. Cooking demonstrations! I suppose I'm really just enthusiastic about anything relating to food. As part of Community Health's Food Security and Nutrition goal, we've had 3 cooking demonstrations featuring typical dishes from the three main areas of Ecuador: the Coast, the Sierra, and the Orient/Jungle.  I've enjoyed these demonstrations immensely, and not only because we get to eat at the end. In the past, I've done small cooking classes with adults and I really loved them. And also I love cooking, so... yeah. Love.

Anyway, it's important for me to know how to cook Ecuadorian food because how will I ever convince anyone to make changes to their diet if they don't taste some of the delicious options? Obviously, we want to maintain the cultural importance of food, so we're not forcing people to only drink soy milk and eat tofu. The cooking demonstrations with show people how to add more veggies to their menestra (traditional lentil dish) or how to use different spices/techniques to liven up their chicken without keeping on the skin and using a bucket of salt.

Next week, we've got our first technical trip, and we're going to Santo Domingo, Pedro Vicente and Puerto Quito, which are all about 4 hours west of Quito. We'll be visiting a few schools and giving nutrition and hygiene talks to kids and teens, and a "Corazon Feliz" (Happy Heart) talk to a group of adults one evening. All in Spanish! Yikes. Public speaking in a foreign language is what Peace Corps is all about. I kind of feel bad for our first groups because surely our "charlas" (talks) will be a little rough around the edges. However, our Community Health trainer has assured us that these will probably be the hardest charlas we'll ever have to do since we know nothing about the community and they don't know us at all. When we get to our sites, we'll be doing lots of surveys and talking to people about their wants and needs before we inundate them with boring charlas about carbohydrates or whatever, so we'll know our audience! Which is muy importante.

Things are going well! I can't wait to see more of Ecuador and get down to business.

Longest Week Ever

Hello from Ecuador! Specifically Tumbaco! I made it safe and sound after many many hours of traveling by plane and bus with 61 other Trainees. Yep, we´ve got a big group!

I settled into my host family´s house last Saturday, and things are going well. I´m definitely having to adjust to living with a big family after having lived on my own for many years, but I´m slowly getting there. Slooooowwlllyyy.

Tomorrow will complete our first full week of training, which has been absolutely exhausting. I get up at 6am everyday, leave my house by 7am, and walk for 45 minutes or so to the Peace Corps "compound". There is a bus that takes about half the time, but it´s always really full and crazy and the walk is pretty nice in the morning. It gives me time to wake up a bit.

Sessions start at 8am (more or less on time) and we go until 12:30 when we get an hour for lunch. So far the topics of our sessions have included safety & security, culture, medical stuff, and many sessions with our technical training groups (I´m in Community Health) and Spanish groups (somehow I made it into the advanced group... no one is more surprised than me). We wrap up around 5pm and then I either take the bus back into town or walk, getting home around 6pm. Dinner is at 7:30-8ish and I hang out with my host family for a bit before and after to work on my Spanish and get to know them. Everyone goes their own way by 9:30 and then I´ll take a bucket shower (since the shower only has ice cold water) and read or write until bed! So exciting, huh?

Anyway, things are going pretty well, theres just a lot of information and a lot of people to meet and a lot of Spanish to learn. Needless to say, it´s overwhelming at times! Today they had some current PCV´s talk to us about service and whatnot and everyone said that training sucks and you just have to get through it. Alright! Almost one week down, 10 more to go.

Tomorrow night my host mom invited me to a "despedida de mujeres", otherwise known as a bachelorette party. No men allowed! I have no idea what to expect, although they alluded to drinking and dancing, which sounds fabulous right now. I´ll report back, unless it´s too scandalous to report.

I haven´t been out and about too much, so I don´t know Tumbaco very well, but what I´ve seen is pretty cool. They have a park in the center of town, much like the Mexican zocalo but they just call it el parque. We also found a Mexican themed pizzeria and bar, which I am very happy about. On Saturday we´ll be getting cell phones so staying in touch with other volunteers should be much easier, fingers crossed.

Alright, maybe this is boring, I really can´t tell right now. One last thing: if anyone is interested in sending me a letter or something in the mail, email me and I´ll send you the address! I don´t want to post it on here, but I´ll be happy to give you the details. And you will make me happy by sending me something :)

#1 What it's all about

#1 What it's all about, a photo by chelopate on Flickr.

Here's the first photo in my Ecuadorian-Peace Corpsian Project 365! I'll be attempting to take a picture a day for the next year. This one was taken at the Penn campus, just a few blocks from the hotel the Peace Corps put us up at. Today was humid as hell, but a walk was in order after 7 hours of icebreakers, paperwork, and policy reviewing with my group of 62 trainees.

Hello goodbye!

It's my last day in Portland! My 11 month application process is finally coming to an end. I can't believe it's been that long. It just confirms what I've said 100 times before and I'll say again here: The passage of time is the scariest thing in life. That's not hyperbole. People always laugh when I say that, but seriously. Think about it. You can't stop it! No one can. Maybe Superman.

I'm pretty much all packed, which is good because it puts an end to the obsessive evaluations of every item I own. Can I live without this for two years? Will I miss it next week? Next month? It was all getting to be a bit much. To break up the monotony of packing, I was listening to a podcast by Peace Corps volunteers in Honduras, which is pretty funny. People sent questions to the show's host, Bryan, and he picked a couple to answer. One was a question about packing: was there anything that was essential? Anything they regretted bringing? The guests on the episode were two female health volunteers and they jokingly (I think) said they wished they'd brought Halloween costumes. Ha! If I weren't quickly approaching the weight limit for my baggage, I might just throw in a wig or two.

I also got some sad news today. My old iPod has developed some kind of sickness that makes it invisible to all computers ("Does not recognize drive", "Cannot download drive information" or something) so I won't be able to extract the hundreds of songs that I rarely if ever listen to but only exist on that iPod. So much 80's music and random theme songs! And now its all gone, gone forever. However, I now have a fully loaded 5th Generation iPod (yes, that means click wheel) that you never have to update! Because you can't update. Call my parents if you're interested.

Alright! The next entry you receive will be sent all the way from Ecuador, so if it takes a few days to get here, be patient.

Safety in the Peace Corps

Brian Ross from ABC's 20/20 aired an investigation in January about victims of sexual assault in the Peace Corps. Six women were invited to share their experiences navigating the Peace Corps post-assault. The major complaints were that officials didn't take the victims seriously, were disrespectful and skeptical, and blamed the women for putting themselves in dangerous situations.

A couple week ago, there was a congressional hearing to investigate the situation. Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams testified along with a number of RPCV survivors. 20/20 aired a follow-up segment with clips of the testimony, which you can find here.

Sexual assault is scary enough in and of itself, but when people and larger institutions don't take it seriously, it becomes an even more frightening, isolating and harmful issue. The Peace Corps doesn't get much publicity in the national media anymore, so in a way it sort of sucks that this is what's getting a ton of attention right now. However, the greater tragedy is that the PC has such a poor track record of supporting sexual assault survivors in the first place.

A NY Times article about this issue produced some very thoughtful comments, most of them from Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs). Liz from Albany, NY addressed the problem of sexism abroad:

The Peace Corps also needs to take the ramifications sending volunteers into highly male-dominated cultures much much more seriously. Currently, it just goes along with the normalization of sexual harassment that women and women Peace Corps Volunteers experience in these countries. Female volunteers are sent to work in the public sphere, which is traditionally occupied by men (women traditionally occupy the private sphere). When women venture into the public sphere alone in many countries men will often respond by harassing them; after all, only a "loose" woman would go out in public alone. This is what I experienced in the mountain towns and cities in Honduras. It was extremely annoying at best, and threatening at worst. By the end of my service, I was glad to get away from that.

What did I learn about this in my training? Oh, it was normal so try to think of it as a compliment! Nothing about how draining it is being harassed on the streets constantly, or what the logical extension of that behavior can be in some instances. None of that was discussed.

Having spent some months in Mexico, I'm familiar with the machismo culture and the catcalls (gueritaaaaa). It was mostly annoying but occasionally someone would be bold enough to talk to you or touch you. Almost every one of the 20 or so women in my study abroad program was touched inappropriately by a strange man during the semester. Sometimes it was a quick touch on the arm or the hair, other times it was a grope on a packed bus or in a busy market. The program staff told us that we needed to be careful, but didn't offer much advice beyond that. A couple of friends got in the habit of telling off the creepy catcallers, which was an amazing to watch. I was never that confrontational, but I'd like to think I'm a bit more bold now.

I think it can be tricky to respectfully navigate another culture without fully endorsing the social norms. Picking and choosing which cultural practices are ok and "just the way they do things" versus which are really offensive or just plain wrong can be really difficult, especially if you're a complete outsider. At first glance, eating exotic animals may seem cruel, but it's probably not really that bad... unless people are eating endangered birds or human children or something. However, with time and familiarity, there are certainly ways to address the offensive parts and work to change things. In my limited experience with the Peace Corps, that seems like what this whole endeavor is all about. Encouraging people grow and change to their benefit. I think thats why the initial 20/20 episode was so deeply shocking: how could an organization that cross-culturally endorses female empowerment be so insensitive to the needs of it's own volunteers?

In response to all the press, the Peace Corps has dropped one the safety training videos that showed women talking about their sexual assaults and reasons why it happened ("It was late, I was drinking" etc.). PC Directors Williams also talked about hiring an victim's advocate, and I'm not sure if that's happened yet or is in the works.

In any case, some encouraging progress is being made and hopefully theres more on the way. RPCV Casey Frazee created First Response Action, an advocacy group for victims of sexual assault in the Peace Corps. There is lots of good stuff on the blog and the website, including a petition on Change.org that I'd encourage you to sign!

On Development

Guatemala RPCV Stephanie posted this on a Peace Corps yahoo message board. She writes:

What makes one country or community "developed" and others "developing"?

What does it mean to be "developed"?  Who sets those standards and based on what?

So these are not just theoretical, but practical, questions we as PCVs must ask ourselves constantly as we work for the betterment of our host communities and go on to advocate for international volunteerism and cooperation. As such I think this video, made by an RPCV from Panama, inspires a valuable dialogue that aspiring, current, and returned PCVs should participate in.

 Some things to think about.

It's Officially Official

I've FINALLY cleared the legal and dental holds on my Official Application Status, so I can go to Ecuador for reals now. Yay! It only took one fairly ridiculous trip to the friendly credit union notary, rescheduling three dentist appointments, and two attempts by my dentist to write a letter stating that I had my three remaining wisdom teeth removed in January. I learned that the notary can't use her special stamp if you sign the wrong line, not all dentists can read directions, and the Peace Corps will accept documents with multiple handwritten and cross-out typos.

In other Official Business, I'm moving out of my apartment and back in with my parents in the next few days. I think we're all underwhelmed by this, especially since they are my movers and I can be unpleasant during the moving process. Surely they have other adjectives to describe my behavior, but for the most part, they (thankfully) keep that to themselves. How does that saying go again? Parents: can't live with 'em, don't have anywhere to live without 'em.

On top of packing, moving and working, I've been to two exciting events this week and there's a third tonight! I saw Michael Pollan on Friday, Noam Chomsky yesterday, and Dan Savage is tonight. It's almost like my philosophical trifecta! Well, minus Pollan and adding Marion Nestle. And Paul Farmer. And while we're at it, bring back Howard Zinn from the great beyond. Plus, Gloria Steinem! (Actually, she'll be here next week.)

Last Friday Pollan gave the keynote lecture at the Food For Thought conference at University of Portland, and yesterday I drove out to Pacific University in Forest Grove to see Noam Chomsky talk about the Middle East. Pollan is definitely the more dynamic speaker (he brought these! among other weird things) since Chomsky is about 100 years old and just mumbles into the microphone. Despite that, content-wise Chomsky blew Pollan out of the water. Just blew him right out! (TWSS.) Chomsky talked about Libya, Iran, Qaddifi, scandals, Israel, and a slew of other interesting factoids that he clearly just threw out into the conversation because he has this amazing ability to connect the historical dots. Plus, he spoke for a minute about labor unions and "corporate tyranny" and who doesn't love that? Sorry Pollan, fruit pizza can't compete.

 

Tonight I'm headed to Powell's City of Books, the most magical bookstore known to man, to see Dan Savage and his partner on their tour for the It Gets Better Project book. I'm not totally sure what to expect, but being a Savage Love groupie of sorts, I feel it is my duty to attend. Dan, I won't let you down!