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 :)
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