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Sunday, February 26, 2012

February Update

Hello! It's February! Where did the time go? Two months just flew by, and all of the sudden I've been in Alausi for 6 months now. A year and a half to go! Before I came to Ecuador, I told myself I wouldn't be one of those annoying volunteers that has a countdown on their blog... but I've come to realize that people don't have those because they can't wait to get the heck out of their country. Counting months is a way to stay sane. To appreciate the work that I've already done, the lessons I've learned, the trips I've enjoyed, and to gauge the rest of my service. Will I have enough time to do the projects I'd like to? Where do I hope to be six months from now, at the half way mark?

So many lessons are learned every week, I'm constantly revising my ideas about Ecuador, my work, the nature of service, my SELF, etc. To live a sane, productive life, we've all got to develop cohesive ideas about our lives. For most people, these ideas are held for months, years, sometimes even decades before they're challenged and we're forced to confront the most basic things we've known to be true. I think it's natural to fight back against the evidence that indicates we're mistaken in our world view, but damn, when your ideas are confronted several times a day, every day of the week, it is tiring. Some affronts aren't all that threatening, but when a co-worker who doesn't believe in viruses starts spouting off about how the flu vaccine works (which happens to be a million percent wrong) or when a neighbor tells you you're selfish and egotistical for not believing in God... Well, the examples are endless. I could give you seven more that were equally frustrating to experience.

Sometimes every day is filled with frustrations. Absolutely nothing seems to work and no one else cares or realizes that this situation is the worst ever. On these days, the only thing there is to do is take a deep breath, gather all the patience I can muster, and calmly move forward.

Anyway, I just needed to get that little disclaimer in here. I think about ranting about all the crazy things that happen around here, but thats probably a bad idea. The real problem is that I'm a complainer. I whine. I bitch. Hi, my name is Chloe and I complain too much. This is a quality that I'm not proud of, and unfortunately this experience has brought it out more than ever. I'm working on it.

The good news is that Carnival was this month! Weeee! How fun and weird is Carnival? Basically all Ecuadorian celebrations are the same: 2-5 days of heavy drinking, parades, dances, concerts and bull fights. Carnival is slightly different in that it's tradition to throw water, flour, foam, eggs, dirt, whatever at other people, whether you know them or not. I have to admit, that I didn't "play Carnival" as much as everyone else, but I personally like my clothes without huge purple stains (from the powder they throw sometimes) and my hair without eggs in it. It's hard enough to get and stay clean here, people! Why do you have to make it so much more difficult!

Next year, I'm sure I'll get more into Carnival, but its definitely one of those things that you have to be part of a gang of people "playing Carnival". Its not so fun to get water balloons and whatnot thrown at you when you're just walking alone down the street to buy bread. Next year I'll form a Carnival gang. Let me know if you want in.

The other good news is that I'm working with a little community called Chalaguan to do a dry latrines project. The Peace Corps is hosting a week-long workshop in April to teach 20 volunteers and their community counterparts how to build and maintain these latrines. I approached the president of Chalaguan a couple weeks ago to see if there was a need and if they'd be interested in working together. Apparently there are zero latrines in the community! The 36 families that live there have electricity and water (a bit of both... not much) but thats it. So! After presenting myself and the idea at a community meeting the other day, both the president and secretary of the community are very interested in going to the workshop. The three of us signed the application and I sent it in on Friday. Now, it's just wait and see if both guys can attend the workshop, and in the mean time, investigate some possible sources of funding. I really have no idea how to go about doing that, but we'll see what happens.

Yesterday, Lucita and I went up to Chalaguan to do a little cooking class, which went pretty well. Lucita's husband had the day off so the whole family (Lucita, husband, son) drove down to come with us to the community. We made "tortillas de sardina". Unfortunately, "tortillas" as most people in the States know them (delicious flat, flour things) do not exist here. I'm not sure why all Latin American countries insist on having the same words for food things that are totally different depending on the country, but they do. In Ecuador, a tortilla is like a little fried patty. In this case, we boiled potatoes, mashed them, mixed them with sardines, formed them into patties, and then fried them in a little oil. Pretty good actually! Especially with the tomato and onion salad on top, that everyone here is so in love with. I mean, you can put the tomato/onion mixture on anything really, but its not a salad. More of a fresh condiment.

Here is a picture of everyone working hard, learning how to make these thingys. Well, not everyone. Notice the group of men in the background. Sure, they helped fry the tortillas, but they giggled like schoolgirls the entire time. So silly. 

Chalaguan: Cooking class with Lucita 

There are more pictures of the cooking class on my Flickr account in the folder "Tixan". I'm also uploading lots of pictures from my backpacking trip to Cajas National Park from last.... November. Sorry. Just realized I never shared them. You can find those in the folder "Ecuadorian Excursions". Enjoy!

Well, thats about it for now! Until next time, compaƱeros.