One Year in Alausi!

The view from Chalaguan south down the valley at sunset, August 9, 2012

Can you believe a little over a year ago I moved to Alausi? Neither can I. Time FLIES!! There have been so many ups and downs and funny/crazy/weird things that have happened, its pretty amazing to think back to the last 12 months. Let's reflect a little...

TRABAJO/WORK
This is the most challenging part of being here. Work typically consists of days and weeks of endless frustrations (with intermittent periods of boredom) only to be broken up spontaneously by tiny yet awesome achievements. I want to be clear on this: I'm not changing the World here. I'm barely influencing the lives of a few people. I didn't have any grandiose ideas of eradicating malnutrition and eliminating poverty when I got here, but even so, my ambition has shrunk even further once I came to terms with the reality of life in my little corner of Ecuador. The poverty, unemployment, lack of investment in education, and overall (dare I say it?) failure to provide basic medical services combines to create a black hole of sickness and ignorance. Throw in crushing sexism and a very strange yet very prevalent culture of "gimme gimme", that I think has been cultivated over many decades by NGOs, missionaries and government welfare programs... and you've got one hell of a situation. Sure, people say they'll change their hygiene habits... but only if you pay for and build the toilets yourself. And then they won't actually use them because thats not how behavior change works.

To be clear, I haven't built or paid for any toilets yet. I've summarized the attempted dry latrine project with the community of Chalaguan here in recent months, and there is nothing new to report. I'm going to give it another try here in the next couple months, but I'm currently formulating my cautious second attempt. I'm not even close to giving up yet, but I've realized that the approach was all wrong the first time (just add it to the list of failed Volunteer projects, which I'm sure counts in the thousands). In this second year, I really really really hope to make some head way with the dry latrines, if not in Chalaguan, then somewhere else. It feels like a giant waste of time and energy and knowledge to have attended the five-day Peace Corps workshop and then do absolutely nothing. We'll see how things go in the next 12 months, but I'll be very disappointed if I can't impart any toilet-building knowledge.

PEACE CORPS, PART 2
Year Two will also be entirely different because I'm moving to Tixan. I've had enough of living in Alausi, not knowing many people, not being able to hold meetings in the late afternoon/evening, watching too many movies at home alone, etc. In Tixan, I'll be living with a family again. Or, technically I'll be living in their house, but they aren't always around because they spend most of their time in Riobamba. This isn't totally ideal for me, but I'm a lot more confident in expressing my needs in Spanish so I'm going to work hard to be proactive and assertive. I won't have internet in the house like I do now either, so be patient with my email response time! The good news is that they have a couch! And my adoptive host mom, Vilma, who I work with at the clinic, is a great cook and eager to learn more! I'm excited to show her some salad recipes... raw vegetables WHAT??? It's going to be ground breaking.

Honestly I'm nervous about the change, because moving is the worst and I always dread that period of adjustment. Fortunately, I think I'm much more capable of coping with the change now than I was a year ago. I understand Spanish! People know me! I'm slowly but surely picking up Kichwa! For example: Haku nuka wasima lechita ubiyangi = Let's go to my house to drink milk. So useful!

I have to get ready for bed now, but I'll leave you with a song from Prince Royce. I hope you enjoy this style of music, called bachata, because it will be playing in my car and house nonstop once I return to the USA. Get excited!

Cuidense mucho! Hasta luego!