September update

Hello friends! Happy Fall! Here in the Sierra of Ecuador, we're officially entering winter soon, which means many, many months of rain and fog. The rain is much needed because everything has pretty much dried up, including some of the streams used for water. By the time January rolls around, I'm sure I'll be sick of the constant rain, but for now its necessary.

The big news of the past month is that I moved to Tixan! I said adios to Alausi and paying too much for rent, and moved to the small town of Tixan (population 700ish) to complete my service. I was pretty nervous about it before, but after a few weeks here it feels like the right decision. Its significantly colder than Alausi, mostly because its about 200 meters higher in altitude (2940 meters) but its nothing a couple sweatshirts and a few blankets can't handle.

I'm living in one of my co-worker's houses, but the family primarily lives in Riobamba, so they're not around much, just the occasional weekend. It turns out that this is the perfect situation because I get a good amount of alone time yet the nurse stays at the house occasionally during the week, so we'll make dinner and chat a bit in the evening. She's also pretty health conscious and open to trying new foods, which means we eat lots of veggies, which I love. Fiber is not underrated people, particularly when you have amoebas.

Work is going well and I've changed up my schedule quite a bit to keep myself busier. I'll be working at both the elementary schools in Tixan this year doing health classes. At one school I'll work with each grade once a month, and at the other I'll work with the kids twice a month for a shorter time. Its incredibly tiring to teach 90 minute classes with 35 kids, but I enjoy it. At the end of the day I feel like I actually accomplished something. The curriculum for my health classes is completely open as well, so I plan on doing a bit of everything, from hygiene to nutrition to environment stuff. This month I did a handwashing class with everyone, switching up the activities a bit depending on the age, and they were (almost) all successful. I'll also be starting sexual and reproductive health classes with 8th-10th graders and I'm really looking forward to that. I think it's going to be good.

This Friday begins my second annual "inter-area" sports tournament. If you'll think back to last year for a moment, this is the tournament for which I was "madrina", aka I was in a beauty contest. Luckily, I'm not doing it again this year. All I have to do is show up in my uniform and play. The tournament is spread out over three weekends and we're going to be competing in basketball, indoor soccer and Ecua-volley. I refuse to play Ecua-volley, but if they need me for soccer, I'll be happy to run around for awhile. Obviously I'll be playing basketball, and I suspect that we'll do well this year.

Unfortunately I'll have to miss the second weekend of the tournament because I'll be on vacation in Colombia for 10 days! I'm extremely excited. I'm meeting my friend Andrew in Bogota and we'll head northeast through the country up to the coast. It'll be my first time out of Ecuador in 15 months and my first time to Colombia. I don't really know all the much about the country (besides cocaine and FARQ), but I plan on learning a lot. I'm particularly interested in the Carribean beaches we'll be visiting the last half of the trip :)

Lastly, I thought I'd just throw out the fact that I really enjoy getting mail... hint hint. The last time I went to the "post office" to check if I had any mail, the mail guy said "Nope, your boyfriend and family have forgotten about you." Is that supposed to be a joke? Yikes. Please send me mail. Every postcard counts.

The address again is:

Chloe Pete, PCV
Correo Central
Alausi, Chimborazo
Ecuador

No, you're not missing anything, there are no numbers. Just words. It's not perfect, but it works in 2-4 weeks.

Ok thanks for reading! Hope this finds everyone well. I'll be visiting Portland for a few days over Christmas, so definitely let me know if you're interested in catching up and hearing more weird stories from my time in Ecuador.