Sanitation, Open Defecation and Children's Health

I never thought that I'd be interested in sanitation, but the importance quickly became obvious after only a few months in Ecuador. Basic sanitation, clean water consumption, and hand washing are among the most basic and essential hygiene practices necessary to prevent diseases and infections. It's a link that I learned about through working at the clinic in Tixan and in the more rural communities like Chalaguan, where open defecation was the norm. In Chalaguan, four babies died in my first year from various causes, but all were malnourished to some extent. Malnutrition and sanitation will always be issues close to my heart and I'm going to continue using this blog to talk about them.

I came across an article at the Guardian the other day, Will data linking open defecation to undernutrition force change?, that talks about the lack of interest in sanitation issues worldwide despite the fact that it's clearly a big problem:

The UN says countries where open defecation is most widely practised have the highest numbers of deaths of under-fives, high levels of undernutrition and poverty, and large wealth disparities.

The article mostly talks about the situation in India, a country in which 48% of children under 5 are stunted despite substantial economic growth. India recently passed an enormous bill creating a $20 billion a year food program, but experts say that unless the widespread sanitation problems are addressed, increased nutrition won't make that big a dent in the percentage of malnourished children.

Also at the Guardian, UN calls for greater focus on sanitation and an end to open defecation.

Similarly, journalist Rose George talks about worldwide sanitation problems in this TED talk:

Very interesting. If you have a few minutes, check it out!

It would appear that I'm not done posting on this ole' blog yet because I'm not sure what to do with these ideas rolling around in my mind. Not sure if anyone is still reading, but enjoy if you are!

Marzooo

Hello family and friends! You'll be happy to hear that the 24/7 season of fog is ending, which is a major blessing for me here in Tixan. Waking up to fog and not seeing the sun for many days (let alone the end of the street) is depressing. In Oregon, we get lots and lots of rain and darkness during these months, which is also difficult to deal with sometimes, but the fog is a different demon. I'm not saying its better or worse, but there is something inherently menacing about fog that is deeply creepy. It really feels like someone could always be watching or following you.

Things are busy busy busy around here! Officially, I've got about 5 months left of service so I'm trying to cram in as much stuff as possible here before the end. There is just so much work to be done that its hard to say no! Here's a quick run-down:

1. Elementary health classes! They're going really well. So far we've covered nutrition, handwashing, general hygiene, cold/flu prevention, diarrhea prevention, clean water, and we've done a little lesson in story writing with a health emphasis. Some of the lessons have been more successful than others, but overall, it's been good. Next up we'll be discussing the environment, trash, and recycling, and hopefully do some sort of Earth Day celebration (April 22). I also have plans to do an art or essay writing competition in May/June before the end of school. Let me know if you'd like to send/donate any materials for prizes!

2. High school sex ed classes! These are also going really well. I like hanging out with the little kids, but I also really appreciate the fact that I can have a real conversation with the 8th-10th graders. Next week we'll be getting into anatomy, menstruation, pregnancy, and do a condom demonstration. The rural doctor who works at the clinic in Tixan will be helping me with these classes, because I thought it'd be best to split up the boys and girls. Dr. Juan will take the boys and I'll teach the girls, which will be great since there are so few of them! Hopefully this will allow us to have a more honest and productive discussion.

3. Girls Club/Grupo de Jovencitas! I just formed a girl's club with the high schoolers a couple weeks ago. We're going to meet once a week during recess for 30-40 minutes, and do crafts and chat and hang out. At the first meeting, 14 girls showed up! I think that as we continue more girls will want to participate as well. I don't really want to turn people away, but we'll see what happens. Forming this group feels like kind of a last ditch effort to work with girls, and I'm really kicking myself for not doing this a year ago, but OH WELL. I'm trying to squeeze out something positive from every last moment here. My bright idea with the girls is to do some journaling activities. We'll see how things go, but I'd like to make journals with them, and then do a short writing activity every week or two. At the very least, they'll have their journals to take home with them and use. I've thought about making paper and doing a big project, but I think thats going to be too difficult if we're making 15-20. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas about journal/book making, send them my way! Something simple but attractive is obviously what we're going for.

4. Craft classes with the women of Chalaguan! Cecilia, the adult educator, and I have been trying to work with the women of Chalaguan to form a jewelry business, but after many months of discussion, its just not going to happen. The idea is just too big and the women are hesistant to commit. So in place of that, we're applying for a small grant through Peace Corps to get materials to do some craft classes, like knitting, sewing, jewelry making, bead making, etc. This way we can more ladies involved in the classes too, maybe some who are interested in learning a new skill, but who weren't interested in forming a business. Along the way, we can chat about small businesses or health or whatever topics come up during the classes and spread the knowledge in a more informal way. Hopefully it works out!

5. Nutrition/hygiene/cooking talks at the clinic! In these last few months, I'm trying to step up the number of short talks, or "charlas", that we do in the clinic and involve the community health workers to a greater extent. There is a big recent push to work on lowering malnutrition in our county, which is great, but no one is really coming up with new or creative ideas to solve this huge problem. I've really cut back on the individual nutrition counseling that I do, because it just doesn't seem that effective (and also because my "office" is now being used as storage). I think that its probably more effective to give lots of charlas on general nutrition to everyone thats waiting to be seen at the clinic, in an effort to raise the awareness and knowledge of the whole community. I want to make more educational materials to put up on the walls, and get everyone to talk about nutrition in the same way in order to give more coherent advice. This problem is waaaaaay bigger than me... but hopefully now that I have a better idea of how the system works and how people think, I can make a more focused effort to get the information out there and encourage behavior change. I also want to teach the health workers and my other co-workers how to make cookies and carrot cake and some other things, which they are all very excited about.

There are some other little things happening here and there, but those are the major projects going on in the last few months! My tentative plan is actually to end my PC service at the end of July and then travel/bum around for a month and get back to Portland at the beginning of September. People are getting married and I've got a life to re-start! I love Ecuador, and I've had a great time here (lots of ups and downs, but overall, very fulfilling)... but its just about time to head home. I miss you guys!

I spent this last week in the jungle around Tena and Misahualli, helping out with a health brigade organized by Timmy Global Health. It was the first time I'd ever participated in anything like that, and it was a great learning experience. More than anything, it gave me a lot to think about in terms of development work. A week-long health brigade is obviously vastly different from Peace Corps service, but each has its strengths and weaknesses. Most people are not able to commit to two years of service in a developing country (let alone a month), so they're forced to resort to a week. Is it possible to get to know another culture/country/people in a week? Absolutely not. But they do provide semi-regular health attention to remote communities that have a difficult time getting to see a doctor normally. I think that organizations that do brigades have great intentions, but I also think that they need to understand the Ecuadorian health system better and encourage Ecuadorians to utilize it as best they can... because primary care is free here! So is birth control! And care for kids under 5! And people with special needs! Ecuador has got some inspired programs runnning, and while they still lack efficiency and consistency, progress is being made. Ideally, NGOs should make an effort to recognize the progress that the host country is making and work with the system to help it run better, and just be around to fill in the gaps. Surely there are still gaps in the health system here, like there are anywhere, but my impression is that Ecuador is doing a good job helping more people get better care. Poco a poco.

Anyway, apart from all the theoretical discussions going on in my head, it was great to meet everyone involved in the brigade... and also get a little vacation from Tixan. It wasn't a true vacation, because I was working most of the time, but a change of scenery was good enough. Plus, I love the jungle! Its amazing. So many bugs, so many animals, so much beautiful, inspiring nature. It was humid and sweaty and I loved it. It was a much needed break from the fog and all of its cold creepiness.

Lastly, my sister is coming down to visit next month! She's getting back from Thailand and immediately flying to Ecuador to spend 10 days. It'll be a rushed trip, but I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be nice to see a familiar face and visit a few places I haven't been to yet and be a tourist.

Well I hope you're all doing well! Just in case you've forgotten, I enjoy getting updates from you all as well... don't be a stranger! Five months isn't forever, but its long enough to need some encouragement :)

February Update

Hello! It's been a little while since the last update. Things are going well here in Tixan and at the moment, everyone is gearing up for Carnival, which kicks off tomorrow with the crowning of the King. Ecuadorians take their parties very, very seriously, so it should be a good time!

We're also in the middle of 2 weeks of school vacations, so I've mostly been hanging out at the clinic. It seems strange now that I used to go there all day every day, because while theres stuff to do... theres not THAT much to do. I'm also becoming very conscious of the fact that I'm leaving in 6 months, so I'm trying to back off a bit in terms of the free labor. There are some things I do at the clinic that are mostly outside of their work area (nutrition counseling, organizing/reorganizing the files), things that wouldn't otherwise get done if I wasn't there. However, there are other things that I sometimes do because theres nothing else to do... but I probably shouldn't. Sometimes I help take vitals, do some filing and help clean, because I'm bored. The problem is that these are things that are explicitly in the job description of other people, so to some extent, I'm enabling their inefficient work habits by doing part of their job.

Occasionally, I help out because theres just no one else to do it (like the days when all the nurses leave to do vaccines, and the doctors are left without anyone to take vitals), but this is also problematic. The doctors are perfectly capable of pulling files and taking vitals themselves... it's just that it takes so goddam long to do, people will end up waiting for literally 5-6 hours. My conscious always sides with the patients, so when I help out its always to make things more efficient and pleasurable (as much as possible) for the sick people. I think that people appreciate and like me for this, which is great for me... but what happens when I leave? Will things just go back to the way it was before? When everyone yelled and treated the patients (and each other) like crap?

I don't know. It's impossible to know now. I worry about it though, and I wonder if there are any measures I can put in place to help prevent things from reverting back to the inefficient, unhelpful status quo. To some extent, I think that my presence sort of shames people into acting better. I don't yell, I say please and thank you, I don't give people a hard time about stupid, random things. I'm always mystified on the days when the occasionally enforced "rule" is that people can only get one appointment per family. What if 2 kids are sick with fever? What if the family comes with 5 people because they live really far away and can't make it more often? What if the mom needs to get her birth control TODAY and her child is sick? (All of which happened the other day).

I should point out that I don't think its not like this everywhere. Other clinics and hospitals have a better system, more management oversight, and more doctors. The major problem with my clinic can be summarized in one word: burnout. People are jaded and don't even try to have patience anymore. Burnout exists in every field, in every area of the world, but its especially harmful in this sort of first-tier dealing with the public situation. Tixan is a difficult area to work in, FOR SURE, but it doesn't excuse the behavior of some health workers. I've had days where I just have to leave after a few hours because I can't believe how horrible people are being and I feel like continuing to work condones their behavior. Could I say something? Maybe, if the perfect opportunity came up. Otherwise, I keep my mouth shut, because after all I'm just a random, privelleged gringa. There are some moments when I put in my 2 cents, moments that are more suited to my areas of expertise, but when it comes to basic human behavior... nope. I'm no one's mother. The way most Ecuadorians avoid taking the blame for anything (even in situations when it was clearly their fault), it would be suicidal to give a name to the obvious problems.

I've thought about possibly bringing up some of my issues right before I leave, but if I ever want to come back to visit and actually be welcomed, I can't do it. Be smart, Chloe! When has burning bridges ever been beneficial in the long run??? Never ever ever.

Anyway! In terms of other work... the health classes I teach at the two schools have been going really well. The kids are finally calming down, so classroom management hasn't been as big of a headache as at the beginning. I also finally got the 6th and 7th grade teachers at Escuela Luz Elisa Borja to pay attention to me and help me out with behavior issues, so my last classes in January were very pleasant and productive. It took nearly 2 months of complaining, walking out of a couple classes, and finally complaining to the other teachers to get them to change, but better late than never! For the first time, the kids listen, participate appropriately, and are (mostly) respectful for the entire 40 minutes I have with them. Imagine! Its a small miracle.

In my spare time, I'm also working on compiling my lessons into a manual for the teachers to have once I leave. Probably no one will use it, but hey, you never know! I mentioned this project to a woman who works at World Vision (the largest NGO in the world. You know, "for only pennies a day you can sponsor a child...") who is in charge of a national effort called Escuelas Promotores de Salud or Health Promoting Schools or something. Last year, I presented at a conference for the schools in my area, but they haven't asked me to do anything else. Anyway, I mentioned that I'm putting together this manual of lessons for health classes and Veronica seemed interested in possibly using it for this network of healthy schools. I'm going to try and get it done in the next month or two, because it would be awesome to promote it at the participating schools before the year ends in June. The Health Promoting Schools project is a great idea, but its also really vague. At the conference I went to, they didn't exactly teach the teachers how to incorporate health lessons into their curriculum. They mostly just told them stuff they should already know, about hygiene, sexual health and nutrition. To me, taking that information and translating it to the classroom is the real challenge! Luckily, I've got a bunch of tried and true lessons that do just that.

There are a few others projects in the works, such as a women's jewelry cooperative, a girl's club, baking/cooking classes, and English lessons, to name a few, but I'll return to talk about those another day. It's funny that with 6 months left, all these opportunities suddenly fall in my lap. I wish I'd had these bright ideas a year ago, but what can you do?

Lastly, I applied to the Portland State University Master's in Social Work program for entrance this fall, so fingers crossed they let me in and give me lots of money! This means that I'll be heading back to Portland after Peace Corps ends in July or August, which is pretty exciting. It feels really good to have something of a plan and a place to be for the next couple years... which is a big reason I signed up for PC in the first place. I can't seem to settle down in one place on my own, so I have to force myself to do it using other means! Restlessness is really a big problem.

Anyway, I hope you're all doing well! I'd love to get an email update when you get a chance. Seriously! I'll leave you with a picture of me and some of the health workers after our Christmas program at the clinic. The ladies helped me buy my outfit and get all dressed up, which was a lot of fun!

It's November!

I accidentally skipped an October update, I hope you'll forgive me. Fortunately, while I wasn't writing on the blog, a lot of awesome stuff was happening in October, so here's the rundown...

I went to COLOMBIA!!! It was super cool and a perfectly timed vacation. I didn't even realize how much I needed to get away from work and life here. When I got back to Ecuador, I felt totally refreshed and ready to jump back in. Vacation time is NOT overrated people.

I started the trip in Bogota where I met up with a friend from home. I never ever ever would have considered visiting Colombia alone, although now I don't think its quite the crisis situation that we all imagine. All developing countries have their safety issues and as long as you're not straying too far off the beaten path, its safe.

After Bogota we visited Villa de Leyva and San Gil.

"Pozo azul" or a little blue pond outside of Villa de Leyva.

Riverside botanical park in San Gil.

Then we headed up to the Carribean coast and an absolutely beautiful national park on the beach called Tayrona. To get to the beach, you have to hike a ways through the jungle (like an hour or more) which was obviously super hot and sticky.

And once you get to the beach? You can rent out a cabaña for $80 (no thanks), camp (no tent) or sleep in hammocks. No joke, the hammock was the best sleep I got the whole trip. All 10 hours of it.

After that we went to Cartagena, which is as awesome as it looks in the movies. Despite the oppressive heat and humidity, I really enjoyed the city and the many channels of American crime shows in English on the tv in our room. Don't judge me!

Colorful colonial buildings in Cartagena.

The last full day was spent at a mud volcano, which is pretty much exactly how it sounds. You climb to the top of a little hill and then jump into a mud pit with about 50 other strangers. It you want to bond with someone or many strangers, go to the mud volcano. It was super super weird and amazing.

Andrew and I and our 50 closest stranger-friends enjoy the mud.

At the end of the month I made a trip down to the jungle in the province of Zamora-Chichinpe. It was my first time that far south, and I kept having to remind myself that I was still in Ecuador because it was  so different from my chilly little mountain oasis.

The jungle is really awesome! We stayed at some cabañas about 4 hours from the capital of the province in the parrish of Nangaritza.


We played in waterfalls...


and took a river boat ride...


We swung on every vine that looked strong enough to hold a person...


and entered the Labrinyth of a Thousand Illusions... which is made up of ancient coral covered in jungle. The coral apparently comes from the period of time when Ecuador was ocean, but now sits in the middle of the Amazon. We were also warned to not stray off the path because there are landmines still buried around from the 1995 border war with Peru. Awesome.


After the labrinyth we were treated to this lovely view...


All in all, it was a great trip and I can't wait to visit again. It was only my second time visiting the "Oriente" as they call it here, but I really love it. I plan on using my extra vacation days to go play for more time before I leave next summer!

As far as my normal life is going... things are pretty good at the moment! I'm working a lot more in the schools doing health classes which is fun. I'm also getting involved with the founding of a women's jewelry collective in Chalaguan, which has a lot of potential, but we'll see what happens. Unlike the dry latrine project, this idea came from the women themselves so I'm hoping that they will be more motivated to see it through. Next week we're going to meet with them to figure out the logistics and how they should organize themselves. I've made my logistical and possibly financial support contingent on my getting to do a series of child development classes with them in January and February, so hopefully we can get a lot of stuff done at once! An adult educator with the Ministry of Education (Cecilia) is the one heading up the effort, and so far we work pretty well together, so I think this project might actually happen! Keep your fingers crossed.

I'm also heading home for a visit December 17 through the 28!! I really can't wait. I really do love Ecuador now, a love which took a full year and a half to blossom, but I'm extremely excited to see family and friends and eat cheese and watch TV. I can't tell you how much I've missed delicious cheeses.

Ok thanks for reading! Hope this finds you well. I'll leave you with this picture of me and some of the basketball team at the awards ceremony a couple weeks ago...

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.  

Link to Ecological Dry Toilets info

In April, I attended a workshop on constructing dry latrines, or ecological dry toilets. Overall they're pretty similar to pit latrines, but there are some key differences that make them more awesome and nice to use. A couple days ago the resident expert on these toilets, Chris Cannaday, posted some pictures and information on his blog from the Peace Corps workshop, and I thought some of you might like to check it out!

The frame of the Arbor Loo... plus a sliver of my backside!

This weekend, the plan is to make the official move to Tixan. I feel good and also horrified by the idea. Then next week school starts again! Supposedly they don't do much the first few days (weeks?) so I'm drawing up the plans for some more involved classes and projects with the kids in the two schools in Tixan, and possibly the high school. The clinic has been stressing me out a lot recently, so I'm looking to find some other things to do for part of the time.

Then in two weeks is our Mid Service conference! Gahhhhh how times flies! I'm not sure what we'll be doing for 5 days and 5 nights, but I think it'll be nice to see the other volunteers in my group who I haven't kept in touch with... which is everyone minus 3. We've also lost four volunteers in the last month or so (as in, they decided to end their service and go home... they didn't die or anything), which puts the group at around 50 I think. It'll definitely be interesting!

Last weekend I also took a quick trip to the northern beaches, so I'll try and post some pictures here soonsies. The Pacific Ocean seems to maintain its beauty no matter which hemisphere you're in :)

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!

Basket update

Jump ball when the Hospital played Iglesia Matriz... and got their butts handed to them by the priests. Why oh why didn't I realize what we were up against?

For all you sports fans out there, on the edge of your seat waiting for an update from the annual Alausi tournament... well here it is.

We (Team Hospital) ended the tournament with two losses. TWO. The artesanas were always going to win because the team is basically seleccionado, as in the "artesanas" are sort of a bullshit organization and they just get the best players in Alausi to play for them. So, one loss was to the artesanas, which I honestly didn't mind because it was a really close game, and we only lost by 4. After them, we played the municipal government and won, but it was a difficult game and really close the whole time.

Our second loss came at the very end of the tournament, against Iglesia Matriz, or the big church here in Alausi. What the hell. They totally came out of no where. Who even works at Ecuadorian churches? I don't understand Catholicism whatsoever.

I played like crap, mostly because I was sick with a cold and couldn't breath through my nose. I wasn't even going to go to the game, but at the last minute I thought "I should at least go and support them." Unfortunately, we only had 6 players, so I had to play the entire game... which was excruciating, particularly after one of the better players on our team fouled out in the 3rd quarter, pissing me off to no end. Who does that?!

So, we lost by 5. It was the worst. The referees also decided to stop paying attention half way through the game and I got the crap beat out of me. Those middle aged Catholic women have got quite a bit of weight to throw around, and throw they did. They objectively sucked at basketball, but the fact is, it is impossible to make a basket if someone knocks you down every time you get the ball. I'll give them that.

Now, we wait to see how the final few games play out to see how we place. The highest we could get is 2nd, although I'd say its more likely we place 3rd. I'm not really sure why it even matters at this point... Will there be an awards ceremony? Trophies? I have no idea. One thing you can count on is that it whatever programa ends the tournament, it will last 5 hours, be freezing in the coliseum, and be boring as hell. You bring the blankets, I'll bring the canelazo!

June Update

Well hello there! How are you? Great to see you. I'm fine, by the way. Sorry I skipped posting in the month of May. For awhile there I was doing pretty well with the monthly posts, but that ended. Last month had a lot of ups and downs and I think most of my time was spent trying to process it all, before I wrote some rambling post and instantly regretted it.



In order to hit the highlights, here are the following topics I'll be covering: 1) Community Integration, 2) Dry latrines project, 3) General frustrations, 4) The Future.

1) Community Integration
According to Peace Corps philosophy, integrating into your adopted community is the crucial first step to accomplishing anything during your service.
    a) What exactly does integration mean?

    I'm glad you asked. The straightforward definition of integration means getting to know the people in your community, sharing experiences, learning about their way of life, needs and wants, and slowly becoming part of the community. Integration is something that we discussed a lot during training, but the reality was mostly lost on me because it's impossible to imagine the actual situation without ever having experienced it. We talked about what would happen if someone who liked to run a lot for exercise wasn't able to safely run at site, and stuff like that. Can you maintain your identity while modifying your behavior to conform to social norms? Yeah, you can, and although it depends on the person, its not really that hard.

    b) And the million dollar question: Is it even possible for a gringa like me with blonde hair, blue eyes and crazy ideas about life to actually become a part of the community?

    The jury is still out on this one. In my mind, the answer is simply no. If I lived here 20 years, married an Ecuadorian and had lots of half-Ecuadorian babies... maybe. But the reality is that I am a United States citizen, I have a valid passport, and I can go home whenever I want (and probably will be going home in 15 months). I have access to a wealthy country that people are literally dying (and being jailed) to get into. The fact that the United States has it's own laundry list of problems, and in some ways is worse off than Ecuador, is completely lost on people here. The math is simple: USA = work and money, which = clothes, food, electronics, cool stuff, and happiness. Ecuadorians can be extremely envious of my opportunities, which makes integration impossible if they're always focused on our differences.
    Not everyone is jealous of course, but other misconceptions about gringas come into play too. Namely, that we are all extremely promiscuous and will have sex with anyone. This is a particularly vicious rumor that almost all people (educated or not) have about white women. This translates to men asking lots of inappropriate questions about my personal life, and women more or less ignoring me (or giving me the stink eye). It's not always that way, but a couple times a week, I'll have a weird encounter with someone that seems totally random and unnecessary and leaves me feeling like crap. It's definitely difficult to make friends and integrate when everyone thinks you're a slut.

The good news is that I do actually feel like I'm integrating pretty well, but in Tixan, not in Alausi. For that reason, I'm planning on moving to Tixan in the next couple months. I think moving will make everything (work, life, integration) easier. Tixan is a much smaller community, and although I'll have to leave behind some comforts (my very own kitchen, a market right down the street, internet in the house, lots of privacy), I think that ultimately it'll be for the best. I'm only planning on doing Peace Corps once in my life, so I might as well go all out and try my hardest to make things work. I've encountered a number of naysayers who don't think I'll be able to live in Tixan, but really, I doubt it's going to be much of a problem. Different, yes, impossible, hardly.

2) Dry latrines project
I wish I had better news, but this dry latrines project is just not going very well. The community of Chalaguan could use some better sanitation, but there has been a lot of disagreement about how to go about doing it. Some people don't want a dry latrine at all; they want a flushing toilet. I told them good luck, but I'm not going to help them with that. Other people want a latrine, but don't appear to want to do any work whatsoever. Many of those same people say that they don't want to do a pilot project (where we build 2-3 toilets in the community), but that they want a toilet for every family, or none at all. My response has been and always will be, "Do you have $15,000 to give everyone a toilet? No? Yeah, me either."

Starting with a few toilets is the only way to begin this project, but only a few men truly understand that (and I can name them on one hand). There are a few families that are interested in continuing with the project (which, as of now, is still in its theoretical stages... we've done nothing in terms of construction or applying for funding), but we have yet to organize them. My counterparts are all over the place, are poorly organized, and don't appear motivated to do much. There are a couple other guys in the community that seem to have it more together, but I'm not sure exactly how to get everyone together to have a productive discussion. A few people who want flush toilets always show up to the meetings and complain. Annoying!

I was and still am excited about the potential of this project, but I feel like I've gone about it the wrong way. I've been too cautious and wanted to give the community a chance to step up and take the reigns. Although, at the same time, with the exception of one meeting that went horribly, I'm not totally sure how I could have acted differently. I'm very aware than I'm an outsider, and I'm not going to obligate people to particpate in this project. I want them to want to do it. That being said, I think that I should work more on the motivation side of things and be more of a cheerleader/organizer to get this thing off the ground.

3) General frustrations
Well, I think I've already talked about a few of these, thats probably good for now. So... nevermind.

4) The Future
As I already mentioned, the plan is to move to Tixan in the next couple months. I've got some ideas in mind for starting a healthy living club in conjunction with the clinic and possibly doing a dance class or something. I must admit the motivation for this is not purely altruistic... I'm either gaining or losing weight here in Ecuador, and currently the weight is on the rise. Yesterday, the obstetrician at the clinic said I looked "gordita". Lovely.


A month or so ago, I finished drawing a big poster on complimentary feeding for babies/kids 0-2 years old (picture below), and my counterpart at the hospital wants to use it to make a few big, fancy, laminated posters for the county, which is pretty cool. I guess the Ministery of Health will fund it. We'll see how they turn out. We talked the other day about doing other ones with recipes or something, but I'm already thinking about doing one on suggestions for getting kids to eat healthy foods. In doing the nutrition counseling at the clinic, the most frequent thing I hear from moms is that their kids don't want to eat or don't eat very much. With malnutrition rampant in this area, it's becoming apparent that its partly because people don't have enough to eat, and partly because kids don't eat all they are given. I don't totally understand why, but I suspect its a combination of parasites causing a lack of hunger, and parents not being patient or creative in their attempts to feed their kids. So! If anyone reading this has any suggestions or creative ways you've seen or used to get kids to clean their plates, LET ME KNOW!!! The more ideas the better, I think.

As for the immediate future, my parents are coming to visit in 16 days!!! I think its going to be good. We've got an exciting itinerary lined up, including time in the mountains, the jungle, a few days in Alausi to celebrate the annual celebrations, and a quick trip to the Galapagos with Deb. I'm very excited, in desperate need of a vacation (in the last 6 weeks, I've spent one night out of site), and I hope they're brushing up on their Spanish (hint, hint).

Welp, thats all for now! I've been trying to keep up with the picture posting over at My Flickr, so check it out. I'll leave you now with a short performance of a song in Kichwa by some 4 and 5 year old girls I know. Yes, that actually is Kichwa and not just nonsense (although it's really hard to tell). Enjoy!

Basket!

In Ecuador, basketball is just called "basket". You know, leave out the "ball" and just forget that entire other word that you learned in school, "baloncesto". What does that mean anyway? Nothing here.

Alausi has an annual city-wide tournament that spans several months and includes all the city institutions and companies that can field teams. The men play indoor soccer (indoor), volleyball (Ecua volley) and basketball. The ladies play basketball. Theres been no explanation why women don't play the other sports too. It's not much, but I guess we'll take it. Machista much?

Anyway, games are 4 days a week, and there are 4 games a day. Since there are so many teams, my team (the hospital) has only played 2 games, the second one tonight. It seems like we'll be playing once every 1-2 weeks or so. We've won both games so far, but I've heard that the teams from the municipal government and the "artesanas" (not sure exactly who they are) are really good and play hard. Like, as in, they hit a lot. I will have bruises probably.

Despite the fact that it's hard to watch some of my teammates travel, double dribble and foul like crazy, and then have the cajones to tell me to "be careful because you have 2 fouls", I'm so happy to be playing an organized sport. I forgot how much I missed it. While sports have always produced a good amount of stress for me (and these past games have been no exception), I love playing. I love team sports. I have been playing on one team or another for probably 20 years now (DAMN), and I think it is an incredibly valuable and important experience. Lots of life lessons, lots of friend-making, lots of good old fashioned exercise to get those endorphins flowing. It's also good to take my mind off myself and work on something that feels bigger and is more important in the moment.

Actually the entire Peace Corps experience is really about that...
Lesson One: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU.

Lessons 2-10: It's STILL not about you. Sorry.

Lesson 11: You're not that awesome. Well, at least not in the ways that you want to be. Sure, people come to watch you play basketball, but here's the break down: 30% are people you actually know, 30% are people you don't know who are curious, and the final 30% are the creepiest guys in town. Congratulations. Feel special.

Lesson 12: You don't know anything about anything. You thought you knew how to play basketball? Oh, thats cute. Ecuadorians (particularly the men) will give you tons of advice about basketball, and some might even explain to you that "In Ecuador, you have to dribble the ball first before you can walk anywhere." Um. Right. 

Oh well. Those are just three lessons off the top of my head. Fortunately, when I'm feeling down because I don't know anything and I'm not awesome, I can just walk down the street and inevitably some creep-o will say something like "You're the most beautiful gringa in the world." Should that boost my confidence? Probably not. But unsolicited comments from random strangers work in mysterious ways.

Ok well thats all for now! Soon I'll update on my dry latrine project and other work things. Also, I went to the beach and got the bejesus burned out of me. Yeah, thats like a really bad burn.

Nutrition and realistic behavior change

Howdy! It's March! Yes, I know, thank you Captain Obvious, but really. Time is volando (flying) which is also the expression used here. It's funny that some sayings are exactly the same in Spanish (I wasn't born yesterday, no naci ayer) and other things couldn't be more different.

Recently I've been doing some reading during my down time at the clinic, and I came across a really interesting report from the World Bank published in 2007 called "Nutritional Failure in Ecuador." Guess what its about?

The main gang from La Merced in all their "Lord of the Flies" glory. Seriously, its chaos there.

To be fair, Peace Corps gave me the report on a CD after the food security conference I attended back in December, but that CD was loaded with stuff and only recently have I attempted to sort through the readings. There are hundreds. The title of this particular report caught my eye, because they're not usually that blunt. Indeed, it details the policy and program failures of the various health and education programs in Ecuador dealing with nutrition. I think that I've explained a little bit about the issues here, but this report does such a wonderful job of outlining the problems, that I just had to share it. Even though it was written 5 years ago, I think that the vast majority of the conclusions still are true today.

First, the general profile of nutrition in Ecuador:

• Stunting of children under 5 is the main nutritional problem in the country.
• The prevalence of stunting varies greatly by socioeconomic group and by geographic location. Stunting is highest in rural areas, in the mountains (or Sierra), among indigenous populations, in poor families. Which is to say, exactly who I'm working with.
• Like in other countries, almost all stunting is produced within the first two years of life.
• There is probably a huge micronutrient deficiency problem, but the data is really old.

Causes of chronic malnutrition in Ecuador:

• Children's nutritional states worsen markedly during the first year of life, and then remain stable. The critical window of opportunity for interventions to prevent stunting is during pregnancy and in the first year of a child's life. ---> In my experience, the primary reasons for a lack of growth in the first year of life are an overall lack of hygiene, lack of knowledge of best feedings practices (particularly when the first foods are introduced), the common use of unpurified water, and frequent occurrences of diarrhea and respiratory infections (the #1 killers of kids under 5).
• The height of the mother is an important determinant of the child's nutritional status. Every Ecuadorian girl rescued from stunting now, reduces the likelihood of a future child being born stunted. 
• The mother's expectation regarding her child's height is highly relevant to stunting outcomes. Other things being equal, women who did not realize that their child was too small at birth are more likely to have a stunted child today. Counseling at the community level to improve nutritional knowledge should be a main plank of nutrition strategy. ---> You'd be shocked at how common it is for parents to say that their baby is "just small". Parents of small babies seem to feed them less, the justification being that since they are small, they don't need as much food. This is a very persistent belief and its difficult to convince people otherwise.
• Children in urban areas have much better growth prospects than rural children. Nutrition strategy should concentrate on rural communities.
• Altitude has a strong, negative association with nutritional status. Nutrition strategy should give high priority to the isolated communities of the Sierra. ---> Mountain dwelling people are known to be smaller all over the world, (because of a lack of oxygen and availability of nutritious foods? I'm not totally sure) but on top of that, kids are too small.
• Household's resources are an important determinant, but offer a "long route" to improved nutrition outcomes. Other more direct strategies to improve nutrition are needed to complement income growth. ---> There are two welfare programs I'm more or less knowledgeable about: one is for families in the lowest two-fifths income brackets and is a $35 grant every month. The other is for pregnant mothers and kids under 1 year of age and is $10 every other month. That grant is small and supposed to cover the costs of transportation for moms to get to the clinic every month for a checkup. The idea is that at these monthly checkups, the doctor will counsel the mother in best practices if the child is under weight or height. In theory, awesome idea. In practice, uhh... sure, something like that happens.
• Stunting is positively correlated with the number of household members and the number of preschool children in the household. Adequate birth spacing and reduced family size are relevant strategies for improving nutritional outcomes. ---> In my interviews, I found that the average number of kids per family was 3.3. However, the kids typically come rapid fire, one every 10-18 months, far less than the recommended 2 years a mother's body needs to recover and recuperate nutritionally.
• The availability of toilets has a positive impact on nutritional status. Investments in rural sanitation are likely to yield positive returns in nutritional status. ---> I was so excited to read this! Just another reason to push for this dry latrine project, and another factoid I can use to justify the project when I ask organizations for funding.
• Once the model is fully specified, ethnicity does not appear as a statistically significant factor causing stunting. The stunting observed in indigenous communities results from their location, socioeconomic exclusion, behavioral factors, and policy failure in overcoming these problems--not from genetics.

Ecuador has a variety of feeding programs through the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, but they are pretty sporadically implemented throughout the country. The World Bank report goes into each of these programs extensively, which was great for me to understand more thoroughly what the heck is going on here, but is probably not super interesting for you.

The one program I do what to highlight is the Ley de Maternidad Gratuita or LMG (Free Maternity Law), a law passed in 1999 that promotes access to free primary health care and medicines for pregnant women and kids under 5. It's a fantastic idea. However, silly me, I thought that since the word "law" is in the title, it meant that it was actually that. A law. Enforceable. How wrong I was. (I probably should not get into the details of this because it has to do with government organizations much, much bigger than me, so suffice it to say that when even the tiniest amount of bureaucracy is involved, "laws" go out the window and its every man, or in this case, clinic, for himself. When I asked the director of my clinic why we haven't had medicine for moms and kids for the last month, he replied that the law is more of a "theory".)

The last part of the report I want to share are the recommendations:

• Improve programmatic coordination in the nutrition sector under the Ministry of Health. They've got so many programs doing so many things, and there are lots of repetitions and some significant oversights.
• An important piece of Ecuador's nutrition strategy is community-level counseling, linked to growth monitoring. I don't know why this is such a difficult idea to grasp, but I believe it is THE MOST important thing Ecuador could do to improve nutrition in the Sierra. Individualized, frequent community counseling with growth monitoring would do wonders. It just doesn't exist now. Well, it does sporadically, but to be effective it needs to be consistent. Giving a single 1-hour talk to moms every three to six months will not make a difference (especially for women who maybe have a year or two of primary school and can barely read or write), and it is endlessly infuriating to me that the people I work with don't seem to get that.
• Program assignments should be adjusted based on the severity of the regional situation. Duh.
• Transparency and accountability at the program level should be given high importance. Pretty important to keep track of where the money's going and whether it's making any difference. 
• Make main welfare grant linked to nutrition outcomes.
• Figure out the micronutrient policy! This is one thing that Ecuador is trying and retrying to get right because apparently they just recently figured out that micronutrients are super important to growth and development (you know, vitamins and minerals). The problem with the current policy is that its all over the place, and no one ever quite knows whats going on. First, they came out with a nutritional supplement for kids under 5 called Mi Papilla, or my baby food. Then they threw that out the window (I'm not sure why) and now they've got Chispaz, or sprinkles, which as far as I can figure is the same thing. They're little packets of powdered vitamins that providers are supposed to add to specific kinds of food once a day. I guess moms couldn't figure it out, so they've made it the responsibility of the day care centers. But ask the cooks to explain to you how they're supposed to prepare the food and add Chispaz, and you get shy giggles and "I don't remember." Hopefully they're doing it correctly in practice and just unable to explain it.

A few of my little homies from Chalaguan, posing for the 8 millionth picture, which was followed by many minutes of insane giggling.

I know thats a lot of information about the situation, and if you actually read the whole thing... Congratulations! Or, thank you! Or, why did you do that? My fascination/obsession with how the whole system works together and how the national policies actually manifest on the ground leads me to believe that I really do belong in public health. So, you know, good to know.

Lastly, I made another tastier-than-average soup this evening for dinner (merienda) which included garlic, carrots, onions, lots of broccoli, veggie stock, quinoa, and pesto. I'm now officially ready to declare that pesto is good with anything. Go on, tell your friends.

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. 

 

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, compañeros.

January Happenings

Hi! It's been a rough month, let's just start there. The highlights so far include:

• Lost my camera and favorite hoodie on New Year's, followed by a debilitating hangover. I blame Ecuadorian peer pressure and the unofficial "finder's keepers" social policy.
• Witnessed the brewings of some significant work drama at the clinic. It just sucks. I'm trying not to get involved because its mostly stupid crap, but it really pisses me off. These supposed health professionals let all kinds of petty BS get in the way of them performing their job duties correctly. The worst part is, who suffers because of it? The patients.
• Contracted a moderate bacterial intestinal infection, eating up a long weekend. I definitely jinxed myself in the last post.
• Gave my first nutrition talks to elementary school children, which went pretty well. Trying to coordinate an interesting, informative and coherent agenda (and then getting her to stick to it) with my Ecuadorian co-worker proved to be the most difficult part.
• Lost my phone (or had it stolen... not entirely sure) on the morning bus to work. I had to buy a new one the next day, which wasn't that big of a deal, just a pain in the ass. 
• Currently, I'm laying in bed trying not to swallow because I've got strep throat. The good times just keep on coming!

Oh January, you are merciless. Hopefully, some weird karmic thing is going on and all this crap will clear my slate for awhile. In the meantime, I've been using my quarantine to watch way too much 30 Rock and Freaks and Geeks, both of which have been enormously comforting. I'm starting to miss Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey when it's not on.

The good news is that I'm nearly comfortable enough to start doing some stuff on my own, apart from the clinic and the hospital. The reality is that I'll probably never be completely comfortable working at the schools and in the communities, but its now or never. I'm here for another year and a half and I can already tell how quickly the time is going to pass in terms of getting work done. Sometimes things just take FOREVER to happen.

One project that I'm particularly interested in doing while I'm here is with dry latrines (aka composting toilets, I think). According to my initial surveys, something like 1/3 of people in the communities don't have any sort of bathroom/latrine/hole in the ground which is a huge huge health concern for everyone. Peace Corps is having a dry latrine workshop in April, I believe, and I would really like to take a community member to the workshop (well I think its required). The key is to actually have selected a community to work with on this stuff. I have 2 in mind, but I've got to meet with the leaders and see if people are interested and what we're up against first. I've got a couple organizations in mind for funding, because these dry latrines will cost a few hundred dollars from what I've heard, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Mostly I just wanted to mention this so anyone who reads this can ask follow up questions to remind me about it. :) Also, if anyone's interested, I'm learning about dry latrines from a book called Humanure, which sounds disgusting, I know, but is pretty cool.

Anyway, thats about it for now! Until next time, my friends.

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 :)