Week 2 as a PCV begins

Monday August 30, 2010

Today, I received a call at 8:50 am informing me that the 9am meeting has been rescheduled for tomorrow. This means I have nothing to do all day.
I spent the first part of the day reading the past Baños volunteer’s final report and playing guitar. Then I had spinach and potato soup with Isabel, Pablo and Rosa. After lunch, I felt the need to get out and about. I packed water, my rain coat, my camera and just started walking up the road headed west. I did not have any destination in mind; I like these kinds of walks.
I came to a fork in the road where my “uncle” has a little tienda (shop). When I go with Isabel to gather food for the cuys and get chased by roosters we go to the left past the cemetery. So I figured why not go to the right?
I encountered many dogs just hanging about. The majority of them ignored me, some came up for a sniff and the rest kept their distance and barked.
After about an hour of walking, I came across a man, a wheelbarrow and a dog. He was gardening in a little patch just off to the side of the road. He looked up and was very surprised to see me. I got the feeling white people do not frequent this dirt road often.
We exchanged hellos and he asked me where it was I was walking to. I told him with a smile and a shrug, “I don’t know, just exploring.” He smiled back, waved me on and said enjoy.
The dog never even lifted his head from under the cool shade of the wheelbarrow. Apparently he sees gringos all the time.
When my shadow became long and my legs weary, I decided to head back home. Arrived home some time later, relaxed for a bit before dinner. Rice and chicken! Love it! I am really happy I enjoy rice, or meal time would not be as enjoyable.
After dinner I put on a nice shirt and headed to mass with Pablo and Isabel. I had to make up for skipping out on Sunday I guess. Plus, the church looks really pretty at night.









Credit cards

I have yet to see someone use one, or even a device to swipe them at a store. People here only buy what they can pay for at the time. The only other real option is to get a loan, which from what I understand is not the easiest of things to do.
Looking back I realized I used my credit card for just about everything. But if you were to ask me why I had it I would probably say something like “oh it is for emergencies.”
Building credit is a good thing. But the power we yield in those desirable pieces of plastic also allow us to purchase stuff we do not really need and put us into debt.
I know this sounds a bit preachy, I just want to you, the reader, to try something.
I want you to go a week (or two) without using your credit card. Go to the grocery store with a set amount of cash. Things like that.

Do your purchasing habits change?

Since I have stopped using a credit card, mine have.

Timing Is Everything

Sunday, August 22

I spent today giving speeches introducing myself at three separate mass services. 7am, 11am and 4pm. The mass services were surprisingly short, only 50 minutes give or take. However there was not a seat to be found in the church. There were anywhere between 200 and 300 people in each mass. This was a great opportunity to explain why this gringo was going to be wandering around town trying to teach with bad Spanish for the next 2 years.
Monday
I put on my nice clothes and headed out to the Junta Parochial. The Padre is on vacation the next two weeks and will only be around on the weekends, so I feel a little lost. This is the best place to go, I assume, if I need some work.
I thought right. The president whom I met on my previous visit was very excited to share her plans. She said there is a lot of work to be done. Which is good, I would rather have tons of work than none.
Conversation translated roughly:

“We just taught a customer service class to the local hotel, hostel, restaurant and tienda owners. Can you design a marketing class to teach them?”

“Yeah, I can come up with an outline. How many classes?” I asked, my first mistake.

“Can you design a yearlong plan by Wednesday?”

Eager to please, I smiled and said “si.”

I left the office trying not to kick myself thinking “you dumbass. You know you can’t do that.” After a little internal debate I decided the following points of action. One, I don’t technically work for anyone, I volunteer.
I drew up a plan that came out to 11 classes, about 2 hours each. This could be spread out over a three month period. We will see how it goes. Maybe they will like it, maybe they will not. Or perhaps they would rather learn something else or just say to hell with this gringo.
Tuesday
I did some more work on the Marketing outline. I also read up on the Community Assessment Tools we are supposed to do in the next few months. Still not sure what to do about those, on the back burner they have been placed.
After lunch I decided to venture further up the road into the more rural part of Baños. Not 30 meters out the front door I ran into Isabel (my new host mother). She was about to head up the same way I was headed to buy some herbs. So I thought.
The dirt road is uphill the whole way (like the Manayunk wall but worse). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manayunk,_Philadelphia,_Pennsylvania#Manayunk_Wall_.28Landmark.29 Then we came to a small little town center that looked straight out of an old Wild West film. Big circular dirt patch surrounded by some buildings in a shambles, others not, and a little run down chapel. We continued past the little center then suddenly veered off this little cow path between gardens. We followed the winding path till we hit this patch of what I thought was weeds.
Isabel whipped out her pocket sickle and started hacking the grass and pilling it up. Now I am confused.

“What is that for and what is it?”

“It is kind of like lemon grass. It is for the cuy that we have that I showed you.”

I guess my puzzled expression said what I wanted to say.

“Oh I didn’t show you? Yeah, we have 70 cuy in a house outback of the house, my uncle has 200.”

Huh, yeah, did not know that. She would not let me use the sickle. I guess she figured I would use it as badly as my Spanish and only cause more work. So curiosity got the better of me and I started wondering around the property (her brothers).
As I turned the corner of some kind of building in the middle of the field I scared the hell out of a very large turkey and myself. Oh crap that is no turkey! It was the Godzilla of roosters. This thing was a good two and half to three feet tall of pissed off rooster. So what did I do? I ran. What did it do? It chased me for a good 20 feet.
Isabel thought this was hilarious. There are three official goals of the Peace Corps. We joke that the 4th unofficial goal is to be a source of entertainment to the community. Yeah, check that one off the list.
After that comic relief, we bundled up the grass stuff and walked to the road. I was not looking forward to carrying this the whole way back. But once we hit the road, she dropped her bundle and sat on it. She informed me that would catch a camioneta (truck taxi) back to her house.

Song for today: Sic ‘em On a Chicken http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E4MAqttvgM

Wednesday August 25, 2010

I got to the Junta around 9am for my meeting (mistake number 2, not scheduling a time). So, I chatted with the secretary and found out the President was not in yet. She called every number she had to reach her, nada. Ok, I will stick around for awhile. Two hours later I called it. I will just email her the stuff and ask her a date and time to discuss the class. Lesson learned.
So now what to do with my free time today? Read, write, play guitar and learn some blues??? Sounds like a good plan.

¡Hasta luego!

It is official.

August 18th,
Today is the big day! Weeks upon weeks of language training, health lessons and power points and we are finally ready! I had grown out my beard for the occasion and last night trimmed it up to look spiffy for the occasion. The last Omnibus (group) that came through, most of the guys had crazy civil war style beards. So I was simply keeping up the tradition.
The swearing in ceremony was at the lovely house of the US Ambassador. There were heartfelt speeches given by the US Ambassador Heather Hodges, PC Ecuador Country Director, staff and some people from my group. After which we all took the following oath.
“I, Tristan Schreck, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
Now we are officially Peace Corps. Volunteers! And we were in for a very special treat, apart from meeting the US Ambassador.
Bagels and cream cheese!
After which we all went back to our hostels, changed and headed out to the bbq at the PC headquarters. This was organized on by the VAC which is essentially volunteer government. They act as a liaison between the volunteers and the PC staff.
We also played some football and frisbee.

After all that we went back to the hostal and then to the supermarket to get sandwhich materials for dinner. Then we went to the the health group's hostal for a yet another party.

August 19th,

Woke up shivering and a fever of 102, probably the same number as bathroom visits I had throughout the day too. What a great day one of my official Peace Corps. volunteer career. Shit happens. Luckily I had two important things going for me that day. One, was my purchase of the entire first season of the TV show NCIS for $9. Second were my friends I have made in the Peace Corps. Everyone was quick to ask if I needed anything.
After a whole day of trying to feel better I finally got my fever down and was as ready as I could be to haul all my luggage for a 10 hour bus ride to Cuenca. I sipped Pepto Bismol like a cocktail the whole ride there.

August 20th, 2010
Arrived in Cuenca. Sprinted to first restaurant in search of decent porcelain. Hopped in a cab to Baños. Argued with cab driver about the gringo price. Called host brothers. Moved stuff upstairs. Passed out for 2 hours. Woke up. Unpacked my life. Caught up on e-mails. Ate bread and hot chocolate. More e-mails and skype. Tired. Bed.


Budget breakdown
Living allowance (food, clothing, transportation etc): $347/month
Rent money: $60/month
Roughly $11.50 per day to live off of. So I could buy a Starbuck’s coffee and a Big Mac meal per day on this budget if I lived in Philly. And I doubt that even in the worst of neighborhoods could I find rent this inexpensive. The dollar, for the most part goes a lot further here than back in its country of origin.

Average costs in my town:
Bus rides to Cuenca .25, bus ride to Quito $10, guinea pig dinner $7, bottle of water .30, cocacola .50 for a glass bottle, haircut $1-2, more prices to come.

Things I need to purchase:
Nice clothes for when I work with the Padre and the local government. AC/DC T-shirts and Phillies t-shirts aren’t work appropriate. Pants cost around $15 and nice shirts are the same. So my budget gets that much smaller for this month, and I am sure there are unforeseen costs in future months.
I also need a mirror for my bathroom because shaving by using my computer’s camera is less than ideal.


Me getting my diploma

Health and HIV group

Youth and Families

A view

Chapter 7: in which the author learns to teach sex education and survive illness

Sunday August 1 through Saturday August 7th, 2010

This was our Tech Trip week. We were split into groups of 8 trainees, based on our program. My program is Youth Entrepreneurship. We were also accompanied by three staff members and a third year PC volunteer. Our mission was to visit other volunteers and give charlas (classes, basically) on requested topics such as sex education and self esteem etc. We were provided with manuals that outlined the charlas for us, thank god.
Our travel itinerary consisted of Guayaquil, Salinas and Playas (google them, you will be jealous). Now first things first, food. If you are like me and love to eat good sea food then the coast of Ecuador is the place to visit. It has some kick butt sea food, especially the shrimp.

Ok, now on to the charlas. I gave, or tried to give a nutrition charla to a group of 8 kids around the age of 7. Holy crap, I felt I was the butt end of a joke. It didn’t go so well, in other words. Perhaps it was my bad explanation or my shitty drawing that through them off, who knows.
The basic idea of the charla was to have the kids draw a picture of what they think a healthy person should look like and draw what they should eat.
However one of my group members saved the day with a fantastic never ending game of duck duck goose. Phew!
I have a lot more respect for teachers now. But our work week had only just begun. Next was the sex ed charlas.

We were split into groups of three or two for these. It was interesting trying to control a class room of 30 or so teenagers and talk about sex. When we were able to we had some good answers from kids. Some of the answers were surprising. Especially when the sex ed teacher sitting in on our class interjected to say that masturbation does cause mental damage. Talk about a curve ball. We all stood there unsure whether to try and argue or just shut up and move on. We chose the “just shut up and move on” option. Our Spanish is not good enough yet to argue.
Later that day I was rewarded with a very nice treat. I got to touch the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life.
The week went on rather quickly. We all got better at giving charlas. I even had pretty good success with the nutrition charla at one school where the kids were angels.
Saturday when we got back, I decided I should take my boots out to a rodeo. Sure enough I fit right in and before I knew I was dancing the night away in the streets for yet another Juan Montalvo celebration.

Monday the 9th of August,

This is the last week I will be living with my Cayambe host family. I must say I am kind of upset to be moving out. They have accepted me as part of their family from the first day and have showed me a lot of love. I am going to miss El Capitan crowing at all hours and our brand new guinea pig babies too!

Tuesday August 10th

Today was a battle. I woke up with a sickness I now call WhichEnd sickness. I woke up feeling like someone dragged me down a flight of stairs and then kicked me in the head. To top it off I was given a charming case of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and a fever.
WhichEnd comes from when I would run to the bathroom and I wouldn’t know which end of my body to shove in our seat-less toilet. Today, America, I missed you greatly.
Luckily my family (my host mother mainly) was there to rescue her pet gringo. I was only allowed to consume water and some kind of local hot tea remedy that tasted horrible. Around 8pm, after a 12 hour fight, I had finally started to feel a bit better.

Took a chance and ate a bowl of rice. I was starving.

Wednesday, D-day plus one

Much better today!

Side note: I got my boots and they are fantastic! However I keep forgetting to take pictures. Please be patient with the author.

Boots!

July 22nd, 2010 to my Cousin Kim, it is probably in your best interest you do not read this blog entry.


Today was a pretty relaxing day. Had an extended lunch with the committee that the current volunteer (Brad) helped to create. It was interesting to hear their ideas and how they differ from other ideas in the community. I am sure in the future I will be able to explain that better, but first I want to know more about the going-ons in the town.
Later on in the day I went to mass with Isabel and afterwards we had a lovely dinner with the Padre and some other important local people who names I will someday know.
The first dish, usually soup, was soup. It was good, but I was preoccupied with the thought that I was going to get served cuy (guinea pig) for the main course. As I was slurping down my hot soup, I saw the ladies who brought the food prepping something in a greasy cardboard box.
“Maybe it is just a box of super greasy potato chips.” I reassured myself
“Why did she grab scissors and what is she cutting in the box?! Maybe she is cutting snowflakes out of potato chips like I did with paper when I was a kid.” I lied to myself

Shit.

The lady removes her hands from the box, scissor hand first, and in the other hand is a whole cuy grilled to what I assume would be perfection. The skin looks like hardened caramel. Cuy are usually cooked on spits, this one clearly was. How do I know this you ask? It is quite obvious, the jaw is broken and open wide mimicking a python ready to swallow a hippo. The other end of the cuy is opened just as wide.
She continued to cut the cuy in half. When suddenly I realized I had stopped eating my soup and was simply starring at this lady and the cuy across the room. I don’t think anyone noticed, so I did the best I could to finish my soup and not to think of my pet guinea pig I had as a kid. Crap, I just did. Now all I could think about Wendy. She used to cry out whenever we would open the fridge, hoping to get some lettuce or other veggies. Cute little thing she was, may she rest in peace.
A plate with potatoes, rice and half a cuy was placed in front of me. I have eaten some weird things before including shark, duck feet, kangaroo and raw goat’s blood. But this for some reason was a whole new level of gut wrenching torture to pick the bones clean as not to insult my hosts.
It is a greasy meat. I will let you, the readers, decide for yourself if you like it. I hope I myself grow to like this traditional dish. I have been informed that I will most likely be eating it a few times a month.

July 23rd, 2010
Integration is a funny thing. Sometimes I think the Peace Corps. overcomplicates the subject and how to achieve it. After I ate breakfast, I noticed my host brother Pablo was watching the movie Avatar (in Spanish). So I joined him and we sat in silence watching for a good 2 hours. After he asked me if I like action movies and who my favorite stars were. He is a big action fan too; he likes Sylvestor Stalone and just about any movie with gore. On to the next action flick, The Book of Eli, in which Denzel Washington kicks a lot of ass and dies as a martyr. Then came lunch time and we ate in silence and then headed our separate ways for the day. We said “see you later” but this time it sounded different. It sounded like we both wanted to actually hang out again. It was at that point that I knew I had made another friend.
That night, Isabel hosted a goodbye/welcome party for Brad and myself. A bunch of neighbors came to help celebrate in the frame of a four story apartment building next to our house. Turns out that Isabel owns it and plans on putting a restaurant on the first floor! However she ran out of funds, so the project is halfway done for now.
Party started at 8, did not eat until 10:30. Starving! As was everyone. In the meantime many meaningful speeches were given. The community will truly miss Brad and expressed the warmest of welcomes for me. Speech! Christian (as I am know here, easier to say) introduce yourself. Luckily I had sort of practiced this so it went pretty well. After my speech, Isabel with tears still in her eyes from her speech, got up to say something else.

Translated roughly:
“Tristan’s Spanish is pretty good; just don’t ask him what time it is. He will give you a math problem. Instead of 10 minutes until 8, you will get 10 times eight!” Everyone got a big chuckle out of me using the wrong word for “until.” I was embarrassed. But Brad leaned over and told me “That means they like you.”
:)

July 24, 2010 Last day in my site until I am back for two years!
Packed up my gear into my backpack and headed to Cuenca for the day to explore a little bit with the others.
I got off the bus at the bus at the wrong stop and had a 40 minute walk to where we had to meet up. Not a big deal though, got to learn a little bit of Cuenca and see old retired gringo couples out for walks.
10pm, bus ride! It was much better this time around. However, there were still several times when I awoke feeling as if the bus was tipping over at high speeds. Thankfully the shades were shut and it was dark out, because I am sure we were swerving right next to huge cliffs.

July 25th, 2010 Ah, cayambe.
We finally arrived back in Cayambe about 10am, exhausted and in need of sleep in a real bed. I sleep on the bus, but it is not really sleep. It is more like a being knocked out by a punch or something like that. I always wake up sore and cranky and wanting to go back to sleep.
I snuck in the side door to avoid the impending hour long conversation with my family about my new sight. I just wanted to sleep. Fatal error, I flushed the toilet. As I leave the bathroom, Connor comes running upstairs.
“Hey man, everyone is coming to Oyacachi (his site) now. My futbol team is in the finals and we recruited Walter to play as a ringer.” He exclaimed.
“Sure, let me pack a jacket and camera.”
Glad I went. Oyacachi is a beautiful town of 600 people tucked away in a tiny valley in the middle of nowhere. Cell phones do not work there and the town has not has power for a month, yet life goes on. A beautiful cascade can be seen from the town and it is also known for its natural hot springs.
Connor’s team tied the game 2-2 in the last minute with a goal scored by Walter!
Afterwards we all went to the hot springs to relax. Connor is convinced there is natural lithium in the mineral-y rich hot springs of Oyacachi. After we got out of the water, I definitely understood what he meant.
We then walked across this rickety suspension bridge into town in search of a meal. We ate a traditional dish of rice, fried trout and soup. The trout was fantastic! It made me want to go fishing again. After dinner we said our goodbyes to Connor and headed off into the night for our 2 hour trek home.

I am pretty sure I was asleep before I had fully lain down in my bed.

July 26th, back to school
This morning I went to take out money from the ATM to pay my family for the upcoming weeks’ rent. Where is my ATM card (that I got just a week ago)? Hijo de puta! Well this sucks, it takes at least a week to get a new one and we are leaving for a weeklong trip this Sunday, super duper Tristan, and way to go. Luckily I had some cash I was saving to get my cowboy boots. So I pay the family with what cash I had. $20 left over to buy my boots tomorrow, and I will have $5 left to feed myself for the next 5 days or so… I am getting the damn boots.

July 27th, 2010
Waited all day for 5 o’clock and finally it came. Clint, Curlee and I all arrived at my house at 5:30pm sharp like I told Jose we would so he could take us to get the boots. However he had some stuff he had to do and we didn’t leave until around 6:30, no pasa nada. We spent the hour working with one of Walter’s friend’s English homework and this proved to be quite entertaining. At last Jose arrived and we hopped in the truck.
His cousin’s store is smaller than most American full bathrooms. On display were several models of boots. The biggest size he had for me to try on was a 43, about a 10 in men’s. This apparently is super big in Ecuador, haha.
After we had picked out the styles of boots we each wanted he took measurements of our feet. He commented that Clint’s feet were really wide and looked like a ducks.
He then drew up the contracts and we signed off and paid whatever we had on us. I happily gave him my $20. My custom handmade cowboy boots will cost me a total of $90 and completely worth going without the luxury of full meals for the next few days.
When we got home Carlota and Jose had to help install some sort of lighting fixture upstairs in one of the apartments above our house. We didn’t eat dinner until about 10pm, again no pasa nada. I spent that time teaching Walter, Ping and several of the neighbor kids the card game Texas hold’em. They absolutely loved the game! We started off with about 15 cents in pennies each, and by the end Ping had everyone’s money.

What I have taught/sort of taught since I have been here:
• English, mostly curse words or grammatical structure
• Some guitar
• America’s favorite gambling card game Texas Hold’em
• And hopefully helped improve the image of Americans in the minds of a few Ecuadorians (not that they think badly of us)

Ps. I am growing my beard and my host brother says I look like Bin Laden or Che Guevara. I am considering shaving.





http://www.parroquiabanos.gov.ec/banos/

Some older pics and newer stories

July 20th, 2010

This morning we finished up the bus ride to Cuenca around 730am in a city none of us knew. So we just wondered around for awhile in search of Banco Guayaquil. We all needed to withdrawal cash for the week and since the PC banks with them, we do not get surcharged. After asking 6 different people, getting different answers each time, we finally arrived.
Then it was time to part ways and go to our sites. Curlee simply hopped in a cab and gave an address, her site is in Cuenca. Clint and I went to a tourism center to inquire on where to find the buses to head to Paute and Baños, respectively. The lady behind the counter was very helpful and showed us where to go on the map. And with that Clint and I parted ways and headed to our stops.
The bus ride to the center of Baños took about 25 minutes. There was lots of enjoyable scenery and some surprisingly nice houses, not quite what I was expecting. The bus headed out of town and then came to a big hill and the driver dropped down into a lower gear to make it up. I saw the big blue church come into view and figured that is probably the best place to get off.
When I got I off I noticed the incredible view the church has of Cuenca (I will post some pictures soon). I called Isabel, my new host mom, and she told me to wait at the church for her. The mid day sun was starting to come out and it was hot, not like Philly, it’s a dry heat here. After a few minutes she arrived and walked me back to the house. Isabel speaks a mile minute, I feel like I am missing a lot of valuable information when she speaks.
When we approach the house on the dirt road, I am very surprised how nice it looks, and then we got inside. Inside was spacious and nice. Upstairs we went until the last floor, the third, my floor. My room is spacious and has windows that look outside! It gets even better. I have my own bathroom, with a hot shower and the tap water is potable! Wait there is more, I find out later in the day that the house has wireless internet. I landed the Posh Corps. Copy and paste the link below to see what is next door to our house and where one of the sons works.

http://www.piedradeagua.com.ec/esp.html
My room!

This is less of the “survival” Peace Corps. So hopefully I can spend more time on helping the community rather than building new latrines and running from dangerous animals.
After a dinner which consisted of rice and beans, I was invited to attend a bible class. Sure, probably a good way to learn more Spanish, culture and give myself a good reputation. My grandfather, after hearing this said “after all the good lord has done for [me], [I] should probably go to bible class three times a day.” He has a valid point; I will make an effort to go to it every week.

July 21, 2010

Wake up, ate breakfast alone. Then did some of the assigned work we had for the week. Example, locate important things in your community on a map that you draw. Afterwards, unsure on what to do, I decided to just hope on bus and ride it until it got back to Baños. The whole process took about two and half hours.
The first part of the trip is all downhill, and a very steep downhill. Did the driver drive carefully and slow? Nope, he drove that bus like a formula one race car down that hill. It was like being on roller coaster with no seatbelt or foam around the metal bars. Guess I could have skipped the coffee this morning. I think in another life I was a dog. Not for my love of peeing on trees, but because I love going for rides in cars and looking at the scenery. I started to recognized places as we zoomed around Cuenca and a few other barrios. The city has a very European feel to it.
For dinner I helped make empanadas. But not the kind you are probably thinking of. The innards of these were solely rice and bananas. After frying them, we coated them with sugar. Absolutely delicious, but they are definitely a cause of severe diabetes if you eat more than two of them. Which, I did.

Here are some pictures from when we found out our sites!
All of us waiting to find out our sites!

Our language teachers!

Bus < Airplane

July 17th, 2010
Today my workshop group and I made marmalade! It was a surprisingly easy task. The best marmalade was by far the pineapple and carrot combination.
Afterwards a bunch of us took a trip to Otavalo, which on Saturdays has a huge open air market. This was like light to flies for gringos. And of course, with gringos (I am not a tourist, I live here now) around the prices go up. However, haggling is permitted and encouraged.
I found a very cool shirt like the indigenous people wear that I just had to have. The original price was $6, which is a hell of a deal compared to if you bought something like this in the states. But that did not stop me! I am a man on a mission, but more importantly I am man on tight budget. It was pretty easy to talk her down to $3. Which means she was still making profit off of it, so she must make a killing when she sells these to tourists at full price.
For lunch I ate a less than satisfying burger, but it also had ham on it, which was an interesting concept. All coffee here is instant. Have yet to see a percolator. After a few hours of wondering around the market we headed back on the bus ride. I slept the whole way; it is the closest man has come to time traveling.
It didn’t seem like much was going to happen tonight, so I locked myself in my room to play guitar for awhile. Around 8 o’clock, I got bored and went downstairs to see what the rest of the family was up too. Ping, Walter and Orlando asked me to come celebrate Juan Montalvo with them. Sure why not, could be interesting.

Juan María Montalvo Fiallos (April 13, 1832, Ambato – January 17, 1889, Paris) was an Ecuadorian author and essayist, generally thought to be one of Ecuador's best writers of the period. A political liberal, Montalvo's beliefs were marked by anti-clericism and a keen hatred for Ecuador's two caudillos that ruled during his life: Gabriel García Moreno and Ignacio de Veintemilla. After an issue of his book, El Cosmopolita, viciously attacked Moreno, Montalvo was exiled to Colombia, where he would write most of his later works. He was a dedicated champion of democracy, was said to have a lucid and inquisitive intellect and a strong, semi-romantic temperament. (Wikipedia)
Walter grabbed two wool ponchos which he and ping wore, and a cowhide drum which he carried. Next, Ping handed me his acoustic guitar and off went. Oh man, this is going to be fun, whatever it is.
We met friends of theirs in the main park of Cayambe. In total there were about 10-12 of us, 5 guitars, 1 mandolin, a pan flute, a drum and 4 pairs of the animal hair pants. Oh and a bottle of whiskey that got passed around a few times. At this point in time it seemed like everyone was waiting for something. I never found out what it was but after an hour we started walking down the middle of a street heading out of town (blocking one lane of traffic). Then the song broke out (we only played one all night, but the rhythm and lyrics varied). It was not terribly difficult to play on guitar, and one of the guys in the animal hair pants taught it to me.
We got a lot of stares at first from people as we paraded dancing, singing and playing music down the street. I thought it was because we were the only weirdos celebrating (turns out that is not the reason). About a half mile into our journey a much larger group of people heading the opposite way came into view. I recognized one of the men to be the suitor of one of the PC volunteers. When he saw me he had to look twice, in amazement or drunkenness not sure which. But no matter, because he insisted on pouring boxed wine (def not Black Box) down my throat while I still played. Good thing I had a water proof jacket on. The further out of town we headed, the more crowded it got.
Suddenly the group veers into a bar. Definition of bar: a place that sells beer and/or chicha. I saw Daniel another PC aspirante. He was a bit surprised to see me guitar in hand but before long was dancing around in our circle as we took over the room. He was there because his host mom was selling empanadas and invited him to come. Suddenly one of the women in our group was handed a bowl of chicha and a plate of pastries to serve us. Cool, the must be friends or something. After a while the group took to the streets again.
It was not a hundred yards before we passed 2 other groups and were in another bar. Then it dawned on me. If you have a band you get free drinks and sometimes food! Well hot dog, this festival rocks. The owner (presumed) of the bar came up to me as we were leaving with a drink in his hand. “Please, drink my beer. You are welcome here anytime gringo.” Then it hit me why we got more attention than other groups. Not only was I one of the few foreigners around, I was also playing, dancing and singing with a band.
So I decided I needed to step up my stage presence a little on the next walk. I led the group for a bit, doing some of my best Angus Young impressions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4gNsRjHzV4&feature=related. I must say, definitely one of the best experiences I have had here.
We jammed for about four hours before we were all too tired. Thank the lord, my fingers nearly fell off. I was invited to do something similar to this in two weeks by one of the other guys. I think I have finally started to integrate.

Good night!

July 18th, Sunday fun day

Today I washed my clothes, yippie. Slightly more enjoyable this time around because I actually (kind of) knew what I was doing.
But before that fun, I was surprised during breakfast when my brother came in with a dead chicken, feathers and all. It scared the ba-jesus out of his 3 year old niece, I laughed. I figured it was what we would be eating for dinner (wrong). He asked me to help him feed the chickens, something I enjoy doing. So we went outside to the lot next door where most of the animals are. Side note, we have 70 chickens that live on the roof (used for food and to sell). So as I was tossing corn to the chickens (used for eggs) and El Capitan (used for kicking ass in the ring, he is 5-0) when I thought to myself, “the pigs sure are quiet.”
I am a curious fellow by nature, today I wished I wasn’t. When I looked over the wall into their pen I saw the three not-so-little pigs ripping through the carcass of the hen, feathers, feet and all. Step one; hold back vomit. Step two; keep watching to see if they eat feet. Yeah, they ate those as well. When the piggies were finished, the interior of their pen looked like someone force-fed a hand grenade to a chicken.
Dinner was a delish dish called Ceviche. I highly recommend this, simply a great and unchallenging dish. http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/ecuadorian-shrimp-ceviche here is a similar recipe!

Monday July 19, 2010

Today during our mid-training evaluations, we had a very special guest. The PC Regional Director for Latin America was in country for a week. He was a very honest man when he spoke about the faults of the Peace Corps. But was also very positive in how much he liked what we all were about to be doing. The way he spoke gave me confidence in the higher-ups of this organization. Not that I had not had confidence in them before, it is just that before this there was no face to the name.
The 1.5 hour bus ride from Cayambe to Quito was nothing compared to what lay ahead. The 10 hour ride from Quito to Cuenca was less than enjoyable. There were assigned seats on the bus, this we didn’t know (Curlee, Clinton and I). We were at the back of the bus all comfy, when the stewardess or whatever they are called on a bus came up and made us move to the front. I had to sit next to a shitty window that rattled and shook the entire way. At times it was quiet and others it drove me to the point of madness when it sounded like it was going to rattle off the bus.
Then there were times when the bus driver would take a turn to sharply and I am pretty sure at least three times only half the wheels were on the ground going around some hairpin turns.

If you come to visit me, take a plane. Unless that sounds like fun!