Welcome Omnibus 101

I can't calm down, I can't stop smiling.... after 6 weeks of office work, 6 weeks of the big city life the group has arrived. The moment I saw their smiling, scared, excited, anxious, exhausted faces.... I knew that this was where I want to be. I am so happy about the decision I made to leave my beloved site, Tabuga, and head off into the unknown. From a machete and monkeys to a computer and city buses. Already, I feel the rewards. Now, I am in the office, waiting for them to get here for our first meeting. I am so excited to be a part of the Peace Corps experience for these 24 natural resource trainees. Ecuador has won me over, my experience doesn't cease to be incredible and I really really hope that these newbies get to feel the same way. So... this is a shout out to Omnibus 101 and anyone who knows them or is thinking about the Peace Corps... get ready to jump in and start the toughest job you'll ever love, I'll do my best to make it a smooth ride.

The Eager Co-Trainers waiting for our kiddies!

Look, Look, the first one up there, they made it!

You can see them and there is our Country Director waiting for them too!Last but not least!

Excited boys with lots of baggage!

The meet and greet team - smiling faces!

Pictures from the Big City

Hey Mom! These are for you!

A visit to the North ...

look how beautiful and different it is!

Susan, Mo and I ready for a night out.

Making the Burgers....

Burgers are Absolutely Delicious... especially

when served with Yucca and Sweet Potatoe Fries!

Wes is a great guitar player and pees out of the side

of his leg... slash... Susan spilt in the excitement

of the wonderful sing-a-longs we were having
Group Indian Food at Ryan's... spicy delicous

Casey is eating with a tablespoon!

The Cheft himself enjoys a big boy bite... good job Akul!

Country Girl in A BIG City

It’s been three weeks since I made the big move away from Tabuga, my family, my tranquil lifestyle and my work to come to the capital. Like many young Ecuadorians, migration to the city means a better job, more fun night life, better food options, freedom and an overall eye opening experience. Some economists and development theorists claim that migration to the city by the young able population is the only way for a national economy to start the climb out of poverty. Others claim that anti-sweat shop campaigns are ruining economic chances of success in third world countries. On the other hand, others claim that international development needs to focus on supplying small farmers with simple technology and creating self-sufficient communities. My theory, as a person without any formal education in the matter but who is attempting to live the experience is “it’s not that simple”. All the theories seem to stem from some reality and my experience tells me that both have their personal, familial and community benefits. Often, immigrants to the US suffer greatly but send money to their families in their home countries. This in turns buy books and clothes for their siblings, an oven for the mother and in some cases land. It’s the same with the migration to the cities. Often the people are living in poor conditions in the country and then move to a different kind of poor conditions in the city. But, the benefits of the city include having a job and making money, buying a cell phone, dancing at clubs and being able to send money home to the family. Money home to thee family puts money in the local market and can be used to buy small machines to better small farm agriculture. Unfortunately, the big move is at the expense of having your family. For many Americans this doesn’t shock us and I am one of those. The majority of us grow up eager for the high school graduation and the big move to college or to the working world. We crave freedom and space. We love our parents, we do our best to keep in touch but the world post-18 is ours. Like my favorite t-shirt “My world, our planet”. I am determined to do good for the planet but I live in my world. Although this t-shirt continues to ring in my cerebrum, my feelings towards family, sweat shops and development have changed. I miss my family and friends in Tabuga. I miss the monkeys in the forest and the frogs at night that sound like children yelping in glee during a game of marco-polo. But, I am enjoying the city, the developed world. There are fabulous salsa clubs, good restaurants that serve more than just rice with a fried small bone filled fish and I have friends. Friends that want to talk politics while smoking a hooka and watch Duke basketball games over beers.

One of the things I am enjoying the most about Quito is my work in the Peace Corps office. I have clear tasks with deadlines. I focus, work hard, complete the task, present it to my superior, he says good job and I move on. After almost two years of service on the Manabí coast, I love having clear defined work plans, deadlines and positive reinforcement. The previous two years I was my own boss, set my own deadlines that often never were met, taught classes to high school kids who don’t know simple multiplication tables and said to myself in the mirror a number of times good job. It’s also nice to work in a team. My fellow co-trainer Susan and I had completely different Peace Corps experiences and different personalities and work together like nuts and bolts or peanut butter and jelly. Our tasks are all geared toward planning an effective intense 8 week training to prepare 24 Americans to be superb volunteers.

The newbies arrive February 25th eager, anxious, scared and excited. My senior year of lacrosse as an undergraduate assistant coach on crutches and Percocet is definitely going to come in handy. Like I love CHS, Duke lax and NH, I love the Peace Corps and I am so excited to promote it, share it and help train people who in turn, will hopefully love it and rock it.

Happy 2009 beach style

What if you don’t really want the New Year? I really liked last year and I always love an excuse for a good party but, 2008 was great. I imagine 2009 will prove to be another year full of adventure and new experiences but I really got to give hats off to 2008. It was my full year in Ecuador and Tabuga specifically and 2009 marks a lot of big changes. To start out I am writing this email from Quito. I no longer live in America-in-a-box, it’s been cleaned out. I know live in a house with a washer, dryer, 3 bathrooms, a couch and a set of 5 keys just to get from the road through the various gates and doors to the inside. Today I am starting my new job in the Peace Corps office as co-trainer for omnibus 101 that arrives in late February. I don’t need a machete or rubber boots and I don’t live with rats or cockroaches. The picture shows 6 of the 10 baby rats that I found freshly born underneath my camping type stove when I was gone for just 3 days. Amazingly this was reassuring information because it proved that the mama rat wasn't eating my underware for the fun of it but she was really just preparing the nest for her 10 ratlings. I had thought Jason was stealing my boxes of matches and was looking everywhere for my beadazzled bikini top but just turns out that the mama rat had taken everything from hair elastics, plastic bags, an HIV/AIDs awareness CD and more to make a nice home for the babies right where I prepare food. Now, to start my day I simply need 25 cents to take the city bus to the office and a strong cup of coffee to keep me focused.
First, let’s back track and recap how this wonderful year, 2009, was brought to life. It all started in Canoa with Jason and I building our very own lawn golf set and meeting up with Akul, Ryan, Elliot and a bunch of Bolivian volunteers. The Bolivian volunteers were evacuated from Bolivia after the US Embassy was kicked out tof the country and instead of cutting their services short they decided to accept the offer and come to Ecuador. Canoa is my turf and I love giving people the Canoa initiation which mostly involves shots of la Una de la Gran Bestias which is a mixture of scorpions, centipedes, marijuana leaves and sugar cane alcohol and dancing all night. Yard golf, renamed golf player (beach golf), proved to be a big hit and we had a bunch of Ecuadorian kids playing with us, a cute family from Cuenca even got into the fun. It was a blast. New Years is always one of those things people try to over due and make a big deal out of but the PC family did it right in Canoa. Some of my favorite moments apart from just beaching it all day included jumping over burning effigies and winning two bottles of champagne to bring in the New Year. It was also crucial to have a last horrah in Canoa before my big move to Quito. I told hundreds of people not to forget me and danced the night away.
After the party it was back to Tabuga for me. After some solid sleep, aka recuperation, I started the count down. I filled my last days in Tabuga with lots of house visits, shared meals, photo ops, tears and project planning. I have requested an extension in Tabuga from May until late August and I was working with some community members on the details of the projects we want to accomplish. Those two weeks passed by way too quickly and I soon found myself in Quito for our Close of Service conference. This was the last time all of Omnibus 97 will be together and the conference covered some really heavy stuff. Heavy meaning thinking about and planning for the future post Peace Corps service. We talked a lot about how to put our Peace Corps service on our resume and about the ups and downs of re-integration into the states. For me the experience was really valuable but also difficult. The Peace Corps is such an incredible experience and each volunteer has such a unique service, it’s hard to face that it’s ending and it was weird to realize that we all are about to go our own separate ways. Our group really is unique and wonderful and the support we all give each other has been crucial to our experiences. After COS I booked it back to Tabuga to finish cleaning out my room, have some going away meals and spend some quality time with my family and neighbours. I left pictures for everyone and a bunch of my little brother, Angel. I refused to have a big party because I don’t consider this goodbye. I am like any other coastal person heading to the big city for a few months to work. I told everyone that in August we’ll have the big party, we will dance all night and hug and I’ll probably cry. Tabuga is a special place and has a special place in my heart. It was incredibly hard to leave but I know I get to head back (whether it’s PC official or not is pending) and I am excited for a little change and for the new challenge of preparing other cool people to be great volunteers and have incredible unique PC experiences.
I am sure there will be more to come on my experiences in Quito, the big city!

This picture shows Susan, Mo, Me, Jay and our host mom's and sons having our first American dinner all together in Quito!

Christmas on the Equator

This story has to start with a big thank you to all the Beaver Meadow kids and friends that donated clothes back in October. The fruits of our joint labors proved to be absolutely delicious and brought smiles to the kids and elderly of Tabuga. On the Saturday before Christmas the Queen of Tabuga gave each child and senior citizen of Tabuga gifts and a big celebration with dancing, food and candy for everyone. There was even an extra surprise being Papa Noel and the Christmas Fairy. Yours truly was the glitter covered, pointed hat, magic wand carrying Christmas fairy. I danced around with all the little kids and sprinkled glitter on their tiny heads. Bigote, the cook at the reserve dressed up as Santa Claus. He danced around with a sack of toys yelling out hohoho. It was an absolutely fabulous Christmas celebration and after dancing we elected a Papa Noel, Christmas Fairy and Christmas Princess from the senior citizens and young mothers. Bigote’s wife was the Christmas Princess. Bigote and I got to hand over our roles and special sparkly sashes to two cute old Tabugans.

Geomaira my best friend

and organizer

Fabiola the queen of Tabuga

Bigote, Papa Noel

Me, The Christmas Fairy

Lily, The Christmas Princess

Me and Señora Yollanda

the Christmas Fairy of

the senior citizens

The Queen and Papa Noel

with the box of hand made

cards and photos for the

senior citizens.

The kids lined up

waiting for their gifts.

From here on the Christmas celebrations continued in Tabuga. The day time party for the kids was followed by a celebratory dance by the adults. Then Monday the elementary school had a party for the kids, Tuesday the high schoolers had their party and finally on Christmas Eve Day the whole community got together to bring in Christmas.

Just like midnight mass in the states, the clock striking 12 is celebrated by a big dinner, signing to Baby Jesus and dancing. I helped prepare beer baked chicken and made brownies for the celebration. After awkwardly watching the people of Tabuga circle around a manger and sing repeat after me type versus at the wad of cloth representing the baby Jesus, I had a delicious meal with some of my favorite people in Tabuga. After the midnight Christmas dinner and a special reenactment of the birth of Jesus, me being the Virgin Mary, we headed to the concrete slab, aka the football field, and danced until 4am.

Christmas day I spent on the beach. We ate fresh fish soup for breakfast, to cure the dancing hang-over, played soccer on the beach, swam and ate fresh fish for lunch. It was an incredible day spent with people I love but, Christmas without the freezing cold winters of NH just doesn’t feel like Christmas. I got a sunburn and I think Santa Claus up in NH probably got frostbite.

Birthday Bash Banter

Apparently turning 25 is the new 21 and also, 27 is 21 too. How do I figure this? The shenanigans that Jason and I celebrated for our 27th and 25th birthdays, respectively, were not those of professional adults but resembled the actions of a college student who just threw out the fake ID and decides to take on the town, be it Durham or San Fransisco, for a whole week. The circumstances were just too beautiful not to take advantage and celebrate hard. My birthday was on a Wednesday, middle of the week, so instead of having to decide between one of the weekends, before or after, I decided to celebrate the whole week. Also, Jason’s birthday is the day after mine and therefore it was an absurd necessity calling for a full week celebration. To top it off, my other good friend Susan BC (not married Susan) birthday was the following Sunday.

So, where to celebrate? As I mentioned the circumstances are just too perfect. Do I want to go an hour south to Canoa to party on the beach with a bunch of local friends and x-pats or to Mompiche, a less developed but pretty beach 3 hours north with all my Peace Corps friends or stay in Tabuga? So many great options. Well, when your birthday is a week long, you can do it all. So, Jason and I started in Canoa with a bunch of friends, danced our faces off and ended up at a bonfire on the beach Saturday night. On Sunday after a day of fish soup, coconuts on the beach and general laziness Jason and I collected our things to head home. Being responsible adults that needed to work Monday.

While passing the Surf Shack, my brother’s former employer, Greg, stopped Jason and I, apologized for not making it out the night before and insisted that we stay another night. Jason and I have gotten really good at playing what we call the poor hungry gringo card which leads to us getting free food, alcohol and a bed for the night. Greg accepted the challenge and challenged us to tequila shots, on him. There isn’t a better way to make me stay then free tequila shots with good people on the beach. So, instead of being responsible Jason and I went tequila and we did it well. Jason fell of his chair and then proceeded to kick himself out of the bar with embarrassment and I drank him under the table, chatting about micro-credit and organic farming. All said, Jason passed the Canoa initiation and I continued with my reputation of competitive drinking and sustainable development banter.
Back in Tabuga, Jason and I went responsible for two days and awaited the arrival of Ryan, Akul and Elliot.

On my birthday the high school took the day off to celebrate on the beach. All the kids put in money to get groceries and we enjoyed an incredible afternoon of beach soccer, tuna sandwiches and even Frisbee. It was an awesome gesture of appreciation for me and a perfect birthday afternoon. Afterwards all the teachers came over to my America-in-a-box to give me a toast, some gifts and eat cake. The president of the community who is also the director of the high school, my neighbor and friend gave a really nice toast to my year and eight months that brought tears close to my eyes but happiness and cheap champagne wiped away the tears. It was really fun to have my work peers, my Ecuadorian brother, Jason, Ryan and Juan Carlos, a good friend from the bigger town of Jama all together on my birthday. I felt so lucky and full of love and goodness. My good friend Geomaira and other friend Fabiola gave me this really soft tiger print pillow for my birthday. Geomaira explained why the pillow was so important, she told me 1. The tiger print represents the way I attacked projects and can get really mad, 2. It says I love you in English because it’s a phrase you use with friends and I speak englihs, and 3, the light color on the tiger print is the same color as me. Hilarious!
The next day, Jason’s birthday, Akul and Elliot also showed up and we had a great birthday dinner and then played basketball in Tabuga with some teenagers in the rain. It was really awesome to have my friends in Tabuga and celebrate goodness with them.

Then, the weekend was upon us and we all headed north. Mompiche is the Esmeraldas province and was a completely different world. We are currently in the extreme dry season in Tabuga and everything looks dead and brown but up north it’s still green and beautiful. The beach at Mompiche is really nice and at the beginning stages of development. It’s the perfect place to invest in land, if anyone is interested. We’d be happy to live on it and manage it for you!

Some other friends met us in Mompiche and we spent the weekend in hammocks, drinking rum, fruit drinks, eating fresh fish, swimming, playing soccer and Frisbee. The best part of the weekend was the walk that we took to a virgin black sand beach. It was so beautiful! The sand glistened and was really brilliant. A handful of the black sand weighs so much and is just so different than regular sand. In an effort to display our politically correctness, we all covered our bodies in the black sand. It looked really awesome with my pink bathing suit and sunglasses. I’ll get pictures to post. After the black sand beach adventure we headed further north to a little island. We had to pay $1 a person to cross. The island is really small and only hosts a few habitants. We ate a delicious meal at the one ‘restaurant’ on the island and then took a walk. We attempted to climb coconut trees and drank fresh picked coconuts.

All said and done, the birthday week was absolutely fabulous and it was fun to turn 21 again!

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays and in my head and heart is a time to be with family. Thinking back right now I realize that I haven’t actually had thanksgiving in Concord since my junior year of college, 2004. Yet, I have still enjoyed my turkey with people I love. This year I started the day at Parque Carolina, the big park in Quito. I laid in the sun and cheered on my friends while they played football. I originally wanted to play, assuming it was going to be a casual Peace Corps game. Unfortunately for me, we accidently met up with a bunch of guys from the US Embassy. The head of DEA operations, military guys, etc. The majority of them had cleats and they even had real flags, the ones with a belt. So, my hippy bare-foot version of football didn’t happen but, it was still fun to watch and relax on grass. Grass is a funny thing to miss but after a life of soccer, lacrosse and playing outside, not havening green soft grass in your life is sad. In Tabuga there is just dirt, or dust in the dry season, like now.

A bunch of my friends were at Ryan’s new pad in Quito making a turkey day feast and I headed to the DCMs house. The DCM is the second to the US Ambassador and a pretty big deal. The house the Embassy rents out for him is a three story, 7 bedroom, 8 bathroom mansion. You can imagine the image we may have had of this dinner upon arrival. My inability to use a fork and knife after only using a spoon for two years and my new skill of sucking the meat off chicken bones had me focusing on my table manners. I even repeated to myself, don’t talk with your mouth full.

As it turns out, this image was wrong. The DCM and his family were incredibly welcoming, chill, fun and really wonderful. It was really great to talk to him about his work, all the places they had lived, the Foreign Service, the Peace Corps and everything. His pre-meal speech was perfect and reflected all my own thoughts. Thanksgiving is wonderful because it’s not about gifts and materialism, it’s about family and sharing and being appreciative. All of us people abroad find in others that sense of family and it was really awesome to be invited into their home with 8 other volunteers, share a delicious meal, some wine, cheese and good times.
We even got to watch football, sit on comfy couches and chose which ever bathroom we wanted to use.

After I went back to Ryans and allowed the turkey comatose to take over my body as I watched a movie and drank some boxed red wine with my PC family. I love Thanksgiving!