En Cayambe

I´ve only been in Ecuador for 5 days, but I can almost say a sentence in Spanish! The language barrier is proving to be my biggest challenge. I´m living with a host family who only speaks Spanish, so we result to gesturing and drawings after I say - como - about 3 times. They are very patient with me, and I´m teaching them some English too.

To back up a minute...I arrived in Quito last Wednesday, was greeted by the PC Ecuador staff and wisked away to a hostel in Quito. By the next afternoon, I was on a bus to Cayambe, a small city in the Sierra about 2 hours north of Quito. Luckily, I haven´t had any problems adjusting to the altitude - I am about 10,000 ft. above sea level. It is beautiful here. I went for a run this morning and had a crystal clear view of the Cayambe Mountain covered in snow. I also watched a parade yesterday as part of the fiesta celebrating Saint Pedro. Lots of children participated in the parade and dressed in the traditional style for the Sierra or the Oriente. I´ll try to upload photos soon.

I´ll be living with my host family for the next 9 weeks during training. If I pass all of the PC evaluations (and I will), I´ll be sworn in as a volunteer August 19th. So for now, I have lots of tests and community activities focusing on improving my language, learning the technical skills I´ll need to support my community health projects, safety and security, and culture. Its exhausting and the hardest thing I think I´ve ever done. But its worth it.