February Has Begun, and With it Comes More Rain and Bug Bites

Its hard to believe the last blog I wrote was before Christmas, and more than 2 months have gone by without an update from me. Well, if you check my blog regularly like I know some of you do (I love you Julia), you’re in luck today. I’ve got a lot to say.

First, I’m sitting in my house and I can’t find the last blog post I wrote, and since there is no internet here, its not like I can just jump online and check out what I wrote. So…I’m just going to start.

Andrew and I had an amazing trip together. It was so nice for me to get out of the campo and into a Hilton. I treated myself to a massage, hot shower, hot bath, and jumped up and down on the bed like a little kid – I was so happy to see something so big and clean and comfortable. We walked the Malecon in Guayaquil and went to Las Peñas. If Andrew ever sends me the pictures from that day, I’ll post them.
From GQ we came back to my site for a few days, and Andrew got to experience campo life. Turns out when he got back home he was diagnosed with poison ivy, better than the scabies he convinced himself he had. Don’t let this scare you from visiting! I’ve never had poison ivy or skin problems, only amoebas  From my site we headed to the beach for New Years and stayed in a quiet hostel, practically having the entire beach to ourselves. We watched a bunch of movies, swam in the ocean and the pool, went for runs on the beach, ate great food, and went horseback riding. It was perfect.

Getting back to site after seeing Andrew off at the airport was really hard. I was pretty down in the dumps the next week, but I left for Salinas with my counterpart on January 10th for a meeting with PC and that took my mind off of Andrew. The meeting in Salinas was my omnibuses first “reconnect,” where a bunch of volunteers get together with their counterparts to brainstorm ideas for projects and how to actually develop one, and share the results of the interviews we all had to do in our communities.

The trip was a great opportunity for Nelly and I to bond. We were forced to listen to each other without distractions and hammer out a proposal for a project. She finally understood that because I did my interviews with the Committee of Volunteers I wanted my project to be about them, about making their committee stronger, ultimately benefiting families in communities around our canton; not necessarily a project like Corazon Feliz. I really believe that we can’t move forward with more information and expect the volunteers to participate in another project without first bringing some order into view. Right now, the volunteers and health promoters receive charlas from a doctor once a month that are supposed to be replicated in communities, but in reality no one listens to the doctor let alone gathers people in their community to share the information with them. I believe a lot of this has to do with the fact that some volunteers have received minimal education and aren’t comfortable giving a charla on health topics. They don’t have self-confidence.
After Salinas, I presented my results to the health promoters to try and get them bought into my idea before presenting it to the entire committee, and for the very first time since I’ve been here, I think they finally listened to me and understood what I was saying, and even better, were in agreement with me. I’ve never been happier to hear “tienesrazon” than with the health promoters 2 weeks ago. I shared the results with the whole committee last Wednesday, and the volunteers there agreed with my conclusions also, and so we agreed to have the first taller about business organization – job descriptions, defining a mission, goals, and specific objectives, etc - on February 24th. I also want to work on team building and enhance the volunteers’ confidence. This is a project I never anticipated doing, but one that I am happy to be involved with despite my frustrations. I’m getting better at looking for the little victories in everyday, like the use of minutes during our meeting to control the time people have to babble about their personal feelings concerning a topic that may or may not be related to the Committee.

I do however, continue to be frustrated on a daily basis when I have to work with the promoters because it takes them forever to do anything, and they can never all concentrate on the same thing at once. Its like being in a classroom of 10 year olds. BUT, I am starting to feel like I’m bonding with them too. Nelly’s daughter turned 15 last week, and so we celebrated her quince ano last night. We danced, joked around, I understood them and they understood me, and Petita called me this morning to go to another dance with her this afternoon, which may sound lame, but made me really happy even though I couldn’t go.

I’ve also decided that the only way to get more involved with the youth in my community is to offer to teach English classes, as much as I dread the idea and said I would never do it. I can’t think of any other way to incentivize the kids to come to my house and participate in a project. My plan is to draw them in with English, but use the time as an opportunity to do other things as well. I want to basically have a summer camp. I think it would be awesome. I really need to get on it, and fortunately we have a community meeting this Wednesday so I’ll be able to talk to all the mom’s there about classes and start making my rounds in the community. Too bad people don’t have email here and I can’t just shoot out a meeting request on outlook.

On a more personal/social update, I had an awesome birthday. Ali came over, my family cooked a chicken, colored rice and broccoli! Ali and I watched Bride Wars that night, which made me a little homesick, but overall it was great. Then on Friday some of the nurses and doctors in the Centro de Salud took me out for lunch and bought me an ice cream cake. I’m working with Dr. Velez every Tuesday or Thursday in my community – she started a hypertension control and I’m talking with youth about HIV/AIDS and just getting to know everyone better. So because I’m seeing this doctor more often, who is awesome, and I’m dropping by the Centro de Salud more often, I’m becoming good friends with a group of women there. We celebrated another birthday last week of one of the nurse’s. The women are really nice and I have fun with them, it reminds me of being in a work environment at home.

Anyway, there are more birthday updates…so that night, January 22nd, Marisela and Dolores had a surprise party for me! I had absolutely no idea they were going to throw me a party, I thought we were going out in Sucre. But when I got to their house, people jumped out from behind the door, flicked the lights on just like any good ole fashioned surprise party. They decorated the house for me, had dinner, and a cake. I was literally shocked because this family doesn’t have money and to throw a party for someone is a big deal. We danced until about 2AM, on the early side for Ecuadorians, but perfect for me. I wish I had the words in Spanish to express to them my gratefulness. As soon as I have a cocineta and am able to make dinner on my own, I’m going to invite them over.

So…that is how I started my 27th year on this earth. I’ve decided without really thinking that this is going to be the year of ME. I’m going to stop caring what people think, I’m going to work hard and concentrate on my projects and make them happen. This is the only full year of my life that I’ll have in Ecuador, I’ve got to make it count.

Random Observations/Thoughts:

1. Tomorrow is already February! I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been here and stopped counting down to my COS date, instead the days, weeks, and months continue rolling by.

2. Class distinctions in a town of 130 families. It blows my mind the division that exists in this community because of money, when everyone is living without clean drinking water, hot running water, paved roads, and either has a machete on them at all times, or keeps one in their house and uses it on a daily basis. Ultimately lacking all things we as Americans consider modern and are living in poverty – the majority of the people living in my canton earn less than $2 a day.
Also, there is a huge divide between Los Tillales afuera (outside) and adentro (inside), the very same community separated by a river during the rainy season. Los Tillales adentro in general is much poorer than Los Tillales afuera. The majority of families live in cana houses as opposed to mudubi and their living conditions or worse.

There really is no sense of community, or at least not like I expected. I thought everyone would get along, want to help each other, but I guess this is another example of how people are the same everywhere. No matter how poor you are in world standings, when you don’t know anything but how you’ve been living, its easy to see how the person with the brand new roof in the biggest house that sits above all the others is like the person living inside a mansion in the states.

Small town politics and class distinctions don’t go away because people are living in poverty. These people know they don’t have much money, that they can’t always afford the things they want, but because this is all they’ve ever known, they don’t know how poor they are – they have no idea what the world is like outside of their community.

My family is amazed at my descriptions of what its like to be in an airplane. Abuelita can’t read, neither can Edgar. But at the end of the day, none of that matters, because they are amazing people who are always willing to help, even though they are fighting to get through everyday. Sometimes when I’m with them, they drive me crazy. But when I’m away from them, I remember how strong and caring they are, and how they have had no choice but to make lemonade from the lemons they’ve been given and continue living their lives, enjoying the simple things like family and friends, and finding something to laugh about everyday. They drive me crazy, but they are an example to me everyday of how I want to and should be living my life. I will leave here having learned more from them than I have taught, of this I’m sure.


Sembraring – I almost forgot to mention that I planted corn and peanuts 2 weeks ago. I went with Maria and Priscila and some other people to our neighbor’s plot of land. We left at 6AM, broke for lunch and finished around 12:30PM. I was impressed at the speed with which we planted – the area was big. I need to go back to get a picture of the whole thing, but here are the pics I took that morning. We all had a great time. We did everything completely by hand, from making the holes to dropping in the seeds. I learned how to drop the seeds into the little holes standing perfectly straight, along with some bad words in Spanish 

Merry Christmas!

So I realized after talking to my good friend Julia and re-reading some of my postings that I may not be giving an accurate description of my experiences in Ecuador because I tend to write mostly when I have something to vent about. Well, my New Year's resolution is to start writing more frequently, and more positively! I'm starting today, by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!! People here have been celebrating all month, and the fiestas are really quite something. People dance here for hours without getting tired, and its intoxicating. I'm probably heading to a dance tomorrow night, but will be turning in early to make sure I'm ready for my trip to Guayaquil to pick up Andrew Friday morning! Will write more to update about our trip. We'll be in Guayaquil at first, then heading to my site, and then spending New Years on the beach. Yay! Merry Christmas!!

Stuff´s Been Goin Down

Dryin out the phone after a night swim...woops



Mi Casa! Still in the building stage, but got approval to live there yesterday. So excited!



Grupo de Jovenes after a Campout on the ¨Silla¨


AguaFria - one of the communities I work in with Corazon Feliz

December 9, 2009

Remember that saying, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is;” or how about, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Well I was reminded of those sayings the hard way today. After putting my time, effort, and credibility into a project for the community, turns out the one man with the key to it all decided to walk away.

Supposedly, this man had tons of chickies to give away – 100 for each family that wanted them. The families only needed to pay for the transportation, $7.50. I talked to the President of my community right away to gauge her interest, and we proceeded to develop a proposal and present it to the community. I’ve been talking about this project with my family for a month. I presented the project last week to the entire community, and about 15 families wanted to participate. We are supposed to have a meeting tomorrow again, with a doctor who is coming to give a charla on how to care for the chicks. How embarrassing to have to tell everyone that as it turns out, there really are no free chickens. I put my credibility on the line, and I never should have taken the risk. From day 1 I knew something didn’t feel right. There were too many details missing, pieces of the story didn’t quite fit together, and the more questions I had about the whole thing, the fewer answers there were. But I thought, hey, I’m in Ecuador. An Ecuadorian wants to be helpful to his fellow Ecuadorians and I can take advantage of this to help out my community. No one else questioned his motives or whether or not he would come through, so I figured I could take it at face value. Well, WRONG.

My friend, Ingrid, and I went to this guy’s house tonight looking to talk with him about the whole thing as he hasn’t answered her calls for the past 2 weeks. For the first time in my life, I felt what its like to be locked out, to be standing on the outside of a gate with no means to enter. I felt what its like to be stuck on the street when a limo drives by with black tinted windows as opposed to the one in the limo. (ok, maybe thats a little much, but thats seriously how I felt!) This guy has a huge house surrounded by a locked gate. We had someone that works at the house ask inside for him, but the response we got was that he was sleeping. Sleeping!! At 7pm!!! What a liar!!!!!! He didn’t even have the balls to come out and talk with us, to tell us that something happened with the incubators or make up any other story. All he had to do was make up a story about why it wouldn’t work out, but he doesn’t even have the decency to talk to us. And there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

My family wanted to invest in this project. They’ve been talking about the chicken coop they’re going to build, and were going to start to build it on Monday. Who knows what other families have already started to do. And this is a big deal. Its not like families have money lying around to throw here and there as the wind blows. Getting people interested in this project and ready to commit to the gallpones, food, everything was a big deal. Now its for naught.

Friday, December 11, 2009

A Broken Health Care System? Try NO Health Care System

No appointments for the poor, only waiting in line at 6 in the morning when the doctors don’t arrive til 9, hoping you’ll pull a number that gets you seen before the doctors leave for lunch, if you could afford to pay for the transportation to get you to the health center in the first place. And that’s not just to see a primary care doctor – you have to go through the same thing when that doctor refers you to a specialist, again when you need tests done, to get the results of your tests, and for all follow-ups. These services are only offered in Portoviejo, which means more time to travel and more money. My neighbor has a tumor on her ovary, and she is going to have her entire uterus removed rather than getting a biopsy to see if its cancerous because she doesn’t want to have to deal with all the waiting. She’s already been dealing with the “system” for over a month, and still no biopsy or surgery. She finally got a date for surgery either the 15th or 17th, but had to go back to the doctor yesterday to confirm which day. She also needs to buy 2 bags of blood in case anything should go wrong during surgery.

The government “gives” supplies – birth control pills and condoms; nutrients for pregnant women, women breastfeeding, and kids under 5 years old; supplies for pap smears - to the health centers in the campo “when there are.” When there aren’t, those women on birth control pills having sex with men that refuse to wear condoms just have to pray they don’t get pregnant; babies eat rice and drink soda; and women never get pap smears. But for Christmas, the government has money to buy toys for kids, computers, mattresses, and other things for nurseries and schools. Does anyone else see a problem with this picture?

All kinds of laws exist that are great on paper, for example giving all pregnant women and their children under 5 years old free care and supplies, but aren’t put into practice because the country lacks resources. Well, the country itself doesn’t lack resources. As someone famous said, Ecuadorians are poor in a rich land. There are plenty of resources here. The government just has its hands in too much rather than letting privatization happen.

So there is no health care system here in my opinion – to me, the rules of care only prevent and discourage people from being seen by doctors. This, and tradition drive people to see the “shaman,” basically witch doctors in the campo that practice curing bad energy, therefore healing you of your ailment. Sometimes they are right, and do cure people; other times, in the case of my neighbor, they tell you that a baby is growing outside of your uterus.

When I think of health care in these terms, I get so overwhelmed and don’t know how I’ll ever make a difference here. What good is the education, if the system puts up barriers for people to be seen or if families don’t have the resources to buy the medicine they need? What I’m doing here is really all about behavior change – getting people to change their day-to-day lives to be healthier. Because when it comes down to it, the day-to-day activities are sometimes the only ones that we can control. I need to focus on what individuals can change in their daily routine to lead healthier lives, and leave everything else, because I can’t tackle the system. For me, this is so hard to do. In the states I worked to change the system, now I have to forget the system and change the people. I’m not sure which is harder.

P.S. I have new life in regards to the chicken project. It comes down to looking for other sources of funding, which exist and I will find. You can kick me down, but you can’t keep me down!

Los Fieles

11.3.09

I celebrated my first “Feriado de los Fieles,” or Fair of the Faithful, more commonly known as Day of the Dead. People traveled from all over the country to visit cemeteries and give respect to those that passed away. My family alone had 9 visitors – that makes for 15 people. I had no idea anyone was coming, but on Saturday they started showing up – cousins, nephews, friends, brothers, etc – and are still here. We went to the cemetery in Sucre Sunday and Monday night at about 7:30 until 10:30pm. It was packed with families. People sit in front of a grave and light candles for hours. The streets are packed with people, cars, and stands of food. There is also a traditional drink – colado morado – see pic of it cooking. I’m not sure why its traditional to drink during the Feriado, but its really good, and the color purple. There are different fruits and spices in the drink – pineapple, uba, cinnamon, sugar, mote, not sure what else – and you can drink it hot or cold, with alcohol or without.

Afterward, there are fiestas, of course. Some people don’t agree with holding fiestas during these days, but the one in Miraflores and my town were packed. Music was blasting so loud my bed was vibrating with the beat all night and into the afternoon. I went both nights; but didn’t amenecer – make it til the sun rises, because we celebrated Halloween too, and for that I did amenecer. Three nights of that in a row is too much for my body to handle – I’m no spring chicken.

I really liked being a part of this holiday here. I think it’s a great idea to have a national holiday for the dead. It brings families, friends, and neighbors together; and it’s a time to dedicate to the loved ones we’ve lost. I was thinking about the last time I went to a cemetery to visit anyone that I’ve lost, and I realized I couldn’t remember. Its been years since I’ve visited my Grandmother, Uncle, or Great-grandmother. I think about them all the time, but I never stopped to take the time and actually visit them. When I get home, I’m lobbying for a national holiday for the dead – we have holidays for everything else, why not the dead too?

Clinica Movil Was a Success

10.27.09

My friend and co-volunteer, Ali, organized a Mobil Clinic to visit her site to give free pap-smears today. Alea and I went to Las Mercedes to help her put things together, and it went really well. There were almost 100 women! The Mobil Clinic is a part of SOLCA – a private hospital here dedicated entirely to treating patients with cancer. Ali gave a mini-charla on how to do self-breast exams and Alea and I did our Corazon Feliz thing – took blood pressure and BMI for everyone and tried to educate people individually on the importance of a balanced diet and exercise. After about 60 people, I started feeling and sounding like a broken record. Some of the women were attentive and had questions about what we were telling them, while others listened politely. I can’t tell if the ones that listened but didn’t talk understood our message or not. Getting people to change their behaviors is so hard, and I doubt that hearing about nutrition and exercise once is going to make a difference for anyone.

It’s interesting to me that Ecuador and the US have the same problems with obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, when the resources of each country are so drastically different. In the states, there is so much more education and access to services – be it exercise, a nutritionist, doctors, support groups, or stores with healthy food - and yet, there is a huge problem with obesity. In contrast, in Ecuador people work in the fields with machetes, wash clothes by hand (in general seem to work harder because they’re not sitting behind desks all day long), grow various types of fruits in their backyards, have access to vegetables, and need to walk more if they leave their house, and services just don’t exist. You would think that both countries would have obesity under control based on the services provided or the lifestyle necessary to survive. But the opposite is true. Obesity poses a huge health problem in both countries. This may be an over-generalization, but I think in both countries the problem is that people don’t understand the importance of preventing illnesses, and don’t want to change their habits. Resources stop being an issue, and the individuals’ decision becomes more important, and people are the same everywhere, regardless of their material possessions or governmental infrastructure. People need to eat healthier and exercise more – what is so difficult about that??

More Photos

Partido en Quito



Life in the Campo

livin la vida loca

10.15.09

I didn’t get to run in the race in Guayaquil. PCVs were on travel restriction until October 6th. I did, however, go to Quito for the seleccion mundial! Alea, Sarah and her boyfriend Danielle, and I decided to go Friday afternoon for the game on Saturday. It was a really hectic trip – we took a night bus Friday and arrived in Quito at Kristen’s around 4:30AM. We napped for a few hours and then headed to the stadium at 10 AM because we only had general admission tickets and were hearing that to get a seat we’d need to get there super early.

The game didn’t start until 5pm, so we made friends with people sitting around us, hung out, drank a bit, and got caught up in the atmosphere. The entire stadium was filled by around 2 or 3pm. When Ecuador scored the first goal, the stadium went nuts – it was really the most exciting moment in sports I’ve experienced. And then no more than 30 seconds later Uruguay scored, and the stadium was completely silent. Also the first time I’ve been in a stadium and its literally been silent. I could see the Uruguayan team celebrating, but couldn’t hear a thing. When Peru scored a goal against Chile and their score was tied 1-1, the stadium got some life again, only to be shut down once and for all when Uruguay scored on a penalty shot to end the game. Ecuador lost 2-1; and lost again the following Wednesday, killing their chance to play in South Africa for the World Cup.

Although it sucked that Ecuador lost, that didn’t stop us from going out Saturday night. We danced the night away until about 4 – ran into some other volunteers and folks that work at the embassy. Sunday we went to an artesania market and watched AMERICAN FOOTBALL. It was so incredible!!!! I felt like I was back in the states. Sunday night we were back on a night bus to Portoviejo. I am not a fan of night buses. I basically didn’t sleep for 3 days. And my body is still mad at me for it. I ended up getting amebas somehow. Not a fun experience, but my meds have helped. Now I’ve developed a cough and sore, scratchy throat. I hope I don’t get TB from the wood-burning stove we use to cook.

10.16.09
Today was the Nutricion Fair in Portoviejo. The Committee of Volunteers were asked to make soy products to sell at the fair, so yesterday we made everything from scratch. There were about 10 of us at Sra. Nelly’s house from 9 AM until 8 PM. We peeled the soy beans, cleaned them, crushed them by hand-churning a tool to squeeze the milk out, boiled sugar, and shredded yuca, verde and other vegetables to make tortillas. 11 hours! I was thinking about trying to sell soy products every month in Sucre during our health fairs to help raise money for the committee, but after Thursday, I hope to never have to make soy products by hand again.

It wasn’t the fact that we did everything by hand that was frustrating; it was the lack of organization and the attitude from some of the people working. In general, people here don’t seem to have a concept of organization, teamwork, or commitment. I’m not sure why, but volunteers don’t attend meetings that they say they will and they don’t notify you that they’re not coming. When people do show up, they don’t want to participate. I’m not sure how to create a better sense of comradery, but I’m going to try and figure something out because the fact that 24 de Mayo has a committee of volunteers is pretty special and not something that all cantons have. We need to take advantage of this instead of pissing it away.

Somehow the soy milk ended up “breaking,” and we had to salvage what we could and boil it again. There were some tears involved in that process and finger pointing as to who’s fault it was. I guess I was a little frustrated too because I still feel like an outsider. I don’t understand everything that is said, so I can’t enjoy the little inside jokes that are made while working; no one listens to my suggestions whether or not they can understand them; and I just don’t see how I can help or improve things. I’m great at identifying problems, but finding practical solutions is another issue.

Anyway, the soy was a hit during the fair – we sold a cup of soy milk and tortilla for $.25 and ended up making about $10-$15.

10.18.09 – Aerobicos!!
Friday night we started the first aerobics class in Los Tillales. I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to show up, but about 15 people came - basically on time too. So we agreed to do class every Wednesday and Friday at 7pm. If anyone reading this is ever in the area – be sure to stop by! You don’t want to miss it! I’m quite the instructor…I’m sure those of you back home can appreciate that picture. What I really need is a tv and dvd player so I can pop in a dance-therapy class. I am accepting Christmas presents!