So just to clarify I want everyone to know what a horrible blogger I am. I’ve been in Ecuador for 3 weeks now and I have not written anything. Luckily I’ve been journaling religiously so I’m going to back track from what I’ve written in there. Ok…here goes…
2/2/2011
I flew from Knoxville to D.C. at around 7am and arrived in D.C. around 9am. It was my very first time on a plane by myself! So many firsts for me on this journey. The flight went off with no problems but I was a nervous wreck getting to the luggage terminal; waiting forever for my bags and then hauling all of my crap from the luggage area then outside to try and find a taxi or shuttle to the Holiday Inn hotel. Again I made it to the hotel with no problems. Yay! Got checked in and met my first PCT Erin Menzies. She is also in our Ag group specializing in Water Resource Engineering. We chatted for a bit then took a walk around D.C. to get lunch before officially meeting the other PCT’s.
Our In-country orientation consisted of a series of “meet and greets” with games, presentations, goal setting, etc, etc…It was soo long but entertaining at the same time. It really got me motivated for the journey ahead. After our orientation I met up with my friends Dominic and Linda for dinner. It would be my last meal in the states…it was awesome…. thanks PC for the crab cakes and beer. It was so great to see my friends before leaving but sad at the same time. It really made me realize that I was actually leaving (this was no longer a daydream, I couldn’t just pinch myself out of Ecuador) my friends and family and probably wouldn’t see most of them for 2 years.
After dinner I headed for bed (we had to be up and out of the hotel by 3:30am!!)…so after like 3 hours of sleep we slumped out of the hotel and onto a bus for the airport, and after a long series of ticket lines, security checks, layovers,customs, and greasy fast food we finally arrived in Quito, Ecuador at around 7:30pm!! I could feel the affects of the altitude as soon as we got on the bus for our hotel in Tumbaco. We were up at about 9,00ft (someone might need to correct me on that) and I was really lightheaded and really out of breath. BUT some things I saw on the bus ride through Quito: a man breathing fire in front of traffic; KFC, TGIF, Dominos (guess I’m not so far from home); some beautiful buildings; barbed wire and broken bottles on the walls of all the homes in residental areas and dogs everywhere (it was a little unnerving at first with the broken bottles but I’m getting used to it now; as for the dogs that will take a little longer…I want to take every dog I see home with me). From Quito we drove to Tumbaco (about a 45 minute drive and a 2,000ft decent) to the hotel San Patricio. It was a beautiful hotel and I really enjoyed staying there those first two nights in Ecuador. We took a bus to the PC training center nearby and had more orientations about what to expect from PC and what PC expects from you, host family expecations, money, food, medical issues, crime, etc, etc…I’m so sick of presentations and it’s only 3 weeks in…Ha!
2/5/2011
I met my host family…dandandaaa! They are awesome. That weekend PC gave us our host family presentations about what to expect, advice with kids, food restrictions, etc. Everyone was pretty nervous and not sure what to expect. I was nervous mostly about my spanish and communticating with my family. PC wanted us to play this game where we get a card with half our name on it and our family gets the other half. So we have to walk around from family to family and find our match. I plunged into this huge crowd of Ecuadorians thinking “holy shit, how am I going to do this”…turns out you can get pretty far with a smile and hand gestures. My host family found me first and I felt a huge wave of relief. I have 5 new family members. My host parents: Marta and Carlos and three siblings: Gaby, Mayri, and Carlos (Jr). Here’s a little info on everyone that I have slowly accumulated over the weeks. My host dad Carlos is a math teacher at a high school in Quito. My host mom teaches people how to make hand crafts such as dolls, needle work, etc. She also does repairs on handcrafts. I’m hoping she can teach me how to crochet one day when I have some extra time (which to be honest probably won’t happen because PC keeps us all so crazy busy!). Gaby(27), my host sister, works in a factory in Quito that manufactures things like diapers and shower probucts. I think she works in quality of packaging, and making sure everything looks correct. Mayri (25) is in school studying chemistry and wants to be a chemical engineer. Carlos (17) goes to a high school in Quito and wants to be a Chef. My family here in Ecuador is really great! They have had many many volunteers before me so they know the ropes and are really patient with my “gringa spanglish”…we get a lot of good laughs at my attempts to construct sentences. Oh one funny thing (Mom you will get a kick out of this) my family asked me what my Mom’s name was and I told them “Tanya”…they looked at me with this funny look on their face and asked me again and again I said “Tanya”…they said it sounded like I was saying “tenia” which in spanish means tapeworm. Sorry Mom, your name means sound like tapeworm here. Anyway I’m going to try and post a video here soon of my house so you guys can see where I’m living and what it’s like here.
