Past Month...

Well, not much new to report on here but the update your blog emails have started up again, so I better give you guys something. The past few weeks I’ve been mostly dealing with a little housing issue that has come up. Long, whiney story short, I had a house set up for the full two years, but Jaime and Sara (who had previously been living in Riobamba) decided that they wanted to live there, so they basically inadvertently kicked me out. They figured we could easily share the house, which in all honesty is probably true, but you see, there is a widely understood and followed PC rule that PCVs don't live with their counterparts. What's the saying, don't shit where you eat? Well, I don't want to shit or eat 2 feet away from the people I already spend almost every waking hour with. There's got to be some separation here (church/state, work/play, Ecuadorian/American, etc), some degree of privacy, right? What if some other PCVs want to come over for the weekend and they happen to bring a haba (case) of Pilseners (one of the only beers here) with them- am I back in high school, do we lock ourselves in my room and pretend to be studying or something? What if I meet a nice Ecuadorian guy who I want to bring home…to practice my Spanish with (those Spanish verbs and grammar can be pretty tricky)? What if Sara and Jaime want some privacy, are they just going to hang a sock from the front door knob and expect me to wait outside by the piedra? I don’t think so. Besides that, it’s PC policy (!) and we all know that I’m a stickler for the rules around here. Even though I love this house, the whole housing issue ordinarily wouldn’t be that big of deal and I would just go into town and find somewhere else that meets the PC housing standards, but they have been doing construction on the roads leading up to and past Cebadas (town next door), so all of the workers have taken up residency in town, which leaves me with absolutely no viable options. Entonces, I’ve been sharing the house with Jaime and Sara for a couple of weeks now while we continue to look for another place. It’s not that big of a deal yet, since I’m still within my first 3 months and under ordinary circumstances, volunteers live with a host family during that time, but come the end of this month, my 3 months are going to be up. My program manager, Nelson, is coming to check out everyone’s sites within the next month, so he says that if we haven’t figured it out by then, we can start discussing other options, but I’m hoping something will open up by then. Since I’m sure I’ve got you all on the edges of your seats now, I’ll be sure to keep you posted if anything changes.

Other than that, not much has been going on. I’ve been having the most inconvenient and random electronic issues, which I’ve been taking as a sign that I am using my gear too often so I’ve been trying to back off from my computer and kindle as much as possible. The cameras I’ve been writing off as possible future career investments so I’ve been keeping up with those as much as possible…you never know. Next time I use the Internet in Riobamba, I’ll try to upload some more pictures.
Since I am still within my first 3 months in site, I am technically on travel restrictions so in an effort not to get kicked out of the program over here, all I can tell you about my 4th of July weekend was that I definitely didn’t leave site, there were absolutely no long bus rides involved, and I certainly didn’t have a BBQ with other Americans. If I had done those things however, it would have been a pretty fun weekend and a good way to give my 2 new roommates some privacy so that I don’t have to see any socks hanging from the doorknob anytime soon. Oh well, there’s always next year!

I guess that’s kind of all I’ve got for now. Special prize goes to Dad who sent a package full of Rolling Stone (and pistachio) magazines. Mom keeps asking me what I want people to send me and I don’t really have too big of a list going yet, but if you were one of the ones who were wondering, all I can say is that for a country that produces coffee and chocolate like no other, they don’t have much to show for it in their markets and all their magazines and reading materials are all inconveniently in Spanish, so there’s that…

Chao!