My Ecuaventure

I’ve been told once or twice that I’m a dreamer; to get my head out of the clouds. To focus on reality, not fantasy or the prospect of what could- or, in my less than expert opinion, should be. I’ve tried to do just that. I honestly— albeit halfheartedly— have. But it never quite works out the way the suggestors or I ever expect. I guess that’s true for almost every worthwhile experience in life, but no matter how many times expectations get exceeded or disappointed, it always feels like the first shocking time when you realize you don’t know everything and almost certainly never will. The real challenge comes in deciding what to do with yourself after that realization. How you act and react to the knowledge that the world really is your oyster and that no matter how much you know, there is always more to learn; no matter how much greener the grass is in the distance, the fact that you choose to be sinking your bare feet into the grass directly underneath you and what you choose...

Alright alright, I admit it’s been entirely too long since my last blogpost. In my defense, I’ve been trying my hardest to get my various visitors to write accounts of their trips, but I am repeatedly met with “don’t hold your breath” or simple “nah” responses, so looks like you guys are stuck with me. But where to begin? My problem now is that most things that happen to me that would have seemed outrageous a year ago are pretty standard now. Getting on a bus and having the person sitting next to me hold a bag full of live chickens the entire ride is no big deal. Arguing with the fruit vendors that each apple costs 20 cents instead of 25 is my new normal. In that sense, I might fail in painting a full picture of my experience- when I mention a bus ride and you picture a Greyhound while I’m remembering a campo Unidos bus, there’s bound to be some misinterpretations. But maybe that’s what you want to hear about- the little intricacies of how my life has changed and what will come ...

Phew, where to start?! This past week has been, hands down, my best week in Ecuador (so far). Before I get to that, though, let me catch you up to speed on what I’ve been up to since I last checked in. Since I’m still holding my breath that Shelby will come through and grace us with a blogpost about our trip, I’m going to refrain from giving you the blow by blow. Instead, I’ll give it to you by the numbers: Number of PC Volunteers Shelby met: 8 Number of PC Sites Visited: 3 Number of Parades Watched: 4 Number of Mangos Shelby Consumed: 25+ Number of Days Spent Without Running Water in My Site: 3 Number of Hours Spent on Buses: ~40 Number of Days Spent by a Body of Water (Beach or River): 6 Number of Hostals/Hotels Stayed at: 3/1 Number of Ecuadorian Provinces traveled: 5 Overall, we had a really fun time. She got to see where and how I live, got to meet my counterpart and host family, got to shop at a huge market, got to meet a bunch of my PC friends, and so much more. She came ...

While we all wait on pins and needles for Shelby's blogpost about our trip together, I thought I would bring to your attention a funny video about joining the Peace Corps that a friend sent me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-wDq17zyN0 Enjoy.

OK, this is going to be a long one, so bare with me. I’m going to do a little bit of a recap of my year- the ups, the downs, the visitors, the work, the food, the friends, etc. So, my year started as it usually does, with a birthday brunch at Grandma Bev’s house. It’s not that I necessarily started to feel the weight of what was to come whilst eating my bagel and shmear, but I definitely remember thinking that this was going to be my last b-day brunch with the family for at least a couple of years. I’m not a group movement type of gal, so I don’t remember feeling particularly upset about it, but I definitely took a second to think about the sorts of family events that I was about to miss- birthdays, graduations, holidays, etc. January and early Feb were spent mostly running errands and trying to get organized for my upcoming adventure. I don’t think I had ever spent so much money on myself or been into an REI quite as many times as I did during that month and a half. Overwhelmed w...

Well, the update your blog emails have started flowing, so I guess that means it’s time to give you guys something. Not too much has been going on the past few months- well, not much by my standards but according to Mom, you guys will find anything I write fascinating, so here goes nothing… Last time I updated the blog was the beginning of October, right before my birthday. It wasn’t the most exciting birthday I’ve ever had, but I’m a pretty tranquila gal, so hanging out with the host fam was all I needed to honor that fateful day 23 years ago. After that, I hung out in site for a few weeks helping out with a few garden projects that are going on. More on my work a little later, I’ve got to ease my way into that whole schpeil. At the end of October, I headed down to Cuenca to celebrate Halloween and Cuenca’s Independence Day. While Cuenca’s Halloween didn’t quite rival the few Santa Barbara Halloweens I’ve experienced, the Independence Day festivities definitely blew me away. T...

alright, alright i know it´s been way too long since i´ve updated this. instead of writing a novel detailing every single thing i´ve done that has kept me from writing to you, i´ve decided to do a quick rundown of the more important events of the past few months and then later (if you´re lucky and i´m just that bored) i´ll expand a little. first, let´s talk about dad´s visit way back in late august. i don´t take full responsibility for not updating you about his visit because i asked him (very nicely) to write me a blogpost from his perspective detailing our trip and never heard back. we basically went on a whirlwind tour of ecuador starting in and around quito and going north to the cloud forest and then to a huge indigenous market called otavalo, we then headed east into the oriente (amazon jungle) where we stayed for a few days exploring the jungle and trying our best not to get eaten alive by bugs, next we headed south to my favorite city in ecuador, cuenca, where dad got to meet ...

Well, a lot has happened since I last updated this here blog. First, and most importantly, I finally found a place to live. My PC boss had to come do 2 separate site visits to help me out, but in the end we finally found one. It’s a little out of my budget (PC has different living allowance classifications and I’m in the lowest, so my rent max is $70/mo) – the new place is $100 a month so my boss is trying to see if PC will grant me a rent increase for the extra $30 or I might just have to pay out of pocket. The place is really great though, not sure if it’s worth $100 or if the landlady just saw desperate gringa and decided to raise the price a little bit, but either way I’m glad everything got sorted out. It’s in the middle of Cebadas (the town next door), so there are definitely more people around. The trade off is pretty straightforward- campo changed into “city”, birds waking me up every morning between 6 and 7 has changed to construction trucks booming by between 5 and 6, s...

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...

A couple of things have come to my attention recently sobre my blog. First, WAY more people than i thought are reading it. I thought it was just the immediate fam + or – some aunts and cousins, but turns out we´ve got extended fam, family friends, regular friends, old babysitters- i´m starting to feel like Perez Hilton in his early days (before he turned all Hollywood). So request numero 2 coming atcha (since you guys did such a great job on the first one) can you leave a comment or shoot me an email or something so i can get a better feel for who my audience on this thing is. I´ll change the settings so that you don´t have to be a blogpost member to leave comments, but that just means you have to give some sort of indication of who you are within the comment or else they all will just say anonymous and i´ll still have no idea who´s reading this thing. Second, some of you don´t seem to understand my Spanglish. I don´t whip it out very often, only ever single time i open my mouth ar...

So I’ve been trying to stay away from the internet as much as possible- if you read that article about me, you’d know I’m trying to wean myself off of those so called creature comforts and go back to the bare necessities. That being said, I have my kindle, 2 nice cameras, a laptop, and a flip video camera at my disposal and a veces I find myself checking my email on my kindle before I go to bed. I only have one small request, instead of emailing me (or posting on my facebook, as those get sent to my email tambien) about updating my blog, how about updating me on what you’ve been up to. I understand that you are all interested in what I’ve been up to and what my day-to-day life is like, and I promise I will try to be better at updating my blog, but it’s a little disappointing to have half of my emails be requests about updating my blog… let’s all promise to make a change so that what little time I spend on the internet can be a little bit more worthwhile for everyone involved. Sorry ...

May 11, 2010 So during the swearing in ceremony, we had 2 speeches from volunteers: one from NRC and one from Ag. In one of the speeches, Ross (the NRC representative) ended with a list of things he had learned thus far in training. I’ve decided in an effort reduce the amount of UPDATE YOUR BLOG emails I get from certain people (Mom and Sarah, I’m looking at you), to follow in Ross’s footsteps and every so often bring you a list of things I have learned or observations I have made that have stuck out for me. So without further adieu, I bring to you: Rachel’s Observations of Ecuador (I know, I know the title needs a little work, but titles have always been the hardest part for me. Well, titles and introductions if you want to get specific). 1. Not all blue and white UNIDOS buses stop in Cebadas. While this may mean little to you guys, let me tell you that it’s worth it to double check with the driver if the bus you’re boarding is going to be going all the way to your final destin...

Ah, where to begin. This past month has been a whirlwind. First there was Easter with the family in Ayora, then the 2-week tech trip around the Central Sierra, and finally swearing in at the Ambassador’s house in Quito. Oh and then I almost forgot the most important part, arriving and settling into my new home, Guayllapishi. I guess I’ll start at the beginning, my final week in Ayora. It was Semana Santa which is basically a week long Easter celebration. Seems pretty standard, right? Well, this is Ecuador, so of course it wasn’t your normal Easter celebration. Instead, we ate this soup like dish called Fanesca for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the entire week! In case the soup wasn’t enough to fill you up, there was also another dish that came with every meal- a huge plate of mashed potatoes, avocados, a piece of cheese, and a slice of a tomato. On the first day, I liked the soup so much that for the first time since I had been there, I ate my whole bowl. Dolores shouted ...

Alright, so today I finally have a few minutes to myself and I’m going to try my best to update you all on what I’ve been doing for the past month! Just to warn you: this is going to be long, might get a little dirty (hygiene-wise, of course), and I can’t promise great writing, but you asked for it so here I am to deliver! Let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place to start)- Feb 16. I had an early morning flight out of Sac to and then eventually to D.C. It was an emotionally exhausting day, not because I cried that much, but because I think it finally hit me that I was going to be gone for 2 years. The airport was crazy hectic and I honestly think I would have missed my flight if Aaron wasn’t holding my spot in the security line. OK now fast-forward to landing in D.C. Picture me with my 2 huge bags and my overstuffed carry on trying to hail a cab. Alright fine, it wasn’t that hard because there was a huge line of cabs waiting curbside, but still it was a schlep from the lugg...