Week One: Feb. 2.18.08

Hola friends and family:

Como estan todos? Ojala que les vayan bien y muy felices! It has been a full week here in Tabacundo, Ecuador and I figured it would be a good time to fill in on the empty spaces. Perhaps, for good measure and clarity, Ill work backwards! This weekend I suffered from a horrible fever which was very much so expected. The combination of rare foods and vegetables, long hours during the day, and overall adaptation to the culture, weather, and altitude through me for a loop. At least one of us 43 aspirantes (Peace Corps Volunteers en espanol) are sick everyday. The most we can do is avoid eating street food, unboiled water, and anything else that hasnt already been boiled/soaked in iodine/or eaten without its skin. The meat here varies from cow, sheep, chickens feet, guinea pig (cuye), and everything else in between. We figure that the less food we eat that is fried or covered with fat from some type of animal, the better we are off.
I´ve lucked out because my host family seems to be more financially secure and can provide me with extra fruits and vegetables that I do no otherwise bring home. My diet usually consists of bread, queso (a light mozarrella perhaps), cafe y fruta in the morning and rice or soup, and some kind of meat in the evenings. We are supposed to provide ourselves since we are in class monday through friday 8-5. Its also a bit difficult to find a balanced lunch since we (especially me) are still unsure as to how our stomachs will react to foods from restaurants or little bodegas. Like I mentioned above, our group consists of 43 aspirtantes. Two couples are of 60+ and three more sets of couples are married. Two being of 30 years or older and one in their early twenties. Another is engaged without her fiance and more than a handful of my compadres are still in relationships or just recently separated. Classes usually start with extensive language training where we are separated by our spanish proficiency levels. Later on in the day, we are scheduled for program training which then divides the entire group into sustainable agriculture and Natural Resources/Conservation. So far, none of the sustainable agr. aspirantes will go to the jungle or the Oriente and none with go to the galapagos. From the Natural Resources a few will go to the jungle and perhaps the galapagos. Unfortunately, everything is still up in the air! I was a bit upset to know that I will not be travelling to the Oriente, I figured the jungle or the Andes would have been a good fit for me. So.. I´m guessing that I will most likely go to the Sierra, the Andes, because as of today I am now learning Kiwcha (the indigenous dialect of Ecuador, not to be confused with the indigenouw dialect of Quechua from Peru!). Learning Kichwa and going to the Sierra was my decision and something that I am totally looking forward to. My other option was to go to the coast which I figured wouldnt have interested me as much.
My spanish is coming along, eventhough I feel that it isnt. I am looking forward to reading more in spanish as soon as the sickness washes away. My host mother has been really worried about my health, she feels as if it is her fault that I am not feeling well. She is really cool because she knows a lot about agricultura and its really interesting to understand agriculture and eating organically from her point of view. In her backyard she has a handfuly of guinea pigs, a sheep, and a field of wheat, papas, and maize. She also has growing tomates de arbol, green beans, some sort of legume, and some sort of plant which leaves you can use to cook food in. We pretty much live alone on the second story of her house and her son and his family live on the other end across the courtyard. Behind her fields lives her other daughter and her family and every weekend more family from Quito come up to hang out. And I literally mean, hang out. I forsee lots of family time in the future. Other than that, things seem to be moving along slowly but surely. I am really looking forward to all the material I will be learning about sustainable agriculture, we have a huge manual that we will cover in the next few months. I am also looking forward to our information field trips that we will be taking to other towns to see organic farming and practices etc. There was word of a hike this weekend and I really hoping more excursiones like that will come our way. Please feel free to write back, ask questions, or comment! I´m sure

I´m forgetting a lot but its getting late and I have to jam with my compadre katie. Its dangerous to walk around when its late!



Thanks for listening and much love as always,




Laurena