February 24, 2008
Sunday 2:30 PM
Our room in La Esperanza
Hola como estan yo me llamo Santiago Paul no se preocupen porque estamos bien y ustedes como estan en los Estados Unidos y Mary esta bien aqui, y estaban lavando la ropa, y les gusta la comida y hoy comimos chuleta de cerdo y choclo con habas y papas me gusta patinar en el parque y juego con bolas y como golosinas y vemos unas peliculas.
The above passage was written by our little brother. He was very excited to write to everyone. So, I hope you enjoy!
I’ll start by saying that everything here remains great and we still feel very lucky to have been placed in Ecuador with such a great family for these first few months and to have such great fellow aspirantes (fellow Peace Corps trainees, we’re not supposed to say we’re volunteers until we make it to swearing in on April 18, 2008. So until then we’re aspirantes).
Now for a quick recap of the past week. On Monday night I ‘helped’ make a traditional Ecuadorian dulce(sweet) called caca de perros, or in more formal circles, tostados dulces. I was supposed to make them but I really ended up just being more of an observer as you can see from the photos (you’ll see I was quite busy keeping in touch via numerous incoming phone calls. Who knew we were in such high demand!! It seems like the going rate calling from the U.S. to Ecuador is around 10-15 cents per minute, much cheaper than calling the U.S. from Ecuador). The reason why I was supposed to make them can be inferred from other photos where you will see other aspirantes in the kitchen cooking. As part of our language and culture classes we made a meal together.
The remaining photos consist of pretty pictures of La Esperanza, a local marching band, an injured bird that our family looked after for a few days, a day trip to Carpuela, gardens we helped plant at our training center, greenhouses we helped make at our training center, waiting for the bus, cows crossing the Panamerican highway, washing laundry, watching and learning how to improve laundry techniques, guinea pigs (for future consumption), quails (their eggs are used in fruit drinks), and a delicious lunch made by our host mom (described by Santiago above, consisting of pork chops, fava beans, potatoes, corn on the cob, soup, and juice from tomate de arbol…sorry no translation available but it’s a yummy fruit).
We also took a trip to observe an environmental education lesson in a bilingual (Kichwa and Spanish) school, where Mike was able to practice his Kichwa for the first time. We learned how to cook some healthy meals with foods that are available here(which is pretty much everything) and we were given a great cook book with tons of wonderful sounding recipes that seem like we could actually make….once we get to our site. And for those of you who don’t know, we have some information about our site but you’ll have to call us to find out
That pretty much sums up the highlights from the past week. This week we’re taking a trip to a nursery and getting information on all the possible sites that are available in Ecuador for aspirantes in Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Oh, and in case you haven’t heard, President Correa declared a national state of emergency for all of Ecuador because of severe flooding in the coastal regions. Although the flooding is terrible, we are safe and dry over 3,000 vertical meters above where the major flooding is occurring. So please do not worry about us, we’re great.
Love to you all!
PS...we have added a new link section to the blog. On the right hand side you will see links to the websites of other Peace Corps Volunteers (or trainees for now) that are here in Ecuador with us. Their views are of course their own (although we may share some of them). enjoy.
as always, click on the above picture to see a larger version.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Los Catzos
February 18, 2008
We’ve completed our first week or training! We had lots of language classes, learned about every sort of worm and bacteria that wants to make our lives miserable AND how to avoid it AND treat it, so don’t worry. We also spent all day Friday shoveling, weeding, planting, and sweating in the process of constructing a pretty big garden, which we will have pictures of in our next post.
This weekend we went to the Festival de Canciones Infantil, which is a huge quasi-singing competition for kids in the area. It was quite the experience and it took my ears a few hours to recover fully from the volume of the event. An interesting side note is that at the kinda concert/competition they were having a raffle for a plate of food containing some rice, avacado, tomato slices, and cuy (guinea pig). Interesting because (a) it was sitting out all night and (b) because between every song, of which there were at least twenty, the emcee would grab the plate, show it to the audience, and describe its contents. But it was lots of fun and a friend of Santiago, our little brother, ended up winning second place.
On Sunday, we went to the market and we took lots of pictures and then went for a walk through our town to some land that our host-mother owns. During our walk we encountered a young boy who was preparing los catzos. Mike wants to try them, I don’t. See if you can figure out what they are from the pictures.
So tomorrow starts a new week which promises to be just as full as the last, if not more. Mike found out that tomorrow he starts taking Kichwa classes, an indigenous language in Ecuador, in addition to Spanish classes and everything else. I get to keep working on my Spanish, which I am enjoying and is going well.
We miss you all and send our love.
enjoy the pics...
(and as always, double click on the above image to see the slideshow)
(and don´t forget that if you want to receive email updates to this blog you have to subscribe to it... just enter your email address into the box on the right and follow the instructions. good luck.)
We’ve completed our first week or training! We had lots of language classes, learned about every sort of worm and bacteria that wants to make our lives miserable AND how to avoid it AND treat it, so don’t worry. We also spent all day Friday shoveling, weeding, planting, and sweating in the process of constructing a pretty big garden, which we will have pictures of in our next post.
This weekend we went to the Festival de Canciones Infantil, which is a huge quasi-singing competition for kids in the area. It was quite the experience and it took my ears a few hours to recover fully from the volume of the event. An interesting side note is that at the kinda concert/competition they were having a raffle for a plate of food containing some rice, avacado, tomato slices, and cuy (guinea pig). Interesting because (a) it was sitting out all night and (b) because between every song, of which there were at least twenty, the emcee would grab the plate, show it to the audience, and describe its contents. But it was lots of fun and a friend of Santiago, our little brother, ended up winning second place.
On Sunday, we went to the market and we took lots of pictures and then went for a walk through our town to some land that our host-mother owns. During our walk we encountered a young boy who was preparing los catzos. Mike wants to try them, I don’t. See if you can figure out what they are from the pictures.
So tomorrow starts a new week which promises to be just as full as the last, if not more. Mike found out that tomorrow he starts taking Kichwa classes, an indigenous language in Ecuador, in addition to Spanish classes and everything else. I get to keep working on my Spanish, which I am enjoying and is going well.
We miss you all and send our love.
enjoy the pics...
(and as always, double click on the above image to see the slideshow)
(and don´t forget that if you want to receive email updates to this blog you have to subscribe to it... just enter your email address into the box on the right and follow the instructions. good luck.)
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Pictures!!!!
WOW! Thanks to everyone who posted a comment.
we typed this up last night. enjoy...
February 13, 2008
We arrived at our host house and host family on Saturday around 2:30. We are living in a small town about 15 minutes from where we have classes during the week. It’s a small town with a huge, huge, old, and pretty church that is just about on our front doorstep. Also, out our front door is the town’s central park which is small and pretty with all sorts of colorful flowers. Just beyond our front door is an incredible view of the surrounding communities. As far as the eye can see are green, rolling hills (on a clear day we can see the glaciers on Cayambe, a nearby mostly inactive volcano).
Aside form the wonderful vistas the people here are extraordinarily nice. We live on a street that consists of five or so connected houses (they used to be a convent) where the sisters of our host mom, Dona Fabiola, live with their families. Connecting the houses is a large garden with all sorts of interesting things like; corn, carrots, chamomile, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, and tons of plants for making teas.
In short, we’re still having a great time but of course we still miss you all!!
We’ve attached all the pictures we’ve taken so far. The pictures are of the following places and/or events:
Packing our stuff in Arizona
Our walking tour of Washington D.C.
Me on bus to the training site
The training site
Mary doing laundry with the help of Fabiola, Santiago, and Carolina (notice the absence of Mike’s name from this list)
Pictures of our house including our room, the living room, the kitchen, the garden, the courtyard, the outside or our house, and views from our front door.
Enjoy!!
(double click on the image to see a larger version and watch the slideshow!)
we typed this up last night. enjoy...
February 13, 2008
We arrived at our host house and host family on Saturday around 2:30. We are living in a small town about 15 minutes from where we have classes during the week. It’s a small town with a huge, huge, old, and pretty church that is just about on our front doorstep. Also, out our front door is the town’s central park which is small and pretty with all sorts of colorful flowers. Just beyond our front door is an incredible view of the surrounding communities. As far as the eye can see are green, rolling hills (on a clear day we can see the glaciers on Cayambe, a nearby mostly inactive volcano).
Aside form the wonderful vistas the people here are extraordinarily nice. We live on a street that consists of five or so connected houses (they used to be a convent) where the sisters of our host mom, Dona Fabiola, live with their families. Connecting the houses is a large garden with all sorts of interesting things like; corn, carrots, chamomile, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, and tons of plants for making teas.
In short, we’re still having a great time but of course we still miss you all!!
We’ve attached all the pictures we’ve taken so far. The pictures are of the following places and/or events:
Packing our stuff in Arizona
Our walking tour of Washington D.C.
Me on bus to the training site
The training site
Mary doing laundry with the help of Fabiola, Santiago, and Carolina (notice the absence of Mike’s name from this list)
Pictures of our house including our room, the living room, the kitchen, the garden, the courtyard, the outside or our house, and views from our front door.
Enjoy!!
 |
| The first ecuador album |
(double click on the image to see a larger version and watch the slideshow!)
Saturday, February 9, 2008
The first week...
We’re finally here!
It’s Friday night right now, and with any luck we will be able to post this to the blog on Saturday. We have been incredibly busy since we landed, and there hasn’t been much time to type. Anyway here’s what we have been up to since we last checked in. ..
Sunday-Wednesday: Three full days of staging events in Washington, D.C. Here’s the breakdown of our training group:
43 trainees. 10 of us are married. 4 are over 50 yrs old. All have been overseas for something at sometime. Almost all of us speak Spanish. And about a third of us graduated within the last year.
Our training group is divided into two sectors: Habitat Conservation and Sustainable Agriculture. In ten weeks we will be split up and spread all over the country to our respective sites, but for now we will be together (mas o menos).
Wednesday night: We arrived in Quito and were greeted by a horde of volunteers bearing roses and welcoming messages. They whisked us (and our massive amounts of luggage) away to a nearby hostel where we spent the night.
Thursday: The morning was spent at the Peace Corps office in Quito meeting the staff, taking ID pictures, filling out forms, taking a language proficiency test (for placement purposes), and speaking with current volunteers. That afternoon we piled into a bus and drove an hour to the North to the town of Tabacundo where the training center is located. As we arrived the sun was setting on the glaciers atop Volcan Cayambe.
Friday: More introductions in the morning including Health and Safety, local history, and some survival Spanish lessons. There are 11 language instructors (all Ecuadorian) for the 43 of us! The afternoon had technical classes during which the Environmental Rep. from USAID gave us an overview as to what they are up to in Ecuador. We also received our language scores (Mike: Advanced high, Mary: Intermediate medium) and some information about the host family that we will be living with for the duration of training. Our family consists of a mother (Fabiola, 51), her son (Andres, 17) and her grandson (Santiago, 9). Their house is right across from the parque central in the town of La Esperanza which sounds like it is located about 15 minutes by bus from the training center in Tabacundo.
Tomorrow morning we will be in the town of Cayambe touring the market and then in the afternoon we will meet Fabiola and her family for the first time!
Sunday will be spent in La Esperanza getting to know Fabiola and her family, and then Monday-Friday we will be at the training center by day and La Esperanza by night.
The weather so far has been fantastic (sunny and 50-60’s) and the food is delicious (potatoes, rice, chicken, fruit, eggs, bread, cheese).
I guess that is it for now.
Hasta luego,
Mary and Mike
It’s Friday night right now, and with any luck we will be able to post this to the blog on Saturday. We have been incredibly busy since we landed, and there hasn’t been much time to type. Anyway here’s what we have been up to since we last checked in. ..
Sunday-Wednesday: Three full days of staging events in Washington, D.C. Here’s the breakdown of our training group:
43 trainees. 10 of us are married. 4 are over 50 yrs old. All have been overseas for something at sometime. Almost all of us speak Spanish. And about a third of us graduated within the last year.
Our training group is divided into two sectors: Habitat Conservation and Sustainable Agriculture. In ten weeks we will be split up and spread all over the country to our respective sites, but for now we will be together (mas o menos).
Wednesday night: We arrived in Quito and were greeted by a horde of volunteers bearing roses and welcoming messages. They whisked us (and our massive amounts of luggage) away to a nearby hostel where we spent the night.
Thursday: The morning was spent at the Peace Corps office in Quito meeting the staff, taking ID pictures, filling out forms, taking a language proficiency test (for placement purposes), and speaking with current volunteers. That afternoon we piled into a bus and drove an hour to the North to the town of Tabacundo where the training center is located. As we arrived the sun was setting on the glaciers atop Volcan Cayambe.
Friday: More introductions in the morning including Health and Safety, local history, and some survival Spanish lessons. There are 11 language instructors (all Ecuadorian) for the 43 of us! The afternoon had technical classes during which the Environmental Rep. from USAID gave us an overview as to what they are up to in Ecuador. We also received our language scores (Mike: Advanced high, Mary: Intermediate medium) and some information about the host family that we will be living with for the duration of training. Our family consists of a mother (Fabiola, 51), her son (Andres, 17) and her grandson (Santiago, 9). Their house is right across from the parque central in the town of La Esperanza which sounds like it is located about 15 minutes by bus from the training center in Tabacundo.
Tomorrow morning we will be in the town of Cayambe touring the market and then in the afternoon we will meet Fabiola and her family for the first time!
Sunday will be spent in La Esperanza getting to know Fabiola and her family, and then Monday-Friday we will be at the training center by day and La Esperanza by night.
The weather so far has been fantastic (sunny and 50-60’s) and the food is delicious (potatoes, rice, chicken, fruit, eggs, bread, cheese).
I guess that is it for now.
Hasta luego,
Mary and Mike
Friday, February 1, 2008
Send us mail. Please :)
The time is nigh.
We leave for Washington D.C. this Sunday morning from Tucson International Airport. Our flight departs around eight o'clock in the morning and we arrive in D.C. close to four o'clock (EST), with a brief layover in Houston. Then, we will be in Peace Corps meetings and greetings until Wednesday, February 6 at which point in time we will depart for Quito.
Ways to say "buen viaje" before we leave the country:
1. Call us at the Holiday Inn Georgetown (202) 338-4600. Ask for Mary Driscoll or Mike Carbone. The best time to call is the evenings (after 8:00PM EST). Keep calling until you get us, we may be in and out of the room but we will be around.
2. Email us. The hotel has free internet. But really, call us. We want to talk to you.
Once we arrive in Ecuador, after spending a night or two in Quito, we will spend the following ten weeks in a small town outside of Cayambe. During this time we will be working on language skills and technical skills day in and day out. Therefore communication during this time may be hit or miss. Still, we want to hear from you.
Here are four ways to say "que hondas" while we're in training:
1. Send us mail. Letters, as well as outdated, are also totally fun to receive.
Here’s the Address:
“Our Name” PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla 17-08-8624
Quito, Ecuador
South America
(the "PCT" stands for Peace Corps Trainee. We won't be PCV's (volunteers) until we complete the 10 weeks of training)
When sending letters or packages use the United States Postal Service and nothing else!!
2. Send a package. If you want to send us something more than a letter the instructions become more complicated. Use the same address given above but make sure you follow the instructions below.
Mailing Do’s:
Do use the USPS (not UPS, DHL, FEDEX, or any other expensive acronym).
Do expect it to take around two weeks to reach us.
Do use a padded envelope (preferred) or a small box if necessary.
Mailing Do Not’s:
Do not declare a customs value (if they make you… declare $1)
Do not send anything via DHL, FedEx, or UPS.
Do not send anything in excess of 4 pounds. (If it weighs more than 4lbs it may never reach us!)
3. Post comments to the blog. We will be updating our blog but we don't know how often we will have access to the internet. Furthermore, we don't know how much time we will have to spend online once we get there. We will definitely check the blog first and then if there is extra time we will check our email. Which brings us to our fourth option.
4. Email us. We're not sure how much access we will have to email but we will eventually get a chance to check it. If you are going to send multiple emails in a short time (more than one a week) copy and paste the old email into the new one and we'll just check the newest email.
We look forward to hearing from all of you in one way or another.
Hasta the next post,
Mary and Mike
(and, if you just can't wait for new pictures from Ecuador... take a look at the ones we took last time we were there. They're featured in the post we made on November 28th)
We leave for Washington D.C. this Sunday morning from Tucson International Airport. Our flight departs around eight o'clock in the morning and we arrive in D.C. close to four o'clock (EST), with a brief layover in Houston. Then, we will be in Peace Corps meetings and greetings until Wednesday, February 6 at which point in time we will depart for Quito.
Ways to say "buen viaje" before we leave the country:
1. Call us at the Holiday Inn Georgetown (202) 338-4600. Ask for Mary Driscoll or Mike Carbone. The best time to call is the evenings (after 8:00PM EST). Keep calling until you get us, we may be in and out of the room but we will be around.
2. Email us. The hotel has free internet. But really, call us. We want to talk to you.
Once we arrive in Ecuador, after spending a night or two in Quito, we will spend the following ten weeks in a small town outside of Cayambe. During this time we will be working on language skills and technical skills day in and day out. Therefore communication during this time may be hit or miss. Still, we want to hear from you.
Here are four ways to say "que hondas" while we're in training:
1. Send us mail. Letters, as well as outdated, are also totally fun to receive.
Here’s the Address:
“Our Name” PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla 17-08-8624
Quito, Ecuador
South America
(the "PCT" stands for Peace Corps Trainee. We won't be PCV's (volunteers) until we complete the 10 weeks of training)
When sending letters or packages use the United States Postal Service and nothing else!!
2. Send a package. If you want to send us something more than a letter the instructions become more complicated. Use the same address given above but make sure you follow the instructions below.
Mailing Do’s:
Do use the USPS (not UPS, DHL, FEDEX, or any other expensive acronym).
Do expect it to take around two weeks to reach us.
Do use a padded envelope (preferred) or a small box if necessary.
Mailing Do Not’s:
Do not declare a customs value (if they make you… declare $1)
Do not send anything via DHL, FedEx, or UPS.
Do not send anything in excess of 4 pounds. (If it weighs more than 4lbs it may never reach us!)
3. Post comments to the blog. We will be updating our blog but we don't know how often we will have access to the internet. Furthermore, we don't know how much time we will have to spend online once we get there. We will definitely check the blog first and then if there is extra time we will check our email. Which brings us to our fourth option.
4. Email us. We're not sure how much access we will have to email but we will eventually get a chance to check it. If you are going to send multiple emails in a short time (more than one a week) copy and paste the old email into the new one and we'll just check the newest email.
We look forward to hearing from all of you in one way or another.
Hasta the next post,
Mary and Mike
(and, if you just can't wait for new pictures from Ecuador... take a look at the ones we took last time we were there. They're featured in the post we made on November 28th)
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