Hola from Ecuador!!!

Alright everyone first off I apologize for not getting this posted sooner, but as you might have guessed I have been pretty busy. I can’t believe I have only been here for a couple of days, it feels like I have been here for months already. Anyway here is an update on what has happened to me since I left the States.

Last Wednesday was when it all started. I was dropped of by my parents at our “staging event” in Washington, DC. This is an initial training for us where we can get a feel of what we signed up for and can get to know everyone else in our group. The demographics of my group are about 50/50 male to female and we come from all over the US, everywhere except the deep south. From what I gather we are all very similar in our mindsets, each of us has a very independent/adventurous personality and is very excited about what lies ahead of us.

After a day and a half of training in DC it was finally time for us to get on the plane and head to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Our plane flew out at about mid-day on Wednesday, Feb 6th and after a brief stop in Miami we were finally on our way to Ecuador. As we approached the city we where dealt a brief glimpse of what we were in for, on the left side of plane, sticking out above the clouds, was a snow capped volcano surrounded by nothing but clouds. A couple of minutes later we ducked below the cloud cover and we got our first view of Quito, a surprisingly large city tucked into a valley. Upon landing and getting through customs we were immediately made aware of a Peace Corps custom down here where many of the current volunteers wait at the front gate for us cheering and handing out roses with funny or inspirational sayings attached to them. I have to say it was nothing I was expecting but definitely got me and the rest of my group very excited. After about 20 minutes of hearing/watching the current PC volunteers sing, dance and do a congo line through our bus we were on our way to spend the night in a hostel in Quito.

The next day was full of more training and information about Ecuador as well as receiving my first round of shots. We then all piled into a bus and headed to a town called Tabacundo, about 45 minutes North of Quito. This is where we are going to be in training for the next 3 months, learning Spanish, about the Ecuadorian culture and about our future jobs (mine is agriculture/agribusiness).

After spending a couple of nights at the training facility we got our assignments to go and live with our host family. I lucked out by getting a family that is literally a quarter mile from the training facility which means I will only have a couple minute walk every morning. After being dropped off by my PC rep, I made my way up their driveway that was filled with 3 trucks and an old station wagon and I have to say that I haven’t been this nervous in a long while and it was there on their front steps that I first met the Vaca/Cadena family. My family consists of 5 boys the ages of 16, 15,11,6 and 6 and one girl who is 13, and let’s just says it is a house of high energy! I still cannot believe the parents would want to add one more person (me) into the mix but they have welcomed me with nothing but open arms. Open arms that speak very little English….. Even though they are a very nice, accommodating family, having dinner with them on the first night was by far the most awkward night of my life. Imagine sitting a table where you understand one out of every 10 words (mostly words like “the” and “at”) and then simultaneously they all look at you expecting a response and all you can say in your broken Spanish is “I no understand.” This is pretty much how my first night went and even though it was rough and pretty overwhelming I got threw it. Now, after just two nights with them we are all laughing and comparing cultures which is extremely interesting for both sides. (Last night we even got into a discussion about inflation, the housing crisis in the US, and the USD (also the Ecuadorian currency) compared to the Euro and the Peso. How I was able to speak about all of this I still have no idea.) My Spanish has improved exponentially in just a couple of days though and I have to say the classes where both the teachers and students speak nothing but Spanish work wonders for how fast you pick up the language.

On Sunday the boys from my family and I headed into the mountains to see the lagoons which are a pretty big attraction here. The are very beautiful and just getting there and down from there was an experience in itself. Attached are some of the pics of both the lagoons and my new brothers.

Well that is about it for now, in the up and coming weeks we have all kinds of language, technical and cultural training so I probably won’t add to much to the blog until we start going on our field trips. Like I mentioned earlier, I still cannot believe that is was only a week ago that I got dropped off in DC, it literally feels like I have been here for a month! My time here has already been filled with nothing but excitement and I am sure will continue to be the experience of a lifetime.