Are we really getting paid for this?.....

Hey everyone,
Unfortunately I have been a little under the weather this week so it has taken a while for me to get around to my blog. In truth I think my body is still recuperating from all the bug bites I received in the coastal area and from the extreme temperature change we endured going from Ecuador’s coastal area (beach and rainforest) to the sierra (mountains). Anyway I have healed enough now to finally spend some time at the computer.

Our first week we spent in a town that is about 2 hours to the Northwest of Quito, called Puerto Quito. Our jaws immediately dropped once we saw the place we were staying , picture a really nice summer camp with a pool, soccer fields, basketball and volleyball courts, a beautiful river running right by it, men’s and women’s bunk houses, separate buildings with classrooms and multiple trails to take nature hikes. Oh and last but not least they hired a Chef to serve us almost every meal of the day, so let’s just say that we were really roughing it.
As much as it does sound like a vacation we actually did have to go to class during the day and learn about agriculture and other meeting facilitation type topics. The Monday we were there was definitely an eye opening experience, for the first time in my life I got to catch, kill and gut a chicken. (See the attached picture of my friend Chris and I, that is our chicken, we treated it as if it was our child and its name was Cheech the Chicken).

We were in a small tourism town called Mindo where a volunteer has been working with an organization to develop their small animal facility. Right now he has worked with them to build a number of buildings for their chickens, another facility for their cuyes (guinea pigs) and he also helped them build a fish pool for a kind of fish they sell in the markets here called Tilapia. All in all it was really cool to see that, with a little bit of hard work and know how; one person could really make a difference in the lives of the people here.

The next two days of Puerto Quito we spent in some Peace Corps technical training nothing too exciting here, but then we headed to an integrated farm where we learned all about land conservation, land terracing, and organic fertilizers, definitely very interesting. After our Puerto Quito adventure, our class split up in 5 different groups. Everyone going to a different part of the country that represented where we were going to be living for the next two years, I went along with the Agriculture Sierra group and on our first day we made the 6 hour trip to a small city south of Quito, called Riobamba. This town is where the famous tourist train leaves from in which you can enjoy the mountains and scenic views of Ecuador by sitting on top of the train. We heard rumors though that they stopped this because of a Chinese tourist getting decapitated last year. Anyone want to go?!!! Anyway, Riobamba is a very safe feeling, clean city in which we were able to see some of the local sites and visit their museums. The next two days we went into the country where one of our teachers is actually from and learned how he has been working with a German organization on developing land conservation techniques and other small animal production, very interesting. On Thursday, we headed off to a small town in the mountains called Salinas. Approximately 1000 people live here and they are nationally known for their success in the small business arena, having about 80 small businesses altogether. They have everything you can possibly think of, sausages, cheese, wool clothing, compost, mushrooms, salt mines, chocolate, soy products, paper, let alone a booming tourism industry (well booming for a small town in Ecuador). I really enjoyed this town because it was here where things were made a little more relative for me since I am going to be working more with small businesses in Vilcabamba, than in agriculture.

As you can imagine we were all exhausted (and some sick) when we got home from this fun/information packed two weeks. I still cannot believe we have been here for only 2 months, I feel like I have already had a lifetime of experiences just in this short amount time. Both trips were great because they brought our group together and I was able to get to know some people who I wouldn’t have gotten to know otherwise. All in all, I feel truly honored to be a member of Omnibus 99 and in turn I am also dreading even more the inevitable day that is coming in the next two weeks where we are ALL going our separate ways in different parts of this foreign country to experience the culture shock of living in a new community all over again. Oh well I guess that’s why they said it wasn’t going to be all swimming pools and chefs in the Peace Corps pamphlet I got over two years ago…