Ecuador moments

Every so often, when I least expect them, I get little vignettes that I call Ecuador Moments. They can be verbal, but for me, they are usually visual. Here are three.

We walk to school by way of a combination of streets and some dirt alleys. There is grass growing at the edge of these alleys, and traffic has to move very slowly. One day, as we were walking home, we came around a corner, and there was a cow standing in the car track of the alley, staked out at the edge eating the grass. Why let the grass go to waste, right?

Yesterday afternoon, on our way to a farmer's market in downtown Quito, we stopped at a rather nice mall to get something to drink. I was in the bathroom, with my papel higienico in my hand waiting my turn. A gentleman came in, collected his paper, took one look at me, and said "Morning". Now that I am an official diplomat, I responded in kind.

Shortly after visiting the market, we were walking back to the trolley stop, and it occurred to me that what I was hearing and seeing could have been found in any city in the world. Then, we rounded a corner, and one of the mountains that surround the city rose up and smacked me in the face. Yep, this is Quito.

Snowcovered* mountains

I got up early on Saturday morning, and stepped out onto a second story balcony to check out the temperature.  I was surprised to see the snow on a nearby mountain, and ran to get the camera.  I then woke Marguerite to show it to her.  Neither of us had noticed the snow before, and trust me, we had looked at all of the surrounding mountains.

 It turns out I needed to put the asterisk after the word “snowcovered”.  We are approaching the end of the rainy season here.  At this time of year, a heavy rain can fall as snow that far up, but its life is fleeting.  In fact, by the end of the day, it had disappeared.  In the “coldest” months of the year, the snow on that mountain can last for a few weeks.  (There is at least one mountain, Cotopaxi, that is covered year round.)  We were lucky to see it; partly because of its brief existence, and partly because the peak is so often obscured by clouds and mist.   So, it was a lucky delight.

 

 

Our hike – Nuestro camineta

We took a hike today on an old disused railway track called Chaquiñan.  There were probably more bicyclists out this morning than hikers.  This trail is walking distance from the house we are staying in.  Our host father and mother took us.  Our route involved a drop of around 500 meters, and, of course, we had to walk back up.

The first picture is taken from approximately the top of the trail.  It shows the flat valley floor so far below.  If you look closely, you can see a brand new power line tower.  It’s so new it hasn’t been wired yet.

 The second photo is one that Marguerite took from the valley floor.  It shows the Rio Chiche.  The diagonal scar on the left is the railroad track/hiking trail.

The sounds of Ecuador

In this neighborhood, Ecuador gets up early.  It seems like half the houses around here have chickens, and therefore roosters.  The cartoon image of a rooster crowing for the first time at dawn is a myth.  Around here, they get started as early as 3:00.

 The dogs, however, stay up late.  They seem to have choir practice half an hour after I go to bed, regardless of the time.  I can frequently hear five or six distinct voices at any one time.  There are at least four barking as I write this.  That might be their warmup.

If I want to get a good night’s sleep, I have to figure I will lose about  twenty percent of the time to the dogs and the roosters, so I have to head off to bed that much earlier than I would ordinarily  need to.

 We do enjoy the frogs.  There is one species that starts with a deep rumble, and follows up with a kind of a clicking noise.  We don’t hear as many birds as we expected, which continues to surprise me.

 We had a remarkable thunderstorm in the middle of the night last night. We also had one late this afternoon.  I’m hearing the sound of a gentler rain, now, and the dogs have been silenced.

A day in the life

I thought it might be informative to tell you what the training is like.  We are building up a collection of training manuals.

We spend more time on Spanish than anything else, as you might expect.  The 38 of us have been tiered according to our perceived abilities.  We pay as much attention to cultural issues as vocabulary and grammar.

Our health related training has been fascinating.  We recently had a stimulating class on the ins and outs of the various forms and causes of diarrhea.  They spend a lot of time and effort on helping us stay healthy.  Suspected drug abuse will send you home in a heartbeat. 

Safety is also a big concern.  We are not allowed to drive, nor are we allowed to drive or ride motorcycles.  They pay a lot of attention to crime prevention and safety.  We are not allowed to travel near the Colombia border.  The area around the currently erupting volcano is also out of bounds.

Today, they started training us on how to train others.  They have done a lot of that since 1961.

A joke I couldn't resist

This came from the boyfriend of one of our fellow students:

Why was the zombie from Ecuador so nice? It was a Peace Corpse.

Our walk to work

The picture below is a highlight from our walk to school. The high wall is typical. Practically every house has a wall of some sort. You might not be able to tell from the picture, but the wire along the top is barbed. The nicer properties have higher walls and grand, sturdy gates.

Our Stipend

Here is the breakdown on a per day basis for our stipend:

     Food and lodging                          $11.00

     Walking around                                2.25

     Daily transport                                 1.50

Total                                                 $14.75

Please note that more than half is for room and board. Also, please note what is not there: compensation for our time and talents. Hence the name Volunteers.

The neighborhood

The picture above shows the neighborhood outside the training center, and the mountains in the distance.  They are frequently obscured by clouds and mist, but we always look forward to a few hours of clear weather when we can see them.  The weather up here changes every few hours.  In the short time we have been here, we have yet to have clear weather all day long.  Nor have we had more than an hour or so of rain.

Estamos Aqui!

We landed in Quito last night, and were bussed to the Peace Corps training compound in a town nearby called Tumbaco. (No, not Timbuktu.) The facility was originally built to be a private school, and we are staying in gender divided dormitory rooms.

There are 38 in the class. Marguerite and I are the only couple, and the only ones in our age range. The rest seem to range in age from 22 to 26. One is a Volunteer who was pulled out of Ukraine, for obvious reasons. They're a good group. You'd be proud of them.

We stay here one more night, and then we meet our host families on Saturday, and move in with them. Training is for 12 weeks.

I had hoped to include a striking photo with each posting. We would like this to be more show than tell, but we have had very little time for photography so far, and we don't have any interesting enough to post. jlw