orientation, Orientation, and MORE ORIENTATION

After a NyQuil induced red-eye from San Francisco, I arrived in Boston the morning of Monday, July 19th. The program I'm volunteering with, Rostro de Cristo, partners with JVC International every year for a two week domestic orientation at Boston College before volunteers leave the country. So in addition to the 15 other volunteers I'll be with in Ecuador this year, I got to meet 33 JVC volunteers who will be living and working for 2 years in Peru, Belize, Tanzania, Micronesia, Nicaragua, and Chile. Leaving home and saying goodbyes was pretty heavy emotionally, so it was really comforting to meet a bunch of other people all going through the same thing. It was also nice to still be in the US for a couple weeks before completely leaving the country for a year--I think it made the transition from home to Ecuador a lot easier. Orientation was packed full of useful information--everything from health and safety in developing countries to workshops on teaching (which most of us will do at least in some capacity), to living in commuity (both JVC and Rostro de Cristo emphasize the importance of living in a commuity of fellow volunteers and supporting each other throughout the year) to workshops on social justice and spirituality.

We left for Ecuador the morning of Sunday, August 1st. After a 4 hour flight from Boston to Miami, a 5 hour layover in Miami, a 3 hour flight from Miami to Guayaquil, and over an hour in customs, we didn't get to bed until almost 2am on our first night in Ecuador. With only 5 days of overlap with last year's volunteers (Rostro brings in a completely new group of volunteers to Durán each year), we were up at 8am the next day, Monday, August 2nd to start our in country orientation. The first couple weeks here FLEW by, and I'm still trying to prcess it all, but here are a few highlights and first impressions of life Ecuador:

• surprise, surprise... it's HOT! Most days are in the high 80s this time of year, with nights in the 70s. Coming from San Francisco, this is at least 20 degrees warmer than what I'm used to. The funny thing is this is the coldest time of year in Ecuador, so all the Ecuadorians think it's freezing out. It will be in the low 70's at night and I'll be wearing shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt, and our Ecuadorian friends are wearing long pants and heavy jackets. Apparently the rainy season from late January - early May is the hottest time of year, when it's raining, humid, and temperatures average in the 100s every day. So I guess compared to THAT it's cold right now...

• there are animals EVERYWHERE--dogs, cats, chickens, and roosters are common pets, and some people have guinea pigs and/or ducks. There are also stray dogs and cats all over the place, and as I mentioned in my first blog they are FERTILE. Geckos frequently make it in the house, but they help take care of the mosquitos so we let them be. We haven't found any mice in our house, but the volunteers in the Arbolito house have already caught 4 over there. The dogs, cats, and roosters make noise at all hours of the day/night (I thought roosters only crowed at dawn, but aparently they like to cock-a-doodle-do ALL NIGHT LONG). This was pretty annoying at first, but I guess I'm used to it now because I don't really use my ear plugs anymore. Oh and last week there was a bull walking down the middle of the main road by my house. Completely alone, casually strolling down the road. No aparent owner, and I was the only one who thought anything of it because everyone else--cars, buses, bikes, people--just drove/walked around it like it was no big deal.

• They speak Spanish here! Weird, huh?? This is probably going to be the toughest part of my transition since I haven't taken a Spanish class in 10 years. The more I practice, though, the more it comes back to me. In addition to conversations with neighbors (which are pretty simple at this point--I can usually understand at least half of what they say), I'm trying to do at least 15 minutes a day of vocab or grammar practice on my own. Luckily there's a few volunteers with really good Spanish (including my housemate Celso who's a native speaker from the Dominican Republic!), and they've been great about helping when I don't understand things.

mmmmmmm!

Lots more differences--and similarities--with the US, but I don't want to write a book here. I'll end with one more quick dose of Ecuadorian reality: DON'T DRINK THE WATER! We don't have plumbing in Durán (aparently they put pipes in a few years ago, but they haven't started using them), so water trucks come around every few days to fill up our cistern. We use this water for showers, sinks, and toilets, NOT drinking. We get separate deliveries of drinking water (think Alhambra jugs), which we use for drinking, cooking, brushing our teeth, etc. I haven't gotten any yet, but apparently parasites are pretty common. It could come from eating food at a neighbor's place or a restaurant that cooks with the cistern water, or even just from the little bit of water that inevitably gets in your mouth when you shower. Nothing yet, but I'm keeping a close eye on my bowels, so I will keep you posted!