I Miss…

Seattle. Kayaking in Portage Bay, boating on Lake Washington and sunsets over Puget Sound. I miss running around Greenlake and browsing through funky shops in Fremont. I miss the liveliness of Pike Place Market and the excitement of being downtown. I even miss Belltown. I miss brunch at Macrina, pizza at Tutta Bella and the shakes at Red Mill. I miss the five million little coffee shops on Capitol Hill, Vietnamese sandwiches on The Ave, and good bookstores. Any bookstores! I miss watching the Mariner’s lose five games in a row, but celebrating at Kell’s afterwards anyway. I miss Mt. Rainier.

I miss summer camping in the Hoh Rainforest, evergreen trees, hiking above treeline in the Alpine Lakes, and the amazing San Juan Islands. I miss the breathtaking view of the Cascades from my old rooftop. I miss running under the Montlake Bridge, sitting by the Cut watching the boats go by, and the cherry blossoms in the Quad. I miss going to Edmond’s Beach with my girls. I miss playing with my co-rec soccer team. I miss the Windermere Cup, Solstice Parade, SeaFair, the Puyallup, Bumbershoot, and concerts at the Gorge. I miss REI and the rain. I miss grass. I miss real Chinese food, desperately. I missed virtually all of the Olympics this year, even the Opening Ceremonies. But most of all, I miss my family and friends. I guess everyone gets homesick sometimes.  

Best Present Ever!

My good friend Katy recently sent me one of the coolest presents I’ve ever received - a handmade canvas bag with the Obama ‘08 campaign logo on it! Katy is a skilled seamstress, so the bag is not only beautiful but functional, and makes the perfect carrying case for my SIGG water bottle with the matching Obama sticker. I’m excited for Obama to announce his VP sometime this week, as well as for the upcoming DNC Convention starting next Monday. Thank you, Katy!

Still here

I am alive, I’ve just been really busy for the past month. I also haven’t been home much - in the entire month of July, I slept in my own bed two nights.

I would write more, but I’m off again, heading up north to assist with the Judith Lombeida Medical Mission for a week. I should be back in a week with fun stories and pictures.

In the meantime, I’ve updated the Chagas photoset on Flickr.  Working on the Chagas project was an incredible experience; it feels great to be part of a team that is actually making a difference in people’s lives. Plus, I got to do field research and met some really fun and interesting people.

Cheers, Ann

Jungle Adventure

A few weeks ago, I went on a jungle adventure with a bunch of PCVs from my cluster. We saw waterfalls, camped in an indigenous village, hiked in knee-high mud to a scary cave with bats and cave-dwelling birds. Tarzan, the guide dog, accompanied us the whole time. We ate a lot of tuna and crackers. We said goodbye to our friend Zach, from Omnibus 96. Good times.

Some Advice for Omnibus 100

Dear Omnibus 100,

In less than one month, you will be arriving to serve for 27 months in Peace Corps Ecuador as Community Health and Youth & Families volunteers. There are a whole range of emotions that you are probably going through right now – excitement, fear, anxiety, giddiness, relief, etc. I know this because I was in your shoes exactly one year ago. I didn’t really know what to expect, even though I had lived in the country before. Serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer is an experience like no other. So, here’s some advice for the 100^th group of Peace Corps Volunteers to come to the Republic of Ecuador:

I. Ditch the packing list that comes in that PC/E manual that you have been emailed. It’s useless. You do not need to bring a frying pan to Ecuador, nor do you need a kitchen knife. It’s a developing country, not a destitute one. There are many stores that sell perfectly serviceable kitchen gear, such as pots and knives. Even if your site is in the campo, you will be able to visit a SuperMaxi or Mi Comisariato at some point in your service. And what genius decided to include a garlic press in the list of must-bring items? You can buy garlic paste here and it’s cheap, so don’t bother bringing a garlic press unless you will die if you can’t press your own garlic.

II. There are two kinds of PCVs: a) those Volunteers who are only friends with Host Country Nationals (HCNs), are generally site rats, and avoid hanging out with other PCVs because “I didn’t come here to make friends with gringos.” b) Everyone else. It’s OK to hang out with other gringos, especially during the first few months (well, you have to since you’re all in training together). You will spend 95% of your time with Ecuadorians, so you will have plenty of time to practice your Spanish and “whip it out” (i.e. our deputy training officer’s way of saying “making friends”) when you are in your site. That being said, don’t spend all of your time hanging out with other gringos, you’ll never learn to speak Spanish and you won’t integrate well.

III. You are an employee of the United States Government. That is, The Man. Ironically, Peace Corps often attracts people who are rather, how shall I say this, “idiosyncratic” and/or “free thinking.” The combination of this personality type and working for Uncle Sam often results in some unfortunate head-butting. Bureaucracy is an inevitable part of life as a PCV. Deal with it. Plus, compared to the infuriating Ecuadorian bureaucracy you will face getting anything official done, PC bureaucracy is a cakewalk.

Devastating Earthquake in China

The death toll from Monday’s earthquake in southwest China has reached 19,500 and is still climbing. It’s so horrific, I can’t even fathom the depths of the despair that people there must be feeling. A friend who works in humanitarian aid told me that the relief efforts in China are actually going remarkably well, compared to the cyclone in Burma or even last summer’s earthquake in Peru. The Chinese government is being very open with the international community about the extent of the destruction, which is quite a departure from past natural disasters that China has suffered, which can only be positive in terms of getting aid to the region. All of this, however, is small consolation for the parents grieving for their children, buried in the rubble of a collapsed middle school. And that is just heartbreaking story among many. Being here in Ecuador, I have felt particularly helpless, but I did find a good list of international aid agencies that helping with the relief efforts in China, for those who are interested. One small glimmer of hope, although I know this sounds incredibly callous, but at least the pandas are safe.

La Caminata Loca (The Crazy Hike)

Last Friday was a national holiday, so my friend Katie and I climbed a mountain with fifteen moppets (Ecuadorian children), a dog, and a tiny puppy. The children were from a barrio only about fifteen minutes outside of Loja by car, although their standard of living was much more similar to that of campesinos (people who live in the country, usually poor). Neither of us brought our cameras, although there were many moments in which I wish I would have.

I started off the hike hoping that my new running shoes wouldn’t get too muddy. Little did I know that by the end of the hike Katie and I would be sliding down the mountainside, using our shoes as makeshift mud-skis. The hike began innocently enough, walking through fields and pastures. There was a rainstorm early on, but it was blessedly brief and provided us a good laugh, as we took the children’s hands and rushed across a cow-filled pasture to take shelter under an abandoned shack.

The group of kids we went with was wonderful. The oldest of them was 12, and the youngest was 5. Even though their neighborhood is only a little ways outside the city, their community is quite self-sufficient and the kids were unspoiled, not jaded know-it-alls like many city children. As we hiked along merrily, the children picked berries they called salapas along the way. They shared these little treasures with us, and although we were hesitant at first, the berries were delicious and soon Katie and I were eagerly foraging for them along with the kids. Roughly the size and shape of blueberries, the salapas were a reddish-green in color and tasted like nothing I’ve had. Probably not the absolute smartest thing in the world to be eating unknown berries in the mountains, but hey, they didn’t make us sick.

The kids were so sweet. They picked us berries, clamored to hold our hands, and one little girl even gifted me with a bouquet of wildflowers. One little boy, David, seemed to be the wise man of the group. He never said much, but showed us the best route to climb when the trail seemed impossible and told us which berries were poisonous. When Katie and I lagged behind the children (we told him we were viejas, old people, when we couldn’t keep up), I was relieved when I saw him waiting for us.

Megafauna

Being in Quito is a trip. Everything is bigger - the buildings, the cars, the houses, and the disparities between the haves and the have-nots. I have lived in this country for over 10 months now and am still struck by the fact that in Quito, on my way for a medical visit in a modern skyscraper, I pass by indigenous women in full-dress, babies in slings on their backs, hawking gum for ten cents. Or that there are gleaming Centros Comerciales (shopping malls) filled with designer wares across the street from the local tiendita (little store) where I can’t get change for one dollar.

I was in Quito recently for my mid-term medical exam and got to meet the new volunteers, Omnibus 99. I am so happy not to be a newbie anymore. Our Omnibus has been in-country for 10 months, as of April 20^th.

I also went to Quito because I was selected to join the staff of El Clima, the “esteemed” PC/Ecuador volunteer newsletter. You can read my article on food insecurity, in Ecuador and around the world, here.

I also got to catch up with friends from my Omnibus (98 woot!) and attended the Swearing-In party for 99. I have to admit that their party was more fun than our own, mainly because there was no pressure of having to leave for your site the next day and not knowing what to expect (party pictures to come). Due to intense flooding throughout the country this winter, the trainees from 99 did not get to do site visits. Which I think is insane. They also had Center Based Training, which means they were together for 10 weeks, instead of living in separate communities out in the campo, as we did. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of training (ok, I complained about it bitterly), I do think living in dispersed communities better prepared us for the reality of our sites, and improved our Spanish skills much more than if we had all been together in one town. Out of the 43 volunteers that arrived in early February, there have been no ETs (Early Terminations)…yet. Pero, vamos a ver.

Flooding, 9 months, and Chagas

I’m a lousy blogger, I know. Or at least not a very consistent one. Over a month has passed since my last post, and there’s really not much to new in my world. Rainy season is still not over, in fact, rain is falling in sheets outside the window as I type. The rains have been so severe and have lasted so long that the country is actually in a state of emergency due to flooding. On a recent trip to my mailstop, the road was a mess, with tons of mudslides and potholes. I am headed up to Quito tomorrow, and am not exactly looking forward to the bus ride, since it’s supposed to take longer than the usual 13 hours from Loja. Hooray!

On March 20th, we celebrated 9 months in-country, which means that 1/3 of my service is over. We were pretty excited about that, so we threw a 9-months party.

Recently, I spent a week helping a Brazilian graduate student from Ohio University conduct focus groups on Chagas disease in rural communities around my town. I’m helping out the Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE)/Ohio University with a Chagas research project that they have been conducting for several years. The project is a joint venture between PUCE and OU, led by an Ecuadorian scientist at Ohio.

Here’s the quick and dirty on Chagas: Chagas is a fatal tropical disease transmitted by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The vector for Chagas is an insect called the Reduviid bug, more commonly known as “the kissing bug.” The bug, or chinchorro as we call it in Spanish, bites humans while they are sleeping and deposits its feces, containing the T. cruzi parasite, next to where it has fed. When the person wakes up in the morning and scratches the bite, this spreads the parasite into the bloodstream, and is thus infected. There are three stages of Chagas, the first of which is known as the acute stage, when people exhibit flu-like symptoms (fever, headache) and the heart and spleen begin to enlarge. This is the only stage where it is possible to cure the disease. The second, or latent phase, of the disease is where the walls of various body organs deteriorate; this phase can last up to 20 or 30 years while the infected person may be completely unware that they have the disease. The last phase is death, usually due to heart failure. There is currently no vaccine for Chagas. The disease was discovered in Brazil, where it has largely been eradicated. In Ecuador, however, there are an estimated 3 million people with Chagas, so it’s definitely a public health problem. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health in tandem with PUCE has begun a campaign of eradication and prevention over the past several years, but it’s an uphill battle, largely because those most susceptible are largely unaware of its etiology or how to prevent it.

Sorry to babble on about Chagas, but it’s something that’s of great interest to me and hopefully I’ll get to work with the team from the Catholic University when they come down to work in my area this summer.

New Mailing Address

I finally figured out that I can receive mail here in my town, which is much better than traveling 2.5 hours to find that the one post office in the province is closed. On a weekday. For no good reason at all. This has actually happened to me twice. The mail truck comes to my town twice a week (we are moving up!), and while I’m told it might take a week longer for me to receive something, it is a lot more convenient for me.

My original mailstop in Loja will still work, that’s where I receive official PC mail. But I’m eager to see if I can get mail in my town, so if you want to send me a postcard, letter, or package, email me for the new address. Muito obrigada.