“It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off the universe”

Something very momentous happened on Tuesday, and unless you were living under a rock you know that Barack Obama was sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States of America. HALLELUJAH!

I have been waiting for Inauguration Day 2009 for the past eight years, after the first election in which I could vote (for Al Gore). I have been outraged again and again by George W. Bush and his Administration for: their contempt of the Constitution, their use of torture and manipulation of the law to make torture “legal,” the existence of Guantanamo, “extraordinary renditions,” the global gag rule, their flagrant disregard for empirical science and the reality of global warming, their blind devotion to the Friedman-esque economic policies that have led us to our current economic crisis, their insistent unilateralism in world affairs, and most importantly, the ongoing tragedy that is the War in Iraq. I’m going to stop before I get too worked up here. Suffice to say, when that helicopter took off for Texas with Bush inside, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, along with the 1.8 million people on the Washington Mall and countless millions around the world. As a friend wrote to me, “It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off the universe.”

I remember exactly where I was in 2004 when I first heard Barack Obama’s voice and his message of unity and hope for the renewal of America. Through the past two years, I have followed the ups and downs of Obama’s presidential campaign. I went home a year ago to help caucus for Obama in WA and again in November to cast my vote for him. And last Tuesday, through an intermittently working CSPAN feed in a small town in Ecuador, I watched Barack Obama become the first African-American President of the United States of America. Words can hardly describe my feelings at that moment.

Now, I don’t think that President Obama will magically solve all of America’s problems. I’m a romantic, but that doesn’t mean I’m not also a realist. The President himself gave a somber, muscular Inaugural Address that didn’t shy away from the many challenges facing our nation. Yet, while the expectations are incredibly high, a recent NYTimes/CBS poll shows that “79 percent [of Americans] were optimistic about the next four years under Mr. Obama,” 58 percent of whom voted for McCain. Americans also seem prepared to give Obama some breathing room, two years, for progress to be made on issues such as health care and Iraq.

I’m already impressed by the first week of the Obama Administration – the order to close Guantánamo and the CIA secret prisons, the ban on torture, reversing the global gag rule, thinking big about green jobs to revitalize our economy and reaching out to Republicans to try and pass an ambitious stimulus bill. I’m also pleased with most of the Obama Cabinet picks; I particularly like Energy, Health and Labor, not so much Agriculture and the Interior. I think choosing Hillary Clinton for his Secretary of State is tactically brilliant. It is heartening to see the President surrounding himself with such a brilliant team.

In these uncertain times, I remain hopeful because we have a President at the helm with the “first-class temperament and a first-class intellect” that we need. Along with the rest of my fellow Americans, I have the highest hopes for you, President Obama.

Call for an end to the violence in Gaza

I have recently been made aware of the ongoing violence and bloodshed in Gaza. Please join me in calling for international support for an immediate end to the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. This is not a question of allegiance to either Palestinians or Israelis, this is a humanitarian issue. There is culpability on both sides. But the reality on the ground is that innocent civilians are being targeted and to this day, at least 320 Palestinians have died and 1,400 injured. Four Israelis have been killed by rocket attacks from Hamas. This is the worst attack on Gaza in decades. International NGOs have had difficulty getting food and supplies into Gaza, and the hospitals are overwhelmed. They are bombing children and universities.

The U.S. government, under President Bush, is predictably siding with Israel, saying that they “hold Hamas responsible for breaking the cease-fire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza.”

President-Elect Obama, for whom I campaigned and who I hold in high esteem, has tacitly approved of the Israeli air strikes, saying, “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that,” as well as, “[a]nd I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.“

I think it goes beyond saying that any parent would defend their children against a rocket attack. But I’m not quite sure how that translates into justifying airstrikes upon other little children?

The Christian Science Monitor put it excellently in an Op-Ed piece, “This raises the question: Can Obama similarly empathize with Palestinian moms and dads whose children have been killed in the violence? Authentic empathy, and especially empathy for children killed and maimed with rockets or bombs, has no moral double standards…No 7-year-old boy or girl, Israeli or Palestinian, should live in a universe where they are to blame for the destruction of their own little bodies.”

Please, sign the petition.

Mango Tutorial

It’s that time of year again…Mango Season! This year, there were far fewer of the big, juicy mangoes that I love so much. Even my friends who bring me mangoes from the Ecuador-Peru border told me that this year had been bad for mangoes, due to too much rain. Despite all this, thanks to shipments of mangoes from Guayaquil, I have managed to eat my share of the most delicious fruit in the world. I thought I’d end the year by posting a small tutorial on the proper way to cut mangoes for the maximum eating pleasure.

I started with one of the most beautiful mangoes I’d ever seen – firm to the touch and a beautiful red, green, and gold. It smelled heavenly.

Step 1: Stand the mango up lengthwise and cut one face of it off, making sure to avoid the pit.

Step 2: Do the same with the other side. You now have three piece: two halves and the middle part, containing the pit.

Step 3: Gently score each mango “face” into a grid.

Step 4: Now you can “pop out” the face so that the cubes are easy to cut or eat right off the peel.

Step 5: Enjoy your delicious golden treat! Tip: I often like to put my mango cubes into the freezer for a little bit. After an hour or so, they are more delicious than ice cream and healthier to boot. Yum!

Happy New Year, Feliz Año Nuevo, and Xin Nian Kuai Le to all!

Recent Activities Lightning Round

Since I’ve been so lax about updating my blog, I’m going to try to provide a summary of the activities I’ve done recently. In the past few months, I have been:

• Teaching nutrition classes to elementary school kids, using the “el cuerpo es como una casa” (the body is like a house) analogy.

• Continuing my cooking and nutrition classes with mothers’ clubs. Recently I’ve been talking about the importance of micronutrients such as iron and vitamin A, so we made foods rich in vitamin A (carrot soup) and iron (egg tortilla with swiss chard). The moms helped cook and we had a great time.

• Back in September, I started a six-week series on sexual education geared for teens. I completed the course with high school students in two neighboring communities. Ecuador is a fairly religious country (read: socially conservative), so for many of these kids it was their first time learning about sexuality, STI’s (including HIV/AIDS), and contraception. They were a little shy and giggly during some of the intial sessions, but once you introduce games like Jeopardy into the mix, they had no problem shouting out the new concepts that they’d learned. I also had the kids run a condom relay, where they had to put condoms on bananas, but in relay teams. These were kids that have probably never seen a condom before in their lives. It was quite fun. With the high rate of teen pregnancy in this country, I’m just not a believer in abstinence-only education. As G.I. Joe famously said, “And knowing is half the battle.”

• More recently, I’ve been helping my counterpart organization (PLAN Internacional) with a sanitation project. PLAN and the Municipio (city government) are putting in latrine systems in a few of the more rural communities in our region. These latrines have toilets, washbasins, and very basic showers. The money for this project comes from the Municipio as well as donations to PLAN from sponsors in Europe, Asia, the U.S. and Canada. As part of any PLAN project, there is an educational component involved. That is where I come in. I give mini-workshops to the community members about the importance of clean water, boiling your water, washing your hands, why we should use latrines instead of the campo abierto, and managing our garbage. Pretty simple stuff, I guess, but important for an area with high rates of intestinal parasites among children and adults. Not to mention teaching some basic environmental awareness is always a good thing for people’s health and the environment. Win-Win.

• In my spare time, I’ve ben running a lot. I’m trying to train for a half-marathon or marathon when I get home next year. I’ve also perfected the art of making creamy macaroni and cheese. I made it for Thanksgiving in Loja, where it went so fast I hardly got a bite; I also made it last week for my two site-mates, where I got a big thumbs-up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, I can hardly believe that it’s that time of year again! In Spanish, Thanksgiving is called, “El Día de Acción de Gracias.” I apologize for being such a profligate blogger (sorry Z!), but I promise to update more frequently in the future.

I have so much to be thankful for this year – a wonderful family, great friends in Ecuador and the States, a roof over my head, and a good Thanksgiving meal! I won’t be eating turkey (yes, I am still a vegetarian), but I’ll be celebrating with a big group of Peace Corps friends in Loja. We even have a game of flag football planned! I was lucky enough to go home to vote in this historic election, so I am also thankful that Barack Obama will be our new President!

Most of all, I am thankful for and proud of the opportunity to serve my country as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Best wishes for a fantastic Turkey Day with friends and family!

Abrazos, Ann

Veintisiete

I just got back from attending our Peace Corps summer camp Mid-Service Conference in Quito. The conference itself was asi asi; if I never hear the words “community banks” or “building organizational capacity” it will be too soon. The fun part was having everybody in our Omnibus under the same roof, as some of us haven’t seen in each other since last fall. We recently had another volunteer ET, so we’re down to thirty-six from an original forty-five. When all of us are in one hostel, it does feel a little bit like summer camp, especially when the boys decided to run around in their boxers…at 3am. At least the hostel had hot water this time.

And, I turned 27 (veintisiete) on Saturday. Wow, that seems old. To celebrate, a group of friends threw me a little party at a great club in Quito. I was ecstatic that so many people came out! A good time was had by all.

By the numbers:

Number of rose bouquets Nate bought me: 1
Number of rose bouquets Nate sat on in the cab: 1
RPCVs from Peace Corps Bolivia: 2

Number of drinks Kendra paid for all night, thanks to the doorman: 0

Percentage of people who knew the words to La Camisa Negra: 95

Number of times Nathalie yelled out, “Viva la Cumpleañera!” to me:7
Number of times I was dragged into the middle of the circle to dance: 15+

Percentage of the night that Alicia spent shaking it on the dance floor: 99.9
Number of guys with a Jesus shirt that tried to dance with Alicia: 1

Average temperature on the dance floor, in Celsius: 36

Attendees over 50 years of age: 2
Ratio of people of Asian descent to the rest of the group: 3.5 to 21.5

Ratio of hip-hop & gringo music played to salsa/meringue: 2 to 1
Percentage of us who danced until the lights came on: 80

Cost, in USD, of a slice of pizza after the bar closed down: 1
Percentage of people seriously chuchaqui the next day: 100

Thank you to the staff of Bungalow 6 in Quito for being so generous. And thanks to my wonderful friends from Omnibus 98 – me hicieron sentir muy, muy feliz.

I Am a Community Organizer

You know what really bothers me about Sarah Palin? Besides the fact that she: is anti-abortion even in cases of rape or incest, opposes federal funding for health care, supports the death penalty, opposes gun control legislation, wants to drill in ANWR, does not believe that global warming is attributable to man-made factors, and is currently under an ethics investigation at home? Aside from how she advocates abstinence-only education in schools while her own teenage daughter is pregnant, wants librarians to ban books that she finds “transgressive” and has frighteningly little governing experience, other than being mayor of Wasilla, AK (population at the time: 5,469) and governor of Alaska for less than two years. But hey, according to John McCain, Palin’s being Alaska governor, means that she has “foreign policy experience” because, “Alaska is right next to Russia.” You couldn’t make this crap up if you tried.

But what’s really got me ticked off? I’m angry because in her speech at the RNC Convention, Palin sneered at Obama for being a community organizer. You know what? As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I am a community organizer. And damn proud of it. We owe a woman’s right to vote, the civil rights movement, the labor movement, the environmental movement, and many other movements that have bettered the world to community organizers. To me, community organizing means helping people take, “control of their lives and their communities and trying to make things better for themselves.” PTA moms are community organizers. Pastors, imams, and rabbis are community organizers. Members of Rotary, Kiwanis, and the Key Club are community organizers. Those who go door to door registering voters are community organizers. People who run the soup kitchens and homeless shelters are community organizers. 

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.  

New Fridge!

 

Exciting news – I bought a refrigerator! This sounds silly to most people who are not Peace Corps Volunteers, but it is a big deal for me. I can finally store leftovers without worrying about them spoiling, I can make ice, and buy yogurt! Now that I have my fridge, I can hardly imagine having lived so long without one. On the downside, this does mean that I’ve significantly increased my carbon footprint. But…I figure I take enough 13-hour bus rides and haven’t driven a car since February, so I don’t feel too bad.

 

Judith Lombeida Medical Foundation: Medical Mission in Ibarra

I spent the first week of August volunteering with the Judith Lombeida Medical Foundation. Created in honor of Judith Lombeida, a Colonel in the US Air Force who was born in Ecuador, the JLMF’s mission is “Serving the needs of Ecuadorian people.” This was the JLMF’s second Clinical Mission (the Foundation conducts a Surgical Mission in October), and by all accounts it was a rousing success. During the week of the mission, we saw between 500-600 patients a day, visiting a different community each day. The mission took place in the northern provinces of Imbabura and Carchi, and included underserved indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian communities.

As Peace Corps Volunteers, we provided translation for the American doctors and nurses as well as an educational component to the mission. The work wasn’t easy but it was definitely rewarding, and I met some really inspirational people, both American and Ecuadorian. Thanks to Foundation President Mark Backlin and all of the dedicated medical personnel for an incredible experience!

More about the JLM foundation here: http://www.judithlombeidamedicalfoundation.org/

More photos from the week here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allora/sets/72157606693076044/