Updates and....OUR SITE!!!

Last week was a bit rough but this week has been good...I´ve been sick and also found out I was having a bad allergic reaction to my bites from Mascarilla. I had bad, totally gross blisters all over my body filled with fluid and weeping all over the place. uckily I made a trip up to Quito yesterday and met with a dermatologist to find out what was up. I´m now on some medication and feeling much better. It was a very nice medical center and the day in Quito went smoothly. I traveled by myself on the bus but then spent the day with people from the PC Office. I found out that the doctor for the PC lived in Ann Arbor last year...Go Blue! He said he loved going to the Brown Jug. Lol.

Funny story related to my blisters. I had a huge one on my arm and it was filled with fluid. We made a visit to the bombero (fire station) 2 days ago and I was up on stage as an actress... pretending to choke and such. The fireman grabbed my arm, and in doing so, put pressure on my blister. Fluid from the blister went spurting out into the audience (it was just two language groups, so it was about 10 people)... but literally like a squirt gun. Adam, Tiffany, Jason and others were totally laughing and hollering and my facilitator Fernanda had to fan herself and go outside. And of course I was mortified and grossed out. Apparently while I was in Quito for my doctor visit, that was the story of the day. Lol.

In addition, today was the BIG Site Placement Day so guess what....we found out our sites!! What a great way to celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary! Adam and I will be living in Loja, Ecuador for the next two years!! It is known as the Music Capital of Ecuador with a population of 180,000. It is in the Sierra (Andes) and is at around 2100m with a temperate climate. According to the US Ambassador in Ecuador, Loja also has great coffee. Since a volunteer I met in Quito (she is finishing up her service) is gifting me her coffee maker, it sounds great to me!! Also, it has 2 major universities and is next to what appears to be a beautiful national park. And, no mosquitos!! I have also heard that it is muy tranquilo and la gente habla muy claro y despacio (the people speak clearly and slowly). Yay!! If you want to find out more about Loja, check out http://www.lojarural.com/loja-city.html and of course, wikipedia.

We will be going this weekend to visit our site for a week and to meet with our counterparts and the agencies we´ll be working with. We have to take an overnight bus because it is 14 hours from Quito, approximately. Adam is very excited about that (or not). In terms of what work we will be doing, I´ll be working with the Instituto de la Niñez y la Familia (INFA): Centro de Proteccion de Derechos (Center of the Protection of Rights) doing workshops on life skills, sexual health, drug and alcohol abuse, etc. and also promoting community service and human rights education, as well as doing home visits to eradicate domestic violence. ç Adam is working with the Centro de Apoya Social Municipal in Loja training youth in IT, income generation projectsand leadership. He´ll also be promoting and conducting workshops on drugs and alcohol abuse, as well as working with community banking. This is just general things that we will be working on, but it might change once we get to know the community. We are very excited and hope that many of you will come to visit!!

Here are some pix from the internet of Loja:

Loja is in the south of Ecuador, closer to Peru

Miss you all and more pictures and stories to come!!