We won´t be hippies in a mud hut- but we will be Lojanos!!

We are back from our site visit to Loja! No, we won’t be living in a mud hut without running water and electricity. Instead, we will be living in a totally cute town in the southern part of the country (a very looong 12 hour night bus from Quito).

Although the population is fairly large, Loja feels like a really big town. Loja has 2 universities (which we didn’t see), several museums, a movie theater, a Supermaxi (think Albertsons) and a lot of surrounding barrios that we will be able to work in. There are two rivers that run through Loja, and the temperature is pretty mild. The surrounding area is super lush, green, and mountainous. There is a Mexican restaurant and a Cuban restaurant, as well as a cute café run by some Australians with pretty good lasagna and cheesecake. There will be two other trainees (Liz and Lindsay) who will be living within a few hours from us. Since they are in more rural sites I think we might be seeing them on some weekends when they come in to do grocery shopping and visiting the bank.

One of the parks in Loja in the evening

Streetview in Loja

Adam hanging out with fellow trainee and future Loja neighbor Liz (she´ll be one hour or so north of us)

The neighborhood we will be living in during the first month
Inside our host mom´s living room- where we will live for the first month

Overall, I think Adam and I will have an interesting experience working with our counterparts. Adam’s counterpart works at CASMUL, which is part of the Municipio that runs some of the social work programs (community banks, prevention programs, etc.). When we were hanging out with the staff, we got to visit some guardarias (daycares) and a rehabilitation home for recovering alcoholics. Adam also spent one morning playing soccer with a bunch of kids that are part of the Municipio’s summer program. The INNFA Centro de Proteccion de Derechos (CPD), where my counterpart works, does a lot of work with domestic violence, children’s rights, and youth outreach programs. I did a lot of house visits with the folks at CPD in the surrounding barrios (some that are about 1 hour away) which was interesting.

The office that Adam will be volunteering
One of the families that we visited in Loja-cute kids!
Making origami with Eri and Marco at the Centro de Proteccion de Derechos
The huge pool run by the Municipio in Loja

Another thing that happened during our site visit was that Adam ended up having to go to the hospital. Luckily there is a PC approved clinic that was literally 2 block from where we were staying. Adam had been fighting a terrible cough for almost 2 weeks and during our site visit, he spent one night coughing the entire time. So the next morning he checked in at the hospital and they wanted to test him for swine flu. The PC doctor wouldn’t let them so they did a blood test on Adam and discovered that he had a bacterial infection. Loaded with a bunch of drugs and a shot to the butt, and he is now doing tons better!

I do have to say that the site visit had some incredibly awkward moments and I am soooo glad that Adam and I are together. I cannot imagine doing this on my own! From eating at the formal dining table while the rest of our new host family ate upstairs to meeting the president of CASMUL and having absolutely nothing to say, let’s just say we’ll be looking forward to getting past all that awkwardness and feeling totally comfortable.

One awkward moment occurred when I was with some of the employees from CPD (where my counterpart works and where I will be doing my primary projects). We were heading out to a barrio outside of Loja to visit a family. During our VERY bumpy ride in the INNFA truck, Isabel, one of the social workers, asks me (in Spanish, of course):

“So, are you able to play with kids?”
“Of course! I love playing with kids!”
“Oh good. What kind of games or activities have you done with kids before?”
“I’ve done some volunteer work with arts and crafts, computer games, story time, and sports. Things like that.”
“Oh that is good. I like working with adults better.”

We then arrive at the house that we are visiting and say our hellos to the family. Isabel introduces me to the family and tells them that I am going to be playing with the kids. Isabel then turns to me and asks:

“So how much space do you need for your 2 hour activity with the kids?”
“Uh…wait, what?”
“How much space do you need for your game with the kids?”
“Oh. Um…I’m sorry…I don’t have anything planned.”

Then, I made awkward arms in my head. Thank goodness Isabel had a DVD with her! She told me it was ok and we ended up watching Fighting the Giants and then talking with the kids and the moms about being positive and having good attitudes and communicating. In the future, I’ll have to always have some kind of activity ready to go (probably will need to be bringing a backpack with paper, markers, books, games, etc.).

Now that we are back in Puruhantag, it’s starting to hit us that we really only have 2 more weeks left to spend time with our host family! Next week we will be gone on tech trips (Adam is going to Guayas province and I will be going to Esmeraldas…both on the coast so I gotta watch out for mosquitos) and then our last week of training is in Quito. I really love our host family and I’m going to miss them.

Magy´s birthday cake!! I don´t know what happened to my picture with Magy and her cake...next time...Lol.

Tomas and Pacha dancing the salsa

The dirt road that we walk along every day...to the left are greenhouses where they grow all the roses and flowers that they ship to the U.S.

Other than that, here are some interesting things that we’ve seen while in Ecuador:

1. Women taking their cows for a walk in the morning on the street
2. People selling ice cream cones, comedy acts, vitamins, etc. on the bus
3. Bus drivers sitting in lawn chairs…on the bus
4. The cats at our house trying to drink milk from the dog
5. Broken glass bottles cemented to the top of walls as a form of home security
6. Cows, sheep and a pig tied up in front of the church on Sunday morning
   
7. Peace Corps dance party at 9 in the morning (this was after our site visits and we were all coming back together)
8. Old men passed out on the grass or the side of the street after a long night of drinking and dancing as part of the festivities that happen every weekend in this area

Not much else to report. We leave for technical trips this weekend. They are for one week, and Adam and I were assigned to different trips. Sadness! Lol. Other than that, eat some good Indian, Thai, Chinese, and sushi for me!!