Music to our ears, whether we want to hear it or not!

The trash trucks here play music when they pass. It's kind of like the ice cream trucks back home...they alert you to when they are coming by so you can quickly run out of the house. In our case, it is to drag the trash to the curb, not to grab a delightful orangesicle. It seems that they come by every day, and at all hours. We have heard the truck go by at 6am and at 11pm. We haven't figured the schedule out yet, or if there even is on.

So this week has crept by slowly but surely. Over the weekend we went to San Pedro and Vilcabamba to visit one of the volunteers, Andy. He actually resembles a little bit my brother-in-law Paul, and I keep forgetting to tell Susan and Paul that. We went to an Ecuadorian baile during the night and the next morning we made breakfast and had lunch at this hostel that has spectacular views of Vilcabamba. It was a nice way to just get out of town for a little bit, though we missed the Sunday morning market in Loja. 

Coffee sock- the poor volunteer's way of brewing fresh coffee

Adam and Andy walking through the main part of San Pedro

Andy in his sweet campo pad with land

Capucho, Andy's gargantuan puppy

He had a long night at the baile...

Other than that, not much is going on. We have just been going into work each day, fumbling through our Spanish, visiting barrios and families, and trying to identify projects that we can work on. Adam and I have also been thinking a LOT about food. I think we are a little homesick. I so want to eat one of the following things:

Sushi! All you can eat sushi! Salmon. Tuna tataki. Crunchy rolls. 

A bento box!

Jamba juice!

Costco chocolate cake

Corn dog from Disneyland

Sunday morning dim sum!

Chicken korma, naan and samosas!!!

Sophys!

Korean BBQ...mmmmm....and banchans! Yummmy!

We love our family!!

Adam and I had an exciting mail week! We received two packages- one from Susan & Paul, and the other from my parents. In total, we received a lot of goodies including 3 bags of beef jerky (1 down, 2 to go!), hot cocoa with marshmallows, Korean ramen, FISH SAUCE, tylenol pm, dental floss, ribbon, maifun noodles and...we admit it...we loved this...Snickers bars! We scoffed at the other volunteers who received American candy bars in the mail during training, but when Adam opened the package at his work and his colleagues saw the Snickers bars...guess who didn't want to share? Haha. Thanks mom, dad, Susan and Paul. Postage is expensive so we appreciate this 1000%.



Other than that, no real big updates since yesterday. Though I did find out that they DO sell tofu in Loja! At one of the mercados, apparently Eri, the Japanese volunteer that also works in my office, saw "queso de soya" so tomorrow I am going to the mercado to see for myself. I am sooo excited! Susan, send me your mapo tofu recipe!!!

This morning, I also went out with some of my colleagues to a classroom of 8 year olds where we talked about children's rights and made origami. It was a lot of fun, and I can say "doble aqui" pretty easily, which means fold here. After we were done with the class, we didn't have a ride back to the office (which is pretty common...there is one driver for a lot of people and so sometimes he drops us off and can't pick us up). So we walked up the dirt road to the main road where we stopped and had a snack of fritada (fried chunks of pork that is YUMMY) and mote (it's essentially flavorless large corn kernels. Susan, I don't think you'd like this kind of corn...it's like eating nothing). All along this street there are a bunch of tiendas that are selling fritada. You know it's fresh because the pigs are hanging out in front...

Eri, the JICA volunteer in my office, with some fresh chancho...poor thing!

Abandoned on the dirt road. These are three of my colleagues that work in the Centro de Proteccion de Derechos. Good thing it wasn't raining at the time and the bus stop was less than half a mile away and we had a belly full of fritada

Adam is currently in San Lucas, a small pueblo about an hour from here, at a community meeting so he should be home in a few hours. Tomorrow we plan to run errands all day and then we have a community meeting in the evening, before we hopefully head out to visit a volunteer in Vilcabamba! Finally, a trip out of Loja that isn't work related!

Holy knives and other adventures...

The other morning we were preparing to leave for Parque Jipiro to help with the fundraiser. Gloria (Adam´s counterpart) told us that we would need to bring the gas tank and tube from the kitchen. We were loading up their car and when Adam walked into the kitchen, he found Gloria´s son (who was visiting from Quito) using our good knife to cut the tube of the gas tank (because that is how it is done here). Before Adam could say anything, a huge spark burst from the back of the stove and Gloria´s son almost kills himself from the electricity and gas and whatever else that might have happened. Shaken up, he set down the knife and Adam discovered that it is scorched and missing pieces. So we were left with a holy knife... thankfully Gloria's son was ok. It took us about a day to get over being upset about the destruction of our beloved kitchen item that we brought with us from the U.S. Now we will just have to go out and buy an $8 Ecua knife.


Other than that, just been living the Loja life- playing with the dog on the roof (her name is Canela), going to our offices, visiting barrios, running errands and the sort. Since I know people enjoy seeing photos of our everyday life here in Loja, here are a few:

Canela is the dog that lives on the roof of the building, so when we go up to wash and hang laundry, she is there yapping, wagging her tail and rolling around trying to get attention

This is the view of our walk to the Supermaxi (up ahead)

How we light the stove and oven- with these terribly crappy plastic matches!

The view from our current bedroom window- the roof of someone's house. And they are up there really early in the morning washing clothes and making a ruckus.

The neighbors also have chickens and roosters, which sit in front of our window and cockadoodle and cluck all night long and keep us up.

The shawarma place that we go to. Jason, the fellow volunteer in Loja, doesn't eat here because the meat is off the street and he feels it gets contaminated by the dust, dirt and diesel. But we still go. :)

My PC cell phone that comes with Snake and a flashlight!

One of the city streets on a Sunday....completely dead and empty. Everything is closed on Sundays (except the Supermaxi and the morning market) and hardly anyone is ever out and about

Another photo from Parque Jipiro. You can rent bounce houses here!

Adam and I with Hermana Harrison. Her and her husband are serving as senior missionaries here, and they have been so kind in helping us with our apartment search (letting us know when they see signs posted on windows, because that is the only way to find an apartment other than word of mouth). They invited us over for dinner and we were treated to a wonderful stew straight from a crock pot!

By the way, Adam and I have heard the song "I Know You Want Me" by Pitbull everywhere. It is one of the worst songs but people love it here...on the bus, in the cafe, on the street, at home, wherever. It gets stuck in my head, not by choice... So between the music from the trash trucks that run all morning and late into the night and this song, I'm definitely feeling the "Loja- Ecuador's City of Music" culture!

Don't eat the brownie batter...(pictures to come)

Adam and I decided that we were going to bake brownies and cookies. People aren't really into baking here...probably because there are so many bakeries in town, why would you make your own cake? Plus, I'm not sure how many people have ovens here, as they can get quite pricey. Right now our host mom has a ginormous oven, and we didn't want to see it go unused. So off we went in search for cookie sheets and cake pans. Inevitably, it led us to the TodoHogar (the ridiculously priced South American version of Bed Bath and Beyond), because that is pretty much the only place you can buy a cookie sheet.

After buying the cookie sheet, the cake mold, and the ingredients for baking, we started the preparations for making oatmeal cookies and brownies using recipes from our Peace Corps cookbook "Buen Provecho." The oatmeal cookies turned out ok, but our brownies had the texture of dry clay. They were crumbly and dry and cakey. They were not good. And to make matters worse, I had tasted the brownie batter beforehand and it tasted pretty good...but I failed to remember that I had poured unboiled water into the batter.

Before I knew it I was sick with a fever and terrible stomach cramps for three straight days. Our Peace Corps doctor told me to just wait it out...and that hopefully the diarrhea would come after a day or so. Isn't that lovely? I blame it on the brownie batter because I can't think of anything that Adam and I both didn't eat except for that. That is one good thing (out of many) about serving as a Peace Corps couple...you can easily point out what gives you stomach problems based on if your partner is symptom free!

But the upside of the story is that our host mom liked our brownies and so now the whole batch is pretty much gone. Thank goodness because I don't think I could've eaten them without drinking 10 gallons of milk to wash it down. It was that dry. Seriously.

Yes, that is Jason Mraz playing on the Ecua radio station in the background...

While I've been home sick in bed listening to the clucking chicken that sits right outside our bedroom window, Adam has been out visiting some different barrios. Today he is in a town where his organization, CASMUL, is offering free healthcare checkups by Cuban doctors.

Last night Adam talked to his dad on the phone and I realized that we didn't post much about the fiestas of San Pedro and the Inti Raymi that were happening in the Cayambe area while we were in training. Starting in June, there are fiestas almost every weekend where vendors walk around selling salchipapas (french fries with hot dogs chopped on top), roasted corn-nuts, and cotton candy, and where groups come out and dance. Every group sings to the same tune and would literally dance from afternoon til dawn (6am give or take). They shuffle along, pass around alcohol and chicha, whistle, dance, and sing. I think I posted a few pictures when we watched the fiestas in Tabacundo (people had bonfires in the streets, and group after group of dancers passed by). Our friend Tiffany actually danced a bunch of different times and came back sore and exhausted. That is probably one of the sounds that I will miss from living in Puruhantag, because if I woke up at 1am I would inevitably here a group singing in the distance. Here is a video of what each group looks and sounds like:



Tomorrow I hope to feel 100% because Adam and I are supposed to go out to Parque Jipiro and help out with the community fundraiser (selling traditional food). Hopefully as volunteers we will get bigger servings of pork and rice for $2.50 a plate than last weekend when we got teeny tiny portions.

First 2 weeks in Loja

We’ve only been in Loja for 2 weeks, but we’ve put tons of miles on our shoes already! The city is pretty walkable- we only live 8 blocks from our counterpart agencies, 3 blocks from the Sunday market, and the Supermaxi (a supermarket) is a 10-minute walk. Things we can’t walk to are an easy bus or taxi ride away (25 cents for the bus, or $1.00+ for the taxi). Adam and I have taken the bus a few times to get out to places like Parque Jipiro and to some of the barrios.

Waiting for the bus to come...luckily it comes almost every 5 minutes...better than California public transport at time huh?

The door to the city of Loja

We’ve also used our rain jackets a fair amount because we have had several days with constant drizzle (not heavy enough to pull out the umbrella, but enough to make your clothes damp). The sun does come out, which is great. For example, today is capris and t-shirt weather...not a single cloud in the sky. Overall, the temperature is pretty mild…not too hot and not too cold so we can’t complain. Though Adam is sad he missed summer in California.

Overall, we’ve been both busy and not at the same time. As new volunteers with Spanish levels of 4 yr olds, we feel pretty useless in our offices. But we have managed to do a few things. Here is a recap of what we’ve done so far as volunteers-

1. We got committed to teaching English and Computer Classes to an orphanage, a day care, an after school program, and a home for children/youth recovering from alcohol and drug addiction. We’ll see how they all go since we have no experience. We start in a few weeks! Yikes. We probably will only do this for about a month before we phase into other topics like self esteem, leadership, service projects, and arts & crafts.
2. We sat through some not so interesting charlas (workshops) about how to handle food safely. It was for Municipio employees so we just tagged along.
3. Did home visits with my counterpart agency (Centro de Proteccion de Derechos, aka CPD). Sometimes we give a workshop (communication, discipline with love, family strengths) and sometimes we just visit to see how a family is doing (a child might have a learning disability, a parent might have a terminal illness, there might be some discipline problems, etc.).
4. Adam and I have gone to several community bank meetings with his counterpart organizations (Centro de Apoyo Social Municipial de Loja, aka CASMUL). Sometimes they are as far away as 2.5 hours by car on a dirt road, like the town we went to yesterday.
5. Adam visited the 2 telecentros (computer labs) run by the Municipio. They are in need of some new equipment but don’t have the resources.
6. I’ve organized a bookshelf and folded over 1000 brochures. Adam has cut and stamped coupons for a community bank fundraiser. I’ve also hole punched a few things! We have skills!
7. Sat around. Twiddled thumbs. Stared into space. Made shopping lists. Nibbled on snacks. Made origami. Thought about foods I will gorge on when I am back in the U.S.
8. Helped out with a charla about alcohol prevention for jovenes (youth) in the barrio Sauces Norte. One of the women that I work with, Alvania, did most of the charla. I ran a few activities and fumbled through my Spanish. I couldn’t understand a word that the jovenes were saying, but they couldn’t understand me either!
9. Adam helped his colleague Andres recover lost photos from his work computer, only to find a virus that Adam successfully got onto our external hard drive. Luckily they figured that out pretty quickly. Adam is certain it came from some porn that someone uploaded onto the computer. There is no internet in his office, so someone had to have brought it in!
10. We went to Parque Jipiro to support one of the communities that was selling traditional Ecuadorian food as a fundraiser. It was fun- tons of people are out and about right now for the fiestas that happen all during September. There was food, entertainment, and crowds. Across the street from Parque Jipiro is La Feria (the fair). We haven´t gone yet but maybe next weekend!

My impressive folding job. Took me about 2.5 hours to fold 1000 brochures

Parque Jipiro- it´s like walking into a mini golf course. Pagodas, mosques, checkerboards, and temples all scattered through the park.

Mmm...Pinguino on the go! In the U.S. you know this brand as Good Humor.

Picnicing Ecuadorian style- brings pots, pan, large propane tank, stove, mattress and also build a fire in the middle of the park to roast your meat. Once Adam and I get settled, we´ll give this a try!

View driving out to one of the towns in our canton...took 2.5 hours on dirt roads! But it was gorgeous.

Right now there are also fiestas going on so we hear fireworks all the time…starting at 8am and well past midnight. In the late evening at the Plaza Central, they have concerts and castillas (castles) of fireworks. This goes on for about 2 weeks straight. The other night we went out with a group of volunteers from Loja province to see the fireworks. All I can say is “Peligroso!” (dangerous in English). They shoot off the fireworks right in front of the crowd (and it is a HUGE crowd) and flaming debris comes flying from the sky into the hordes of people. And when it is windy, the sparks shoot all over the place, not just up into the sky. It is pretty spectacular, amusing, and frightening all at the same time. I have never seen anything like it. That would definitely not fly at Disneyland, where they cancel the show if the wind is blowing just a little. I didn´t take any photos because I was worried about pulling my camera out. But just envision people, with big giant cups of beer, scattering everywhere while chunks of flaming fireworks come flying from the air.

Overall, life in Loja is pretty comfortable. One of our fellow volunteers, Liz, who was an evacuated volunteer from Madagascar, talked about how in Madagascar, volunteers used to share ¨Life is Tough¨ stories. Essentially, the rougher a volunteer had it, then the more bragging rights the volunteer had.

Adam and I are ok with not having bragging rights. We live in a cute, tranquil and clean city of 180,000. We can buy A1 steak sauce and whole wheat flour, and balsamic vinegar at our local SuperMaxi. We can get ice cream sundaes and frozen cappuccinos for very low prices from the many dessert shops in town. We currently live with a host mom in an apartment equipped with a microwave, refrigerator, toaster oven, a washing machine, and a dog that wears a sweater. We can go across the street and eat shawarma, or bad Ecuadorian Chinese food. We have our pickings of at least 50 different internet cafes so we are able to communicate with family and friends. We are spoiled.

Our stash of condiments...kind of ridiculous, right?

Starting my morning off with coffee and Harry Potter

Me and my frozen cappuccinos...2 for 1 sale at the Nice Cream Shop (really one of them is Adam´s)

The only things that we can complain about are: no tofu at the Chinese restaurants, no Hershey Kisses to bake peanut butter kiss cookies, and we aren’t able to pick up the wireless internet from the neighbors. So pretty much we would lose the bragging war if we talked with Madagascar volunteers.

I have had a few moments where I am a little sad that we´re not living the rough PC life that people imagine before coming. You know, the small little village in the middle of nowhere, where volunteers live simple lives of vegetable gardens, sitting on porches with the townspeople, and reading books by candlelight. But Adam helps remind me that we are going to have a great experience and do a lot of great things while we are here… and we don’t need to take a cold bucket bath to have that experience. And I agree.