Holidays in the Jungle

Happy 2011!! :-)
I hope that everyone is having a happy and a healthy new year so far.

As i´ve said before, being abroad for the holiday season was super strange, but quite an interesting experience as well. I´m trying trying trying to upload some pictures so you can see what the holidays looked like for me in Ecuador, but the internet at this cafe seems to go haywire every time I hit ¨upload.¨ Ill keep trying...sorry for the delay.

Christmas was lovely, I had my first Christmas tree and a lovely dinner at home. We all bought each other little gifts and wrapped them in leaves...exactly how Christmas in the jungle should be. When we decorated the tree it was a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim...pretty great times.

I was bummed not to really have any time off at all, but we made the best of it. The children had no classes for a while, so we did a few workshops and activities at the schools to keep the kids happy and busy. We had arts and crafts, sports, bobbing for apples, miniature bowling, three legged races, story time, etc etc. It was so nice to interact with the kids in a different way, and have more time to hang out and chill with them, as opposed to just teaching. When it rained for a bit we taught them the macarena, which was pretty epic. We had some prizes, in the form of candy and pencils, so they were thrilled, and it was fun times all around.

We then headed off to Baños, and spent Thursday night doing a fundraiser at our hostel. In the form of a beer pong touranment. As all 18-30 year old Americans will understand, this worked out really well...drunk gringo travelers right before new years were thrilled to come play, and it was a pretty successful night. So yes, I did indeed bring both the macarena and beer pong to Ecuador in one week. Score. The best parts of our culture, no?

New years itself was amazing, probably the coolest celebration i´ve been a part of. There are so many cool traditions here, and it was awesome to be a part of it. For starters, everyone dresses up--its sort of like halloween, but on crack. One of the biggest things is for men to dress up as women and run around town being ridiculous and asking for money. And its a celebration for the whole family, as opposed to at home where kids are put to bed at 12:05 and its all about adults drinking too much. Another theme that I love is that they dont call it New Years Eve, but rather, its ¨año viejo,¨ or literally, ¨old year.¨ As it was explained to me, you cant just jump into the new year without first paying due and saying goodbye to the old year. Then, the celebrations carry on alllll dayyyy into January 1st, and THATS the new year. There are also big puppet-like things that are everywhere, which people stuff with paper filled with their sins and bad things from the year that they want to burn. Families do their own small ones, and then towns have huge ones in the center. At midnight, they are all lit on fire, to signify the start of the new year. It was really cool to see and be a part of...a few minutes before midnight they pull the puppets down to the ground, and I spent 12:00 kicking and beating a massive gorilla that was then lit on fire. Cool stuff.

Since then its just been back to work. My friend Jess has been stuck in Colombia waiting for her visa, so I am still both Teaching Coordinator and Project Manager, which is hard and stressful but overall good. The new semester started off well, we are still just working on getting everything organized. So far, so good though.

I am already shocked at how fast January is moving, and its hard to believe that as of Friday, I will have been here for 5 months. We have a theory here that time has started moving faster...does anyone feel the same way?

I hear that there has been tons of snow at home, and I am happier than ever to be skiping winter. It was odd though to have a 70degree New Years.

Lots of hugs and love to everyone. As soon as I am able, I will upload pictures...I promise.
Send me love in the form of emails, phone calls, or peanut butter.

Maggots. Machetes. Rum.

My life here in the jungle is just about at the halfway point, which I find very hard to believe. Just yesterday it was October, no? The more I think back on this year, the more I realize how much I did and how amazing it has been...I started off in Jamaica playing trivial pursuit in the rain with my family, spent some time in California with some friends and extended family, then graduated college (i guess thats a big one), spent a few weeks in Israel, worked in Costa Rica--with a quick weekend to Nicaragua thrown in--came home, applied to grad school, packed up my bags, and moved to the jungle. Honestly, is this real life?? How lucky can a girl be..?!

Things here are moving along fine, although it feels much less like a vacation and much more like real life...which is what I wanted in the first place, right? I am officially the teaching coordinator, and for the month of December, I was basically the project manager as well. This included: creating and administering end of term exams for the kids (headache #1), making sure the volunteers were happy (headache #2), planning activities for christmas week and next term (headache #3) and keeping the house standing (headaches #4-243254235). That last one might sound easy, but I promise you, a house in the middle of nowhere in the jungle is a project all on its own. I am learning so much and I feel like I am very self sufficient now, which is awesome. However, things like cleaning maggots out of a fridge (a fun task from last night) do not ever need to be repeated.

The exams for the kiddos went well, and was actually really nice and reaffirmined why I am here. I do NOT want to be a teacher, ever ever ever, but now I know that I can do it, and that with some patience and love, kids can be pretty cool.

Things you should all appreciate/Things I used to take for granted and never will again:
cold milk
olive oil
ice
AAA and jumper cables
bug free ______ (fill in the blank however you wish, i promise it will be accurate)
electricity
hot water
tap water

Things you don´t know that you are missing:
machetes
$2 huge delish meals
beautiful, incredible, amazing nature--everywhere
waking up to a symphony of birds instead of car horns
knowing your community members/hospitality (or is this just the cynical new yorker in me?)

I had a haircut the other day, courtesy of friend and volunteer Sirah. She is a hairdresser back home, so it was totally legit. And she did my nails too, so I sort of resemble a girl again. The jungle has not completely taken over...yet.

Spending Christmas eve at a little fiesta in Puyo tonight...(coincedentally there will be Chinese food there)... and tomorrow I will wake up, open some presents under my first ever christmas tree, eat a small christmas dinner, and relax. This is the first year that I dont get a winter/christmas vacation, but we are happy and healthy, so what more do I really need?
Vacation would be nice though...I have a few tricks up my sleeve, and a few trips planned in my head. Actually, if anyone wants to head south between January and June...or everr... let me know. I´m starting to plan some fun adventures. Come with!

December has not had many volunteers, but we have some new faces coming next week, so things should be busy at the house. There is no school but we are planning some workshops and games, and then hopefully a day or two off for new years. It is very strange being away from home during the holiday season, even with my new family here...and I miss you all more than you know.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a very, very happy new year. Wishing everyone nothing but the best, sending warm thoughts, and hoping for only good things in 2011.


BESOS Y AMOR!!! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I just wanted to wish everyone at home a very happy thanksgiving. I am super dooper bummed out that I´m not able to make it home for the holidays...especially this one, which is my favorite. We are going to make a bug yummy dinner and teach all the Brits how it´s done...but it obviously wont be the same, and i´ll definitely be bummed out. For those of you who have been talking about ¨calling me soon,¨ Thursday would be a great day to give me a ring! I´ll be thinking of home all day.

All else is well...did a mini jungle trek Fri-Sat and got muddy and hiked to a waterfall...beautiful views and fun to hang out with everyone. Its a busy time at the house with end of term exams coming up, and trying to get the children ready. Lots of changes too, with most people leaving on Friday :( However, as of December I am officially the Teaching Coordinator, which is really nice. Promotions are fun!

Not too much else to share...I finally bought a new camera, which is exciting--ive just been stealing everyone elses pictures until now. Hopefully that means I can post some of my own soon too. I hope that everyone is happy at home. Please keep me updated!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Two Months and Counting

It has come to my attention that I am not updating my blog enough for some people´s liking. All I can say is this: YOU move to the jungle and try to find reliable, fast, easy internet connections. OR better yet, give me a call. My cell number is on an earlier post, and I do really really love getting calls. Use skype, its really cheap.

Anyway, hello! Life in Ecuador is moving along just fine, with a few road bumps mixed in here and there, of course. After all, this is Latin America. Ecuador loves its fiesta days, and very frecuently, school is cancelled with no notice, and for seemingly no reason. For example, I once arrived to teach, only to discover that it was ¨flag day.¨ This means exactly what it sounds like...the children drew pictures of the Ecuadorian flag, then went home. Productive. (It is very interesting to compare the culture of education that we have at home, in the western world, versus how education is viewed around the world).

So two weeks ago (i think?) there was no class on Friday, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. It is rare to get so much time off for teaching, so a bunch of us decided to use the time to travel a bit and see more of Ecuador. We wanted to go to the coast to relax and take it easy on the beach.

FAIL.

Thursday night we took an overnight bus to Guayaquil (city, big, nothing special). Had a few hours to kill so we napped in a park and walked and walked and walked around the city. Then we took a bus to Monañita, a small beach town. It was a bit trashy and loud (think reggae and techno music blasting from, I am not kidding, about 9am until 7am). The first night we had fun walking on the beach, dancing, eating a yummy dinner, and relaxing. The next day we had an amazing breakfast and then hung out on the beach. Let me add that it was grey and rainy and chilly the entire time, but we tried to make the best of it. We started to take a walk over some rocks far down on the beach, and about halfway to the end point I started feeling a bit nauseous. My friend Shira also stopped walking at about that same time and said she felt the same. We decided to walk back to the hostel and take a quick nap, feel better, and head out for dinner and drinks. Instead, we got back to the hostel just in time for us both to be sick, and then proceeded to be violently ill for the next 14 hours or so. I did not leave my little room for over 20 hours, and only got out of bed to be sick. I will not go into any more detail than that, but lets just say that the term ¨horrendous food poisoning¨ sort of covers how I felt. Remember, this was all after an amazing dinner and breakfast, and all 5 of us on the trip ate the same thing. So we dont really know what happened, but it was not fun. On the upside, I ate white rice and bread only for the next 4 days, and definitely lost a few pounds. Silver lining, I guess.

The next day, halloween, we felt well enough to get on a 30 minute bus ride and went to a much quieter, prettier, relaxed hostel in a different town. I spent most of the time lying down in bed and playing cards, but it was beautiful and calm and a good place to recover. It took a while, but I am finally feeling back to 100%.

and that was my vacation.

These next few weeks are lots of teaching and preparing for the end of year exams for the children. There is a TON of work to be done, but things are good and i´m very happy and busy. Also, as of December 1st I should be promoted to the Teaching Coordinator of the Program. This will add a bunch more responsibilities...and a pàycheck...so overall I am quite pleased with this change. Lots of people are leaving in the next few weeks, which is really upsetting and will change the dynamics of the house a lot...but hopefully cool new people will be coming in soon, and things will keep running smoothly.

We have lots of fun in the house...for example, the other night we had the Puro Puyo Olympics (puro puyo is a type of alcohol that I can only relate to moonshine. It is probably about 101% alcohol). There are currently 4 boys and 4 girls in the house, so we paired up in teams and held various events, such as an egg toss, sumo wrestling, wheelbarrow racing, ping pong ball relay races, trivia questions, etc. We also did this in costume...Adam and I, my teammate, were pirates, and there were also superheros and Greek Trojans. The puro puyo came into play between each activity, when we had to take a drink.
This is what happens when you get bored in the jungle...you make your own fun!!

As promised, some pictures:










This is our beast of a car that I drive. Thats me in the backround working on a leaking radiator under the hood, and the little girl is one of my students.


Our house, outside and part of the inside.

















me and some volunteers working on an art project for the schools, in the office of our house.









The coordinators! Thats Jessie, me, Jeremy, and a creepy picture of Adam.













If you want to read a bit more, Jess and I wrote a blog post for the October Newsletter for Great Aves, our organization. Go to www.youvolunteer.org to check it out, its pretty short.

Love and kisses!

Did you know that cockroaches can fly?

Hola, shalom, and hello to everyone!

I'm finally feeling like i'm really settled in, and that this is actually my new home for a while. I've spent a great deal of time in Latin America, but having so long in one place, and really getting to know the locals and this one little area of the world is quite a different experience. I teach until the afternoon on Fridays, and the last bus back to my house leaves Puyo at 8pm, so our weekends do not give us very much time to explore. This has obvious downsides...ie not being able to travel very much, or very far. On the other hand, we spend a lot of time hanging out together at the house, which is really nice and definitely helps my wallet! I do hope to do more travel...Ecuador is amazing and has so much to offer and tons to see...but for now, it is nice to really get settled in one place.

There are seven of us in the house now, five of us teaching and two working on the community development piece. Next week two more teachers come...its going to be a full house again! This means that Jess and I will be teaching less and observing and supervising more. It is definitely nice to have more helping hands and fresh ideas...its hard teaching so much, and in Spanish!! But its also a bit weird...I feel like these are my kids, and my classes...its odd to sort of be giving that up, especially when we are finally getting to know each other better and set up stronger relationships. Some of the kiddos are crazy though and hard to manage, and to actually have a day off once in a while does sound nice.

My birthday last week was lovely, albeit a bit strange to be away from home. My new little family here in Ecuador made it really nice though, and I had a good time ringing in my 23rd year. I spent the morning teaching at what is probably my easiest and calmest school, and after classes I discovered some of the cutest, most perfect, most adorable puppies to ever be created. Needless to say, I spent a great deal of time playing and cuddling them, and attempting to purchase/steal one. I am still hot on the pursuit, and am secretly hoping to bring one home when I go back tomorrow to teach again. I spent some time that afternoon dozing and reading in a hammock, and receiving phone calls from the northern hemisphere. Thanks to everyone who called me, its so amazingly nice to get calls from loved ones back at home. It really made my day. Then I was cooked a delicious Mexican-ish dinner, followed by some drinks, card games—we play a LOT of card games here—and general merriment. My friends also surprised me by turning on “in the jungle” and performing a dance for me, wearing nothing but leaves. I guess theres nothing quite like a birthday in the jungle.

We spent Saturday and Sunday doing a jungle trek with local guides who are students of ours at the adult english class. We trekked for a few hours each day, stopping to swim in some waterfalls and rivers, to pick and eat papayas and lemons, and to check out some cool snakes and other crawlies. Its a lot nicer to see insects outside, as opposed to your house, I can tell you that for sure. Spent the night camping out ...I always love roasting marshmallows and chatting around a fire, and this was no exception. We slept out under the stars...it was horribly uncomfortable and I kept thinking of my family sleeping that very same night at a Sheraton in Boston to celebrate MY birthday...but it was a good time all around. I was eaten alive by many creatures...I never in a million years thought that I would ever hate ants more than tarantulas, but I really really did for those two days. Your priorities change while living in the jungle! It was a challenging hike and we all returned muddy and sweaty and exhausted, but it was a really nice weekend.

What else is there to share....damn I was about to say that I finally found the question mark key on this computer...because I HAVE successfully used it in the past...but it just disappeared again. sad.

I am learning to drive stick...or manual, for those of you non americans who get confused when I say that. I’m very proud...still a bit shaky of course—literally—but ive put in probably close to 60 kilometers or so, maybe more, and im feeling confident that I will get better. Our truck is an absolute beast but I am learning to tame her. Terry, I look forward to trying to drive your car again when I get home, and we can see if i’ve really learned anything!

I have a new kitten named Medusa. She is tiny and, for the most part, cute. No one really wants her around, especially our other animals, but she is growing on me and makes pretty good and entertaining company. I think that I am slightly allergic to cats, but I choose to ignore that.

I am becomming a lot more self sufficient while living out here. You have to be creative and flexible, and need to rely on yourself and your wits a lot more. Ive learned so many little things and am learning to think much quicker on my feet...when you dont have a lot of resources, you need to manage somehow. Its still a learning process, but I should come back able to understand what i'm seeing under the hood of a car, how to change a gas tank, fix a generator, short wires and refuse them together, siphon gas from a car, cook meals with a great deal of improvization and great lack of ingredients...and thats just what ive been doing so far!! Im also hoping to learn to play poker, chess, and the guitar, and perfect the deceptive and seemingly simple art of cooking white rice--so much harder than it looks!! We've managed to make rice thats both mushy and crunchy all at once...and I even turned it a spectacular shade of purple once. Anyway, I hope to come home with lots of new tricks up my sleeve.

I miss you all loads. Is it a pretty fall? Step on an extra crunchy leaf for me! (ill step on an extra crunchy bug for you in return...)

Pity Party, Table for One

This has not been my week, and I am unfortunately wearing my cranky pants.
Wednesday evenings we teach an adult english class in El Triunfo, the town closest to our house. Oftentimes we then stay in town for a bit, to have a beer or watch the boys play soccer with some locals. So this week we were there until about 10pm, and when we got home, I noticed that a lot of my things were missing. While we were out, someone came into my room, probably through the window, and stole lots of my things...including my camera, my ipod, some shoes and clothes, and then a bit more randomly, my new big bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. This, remember, is the body wash that I traveled 5 hours to Quito to buy, since they dont really use it in this country, and I could only find it in the city. I also think that they got my small bag of jewelry, and who knows what else. I lost all of my pictures on the camera too, since I planned to back them up at the end of every month...ie this weekend. Of course. So all of the silly pictures of me standing at the equator, and pictures that I took with volunteers who have already left Ecuador...all gone. SO im really really mad, and I have to travel to a city so I can buy a new camera, and I'm just angry about the whole situation. Our house is in the middle of nowhere, it feels so safe and nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the project. My friends had valuable stuff lying all around and nothing else was touched...they were obviously only in my room. The only other person who has stuff missing is Jess, and we share a room. They took one pair of her pants, and again, her shampoo and conditioner. I guess they really wanted a shower?
Anyway, i'm safe, I have my passport and wallet, and my peanut butter, thank god, and no one was home when they came. All good things. It sucks but could have been a lot worse.
I was also pretty sick last week with a wicked cold and cough. We went to Baños last weekend, a town about 1.5 hours from Puyo. It has hot springs, gorgeous mountain scenery, and lots of adventure activities. I wasnt able to go on the bike ride that my friends did since I was dying in bed hacking up a lung, but at night I went to the hot springs, and just walked around town and enjoyed the sun and beautifulness. The town is also known for its spas...I figure that its waaayyyy too early in the game for me to be spoiling myself, but the $20 one hour full body massages, $25 hour hot stone massages, and other volcanic mud wraps and other delicious activities will definitely happen at some point while im here. I know I said that i'll be fundraising for the organization soon, but I'm also fundraising for the 'buy rachel a new camera and ipod' and 'buy rachel massages' campaigns.

There have been some highlights and interesting moments this week too. On the way home from our weekend in Banos on Sunday night we stopped to see what the crowd of people were doing in El Triunfo. Turns out that they have cockfights a couple times a month. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have officially witnessed my first cockfight. It was quite the experience and I did not care for it...although neither chicken died, and apparently it was a relatively mild fight. We apparently missed the much more exciting fight right before it, where a chicken lost his eye and then was killed. So thank god for that...such a horrible 'sport.' Its interesting though, I saw more money passed around during the fight--for bets--then ive ever seen in that community before.

Also, as many of you probably know, yesterday there was some crazy government showdowns in Quito and Guayaquil. Thanks for all of the messages and concerns, I am perefectly safe in the jungle and far from any big cities. I wont get into all of the politics here, but its really interesting...definitely check it out online and read up about whats going on. I think that I have a crazy effect on Latin American politics (coup in Honduras last year, anyone?), but im safe and its all very interesting. I was going to go to a city to buy a new camera this weekend but decided to wait until I know that everything is safe. Otherwise i'm not really affected by the riots or protests that were taking place, other than a few stores being closed in Puyo yesterday. Due to the strikes of the police and military, people in quito and guayaquil were looting stores and going crazy since there was no one to keep control. None of that in the towns near me, but some stores closed anyway just to be safe. Actually, then the police station in Puyo closed, so I couldnt file a police report about the robbery.

Never a dull moment in Latin America, theres always something.
Spending the weekend hanging at the house, getting work stuff organized, and maybe hunting down a thief with a machete. There was no class today so we have a 3 day weekend, which is really nice and greatly appreciated.
I realized that I have no idea whats happening at home...the only time ive had any news is this week, but just to check on whats going on here in Ecuador. If there are ever any interesting news stories pass them on to me, I would love to know whats happeneing.

Hope everyone is happy and healthy.
Happy October :)

So you CAN stand in two places at once!!

Hola amigos y familia!!
I am spending the weekend in Quito with my friend Jess, the other teaching coordinator. We needed to buy some things and had to get out of the jungle to do so. I enjoy my job, but its always nice to escape for a little bit.
Friday was one of the longest days of my life. Jess and I taught at a school that has a grand total of 8 students...they were really well behaved, the lessons went great, and minus the fact that the kids were eating bugs for lunch--im not kidding, apparently they are currently in season--it went really well. We get in our car to drive into town to catch the bus to Quito, and not surprisingly, the car wouldnt start. We tried all of the tricks that we´ve learned...by May I will be a fantastic mechanic...but nothing worked. Nick, our boss, suggested that we take the car battery to the oil company located nearby...the closest people to us. We hoped that they could recharge the battery for us. I dont know how many of you have ever carried a car battery before...for over 30 minutes, and up a hill...but i do NOT reccomend it. It was boiling hot, we were already exhausted from a week of teaching, and the battery was, if i have to guess, approximately one million pounds. We finally made it to the oil company, and the very nice men gave us cold water, cookies, and a mechanic! He drove us...and the battery, which did NOT need to be carried at all...back to the car. So 3 and a half hours after the car wouldnt start, covered in battery acid, sweat, and mud, we were on our way! We made it to Quito after a 4 and a half hour bus ride, for half of which we were shoved in a tiny seat behind the driver. It was an adventure, to say the least.
Then yesterday was really nice. We did the obligatory trip to Mitad del Mundo, or literally translated, the Center of the World. ie the equator, hence the name of this country. It was totally cheesy but we got into the spirit of things, took silly pictures, and jumped around from one hemisphere to the next. Lots of fun and hilarity. Spent the rest of the day relaxing, walking around, eating some YUMMY indian food, and shopping a bit. It was so nice having some girl time. Heading back to the house in about an hour to gear up for another full week of teaching.

Our program is currently at 8 schools, yet we are down to Jess, myself, and one volunteer invovled in the teaching program. So we teach every day, Monday through Friday, and usually on our own. We are really short on volunteers and money, which is rough...im going to start fundraising soon so get excited!!! yayyyyy fundraising!! If anyone wants to come spend some time living and working here with us, let me know. Its tiring but really rewarding and fun, and they really could use the help.

Im going to post pictures soon, and i´ll explain more about what im doing and what my days are like. Just some quick notes now though--I survived my first tarantula sighting, and then the next day, a baby tarantula. They really are fuzzy and about the size of my hand. Really good times. I live with two dogs and a cat, and im in love with living with dogs again. Theyre fantastic company and make a great addition to my home. When I arrived at the house there were 10 volunteers, and now were down to 4. Later this week it will be 5, and then hopefully short term volunteers will be coming in soon. The brits and aussies have left and now we americans have taken over, and its much quieter. Nice to clean up after and cook for less people, but we miss having all of the boys around. What else what else? The weather has been pretty good, im switching rooms soon so jess and i will have our own space and i can finally unpack my bags, and i have clean laundry waiting for me in back in Puyo so i´m thrilled about that.
Again, I will be starting some fundraising campaigns soon so please be on the lookout. I know you´re all excited about that. And as soon as I can, i´ll get up some pictures.
Anything interesting going on in the world? I wouldnt know...

besos y mucho amor!