Catching Up, Again

Hola,

There is so much to tell. Let´s see how much I can recall at the moment.

Today marks the middle of my third week here in Ayacucho de Huamanga. Only ten more days to go. As usual, time seems to be flying by.

Since my last entry (more or less), I´ve changed assignments. Since this program doesn´t require me to commit to a single activity, I´ve been jumping around a bit. In addition to the soup kitchen and the nursing home, I´ve worked in a medical clinic, visited the local prison, and visited a health center located in the mountains. Not sure where else I´ll go in the coming weeks.

In the medical clinic I served as translator for one of the non-spanish speaking volunteers who was a neonatal nurse (Mandi). That was fun and also challenging as I haven´t studied medical terminology. I could understand most of what the doctors explained, but I had difficulty expressing myself. At one point the doctor left and allowed Mandi to diagnos patients, which meant I had to do the translations. Some how we got by.

One morning I accompanied one of the nurses as she went to a neighborhood to seek out pregnant women who had missed their scheduled check ups. The way the neighborhoods are organized makes it difficult to find houses (and some people don´t know their exact address). We found three of the five women we were seeking, and met three other pregnant women who had not yet come to the clinic to get check-ups.

I also spent a couple of days in the pharmacy doing drug inventory. Counting inventory was boring, but I enjoyed chatting with the women who worked in the pharmacy.

The clinic, located in a very poor neighborhood, does a good job of treating the patients. They can handle basic needs, and then they refer patients to the main hospital for more complicated treatment. The place is clean. Privacy during patient examinations is non-existent as various people feel free to enter the room during examinations with no consequence. The pediatric doctor handled two or three patients at a time. Things appeared a bit disorganized at time, but everything seemed to work out.

One day I accompanied Mandi to the prison while she did an examination of a 1.5 year old boy who has cerebral palsy. Lenny is the boy´s name. Lenny was born in prison to a woman who is serving time for some drug related crime. She never received treatment for high blood pressure and an infection during her pregnancy, despite her visits to the prison doctor. Lenny was born with cerebral palsy. Despite his issues, Lenny is a beautiful child. He has a sweet temperament, and often cracks up with laughter. Mandi did an examination for a report that will be sent to a treatment center in Lima,Peru. If accepted, Lenny will go there to receive treatment for his cerebral Palsy. The sad part is that he will be separated from his mom.

Another day a group of volunteers took all the children who live at the prison with their mothers out for the morning. Children under the age of 5 years old can live at the prison with their mothers. And every Friday our organization takes the kids out of the prison to various places in Ayacucho. Last Friday we took them to the Zoo. Yes, Ayacucho as a zoo. And what a sad zoo it is. It has birds, a snake, a couple of bored pumas, some turtles, and several monkeys. But the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. My little boy was named Beckham. He was a sweet, calm boy. About 2 years old. He liked to stare out the car window as we drove through the city. On the way home he fell asleep, and had nightmares. What kind of nightmare does a 2 year old boy have?

The prision is not a scarey place. It feels more like a community, than a prison. There are about 1000 prisoners, both male and female. The inmates spend time making crafts that are sold outside of the prison. And sadly, for many of these people, the conditions inside the prison are better than their living conditions at home.

Most of the people in prison are there for drug related activities. The foothills of the mountains in Ayacucho is where 180k tonnes of coca leaves are grown. Pervuians consume 80k tonnes of coca leaves in the form of leaves. The make tea, and they chew the leaves for energy and hunger, as well as other health reasons. The remaining 100k tonnes are used to make cocaine. Some peasants make paste from the leaves. Cocaine is made from the paste. Paste is transported by people in backpacks. And so the prisoners in jail for drug related crimes are in there for production or transportation of paste. Coca production, as well as the production of coca paste and cocaine provide a major source of income in Ayacucho for hundreds of thousands of people.

Today a group of us went to a health center located in the mountains. This health center is the only health center within a three hour walking distance for several communities. Sadly, it´s the closest place for medical care for these communities. And the people are so poor that they cannot afford the medicine that is prescribed to treat their illnesses. One of the volunteers is a mid-wife in England, so she did examinations of patients. The rest of us gave demonstrations of proper hand-washing techniques. Most of the people know how to do this, they just choose not to do it. Many people in the mountains wash their hands once a day! and maybe they use soap. So we did a demonstration using paint to show how easily germs can be spread from person to person, and then reviewed proper handwashing techniques. Everyone left the clinic today with clean hands.

Well, I need to head back for dinner.

cheers,
Stacey

Carnival

Carnival sucks!

Today is the last day of Carnival, thank God! What madness it has been! Women and foreigners are walking targets for water balloons and squirt guns, talcum powder, and shaving cream. Guys walk up to you and spread paint or motor oil on your face. Gangs of boys will hold you and pour crap on you. When I leave the residence, I am armed with a large can of shaving cream (especially created for Carnival). The can of cream doesn´t prevent the attacks, but I can get even with my attackers. Retribution feels sooooo goooooood.

Carnival started last Saturday, and ends today. And there was the PRE-Carnival water bomb squirt gun attacks that took place the prior week. During the actual days of Carnival, groups of people dress in traditional Carnival costumes and march in an endless procession of groups through the city center. Marchers do a little traditional dance. People in the crowd shoot water, cream and talc at the marchers. Marchers shoot water, cream and talc at the people in the crowd. Marchers stop and drink booze along the way. Marchers and non-marchers start drinking after lunch and continue drinking and dancing all night long.

Carnival in Ayacucho is much more tame than Carnival in Brasil. And we wear more clothing. (Thank goodness. Some sights are not worth seeing.) Apparently many children are conceived during these five days, so many that there is a festival in November that celebrates the births of Carnival-conceived babies.

Our residence participated in the parade. They taught us a simple dance, and we wore traditional costumes. Women wore a white skirt and blouse, a striped manta (a cloth used to carry things on one´s back), and a white hat with a black ribbon. Men wore black or brown pants, a white poncho, and a brown or black hat. The women did the dance choreography, and the men walked behind us playing instruments (or pretened to do so). We also hired a group of rasta-looking musicians to play traditional music. And we had a capitain who marched in front. Our capitain was tall and thin, and was dressed in purple, with a long purple cape and mask that made look like the psychotic from A Clockwork Orange. We received a lot of applause from the audience along the route. We walked for four hours in the hot sun, but we did manage to stop for a beer along the way. It was fun, I guess.

I´m so happy that Carnival ends today.

cheers,
Stacey

Running here and there

¡Hola!

I am beat. Today was another busy day. The people running program the volunteer program have almost every minute of our day planned this first week. There is little time to relax between activities.

Today was my second day at the nursing home. I decided to change from the soup kitchen to the nursing home because there wasn´t enough work to fill the morning at the soup kitchen. The nursing home at least keeps me busy. I work in the women´s section, playing with whomever is willing and able to interact with me.

The nursing home is clean and bright and not depressing. The place doesn´t smell. And the women sit outside in a courtyard surrounded by flowers and plants. There is a cage with three peacocks, and there is a small tucan who visits with the women from time to time.

The home is divided into male and female sections. I work in the women´s section. These ladies are native Quechua, and dress in the traditional dress. They are really quite striking, even in this environment. Most are about half my height. They are so tiny. While the cognizant ones understand Spanish, most tend to speak in Quechua. That makes attending to their needs difficult as I don´t understand Quechua. Yesterday I played catch with some of the women. Some of these ladies have quite an arm. We also played with Leggos, and I massaged lotion on their arms and legs.

Today the ladies preferred to sit in the sun and sleep. Guess I wore them out yesterday. So today I helped the girls who clean the diningroom to clean the diningroom, to serve food, and to hang up laundry. It made the day pass quickly, but I was exhausted when I left.

The girls who work in the diningroom are cute. There are very giggley. One is 18 and one is 14 years old. The 14 year old lives at the nursing home and travels home to visit her family once a year. She tried to teach me some Quechua, and I taught her some Chinese and Japanese.

After lunch I started private Spanish lessons with Gustavo. Gustavo is the handsome young Spanish teacher who teaches at the residence. All the women have a crush on him. By chance he also teaches my private lessons. The others are jealous. I will take four hours of class each week. Classes are inexpensive at $5 per hour.

Then I had to go to dance practice. This weekend is the start of carnival. The volunteers will dress up and perform a traditional dance on Monday. Today we had to practice. Luckily the dance is not difficult. they also want us to sing a quechua song, but that´s not going to happen. Quechua words are very long, and so trying to memorize a song is impossible. It´s enough that we have to dress up as Quechua women.

Yesterday we visited the site where the Peruvians defeated the Spanish and won independence. The site is located in the mountains. The ride was spectacular. This part of the Andes is even more dramatic than the part outside of Quito. And there are alot of cactus growing everywhere. They grow on rocks and on the walls of houses (used instead of glass shards to keep theives out of the yard). On the way home we stopped at village that makes ceramic sculptures. And we also visited the ruins of the Wari culture. The wari preceded the Incas. For me the scenery on the way to the sites is more interesting than the actual destination.

Tomorrow I will go on a two-day llama trek. We will hike at 14K feet ASL. Vamos a ver....

cheers,
Stacey

Where there´s smoke there´s food

¡Hola!

Today was my first day at the soup kitchen.

The soup kitchen is a cooperative effort of several women that provides a low cost lunch (30-45 cents) to about 60 people every day. Everyday a different member of the cooperative prepares the food. The facilitates are very basic. There is no electricity or gas. They use wood to fuel the stove. The single room where they cook the food is so full of wood smoke that I can´t stay inside more than a minute.

Today I peeled over 200 medium sized new potatos with a large dull knife. Then I cut them into tiny pieces. I also cut onions and tomatoes into small slices. It took me three hours to complete the work. Fortunately I enjoy cutting and chopping vegetables. Since this will probably be my job for the next four weeks, I went to the store and bought some sharper knives and a peeler.

One of the two ladies that prepared the food brought her two year-old daughter to the soup kitchen. She was a doll. It rained all morning, and as a result the dirt floor of the courtyard was muddy. The little girl played in the mud with a bottle cap and a plastic bag. She would occaisionally¨"wash" her hands in a mud puddle. She seemed to enjoy herself. Two year olds are easily amused.

When I came back to the residence, I smelled of smoke.

Well, that´s it for the moment.
cheers,
Stacey

Safe and (still) Dry in Huamanga

¡Hola from Huamanga!

Huamanga is the colonial name of the city of Ayacucho. The Peruvians use the old name of Ayacucho (Huamanga) to distinguish the town of Ayacucho from the province of Ayacucho. Huamanga is located south and east of Lima, in the Andes Mountains. The town is poor, and is not as attractive as any of the places I have visited thus far. Even San Jose, Costa Rica looks beautiful compared to this place. But it is calm here.
There are many native indians here. They speak Quechua, a version different from that which is spoken in and around Quito, Ecuador. They dress similarly to the indigenous people that live in and around Quito. The poverty rate here is 70%. The literacy rate is 50%.

The government spends little money to support the province of Ayacucho. Most of the money used to support the people in the province of Ayacucho comes from the cultivation of coca plants. The type of coca plant that is grown in Ayacucho provides a larger yield of a more potent chemical that is desired for cocaine. About 99% of the coca grown here is used by drug dealers. Drug dealers pay farmers alot more money for coca leaves than they would receive growing other crops. And there is a supporting industry in the growth, processing and transport of the leaves and paste that provides a source of income for many, many people in the region. Jobs are scarce here, so coca agriculture supports many people.

The remaining 1% of the harvest is used by the people for private consumption. People make tea from the leaves (it alieves altitude sickness), and chew it to for energy and to alieve hunger. Coca leaves are not addictive.

I arrived in Huamanga early Sunday morning. I arrived in Lima from Quito at 10:30 PM and had to wait in the airport overnight until 4 AM to check in for my flight to Ayacucho (Huamanga). That I was able to stay awake through the wee hours of the night is amazing to me. As many of you know, I´m not a late night person. There were ten volunteers who joined me in the cafeteria awaiting the same flight. We had time to talk and start to get to know each other.

The managing director of the Ayacucho Program came to Lima to flew with us to Huamanga. He was there to attend to any glitches there might be. And there was a glitch: Since were were a group traveling together, they made us pile all of our luggage on the scale at once. The combined weight was more than the weight allowed for the tickets we purchased, so we had to pay more money (over $80). But it was impossible to determine whose luggage was overweight. Rudy was able to convince the airline to charge us less money for the overage. Thank you Rudy.

There are 14 volunteers who started with me in Huamanga. Three others from a previous group are still at the residence finishing their time here in Huamanga as volunteers. Most are from the USA, but two are from Canada, one is from Ireland, , one is from Scotland, and is from England. Two are men, the rest are women. And the ages range from highschool on up. We all live in a residence house. There are two to a bedroom, but each room has two sets of bunkbeds (and a private bathroom). Four people to a room would be awful! My roommate, Rosemary, is from San Francisco. She´s older. A former stock trader. A very smart woman. So far we are getting along fine.

Today we took a tour of some of the places where we will do our volunteer assignments: a soup kitchen, a boy´s orphanage, a prison, a school, a health center/ clinic. I´ll be working in the soup kitchen. The soup kitchen is a cooperative started by several local women to provide inexpensive meals to women and children. The kitchen itself is small and smokey. Very low tech. They use wood to heat the stove. I start tomorrow.

Yesterday a group of us took a walk around the town. As we walked, we had to dodge boys throwing water and water baloons. This is week preceding Carnival, and the boys have a habit of throwing water at women and each other for Carnival. This peril lasts for about ten days. they appear from out of no where. They are on the tops of rooves. The roam in packs. They carry balloons and buckets full of water, and super soaker waterguns. Yesterday I avoided getting hit. Only my feet got wet. Other volunteers weren´t so lucky. But I expect my time will come soon. It´s only a matter of time.

Time to get ready for this afternoon´s activities.

cheers,
Stacey

Galapa-glorious

¡Hola!

Last night I returned from 8 days in the Galapagos Islands. What a marvelous place!

The plane lands in Baltra, a small island off Santa Cruz. A bus takes you from the airport to the boat dock, where you then take a short boat ride to northern part of Santa Cruz. Another bus takes you to Puerto Ayora on the southern part of the island.

Baltra is arid, with low, scraggly, silvery ground and a special type of small green tree. A special desert. The soil is rocky, deep red and black. This is all you see until you approach the port. And what a gorgeous sight! The water is several hues of turquoise blue. It looks surreal. As the bus approached the dock, I saw a pelican land and scoop up a fish. Immediately two other birds landed on the head and the back of the pelican! Even with the boat traffic, the water is clear. You can see fish swimming around dock.

The landscape from the northern part to the southern part of the island is similar to that of Baltra, however, there are mountains in the distance off to one side.

After a 20 minute ride, I arrived in Puerto Ayora, which the town where most people live, and is the center of tourism for Santa Cruz. For a tourist town, it is very clean, and extremely safe. And also very expensive, for both locals and tourists. Quito is inexpensive. The Galapagos Islands are not.

There are two types of touring you can do in the Galapagos: Ship/yacht-based, and land based. A ship-based tour is more expensive, ranging from $4000 for 8 nights on a luxury liner, to $1000 for 8 nights on a small boat. You sleep on a ship and visit the islands from the ship. You also get to visit more islands than if you do it the land based way. The land-based tour means that you return to a hotel at the end of the day to sleep. Land-based tours are less expensive. My host organization in Quito arranged a 5 day land-based tour for me based in Santa Cruz, and then arranged a three day homestay on the island of Isabela.

While in Santa Cruz, I visited the Charles Darwin Research Center which is devoted to preserving the iguanas and giant tortoises of the galapagos. That the government takes great steps to preserve the wildlife of the Galapagos is magnificent. The tortoises would be extinct if the government took no such steps. Tortoises in the wild have a 1% chance of survival due to predators introduced over the years. Wild dogs, pigs, goats, as well as rats and ants all destroy the tortoises in the wild. The center has a tortoise nursey where they collect tortoise eggs in the wild, and in the nursey, hatch and raise the tortoises until they are 3 or 5 years old, then place them in the wild. A five year old tortoise is about 8 inches in diameter. The really big tortoises weigh over 600lbs (300kg) and live to be over 150 lbs.

I don´t know what the danger to the lizards are. There seem to be alot of them in the wild, especially the marine lizards. There are two types of lizards: Marine Lizards and Land Lizards. Marine lizards are black, with bodies of about 12 to 14 inches long, and tails equally as long. They live near the sea, and you can see them sunning themselves on the rocks. Their long tails help them swim very long distances. One sailed out to our boat in the middle of the sea from who know where. Guess he was curious. He stopped a while to allow us to take photos.

Land lizards are dark yellow. I didn´t see any of these outside of the Charles Darwin Research Center.

One morning we took a walk through a forest where tortoise live. One tortoise met us in the road. She was big one, about 85 years old. She watched us for a while. However, as we passed, she became scared and retreated in her shell. We saw several tortoises bathing in a pond of bright green tortoise vomit (tortoises tend to spit up their food while in the water). And we saw two tortoises mating. The male tortoise climbs on top of the female, and will stay there for 4 to 8 hours. He makes a loud groaning sound as he mates. The females don´t like being mounted (Gee, I wonder why), and try to escape when a male approaches.

The guide said that every now and then a big tortoise will walk on to the road, then get scared by the cars and won´t move. It takes 8 strong men to lift the tortoise off the road and back into the woods.

We did a lot of snorkeling. Snorkeling in the Galapagos is easier as the waters are relatively calm. You didn´t need flipper to swim and stay afloat. One day we snorkeled off the beach. The fish were gorgeous, lots of different colors and sizes. Another day we swam with sea lions. A snorkel allowed you to see the sea lions swimming and playing around you. And we snorkeled over white-tipped sharks. The sharks ignored us -- thank goodness -- as we swam over them. The guide swore they were vegetarians.

And the beaches are magnificent. White, soft sand, warm blue clean water. We visited three beaches in Santa Cruz -- the one where we snorkeled, and then another, more secluded beached that required a 45 minute walk in the hot sun to get there. The walking keeps the number of visitors down. But boy is it worth the walk! The third beach is easier to access and so has more locals swimming in it. The water is as warm as bath water, and is very calm.

We also visited a natural pond that is located in what looks like a quarry. It is surround by rocks, and is 14 meters deep in the center. After the walk of death over slippery jagged rocks in the blazing sun to get there, the cool water is refreshing.

To get to Isla Isabela, you have to take a speed boat. The ride is 2.5 hours (8 hours in a regular boat). The ride is choppy. One thing I know for sure is that I don´t get sea sick. There were 18 people packed in the boat, with no room to move. And no place to rest my back as I sat near the back next to the motors. But the ride is peaceful. The sound of the motors and the rhythm of the boat was hypnotic.

Isabela is the largest of the islands, but it the newest island, and has only 2000 inhabitants. It´s also much hotter than Sant Cruz. Santa Cruz was hot, but Isabela awfully hot. It´s the hottest place I´ve ever visited. Even at night it´s hot. And the proximity of the equator makes it feel even hotter. The humidity wasn´t bad. The sun was strong. Even I got burned on my shoulders and back while wearing number 30 sunscreen.

On Isabela, I stayed at the house of a woman who usually houses volunteers who come to work at the tortoise nursery on Isabela. Gladys is her name. Gladys and her husband have three bedrooms that they rent to people associated with the organization I am working with. I got to know Gladys, her aunt and uncle, and her adorable, precocious 2 year old neice.

Her uncle owns horses, and is a tour guide. He was my tour guide while I was there. His specialty is a tour of the Sierra Negra Volcano on horseback. The day I went, I was accompanied by a swedish honeymoon couple. The horses are small and scrawny, and we were three big people. Part of the road up the mountain was muddy and slippery, and so the horses had a hard time walking. They almost fell several times. On the way down, we dismounted and walked for a while until we passed the dangerous part. As we rode, I thought of the spanards who traveled the Central and South America on horseback. And they work heavy, hot clothing. My padillas hurt after only 3 hours of riding. I can imagine riding for days. But maybe your padillas get used to the saddle after a couple of days. Actually, my padillas are still sore, two days later!

Horses aside, the scenery up the mountain was beautiful. And the volcanic crater was amazing. It is about 6 miles in diameter and is the second largest volcanic crater in the world. And it was filled with lava. The lava looked like black and gray mud. And we also had a view of Isabela from where we were. It was green and looked similar to Central New York farmland. It was also much cooler up in the mountains.

In addition to the volcano, I visited the Wall of Tears. It was used to torture prisoners from 1945 to 1959, although I´m not exactly how. It´s a high wall of lava rocks located far off the road in the middle of no where. Isabela also has a tortoise nursery which seems more organized than the one on Santa Cruz. I also did some snorkeling in a laguna, and spent the afternoon at the beach relaxing.

All in all I had a wonderful time in the Galapagos. I´d love to visit again.

Cheers,
Stacey

Catching Up

¡Hola!

Since I have some time to kill until my boat for Isla Isabela departs, I thought I would catch you up.

My last week in Quito went well, but was a little sad, too. But endings, or transitions, are always melancholy for me. Despite all the years of moving and traveling, leaving and saying good-bye always make me a little blue. I even cried when I traded my old car for the new one!

The last week at school went amazingly well. Fortunately, due to student government elections, I didn´t have to teach as many classes. Several hours of class were used to allow the candidates to talk to the students. Fortunately/Unfortunately, I had to listen to the campaign speeches. These student government campaign speeches were no different than those made so many decades ago when I was in high school. Although I did learn something new: kids in Ecuador don´t have health insurance! One of the campaign promises was to find a way to make available low-cost health insurance to kids who wanted it. Actually, very few people have health insurance here. Natural medicine is big here, probably for that reason.

In the classes I did manage to teach, the kids behaved a little better. Who knows why. They certainly didn´t know it was my last week until I told them at the end of each class. One thing I finally realized was that the screwiness of the children and the school had nothing to do with me. The school imposed situations on other teachers as well. One subsitute teacher was asked to fill in for a month for another teacher, but the school wouldn´t give him the teachers´ manuals or lesson plans for the classes he was taking over! (probably because they didn´t have any of these things) So the guy had to come in cold to take over the classes. Imagine having to assert classroom control over 36 kids without having a clue what they kids are doing! That´s what happened to me, however, I had the "foreigness" factor on MY side. Granted it lasted only about 15 minutes in some classes. So, in retrospect, my teach-22-classes-a-week situation was nothing unusual.

As for the kids issues, they don´t listen to anyone. They talk in class. They walk aroung the classroom. They do homework of other classes while the teacher is teaching (until I started collecting notebooks). They just wouldn´t shut up during the student government campaign speeches. The ONLY thing they feared was the Principal, Mrs Valaresa. In one class exercise where we practiced the phrase "One thing I fear is....", her name came up several times. I wonder what her secret is.... (On the flight to the Galapagos, there was a group of kids who would not stay seated during flight landing. The flight attendent was very angry, imploring many, many times "¡¡¡¡¡¡children, shut up and stay in your seats!!!!!!!!") But despite the fact that they don´t listen, they are actually good kids. For the most part, they want to do the right thing, however, their mouths and hormones get the way.

So my last day was a day of gifts: chocolates, jewelry (string bracelets that the kids here wear), farewell cards and notes, and even a seranade from the director of the school. Before leaving the school, the director and I discussed my impressions of the school, the students, Ecuador. Several weeks earlier, the director told me that he had visited Japan many years ago, and practiceds the few Japanese phrases he could recall. So at the end of our farewell discussion, he got his guitar, tuned it, and started playing a Japanese song of farewell that he had learned while there! Then he sang it again in Spanish. Then he concluded with a third song! He was very good. What a wonderful farewell present!

Before I left, I finally made it to the Museo de Guayasamin. Guayasamin is famous Ecuadorian painter (and sculptor) who paints beautifully expressive portraits of people. His subjects tend express either intense agony or feelings of love and caring. There is something about the way he painted the eyes. One look in the eyes of his portraits and you know EXACTLY the emotion he tried to convey. One painting even made my cry, and I wasn´t feeling sad at the time. He is now one of my favorite painters. The grounds of the museum itself are beautiful, and the museum is on a hill that overlooks Quito. I think it may have been his house before he died.

All in all, it was a very good last week in Quito. On February 9, I will spend one night in Quito so that I can catch my flight to Lima, Peru, the next day.

I´ll miss it here.
cheers,
Stacey

Winding Down in Quito

¡Hola!

My time in Quito is almost finished. This Friday I´m off to the Galapagos Islands. I wish I could spend a little more time here, getting to know the city and the country.

Last weekend was spent in Quito. On Saturday, Margot, one of the volunteers, and I visited the Museo de Banco Central. It was an interesting mix of prehistoric art and more conventional paintings and sculpture.

After the museum, we perused the artist market in Ejido Park. I bought a necklace, and then spent some time talking to Ignacio. Ignacio and his father are jewelers, and have a stand in the park. I bought a ring from his father a few weeks ago. Ignacio is university student studying journalism. He´s quite an interesting guy. And he was able to suffer my mediocre spanish.

Sunday I went to the mall. Yes, I travelled all this way, and I end up at the mall. I was curious to see what a high-end mall in Quito would be like. Malls are malls anywhere in the world. Lots of shops, lots of people. The prices were similar to prices back home, however, here in Quito, these are expensive prices. Yet, people were shopping.

I don´t know if I mentionned that the average salary is $150 per month. And housing starts at $50 per month. Food is inexpensive, as is transportation.

Before heading to the mall on Sunday, I visited another park called Carolina Park. It is huge and full of people doing anything you can imagine. And it was a beautiful sunny day on Sunday. I love visiting city parks and watching families and people doing whatever it is that they do.

Well, I need to get to the supermarket before it closes, so I´ll end here.

cheers,
Stacey

I spoke a little too soon

¡Hola!

When last I wrote, I had just spent two days in bed with the flu. Well one week later, I´m still struggling with a head cold. And Sunday I came down with pink eye, or in my case, red eye. My left eye was as red as a tomato, and was swollen. And it itched so much that I was ready to remove it from my head. On day three it spread to the other eye, although the medication I put in my eyes prevented the right eye from getting very red. All in all I spent four days in bed with my eyes closed, listening to podcasts and books on tape downloaded on my iPod. I love my iPod. Currently my eyes are a little itchy, but they are definitely better than they were earlier in the week.

On Saturday, our Ecuadorian guide took me and the new volunteer John to Otavalo for the day. Otavalo is about two hours north of Quito, in the Andes. Otavalo is famous for native handicrafts. It is also where many local indigenous people live. You may have seen photos of female and male indians with a single long braid, and wearing woolen ponchos and a felt or panama style hat. They speak quechua in addition to spanish.

The city of Otavalo itself is not very attractive, but the surrounding area is beautiful. In addition to the mountains and valleys, there are five big lakes. We visited one called San Pablo. The area is similar to Cayuga Lake back home in Central New York, only CNY doesn´t have such huge mountains. As in CNY, there are also small waterfalls. We visited the falls in Mt. Peguche.

The handicraft market sells typical native handicrafts. The indians weave brightly colored striped cloth for scarves, bedspreads and table cloths. They crochet table cloths and table runners. The make hammocks. They knit sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves and ponchos out of llama wool. They make felt and panama straw hats. (Panama hats are made in Ecuador, not Panama.) They carve figures out of wood. They make wood, macramee and silver jewelry. And you can buy touristy stuff, too, like t-shirts, key chains, caps, wallets and so on. You can find the same stuff in the local weekend handicraft market here in Quito, too, but the Otavalo market spreads for blocks and blocks.

On Sunday, before my eyes turned red, I rode the teleferico (cable cars) to the top of one of the local mountains in Quito. Quito is over 10K feet ASL, and the peak at the top of the teleferico is over 14K feet ASL. They sell oxygen just in case you need it. Once at the top of the teleferico, you can continue to hike even higher. Walking uphill at 10K feet in Quito is challenging enough for me, so I decided to enjoy the view at only 14k feet. And an amazing view it is. There are houses and buildings everywhere, as if the mountains and hills were leaking houses.

Between the flu and conjunctivitis I have missed five days of school. That´s one third of the time I had planned to teach. I feel bad about this.

The foundation that governs the school arranged two weekend outtings in the Amazon for certain people associated with the foundation. I was invited to go this weekend, but decided to pass. Given my weakened immune system, who know what awful disease I might catch. With my current luck, I´d probably get Dengue Fever. The director at the school couldn´t understand why I didn´t want to go. Battling the flu and conjunctivitis didn´t seem like a good excuse. Besides, part of the trip included a cleansing by a local Shaman. Now, I´m a believer in natural medicine, but I draw the line at Shaman spit. Part of the cleansing process requires the Shaman to spit in your hair and smack you leaves. I decided to pass on this opportunity.

It´s hard to believe that my time in Quito is almost over. Only one week left, then it´s on to the Galapagos Islands.

cheers,
Stacey

alive and sorta well

¡Hola!

It´s been an interesting week.

Last weekend Melina, another volunteer, and I took the bus to Mindo. Mindo is small town (and that´s being generous) in the Andes about two hours Northwest of Quito. The area resembled Costa Rica, only with more dramatic mountains. We think it is a rainforest. It rained half the time, and it was a forest. Hey, what do I know. I´m from Detroit.

The scenery on the drive to Mindo was stunning: plenty of lush green cloud-covered mountains and valleys. We drove through some of the clouds along the way. The Andes are so cool.

The first day we went tubing down a rather rapid river. It was just Melina and I on the tube raft. We had a private tubing raft guide. His mission was to keep us from crashing into the rocks and dying. Boy did he earn his money! This was my first time tubing, and I had a ball. The water was a little cold, but the fear of crashing into rocks kept my mind off the cold.

We also visited a butterfly garden. Butterfly gardens are so delightful! So tranquil. Butterflies of blue, yellow, red and black frolicking in the air! I unsuccessfully tried to coerce a couple of the butterflies to eat melon off my hand. They must get tired of tourists forcing them to eat melon off their fingers.

Later that afternoon Melina and decided to explore the ¨town¨ -- all four blocks of it. That took all of 10 minutes. After dinner we had drinks at a cool little bar on the edge of town. This was THE (only) place to be. Their margaritas were excellent!

The next morning we visited the waterfalls park. We took an open cable car across the valley to get to the starting point of the trail. Again, we had a private tour guide, a cute young guy named Michael Angel. He guided us up and down the mountain to see two of the four waterfalls. We didn´t have enough time see all four, which was fine with me because visiting two falls was challenging enough for me. All my energy was focused on not sliding off the mountain. It had rained the night before, and the trail was muddy. And I was wearing rubber Croc sandals, which tend to slide in the mud. But then again, I think I would have had the same challenge had I been wearing hiking boots. Atleast it was easy to wash the mud from the Crocs. This little adventure took about 2.5 hours in total.

Touring in Ecuador is so inexpensive. The round trip bus fare to Mindo was $5. The double occupancy room with a private bath and breakfast was $10 per person. Dinner was $5. The excursions totaled $25 per person. Margaritas were pricey at $3 a piece!


On Tuesday I awoke feeling achey all over. At first I thought I might have malaria, because the symptoms of the flu and malaria are similar. But since I didn´t have a fever or chills, I figured that it wasn´t the flu. But to be on the safe side, I consulted with a doctor. He agreed that it was the only the flu. But he also told me that I was suffering from hypertension! I don´t have hypertension in the US, so imagine my shock when he told me that I have it here. Apparently it is not uncommon for people to develop temporary hypertension at high altitudes. So I´m taking high blood pressure medicine for a few days. This sucks.

I slept for two days, and am now feeling much better. I missed two days of work (oh darn).

Teaching the lovely children is getting better. I take each day and each class as they come. Today was a better day. We´ll see what joy tomorrow brings.

Today my host mother decided to make me a traditional Ecuadorial dish for lunch. It was tripe in a peanut butter cream sauce, with rice. It´s called librillo. It tastes as good as it sounds. But I ate it all, and I didn´t grimace once. I decided to eat dinner out tonight. I had indian food. GOOD indian food.

Well, I need to get some sleep.

Cheers,
Stacey

TGIF

¡Hola!

Thank God it´s Friday. Teaching five hours of classes a day is exhausting. And getting up at 5 AM doesn´t make this any easier. Fortunately next week is a short week. On Monday they inaugurate their newly elected president, and so school is closed. I don´t see the connection, but I´m not complaining.

These first three days went about well as could be expected. I didn´t kill any of the children -- but I came darn close. Yesterday I had two classes of donkeys. The Ecuadorians call kids aged 13-16 "burros". And asses they were. Today I taught little kids. They are so cute! All day long, they would run up to me and hug me, both inside and outside of class. They greeted me with a song clalled "Morning Teacher", sung to the tune of Frere Jacques. They made up for yesterday´s classes of burros.

Today was my first day of riding the bus to school with out Gabriel, my guide. And all went well. Although I will say that riding the bus is a violent experience. The bus races along the road at 40 mph, and stops suddenly whenever anyone inside or outside the bus signals the driver. With all this herky-jerky stopping and starting, you don´t need coffee to wake up. Much to my amazement, several people on the bus are able to sleep. Sixty percent of my energy is trying to stay in my seat, and the other forty percent is trying to figure out where I am so I don´t miss my stop.

Well, I have to get going.
cheers,
Stacey

Let the teaching begin!

!Hola Chicos!

Today was my first day of teaching. And to use my new favorite phrase: Vamos a ver (we will see).

The school where I am teaching is a school created by the government of Quito to showcase new and improved methods of teaching for children in kindergarten through high school. The objective is to more effectively teach these children the skills they need to suceed in work and advanced education. Some students follow a more generic course of study, while others focus on accounting, physics, chemistry. The school was founded about six years ago, and the first class of high school seniors graduated last year. Only about 25% of the students who started six years ago, graduated.

The school is located in the Carapungo district of Quito. It´s a 45 minute, two bus ride from my house. Today Gabriel, my guide, had to meet me at my house at 6 AM to show me how to get to the school. Gabriel is 19 years old, and is a night owl. Pobrecito (Poor Gabriel).

Carapungo is located at a lower altitude than central Quito which makes it bloody hot! Luckily it´s a dry heat.

My classes are daily. Classes start at 7:15 AM and end at 1:20 PM. I will teach four or five classes a day, with a total of 23 classes a week. There are 430 students in the school, and I will teach everyone of them at least once a week. What will I do exactly? I will try to keep one step ahead. Fortunately I enjoy working in these type of figure-it-out-as-you-go situations. My other favorite phrase is: Que sera sera (what will be, will be).

Today´s classes went reasonably well. I tought 12 and 16 year olds. The 12 year olds were much better than I had expected, attention and attitude wise. The 16 year olds are, well, 16 year olds. The class of 16 year olds refused to do what I had wanted to do, but instead they asked me lots of questions. They wanted to know what I thought about Bush, the war in Iraq. They told me that they thought americans were racist against immigrants, and that american teen-agers are lazy, selfish, and violent (Columbine). They also wanted to fix me up with their single English teacher. We´ll see how things go next week -- with the students, not the teacher.

After I went home and had lunch, I took the bus to Gringo Land (a part of Quito where we gringos hangout) all by myself! Tomorrow I take the bus to work all by myself. Guess I´m finally getting oriented.

Well, time to make my way back home.

cheers,
Stacey

Two Miles High

Hola de Quito, Ecuador!

After a week in the sun on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, I arrived in Quito which is about 11,000 ft ASL (above seal level). And what a change in climate and terrain it is!

But let´s start with Costa Rica.

After Santa Barbara, I spent a week at a high-end all inclusive resort on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The resort was on the Gulf of Papagayo, which is located at the top of the Nicoya Peninsula, and at bottom of Guanacaste Province. My particular stretch of beach had black sand. All the Costa Ricans talked about how white the sand was, so the black sand was a little shocking at first. But, black sand is kinda cool. It´s much softer than white sand. And the seashells look beautiful against the black. The resort also had a white sand beach about 30 minutes North by boat.

The resort itself was okay. You could tell it was an older hotel complex that had been rennovated. And like most resorts, the huge pool is the center piece. The people who worked there were very nice. The food was good, however, there was more meat than seafood. Fortunately they always had rice and black beans. And I could nave my gallo pinto (rice mixed with beans) with eggs and a tamale every morning.

The temperature was brutally hot: 95 degrees during the day, and 80 degrees during the night. And humid. The sun was bitingly strong, probably due to the close proximity to the equator.

My days were full of reading, sleeping, eating, drinking. I refused to leave the property because to do so would cost me a minimum of $60! And that´s just to take a taxi to the next beach! The prices for excursions from this hotel were outrageous. So I stayed on the property. Next time, I will stay a beach further south on the Nicoya Peninsula. One that is closer other beaches and shops and restaurants.

On Saturday, January 6, I flew to Quito. It took over 12 hours to get there because I had to fly through Miami! But other than the duration, the flight was wonderfully uneventful.

Since my plane arrived at night, I didn´t seen Quito until the next morning. And what a beautiful place it is! City is long and narrow, and is surrounded by even higher mountains (13,000 to 14,000 ft hight mountains). The city itself is not bad. It has lots of hills, which seem like mountains when you are walking up that at 11,000 ft ASL. The altitude hasn´t been a problem so far. The days are really hot, and the nights are light sweater weather. The Ecuadorians wear winter coats!

I am staying in the home of an older woman who´s husband passed away about two years ago. Her name is Mercedes. And she´s an amiable lady. She speaks only Spanish, which is fine by me. We´ve had some great conversations. Her house is smaller than the house of the Costa Rican family. However, it seems that she lives in one of three houses that are grouped together. Her sister and her mother live in the other two houses. And they share a common entrance from the street. My room is in the attic, and given the slant of the roof, I can stand upright in only 1/3 of the room.

Tomorrow I have an interview with the director of the school where I will be teaching English. Then my assignment will start on Wednesday. I learn more about my students tomorrow.

On Saturday I went to the center of the world. Quito is a 30 minute bus ride from the Equator. The thought of being able to stand on both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres at the same time was a little exciting.

Today I was given an orientation, but I don´t think it stuck. I know where certain areas are, but I don´t recall how to get to them. This mainly because I have to take the bus. And the bus system is confusing. As the bus comes speeding down the street, I have about 2 seconds to read the three signs in the window to figure out if the bus is one I want. If it is, then I have to flag it down. They don´t have bus stops. You can catch a bus ANYWHERE, and they drop you off ANYWHERE you ask them. To get off the bus, you yell to the driver that you want to get off HERE. And if you are a woman, the bus stops so you can get off. If you are a man, the bus slows down and you have to jump off a moving bus! Taking the bus to work the first few time should be interesting.... Thank goodness taxis are so cheap!

Well, that´s all I have to say for now.

cheers,
Stacey

Out Christmas-ing and Winding Down

Hola!

Compared to the consumerist frenzy that is Christmas back home in the US, Christmas in Santa Barbara was rather low key.

Christmas Eve seems to be the day during which more things happen. On Christmas Eve, Ivannia´s mother came to spend the night. I made Garlic Shrimp served over pasta, a caesar salad, and guacamole for the family for lunch. And in the evening, Oky invited several friends over for a barbecue. The neighbors karoked loudly until 3AM. Christmas morning we ate tamales and gallo pinto (rice mixed with beans) that Ivannia´s mother made. And later that day we went for a long walk. Presents had been exchanged earlier during the week, from what I could tell. Gift giving isn´t the big deal that it is back home.

Christmas Parties for the kids is a big deal. Primary schools had parties for the kids. The soup kitchen where I worked, as well, threw a magnificent party for 200 people -- 170 kids and 30 adults. The event was five hours long! They had a professional clown who played games with the kids and handed out prizes. There were cimaronas, piñatas, presents and lots of delicious food (fried chicken, salad, rice, beans, potatoes, ice cream, cake, soda).

At one point the cimaronas showed up and played. Cimaronas is the name for the band and the tall dancing figures that I´ve mentionned previously. This band consisted of a drum, a snare drum, a trumpet, a tuba, cimbals, and two sets of cow bells (gotta love music that features cow bells). Typical Tica music is lively and very fast. The guys wearing the figures hopped and twirled. The kids jumped and danced. There were conga lines. The music creates so much energy. People kept dancing at frenzied pace for an entire hour!

Opening the piñatas was an organized affair. Piñatas are hollow, decorated, paper or papier mache containers filled with peanuts, candies and toys. Adults join hands to form a circle to keep intruders out of the circle when the piñata´s pop. They divided the kids into groups by age and gender. The littles kids could barely hold the stick, while the older boys swung at the piñatas like they were baseballs. Even the mothers had a chance to whack a piñata! When the piñata pops madness ensues as kids try to grab as much stuff as possible. For the boys, this includes grabbing candy from other boys.

At the end of the party, EACH KID received a box of goodies, a bag of fruit, AND a wrapped present with their name on it. And these were really nice presents. It was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. And the kids had a great time.

The academic school year ends in December, and therefore, Christmas time is also a time for graduation parties. The son of Ivannia´s best friend graduated from primary school, and so I attended his graduation party. It was a party for all the kids in his class. There were about 30 kids and over 100 friends and family members. The dinner was catered. They had a DJ, and then a cimarona-type band showed up and played high energy traditional music for an hour. The music was excruciatingly loud (both the DJ and the band), so I spent the entire evening with my hands covering my ears so I could hear it. People danced and danced and danced. The band played music similar to the type played at the soup kitchen party. There were people dancing, convulsing and hopping, as well as several run-away conga lines and a mosh pit. It was marvelous chaos! I didn´t dance because the high-heeled shoes that Ivannia gave me to wear were too difficult to walk in, let alone dance in. Besides, I would looked even more riduculus than I already did dancing with my hands covering my ears!

Ticos certainly do know how to throw a party!

Today was my last day at the Institute. They gave me a beautiful daily planner, as well as a certificates for my volunteer work and for my Spanish studies. I also added a few comments to the wall where past students have written their farewells.

Yesterday was my last day at the soup kitchen. One of the ladies I worked with brought me some home made hot sauce since she knew I liked hot peppers. This stuff will strip paint off a wall it is so hot! She also gave me her watch. I made comment that I liked her watch and so she gave it to me. That was kind of her, but I felt bad because I don´t need her watch. Oh well.

Tomorrow I go to the beach. A car will take me to Playa Papagallo, which is located in the northern part of the Nicoya Peninsula, just south of Guanacaste. It´s the beach where the rich people go, apparently. Branjolina will be there (hopefully not at my hotel). They say this beach is gorgeous.

My stay here has been excellent. I´m so glad I came.

Cheers!

Volcanoes and Waterfalls

¡Hola!

It´s hot today. Hotter than it was last week. Actually, it is not as hot in Santa Barbara as I had expected. It gets hot during the day, but not very humid. Then at night, it gets cool. But that´s the climate where I am currently staying. Given the range of terrain here in Costa Rica, the climate could be more oppressive (or less so) in other parts.

Saturday I did a little sightseeing.

First we visited a coffee plantation. The Dokka Cafetal (coffee plantation). They sell coffee to Starbucks. Costa Rica is small, so it can´t compete with countries like Colombia or Brazil in the general coffee category. So they compete in the specialty or gourmet coffee category. Apparently the Ticos (Costa Ricans) won´t pick coffee, so the cafetals go to Nicaragua to recruit workers. And there is a shortage of coffee pickers.

Next we went to At 5000 feet, the short, flat walk from the parking lot was tiring. I can only imagine how I´m going to feel in Quito, Ecuador, which is over 9000 feet ASL. There wasn´t a cloud in the sky over the crater, which is very unusual. The view was crystal clear. The crater looked like a blue lake. There´s not much more to say about it.

Then we went to a private forest park call La Paz. La Paz has several waterfalls. We saw only one of them. It was spectacular! We had to walk deep into the forest to reach it. The river and the surrounding foliage was green, lush and beautiful. While at the park we also visited a butterfly garden, a hummingbird garden, a display of Tican snakes (in aquariums), and display of frogs. The frogs were so tiny, not even a half inch long. They are lethally poisonous, however. The hummingbirds where fascinating to watch. Their precision in flying is amazing. Hummingbirds are not cooperative photo subjects.

Afterwards, we drove to the Sarapiquí River where we took a boat ride. We saw a variety of wildlife along the way: monkeys, iguanas, bats, weird birds.

The whole day took about 12 hours. The terrain is beautiful. Green and lush. Lots of flowers and flowering trees and bushes. Mountains and valleys. We even drove through part of the rain forest.

The rest of the weekend I relaxed. Walked around the neighborhood and didn´t get lost.

Well, that´s it for now. I´m not feeling so inspired to write.
Cheers.

Super Emerson

Emerson stands, barely, 3 feet tall, has curly brown hair, brown eyes that laugh, and a killer smile, even with the missing front tooth. Emerson is a cutie, but at 7 years old, he's a wee bit young for me. When we first met, he was eating lunch at the soup kitchen. Whenever I looked his way, he'd hide behind the container of spoon on the table, and would peer at me among the spoons.

I guess I'm okay now, because yesterday Emerson was determined to help me with my chores. I had to peel a million hot boiled potatos in 5 minutes, and Emerson apparently decided I needed help. Too short to reach the pot, I'd hand him a potato, and would hand him additional unpeeled potatos as needed. When I got behind in serving the refrescos (drinks), Emerson would grab two at a time and take them to the waiting kids.

But the best was when Emerson decided he'd help clean up. He dried bowls and cups, but only the green cups. And only the green cups could go on the bottom shelf. He wiped down all the tables, interrupting my dishwashing to have me put more cleaning soap on his rag. Then he decided to sweep the floor. He moved the tables so he could be sure to reach the nooks and cranies. The tables are higher than Emerson is tall, so I didn't quite how he managed to move them. So I started calling him Super Emerson. That made him giggle. Such a delightful giggle. That innocent happy little kid giggle. Which made me laugh, which made him giggle more, and so on.

The kid's a more devoted sweeper than I. After he finished the dining area, he started pulling out the boxes and bags from under the shelves in the kitchen area clean under the shelves. We were going to be there all day sweeping given Emerson's needto do a deep spring cleaning. Finally his mother told him to stop. He does this at home, she said. That kitchen floor has never been so clean!

But today there was no Super Emerson to help me. He had to visit his aunt. I hope there will be more cleaning and giggling next week.

cheers.

beans, beans the musical fruit...

Hola,

Good thing I like beans and rice. Gallo de pinto (beans, rice and stuff) for breakfast. Rice, beans and something else for lunch. Some stuff served with beans and rice for dinner. Black beans and white rice. No fancy beans. Simple beans. And you know what? I haven´t been musical, either. THAT´s the amazing part.

Yesterday I was sick as a dog. Caught some head cold. I thought my head was going to explode. I stayed home and slept. Didn´t want to share my malady with the kids at the kitchen or the people at the Institute. Today I feel 1000 times better.

Today we served more kids at the soup kitchen. About 30 showed up. They are young kids, ages 2 years to 12 years. Cute as a button. And so polite. Some bring containers to take food for the evening. They are lucky to have this soup kitchen. And the food tastes really good!

Well, since I don´t have anything to say, I´ll end here.
Hasta luego.
cheers,
Stacey

rain, rain go away...

Hola,

It´s raining AGAIN. Just like it rained 30 minutes ago. And an hour before that. And two hours before that. And... Actually, this is no surprise. THEY said it rains a lot in Costa Rica. And that´s probably why everything is so green and lush.

This morning I started my routine for the next three weeks: Three hours of Spanish in the morning, and four hours of soup kitchen after that. Seems I know quite a bit of Spanish, except when I forget it. But that´s always the case in a language class.

The soup kitchen serves lunch to about 60 kids, Monday thru Friday. Today I made the beverage (some fruit concentrate, add water and stir), served the kids food (a stew/soup with vegetables and a meatball, and some rice), then cleaned the dishes. Since it had been raining on and off this morning, only a handful of kids showed up. You wouldn´t think that a little rain in a country where it rains all the time would keep hungry kids away from food. Maybe it prevents the people who bring the kids to eat from going to the soup kitchen. The soup/stew was actually good. I had some for lunch.

Yesterday Ivannia, the mother of my host family, took me, by bus, to San Jose to look around. It´s not too far from Santa Barbara. About one and a half hours with a change of buses in Heredia.

At the risk of insulting anyone who may read this, San Jose is not a beautiful city. It´s not attractive in any way. It´s functional: it has one of most things people would need. It´s crowded and noisey and grimey. But I wanted to go and Ivannia accommodated me. No wonder she looked at me like I was nuts when I said I wanted to go.

The best part of the visit was the salsa and merengue band that played in the park. They are called the XO´s ("eeks-ohs"), and are one the two famous salsa and merengue bands in Costa Rica. They play stardard, "old" latin music. Classics? However you describe it, it was good music. It was fun watching the older folks dance. There is something about good dance music that makes one forgot one´s aches and pains, and makes one feel young again. These old folks could boogey! Some of these abuelas (grandmothers) has some cool moves. Then it rained and everyone ran to get out of the rain.

The ride home from San Jose to Heredia was jarring. It looked like a bus from the outside, it was actually a bucking bronco. And you couldn´t blame the rough ride on the road. Even on the smooth newly paved sections the bus bounced. Maybe the bus company got a deal on slightly defective wheels. Wheels that were oval instead of round. And let´s not forget the transmission. Every time the driver had to change gears, it made a ghastly sound. And I think I could walk up hill faster than the bus could drive up hill. But we made to Heredia, slowly and painfully. The next bus seemed like a luxury coach, and it takes a lot to make the ride of a yellow school bus seem luxurious. Oh boy did I ever appreciate the tranquility of Santa Barbara when I got home.

On Saturday night Ivannia took me to a talent show at her church. The participants where church members. While they were mostly teenagers, there were a few adults who competed. Everyone was talented. It was a difficult choice to make. Afterward we had food from one of the many booths in the church courtyard. The church was holding a Christmas fair, and so there were booths with food, games, and stuff to buy. It was fun. The whole experience reminded me how similar people from different countries can be. The church fair and talent show could have taken place in any city in many a country. I could have been in Chittenango.

Saturday morning I stumbled upon a local parade. It was similar to the types of parades they parade in Spain on festival days. They had those tall pâpier maché dolls that guys carried on their shoulders. And when the music played, they spun around in circles, just like they do in Spain. Only the figures here in Santa Barbara were more comical and included a big fat black lady and a screaming ghost. And the band that accompanied them played more latin type music. And they had the short (person-sized) big-headed pâpier maché characters that would bob little kids on their heads.

By the way, I found out that AT&T calling cards don´t work in ALL cities around the world. None of public phones in Santa Barbara connect to AT&T. The closest phones that connect to ATT are in San Jose. Good thing I don´t need to call home often.

Well, that´s what´s new in Santa Barbara.
Daily updates might not be possible since I have to catch the bus to town to access the net.

cheers,
Stacey

¡Hola de Costa Rica!

Hola,

After 12 hours of travel, including a plane change in Chicago and one in Miami, I arrived in Costa Rica on Thursday, December 7, without a single problem. I hope my remaining 21 flight segments are so smooth!

Marco, the director of the Amistad Institute, and Horacio, one of his associates, met me at the airport and delivered me to my host family that night. It was too dark to see much on the ride from the airport. So I was pleasantly surprised when I left the house the next morning to go to the Institute. What a pleasant town!

Okay, so where am I exactly? I´m living and working in a town named Santa Barbara, in the province of Heredia, and located about 45 minutes outside of San Jose. This Santa Barbara looks NOTHING like Santa Barbara, CA, however, it is clean and charming. Many well-kempt, single family homes, painted all sorts of bright colors, with flowering trees and bushes everywhere. ¡Que lindo!

It´s tranquil here. It´s so different from Madrid, New York City, even Barcelona. The pace is much slower. The Ticos (how Costa Ricans refer to themselves) are pleasant, sociable, polite, friendly. When surrounded by such pleasant people, weather, scenery, why be cranky? But cranks don´t see the world that way. There must be cranky Ticos, but I haven´t met any in my one and a half days here.

My host family situation is the opposite of my host family situation in Madrid. Here, I´m living in a spacious house, in a large bedroom. The outside of the house is painted turquoise (adobe finish, ranch style) and has three bedrooms, at least two bathrooms, a living room, a family room, a kitched, a garage (with a car), a mudroom(for lack of a better description), and a backyard. It´s a lovely, lovely house.

The family consists of Mother Ivannia, Father Ivan, Daughter Oky, a mellow maltese dog named Punkey, and a friendly black and white cat named Whoosie the Cat, or Gato. Okay, so I forgot the cat´s name. He/she doesn´t come when called, anyway. Ivannia is a stay-at-home mom who doesn´t stay at home much. She´s very active at Oky´s school, and at her church. Ivan is an electronics salesman who works 12 hours a day, 7 days a week! Oky is 15 years old and cute as a button! She´s sweet. And all but two of her friends are boys. Her boy-harem protects her. They also hang out at Oky´s house so Ivannia can keep an eye out. You don´t mess with Ivannia. Ivannia is 5´2", normal thin, sociable, but very serious about certain things.

Much to my surprise, I´ve spoken little English since I´ve been here. I suspect the people with whom I live and work could speak English, but since, in theory, I speak Spanish, we´re speaking in Spanish. What I´m saying must be somewhat understandable as the conversation does progress. I´m just tickled pink that after only three months of study in Spain, I´m living using Spanish! Who knew?

Next week I start doing whatever it is that I will be doing. In the mornings I will study three hours of Spanish, then I will assist in the soup kitchen center across the street for four hours, then I can take additional cultural classes like dancing, cooking and fruit. Yes, fruit class. I´m definitely taking this one. Just what do they teach us in fruit class? As long as it includes fruit eating, I´ll be happy.

The Amistad Institute is the host organization in Costa Rica. In the States, I signed up with an organization called ELIabroad.org, who has relationships in various countries around the world. In Costa Rica, ELI works with the Amistad Institute, which is based in Santa Barbara. The Institute has relationships with various agencies in the area, and depending on what you can do or want to do, they will arrange the appropriate volunteer placement. In addition, the Institute teaches Spanish to foreigners, so many hours are devoted to helping you learn or develop your spanish. Lastly, the Institute wants to teach about Costa Rican culture and society.

The Institute is located on a beautiful piece of land that overlooks a gorgeous river. Part of the area reminds me of Wissahicken Park in Philadelphia, however the river at the Institute is bigger and has more water. They created a beautiful garden in one part. There is a bunch of huge bamboo growing by the river. And there is also a good view of the town of either Heredia or San Jose. It´s so tranquil there. A small paradise.

This morning I decided to take the bus to ¨downtown¨ Santa Barbara, all by myself! Yesterday, Avram, one of the associates at the Institute showed me how to do this. He took me on a tour of the center that lasted all of 10 minutes. There are actually quite a few stores. And an internet cafe from which I am writing this blog.

And such has been my adventure thus far.

cheers,
Stacey

Packing Obsessions

I HATE packing!!!

After schlepping my heavy a**ed bags up and down train station steps in Europe last trip, I am DRIVEN to reduce the amount of stuff I will take with me this trip. I bought new bags: a rolling duffle bag and a small sized hiker's backpack. I've already packed my bags, and each day I review what I've packed and remove more stuff. Forget about variety. Forget about dancing. Forget about dressing up. What makes this trip challenging is the range of climates and temperatures for which I must be prepared: hot rainy weather, the beach, glaciers. Right now I'm debating what books to take with me. Sending stuff to myself is not an option this time. Packing is hell. Argh!!!!

Cheers,
Stacey