agua para la vida

ok so here´s the scoop on water here. 

there´s no like city water pipes or anything like that.  our water comes in a water tanker truck which fills up our cistern, where it sits until we turn on a tap in our house, growing all kinds of parasites.  for our neighbors, the tanker truck comes by and fills large barrels that people set out on the sidewalk and then they get all their water out of the barrels.  we don´t drink that water, not even after boiling.  we drink water from big pomas, or those big water jugs that they put in water coolers.  each one costs 1.25.  one of my community members is fanatical about the water and has started boiling the poma water as well.  but I don´t want to work that hard. 

there´s no water heater, so all the showers are cold.  now, you´d think that´d be fine cause it´s ecuador, but there are mornings when it´s early and dark and chilly and I just really am not a fan of taking a cold shower.  yeah, I get cold here.  I sleep with a blanket.  I don´t mind long pants.  and there have been times I´ve needed a light jacket.   but that´s just me.  we take military type showers anyway, as water is so scarce.  and keep toilet flushing to a minimum.  I´m just glad we have a shower to take cold military showers in really, our friends and neighbors don´t.

trying out the insurance

ok so, I´m ill. 

we all knew it had to happen sometime, but really I´m the fourth person out of five in my house to get sick so I´m not doing too badly.  here´s how this whole getting sick thing works in ecuador. 

our neighborhoods have friendly dispensarios right close to our houses.  very handy.  whenever you feel something funky going on, you run down to the dispensario and pick up a caja para examen de heces (heces, a word I didn´t learn in high school spanish but somehow understood the first time I heard it).  then you go home and take a stool sample, put it in the caja and return said caja to the dispensario (cost of caja = .10, cost of examen = 1.00).  the dispensario is only open from 7:30 to 12, so either the next day or later that day if you can talk the guard into it you can pick up your results, a printout listing color, aspecto, parasitologico, y otros.  then you call a doctor, and the doctor tells you what meds to take to kill your unwelcome guests.  run to the pharmacy (which is never open when they say they´ll be open) and ask for whatever you need.  done. 

I currently have ascaris lumbricoides, which I´m told is roundworm? and entamoeba histolytica, which is amoebic dysentary.  yay.  the doctor suggested zentel and secnidal.  whatever those are.  but I´m taking the zentel right now and will start the secnidal in a few days. I spent less then ten dollars on medicine.   zentel has not actually helped much…but I´m hoping it´s a going to get worse before it gets better thing.  I feel better, I just am spending more time in the bathroom (things you did not need to know?  probably).  also, pham, the water goes down counterclockwise.

job!

we did site placements yesterday!  I´m the new RdC logistics coordinator, which means I´m basically Megan´s assistant.  she´s the in-country director of RdC.  I oversee ecuadorian staff and retreat groups and make sure everything´s running smoothly and work with all our sites where we have volunteers so I´ll get to learn more about all the foundations we work with in duran and guayaquil, and I´ll get to know both neighborhoods where we have houses.  I´m pretty pumped about it. 

today we´re learning the buses…by ourselves…which means riding the buses around the city until we find all the places we´re supposed to be able to find and then going to the malecon for fun and surprises. 

oh yeah, and I´ve also eaten pan de yuca, and crap tons of different fruits.  I keep seeing things that look like persimmons.  do they have persimmons here?  como se dice persimmon en español?

aqui estoy!

I´m in Ecuador!  I´ve been in orientation forever (and still am) so I haven´t had internet or phone access, but am beginning to have free time and have snuck off to a cyber. 

it´s a bit ridiculous.  for the first few days I was so exhausted that it didn´t really all sink in.  at times I still feel a bit like I´m not sure what I´m supposed to be feeling.  one of our first days  here we were walking around with the former volunteers and I noticed that a lot of the houses have pieces of plywood or bark or cane out front painted with the names of their children so I asked the former volunteers why that was.  they told me that it´s for Children´s International or the like, the organizations through which you in the states can pay a dollar a day and help a child in need.  it kind of made me look around and think you know, that´s where I´m living/working.  these kids come to our programs without shoes or clothes that fit because they don´t have shoes or clothes.  they live in invasion communities built on top of trash dumps.  when they ask for an extra banana at snack time, they aren´t being greedy, they´re concerned about their family members at home who won´t get that extra food.  ok, some kids are being greedy cause they´re kids, but in reality this is extreme poverty.  it´s way different. 

that being said, we work in three different neighborhoods in Duran and I live in the most developed of the three (Antonio Jose de Sucre).  houses are  mostly concrete, not cane, and streets are paved.  RdC is planning on closing this house in the next couple of years and opening a new one in a newer invasion community in Guayaquil.  The other place where RdC has a house (Arbolito) is the next most developed, and then we run an after school program in another neighborhood, 28 de Agusto, which is the least.  and by least developed, I mean seriously. 

oh yeah, and food.  we eat a lot of rice and beans and fruit.  I have had jugo de tomate del arbol, and it was good.  interesting…cause it´s tomatoy and fruity.  we´ve also had a yellow fruit which you break open and suck the seeds out of that I can´t recall the name of…starts with a g?  I keep meaning to write it down.  it´s also pineapple season.  heck yes.  and a lot of oranges.  apparently the holy trinity of ecuaadorian cooking is onion, green pepper, and tomato.  everything has those three things in it.  and they cook with a lot of cumin.  we do a bread run every morning to our local panaderia, which only has white bread but we hear a rumor of a close by panaderia that has whole wheat but we´ll have to see if we can afford it.  oh, and we had these potato pancakes that were mashed potatoes, formed into balls, cheese stuffed in the middle, flattened and fried.  basically just like our potato pancakes but with cheese in the middle, so I was pretty much a fan.  and cerviche.  we made that one night with shrimp and lots of lime and onion and tomato.  I took a picture and will post it as soon as I find a safe way to get my pics online.

hasta luego!

tomorrow is the big day, the day when we spend all day traveling from cleveland to duran!

we fly from cleveland to nyc to miami to guayaquil.  apparently there’s one flight from miami to guayaquil daily, everyday in the evening sometime (I’m guessing around 5).  we’re supposed to get into ecuador around 9, and I’m told it’s a four hour flight.  cake.

tonight there’s a crazy social in the lounge with doritos and twizlers and m&ms and cheetos and potato chips and american beer.  all the junk foods people will miss…I think the point is to make yourself so sick that you couldn’t face doritos for a year?  I dunno. 

anyway, when next I post I will be in south america, never carrying anything valuable and trying not to look like I have any money, which should not be hard considering that I won’t actually have any.  seriously, rob me and be very disappointed.