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.