The Big Day of Site Assignment July 13th 2011

Tom and I Sporting our sites

The day that we had all been waiting for finally came, site assignment day. A day filled with many emotions, although many were obviously rattled about the selection process I tried to keep my mind open to all the possibilities. Although in the back of my mind, I really wanted to be somewhere on the coast near the ocean. That was my ideal, an area that had some nice waves to surf, since I was spoiled in March while I was here on travel in Canoa. However, I wasn’t nervous or rattled about any of the possibilities, except one. That one possibility was to be living in an area like Santo Domingo. A location in the transition zone. I just felt that life in an area like Santo Domingo would be pretty rough, since it was extremely humid, city with a lot of pollution, cloudy (meaning the sun never came out), and flat. In a country of amazing landscapes and coast line. It was a little less than remarkable.

Then the moment came. We found the facilitators outside all lined up with a gigantic Ecuador map made of flowers on the field that we used for soccer. One by one we headed out to our locations. Then my moment came, “ Sean Maloney Ventanas” I found myself standing after norma one of my favorite language facilitators brought me to the map. Standing there I looked over and checked out where my site was located, it was directly in line with Santo Domingo in the transition zone. As a volunteer, you are asked to service where they believe you will be most effective. After seeing fellow volunteers along the coast line, or near high sierra areas. I was a bit disappointed in the selection that I had received. I truly felt like the one area that I couldn’t be happy in I was selected to volunteer in. The day proceed in a strange manner as we received our site profiles to read and understand who would be our counterpart and what would be our job descriptions. As luck would have it, the forms I received were completely illegible. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. There I sat, looking around as everyone else was enjoying the excitement of receiving their site information. I was sitting there with no information about whether or not my site was like Santo Domingo. I had no information I what my site would be like. I tried pretty hard not to show my disappointment, and maintain my cool. I treated it to be just another test of patience in the long lists of tests of patience we as Peace Corps volunteers must face.

To be honest, It was hard to try and maintain an optimistic view. But I let this be a lesson to never let your emotions get the best of you without reason. There really was no reason to be upset, well there was, but you never know what your gonna get. Life really is like that box of chocolates as Gump said. That night I packed my things and made the long trip to what I believed would be my mini Santo Domingo, because that’s basically how everyone described it to me.
Next post will reveal the results.

Fourth of AMERICA DAY

Four of July….Yes we are celebrating America DAY

So Fourth of july, was a pretty epic day for us volunteers. We had large quantities of our favorite American dishes and a day chalk full of good ol American sports. We even had a broken arm, luckily its wasn’t mine, but it was a bit of a letdown. But my buddy Will, who I spend much time saying silly bro quotes to, took it like a champ. Besides that our Health section took the 1^st place in a bunch of stuff and second place in the final of the football match against the older peace corps volunteers. Things were very disorganized, but I feel that’s just more of the Peace Corps training, through you into situations that you have to think upon your feet and make work because many times there is little to no structure. We had more practice giving charlas, and it has definitely been a great feeling. It’s incredible the lack of knowledge that people have about certain subjects. Every charla I give I begin to understand and value more and more the education that I have received in my life. More and more I want to pass that onto other people.

Side note: Humitas are soooo delicious. My family made them this week and I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on them my whole life. It was nice to see my family working in the kitchen, but in the same token reminded me of home. It was a interesting mix of sad and happy emotions. Everyday I see the positive aspects of a large family here in Ecuador and the comparison to the United States where as with my extended family it is definitely important.

Recently, Bought Pina and Papaya, in a ridiculous quantity for 3 bucks…..so awesome, but even greater was heading into the market and having the older lady who makes this awesome roast pork call me over and give me a free dish since I remarked how much I liked it.

Recieving Mail

Hey Everybody Updated!,

So here is my address if you would like to send me letters, trail mix, moleskin journals or anything really that your heart desires. Try to keep it under 4 lbs, por favor. Id love to recieve letters and write people letters as well. For any value that you have to declare just put $0.

Send mail to:

Sean Maloney

CASILLA 12-01-214 BABAHOYO-LOS RIOS Ecuador

Thanks everybody

Mercados

Spìces Fish

Fishes Fresh morning cow

Love the fruit variety

Tumbaco has a pretty awesome Sunday market. My host family took me there the first weekend here in Ecuador, and I have been finding myself there almost every Sunday. There are great meals for super cheap prices. There is also such a great variety in the amounts of fruits, vegetables, and random things as well. There is also an older woman who makes roasted pork every weekend, and it might be one of the best foods I have tasted while being here so far. We had it for a family fiesta, and I decided to ask what work goes into the making of her delicious pork. I found out she spend 6-7 hours cooking it, and that is what brings out that melt in your mouth taste. It’s incredible the amount of fruit. I bought two huge pineapples and papayas and it cost me 3 dolares. I was later informed I was ripped off, but I mean even so that’s an amazing find. Avacados, yea 5 for a dollar, incredible. I find myself making avocado and turkey sandwiches a lot. I really like the food here.

Tech Trip

Jungle Soccer in Puerto Quito, Nutrition Charla con Mothers in Santo Domingo

Limbo among PCTs, Leaf parasol

SANTA DOMINGO

Recently we took a week long tech trip that lasted through the week of 6/27/2011. On our trip we practiced giving health charlas in various locations and practiced doing encuestas as well. We travelled to Santo Domingo, which I wasn’t a huge fan of since it was extremely humid, and it was the first time I had ever seen an entire city covered in moss and mold. The air was thick with black suet. It reminded me of many places I had visited in the past in Central America since it was an explosion of sensory information. Hundreds of people in the streets, tons of tiendas selling the same things, and each had their own boombox playing some reggaeton/salsa mix. It was a lot to take in. However, it was extremely interesting. We ate in a local market which was awesome, although I was a bit worried about eating the fish…I gave it a shot. It was delicious even though I had no idea what it was/or if the water was clean to make it. I didn’t get diarrhea so I guess it was. There was a great avena/ naranjilla bebida that was delicious, I didn’t know that it was avena/naranjilla until I asked, and in great fashion the lady serving us asked if I liked it and wanted another cup free of charge. I gladly accepted.

Puerto Quito Maldonado

This was our next stop on our tech trip to give some more charlas, and meet up with a volunteer who was finishing up her two years there. It was a pretty amazing site. It was gorgeous and had all the basic amenities. Through our time there the town had a festival. We met the mayor in the town as well as checked out an aerobics class that one of the volunteers was hosting every night 5 days a week. It was awesome to see that was one of her secondary projects. The experience really stuck home the variability among sites here in Ecuador.

Puerto Quito

The end of the week we spent in a finca outside of the small town of Puerto Quito. It was a beautiful set of land, where they had pigs, cows, bunnies, ginni pigs and just about every fruit and vegetable you could think out. There we learned how to harvest Bananas, milk cows, and majority of the processes that go into maintaining a finca. We also learned of the many the issues that fincas face in Ecuador. However, the finca were we staying at did a good job of not becoming a part of the monocrop craze, which apparently is a huge problem here. Many fincas mono crop and if a plague comes that targets that specific crop they lose their main, if not only, source of income.

Cultural Trip

Playing with the kids of Mascarilla

Bottle Dancing

Scenery of Mascarilla and roof puppies

The view is that great, nice looks TAM and TOM

Our first cultural trip was of the weekend of June 18^th, we headed to a small town in the north known as Mascarilla. The towns name has origins in Kichwa, and the carilla means strong, so then the name of the town means more strong in reference to the men of the Afro-ecuatorian community. We travelled about 4 hours north of Quito and stay in the community for a the weekend. The weather was extremely hot, but refreshingly not as humid as I would have anticipated. During the day, after of the community members taught us about the history of Afro-Ecuadorians in Ecuador, specifically how their ancestors were Slaves who were on their way to a coastal city, when their ship crashed in a storm and only 4 survived and from these four ancestors came majority of the population of the Afro-Ecuadorians. We then participated in some traditions of the community, such as mask making and various dances. There was one dance that was particularly cool, as they like my host family, put a bottle half filled with water on top of their heads and started dancing, while in the same instance balancing the bottle. Our host even was able to do some push ups with the bottle on her head. Talk about impressive. That night after finding our host families for the night, we played soccer in their little indoor cement court. It was incredible how good the kids were. Their level of skills was insane. The other volunteers and I found ourselves playing futbol against the 14 year olds in the community. They were incredible. It was interesting to note as well that the traditional sickness known as Mal de ojo is believed here as well. It reminded me of the lectures that I had in Guatemala. It also really drove hope the importance and impact of these traditional enfermedades and their cures are to small communities. I know that balancing the traditions of my future community and my perspectives will be a challenge, but also an interesting chance to learn more about such a critical portion of the lives of my community members.

ILLALO

L: Awesome pic R: Pic with Cara n Kristine

Tourist shots

L: The Group R: Ryan in struggle town

The awesome view of tumbaco

One weekend we went up to climb illalo, it was a gorgeous view. Check out some of the sweet pics .

At the end of our 6 hour hike we ate empanadas....it was amazing