Stacie and I went to Colombia! This is a beautiful city. I like it here a lot.
I don't really have the time to write much, but I just wanted to say thanks for any thoughts and prayers that you have sent our way. We finally got a few positive responces back for working for a month- one here in Colombia and then one in Peru. I don't know what we are going to choose, we havn't had the chance to talk about it yet, but I know that we will be used well in either place!
Until then, we are headed up to Santa Marta, a small town on the Carribean Coast for a few days to relax and be on the beach. I'm excited!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Back in Baños
Well we are back here again, back in Baños. Good thing I like this city. It is nice, quiet, but comfortable. And lots to do. However, we are not here to necessarily be complete tourists, we are trying really hard to get our lives figured out. The place that we were going to be volunteering at here by Baños just fell through, which is really unfortunate. We had been counting on that and had not really set any other plans in to the works, and so now we are back to square one. Which is a sad place to be!! So we have sent out many emails to other organizations, and are trying to get something together. We have had a few responces, but they are not ideal for us. One of them is all the way down in Bolivia and that would be a long time to get there and is only a volunteer place fo 4 hours a day in the middle of a big, rather dangerous city. We are thinking maybe something in Columbia now too. We are trying to widen our horizons to beyond just Ecuador, even though I would have thought that there would have been plenty to do here.
Small victory though: I had two conversations in Spanish with two different people today. That was a great thing. They were pretty basic conversations, but it was still great to actually talk to people and not only know what they are saying, but to be able to chat back! We have been here for ove three weeks now and I am glad that something is paying off.
Okay, well I am off to study some spanish. We are making pictures today of the body, a kitchen, a house, etc and labeling it all and memorizing it. It should be a good practice excercise.
PS if Monica from Work reads this, or of someone from work does, tell Monica that I would love her family contacts in Columbia! I forgot to bring with me the page that had every ones email addresses on it. So maybe someone can email me? My email address is just erikatrott@gmail.com
Small victory though: I had two conversations in Spanish with two different people today. That was a great thing. They were pretty basic conversations, but it was still great to actually talk to people and not only know what they are saying, but to be able to chat back! We have been here for ove three weeks now and I am glad that something is paying off.
Okay, well I am off to study some spanish. We are making pictures today of the body, a kitchen, a house, etc and labeling it all and memorizing it. It should be a good practice excercise.
PS if Monica from Work reads this, or of someone from work does, tell Monica that I would love her family contacts in Columbia! I forgot to bring with me the page that had every ones email addresses on it. So maybe someone can email me? My email address is just erikatrott@gmail.com
Monday, October 5, 2009
2 days to Cuenca
So this is just a quick blog update... I wanted to upload the videos that we took, but the computer is being too slow for that. so these pictures will have to do.
We left Baños a few days ago and went down to the town of Riobamba. Not a fun place. So we left there to go down to Cuenca, which was supposed to be better (and is so beautiful!!).
However, with the protests that are going on right now the roads are totally blocked off and it is crazy.
It ended up taking us 2 days, 2 buses, 3 trucks and lots of just hoofing it to get here!
me in the back of a truck, waiting and trying to get throught the blockaids!! Surroundedc by an italian couple, a guy from the UK, someone from Ireland and a couple from France. So fun. And squished. At one point (not this truck ride) i was sitting on a sack of potatoes and there were chickens tied up in a bag next to me.
Some of the blockades. Most of them were tires and rocks burning in the road, but at this point, someone got creative and felled a tree. We also ran across huge sand barriers that completely blocked the road.
Stacie in the back of the truck too. I thought she was going to fall out.
We met some great people through it all and ended up spending the night half way through it in the little town of Cañar, which is ironic, because it is the town that a book I just finished reading was set in (A year in Cañar, a good read if you have the time). And it was great!
Anyways, hopefully we´ll be able to get to a place that will let me upload the videos, because they do a wonderful job articulating this all, and right now I don´t think I´m on my A-game, but that is okay.
We are here, alive and well.
Tomorrow we start language school, which should be great!
We left Baños a few days ago and went down to the town of Riobamba. Not a fun place. So we left there to go down to Cuenca, which was supposed to be better (and is so beautiful!!).
However, with the protests that are going on right now the roads are totally blocked off and it is crazy.
It ended up taking us 2 days, 2 buses, 3 trucks and lots of just hoofing it to get here!
me in the back of a truck, waiting and trying to get throught the blockaids!! Surroundedc by an italian couple, a guy from the UK, someone from Ireland and a couple from France. So fun. And squished. At one point (not this truck ride) i was sitting on a sack of potatoes and there were chickens tied up in a bag next to me.
Some of the blockades. Most of them were tires and rocks burning in the road, but at this point, someone got creative and felled a tree. We also ran across huge sand barriers that completely blocked the road.
Stacie in the back of the truck too. I thought she was going to fall out.
We met some great people through it all and ended up spending the night half way through it in the little town of Cañar, which is ironic, because it is the town that a book I just finished reading was set in (A year in Cañar, a good read if you have the time). And it was great!
Anyways, hopefully we´ll be able to get to a place that will let me upload the videos, because they do a wonderful job articulating this all, and right now I don´t think I´m on my A-game, but that is okay.
We are here, alive and well.
Tomorrow we start language school, which should be great!
Friday, October 2, 2009
so far...
This has been a completely overwhelming few weeks so far here. Stacie and I are tagteaming what we did, so that you (who are both of our friends) don´t have to read it twice.
Also, these keyboards are strange. If i wanted to make a normal smily face :) ...like that, my fingers would instantly go to Ñ). Which doens´t look like anything at all. ...sorry. random thought.
At the moment we are in Riobamba. We came here because we were tired of Baños. Baños is a wonderful, uber touristy town with plenty of things to do if you want to spend a lot of money. Which we didn´t. So we spent a lot of time hiking around, we went on a 40+ km bike ride with these two guys we met who were biking from Vancouver CA to Tiera del Fuego. They were great. We also went into the hotspring pools, which was great. So relazing and amazing feeling.
One of the best things so far about these travels has been the people that we have met. To be honest, we havn´t met a lot of locals, mainly because of the extreme language barrier that exists right now, but we have met a lot of other travelers. We traveled a few days with this couple from Isreal that were great. (Check stacie´s blog stacieduvall.blogspot.com for those adventures) We stayed with them at this isreali hostel in Baños one night and ended up having an amazing conversation with an isreali guy (my guess would be around 20) and this woman from Chile who taught South American woman´s literature in Memphis at a university. Thi Isreali guy Gil was talking about the war in Iraq and how it was a good thing that America went in there and this woman from Chile (never caught her name) got incredibly fired up about how America was behind so many overthrows of democratic governments to dictatorships becaus ethey had leftist leanings. I really can´t do the conversation justice, but it once again reminded me of just how big the world is and how other contries view what our country has done. And how quickly everyone is to ask me what I think. As if I am any authority on anything.
---
Also, the protest that are going on rigt now are making things a little difficult to get around. Right now, there is a television on behind me that is broadcasting pictures of the protests. I doubt they will be well adverstized in the staes, but there are a lot of road blocks up and it makes it a little difficult to get from A to B. They are all pertty peaceful, just a lot of tires burning, people in the streets, and rocks in the road. And LOTS of police everywhere in riot gear. But don´t worry (mom) everyone is really nice, and the one blockade that we walked through was totally fine. :) Ecuador has sold the water rights to the indigenous peoples and is trying to make them pay for the water they have always had and has lowered waiges for teachers. So they are both protesting. All over the country.
---
So now stacie and I are in this waiting period. We have three weeks until we start working in this indigenous community up in the Andes and not a lot to do. Right now we are headed down to Cuenca and going to finally do some language school. That will be good. It is hard getting by on tiny phrases and lots of ¨No comprende¨all the time. :) I know that we can both use thoughts and prayers about how we are doing emotionally and physically. We are both tired of being ¨tourists¨and want to be doing something. Pray that we can find joy and excitment in just doing what we are doing as well as solidify everything for the future.
Also, these keyboards are strange. If i wanted to make a normal smily face :) ...like that, my fingers would instantly go to Ñ). Which doens´t look like anything at all. ...sorry. random thought.
At the moment we are in Riobamba. We came here because we were tired of Baños. Baños is a wonderful, uber touristy town with plenty of things to do if you want to spend a lot of money. Which we didn´t. So we spent a lot of time hiking around, we went on a 40+ km bike ride with these two guys we met who were biking from Vancouver CA to Tiera del Fuego. They were great. We also went into the hotspring pools, which was great. So relazing and amazing feeling.
One of the best things so far about these travels has been the people that we have met. To be honest, we havn´t met a lot of locals, mainly because of the extreme language barrier that exists right now, but we have met a lot of other travelers. We traveled a few days with this couple from Isreal that were great. (Check stacie´s blog stacieduvall.blogspot.com for those adventures) We stayed with them at this isreali hostel in Baños one night and ended up having an amazing conversation with an isreali guy (my guess would be around 20) and this woman from Chile who taught South American woman´s literature in Memphis at a university. Thi Isreali guy Gil was talking about the war in Iraq and how it was a good thing that America went in there and this woman from Chile (never caught her name) got incredibly fired up about how America was behind so many overthrows of democratic governments to dictatorships becaus ethey had leftist leanings. I really can´t do the conversation justice, but it once again reminded me of just how big the world is and how other contries view what our country has done. And how quickly everyone is to ask me what I think. As if I am any authority on anything.
---
Also, the protest that are going on rigt now are making things a little difficult to get around. Right now, there is a television on behind me that is broadcasting pictures of the protests. I doubt they will be well adverstized in the staes, but there are a lot of road blocks up and it makes it a little difficult to get from A to B. They are all pertty peaceful, just a lot of tires burning, people in the streets, and rocks in the road. And LOTS of police everywhere in riot gear. But don´t worry (mom) everyone is really nice, and the one blockade that we walked through was totally fine. :) Ecuador has sold the water rights to the indigenous peoples and is trying to make them pay for the water they have always had and has lowered waiges for teachers. So they are both protesting. All over the country.
---
So now stacie and I are in this waiting period. We have three weeks until we start working in this indigenous community up in the Andes and not a lot to do. Right now we are headed down to Cuenca and going to finally do some language school. That will be good. It is hard getting by on tiny phrases and lots of ¨No comprende¨all the time. :) I know that we can both use thoughts and prayers about how we are doing emotionally and physically. We are both tired of being ¨tourists¨and want to be doing something. Pray that we can find joy and excitment in just doing what we are doing as well as solidify everything for the future.
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