A Bumbler

Hit the Ground Running At Last

2010-06-01T16:02:00.001-07:00

There is this Doves song that I am listening to right now called "Hit the Ground Running at Last" and I have to say, I love it right now. It is just peppy enough to get me motivated and the lines kinda fit where I find myself right now.

I've been home from my travels for 2 months now. Two months of trying to readjust to life where I had left off. Two months of wandering around in a semi-fog, unsure of where I wanted to be- physically as well as emotionally. I feel like I truly am beginning to hit the ground running again. Physically I have moved into a friends house, which has been wonderful. Before this, I was living a few days at a time at different peoples houses which, don't get me wrong, was wonderful to be able to share community with so many people and to feel so loved and cared for but it was incredibly exhausting. Without a place to permanently lay down every night, part of me still felt like I was traveling. Which in a sense I was: I lived out of a car or duffel bag and never planned where I was going to be more than a day at a time. Exhausting. Casey articulated it well when he saw me reach into my purse and pull out my phone charger and started laughing at me. "You really don't have anywhere to stay, do you?" He asked. It was true. When you have to carry around all the basic necessities with you all the time, you truly are still a wanderer.

I am glad to have a place to stay now. I feel like my equilibrium is finally balanced again.

I've also been just bumbling along when it comes to Jobs. Jobs. Eesh. Today I found out that I didn't get a job that I had interviewed for. I knew that I didn't do all that well on it-- I was sick, my mind was foggy, I was stressed and not as prepared as I could have been for it. Still, it was disappointing. The crazy thing was, I kinda knew that I wasn't going to get the job and was subsequent trying my best not to get my hopes up about it. In pursuit of that, I sent out several emails to people that I knew from past employment to get some feelers out there and about a half hour after I found out I didn't get the job I got 3 emails back from people being really encouraging and, while only one of them offered a job opportunity, it was gratifying to get the encouragement.

I know that this isn't the end of the world and I'm off looking for more. So, if anyone reads this and knows of the perfect (or even in the vicinity of that-would-work) job for me, hit me up and let me know. :)

Out from the ashes...

2010-03-05T15:50:00.000-08:00

Things here have gotten worse over the last few days as the earthquake continues to have massive impacts on life here. Where I am living in Santiago, things are pretty good. Grocrie stores are open, so are busses, electicity is on and in general life is continuing as normal. The only reminders are the constant reports on the television of the devistation, the tremors that are present every day (yesterday there were 2 that were pretty powerful) and the banners and car decorations that are everywhere now.

I have some friends who just returned from the south, where the tsunamis are reaking havoc and am incredibly disturbed by what he told me. There is looting, fights, a curfew from 6 at night till 12 the next day in order to curb the violence and looting and in general people are living in desperation. It is so hard to be so close to that, and yet still feel like I am in a different world. I can only hope that things get better as more aide comes and as the people continue to give to each other. That is one cool thing that has happened: the aid at the grocery stores, on the street has skyrocketed. People here are being generous with there money, resources and even time. There are lots of volunteers who have given up their vacation plans to help out down south and here in Santiago.

So there is hope, but there is a lot of devistation and rebuiling left to do. I hope that this spirit of generocity continues! There is so much that needs to be done and I hope that out of this, Chile will emerge stronger than ever.

The Last Month

2010-02-27T15:26:00.000-08:00

So i realize that it has been a LONG time since I have written and am imressed beyond words how uch life has changed in the last month. We left Argentina quite a while ago and have been surrounded by the best people I could have asked for ever since. Chile has stollen my heart and I have found the people here incredibly generous, loving, kind, funny and all around great!!

Some bullets of the last month, because so much has happened:

Spent our first few days in Santiago with the Swansons, friends of Stacies from a friend at Beyond. Same people that our other friends who came down here stayed with too. They were great and really welcoming, giving us a tour of downtown, letting us sleep at their house, use their internet, vonage phone... everything! It was amazing and so welcome. I felt completely different by the end of that time. Argntina and everything that happened there was a completely different world!
Chica, a friend of a friend of my dad was the next person we met and I instantly found a kindred spirit. She is amazing and full of so many similar passions for life that we have tons to talk about. The language barrier has gotten way less and we are able to communicate pretty well! Also, she speaks slow enough for me to understand. :)
We then left for 9 days to Lautaro (where the center of the Earthquake that just hit was) and had an absolute blast with a team from Tacoma, of all places!! I painted and painted and painted primer on everything possible for 6 days and had a blast doing it. Only posible because of the company!!
We lived with a couple from the town and had a blast with them. They were so much fun and amazing hosts. We had a good time with them and their families. They took us to hidden watterfalls, had a huge Asado (which is the famous chilean bbq) and in general quickly became friends to us.
Now we are back in Santiago and the earthquak aftermath is just begining to sink in for me. Our area survived incredibly well, but as I am learning, we were very fortunate people. Read Stacies blog for more information on the earthquake itself.... stacieduvall.blogspot.com

We are here in Santiago right now and the earthquake relief work is just getting started. For the last few weeks Stacie and I have been working with an organization called IberoAmerican Ministeries in their work both here in Santiago and down in southern Chile in a town called Lautaro, which coincidencily is where the epicenter of the earthquake was. We formed some amazing friendships there and the people of Lautaro are some of my favorites that i have met on my entire trip! Most of them are doing pretty well, and as far as I know, there were no deaths of anyone associated with the church. There was a lot of structural damage and a lot of work is going to be needed to be done in order to get the town and everyone there back on their feet again. It is a pretty bad situation. They dont have electricity or running water in a lot of places and the main roads to get to and around that region are pretty trashed and impassable.

I've been doing some talking with Doug, who is the team leader of IberoAmerican Ministries here in Santiago (actually right now we are staying at his house because the appartment building we were in during the earthquake didnt have electricity or water for a few days!!) and I asked what he thought the needs were. He mapped out a few things that were of the most importance. First was to get houses or structures up for those whos houses were demolished. Second was to recunstruct the 4 churches who had walls that fell down. (For Example: The church we were working with in Lautaro had an estimated 10,000 dollars worth of dammage done to it... this is a church who's projector was stollen last month and they didnt think they were going to be able to buy another one for a year or so until someone brought them one as a gift!!) Third woud be to do rebuilding on dammaged structures. There are many buildings that have cracks running down them and that kind of thing.

Anyways, as I am here, Stacie and I are going to be working on helping rebuild a childrens home that was dammaged called Casa Esperanza (House of Hope) but I have had a few people from back home ask of ways that they can help and in thinking about that I figured that I would give all of you this information as well.

If anyone does want to donate to the relief efforts here, I can personally vouch for this organization and the work that they do. They are an incredible group of people both from the States and from Chile. I am impressed with their work and feel like they truely are doing good things. They are setting up a way to donate directly to the earthquake disaster relief on their website tonight, and it sounds like that is the easiest and best way to do it. Their website iswww.iamweb.org and they have a ton of information on their website about the people they partner with and the work that is going on.

Learn a lesson! Don´t upset the natives!

2010-02-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

Except in this case, it is don´t upset your volunteers, and I am the one who is upset.

Stacie and I were dropped off at the beginning of a dirt road, our bags on our backs and a vague idea that if we start walking in this direction, eventually we will come across the farm that we were supposed to be working on for the next two weeks. We had already had quite the time getting to this point- our limited directions told us to go to a town where there was no street by the name that we needed and, needless to say, our "trucha" driver wanted to charge us double and then some to take us to the correct spot. I was adamant in not paying more for a ride where he said he knew where we needed to go, and I could sense that he just wanted to extort us for more money. So my Spanish of 4 months has payed off and I was able to argue him down from 25 pesos to 10 for the both of us. I felt pretty good about that.

As he drove off (i´m sure mumbling in discontent about his situation) we started walking. and walking. and walking. 3 plus kilometers in the hot mid day sun with our 25 kilo bags on our backs. Eventually we see a corroded old gate with "monistario, privado" scrawled upon it in big letters and assume this must be the farm that we have come so far to be a part of. We walk through the gates and see

nothing

a grand space that looks eerily similar to the area on the outside: overgrown pear trees, weeds up to my shoulders, flies and bugs of all sorts lazily droning by and a small path that can hardly be called a road. Foot path would be more adequate. Taking our chances, we walk on in. We site a building in the distance and make for that, hoping that there will be someone to help guide us to this monastery and all the monks and nuns that we are supposed to be helping. Instead we encounter 5 gringos and a lady with a shaved head who turns out to be the only nun on the place.

We were duped! There is no farm, there is no buddist monastery, there is no yoga classes, there is no mediation house. Instead, there is a dream of the sole buddist nun in Argentina who would like to see it happen. As in, it does not exist in the present. As in, she wants to use our labor to make her dream a reality. At first we just shrugged our shoulders and said, okay, we can give you a hand. No problem. But things have escalate and we no longer think we can stay there. She has sent 2 boys packing because they didn´t agree with her and the other 2 volunteers are on the verge of leaving as well. It is a sad situation, and I really do feel bad for her, but she did not really tell us what we were getting ourselves into and to be honest, appears like she is on a power trip of sorts. I don't really respect her.

I guess it is all a part of the continuous lesson that we are learning here: be flexible, don´t expect too much but always be prepared for the best things to happen. It is all part of our adventure and, frankly, after those mosquitoes last night attacked me, I´m ready for the next adventure!

I don´t really know where we will be going from here. I think we are going to go up to the mountains for a few days (we are in el crus de los andes right now) and will definitely be drinking some more amazing mendoza wine! After that, we will head over to Chile and do some work for people that I know I trust!

the better BA

2010-01-16T04:24:00.000-08:00

Last night we splurged a little and dove into Argentine life. We walked down the street and found a beautiful outdoor patio that had 4 restaurants on it. We were just planning on walking by, even though it was so beautiful, but one of the waiters suckered us in when he mentioned the free tango show that would be starting in twenty minutes. It was a little more pricy than normal (but i think pretty standard for around here.... i´ve got to get used to american prices again apparently) at around 12 usd for the meal that we split. But it came with Steak, salad, water and coffee. We also bought a 12usd bottle of AMAZING malbec wine from Mendosa. It was so good. Oh man I have missed good wine! Peru and Ecuador just dont have it. We ended up being seated right on the edge of their preformance area, which was amazing.

Two men came and sat down, picked up their acordian and guitar and started playing a beautiful spanish/argentine melody. Then the Tango guy leaped up from the sidewalk and did all this amazing fancy footwork to ¨lure¨ the woman out. She came out and they danced. Man how they danced. It was beautiful to watch. So complicated and precice and so much passion. I really loved it. envoronment, music, dancing, wine.... it was wonderful. Also, at the other 3 restaurants were other bands preforming either tango or flamanco music. All of them had dancers as well. It was so cool!

So that is a better start to our life in Argentina. I am going to forget about how expencive everything is going to be here and just enjoy it. Also going to forget about that airport fee that we were surprised with at the airport. Gotta love spending an extra 130 when you weren´t expecting to....
But life here is going to be good. I am excited for what is going to happen.

2010-01-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

When I got off the airplane this afternoon in Buenos Aires, I felt a certain degree of apprehension. I couldn´t tell you why, because I don´t quite understand it myself, but it was there. It is still lingering there, to some degree. Stacie and I have started that enevtable ¨last leg¨ to our trip. It is a time that I have been looking forwards to and dredding at the same time. Looking forward to the new cultures, differenes in language, foods, peoples and landscapes. Dreading the fact that it means that our trip is almost over. Even though we have two and a half more months, I feel like it is going to fly by and before I know it I will be taxing down the runway out of Quito headed back to the good ol´ EE. UU. (Estatos Unidos, United States). We have so many things planned for these next 2 months and I am so excited about what we are going to do.

A quick update, we are planning on spending the next two weeks or so traveling down south. Exploring the upper regions of patagonia and the lake country up in the Andes here in Argentina. Then we head over to Mendosa, the wine country, to work as WWOOFers for a few weeks at a buddest comune/monestary. So crazy. Then it is the 6 hour bus ride to Santiago where we are going to be working for one of my dad´s friends for a while with whatever they need help with. Then it is on the road again, up north and allllllll the way back to Quito to fly home. With, of course a quick stop in Lima to say goodbye to Joe and another stop in Mancora for a last relaxing time at the beach.

So, it is going to fly by!

I do want to share more stories, but there is a line up of people to use the free internet and the girl next to me has no intention of getting off, even though I´m pretty sure she has been on here for the last hour or so.... I´m always the good person. haha. But I will soon.

still alive!

2010-01-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

I realize that it has been a long time since I have last posted and so much has happened since then. Leaving Ayacucho took us up in a whirrlewind of adventure after adventure. Marcus comming down to visit, Machu Picchu beauty, Beaches and Sand Dunes, Christmas with Joe´s host family here in Peru, Petrogliphs in the dessert with Joe at the start of his vacation, Araquipa and Canyon country with his other YAV friends and then hiking down to the 2nd deepest canyon for New years. Then back to Lima for a day and off to the Jungle, where, unfortunatly, I got sick for most of the time. But none the less, beautiful. Then it was saying goodbye to Joe for 2 more months and now stacie and I are at a beach a few hours north of Lima (Barranco) where we are waiting to fly down to Buenos Aires for the next leg of our adventure.

I have so many stories that I would like to share, but know that it will just have to happen later in person. Tomorrow I will write one of them here for you all. I didn´t bring my journal in here today.

Anyways, I am alive and doing fantastically well.

Happy new year and Love to all!

Last day

2009-12-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

Today is our Ultima Día aqui. I have liked being here for a month. It is going to be really strange to start traveling again and just be constantly on the go all the time again. I´ve really liked having my bag unpacked and tucked under my bed and all my clothes piled in a (rather neat) pile next to the bed. Minus the cold showers, having a place to put bathroom stuff has also been nice. And, then of course, it has been wonderful getting to know a city better than the guidebook, to be able to stand infront of the Mercado Central and know which line will take me home.

--side note, a few days ago, Emily, one of the other volunteers and I were downtown a bit later in the evening, around 7:45 and trying to catch a bus home. Knowing that the busses stopped running around 8 or 8:30, I was starting to get a bit more desperate when the lines that I knew took us up the hill weren´t appearing. The rain had started too, adding to my desire to be somewhere warm and somewhere with food. So, when I heard a call out of a bus saying it was going to Vista Alegre, Carmen Alto (which, is where we have been living) I grabbed Emily and jumped on. The first few blocks were the rout known to me, but then we veared away and started climbing unknown roads. After about 10 mintues of slow uphill going, I pushed my way up to the front to ask if it was going close to the casa hogar and from the myriad of responces I got, I gathered we were close but not there yet. We ended up getting off right down the street from the casa hogar and it was perfect. I love helpful people and the ability to get around without really knowing exactly where I am. Ok, end of side note--

Tonight we are going out in the traditional volunteer fashion to get drinks at a new bar that is opening tonight by one of our peruvian friends, and then go dance the night away. I´m ignoring my throught and tired body and will go to, and will just sleep the day away on the bus to Huancayo tomorrow.

All in all it has been a wonderful month here and, despite the occasional sickness and the ever present questions of Am I doing anything worthwile? I know it has been a good thing and I am a little sad to leave!

A lot of pictures

2009-11-30T11:56:00.000-08:00

This pictures is from a few weeks ago when stacie and I and our french friend Lila went to the town of Quinoa (yes, like the grain) and saw this giant oblisk that you can see from Ayacucho. We also got to ride horses! It is beautiful country.

We made crepes with the kids to sell in the street. It was a LOT of fun and I felt like i was perpetually in a waiting for a disaster to strike frame of mind, but it was fun and nothing too terrible happened. I think Luis, the one with the big smile on his face managed to ¨accedentally¨ let an egg ¨slip¨ on to the floor... but if that is the worst that happens, I am happy!!

This is Freddy. He is quite possibly one of my favorites. Occasionally, he has a crying fit where he will just start bawling for no reason, but most of the time he is great. He has the best laugh and also loves it when I read to him at night in my oh-so-wonderful spanish! Somehow he tollerates it. I just love sitting there with him curled up next to me before he goes to sleep. So cute!!

Remember when I said that I missed the rain? Well, lately I really don´t as much!! It has turned into spring here. Which, unlike our typical cloudy overcast every day springs, means incredibly HOT days with bursts of showers that are often so strong that the streets get incredibly flooded. I took this picture when we were piled 7 in a taxi on the way back from selling those crepes that I told you about. I think we all had doubts that the taxi was going to make it up the road!!! The streets have no real drainage, so it is really dangerous to be caught in it. And we live on a hill, so all the water just flows down the hill. It is always an adventure trying to get anywhere when it starts to rain.

This is Nilda and Maria Antoinettia, two of the lupes that I get to work with quite often. They are so cute. Maria A is so affectionate and just plain adorible. Unfortunatly, one of the past french volunteers taught her about her name sake, and now she keeps on doing this slitting motion at her neck with a huge smile on her face. I´m just glad she doens´t know what it means....

Nilda is a doll. Quite literally. She is SO small for a 5 year old. The only time she is not laughing or smiling is... well never. I was going to say when you feed her, because she always tries to spit out the food the minute you put it in her mouth, but really, she is smiling through that. She thinks it is a game. I do not, when there is food all over my clothes by the end of it!

This is the other Maria. Maria Jesus. She is pretty cute too, but can have a nasty temper. One time she bit me. I wasn´t fast enough at understanding what it was that she wanted.... oh well. She is still pretty darn adorible! She was helping me make crepes here. And by helping, I mean that we had a bowl that had a little bit of batter in it (like 2 tablespoons) and she kept on mixing it up. The lupes, especially the Marias, love to be involved in the activities that the other kids do.

This is Christopher. Cri-cri. Crrrristo. Whatever. Don´t be fooled by his cute adorible face. He is quite the hand full. Sometimes he is great, but man... when he is in a bad mood... I don´t think I´ve ever heard a kid yell, scream, cry and hit that much. I think he is a little spoiled... being the youngest of all the kids

Last but not least, look who came to visit me for the weekend! This is taken at a really beautiful spot that overlooks the whole city. You kind of just bush wack your way up to it, but once you do, you have a view of the entire place, along with the ravine right below us to the left that kindly helps to block out some of the city noises. It is the most quiet, relaxing spot I have found around here. If you can tell, Ayacucho is the sprall down to the right. It pretty much goes all through the valley to the blue mountains in the back. I think it might be about the same size as bellingham, but with around 500,000 people crammed into it. Personal space is non existant here!

Okay well that is a little snap shot of my life the last month... there are plenty more pictures, and so many awesome things that we´ve done here... but this helps a little anyways. When we get to Lima, I´ll borrow a computer so I can edit and hopefully post some more.

So much love!

A Hora...

2009-11-18T15:00:00.001-08:00

Life here in Ayacucho is going pretty much the same every day, but not in that bad same sort of way. I am really enjoying being here. I love getting to know a community- to know when and were to catch a bus, how to navigate the maze of marcados, how to scare the peros (dogs) that rule all the streets up by where I live... it is great. And the great thing about this city, is although I know the center really well and from my house to there, there is always more to explore and more to see.
I think I have mentioned the dogs here in almost every post that I have written. Only reciently has it actually become an issue... 3 of the volunteers have been attacked by them! Not brutally, just nipped at, Casey had her pants torn and Tony had a small bite on his ankle. ....And I don´t have my rabies shots. Haha.... I remember sitting at the doctors office, reading over the list of shots, mentally calculating how much this was going to cost me and deciding that rabies shots weren´t really worth it. So much money for such a slim chance of contact. I didn´t think it would be an issue. And, don´t worry, it isn´t. The doctors and police here say that there have been no recorded rabies outbreaks here. There are just a lot of dogs!

Today I worked in the morning with the Lupes again, taking them to therapy across town with a few of the other señoritas and Papa Gil, the founder of this place. Nothing all that exciting happened at the therapy place, but I had a great conversation with Gil about life here and how this work is his life. He is a quiet, rather reserved man, but when he startes to talk about this place, he gets incredibly impassioned and you can tell that it is not just work for him- it is his life. It was wonderful to talk to him about why he is here and how he considers this his home.
It was very encouraging to me to hear all of that. One of the biggest reasons why I am down here is to see how I handle it all and if I think that living overseas is something that I can see myself doing long term. So far, I have been incredibly happy with life down here. I am finding it easy to feel at home where ever I am and am enjoying the people. I know that the culture shock will set in soon and I will wish that I was home, but for now, while I miss people and home a lot, it is more a dull ache sort of miss than anything else. I´m sure I will when Thanksgiving comes, and then Christmas.... New Years.... my birthday... but I am confident that the life that I am getting to experience here will counterballence all of that in a way that makes it possible for me to continue to thrive here. So here at the 2 month mark (in 3 days) I am happy with life and glad to be here experienceing a true peruvian life style. I know that if I can handle life here, where I have to step around pigs and dogs, where I am constantly struggling to make myself understood (and doing much better at it!) and where I know that I will forever be viewed as an outsider--a Gringa-- then I am happy and excited about the future and what it is going to bring.

Dinner, Comida, Dîner

2009-11-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

Tonight I am making dinner for the volunteers. There are 14 of us now, which is quite a lot! Especially when you are trying (aka have to) make the dinner for under 30 soles, which is around 10 dollars. Daunting? No, not when everything is so cheep here. Tonight we are making a curry and rice dish.
We make dinner in pairs, every night 2 different people are in charge of thinking of something to make, going to the marcado, getting all the ingredients and preparing the dinner for 8 in the evening. Today I am making dinner with Lila, a girl from France. She doens´t speak much English, so we communicate in a wonderful mix of french, spanish and a few english words thrown in when I don´t know what the word would be in spanish or french. It was so much fun! At one stall, we were trying to buy a few onions and maybe some other vegetables (legumes) and trying to communicate what we wanted with the Señora at the stand. Trying to explan what curry is to someone who has no idea what that means in a language that is not your own with someone else who is comming at it from another angle is a fun and incredibly hillarious task. I am glad the Señora had a good sense of humor about it all.
At the mercado chicken comes freshly plucked for you. Often, there are whole ones hanging by their feet from the front of the stall. The man we bought our chicken from had some cut up into pieces, luckly for us! I didn´t want to deal with a whole one. Indeed, dealing with parts of one was enough to turn my stomach a little bit and make me wish I was a vegetarian!! We asked for white meat, so he brought out his butcher knife and Wam! Crack! there was a brest of a chicken for us. He only had one chicken that was partially disabled like that so the other two we bought were legs. I am just glad he chopped off the feet before giving it to us. I think that would have been a little too much for me. As is, we had to take back the chicken parts, de-skin them and try to cut them into managible portions. We also decided that the neck was not a delicacy that we wanted to eat this evening. That got put in with the skin and gizzards. Lesson learned? Meat is gross.
So we shall see how this dinner turns out! I am excited and glad that I am here, learning so much and surrounded by people and things that are so foregn to me. Also, my english has gotten a LOT worse since I have been here. I find myself writing and thinking and speaking as I would speak in Spanish. No good. I guess that just means that I am being present in my time here!

Also, I got sunburned a few days ago. Every day here is around or more than 80 degrees at some point. So much sun! There is no way that it is mid november all ready!

Okay, off to cook...

El Día de los Muertos

2009-11-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

Today is the day of the dead. I am so glad that I got to be here for it!

We took all the kids from the Casa out to a cemetary where the wife of the guy who runs this place is burried. She died from bone cancer just over a year ago. Seeing the way in which he intereacted with the kids at the site, it was easy to see how much this program means to him. At one point in the morning, all the kids gathered around the grave fence and sang songs and then one by one went in and said a little prayer or something. It was beautiful to witness.

I love the tradion of honoring the dead in this way. All around us, there were families- everyone from babies to grandparents- cleaning the graves, planting flowers, pulling out weeds, re-painting, eating, drinking and visiting with all the others families. They have much respect for the dead, but cemetaries are not a place of mourning or crying. I am sure it happens on an indivudual level, but as a whole, it is a place of community and remembering with joy. I know in the states you could never get away with sitting and eating on someones grave! But here, it is what is done. It is all about the communion with each other and with those who have died. I liked it very much.

We arived in Ayacucho yesterday and are just getting settled in. (I realize it has been a while since I have updated this.... we left Colombia, rode straight through Ecuador and into Peru. We spent 2 days in Trujillo with some friends we made and then got to spend 2 whole days with Joe in Lima! That was amazing and so fun to see where he works and his life there. ) We spent last night in the Casa de los volontarios, but we are moving to a hostel close by. The Casa is really loud (everyone else who is there is a native french speaker!! talk about confusing me!!) and our room was right off the main one with nothing more than a curtain to block the noise. Not good when people like to stay up late and I am tired! Also, the toilet was a hole in the floor and the shower was a hose in the back yard. ...Not saying I couldn´t handle it, but it will be nice to have a quiet space to retreat to after working 6 to 8 hours every day with lots of kids. I know I will need it! And for 150 soles a month, I can handle it (that is roughly 115 USD).

I will hopefully be able to post some pictures soon of where we are living, but it is in a very poor area of town. Dirt, dust and dogs all over the place. But the community is great and I am excited to begin working here. Tomorrow I start working with the Lupes- the 7 mentally retarded children who live at the Casa. They have some incredible stories, you can read them here: http://http//casahogarlosgorriones.org/english/enfants.php as well as see a bit of what we are going to be doing. Mikaela, if you read this, I know you would love it here!

Okay, well I am going to go check on Stacie now. She finally succommed to the travel sickness. I have avoided it so far, but I´m sure that it is closer than I think!
Much Love!

Colombia!

2009-10-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

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!

Back in Baños

2009-10-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

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

2 days to Cuenca

2009-10-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

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!

so far...

2009-10-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

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.

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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.

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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.

We are Here!!

2009-09-23T07:39:00.001-07:00

We have made it safe and sound. Our flights were no problem at all, and we met some interesting people. On the first flight we sat next to this woman from Columbia who was in her mid 70s and was visiting her 8 children and 50 grandchildren all around the states. She was super nice, speaking to us in broken english, showing us words in spanish and always saying how important it was to learn spanish. I liked her a lot!

We got in at 11.30 about and were met at the airport by a guy who worked for the hostel we stayed in last night. It was so surreel leaving the airport and finally getting the picture. We are going to be here for so long!! I was all kinds of nerves. Actually, still am. Casey and Ethan were welcome faces at the hostel. Ethan heard us comming and stuck his head out of the door right as we pulled up. It was such a strange and wonderful site!

Today we are headed out to this volcano by Quilatoa and community surrounding it. We are going to for their carnival for the day too! Casey and Ethan has prettymuch planned everything for us for the first few days. It is a nice break from it all. I feel like I have done so much planning to get to this point, and now I am here and I don't need to do any planning for the first few days and I am LOVING life. We will be back Saturday or Sunday.

Okay well I am off and going to go explore a little more of this strange new life that I am starting.

With love.
E

Guess We're Leaving!

2009-09-22T00:13:00.000-07:00

Leaving in the morning!! I hope I have everything together. It has been kind of crazy trying to get it all together, but everything worked out in the long run. I keep glancing around my room trying to make sure that I have everything together, but I think at this point in time, there is nothing more I can do. I just need to shut down my brain for a few hours and get some sleep, because we are leaving super early in the morning. With a flight that leaves at 8(ish) am, getting there at 6 means that we leave the house here around 5:30. So that is fun.

And with that, I sign off... next time I write anything, I will be in Ecuador! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers these next few days... I know we will need it and appreciate it!

With Love,
E

8 Days...

2009-09-14T12:26:00.001-07:00

8 Days till I leave the country for the first time in 6 years.

It is hard to believe that it is almost here, but I am so ready and excited for it. Right now I just wish it was now! I can't really do any more planning than I have and just really want to go. There is no good in worrying over the things that I have been worrying about anymore, I'll just have to take it as it comes.

Stacie got back from Beyond a few weeks ago and in the short time she was here (before she visited Ohio and family) we got to sit down a few times and really talk about what we were looking to get out of this trip and it made me feel so much better about things. We had talked about the trip before she left, but I didn't buy our tickets until she had already left for Beyond, so this entire trip has been planned long distance. But she is a good reminder to me that we are going with open minds and we purposefully have not planned very much of this trip because we want to be open to what comes. Even so, we are lucky enough to be meeting up with our friends Casey and Ethan the first 5 days of our trip. And then a friend of mine knows some translator women who live in Quito who will be able to show us around too. We are being provided for before we even leave!

Okay, off to buy myself a watch...