Week One

Going to milk the cows in Beautiful Ecuador. My new host mother and host niece trekking to milk the cows.

So here I sit in the back corner of an internet cafe close to my training site and about 45 minutes by bus from where I live. Life is basic and simple and while that is sometimes refreshing it oftentimes leaves me longing for warm showers and tasty foods.

The food here is pitiful. Usually some sort of soup with potatoes and a hunk of boned chicken followed by a pile of boiled vegetables and an enormous amount of rice. I´m not a fan of the food here.

Other than that life has been great. I met my host family last weekend and they welcomed me as well as they could. I´m the only Peace Corps Trainee (I´ll officially be a PC Volunteer in May) that is with a first time family but they and I both seem to be handling it very well. My mother is fairly indigenous and she and I tend to spend quite a bit of time together although her Spanish is basic. We´re slowly bonding. Meals tend to be filled with awkward silences and the hard boiled eggs for breakfast are diffucult to keep down. The yolks are deep yellow.

Our group of 45 is diverse and fun. We´re considered Omnibus 101 which means we are the 101st group of PCVs to arrive in Ecuador. Our first week of training was full of Spanish classes and technical information but we finally got to get our hands dirty on Friday when we visited an organic farm. I witnessed the slaughtering of a live Guinea Pig and it was not a pretty site.

I have more to share and a video of going to milk the cows but am unable to upload it now. I´ll figue out how in the future. For pictures check out my Facebook photos.