Detour

Well, I am supposed to be on a bus to Puyo right now...but instead I´m in what is probably one of the fanciest malls in South America getting ripped off for internet access.... So why am I here, you ask...the question mark doesn´t even work on this machine.... Well, Mr. King seems to have come down with a tooth problem. He was up all night and is in quite a bit of pain, despite the meds. He has an appointment with the Dentist tomorrow here in Quito. Meanwhile, in the TMI department, I seem to have come down with a mild UTI. The nurse suggested I go ahead to Puyo sola, but Jer and I weren´t too hip on that idea. Hummm...a UTI and a 5 hour bus ride........ The training staff ok´d me to stay with him, so we can eventually catch a bus to Puyo once he gets cleared....hopefully tomorrow. Plus, I can´t imagine him having to try to navigate or speak spanish after a good shot of novocane! We caught a ride into the city with the director of our training, checked into a little hostel...that is supposed to have NCAA games....but I don´t want to get my hopes up again, as the last place that was supposed to have basketball let us down. Although we still had a blast last Sunday. Anyway, I digress. I went to the pharmacy and picked up some Cipro. Yes, the same Cipro that half of DC was on after the anthrax scare. Yes, it is an antibiotic that is available over the counter here...and suggested by the nurse. I´m hoping that will cure what ails me. I´m more worried about Jer´s tooth, as the last thing we want is for him to be medivac éd out to get in depth dental work. He has threatened to just pull the tooth out a la Tom Hanks in that one movie... plus he read the ¨Where there is no doctor¨ book cover to cover...

So...the part of Quito we´re in is pretty swanky and has lots of names you would recognize and stores with high fashions from Spain. This 3 story mall rivals CitiCenter in its heydey...and possibly even Polaris Mall, although I refused to shop there so I don´t really know what it is like....but imagine it is not that unlike this place. We walked around what I can only assume is the Quito equivalent of central park. Very cool. Lots of people walking, playing basketball, fútbol, vollyball and even tennis. Tons of kids eating ice cream. And dogs on leashes! That reminds me that I need to add a post about the dogs of Ecuador. Probably not today, as we´re going to have to shove off soon.

This week was pretty good overall. I feel like my Spanish improved quite a bit. I tested two levels higher than when I got here. Jer jumped three levels!!! Our language facilitator brought me the El Comercio newspaper a few days this week, so I enjoyed keeping up with the news. I read that Laura Bush and one of the twins were in the Galapagos this week. There was also a big photo of theChavez and Barbara Walters interview...but didn´t say much about the substance of their conversation, though.

We had a freak hailstorm on Thursday. We were in a building with a tin...although Jer says it is plastic...roof. Whatever it was, it was deafening. We had to halt our class until it stopped because it was just sooooo loud! We introduced our family to speed scrabble and it was a big hit. Everyone was into it. It was really hard for me and Jer, as we kept seeing words to spell in English, but couldn´t use. We also realized that we need more tiles of some letters...and we need the n tilde tile letter... as Spanish words use more of some letters than we use in english. It was a lot of fun! We went to the Toys R Us equivalent to try to find Spanish Scrabble...but it was a little out of our price range...plus we don´t want to haul it right now. We took a hit yesterday when we had to pay to try get a package out of customs. P.S. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE SENT CARE PACKAGES. YOU ROCK OUR WORLD!!! But, a reminder to all of you, please DO NOT DECLARE A VALUE on the packages you send. If, for whatever reason the post office requires you to put a value, put $1 or something...for a used book...or whatever. One of the other volunteers had to pay $20 ...which is a load of dough down... here to get a package of tampons that she got from the U.S. I miss my O.B. and Reece´s Cups as much as the next gal, but I don´t want to have to pay close to a weeks ¨wages¨ to get them out of customs! Plus, it takes forever to get them out. We don´t know when we´ll actually get the package that is stuck there now... So, not to sound ungrateful, because I am SOOOOOOO excited to get packages.... but just want to make sure everyone knows the drill...

Here´s a public shout out of gratitute to Bryan and Kelly, Paul and Jane, Rick and Melinda and Auntie and Dad who have sent letters and packages that we received. You rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Finally, some thoughts about working with the Waorani. Yes, as some of you have found out through a little googling, the Waorani are a very isolated culture...one that some would describe to be aggressive against outside influences. I want to assure those of you who are worried, that everything is cool and this women´s group has specifically asked for Peace Corps´assistance with expanding their ecotourism and artisan marketing efforts. I can only assume that I will be working primarily in the city of Puyo ...and will take infrequent trips into the interior...although I´m super excited to learn more about their communities. P.S. Wikipidia has a cool description of Puyo. I can´t wait to check it out..Hopefully my next post will have more of the details we all are anxious for. ..but first I must get past this little dental detour.