go buckeyes

Well, this will likely be my last blog entry for a little while, as we´re headed back to the Sierra tomorrow morning...and then going on a 10-day tech trip back to the Oriente later in the week. While we are 0 for 4 on seeing Buckeye tourney basketball games...(although Chris has provided vivid play-by-play recaps of the games for us. Thanks Chris!!!) we did have the pleasure of keeping tabs of their progress via the internet...although it was suuuuuuuuuuper slow (a score update every 3 minutes or so...okay, so maybe it was 30 seconds...but you get the picture: painfully slow).

We´ve had a very productive, yet still relaxing few days in Puyo. I finished my 4 month initial workplan with the Waorani women´s group. It was a little bit of a process...as they seemed very hesitant to sign it. I am assuming that it is because they have been burned on contracts they have signed in the past... don´t know for sure, but can only speculate. I´ll have lots of interesting things to do when I get back to town. Other highlights: ate some p¡zza (twice!)...Bought some Waorani jewelry (3 pairs of earrings, a small purse, a necklace and a bracelet for $10...) yes, I will be marketing this to my friends in the states!. Met some American missionaries (there are a lot of them around these parts)...checked out the ethnographic park...walked around town...learned that one of the pizza joints delivers! Also learned that you can hire taxis to run errands for you....and that Nip/Tuck is aired on one of the cable channels... got an email confirming that Krista and Caleb will be our first visitors... woo hoo!!!...and that Jeremy´s office mates are on two opposite ends of the political spectrum (after a lively debate about world politics and communism while we ate pizza...a winning combo!). Okay, so Jeremy just announced we can get world wrestling matches on TV here, but no NCAA basketball games... the injustice of it all!!! (not to mention the fact that we´re watching cable tv...hardly a PC thing to do). Well, gonna sign off...

Thanks to all who sent emails. Keep the updates coming!!! O-H...

what a buck will buy ya´

Jer just got a $1 haircut. Yes, you read it right, one whole U.S. dollar. And it is a good haircut, to boot. I just thought that was worthy of a separate blog entry.

Our hut in the jungle

Wow, what a difference a day can make. Well, we´re finally in Puyo!!! We made it! And our first impression of our future home has been extremely positive. No, actually, it has been great!!! But, I´m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up. Many of my faithful readers are waiting with baited breath to learn about the fate of our hero, the science king. Well, I´m very happy to report that Jeremy is among the living again. His surgery, well, it went okay I guess. It certainly wasn´t fun for him...and he was in quite a bit of pain, but he´s alive and well.... and totally doped up on painkillers. His face is a little hinchada (swollen) pero, no mucho. Anywho, we were glad to finally get out of Quito. While it offered many of the creature comforts of the States, this fact was accompanied with many of the same annoyances: lots of traffic and pollution and greater threats of crime that comes with just about any large city. Sooo.... we pulled out of Quito yesterday morning about 8:15 and made the long drive to Puyo with Chela, one of the Peace Corps staffers. It was nice for Jer (and me) to have the ´luxury´of riding in a car, versus a bus, so we were able to pull over at the scenic overlooks and take pictures, stop when we had to go to the bathroom, and the ride forced us to speak Spanish (otherwise it is much too easy to talk English when we´re alone). The drive out of Quito was beautiful... the patchwork of verdant mountains...dramatic snow-capped volcanoes .....the more arid almost desert-looking mountains around Ambato...the evidence of lava flows from the past eruptionso fo Volcan Tungurahua... and most impressive of all was the drive from Baños to Puyo (just as the guidebooks say)... it was absolutely spectacular!!! I have to say it was one of the coolest vistas I´ve seen. We must have passed two dozen waterfalls. We drove through (literally...in tunnels) probably 5 or 6 different mountains (behind a pickup truck with 3 super cute little girls in the truckbed) and had spectacular views of this immense river valley (Rio Pastaza). Baños is famous for their hot springs from the volcano. The town looks supercute (one guidebook says it is pretty close to Shangri-La) with a dramatic backdrop of huge-onic, green mountains and spectacular waterfalls. For those planning on visiting us, this will be a must-see place (plus you more or less have to go through it to get to Puyo!). One of the tourist attractions is riding mountainbikes (downhill almost the entire way) from Baños to Puyo. It would take most of a day, but looks totally worth it if you take your time...which there are so many amazing overlooks along the way, you couldn´t possible ride by without stopping to gape at the incredible views. Okay, so we finally roll into Puyo, which, like any city has its grittier aspects, but it also has some incredibly charming aspects as well...based on our 27 hours or so that we´ve been here so far. Like most Ecuadorian towns, the roads aren´t marked very well, so of course we had to ask around to find out where we had to be. We just so happen to see Jeremy´s counterpart, Bolívar, while we are driving around asking for directions to the Waorani women´s group office. He helped us find it and I got a quick tour of the little storefront where the women sell their jewelry and handicrafts and their offices and meeting space. The women were welcoming and gracious...and gorgeous! My counterpart, had to meet with another person for a while, so she let me flip through photos that were on her computer. The organization is evidentally receiving support and funds from USAID and right now they are offering a number of workshops for the communities on the "interior" (in the jungle) to improve their marketing and quality of their handicrafts...and to teach small business skills. All in all, it was a very positive first impression and first meeting, I thought. It is going to be super challenging for me, for sure, but I think it will be a very rewarding and rich experience. For starters, I´ve got to try to learn the language of the Waorani......but before even that, Peace Corps is trying to find an instructor for me...so that I can learn some basic phrases before we return to Puyo exactly one month from today! While Manuela speaks Spanish, it is her second language as well! So, between the two of us, we do a good job of butchering the language at times. Jeremy´s counterpart organization, CODEAMA, seems very well organized and sophisticated---at least from my superbrief first impression. His counterparts seem extremely nice and I am pretty confident it was a good match for Jer.
So, we were supposed to stay with a family this week we are in Puyo, but that fell through, so we are shacking up at this SUPER super super cute little hotel. It is right on the edge of the river...has cute little thatched huts over colorful tables for alfresco dining...superclean and airy rooms and bathrooms. hammocks outside each door. Beautiful tropical flowers all around. It is called El Jardín (as Chris Farley would say, "that´s Spanish for the Jardín.¨ okay, really, it is spanish for "the garden." A beautiful garden tropical paradise indeed. It is WAY over our regular PC budget...but, after the crazy week we had, I´m happy to splurge on this place for the next three nights!

Okay... so for those of you dying to know about our housing in Puyo..... Well, all of you with visions of us living on a hut in the middle of the jungle...squatting in a pit toilet...drawing water from a well... and fill in the blank_______ with whatever stereotypical third-world living conditions you might envision.... yeah, well, nothing couldn´t be further from the truth. This is not your parent´s Peace Corps experience, my friends. Here´s the skinny: nothing is set in stone yet, but Peace Corps has tentatively approved an apartment outside the downtown area of Puyo...that is brand new. Two bedrooms. Nice bathroom and new ceramic tile floors. Huge sitting room kitchen area. All new!!!! I really afraid I´m going to jinx oursleves by typing this, but I´m hoping that all the pieces fall into place and that it gets finalized (there are a lot of hoops to jump through with the landlord I guess...and the only other alternatives for housing available next month are pretty icky I guess). Soooo...we´re crossing our fingers that it all works out. Of course, we have absolutely nothing to furnish it--or any other house---with, but Puyo seems to have just about anything we could possibly need or want to furnish our ´hut´and spend our moving-in allowance on!!! woo hoo!

Sweet tooth

Well, the tooth fairy has been most unkind to my hubby. It turns out he has an absess tooth and has to have oral surgery tomorrow. I can almost hear the collective gasp clear down here! Yes, he is going to a good dentist. No, he doesn't have to be med-evac-ed out of here. Yes, the dentist is American educated (born there, too, I guess). No, he doesn't have to be put under...they're doing a local anaesthetic. Peace Corps has been very accomodating and really wonderful about everything. I am going to stick around Quito with Jeremy through Wednesday morning and then, we're headed out to Puyo. It is the same problem tooth that has been filled, root canalled, crowned...and now semi-canalled again (because the first dentist did a poor job...but that's another story for another time) and over a thousand bucks later, it has to be fixed yet again...this time on uncle sam's dime. A most unpleasant experience for all involved.

Okay, so the optimist in me, must now move on to the positive parts of this story. Let's see. I had a super yummy dinner last night at Sports Planet---a knockoff of --fill in the blank--American sports bar. I had a FAB veggie wrap, fries, and a brownie a la mode with warm caramel, whipped cream and hot fudge drizzled on the plate. It was awesome. I keep thinking about it! Sadly, Jer's tooth prevented him from enjoying a burger...so he had tomato soup and sprite (which is pronounced the same way in Spanish, as in English, as we found out.) Okay, wait, I'm supposed to stay positive. So, in addition to enjoying a great dinner last night, I had a nice long, hot shower (with great water pressure) this morning and a warm, freshly baked croissant for breakfast. YUM! Also, on the positive side, we just so happened to run into the only other Peace Corps volunteer who served in Puyo...at the dentists office of all places! I had a great conversation with him...and he had nothing but good things to say about the town. He gave us lots of tips for living in Puyo and cool places to go. He is staying at the same Hostel as us, so we're planning on having dinner with him tonight and get an in depth briefing on Puyo and Peace Corps life. Which, ironically enough, is what we were supposed to be doing these last few days: staying with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer south of Puyo. So, we'll still be accomplishing something...and the delay will only put us one day behind in meeting with our counterpart organizations. Here's a link to some new photos. Until later, comrades. share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbOHLhy0cNGep

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.