Here are a few photos I snapped while walking into town the other day...and these are but a few of the dozens of Che images scattered through town. Top to bottom: Che with President Correa, Che´s taxi service, Che´s online high school, and Che´s elementary school.
4-20. Obscure drug reference. Best friends birthday. One year anniversary as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I thought I would have some profound thought or reflection on this last year´s highs and lows...but I don´t. I blame the drugs. Legal ones, of course. I took a decongestant to fight off this cold I´m getting and now I have medicine head. So deep thoughts will have to wait for another day and a clearer head.
I spent the good part of the last week helping out with a camp for Ecuadorian girls which took place in the beach town of
The girls were really great and represented the cultural diversity of the three distinct mainland areas of the country…at one point I was helping with an activity with three girls: one from the coast, one from the sierra and one from the oriente. Very cool. Some of the girls had never seen the ocean before, so it was really neat to be with them as they got their first glimpses of the beach. Some had never even travelled outside of their province, so this was a huge opportunity for them to see other parts of their own country.
At the start of the camp the girls were really quiet and somewhat timid. But, by the end of the camp the girls all had a dozen new best friends and they cried when they said goodbye. It was really sweet. It brought back many fond memories from when I attended summer camp with my cousin in
Right before Easter I was walking home from the center of town and I noticed a car coming towards me going the wrong way on a one way street. I tried to signal tothem to turn around--that they were going the wrong way. Then I saw another car coming. Then another. I then wondered if maybe there was a street closed and thus they made the one way street a two-way street temporarily. So, I approached a pair of policemen to pose this very question. “No, this is now a TWO-way street.” “Since when?” I asked, incredulously. “Oh, for a couple hours now,” he answered. What???? Yes these are the questions we ask ourselves. Why would the city change the traffic flow at night…especially before a big 3-day weekend??? As I walked, I saw no less than three near head-on collisions, as cars careened downhill on a street that for what I can only imagine was formany years a one way street.
The next day I realized that not only had they changed one of the main streets—which used to be one-way into a two-way street. They also changed some of the other one-way streets into one-way streets going THE OTHER WAY. Who does that??? And who does that without ANY signs or other warnings??? These are the things that make me roll my eyes and shake my head. I want to laugh. But...really, what the &%$?
Today started like any other day. I got up, did some crunches, showered, drank coffee, then biked to the Waorani Women’s Association office. I got a few things done that I needed to do to prepare for the upcoming work trip “adentro” with a group of Duke students and some Peace Corps pals. Around lunchtime I see that the sky is darkening, so I decide to pedal on home in hopes of missing the rain. Yeah, right. About 4 minutes into my ride, it starts to rain hard. Then I narrowly miss getting hit by a bus (more on Puyo traffic in another post). Then I got uncomfortably close to a hitting car because my back brakes are now rusty after the last time I got caught in a downpour on my bike. Then, I see this poor, poor little dog hopping down the side of the road and its front left paw is totally gone and the bone is sticking out and it was gross and just sad and I was helpless to do anything for it. It was truly awful. And I can’t get the image out of my head. When I finally get to the apartment, soaked, and realize I left my keys in my desk drawer at the office. Thankfully my dear husband jumped in a cab and came home to save me from my mini-meltdown by coming and unlocking the door for me, even though he wasn’t planning on coming home for lunch because he had to catch an afternoon bus. I get in the apartment and strip off my wet clothes and go to make some hot tea…and of course there is no water.
Always the optimist, I am trying to find the silver lining in all of this. I guess I should be thankful that I was not in fact hit by a vehicle… unlike my friend Becca who was hit by a truck last week (she’s fine. Just has to do some physical therapy, though).
In other news, I am now on FaceBook. Yes, I know I swore I would never get involved in those social networking site things, and that I thought no one over the age of, say, 27 is into them. And I also swore them off because I was afraid my addictive personality would get hooked. Well, when I was helping with the training of the new group of Peace Corps Volunteers, I was peer (actually “beer”) pressured into joining. And, well, I signed up. And, well, I am sort of hooked. I now have 40-some FaceBook Friends in at least four different countries… including an old boyfriend I had when I was a Freshman in high school, my childhood friend who met her husband online in the mid 1990-s and moved to Germany (WAY before dating online was fashionable), and lots of other totally random people. Well, enough chitchat. Must check my Facebook account to see how many new friends I have. Ciao!
Oh…one last thing: a big shout out to my pals Rick and Melinda who are proud new parents of Kindred Connor. Can’t wait to meet you KC!
Posts
All Comments
