Senoritis

Okay, I've been really bad about updating. I think it's the whole senoritis thing, getting lazy in the home stretch. I'll be done in less than 3 months which is kind of crazy to think about. Another reason for my lack of updating is that nothing new is really going on here. It's pretty much the same old, same old. I kind of avoided the new year's party because it was cold and most people were drinking to get drunk, which I didn't particularly want to d0. Plus no one would really notice if I left so I did. They burn the old year in effigy, represented by a life size dummy, which really smells. We're slowly getting around to planting the gardens, the problem being it hasn't quite started raining enough. We'll have a rainy week and everyone will think winter has started, but then it will dry up for 2 weeks. Next month I'm actually visiting some other volunteers further south because their community wants to learn how to make shampoo. So I'll have a nice little road trip and see some friends.
For the past week and a half I've been in the states doing some job interviews. I'm hoping I'll at least get one offer so I'll have something lined up for when I get back. I've gotten to see some friends and family along with enjoying chipotle's every other day (plus some other tasty treats). The only downside is that it's freezing here and I've gotten soft living at the equator. I fly back to Quito this morning and then we have our close of service conference, which is mostly just book-keeping type stuff like how we wrap up our service and where we want our resettlement allowance sent. This means I'll be sitting in the back reading, which is how I normally deal with boring meetings here.
I do have some pics from new years but I didn't bring my camera with me so I'll try to get those up within the next couple of weeks. Happy (belated) New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Here´s some pictures from when my brother was here (including one where I´m looking particularly good! ha ha). The wall I´m sitting on is an old incan ruin. Not much to report here, things are pretty slow with the holidays coming up. I´ve just picked up some more seeds so we´ll probably start some more gardens after new years (and after everyone sobers up after new years). I´m in town buying some candy for the kids here as well as getting a lot of things done on the internet. Right now White Christmas en español is playing on the radio. I find that humorous as no one here has actually had a white chrismas. A couple of volunteers will be visiting over christmas so i´ll be doing some hiking and hanging out with them. My gardening community is planning a xmas meal too, which means potatoes and guinea pigs so certainly something different. new years is actually a bigger holiday than xmas around here (or at least that´s the impression i´ve gotten). the school dancing troup has been practicing every day for the new year´s eve festivities. anyway sorry this blog is a bit all over the place, but i´ve been running around all day after getting up at 3 so i´ve got a reason for being a bit incoherent. Happy holidays to everyone out there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know that it's thanksgiving today, but it's kind of hard to get into the spirit when you're not being inundated with propoganda and people talking about it. I'm over at the local hostel for my thanksgiving dinner, and that's about the only special thing I'm doing today. I spent a good chunk of the morning doing laundry because the sun has finally come out after about a week of rain and clouds. Seeing as it's getting close to christmas I was wondering if anyone out there would like to donate a little for the candy bags for the school kids here like last year. If you are willing, email me at lugess720@yahoo.com and i'll let you know how you can send some cash.

More travel time

I'm just finishing up a nice week and a half with my brother visiting. We're back in Quito after doing a bit of traveling (he leaves tommorrow). The first couple of days we spent in Quito, wandering around old town and (at least for me) enjoying eating something other than potatoes and rice. We actually spent an extra day because I lost my cell phone and had to get it replaced, which was a pain but I figure at least I made it this long without something happening which is better than a lot of volunteers. So the extra day we spent taking the Teliferico (a gondola ride) up to Point Loma which is at 41oo m and gives you a nice view of Quito. There was a bit of nervousness because we saw a lightening strike or two, but the storm never really materialized. It was also cool being able to watch the planes coming in to land from above them. It´s a view you never really get unless you're already in a plane. The next day we did mountain biking in Cotopaxi national park. We drove way up on the mountain to about 15,000 ft. and then enjoyed gliding down. There was some peddling involved but not too much. We had lunch at some inca ruins that overlooked a valley right out of lord of the rings. It was a really nice trip overall. The past couple of days we were staying at my place doing a little bit of hiking, but not a whole lot because my brother caught a stomach bug and was laid up for a few days. So that's been my last week or two. It's been nice doing some touristy things again. I don't have any plans for thanksgiving this year because any get togethers volunteers have planned have been a bit too far away for me. So I'll probably just be hanging out at my place and maybe have thanksgiving dinner at one of the local hostels. I'll try to get pics up soon of our traveling.

Yikes - Long Time!

Wow, I did not realize it had been this long since I updated my blog! I'm hoping to make up for it with some new pictures. They're from a party in town, where there was a parade, a group of dancers from the jungle, and a small exposition where communities displayed locally made products (the sign was for my community, which I made). Also some animal pics of the new puppies at my house and a baby llama at the nearby hostel. One of the reasons for the lack of updating is that not much new is going on here. I'm still doing the shampoo making, and working a bit at the local preschool. It still isn't raining much so no gardens yet. In fact the lack of rain means that we have no electricity in the evenings. I guess some of our power comes from hydroelectric plants so no rain = no power. There are rolling blackouts in several provinces in the mountains (I get the news from my host family who are generally up on things). At night now, it's pretty much dead in town. Usually there are people hanging out in the main square, playing volleyball and shooting the breeze but now that there aren't any lights people just head home at 6 pm. Even the dogs are barking less in the evenings, perhaps because they can't see people walking on the road so well (or there isn't anyone on the roads).

The other reason for my lack of blogging is that I've been working on some applications for next year, so that's been taking all my time on the computers. By the time I've done that I haven't really been motivated to write anything else. But I've pretty much finished up that, so now I can catch up on emails and blogs. Plus I'm in Quito at the office right now so free internet. Well I think there's some sushi out there with my name on it so that's all for now!

Party Time!

Since my last blog, there have been 2 major weekends of parties. The first was a new event, a sort of cultural art festival with various dancing groups and also booths for each of the communities participating where they displayed locally made products. These ranged from guinea pigs to sweaters. My host dad even brought one of his stoves to show. It was fun watching all the dancing. There were even groups from the jungle who were rather scantily clad in the cold weather. I guess they were suffering for their art. The day of cultural exchange was naturally capped off with a large dance party and lots of drinking till the wee hours.
This past weekend with the festival to honor the patron saint of the town, Saint Michael. During the day there were various soccer games and a parade. On both Saturday and Sunday night there were large parties. People here really know how to party. I was very pathetic and only made it till 10 pm at the parties before I wanted to be back in my bed. I´m just not much of a partier and people here are pretty used to me ducking out. They do make fun of me for it though.

Rest of the trip and pics

Yikes, it´s been over a month since I posted. I meant to write when I was in Quito at the end of the trip, but didn´t have time. Since then I´ve been at my site and there isn´t really reliable internet now that the phone lines aren´t working well. The last two weeks with my parents went well, we spent a week at my site and a week at a jungle lodge in the amazon basin. Getting to my site was interesting because I forgot that Thursdays the bus I usually take doesn`t leave from Latacunga but from this other town 15 minutes away where there is a big market. So we got on the other bus that goes to my town, but unfortunately there was a big group of exchange students on the bus and there weren´t any seats. As a result we stood for the first two hours of the ride. But we all survived so it´s all good. We then spent a week doing my favorite hikes around town as well as attending the social highlight of the week, the soccer games on sunday. After that it was off to the jungle lodge, which was in a beautiful location right on one of the largest rivers that feed into the amazon. One of the pictures is of the grubs that are a local delicacy there. They are quite tasty roasted, although the locals also eat them raw which is a bit much for me. We saw a lot of birds, as well as the smallest monkey in the world (the actual name of it is escaping me at the moment).

My favorite part of the trip was floating down the river. One of the lodge boats would take us upstream a bit and then we would hop out and float back down in our lifejackets (well technically we were supposed to wear them but seeing as they hampered our swimming ability they were quickly shed). I don´t think there´s anything better after spending a morning hiking and getting all sticky then going swimming afterwards. To get back to Quito we took a two hour canoe ride in the pouring rain (at least it was warm) and then a 30 min flight which is the shortest flight i´ve ever been on. the funny thing was they actually served us snacks and drinks on the flight, whereas in the US you don´t get food even on a cross country flight. Plus there were seats for about 120 people but there were only 20 people on the flight. So a very strange flight all the way around! We had one more day in Quito where i got my fill of sushi and ice cream and then it was back to my site. It was very nice finally having visitors (I admit I was a bit jealous of the other volunteers who´d been traveling around with their friends and family). Thanks to my parents for the pics, and i´ll try not to take so long to update next time.