Guayaquil

I´m back from my site visit and don´t know really what to report. I was going to try to have Wikipedia do everything for me but here Wiki was in Español. Okay do you want the good news or bad news first? Okay I´ll just get the bad news stats about Guayaquil out of the way. It´s kinda way dangerous. You have to your pilas about yourself. Robberies are really big...so I had money in my bra, in my little satchel thing, I had my bank card in my right shoe under the my insole thing, and an extra ten in my left. So even if my satchel got stolen I wouldn´t be down an out. My friend Jen wrote emergency numbers inside of the tongue of her tennis shoe. Yeah we were getting down like that. Take that G-quil robos. All of the volunteers that I talked to while there have most definitely been either held at gun point or knife (point?). So that´s uber scary. But they have techniques of getting out of the situation without getting shot or harmed. Peace Corps goes through GREAT lenghts to make sure that we are beyond prepared to live in these cities and if you estar pilas then they support you all the way. Like if I got held and gunpoint and have to give up my decory money and cellphone, Peace Corps will reimburse me because my life is more important than those things. I don´t know how other people make it but, as a PCV I feel well protected and support. On the flipside, we are responsible for our own safetly. I´m going to be so street savvy in dos años! I grew up in a place where we don´t even lock our doors...so it´s an adjustment. I´m up for the challenge. The public transportation right now to me is INSANE I´m sure if I lived in NYC I would be more accustomed, but since everything is in Spanish and my big city experience is LA where we drive everywhere. I am muy overwhelmed with it all. Que mas? My host family is 180 degrees different than my family here in Cayambe. Which I am happy about. I was not going to be able to fall in love with another family. In G-quil, my host landlandy is just that, I rent a room from her, she works all day long, she has a son who is so sweet and helpful and they don´t cook any meals. They saved me a shelf in the fridge and they are like fend for yourself. I prefer that. No pressure to eat heaping plates of food. Since the ladies I work with cook such huge lunches I think that´s going to serve as lunch and dinner.

Que mas, que mas, I wish I had organized this but I didn´t. So G-quil is peligroso but I´m in good hands. My living sitch is nice. No pressure and the accomadations are nice. I have a shower, a flushing toilet, a soft grande cama, I have a TV but I´m not going to watch it, I have a fan which is really great in the hot city. It´s like normal room. I have bats outside of my window and there is a liiiitttlle bit of a roach sitch in the kitchen, but I didn´t really go in there for the 4 days I was there. All in all it´s a sweet deal and no one can replace my Cayambe family. I´ll be in touch with them for ever and really think of them as my second fam.

Let´s get to the best part of my trip. The Good News. Mujeres De Lucha. That is the organization of Afroecuadorian Women I will be working with. The name translates to Women of Struggle. I absolutely love love love them already. It´s a task and a challege. I don´t even understand what they are saying but they do great work and are muy amable. Maybe actually I will do a post just about them, because they are that special. The whole point is that there are some challenges about living in Guayaquil but I´m so up for it because I´m SO excited for my project. I think even when I return to the states I will want to be involved somehow, but that´s in two years. I need to just figure out what they are saying lol. They are just like my family, my aunts, cousins, sisters and mothers all talking at once and cracking up. It´s great fun.

The barrio I work in is also supposed to be kind of dangerous, but the women I work with are well known and after I¨ve been seen with them a lot around the neighborhood I will be fine. I feel safer in my barrio than the mean streets of G-quil already. While a lot of people will work and live in their same community my set up is a bit different. My barrio isn´t safe enough for Peace Corps standards especially after dark, so I can come and work and then leave and go to my house in G-quil. When I pictured my time in the peace corps I imagined myself on a dirt road sitting on the porch of my grass house waving to my neighbors that I work with. It´s a bit different than that romantic vision. I actually report to work everyday and then leave at night. I have so much to say but I can´t free style on this blog anymore.

Coming attractions:
Mujeres De Lucha
Otra Cosas Part III
Maybe some pictures....(all old)