Country Mouse City Mouse

So the first time I left the city I went to visit my main chica Conks!
I was so excited to finally get some Campo Living.

Since I've been writing all night I'm now tired and I really wish I had written about this experience right afterward. Our lives are Night and Day! We are Truly Country Mouse, City Mouse. I don't even know how I remember that story! But after that trip I was like, man, our lives are polar opposites.

Her life is my original Peace Corps dream. I know have had to realize a new dream and I do love my life here but the Campo is so what I'm talkin about!

First a little just about this visit. It was so good seeing my girl! I'm so proud of her. She has done such a good job integrating and he Spanish is awesome. She was in the beginners group with me and she was just using verbs ad tenses I had neva heard. I was like you go girl! She lives with the cutest abuelaita and a fam that loves her to pieces. Before when she went to her site visit she was like there is no way I can live in that place. It was a cluster of houses with no privacy, some of the floors were dirt and it was just way campo, way outdoorsy and roughin it. Now she's talking aobut stayin with the family and just moving into a house that's attached to them! I thought that was really awesome and shows tremendous growth. I got to met her youth group, her counterpart, her wonderful family and neighbors. Oh my lord she lives in front of a huge vast bamboo forest!! ITS INCREDIBLE its so beautiful I would be out there aaalll the time. Her family owns that land too. We went to a fiesta until three at night and walked back in the woods and across a bridge that was a single piece of bamboo across to a creek with a bamboo handle bar. So scary but so fun. See this is why I need to have a camera when I travel. I cannot imagine walking N E where at night like that without a care in the world. It was great. We went to a soccer tournament game that was ooodles of fun. She has an aerobics class that she gives in the front yard of a family and all the ladies came and we had so much fun. The men of course were looking out of the windows commenting or making jokes to show off. Men. lol. Def didn't get out of there hammocks or put down the beers to come work. No. They were so funny too. Not like the men here. So let me just give it to you the Country Mouse/City Mouse Comparison list...since I keep making the references....

Let's see...
The Campo has a certain quiet that is sooooo wonderful. I long for quiet all the time. It's soooo loud, and active and even when its quiet at 3 am it's more of a city eerie quiet. Like is someone going to jump out of a bush and stab me? quiet. Usually though it's just loud loud loud noise noise noise. In the campo even when there is music or people talking, all the trees and grass and dirt just pad noise and it's tranquilo. Here one car passing by sounds like it's driving through my room and I'm on the 7th floor! But this concrete jungle echos and carries noise everywhere. So quiet....

Oh Greeeeen, green, green everywhere! And wide open spaces! It's so nice. Again it's just easy on the senses. Of course with Green comes the bugs though right? So that's the trade off there. I long for green though. I do go to the Malecon where there is water to try to touch nature, but it's nice when your back yard is a forest.

The people. I love campo people. You can speak to them, actually it's expected. You can say hi, wave, smile it's all allowed. Here in the mean streets, you get to speakin and smiling and in a block you would probably have a line of men drooling at your heels wanting to know what's up with tonight. No.thanks. It's SO hard not to look at people and smile. I mean I'm from Missouri! I hear its a very New York thing. Get your mean mug face, walk brisk and fast and don't make eye contact. That's why I didn't move there! It was so nice and friendly and of course everyone knows the nice new gringa and it was really refreshing to be able to put my guard down. Having your guard up around the clock is BEYOND exhausting right?

The trade off there though is that she can Never disappear. She was not feeling well and wanted to nap but he fam kept coming to the door to just talk, offer treats, all sweet things..but I know how tired I am and how serious I have gotten about my naps! If I was worried people were going to wake me up I probably couldn't sleep for one and if I was asleep I probably wouldn't be so pleasant waking up. When I go to my barrio, it's a good, day, bad day...whatever. I go, I leave, I come home, and I do what I want. Be it sleep, get up with a volunteer, go see a movie...whatever. I can disappear. I can separate my Peace Corps project life with my personal life. The Campo Vols do not have that luxury at all. Anything she does outside of her house the people she works with knows, he youth group knows everyone... So I try to think of that when I find myself longing for campo life...

Fast friends vs Site mates... in the small campo life it seems like since you integrate you make Ecuadorian friends easier. Here since you're in the city and can't even make eye contact, it's kinda hard to make new friends. However, we are set with a small cluster of Vols living in the same city. How easy is that? Sometimes all you need is someone who knows Exactly what you are talking about. So I'm sure that's something I take for granted to. Just knowing your in the same city as someone is helpful. I want some Ecuadorian friends too though...I'm sure it'll come. Just slower. Maybe when I start my dance classes...

Little things like walking around at night, not worrying about your safety, having a sweet familiy that cooks and loves you is all very sweet and what she has, but she can't get up at 7 at night and go to Pizza Hut like can when she's tired of the comida tipico aqui.

All in all we are totally having an opposite experience and they are just different. One is not better or worse than the other. She lives 4 hours away and the bus ride was easy and peaceful. Translation? We both can have the best of both worlds whenever we want. When she wants sushi, pizza hut and honking cars (she's used to the East Coast and actually likes the hustle and bustle...) she can get it...when I want a piece of that bamboo forest and to feel a love of a fam, I can get it! So in conclusion our lives here in Ecuador serve us up daily challenges, but really our lives are pretty sweet :)

Hasta Luego!

Remind Me To Tell You The One About...

These are just titles or notes I've written down, that either are way to insignificant to write about, I forgot the whole story, or there just isn't time to write about it.... I don't want to forget the stories either, so it's a log for me. If I ever run out of stuff to update on...I can always go back to the RMTTYTOA Series jajajaja...

- The R-word Discoveries and My experience and skill
- The 66
- Day of Nutrition
- All of My Phone Calamities
- Getting pushed off of a moving bus...accident I'm sure
- The Rainy Season
- The One About the Metal Door

Camera Question

We Gquil girls are always saying we have a "bien fear" of the city. We bow down to the dangers that lurk around every corner. It's such a balancing act trying to not attract the thing you don't want by thinking too much about it and having pilas and not being a sucker gringa that gets got all the time. Having said that, it's almost 2010 and I need to make a decision about this here camera situation. My camera has not seen the light of day since I moved to Guayaquil. In my little cabinet forever more is where I told myself it will forever remain. Is that any way to live? I had the the thought am I going to regret not having captured any of these moments on my very own recording device. Sure other people are fearlessly toting there cameras around and I can always use there pics off of Facebook but I'm at the mercy of others. Plus I am having my own individual experience and since I don't have a personal photographer following me around there are just some things only I can capture. I mean a camera is just an item and anything happening to it would not be the worst thing. My camera is on it's last leg and it will probably be time for an upgrade anyway when I return to the states in 2011. Not to mention there are things one can do to make sure they don't lose their pics in case the case of a stolen object... like take out the chip and carry it on your person so that you keep your sentimental pictures and the ladron gets what they were after in the first place.

So what do we think? Start taking my camera on my trips? (that I need to start taking!) Let me know what you think. It sure would spice up my blog ;o) One day maybe I'll take my camera to my barrio...but no.day.soon.

Besos!

Have I Updated You on My Ladron?

I don't think I ever did!

Well that's because it's pretty anti-climatic.

He was hanging around and at first not speaking and I was like ummm that's not gonna work.

So I told Lottie that I needed to be introduced, because in the same way that I was hoping he wouldn't be there...and everday he was....he was probably thinking the same thing about me. I needed him to know that I was going to be there for dos años! So she introduced us and told him that I'm working with the Mujeres De Lucha and I will be there for two years. I held out my hand... weak shake from him...eyes on to the ground and he mumbled out a saludo.

Whatever, as long as he knows I'm gonna be there and that we are gonna have to make nice if we want our days together to be as easy as possible.

Well would you know day after day he would try to roll on the scene and not saludo me!? I was like naaaw naw now naw. That's not gonna work. The way in the US it's polite to great people when you come into there presence well it's times 5 here. Usually you go around and shake everyones hand and kiss them on the check. You acknowledge everyone! So he was being out of pocket. So I just started greeting him extra strong and in his face. Usually by the time I got out my extra loud, brava "Buen..." He come through the with "Buenas DIAS!" Like RIGHT I know better and I see your not letting this go.

That was how it was last month. For a few weeks there he stopped showing up to work. I was like "mmm-hmmm" but it is what is is. Just the other day though he showed up again. Apparently, with a story that his cousin is stealing the money he makes at the Panaderia or something. One of the ladies was like "Ha ha imagine that a thief complaining about a thief ha ha" I was like... I don't find any of this funny. As I never do when my ladron is the topic.

He does act way more humble around me though...if I'm walking he's stepping out of the way, if I roll up and he's sitting he makes sure I don't need a seat. And we are all clear on who sits at the table for lunch! Whew! lol. That was such a dramatic day man..shaking my head...

IT DID come up that Lottie did kind of corner him an was like, Look, we all know that you stole from our girl, Her purse, her books, her phone and her IDs. The lady that cooks us lunch and makes bolons to sell told me. I was like WHA!? She's like yeah, you're not supposed to know lol. You gotta love working with nothing but women! So now I KNOW that he KNOWS that I KNOW. Maybe that's where the new attitude has come from. He's gone from trying to avoid me in case I recognize him to. Oh snap well I'm caught. I wasn't clear what he knew before, but now I do. Maybe that's why he wasn't showing up for awhile. Who knows. I just know that I'm not trying to mess with Lady Karma at.all. cause we've all heard she can be quite the.....

I'm out!

More about What I Do: My Support Network

I'll try to make this quick...

I gave you a tour of the barrio and our projects so that's the heart of everything of what I'm doing. So thanks to the relationships the Mujeres and the past Volunteer built, we have angels and helping able hands around us ready to assist. This is just an introduction to some of them. I'm actually still trying to learn and figure out some other people/organizations that have contributed to the Mujeres. Again, could be a simple conversation, but my language limitations make it hard to get an exhaustive list as in the ten years they had been around, naturally they have received assistance from different organizations over the years.

My Main List of Organizations/Characters:

Again not wanting to name names....but...

The US Consulate here in Ecuador. Cool right? That's what everyone says. It just makes me nervous as I know the Ladies have a lot of expectations and I feel like any false move and I can ruin what was so delicately built. The credit of this relationship goes to the volunteer who came before me (Super Tere!) and all I gotta do is Maintain! the relationship. Why I liken it to an egg on a spoon relay race I have no idea...but that's how I feel sometimes. Everyone at the Consulate office that I have met is SUPER cool, SUPER helpful, A ton of them are Returned PCVs themselves so the get it. It's really a joy working with them. There is new Consul General now, that I haven't had the pleasure of meeting. He did say he is excited about coming to visit the Mujeres one day when his schedule allows! So that is going to be a GRAND Day indeed! The Consulate has already given us bags of food since I've been here so they are wonderful to work with. I work closely with two individuals that I really like and have been soooo instrumental to any progress I have made thus far. One of those angelic individuals at the Consulate Office put me in contact with...

The American School or Colegio Americano. I work with the Director who affectionately calls himself the Gringo Loco or El Guapo (from the 3 Amigos). He's such a character with a golden heart for service and helping people. He is over the whoooole gigantic Colegio and apparently took it from poverty to prosperity! I have only seen it at it's best and I can't even imagine all the work he must have done to get it there. He ALSO contributed to a huge donation when I first to Guayaquil. He really has a vision for making the Mujeres sustainable as well which is really awesome that we are on the same page. He knows what he's doing and it's always fun to visit. I learn so much just sitting in his office absorbing techniques on budgeting, fundraising and sustainability. It's so right up my alley in things I wanna learn so I feel fortunate for that. He knows other people too that really are good at business plans and things of that nature and at the level the Mujeres want to operate we need more know how in that. So he put me in contact with....

The Chamber of Commerce! These are like heavy hitters in Guayaquil I'm working with you see? and I'm just a non Spanish speaking gringa without a clue! But do you see why I work all day everyday? I just want to take advantage of all of these resources I have and really do everything I can in these next two years to help the Mujeres get sustainable! Okay so there is one gentleman in particular who I work with at the Chamber of Commerce and he is an ANGEL for REAL! He's so sweet, so knowledgable on all things business and even has gotten his wife involved to help us. I mean just one of those people who simply want to help because it's in their hearts. He's my main man on realizing the dream of helping the Panaderia to make enough to sustain the Comedor. We suffer highs and lows together all week long but he really stays the course so to him I am grateful. We had a meeting this Saturday and he was telling me of another woman he knows with a really good heart who can help and her name is...

Phyllis (not really thought, but it's not about her org it's just her so I had to give a name) Now the Mujeres and I have actually been looking for this woman since I got to Guayaquil! Our relationship is new, but I did finally speak to her and yes she wants to help with anything she can. She's also a business woman who is able to get donations as well. I'm sure she is business savvy as well and can be instrumental in helping us develop these micro empreses (micro enterprises). So that's my newest relationship and I feel really fortunate to have some helpers.

The feeling I have "to whom much is given, much is required". Yes I have a lot of help and resources around me, but that makes the responsibility all the greater! This does not feel as minor league as I thought my PC experience would be. However, I don't feel too far out of my league either. Oh sure, I'm jumping midway into projects and this Spanish thing is a nightmare a lot of times. BUT I feel like everything that is in front of me to dive into and learn is RIGHT up my alley and I'm eager and willing to be a sponge and take it all in and apply it here and apply it when I go back to the States.

So there you have it. My network of support :)