#2 Diversity (Landscapes and People!)

Ecuador in my opinion is a land vast majority. I don’t know if other volunteers serving in other countries get to experience all the different varieties of life that we PCVs do here!

There are mountains, beaches, jungles and more! It’s like the annoying tag the people say from California (one of my personal favs) You can climb a mountain and go surfing all in the same day! That’s awesome! Moreover you can zip line through a jungle, whale watch, see an IMAX film and learn to make a hat out of dried leaves, all the same…well… week. Ecuador is such a culturally rich country full of unique traditions.





Speaking of traditions, I also respect the different cultures and people one encounters here. Yes, yes, we are all individuals and unique that way. I’m speaking of how the deep Sierrian tradition is completely different that of the Costañas tradition which is totally opposite to those living in the Amazon. Everyone is so tried and true to their traditions. Being in a city I get to see the melting pot of it all.
Since many of keeping tradition shows up in clothing and style of hair even,it’s easy to spot. Even body types in general differ. You can put a Sierran woman next to a man from Esmeraldas and the difference is there, but they are both Ecuadorian. It’s refreshing to see, and it’s great to get the inside scoop. Many times, when floating through “A Small World” in Disneyland or flipping through single viewed magazines you only see the kind of people chosen to represent a country, when really there is so much more to the story.


My host sisters dressed as traditional Sierran woman for a parade. Since they live in the city they normally where t-shirt and jeans, but thein the campo areas of the sierra, the woman can be found in this clothing day in and day out. Such rich cultural tradition!








Tsa'chila men from the Santa Domingo canton in the Pichinca Province. Known for their tradition of shaving their hair off at the sides and sculpting the remaining hair on the top into a pointed peak, painting it read using a mixture of grease and read achoite seeds.


Picture of a Shuar Man who is native to the Amazon Region











Ladies from Esmeraldas


"They" Say if you want to know what a typical traditional man from Esmeraldas looks like, just turn on any futbol game because "everybody" knows that's where all the best ball players come from. While I don't like when people say that...don't know rubs me the wrong way... I will however take this time to feature some of my fav jugadors that do happen to be from Esmeraldas and def reppin what a man from Esmeraldas looks like.



Reasons I know I need to stay away from Esmeraldas! Whooo chile' !!









In case you didn't get it... What!? I'm just making sure you can respect the Ecadorian Diversity!


Did I mention I met him in person?! Sigh..... Ooops! This lesson has gone terribly, terribly, askew.



















Fine, till next time!
I'm outta here! (me dressed as a Sierran Doña for a Parade)

Let Me Count The Ways...Starting From The Top!

So after having another robbing incident I'm pretty *grumble grumble* about Guayaquil and approaching *sick and tired of being sick and tired* status... So In true Sunshine Builder form, I'm going to have to kill Gquil with kindness and count the ways of love that I feel deep (right now so deep I think the love is hidden...) down inside....I may have to extend actually my love list to all of Ecuador...but still...

Guayaquil and Ecuador oh let me count...and continue to count the ways!

#1-Ecuador is a land of SNACKS

Seriously you can get an tortilla de verde on a two hour bus ride to the beach or walk down the street and get some pork on stick with all the fixins. Ecuadorians take their snacking seriously and that is right on time for me! Before you can say "I could use a snack" there is a lady walking around with a wooden try strapped to her shoulders with chifles, maize, canguil, chicles, those delish popcorn things I forget the name and the list goes on. Oh and the deliciousness will cost you cents on the dollar and are packed with flavor. Don't wanna snack? Needing some hot comfort food no problem! People set up their frying skillets on cualquiere corner frying up chancho, chicken, carne empanadas and tortilla everything. I REALLY try to resist most of the time, cause if I let my eyes do the eatin we'd neva stop! But even when I don't partake I always smile pleased that everyone is so for real about getting their snack on ALL the time here.

See feel better already.... Lata folks!

The Honeymoon Is Ova!

So we are at 6 months in site. Finally. It seems like we’ve been talking about 6 months for.ev.er. I think part of that has to do with that our 6 month anniversary in Ecuador was in December. However, we got to our sites in August so that started the count down over again. So in talking to the folks in my Omnibus we are all feeling kinda tired, overwhelemed, a little on the burning to burned out side and just a little blue. We all thought that at 6 months that when we were all gung ho and ready to GO go GOOO!!!! Thinking that we were feeling the exact opposite of how we should be feeling only made us feel worse.

It wasn’t until I talked to a wonderful and wise PCV who is at the end of her service that was like…”Oh no, your not supposed to be excited…The Honeymoon is Over!” Wait, what? She explained that it is about this time that the PCV realizes that they are not at camp, that this isn’t a summer abroad or some conveniently shorter Peace Corps alternative program. This is the Peace Corps and you are going to be here for 27 months. This isn’t a project, this is your LIFE. It’s that reality check that has hit all of us, I think, and worn us out! I won’t speak for everyone, but I know there are a good number of us.

I felt relieved to hear this news personally. I didn’t feel so crazy anymore for feeling worn out. It all made sense now! When I wake up in my apartment (that I love!) I would look around as if to say “yep still here” and then getting dressed slowly like “off to the barrio…again…like everyday…” usually by the time I was in the barrio with ladies I’d be energized again, but day after day I would have that morning drag. I didn’t get it I love my apartment why the negative feeling…I love the work I’m doing why not be flying out of the door to go everyday? Now I get it. It’s the realization that I’m HERE for real. I’m not going anywhere. So if I want to work 6 days a week…go head…but this is my life….not a short term project. If I think…in my life …I would like to whisk away to the beach every now and then… I need to go ‘head and write that into the program…cause we’s gonna be here for awhile.

It gave me perspective and I think I have exhaled. Like today, took the day off to catch up on emails and blogs and get over this lingering cold I have had that isn’t going to go away until I sit still. So poco a poco I’m getting the memo. So I guess now the real work begins!? Lol Dios Mio what have I BEEN doing?

My Haunted House…

If I haven’t said it already, I love my apartment. Even with barely anything in it it felt like my home. Now that I’ve lived in it more, it feels even more like home. I feel truly thankful for that. Having said that… there is a flip side to my blissful living. My house is haunted. Not by your regular fantasmas (ghosts) but mystery winged roaches!!! Dios MIO!!! I used to call them beetles but that would be too lucky. I think this are cucarachas and these bad bos have wangs!

Okay an infestation problem may be inconvenient but lets not go as fas to call it a haunting shall we? Oh WE SHALL. It’s the strangest thing. These winged beasts play with my head you see… They only show up when I’m gone or have gone to bed, they only show up in the same two places (by my toilet or by the bathroom door) and they are ALWAYS without a doubt DEAD! It’s the ca-raziest thing. It went for inconvenient to driving me crazy. When I would be gone for a weekend there would be two…like one for each day. When I was gone for four days. Four. Lying dead…all in a row by the toilet. Dead. When I wake up sometimes there is one…lying there…like whoooo wee did I have fun in Your bathroom last night…yep just feet from where you lay your head to rest. BEAST!

People tell me to fumigate. I bought some Raid..but it’s lame, cause well…they are already dead you see…. Sometimes it makes me feel better but my actions are all in vain. Well, recently they have been showing up in OTHER places. So now I’m like oh helltothenaw.com this can’t be. UNDER my bed once. By my yoga mat and guitar (i.e. the quiet mind corner that cannot HAPPEN!) and outside of my bedroom door. Always dead. Thank God! But seriously get outta here!! So I started problem solving. When I had to go away for Reconnect I was like do not want 5 new friends in my apartment when I got back.


When I have people come over I have them inspect my place and place their bet on where they think the beasts are coming from…no one ever knows. Once a Vol closed a crack in my window and I thought that was it. I lived in peace for a week….then one dead friend showed up making the mystery deepen. People also ask me about them now like they are my kids “Soooo how are your little winged monsters?” ,“Seen your friends lately?” Um No…we cannot be closely associated like that.

Anyway, While taking my shower before leaving I realized around the pipes in the wall there were opening. Big enough for the winged beasts to get into. …. I decided to duct tape around that. I actually set up a few duct tape boobie traps too just to play out some theories…only thinking later as I was on the bus like…if my boobie traps catch them…I’m gonna have to unstick the tape with a dead beast on it!!

So spend a glorious week in Cuenca…and return to my crib. There was a mansoon before we left…which is when I discovered that my roof leaks….So I thought I was coming home to pools or water, crickets (who love the rain and eating clothes) and winged beasts. I unlock my door and kick it open FBI style…nothing… peer into my kitchen…nada…sweet…but that’s not the real test…I kick open the door to my bed room (might as well had my hands in a pretend pistol position) look left right ..nothing…the real test…The Bathroom….Yay! Nothing!! Whoo hooo I solved the mystery!!!

Days later…

Dead.Winged.Beast.

For weeks after same thing… not only the same thing… this is when they really started showing up in different places.

*Just a note people , you should be happy about these bugs cause THEY are how I KNOW I’m coming back to the US. All of you that say I’m going to stay here forever or extend my time. It’s these crazies, alone, that make me sure that while I’m enjoying my time here…I’m not stayin past my regularly scheduled program. *

Anyway, when I had to leave again for Quito, I was like what else can I duct tape? The toilet!! It made perfect sense it’s connected to the ground and they could be coming from there. I thnk they end up dead cause there is a garden surrounding the walls of my apartment. I know they have pestisides and stuff… and to cross over that to get to my place I think they are at the edge of life by then. Anyway, I ducted taped my toilet and left again. Came back…NADA!! They know what I’m thinking… Maybe they are just messing with me. That was a week ago…and I haven’t had an incident yet…We’’ll see…..

Oh you thought I was done with that hauntings…Well try waking up to low moaning scary voices that escalate into screams. Yes Screams! At 4 in the morning it was hard for me to comprehend what that was. It wasn’t sounding all that human…but other worldly yes. And ALLL night long! I just would put in headphones and go to sleep already knowing my house was haunted. It wasn’t until I woke up to what only could be described as what the world coming to a rapid end would sound like. Again at 4 in the morning a deep loud rumbling, maybe crumbling sound that at first I thought was an earth quake…. Since I jolted up the room was definitely shaking…or was that just my head? Anyway, once I got myself , and the screams and rumbling came together I realized that it wasn’t the end of the world it was two cats scrapping it out on my tin roof!! My word! Who knew that’s what it would ever sound like? It’s awful. That explains the screams too. Have you ever heard cats go at it when they are doing their mating or warning call or whatever it is they do. Low moan into a scream roar? Well my bathroom has this open screened window that they love to go at it. Right. There. Oh how do I know? Cause when I go to the bathroom having been woken up, there little white and gray faces are there peering at me! Which further scares the crap out me! Lookin at me like..what are YOU doin up? Lord help me! Lol.

So that’s my journey into the hauntings of my house. Stay tuned for updates…



This is Nerves of Steel Signing off!

Class Is Now In Session!

Alright so starting in Feb (who knows when this will post) I am starting to teach classes for juuust about every group we have established in the barrio. For starters the niños or the younger kids, will be getting art clases, English (ugh hate it but they want it so fine…), possibly some dance and self esteems. For the jovenes, or teenagers, I’ll be teaching, English, self-esteem, leadership, Health & AIDS/HIV and maybe some dance in there too. I plan on doing a lot of projects and service learning as we call it in the Peace Corps to help develop leadership and cooperation skills for the jovenes. For the Mujeres De Lucha I’m going to be teaching classes on communication, accounting (Dios mio!), and motivation. I’m even going to be giving some charlas on health and exercise to the ederly group or the adultos mayores.

There clearly aren’t enough days of the week to fit this all in, but its going to work out some how. Right now the kids are on vacation so I’m going to work with them at least 3 days week. The niños in the morning and the jovenes in the afternoons. The Mujeres are going to be basically the weekends i.e. Friday and/or Saturdays and the adultos mayores whataever day I leave open to come see them.

I most nervous about my Spanish! The Mujeres and I have come up with our own way of communicating. Since they are so sweet they let me get by with some pretty messed up Spanish and they never correct me. It only becomes apparent when Im speaking to ANYone else. They cannot understand me usually…(this is why I need a tutor) and I’m like right…only Mujeres get me cause they let me get by with madness. So when I have a group of teens that CERTAINLY would rather be outside playing soccer on their school vacation than listening to self esteem charlas….bad Spanish is only going to make it worse. Oh sure I have games, activities and what not to spice it up, but teens are the toughest crowd. Since I want to work with youth now and in the future there is no time like the present to just jump in there and do my best. I know there is no way we can spend two months together in class and me not learn anything and them not learn anything. We will both surely gain something from the experience, so I just have to keep that in mind at all times.

When school gets back in session around April I’m hoping that maybe I can still get one day with the jovenes afterschool or something. You know as a youth group kind of thing. There is an existing group of jovenes already, but it has come to my attention that there are some teens in the community that are def excluded from this group Not good for self esteem. My dream is get all of the teens working together cause there is really no need for strife man. My thought…build a garden together and the byproduct will be new friendships formed. Vamos a ver. Wish me luck!

Reconnect. Lucky for you all I’m not in that much of a writing/babbling mood. Just wanted to report that Reconnnect, which I was calling DisConnect since we were all separated, was actually a great event. My CAT Tools, a presentation we were all freaking out about (and another reason I was MIA Dec/Jan), was not all that impressive, but we got through it. It was great seeing the volunteers that I don’t get to ever see and it was just fun switchin up the schedule and spending time in Cuenca.

Oh mama, Cuenca is my new love. It was BEAUTIFUL. Nice, clean, great sites to see, safe, you name it. We didn’t get to spend too much time in the city, but I definitely want to go back to Cuenca. Maybe during a family or friend visit? Hint, hint


Reconnect would not have been half as special or beneficial if it weren’t for the fact that I invited my counterpart. It was optional for our counterparts to come, and once my presentation wasn’t really coming along, I figured, I wouldn’t have her come and only embarrass myself. I also figured since she takes care of about 5 kids In her house there was no way she could leave for 4 days. But when I gave her, her invite letter she was ALL about it. During our meetings in Cuenca we had exercises in how to plan events from beginning to end which was great for her to see. Plus, I just love spending time with Lottie and this event brought us closer. We butted heads on some ideas, which was great, because we were able to strengthen our communication skills. She was all about participating (a little too much if you ask me, cause that meant EYE had to participate vs daydreaming hee hee) and everyone loved her. So that was special and amazing. Since Peace Corps paid for our counterparts I was really happy to get Lottie out of the barrio.

All of the volunteers were going to get together in Riobamba after to really Reconnect, but we weren’t allowed to due to strikes going on. That weekend ended up being a fun time though anyway…even though my apartment didn’t have water the whole time...but that's another story...


See Short and Sweet. Besitos xoxo

Apartment Pics.Totally Out Of Order, But Totally Here! Disfuta :)

Alright I was going to narrate my apt pics but that takes forever and I still haven’t put these up….so here is a tour of my place. The pictures are going to have to speak their 1,000 words. Oh but stay tuned for Apt Upgrade pics as I plan on having more than a bed and fridge one day

xoxo