The Art of Hitchhiking

Reading: Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire

To begin with, I need to preface this post by saying that hitchhiking is strongly frowned upon by Peace Corps. However, when you are placed in a community without public transportation with a family that does not own a car, I believe that coge un carro falls under the practice of cultural integration. The good thing is that because it is so cultural acceptable here – literally, everybody does it – both the kids that I live with catch rides to and from school every day. Thus, safety is much less of a concern then in the states… and so here’s my quick guide on how to effectively hitchhike:

Fun Facts

Reading: Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets

1. I’m rereading all of the Harry Potter books, including Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them.
2. Katherine Hanson is getting married this weekend!

Milena (11), Moises (9) and Belen (8)

3. It’s been 5 years since I graduated from high school and a year now since I graduated from college… weird considering that my closest friends at the moment are 8, 9 and 11…
4. My shower that used to simply function more or less as a hose to fill up buckets for bucket baths suddenly has enough pressure to function like an actual shower… that being said, I decided to add this fact while showering after swimming in the river and mid-shower, my water complete disappeared… so this might not actually be a fun fact, we’ll see what happens tomorrow…
5. I figured out where all of our water comes from finally. Like I feared, it’s from the very dirty Rio Chimbo, which I swim in on a very regular basis.

Teacher of English

Reading: Standing by Words by Wendell Berry

So I’ve been at site for three weeks now and am finally starting to feel like I’m settling into things. Perhaps this is because I’ve finally reestablished some sort of routine and I seem to be most content in daily monotony that this brings.

My student, neighbor, and bestie: Belén

My usual day consists of waking up around 5:30am, jogging a couple of laps up and down the 0.5km that is Chimbo, breakfast before 7am and then off to work on the soon-to-be six family gardens that my counterpart and I have been working on starting. We do this until about 11am when I have to head arriba (“up” in reference to the river) to have English class for an hour before heading back home for lunch and then off to an afternoon of harvesting cacao or other random farm tasks. Depending on how horribly hot the day is, sometimes we just spend the afternoon in the Rio Chimbo. The family that I’m living with usually eats dinner between 5 and 6, which is rather early by Ecuadorian standards. My host mom, sister and I then head back arriba to an aunt’s house to hang out until my host brother gets back from colegio in Naranjito. I’m usually in bed between 9 and 10.

Confessions of a Former Vegetarian

Reading: Al Dente by Rafael Lugo

Butchering, Ecuadorian style

Aside from the plethora of cultural difference that living in Ecuador has provided, one of my biggest adjustments has been starting to eat meat again. I’m sure that most of you are thinking that Peace Corps volunteer plus former vegetarian can only mean one thing: animal loving tree-hugger. Now, I swear that although that could be applicable to some parts of my lifestyle, it isn’t the case with my dietary preferences. I really, honestly, truly just don’t care for the taste and texture of meat. Granted, the idea of eating muscle sort of weirds me out, but in the same way that flat feet do...

So when I left the States, I promised myself that I was going to really work at being less of a fussy eater. I wasn’t going to be bothered when food was served to me all touching and running together. I was going to deal with things being extra fried and the lack of fresh, raw vegetables. And more importantly, for integration sake, I was going to stomach meat for the next two years.