In Support of Graffiti

Reading: Essays of E. B. White

Protest graffiti, Cuenca

Peace Corps, much like the “student life” aspect of a college campus, is full of working groups. Ranging from themes of LGBT lifestyles to a Volunteer Advisory Committee, the idea of these working groups is to provide volunteers a means of interacting with each other as well as the office. Included in this is one of the newest working groups for Peace Corps Ecuador, the Peer Support Network or PSN.

The thought behind the PSN is that, while the office is generally very supportive of volunteers, there is still that inevitable distance that occurs between one and one’s superior. Consequently, in the life of a volunteer, full of cross-cultural struggles, the stress of being away from your friends and family for an extended period of time, and a working environment that is far from what we are accustomed to in the EEUU, there is a great need for peer support that is not directly linked to the office and our “bosses.” Another volunteer, unsurprisingly, is arguably the only person that really understands the Peace Corps experience.

A Pelar un Chancho

Reading: Land and Taxation edited by Nicolaus Tideman

A year ago, I wrote a post about the difficulties of giving up five years of being a vegetarian and embracing meat upon arriving in Ecuador (give or take a few months). Honestly, I’m not a very good meat eater. Living on my own allows me, as it did in the States, to cook as I please, which means that I have yet to buy meat in the market and still cannot tell you when a chicken breast is fully cooked. Granted, I now have random cravings for shawarma on the Malecón in Guayaquil, for a hamburger at La Cigale in Cuenca, or for a Peruvian civiche in Machala but aside from that life as an omnivore is not much different than life as a vegetarian. Except when I get invited to places.

Houston, we have an ambassador

Reading: Century of the Wind by Eduardo Galeano

That's right, almost a year without one... and now we have (drum roll) - Adam Namm

Side note: I now have interwebs in my house and a double bed. Livin' the good life.

Also, I've uploaded a bunch more folkloric dance videos onto youtube for anyone and everyone to enjoy. 

La Calle Abierto

Reading: Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon by Peter Lourie

Scene from a public bus, Guayaquil

Omnibus 105 has reached the elusive one-year mark and thus made the pilgrimage to the Tumbaco training center to spend a week together, debriefing ourselves on what exactly happened over the last year while servicing in Peace Corps. A high school reunion of sorts, most of the week was spent catching up with volunteers that we hadn’t seen since the ten weeks we spent together last April. In may also have included an inebriated talent show with prizes. But for many of us, the week long conference included something that is endemic to traveling in Latin America (and perhaps the rest of the developing world): excruciatingly long bus rides.