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.

Why Birth Control Matters

Reading: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Washinton and his mother, Magaly

I have never read the Feminine Mystique. Nor did I think of myself as a feminist. Coming to age in the “otts,” my life experience has been limited to a post-60/70s first world – where equality between men and women has shifted into normality. My generation is accustomed to women in the work place, family planning, and careers before marriage. We, or at least I, saw the fervent feminism of our mothers as a thing of the past. The bra burning sexually liberated “hippies” felt as a lost age, a time that no longer applies to my present day life.

Then I came to Ecuador.

Posh Corps

Reading: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Paccha, El Oro

A minor hiccup in my Peace Corps service: I received a site change due to issues with project availability and security reasons. It certainly was not an easy decision to come to after having spent a year in Chimbo and investing so much of myself there.

However, my new site, Paccha, seems to be a more fitting location for me and more feasible as a community to work with Peace Corps. I will be continuing the work of a PCV from an omnibus before me… but more on that after I have been here for longer than two weeks and I have a chance to really delve into things.

Viva Carnaval!

Reading: Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

February means "summer" vacations (for the coast), hot weather, rainy season and CARNAVAL!

Foam wars, an integral part of Carnaval

This is perhaps the most fun and ridiculous holiday that I have ever experienced - really, it's a shame we don't celebrate it state side save New Orleans. Basically, it's a three day long free for all involving spray foam, water balloons, buckets, flour and eggs (nice clothes and cell phones not recommended.) Although, I have been told that it's really only celebrated at full force in select towns, otherwise Carnaval is nothing more than some rowdy kids throwing water balloons at passing motos.