tena vida

fotunately 2/3 of my job is cultural exchange. as a pc volunteer, we have three motives: to share american culture with ecuadorians, to share ecuadorian culture with other americans, and offer technical assistance (ie habitat conservation). after 5 months here in ecuador i at least feel im doing pretty well at those first 2 objectives. even though i dont have a lot of friends here in town, i have met some new and interesting people mostly through my neighbors´ family and working with the consejo provincial. we really arent expected to get much work done in our first few months in site anyways, just to get oriented and make connections.

to rationalize my ecuadorian development, strangely, i relate each month that i am in ecuador to being one year in my life. so u could say i was conceived when i first arrived in washington dc for orientation, i was born when i got off the plane in quito back in february, and right now after 5 months in ecuador i am but 5 years old. it kind of makes sense really, when i leave after 26.5 months of service i will be 26 years old. the first few months of training, i feel, we were treated like babies and in a sense we were. we had trouble controlling our bodily functions and we couldnt speak well, we werent allowed to do much of anything by ourselves. being 5 years old now, we are mostly just expected to grasp the language, make connections, make sense of this society and to start learning at a higher curve, much like going to kindergarten. between 16 and 26 months we should be more mature and accept a larger role in society - to have found our ´niche´ both in society and actual work. anyways, thats my crazy rationalization, it at least comforts and make sense to me.

my spanish is coming along, im definitely not fluent and sometimes i cant speak as well as i wish i could, but i can understand pretty much everything they´re saying as long as there´s not too much slang or theyre talking too fast. im also still learning kichwa, the local indigenous language, going to a weekly class along with 2 of the other volunteers that really live in kichwa sites in the jungle, at a former volunteer´s fiancee´s house here in town. those classes will be over next month when our yachachuk, or teacher, and his kichwa fiancee go back to iowa (what a shock it will be for her to go from the jungle to iowa. well, maybe iowa isnt that different. . ). im definitely not fluent in kichwa either but i can catch a few words and phrases here and there that sometimes give me insight into the conversation. my most common phrase is ´ansa ansa runa shimi rimani´ meaning ´little by little i speak kichwa´. i can also say i raise fish (´ñuka aichawa mirachik ani) and the ever-important ´ñuka siki muchay´ (kiss my butt). i also like that they call english ´supay shimi´(devil´s mouth).

i have 2 dogs that i share with my neighbors/landlords, yana and sami. they are pretty awesome. yana (meaning black in kichwa) is a black and tan german shepherd and sami is a small white albino dog. yana is 1.5 years old female and was originally the dog of the volunteer that lived in the apt b4 me. shes really affectionate to the point where she´ll jump up on you, i still havent figured out how to train her from not doing this and scratching/dirtying people. she had one puppy 6 month sago that i got the chance to briefly see when i did my site visit in march. it was really cute. . but they gave it to another volunteer that lives 15 minutes north of tena. sami is either 7 years old or 2 years old depending on if u ask my landlady or her grandson. but im pretty sure hes around 7. he reminds me more of a cat really, he loves to rub up on you, i feel its a symptom of his being albino and that he cant see well during the day so he relies more on touch(?). he has red eyes too that make him look a little evil. sami is really calm and fury and seems warmer, like a cat. sometimes i call him cat-dog. or shmee.

i´ve been spending a lot of time reading and running lately. not at the same time. in the past month ive read 7 books. i read one in spanish called ´la selva´ about the history and the legends of the indigenous people right here in the province of napo. it was really informational and the facts and i especially enjoyed learning about how they view their once-abundant environment. i read ´living poor´ about an pc volunteer that lived on the coast of ecuador in the 60s in a really really poor village. that book was pretty depressing. ´running with scissors´ was a good one i´ve wanted to read, a really funny memoir. ´animal dreams´ was decent. 100 years of solitude by garcia marquez was okay, i liked the first half of it but became a little disinterested and confused by so much history of so many characters with similar names. ´a clockwork orange´ was good, a little hard to understand all the slang at first but surprisingly u catch on to it (especially if u read the book in 2 days). plus it included the last chapter that wasnt seen in the movies or printed in the U.S. by advice from the U.S. publisher. yesterday i began and finished ´the 5 people u meet in heaven´, it had a good storyline and really good imagery.

ive been running about every other day, 3-5 miles a day. i only have two routes i run, theres no trails that meander into the forest near my house, so i just run along the mostly unoccupied streets. at first i wanted to start running in the mornings cuuz i figured it would be as hot at that time, which it isnt. but i never was a morning runner and i have only been able to get out a couple times in the morning. i run between 4-6 pm when the sun starts to go down and i only have to worry about the humidity. if u´ve never ran in the jungle , i would recommend it. theres obviously some great scenery, and i feel like theres more oxygen getting in my lungs. like i said i dont really run in the jungle, but close enough. im kinda training for an 8k (miles) coming up on july 29 in quito, when we´re actually allowed to leave our sites after being grounded for integration purposes. i also have other errands to do in quito so it will be good to get out. the altitude will be tough though, quito´s about 1.5 miles high, and tena is only about 500 meters above sea level. so my expectations arent that high, just to not walk and to be under 45 minutes, which is 9 minutes a mile.

i´ve also been playing sports with coworkers at the consejo on fridays. work is over after lunch here, so fridays are half days. we go to the field and play a little soccer, im not good, fortunately theyre not that good either. then we go to a basketball court and play, its pretty fun, overnight i became perhaps the best basketball player in the city. we won our first game like 44-40 and even though i scored maybe half the points people were still telling me to shoot more. and the people that watch (maybe 50 people) get really into it and sometimes cheer for me. so whenever i start coaching (or maybe training refs) im sure i´ll have a strong fan base. plus, theres a covered basketball court and volleyball net right by my house to hold practices. also, i´ve decided that the weird croaking ive been hearing behind my house that sounded kind of like a baby hiccuping is probably a duck. shoulda guessed