Banana, Banana, Banana, Shrimp, Banana, Banana

Eat, training center, eat, eat some more, sleep – repeat.  This pretty much sums up my past few weeks here in Tumbaco.  Long days filled with Spanish, Ecuadorian Culture, and impressive views of the Andean mountains.  Inserted somewhere in the middle of this routine is the time I’ve spent with my host family

Last weekend Pedro and Rocio took me three hours north to a little rural agricultural community outside of the town of Ibarra where Pedro grew up and still has family.  The community seemed to be as ancient as the mountains it belonged to.  Dusty streets lined with thickly walled homes built years before from straw and mud.  All doors opened up to the cool air of the Andean mountains.  I spent the weekend picking peas from Pedro{s family farm on the hillside and struggling to find the right words of gratitude to give to Pedro’s mother.  She was reserved and (Pedro told me) embarrassed by how small she perceived her home to be.  I felt quite the opposite.  I have stepped into few homes in which I have so instantly felt the presence of stories from years past. 

This kind of rural mountain community is what I have romanticized my Ecuadorian Peace Corps experience would be.  I have grown to love the Andean mountains of South America laced with Indigenous Cultures who speak of the pachamama, cosmos, and their appreciation for fitting into the order of the land instead of owning it.  My introverted personality and tendency to always keep an eye open for a quite place to sit and think has fit well into the quite cultures of the Andes.  But, I did not apply to the Peace Corps for the sole intent of finding inspiring places to sit and consider things.  I applied to work with people, and based on the skills I have and the needs of communities throughout Ecuador, the mountains will not be my permanent home in Ecuador for my Peace Corps service. 

And so, now, as I walk the streets of Ecuador over the next few weeks my brain is on overload.  Not only am I trying to process my site, but my mind is often occupied with thoughts of home with the weddings of cousins Megan and Rob, as well as my grandmother, Gramsie’s, 80^th birthday.  When I close my eyes I feel I am there with everyone sitting on the porch in Maine, sipping tea, and trying to hear those singing flowers.  The best gift I can offer everyone is to share a little of the excitement I have for where I am going to be spending my next two years. 

The excitement I had leading up to hearing about my placement is the same I used to feel as a little girl waiting for Christmas morning.  Not filled with worry for the outcome, rather, wonder and suspense.  And so I resumed the role of a little girl waiting for Christmas morning and did not sleep at all the night before I heard of my placement.  Thursday, the big day, we were locked out of the training center for an hour over lunch as the PC staff prepared for our site placement ceremony.  At 1:30 the guard opened the door and we were ushered into the backyard of the training center where staff, dressed in Ecuador soccer jerseys were waiting for us with music playing.  On the grass they created a huge map of Ecuador out of rose peddles.  One by one our names were drawn out of a hat and our site was announced to us as one of the staff grabbed our hand and ran us to our place on the giant rose peddle map.  My name was announced somewhere in the middle and I was guided to the district of El Oro, a southern coastal province hours from the border of Peru.  I tried to slap some kind of a smile on my face as seemed appropriate for the moment, but my mind was completely occupied by one thought, coast… HOT!!!!!

After the ceremony we received presentations of ever trainee’s placement.  In hearing about all the placements I have to give the Peace Corps staff a lot of credit.  Given the opportunity, I would have placed myself in El Oro as well, despite the heat, I could not be more thrilled with the organizations I am going to be working with.  My counterparts are three librarians.  The head librarian of the district of El Orro who is based in the main municipal of Machala, a librarian from the town, El Cambio, where the Peace Corps has had three past volunteers, and a librarian from the town of La Aurora, where I will be the first volunteer.

As to specifics of what I will be doing, that will follow in the posts to come in the next two years.  I will be spending the next week in El Oro getting acquainted with my site and am excited to share pictures in my next post.  At the moment the picture I can share is this:  banana, banana, banana, banana… when you look up information about El Oro online, or in lonely planet, that is all you will find.  El Orro is the land of bananas!

Visit to the campo