On the 18th I was officially in country for 5 months! Wow time has been flying by, especially since I have finished training and gotten into my site. Tomorrow I will be going into town to meet the two new volunteers who will be starting in about a month. This is very exciting, though sad at the same time because another volunteer will be leaving us next month. He has been so helpful over the past few months letting me crash if I don’t make it back into the city by the last ranchero and answering all the random new volunteer questions I have. Soon I will be moving into a house of my own, this will be a period of many transitions though I am very excited. My friend from the States will be visiting in a few weeks which is also very exciting. I really hope she has a great time in Ecuador and I am able to show her a good time (I still feel like I just got here!) While wandering around the Mariscol the other day while I was in Quito another gringo stopped me and started talking to me (I think I looked pretty lost, which I was since I was looking to find a vegetarian restaurant). Anyway he was from Germany and had decided to travel around Ecuador and Colombia for a few months during his summer break from school, and today was his very first day in country. We had a coffee and chatting with him made me realize I have learned a lot about Ecuador even though I don’t realize it. I must say it is pretty balzy to travel around South America without a plan, that which may be easy with the European train system is not at all how things are down here. Anyhow my trip to Quito was nice and refreshing. I have really been missing being able to explore a city and take advantage of all it has to offer. I was able to wonder around the Old Town district in Quito and check out the Cultural Center and see the art which was displayed there. The weather was also a very nice change, it was kind of like an early April day, it started and ended pretty nippy but warmed up in the day when the sun came out and was beautiful!..and of course there were a few showers to top it off. I had to laugh though when I saw people with big puffy coats and gloves on in 60 degree weather.
Cuentas:
Motherly Love
Belonging
At times I have doubted my belonging in the community…though today I was reassured I am right where I supposed to be and fit in just fine. I sat down to the dinner table this afternoon to find a squirrel in a cage hanging in the window. Though this small event may seem an oddity to the average person to me it was more than just another funny animal in the house. Apparently my “spirit animal” is a squirrel…and animal abundant in the States which I had not yet seen in Ecuador. The whole spirit animal is a long story though I think a squirrel is fitting for me. Living in the rainforest I would never expect to see a squirrel but apparently they are a quite adaptive animal, they seem to be just about everywhere. To the farmers here they are just a pest that eats the cacao so they try to either kill them or they trap them so that they can eat them. I must say if we are planning on eating the squirrel I will have to set a dinner date elsewhere for that evening. Anyhow I think this squirrel symbolizes my adaptation and integration into the community, I think I am finally starting to belong.
