Year One.

Two things before I start.  I would like to wish a very happy 1^st birthday to my beautiful niece, Gianna.  I know that the original plan was that we hit up the club for your 1^st, but I guess that will have to wait a bit.  I love you and am always counting down the days until we can REALLY hang out.  Do it up, baby girl!

                        Gianna whipping up some Bloody Marys

Also, I want to wish a very happy Father’s Day to one of the quirkiest men I know, and a definite source of my strange sense of humor.  Thank you for your constant encouragement and support!  Love you!

                                              

Before leaving for Ecuador, when I would tell people back home that I was joining the Peace Corps the conversation would go something like this:

“Cool, how long are you going to do that for?”

“Well, it’s a 27 month commitment.”

“Wait, as in two years?!”

“And… three months.”

“Hey… well, good luck with that…!”

At some times I would look ahead at the two-year commitment and not feel the least bit intimidated.  I mean, I played the clarinet for three years in grade school.  I was a teenager for seven.  I was in college for four-and-a-half.  How long could two years really be?  But then there were times when I understood why people looked at me like I was a total nut case.  Twenty-seven months?  Four hundred and fifty-five days?  Two years in a country that I knew next to nothing about, and was hardly ever featured on the news?  Yeah, there were times when I felt that maybe I was in a little over my head.  That maybe I should take the time to pursue something a little less threatening.  Like, pizza delivery.  Or babysitting.

On Thursday our training group celebrated one year in country.  As much as I would like to throw in a, “it feels like only yesterday…” here, I’ll spare you that.  I will say, however, that its funny how differently the Peace Corps time commitment appears when you are looking at it in anticipation as opposed to in retrospect.  Now when I look ahead at my time in the PC, instead of feeling overwhelmed by the days ahead of me, I start to feel a sense of urgency.  I only have just over a year to go and a lot of things to accomplish here in that period of time.

We have got our after school program up and running.  I have to use the word “program” very loosely still as so far it consists of about 10 kids, one of the women from the foundation, her 15-year-old daughter and I.  Basically, the kids come after school Monday through Thursday to get help with their homework.  This is cool for a couple of reasons.  1) It gives the kids a somewhat relaxed environment to get their work done where they have the opportunity to ask any question they may have.  2) It gives them incentive to work hard as there are rewards for improved grades, and 3) it gives me a safe environment to brush up on my sixth grade math skills without anyone raising an eyebrow. (“No, what do you think least common denominator means?”)  This is exactly the kind of thing I have wanted to get into for awhile; I was just kind of waiting on a little more support from my foundation.  Eventually I would like to not just offer homework help, but make it a place for activities (movies, sports, art projects, etc.), workshops, and games.  I also would like to start the same program in another neighborhood that I have been working in.

I decided to start a youth group. I have gotten to know pretty well a good group of young people through the basketball league and asked them one day if they would be interested in forming a youth group.  One of their mothers offered to help and so last week we held our first meeting.  All the first meeting consisted of was me asking questions (Why do people form youth groups? Why do you want to be a part of a youth group? What kinds of things do youth groups do?), followed by a lot of blank stares and the sound of snapping bubble gum, followed by me shooting disapproving looks at the mother as she attempted to answer all of the questions.  So we have a ways to go.  I would really like to get the kids involved in some community service projects, give charlas, and maybe take them on some short field trips.  Baby steps.

                                              

I have started to give HIV Aids workshops again to the high school aged kids at the school that I work at.  Believe it or not, this topic is a lot less awkward to talk about with kids you’ve known for 10 months rather than 2 weeks.  When I finish up at this school I will be rotating to the other two high schools in town.  I talk to the younger kids about self-esteem and decision making.  We discuss simple things like what goals are and how some of the choices that they make now can affect their goals and opportunities in the future.  Similar to the high schools, I want to make it to the other grade schools in San Vicente focusing on one school at a time. 

We are still playing basketball and working on creating an adolescent Ecuadorian version of the Harlem Globetrotters.  The other day seven-year-old, little four-foot-nothing Andrés, who couldn’t even catch a basketball a few months ago, let alone shoot one, made a basket during practice.  All of the kids cheered and he ran down the court, fist in the air, convinced he had just lead his team to a buzzer-beating victory.  Shoot, he just about convinced me too.  We have consolidated the three teams into two for numbers purposes which has made things a lot easier for me.  Our next game is Saturday, July 3^rd at 4 p.m.  I will guarantee anyone travelling internationally to see the game free admission and at least 45 minutes of a form of basketball that I can assure you have never seen before.

I feel good about my first year here.  Work is starting to concentrate itself, I feel good about my Spanish, and every once in awhile I can almost trick the Ecuadorians into thinking I am not foreign. (Though my clothes and taste in music always tend to bring them back to reality.)  Its hard to believe how quickly time is passing.  It seems like just yesterday (sorry, I had to) that my little host sister, Rubi, was swinging that baby piglet by its hind legs and cracking up as it fell on its face.  I think I have settled comfortably into Ecuadorian life and am excited to see what the next year has to throw at me.  I of course miss home and all of you everyday and am looking anxiously forward to some of your visits.  Cuídense and keep me updated about EVERYTHING!  Besos!