…I am living in my new apartment and it has been a glorious transition!! With the help of Gloria and her husband we moved all of the rest of my stuff in and I stayed up the entire night before packing because I was too excited to sleep. Fernanda, the saint that she is, helped me unpack and completely organized my kitchen. She even alphabetized my spices. I now have a full size bed, a closet to hang my clothes and a warm shower. I have nothing to complain about these days :) I even found a cockroach the other morning but it was like a foot away from the door and was upside down dead. I don’t know how it died or what happened to it but I am thinking that my apartment has a built-in anti-cockroach system. Couldn’t be any more perfect.
I just got back last night from a great weekend in Quito. I left Cumanda early Friday morning with my counterpart. He was headed to Riobamba, which is halfway on the way to Quito so I decided to catch a ride with him thinking it would be faster, more comfortable and FREE-er than taking the bus. But turns out, after waiting 45 minutes for him at 5 am on Friday I figured he had forgotten about me so I started to walk to the bus stop but apparently he was just running really late cuz he drove past me walking and picked me up. I then crawled into the backseat of a little dinky car and sat in between my counterpart’s son and another friend of my counterpart. How comfortable. As we left town, we passed the bus that 6 am bus to Riobamba that I would’ve been on and I was relieved to think that yes, it may be uncomfortable but at least you’ll get there sooner. We drive for an hour merely to stop, pick up another full-grown friend, who kicks the son up to the front with his dad and joins me and the other full-grown man in the tiny backseat, and then go and eat breakfast. Needless to say, had I taken the bus, I would’ve arrived 40 min earlier, been more comfortable and not had to deal with falling asleep on grown man’s shoulder and waking up to him stroking my arm. But when it comes down to it, free is free.
I arrived into Quito around 3 in the afternoon and went straight to the office to pick up my new cell phone (had a little incident with my other one in Guayaquil two weekends ago). I then met up with my friends Abbie and Megan and we headed out to Megan’s site, which is about an hour outside of Quito. Megan had just moved into her new apartment as well so we enjoyed a delicious dinner of nachos (with cheddar cheese and refried beans) while sitting on her floor just sharing story after story of the crazy things that happen to us while in site.
Saturday we spent the day putzing around town and then headed over to another volunteer’s house for spaghetti before running the big race at 7. The race was a lot of fun, there were 7 of us all together that ran it. It was incredible how many people were there. They only let 4500 people sign up for it (only) and it would literally be impossible to run if they let any more people in. the first half of the race was running through the old town on narrow, cobble stone streets which were lined with spectators cheering us on. It was actually super chaotic for the first 5 km until we made it out of the old town and on to actual streets. I survived the race and didn’t even have to walk!
Sunday I subjected myself to 9 hours in the bus traveling back home and didn’t get home until 11:30 pm but I am so happy to be back in costal weather. I spent two days shivering in Quito.
This morning after work I went to the “supermarket” to buy groceries and after making small talk with a local, he asked me to write a two-page article for his magazine about organic gardens. Uhhh okay I said. Apparently my Spanish speaking abilities didn’t give him any inclination about my Spanish writing abilities.
This week my project is to finish organizing a potential mission trip for my parents and friends. They want to come in the following spring to build a classroom or kitchen for a school so I am working on getting all of the costs and arrangements made to see if Cumanda would be a feasible opportunity for them. Also what I need to get done is what Peace Corps calls CAT tools where I am basically doing a general survey of my community to assess potential needs and future projects. We’ve been given 4 months to work on it and have to present it to our bosses of Peace Corps in two weeks!! Welp good thing I’ve been using my time wisely and have been doing it little by little rather than leaving it all for the last two weeks before it’s due to start working on it…right. Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator.
I have gone three days without my typical soup and plate of rice for lunch and I have defiantly been having cravings for soup. So I guess its time for me to make my way over to the Melita’s tienda to satisfy my cravings.
Take care, love love.
