Site Visit - My New Home to Be

The time finally arrived last week for us to all scatter to the winds and visit our sites. As the first truly solo adventure in Ecuador, it was a big departure from the past couple of months.

My journey started off with a 15-hour trip down to my future home - Chaguarpamba, Loja! It only took three buses, one of which was an overnight 10+ hour drive from Quito to the capital of the province... not my favourite thing in the world, but manageable. My journey wasn´t quite what was planned, as my counterpart was unable to travel down from Quito with me - that thrust this little birdie out of her nest a lot earlier than expected! Thanks to the help of several very kind people, including the other counterparts and volunteers coming to my province, I was able to make it down and meet up with my host family without incident.

To start with, the province of Loja is magnificent - if people come to visit me in Ecuador, I know it´s a drag to get all the way down there, but it´s the prettiest place I´ve seen in Ecuador - the mountains don´t seem to end, and are covered in a huge array of vibrant flora.
My town is small and generally pretty - the the church in the center of town is relatively old, and absolutely gorgeous. I think the most interesting aspect of my town, up until this point, is that it´s situated on the side of a mountain - going anywhere is a workout. If it were flat, I could walk the circumference of my town in a little less than 30 minutes, but as it is, I´m very much out of shape and it takes at least an hour.

The church in Chaguarpamba - the colours change every other season, or so, to keep it spruced up!

My host family is small, but very nice - the mother works in the external auditing office of the local government, her husband works for a pharmaceutical company in Loja city (and lives there during the week), and the 13-year-old daughter stays at home, as she has Down Syndrome. They have a housekeeper who stays in with the daughter and takes care of cleaning and cooking, as the mum usually pulls 15+ hour workdays. Once I move down, I´ll be sure to share pictures of my new digs and family!

I´ve also had the opportunity to meet the youth that are members of the Red Cross in the province, and they´re all very nice young folks. They range from 12 - 18 years of age, and live scattered throughout the state. I think the main stumbling blocks at this point are that my Spanish is only so-so (I´ve had to ask people to repeat themselves or explain more often last week than in the past two months combined), and that I´m generally the most awkward person alive in regards to making small talk with new people. These powers combined have made for a spectacularly maladroit week of forced conversation - all of my youth are kindof shy, so trying to pull information and conversation from them has demanded herculean efforts - but so far, I still want to go back, so I guess that´s a good sign!

I arrived in Chaguarpamba on Tuesday, and left on Saturday. My counterpart came back into town early to give me an opportunity to sit down with her and chat about future projects. She owns a rather sprawling coffee and peanut plantation, and is a mover and shaker in the region - I love interfacing with people that have a good work ethic, and it seems that I lucked out with her!


OK, that was a giant spill of information that really can´t encompass my week... There were a lot of things that came about, including me being worried that I might not survive - but I have!
Time to hit the ground running for exams and presentations - the final intense little leg of our training semester!