A day in the early life of a PeaceCorps Volunteer

It's not every day that you can see a nun in full habit, wearing a baseball cap, driving a beat-up old truck and getting it stuck sideways in the street while failing to execute a 3-point turn... well actually, it's every day for me.

Chaguarpamba has many quirks and intersecting lives that I'm only barely beginning to scratch the surface of. I'm still in the process of trying to meet people, get to know the area and culture, figure out how I can fit in (Read: stand out) here. I've bumped into dozens of youth, and kind of know the family of my counterpart and host family, but networking is going incredibly slowly apart from that. Some of the shopkeepers know me now, and a couple of random people, but introductions by my organization members isn't something they really do. In the next few weeks, I'll be going to visit all of the families of my youth group, so that'll skyrocket the number of people I know - until then, daily walks and brief "How ya doin'" conversations will have to do.

I went to my first Red Cross events the other day, which ended up being two long First Aid courses for local teachers. It was fascinating to have all of this information repeated in Spanish (I probably could have given a good 75% of the presentation without notes, but only in English...). The side-tracking conversation-starting was starting to drive me nuts, but I hear that's pretty common here. Something to get used to, I guess. I've gotten on the schedule to do charlas with one of the regional high schools in the next couple of weeks, in collaboration with the Catamayo police. They'll be addressing drug and alcohol abuse issues, while I'll be working with the consequences of sex (it's a catholic school, so contraception isn't really an option). From what projected plans look like, I'll be doing the same and/or more for two more high schools over September and October, and then coordinating a full school-year worth of efforts with the Catamayo police for 2015, depending on the results of the surveys at each of the schools. BOOM - some sort of project set up! It's going to be tough to figure out how to mobilize the women and girls in the community, as they tend to be pretty housebound in the local culture, but I'll do what I can! I have two years to figure it out. I've got two years, so no worries.

Need a schoolbus in rural Ecuador? Grab a chiva! Picture found online.

On my way back to town from one of the Red Cross charlas the other day, I had a great moment of realization. We were all hot and sweaty, gross, tired, and pretty hungry. We jumped into a chiva full of school kids, and rode through the Ecuadorian mountains for about 25 minutes. It's amazing what having a vehicle full of arguing and giggling kids can do for your mood, while having the wind comb your hair and dry your sweat. Once the majority of them were off and we were just sitting quietly and enjoying a bit of a rest, it struck me that I'm actually here!
I'm a PeaceCorps volunteer!
I'm living in Ecuador!
I'm tired, I'm scared stiff, overwhelmed by language and culture differences, and so very excited about it. If nothing else, this is showing me some of the limits I didn't know I possessed, and presenting me with a lot of very real and very important growth opportunities that I wouldn't be able to find anywhere else.

There have been so many instances in which I've wanted to thrown in the towel and just not deal with all of this hard work - find something comfortable, something easy, something I know I can do. But then I think, why? Completely apart from really having drunk the KoolAid on the PeaceCorps mission, I want to grow. Whatever I was missing in the states, whatever I wasn't finding in my life there, I'm being pushed towards it here. Complacency and boredom in worklife aren't for me - and I'm pretty positive that I won't have the option of that here.