On Wensday Ill have been here in Ecuador for 4 months. I assist with English classes in the high school of Las Tunas two days a week and teach in two other elementary schools (English and a little about the enviroment). We are begining a school garden with the help of Escuelas de Campo. THis week I gave a lecture in broken Spanish to a university class of about 10 students. Ive also finally begun the interviews for CAT tools, asking questions about tourism, turtles, and climate change to the locals. Of course, Ive continued to attend the meetings with USAID costas y bosques and Machallila Park. THis last week we had a beach clean up with the schools and Ive been drawing the letters for a sign promoting the different tours available here. Ive been experiencing just one wave of emotion after the other...yesterday I felt very privledged to be living here...right now, Im missing home .

Im not going to continue this blog because I cant write the posts until I have internet as my computer is missing a space bar.

the first month

WHere to begin? Time here seems to move differently; the days have crawled by but I still feel surprised that Ive been at my site for a full month! What have I been doing this whole time? Peace Corps wants us to wait until re-connect in four months before begining any projects, but I have been working in the local schools here 5 days a week teaching English primarily, but also about the enviroment. I actually work in three seperate towns...on monday and thursday I have a 45 minute communte (a.k.a morning walk on the beach) to the schools inthe nearby town. I prefer working with the elementary school kids because I dont feel like my Spanish is good enough to teach concepts at a high school level; I nearly panicked when the director of the school asked me to teach the class about virus mutation when a teacher was late to school one day. Theres no way. Evidently my smile and nod approach when I dont understand something is much more effective than I imagined! Apart from that Ive just had meetings with the people in the community (including USAID with whom I am supposed to also be working). Im hoping to start the CAT tools interview with the community next week. Honestly Im still trying to figure everything out here.
At the high school we are in the process of begining a school garden. It began quickly (and accidently) when I mentioned to a teacher howI thought it would be a good idea to have a school garden. By the afternoon she had the kids out in the school yard cutting down weeds. I was surprised at how enthusiastic she was about the project...unfortunatly nothing has happened since as work keeps getting postponed for one reason or another (and I only work there 2 days a week). Ataining seeds is a bit of a problem, there are none to be found in PL. Oh! and Ive never gardened before.
A few weeks ago I discovered an English book exchange in PL which was very exciting considering that I only brought 1 book with me, albeit a long one (but Ive long since finished it). The owners there told me about some of the local research projects on whales, mantas, and sea turtles. I would LOVE to be a part of that, but Im not sure its very pc. I STILL have not been surfing... but the Swedish ex-volunteer and current business investor that currently lives here has said that he will lend me his board when he leaves in the begining of June. yea! I also might have found an apartment for me to move into when I leave the family Im living with currently in 2 months. I cant wait to cook for myself.
Apparently mothers day is a huge deal here. Not only did the kids make presents for there moms in class, but the schools were closed on friday, there were aprreciation ceremonies in all of the schools, and there was an actual comunity fiesta with cervesa (beer) where they chose a reina (beauty queen). Ecuadorians seem to use almost every opportunity to evaluate the beaty of the local girls in a beauty pagent of some sort...sometimes with professional photographs, bikini competitions, and talent performances.
I love getting phone calls from you! I miss you all so much! still havnt gotten the package mom and dad!
Love, Jess

At my site!

I arrived at my site on Saturday afternoon, exhausted fom a full day of traveling. I had chosen to travel with a different group of volunteers through Santa Domingo this time in hopes that it would be a bit more direct than traveling through Guayaquil...I dont think I was sucessful. The most exhausting part of the trip was that we were all carrying all of our belongings we had packed from the States for the next two years, as well as all of the other handbooks, medical supplies, and other material given to us by the peace corps during training..and perhaps a souvenir or two picked up along the way from the market in Otavalo and necessities we forgot from Cayambe. If my suitcase was impossible to close before I left I knew I had a very little real chance of carrying it all with me to my site now so I rented a locker and left a whole suitcase behind...such a good decesion. My frind Lincoln nearly lost his very expensive camara stapped to the back of his backpack while we were walking to the bus stop. He thought he felt something and swung around quickly, so that the losened camara case fell at the feet of the women behind him who instantly feigned nonchalance. After that several Eucadorians approached us and told us we needed to get a taxi or we would be killed for our luggage....and so we complied. We (Ross, Lincoln, Lauren, Kendra, and I) got into Santa Domingo at night, picked up some pizza (last time!) and fell asleep in an air conditioned room(last time!) with tv(in English!). I left with Lauren the next morning at 530! This is more or less the third day in my site and Im feeling a little lost right now. Its always difficult moving to a new town, but it definitly helps to know the language! Coastal Spanish is very rapid and slurred compared to Spanish spoken in Sierras. Ive had two meeting with my counterparts and have been introduced in the schools...I begin classes in the enviroment and in English next week! Tommorow Im meeting with another school to arrange more classes. AH! I dont feel like Im qualified to teach anything righ now...I dont even know where to buy basic food items! I might have also accidently adopted a kitten I found starving on the beach. I know its bad timing but ...oh well. It is very, very loud and keeps me up at night with its mewing and doesnt know how to use the litter box. What have I gotten myself into? I also just discovered the space bar and the b on my computer does not work...but just to keep it from sounding like Im only complaining, my site is very beautiful and my room has a fantastic view...and apparently Las Tunas is a great place to learn how to surf! Have to go now to buy groceries but I love you all and hope to hear back from you soon! Please call, email, or send me mail! My address is Jessica Pringle, Puerto Lopez, Manabi, Ecuador. My number is 001.593.9.1955077.

Buenos Tardes! Just a quick update again... On Monday I´m leaving on a tech-trip with everyone in the natural resources group that will be living on the coast. I´m so excited about the opportnity to explore a little more of Ecuador such as the northern coast, but sad about leaving my host family and all of the other volunteers. The coastal area feels like an entirly country from the Sierra region. This past week we´ve had some free time because of Holy Week (which is a much bigger deal here than at home). Today I went on a hike with my host family to a series of 9 waterfalls in which I was literaly pulling myself up with vines. Yesterday I went on a 6 hour hike with some of my peace corps friends to a stone arch formation hiden very far up a mountain....and the day before that I played a 2.5 hour soccer game with peace corps volunteers. My legs feel like jello, especially considering that I really havn´t worked out since arriving here. I feel like I´ve hit a bit of a language barrier since language classes have stopped, which is frustrating but I´m sure I´ll learn a lot more once I´m actually at my site and NO ONE speaks English!! AH!
I miss everyone and hope you´re all doing well!

Halo! I am at my site and it is very beautiful as promised! Unfortunatly my counterpart is in guayaquil till Friday which makes it a bit difficult to do any of the things that Im supposed to do while Im here for the week. The trip from Caymbe to Puerto Rico (where I am staying in an amazig beach hotel) took just over 24 hours....yuck. Ill tell you more when i can find a functioning keyboard...this one has sticky vowels. Hasta luego!

My assignment!

I´m going to the coast! I´m super excited about my site...I sounds as though it was tailored for me! It´s a small coastal town in the Manabi region. I´ll be primarily working on watershed managment, but also on the protection of a turtle nesting beach, ecotourism, and reforestation (mangroves?) I´ll also be one of the few volunteers who is working with a bigger NGO on the grassroots level, which a huge potential advantage as I´ll probably have funding for my projects and a little more structure. My counterpart whom I will be working with extensivly over the next two years is also supposed to be great. FURTHERMORE the view from my house ( where I will be living for at least three months) is absolutly spectacular. I´m very, very lucky. I´m leaving tommorow for an entire week at my site before returning for one more week of technical training, and then further training in a coastal area with other volunteers.
Yesterday they told everyone their site by creating a big map of Ecuador on the floor and calling us one by one so that we could see the people we were closest too. Not everyone is excited as I am with their site...there were a few tears. Luckily, I´m fairly close to one of my friends Kiki from my community...but everyone else is a fair distance away. I´m also a little afraid of the language barrier because everyone on the coast drops vowels and s´s and speaks way too fast. If I survive, I´ll be fantastic at Spainish by the time I return. It sounds as though I will have internet access, water, and telephone service at my site. I´ll let you know more once I´ve finished exploring this week!
Choi!

HOLA!

Hello! Sorry for the delay in starting my blog, but I think I might be able to start posting some material now....

I´ve now been in Ecuador for nearly a month. I´m living with a family in a small agriculture community just north of Cayambe. I bathe out of a bucket because the showers are freezing cold and occasionaly eat strange food like guinea pig and gautita (cow stomach)...but mostly I eat rice and potatoes. All 55 volunteers are divided into different communities based on our language competency...I´m about in the middle. The six people in my group are all cool, which is a huge advantage as I spend much of my time with them trying to learn Spanish. The Peace Corps has been great for putting me in the most awkward situations I´ve ever been in before, such as trying to explain what the Peace corps is to a class room full of kids with my terrrible spanish...after this I dont think Ill be able to be embarassed anymore. On friday I find out which region of the country I will be living in...Galapagos is restricted to third year volunteers but I´m keeping my fingers crossed for the coast (or the orient!). Yesterday we had a Peace Corps volunteer barbeque complete with a soccer tournament between the 12 different communities which we are divided between. My team was basically robbed of second place...but third isn´t so bad;)
I´ll give more complete update of these early weeks once I´ve become more settled. I love you all!