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!