My life in pictures!

Sorry for the delay in updates. It has been a very busy first months on site. We just had our reconnect and it was a learning experience for both ourselves and the PC staff. Anyway here are a few pictures of my adventures since I moved to site. Also very exciting news, I will be moving into my new apartment in less then 3 days with Katie living next to me. Fun fun.  We are both excited!

Places:
Machala, Cambios, Zaruma, the island of Jambeli and Tumbaco for Reconnect.

First few weeks on site:

These are pictures from my trip to Zaruma, El Oro with my two English teachers. Beautiful city. 

My 26 Birthday Party! Best Ecua-birthday I will never forget :) <3

First Halloween (cultural day) with my students! I painted their faces and had a blast giving out candy.

OMNIBUS 106 RECONNECT November 2011

And I wanted to say I have had 2 great host families here in Ecuador and I am so happy to have meet them. <3

My Machala family! Host mum, Katie, and Benja!

My Tumbaco Family!!! <3

until next time :)

Ciao.....

FINALLY SITE PLACEMENT and VISIT!!!

So I will make this short because I need to pack....

My site is called Machala, it is a coastal city with a large population and is known for being the Banana Capital of the world. I will be with 2 other PCVs  from my Omnibus (Omnibus 106) Katie and Ben in the same site. Also we will have 4 other PCVs that live near our site.

I am ecstatic about my site and cant wait to get to my community tomorrow!

Will update when I get back from site next week.

 

Updates on my Ecuadorian adventure

So I know I have not been updating my blog as much as I would like to and this is due to, A. I am tired everyday B. I am busy everyday C. I have a social life. Haha.

But now I will update you all with everything that has happened so far…

Entonces empezamos con ....

Week 2 - We had a very busy week. Well for week 3 we ended up covering safety and security, a bit of tech training, and visiting the Quito office. The PC office is pretty awesome. We had a good time getting a short tour of the place and meeting the staff. We also got to meet some PCVs that were in town. In the weekend, we had an amazing time learning and visiting the small Afro-Ecuadorian town called Mascarilla. The community was amazing. They were so friendly and just fun loving people. We had a great time playing futbol and other games with the kids. We (a group of us) got in trouble when we went for a night walk around town without communicating our plans to our host families (we stayed with host families for the weekend). Well I still think our night excursion was worth getting into trouble. This town is pretty quiet and beautiful at night. We danced la bomba, learned to make clay masks, got to have some traditional foods, and got some historical background info. It was a nice experience getting to know others trainees and getting some cultural experiences under our belts.

Mascarilla

Week -3 – This was a hard week for all of us. We had some stressful moments, some moments when people were acting childish, and some moments were we all got fed up with everything and everyone. However, everything is fine now. But it was a hell of a week.  All we did was tech, security and health training. We started on our Malaria meds this week as well, which we will take for the rest of our stay in Ecuador (if we are placed in a malaria zona).

Week 4 -Tech Trip! We (TEFL group) were divided into two groups, one going to Santa Elena near the coast and another going to Santo Domingo near Quito.  One group was all ladies the other was the bros’ group. We had a great start (I was in the all ladies group). We took a trip to Santo Domingo, which is about 5 hours by bus.  The activities we did there were; Co-teaching in a classroom, went to visit a small pueblo outside the city, went to visit the Tsachilas village outside Santo Domingo, went to a fair, went out dancing, and went to the market. We had a great time co-teaching and getting hands on experiences with Ecuadorian students, however, the city was not what we expected. We were hoping for a cleaner place and more variety in food selection. At the end of our trip we were ready to go home and spend some time with our host familes. Although I must say I had a great time getting to know our program manager, she is an amazing woman. Also we got to be in the gay pride parade in Quito, which was the most fun we have had since our cultural trips. :)

Small town outside Santo Domingo

 Los Tsachilas!

At the high school in Santo Domingo

Gay pride parade!

Week  5 - Oh this week was such a fun week for all of us. We celebrated 4^th of July with juegos and lots of yummy foods! One of our fellow TEFL people got sent home because of an injury. We all miss you William, hope you get better soon and come back pronto!  We had some sick days this week; most of us were/are sick from our tech trips. I was one of the lucky few to get some gastrointestinal illness. I had friends in my tummy (amoebas)!!!! Yay I feel so lucky L …. However, I had no clue about my tummy friends until Monday the 11^th. So I was sick last Tuesday (July 5^th) had a sick day went home got better and on Sunday, after a fun adventure in the cloud forest, I got sick again. We were also stressed out because of our LPIs (language tests) and our site interviews (this is when they decide where they will place us for the next 2 years). 

About the cloud forest, it was gorgeous! We went zip lining through the ecological reserve, where this family of biologist and horticulturalists live. They are trying to maintain this eco-system and trying to start projects for the preservation of the cloud forest. Amazing individuals! I had such a great time hiking and zip lining that I would want to do it again soon. Anyway had a great weekend even though I was sick.

GO TEFL TEAM!

THIS WEEK (WEEK 6) – OH boy, were to start. I went home on Monday because of my tummy friends. Had a grand time trying to rest when all my body wanted to do is go to the bathroom.  And we have one day before they tell us where we will be for the next 2 years! Exciting as hell! I can’t wait to learn where I will be and with who. See we as TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) group gets to share a school with another volunteer. So we get to work with another volunteer from the same Omnibus J fun, fun, fun! Can’t wait to know with who and where we will be placed at.

So that is the update of my month here in Ecuador. It has been quite the adventure so far. I have made great friends and have visited beautiful places. I can’t wait to go to my site and see who my counterparts are and just get a feeling for my community.

Well that is all, I will definitely update manana when I know my site!!!!! Bueno entonces Wish me luck!

First few days in Ecuador and my host Familia

I can honestly say I love Ecuador. It is amazing. Everything is pleasantly beautiful the smell, the sights, the people, and the food. Although I have not tried a lot of the local food yet, my host family has been kind enough to make some delicious and light dishes for me.

We traveled all day Thursday (starting at 1am) and arrived in Ecuador at 6pm local time.

Waiting in New York airport for our first flight 

So we arrived finally Thursday afternoon in la ciudada (the city) of Quito, Ecuador. We spent Thursday night to Saturday morning in the Training center in a town called Tumbaco 30 to 40 minutes outside Quito. We were greeted by our Cuerpo de Paz (peace corps) Ecuadorian team, whom might I add are very nice and friendly. We stayed in dorms and spent most of Friday learning what we are expected to do in the next stage of our journeys. We will be training 12 weeks in Tumbaco PC center and staying with our host families learning the traditional cultural customs and getting adjusted to speaking Spanish. The center is this huge place that has multiple dorm rooms and classrooms. We are the first group ever to stay overnight, so it was an adventure for both the staff and us.

We meet our host families yesterday. My host family is amazing. They brought me home and took me around town after I got myself settled in. We went into town and also went to Quito. IT was so beautiful. I have a host-mother (Patricia), host-father, two host-sisters (Juana y Carla) and one host-brother (Carlos). They act just like my aunts, uncles, and cousins from Bolivia so I get along with them just fine. My host-mother is very welcoming and very very motherly. My host-sister Carla is 12 years old and is such a cute little girl, she spent all afternoon yesterday helping me unpack and talking to me about her favorite music and sports teams. My host-bother Carlos talked to me about sports as well and wanted to know more about Arizona. He plays university soccer and is studying Economics at the university. My host-sister Juana wasn't around much yesterday, she is taking classes to pass the university entrance exam. She is only 17 years old and already aspiring to be a doctor. My host-parents both were asking many questions about life in the States and my families background. It has been fun getting to know them as well as practicing my Spanish.

This my host-family backyard. Also the view from my room :)

Oh yes I do have internet access, my host-family has wifi! So if you have Skype please for the love of god add me to yours just contact me through here (email me) or FB.

Mucho love!

Staging - last night in the U.S.

I will be in Ecuador in less then 10 hours. This still hasn't sinked in.

Today we had staging and it was an amazing experience. We have 62 PC trainees in my group! All heading to do some amazing work with health, TEFL (teaching English), and youth development.

I wish I could write more but I have to re-pack and figure out what to pack for my day pack. I will be spending three days in Tumbaco for our arrival activities/events and meeting our host families for the first time.

Good news people, I will have a cellphone for emergencies! but no text  : (   ....Also I will have limited access to internet so it might be a while before I get back to you! So please don't stop talking to me : )

If you are feeling like you want to send me some love please send mail to:

Andrea Goodrich

Cuerpo de Paz, Casilla 17-08-86-24

Quito, Ecuador

NO PACKAGES DURING MY PRE-SERVICE TRAINING (which is until August 18th 2011)

I will have a different address after my pre-training is done and I am placed in my site, so keep those awesome things you want to send me until later! But do send me some lovely letters and post cards I will need them to make this transition easier =)

I do miss my parental units and my brother. I hope I get to see you in Ecuador sometime soon!

Also I miss these people  so so so very much! I did not know how much I would miss you all until I left

Go us! hehe

Love you x 3.1467921923923982.......

And I will miss many others as well, even if I did not get to see you as much. =)


And I will miss my cupcake ;) ... I will always miss you.