New casa in Quito!

Two days before I left for Guayaquil to meet up with the Ohio State kids, I moved houses. No, I did not trash Suzy´s house as you all are thinking (!), she found out about an exchange student who was coming to stay with her for six months and her daughter is moving back into the house so there was no longer any room for me. Luckily, Ximena, my co-worker, had a room in her house that she shares with her two sisters, brother-in-law, mom, grandma and dog... so I moved in and am so much happier! Suzy´s house was amazing; very quiet and I had a lot of privacy but it was a little boring to be by myself all the time. Now I´m with a loud, noisy family and I'm not getting as much sleep as I was before, but I´m loving it!

Their house is near the Plaza de Toros (bullfighting ring) and is in a much more residential neighborhood, with little stores and cafes along the main street. The house is two stories and I live on the ground floor with Ximena and her sister Christina. Ximena´s mom and grandmother live above us and her sister, Maria Augosta, lives in an apartment connected to the house with her husband. There´s always someone around, especially since Christina´s boyfriend and Augosta´s husband are brothers and Augosta has a twin sister, Maria Lourdes, who is married to Suzy´s son and they have an adorably rambunctious little 2-year-old named Ramina. (All the family connections get a little complicated...)

Here´s our living room and my pretty pink princess bedroom:

My first weekend living there, Ximena, Christina, Christina´s boyfriend Rodrigo, and I went into the historical center to see an Andy Warhol exhibition. Here´s Ximena (left), me and Christina in the city center and with the classic soup can.

Rodrigo is the drummer in a local band, ¨Miss Goulash¨ that has had three gigs in the two weekends I´ve spent with them in Quito. One was part of a music festival in the Parque Carolina (close to my first homestay) and the other two were in local bars.

Rodi is on the left in the middle picture. They´ve been playing together for four years and he says its just a hobby for them, but I´ve been telling them they need to put out an album. They have gigs in Quito almost every weekend and they travel a lot.

Here´s Ximena and Christina and me with Claudia and Manola. Right after this pic was taken, an Ecuadorian guy came to our table and started speaking English to Claudia (the blonde, who is actually Colombian), thinking that she was the gringa!

The next morning, I got up bright and early and went walking in the park with Nancy (Ximena´s mom), Maria Augosta and her husband, Paul. The Parque Metropolitano is huge and most of it is natural forestland with hiking and biking trails throughout. Paul and Augosta rode their mountain bikes and Nancy and I walked and talked while Ramon ran back and forth between us. Nancy´s family has roots in Quito´s political history and a few branches are quite wealthy so she entertained me with the history and scandal from the last hundred years or so.

I´ve told them I´m going to try to go with them every Sunday morning (despite the late nights with Ximena!) and Im looking for a place to rent a mountain bike. I really can´t believe how lucky I´ve been in finding such great families to live with. I´ve heard so many horror stories about bad homestays and terrible roommates that I´m so glad to come home to a place where I´m called ¨hermanita¨ (little sister). Honestly, if anyone is reading this to get insight on volunteering abroad, I seriously suggest living with a family- I don´t think you can get the full experience any other way!

Ohio State in Guayaquil

A lot can happen in two weeks! I´ve just returned from a two-week trip to Guayaquil with a group of 11 students from Ohio State and let me tell you, I´m tired! We had a whirlwind of a trip with a lot of high and low points. I think it´s safe to say that we faced a lot of challenges but we got through them as a team and everyone had a great time.

My adventure began in the morning of Tuesday, August 28 when I boarded a stinky, cramped bus for what should have been an 8-hour bus ride down the mountains into the coastal area and on to the coastal city of Guayaquil, Ecuador´s second largest city. Although the scenery was beautiful, the ride was extended by more than two hours due to many stops along the way and an unexpected swing around the city when we entered. My highlight was talking with my seatmate, Oswaldo, a tiny little grandpa who drives a taxi in Guayaquil and has a son living in New York. We discussed Habitat, religion, politics and he even bought me lunch when we stopped in Santo Domingo- such a gentleman! He also told me about a friend of his who sounded like a perfect candidate for a Habitat house so I passed on the Guayaquil office information.

The scenery changed dramatically from the mountains to the coast and I was fascinated by the many wooden houses on stilts all along the highway, punctuated by banana plantations.

The group flew in a few hours after me at about 12:30 AM. I met them at the airport with Jose Bernardo, the local coordinator and Luis, the regional director. The kids were tired but happy to see us and begin their adventure!

We spent the next morning settling into the hotel and exploring the neighborhood. I had been told that Guayaquil, as compared to Quito, is ´the ugly sister that likes to party´ so I was expecting a much dirtier city, but the city center is actually quite beautiful. It has been spruced up in the last 10 years and there is a beautiful promenade along the River Guayas called the Malecon with gorgeous statues, monuments, restaurants and a long stretch of bricked path perfect for running (which I actually did- twice! with our amazing marathon runner Kara).

That afternoon, we visited the site with Bernardo and Alcides, the architect. It was literally a plot of dirt with some marks scratched in the ground to show where we would be laying the foundation. We had a lot of work ahead of us! The family, Rosa and Lider with their 3 children, also met with us that afternoon as we started digging into the tough earth and widening the trenches.

When we returned to the hotel, we found that they were experiencing a problem with the water pump and there was no running water. They assured us it would be fixed ´in 20 minutes´... all that night and into the morning. Since we desperately needed to take showers, we all trooped over to a local public pool and amused the locals by showering outside in groups- in our bathing suits of course! Obviously, we couldn´t go to the pool every night, so I spent all of Thursday searching with Bernardo for a new hotel. We moved everyone into a new hotel that night and found it much more comfortable, as well as having better food! By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, the group had finished assembling and erecting 8 columns of rebar and had poured cement in all the wall foundations.

After 3 days of hard work, we all piled into a bus and drove five hours into the mountains to the high-altitude, cold and foggy city of Cuenca. We spent Saturday exploring the Parque Nacional Cajas and a few small towns where we bought lots of souvenirs and some of us ate cuy (guinea pig)! The cold took us by surprise and most of us developed a case of the sniffles once we got back to hot Guayaquil but it was worth it to see such a different part of the country.

Sunday morning got off to a rocky start when Kristin´s wallet was stolen out of her bag as we were all eating breakfast in the hotel. Unfortunately, the wallet contained both her and Amy´s passports. With the help of our guides, Maria and Jorge, we canceled all her bank cards and went to the police station to file a report. This took less time than we expected so we were able to continue with our planned itinerary and we drove back to Guayaquil via the beautiful Incan ruins of Ingapirca. We walked around the ruins, bought ponchos and silly hats and had a great time!

The next five days went by pretty quickly as we finished pouring the cement columns, began building walls, navigated the frustrating and time-consuming process of getting two new passports, ran on the Malecon daily (Kara did at least!), explored more of Guayaquil (including iguana park) and ate empanadas with Bernardo (so good!). Fortunately no more major mishaps occured and we had a good time bonding with the family, the neighbors and Jaime (the maestro) on the site. Here are a couple fun pics:

By Friday afternoon, we had completed 9 walls and laid the cement floor. Jaime told us it would take his team four more days to complete and we said- we need to see pictures! Rosa and her parents cooked an amazing meal of shish kebabs for us and we spent a few hours playing with the kids, giving them presents, dancing, cheering them on as they broke the piñata we brought and just having a great time.

Bernardo, Alcides, Luis (the regional director), Daniel (the finances guy), and Edison (engineer) gave a few speeches and Rosa and Lider also gave a few emotional words. We really enjoyed spending time with the entire community and it was evident that they liked us as well. Lider emphasized what an important lesson it is for his children to see that you can improve your situation with hard work and the help of others. They were such an incredible family to meet and work with and they certainly deserve their own home to raise their three great kids.

The teams last day in Ecaudor was spent at the beach in a tiny little hippy town called Montañita which is famous for its big waves and an international surfing competition. Unfortunately, the wind was cold and only a few of us jumped in to fool around a bit but it was still a nice way to end the trip. Especially because we saw a pod of whales breaching and slapping their tails!

The majority of the team left that night at 1 AM. Alejandra was flying back to Colombia at 6 AM so she and I went back to the hotel for a short siesta... only to wake up at 7 realizing the alarm hadn´t gone off! Ale kept her cool and we were able to get her a seat on the afternoon flight. We spent the day hanging out in the office with Bernardo and Daniel and then I was able to also buy a flight back to Quito, meaning I arrived half an hour later as opposed to 8 hours... bliss! I took a final shot of Guayaquil from the plane before I returned to the city that is really beginning to feel like home.

*Wanna see more pics? Click on the link to the right labeled ´Ohio State´ for about 200 more. They´re worth it- I promise!*