Friday, April 22, 2016

THis is just a random sign on the door of a taxi here in Quito.    Notice how they depict the pregnant woman.....with a little baby in her abdomen....cute.

We are all safe in Quito in a hostel near the office.  Daily meetings and lots of  busy work, preparing goods to be delivered to the folks on the coast.  There is a group of three previous Ecuador PC vols. who are driving back and forth to our communities with things we put together for them here.  We current vols. are not permitted to do that, but the previous ones are free to do whatever they want.  They are escorted by police or military forces and are bringing people( damnificados - Spanish for victims)  back this way if they have family to stay with in the Quito area.

  I also worked at the Lions Club one evening helping them assemble materials to take to the coast. Their organization was very efficient and it was great to see a bunch of people who could have passed for Lions Club members from any city.

You can go to the " Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Ecuador Earthquake Relief"  facebook page to see how to make  Paypal contributions to the Returned Peace Corps volunteer group. They are posting video updates and photos.   They are in touch with people in the communities who they actually know from when they were active volunteers and are taking things that the people actually need.  They are assessing which communities are not getting support from other donors and focusing on them.  So, I think your monetary contributions will be well spent..nothing skimmed off for administration..only to pay for the gas for their vehicles and probably a little food for the workers...but, I guarantee there is not much out there to buy, even if you have the money.

Here are a few photos of my experience.  They are not too graphic.   I was evacuated before they started looking for people under the rubble, thank god !!!  These are just some buildings we saw as we drove into Portoviejo to pick up some people.

There have been aftershocks in the past few days and more buildings are collapsing, daily.  There is an article in the paper today that there was a 6.3 temblor last evening here in Quito.  I did not feel it.  I was sitting on my bed, blogging, I guess.
This is Claudia and Barbie.  Claudia is 11, daughter of the folks who took us in for two days after the quake.  She is a very sweet girl, a dancer, singer, plays guitar and violin....or at least has an interest in learning.

This was a little activity that kept us busy for about an hour.  We were shelling beans, habichuelas....string beans...but they let them mature and then shell them...they look like lima beans and were delicious.  The little dark skinned girls is the daughter of a young woman from Cuba who you'll see in a later photo.  The little boy is Andres, little brother of Claudia and very sweet too.....but, very active.

This is Claudia and her mother, Maria Fernandez.   MF is a medico..not sure if she is a doctor or a paramedic or some other type of medical person but she was not called in as an emergency medic..but very generous with her home.

This is the grandmother of Claudia who seems to live there and do all the cooking.  We had no lights, so I whipped out my headlamp and she loved it.  All the light in the photo comes from the flash on the camera...it was really pitch dark except right in front of her face.  I wanted to give it to her but I am still not sure where I'll be next and I might need it.   Andres wore it around after dinner for a couple hours.

This is a morning scene...the two women sitting on the couch are visiting in Ecuador from Cuba...they are visiting professors of music.  They had come to Maria Fernandez's home for dinner on Saturday and the quake hit around 6:45 so they were stuck there.  They were very happy to be there as their apts. were in center of Portoviejo and are likely damaged or destroyed and of course, along with the apts., all their personal things.     Maria Fernandez, the mom is on the mattress and  has her arm over her kids.

A sleeping scene. Thre were three women on the back mattress.  I spent two nights in a chair, but it was a lounge chair and actually pretty comfortable.  During the first night, we ran outside twice when we were awakened by replicas, aftershocks.  They brought the TV down on Tuesday when we got electricity.

Claudia and Andres....waking up. One of the Cuban women in the background doing her daughter's hair for the day. 

This is the corner across from my host family's house in Portoviejo.  This was the result of an aftershock...it did not fall during the original quake.  It was likely damaged and then the aftershock finished it off. While I was packing my stuff, a truck went by and touched the wires ( which I had been told were not dangerous since there was no electricity) and set off a bunch of sparks and noise.  People from the nearby houses were sitting in the streets, saw the truck and the sparks, and ran after the truck shouting and throwing rocks.  Thanks god, the truck kept going and did not stop to argue...I fear something

horrible might have ensued. 
This is my host mother outside her door with the electric cables draped across the house.  Sad sight.  She did get electricity and water back a couple days later but I feel sure she is still staying out with her niece, Maria Fernandez.  I was on the second floor of the house when the original earthquake hit and somehow made it down the stairs and outside through that door.  We then sat on plastic chairs in the doorway for a couple hours in the dark.  I did have my headlamp for some light which was helpful.  




I took this in front of the hotel we stayed in the first night after we were evacuated from Portoviejo.  The dog team is from Spain.  It was there on Monday, the quake happened Saturday night.  Fast
A "bombero" from Peru...firefighter/rescue
Just a view in front of our hotel.  Lots of press stayed here along with a lot of the rescue teams and the vice president of the country.  Its a 5 star hotel...very nice.  We had some damage but they assured us the place was stable....no telling what would have happened  if another "replica" had hit. 
These are two nurses who were with the dog team from Spain. We had a nice chat...
Another view of the staging of the rescue teams on Tuesday morning.
Another staging photo
Loading the dogs and gear to go to the sites.
Just a shot of one of the Spanish team's crates.
Self explanatory........




Two other evacuated volunteers and I helped the Lions make little bags of toiletries to take to the coast...they were getting one roll of toilet paper, a toothbrush, a cup, a bar of soap and toothpaste.  Think how good it would feel to brush your teeth .......    



Wednesday, April 20, 2016

When we were in the hotel in Manta, Manabi, awaiting our transportation to Guayaquil, I talked to a lot of people.   I talked to some medics who were there from Cuenca, another town about 8 hours away by land but they must have flown in.  The highways are ripped up and there are no buses as far as I know, at this time.

Anyway, they told me that there is a parking lot down the beach a way, where the bodies are lying awaiting families to claim them.  She said there were a lot of "extranjeros" without documentation...could not be identified.  They said the smell and insects were horrible there. 

Manta is a very successful beach town so there were lots of people in the hotels.

There are lots of rescue teams from other South American countries.  I see and hear about them on the news. 

We are all at breakfast, preparing to leave here to Quito and learned there was another 6.0 temblor/earthquake in a town not far from Pedernales which was the epicenter of the last one.  So sad....more chaos and sadness.  The TV is full of pictures as they get farther and farther into the suburbs and find little towns leveled.    The death toll is not 525 according to the TV. 

Damnificado....spanish for victim...interesting....

As I sit and watch TV, I see some rescues...they make it better....poor rescuers...what sad sad work that must be.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Scroll down to the last picture and the blog about the earthquake starts there.
Well, we have all left the comforts of Nayon, our training town ( which we did not appreciate until now) and arrived in our sites where we will toil away for the next two years.  Many of us came to the "coastal" region,  fewer stayed in the Sierra ( Andean) region and two of us went to the Orient ( the east) which is really the Amazonian region.....its eastern Ecuador.  I want to take a guided tour there before too long...guided for sure.  According to what I have heard...it is still pretty undeveloped.  There are a few roads and of course Mobil and Exxon have made their indelible marks                           ( desafortunadamente)  that means unfortunately in Spanish.  Try practicing that in syllables---there are 8 of them.

Three of us traveled together from Quito to Portoviejo.  It was a longer trip than usual because the bus had to take roads that were not closed....there have been heavy rains in our region and some of the main roads ( there are not that many roads to start with) had been closed due to landslides .   But, a complication for us was an accident that appeared to involve at least two trucks and a couple cars.  Some ambulances came thru but I don't know who was transported.   We started to worry when tow trucks kept coming.  We were sitting in a bus, which thankfully had A/c but still......11 hours...ack !!  We got here about 10:45 pm  ( had left at 11 am)  and the next day we had to attend some teacher trainings ( just to sit there...we did not have to do anything other than stay awake and look interested).


 The teachers here have not been paid for at least a month.....Ecuador has fallen on some difficult economic times...its economy was supported by the petroleum it exported which is now at a very low price.  They are trying to make up for the lack of income by raising a lot of other taxes and that is making it hard on a lot of people.  A can of L'Oreal hairspray was offered to me at  $29.00...I declined, to say the least.

But the seminars were for English teachers so they were presented in English which is nice.  I"ll be speaking English all day which will be a lot easier than what I was trying to do in Nicaragua.  But, I do want to keep working my Spanish..I"ll just have to work harder at it.

One of  the presenters has Serbian heritage and had spent 4 monts there before she came into the Peace Corps.  I told her about my Bulgarian experience so we exchanged a few phrases.  The Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet like the Bulgarians- i just love peace corps at times like this.

The teachers are great..just like ours in the US...some very outspoken and fearless and others did not say a word.  But,very collegial, all.  They have between 40 and 50 students in their classes...not easy.


Now, I am trying to find a gym with a rowing machine...you should hear me asking people about that.  Remar...that's the Spanish word for row...Macina de remar.....thats what I"ve been saying.  Getting lots of smiles.  This afternoon I ordered a small order of papas fritas y "coke zero."  The kid behind the counter got the cutest look on his face when I was talking...but the cashier defended me....bastante, she said.. That means....enough, enough Spanish..as in, " you speak well enough."  

I have texted with my counterpart and he and I are going to get started with some stuff at the University next week.  Not sure what that will be but......gotta stay loose.  School ,  they call high school, "colegio" here,   for the students does not start until May 4.  I'll go in to at least meet the teachers and become familiar with the school but they don't have their schedules yet so we can't really figure out my schedule until they have theirs.  Also, I am supposed to work with at least 3 teachers and they have to be willing to work with me so...it will take some time to figure out who wants to put in the extra time it takes to have a new person with you.   I can add a lot but I know its easier to just do stuff yourself.

One thing that keeps these teachers on their toes and also pretty nervous, is that they all have to take an English test and get a certain score to keep their jobs.  In the past, it has been the TOEFL which is the test high school kids have to take in order to come to a US university ...their English has to be good enough to take their classes in English...so its a high bar.  Most, waaaay most, of the Ecuadoran English teachers did not pass it when it was given a few years ago, so now they are under the gun.   Some rumors are that they will be suspended with out pay until they can pass the test.  So, one of the things I'll be doing is teaching test taking strategies and giving them lots of practice tests...timed like the real one.

Peace  Corps' goals for us are three fold...improve the students' English, improve the teacher's english and teaching strategies and thirdly, develop activities for the "community" of English teachers and students.  That is pretty broad, and I have to do a survey to see what they want, but I can develop the survey so I am going to list the things I want to do and have them rank order them.  Of course, ...blah, blah, blah,  ....I'll leave some space for them to add their iideas but.......

I have to work on those goals at least 25 hours a week so i'll have plenty of time to look around this country too.  I want to save some vacation time to go back to Nicaragua to some of the sweet people.

 I am hoping some family will come down to go to the Galapagos Islands and I want to at least visit some of the other famous places.  I really really want those grandgirls to come visit me, and sweet Liza has shown some interest, so we'll see. Katy has shown some interest in Peace Corps so I am  hoping I can get her here in May, 2017 at our Mid Service meeting so she can meet some of the young people in my group and hear their stories after they have been here a full year.

  I am just an hour from Manta which is on the Pacific and supposedly a great beach town, and other less developed beach towns with good snorkeling are near by.   I' ve been told tons of whales swim by here in July and put on quite a show so i want someone to come here to watch that with me. My niece Hanna has shown an interest in marie biology so I hope she comes for a visit.  Anyhow... I am planning to have a little place with an extra bedroom , or two, after 4 months in my current location ( photos below) so I'll have room for visitors....as long as they are not too picky.   I also know that there are a lot of really inexpensive hostals around soooo......we should be able to accommodate almost everyone !!!!.

 Here are a few photos.....
This is my host family in Nayon, with Natasha.  She lived upstairs with another host family and my family was intrigued by her ethnicity....they could not get over the fact that she could speak English so well...they called her the Hindi...which she is but..she is also from San Francisco.  Funny.   I had invited her down to learn to make those little brown things on the table.  Garapinadas..sugar coated peanuts...yummm.  They have another thing that looks like this which they call, caca de perros, dog poop, but it is sugar coated toasted corn..also good I've been told tho I have not tried it.

We had our swearing in ceremony on April 12th.  It was held in the driveway of the Ambassador's residence.  He is not living  there...it has been determined to be non earthquake proof so he is living somewhere else.  He showed up in that hat and kept it on the whole time.  I think its about a half size too small.  He is sort of a nerd but seemingly a very nice nerd.  He gave a very nice speech.


These two pictures are just some of the young people who went thru training with me.  in the lower picture:  the girl in the black is from New Mexico in the middle is from NY city and Madison has been livingin Hawaii for many years.

Thisi s the "chiva."  Its literally a party bus.  Our group, sin yo, went out on it the night of swearing in.  They had done it once before for some birthdays and its great fun.  Wonder if it would fly in the US.....or would it be considered  too dangerous.  The back is just a railing, there are benches for seats along the sides, there are "poles" in the middle...everyone brings their own booze...a booze cruise...updated !!!!

Natasha again with Rachael...from Atlanta, the day of the swearing in.

THis is Robert, a volunteer,from South Bend, who presented.   He got himself assigned to a community onn the beach and he could not be happier...hes a surfer.


This is my room, bed with mosquito net, clothes hanging in the window because there is no screen or curtain on this window.   On the other window, there is a screen but at night, the street light is positioned just exactly so that it lights up my face when I lie in bed so I've hung a blouse to stop the light.  The other is the view from my window....you taxpayers don't have to worry that my life is too soft right now....I'm suffering plenty !!!!

Zack, the volunteer who put the conference together...working with  the Ministry of Ed., of course.  Can't remember where he is from either but another good guy. And so dedicated...its great to see.

This is Tamara,  the gal who speaks some Serbian.  She is doing Peace Corps mid education..is going back to finish here graduate degree in Kinesiology...so she can be a Physcial Therapist.  I told her my story about how much I appreciate a good PT now that I have had my hip experience.

This is Allison, another presenter - she is from San Diego but had been working three years in Baltimore....community development...we chatted about poor ole Freddy Gray...she wants to return to Baltimore and continue working ...she loves it.



Margaret, a great gal, in my class.  She is assigned not too far away.  She was working in Wisconsin when she joined...Her family is from Mexico so her Spanish is perfect.

A view at  the swearing in ceremony.  Marvin in front and Brooke right behind him are in Porto viejo



THis is the moment the earthquake hit.  I was sitting on my bed, writing this blog post, under the mosquito net, it was dark outside the net, the only light coming from my laptop.   All of a sudden, my mosquito net started swinging wildly from side to side.  I thought someone was playing with it, I could not see beyong the edge of my bed, then my bed started bouncing  and I  still thought some was playing with me, then my laptop bounced about a foot into the air, I looked over at some clothes I had hanging in the window ( my curtains) and saw them swinging wildly, all the street lights went out, ti was dark, dark dark and then I knew ....this was something serious.  I got out from under the net and apparently instinctively felt I had to get downstairs and outside.  I somehow ( and truly don't know how I did it under the conditions) went down two flights of stairs barefoot,  bracing myself on walls that were swaying , got to the door to get outside and my host mother had other ideas,,,,she wanted to stay inside, said the electric poles would fall on us, and she pulled my hand away from the door.  I recall giving her a good shove and getting out into the middle of our dirt road...The houses around us were no more than two levels os that is where we belonged...in my humble opinion.  Anyway, the major shaking stopped, we stood in the doorway watching to see what would happen next, finally pulled up our plastic chairs and sat there for a while.   We finally went inside and figured out how to sleep downstairs so we could run out if tremors started again.  Her neice called came to get us and we went out to the campo ( country) to stay with them...we ended up out there for a couple days.

I have some terrific pictures but can't find the cable I need to connect my phone to my computer.  I had to pack in 20 minutes after Peace Corps told us to evacuate and when my ride out of there came for me.  I left a lot of stuff behind but Peace Corps will get it for me in a week or so.  I must have left the cable there.....I know I had it out in the campo so it might be there too.  Will get another asap. 

I'll try to get to a mall tomorrow and get a cable...the pictures are great..some of the rescue dogs and teams, some nurses and medic, some great photos.

We were in XXXXXX, Manabi last night, tonight we are in XXXXXX, Guays and tomorrow morning we fly to Quito where we'll be staying for at least another week.  The bottom line is taht it is not safe for us to return to our sites in the province of Manabi so they are looking for other sites for us.  Not sure how that is going to go but we have to wait and see.

We just learned tonight that the training center in Nayon, where we were for 2.5 months , suffered some damage in the quake and we can't use it until the architects check it out.  .  The fear is that  altho the damage is minor at this point, if a "replica" hits, it will collapse.  

The hotel we stayed in last night was the hotel used by the navy, police, rescuers from other countries, people from Spain, Mexico, Peru...all rescuers....so we felt we were as safe as posible altho the hotel had sustained damage in the quake.  Manta suffered a lot of damage but most of it was to the older structures.  The newer hotels and buildings seemed to suffer cracks and loss of windows but did not collapse.  Our hotel tonight seems to be in perfect shape althought this city did suffer some damage...a major bridge collapsed.

The really sad part is the families we left behind.  I have one picture of my host mother, standing in her door way with an electrical cable draped over the roof of her house.  While she and I were there, right after the first tremor , the poles and the cables were fine  ( no electricity, but they had not fallen down).  When she and I returned to her house , to pack my things to evacuate,  we found a pole on her corner had fallen and had taken the cables with it...they were draped across the houses and lying in the streets, apparently from an aftershock, a replica.    She assured me they were not dangerous because there was no electricity.

I went upstairs to pack and a truck came by, apparently unaware of the wires that were down, and somehow touched some of them and electric sparks flew everywhere.  Neighbors who were sitting outside of their houses, saw and heard the sparks,, ran to the truck and as it pulled away, chased it, shouting and throwing large rocks they found in the street.  It occured to me that I was witnessing the "civil unrest" that Peace Corps had warned us about in emergency situations.  I packed as fast as I could and got downstairs and out as fast as I could.

For now, I am safe and I have talked with the folks in Portoviejo..they have electricity and water in the pipes ( tho it is not potable) so they are not miserable.  They still have a lot of falled buildings around them, many dead who have not been recovered, lots and lots to do.  We will not likely be going back anytime soon.

I'll post pictures tomorrow......

I am exhausted and have the flight tomorrow..its short...and then checking into another hotel.  Not all bad...especially considering what the Ecuadoria folks are facing.  More tomorrow.

Love and thanks for paying your taxes,
Love, me

Sunday, April 10, 2016

This is Hilda Meneses who will be hosting me for the next two years ( actually I plan to stay with her for just 4 months and then I have a nice little apt. lined up for the rest of the time)  ( another volunteer is in now and they will keep it for me until I do my 4 months with Hilda.  Hilda is lovely, I just think I'll be happier on my own.   Marvin is one of my companeros.  He and I and two other volunteers will be living and working in Portoviejo for the next two years.  He is a great young man..from North Carolina...has done a lot of work already with at risk kids in the US.  We three traveled on that bus from Quito to Portoviejo a couple weeks ago just for a visit of a few days.  We've been back here in Nayon for a couple weeks and  w e head back to our sites this week, on Wednesday, to begin the two year assignment.  I hear its VERY HOT there now.....

THis was our condition after lunch in PV during our visit to PV.  The restaurant had these hammocks set up for the customers after lunch.  Delia is in front, Yahiara ( who is soon leaving as her two years are up) the next one is Brooke, then Marvin and the fellow at the back is Marco Naranja.  He is a local English teacher at the school in PV where I will be assigned and is my  counterpart.  He is also the one who teaches English at the University and introduced us out there.....I am expecting that to be a big part of my work.

The view from a little town called Montecristi.  It is the birthplace of a highly regarded former President, Eloy Alfaro.  Anyhow, its about half way between PV and Manta, the beach community that is about an hour from PV.  It is supposedly a great beach town but others are considered just as nice to the local people and not as "turistico" We are allowed to leave our sites every weekend, as much as we want , so long are we are on duty, Monday thru Friday.  This is a change from Nicaragua where we were expected to be in our sites 24/7 unless on official vacation.  I hope to go to some of the little beach communities and find some good places to snorkel and see birds. 

My host in PV, Hilda, her niece, Maria Fernandez who is a doctor and me posing on a train at the tourist place from the above picture.  Eloy Alfaro is credited with connecting Ecuador with a train system so this is part of the park that commemorates him.

I took this from the bus window...just an example of the fresh fruit available along the road.  Its nice but the bus driver stopped, got out and did some shopping while we all waited patiently on the bus...its an 8.5 hour ride.  Trade offs.....

Abby and me along with Paulina, our Spanish language and culture teacher back at the PC training center in Nayon.  One of our last days together.We bought her some flowers to remember us.  Aby is from N. Hampshire but lived in NY city the past few years.  Very nice young woman.

We had another potluck and the sweetest thing was that several young people asked me to make the deviled eggs again...so sweet.

Leo, one of the TEFL leaders, grilled some meat...it went fast and I had to admit, it looked real good.

We had a despedido ( going away party) for our host families.  Charles and I got there before anyone else and I got him to take this selfie with me. He is from Texas and also another great young man.  He'll be in Manta, near PV.  We were there when the chair people came but no one else had showed up.  He and I had to make some executive decisions way above our pay grades but it all turned out great.

We made these little frames for pictures for the day.  Tim is sitting in the back trying to wire the speakers.  We are wearing our official PC T shirts. 

This is the father from my host family, Hernan, painting a little glass they had for the families.  He got very creative and is a real good sport. 

This gorgeous and very friendly lab type dog stayed at the party all day.  I gave him what I determined to be my share of the meat from a couple sandwiches....I peeled off the meat and then put the sandwiches back in the vegetariano pile.  :)  IF someone would pay the shipping, I would kidnap and bring him home in a minute.  Bill Cologie says he likes my blog for the dog pictures so maybe he'll want to adopt another lab....this one speaks Spanish. 

This is the father of the host family, Hernan, and me with one of those frame things.  It was a nice touch.

we had a tent set up for some shade nd the good fortune to have a couple musicians in our group.
These are three dogs from town.  Their owner seems to turn them out on to  the street for the morning, just as I walk by.  The black lab appeared on my blog a couple weeks ago but he is not the same one that was at the party, the cocker and the little black dog is in his pjs and are there with the lab every morning.  No, it is not cold here....don't understand the Pjs either.   They are a team and at least they have a home but......            

Thats all for now.  We have the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday at the Ambassador's home so I'll get some photos from that and then off to Portoviejo on Wednesday.   We are doing a Teacher training on Thursday and Friday, actually we newbies are just observing, and then it will be the weekend and I hope to get organized and maybe head for the beach on Sunday.

So, love to you all and thanks again for paying your taxes,
Pat