Nearing The End of Training
Trip Start
Mar 04, 2004
1
4
24
Trip End
Ongoing
Cayambe, Ecuador
Tuesday, April 6, 2004
It has been awhile since I have written a new travelpod entry so I am a little behind. It is not that interesting and exciting things are not happening its just that we have been very busy with training activities and spanish classes. My site visit was great and I really like my site. It is very cold up at my site so I have to buy some more sweaters and long sleeve shirts. Luckily there is a large supply of llama products around to keep me warm. There is also no hot water at my site so this is also something that has to be remedied because, as tough as I am, I am not willing to shower every day in 40 degree water! My community counterpart is a extremely motivated individual so I hope that this does not present problems in the future considering that for the first three months we are supposed to spend time fine tuning our spanish. My site is unnaturally devoted to cattle and cattle present economical and environmental hurdles for the community that they are culturally not willing to break away from. So, I need to present alternatives to cattle production or convince these people that know nothing but cows to cut down on their cows and invest in other, more enviromentally supportive and more economically rewarding. I will be working with guinea pig production, trout farming hopefully, ecotourism and an integrated farm for teaching proper organic techniques. My site is 45 minutes from Cuenca which the third largest city in Ecuador and is absolutely beautiful. It is in the colonial style and it reminds me of an European city. It is expensive though and the fact that I will be going there twice a month means that my pockets will be empty. Last week we were back in our community training sites working on some of our technical homework. Last week was an adventerous week for eating including dishes such as sheep intestine soup with a side of sheep blood, sheep head soup the next day for lunch and dinner. I admit I feel like I was on fear factor but I smiled and nodded and said it was good. I didnt finish it all though. Last Friday we gave a presentation on Leadership, teams and goals to a highschool group of 40. Needless to say I read most of my lines off a paper because my Spanish is not fluent just yet, maybe next week. We also gave an environmental education presentation on Friday afternoon that was a lot like the one we (Fred and Pat) did in Haiti. We also injected some of my host family´s sheep with deparasite medicine and vitamins. This past weekend we played some basketball, visited the tourist town of Otovalo, ate some trout and washed a lot of laundry by hand. All in all I am keeping busy and having a ton of fun. Spanish is at times frustrating but I think I will make the language level cut off in my next interview. On Monday, the 12th, we are off to Riobamba for a technical training week. We will be learning some things about animals specific to the sierra. Our training site for the week is at about 14,000 feet so the air might be a little thin! Hope all is well and please keep in touch if you get this message. My address is:
Matthew Koerner - PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla 17-08-8624
Quito, Ecuador
South America
If you feel the need to reach out and touch some one, send some postcards or letters magazines or news clippings!! Whatever you feel! I don´t really need any packages bc I can get everything down here in Posh Corps.
