pcaxdorff-blog
Living in Ecuador
The views expressed on this blog are personal and do not in any way reflect those of the Peace Corps or the US government.
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Some photos that I finally was able to upload!
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Hasta Luego Quito
My apologies for the extremely long wait for my next post. The past month was even busier than the previous weeks of training. I am excited to announce that I graduate from Peace Corps training this Friday, April 7! Also, I will be spending my next two years in Machala, Ecuador! Machala is located on the coast in El Oro providence. I am beyond excited, especially after visiting my amazing host family last week! I was able to meet my host mom and dad, plus their two sons. One is in medical school, and the other one is a freshman in high school. My host mom is a local science teacher, and my host dad works at a hotel. They are absolutely great, and very altruistic! I have my own bedroom, equipped with a fantastic lace canopy for the mosquitoes that swarm at 6am-8am and 6pm-8pm. Really though, I don’t mind the mosquitoes, it’s just a small inconvenience for living right next to the Pacific Ocean. Machala is a port city, famous for banana and shrimp exportation. El Oro, my new state, is coined the banana capital of the world...and let me tell you, the bananas are fantastic! My host uncle (one of 9) owns a banana farm and also has cacao trees and avocado trees. I’m very blessed to have been paired with this family. On top of that, my school is great! I have fantastic co-teachers who are very excited to use my knowledge of the English language in their classes. I am working at a poor public institution, and I am excited to guide the students in their English studies. Learning English will give them opportunities that they wouldn’t have had.
Currently I am back in Quito studying and preparing for the final exams we take this week before we swear in as Peace Corps volunteers. The US ambassador for Ecuador will be swearing us in! What an honor! The exams consist of safety knowledge when navigating Ecuador and any dangers we could encounter, our Spanish language level (which I am please to announce has skyrocketed ever since moving here...it’s kind of hard to eat when you can’t tell anyone what you want, so you learn really quickly), and the last exam is on cultural integration and how to best integrate to your site placement. I’m not worried about the exams, but they do add pressure to an already stressful week. I’ll definitely do a post sometime after all of this craziness has settled down. So, if you want more information on my new city, Google Machala, Ecuador. You might notice it’s about 14 hours south of Quito...the bus rides can be a little tedious, but you get used to it. Maybe one day I’ll treat myself and take a plane...thanks for keeping in touch with the craziness in Peace Corps Ecuador!
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Ecuador Week 4
Hi everyone! My apologies for the late post...Peace Corps training is no joke! Here are some photos of my time here so far. The first photo is me in the training center next to a portrait that group 108 painted. My group is 117, formally called Omnibus 117. That means we are the 117th group to enter Ecuador through Peace Corps! The second photo is my host family’s house. As you might notice, it’s 3 stories tall, and pretty nice! I’m very blessed to live in this house with a phenomenal host family. The third photo is the view from my house. Isn’t that amazing? There was a rainbow right over one of the mountains that day. Such a gift! The fourth photo is my favorite tree at the training center; some type of palm variant. As many of you know, I have a love of plants, so the variety here keeps me well entertained and occupied. The fifth photo is of a succulent (which is one of my favorite types of plants) that is in bloom! Succulents bloom under extreme weather, so either cold or heat. Quito, Ecuador not only gets hot due to being 9000 ft. above sea level, but also because it is on the equator of the earth. Quito also gets quite cold, especially at night. Now, cold is relative, but it can get down to the 40′s at night. So, from 75 during the day, to 45 at night, that’s a bit of a difference! You need to dress for all weather conditions here, rain or shine, hot or cold. So, back to the succulents, they are constantly blooming here. As you might notice, it’s a beautiful and bizarre floral display! The leaves/petals unfold and project forward while the flowers start to poke out and bloom. This simply fascinates me, especially because it happened magically overnight! The final photos are at the Panecillo, a massive statue of Mother Mary defeating the serpent. This sits on top of one of the mountains in Quito, and it’s a breath-taking display! In addition to all of the photos, I had a cultural trip to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador. This city of around 2.2 million people is on a bay of the pacific ocean. Rather than tell you all about it, I am going to share a video that one of my awesome friends created! Check out my adventure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLF0b5W04t8&feature=youtu.be
Next up, tomorrow I start teaching English in one of the local schools! This is practice before I am placed in another city for the next 2 years! I am very excited to start teaching! This weekend is Carnaval, a huge celebration that lasts 4 days! I will definitely update how it was sometime next week. Ciao!
FYI: the photos would not load. My wifi connection is not the best here, so bare with me while I try to upload them over the next few days. Thanks!
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A Breath of Fresh Air
My apologies for the extremely delayed blog post. Peace Corps training is no joke! Let me start by saying that Ecuador is an absolutely beautiful place. From the mountains surrounding Quito, the huge variety of fresh food, and the quality of the people I interact with on a daily basis, Ecuador is phenomenal. I have a lot to share, so get ready for a rather lengthy post. Pictures will follow once I load them into my laptop from my phone.
To start, I live with a host family in Nayon, a small quiet town on the side of one of the mountains. I live with a host mother and her three daughters. It’s confusing because two of them have houses of their own, but they spend random nights in my mom’s house. So randomly the house is either filled with their families, or it’s quiet. I seemed to have received a rather nontraditional placement...my host mother owns a gym, a pool, and has a three story house with a breathtaking view of the mountains and volcanoes that surround Quito. There is a small dog, Rufo, who is a stray that my host sister took in. He is a mangy little white schnauzer who barks and howls all the time...but he reminds me of my own dog, Emma, back home in Michigan (so I will tolerate the barking for a few weeks more). Something sad, my host mother’s husband passed away a little over a year ago. He was a semi-famous cyclist in Ecuador. He died in a car accident while riding his bike. The gym is filled with trophies and medals honoring his many tours/races/successes.
Training is difficult. The 8am-5pm training lectures, activities, tests, and Spanish lessons seem to blur together as we maneuver through each challenge. On the bright side, my Spanish has been increasing like crazy. I still have difficulty holding conversations, but I feel a lot more comfortable talking and listening to native speakers. Our training center is brand new, and extremely beautiful. We are well taken care of by our trainers, professors, and doctors. Every week we get a new vaccine...doesn’t that sound like fun! Three doses of rabies, two doses of Typhoid...I’ll be so immune after these next few weeks.
In addition to all of this, my host family surprised me last Sunday for my 25th birthday! They took me to a family friend’s house in a small rural area called Puembo, about an hour away from my house in Nayon. The property was beautiful! The owner was clearly very wealthy, with two different houses on the property. One of them was more of an outdoor cottage, with an outdoor kitchen and indoor hot tub. The other one had a courtyard with coffee trees growing inside. They just open the door, grab some coffee beans, roast them, grind them, and fresh coffee! I was so blown away by the property that I didn’t notice them preparing cake, ice cream, and a big birthday dinner for me! The whole extended family was there, plus some other family friends! We ate, they sang happy birthday in Spanish and English, and then they all gave me hugs! It suddenly started raining so we ran inside. Now, something to note, Ecuadorian culture does not value “personal space” so everyone hopped on two couches...which was probably meant for 6 people total, but somehow we fit 12 people on them. Then we watched a movie on Netflix. They played it in English for me with Spanish subtitles for them, I was very grateful for their kindness the entire day!
This weekend I will be leaving for the coast. From Sunday-Thursday I will be living on the coast with a new host family to get a taste of Ecuador’s coastal life. I’m very excited! Then I will return to my current host family’s house for the remaining 10 weeks of training before the swearing-in ceremony!
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This evening I am writing my final post in the United States. Tomorrow I travel to Ecuador with this fantastic group of Peace Corps Trainees! As you might notice...there are two other guys who have red hair...needless to say, we have all been confused while wearing our glasses. It’s going to be a lot of fun with this fantastic group of positive, intelligent, and service-focused people! To fill you all in, the past three days I have been in Miami at Peace Corps Staging. This consisted of two full days of seminars, activities, and icebreakers. We learned about safety, security, integrating into a new culture, and many other things. We officially became Peace Corps Trainees (not volunteers) during Staging. Now I enter the next portion of the training for Peace Corps. I fly to Quito, Ecuador to train for three months in Spanish language development, English teaching skills, and how to navigate safely around the country of Ecuador (among many other things). Your thoughts, prayers, and words of encouragement will help me progress through this training process. I do not know if I will have much wifi, access to electricity, or many other privileges we have in the United States, but I will attempt to update this blog as much as possible so that you all can follow along with me. Just know that I am well, excited, nervous, and ready to get to work preparing to swear-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer in three months! Buenas noches!
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Tomorrow = Miami
Tomorrow morning I start my travels by flying to Atlanta and then to Miami. I will be staying in Miami until Wednesday, January 25 for staging conferences with Peace Corps. I am very excited to meet all of my new co-volunteers and explore Miami! On Wednesday I fly from Miami to Quito, Ecuador! I will try to keep you all updated over the next few days on here, but no promises.
This evening I was able to spend time with some of my closest friends. We had dinner at a local Cantonese restaurant with my parents and sister. What a great experience (and packing break). I’m feeling nervous, excited, and supported by you all! Get ready to dive in with me on this new adventure!
-Nathan
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Here we go!
This is my first post of many during the next two years of my Peace Corps service in Ecuador. Thank you for following along!
-Nathan
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