Hello my Americanos back home,
wow it has been 2 months already since I first arrived in Ecuador. Im sorry for those out there that have been asking me to update my blog more often, I have been pretty busy but I will make a greater effort to keep my blog more updated.
The question I get so far is what is it like beign in the Peace Corps. So far its been good. I am still in training so im learning cool things like how to install an irrigation system, how to design a tilapia farm, and other technical subjects. The other part of training is pretty bland, learning PC regulations, safety/security, medical, how to integrate into my community, culture. The engineer in me can not stand some of these fluff classes and the problem is most of it is fluff classes. My one complaint is that I wish I had more technical training. A lot of the training I believe is about feeling us out to see how we are going to do living on our own in poverty in a diffrent country. My schedule is Monday through Saturday training and ill usually go out on saturday night followed by spending time with my host families on sunday. Usually it involves going to a family members house and doing a big food with everibody reunited.
I am currently in the capital city Quito but I finnally found out where I am going to be serving the next 2 years. The community is called Los Caras it is located on the coastal part of Ecuador. (Ecuador is devided into 3 parts Coast, Sierra and the Orient aka the jungle). My site is located 30 minutes from Bahia de Caraquez a turisty beach town I would describe it like a little Fort Lauderdale or Miami. Bahia is super beautifull nice beaches, surfing, fine restaurants, very nice infrastructure. My site Los Caras is very diffrent from that it is really small town that is almost 100% based on agriculture. It is really beautifull there im sorrounded by nature and it is a really calm place there is virtually no crime there, very little or no drug use maybe a little bit of alcoholism but not to bad. The people are really nice and everibody knows each other, people are very social there and they wave at every car that passes bye. They also spend a lot of time socializing with each other its a major diffrence from the States where many times neighbors do not even know each others names. I really like the people there it had a very good community vibe.
So what will I be doing at this site for the next 2 years? The area where Los Caras is located is very dry it only rains about 3 to 4 months a year. Which means that the farmers can only grow crops during this short window of time. The rest of the year there is not much employment so people have to migrate to other parts in order to find employment. What my community is requesting is to build an irrigation channel that would come from 15 km away over hilly terrain. This channel would serve four communities approximately 1300 people and would greatly improve the agricultural output of the area. The project is very costly and would cost approximately $4,000,000 dollars to construct. My role would be to organize these communities in order to get the project passed I would also be doing a lot of networking among engineers, government officials and community leaders. I would also promote water saving irrigation practices, water conservation and the use of organic fertilizers. It should be a very interesting, exciting and challenging project.
I will be moving to Los Caras on April 21st after my graduation from training. Lets see what the future brings.
Buenas Noches
