Ya sé, hace mucho tiempo sin mensaje. Discúlpame por favor. Era viajando mucho….
Sorry for the delay in posts – these last few weeks have been a blur of travel.
So, I completed my site visit in Loja Province,
near the Peruvian border, the week before Semana Santa, or Holy Week. My overall impression is that the site has great promise, but will be really challenging, though in none of the ways I expected. My counterpart organization, from hereon known as the ‘Centro’, is an affiliate of a university in Ciudad de Loja and is actually extremely developed. There are 57 students and about a third as many staff, administrators and farm hands working (and living, at least during the week) at the site, though the surrounding area is extremely rural. The students are doing hands-on study of integrated, ecological farming practices at the Centro’s 50ish hectares of cultivated land and 150 hectares of forest. They study there for three-and-a-half years and have the option to complete another year-and-a-half 
at the university to earn a titulo, or degree, in applied agriculture.
The Centro is in a barrio, or neighborhood, that consists of the Centro, two tiendas (shops), an elementary school and the odd farmer. After much discussion and shuffling of plans, it appears I’ll be living with a host family in the nearest town, about 45 minutes away from the Centro by bus, for my first three months of service. My task is to work with the Centro’s extension programs, specifically in irrigation systems, in surrounding high schools, and I’m going to look for ways to work with the school and neighboring communities as well. In addition, the staff at the Centro would like me to help with the repair of a failing reservoir (yea civil engineering!) and with AutoCAD classes for the Centro’s students. The CAD classes should be interest
ing, as I haven’t used the program since junior year of high school. I’m hoping it’s not too different from MicroStation, the program I used now and then with USACE, but I really don’t know. For better or for worse, the docents, or professors, at the Centro seem to have extremely high expectations of me. I hope this will prove more motivating than stressing.
The climate at my site is subtropical, and, as it’s currently the rainy season, extremely humid. I didn’t check any thermometers while there, though they have a very sophisticated field weather station (as I said, very developed site), but I think temperatures at mid-day were in the mid to upper 80s. Afternoon rainfalls were a welcome relief, as they cooled things off to much more pleasant conditions. There is no hot water at the site, but in the heat, that’s ideal. I took at least two showers a day while there. The cold water was the only source of air conditioning :).
I didn’t have a lot to do during my week’s stay, so I spent a lot of time studying
Spanish from my 30 Days to Great Spanish book (which is, by the way, awesome. Miles gracias, WCC Conversation Class, for suggesting it) and stumbled across some Spanish words that left me laughing at the names of some well known places in the States. For example, Nevada means snowfall, Las Vegas means fertile plains, and Sacramento means sacrament. I’m convinced that the first settelers of Nevada had great senses of humor, but I can’t figure out what is sacred about Californian politics. Another fun one is Cañaveral, as in Cape Canaveral, which means cape of the cane/reed patch. Does anyone remember if there was sugarcane in the fields surrounding the launch pads? 
Besides studying, I spent time chatting with the professors and playing with the Centro’s puppy, Ceibo. A Ceibo is a type of tree typical in the dry forests surrounding my site. I’m writing this from Quito, my location until I swear in as a real, live, genuine Peace Corps Volunteer at the end of the week. After that, I’m off to my site and my host-town has internet cafes!
Hasta luego, y por favor, envíeme sus preguntas!
I’ll write again soon, and please, send me your questions!
Sorry for the delay in posts – these last few weeks have been a blur of travel.
So, I completed my site visit in Loja Province,
near the Peruvian border, the week before Semana Santa, or Holy Week. My overall impression is that the site has great promise, but will be really challenging, though in none of the ways I expected. My counterpart organization, from hereon known as the ‘Centro’, is an affiliate of a university in Ciudad de Loja and is actually extremely developed. There are 57 students and about a third as many staff, administrators and farm hands working (and living, at least during the week) at the site, though the surrounding area is extremely rural. The students are doing hands-on study of integrated, ecological farming practices at the Centro’s 50ish hectares of cultivated land and 150 hectares of forest. They study there for three-and-a-half years and have the option to complete another year-and-a-half 
at the university to earn a titulo, or degree, in applied agriculture.The Centro is in a barrio, or neighborhood, that consists of the Centro, two tiendas (shops), an elementary school and the odd farmer. After much discussion and shuffling of plans, it appears I’ll be living with a host family in the nearest town, about 45 minutes away from the Centro by bus, for my first three months of service. My task is to work with the Centro’s extension programs, specifically in irrigation systems, in surrounding high schools, and I’m going to look for ways to work with the school and neighboring communities as well. In addition, the staff at the Centro would like me to help with the repair of a failing reservoir (yea civil engineering!) and with AutoCAD classes for the Centro’s students. The CAD classes should be interest
ing, as I haven’t used the program since junior year of high school. I’m hoping it’s not too different from MicroStation, the program I used now and then with USACE, but I really don’t know. For better or for worse, the docents, or professors, at the Centro seem to have extremely high expectations of me. I hope this will prove more motivating than stressing.The climate at my site is subtropical, and, as it’s currently the rainy season, extremely humid. I didn’t check any thermometers while there, though they have a very sophisticated field weather station (as I said, very developed site), but I think temperatures at mid-day were in the mid to upper 80s. Afternoon rainfalls were a welcome relief, as they cooled things off to much more pleasant conditions. There is no hot water at the site, but in the heat, that’s ideal. I took at least two showers a day while there. The cold water was the only source of air conditioning :).
I didn’t have a lot to do during my week’s stay, so I spent a lot of time studying
Spanish from my 30 Days to Great Spanish book (which is, by the way, awesome. Miles gracias, WCC Conversation Class, for suggesting it) and stumbled across some Spanish words that left me laughing at the names of some well known places in the States. For example, Nevada means snowfall, Las Vegas means fertile plains, and Sacramento means sacrament. I’m convinced that the first settelers of Nevada had great senses of humor, but I can’t figure out what is sacred about Californian politics. Another fun one is Cañaveral, as in Cape Canaveral, which means cape of the cane/reed patch. Does anyone remember if there was sugarcane in the fields surrounding the launch pads? 
Besides studying, I spent time chatting with the professors and playing with the Centro’s puppy, Ceibo. A Ceibo is a type of tree typical in the dry forests surrounding my site. I’m writing this from Quito, my location until I swear in as a real, live, genuine Peace Corps Volunteer at the end of the week. After that, I’m off to my site and my host-town has internet cafes!
Hasta luego, y por favor, envíeme sus preguntas!
I’ll write again soon, and please, send me your questions!
Hi Alli,
ReplyDeleteWhat's the story with the picture of the nursing pig? Any of the pigletts named "Babe"?
Dad
The pig is in the nursing device to prevent her from rolling over onto her piglets (which is apparently common). I saw the piglets on a tour of the programs at the Centro. They don´t have names, so I suppose they could all be ¨babe¨.
ReplyDelete