On Being Back.

I`ve been putting off writing this last post for more than a week now. To be honest, I wasn`t ready to write anything until now. It`s so confusing to be back in Canada. I`m still very much trying to make sense of what I just lived. I think this experience`s effects on me will become clearer and clearer as time goes by. I`m very happy to be back here with my family and friends. I appreciate them more and more every time I go away. I think about my host family a lot though. I feel guilty about all I have, about all the luxury there is here. I often wonder what they would think if they saw all of this. 
The thing I`m having the hardest time with right now is when people ask me how was my trip. It`s really unsettling because I`d have to sit down with them and talk about it for like an hour for them to begin to have an idea of what it was like. And that`s not what they want. They just want a hear a brief ''It was great'' answer. So that`s what I give them most of the time. 
I`m not sure how to finish this last post in a way that would describe the way I feel right now so I thought I would just copy my 4th (and last) Intercordia reflection question. Hopefully that`ll do it.
I also wanted to thank everyone who took the time to read this blog and those who supported me financially because thanks to you, I was able to do this program in the first place. 


Having been abroad now for several weeks, how have your initial impressions of your placement been altered?  How have your perspectives or feelings changed (or not) since you first entered the Intercordia program in Canada?  Write a short story (250 words) about your experiences to communicate these changes.


Having been back home for a week now, I`m still trying to make sense of everything I`ve experienced. When I first arrived in my community, all I could see was poverty. I was so shocked the first day I got to my host family`s house because I felt they had so little. I looked around and I was blinded by the lack of things. As time went on though, those thoughts and feelings from the first few days disappeared. I discovered a people and culture that didn`t really care if they didn`t have much. I found out that their values are surprisingly different than ours. They find joy in playing music, dancing in circles or talking to a neighbour. Sure enough, towards the end of my placement, I didn`t see them as “poor” anymore. In fact, they were quite rich to me. They were rich in family, in love, in compassion, in hard work. To this day I still admire them and aspire to be more like them. Since I first entered the program, I’ve learned that there is no way to expect what can happen in these kinds of placements. I now find three months is a short amount of time to spend with a family and then leave. Coming into this program, I didn’t really think about the effect we would have on these people. On our last day, I was the second to be picked up from my host family so I saw my friends having to leave their host families. One of my friend’s eleven year old host niece was so distraught that he was leaving, it was absolutely heart breaking. That’s when it occurred to me that we come into these people’s lives, without realizing how much we impact them and how hard it is for them when we leave. We go back to our lives in Canada but they stay there, hoping and wishing we’ll come back one day. It’s hard to think about but at the same time I know (or I really hope) that it’s better that we go there for a little while than to not go at all.

Las Despedidas.

The closest word for ¨despedida¨ in english would probably be ¨to say farewell¨. In french, ¨dire ses adieux¨. It´s something I really do not like doing, especially when it invovles people I´ve grown to love. The first despedida I had to make was at the hospital on Thursday morning. I said my goodbyes to the nurse there who took care of me and Janice. She was always so good to us and concerned for us. She was a real sweetheart. Then I said goodbye to the social worker. It´s so hard to leave these people, knowing that I´ll probably never see them again. Thursday afternoon I said goodbye to my adult English class. They were such great people. Then I said goodbye to the younger kids from my other English class. It was a tough day all in all. All these despedidas really made me realize how quickly this experience is coming to an end. This morning I has to do my hardest despedida so far, the day care. I gave all of them a little surprise bag with stickers and candies, which they were all very grateful for. Then all of a sudden it was noon and they were giving me hugs, saying ¨adios señorita Doucet¨. I didn´t expect it to be as hard as it was. On my walk back home, I cried. The thing is, they´re probably too young to realize that I won´t be coming back on Monday. They´ll probably ask the day care worker when I´ll be back, and she´ll have to answer ¨never¨, because that´s the truth. We come and go, us Intercordians. We have to go back for university, we have to return to the real world. But what about these people, these kids whom we get to know and then never see again. One of the hardest things for me is not knowing where these kids will end up. Will they get through school? Or will they end up marrying and having kids at 14? Will they become good people? Or will they get caught in some gang and get in trouble? It´s tough, I hadn´t expected how hard this would be.
Now all I have left is one full day with my host family. I leave Sunday morning. It will be very hard to leave, but at least I´m coming back after traveling to give them my cell phone and for a proper despedida. Initially, I really didn´t want to come back here after traveling, I felt terrible to go on vacation, spend a bunch of money, and come back to them. I still feel that way, but I also really want them to have my cell phone and I´ll need it to travel so it leaves me no choice but to come back.
Here goes, two more sleeps and I´m off. It´s so surreal to me that I´m leaving this place I´ve been living in for 3 months, a quarter of a year. I still haven´t processed everything that I´ve seen, witnessed or experienced here. It´ll take a while I´m sure. For the moment I´m just very pround and happy to have gone through this. The past three months have been hard, heartbreaking, eye-opening, but most of all, rewarding. I´m a changed person, and I owe it to all the people I´ve encountered here, who have enriched my life by simply being themselves.

Things I´ve Strangely Gotten Used To

When I first got here, many things seemed very unusual to me, very out of the ordinary. Here are a few things I did not expect to eventually find normal.

• Cows wandering the streets with their owner. I used to be pretty shocked when I saw cows walking down the street by my house. Now I don´t even thing twice about them being there. I´m still pretty scared of them though. I always keep my distances when I walk pass them because I´m afraid they´ll suddenly decide to charge on me.
• Taking bucket showers. I´ve now gotten used to boiling water whenever I want to shower, then mixing it with cold water. A full bucket is just enough to bathe myself.
• Only taking showers once a week. Although I have no problem with bucket showers, I really don´t like showering when it´s cold outside which was the case for the past few weeks. So I started showering only once a week instead of two. I would have thought this to be gross before getting here but now I find it normal. 
• The sounds of sheep, chickens and of our new baby bull. I´m really living in the ´´campo´´ so I´m bound to hear all sorts of sounds here. My family bought a baby bull a few weeks ago and I´ve now gotten used to its noise. What I haven´t gotten used to is when it escapes and comes right in the kitchen looking for food. It´s happened twice already and let me just say that I don´t appreciate sharing the kitchen with a bull.
• Riding in the back of trucks/no cars. I was so shocked the first time I hoped in the back of a truck along with a bunch of other people to go to town. It was a very bumpy ride and I thought I´d fall out at times. Now it´s just another mode of transportation to me. Also, the fact that we don´t have a car and that there aren´t any cars on the streets in my community is perfectly normal to me. I´m actually surprised when a car goes by once in a while.

Well, I hope this has given you a better idea of where and how I live. It may sound like a strange place but I´ve grown to really like it.

Our trip to Atacames (on the northern coast of Ecuador)!

Things have been pretty hectic lately. I arrived from our trip to the coast on Monday night. We had an absolutely amazing time. The two best things about the coast were the weather and the beach. It was so nice to actually be warm at night for a change, and it only rained on the last day we were there. The Pacific ocean was such a treat! It was very warm and had pratically nothing in it. The water wasn´t as clear as in Cuba for example but it definitely didn´t matter to us!

 On our last day, it was pouring rain but 6 out of the 8 still went out to the beach and we had a blast in the water and building sand castles. We all went back to our childhood that afternoon. We also ate great meals. A lot of seafood!

Now it´s back to reality. But now we only have 11 days left in our communities. It´s weird because I feel very sad about leaving my family, especialy my host parents, but at the same time I´m really due to go back home. I´ve been away from home for way longer than 3 months before but the difficulties that come along with this kind of experience just make me miss home a lot more than usual.

The Festival in Cayambe

Last week marked the end of the Cayambe Festival.
It lasted about a month. Now the festival of Juan Montalvo is starting, which is the area where I live, in the outskirts of the city. It was very interesting to see how they celebrate here. A popular event during the festivities is the bull fights. All of the Intercordians went to see one of the¨professional¨ bull fights, except me. This is when the bullfighters are actual professionals. I don´t like the thought of sitting (and paying!) to watch a bull get killed by humans for a show, as much as it can be a ¨cultural¨ experience. Then there are the ¨popular¨ bull fights, which is when the crowd is allowed to go in and get a shot at the bull themselves. ¨Isn´t this dangerous? Don´t people die?¨, I asked my host dad. ¨It´s very dangerous and yes, people do sometimes die, especially if they´re drunk¨, he answered. This upset me. How could anyone take that risk? Why is this still such an important cultural tradition to these people? This week I heard on the news that someone died from a bull fight. He had been drunk. It still puzzles me that people accept this and keep doing it. Anyhow, this is what I feel is the negative part of the festivities, but the rest is quite nice. On Tuesday, the 29th of June, was the day of San Pedro. This is the biggest parade of the year when groups from every community around Cayambe parade through the city´s streets. Even though my host dad doesn´t belong to any community, he still found a way to join one because he adores dancing. Four out of the seven Intercordians here in Cayambe dressed up and paraded with their communities. I didn´t because I would have needed to walk a long way and this is impossible with my stupid flat feet. I took pictures though, and laughed at my friends as they danced along.  The first picture is of my friends Alanna and Marian, dancing with the community of Convalesencia, dressed in typical Cayambe outfits. The second is of my friend Nick, who danced with my host dad´s community of Ouachu Ouachu.

That night I went to the fiesta of  the community my dad danced with. Thankfully, Nick had danced with them too so he was also at the party. This fiesta consisited of more food, lots and lots of alcohol, and of course, more dancing. I´m stubborn enough to say no when offered a drink, even though I often need to say it numerous times. My friend, however, dislikes refusing a drink so was obviously drunk by the end of the night. Both of us dancing in that circle for hours was quite a site. We often tried to escape and rest for a while but they would just come back and get us. I walked home with my family when the fiesta was over. My dad was quite drunk, he sang and played guitar the whole walk back home in the pitch dark. It was too funny, I had to take a picture! It´s awesome to see how passionate he is about celebrating his culture and music. It was very touching to witness. I kept thinking to myself ¨only in Ecuador would this happen!¨.

Last Sunday was the Desfile de Alegria or ¨Parade of Hapiness¨. It´s my host mom´s favorite so both of us went to see it. The difference with this parade was that the dances were choreographed, which was nice.

The Challenges.

I´ve been thinking about how to write this post for a while now, I wasn´t sure how to do so without being misunderstood. I knew before coming here that I would be faced with challenges and pushed outside of my comfort zone. I actually wanted this, because I know it´s necessary for me to grow as a person. What I guess I didn´t realize is that facing the challenges and living outside of my comfort zone is quite hard and sometimes exhausting. I know for a fact that it´´ll all be worth it in the end, but for the moment I´m struggling. One of the biggest personal challenges I think I´m facing is to not be as close to my host family as I would have liked to. I really expected to build very strong realtionships with the members of my host family but this hasn´t happened. Talking to the other Intercordians I realized I´m not the only one to feel this way. It´s kind of hard to explain because I absolutely adore my host family, they´re truly amazing people, especially my host mom and dad. I just feel like a guest of lot of the time and that´s not how I´d like it to be. Like how they always give me the best of whatever food they have or how they won´t let me help them work in the fields. It makes me uncomfortable at times. But by now, I´ve learned how to deal with it.

Another personal challenge I´ve faced has been working at the day care. I feel like I´m not doing much there to help out. The kids are also at an age where it´s hard to build actual relationships with them because they´re more interested in running around all the time. I´m glad I get to watch the work of a social worker and teach english night classes. It kind of makes up for how useless I feel at the day care.

Then there´s the simple fact of constantly being outside of my comfort zone. There are times when there´s nothing I´d like more than to be cuddled up on the couch at home in the presence of my mom and just feel comfortable. But then some simple special moment happens, like a kid giving me a hug or my host dad calling me his daughter or spending time with my fellow Intercordians, and everything becomes alright. I hold on to those moments real tight because they´re what keeps me going. 

A challenge which I think is faced by most Intercordians here is to be seen as the ¨white foreigner¨. It makes me sad to see some of the people here associate my skin colour with a higher status of some sorts. It´s subtle and not shown by everyone but when I do get that feeling, it really don´t like it. They know they are a hard working bunch though, because I´ve heard them joking around about how doctors, lawyers and engineers wake up late in the morning and get to the office at 9am, while they (the people from the ¨campo¨ or countryside) wake up before the sun to start working. I can´t help but agree with them. Seeing how hard working these people are has been really eye-opening. Every day I see older women hauling some huge bag of corn on their backs, people taking their cows from one place to the other, children carrying their younger sibling on their backs. Last Saturday my whole family went up the hill to tend to the fields. They left at 5am and came back at 6pm. That´s a huge day´s work out in the sun. It´s inspiring to see all of this, and it makes me want to become a better person. I have a lot of time to think while I´m here because my only real distraction is books. I think about what kind of person I want to be and what I can do to achieve this. I´ve become so much more sensitive to the different socio-economic situations of people. It´s one thing to read or hear about people who lead different lives than us in the North, it´s another thing to actually live with them. There´s no way to actually understand it than to live it. It´s hard but very rewarding.

I guess what this whole post is to try to make people realize that this whole 3 months isn´t about having fun all the time, but instead it´s a complete learning experience. I´m learning more being in this small community in the Ecuadorian Andes than any university class I can take. And every day I remind myself of the truly amazing popportunity I have to be here, because it´s easy to forget in the midst of all things.

Here are a few pictures as promised.

Here is the guinea pig. Mmmm!

Here it is again with my host brother but without its insides!

Here is the enormous plate of food they served!

Here´s me eating the guinea pig!! I look way more excited than I actually was.

Here is the family dancing. It was getting pretty late..

Here is some sugar cane. They sell these bags for 50 cents, it´s well worth it!!  

Here is a group of musicians and me!

An Ecuadorian Fiesta in the Andes.

This past Saturday was my youngest host brother´s confirmation. We all went to mass at 9am and it lasted until 11:30am. It´s pretty similar to a confirmation back home. However, what follows is pretty different. My host brother´s godparents drove us back home after the mass. We all sat in one of the rooms in the house which they had cleared completely for the fiesta. First came the soup, which could be considered a full meal with all it´s pataotes and piece of chicken. Then came the actual meal. HA. It was gigantic. It had this kind of corn called ¨mote¨, patatoes with a sauce, a boiled egg, and many piece of meat which included guiney pig. Yes, guiney pig. I finaly had my first taste of it and let me tell you it was probably my last. It had a funky taste to it, not that terrible but I wouldn´t eat it again, especially knowing that I´m eating what is considered a pet back home. Anyways, I didn´t get that big of a plate because I warned them not to feed me so much. It is a costum here to pass plastic bags to guests after a meal, and people just bring whatever they can´t eat back home. Like doggy bags. Anyways, after lunch the drinking and dancing began. Slowly but surely the alcohol kicks in and people start dancing more. I wish I could load videos on here of them dancing but it won´t let me. Let´s just say, as a sober one, it was very intersting to watch. I did dance a bit also but I mostly observed.

So to sum things up, my understanding of the focus of the fiestas here are on Eating, Drinking and Dancing. Quite the party let me tell you.

I´ll try to post pictures of this fiesta and other stuff next time I come to the internet cafe because it´s not letting me today for some reason.

I hope everyone is well at home. I miss you all so much!
Besos,
Marissa

A Typical Day.

On Mondays, Wedenesday and Fridays, I get up at 7:20. I eat breakfast which consists of a piece of bread with jam and fruits. At 8:00 I head to the day care which is a 5 min walk away from my house. I spend the morning there until noon which is when I go home for lunch. My host mom or host brothers usually have lunch ready for me. I normally get some kind of fresh fruit juice (!!!), rice and either an egg, chicken or pasta. I enjoy lunch a lot but I am obviously spoiled to always have it ready for me. After lunch I take the bus (which costs 16 cents) to the hospital where I spend the afternoon until 3 or 4. After that I either head home right away or go into town to use the internet. My host family usually isn´t home before 6 pm so I get bored if I go home too early. We usually start getting supper ready around 6:30 and finish eating around 8:00. After that I usually help my host mom with the dishes although lately I´ve been playing UNO with my host brothers. The first time I asked one of my host brothers if he liked playing cards, he answered that only taxi drivers really play cards so I obviously didn´t taken my UNO game out that day. Now that I have though, they never want to stop playing! After a couple rounds I normally go to my room to read until 9:00, which is when I go to bed. Pretty early, I know, but the sleep is well needed.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I get up at 7:00. I eat breakfast and take the bus to the hospital where I spend the morning with the social worker or if she´s not there I work with a nurse and Janice. At noon I head back home for lunch and then I go to the day care for the afternoon until 3. I´ve started giving English night classes because I felt like I could do more for the community. I teach twice a week from 4 pm to 6 pm. Two other Intercordians come to help me out. I really enjoy doing this although it´s challenging. The kids are great though, sometimes shy but mostly willing to try. It makes up for long days but I like being busy.

Trip to the Amazon (Part 2)

I forgot to mention in the last post that I made a new friend while at the lodge. His name is Toño. He is the cutest thing I´ve ever seen. Ever. We became friends while the group was away on their treck. Slowly but surely he started trusting me and started climbing all over me. He liked stealing our food, drinking our juice and eating grasshoppers. But I still loved him.

Anyways, Sunday morning we already had to leave the beautiful lodge. We went white water rafting that morning though and it was amazing! Scary at times, but lots of fun. When the guide would yell ¨inside!¨, we´d all have to croutch inside the raft and a wave of water would submerse us. We lost one once, she got caught in the wave. But she the guide quickly caught her and brought her back on the raft. When the water was calm, we could get off and float for a while. It was a very fun time! When we were done, we got on the bus and headed back to Quito where we stayed the night again. The next morning most of the group went to tour Quito while me and Janice met up with my friend whom I met during my exchange to Belgium 2 years ago. I hadn´t seen him since and it was really nice to meet up with him and catch up. He took us to the mall because Janice had to order contact lenses. Then we met up with the rest of the group for lunch. After we ate it was already time to head back to Cayambe. We got back here tired and achy but it was all worth it. We had a wonderful trip!

Trip to the Amazon (Part 1)

Last Thursday, 11 out of the 12 Intercordians here in Ecuador headed to Quito to begin our trip to the Amazon. We all met at a hostal where we stayed the night. We went out to eat and then to a couple bars.

Pic on the left: Janice, Me and Alanna.
Pic on the right: Nick, Janice and Maria.

A van picked us up at the hostal the next morning around 8 and we were on our way to Tena. It took us about 5 hours to get there. First off, we stopped at this kind of water park. We felt the heat as soon as we stepped off the bus. It´s crazy how the weather changes here from the coast to the andes to the amazon. There we went into this pitched black cave (with flashlights) and just climbed and swam our way through it. It was really cool! After that we ate lunch in Tena and then took 3 different trucks to get to our lodge. They got sturdier as we went further into the rainforest since the roads got worst and worst. The last road we took has only been there for 5 years. The community around there had no electricity or water before that. About an hour and a half later, we finally arrived. The lodge was very nice, the scenery was incredible. The noise of the bugs was so loud! We did have to kill a couple inside our room. We went to swim in a river close by which was very refreshing. After supper we played cards for a while then went to bed. The next morning was the treck throught the woods. The travel agent here in Cayambe told us that it would be a 3 or 4 hour walk. Then the guide at the lodge told us 5 to 6 hour walk. I was all set to leave until I decided it would probably be best if I stayed at the lodge because of the problems I have with my feet. That was probably one of the best decisions I´ve ever made. They ended up taking close to 11 hours!! My feet would have definitely died by then! So while all my friends were off trecking through the rainforest, I ended up going to a village and making chocolate from scratch. At the lodge there was a Dutch girl doing research for her thesis. She´s doing it on how the new road has affected the live of the people living in that area. So that morning I went with her to the community where she´s been interviewing people for 2 weeks. We had a hard time because some of them were afraid of us and some were just too shy to talk. We finally ended up interviewing one man who was very articulate and nice. On our way back it started pouring rain (even though it´s ¨dry¨ season now), but in the warmth of the rainforest, it didn´t matter, it was actually quite nice! We had lunch then I relaxed on a hammock until Carolyn, the Dutch girl, came to ask if I wanted to make chocolate. Of couse I did! We had chocolate beans which we first grilled and then took of the shell. Then we grinded them twice, the second time sugar mixed to it. We ended up making chocolate sauce, which we then ate with bananas. It tasted amazing, to say the least! After that we played some pool but it was getting pretty late so we started to get worried for the group who was now in the rainforest in the pitch black, with only 2 flashlights for 12 people. Some of the staff went to look for them but had no luck. When they finally got back at 9 o´clock (3 hours after they were supposed to), everyone was fine, exhausted but fine. We had supper and then made a bonfire. It was very nice!

On being a foreigner and on women´s role.

Before coming to Ecuador, I imagine I would kind of blend in with the people since I have dark hair and brown eyes. This brought me comfort because I don´t like to stand out. Well, I was wrong. I definitely stand out here. The people in Cayambe have darker skin, especially in the villages outside of town (which is where I live). So when I walk down the street or hop on the bus, I get stared at like I´m some sort of weird stranger. The kids automatically assume that I´m North American and that I speak english because they´ll yell "Hello!" to me or "Good Morning" when I walk by. The other day a kid asked me "How are you?" when I got on the bus, which is pretty cute but just goes to show that they have no idea that English is actually my second language and probably don´t know that French is spoken in Canada. All of us Canadians or foreigners are the same to them. It´s disappointing, that I don´t blend in, but I guess I should have expected it. I tried to explain to my host family that Canada is very multicultural and people are of all colors, which they hadn´t really realized before. Anyways, I just wanted to point out that the color of your skin can sometimes change someone´s opinion about you, especially in a place like here where everyone looks alike and there isn´t much cultural diversity.

An interesting thing I´ve noticed since being here is the difference in the role and perception of women here compared to in Canada. I was cooking lunch with my host mom the other day and she was teaching me how to make something on the stove. She asked me if I had an oven at home (because they don´t) and I said yes. She said that if my future husband doesn´t get me an oven like her, I´ll know how to cook on a stove. This clearly made me see how they see a women as uncapable of bying herself an oven. The husband deals with the money and that´s that. I haven´t felt that my host is really authoritive in the family. He respects my host mom a lot and I´m pretty sure they make decisions together. But more and more I´m starting to think that this isn´t the case in most families here. I´ve already heard of a few women being hit by their husband, often when they´re drunk, which is a whole other issue (the rate of alcoholism here seems to be very high). My host family also explained to me that one of the reasons why women have so many children here is because their husbands are afraid that they´ll go running off with another man. Their way of avoiding this is to not let them use birth control so that they have to care for more babies and more children. It´s kind of hard to hear and see all this, since women in Canada have so much independence and respect. A single working woman would not be seen here, while in Canada it´s pretty normal. Anyways, I hope to learn more about this subject in the next 2 months. It´s definitely eye opening!

Here´s a quick post with a few pictures of our little trip to the Mitad del Mundo, or middle of the world, last Saturday. I went with 5 other Intercordians and my host brother. It´s just a 10 minute drive away from Cayambe and it´s not all that impressive but it was nice to go somewhere different.

And here´s my oldest host brother in front of the solar monument!

El Centro Infantil.

I´ve been working at the day care for more than 2 weeks now. It´s definitely been fun but also challenging. The kids are too young to really care to learn english so my attempts to teach them have mostly failed. I´ll have to keep trying though. They are very very cute but some are real trouble makers. It´s really interesting to compare the functioning of a day care here and a day care in Canada. I worked at a day care in Fredericton last year so I´m able to observe the differences. For one, discipline isn´t the same. Here if a kid hits another one they just tell him to stop and that it´s bad but in Canada he´d probably go for a time out. I guess they just see it as a way of making the kids stand up for themselves. Also, sanitation is very very different. In Canada, we would disinfect the table a couple times a day and make the kids wash their hands all the time. Here I´ve never disinfected anything, only wiped the tables after lunch. The kids simply wash their hands in water before eating, no soap. Their immune system is obviously stronger than ours and we´d probably be more resistant to colds if we weren´t so obsessed with sanitation. It´s just a different way of doing things. There isn´t any set schedule for activities here either. When it´s cloudy we go play outside in the soccer field but when it´s sunny they can´t stay too long outside because their noses start bleeding from the intensity of the sun. So we often do crafts or drawings.

Something else I´ve notivced during my short time here is that people carry their kids everywhere. They tie them on their back with this kind of blanket and bring them wherever they go. There´s no such thing as a babysitter. The day care finishes around one every day and then they go home with either their parents or a relative. It´s nice to see that they spend so much time with their family. You can also see women working in the fields with their toddler tied to their backs. Pretty incredible!

So I know some of you have tried to post something on here but it says that you need to have an account to do so or something. I have now changed the settings so anyone can comment so you can now do so if you´d like. :)
I hope everyone is well and I miss you all very much!!

A few pictures.

Here´s of picture of the view on our way from Quito to Cayambe about 2 weeks ago. It´s a very mountany country, really pretty!
Things have been really good lately. I´ve started working with a social worker at the hospital which I´m pretty excited about. It´ll be interesting to see what kind of work she does here.

The picture below is from the amazing view I see when I walk to the day care every morning at 8. The weather here has been really nice for the past 2 weeks I´ve been here. It rarely rains and the days vary from sunny to cloudy which is good because or else it would be too warm. Every morning when I wake up it´s sunny outside which makes it much easier to get out of bed.

I haven´t been taking much pictures on purpose. I don´t feel it´s right to start taking pictures of people just yet. I want to have built a stronger relationship with them before simply taking pictures with them. It´s a delicate topic because we talked about it a lot in my intercordia preparation class at STU so I still feel iffy about taking a lot of pictures. I´m not here to be a toursist and although I do stand out a lot it just makes it wost to have my camera out all the time.

A few details about my life here!

I though I would share a couple interesting facts about my life here in Ecuador.

1) The hopitality here is really incredible. People are so welcoming and treat you as one of their own. They literally adress people as ¨hija¨ which means daughter, even though they have no relation with the person whatsoever. Adults as well as children constantly say good morning/afternoon/night when they pass by me or anyone for that matter. In the community where I live the people are very hard working, they don´t have the luxury of taking the weekends off like we do. However, the most shocking is that they´re so genuinely happy, laughing and smiling most of the time. It´s very touching to see and I know for a fact that we have a lot to learn from these people.

2) The weather isn´t as hot as you´d expect here. During the day it varies from warm (when the sun comes out) to chilly (when the clouds cover the sun). At night it´s especially cold since there´s obviously no heating and the isolation isn´t very good. But with a sweater and lots of blankets, I´m fine.

3) I noticed that people here, or at least up in my community, use the formal form of ¨you¨ a lot. Even with little kids. So I´ve started doing the same, even though it feels kind of weird.

4) Bucket showers really aren´t as bad as I thought.

5) I am constantly taking buses over here. For one because my family doesn´t own a car but the buses are also really inexpensive. A 15 minute bus ride is 16 cents! I don´t understant how they are still running because they go through these crazy bumpy roads.
Also, on mother´s day, I hopped on the back of a truck with about 10 other people to get to mass downtown. This is a very common way of transportation here since few people outside of cities own cars and so they really just pack on the back of some truck to get somewhere. 

6) There´s a real sense of community where I live. People just come and go into the house all the time. Everyone seems to be a neighboor or ¨vecino¨, as my host family greets them.

7) I had my first AHA moment the other day while driving throught the mountains with my host dad and his boss. The view is soo incredible up there. No picture would ever do it justice. With andean music blasting through the speakers, I really felt like this was one of the many reasons why I´m here!

Welcome to Ecuador.

It was really great to spend a night in Toronto with some of the other Intercordians. They´re all really great people. After our long trip, we finally arrived in Quito where we´re welcomed by our supervisor from FRI which is the organization Intercordia is partnered with here in Ecuador. We spent 2 days in a hostal in Quito where we had an orientation to prepare us for the program. I really enjoyed getting to know the other Intercordians doing the program here in Ecuador.

Last Thursday we were brought to our host families. We all live within 30min to an hour away from each other. I was the first one to get off the van. My host parents are super sweet, always making sure I´m well. I have two host brother, they´re both really great although we´re shy at the beginning. I have really interesting conversations with my host families and it´s really nice to learn from them about Ecuador. I have my own room but the house is very small. They have the basic necessities. No hot water but they have a kind of stove which they heat water with. I started my work placement last Friday. The kids are extremely cute. The day care is simple but well decorated an homy. When I got there the first day, one of the kids said ¨Ah, ya viene la gringita!¨, which  means ¨Ah, the foreign girl has arrived!¨. They use the word gringa to describe anyone who´s foreing, but the little girl called me gringita which means like small or cute foreigner! It was really cute. I mostly help the one women taking care of about 15-20 kids.There´s usually someone esle there to cook for the kids. It´s a lot of work though, the kids take up a lot of your energy! But anyways, I finish volunteering around one so I´ve started working at the hopital in Cayambe during the afternoons with Janice (another Intercordian). It´s very interesting work and sometimes a bit disturbing but I should get used to it.

During the first few days I was here, I felt pretty homesick and I was pretty shocked to be living in a completely different environment than what I´m used to. It´s a constant challenge to try to accustom myself to the different language, culture and values. But now it´s gotten much better. I feel less homesick and I´m actually starting to get used to this.

I hope everyone is well at home. If you´re reading this please leave a small comment so I know I´m not writing to no one! Chao, besooos!

Safely Arrived!

A quick post to say that I am safely arrived in Ecuador. I´m now at my host family´s house and they´re really great. I have a billion things to say but I´m kind of in a hurry right now so I´ll write a longer post when I have more time. I´m happy and healthy and excited to be here. Hasta luego! Chao :)

Taking Off.

So many thoughts are going through my mind on this last day at home. It's been hard to try to let go of any expectations and just to go with the flow. This is what this program is about though. I don't know very much about how the next few days are going to go and I'm not really supposed to. I guess I'm just so used to having everything set out and planned for me. It's definitely a challenge to just live in the moment and trust that everything will turn out fine.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in you sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain. I really like this quote a lot because it sums up how I feel about this trip. It's time for me to set sail and discover a world completely unknown to me. A world that will make me question what's right or wrong, my outlook on things, my beliefs and my priorities.

I feel that although I can never be fully prepared for this kind of experience, I've learned a lot during the past semester with my Intercordia class. I've really learned to question many things and understood the possible negative effects I could have on locals when I travel abroad. It's easy to be ignorant and use stereotypes on peoples, cultures and races.

I've always had trouble making decision. I have this fear of regretting choices I make. But I don't have any second thoughts about this trip, I know it is right for me at this point. I'm very content to be leaving. Even though saying goodbye to family and friends was a bit hard today, I know it's just a see ya later because I'll be back before I know it. I'm feeling excited about leaving, a little nervous, but mostly excited to discover the unknown.

On a last note, I'd like to thank each and every one of my friends and family for supporting me. Even though they say "Ah, she's leaving us again!", I know they're still supportive of me. Especially my mom, who hasn't been a big fan of this trip from the start, especially because this time I'm a little less accessible than when I traveled in the past, which worries her. But I'm so glad she has tried her best to understand my motivations for this experience. She's done more than she had to, including helping out a lot with fundraising and buying stuff for the trip. She's been supporting me against her will, which is why I love her.

Well, this is it. Tomorrow I'm taking off. I'm ready for this, or at least ready as I'll ever be. Bring it on Ecuador, bring it on. :)

What's this trip really about?

A challenge for me lately has been explaining to my friends and family what kind of trip this is and why I'm doing it. The obvious reason that comes to most people's minds is simply that I'm doing it because I love to travel. Which is totally true, but this trip is about so much more than traveling. This trip is different than the trips I've done in the past, in so many ways. I'm going to be living in a community where I don't know a single soul, do volunteer work in a place I know very little about and live with a host family I won't have contact with before getting there. It's all about stepping into the unknown, out of my comfortable and predictable little life. Yet, I strongly believe that somehow everything will work out. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this summer isn't going to be all fun and games. I'm expecting to be challenged and pushed to my limits, to grow and learn from the people I meet and the obstacles I will face. It's my way of educating myself, of learning about the world.

So a few days ago I found out that I'll be living near the town of Cayambe, in a small community called Convalecencia which literally translates to "convalescence". My mom jokes about how this place might cure me from the travel bug I have (haha, very funny mom!). I also found out a bit about my host family. I know where my host parents work, that I have two host brothers and that they have two dogs, chicks, guinea pigs and rabbits. That's about all I know. I'm going to be working at a day care which is walking distance from my host family's home. I'm very excited at the prospect of working with little kids. I'm curious to see what kind of activities I'll be expected to do with them. I hope I find something to do during the afternoons since the day care closes at 2 pm.

There are now only 9 days left before I leave for Toronto. I'll be staying the night there and flying to Quito early in the morning. It's pretty surreal still. Leaving my friends and family will be sad but this is something I need to do right now. I need to live simply for a while and put my priorities in the right places. It's so easy in our society to forget what's life all about (in my opinion) like the simple pleasures found in lending a helping hand or opening you heart to a new friend. There are so many distractions that we just forget. Anyways, I won't rattle on about this so I'll finish this post by thanking everyone who supported me because I have now reached my fundraising goal!! What a relief :) Thanks millions for helping me make this experience come to life!

Third Seminar

I had my third and last seminar last Saturday (I missed the second one). It was mostly for practical information such as how to stay safe and healthy. These seminars really makes it more real for me, I am slowly starting to realize that I'm actually leaving. The countdown is 31 days as of today before I leave. That's INSANE. I'll be done my first year of university in about 2 weeks. Then I have around 2 weeks at home to prepare to leave. Yesterday, I got an email from Fundacion Reto Internacional, which is the program Intercordia is partnered with in Ecuador. I filled two form, one for my host family and one for my work placement. I can't wait to find out where I'll be living, who will be my host family and what will be my work placement! In all, we are 12 Intercordians going to Ecuador. I hope the whole group gets along, I'm sure they're all very interesting people. Oh, I also got my plane ticket! I'm leaving on May 3rd and getting to Ecuador on the 4th. When I get there we'll have a seminar for 3 days and then we're brought to our host families. :):):) I really can't wait!! I've also decided to stay an extra 2 weeks after the program is finished to travel around Ecuador which I'm also really looking forward to. I'll be traveling with a friend from STU who's also participating in Intercordia. It should be quite the adventure to backpack around the country for 2 weeks! I'm pretty close to my fundraising goal too, which is really great. Only 500ish more to go. Well, that's all for now. Ciao :)

My Country Placement

It's official, I will be spending next summer in ECUADOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited?? :)))) It was my first choice so I couldn't be happier! A big reason why I wanted to go there is because I will have a great opportunity to learn more spanish. But there's also the fact that I like the organization that Intercordia is partnered with there. I can't imagine going somewhere else right now. When I was in Belgium on exchange, I fell in love with the other exchange students from Latin America. They're just so warm, friendly and joyful. They're culture is so rich and welcoming. I fell in love again with Latin America last summer when I went to Brazil. There's just something about those people that make me feel at home somehow. Anyways, I'm relieved now that I know where I'm going. I think we're 11 from Canada going to Ecuador with Intercordia and 2 of us are from STU. It should be quite the experience. I still don't know where exactly I'll be living or where I'll be going. That info should come in the next few months. Well, for now I'll just try to learn as much as I can about Ecuador and hope that I will fall in love with that country as much as I fell in love with Brazil!

Besos,

Ciao!

First Seminar

Yesterday I went to the first Intercordia seminar. It was quite the experience. The whole group felt a mixture of being overwhelmed and excited. We did all sorts of activities to get to know each other. I think we're a great group. We had a presentation on the diiferent country placements. It's a difficult decision but at the same time we know that wherever we'll end up being will be a great adventure. I'm pretty set on Latin America. Not just because it's a great opportunity to work on my spanish but also because I am inexplainably attracted to that part of the world. I would also really like to go to Africa, and I know I will one day, but now is not the time yet. Anyways, we should know our placement in a couple of days which I'm extremely excited about! It will make everything so much more real. Another thing we learned at the seminar is to live each day in the present. Which is hard because I can't wait for it to be May to start this experience. So I'll have to make an effort to just enjoy and concentrate on today. Some of last year's Intercordians were at the seminar to talk about their experience and it was really inspiring. They all lived completely different lives but at the same time they were all deeply affected by their time abroad. I am so grateful to be living this experience, it will certainly be life changing!

About Intercordia Canada

I thought it would be important to explain the Intercordia Program. I really like the values of this program and they are a big part of the reason why I am participating in Intercordia. I have taken the following information off its website.

Intercordia Canada is a non-profit organization that partners with Canadian universities in order to offer students a unique, university accredited, engaged-learning experience. The goal of this innovative learning program is to encourage moral responsiveness, develop respect for diversity and a valuing of other cultures, religions and socio-economic backgrounds that will enable Canadian students to attain a well-educated solidarity with others who are different.

The program partners with my university (St Thomas University in Fredericton) which means I will be taking courses and getting credits for this experience. I am taking one course this semester that will prepare me for my experience abroad and I will be taking another course next semester after having returned to Canada. In total, I will be getting 9 credits that will go towards my Bachelor of Arts Degree. In my opinion, there is no better way to learn than hands on experience like this one.

Here I Go Again.

Dear everyone,

I am once again leaving this summer to another country. This time though, it will be different. I have been accepted in the Intercordia Canada Program. If you are interested about learning more about the program, I have posted a link to its website on this blog. Through this program, I will be spending 3 months next summer in a developping country. I will only know my host country in February, but my first choice would be Ecuador. As for my work placement, I would love to work in an elementary school.

I love to travel and I have been to quite a few countries for an 18 year old. But now I feel like I need to see a completely different kind of place. This time around, I won't be staying in a nice hotel, I won't be doing sightseeing most of the time, I won't be eating at restaurants and I won't be on vacation. This time I'll be living with a host family, maybe sharing a bedroom with a sibling, eating and preparing meals with them, working at a volunteer placement and completely immersing myself in another culture, language and perharps religion. To me, there is nothing more exciting than that. I know there will be very tough times. I'll be away from my friends and family for 3 months, there will be language barriers, culture misunderstandings and much more. I am ready for it though, I am ready to put myself out there and I am confident that I will gain sooo much more than I will loose.

Ok well, that's it for now. I really hope whoever reads this blog enjoys it. Please don't hesitate to write comments or questions.

Thank you to everyone supporting me,

Marissa <3