40 km of wind in my hair seemed just about right for a Sunday morning bike ride. Susan and I met up with Susan Birch-Carl (another PCV) and three of her Ecuadorian friends to do the bike ride from Baños to Puyo. Admittedly, I didn´t really want to do the ride when I woke up in the morning. I had every intention of going to Baños, doing a little shopping at the grocery store, then spending a lazy day back in Puyo. However, I felt it necessary to join the group on the ride, even though it was cloudy and a [View Full Entry]

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In weird news - I was bit by a dog this morning while walking to work. I was on the sidewalk, it came around a blind corner and was startled. Its first instinct was to attack. He bit on my left calf, I punched him on the head and then kicked him into the street. At that point, I think we both called it a draw. It gave a group of about 30 Ecuadorians a good show for about 10 seconds. They were watching the whole episode unfold - I’m sure they’ll be waiting for the next ¨Let’s see what the [View Full Entry]

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The weeks just keep coming and going in Ecuador. We´ve been here for 10 months now and are nearing the end of our first year. I´d have to say that everyone at Peace Corps was correct when they told us that our service was going to be an emotional roller coaster. Sue and I have both had our highs and our lows. Amazingly, they rarely coincide with each other - this is a good thing, since we can pick the other one up when things are down. Last week, we bought an $11.50 Chinese plastic Christmas tree for our apartment. We [View Full Entry]

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Happy belated Turkey Day to all!!! Susan and I spent our Thanksgiving in El Chaco with a few Peace Corps friends and a 24lb turkey. We got up early Thursday morning and caught the bus to Tena. This trip seemed to drag on longer than it should have, and a mere 5 minutes from the bus station, the bus stopped at the gas station (mildly irritating, since there is a gas station at the bus station and since it caused us to miss the 9:30 bus to El Chaco). So we got to the station at 9:35 and purchased our tickets [View Full Entry]

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Last night we experienced our second earthquake in Ecuador. It hit at 10:15pm and was centered about 100 south of Puyo. The quake was 6.7 on the Ricter Scale and was strong enough to shake our apartment and to shake me out of bed. I was half asleep when it hit. Susan was in the other room working on the laptop. I could have sworn in my state of mind that she was shaking me while I lay in the bed - I turned to tell her to cut it out and realized she was not in the room. It was [View Full Entry]

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The weeks just seem to be flying by here in Ecuador. Still, I struggle with the language - I think I´ll just set the language bar at being functional. Admittedly, I don´t practice enough on my Spanish - it is my own fault and I readily admit it. I just have a hard time spending 10 hours working and then going home to study - all in a foreign language. I have started a little game with one of the interns in the office - Yadira. She and I get along really well and she tries to teach me a few [View Full Entry]

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It feels like it has been far too long since I have discussed my Peace Corps work here in Puyo. I know it may seem like all I have been doing is walking around Puyo looking for the next story to tell in my blog, but that is not the case. Work has been very….different….as of late. There really are a million things going on at once, but at any given point in time, I feel as though I have very little to do. This is mostly because I am still in the process of deciding how much I want to [View Full Entry]

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I want to start this blog out by letting all you faithful readers know how important you are to me. Sometimes I read comments left on my blog and they make me laugh, pick me up on a bad day, or just make me reflect on my experiences and why I am doing this Peace Corps thing. Others of you send e-mails my way which I greatly appreciate as well. You see, this morning I logged on to my blog and there was message from a student at Circleville High School (where I used to teach). I never had this student, [View Full Entry]

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So Sue and I are in Quito for meetings. We arrived Sunday afternoon, hit a grocery store to buy some much needed supplies for our place in Puyo, then met up with some friends at a sports bar to watch the Indians game. I wish I could report good news, but alas, the Tribe's light was extinguished last night. I can honestly say I am disappointed, but not devastated. Every part of the season was exciting to follow, though I only actually was able to see I think a total of 4 games. Anyhow, they are a young team and a [View Full Entry]

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The clothesline saga continues…on Friday, I was enjoying a day off from work. It was Columbus Day here in Ecuador so most offices and businesses were closed. Seeing as how it was a bright sunny day, I thought that I would take advantage of the sun and do some laundry. After I finished washing my clothes I headed up to the roof to hang them out to dry. When I got up there, I noticed that someone had the same idea as me. They were using all the lines that I had strung up a few months earlier. Being the great [View Full Entry]

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