Blogs from Puyo, Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 7

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 about that time that I heard her scream - I jumped out of bed and realized that we were in the midst of an earthquake. When I went into the other room it had stopped ... read more

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 be involved with which projects we have going on at the office. Last week, on Wednesday, I headed out to FRATES. It has been a while since I spent any real time out there. I ... read more

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 sharer that I am and remember how pissed I was at our other neighbor for being a dick about clotheslines, I decided to return to my apartment to grab more rope so that I could ... read more

So I had my first real day back on the job. It definitely feels weird being back in Puyo and in Ecuador after being home for 12 days. I don´t know whether the weird feeling is good or bad, right now it just feels different. This weekend, Sue and I laid low - we were exhausted after our whirlwind tour of Ohio and Maryland. I was fortunate enough to receive a phone call from my counterpart Andrea on Thursday night while I was still in Quito. She was in Quito as well and wanted to know if I would ride back to Puyo with her on Friday morning. I agreed, though, I was unsure if I was ready to talk about work yet. The decision of riding shotgun in a car vs. being in a bus ... read more

Well the last three weeks have flown by but what a wonderful experience. I have been volunteering at Santa Martha Flor de la Amazonia an anmal rescue centre near puyo in the Oriente. It has been great. A great bunch of volunteers led by the inspiring Gloudina. The centre is not large but has a wide variety of animals. There are about 10 capachin monkeys, all of which have a very distinct personality including Ninja the fiesty and intelligent young guy who is constantly tring to escape and often does, Sam who likes to protect you from the other monkeys in the cage by climbing all over you and Little Fucker who likes to steal the cleaning brush to clean his own cage - god forbid you be the one who has to take it back! ... read more