Ahora mismo, ya viene

The two weeks since I touched down in Quito have passed in kind of a whirlwind. I spent a few days in the Yanapuma office getting ready to go to the coast and left after only having been in Quito for 2 days. Since arriving in Estero, I´ve completed bacterial cultures of different water soruces, done 20 household surveys about water, danced salsa, gotten stung by a jellyfish, and helped build a hostel.

When comparing this trip to Estero to my time here last summer, the contrast is fairly striking. While last year I was frustrated by the lack of real, solid work to do, this time I´m exhausted by how much work there is. The Artisan´s Group is racing against the clock to finish building their hostel, the Women´s Group spends every Sunday making ceviches and almuerzos to sell to tourists, and every afternoon from 4 to 7 is spent in the library helping with homework. And in between all of those responsibilities I was also trying to fit in my water project. Luckily, I´ve finished all of my water stuff for now and I can focus on other things for Yanapuma.

Amidst all the changes, there are still things that remain the same. I still spend Saturday nights with ¨los muchachos,¨ who delight in asking me when I´m going to bring my sister for them to marry. The two main (and only) drinks in Estero are the national beer, Pilsener, and aguardiente. The answer to anything regarding time is always ahora mismo (right now) or ya viene (it´s coming right now), while the reality could be a wait of an hour or two. And of course, the most important thing of all is not to be ¨brava¨ (grumpy).

I have a little less than two weeks left on the coast, at which point I´ll be headed back to Quito to continue working in the office and looking for a job. I´m keeping my fingers crossed that I´ll be able to pull that off as well as I did with my water assessment!

Thoughts from the Command Center

I'm currently sitting in my almost-empty room in what my friends lovingly call "The Command Center," and what most people would refer to as my bed. Although it is now only the mattress and box springs since my bed frame is gone. People call it the Command Center because it is where I've spent a great deal of the past two years writing papers, catching up on email, watching Hulu on my computer... and occasionally sleeping as well. The Command Center is about all that's left in my room at this point. My parents drove away yesterday with all of my possessions save what I'm taking with me to Ecuador in a few days. So, devoid of the normal distractions of my room I'm forced to reflect on the last two years and my upcoming trip.

For the last two years, I've been held hostage by Washington University. While I was a Brown School student I stopped reading for pleasure entirely, severely restricted my social life, and took on a mind-numbing amount of debt. And now I am a bright-eyed new (almost) graduate excitedly looking forward to a life free of interminable group meetings, endless reflection papers, and reading done on the elliptical for lack of any other time. Unfortunately, I'm also staring down the barrel of that mind-numbing debt paired with pending unemployment. While you might imagine that employers would be breaking down the door to have such a self-aware, transdisciplinary social worker/public health practitioner, that has so far not been the case. So I'm off to Ecuador to find myself, and hopefully (and also more importantly), a job.

As usual, I'm resurrecting my blog since I'm headed back to Ecuador. My activities this summer will include:

-a bitchin' water quality assessment

-managing community development programming Estero de Plátano (a rural community)

-The Great 2011 Job Search

-managing my complicated Ecuadorian social life

-self indulgent reflection through copious amounts of journaling and whatnot

-lazing on the beach

-getting a tan

So stay tuned as a I find out about water quality, navigate a complicated social scene, continue my epic job search, and attempt to handle whatever else gets thrown at me.