Week 2 here is coming to a close - I can´t believe it´s only been 2 weeks...
This week 2 german guys showed up who lived here a couple of years ago for a year. They are great favorites of the family - one of the guys is the godfather of the 2 year old girl in the house. They are fun and their spanish (and english) is great. I think they are staying for a week or so before heading back to univerity in Germany.
It seems like every day brings a new adventure. Today a new girl is coming to live in the house and volunteer. Her name is Susan and she is German and 24 and that´s all I know. I haven´t met her yet.
In terms of work, I feel like I get to know the guys I work with better every day which is really fun. I think they are getting attached to me :) It turns out that a lot of the guys I´m working with are the fathers of the families that will be living in the houses. The houses are part of a government-subsidized project to build houses for low income families (I´m not sure which families aren´t low income here but whatever). So I think it´s cool that I´m working with the guys who are actually going to live in the houses. Right now I´m mostly working in a plot of 3 houses and I work with 2 brothers and their bro-in law, all of whom will live in one of the 3 houses.
As far as food goes, there is definitely a staple meal of fish and rice every day. Eggs for breakfast. Sometimes we have pasta at the house and some meat, but mostly fish and rice. Always rice! The cooking is pretty good, but once in a while (ok once a week) when we need to mix it up we go to an american owned place in puerto lopez and have steak sandwiches or french toast or something yummy.
I am heading to Montanita tonight or in the morning with Ana-Lee (my australian housemate) and I think the 2 german boys also. It´s supposed to be a great beach town with lots of gringos like myself. If the internet is good there maybe I´ll post some more pictures. I took a bunch of the house this week and some on the beach as well.
Lastly my address here. It turns out that there is a post office in Puerto Lopez and all mail gets sent there with the family´s name and people just go check on Wednesdays and Thursdays to see if they have mail. So if you mail me something, send me an email so I know to go check the post office. Also, keep it small because I think bigger packages will get stuck in bigger cities. As many of you know, I´d love nerds, sour patch kids and swedish fish :) All are welcome and none appear to exist in Ecuador.
Niki DeCou
c/o Liz Bermeo
Puerto Lopez, Ecuador
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4 comments:
dear Nik - Loved the update - the kids took note of the goodies request! Is there a zip or anything? We had 2 soccer games and a tailgate for the VT game yesterday - it was a perfect sunny day! Now heading to baseball and flag football, I'll have to report on Dom being the center:) Anything the 2 yr old likes we could stick in the mail?
I want to hear more about the beaches! Hope you are enjoying yourself. I want to travel with ya, let me know when you can!
Hey Niki-
I am mailing a small package to you tomorrow...let me know when you receive it.
Are there a lot of bugs? Have you had to use any of the meds you took with you? Is there a hospital close by? What is the hospital/medicine like?
Hi guys,
Love getting posts so keep them coming.
Tara - Not beach season here yet so mostly overcast but they are beautiful and the water is warm. I´ve spent 2 days at the beach since I´ve been here. It will get warmer in the next couple of months. I´m getting pretty booked in terms of traveling. Let me know if there is timeframe you are thinking of and I´ll let you know what my plans are. I basically have trips planned monthly.
Lori - There are hospitals around but I´m not very close to a big city. I think as long as you can pay you can get pretty good attention. There are flies and things and we sleep with mosquito nets on our beds but from what I´ve heard malaria is not really a concern - but yes I´m still taking my pills :)
Thanks for the package - hopefully it will get here!
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