Por fin he llegado a Ecuador! Empieza la aventura!

Hola! Bienvenido al blog de mi aventura ecuatoriano en los Peace Corps!

Hi there friends! Welcome to my blog about my Ecuadorean adventure in the Peace Corps! This is my first entry as a Peace Corps trainee, and the aim of my posts going forth will be to inform those of you interested about my experiences, adventures, and other random thoughts during what will be a two year chapter of my life.

For those of you unaware, I decided to apply to the Peace Corps last March and in mid-December, after a daunting list of medical examinations, interviews, legal clearances, and essays, I received an invitation to serve in Ecuador as a Sustainable Agriculture volunteer with a specialization in Agri-business.


The application process was a long one filled with uncertainty and endurance, but after less than 48 hours in country, I am filled with a great sense of knowing that I am in the right place. As I have actually considered joining the Peace Corps ever since I was in high school, today during an introductory lecture from the Ag specialists, I felt at home breathing the reality of a long dreamed about destiny.

I departed my mother's home on February 2nd early in the morning on a perilous journey creeping across highways coated in ice on the way to the airport. After a safe arrival to DFW and a non-eventful flight, I found myself in Washington DC facing the first realities that indeed I have decided to become a Peace Corps volunteer. I began to meet the 40 other volunteers departing as apart of our agriculture and natural resources group to Ecuador during the orientation and paperwork marathon at the hotel.

I immediately became bolstered by the idealist and adventurous spirits shared by many of the other volunteers. Orientation as a whole was a straightforward introduction into the Peace Corps and simply a formal meet and greet among strangers steeling themselves for one of the biggest adrenaline rushed of their lives.

That day, I must admit though, I found myself nearly more eager to reunite with one of my best friends from my college days in Finland, whom I hadn't seen in a year and a half. In many ways it was a perfect way to begin this adventure; consulting, sharing, and enjoying the presence of a dear friend whom I had only made because of a prior ambitious decision to leave the US before and embark on a unknown journey into a foreign land. Now it appears I have an addiction. Should I fulfill my full Peace Corps service, I will have spent six of nine years since turning 18 abroad.

Anyways, my friend and I had an amazing night exploring DC. In fact, I was extremely delighted that we stumbled upon a bar with a live bluegrass band. I got to introduce him to a great American music genre and witness one of the things I love most about the States before leaving it for two years.

Anyways, this first post is running longer than I intended, and I haven't even begun telling about Ecuador yet. Perhaps, I have already lost some of you readers for good. Alas, I promise the adventure will come, but for now I should say things have been straightforward and the landing has been soft. After the late night out without sleep was followed by a day long journey on planes and in airports, our Omnibus 105 arrived in Ecuador on February 3rd. As our plane sank casually from the limitless blue skies shared by the whole world through the dispersed whipped cloud cover, Ecuador began to reveal itself...a glaciated peak piercing the clouds was the first to be seen. Then, lush green valleys with dramatic folds and cultivated fields rolled themselves out below. We landed amidst the illuminated valley that Quito is cradled by and were welcomed immediately by Peace Corps staff. They courted us to a delightful little retreat center in an area near a Quito suburb called Tumbaco.

Today was our first day at the training center and we found ourselves filling out more paperwork, receiving vaccines, opening bank accounts, learning about safety (which had many of the volunteers scared stiff), meeting the wonderful staff, and being introduced into our program areas.

Tomorrow, we finish our in-country orientation and will meet our host families for lunch before leaving with them to their homes. These strangers will be our hosts for the next 11 weeks while we train in Tumbaco. The homestay will serve as a cultural and language immersion which has me less worried than the swath of volunteers whose Spanish is more rusty and limited than mine. Tomorrow will be the first day we begin interacting with non-Americans outside the Peace Corps and begin to understand what we have gotten ourselves into....