1. Nature is not always your friend.
Ironically being a natural resource volunteer with the Peace Corps has given me less respect for certain members of the natural world, mainly bugs. I used to carefully coral spiders and other creepy crawling creatures into plastic cups and carry them outside to freedom. Now I relish smashing three inch long cockroaches with heavy books and hiking boots. I´m like a Hemingway character but with less contemplation about my fate and more squeals of ¨eww, gross!¨
2. Every part of the chicken (and the fish and the guinea pig) is edible.
I mean every single part. Eyeballs, brains, bone marrow, it´s all fair game. If you don´t eat it someone else will.
3. Dryers are a gift from God to humanity.
If you have ever tried to wash your cloths by hand you will understand this. If you have ever tried to dry your cloths on a line during the rainy season in the jungle you will shout this from the rooftops. After two years I will probably cry at the first scent of fabric softener.
4. Bingo Baile is Spanish for the coolest party ever invented.
A Bingo Baile is sort of like a combination between a bingo game and a rave. It costs $2 to get in and you get a bingo card. You play eight games of bingo where the prizes are whole roasted chickens with potatoes on the side. The fun part comes when you add a lot of beer and in between each bingo game you turn off all the lights and hold a 20 minute dance party. Understanding the drunken bingo announcer’s Spanish may be one of my greatest language feats yet.
So that pretty much sums up my first month in site. So far a lot of my time is spent getting settled in and getting to know the community I´ll be working with for the next two years. I´ve started teaching some English and environmental education classes at the local schools and I´m doing door to door interviews to try to gather new ideas for long term projects. Slowly but surely I´m starting to feel at home in Ecuador. I put on a sweater every time the temperature drops below 80 degrees and I´ve started having dreams in Spanish.
Some jungle scenery.
When you come back, you may be bored! Not having to fend off creepy crawleys, getting laundry done in an afternoon, and no Bingo Baile. Prime-time TV just won't do.
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