Two and a half more weeks in Ecuador...

Why is it that just as you are feeling like you really are a part of and fit into a community it is already time to go? This past summer in the Dominican Republic just as I was starting a reading group with young mothers and baptizing my godchild it was already time for me to pack my bags. In Uruguay this fall just as I knew the Montevideo bus routes like the back of my hang and was beginning to spend more time with uruguayan friends from the university it was time for me to go. And now, once again in El Triunfo, Ecuador I find myself finally feeling like a real member of the community (holding neighbors new born babies, saludando everyone by name, progress in school and with the new library, etc.) while at the same time I realize that I only have two more weeks here. Two more weeks and my year abroad will come to an end. Some days I am ready for life to resume back to normal in the good old USA and other days I can hardly fathom what it will be like to speak and hear English all the time, actually throw toilet paper down the toilet, take hot showers and be able to use my blackberry. Regardless, life is what you make of it, and I truly believe it can be adventurous wherever you are and whatever language you are speaking.

Everything is great in El Triunfo. The library is coming along nicely and thankfully timely. I am planning a inauguration of the library (which will be my last day in the school) where a group of kids are going to put on a little play that I wrote and we are going to read a couple stories, eat cake, drink cola, and celebrate the opening of la biblioteca República de Suiza. Last week the entire room (which will be both the biblioteca and computer center) was painted and cleaned and two big bookshelves were made. In a couple hours someone is coming to measure the room to put in new cables for the computers and tomorrow I am hopefully going to Ambato (a big city about an hour away) to buy a big wooden table and rug.

In the middle of June El Triunfo celebrates the founding of the township and there is an entire week of festivities. One of the big events is the selection of the queen of El Triunfo – in which a candidate from each barrio (area of El Triunfo) is involved in a little pageant to determine who is queen. Last night the first preliminary round for la reina de El Triunfo began. There was a huge turnout to watch the pageant (which included the hula skirt of a candidate falling off during her dance, lots of cerveza and vino, karaoke by a few choice members of the community, an obnoxious singer named Yolando who sang one two many tunes for my liking and kids who stayed out as long as their parents). It was a fun night to say the least and I am certainly feeling the effects. Not to mention the adorable 16 year old girl that I took to breakfast with me the other month in Baños (I think I mentioned that in an earlier blog) won!