December 7, 2008

On Friday one of my Peace Corps friends from training came to visit me for the weekend. It was so wonderful to see her. We spent Friday afternoon walking around my town and visiting the mall. It was great fun to show off my town. Her sight is very rural so it was a shock to her to see how many nearby conveniences I have. It really made me appreciate my site. It also made me realize how drastically different Peace Corps experiences can be. No one can ever foresee what his or her Peace Corps experience will be like. There is so much variety.

In the evening, my friend and I got ready to prepare fajitas when the electricity went out. Hungry and determined, we ended up preparing and eating an amazing meal over candlelight. Very romantic!

The next day we hang around my house until it was time to go to the Machala girl’s photo shoot. One of the Machala volunteers thought it would be hilarious if we took a Christmas photo of all the volunteers in the Machala area hanging off of a motorcycle (since riding on a motorcycle is very forbidden by Peace Corps) to send to the PC office in Quito. It was ridiculously hot out and, of course, only half of the volunteers arrived on time. By the time we were done I halfway melted. Fortunately, immediately after a few of us went to the beach. It’s times like these that I love living in Ecuador. I don’t miss the cold!

In the evening a few people came over to my place and we had a lovely dinner party. I cooked fresh shrimp that I had bought at the beach and then baked cookies in my campo oven. Since I can only make a dozen or so cookies at a time in the campo oven and they take a lot longer to bake, I decided to save the gas needed to cook all the dough and forked over the remainder cookie dough to my guests. Since, after all, the raw dough it the best part anyway, right? Everyone was very appreciative!

My friend left early this morning. It was sad to see her go. I can’t wait till I see everyone from training at reconnect!

Some photos of my new house: