My first tastes of training....

In contrast to my training in Madagascar, Ecuador uses a real Community-Based Training model. Our group is conducting training in the area of Cayambe, an hour or so outside of Quito, but in reality we are all scattered far and wide. Our group of trainees has been divided in to 10 groups, in 10 separate and distinct communities. I am living in a small colonial community called Olmedo, of about 300 people, with 4 other volunteers.
We spend the majority of our time here with our families and with our language facilitator, Cisa. My host family's house is our meeting place, so we spend many days “in-class,” but it is mostly talking about issues of culture, learning songs, playing fun games and the like with a few grammar lessons asserted in (all in Spanish, btw). Two to three days a week we meet in another community where we have our training center for health, security, or other general meetings. In theory, we are supposed to have our technical trainings in our communities too, with a group of 10 or so meeting up with our trainers, but so far it hasn't been coordinated just right and we've met up at the training center all together
So far I have been really enjoying training. I have gotten to know the four girls of my community fairly well, and we seem to support each other very well. My host family is precious. I live with a single woman named Edita and her daughter, Mariela, who is 22. I am their fifth Peace Corps trainee, so they know the drill and don't hassle me to eat tripe soup or complain about having to boil water for me to drink. But mostly, they are just really incredible, welcoming, wonderful people. I feel like I have know my host sister forever! She is super sarcastic, which I love! And hardly an interaction goes by without us cracking jokes about the other...I am the first Youth and Families Development volunteer they have had, so Mariela is going to be my “test-joven;” rather, part of my training requirements is trying out all of the cool things I learn by creating a relationship with a young person in the community to help orient me and get me acquainted with the community from a local young person's perspective. She gladly obliged me when I asked if she would be my “joven” (young person).
Otherwise, at this point in my life here in Ecuador, I am drinking a lot of Nescafe, eating mountains rice daily, a decent helping of potatoes too, taking barely lukewarm showers, sleeping under 5 blankets, navigating my way through these mountain communities, improving my Spanish with every conversation, and taking it all in one day at a time. I definitely made the right decision in re-enrolling for Peace Service, I can't imagine being any other place, doing any other thing at this moment!