Asi Es La Vida...

Cell phones, illiteracy, and battering

First... I have a cell phone that the Peace Corps gave me for my ¨Safety and Security¨ but it also happens to be able to receive calls from the U.S. Who would have thought that I would have a cell phone here... not me.

Here is how you can call... 011-593-9-192-7680.


I am excited about my Christmas plans. I am going to visit a friend of mine that lives on an island off of the coast in the Pacific. It is only a short boat ride to it, but apparently there are 0 cars and the beach is amazing. It will definitly be a very different Christmas than the one that I am used to... but I am still going to get some chocolate covered peanuts to share with my friend on Christmas eve (like we do at my house). My strategy on holidays or other big days (like the Michigan-Ohio State game) is to get so excited about what I am doing that is hard for the feelings of sadness to break through... it is not a perfect strategy, but it´s what I´m working on.

What to tell all of you?

I am now starting to teach about 7 kids to read. The school system here is so inconsistent (and overall... poor) that it continually shocks me. I walk for an hour to a community called Cabuyal on Thursday morning to work in a school of 25 kids (1st through 7th grade). About half of the kids (7 of 15) in 4th,5th,6th, and 7th grade don´t even know their alphabet. So sad.

On the other hand, Daniel, a 16 year-old that comes over to my house almost every evening, now has beaten me in chess 2 nights in a row. I taught him how to play about a month and a half ago and now he is beating me. (Don´t worry, I am about to put all of my mental prowess to bear on this problem... but if anyone wants to find a book on chess strategy that is in Spanish and send it to me... I would love to give it to Daniel - after I read it myself!).

Hope to put up some more pictures the next time that I use a computer! Maybe later this week. I am going to be in a big city this next week helping to give a three day seminar on Domestic Violence. It is a big challenge for me, but I am excited. The sad thing is that this organization is 14 hours away from me and really can´t find many Ecuadorian men to support it. There is just very little cultural understanding that it is bad to mistreat women.

posted by Steve @ 6:31 AM