Everyone has a little bit of malaria...

From Friday February 27th... Day 2 of being in Quito – Woke up, had breakfast, went to the PC office and started another day of briefing on safety, security, etc. We also found out our language scores and got our site assignments to begin training. I am in a community where training actually takes place, so no bus rides for me! There are three others there with me and I am too excited. We got to travel to el mitad del mundo hoy, where the equator line is. Our guide showed us a few experiments to see if it was the true equator and yes – water indeed goes down the drain in different directions depending on which side you are on! We had an amazing lunch at a restaurant and we got to taste a bunch of the local fruits – the bananas were amazing. We returned to the office, had a program on natural resource conservation and then returned to the hostel for dinner. I can’t wait to get to my site to meet my host parents. I am excited to begin speaking only in spanish and learning more about the culture! Ecuador rocks. Today: I arrived to my host family yesterday and they are amazing. They are super helpful and are willing to teach me about ecuador, their culture and their language. I have a host mom, dad, two sisters and a brother who lives in Quito with his wife and 11 month old, but she stays with us on the weekends. Family is very important here, so I have met quite a few members of theirs. My family harvests and raises its own food:guinea pig, cows, sheep, roosters and chickens, wheat, potatoes, avas, onion, etc. and are very proud that they don´t need to buy anything. They do buy bread from the panaderia, and I am very grateful for that! Today I am here with my amiga Jamie who is also here in el pueblo. Her family is big as well! The mountains here are incredible, unlike any around Kingsport and absolutely breathtaking. My diet here constists of boiled eggs, rice, chicken, hot chocolate and bread. My host family has asked my a bazillion times if I have a boyfriend, and they think I have at least ten in the United States, but that won´t stop them from trying to marry me off to an Ecuadorian. (I have seen some cute ones...). The climate here is relatively hot but comfy during the day and very cold and windy at night since we are in the sierra. I asked my host sister if there are snakes aqui, and thankfully, there are not! Classes start tomorrow so that should be good and exciting. Ciao! -SK......

the first photo is from the mitad del mundo and the second is me, nicole and jamie at the mitad del mundo.