Hey All,
So, I have received some emails from some worried parents (mine) and some worried friends (also mine) about the political situation in Ecuador... I live in the South of the Country... pretty far away from Colombia, and I am not to worried, and I do not fear for my life... so all is cooooool.
As for what happened, it appears that the Colombian government was chasing FARC, the guerilla group that is alleged in charge of drugs and mafia happenings in the country. The leader of the FARC group was on his way to Ecuador, made it there, and then was assassinated by the Colombian government. I am not really sure how much I can say about the politics in the country that I am living in, so I will revert you all, if you are interested, to this article in the NY Times about what happened, Latin America’s response, and a bit about Chavez’s continuing saga with the US.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/world/americas/06venez.htmlIt´s a good article... and worth taking a glance.
On other Ecuador news, the country declared a state of emergency a week and a half ago, as to the torrential downpours the country was getting EVERYWHERE. Although the rain has really lightened up, my little town got dumped on three days ago. So much so, the road in front of my house (once made of dirt) is now covered in large rocks because "a river ran through it" (my street being it) and decided to take everything along with "it" down the hill and to the center of town. I will be posting pictures shortly of the disaster it caused. Mud was covering the entire park, one could see but a semblance of sidewalks. People’s house and stores were completely flooded and covered in sand. Rocks came barreling into cars... and some how my house was untouched.
Sure I have wholes in my roof, and there was a little water coming from the ceilings, but nothing to write home about. As for my town, we spent the last few days working in some of the more rural communities on "mingas", which are community work projects. We shoveled a ton of dirt, removed even more water from that dirt, to free up canals so that smaller communities could have water. It has been a really trying few days, and I have been pretty sore, as I don´t think that Tustin boys are meant for manual labor (or at least not the kind of was doing). It has really brought me even closer to my community, however, as we spent hours together, outside of "the office" and even found some time to splash each other... playing carnival in early March.
I love it here, still, and can´t believe that i will be home before we all know it... First week of August... here I come :)
I finished my last training yesterday. I had such great support from all of you who donated to my "Bring a Health Program to Paul´s Town" that I was able to print enough manuals for every teacher, every classroom, and FIVE other communities around mine! Word got out that I put together a HEALTH MANUAL and everyone wanted in... I can not thank you all enough! I will be putting the extra money towards Scholarships for kids to study at the University... So don´t you worry, all the money will get used up :). Thanks again all of you and I get back on the 25th of July so be prepared to PARTY when i get back.
