Thirty Three!

This year my number is 33!

 Numbers… numbers!

We are surround by numbers: time, money, height, weight and age. My age is a number that it doesn’t scare me anymore. I would tell you my age way before I’d tell you my weight!

This year my number is 33!

Last month I turned 33, and I was ok with it. I am embracing my age, and I feel younger than 10 years ago. I have a lot of energy, and I am ready to do new things.

With the help of my friends and family, I came up with a list of 33 new things that I am going to this year:

1.       New Tattoo

2.       Correr desnuda por el mar

3.       Go to Tennessee

4.       Pole dance classes

5.       Dye my hair

6.       Volunteer in a shelter

7.       Hide $5 in a llibrary book

8.       Shave one side of my head

9.       Lanzar 33 globos al aire

10.   Plant a tree

11.   Write a small book with memories

12.   Volunteer at an orphanage for a day

13.   Take dance classes

14.   Do naked adventures

15.   Rent a luxury car and drive it in South Beach

16.   Hold a snake

17.   Skinny dipping

18.   Stay in a cabin for two days by myself

19.   Acupuncture

20.   Scuba Dive

21.   Gastarle un café a un extraño

22.   Correr una 5 k

23.   Shoot a gun

24.   Treparme a un árbol

25.   Donate $33 to a NGO

26.   Disparar un arco

27.   Clase de pintura o cerámica

28.   Manejar moto

29.   Hand stand for 33 seconds without the wall

30.   Say thank you in 33 languages

31.   3-day retreat

32.   Give 33 hugs

33.   Visit 33 new places

GLOW + BRO IBARRA CAMP

My Youth Group

Our first visitor: and what to do in Ecuador in two days!

Last month one of my best friends called me and told me: “I am coming to visit you! I will be there from Tuesday through Thursday.”  I got really excited because it had been almost 10 months since I saw her last. Then I freak out because I only had two days to show her Ecuador, so here is the list of things with did in two days.

DAY 1 

Taxi from Carcelen bus station to Quito airport $20

http://www.alaeropuerto.com/ecuador/quito/taxis-aeropuerto-quito.php

Hostel: Boutiquito Hoste $12 a person 

Centro Historico: "Ecovia" for .25 cents until the last stop "La Marin" 

            

Presidential Palace: Tours every 30 minutes (if the president is no there) and is free! 

Basilica : $3 dollars

Mitad del Mundo: From Ofelia bus station take a bus to "Mitad del Mundo" for .40 cents
Entrance $7.50 (planetario, tower, and monument) 

Back to Ibarra:  $3.20 from terminal Carcelen to Ibarra



DAY 2

Otavalo: Bus to Otavalo from Ibarra .50 cents

               Taxi to Peguche waterfalls $2.00

               Peguche waterfalls: Free
               

Otavalo Market

Ibarra


Helados de paila $1.75

Dinner at "Caribou" 

Chicken Cesar salad: $4.00

2 x1 Margaritas: $4.75

Good bye Leidy! Come back soon!

Found in translation!

Timmy Global Medical Brigade

Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas- Ecuador

"The Counterpart"

Mi sitio en Ecuador!

From the begenning until Now

Miami May, 2015

Finally, a year after applying we found out that our country of service would be Ecuador. Time flies! It seems like just yesterday that we were in a hotel in Miami signing documents and getting detailed information about our new adventure: Peace Corps Ecuador. Forty-one strangers got together to become Omnibus 114. We spent our first three days living together at the Peace Corps training Center in Nayón. During our time there we found out where to find a good meal, where to play soccer, and even about each other's talents. 

Quito, August 2015

We were divided into two programs Community Health and Youth and Families. Justin was assigned Community Health, and he was trained in nutrition, hygiene, and sexual education. I was assigned Youth and Family, and I was trained on life skills for youth, preparing them for the professional world , and how to increase leadership, volunteerism and services learning among youth. 

In addition, for three months we received training in Ecuadorean culture, what to do in case we get sick, and how to be safe. Finally, on August 18, after being Peace Corps Trainees we finally finished the longest job interview of our lives. 

On that day thirty -seven of the original forty-one Peace Corps Trainees attended a swearing in ceremony at US Ambassador Nam's Quito home.It was then that thirty seven of us, aspiring to help the Ecuadorean people and educate our new communities on what it is to be from the United States and still a citizen of the world, started our paths to achieve those goals. It was then that we became Peace Corps Volunteers.

Officially Peace Corps Volunteer

Ecuador Peace Corps Director and Ambassador Nam 

Ecuador Peace Corps Director and Ambassador Nam

  

Youth and Family OMNI 114 

Community Health OMNI 114

   

Brianna, Julia, Jay, and Ambassador Nam

  

As Peace Corps Volunteers,  we all went on different paths begin an individual journey. Justin and I were assigned to live in Ibarra, Imbabura. Now I am working at  HIAS a nonprofit organization that helps refugees. Justin works in Otavalo, a city about 45 minutes away from Ibarra. He works with CEMOPLAF at one of their many clinics spread throughout Ecuador. Their focus is on sexual health and family planning. 

Volcan Imbabura and view of Ibarra. 

We are lucky enough to live in our own apartment, and it has become our first project on site together. We painted it, we bought a bed and a mattress, and we built a closet. We still have a lot of things to get done. But we are very excited about Ibarra and our new projects.