A little bit of Spanish...

It’s a monumental moment in Peace Corps service when you realize that instead of being the focus of jokes in a conversation, you’re actually contributing jokes to a conversation. It means that your language skills are good enough that you can use words with double meanings, make quips, and tease others (teasing is HUGE here, by the way).

In general, Ecuadorians love playing with words, and a lot of it has to do with love and romance. For example, instead of using the words enamorada/o or novia/o for girlfriend or boyfriend, the word peleada/o is often used. It comes from the verb pelear, which means to fight, to brawl, to battle, to struggle, to quarrel. So, your peleada/o is the person that you do all those things with – your partner that you quarrel with. Okay, it’s a little messed up, but it can be funny if used wisely. And Ecuadorians love when we gringos use words like peleada/o – I guess it shows that we’re becoming integrated.

There are loads of expressions that I’ve been hearing lately. I think as you learn more of the language, your ear starts noticing and picking out common sayings and expressions. One expression that I like is, “Dime con quien andas y te diré quien eres.” It means, “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.” And a short one that I like is, “Dicho y Hecho.” It means, “No sooner said than done.” And a very Ecuadorian way to say “Thank you” is “A Dios, le pague.” It means that if for whatever reason I can’t repay you for your kindness, may God repay you.

One of my favorite expressions so far I heard just yesterday. Don’t ask me why, but I was trying to explain our expression “the third wheel” to my counterpart. As soon as I finished, he said, “Oh, so it’s like our saying a cargar el arpa.” A cargar el arpa means “being in charge of or carrying the harp” (more or less). My counterpart explained that, back in the day, when a young man went out to serenade his sweetheart he would make a friend carry and then play the harp as he sang to his enamorada. The poor friend. Still, I’d rather carry the harp than be a wheel. 

Espero que estén super bien en la yonny! I hope you´re all super well in the States! By the way -another language thing - la yonny is a nickname for the U.S. that comes from the I♥NY t-shirts. If the heart becomes an ¨o¨, you get IONY, or ¨yonny.¨ 

¡Year In Year Out!

April caught me out of site for three weeks: Holy Week in the Jungle, a workshop on dry toilets, and a conference with all the volunteers I came to Ecuador with (about 31 of us left of 42). Also, April 20 marked a year that I’ve been a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) – with another year left. It felt good to pass that date. They say that the second year is when things really take off and start to happen, which is crazy. It takes half our service to integrate, learn the language, and really begin to understand what’s going on in our community. It’s appropriate, this length of time to get to know a place in a rudimentary way, but it takes one of the two years we have here! Sustainable development is rightly a slow process. In some ways, two years is hardly anything.

What we tend to overlook is that the “getting things done” component of Peace Corps service is just a part of the big picture. Peace Corps has three goals: 1) building technical capacity of host country nationals (HCNs), 2) sharing our American culture with HCNs, and 3) sharing the culture of our host country with Americans. There it is. But I think sometimes we just focus on the first goal. As Americans we want measurable results to tell us whether or not we’ve been successful and productive. When we think of going off to serve the poor, we often have the image of building houses in poverty areas (which is important work). At the end of the project, you see the house. Less frequently we think of forming relationships with the people we serve as an integral part to service. You may never see the fruits of your efforts. And as Peace Corps Volunteers it´s the same. When we initially get to site, we want to hit the ground running. We want to feel as if we’re having an immediate, tangible, positive impact on people’s lives. But oh! How hard our impotency hits us at the outset!

During training, they described PCVs from the perspective of Ecuadorians (or HCNs in whatever country). Imagine dressing up in a full-body bunny costume and running around downtown New York, going up to people, and saying, “I’m here to help you!”

In terms of our goals, two-thirds of Peace Corps service is about cultural exchange. It’s about relationships. As a PCV, it’s about opening yourself up to others and really trying to get to know them. Humility is huge.

They say that in the States we are “human doings.” Work has a huge role in our lives, and our productivity as individuals is really important. In Ecuador, people are “human beings.” The focus is more on family, community, interpersonal relationships outside of work life, and people have a more collectivistic view of their place in society. Being present.

Looking back, my first year was really was about getting to know people. I love the relationships I now have with my counterpart and co-workers, my barber, my neighbor down the street who I buy chicken from, the bakers at the panedería, the ladies at the vegetable/fruit stand at the Sunday market, the pick-up truck taxi drivers in town, the women in our women’s group, my nutty landlady, etc. In Ecuador, people really know their neighbors. A still, small voice says this is what it’s about.