Sorry about the delay in posting again. Been trying to settle into my new life here in Ambato, which can be tiring at times.
My new house is starting to feel more like my home, though I still haven’t done much in the way of decorating. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone who saw my apartment in Seattle, where David and I left the walls in our living room bare for two years. Figured out that there are no rats in the ceiling (yay!), just bats. And like, 30 or more of them. A little bit of their powdery poop falls from the ceiling, which sounds bad but it only falls near certain walls, so it’s pretty easy to avoid. Also, bat guano is supposed to be awesome fertilizer, so sometimes I just sweep it up and dump it into my garden.
Which reminds me, I started a garden! I planted rosemary, oregano, carrots, onions, and bok choy, about two and a half weeks ago I think. There are small sprouts, but still not sure which are what plant and which if any are weeds. My next garden bed should be better because I’ll actually have compost ready for it when I plant it.
The whole teaching situation has been a little bit crazy. School was supposed to start last week, but the schedule wasn’t ready until Thursday, then only some teachers taught Friday (I don’t teach Fridays). Monday, I taught my first two classes. I just introduced myself and talked a little bit about Peace Corps (in English and Malagasy), then had them introduce each other. Did the same with my first class on Tuesday, but after I taught it some of the students came up and said it should have been French class, not English. Turns out, the schedule I was given was wrong. My Tuesday classes are actually both on Wednesday, so I will be teaching four classes each Wednesday for a total of eight hours, yay. But I still have Fridays off and now I have Tuesdays off too. Looking on the bright side!
I also finally got out of the city on Wednesday. I was getting a little stir crazy and really wanted to explore a little. From my house on top of a hill, I can see really far. So I decided I was going to just walk out of town. I went about two miles out, turned onto a different road, passed through a couple of villages that clearly don’t see many white people, and saw a path up one of the big hills in the area that I will probably explore another time. Being limited by not having a bike is a little frustrating, though I’ll be getting one in early December. I’m also planning to visit a friend’s site in two weeks and go out on the lake to see the reed lemurs. So I’m looking forward to that.
Being here at site has been kind of challenging overall. I think I glossed over the hard parts when thinking about coming to Ambato and joining Peace Corps in general. Integration is probably the biggest challenge, next to language. I’m trying to work on both, but it’s a slow process. And while I’m thankful that my house is quiet and secluded (when there aren’t hundreds of students around), it means I have to seek out friends/people to form relationships with. And living in a big city (probably near 80,000) makes it hard to figure out exactly who I should be seeking out. One person who sells stuff near my house is nice, but kind of annoys me. And my closest “friend” here so far asked me to borrow money the other day, making me wonder if I was naïve in thinking he wanted to be my friend for my sake and not as a way to get things from me.
Luckily, two of the other English teachers I’ve met are really nice and one even invited me to go swimming. I think I need to give everything time and try to branch out and meet more people. Maybe when I start really teaching things will get easier.
I’ll upload some pictures soon, including some of lemurs :)
Until next time!
