Intrusion

I just moved in with a host family that I’ll be living with for the next 8 weeks for the duration of the training. All of the people in the family seem really great and I love their house. It’s just within walking distance outside the “town,” so it’s actually more or less a farming ranch (with a pet dog, guinea pigs, chickens, and a pig). The house is actually really nice and the family is great. I won’t go into all the details of the family for now, partly because I don’t understand who’s who yet, but it’s a normal sized house and I feel really good about it thus far. Not too far from my place there are also some of the other PC people, so that’s nice. I happened to arrive on the day of the grandmother’s 80th birthday, so I already got to meet a lot of the family and experience part of family life.
In other news, because I got the highest Spanish ranking of anyone (along with two other Latina girls who grew up speaking Spanish), I’m in a group in which I won’t really have to mess around with the Spanish stuff as much and I’ll be able to do other projects with more free range and hopefully the opportunity to learn Quechua (one of the indigenous languages of Ecuador). Well, that’s it for now, I’m feeling really tired...

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So, I just had my first bout with some General Intestinal problems...I think I’m over it (in just under 24 hours, no less!), but it wasn’t fun while it lasted. Going against the advice of the entire Peace Corps staff, I ate some “street food.” It was a meat skewer from a food stand set up for the Fiestas de San Pedro in Cayambe. I knew it wasn’t a great idea, but I figured that since I’m going to be here for over 2 years I should get used to the street food. And considering I’m over it in about 20 hours, I can’t say I regret the decision all that much, those were good pinchitos.
In other news, I found out where a Baptist church is located here in Tabacundo, so I think myself and some other Christian PCT’s (Peace Corps Trainees) are going to check that out on Sunday. Keep my health in your prayers, being that this GI stuff could end up being some kind of intestinal worms or something...for now though, I’m feeling great...