Random Ramblings....

Things I will miss about Ecuador *so far......

1. Seeing men with hand saws sitting on the bus next to me. Hey, you never know when youll need a hand saw during rush hour down here!
2. The sound of Chiclets for sale being shaken, its like a maraca..."chiclets, chifles, chiclets, chifles". I prefer a chifle, though.
3. Food. All of it. First up on my recipie list back home ... shrimp encocado.
4. KNowing when I am getting ripped off and being able to do something about it...IN SPANISH. Sorry, just because you use a calculator doesnt mean I believe your "calculations".....
5. The kindness of children, their families, and strangers.
6. Beer-80 cents. Wine-1.20. Nuff said.
7. Queso fresco.
8. being able to get from border to border in 12 hours.
9. The music! Thankfully, for about a buck, I can take this with me. Poor Zack...youre stuck salsa-ing with me first thing when i get back!!!!!
10. TOMATE DE ARBOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Thats whats on my mind now....more to come.....

7/20/10 - finding my stride in Quito

FINALLY. After only 20 days, i feel like i have found my stride. Too bad i leave in 10!

The sun broke, and on a rare day after Spanish school with no plans, I was able to wander and roam as I chose. I hoofed it up to Old Town, and after some nosing around, started to head home before 730 curfew/dinner.

The juxtoposition of the sun and moon at seemingly equidistant places in the sky, the warm sun, the drive thru at McDonalds being empty at 530pm, seeing snow capped mountains in the distance, stopping for a good glass of wine on my way home, and good conversations with family and friends....i am a happy woman.

7/17...Ruta del Sol, Pedrito, Salinas

The bus from Playas to Salinas got us in at a decent enough time to grab some food and a place to stay before pushing onward and upward the Ruta del Sol.

1. I love knowing that plastic tables or other flat surface, plus a chair equals a full fledged restaurant. Street food can be the best, and its even better when you stumble upon it by following your nose and the smell of garlic and fried things.

2. Driving past the colors and sounds along the coast was amazing. The hack of a machete to a coconut or fruit, the smell of Palo Santo incense, the street food stalls...

3. People here clean with Kerosene. Doing pushups on just cleaned steps is not reccomended, unless you are ISO of an early AM buzz.

4. I fell into - well, behind really - an early AM EC Coast Guard run in Salinas. That may have been my best run while here!

5. Pedrito - of ¨cockteles de pedrito¨- will live in infamy, as will the strength of his caiprihinas and house music.

Waking up early for bus number 7 or so to Bahia Carraquez ...

7/16-17...In Search of Gringo Andres, Balsa, and Beaches.

Its beer and empanada o´clock on the bus, so....

1. Pit stop in Guayaquil for lunch...yes, i caved and had crab ceviche...and a stroll on the new malecon and some wandering. Guayaquil has some serious money getting pumped into its economy these days, from what I can tell.

2. Seeing the banana trees tied together holding each other up reminded me of Zack. You are the string to my banana tree, and I love and miss you.

3. I need to find out the name for the bell shaped flowers on the coast. They are beautiful. Generally, I need to devise a plan to see what flora and fauna I can import from Ecuador without legal consequence. If there is a delay in my arrival on 7/31, now you will know why...the call to have tomate de arbol in the states was too strong....lol.

4. From Guayaquil we headed south to Playas, a beach frequented by Guayaquilenos on vacation. It was Friday, but it was a ghost town in Playas. Literally, I think I saw dust balls blow across the street. The mission to find Gringo Andres was successful, though the aquisition of a well priced and made balsa board for our travel companion, not so much. Nevertheless, seeing 5 teenagers ride 1 Huffy bike, a cat dining on the 8lb rat it carried in its mouth, a spinach/mushroom/corn/cheese empanada and some road dog wine proved to be all the energy needed to sustain the next leg of the trip....

...Bus number 5 and Salinas, next stop...

7/15-16...Buses, Beaches, and Bathrooms

These are some notes I took from the road this weekend. The intention was to ride the Nariz and head to Guayaquil, but you will quickly see that this didnt happen...

1. After boarding the midnight express bus from Quito to Riobamba (Karate Kid dubbed in spanish for the ride? check.) we checked in around 1230, and set alarms for 530 to get up and get tickets for the Nariz. Pouring rain and cold, but a good plan none the less. Upon arrivalto the station the next day at 6am, we found out the the Nariz stopped running back in March, and that even the alternate route was sold out. ZING. So after a quick photo session with the kindhearted staff, we set off for Guayaquil.

2. Have i mentioned my love for buses yet? Nothing like a pit stop for a bathroom/hole in the ground, and so that the bus driver could test the tires with his trusty baseball bat.

3. The ride from Riobamba to Guyaquil was beautiful, and seeing the landscape go from mountains to the coast was incredible. The sun rising over the mountains, the indigenous people greeting it in vibrant colors, the color of the soil...

4. Good travel company can be hard to find. I lucked out this month, and got to know some great people and see beautiful places. I am very thankful for this.

7-9-10...Press Junkets, Puerto Lopez, and Montanita.

This weekend I spent time with the group visiting the Pysch program at UEA de Manabi, cruising Montanita and Puerto Lopez, and generally hanging out with the good people here.

1. Education in EC is interesting, and getting to tour the program at University Eloy Alfaro was a great way to get to know the system a little better. We felt like SP rock stars, and the whole hilarity of that day is forever etched in my mind...see the pictures they gave us - esp. the one of the Queens of the School...PRICELESS.

2. I love buses, chicken ones specifically. Just the sight, smell, and sounds of them means something or somewhere good is in the immediate future...a beach, a cheese empanada, an airplane...getting on one to head to Montanita flooded my mind with memories of chicken buses everywhere (and set the tone for the next trip, see the 7-16 post....) and the people and places that I have been able to see in them. I am in full force with a new show idea...¨Bus Buffet¨where I roustabout sampling bus food from country to country. Zack...call the ShowMance and lets pitch it!!!;)

Blog-Lag...and other updates...

Well, I hope no one was subscribing to this blog with bated breath. Its been more difficult to update as much as I would have liked to, so the next few posts will be retrospective; this is the first weekend/day/week that I have been able to devote some time to it and other Lisa things...like phone calls and emails and the like. Thanks for your kind words and support during this experience, it has been incredible thus far, and I cant wait to regale you with tales from SA!

Personal and Professional Musings...

Well. "C" is for "caliente" and "f" is for "frio". When showering for the first time in a Spanish speaking country, this is an important consideration. Especially when hostels i usually stay in when in CA only have ONE knob ... COLD. Needless to say, i was able to squeeze in an early a.m. yoga session that first morning, if only the camel pose in the shower. Personally, I am so thankful for the support of Zack, and all my family and friends, and also my job/school for supporting this experience as well. Quito is a HUGE city, and I think I can smell diesel in my sleep from the "ecovia". BUT, it is interesting here because Correa has instituted some pretty neat things...for example, cars with license plates ending in certain letters are prohibited from driving one day a week, and liquor or beer isnt sold after 4pm on sundays, and 10pm during the week. Makes for an interesting contrast, I think there would be a mass uprising at Triple Shot in Ye Old Fishtown if the Ecuadorian liquor law was enforced in PA *although PA's laws certainly could use a revision of their own!*.

Professionally, I am amazed that people put their faith or trust in this group of American school and clinical psychologists & psychs in training. They are so appreciative of ANY help, recommendations, interventions, etc. for their students and children, no matter what language or level of fluency you have in that language. I have growing confidence in my abilities to conduct semi structured interviews, and even admin the Spanish ABAS or similar! That has been this week, next week I work directly with the kids on our "caseload", and then the following week provide feedback and recommendations to the parents and teachers, in addition to a presentation on a topic that teachers in the school feel useful .... classroom management, behavioral interventions, etc., etc.. I am thinking (collectively with my group of 3 others at the site) to do part of it on mindfulness for children in their school. A bubble blowing activity, where worries are "burst" or similar. Who knows, and everything changes from minute to minute anyway. Music is a universal commonality, though, and I know will be useful. So will candy, in small amounts, of course. This trip has redefined my concept of "contextual fit". If there are no crayons, there is no coloring.

well...since i drafted this on 7/7 and AM JUST NOW getting around to publishing, stay tuned!!...

Testing, testing.

I've always done it. Tested limits, pushed boundaries. And while I have used these powers for (mostly) good, I do believe that a solid chunk of my limit-testing (read: high school), may not have been my finest hour. Mom? Dad? Deb? BUEEELLLLLER???



I'm an equal opportunity limit tester - patience, deadlines, bank accounts - you name it, I'll test it. The irony, though, lies in the fact that all this "testing" is a solid chunk of my current job responsibility and academic endeavors. And I like it. See, Mom/Dad/Deb? All the hair you ripped out was NOT in vain! It was for my future career as a psychologist, and for that (among MANY other things) I am grateful. Plus, Dad, I like the "less hair" look - more refined, less wild. You're welcome.



And now, in my (hopefully) penultimate hour of "testing", I leave for a country where I know no one, know nothing, and know no language (the little Spanish I acquired growing up Cumberland County and the restaurant biz surely counts for...something?!?). Is this my ultimate test? I doubt so. I hope that life will continue to be full of boundaries to push, and limits to test...without these experiences, the sweeter ones (spent with family, good friends, good wine, and Zack) would not be nearly as sweet or meaningful.



My roustabouts bring a deeper sense of meaning and appreciation to my life, surely no more so than this current venture. I will be volunteering school psychology services (assessment, consultation, training, therapy, etc.) for elementary students with disabilities in Quito, Ecuador, through July. Personally, most inspiring is the second generation "roustaboutation" that will go on...my Mom having been in the Peace Corps in Ecuador for a number of years, and my dad -- well, he is a hard core roustabout who shared the roustabout legacy with both Genna and myself growing up - we cherish memories spent in random roadside caves and campsites with questionable supervision.



In sum, I hope this blog will connect my family, friends, and colleagues with my experiences in Ecuador - be they personal or professional, I have no doubt they will enrich me on many levels, and I thank you for your support.



NOW "FOLLOW" ME!



“There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder” -- Ronald Reagan (yeah, I know...Reag's...so what?:-p)