Busy Times

Sorry for the delay folks! It’s been a busy couple of weeks!

1) My beloved twin sister emailed me on a wednesday night that she got a new job. She had a week off in between the end of her old job and the start of her new one, plus a fancy new raise that, in my mind, was already burning a hole in her pocket. Thursday morning, I was looking at flights for her and working actively to get her on the same page with my crazy ideas.

By Thursday afternoon, she had purchased her ticket to Ecuador. Arriving on the following Wednesday. And leaving on Sunday. Looooocuras! I was so incredibly excited. Having family visit is a big deal. My host mom was super stoked, as were my counterparts, and the kids in my school. And me? Well, I was a little beyond myself. Firstly, I get to see my twin sister after 8 months of being away. Secondly, visitors from the States often bring extra special things.

Meaghan gets a treat? Meaghan gets a treat.

We were working on a very limited time frame, and very last minute, but we managed to squeeze in some pretty fun times. Unfortunately on Tuesday evening I ate some bad shrimp and had foul, foul case of food poisoning on Patti’s first day. I tried to take her to school, made it through the warm-up of my first class before I got kind of sweaty and weak in the front of the class. I got crazy sick and had to go home for a nap. However, my teachers were really excited about Patti’s visit. they had planned a welcome lunch, which was very, very nice of them.The thing is though that when you have food poisoning, it can be hard to down a platter of chicken and rice. Epic digestive fail #2 for the day followed.

With some quality rehydration and medicine that PC had me take, I was feeling much better by the evening though. Despite my improvement, my host mom expressly forbade me from going out to see some of my male friends. “Si, te has mejorado, pero Meaghan, you are not fine, y a los hombres no les gusta esto.” “Yes, you’ve gotten better, but Meaghan, you are not fine, and men don’t like that.” Sometimes (aka all the time) being a feminist in Ecuador is tough. She actually said the “you are not fine part in English.” So, we went out shopping for souvenirs and food for breakfast.
Host mom didn’t seem too mad though the next day that we had wound up at the bar after food shopping.

The next day Patti got to see a little more of the school and Riobamba. Friday was the real treat though. During the day, we went to check out some waterfalls a few hours outside of Riobamba, and in the evening there happened to be a little shindig at another Volunteer’s house. When my sister left, she said her favorite part of the trip was meeting my friends. Not surprising, as they are my favorite part of Riobamba, but it was really nice to share that part of my life.

2) Patti left Sunday morning at about 5 am. I slept for maybe 2 hours that night, and then commenced packing everything I own in Ecuador. Sunday was moving day. I lucked out and found a completely furnished apartment that had been rented out by PCVs for the past 3.5 years. It has everything and then some. It is the new light of my life in Riobamaba. I absolutely loved living with Eulalia. I couldn’t have had better luck living with her. She is so kind, so generous, and so understanding. I hope she continues hosting Volunteers. She’s just great at it.

All that being said, I’m a little drunk on the independence right now:

I’m so happy to have my own place that I don’t even mind cleaning it!!

3) As you may have gathered, it’s been a busy few weeks. I haven’t had the chance to sleep much, and I really like sleeping. I have that rough, tough Posh Corps life of full adventure (sister visiting, moving out, and this past weekend was a holiday so of course I went on vacation!). I visited little America again. Unfortunately the super nice hostel was booked and this one didn’t have such lovely showers. But check out these young clams!: