Midservice Conference

I just got back from my Midservice conference in Quito which marks 1 year and 4 months in Ecuador!

The conference was held in the new Peace Corps training center in Tumbaco which is about 45mins outside of the city. It’s a HUGE enclosed center with classrooms, dorm rooms, and an outdoor area with a bonfire pit, a zip line, a garden, a basketball court and a soccer field. It’s the perfect spot to have trainings and to host up to 50+ volunteers.

We spent the three days in lectures with topics such as food security, urban gardening, teen pregnancy/ family planning and an update on HIV AIDS in Ecuador. I did a presentation for my omnibus with three other members of the HIV Task Force including Caitlin my roommate. We unveiled a training manual that our HIV Task Force group has been working on over the past year.

Tire Gardening

Cooking Talapia

Menestra -- a dish made with lentils

fresh veggies

Some of my fellow PCVs in the kitchen

Me cooking menestra

We also had an open house where each member of my omnibus presented a poster or pictures on their experience so far in their sites.

The poster that I made about my work in Guayaquil

Some work done by a fellow volunteer with her youth group

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Just another 2 months until I am home in SF!! I’m already making a long list of what I want to do when I get home.

Here is an excerpt of that list:
– Hike in Muir Woods
– Trip to cabin in Tahoe
– Family dinner at Chennary Park
– Tennis at the tennis club and or in Marin
– Hills and Drils Boot Camp with JJ
– BBQ in the backyard with the family
– Runs down by the Marina
– Saturday Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building
– Roxies Sandwiches
– Picnic in Dolores Park