MACAS!!!!!

So it's been a rollercoaster ride of events these past few weeks, complete with dog bites, swearing-ins, and moving to Macas. Suffice it to say, there hasn't been a dull moment and por fin I'm getting a chance to sit down and blog.

First things first: dog bites. I was warned that it would happen, and I guess now I can say that I was the first one in our group to get bitten by a crazy Ecuadorian dog. Before I go any further, those of you reading this who are concerned for my possible contraction of rabies need not fear. The bite wasn't too bad and Peace Corps keeps rabies shots handy for occasions such as this. So now for the cool story... I was walking in town to our training center Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago. I was going down the exact same, busy road that I've walked for the past 2 months so of course I wasn't expecting any crazy dogs to attack me. About 3/4 of the way there, I walked inbetween 3 little girls who were playing on the sidewalk. I'm guessing the dog felt that I was going to harm the girls in some way because as soon as I walked past them, it came up beside me and bit my left calf. I had to kick the thing to make it let go, and then the little girls started throwing rocks at it to make it run away. I was more pissed than anything, because not only did I do NOTHING to provoke it, but it also ripped my nice pair of pants. Luckily, the bite wasn't deep and it just bruised more than anything. The next week, I talked with the owner of the dog, who was extremely apologetic and assured me that the dog didn't have rabies. I still got the post-bite shots to be on the safe side. So lesson learned: always carry a stick/handful of rocks to keep crazy dogs from ripping your pants.

This past week, we bid farewell to Tabacundo and our host families and headed to Quito to be sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers. Quito was definitely a welcome site from cold and rainy Tabacundo. The majority of the time was filled by completing necessary PC paperwork and whatnot, but during the night we were able to go out and enjoy all that Quito has to offer. We definitely were not the only gringos in town, which was a nice feeling. Plus, we got to eat at some amazing restaurants, including an Indian food place that was wonderful! Best naan I've ever had. On Thursday, we all headed over to the ambassador's house to be sworn in. Her home is beautiful! It is huge and has wild flowers growing everywhere and there is an amazing view of Mount Cayambe from her balcony. The weather was perfect, which made for a great ceremony. My friend, Aquila, and I spoke on behalf of our Agriculture and Natural Resources groups. Definitely the main point to be praised was that our entire group made it through training. We started with 43, and 43 were sworn in. This apparently has never happened before, because usually a few people drop out before finishing training. It made me extremely proud to be a part of such a cohesive, awesome group. All my fellow trainees have definitely made my time here so far wonderful.

After swearing-in and having a big celebration that night, we all packed our stuff and headed to our sites the next day. Macas is about 8 hours from Quito, so I took a night bus on Friday and got here Saturday morning. This town is AWESOME!!! It's beautiful and clean and the weather is perfect and there's a supermarket right in the town!! That's definitely something I'm not used to. My host family is also amazing. They're very warm and welcoming and the food is excellent. I had granola and yogurt and coffee for breakfast this morning, which blew me away. I definitely lucked out in terms of living arrangements. I'm still not quite sure what it is I'll be doing, but I have some time to figure that out so I'm not worried.

Well, that's all for now. I promise pictures will be coming soon. I just haven't had time to upload anything yet. Hope everyone is doing fantastic!!